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

I'm no stranger to improvements in computer technology having been involved with personal computers since the 1980's. The first hard drive that I purchased was a 30 MB Seagate and the one I bought yesterday was 500 GB. The first drive would hold about two dozen of today's digital photos. Nowadays, a half terabyte doesn't seem excessive at all. The newly purchased drive will just be used for storing my personal data. Having put that storage space in an external enclosure, I'll have a bit more flexibility.

Labels: hard disk

I sometimes wonder if the words in my eJournal and images really end up being a representative repository of my thoughts and ideas. After all, on an ordinary day, we all have a deluge of ideas during waking hours. Well, I surely do, and although it may prove suspect, I'd like to think that most of those around me spend at least part of their days with their brains engaged. So, why might these blog entries not capture the spirit of my thoughts for a day?

First, I believe one major impediment to a more balanced expression of ideas is that I still have to be at a keyboard when entering data. I simply do not spend the majority of my day near a PC; therefore, I might not be able to capture the good ones when they're available.

Then, there's the very complex process of sorting and deciding what to say. Of the millions of possible ideas I could express, most simply don't fit well into a box of typed text. Perhaps some of my thoughts today have never even made it into language form.

Also, many of my ideas might have been fleeting. Others may have lacked coherence. I cannot think of an appropriate term for the smaller material of which thoughts are composed. Let's call them atoms. I would venture that the single atoms of thought, do not a blog entry make.

Lastly, on some days, and today may just be an example, I may simply not have any useful thoughts or ideas to share.

Labels: blogging, feelings, sharing

I checked out the DVD of Minority Report (2002) from the library today when I was returning some travel guides. I like how future technology is presented in the film in a way that doesn't jump and shout about its very presence.

Today was just another day, but some aspects of it wouldn't have been common or even possible when I was in college. For example, I started the day after an old-fashioned coffee by answering an email message from the YMCA in Munich, Germany. It'd been typed in Europe a few hours before while I was asleep. They confirmed reservations for a stay with them during a planned autumn trip. Before eating lunch, I entered some students marks online from home. Later, during my afternoon class, half of my students had oral presentations. Some talked about their researched topic while showing PowerPoint slides on an enormous screen in the front of the room. The images and text danced around the screen in a colourful yet effective manner. After getting home, I threw the previously-mentioned DVD into my computer's disc drive and copied the movie onto a round, duel-layer DVD disk. I found it difficult to think that I had finished college by a few years before the use of consumer video tape became widespread. Oh, and my day's not quite yet over.

How the things we take for granted have changed. Yet we've adopted so well, the world surely doesn't seem very Jetson-like.

Labels: futurecast, technology

I didn't upload this photo today as it was already posted here. Is that really coming up on being two years ago? Although I'd been blogging for over twenty months at that time, I did not have a place for just sharing photos. In fact it was this trip, and wanting to share it with others, which prompted me to investigate photo sharing websites. This was when I found Flickr. That was over 3,300 photos ago. I've never looked back ... well, until today!

Labels: Flickr, Okanagan

It's funny how simple, ten-second jobs can sometimes end up taking more time than anticipated.

On the way home from college today, I stopped in London Drugs to pick up a cheap, one-kilogram, plastic container of Folgers coffee. When passing the aisle with the light bulbs I noted a 42-watt compact florescent. It'd be better to have a bulb in the living room lamp that could throw out the equivalent of a 150-watt incandescent bulb, I reckoned. So, I bought one.

Upon arriving home, I discovered the new light source was physically too large to fit! The opening between the metal bars that held the shade was insufficient in size. I almost thought of returning the bulb when I saw that the bedroom lamp had a much larger shade assembly. Consequently, I spent at least an hour taking both lamps entirely apart in order to switch components. During this time, the load in the washer ended, the rice finished cooking, and I wanted to eat dinner.

The picture to the right shows that I was successful but I wanted to title today's entry: 'How many Dennises does it take to change a light bulb?'

Labels: errands

How did they get such a bad name? It might come from the literary folks, but somehow the term itself has become a horrible insult. I don't how well I can briefly explain, but I wish to pay my respect to movie clichés.

The name, itself, isn't universal and perhaps I'm trying to defend a whole different beast. I'm not trying to cast a positive light on what the standard definition always terms as hackneyed. Instead, I'm supporting what www.imdb.com more accurately refers to as movie connections. These shortcuts involve learned responses and are not universally or even 'generationally' understood. Rather, they involve exposure to the original subject matter. Rather than being banal, they show specialized knowledge.

In certain situations, the writers, actors, or directors may purposely choose to access a shortcut to previous themes. First, a musical score can certainly fit under this category. A specific sequence can elicit an entire psychological reaction in a few, short notes. Or secondly, a filmmaker might simply pay tribute to a former master. Imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery. Lastly, even camera angles and cuts can purposefully mimic an understood genre.

The reason I'm writing this is because I noticed a clichéd shot in the most recent Pirates of the Caribbean. Toward the end of At World's End, there was a swap among the six main characters. Three meet and swaggered down a deserted spit of sand for the confrontation. The facial closeups were right out of an old spaghetti western.

Long live movie clichés!

Labels: movies

Less than two month ago, I first mentioned the idea of another journey to Europe this autumn. Rather than the starting in Amsterdam, we have already bought tickets to fly into Munich, Germany.

(See the beginning blog entry for the Eurotrip 2005, by starting at September 8th and reading toward the top of the pages! You may also view a 135-photo Flickr slideshow.)

From Bavaria, I think we'll be heading eastward. We need to select small regions to explore as we go for only three weeks at a time. So, this September/October, we'll see some of Central Europe. The last statement looked strange to me. Not many years ago the countries of our planned visit were referred to as being in Eastern Europe, weren't they?

We have loads of time to research and plan a itinerary. However, ever since squinting at black and white television in the 1960's, I've had an unusual curiosity with the original home of Zsa Zsa Gabor. Here's feminine beauty that pre-dates her by at least a year and a half.

Labels: Eurotrip 2007, travel planning