Archive for May, 2010
Evan, watching the Big Finale Act, hoping the guy doesn’t fall off the Spinning Machine of Death (almost directly over our heads…)
the baby gorilla, enjoying a sunny spring day.
took the long route home today, heading down to the river, then climbing back up. great training ride before the Big Ride next month. I’ll be doing this at least once a week until then (and taking the normal route the rest of the time).
I took the long route home, heading down to the river, then climbing my way back up. It adds a little more to the elevation change over the ride, but packs a bunch of it into the last few KM, making for much steeper climbing than my normal route. Great workout, and it’s on the ride home. Here’s a quick video shot during the ride (won’t work in RSS, of course…)
Barbara Ganley just asked on Twitter what sites I follow on photography. I fired up Fever˚ and exported an OPML file of my photography feeds.
I subscribe to a whole bunch of feeds. Some on the technical side of photography, some on the editorial side, some on the artistic. If you know of a great feed that’s not here, please let me know!
Here’s a Grazr widget of the feeds: (probably won’t work in RSS, but should work on the blog…)
I passed the 2000km mark just as I was leaving my community on the way to work this morning, along Tuscany Boulevard and Stoney Trail. The mountains were looming large this morning. It was a great ride, and I nearly didn’t stop when I got to campus…
I’ve had epilepsy since I was a child. I think I was around 3 when it started. Not very often, but about once every year or so. Not often enough to be a real problem, but often enough to loom over me and get in the way. I didn’t get a driver’s license until I was 32, just prior to my son’s birth.
I hadn’t had a seizure (confirmed as a genuine seizure, anyway) since my first year as an undergrad – back in 1987. It’s been a long, long time.
But, I had one the day before Northern Voice. Thankfully, I was in a safe place (in every meaning of the word), and my friends were absolutely amazing at helping me feel comfortable and recover. Before I get a seizure, I get an aura as a warning. Since it had been so long, I tried to ignore it. I figured it was low blood sugar or something. Then, I could feel myself slipping, and I was gone. The next thing I remember is fragmented snapshots of my friends standing over me, looking worried.
I didn’t say anything to the rest of my friends who were in town for Northern Voice, because I didn’t want the thing to turn into Are You OK? Fest 2010. I was fine. After a good night’s sleep, I felt completely back to normal. There was no point in telling anyone else.
But, it took me much longer to recover from the seizure than ever before, so I needed to get things checked out. I saw a doctor today, to get a referral to a neurologist (my own neurologist sadly passed away a few years ago, and I never had the need to be transferred to a new one until now). The doctor wrote a prescription for the meds I used to take, to hold me over until I can get in to see a neurologist and we figure out what’s going on.
I won’t be driving for some time. The bottle of IPA in the fridge is likely the last beer I’ll have in a long, long time. Things will be different, but not radically so. I already ride my bike to and from work, and will be doing more of that to run errands.
Why am I writing this? I remember when I was a kid, I was terrified that people would find out I had epilepsy. That they’d think something was wrong or damaged. It was something to hide. I don’t want to do that anymore. My epilepsy is not a big deal.
taken from Joe Gatcha’s bench.
the bow river valley is in the last days of brown season (hopefully). spring is finally (finally) in the air, and people are heading out to the pathway system to enjoy the long overdue sun and warmth.
I dutifully downloaded Steam onto my office Mac Pro. It’s not new, but it’s not too shabby, either. Grabbed a copy of Portal. Clicked “Play” and was rewarded with:
WTF? This isn’t a new high-end game. It’s complaining about my video card? Dang. Maybe I’ll try tonight on the MacBook Pro. Unless it complains about something there, too… *sniff*
traffic on Stoney Trail – part of the new NW section of the Ring Road To End All Ring Roads.