Archive for February, 2009
I’d initially just wanted to capture a quick shot of a student’s reaction to the latest trend in student election posters – all face/flash, no substance – but the image file got corrupted in camera. I think I like the double layers of messages in the end result.
I don’t remember student elections being so completely superficial and ego-driven when I was an undergrad. I’m sure there was some of that, but I remember platforms, slates, campaigning. Now, it seems as though all that you have to do is slap your face on a big poster, throw on a catchy phrase, and call it done. There are some creative posters, with some great photography and high production value, but it’s all about Student Election Idol, as opposed to running for anything. I hope it’s just a phase. I fear it’s not.
morning traffic in northwest calgary moves almost completely in one direction – south, toward the downtown core. commuting culture at it’s peak.
Alan ran a query on his blog’s database to peek at comment activity on his blog. I was curious, so ran the query here, too. The top 10 comment posters in 2008: (not counting the evil, evil spamroaches of course…)
- dnorman: 353
- Scott Leslie: 43
- Jim: 39
- David Esrati: 37
- Alan Levine: 36
- Chris L: 26
- Sami: 22
- Rob Wall: 22
- Brian: 16
- Cole: 16
Alan’s working up a 5 Card Flickr Story project to show at Northern Voice, and it’s a really fun little application to explore simple visual storytelling. Any photo on Flickr tagged with 5cardnv is sucked into a pool, where 5 photos are chosen at random and presented as a mini story. You can “keep” any of them, or roll the dice for a fresh batch, until you’re happy with the frames of the story.
Nancy White’s been playing, and saved a screenshot of the output of her mini story. Which she then uploaded to Flickr, and tagged as “5cardnv”. Where it is then placed into the pool of photos for random selection for new stories. Recursion in visual storytelling. Gotta love it.
I’d upload my 5-card-story containing the recursion to Flickr and tag it as 5cardnv, but I’m afraid something would implode due to excessive recursion.
I went for a walk along the Bowmont Natural Pathway, overlooking the Bow River Valley this evening. Peaceful solitude, observing the shifting light after sunset.
when Telus hooked us up to TelusTV last year, they sent out a network tech to install the extra switches to drive the LAN that hooked the TVs up to their network. We finally decided to clean up the spaghetti they left behind. Our home network consists of a DSL modem, an Apple Airport Extreme base station, an ethernet-to-coax converter, and at least 3 5-port 100MB ethernet switches. I remember when it was simple to get a TV signal. I miss rabbit ears.
I bought a BLT Firewire 4.0 light from Bow Cycle (where I buy all of my Big Purchases for my bike – including the bike). It’s an LED light that’s as bright as a 15W halogen. It’s bright. Damned bright. And wide. Awesome.
So I get the light home and attach it to my bike. WTF? The mounting hardware provided by BLT is crap. It’s essentially a glorified zip-pull strap, which snaps when I pull it hard enough to get almost tight enough to sit stably on my handlebar. Fail.
I call BLT, and they say “oh, yeah. we don’t send out parts. Go back to Bow, and have them rummage around for a new mount for you.”
uh. yeah. So I was expecting to have to just return the light. It’s a $175 light, and I’d kind of like the mounting hardware to not suck, for that kind of money.
Today, I take The Boy™ down to Bow Cycle, and talk to one of the guys in the Parts department. He says “no problem! let me see what I can find.” – grabs the light and disappears into the back. He comes back several minutes later with a MUCH better mount, with all of the rubber shims and screws needed to hook it up. No charge, no hassle.
Now, the light is properly mounted on my handlebars. It’s stable, and still adjustable. Like I’d expect from a quality light.
I’ve been shopping at Bow Cycle for almost 30 years. Every single person who works at the store, and in the shop, has been absolutely fantastic, every single time I’ve been in. I’m betting they’ll be getting my business for at least another 30 years.
the morning sun lighting up our living room.
I just registered to participate in the 2009 Alberta Ride to Conquer Cancer. It’s an epic 2 day, 200km bike ride in the Rocky Mountains west of Calgary, with riders raising funds to support the Alberta Cancer Foundation.
My goal is to raise $2500. But I need your help. If you can, please sponsor me.
I will be training for the ride, to build up to the longer distances and mountains that will be part of it. It’s going to be one hell of a challenge, but it’s also going to be well worth it.
If there was ever a reason to tap into the power of my PLN, this is it.
sludge and rocks along the construction site that is Stoney Trail, frozen in a temporary runoff collection pond.