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

After I wrote yesterday's non-entry, I decided to add the tag, feelings. I really don't know what the difference is between feelings and opinions, but now they're separate. I don't use labels as a means to accurately represent the contents of every daily writing. I just like how I can construct brand-new pages from old information when using them.

Alaska, Alberta, Amsterdam, analog, Bahrain, balcony, BBS, BC Ferries, BCIT, blogging, Bratislava, Bret, briefcase, British Columbia, Brussels, Budapest, camera, Canada, Canada Day, cars, Christmas, complaints, computer lab, Creative Zen, credit card, cruise, Daily Picture Parade, dentist, Don, driving, Dubai, errands, Eurotrip 2005, Eurotrip 2007, feelings, file archives, fireworks, Flickr, flora and fauna, flying, food, Fraser River, futurecast, games, glasses, Google, government, GPS, hard disk, hardware, Hawaii, Hayack, HDTV, Hollywood, Hong Kong, humour, India, Internet, Joel, Kuwait, labels, Laurie, library, lists, literature, London, Los Angeles, maintenance, Mediaplayer, Mexican cruise, Mexico, money, monkeys, mother, mountains, movies, Munich, music, musical, myBCIT, Nepal, New Hampshire, New Westminster, New York City, Niagara Falls, Okanagan, opinions, parade, Paris, passport, Persian, pets, pig, places, podcasts, Portland, Prague, PS3, PVR, Quay, Ranger, relaxing, review, Royal City Mall, Salzburg, San Francisco, Saudi Arabia, sci-fi, searching, Seattle, sharing, Singapore, SkyTrain, software, souvenirs, Sri Lanka 2004, Sri Lanka 2006, staff, Stanley Park, stars, students, Sunapee, Surrey, technology, telephone, television, temple, Thailand, The Harbor Gameroom, The Wizard of Oz, Tim, train, transit, travel planning, Turkey, Vancouver, Vancouver Island, Vienna, Walmart, Warner Bros, weather, weight loss, Windows, world, World Vision, YouTube, zip.ca, Zurich

At the present moment, these are the labels I'm using. The list will undoubtedly change over time. Some may come while others go. You will, however, always be able to find the current listing in my eJournal and image's archive vault. As of today, each one here should display a new page containing the stated content without regard to the date it was originally blogged.

Labels: blogging, labels

I like how using labels in this blog has opened up exciting new ways to view the information. Under this and most my eJournal and images entries are specific keywords I've entered.

My daily rants and raves are not especially well-suited to the standard, reverse chronological order of a blog. Except during the times of vacation blogging, most of my entries are fairly random. One day I may be recounting what happened at BCIT. Then next, I might include a decades-old scanned photo. After that, I might paste in something I got as email. Obviously, simply saving weekly pages may not be the most useful way of reviewing the data.

Even better than a search, being able to view entries that I've pinpointed as categories is preferable. Of course labels can be edited, replaced, or modified. From time to time, I can add a new way to view what's already been entered. British Columbia is a fairly new label. I think I'll generally use it to show entries describing trips within our province.

Labels: blogging, British Columbia, labels

... to Skin a Cat?

Information is useless without a quick way to access it. Realizing this has become more important as I approach my fourth year of daily blog entries. My blog's archive vault holds all the words I've typed here since September 2003.



There are three ways in which to access old data. First, the most powerful way is to do a complete search. One simply types a word into the box and clicks a button. This will return pages that contain specific words. Secondly, it's possible to check the label categories which I've set up as a way to describe entries. This can point to general directions, but it may be difficult to locate specific material as these pages can grow quite large over time. The final way to see previous entries is to browse through week by week. This would not be a very efficient way of finding an exact entry, but you might well find some interesting things along the way. These three ways increase the value of old entries in this blog by making the information more accessible.

Labels: blogging, labels, searching, sharing

As it's Sunday morning, I want to pop in something here that'll be quick and easy. Yesterday, it was a cinch to point out a newly added blog label. I guess I'll do the same today.

I've had quite a few entries about Vancouver's SkyTrain system. As pointed out previously, the reason we ended up living in New Westminster is most assuredly because of the system. Although the owner of a vehicle, I exclusively use the SkyTrain when heading to downtown Vancouver. I look forward to the completion of the line from Vancouver's airport to the city center too. Its completion won't cut travel time when we fly, as there's already a direct bus route from New Westminster. However, it just seems that having transit from the airport to the downtown core should be available in any real city.

In order view my previous entries with the transit label, click the following SkyTrain picture, or click the actual label name beneath it.



I generally comment on transit during local (places) and foreign (world) trips. Yet my label called transit deals mostly with the local SkyTrain system and New Westminster bridges over the Fraser River.

Labels: labels, opinions, transit

Adding labels to my eJournal and images has meant going through nearly four years of daily entries with a fine-toothed comb. I don't mind taking the time as I've got a copious amount in August.

What has bothered me is how unrepresentative this blog is in regards to actually painting a picture of my 48 years on earth. Actually, few would believe that by entering a mere paragraph or two, even 1400 times, one could sum up a life. It's true; however, I have now vowed to chat much less about the weather! (Today is starting off to be fantastic though.)

Also, I run into a problem by spending a near equal amount of time in Flickr. I do my Daily Picture Parade, add lots of what's going on currently, and took to scanning a while back. In my mind these two repositories of Dennis data are intertwined. I have mentioned Flickr a lot but a visitor cannot possibly know what's on the other site when reading here. Even a link doesn't seem as powerful as pasting the image right on this page.

So, as there was only a single entry regarding a trip to Kenya in February 1994, I put this one of Jay standing in the middle of souvenir sellers in Nairobi. I know that was a long time ago, but I need to add to my world label.

Labels: blogging, Daily Picture Parade, Flickr, labels, souvenirs, world

Today is just for maintenance and to show you how my progress for organizing this blog is getting along. The labels listing continues to change and develop. I shouldn't think that that will stop at this point. So, today's lisiting is just sort of a work in progress. As well as giving you an idea of how I'm beginning to organize old entries, putting the list here will give the search engines a chance to find all the new blog pages.

[THESE LABELS ARE IN EFFECT OF THIS DATE. THEY MAY BE CHANGED OR ELIMINATED IN THE FUTURE.]

Feel free to click any of the following. But get 'em while they're hot because supplies may be limited.

Alaska (6), Alberta (12), analog (8), Bahrain (20), balcony (23), BBS (7), BC Ferries (12), BCIT (115), blogging (45), Bret (30), briefcase (6), camera (62), Canada Day (7), cars (16), Christmas (39), complaints (20), computer lab (16), computers (78), Creative Zen (6), credit card (4), cruise (16), Daily Picture Parade (13), dentist (5), Don (21), driving (9), Dubai (28), errands (19), Eurotrip 2005 (25), Eurotrip 2007 (4), file archives (16), fireworks (6), Flickr (97), flora and fauna (22), flying (12), food (41), Fraser River (16), games (8), glasses (6), Google Earth (7), government (23), GPS (23), hamster (3), hard disk (3), Hawaii (3), Hayack (5), HDTV (10), Hollywood (4), Hong Kong (7), humour (7), India (12), Joel (33), Kuwait (11), labelss (5), Laurie (8), library (9), lists (23), London (1), Los Angeles (12), maintenance (14), Mediaplayer (3), money (20), mother (4), movies (77), music (26), musical (9), Nepal (4), New Hampshire (65), New Westminster (104), New York City (11), Newfoundland (3), Niagara Falls (2), Okanagan (13), opinions (56), parade (2), Paris (1), passport (1), Persian (1), pets (21), pig (2), places (91), podcasts (9), Portland (6), PVR (5), Quay (19), Ranger (14), relaxing (12), review (2), Royal City Mall (1), San Francisco (10), Saudi Arabia (29), sci-fi (4), sharing (12), SkyTrain (4), Sound of Music (1), Sri Lanka 2004 (61), Sri Lanka 2006 (34), staff (2), Stanley Park (4), stars (9), students (11), Surrey (8), technology (31), telephone (5), television (56), temple (28), Thailand (3), The Wizard of Oz (2), Tim (19), topcasts (3), transit (29), travel planning (26), Turkey (2), UAE (23), vacation planning (4), Vancouver (30), Vancouver Island (13), voice recording (2), Warner Bros (3), weather (59), weight loss (5), Windows (24), world (21), World Vision (11), X Minus One (3), YouTube (11)

Labels: Internet, labels, lists

Since the time I decided to use labels here, I've been playing with the concept as it relates to blogging. I'd tagged a lot with Flickr but the use of labels on blogger.com is surprisingly different.

In Flickr one uses tags to organize and pinpoint. Primarily, the use of tags can be for one's own use or for public searches. For example, a general, broad search can turn up all 33 of my pictures of London; whereas, I can quickly locate only two examples of the changing of the guards. In fact, the vast majority of my hundreds of tags point to a single photo.

On the other hand, blogger.com's labels are for self-initiated organization only. The emphasis is on general, self-described topics. Moreover, labels with a single entry are somewhat unnecessary. It took me a little experimentation to figure this out.

I have probably labeled only a quarter of the entries in my eJournal and images. Now I've come to a very sad realization though. I have discovered I spend a great majority of my time here discussing these three topics:

My Work (BCIT)

My Computer Use

My City (New Westminster).

Other data abounds but I really haven't got the labels all worked out yet. It may take a while ...

Labels: blogging, labels

This blog is just a month shy of its fourth birthday. In that time, I really didn't know I had run on so much about movies. Although by no means exhaustive or even representative, I have typed quite about about the subject. Click the following link.

my eJournal and images: The Movie Reviews




When we first came to Canada we went to movie theatres a lot. This probably was due to the fact of having accessible venues. I would venture that except for Saudi Arabia where they're banned, the ones in Kuwait, Bahrain, and the UAE are probably more upscale and mainstream than during the eighties and nineties. I recall dark, dirty, old cinemas showing late, often cut, films.

Around Vancouver, there was a massive building spree at the beginning of this decade. The multiplexes do offer good seating, screens, and sound systems now. It's necessary to see blockbuster events in them. Yet, DVD's are now released surprisingly soon after the original theatrical release. We watch a lot more non-mainstream and indie films on DVD.

I only wish the format wars for high definition DVD hadn't occurred. HD-DVD seems to be cheaper than Blu-ray but who wants to commit to a format before there's a clear winner. Damn them for cutting their collective noses to spite their faces. The studios could be churning out their entire collections in HD by now if a common format had been agreed upon a few years back.

Labels: HDTV, labels, movies, review, stars, The Wizard of Oz

This is another day where I'm talking more about function than form. I am not really adding new content today, but I did spend a little bit of time organizing what had already landed here in the past.

I'm more convinced than ever that blogging tools are the only way I can work on this on-going project of scribbling about my life. I didn't use blogger.com's labels until recently. The task of going back through nearly 1700 entries to categorize them seemed simply out of the question.

Yet, the promise of pulling together the randomness of over 200 weeks of continuous daily entries seemed far too great to ignore. I fiddled with adding some new labels to old entries and found a short cut method. Getting most of this junk organized is still going to take months, especially if I devote a few minutes to the task just now and again. The news is I've started.

New Hampshire

Saudi Arabia

Bahrain

the United Arab Emirates

So, seelct one of the pictures above to find a majority of entries dealing with this topic or time. They may have been written years apart but will show up on the same page. How's that for organzing after the fact?

Labels: blogging, labels

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

Spring cleaning is probably good for the soul. Regardless of the season, it's liberating to get rid of extra junk. For example, I just threw a few bags of clothes into the back of the truck. The Salvation Army Thrift Shop wasn't open yesterday, so they're still sitting in the back. All those pants with a waste size of 42 are no longer in the closet. I need a reason to stick to dieting. As long as I was at it, I also decided to make a few formatting changes to this blog over the weekend. Some things were dropped while others just moved around.

I decided after years to finally embrace the tags. Actually, I guess blogger.com refers to them as labels. Although there's already specific ways to search this blog, labels do offer an additional way to view its data. Rather than a brute force search to turn up an appropriate page, identifiable labels pinpoint my own concepts on how to organize my eJournal and images, essentially a database of information.

The problem is, to be effective, labels need to be added to the older entries too. I shan't expect that is going to occur any time soon. Rather than focus on the previous 1,600 entries, I'll label all new ones. If you do want to see how tagging works with my Flickr picture collection, click the image below.

Labels: blogging, Flickr, labels, searching