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

Frankly, I don't know why I held onto it for so long. I cancelled this today and now it is in the garbage. I don't think I ever swiped this particular card, even once! The difficulty in getting rid of an AMEX card probably stems mostly from personal nostalgia. The little piece of plastic said that I'd been a member since 1985. It's hard ending a twenty-two year relationship, I guess.



A standard AMEX green was the first credit card I ever owned. I had access to a US APO mailing address when working for the Taif Ordnance Corp School in Saudi Arabia. Thinking I was flush with petrobucks, they issued the card upon first request. That card did quite a bit of travelling back when the world was a tiny bit less global. I should've kept the receipts as a journal!

Even when first getting to Vancouver in the late 90s, I used to change on that account although it was in US dollars. Then, every month, I'd take the SkyTrain down to the Burrard Station and go in to the AMEX office and pay my bill.

I don't remember at one point I decided it was silly to have to pay an annual fee for the privilege. I swapped for the their platinum, but by that time I had pretty much switched over to a MasterCard.

Alas, it's the end of another era ...

Labels: credit card, money, Saudi Arabia

I'm starting the entry today while seated in my recliner. The notebook's on my lap as my main machine is rather busy recording from the PVR. I'm capturing some of the half-hour, weekly Singhala-language programs that were recorded during recent weeks. They are produced in Canada and aired on a Toronto channel. After these shows become mpeg files, I can easily burn to DVD for saving or perhaps for sending to Jay's brother in New York.

It's only 4:50 right now but I have a slight sense of foreboding. Things are not ominous, I merely have a slightly unsettled feeling. It has come from a day off. I finished my goal of turning in my passport application earlier. Now, I'm just here on this July day that looks a lot more like one from March. It's gray but not cold. It rained a lot earlier and remains unsettled.

Several other factors beside the weather are probably contributing to my current state of mind. First, both of my classes will wind down next week. I've been waiting for quite some time to be free from work commitments and it's finally going to come crashing to a close next Friday. Also, to begin the week, I turn 48 on Monday. I've never ever been bothered much by birthdays but somehow this one seems mildly more important.

Labels: PVR, television

Today was my last work day this week. So, on the way home from BCIT, I stopped in uptown New Westminster to have passport photos taken.

Again it's time for that ritual! Canadian passports are only valid for five years. At this time, rather than just a renewal, the whole process must be completed over again. If I had the chance to wait another month, I would be eligible for the slightly relaxed procedures that are due to come into effect. But as there have been long delays, and as I want the new one by mid-September, I chose to initiate the process now. This means I still need to go through the process of having a guarantor from the professions sign the form, verify the photos, and vouch for me.

After getting the photos, I drove home, parked outside, and ran up to get my completed application form. In the morning, I had used Passport Canada's online method to fill in the data and print the forms myself. I had to run back uptown to my doctor's office to drop off the paper work, so he can act as guarantor.

Tomorrow, I hope to get it back from the doc and drop off the application at the Surrey passport office. It will mean turning in my current one. It seems a little silly to have to be without one in order to get a new one. I'm not quite sure how the country is safer because of the required procedures.

Labels: government, passport, Surrey

Statistics Canada released a rash of demographic data yesterday which was picked up by most of the press. Buried in the data was news of a greying population. At the moment however, I have a commanding lead:

Canada now has a record 4.3 million seniors, increased life expectancy and a declining birth rate.

The country's median age -- the point where half the population is young and half older -- has soared to an all-time high of 39.5 years. That number was 38.8 last year.

Last weekend, there were other old things at the Show & Shine
on Columbia Street in New Westminster, BC.

Labels: cars, New Westminster

Today, I've got to go into BCIT a little bit earlier than usual. I have to meet with a colleague in order to learn about marking the BCIT Test of Spoken English. It's funny how ideas about a career can often change throughout one's life.

I would venture a guess that the peak years of an employee's productivity are between 28 and 38. Well, I think I'm using myself as an example for this statement. Anything much before that initial age denotes a time where an employee is still finding himself. Anything past the latter indicates a time when an employee should have had the chance to begin straightening out his priorities. By his forties, if all is on track, he should be attempting to have a more balanced existence. Remember, that peak decade doesn't really mean one's work is constructive or will necessarily lead to important results; it simply means one is willing to work too long and hard. Again, I guess I'm talking about myself.

My most basic belief still holds true though. If a person, irrespective of age, is defining himself though his work, he should have his head examined.

Labels: BCIT, feelings, students

Lots of entries in the blog are about the very act of blogging. If this is a modern equivalent of gazing at one's own navel, so be it.

Very soon after adding a few entries, I realized I was creating a repository of personal data. I tried explaining this early on to a high school friend who is a bit of an archivist himself. Bret suggested I print out what I was doing so as to allow keeping a bound paper version. Wait! This happened at the end of 2003 but even though it was never pressed on parchment, you can read the original entry. I knew I was fighting an uphill battle for hearts and minds.

Even though I think of the information here as electronic, I still imagine physical pages of data. That's why I've always linked to weekly archives each with seven days of data.

Just last week, I decided to go ahead and begin using what blogger calls labels. (The rest of the world considers them tags.) I will probably never get around to adding them to the nearly four years of prior entries, but I can surely initiate their use from here on in. When displaying by labels, it really brings home the point that this simply contains data. The pages exist in order to display the information. For example, the following list will show customized pages created on the fly.

Creative Zen

Kuwait

movies

Sri Lanka 2004

Oh, I should add that newly-created pages are still organized in reverse-chronological order.

Labels: blogging, Bret, file archives, labels

I have a few acquaintances who send me junk email. You must have someone similar in your life. They send out things, usually news or jokes. I sometimes get the dreaded, supposedly-enlightening pop pyschology snippets which make me want to puke. I usually forward messages like these directly to the electonic bin. I'd say this annoying trait for sending unwanted rubbish tends to be somewhat of a woman's thing.

On the other hand, on occasion, I do receive things I actually enjoy. I have a former Arab student who sometimes sends interesting tidbits. The messages generally contain pictures and maybe I'm a visual learner. For today, I cut four of a set of five photos down in size and stitched them into a single image.

Although computer equipment isn't especially recognized for being environmentally friendly ...



... with a little help things can go green!

Labels: flora and fauna, Hardware