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

We seldom email frequently. Moreover, I sometimes don't even see my sister for years on end. In fact, the last time Laurie was here was a week before this blog started. That means it's been five years! At her present age and with her copious life experience, I've got to stop thinking of her as my baby sister.



Yet recently, she's become a neighbour of sorts. Well, only out west would one consider 180 miles as neighbourly. Still, she's in Washington State, so that feels close and there are chances we'll be able to meet up more frequently.

Labels: Laurie, New Hampshire, Q3_2008, scanned

There is no celebration today. It's not a very special birthday this time around as the year ends in a nine. That's okay as all the candles needed might set off a fire alarm or something. I still wouldn't mind a hat though.

Labels: New Hampshire, Q3_2008, scanned, Sunapee

Because of Flickr, I've been in an email conversation with a guy named Sampath in Sri Lanka. He initially wrote to ask that I include one of my photos in a Flickr group he created. He wants to highlight Sinhala script. I thought perhaps I had other photos with with text from signs and buildings to include. It was easy to add some of them to that group.

In our email conversations, he mentioned that probably Canada was very cold. He's never actually seen snow. It is often necessary to explain that around the city of Vancouver we seldom see snow that stays on the ground. In the winter though, it's only a hop, skip, and a jump to the mountains. Yes, Vancouver is hosting the Winter Olympics in 2010 but many venues are actually going to take place at the Whistler/Blackcomb mountains.

Today, I wondered if I could find a picture of snow on the local ski hills. Although we arrived to live in 1996, I lack many photos until I went to digital photography in 2002. I did find this old one. There is no date but I strongly believe it was taken in February 2000. I think this was taken with friends on a day we had a winter picnic at Mt. Seymour.

Labels: Flickr, mountains, Q2_2008, scanned, Vancouver

This morning I received an email from Hong Kong. Back in 2006 we stopped there on our way back from a Sri Lankan trip. We had the chance to meet up with Mr. Bill Ryan and family. We'd known them while working in Dubai a decade prior to our visit. I periodically send out test messages to the list of contacts and Bill got one. Each time, I find folks who have abandoned their addresses, presumably for new ones. In these messages I usually just promote this blog.

In the most recent, I had mentioned the vault page. As well as keeping a simple weekly chronology, labels have allowed me to add a little more structure to the chaos. By labeling entries, I have a quick and easy method to create specialized pages all pertaining to the same subject. Bill wrote back and said it was, of course, interesting for him to visit the Hong Kong and Dubai pages. This does make my information here a little more approachable to those with a specific interest, doesn't it? The listing seems to change quite a bit over time. I can only vouch that it is correct as of today.

Alaska, Alberta, Amsterdam, analog, Bahrain, balcony, BBS, BC Ferries, BCIT, beer and wine, blogging, Bratislava, Bret, briefcase, British Columbia, Brussels, Budapest, camcorder, Canada, Canada Day, cars, Christmas, complaints, computer lab, computers, Creative Zen, credit card, cruise, Daily Picture Parade, dentist, Desert Southwest, digital camera, Don, driving, Dubai, errands, Eurotrip 2005, Eurotrip 2007, feelings, file archives, fireworks, flash memory, Flickr, flora and fauna, flying, food, Fraser River, futurecast, games, glasses, Google, government, GPS, grandmothers, hard disk, hardware, Hawaii, Hayack, HDTV, Hollywood, Hong Kong, Hulu, humour, India, Indonesia, Internet, Joel, Kuwait, labels, Las Vegas, Laurie, library, lists, literature, London, Los Angeles, maintenance, the Maldives, Mediaplayer, Mexican cruise, Mexico, money, monkeys, mother, mountains, movie musical, movies, Munich, music, musical theatre, myBCIT, Nepal, New Hampshire, New Westminster, New York City, Niagara Falls, Okanagan, opinions, parade, Paris, passport, Persian, pets, pig, podcasts, Portland, Prague, PS3, PSP, PVR, Quay, Ranger, relaxing, review, road trip, Royal City Mall, Salzburg, San Francisco, Saudi Arabia, scanned, sci-fi, searching, Seattle, sharing, Singapore, SkyTrain, software, souvenirs, Sri Lanka, 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, webcam, weight loss, Windows, World Vision, YouTube, zip.ca, Zurich,

Having things better organized also helps me check what I may have already said or added. For example, Dubai looks a little underrepresented in this blog considering we were there for five years. I'll include this picture of the creek's abra (water taxi) crossing from the Bur Dubai side back in 1991.

Labels: blogging, Dubai, Q2_2008, scanned

When I first tried a hand at blogging, I didn't consider I'd include a photo or image most every day. In September of 2003, I am not sure if I knew I'd still be adding daily posts in June of 2008! Eventually, I did realize that a graphic of some sort could be featured with most entries. Over the years, the images have often become the entries.

Once entered in my eJournal and images, they create part of my historic record. My initial idea that I'd only be able to go forward with present-day images has proved incorrect too. Because of a scanner, I am able to, quite often, dip into the past.

The picture above represents what I didn't do often enough; namely, take everyday shots of my surroundings. There was no reason to take this photograph of the Adhari Hotel in Bahrain twenty years ago. Yet, seeing the details is interesting to me due to the passage of time. For example, I would not be able, in my mind's eye, to put together such simple elements for the feeling of an ordinary street then and there.

It is a real shame I didn't take more pictures of nothing during my lifetime.

Labels: Bahrain, blogging, feelings, Q2_2008, scanned

I once threw some Italian lira into the Trevi Fountain, not the replica in Las Vegas but the real one in Rome. So, holding to the tradition, it is enviable that I will eventually return to the Eternal City and this time Jay can come. We're still bandying about the idea of spending our big, autumn break in Italy. There's nothing set in stone, so to speak. I did pick up a travel guide at the library today. It's one country that's hard to try see in just three weeks or a month. It'll also be hard buying all the overpriced Euros needed this time around!

I tend to want to again see the southern region as in 1987 I knew I'd return to spend a day on the Isle of Capri during my life. I have already seen Naples and the ruins at Pompeii, but 22 years ago I wasn't nearly as smart and worldly as today. I didn't see the Leaning Tower of Piza nor have I been in a gondola in Venice. Turin and Milan are also far afield, so starting to put together an itinerary will be a task in itself.



Click the title banner above to load a PDF file which was published in my hometown newspaper called the Argus-Champion in Newport, NH. It was published when I returned to work in Saudi Arabia after 10 days in Italy in 1987.

The only photo I could locate from that time was an 8" x 10". I think the others may have been lost in a fire when some of my belongings were stored. The old image of Florence is hot off the scanner.

Labels: Italy 2008, Las Vegas, Q2_2008, scanned, travel planning

Nah, yesterday's promise to coninue posting photos of me in front of landmarks or famous scenes was an idle threat. Well, I don't have the fortitude to keep doing it for several weeks. In fact, I think I'll probably finish up on this tangent today. I'm already bored with the subject. I spent just a few minutes at the blog and discovered these ten other examples.

Hubbard Glacier, Alaska

Taj Mahal, India

Canadian Parliament, Canada

British Parliament, England

Fairmont Empress Hotel, Victoria, BC

Windmills, Zaanse Scans, Holland

Niagara Falls, Canada

Hollywood, California

Goreme, Turkey

Gate of India, India

As I could locate ten so quickly, it's no longer an exciting project. I'll have to think of something new to blog about tomorrow.

Labels: blogging, digital camera, Q2_2008, scanned

Today's picture is not new to the blog. In fact it was first published on November 1, 2005.

At the time, I mentioned that I had earnestly started to scan some old photographs for Flickr. The picture to the right was taken during my time in Taif, Saudi Arabia. On an outing one weekend, which occur on Thursday and Friday there, we used to venture around the mountain city. These boys were playing in a rural neighbourhood. In the very conservative parts of the Kingdom, taking photographs of people was frowned upon. Still, these kids were very happy to be the center of attention. This picture was mostly likely taken in 1985, so 23 years later I never again expected to hear about them.

I'm only including a re-posting of the photo because of this very interesting email that I received yesterday:

I was searching for Taif City on the Internet, accidentally arrived to your web site and luckily and I saw the photo of the two kids from Taif, there are my cousins, the kid on the right side of the photo is now a high school teacher and the other on the left of the photo, now he is Saudi Airlines Employee and the area where you have took the photo it is my home point in Taif. I have sent the photo to the two guys, they remember it and they were so happy. The two guys are married and both have kids.

Best Regards,
Abdullatif Al-Fageeh

Labels: email, Flickr, Internet, mountains, Q2_2008, Saudi Arabia, scanned, sharing

I love my teaching schedule. The courses I teach are very draining as they're 16 hours per week with the same group of students. The great thing is that these COMM classes are just five weeks long. Students can put in a sustained effort when they can see the light at the end of the tunnel. You see, these Intensive classes require a lot of work.

Between teaching these hectic sessions, I need the week off to recharge my own batteries. That's what is coming to an end soon. So, I'm already set to take on a new group on Monday afternoon at the Burnaby campus.

It probably is a bit soon to start dreaming about my next vacation, but we just bought air tickets online a few minutes ago. It'll be the second short trip of the year. In the autumn we try to get away for three or four weeks. For this short one, we're driving across the border and down to Bellinham, WA just to catch a cheap flight to Phoenix, AZ. That'll be the week of May 10 to 17. Actually, the Allegiant Air flies into Mesa Gateway Airport where we'll rent a car. The exact schedule of the road trip is pretty flexible but the main destinations will include the Grand Canyon and Palm Springs, CA. One week really isn't long enough for much of anything else. New Mexico will have to be on another occasion. I've not seen the deserts of the American Southwest since I was a child.



Of course, I did see a dry, sandy environment during my fifteen years of work in the Middle East. The picture above was taken in Kuwait around 1982.

Labels: Desert Southwest, Kuwait, Q2_2008, road trip, scanned, travel planning

This week, I decided to organize a junk drawer. It's in a tacky, living room cabinet that contains the souvenir shelves. I'd buy a real glass, curiosity cabinet but then I'd loose the five or six cubic feet of hidden space to keep stationary, tools, and assorted junk.



While getting together most of the tax receipts, I found these lottery tickets that made it back from Sri Lanka a year and a half ago. They were not winning ones but somehow got stuck with other paperwork and exist here now. Before tossing, I decided to scan them.

A physical item may not be at all valuable, but sometimes I like the memory it provides. I'd be very willing to throw away most old paperwork as long as I could keep a digital copy. Dumping stray files onto a hard disk is easy and useful especially if a blog entry can narrate the resulting tale.

Labels: blogging, Q1_2008, scanned, Sri Lanka

On a Sunday while lunch is simmering on the stove, there's sufficient time to put a photo or two on the glass of the scanner. I have to admit the only reason it even crossed my mind today was due to the inclusion of the photo in yesterday's entry. I firmly believe pictures cannot live up to their potential if kept in a big box in the closet. Even the most poor-quality picture can be re-born into a more robust digital existence.



I'm sitting in the middle of the road in Saudi Arabia in 1986. We used to frequently slide down over the escarpment, around Mecca, and to the port of Jeddah. It was always fun to get away from Taif on the weekend to enjoy shopping in the big city. Twenty-two years ago it was possible to sit in the middle of the highway due to the lack of traffic. This is probably not possible today.

Labels: Q1_2008, Saudi Arabia, scanned

It was just a picture taken without much planning over twenty-five years ago. I didn't know the guy in the photo nor was the location anyplace special. I recall thinking it was interesting and once enlarged it to an 8" x 10" wall photo after I left Kuwait. Then, I didn't see it for a few decades. At the end of October 2005, I scanned this particular copy from a piece of aging 3.5" x 5" photo paper.

Interestingly, today it is my third most-viewed Flickr image. So much life has gone on since I pressed that shutter. I seldom think about the two years I taught in Kuwait at this point in my life. Yet, the popularity of this photo prompted me to say a few words about it in my eJournal and images.

Labels: Flickr, Kuwait, Q1_2008, scanned

I spent the day in class with my weekend COMM 0004. I'm extremely happy that tomorrow is Remembrance Day in Canada and it's a holiday. In fact, Monday is a vacation day too. So, I will have off two days in a row which seems like a treat. Don't let me make it sound like I have a hard life. I recently had three months off and will also not be working for three weeks during half of December and part of January.

I started to say that we went over the topic of cause and effect today. When discussing the topic I generally have the class think of bad habits they might have and the effects that lie down the road because of them. I was a little surprised when I asked how many of the 19 students smoked.

None of my current class smokes! I can't help but compare this to when I began at BCIT. Ten years ago it was not unusual for half my classes to run out to have a cigarette during breaks. Of course, I used to join them too.

Cigarette smoking is certainly no longer cool. In fact, people who seem to congregate near doorways nowadays to puff are losers. I equate smoking as something primarily done by unemployed bums or other people of questionable character.


In the Middle East cheap, tax-free cigarettes provided
no incentive to quit smoking. I do not have a photo of me
actually holding one though.

Labels: Bahrain, opinions, Q4_2007, scanned

My class this afternoon seemed especially long. There was a general lethargy in the room that I tried, fairly unsuccessfully, to alleviate. I joked with the students that perhaps it was time I change careers. I said that my mother had suggested I not be an ESL instructor. I always say she suggested that medicine was better paying and less stressful. Actually, she never said anything of the kind.

In a teacher's repertoire, if I'm any example, there are a number of little lies told so often they've become fact. At least, some have become reality in my own mind. I am fairly positive that I never had a student who was sitting on the back legs of his chair and accidentally fell backwards. Although this may have never really happened, I've become very familiar and fond of the tale. I can almost swear that this poor, imaginary fellow had to be rushed to the hospital for three stitches to the back of his scalp. At minimum, it's a good story to ensure people sit safely in their chairs.

In response to the fanciful thought of doing something else for a living, an especially keen and mature student asked me how long I'd been teaching. I quickly responded that I started in 1981. Quicker yet, he exclaimed, "Twenty six years! I think it's a little too late to change careers." I guess he's right, but there's not much else that I'd really want to do with the possible exception of nothing.

I wonder what this student looks like 26 years after I taught him. I taught him in pre-war Kuwait, so I even wonder where he is.

Labels: Kuwait, Q4_2007, scanned, students

Here's a quick, scanned photo pulled from my Flickr collection. This sort of thing is bound to happen when work demands eat up my time or energy.



Since arriving in Canada in 1996, we've taken overseas and domestic trips. As well as an annual vacation away from the continent, we generally manage one or two vacations per year in either Canada or the USA. In this scan, I'm standing at a Holiday Inn in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The year was 2000. We flew into Ft. Lauderdale but also rented a car and hit the southern state's highways. We visited both Key West and Orlando.

Labels: Q4_2007, road trip, scanned

Today, I was a bit late in considering what I could put here. I wondered what information would make a suitable entry.

I have found that sometimes each blog post is a world onto its own. At other times, a number of consecutive, daily entries may be on a similar topic. On rare occasions, there's a reverse continuity in what I write.



The only reason I chose the picture above is that yesterday's entry was a YouTube clip from 1991. It was recorded when I worked in Bahrain, and so today I rifled through my online pictures so I could put a still photo here.

I am standing in shorts with 16 fewer years of excess weight. I'm standing in front of what is referred to as the Tree of Life. Isn't it amazing that one can find just about anything on Wikipedia, even if only a stub?

Labels: Bahrain, blogging, flora and fauna, Q4_2007, scanned

This afternoon we're off again, this time to Central Europe. I can't think of a better entry than the addition of a cover of an in-flight magazine. After cleaning the closet, I have a box of old paperwork to throw away. I wanted to scan a thing or two before tossing some of it into the recycling. A bit of it has come quite a ways to be here and deserves a little respect before becoming garbage. Although I try to avoid my pack-rat tendencies, too many items stay with me much longer than necessary.

The scan below is a case in point. It shows the cover of the March/April 1991 cover of Serendib. That was the magazine back when Sri Lankan Airlines was called Air Lanka. It is a bit interesting to see how air travel has changed during the last sixteen and a half years.

First, the inside cover relays lots of important information after the Ayubowan. The page tells where the washrooms were in the Tristar aircraft. I also says how smoking was prohibited when the "No Smoking" sign was on. It warns that passengers weren't allowed to operate portable radios or television sets; however, thankfully, calculators and heart pacemakers were permissible. On the other end of the articles, Rocky V, Lethal Weapon II, and Gene Wilder in Funny about Love were among the inflight movies mentioned. (It depended on the whether inbound or outbound as everybody on the flight watched the same one which was projected onto hide-away screens.)

No wonder why I keep such things! After a while, there's fascination in anything.

Labels: flying, Q3_2007, scanned, Sri Lanka

My online photo collection increases daily. Many are just simple snaps but others are historical. One reason they're there is because it's a very accessible backup method. Another reason for using Flickr involves the ability to share, not only for friends but with random folks as well.

I like seeing how many of the photos are viewed by visitors. For example, I uploaded about 50 old, scans from Kuwait in the early 80's. They've been quite popular with folks who live there now. The little kid above was also in that set. I was just walking about the neighbourhood and snapped this kid who was accompanied by some family members.

For some reason, I think the one above does deserve to be in the top 200 listing. To me, it looks a bit like something out of a National Geographic magazine.

Labels: Flickr, Kuwait, Q3_2007, scanned

A big chore is easy if one does a bit at a time. I don't know why I don't train myself to scan just several old photos every day. Scanning one takes less than a minute. Then, getting 'em online and in The Old Box in an e-Attic takes about the same amount.

After having been uploaded, the potential for sharing them is much greater than when they are languishing in the photo suitcase beneath my hanging sports coats.


On Diamond Head in Waikiki, Hawaii in April 1998

Labels: Flickr, Hawaii, Q3_2007, scanned

There's a lot of chance in having this photo here today.

Firstly, I noticed that my scanner wasn't working and then it dawned on me I'd not successfully used it since upgrading to Vista. I checked the Canon site and, sure enough, there were new drivers available. After installing, I ran to the photo suitcase. I pulled out a drugstore envelope that had photos from our early years in Canada. As I got a digital camera in 2002, there are six years captured on film. Of course, we took fewer photos in those days. A snap is generally one or both of us standing in front of something while on vacation. I happened across this one taken in front of Montreal's 1976 Summer Olympics Stadium. This was our first visit east in November, 1998. We were gone for a week and visited Quebec City and Ottawa too. We love Montreal and would probably visit more frequently if it were cheaper.

Nine or ten years ago it was possible to find cheaper domestic fares in Canada. I think we flew on a now-defunct, charter airline called Canada 3000. This country has a small aviation market so I do look positively to more liberal open sky policies. If an airline can make market sense out of stopping across the border and then continuing back to a city north of the 49th parallel, then they should be encouraged. Let me give you a quick example why.

Seconds ago, I logged onto Expedia.ca and did a test. I chose to hypothetically leave Vancouver on August 25 and return on September 1. Undoubtedly these are peak times but I simply wanted a comparison. I chose the cheapest return fares offered for the following two itineraries. Both include all taxes and are priced in Canadian dollars.

Vancouver --> Montreal ($903)

Seattle --> New York City ($489)

A little more competition couldn't hurt the consumer, could it?

Labels: Canada, flying, opinions, Q3_2007, scanned

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, Kenya, Q3_2007, scanned, souvenirs

During the last several weeks there have been a fair number of blog references to the purchase and use my Creative Zen mp3 player. Getting podcasts is a new hobby and listening to them while driving is now the norm.



I used to sometimes walk around with a Sony Walkman in the very early 1980's. Just today, I noticed I'm wearing what appears to be headphones in this old scanned photo. It was taken in Kuwait. I'm in the photo with Jamal. I was later involved in a car accident with him and others. They were killed and only I escaped alive.

Labels: Kuwait, music, podcasts, Q3_2007, scanned

I like taking something ten years old and being able to modify it for use in this blog. In this case a photo from a trip to Victoria in the summer of 1997 has become an entry.

Labels: BC Ferries, British Columbia, Q2_2007, scanned, Vancouver Island

We got the hydro bill the other day. I am talking about the bi-monthly electricity charges. BC Hydro is the largest electrical utility and is owned by the province of British Columbia. By North American standards, our prices are quite reasonable. Most people living in this west coast province pay for their power directly to them. However, for historical reasons, households in New Westminster differ. Our city buys power from BC Hydro and then bills us. So we pay the City of New Westminster for our power usage.

I remember running up to city hall six time a year to pay these bills. From the very start, we always used a card for direct withdrawal from the bank account. Yet things do change. I was trying to recall the last time I actually went up to make a payment in person though. For years and years, all our banking has involved clicking a computer mouse.

I hardly ever handle cash nowadays.

Labels: New Westminster, Q2_2007, scanned

My computer desk has a pull-out shelf for the keyboard; therefore, the scanner sits next to my knees as I type. For months on end, nothing is placed on its glass plate. Then suddenly, like yesterday, I went to the photo suitcase and pulled out a few old photos to scan. If I can keep up this habit more religiously, then eventually I'll make a dent in the decades of pictures in the closet.

Naturally, in my mind, I can remember living in the various places of my past. However, when I see an image actually taken at the time, I get a more complete recollection.

I feel very happy watching the likeness on old paper take on a brand new life. Better yet, I love the idea that I'm freeing it by uploading to Flickr. Whereas, the image was just sitting in a box in my closet one day, the next it becomes available worldwide!

Fly baby, fly. Go. Show up on a screen far, far away . . .


This was the view from the outside corridor of our apartment
in Juffair, Bahrain in the early 1990's. There was a large area
of date trees to the right of the photo. If you looked over the
dwellings of poor Iranians, you could see the beach. Click the
photo to see a larger version on Flickr.

Labels: Bahrain, Flickr, Q1_2007, scanned

Perhaps it's the weather? Might it be a way to avoid Seasonal Affective Disorder? It does seem that we've fallen into the routine of a short getaway in the spring with a long vacation in the autumn. For example, we've already made plane and hotel reservations for an upcoming break.

We'll go to Los Angeles from May 5th to 12th. There are a fair number of inexpensive tickets from Vancouver. Most, however, stop somewhere first. Having to wait in Seattle, San Francisco, Denver, Las Vegas, or even Phoenix wouldn't be fun. Therefore, when I spotted the direct Air Canada flights on Expedia, I scooped them up. We hope the Ramada near Universal is a good hotel. At least, it's really close to the subway. We like the idea of bucking the obvious and will try to do LA without a car!


I'm standing in the warm Hawaiian waters. Was that spring
vacation really nine years ago? It seems like yesterday.

Labels: Hawaii, Q1_2007, scanned, travel planning

On 2/5/07, I received this comment from the online form here:

---

Name = Wassan (family name withheld for privacy)
Seen What? = This Silly Form, ePicture Albums
Arrived How? = By accident!
Location = Africa / Middle East

Hello Mr. Dennis,

That's the only name I remember you by. I don't know if you remember me but I was in Grade 2 when you were teaching (Miss Vicky's class). I'm not sure but I believe you were my teacher too. I googled Kuwait's Past and decided to check out your sight. I was shocked and delighted to see that you had pictures of Al- Bayan ( Now Bayan Bilingual School or BBS). I recognized the painted walls and ofcourse you!! I am currently a Kindergarten 1 English Teacher at BBS and I am working on my Masters in Education. I just wanted to say hello and that I rememeber you very well.

Take Care,
Wassan

---

---

Hello Wassan!

Thank you for getting in contact. Did you happen to come across my
Flicker collection of Kuwaiti photos too?

www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=kuwait+DennisSylvesterHurd&m=text

It's amazing to hear from people from so long ago. I am pleased to
learn that you are involved in the 'noble profession'. It can be a
wonderful way to spend one's time. For many years now I've been
working with adult ESL students.

I do hope this letter finds you in the best of health and happiness.
Please share my email address with any others who may have been your
classmates.

==Dennis

---

Labels: Kuwait, Q1_2007, scanned

I rather looked forward to writing something here today. It's now Thursday afternoon. I'm sitting at the teachers' workstation and my students are making use of the comfortable environment in our computer lab. Nevertheless, they are writing midterm examinations with pen and paper.

For at least a decade, I've been waiting for the day when a larger portion of my classes will be via a network. I started teaching Communication classes for ESL students at BCIT ten years ago. From those first classes, I received occasional student work in electronic form. I can remember using class sets of floppy discs. When was the last time I handled one of those? Nowadays, a much larger portion of classroom management occurs online because of myBCIT. They do assignments in specialized message board areas, write email, and share files.

Yet on those dreaded days of midterm and final exams, it all goes back to an exam booklet and a pencil. Will we still be stuck in their weird anachronism in 2017?


This fuzzy scan is one decade old and shows some students
from one of my first classes at BCIT in the autumn of 1997.

Labels: myBCIT, Q1_2007, scanned, software, students

Last week, I uploaded my 3000th photo to Flickr. Most are just digital debris from my camera in my valiant attempt at my Daily Picture Parade. There are recent trips and a number of scans from pre-digital days too. One would have to be a very interested to in searching in order to make use of the Flickr tags.

There is an easier way to waste a few minutes, if you're so inclined. My SixPics page loads random photos from the Flickr collection. The photos are represented by small thumbnails. If you mouse over you will see the title of the photo. If you click, you'll be taken to the photo's real page. Just selecting reload in your browser will bring up another six. Keep trying; it's sometimes surprising to see what shows up. Here are some examples:

Screen One
1) The British Parliament 2) Monoragula, Sri Lanka 3)Uptown New Westminster 4) Veddah Village, Sri Lanka 5) This Apartment Building 6) Gulf Islands from a BC Ferry.

Screen Two
1)Ivy 2) Cactus in Blodel Conservatory 3) Princess Di Memorial Fountain 4)Brussels, Belgium 5) Beach Cow 6) Columbia Street

Screen Three
1) Frankfurt, Germany 2) View from Empire State Building 3) Trincomalee, Sri Lanka 4) Kin's Vegetable Market 5) Kathmandu Temple 6) Students in Dubai.

Labels: Daily Picture Parade, Flickr, Q1_2007, scanned

While I was away, I got a very interesting email. This sort of thing simply wouldn't have ever happened in the days before the Internet. We can easily take these changes for granted but they really are extrordinary. Everyday folks are now easily able to influence large numbers of others on the opposite side of the earth.

I dashed off a quick reply thanking the sender for the message. Here's the photo that prompted it.

Dear Mr. Dennis,

I was so excited to see the photos you published on flicker the ones on Kuwait, particularly those of Al-Bayan school.

I am in the second class photo (1981/82 Second Graders 2/3), that's me with short hair wearing pink and white sitting in the center.

The photos have been circulating in Kuwait by email over the past couple of months and everyone who recognizes anyone in the photos gets all excited. Most of my classmates are living successful lives with great careers. Many of them have MBAs from the US or UK. I myself am a journalist working with the Kuwait News Agency.

Seeing those pictures gave me goose bumps and some mixed feelings especially after noticing that three of my classmates have died. Two of them are with you in the picture. One has died in a car accident. One in a diving accident and the other I'm not really sure I think it was health problems. That kind of frightened me.

I remember that corner in the gym so vividly it's as if it was yesterday.

Al-Bayan has grown into a bigger establishment with another school for special needs. Thank you again for bringing back such wonderful memories.

Besma

Labels: Kuwait, Q4_2006, scanned, students

Recently, I've had extra time to call my own. I also have been thinking about our upcoming return to the island once called Ceylon. These facts, plus my access to a Flickr account, mean I've scanned more old photos for posterity and inclusion in my eJournal and images.

Labels: Flickr, Q3_2006, scanned

I have about ten great ideas each day for new blog entries. Then, when push comes to shove, or, more accurately, fingers to keyboard, I can't remember any of 'em. So, in order to cope, I run to find something to scan.

Here's a wrinkled bit of long ago from a newspaper clipping. The Argus Champion was the weekly paper of the next-door town. Sunapee, New Hampshire had no local newspaper while Newport, NH did. This picture was taken in Newport anyway as that's where my family used to go to church.

The photo's caption reads: OLD_FASHIONED PAINTING BEE on Aug. 18 drew more than 20 persons to the First Baptist Church parsonage. Shown scraping and painting on porch roof, left to right, are Susan Spear, Larry Ellis and Dennis Hurd. The Rev. Richard A. Wallace, pastor, announced another painting bee for tonight.

This clipping, like most from my grandmother Osgood had no date. I am, therefore, simply estimating this to be August of 1968. It's not a very clear, but; hey, it's about 38 years old which is a lot for newsprint. Click the clipping to see the full-sized pdf.

Labels: grandmothers, New Hampshire, Q3_2006, scanned

I think it's knowing tickets will be ready today that prompted me to scan a few more photos. We've bought tickets to Sri Lanka leaving September 2nd. We stay until the end of the month. We've also got a stopover in Hong Kong for the first week of October.

I recalled that my first trip to Sri Lanka was for two weeks in February of 1986. I was silly enough to rent a car and we ventured out on the wrong side of the roads. That means my initial visit was more than twenty years ago! Then, I was at Jay's home during September of 1987 after quitting my job in Taif, Saudi Arabia. During April of 1988, the third trip was for a month and included the Maldives too. Additionally, in March of 1991, Jay and I stopped on the island when travelling from Bahrain to Thailand. It seemed easy getting there from the Gulf.



Strangely, there was a thirteen year absence in my visits. I resumed when we travelled there in the fall of 2004 for several months. So, the 2006 trip will make the sixth time, I've set foot on the isle south of India. That's more times that I've ever visited any other destination but I don't see this as the last journey to Sri Lanka.

Labels: Q3_2006, scanned, Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka 2006, travel planning

Okay, they are not quite middle aged yet! At the beginning of 2005, I blogged a similar class picture from 1981/82. It had me in it. I also included it on Flickr and guess what? I had a few nice notes from a Kuwaiti, Flickr-user who was a youth at the time!

Isn't the Internet amazing? I scanned two other photos from that set. The classes at the Al-Bayan School were divided into sections and each had a 'home room' teacher. The photo below contains an ex-fellow teacher named Joyce Alverez. Boy, it'd be fun if this picture in some way allowed me to make contact!

Labels: Kuwait, Q3_2006, scanned

My Flickr photos have been viewed over 15,000 times. At first it sounds like a lot but really isn't. After all, as of this morning there are 2,090 of them online. Remember, one is added every day so that's added a sizable portion. There are many more from recent trips. As well, more than 10% of the collection are simply old scanned snapshots.

I am a collector and sorter by heart. Last month I added a fairly large collection of photos taken in 1982 Kuwait. Yet, when I searched my tags for Indonesia I came up with only seven photos and two wall-batik images. We were there for a whole summer so, I figured I might scan another for the online collection. I chose this one:

Labels: Flickr, Indonesia, Q3_2006, scanned

I like history, especially my own. I also like attempting to clean up old images. In addition, I rather enjoy mysteries.

The photo above was from an old Ektachrome slide. The original wasn't rectangular, so I assume it was shot with an Kodak Instamatic 126 camera. It was in a shoe box of old memorabilia that my dad sent me, so I'd venture that it was from my childhood. It looks like a desert scene, so most probably it was from a road trip to the American southwest. Yet there are places in British Columbia that look like this and we drove an ancient VW-camper from New Hamsphire to Alaska when I was about 6 years old. Might this be from that trip?

The scene is too blurry to really make out anything. Is it just a dirt road? My mom usually took the photos. What was it that prompted her to shoot this scene?

Labels: Mother, Q3_2006, scanned

A crowded Kuwaiti souk in the evening. - 1982


In case of an apartment flood, copies of my pictures will get soggy and I'm not so sure what'll happen when the big one (earthquake) hits California. I'm trying to say that I uploaded a few more pictures from paper to Flickr's data-centers. I wish I had organized and kept the tons of negatives I shot over the years. Trying to coax a suitable image off 25-year-old, yellowing paper is not always easy.

Every so often I upload a few fragments of my image past to An Old Box in the e-Attic. It's more than convenient to have a representative collection online. Wherever I am, as long as there's an Internet connection, I will have my photo albums with me. Quick! How quickly can you locate a photo of your grandmother? I can do so in seconds.

As I briefly mentioned yesterday, photos are best when shared. After all, you are reading something called, my eJournal and images. Honestly, what good is a photo album if the cover's never cracked open? The whole concept of sharing took on added meaning yesterday. In the evening, I scanned and uploaded eight more photos from Kuwait. I lived in that country from 1981 to 1983 as I was hired for my very first teaching job. I don't have many high-quality pictures from that era. I must have owned a very cheap camera at the time.

The resulting images may not have been stunning but they certainly did attract attention. In fact, I had an email waiting when I woke up. That is considerably differen