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

It finally feels like the beginning of summer! As well as a nice mixture of sun and clouds, there's the definite feeling of knowing this is the Canada Day long weekend. June this year was a bit of a washout and way too cool.

In addition, this, being the last weekend in June, means the bed had to be flipped today. It's rotated on New Years and flipped for the summer. Does this really make a mattress last longer, he wonders.

Lastly, on a person note, I feel better because I just bought two pairs of pants. Actually, I got one pair of jeans and another pair suitable for work. Buying clothes doesn't usually affect my mood but in this case it did. The last time, probably last summer, I bought ones with a size 42 waist. In fact I'll probably have to part with eleven pairs of that size. Nowadays, they all look a bit baggy around the middle when I belt them on. So, today, I got 38's. That's still a long ways to go to my eventual goal of again wearing size 34, but still reason enough to feel an accomplishment of sorts.

I'm on no drastic weight loss diet. I just choose smaller portion sizes at every meal. I figure that it took years to add the extra pounds; therefore, there's no panicked rush to get it off. It sure takes more work to loose than maintain! Since last October, I've been losing a bit better than my goal of one kilogram a month. At this rate I'll be working on this until the autumn of 2008. That's okay just as long as I get some positive feedback once in a while. Perhaps, I'll be able to buy some new pants with a waist size of 36 by the end of this year.

Labels: Canada Day, weight loss

Pretty cheap, eh?

Labels: Mediaplayer

I know that I sometimes temporarily fall in love with some new gadget or another. If you search through this blog, you'll find all kinds of entries about my Garmin GPS and geocaching. I cannot remember the last time I turned it on. That just proves I sort of fall out of love with gadgets too.

Right now, I'm enamoured with my Creative Zen.



I believe what I want to say involves the economic concept of marginal utility. The 'simplified to death' explanation is that people want a bang for their buck. For example, suppose folks have some extra cash to spend. This means they'd analyse the ways they could spend it and choose the item or service which could provide them with the greatest pleasure.

I sometimes decide on an extra purchase by how much I feel it will impact my life. I underestimated this one! The $120 I spend on the 4 GB mp3 player has already changed my life. I'd pretty much forgotten about radio. Although a Canadian resident for eleven years this week, I had never spent any time listening to CBC Radio. Now thanks to the convenience of podcasts, I'm listening to that medium through podcasts. I've subscribed to all sorts of things. This really has redefined my world. I know I could've listened to streaming audio from all over the world, but I didn't. Now science and technology podcasts from Digital Planet come automatically to my player from BBC England. NPR broadcasts turn up on the little screen. Even a weekly file of Andy Rooney slides through the USB cable into the player.

I outgrew old radio long ago. Now, I'm getting reacquainted with new radio.

Labels: Creative Zen, money, podcasts

I wonder if the student who left this in NE 1 is angry he misplaced it.

Labels: BCIT

I've been writing a blog entry every day for so many years that they demonstrate a sort of ebb and flow. My recent entries seem very diary-type while I sometimes get into different routines. At times I can be very technical, quite observant, or somewhat fanciful.

Whatever the output, I'm likely to be more verbose when I'm less busy with work or outside interests. This seems rather strange because when there are lots of things going on, less ends up archived. For example, I've had a dentist appointment, bank business, a nice class, and loads of errands today. My entry here, however, will require a photo to be substantial ...


There were far fewer people in the mall this morning
when I went for my 8:30 appointment for a dental filling.

Labels: blogging, dentist, errands, Royal City Mall

I have a headache and I've still got another 50 minutes of class. Fortunately, the hard part of the evening class is already out of the way. It's been a tough day as I met up with my new COMM 0004 group from 1pm to 4pm. They seem pleasant enough but there are close to 22 in the room. That's not impossible, but I've been spoiled by having small classes earlier in the spring. Just think of how I'll feel when I must correct assignments!

Don't you just hate people who blog about their work? I mean, wouldn't it be better if I were to type in a joke instead? It's too bad that I never have a joke to tell whether in person or online! I hear some, laugh at a few, and promptly forget 'em all.

I didn't really get it. Of course, I followed the world's infatuation with the iPod. I even collected and digitized a lot of music but that was mostly because my computer outputs DTS or Dolby Digital directly into my home theatre system. I have surely embraced the convenience of instant searches and the implementation of music management in recent versions of MS Media Player.

I guess I never thought that wearing around silly little wires made much sense. For you see, I greatly enjoy silence. Right here, I've said many a time that I enjoy looking out the window when on the SkyTrain and simply thinking. My truck doesn't even have a radio.

In order to use my time more effectively though, I finally purchased joined the rest of the world. I picked up a 4 GB Creative Zen. I cannot imagine living without and I haven't even had it for 24 hours yet. I just went down for my daily immersion in the this building's hot tub. While there I listened to half of the most recent NPR's Car Talk podcast. Those fellows have been on the air since the 80's and still cause me to chuckle. The brothers' accents usually remind me people I heard when growing up.

Labels: Creative Zen, podcasts