A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

There are some places on earth that are considered a must for seasoned travellers. There simply have to be the obligatory photos taken while standing and smiling in front of some important sites. For example, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the harbour in Hong Kong, and the Acropolis in Greece probably make the list.

After a quick blog search, I discovered I have only once mentioned staring at India's Taj Mahal, and even that reference in October of 2003 was a fair time ago. So, I just cut this one minute and twenty second clip to post here. The quality might not be stunning from a 1994 Sony camcorder, but it does show we were there.

Labels: camcorder, India, YouTube

I'm glad the nearest Tim Horton's is uptown. If one were within an easy walk, I'd be there right now. I just saw a television ad for some sort of gooey, new, chocolaty doughnut. It looked good. I wonder if TV food adds are in any way responsible for the epidemic of obesity?

I bought these new scales last October and snapped the photo to the right on the 13th. This morning they read 100.3 so I'm exactly on target by losing one kilogram per month. Still the progress seems harder at present. I won't snap another photo until they read 96.3. It's one step at a time as they say.

Labels: weight loss

My personal memories may frequently be categorized by location. They may have been formed when growing up on the other coast, working in the Middle East, or during the vacations and journeys we've taken. It seems I've typed an amazingly large number of words in my eJournal and images describing trips and journeys from my past.

Since I started blogging in September of 2003, other vacations both short and long have taken place. So, this has been a good way to chronicle our comings and goings. Although not expressly a travel blog, I do frequently get the chance to make entries from the road. I thought I could take a minute to locate and organize many of the them here. Click a date in the following list to link to the starting day.


Place - Length of Stay - Month of Travel
========================================
San Francisco - 4 Days - October 2003
Calgary, Alberta - 4 Days - December 2003
Victoria, BC - 4 Days = February 2004
Port Angeles / Grand Coulee Dam, WA - 4 Days - April 2004
Sri Lanka / Singapore - 2 Months - September / October 2004
New York City - 7 Days - May 2005
Europe (6 countries)- 3 Weeks - September 2005
Victoria, BC - 2 Days - December 2005
Sequim, WA - 2 Days - March 2006
San Diego to Vancouver Cruise - 7 Days - May 2006
Sri Lanka / Hong Kong - 5 Weeks - October 2006



Arriving in Seattle via the MS Veendam on a coastal, repositioning
cruise. Taken in May 2006.

Labels: lists, Seattle

After a mere day of consideration, I'd like to make this official announcement:

[Editor's Note: This was abandoned after about a month!}

"I am going to attempt
to add a 1-minute clip
each day to my YouTube
account."
Let me warn potential visitors not to expect Scorsese. I'm simply taking a minute out of my life and pointing my camera at something that moves. There'll be no planning, titles, or script. Click the image below to load the page that will contain my clips. Oh, and don't forget to bookmark it!

Labels: digital camera

I'm pretty good at keeping up habits. For example, I started blogging here on September 1, 2003 and have never looked back. I started taking a daily Flickr photo to add to a set from July 1, 2005. I have not missed a day in either daily task.

I am wondering whether it'd be wise to start another aspect to my documented life. As I carry around my camera with me each day, I could save a one-minute video clip and post on YouTube.

I never quite understood why anyone would use a camera to save video clips. I never played around with .mov files in the past. I always considered video something that should take up hours. After all, I reasoned, Hollywood seldom makes anything much under an hour and a half. Now, I have decided to see what can be saved on my Olympus SP350. I never had even set the selector to record one until yesterday. I tried taking the scene above in the Metrotown Mall in Burnaby on Easter Monday.

It was easy. I could press the button for about a minute every day. Then I could upload the file to YouTube. It would be similar to what I do with a photo but I could save a 60-second clip from my life. Although that doesn't sound like much, it would add up to more than six hours per year!

Labels: Flickr

Today, Jay went to work at his usual time of 11:00 am. As I didn't have much planned, I left at the same time and rode with him on the SkyTrain but got off in Burnaby. He said I should spend a $25 HMV gift card that dates from last Christmas. Although I looked through both outlets in the mall, I couldn't decide on any particular DVD. The card was given to Jay, so maybe it'd be better if he made the decision on how to spend it. Getting from The Bay to the SkyTrain is quite a jaunt, but it was a jaunt that I didn't find enjoyable.

Of course, this being Easter Monday, the schools were closed. So, students were out en mass traipsing up and down the mall. In a statement earlier, I had said that I prefer walking around the city to a hike in the woods nowadays. However, this love of urban things doesn't extend to shopping malls. I hate being inside those temples dedicated to consumerism. I always wonder who would actually buy clothing in one of the small retailers. I wonder if the people spend money each time they end up inside. More importantly, I feel pity for those who think of shopping as recreational endevour. Gads, I want to suggest they go get a life!

Labels: errands, feelings

I cannot imagine why any computer on the planet with Internet access wouldn't have Google Earth installed. The free download gives literal access to the world. We're planning a trip to Los Angeles for a week in May. We already booked the Hollywood Hotel also known as the Ramada near Universal Studios. I wanted to get a better idea of the lay of the land.



The screen capture above shows the Los Angeles area from 50 miles up. Nearly all the amazing extras overlays were turned off. Our hotel is located in the center of the large image at the mouse cursor. In the upper-right corner, I added a view of the hotel at nearer street level. I could recognize it from the outdoor swimming pool.

Labels: Google, Los Angeles, travel planning