Friday, December 31, 2010

Thursday, December 30, 2010


Aaaaaand, we're back. The annual Christmas pilgrimage to the Frozen East has been completed. The lesson for this year is that I've got a darn nice family. With any luck, most of you feel the same way about your own families, but it's amazing how many people don't. I know a lot of people for whom the whole "family Christmas" thing is just a major headache, a cause for stress, anger, and hurt. Those of us for whom it's not, for whom it's nothing but Big Time Fun, get, I guess, one extra Christmas present - the pleasure of being around truly spiffy people.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010


I'll be somewhere near here by midnight (well, if you live in Ontario, anyway) tomorrow. Trouble is, I'm starting to lean toward portraiture. Bad plan for someone who's basically pretty darn shy, don't you think?

Monday, December 20, 2010


Off to the family homestead tomorrow, so posting might be interrupted for a few days. Or, maybe not. I just have to remember to set my camera to record both RAW and JPEG, since my teeny netbook isn't colour-corrected at all. Not to mention the fact that it doesn't really have any photo-processing software loaded.

Sunday, December 19, 2010


At last - a chance to get out and take a picture. It's this having to work for a living that was really killing things. But, term's over, so.....

Wednesday, December 15, 2010


I'm a glutton for punishment. Someday I might explain that.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010


Nightmare flashback, anyone?

Monday, December 13, 2010


One set of grades handed in. Let the snivelling begin!

Sunday, December 12, 2010


This is a heck of a good thing to watch (provided I got the link right, of course).

Saturday, December 11, 2010


Funny how, in colour, this is an easy photo to read. Convert it to black and white, and the whole thing becomes more difficult.

Friday, December 10, 2010


Shoot the moon.

Thursday, December 09, 2010


I've got to get out more.

Wednesday, December 08, 2010


Definitely not December in Vancouver.

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Monday, December 06, 2010

Sunday, December 05, 2010


I'm a bad driver. Not in the sense that I'm unsafe. Heck, no. No tail-gating, no excessive speed (well, you know, mostly), never with ox-stunning amounts of alcohol on board. No. I'm bad in that, at least when I'm alone, I get lost. Because I don't care. My first thought after realizing I've taken a wrong turn, wrong exit, is, "Hmmm, I wonder where this goes," and I just keep on going. Which means I often don't arrive at my originally-intended destination. Which is what happened today. I'd set out intending to get some photographs at a local conservation area (hmmmm - I don't "do" nature photography, so maybe there was something subconscious at work), but never made it. Somehow I managed to take a turn that wound me up wandering through closed-for-Sunday industrial parks. What a surprise.

Saturday, December 04, 2010


O.K., somebody want to explain to me the magic of Apple? I bought an iPod Touch the other day, and it's just about as wildly annoying as it's possible for a fairly simple piece of technology to get. And, why, you ask? 'Cause everything about it has to go through Steve Jobs's wallet. Want to download a podcast not covered by the iTunes store? Forget it. Want to watch videos (Charlie Rose interviews, in this particular instance) not recorded in Quicktime? Forget it. Want to do it your way? Are you totally crazy?!?

Now, what was that early Apple ad? Something about, um, some crazy, dictatorial regime...? "1984"?

Please, please, please Microsoft! Release the Zune! Or, Sony! The Walkman X-series! Leapin' lizards, anything would be better than this hunk o' junk.

I can only pity the poor suckers who bought an iPad. Gees.

Friday, December 03, 2010


Today was a good day.

Thursday, December 02, 2010


All done but the final exams. By golly, I just might be able to get out and do a little photography this weekend!

Wednesday, December 01, 2010


So, I bought an iPod Touch today. Crazy, I know. First thing I did? Well, I killed it. Yep, shut it down totally. Jammed. Unresponsive. I'm not sure whose intuition it is that Apple products work on, but it sure isn't mine. Plug it into a USB port, does it show up under "My Computer"? No way. Oooohhhh, no. It only shows up under iTunes. Well, that is if iTunes deigns to recognize that it's there. Which, of course, mine didn't. Nope. Seems "iTunes Mobile Devices" wasn't working. Which would be what, exactly? Well, after a mercifully brief internet search, I found out and fixed that problem.

Then, once iTunes decided to take notice of my shiny new iPod, it also asked me if I'd like to update my iPod software. Well, sure - why not? Well, the answer to "why not" is because you're in the middle of transferring your music from your computer to your iPod. iPods, it would seem, don't handle this kind of thing well. Thank heaven I'm (for reasons even I don't understand) a multi-computer guy. I installed the latest iTunes on my netbook, hooked up the iPod, and, for reasons best known to Steve (Show Me the Money) Jobs, the problem was solved. Well, phew.

Next was figuring out how to get only the music I actually wanted on the thing. "Synch" just takes whatever's on your main computer and tries to jam it onto the iPod (mine's the "BIG" one - 64 gigs). Well, I don't know about you, but there's music on my main computer that's not really necessary to have on a portable device. Ever tried to listen to some nice, quiet, violin concertos while riding on a bus? Especially with a non-noise-cancelling device like the iPod (which, while I'm passing by, is totally mystifying. How hard could it be to stick that sort of technology into a $400.00-ish device at this point in time? After all, Sony's done it.). Again, back to the web, 'cause Stevie ain't gonna tell you how it's done. So, now the music's edited.

Can't wait to see what other adventures this thing holds in store.