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

Our city's Hyack Festival Parade was today. Now it's billed as The Largest International Parade in Western Canada.

There were something in the neighbourhood of 136 entries this year. That made it several hours long. As usual the 'Seafair Pirates' pulled up the rear exploding their cannon in shock waves that made poodles tremble in fear.

While the parade was en route though, I was thinking how people, similar to crows, like shiny objects. The local students did a fine job but there is certainly something 'showy' about the visitors. Many high school marching bands were up from the US. This video shows a group of Californian students.

With all the flash, I couldn't help but think of the music from the musical Chicago. Then, with a strange twist of fate, a few minutes ago, I watched the song mentioned in the title in HD. The 2002 movie version is on NBC tonight!

Labels: Hayack, HDTV, movies, musical, New Westminster, parade, YouTube

I check through my site's visitor information. This data includes queries entered through search engines. I've come to the sad conclusion that nowadays most visits to my eJournal and images occur due to image searches. I guess there's little reason to labour over word choice or turn of phrase.

So, here's looking at you, kid.

Labels: blogging, movies, stars

On a day that I should be celebrating the fine weather that has blown in, I spent much too much time at my PC. At the moment, there's an extra keyboard I borrowed from work which is plugged into my PC.

It all started quite early in the morning when I was going to start converting useful mpeg clips for use at BCIT. I wanted to reduce them to a manageable size for use on the net storage drives on the institute's servers.

First, I noticed that my DVD recorder drives weren't showing up under COMPUTER on Vista. Eventually, I decided this was because I had recently removed old Adeptec software from my computer. Originally, this was used for DVD or CD recordings years ago, but I had kept a part of those programs installed so that I could continue to use the labeling software only. After installing Win Vista Business I received a device driver error due to the ancient software that was affecting my DVD drives. I installed it.

Since I uninstalled the software, I hadn't notice that my drives were no longer functioning. So thankfully, when I noticed this morning, www.technet.com pointed out CODE 19 as a known problem. So, I tried editing the registry to remove the offending lines. Unfortunately, when trying to reboot, my PC wouldn't start.

The new-fangled Vista solution asked me to put my installation disk in my drives. Even after playing with the BIOS, I could not get the original Vista disk to boot. The only remaining option involved making a selection to install to a previously known working point.

It took me a long time to realize that because I have a wireless keyboard and mouse that I could not make a selection on the screen. Those devices only become available after Windows loads. That is the reason that I found it necessary to 'borrow' a work keyboard.

Whatever the consequences, I'm writing this on the home PC, so that says something about my ability to troubleshoot a computer problem ...

Labels: Hardware, Windows

Today, I completed teaching my COMM 0004 class at 5:00. I am now on the other side of the campus in my office. In a few minutes, I will walk into NE1 for an evening COMM 0030/31 class. It takes place in a computer lab as we are able to use the equipment for listening and recording speech. There are several software programs specifically designed for pronunciation practice. In addition, we also save and store audio clips about the topics we are reviewing. There's net storage for every class at the Institute. It can be accessed with student ID and password directly from any computer lab or via a browser gateway from any Internet computer.

Labels: BCIT, computer lab, technology

Wouldn't you know! The sunshine is now streaming in the windows and it's going to be 18C degrees today. All those drenched people who tried to start summer over the long weekend have an opportunity to dry out, I guess.

It's a tad hard to concentrate on classwork knowing the weather's so nice beyond the window sash. My current group just started last week. If the first assignments are any indication, they have quite well-developed skills. The group is very small with just thirteen students and this seems nice as I've taught some terms that are double this size. They do demand a lot of attention though. I don't mind that. After all, my attention is what they're paying for. Still, it is amazing how tired four hours of class can make me. It's not physical rather I get tired from answering all the questions and trying to stay one step ahead of them.

I look back on my own time on the desk side of the classroom, and wonder what teachers thought of the various groups in which I learned. It's hard to believe how the quality of one's educational experiences are affected by those around one. It works for both the better and worse, I suspect.

Labels: BCIT, weather

When we went over to this Surrey park this morning, it was still cloudy. This scene is looking back at downtown New Westminster across the Fraser River. Our building is the second tower from the right.



By the time we went to Richmond in the afternoon it had even become sunny. Thanks for Victoria Day dinner, folks. It does seem a little cold out for nearly the end of May, doesn't it?

Labels: Fraser River, New Westminster, Surrey, weather

The fireworks were easy to watch from the balcony last night. It really doesn't feel like it this morning, but this weekend is considered the beginning of the summer season here. To celebrate, we are in the middle of a three-day weekend as tomorrow is Victoria Day.

In fact, both this and next weekend are a time of special events in our little city. New Westminster's Hyack Festival has begin and will continue through the end of next weekend which coincides with the Memorial Day weekend in the USA. In fact, a highlight, the International Parade, will take place on the 26th. In that event, many local and British Columbia high school marching bands as well as many from US states participate. The parade is on the local festival circuit. Floats and beauty queens arrive as representatives from summer events such as the Apple Blossom Parade in Wenatchee or the Puyallup parade in Washington State.

I certainly endorse the whole concept of summer! It is a nice feeling to see trees full of green leaves, people wearing fewer clothes, and dusk arriving well after eight at night!

Labels: balcony, fireworks, Hayack, New Westminster, YouTube