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

Labels: New Westminster, Q4_2007

I don't know why it's taking me so long to get our Eurotrip 2007 photos online. It really doesn't take much actual work to upload files to Flickr, so I can't think of a good reason for my continuing procrastination.



I did post photos from several days in Bratislava in the Slovak Republic. We were there for the nights of September 22nd and 23rd. In the photo, I'm sitting on lawn at the Bojnice Castle.

Labels: Bratislava, Flickr, Q4_2007

I receive a weekly newsletter from NCIX.com. It always contains great deals on computer equipment. Even though I'm flush with extra, end-of-year cash, there was nothing much from the recent Boxing-Week sale that interested me. My quad-core processor PC and related equipment is new enough to not require upgrading. It seems odd not to drool over some new device or other.

The only item I could remotely consider as needing was some additional flash-memory for my new camera. My first digital camera had a 128 MB card although it was 4 mega-pixel. The average photo size was about 700 K. My new Kodak is 12 mega-pixel so each picture averages between 1.5 MB and 4 MB. Still, I was ahead with the 2 GB card I bought with the Z1275.

The sale at my computer store, however, included an 8 GB SDHC card for $49. I couldn't afford not to buy one. I think the computer I shipped from Dubai when arriving here in 1996 had a mere 1.6 GB hard drive. Now, this little card holds 8. I doubt I'll ever have the need to carry around over 2200 photographic images. The little camera does create HD 720p video clips though.

Labels: computers, digital camera, flash memory, Q4_2007

Name something which people love to hate. It's fairly easy to complain about institutional food be it in a hospital or school cafeteria. It's also common to be dissatisfied with the speed, or lack thereof, demonstrated by many government bureaucracies. Yet, in today's rant, I'd like to bitch about my local telephone company.

I was, in fact, so worked up I filled in a complaint form at the Canadian Radio, Television, and Telecommunications Commission website. In addition, they forwarded another online form to the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services. By all means, if you're affected similarly, please give the CRTC and the CCTS your opinions too! Here's what I hurriedly typed into an online box:

I just received my Telus bill for standard phone service. I was shocked by the $2.95 LD Network Access Charge. I do not subscribe to any long-distance plan. I did not make any long distance charges during the month, so should not be subjected to the imposed, extra fee. If I did make use of Telus long distance, then I would happily pay. I should not, however, be charged this fee for months when no long distance calls are made. Telus appears to be charging for services not actually provided.

If there are general increases they should be added to standard residential rates and not tacked on as a mandatory payment of an 'extra' nature.

The lack of sufficient notification is also a very annoying factor. I received no written notice from Telus that this fee increase would occur.

Labels: complaints, Q4_2007, telephone

This image was taken from my balcony late yesterday afternoon. It marks the 700th digital image of my city that I've uploaded to Flickr. The collection spans nearly five years and three different cameras. They are arranged from the most recent to the earliest. The main focus is probably on downtown as that's the part of town where I live.

If you click on the photograph above, you will start a slide show of these images. Should that fail to be enough to satisfy your curiosity about New Westminster, you many also check out a special group I created that contains contributions from other local Flickr users. Athough my photos represent a fair number of those, the total now stands at over 1400. They were uploaded by close to 80 unique contributors.

Labels: balcony, digital camera, Flickr, Fraser River, New Westminster, Q4_2007

There's hardly a thing I truly desire that I don't already have. And certainly my time is more important to me than the few dollars saved at a Boxing Day sale. So I have no bargains to crow about in the blog today.

I did think it was interesting that on our trip to Seattle, for the first time, I noted WiFi signs at the rest stops on Interstate 5. I believe there are three in each direction between the border and the city.



Now, as well as a trip to the restroom, it's possible to check out the winter pass information for free. The whole web is not actually free but the following sites are provided gratis:

WS DOT Home

Traveler Information (cameras)

Travel Alerts and Slowdowns

Construction Updates

Weather

Mountain Passes

Accountability

Washington Tourism

Access is made available through a private company closely connected with www.coachconnect.net, so it is possible to buy time with a credit card. It is well designed for the RV crowd at $30/month and at the present a $2.95 tariff for 15-minute access would be useful for emergency email. Bear in mind, often these rest stops may be miles and miles from an exit.

Labels: Internet, Q4_2007, road trip, Seattle

Dreaming not required. Batteries not included.

Labels: balcony, camcorder, Christmas, Fraser River, Q4_2007, YouTube

'Twas the night before Christmas
and all through the Eighth Ave Inn
not a creature was stirring not even ...

Okay, so I'm not much up to my rhyming old self.

So far the trip has been nice. We left before breakfast yesterday and got all the way to Bellingham before eating in a Country Buffet in the mall. We walked around in the mall before flying down the Interstate in the rain. We got right into the city easily and arrived too early to check in. For some reason they wouldn't let us have the room available until 3:00. So we walked to the commercial section of downtown and even to the Pike Street Market. Incidentally, they do continue to throw fish in the winter. After checking into the Inn, we got a call from the Thomas family. Joel, Lynne, Ben and Whit arrived and whisked us off to dinner in at a Bippy de Peepo or something like that. It was an Italian, family-type restaurant right down here close to Lake Union. It was fun and filling. It's the type of place where groups order large dishes and then everybody takes some. Everybody took a lot but our waitress still packed up the extra for us.

Speaking of eating, there is a nice breakfast offered where we're staying. It's just continental but there there plenty of fruits, yogurt, as well as cereals and muffins. This morning, we took our coupons from Expedia and walked right to the Music Experience Project. It was interesting especially the hand-on sections. I wish I'd had access to something like that as a child. Who knows, I might've been a rock star. The science fiction museum, obviously another of Paul Allan's hobbies, was interesting enough. I couldn't help but hold my Samsung cell phone on the opposite side of the glass from the Original Startrek series communicator. It was life imitating fiction. We ended up eating in the Westlake Center after trying out the new trolley car that runs about a mile to the shore of Lake Union. How sort of European! Finally this whole part of Seattle is getting a makeover. If I had a million dollars I could probably buy a studio apartment that'll be worth three million in a few years.

It's only 5:42 but it's, of course, dark. I won't bother unloading photos until after we go back home. There's no rush but everything will surely be closed tomorrow. Maybe I-5 won't be crowded as we travel back up to the Canadian border during the late morning or early afternoon.

Labels: Christmas, Q4_2007, sci-fi, Seattle

We avoided yesterday's rush on the roads. Rather than that, we're heading south to Seattle in a few minutes. Staying in a downtown hotel will make it easy to visit the Music Experience Project which has now been open for seven years. I didn't even really know about the addition of the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, which opened in 2004. Of course we do know the outside of the freaky-looking building near Seattle Center. We already printed the vouchers from Expedia and will present them for use tomorrow.

We'll stay for two nights, returning on Christmas day. I think we last stayed in Seattle the Holiday Inn Express. As Jay was working at one in Richmond BC, he got a discount at all lodging within the company. That would've been the end of 1999 or during the subsequent year.

Things probably won't be very busy tomorrow because of the time of year. I do look forward to seeing the decorations in the downtown area. I'm guessing sellers do not throw fish around the Pike Place Market in the winter. I'm betting the original Starbucks, however, will be pouring a lot of coffee for last-minute Christmas shoppers trying to dry off and warm up.

Labels: Q4_2007, road trip, Seattle

I captured a 1:45 minute, HiFiHDTV.ca promo from my Bell ExpressVu receiver. I was going to upload it to YouTube and then place it here. Of course, it wouldn't have really been in high definition but it may have given you a taste of those four, Canadian channels. The clip was amazing enough to give me actual chills when it was playing with DD5.1 in my living room. Unfortunately, I read the notice on YouTube and remembered that the promo was not really mine to upload. Copyright is going to have to change to deal with the potential of new technologies. I could email a copy to any reader upon request but it's 95 MB. Damn, the Internet really isn't keeping up with the demands I'd like to make on it nowadays.

Oasis, Treasure, Rush and Equator HD just loop pretty much the same programming but new titles enter the mix so that I always seem to find stuff weekly to record on the PVR. Plus, regular, commercial shows, this week excepted, keep my slated time for television pretty full. There really is a lot of quality out there. I don't think programs have ever been as smart, socially responsible, or engaging as they are now.

I'm writing this today as we've been watching true HD television for just over one year now. I cannot imagine the pale imitation that standard broadcasts offer. I honestly don't think I'd bother with TV, if I had to go back. Just about the only show watched in that tired, old format is CTV News from Vancouver. Come on folks! We're a big enough market to merit at least HD in the studio! I think the station can even afford the extra makeup that'll be required to get Bill Good and Pamela Martin ready for high definition!

Labels: HDTV, Internet, Q4_2007, television

To prevent me from staring at my own reflection all alone, please click my name or the screen image below. I don't want to fall any more deeply in love with myself and end up as a mere flower but it's not easy being drop-dead handsome and so very photogenic!

Image Search Yahoo: dennis hurd

(Beginning at about page 14, lots of images from my blog start appearing in the mix. Also, you may see quite a few of Tim's mis-tagged Flickr images.)



Do I have an Internet presence, or what?

Labels: Flickr, Q4_2007, sharing

I bought my first digital camera at the beginning of 2002 and used it for almost four years. It was an Olympus D-40 Zoom which sported 4 megapixels although, at the time, the average camera was only 2. At the end of 2005, I upgraded to an Olympus SP-350. While the prevailing resolution at the time was about 5, I jumped up to 8 MP. Now, I figure that I've gleaned enough value from my second camera too. It has captured least one picture every single day and often many more.

Today, while many best-selling cameras are still in the 7 to 8 MP range, some deals can be had at higher resolutions. In a flyer, I saw the Kodak Z1275 selling at Walmart for $218 although it's probably a few bucks cheaper in the US. The camera has been out since the fall but there weren't too many Internet reviews on the EasyShare camera.

Some reviewers suggested there's no need of having a 12 megapixel CCD. This may be true for those who only print 4x6 family photos from memory cards at the drug store. Yet the more information that can be captured from a scene, the more detail there is. This can be important when cropping the edges of an image. Believe me, there's no picture that cannot be improved through a little tweaking with image-editing software.

Others complained that the Z1275 is too big for a modern point and shoot, but it's smaller than my trusty Olympus. It lacks a traditional viewfinder; however, I seldom found myself holding a camera up to my face anymore. The camera is also larger than other models as the Z1275 uses two AA batteries. The ability to use standard batteries was an important criteria for me. I've already got a charger with plenty of Nickel-Metal Hydrides and in a crunch off-the-shelf AA's can be purchased anywhere. The 5X optical zoom probably takes up a bit more room than the, more normal, 3X. I also considered going bigger with a real SLR but I knew that I wouldn't want to carry something bulky with me all the time. A camera is of no value if it's sitting at home. Lastly, I feel an artist would be able to get great pics out of a 1970's Instamatic with a Magicube flash.

A few Net commenters also thought the camera's body was of flimsy plastic and it didn't feel well-made. My only reply would be that most every non-food purchase I made in 2007 has come from China, so I'm getting pretty used to shoddy manufacturing.

I was a little hesitant to switch brands as one becomes familiar with the on-board software of modern digital cameras. I know the Olympus well. After playing with the Kodak a bit in the store, I knew I could make it through the initial confusion of figuring out something different. Many online reviewers don't allow their new devices enough time to grow on 'em. It can take a while to warm up to something new. For example, getting used to a new computer can be a major headache. When we are forced to do something a little different, we initially rebel. People really are creatures of habit.

Anyway, I let the salesperson swipe my card yesterday afternoon. I haven't had much time to get out and really see if I made a good switch. After I put in the batteries I took a quick photo from the balcony in the evening. Choose a size.

500x368

1024x753

3857x2837

Labels: balcony, digital camera, Fraser River, Q4_2007, review

Although there are five free days for the Christmas break, we've still not decided on anything specific. I guess this is one time when there are not any last minute deals available. At least, I can't seem to find any three or four day get-aways selling for a song on the Internet nor in the local newspaper. On the contrary, it seems as though suckers who don't book early have to pay through the nose.

Of course, we could simply drive somewhere close. Hotels are seldom busy as business travel has ceased and many folks are staying with family even if they are travelling. I can remember going to the nearly frozen Okanagan one Christmas. On others we went to visit friends or jumped on a ferry for Victoria. It's only Wednesday, so there are still a couple of days to make a final decision.



It may even be fun just to slide down to Seattle for a few nights. Discounting the wait at the border, it's only a leisurely three hour trip. If one's willing to stay cheap, it's possible to find, because of the season, a hotel within walking distance to downtown for only $60 per night. In order to see the city where the term skid row was coined, I fired up Google Earth. I was first awed by the program in October 2005 and since then it's continued to grow and develop. It doesn't often get the press it deserves but for those of us who like geography it's truly a miracle.

Labels: Christmas, driving, Google Earth, Net apps, Q4_2007, road trip, Seattle

As I spoke about photos yesterday, I've decided to stay on the same topic today.

The other evening with friends, we mentioned visiting Central Europe for parts of September and October this year. It'd been so long since we had seen one friend that he'd not been obliged to see any photos of our trip. Then, I remembered that I had never got around to uploading most of Eurotrip 2007 to Flickr. Of course, the Daily Picture Parade photos are there and I had started by getting Munich, Germany and Salzberg, Austria online.

Next on the trip was Budapest, Hungary. I needed to start from that point. In retrospect I'd probably say that Budapest was among the favourite cities of the trip. It seemed so manageable. It also helped that we stayed in a bed and breakfast rather than a hotel. So, we got the comfortable feeling of being in a real home.

This was one of around 35 photos I put online this morning. It is the Parliament House at night from across the Danube River.

Labels: Budapest, Eurotrip 2007, Flickr, Q4_2007

For the next five days you'll see a a tiny representation of this picture as the first thing on this page. Photos from the last five days are always represented in My Daily Picture Parade. Guests are invited to click on one to see it in greater detail.



This photo is fairly representative of the type included in this online Flickr set. It is not pretty, nor is it an example of great photography. Those are not really part of the criteria for My Daily Picture Parade.

Since July 1, 2005, I have uploaded an image which characterizes something about each day of my life. That means that today marks the 900th photograph in the collection. It's quite interesting to think that I've held a camera in my hands and pressed the shutter button during each of the last 75 dozen days.

It's a rather personally-rewarding image journal of sorts. Most of the subjects can be quite ordinary although some were taken in various countries. I only wish I had developed this habit much, much earlier than two and a half years ago. Wouldn't it be great if I could go back and re-shoot something daily from the thirty years since graduating from high school.

I love the idea of personal archives, I guess.

Labels: Daily Picture Parade, digital camera, Flickr, opinions, Q4_2007

The subject of toasting came up among friends at dinner last night. It is a rather strange ritual if one stops to think about it. There are all sorts of habits whose origins are often lost in antiquity. For example, I cannot, for the life of me, avoid saying the obligatory "Bless You" phrase after someone sneezes.

In a nutshell, a few common themes crop up during Internet searches on the topic of toasting. First, there's the common notion that hosts, both ancient Greeks and later Romans, publicly tested the beverage to show guests there was no poison. Apparently, having an extra ingredient in the wine was a common way to rid oneself of enemies. The clink, under this theory, came to express camaraderie. A second common urban legend simply proposes the the clink of glasses was supposed to drive away evil spirits and initiated the idea of drinking to one's health. Or was it done to simply to add the fifth sense to an evening already containing sight, smells, touch, and taste?

The truth probably has more to do with roots in by-gone rituals. Okay, let's move on to the word toast itself. Could it have been the burnt bread put into slightly off ancient wine to make it more drinkable?

Do a little searching and you can decide by yourself. If you wish, you can read a more scholarly explanation here. Leave a comment below if you find something which has to be included.

Labels: beer and wine, food, Q4_2007

We've still not decided what we're going to do next weekend. Usually we manage to get away for a short time. The photograph above was taken in Victoria on Boxing Day 2005. Rather than going somewhere, it'd be a good time to paint the bedroom. Nah, I don't think so.

Labels: Q4_2007, travel planning, Vancouver Island

I nearly forgot about writing an entry today. That's pretty strange considering how long I've been doing this on a daily basis. I never seem to forget to do other daily things such as putting on underwear. So, I guess, I am not going to put down this temporary lapse to being an age thing.



Today, among the other things accomplished, I went through my neckties. I used to always wear ones to class in the past; however, I haven't been during the last few years. I was looking to weed out the collection. Some were really wide and others were extremely thin. I'm not so sure I know what is actually 'in' nowadays.

Looking at my ties was a trip down memory lane. I did find one I bought in Kuwait during my first teaching job. That would've been in 1981, so at least one of the ribbons of cloth was 26 years old. I used to joke that I had neckties older than some of my students, but I'll be damned if it isn't actually true!

Labels: blogging, Kuwait, opinions, Q4_2007

There's a dearth of good podcast aggregator software for those of us who refuse to hop on the iTunes bandwagon. The Zencast software from the folks at Creative works well enough but it feels clunky and odd.

I heard rumors that podcasting was being integrated into the new Microsoft Zune software. It shouldn't matter much that I don't have one. I sort of believe there might eventually be one in my future. Anyhow, I simply wanted something to fetch my podcasts and arrange them nicely in a sub-directory on my hard disk. SyncToy would be able to quickly move them to my Zen Stone.



It works but I have a few comments about the Zune software. The first problem is that I live in Canada. That in no way sounds like a problem until I learned that excludes me from participating at all. I am well aware that the local shops don't carry the devices but there are major malls just across the border from most Canadian cities, eh? If I type in my hotmail address I get shown quickly to a page which says:

The Zune service is not yet available in your region.
Thanks for your interest! Please continue to check Zune.net for the latest news and information.

Yeah, thanks a lot, indeed.

Even with Web 2.0 I still sort of like Redmond's insistence in having code sit on each local machine. I somewhat still agree that life shouldn't entirely be experienced though a browser. It is possible to just download the software alone, so I did. The software recognized my IP as being north of border!

I installed. The software seems to be typically Microsoftish. What that means is in about three releases from now it'll unusable. Then after another, it'll be rock solid and soon catch up in popularity to iTunes. That should be in about five years, I'd say. First off, software developers, please allow us to cut and paste into the add-podcast box. How did you let it out the door with that major fault? Nobody wants to type in an arcane xml URL. In addition, let us do a complete podcast update with single button. As it stands I have no idea when it's going to pick up my feeds. Lastly, it'd surely be nice to have it run in the background. You know what I mean. When I close, I want it running over by the clock and not be forced to keep it open on the task bar. These seem like such simple things that I cannot understand how it was released these annoyances. How come I never get to beta anything? Send me a free 80GB Zune and I'll give you more useful advice ...

The interface is somewhat appealing so I allowed it to rummage through my music collection. I think under most circumstances I'll probably use it to locate and play music rather than running MediaPlayer.

Labels: Creative Zen, opinions, podcasts, Q4_2007, software, Windows

Once in a blue moon, I look over some of the standard non-blogged information on my site. It's all so general that I almost never need to update it. I do periodically modify the date on my resume document; however, as I'm not looking for a new job, nothing else ever needs changing.

I did try to play some ancient audio files this morning. They were originally recorded on a cheap cassette tape recorder sitting near a transistor radio. I encoded them as Real Audio files at least a decade ago. Unfortunately, that file format is no longer very cool nor even playable. Nowadays, up-to-date the software cannot even the locate old, streaming codec of that era. I knew if I wanted them to remain at all useful, I'd need to convert them.

Fortunately, after a half dozen false starts, I found a piece of free shareware called AudioVideo_to_Exe. It converted the old steaming .ra files to standard .mp3 format. The conversion did triple the file size but, of course, could not improve the quality of the sound. Still at around thirty minutes each, 14 mb files ain't bad.

I'm such an armchair archivist!

MP3 AUDIO

---

Radio Archive 1994 - Dubai FM, United Arab Emirates
Educationally Yours.  The HCT BBS: Mike Friganiotis, Moh'd Al-Shamsi, and of course, me (30:06 minutes)

Radio Archive 1995 - Dubai FM, United Arab Emirates
Educationally Yours.  The Internet: Mike Friganiotis, Tonia Huculak, and me (25:39 minutes)

---

Labels: BBS, Dubai, file archives, Mediaplayer, Q4_2007

This is what, we in the business, call a slow news day.

It smells really interesting out in the hallway. When people get off the elevator, they'll notice, I'm sure. No, it's nothing bad or strange. The carpet layers just installed new carpeting.



The last time we had carpet installed in the building we went cheap and it was soon pretty obvious one gets what one pays for. The carpet was easily stained and next to impossible to clean. This one is a bit plushier. It looks a bit more like a hotel in here rather than somebody's rec-room in the damp basement. Unfortunately, the new floor doesn't exactly match our wall colour. At last month's AGM, we decided to scale back our strata maintenance fee increase, so we'll be a bit mis-matched for a while. It looks like we've decided not to paint until next year but that's something I can definitely live with.

Labels: maintenance, Q4_2007

Well it's Monday evening, so I've started this entry from the BCIT computer lab. I'm with some students enrolled in COMM 0031 which is a course for practicing oral communications. Thankfully, we're in the lab. I can make use of special listening software here. I can also have the students practice recording answers on the computers. This is handy as they'll be officially taking the BCIT Spoken English Assessment right here on Wednesday. This will give the chance to practice with the microphone and headphones.

Earlier today, I corrected all the final examinations from my weekend course. It feels really good to speak about both the intensive COMM 0004 courses in past tense now. During November, I felt quite a bit of stress dealing with forty students at the same time and it surely provided me with a lot of correction.

I can't help but think how great my job is though. I really appreciate the project-like environment of taking on individual contracts. There is clear definition of the beginning, middle, and end to each course. I take preparation for my classes very seriously. I keep a very friendly environment in the classroom but I do accumulate a fair amount of stress doing the housekeeping end of things. So stress builds but then completely dissipates. For example, tomorrow I have absolutely no appointments. Better yet, there're no assignments to be corrected nor planning to be done.

I need lots of down time and some has finally come to visit. I look forward to walking around town with a camera. I did manage a one-hour walk to the Quay today.

Labels: BCIT, feelings, New Westminster, Q4_2007

The more money people throw into the slots, the more it keeps my taxes in check. Our municipal government benefits from a percentage of the take. As a downtown resident of New Westminster, the Royal City Star has become a part of our daily existence. Even from the living room, we can look over the balcony and see the floating casino. Because of this, it is in many pictures on my Flickr account.

We've known for quite a while it'll be leaving. The gaming license will be moved to a brand-new facility in Queensborough in our fair city. When at the Walmart today, we drove another half mile up the road to see how things are coming along on the Starlight Casino. It looks like there's still quite a bit to be done before this week's soft opening.

Labels: money, New Westminster, Q4_2007

I always feel a little sad at the end of a class. There's a natural bond created during these short, intensive PELD (Professional English Lanugage Development) courses. We're obligated to spend a lot of time together in a relatively short period of time.



Today, we completed the weekend course I've been with since the end of October. I will miss this group. They were clever and memorable. I should be accustomed to these feelings by now but they still catch me by surprise. It shouldn't happen though. I've taught seven intensive courses as well as a few different classes in 2007.

Remind me to take on a bit less next year.

Labels: BCIT, Q4_2007, students

It just might be due to the season that's approaching. Although, I'd be loathe to admit it; perhaps, I really am affected by the end-of-year buying frenzy. Many products are positioned for sale at the year's end. Furthermore, I generally discover in December, after my charitable donations and forced savings, that I've got some extra cash in my pocket. These two forces have the power to unite in a dangerous combination. The final catalyst added is the ease and power of the Internet.

My morning started when I received my email from www.ncix.com and discovered a camera I like is on sale. Perhaps the SP-560UZ would make a nice replacement camera. After all, my present camera is two years old. I spent hours reading reviews and doing comparisons.

Then, in the afternoon, I spent time researching to see if the Blu-ray or HD-DVD camp is winning the battle for the chance to connect to my TV. With the Canadian dollar at around a US dollar, web site comparisons are simple. A trip to Bellingham, Washington would be quick and easy. The power of Wal-mart and its sub-$200 HD player and the deals on Toshiba models at Circuit City may tip the balance in favour of the HD-DVD format. If there was no format war raging, high-definition disc adoption would be substantially greater.

I did a lot of planning today but no actual buying.

Labels: Christmas, digital camera, HDTV, Q4_2007, Walmart

When a nice winter day comes along in Metro-Vancouver, one can't help but appreciate it. The sky was such a deep blue that if seen in a sci-fi movie, it'd be panned for being unrealistic. It was a perfect day to be off. I'm still losing weight and I know that exercise proves useful. Actually though, I've been relying on a reduction of calories to shed about a kilogram a month since October of 1996. Just getting out of the house in New Westminster can be a healthy plus. If I walk uptown, it's only about a mile but the incline helps make it feel as if it were a workout.

Today, I walked up 4th and back via 7th Streets. The path took me straight through some lovely neighbourhoods. I always enjoy seeing all the houses between Royal and 6th Avenue and there's such a variety! Knowing that I'll never be an owner of a single-family dwelling isn't sad. I really can't imagine anything other than life in a condo building. Still, seeing all the shapes and designs makes me smile. There's something nice about looking at real estate, even if it's already owned by others.

You too can take a look at some other New Westminster dwellings by visiting a slideshow from my Flickr account. It may take a second or two to load.

Labels: Flickr, New Westminster, Q4_2007, weight loss

Frankly, I never saw much need for using peer-to-peer downloading.

Firstly, I cannot think why I really would need to spend a whole day downloading the copy of a poor-quality movie from a far corner of the world. After all, I subsribe to an all-you-can-eat DVD subscription via regular mail. That gives me the original 8-gig discs with all the extras. Secondly, I've got a large enough collection of music already in .mp3 or .wma format and generally find myself not having enough time to even listen to the podcasts which I aggregate for my little Zen. It'd hardly be worth my effort trying to find a whole album at a good bitrate with files following my naming conventions. It just does not seem worth it.

Knowing that I am not up to date with the technology finally forced to download BitComet. I can certainly appreciate the concept of using torrents. It'd surely be of benefit to organizations with sizeable amounts of data for distribution. I suppose when I have some extra time, I'll probably have to set up a torrent. What shall I share?

Labels: Internet, Q4_2007, sharing

What a great day! Perhaps it's not so fine weather-wise. Also, it doesn't seem to be that hot for Canadian dollar which has dipped to .98 US. The day, however, still seems fine to me because I haven't had to drive in to campus.

November was pretty tough. From October 27 til yesterday, I had gone to the BCIT campus nearly every day. I had off one Friday a few weeks ago and there were two free days around Remembrance Day. That was an usually long slough made even more prominent by the fact I generally keep my teaching to a minimum. Still, I think I did a remarkable job of it all, if I do say so myself! I need to go in tomorrow evening and twice next week. In addition, there's a final exam to administer on Saturday. After that, I'll be really free until the second week of January.

So, today's lounging around was a nice harbinger. I did some grocery shopping and dropped some used clothes off at the Salvation Army Thrift Store. I'll take the stale bread up to the ducks in Tipperary Park later. I love just chillin'.

Labels: errands, Q4_2007, Tipperary Park

Yesterday's snow completely melted. The rain has wiped it all away and it also caused flooding. Yet, the Pineapple Express has brought the temperatures up to around 13 C degrees.

It doesn't seem that long ago that I took this picture at George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary, in Delta. This is the area where part of the Fraser River joins the Pacific.

Labels: Fraser River, Q4_2007, weather

Upon registering for a course at BCIT, one is automatically assigned a life-time email address. The beauty of the system is an instructor can send a message to his /her entire class by clicking a single link. When I take on a new class, I send a welcoming message before I've even had a chance to meet the class face-to-face. There's no need for me to enter email addresses in order to communicate with the group. Of course, this ease of use means that I frequently post message. After getting home, I sent this one to the students I met with today:

I'd like to thank those who braved the snow today in order to meet. I appreciate your determination. I hope everybody I saw today arrived home safely. By the time I left, it was turning to rain near BCIT, but when I made my way to New Westminster, the roads were in very poor condition.

It seems that three students were unable to make it to their oral presentations. I will expect we can listen to them next Saturday as we'll be in the computer lab. I will schedule the presentations for AFTER the final exam.

Remember, your final exam takes only three hours. We will be doing review work and course evaluations in the morning. (I am sure you have already checked the files area and have seen the daily schedules, right?)

It probably doesn't make a lot of sense to review for the final exams by re-reading the entire modules. There are important pages in most of the modules that did include the 'special sentence structures' though. You might find it useful to review those. Also, you should review your returned assignments. Did you fill in the error-correction sheet which held all errors for Assignments 1 to 5?

I want you to remember to write clearly and concisely on your final examination. Give examples and clarifications. Also don't forget to showcase the things we learned in the COMM 0004 course. Don't translate phrases from your language but keep your plans and sentence structures in English only. Lastly, finish very early, so you'll have time for useful review. If I need to grab the paper from you at the end of the time, you will not have had the chance to read through and locate your errors. I'd rather you find them and fix them, before I see your papers!

Good luck. Have a good week.

==Dennis

Labels: BCIT, myBCIT, Q4_2007

In the space of five minutes, I just had to endure two of the 'PC vs. Apple guy' TV commercials. These annoy me no end. Who in the hell is the target audience for that ad campaign? It seems they're always pandering to idiots by insisting they're so simple to use. Perhaps there are fools being fooled though. I just did a web search and and found that Apple's market share has recently been soaring. After this amazing growth, it stood at just a bit more than 8% in the third quarter of this year.

Big deal, eh? If a mass-market consumer product has been around for decades and still cannot even manage 10% market share then it cannot be all that spectacular, can it?

I guess I could be confirmed as staunchly anti-Apple. I've even refused to buy an mp3 player that sports the iPod name just because they wear the little Apple logo. Most importantly, I don't think of their products as being cool, just well-hyped.

Labels: computers, Creative Zen, opinions, Q4_2007

On occasion I back away my usual blogging habits. Today, for example, I'm going to shy away from digging up too much from the distant past. Neither will I complain about some device or another that didn't quite live up to my expectations. I won't even paste in some random text from life. Rather than the usual, I do exactly what a blog is supposed to do. I'll simply say something about today.

I was at BCIT this afternoon administering my final exam in the computer lab. We started out with a one-hour review. The listening and writing sections of the examination took three hours. I used that time to correct assignments for my other class.

On the way home, the odometer on my truck turned to 70,000 miles. That's not too much considering I bought it in July of 1996.

It's very frosty outside at the moment, so I have the fireplace cranked up to setting #3. There are rumours of snow over the weekend, even down here near sea level. I hope the weather doesn't interfere with my full-day, weekend classes.

Labels: blogging, Q4_2007, Ranger, weather

There are times when I hate having to be at a specific place for an appointment. Tonight's the Annual General Meeting of my apartment complex. It is the night where we go exercise some democracy about how our buildings are run. I don't look forward to gatherings such as this, though. It starts in about 45 minutes.

Labels: complaints, government, Q4_2007

This afternoon around half of my students gave their course presentations during class. In the COMM 0004 courses, I have been having the students take on the same topic. Over the years, I've learned a tremendous amount of new information and today's presentations were no exception. I guess one way someone can be a life-long learner is by teaching!

Students seem to be increasingly adept at using MS PowerPoint.

Here's the assignment:

Required Topic on a Local Business
Each student in our class must pick a business that he/she has used while in Vancouver. It may sell a product or provide a service. Concepts and terms used in other college-level courses are expected and encouraged. In other words, your classmates are professionals, so make sure your presentation is too. In advance of the presentation dates, I will ask you to write a memo where you’ll state the name of the business you’ve chosen and the topic you will discuss about it.

Research for this project must prove the presenter has used primary and secondary research techniques. Every presenter should draw up suitable questions and interview someone connected with the business. Researching information from the Internet only would not be considered suitable preparation.

Necessary Length
Each presentation will last eight to ten minutes. Additional time will be used for a question-and-answer period. All questions must be answered fluently.

Use of Visual Aids
A minimum of two overhead-transparencies must be used during the talk. I may be able to arrange lab time for those who wish to use MS PowerPoint; however, you’ll have to let me know in advance of your presentation. Many students use one for an outline that helps to introduce the talk.

Group Evaluation Procedures
Please note that you will be ‘ranking’ your classmates on a ‘scale’. The lower end of the scale means that improvement is needed; whereas, the top of the scale means that the person was truly outstanding. Students will fill in each area as the person is giving his/her presentation. Giving honest and useful appraisal is an important skill that will be useful in many of your future jobs.

Labels: BCIT, Q4_2007, software

There are only two, simple goldfish in this little tank. It sits on my computer desk, and its residents take a keen interest in my blogging and email. They also seem very pleased whenever I change their water, so I do so every week.



I can't imagine us having no little pets in the apartment. Being responsible for something else builds character. Of course it'd be more of a commitment to take care of a dog, cat, or horse! However, I like the idea of knowing little lives are nearby. Taking care of fish or our hamster is rewarded with the entertainment of the creatures. They cost next to nothing to buy or keep. I often wonder why some people choose not to have their own animals. Even if space is tight, they come in all sizes. Even if one is frequently away, some require limited care. A house without a pet seems dead.

Labels: pets, Q4_2007

In some world cities man-made structures have become synonymous with the location. Making a list would be relatively easy. In London it'd probably be Big Ben. Paris has the Eiffel Tower. What would Rome be without the Coliseum? New York boasts the Statue of Liberty as well as the Empire State Building.

What about Vienna, Austria? There's the Gloriette at Schönbrunn which was blogged in my eJournal and images. There's also this.



This video was taken in the Riesenrad, a Ferris wheel built in 1897. It's 200 feet in diameter and was damaged in World War II. It has become one of Vienna's most popular tourist attractions. We were in in Europe during October of this year.

Labels: camcorder, Eurotrip 2007, Q4_2007, Vienna, YouTube

I recently got a very scary message in my BCIT inbox. I suppose whether something is frightening or not depends a lot on personal perception. In this case, the message was from the Institute's Special Events Office. Okay, so that doesn't sound too awful. It was actually an invitation to a Staff Service & Recognition Ceremony. Even that hardly qualifies as hair-raising. Wait, the content provided the spine-chilling news. A fancy, formal font under the splashy logo, read:

---

Dr. Verna Magee Shepherd, a/ President
cordially invites you to attend

The Annual
Staff Service and Recognition Ceremony

In honour of all BCIT employees who have reached
10 and 15 year milestones in 2007

Tuesday, December 11
1:00 – 2:00 pm
SE2 -The Great Hall

Annual All Staff Christmas Reception to follow ceremony
in the Town Square Café

---

You may still be wondering why the announcement gave me the jitters. It's simple, really. When I was growing up, I always thought that a person's career lasted 40 years. I reckoned after four decades of work, employees ought to take it easy by sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch. I am concerned because I've been at BCIT for a decade. This is on top of another sixteen years of working abroad. Yikes, BCIT alone represents a quarter of my total, self-imposed limit. This is enough to frighten anyone, isn't it?

Labels: BCIT, feelings, Q4_2007

I PVR'd the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday morning. In the three hour presentation there was at least an hour of good, HD entertainment. I developed a real fascination with Manhattan on our trip in the spring of 2005. It's too bad that it's so far away from here as it'd be fun to travel there more frequently. There is just an undefinable something about being there.

We are free from December 22nd to January 2nd but it's far too late to make plans to try to go to New York City over the holidays. In fact, it's a little late to plan much of anything for next month. Travel deals seem to disappear during this special time of year. I don't expect to see any cheap flights anywhere. Damn, what shall we do? Is it time for a road trip? Over the Rockies? Just a tiny trip to Victoria for a few days? A long drive to see the Grand Canyon during the winter?

Labels: New York City, Q4_2007, travel planning

I didn't have to go to the campus today. It's the first day I've had off in the last eleven. The upcoming week promises to continue being hectic. My next free day occurs in December. Jay had to use up another of his twelve, use-it-or-lose-it sick leave days. This morning was for shopping. After lunch, we drove to Richmond to see Beowulf in IMAX 3-D. The experience was pretty amazing.

I'd venture the feature would not be nearly as awe-inspiring on a standard screen. By the end of 113 minutes I was delightfully dizzy. The industry is finally getting closer to the day when authentic-looking film making needn't bother with reality at all. Technically, this movie is substantially better than Polar Express. There were far fewer creepy moments this time around when watching the actors do their motion-capture, computerized thing.

Certainly there's a promising future in this type of storytelling. Thirty years ago, I had never seen such real looking spacecraft as Star Wars allowed. I'm sure the audiences 44 years prior to that, thought the effects in King Kong were the ... well ... bee's knees.

So perhaps when at the theatre in 2025, I'll be able to step into the scanner booth when buying my movie ticket. For the price of the ticket, I'll be featured in the big action sequences in a tiny role as an extra. That'll force me to have to look very hard for my fleeting moment on screen, however. I expect if I were to cough up enough extra cash, I'd be able to purchase a much larger segment of screen time. By that time I'll be retired and, most probably, as frugal with cash as I am today. So, don't expect to see me flying around on a dragon ... ever.

Labels: futurecast, movies, Q4_2007

Of course, the title may be a little untrue. I always say that about the class I'm currently with. However, I should add that I usually believe it too. Today, my afternoon group met in the library for a one-hour assignment. On the way back to the classroom, we stopped in order to take this class photo.