Ben's Blog

People, Places, Things

2009-01-25T16:51:00.002-08:00

Everything has changed yet much remains the same.

My previous post on this blog was two years ago, chronicling how I was fighting a highway expansion project. Since then I've moved to a new city in another country, taken on a new job, met dozens of new people, and generally kept on living.

I've become an activist for a bicycle group, so I'm still encouraging alternative transport. I've taken up climbing in a big way, and through this I've met quite a few new people and had some great experiences but mostly got to know my buddy Zach. My enthusiasm for the sport has helped some of my friends to get into it too. I've taken up bicycling in a multitude of ways; as a past time, as a commute method, as a fitness aid, and for fun - just wait till you see some of my new tricks ;). And I feel that my work is more relevant now than it ever has been.

Still, I've kept in touch with some of the people I used to know, particularly my old f00f tribe.

I've gone away from and slowly am coming back to the old pleasures of technology, but in a more deliberate way. Linux is still good :) and so is programming for fun and profit. I'm still trying to feed my creative outlets; perhaps even more so now that I feel a lot more settled in San Francisco.

That's enough for now. Hello again!

Pounding the pavement

2006-11-18T18:05:00.000-08:00

The Society Promoting Environmental Conservation is running a petition to show the government how many people do care about the absurd waste of money that the gateway project represents. And lots of people do care, I met a great group of volunteers today who do care, we care so much that we all sacraficed our Saturday to run the petition.

Canvassing was harder than I thought it would be. It can be pretty discouraging knocking on 10 doors and nobody's home, or didn't speak english, or "sorry this isn't my house", "I think you're wrong", "I don't like people knocking on my door", or talking with a voice on the other side of a cold video camera. Finally I knocked on the door of someone that did care, and knew the issue, and wanted to sign the petition. After that things became much easier; the knowledge that at least someone would sign was a real boost. In the end I filled my page with signatures.

After meeting up with the gang again to trade war stories and clipboards I went home and drew a hot bath for my aching feet. Yes the bathwater was cloudy but it was so worth it.

I'm looking forward to seeing some of these cool people at the Gateway Sucks! party on friday. Everyone is invited!

Letter to Kevin Falcon regarding Twinning of the Port Mann bridge and the widening of highway 1

2006-11-12T20:57:00.000-08:00

Right Honourable Kevin Falcon, Minister of Transportation
108-17700 No. 10 Highway
Surrey, BC
V3S 1C7

Cc: Gregory Robertson, MLA Vancouver-Fairview

Re: Twinning of the Port Mann bridge and the widening of highway 1.

Dear Mr Falcon,

It has come to my attention that you plan to twin the Port Mann bridge and widen highway 1, with the intent of relieving traffic congestion over said bridge. We agree that something must be done, however I believe your plan will fail. Many cities in North America have taken a similar action in response to a similar problem; all of them have found highway expansion to be ultimately ineffective at controlling congestion. On what basis are you undertaking this action?

Have you considered spending money on new buses and transit infrastructure, such as commercial and transit-only lanes? With a stronger transit network, real estate development can occur at an increased rate within the town centres located across our region. Investment in public transit should occur well before any investment in new bridges.

I am concerned that you are helping to bring our cities towards more traffic congestion, greater risk of accidental death, and more pollution. If you can provide evidence that your proposed bridge and highway expansion will reduce traffic congestion over a 20-year period, then I will support your action.

Please, reconsider your plans to twin the Port Mann bridge and expand highway 1.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Damm

Ruby happens [tech]

2006-11-10T16:55:00.000-08:00

Well it finally happened. After writing dozens of ruby scripts over the last few years, several of them were merged into a module for entirely pragmatic purposes. And that means I'm a ruby programmer. In a last ditch attemt to save some face before finally admitting that ruby kicks butt enough for me to keep using it, I'm happy to report that all my little scripts run perfectly in ruby and JRuby.

Raffi's on Wikipedia

2006-11-07T22:35:00.000-08:00

While researching Canadian honourifics, I discovered that Raffi has a page on Wikipedia. Maybe checking it out will bring back old memories like it did for me. Ahh, summer excitement at the children's festival!

Postage: Letters to our MLAs?

2006-11-02T11:19:00.000-08:00

By Nov 8th I will have written a letter to Kevin Falcon and Gregor Robertson, both MLAs, regarding the issue of highway expansion. Have you, my dear reader written a letter to your MLA before, and do you know if the envelope requires postage?

Happy Halloween

2006-10-31T14:50:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween people!

This year I actually had fun with my costume and pumpkin. As halloween pre-weekend approached I almost chickened out of my costume - a skunk. But in the end I dressed up (twice) in a not very convincing but fun skunk costume. It was the first that I painted over my entire head for halloween; it's a lot of fun to go out into the city wearing bizarre skin and a tail. It was an appropriate level of fun & scary; not like last year where my costume was so convincingly scary that I became scared of myself.

For the annual pumpkin carving festivities I was struck by an idea a few days in advance and did carve a genuinely scary pumpkin. Lesson learned; when the pumpkin starts to fight back then really, it's done.

Restoring Balance

2006-10-21T16:08:00.000-07:00

Thursday and Friday saw my first two yoga classes at Semperviva. It was a constructive way to end what began as a destructive week. With a mix of saying hello again to an old friend, spending time or at least talking with everyone in my close family, and spending time with some friends I've not spent time with lately, it was a fine way to begin to restore balance.

Special mention goes to Lucas; he graduated from VCC's LPN (licensed practical nursing) program and got his license in the mail this week. You're my hero bro!

Welcome to Ottawa

2006-10-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Ottawa
Originally uploaded by slightly-less-random.

Once arriving in Ottawa, a few things stood out right away. One is that they have a network of roads that are dedicated to buses. Kind of neat. Another is that I can only eavesdrop on 1/2 of the conversations; many people speak French. After unpacking in my hostel I went to the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. While there I spoke with Alexandre Mattar, a phtographer who gave me the address of Paper Bag Junkies, a clothing store where he was showing his artwork. I did go to the store at one point and I quite liked his work.

Away from town; towards new unknowns. (Toronto to Ottawa)

2006-10-07T16:12:00.000-07:00

Away from town; towards new unknowns.
Originally uploaded by slightly-less-random.

Travelling by train from Toronto to Ottawa was a great way to go, very comfortable and speedy. Along the way there were many small towns, farms and forests - and one CANDU nuclear reactor! This trip was taken on Sept 2.

While in the line up at the train station, I was chatting with a CTV journalist who was slightly dissappointed that I went to Niagara falls but not to the Niagara vineyards. She was from Montreal and said she came to Toronto in the 70's with many other angophones.

"We want to put a smile on your face and a chocolate bar in your pocket!"

2006-10-05T20:53:00.000-07:00

The other day I got on a bus, a #2 at around 6pm, heading from downtown to kits. Same as any other bus. I sat down and the driver pulled away. As we headed over the Burrard St. bridge, the driver introduced himself over the PA and announced that we were part of a program by Coast Mountain Bus Company to have more fun on the bus.

This particular driver, John, was good at getting us all pretty excited about having more fun on the bus. He was going to ask a trivia question, and we would yell out an answer. After a few answers he would tell us which was right and we could walk up to the front of the bus and get a chocolate bar! Something about the driver put most people at ease and the peer pressure kind of dissolved. It helped that as he was describing what he was going to do, we started looking around and smiling at each other. After a round of clapping he got started.

First question, how many volts does an electric eel zap with? The driver said higher or lower as people yelled out numbers and a woman sitting at the back with a friend was the first to get the right answer, and the first chocolate bar. 650V apparently, although wikipedia says 500 - but trifles really, since both could kill you. The driver asked her to say her name and what she does over the PA.

Second question, which company has the largest advertising network in the world? Microsoft, Nike, Coca-Cola were all yelled out - the winner being an "office manager" with Coca-Cola. Third question was which toy company is the biggest? Nobody got the right answer - "No chocolate for you!" says John. And finally, how do you write 400 in roman numerals? I yelled out CD - which won me a trip to the front to tell everyone I'm a programmer and make my choice of chocolate.

The bus pulled into my stop and everyone was pretty cheery, it sure worked to put a smile on my face! This happens every day, same bus and same driver - Bus #2, run #58, driver John. Great idea CMB!

Yes, they're desperate.

2006-10-03T13:47:00.000-07:00

Hi Name,

Thank you for writing me. Normally I only work for employers who know how to spell my name and use complete sentences. While I do not expect you to be a superb writer, I do expect that if you are interested in hiring me you would take the time to use full words. At the very least form a template with said words. Currently I am employed and not looking for work, thank you for your interest.

Truly,
-Ben

On Tuesday 03 October 2006 08:19, you wrote:
> Hi Benjiman,
> Please let me know if you are interested in the following req:
>
> 1. Strong J2EE background
> 2. Implementation experience in atleast 1 IDM product ( any IDM product )
> 3. Candidate should be open to learn BMC IDM product and deliver the same in the project
>
> Pls expedite
>

Niagara Falls

2006-09-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

Lady of the Mist
Originally uploaded by slightly-less-random.

While in Toronto I went with Monica, Jason and Noriko to see Niagara falls. I had been warned to watch out for cheese - and the tourist town just before the falls sure was cheesy! We drove straight through. What I was unprepared for was how many people are actually at the falls. This is a serious pilgrimage! There is a Tim Horton's at the falls, and we ate there. The other options are $7 for a slice of pizza or $15 for a BLT sandwich. Note for next time; pack a big lunch.

The falls are massive alright. We ended up paying $11 to go to the tunnels behind the falls (there are portals behind the waterfall where you can see the falls from behind) and also to the viewing deck at the base of the falls. I'm happy we did that because the view from below really humbles you.

It's a paradox, really; viewing the falls. On the one hand they are massive; and we are so tiny. It made me feel small and a little alone. On the other hand, our technology has slowed the falls erosion and harnessed the power of the falls to make electricity; we've built parking lots and a city and hotels and vineyards around the falls. We've reduced the falls from a natural wonder to a cultural curiosity. The falls generate power and dollars for our government; they are in our service.

After driving back to Toronto we said goodbye and thank you to Monica, and wrapped up the evening with a bite to eat at Bowl and a walk down Yonge St. It was a great day!

Anousheh Ansari

2006-09-27T13:34:00.000-07:00

APPLEDOESNOTFALL.jpg
Originally uploaded by Space Explorer.

Anousheh Ansari is part of the "Ansari Family", the people who funded the Ansari X-Prize. She's also the first space tourist to blog and post photos to flickr from orbit!

Personally I think this is fantastic, space tourism should be encouraged by everyone. This is because being up there might give more people an overpowering realization that yes, for all practical purposes, there really is only one earth; we better not screw it up too badly. People that can afford to be space tourists are people with a lot of influence. Bring on the space tourists!

Kathy 'n Monica

2006-09-19T18:53:00.000-07:00

Kathy 'n Monica
Originally uploaded by slightly-less-random.

First day in Toronto! I'm torn between saying very little and saying a lot about my trip; so I'll start out saying a lot and see where that goes.

When I arrived in Toronto Kathy and Monica (Rachael's sister and mom) met me at the airport and we went straight out for coffee. It was fun to finally meet Monica and see Kathy again! We sipped exotic coffee drinks and I gave out letters and chocolate that Rachael asked me to take to them. From one Ashe to another, hugs by proxy, etc. :) Transportation provided by Kathy's new lighting-proof car.

We went back to Monica's home for a short stay before we went out to meet Jamie for dinner. Kathy has been working on a couple of knitting projects (socks, a poncho and a sweater if I remember correctly) each of which are remarkable for the type of wool chosen, especially the poncho and the socks.

We went downtown and met Jamie at Cafe 668 on Dundas; fabulous vegetarian food! Of course we talked about Rachael, cameras, and hot peppers! Jamie happened to be in Toronto for a couple of days so we could meet up and say hello. Jamie and I were able to meet up again on Tuesday for lunch.

After dinner we ran into a crazy lady who wanted a lighter, I'm not too sure what that was about but if you ever see me and Jamie or Kathy mumble something about "got a liiiighterrr??" and snicker then you know what we're going on about...

After checking into my hostel I did a little late-night exploring of the local area. Can't possibly be that bad right?

Back!

2006-09-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

Hi folks! I'm back from my trip to Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and PEI. There are many good stories and photos to share, and it will take me a few days to get started with organizing them. It was a great trip but it's good to be back home!

Toronto!

2006-09-02T15:55:00.000-07:00

Hi!

Yesterday I arrived in Ottawa after wrapping up the first leg of my tour de Canada. Toronto was great to visit! For me visiting Toronto was more about seeing specific people, and getting a feel for the city. Also this was my first hostelling experience and it was AWESOME!

Gearing up for the trip

2006-08-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning I'll be flying out to Toronto for the first leg of my tour through Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and PEI. It seems like not enough time is left to properly clean up and pack! If I haven't already made plans, any time left before I go is dedicated to cleaning and packing.

See you from the road!

Cartoon Dreaming

2006-08-15T07:21:00.000-07:00

The alarm clock woke me up from slumber this morning, in the middle of a strange dream. Well you know, the content is always odd but what set this one apart was the dream was an animation, kind of like bugs bunny but thinner lines, more "action" lines, and enlongated pen strokes.

The dream was about someone I know being in a hospital and liking it, this person was zooming around the halls in their wheelchair. It's on my mind because several close people in my family have spent some time in a hospital lately.

I can't explain the animation though, since I haven't really been reading or watching cartoons in the last few weeks. Except for one on the airplane, which I mostly ignored.

Knitta!

2006-08-14T07:40:00.000-07:00

Last week I hosted my first mini "stitch-n-bitch" ;). Rachael and Mandy came over for dinner, and Mandy introduced me to knitting basics while Rachael worked on some of her shots of Kirsti. Now I can start to appreciate the work that goes into knitting! Also I can start to appreciate the talent demonstrated by a few of the knitters I know, wow do I ever know some talented people. What twigged me to knitting is a new style of street art whereby people knit "pole socks" and leave them to decorate, well, poles. Parking sign poles, stop sign poles, etc. I can't wait to decorate my neighbourhood!

Thank you Mandy!

Going against the grain: World peace?

2006-08-08T11:25:00.000-07:00

If you frequent flickr, then you may have noticed many people changing their icons over to a black ribbon. This ribbon is meant to symbolize peace in the world, and it is a reaction to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.

I hate fighting and I hate conflict. I think war is ugly and unfortunate, and I wish there was no war. I can't imagine a world without war, mainly because I know war is caused by some very fundamental human desires. A community desire for control over it's own space, for example.

Here's where I go against the grain. This black-ribbon icon is beyond silly, in fact, it is damaging to the goal of world peace. Changing user icons is doing nothing to gain peace, it is just taking part in a tribal identification ritual. At any given time, there is military conflict in the world, and often we don't hear about it until everything is over, if ever. This campaign of black ribbons seems to make the statement that things are worse now than they usually are. The last time I checked, there was still a war in Iraq, and a war in Afghanistan, and our own government is taking part in both of them.

While I think the black-ribbon icon is silly, I do wish there was something real I could do. If anyone has some ideas for how to truly help world peace, I'm interested to hear them.

Give Everything Away

2006-08-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

While on the bus yesterday I was playing with the idea of simply giving everything away and starting over. Of course I quickly realized that doing so is kind of silly - there is basic stuff that I'd want to keep (like plates and knives). Also it seems that just giving everything away without some kind of major life change attached (like moving) would be missing the point.

Have you felt this need?

What is Identity and Access Management?

2006-07-24T11:31:00.000-07:00

Online identity is what I've been building my career on (career phase II), and it is high time I say a bit about what this is. In its most essential form, identity and access management is all about logging on. Whenever you log in to a computer, you are taking part in a small ceremony of telling a computer who you are. There are many ways of doing this; using a username and a password is the most common.

There are some problems with doing things this way, and they can be fixed. Allow me to focus a bit on what might be problematic for you.

1) People forget passwords. It happens all the time, after all, how could you be expected to remember the hundreds of passwords you might have? But why do we have hundreds of passwords? Many people instead have one or two passwords they use everywhere. But what if you give that password away to someone you now wish you hadn't, or what if that password is stolen? It doesn't have to be this way, we don't have to have hundreds of passwords.

2) People move. Changing your address shouldn't be so hard, and your address is certainly a part of your identity. Some people also change their names but still want their old identities to be tied to their new name, for example when they get married.

3) You cannot revoke information once you've given it away. But you should be able to. There is no workable legal framework for doing this today, without spending a lot of time and money.

These are some of the big issues in the identity space. There are another set of big issues if your perspective is one of website operator, such as a bank.

So, this is identity and access management. All of the technology, protocols, and conventions around getting computers to recognize who someone is and managing the information needed to do that.

Deep-fried Mars bar

2006-07-21T07:55:00.000-07:00

While eating at the Templeton the other day, my lunch companion and I decided on a whim to try their dessert special of the day; a deep-fried mars bar. We were not entirely sure if we should be doing this, but it was the kind of silly thing that once the idea gets a little bit of momentum, just keeps going until its inevitable conclusion. The mars bars arrived on a plate, with whipping cream (needed) and with a bit of chocolate caramel sauce, just in case the sugary overload of a mars bar wasn't enough. There were even sprinkles.

Sure there are nearly 6 billion people in the world and most of them can't eat deep fried mars bars, nor if they actually knew what they were would willingly do so, but right here there were two suckers that did it. About 5 minutes and most of the way through the mars bar, the edges of normalicy were well into peeling away. The combination of insane sugar rush and eating a chocolate bar with knife and fork resulted in said lunch party sitting stunned as fits of giggles took over. The crash was surprisingly not so bad; it was like being pulled back in a giant playground bungee ride and shot up into the sky, and just when you're about to fall back to earth you suddenly find yourself standing on two feet again without the harness on.

But let's be clear on this, it was fun but something that only needs to be done once!

Metrobloggers

2006-07-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was invited to go to the Vancouver Metrobloggers meetup, and I had a great time! It was fun to meet some new people, play bocci ball, and be interviewed podcast style. Wow do I ever need to work on my interviewing skills, but that's really all part of the fun!

As a post-note; It has been a long-time goal of mine (dating back several years at least) to become a morning person. Actually making it happen was much harder than just wishing it so. Lately it seems like this change is finally coming around to happening full-time, as I just seem to have a much easier time getting out of bed and putting myself to work right away instead of lounging about waiting for all the time to slip away.

A day for healing

2006-07-17T13:10:00.000-07:00

Well, today I'm home from work and recovering from a cold. This was brought on by some dental work on Wednesday, a sudden burst of pollen from local flowering trees and perhaps a little too much sun on Saturday. Either way I'm on the mend but just need to take the day off to recover and really kick the pants off this "gotcha".

There is also a stack of important things that should get done that seem to have been put off far too long. I've slipped behind on writing emails I'd like to write. Also while I'm here and faced with my space I feel a need to hit it pretty hard in terms of getting it cleaned up. Sometimes I feel like I'm ahead of the cleaning, but today is not one of those times!

So, lots of water, lots of rest. And writing emails and doing some cleaning.

Tickets are booked! Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal

2006-07-13T10:28:00.000-07:00

Well I've gone and done it, I'll by flying to Toronto on August 27th and flying back to Vancouver on September 16th. What happens during those 20 days I've not quite figured out, but generally here's the plan:

- 8 days in and around Toronto, including Labour day long weekend (!). I hope to hang out with some friends, make contact with at least one old acquaintance, and explore this city!

- 7 days between Ottawa and Montreal. I've heard the train is the way to travel here and I'll need to book accommodations early; this is still something I need to figure out. Also this part of the trip will be fairly compressed; I'd like to visit the "big places" in Ottawa, and pretty much just spend a few days hanging out with whatever cool people I happen to bump into in Montreal. And visit at least one Jazz club.

- And to wrap up, 5 days visiting dear Mom in PEI :) It's already been two years since we last were able to give each other a hug. How odd to know that the last time I was in PEI (5 years ago?), photography was something other people did, not me.

Mmm the dentist

2006-07-12T17:40:00.000-07:00

Just got back from the dentist for two fillings; that freeze stuff is pretty effective. Frankly I barely even noticed the dentist doing her work, they had me glued to episodes of "Sex and the City".

For dinner, a stir-steam

2006-07-10T20:37:00.000-07:00

Today marks day one of a new era in my life, cooking in a somewhat organized fashion, and I'm happy to blog about everthing coming together to make a productive and decent meal. It meant going to bed early so I could get up early and decide on a recipie for dinner before going to work. Writing down the ingredients I needed and shopping on my way home. Getting chores underway and fitting the chopping in between other tasks.

So here's what I made; Asparagus, onion, tomato stir-steam. This involves simmering the asparagus (1lb) and onions (1sml) in 4tbl of water for about 7 minutes; then adding soy sauce (2tsp) and ginger (1tsp finely chopped) and finally the tomatoes (halved cherry tomatoes) go in just long enough to heat.

Pretty simple dish, but that's a good start for where my cooking skills are at. The dish could use a bit more spice, but I've not yet figured out what will work. Also the ginger was quite nice but subtle and I'd like to find a way to enhance the dish without losing the ginger.

Weekend in Seattle

2006-07-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

We're at a far corner of the street market in Seattle's Chinatown. There is drumming from a nearby stage where few minutes ago dancers were creating shapes from their clothing, fans and stance. We've been walking through the tent stores, considering all sorts of colourful shirts and scarves and tapestries. The last tent on this row is a one-day temple, within and around it are enrobed monks and a few helpers. There is red everywhere, the inside of the wide-open tent is an overwhelming visual feast. The designs create a space that is immediately sacred without any further explanation. A woman standing in front of the tent with a handful of burning incense catches my eye.

"Would you like to make an incense offering for good luck?" she asks.
I nod, "sure, why not?"

Rachael's ahead of me and has already made an incense offering; Hendrik is buying cherries. There is a large pot with sand and burning incense, most of the incense appears to be recently lit since I don't see any drooping ash.

She hands me the incense and tells me:
"Speak your name out loud, then say your wish within you as you place the incense in the sand."

I carry the incense over to the offering pot and speak my name out loud. I think the words of my wish and nestle the incense in with the other stalks. A monk standing next to the offering hands me a small slip of paper, on which is an intricate design with a central figurine, a goddess I think but I've no idea which.

As I emerge from the tent, Hendrik is there and he offers some cherries. They are very good!

-----

This is one moment out of so many from this weekend. Rachael and I drove down to visit Hendrik in Seattle and together we explored some of this city. Hendrik is a great guy, just hanging out with him is satisfying because I always learn something new and he seems to move through life with a gentle grace. Plus we found some really fun things to do (arrr!) and places to visit (that library really is incredible). All together, a tremendous weekend. Thank you Hendrik!

Getting back into CSS and looking at AJAX

2006-07-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

Suddenly a good reason to brush up on the long-neglected and somewhat underdeveloped skill of CSS has arrived. This morning I found myself immersed in exploring the state-of-the-art of CSS, and I've got to say, the state is very good. The last time I was this deep in CSS was in 2001 or so, and times have changed since then. These days, there are browser bugs but not nearly as bad as in 2001, and there are websites such as quirksmode that document the way to avoid the bugs. Of course the CSS Zen Garden is still a masterful resource, among many others that have popped up. At this point, I'm not going to link to any more CSS sites as it will take some time to mature my taste in CSS resources, but I'm very impressed by the accessibility of work for both design and layout ideas.

So now that CSS has matured into the wonderfully expressive medium that it is, what's next? Lots of people are getting excited about AJAX and quite frankly so am I. My career was built in the webapp space so I'm very aware of the problems AJAX is trying to solve; the intermingling of layout and content being the greatest point of pain for many people.

Collaboration Mode: GPLv3

2006-07-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

Zak pointed me towards the new draft GPLv3(*) comments site. Zak and I were disscussing some of the DRM issues and I wanted to take a closer look myself. While I've not yet had time to really dive into the issue, what stood out right away (and Zak mentioned) was the mode of collaboration over this important document.

Anyone can select text and comment on it. As more people comment on specific slices of text, the colour of the text changes from white to red to black, so you can immediately see what parts of the document are under intense scrutiny. This kind of collaboration is a great way for computers and the Internet to help bring out the wisdom we have.

(*) The GPL is the core of free software, and I really like free software because it provides a foundation that is the software we all own, as a species. If you've never seen the GPL before, take a look at the document preamble.

Canada Day

2006-07-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

There's something nice about returning to Canada on Canada day. Despite the day being very busy for the airports, there were no problems and my flight even arrived a few minutes early. There was a surprising shortage of patriotic accoutrements; I somewhat expected to be handed a flag to show my pride but all I got was a peppering of questions pertaining to my work and educational background.

The day was brought to a close in the company of Rachael, Mandy and Zak. We had a very nice beachside picnic with a complete view; seadooers frolicking in the swimmers area, loons wearing purple underwear, long shadows cast from tilly-clad tourists. It was a cool and entertaining spot that we chose for our relax-in-the-grass kind of take-out.

It was great to see Mandy again (still waiting on film from the last time we met) and to meet her husband Zak. Zak is very much a believer in open source, he's made it central to his work and it's refreshing to meet someone so dedicated to building community around tools many of us take for granted (such as Firefox).

The worst news comes when you're away

2006-06-29T18:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I called up Sam and was dismayed to learn that Keima, one of the two cats that we raised when we were together, has come down with acute liver disease. He was vomiting and jaundiced and in pain but maybe going to be ok. This afternoon I called to find out more; there's bloodwork back from the vet and now he's doing very badly. Even if intensive care was done it would be a long time for suffering and a small chance of survival; it looks like he may be put down before I can get back. It's so sudden and one of those "life is unfair" kind of moments; I feel like a dad that's abandoned his children in a time of need. My little buddy might die and I can't even say goodbye.

Maybe if I try really hard I can pretend today didn't happen. There's still tomorrow though.

Floods, mudslides, and walking amongst trees.

2006-06-28T08:14:00.000-07:00

Washingon D.C. has declared a state of emergency, and is asking people to avoid the downtown area. Fortunately I am in a suburb that has been relatively unaffected by the flooding and mudslides! Looks like I might not make it to the Smithsonian, *sigh*.

Reston Virginia, where I'm staying and working, it is a typically sterile suburb with cookie-cutter townhouses, highways, and hotels. One feature I like about it is a pedestrian/runner/cyclist path that runs underneath a set of high-tension power lines and connects my hotel with the office I'm working at. This means I can still walk to work, a very reasonable 30 minute stroll. The power lines, while obtrusive, do provide a nice wide swath of undergrowth between the path and the rest of cookie-cutter land. It helps; I need to walk amongst trees every day.

Safe and sound, close by DC.

2006-06-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

After an airport blur I'm finally on my feet close by Washington D.C. (Reston VA). Last minute confusion by United regarding the status of my flights (cancel a flight, rebook later, uncancel a flight, rebook earlier, cancel again, overbook a flight, reroute...) left me feeling pretty haphazard today. However it was all worth it as I was able to meet up with the wonderful Gail for a late-night tour of Toronto. More should be said of this meeting but a short blog is better than no blog :) Thank you Gail for the tour, and thank you Rachael for connecting us!

Washington D.C.

2006-06-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

Well the tickets are booked; I'll be in Washington D.C. next week on business. Sadly I don't think there will be much time for exploring but I'm going to try to connect with someone (anyone!) for Friday afternoon/evening. I would love to find a photographer interested in a photowalk; there's quite a few D.C. shooters on flickr.

Anyone have a contact in D.C. I could get in touch with?

Blogging Resumes - Great things about the weekend

2006-06-21T18:07:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I've talked with a few people about the stopping blogging thing and really I'm just blowing something small out of proportion. I've been doing that lately but I think it's just a phase! Hey does anyone know when the rollercoaster stops?

The weekend was really good;
- Seeing "Little Ado About Nothing" with Rachael, Kai and Jason. A wonderful play that I thorougly enjoyed seeing; also my first time at the Pacific Theatre.
- Spending time with Travis K. and Ho Chi; we had fun wandering Granville Island and surrounding areas, although we were slightly underdressed after the beautiful Saturday morning turned into a chilly afternoon.
- Brunch with Derek and Sara on Sunday morning. Well mostly brunch with Derek since Sara had to work.
- Going to the Commercial Drive car-free festival on Sunday; the festival was great fun, all kinds of vendors, activities, performers... all fun and games until you fall from a tall bike. Ouch! It was great fun to see so many familiar faces throughout the day; Rachael, Bill, Barb, Hendrik, David, Ben, Kristi, Benoit, Chris, Leah, Pierre, and Colene.
- Mango-tofu salad and smoothies with Hendrik and Rachael afterwards. Yum!

Stop blogging?

2006-06-20T10:51:00.000-07:00

The time may be right for me to take a blogging break. It seems my desire to be "out there" more and share more is outpacing my ability to be mindful of what I'm writing about. This is a general shift in my life right now, and anyone I'm in close communication with has probably received more than their fair share of barbs from me lately.

So it seems the way to go is to hold back on the blogging until I'm more thoughtful and considerate about what I'm putting out there. It's a frustrating but perhaps natural part of learning new mediums and opening myself up more.

On Photography

2006-06-19T20:40:00.000-07:00

Proud Moment
Originally uploaded by slightly-less-random.

Something I like about practicing photography is being able to be there when someone achieves something great, and it shows. Like my brother here, who has been working very hard for two years to get closer to his goal of a black belt in Don Jitsu Ryu. He's perhaps half way since the hard work truly begins when you achieve the belt just below black, brown, as he did. (He didn't get to actually posses the belt until today.) It might not seem this way from the photograph, but the older man pictured here has a very commanding presence and it was quite intimidating to take his picture, even with Lucas there.

No water today - Working from home

2006-06-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I came home to notices regarding problems with water leaks and the need to shut off water today to the building. Of course I get up this morning and find the water has been shut off two hours ahead of schedule! Ah well.

So it happens, "working from home" because I'm sparing my fellow office mates from my bedhead.

(almost) Celebrity Photography

2006-06-12T09:37:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights of my weekend was attending my brother's belt-testing; he's a member of the Purple Dragon jiu jitsu dojo. This is a successful martial arts school, its success due in no small part to the charisma and commanding presence of its founder, Don Jacob. He is a powerful and dominating motivational speaker who has the respect of everyone around him. Once a year this man flies up from Trinidad to check up on how his son is doing at teaching Canadian students.

While watching him speak during the ceremony (and between writing down thoughts on what he was saying and how he was saying it) I was wondering "how do I photograph this man"? I don't typically carry a telephoto lens so if I want a close photo of someone, that means getting close to them. In the end I got two photographs of him, one at 8 meters and one at 1.5m, both with his full knowledge of what I was doing. The second shot was of him with my brother, quite an honour for Lucas and due in no small part to his new designation "brown belt, 3rd kyu, elite warrior".

I was a little nervous and as I went to take the closer shot my brain pretty much switched into full-auto mode. It is shots like this that make all the other photographs I've taken worth it, the vast majority of photographs are just training for that 1% of shots that really count. If it comes back sharp, I'll just collapse into a small heap of joy.

On cat sitting and needing birdfeed

2006-06-09T15:31:00.000-07:00

So nearly a week ago George the Cat came into my life. Rachael connected me with Noriko and Jason, who are in Japan for three weeks and needed someone to look after George. Jason and I have been getting to know each other, especially after discovering that we eat at the same place on the weekends, Sapodilla's.

It's been really nice to have George around, I've forgotten how good it feels to have a cat follow you around the home, for the sole reason that at any moment you might dispense a little bit of cat-love. It's taken a week but finally I'm back into remembering all the ways to get a cat like George to roll around in cat-ecstacy; we're getting along just fine. Petting a cat well is really its own reward, as I find it to be quite a relaxing thing.

Also along with George came a feeding machine. This is seriously the greatest invention ever made. The machine dispenses food at specific times of the day and in specific amounts. Overfeeding George? Not me! Can I take off and not worry about if he's fed? You bet I can! All I need now is a automatic watering machine and I could leave George alone for a week. George likes to watch the birds eat the food on my deck, so once the birdfeed outside runs out he'd start to get bored, and bored cats tend to turn their focus to wires and cables, so I could only stay away from the apartment as long as the birdfeed on the deck lasts. Now with an automatic birdfeed machine...

Finally getting on top of things

2006-06-09T10:49:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time coming, but I finally feel like I'm getting on top of the day-to-day keeping of the home. It was typically the case that I'd just let things pile up until they were a terrible tangle of papers and bills and pocket fluff, then when I had to clean just shove everything into a bucket and wisk it away. There's nothing wrong with this unless you feel bad about it, and I was feeling pretty bad about it. I've been trying to cultivate the skill of spending a few minutes throughout the day to just make tidying up an integral part of the day.

So yesterday I came home from work. The kitchen was clean, the desk was tidy, the living space was mostly in order, and George the cat met me at the door and wondering why wasn't I around to pet him all day. It was pretty nice! Coming home to a clean space, my space, somehow felt really satisfying.

On being cheered up

2006-06-06T13:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I was feeling really crummy this morning and after talking with a few friends I feel much better. You guys are great!

Now, here is your challenge. Leave a comment, and type "three cheers for good cheer" 10 times fast. Do not correct for typos! Here's my attempt:

three cheers for good cheers, three cheers for good cheer, thee theers for thgo cheer, three ffcheers for good cheers, three cheers for good cheer, three cheers for tood gheer, therree chees... damn

Satisfying Creation

2006-05-31T09:36:00.000-07:00

It is late, I'm in bed and sleeping, or nearly sleeping. Then it hits me, a sudden and unexpected drive to leap out of bed and do something specific; solving a problem, making a photograph, or creating a painting. It could be anything, it could be writing, programming, drawing, moving, cleaning. Maybe it is destroying something that needs to be destroyed, moving around objects that are the everyday, or just putting on the closest clothes and going to be somewhere for no reason other than the sudden need to do it.

It doesn't happen that often, but when it does, it nearly always ends up creating satisfying work or at least creating powerful memories. Does this happen to you, too?

Ten great things about the weekend

2006-05-30T10:33:00.000-07:00

1) Showing old friends new places; Floata Restaurant and Sweet Revenge.
2) Sara and Derek are still as much of an adorably cute couple now as they were a year and a half ago. So damn cute. Please you two, think about the single people!
3) Sam, P****!
4) Having a great meal, watching a fun movie, and as a bonus getting some pretty decent photos with Derek, Sara, Jonas, Conan, Josh, Sam, Hez, and Jen.
5) Brunch on Saturday with Hez. Hez, Erin and Jonas are all travelling to the Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) for three weeks in June, lucky blokes.
6) Photowalk and dinner with Josh (xdjio); finding a flying bicycle. Josh is heading to New York for 5 days on the 14th. Werner Herzog, Grizzly Man, Timothy Treadwell. Oh yeah, and "Popol Vuh" is an interesting band.
7) Talking with Rachael on the bus; Bogey is lucky to be alive.
8) Dan's housewarming; wow Dan, you have a great new place. Love the view. Really good to re-connect with some of the 'ol CUCBC people. Dave is still the best (wall) painter I know.
9) Meeting Mike, Martin, Robert and Clint for brunch on Sunday morning. First time to meet all four; "pretty brave to go without a wing man" says Mike. First impressions; good guys, good mix. Two of them use Debian derivatives. And did you know that in the video game "Battlefield 2", a medic can make a kill using his defibrillator?
9b) DOXA with Jason; I already blogged about this!
10) Walking into the Granville St. underpass at the same moment as a woman singing "This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine" walked in from the other end. Lovely!

DOXA: Real Cartoons: Animated Documentaries

2006-05-28T23:23:00.000-07:00

Jason invited me out to see the "Real Cartoons: Animated Documentaries" show at the DOXA Documentary Film & Video Festival. The selection of films added up to 1 and 1/2 hours of powerful animation, curated by Jessica Meistrich Gidal.

The show was an emotional sandwich, with a lighthearted beginning. It started with "Frankly Caroline", exploring a married couple's relationship through photo montage, and "faith & Patience", a young girl's thoughts on her new sister. This quickly turned to the heavy central material. "Met State" was a brilliant exploration of an abandoned insane asylum involving a variety of techniques such as different cameras used to create texture, stop animation, time lapse, and still photo sequences. All this used to explore the hospital and surrounding lands in various seasons and conditions, along with creating strong symbolism out of various materials and a shocking macro sequence using a flashlight source.

The core of the show was "His Mother's Voice", a mother describing the process through which she learned that her child had be fatally shot. The entire film was a recording of the mother's monologue played twice and laid over two very different styles of animation corresponding to the developing story. It reminded me of my own mother describing the sudden death of a would-be brother. Clearly there were similarities between what my mother and this other mother had experienced. "His Mother's Voice" left me sobbing in my seat, and I didn't really catch any of the documentary that followed, something about commuters in Tokyo. The sequence was wrapped up with "Give Up Yer Aul' Sins", a lighthearted take on the execution of John the Baptist (no, really!), "Roadhead" which portrayed everyday people as different styles of animations, and "Bike Ride", a rather nice take on breakups and rejection.

An afternoon very well spent. The style of visual presentation was almost entirely new to me and the content was certainly engaging. The topics were heavy but the curator took care to leave the audience feeling well and prepared to walk out of the theatre in one piece. It was very memorable and now I'll be more willing to seek out the interesting films. Thanks Jason!

On Seatbelts, Eggshell Skulls and Attractive Nuisances

2006-05-26T15:27:00.000-07:00

While eating lunch with the guys here at the office today, the subject of seatbelts and who is responsible for passengers wearing them came up. We got into an argument about whether it is the driver's responsibility or the passenger's responsibility. Only one way to solve this argument - walk over the court house and ask the librarian!

After a great deal of research we concluded it is the driver's responsibility to provide correct equipment to each passenger, and the passenger's responsibility to use it. However this also opened up the concept of standard of care, which is a rule used in negligence cases to determine what level of care a reasonable person would or should provide to another in a given situation. This is all new to me, I had no idea old English law would consider what an average person would do - what what do you think an average person is like when it comes to caring for others?

Consider for example the eggshell skull doctrine, a rule by which an injury caused to someone who is medically predisposed to injuries by someone that had no previous knowledge of the condition and using force that would not normally injure someone is still considered negligence on the part of the attacker. Or the attractive nuisance doctrine, wherein a landowner is responsible for injuries to children who are trespassing if the children are trespassing because something on the property is attractive to children. It kind of makes sense but suddenly I'm feeling a little heavier from all this responsibility.

And here I thought it was a simple matter of go when green and stop when red. Oh no, you have to worry about cleaning up all that broken glass next to the pile of old candy boxes too.

Summer begins when people travel

2006-05-25T17:20:00.000-07:00

So apparently summer is upon us. How do I know? Well, three friends are packing up and heading out of town:

Rachael is gone for 10 days to the east coast mainly to visit Gail.
Joanna leaves town for New York on Saturday to study under one of her favourite directors for the entire month of June.
Hendrik is leaving town (precise date not yet known due to red tape) soonish to work for Adobe for the summer.

Good luck to all travelers!

Extra hard workout today

2006-05-23T16:07:00.000-07:00

For the last month or so, since my health-conscious little brother (training to be a nurse) showed me how to use the gym at my office, I've been doing a daily workout routine mid-afternoon. This used to mean run on the treadmill until the calories burned counter hit 100. That usually means running at 6mph for 0.6mi at a 4% incline. Follow that up with a light freeweight and benchpress routine. That's enough to hit reset on my focus and get back to work, refreshed. I used to eat a chocolate bar to achieve the same result. Sometimes I still do.

Today I put on a change of clothes for the first time; working in sweaty jeans and commingling aromas with my coworkers is not all that pleasant. I reset the treadmill and started to run; but something was different today. I was running and running but the calories burned counter was just not moving that fast. I set the incline to 5%, I ran 1/2 mph faster, and still the counter just crept up, surely but slowly. Did someone change the machine?

Sometimes things change and you don't know why. That's when you get pushed, so I stuck with the goal and kept running. The treadmill became hot under my feet. My body became hot but instead of exhausted I became energized. I ran for 16 minutes and 2 miles before finally that counter crept up to a hundred. I'll spare you the details of the rest of my workout but it was only appropriate to double up the effort all around.

It felt really, really good.

Writing to the geek roots: Reverse the order of jpg files.

2006-05-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

Shopper's Drug Mart has an annoying habit of scanning film in reverse order. The last frame, the most recent frame, is frame #0 and when I copy the photos off the photoCD I want to fix it by reversing the order of the files. Here's how I fix it once and forever.

ls *.jpg | tac | perl -ne 'chomp($_);printf("mv %s %02i_%s\n",$_,$i++,$_)' | sh

Got that? Translated: make a list of jpg files, then reverse the list, then print out commands to rename each file but with a counter prefixed onto the name, then run those commands.

There. No longer a closet unix geek.

First passion flower

2006-05-17T11:46:00.000-07:00

Passionsblume passiflora
Originally uploaded by Rainer Fritz.

Arriving home had a special treat yesterday; the first passion flower on my passiflora vine had burst open during the day! This plant has been doing very well, easily growing at least a foot since I started taking care of it on May 2 (there are marks on my trellis).

With good care the vine should grow at least as much again before it settles down to flowering for the summer.

Ten great things about the weekend

2006-05-16T17:01:00.000-07:00

1) Hamming it up on Friday night in my impromptu studio with Chris and Rachael.
2) Seeing Jason and Noriko and George (their cat) on Saturday. Jason and Noriko are visiting Japan for 3 weeks in June and I'll be taking care of their rambunctious and fuzzy bundle of joy. Hopefully George will be as kind to me as I will be to him.
3) Dinner with Sam, Conan, Josh, Jen and Hez on Saturday night. Fab quiche Sam!
4) Playing "500" frisbee for the first time; this is a full-contact form of frisbee catching where one person throws into a crowd and everyone competes to catch it. Injuries did result but it was fun! Hey nothing a few stiches can't take care of.
5) Getting out the bicycle and performing a minor cardiac miracle so as to be on time for ...
6) Mother's day breakfast with Laura and Rachael at the fabulous Avenue Grill.
7) Heading out with Rachael to explore Tower beach for the day (after calling Mom of course!)
8) Discovering Basco on the easternmost gun tower at Tower beach. That guy is everywhere.
9) Walking down to Granville Island and visiting Nicole and Peter at Nicole's studio space on Granville Island; a virtual feast of artwork covering nearly every surface! I think I could live there.
10) Talking with Mom on Mother's day! Hi Mom!

The weekend in review

2006-05-08T10:32:00.000-07:00

I've not been on the computer much since Laura Grace is in town. And since work has kicked up into high gear, here's the condensed version.

Ten great things about the weekend.
1) Brunch with Laura at Sapodilla's, twice.
2) Re-acquainting myself with the music selection at the Book Warehouse.
3) Having a good talk with Mom about some important family issues that are going on right now.
4) The goodness bar at Cuppa Joe's.
5) A stroll through Jericho Park with Laura, Jen, Hendrik, Rachael, Bill, Jamie, Barb and Chris.
7) Skipping rocks with Chris, balancing on a post with Hendrik, and those group photos!
8) Connecting with Carson; it was great to hear his voice. Especially because he's so far away right now it's important to be able to say hello.
9) Going with Rachael to the world laughter day event by laughter yoga Canada, which was so incredibly absurd that I couldn't help but laugh! It's the kind of event that restructures ideas about social expectations. The twist here is that the expectations of the smaller group (laugh in any way you like) would completely trump the expectations of the larger society in general (thou shalt not lie in the grass and laugh for no reason). It was bizarre and fresh, it was sometimes uncomfortable and a bit weird, but it was a lot of fun.
10) Becoming engulfed within the aroma of wisteria.

Preparations for Laura Grace

2006-05-04T10:21:00.000-07:00

My focus for the last few days has been mainly the arrival of Laura Grace. Recap: Laura started vandigicam, not flickr! It is going to be fun having her in town; I've always enjoyed spending time with her in a group (vandigicam) and this time I'm looking forward to spending a bit of 1-1 time as well.

Consequently I've finally done something that was quite late in coming. Move back into my bedroom. For the last 8 months, the room has been mainly a storage space for the stuff I didn't want to deal with. This week I got rid of some wheels that were there and put the bed back in working order. There are papers that need filing and all sorts of knick knacks that are out of place. Becoming close with the mess I've been ignoring for months is opening my eyes to how much work is left to do; but it feels good to be there and ready to address it.

del.icio.us

2006-05-02T15:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, it has taken close to a year for me to warm up to Del.icio.us. Today, its power has finally struck me. More than a couple people who read this blog will ask "what took you so long"; if you are one of those, what is your identity? I want to network with you. If you are not one of those, read on.

Del.icio.us keeps bookmarks for you. This alone is not interesting. What is interesting is that you can tag each link, similar to how tagging in flickr or some blogging engines work. Del.icio.us lets you search by tags and sorts the resulting links by the number of people that have tagged a link with that tag. This is an effective way of finding resources that other people have also thought were useful enough to bookmark. As a companion to Google, del.icio.us is quickly proving itself as a useful search tool.

My del.icio.us identity is slightly_less_random, what's yours?

Ten great things about the weekend

2006-05-01T16:18:00.000-07:00

1) Playing with watercolours on Friday night. Also something learned this week: Painting is fun!
2) Checking out the Opus "garage sale"; picked up some acrylics (for face paint) and a colour pack that included pencils, markers, pastels, and watercolours. Also a few books and frames and a couple brushes and ... spent a little too much!
3) Pasting up a pastel painting. Gee colour is nice.
4) Meeting Sam at Sapodilla's for breakfast; good to catch up and also see what prints made from 120 negs look like. Neat!
5) Running into Travis (to be honest, he saw me first) at Sapodilla's and saying hello to Jason as well.
6) Checking out the annual plant sale at the VanDusen Botanical Garden. I purchased a Passion Flower (passiflora cerulea), they look amazing! My new interest in gardening has been in no small part fuelled by the explosion of colour happening on my deck (thanks Sam!) As a foray into gardening it may not have been the wisest of moves (they require a great deal of attention) but I do have a good spot for this sun-loving climber. Plus, a garden says something about its owner and what could describe me better than an extravagant sun-loving climber?
7) Checking out the flea market with Joanna, Chris and Bill. It was my first time there, what a neat market! Tons of crap for cheap. Someone was selling a boxed set of OS/2 Warp 3. How very 1996.
8) Lunch at Phnom Penh - thanks Chris! I had the "Combo C" and it was delicious.
9) Receiving a wonderful soup recipe from Joanna.
10) Achieving something new photographically on a knarly piece of driftwood near kits.

Paul and Veronica and baby Matt

2006-04-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

Congrats is in order to Paul and Veronica for a successful delivery of Matthew! Their baby number 2 is an early riser, deciding to arrive at 4am this morning.

Two babies in a week - ok ladies, this does not mean I'm looking to get in on the trend!

Monday

2006-04-26T12:04:00.000-07:00

Monday evening I connected with my older brother Carson. He's in town for a few days before starting a contract way out in the boonies. He saw me blog about Sweet Revenge so we went there for dessert. They are so good, we couldn't stop at just one serving and made our way through two sets of glorious desserts! The place was surprisingly not busy, which left us free to take our time and catch up on all kinds of things we just don't seem to talk about over the phone or email.

A good thought

2006-04-26T09:34:00.000-07:00

Talking with the man who runs the corner store by my office this morning. He likes to play the currency markets and has an old laptop behind the counter so that he can keep an eye on them at all times.

So I asked, "are we up, are we down?"

He said, "Well, averaged out, I'm doing well."

He looked pretty happy about it.

Mike & Claire & Baby X

2006-04-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

Congratulations are in order to Mike and Claire (a couple of friends from the House) for successful delivery of a healthy 9lb baby boy! Mike is thrilled (like we knew you would be!) and they are exhausted.

Sunday - A Film Crew

2006-04-24T23:40:00.000-07:00

Sunday was also an early start, up at 8am to be downtown by 9:30 to meet the film crew behind this project. Getting downtown on time was a challenge in itself due to the massive bus route changes caused by the Sun Run.

The idea was to re-create a 1907 movie of street life in Vancouver. I volunteered to help with the event (mainly moving signs around) and of course I took my camera. Much of the project will be re-shot in high-def to mark the 1907 movie's 100th anniversary in 2007, but the Granville St. section had to be shot on Sunday at the latest.

It was interesting to watch this historic work come together and to be part of it, even in a fairly small way. It certainly gave me a greater impression of what the Vancouver Historical Society is all about. It was good to be outside and enjoying the glorious sunshine all day.

Saturday

2006-04-23T17:48:00.000-07:00

Saturday began early; I went with Rachael and Travis to see Kathryn off. It was great to meet Kathryn; it was fun to hang out and connect! Afterwards Rachael and I had breakfast at Patisserie Lebeau. Delicious waffles, slightly too sweet for first thing in the morning but memorable. Noted for next time: they also serve ham and cheese waffles.

In the afternoon I met Girard, my progenitor. It quickly became apparent that he and I are alike in some ways but also very different. It was interesting to talk with him, to learn about his interests and get an initial sense of what he's like. Photos will come eventually.

To wrap up an already great day, I was invited to Travis and Susie's housewarming party. It was a hat party and there were some very creative and fun hats; the privilege of seeing them will be mainly reserved for those present. Thanks for putting together an awesome get-together Travis! Also, very interesting bookcase in the room with the theatre seats.

To wrap it up, an early morning power walk. All together a very good day.

A few things learned this week

2006-04-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson's Ben is actually a nice song. I had no idea!

If I see the B-line on Broadway as I leave from my apartment, there's a decent chance I can catch it at Willow if I run. Also, I am not in good shape for sprinting and need to do more aerobic exercise; it will help eliminate toxins.

Hikaru no Go is now available in print, but no longer online for free.

Searching for Hikaru no Go led me to this flash app. You drag letters around. The interesting part is that other people are also dragging letters around on the same board. Communication can be difficult but trying can be fun.

Wally's Photowalk

2006-04-20T16:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of joining the vandigicam crew (with special guests kurly_kat and barrybar) on a photowalk from the Mt. Pleasant clock up Kingsway to Wally's burgers. The gang was caught on film by someone shooting a movie project. I used the walk as an opportunity to improve my portraiture skills, which are developing slowly but surely. Hopefully Christopher Evans will find it in him to forgive me for "that photo". Let's just squash any rumours right now; Chris and I are ... well, maybe I'll leave the rumour squashing for another day.

Following the walk was a pretty decent burger but the real attraction of Wally's seems to be the milkshakes. They use real fruit and I've got to say, my pineapple milkshake was tremendous. Jim entertained us with his photo printer the krazy kaleidoscope effects that his camera can do.

A special highlight for me was Jamie lending me his Canonet GIII QL-17. I've started to develop an affinity for the Canonet cameras due to their compact and unassuming nature, and thanks to Rachael who lent me her Canonet 28. Thanks Jamie!

"Up way too late due to flickr..."

2006-04-18T14:11:00.000-07:00

"Up way too late due to flickr..."
Originally uploaded by slightly-less-random.

Internet related sleep deprivation is holding me back from some of the personal and professional development I so desperately need right now. At 11pm yesterday I was home and considering sleeping. Instead I wrote in my journal, read a few pages of my current book, then blogged about my weekend and surfed around to some other blogs and on flickr. I enjoyed these activities, but I need to find ways of getting more sleep, since sleep deprivation is holding me back.

I found an essay written by second year biology student Sarah Ledoux, The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Brain and Behavior. Overall the essay seems to be well written and brings together some interesting resources on sleep deprivation. Of course, I will have to come back to it some time when I am not sleep deprived, since I can't focus for more than a few sentences at a time.

This led me to the hosting website, Serendip, "a gathering place for people who suspect that life's instructions are always ambiguous and incomplete." Try hovering your mouse over the smaller serendip logo.

Twelve great things about the weekend

2006-04-18T01:26:00.000-07:00

A long and very full weekend, so this will be packed down into a list of 12. Daily blogging is looking so much more attractive now.

1) The Vancouver Aquarium on Friday with Bill, Rachael and Kathryn. Kathryn is Rachael's sister and she's trying to experience as much of Vancouver as she can! Along with that is the walking which Kathryn is starting to adjust to, I think.
2) Pierre saw Jen at the Art Gallery, then Pierre saw Rachael at Milestone's, then we went to see Jen and Heather. Oh what a wonderfully small city.
3) Fluevogs - my desperation for new shoes has been temporarily sated, and in such style! You may refer to my new shoes as "the swirls".
4) Roadtrip on Saturday with Rachael and Kathryn. People that know me know I love road trips.
5) Shopping in Squamish; we picked up yarn, shirts, a Paschmina shawl and a cool hemp hat - then we had to stop because there are just too many awesome stores in Squamish!
6) Hiking to Lost Lake in Whistler, and stopping to appreciate a moment of completely natural sound. It felt as if, for a moment, we had truly escaped the city. That moment is worth so much to me, it charges me.
7) We saw a Basenji. Also new terms from the day: Esthero, Jet, and Ferguson Point. Also noted that Ferguson Point is not Brockton Point. And for the old-timers, "The Teahouse" is now "The Seqoia Grill".
8) Easter Sunday was for connecting with family (or trying to - Carson, where the heck were you guys?). Sunday dinner was a gathering of Chris, Jen, Joanna, Kathryn, and Rachael. The women had fun cooking, Chris and I had fun sitting on the sofa. Oh what a life!
9) Sweet Revenge, followed by quite the walk home. I still am in shock that I witnessed Jen eat pho. Then again, if there was ever a time and place for it, the 24 hour pho place at Broadway and Cambie would be it. Also note that they appear to be renovated and featuring slightly less crabby service. Same tasty pho.
10) On Monday, found the Ditto coffee house only two blocks from my place. The man there serves ok diner breakfasts with AMAZING coffee.
11) Found a new bookstore less than a block from my apartment with a very timely selection of books. Odin books deals with subjects that have stigma and you can be sure that if you visit their website you'll get turned off. The sofas are not for everyone but they sure were there for me.
12) Went to see a Firebelly Productions performance with Hendrik, Rachael, Kathryn and Chris. Amazing, just simply amazing. The master, Kira Schaffer, did her aerial dance performance blindfolded.

Diafine Developer

2006-04-12T00:15:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights for me from the whole camera trade show trip was discovering that Ben (sockeyed) was selling diafine developer. I've been thinking of getting into developing my own black and white negatives. So $10 and a short walk later, I was the new owner of a fine set of diafine developers.

There are two dandy negative strips hanging in my shower now. Thanks Josh for that developing session months ago, thanks Josh and Jamie for turning me on to diafine, and thanks Ben for the diafine!

Ten great things about the weekend

2006-04-11T23:38:00.000-07:00

1) Pasting with Sam.
2) Trying out some infrared film, finally.
3) Breakfast at Sapodilla's. It's something I do pretty much every weekend, but there's something nice about eating breakfast on Saturday morning, reading the news and watching the city stroll by.
4) Shopping - not something I do often but I enjoyed it.
5) A lone walk around the city. It was a good weekend for it
6) Discovering some new places in false creek I didn't know about.
7) Going to the camera show with the usual suspects. Saw Simon and Aline there, found Josh behind a table, bought lots of film. Lunch afterwards was nice too.
8) Visiting with Lucas and Jessica; it was fun to have the both of them in my apartment (briefly).
9) Taking more portraits. Terrible portraits, but more nonetheless. With practice comes skill, that's the idea anyhow..
10) Time for writing.

There is a need to blog.

2006-04-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

Five things I've never done:

Eaten a sasquatch.
Sucked on a sugar packet while patrolling for insurgents in Afghanistan.
Posted a blog entry about any of the darkest corners of my mind.
Found a way to escape depression and delusion, the slow kind that creeps up on you.
A photography course.

Five things I have done:

Sucked on a lemon.
Created open source software.
Learned enough about photography to know that it can bring joy and pain, for me and for others.
Emergency engine repair in freezing temperatures.
Caught an old man as he fell.

A few things learned this week

2006-04-07T13:20:00.000-07:00

- The silent treatment is terribly effective; the resolution can be that much better.
- When shooting portraits choose backgrounds that contrast with the face, at least a little bit.
- Infrared film expires quickly.

A few things I was reminded of this week;
- I'm lucky to have the family that I do.
- Friends sometimes tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear.
- Even if you really want to engage the controversial topics, sometimes it is better not to.
- Surprises can occur at any time and in any place. Try not to label them as good or bad right away.

The Other Side

2006-04-02T23:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I've decided the time has finally come for me to make contact with my progenitor. There are some things we need to find out about each other. It'll be a heck of a lot easier than doing it the hard way.

Ten great things about the weekend

2006-04-02T19:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm committed to writing ten great things about every weekend, no matter what, so here they are.

1) Distractions.
2) Did some paste ups.
3) Called Mom and talked; we don't get a lot of opportunity to talk so it was good to catch up.
4) Distractions.
5) Distractions.
6) Met Travis and Susie, fun and interesting couple.
7) Writing.
8) Distractions.
9) Vandigicam Portrait throw-down. Re-discovered some black in my wardrobe. Will photograph the hat, burning.
10) Talking with Sam.

A terrible thing

2006-04-01T23:38:00.000-08:00

Things learned this week. I am capable of creating intense pain. It wasn't intentional, but it is terrible. Sorry doesn't even begin to cut it, and there is nothing I can do now but stay away.

The inner voice knows what is right. It makes itself known in times of choice and should be regarded, never supressed.

On James Gosling and the special prison reserved for creators.

2006-03-30T11:07:00.000-08:00

James Gosling was in town yesterday and I took the opportunity to listen to what he had to say. He is an accomplished engineer who really cares about how the technology he creates improves the lives of others. This is the man who invented Java, a tool that is one of the cornerstones of my career to date. This was not just James talking about whatever he liked; the talk was hosted by Sun, the company he works for and I am indirectly partnered with.

A message that came through very strongly is that he detests being a mouthpiece for his employer. He started off his speech with "What the hell am I doing here." This almost works to lend credit to what he has to say; I'm a tech guy, he's a tech guy, we'd rather be creating technology instead of delivering and absorbing marketing messages. The talk was more interesting for witnessing how he is "handled" than anything else.

It was hard to tell what was James and what was Sun. He talked about model-driven IDEs, tools used to make programming easier and faster, as a way for experienced developers to make better use of less skilled programmers. Another interesting idea was the creation of tools built in such a way so that as the user becomes more proficient with it, they can remove and change layers that make up the tool. In a sense, this is how computers already are because when you are able to peel back a layer, well, you will. He used the term "anthropology in software", something I am interested in.

The talk was most interesting to witness the reality that the technology we build entraps us; the tech becomes married to the identity of the creator. The prison might appear to be more like a hotel, but a hotel you can't leave is still a prison.

Wordpress

2006-03-29T21:25:00.000-08:00

I'm still in shock with how easy it was to install WordPress. Now I have an experimental wordpress set up, so that I can play with it and see how I like it.

In the works is an experimental Drupal setup, but that is slightly more involved so it will naturally come second.

Famine resolved

2006-03-29T17:04:00.000-08:00

Famine has been resolved, life can continue on the slightly slower and less painful path to spiritual enlightenment. Hmm.

Lesson learned: squeaky wheels get grease, but like everything else, there is a skill involved in deciding how loud to squeak and when.

Famine

2006-03-28T16:57:00.000-08:00

I added up my hours for March today and realized that I am falling very short of a full month. 1/3 of a full month. I thought January and February were tight, but not even close compared to how tight March has been. This will mean I need to take immediate and extreme actions to curtail spending and try to find cash in corners.

Probably this will be good, overall. It is good to starve every once in a while, it cleanses habits and forces change which might be needed. I will need to choose a couple of social activities carefully and be very frugal about it (there is a long-weekend trip I want to take part in that is certainly going to happen, that is for sure). No eating out, I will need to pack lunches and make dinners. I may need to sell some of my belongings. Some of my things have been just sitting in a corner, waiting to get sold, so that is not a bad thing.

Moving won't help, since it will be a month until I save any money. By then work will be under a new contract and no matter if we have work or not I will not be in this position. If it is not, then I will simply decide that I made a bad choice in careers, and begin major changes.

There is a core within me that wants to grow, wants to become more in everything that I do. This will be a time for exercising that core. Re-evaluating priorities, re-enforcing skills, and refining my ability to live efficiently.

Ten great things about the weekend

2006-03-27T22:11:00.000-08:00

- Threw a good party for Neil, yeah that was fun!
- Maintained my resolve to not drink or smoke. It felt weird to party and not drink. Had a good time anyhow; life is very sharp and getting sharper, and I've decided to extend my teatotalism. The only question now is how long.
- Re-connected with some older and not-so-older faces; Mike, Claire, Sam, Hez, Erin, Simon, Heron, Hajar, Margo (Jen knows Margo, crazy!), Eve, Khoa. All at Mike and Claire's pre-baby shower. Good luck!
- Was called "Bennifer", heh. It's kind of cute but also not at all in character for the Ben or the Jen. Weird.
- Spoke my cranky mind and didn't die.
- Ran first roll of 120 film through a 55-year old camera. The shots look like... the 50's.
- Sunshine!
- Breakfast with company, twice.
- Ate cake, twice. Hmm. Birthday cake and baby shower cake.
- Discovered Shoppers Drug Mart's C41 film scan service is cheap, fast, and clean.

A few things learned this week

2006-03-26T16:43:00.000-08:00

Blatantly copying good blogging ideas is a good thing. So, in the spirit of things, here are a few things I learned this week.

- Walking and climbing feel good and healthy and healing.
- Randomness is out there, and sometimes it runs up to you, screams at you, pushes you; and you react by throwing a balloon at its face. A yellow balloon.
- There is no replacement for a paper and pen journal.

And a few things I used to know and was reminded of;
- Old-school union politics are alive and well.
- We desire to cover up reminders of evil.
- The smell of the earth can be intoxicating. Also there's nothing wrong with talking about bugs.
- Sometimes a stranger needs to lean on your shoulder, just because you are there.

Ten great things about the weekend

2006-03-21T15:07:00.000-08:00

This is a re-write of a previous post that seems to have vanished some where between writing and posting.

1) Discovered that it takes 25 minutes to bike from Oak & Broadway to Oak & 70th. It is amazing how fast a bicycle can move around the city, if the route is good.
2) Was given a journal, a Moleskine, by Jen. I love it, Thanks Jen! I've consumed 6 pages already, but I'm not worried about expending it too early. If anything this is an opportunity to commit to paper many feelings that are still fresh.
3) Rode my bicycle with Sam out to New Westminster, great ride!
4) Beautiful weather, we've been very blessed with the weather for weekends lately.
5) Found an Agfa Jsolette in an antique store.
6) Cleaning. Serious cleaning.
7) Moved most of my books onto a bookshelf. Re-discovered some of my unread and partly-read books.
8) Passed my belay test. Now I can belay in the Cliffhanger gym. This is great for my health and once the weather gets better, I really hope to make climbing outdoors a regular thing. Scheduled climbing with different people for Tuesday and Wednesday evening.
9) Enjoyed dinner with friends on Sunday evening; together we created something.
10) Had a discussion about free will, spirituality and the afterlife.

With every passing day I feel life is becoming sharper, bigger, more real. The thrill of existence was re-enforced.

Climbing, with Johnny Walker

2006-03-16T22:33:00.000-08:00

Finally went out and did the introductory climbing course at Cliffhanger. The one other person in my class was a guy named "Johnny Walker". I kid you not, I have his business card to prove it! After passing my belay test tomorrow, I will be able to climb for free all week! Yes, friends of mine that climb, that means YOU!

I feel good about taking the course. The material could have been given to me by a friend, but there is a method (KISS) that they use and it works. Also built into the course is stuff like training your hands to do the belay motion so it becomes subconscious. As a final step before getting my belay ticket, I have to wait 24 hours, and then go back and show them everything I learned. So yeah, I'll be searching for people who want to go climbing Friday night.

Part of the course is "surprise falling", where one person climbs up the wall and then without any warning, jumps off. The belay has to save their life. Everyone does both roles, the falling and the saving. I jumped mid-reach, so there was more slack than I thought; as a result, I came within a foot of striking the instructor - who was standing on the ground. After my fall, you could hear a pin drop in the place for a few seconds - I fell too far and got too close to the ground. Consider that there could easily have been 50 people in there. It was a rush, that's for sure!

And the climbing was great fun. There's a special kind of bond, even between nearly perfect strangers, when you put your life in someone else's hands. The gear is pretty simple, and once you know what to do, it really is pretty foolproof.

Ten great things about the weekend

2006-03-13T19:14:00.000-08:00

1) Told "Thank You" by a complete stranger.
2) One-on-one time.
3) Walked all over this city!
4) Refined the new art of paste-ups.
5) Was shown a new dessert place, Sweet Revenge, on Main St.
6) First big vandigicam event of the year!
7) Had fun on my birthday.
8) Beautiful sunshine!
9) Dinner with brother and step-dad.
10) Things are getting back to normal for a couple of people in my life, Lucas and Rachael (not connected), who have had some tough times recently. Rough times come and go, sometimes more than we'd like, and that's why we're here for each other.

VAG photo mob

2006-03-10T13:58:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine passed this on to me and it is pretty interesting. Contact me for time & date.

-----
Join us in an organized mob to photograph works of art within the Vancouver Art Gallery.

We believe that art must be shared and remembered to remain potent. Photography is a significant tool in our ability to discuss, share and remember things that matter. It is right to use photography to share and remember art.

Art galleries and museums play an important role in collecting and showing our history and our modern art. Some galleries have taken a policy of disallowing photographs. We believe this is wrong because it chills sharing, discussion and collaboration, and reduces the audience that can become interested in important works of art.

Only by sharing art and recordings of art can we interest more people in the art and spread it throughout our culture.

Join us in overwhelming the Vancouver Art Gallery's security by simultaneously taking pictures of the art that you find interesting. Contact the poster of this message to find out the date and time of the organized mob.

Several key points to remember:

- Keep your cameras concealed until you are well inside of the gallery and totally hidden until the designated time. The only way to overwhelm security is for us all to act as one, and begin photographing at the same time. Handbags are allowed in the gallery.

- For this to work, we need to spread the date and time by word of mouth only. Do not post the organized time on any forum or on any web page. If you read this message, ask the person that sent it to you or posted it about the time and date.

- No flash photography. We're trying to make a statement, spark a debate. Any perceived damage to precious works of art should not be a part of the dialogue.

Together we can send a message the gallery will hear. In the process we will help to spread the art contained within and generate more interest and revenue for our local gallery and artists.

Wordpress or Drupal?

2006-03-10T10:06:00.000-08:00

My homepage needs a facelift, badly. The time has come to step away from the static HTML/CSS combo that I've been using for hacking together this little site, and towards a tool for blogging or content management.

So the question basically comes down to, which tool should I choose, Wordpress or Drupal?

Both tools satisfy some basic requirements:
- Open source.
- Large userbase.
- Mature technology.
- Run on linux.
- Can us MySQL as a backend database.

Most importantly of all, I have friends in several different circles of that use these tools. I've decided to evaluate both and go from there. It will take several weeks or perhaps a month or two for me to perform evaluations, and I also need to brush up on my MySQL skills before I can really hit my stride. The tools, especially Drupal, can require a hefty amount of base knowledge to get out of the gate.

It may simply come down to a simple question; what do I want to do with my home site?

Allergies got you down? Here's the answer

2006-03-07T22:14:00.000-08:00

So this is the time of year when allergies start striking allergy sensitive people. I love flowers but my body has been breathing pure air all winter and all this pollen is a bit of a shock. I can play mental games with myself (relax now body, there is nothing to fear) which works ok, but it is kind of like trying to steer a car with a flat tire - a lot of work.

So a couple years ago I was turned on to a great idea that seems to work. Eat local bee pollen. Here in Vancouver we are lucky enough to have a wonderful pollen produced by the Chilliwack River Valley company, and sold by Choices. The one at 16th and MacDonald is in stock at the time of this writing; the one on Cambie is not.

The pollen itself is a sweet/sour mix, and when mixed with Liberty Mediterranee yogurt it becomes a dangerously tasty snack. The allergies have struck me pretty hard this year, due in part to my already reduced defenses and fighting off a cold, so I'm into the pollen.

As a final note, I've totally given up on antihistamines. For one, they don't work well with my teatotalling exercise (yes, they make me high), and also they can form a dependence which causes allergy-like symptoms once a tolerance occurs. Have fun coming off that drug.

Ten great things about the weekend

2006-03-07T11:14:00.000-08:00

Ok, so a fellow blogger found ten great things to say about the weekend. Here's mine:

Ten great things about the weekend:

1) Woke up late but not too late, both days.
2) The Sun. Enough said.
3) Got the bike fixed and ready for the first time this year.
4) Did two laps around the Stanley Park seawall with two friends.
5) Had my photo taken by a complete stranger...
6) Helped some people on the seawall take a picture of them under Siwash rock. For some reason I love doing that.
7) Daffodils and Crocuses are in full bloom, the little white magnolias are blooming, and a host of other flowers have started to pop. The cherry blossoms bloomed all over the place.
8) Allowed an idea to manifest as action.
9) Practised a new art.
10) Felt relaxed and somehow satisfied.

How was your weekend and can you think of ten great things?

Secret Mommy, We Are Wolves

2006-03-07T10:17:00.000-08:00

Went to see We Are Wolves at Richard's on Richards last night. The place was not as full as it was for Controller.Controller but by the time the main act was on stage the energy was pretty good.

One of the opening acts, Secret Mommy, really blew my mind. The act is similar to something I've heard before, Electrofuck playing at 1067 a few years ago. It involved heavy electronic manipulation and powerful stereo equipment so that you could really feel the noise. The thing about this is how the sound seems to creep into the body in a way that no recorded act ever could; the frequencies and noises generated seem to soak into the skull and penetrate the brain in ways music normally doesn't. It was as if Adam Dixon (aka Secret Mommy) was using his laptops and stereo equipment to control me; somehow his brain (although not his mind) was reaching out and directly controlling my brain, though my ears. I became his puppet.

The main act, We Are Wolves, was a very high energy show that really got all my joints a good workout. Their on-stage presence is phenomenal, they have amazing chemistry as a band. Also the manipulations done to the vocals turned the singer's noises into electronic instruments; that was new for me. Screams, hoots and clicks became vortexes of sound. In addition to synth, drums, guitars; this band uses their bodies as instruments and that is a central part of their work. The big heads were great too (and I love the eyes in the back).

One aspect of this show that was interesting for me was going as a teatotaller. At any normal time, I would require a few drinks of booze before I would be willing to cut loose and really just lose it on the dance floor. Not at this show (and also for Controller.Controller); I simply didn't car what other people thought and let the crazy dance flow. That seemed to be something that lots of other people were doing, so the togetherness of being wild and crazy made it easier.

I had a great time.

Controller.Controller

2006-03-04T23:59:00.000-08:00

On Friday night I went with a friend to see the amazing new Toronto band Controller.Controller. Before I discuss Controller.Controller, though, I'd like to talk about their headliner, You Say Party! We Say Die!

The band itself was not bad, enjoyable even. The base player was the most interesting to watch, he would be climbing all over the stage, lights, and balcony as he played. This made for some tense moments as he knocked over equipment with his cord. The drummer was fun to watch too as the band's beat is very fast.

The more interesting part of the headlining band was the associated photographers, two of them. Both were situated right in front of the stage. One wore a yellow shirt, one wore a blue shirt. Both digital shooters. The yellow shirt one basically stood in one spot the entire show, snapping shots with what looked like a 20D with a zoom lens. He didn't pay any attention to the crowd, nor to what was going on with the people on stage; he reminded me of a robot. Something moves in front of him; snap. When he ran out of space on his memory card (I'm assuming), he switched to a point-and shoot digital. He did not move his feet the entire show.

The blue photographer took some time to set up; wasn't paying attention too much to what was going on as he adjusted his settings. He was shooting with what looked like a Nikon D70 with a prime lens, and an external flash. Once his camera was set up, though, he would put the camera down on the stage and dance with the crowd, really getting into it. Every once in a while he would reach over, grab the camera, snap a couple shots of the people on the stage, and start chest-banging with the crowd again. Very cool to watch, even more fun to watch than the musicians.

So on to Controller.Controller. Their stage presence needs work, but something I like about the band is the lead singer Nirmala is a dressed-down teatotaller kind of gal, who likes jeans and the female equivalent of wifebeater shirts. But thicker. Some problems slowed down the performance at first; the drummer's high-hat broke and he needed another. The band seems to be cursed with mechanical problems, including the breakdown of their van.

Once they got going though, they really cooked. Everyone got into it. Dancing in the rafters. Bodies surfing the crowd. You get the idea. It was one heck of a good show and the jam at the end was very memorable. It seems that the band reaches its best when all the musicians are 1 or 2 beers into a hangover, except Nirmala.

Now comes the hardest part. Waiting for their next album.

Brothers, Friends, and Sledgehammers

2006-03-03T13:16:00.000-08:00

My younger brother is a very astute individual; I'm lucky to have him as my brother. In may ways we are complete contrasts; for example, he is pursuing a career in medicine, I am pursuing a career in technology. When we get together, we are both frank and share thoughts and feelings freely.

During a recent dinner, he made the observation that finding out your real friends is a simple enough task. You drive a sledgehammer and see what is left standing. If people can survive that, you know how strong the connection is. It's a shame to have to do it, but something that must be done.

Viewed in this light, trying times are not something to be regretted but something to build on.

The secret arts of technology

2006-03-02T02:31:00.000-08:00

Here's a factoid that might not be well known. When it comes to building software technology, there is often a community of people driving it (for example, a company) and then there are individuals who are actually writing the code, the documents, etc. If the consumers of this technology are also technologists, then there is an interesting opportunity; the creators can send secret messages to the consumers, who are also creators.

This happens in my work all the time. I am a creator of technology; I create customized work that gets put to use by large Canadian companies. There is a layer of technology that only the most involved individuals will ever see, and it is in this layer that the secret messages may be sent. Management will never see it; even detailed work audits may never uncover these bits of communication. The message is created by individuals, and then shipped, copied, merged and managed by companies, totally unaware of the hitchhiking information.

So this special communication medium exists as a kind of transit between technologists. The discovery of these messages adds to the culture surrounding the work I do, in a way similar to but far less accessible than street art.

Tagging is common. The names of people and companies that created the technology may still be there, even though the people may have gone on to do something else years ago, and the companies that created the initial seed of technology has been purchased, merged, purchased again, re-named, and eliminated from the official records.

Less common but far more satisfying to find are dedications, curses, frank notes about the circumstances around the creation of technology, and even notes to potential finders.

Finding these tidbits is a rare joy; for some reason, there are many technologists who feel it is important to dry out the work as much as possible and will go to great lengths to "purify" the works. Personally I feel this is a shame and I try to create these messages wherever I can. To me, it is a sign of maturity of a technology; when enough hands have passed through a work, people like me always find a way to leave their footprints and find the steps of those who were before us.

The Settlers of Catan

2006-02-28T22:04:00.000-08:00

The Settlers of Catan is a board game, played by 6 people, introduced to me a number of months ago. Since then it has popped up in three other groups of friends.

The basic idea is you are sharing an island or collection of islands with the other players, and racing to build a civilization of a certain size first. The rules are quite straight forward, but like a good game, the play is complex enough to provide for many interesting variations. I like board games and this game has been a lot of fun to play so far.

So here's my question to you; have you heard of this game before, have you played this game, and would you be interested in trying it out?

The Zen of Tagging

2006-02-27T22:08:00.000-08:00

pict5784
Originally uploaded by slightly-less-random.

There was a point, not so long ago, that I had great difficulty tagging pictures with the handles of the people in them.

Strange, isn't it?

The rationale is simple enough. I'd always like to present people at their best; so therefore, only tag the very best pictures of them.

There are two problems with this.

1) Sometimes the value is simply the pictures existance and not the composition, expressions, etc. So tag with names even if the picture kind of sucks, so that we can go back and remember the way things were. The number and time of photos is also significant.

2) It is sort of arrogant for me to think that I know how to cast someone in the best light. If I've decided to post a photo with someone in it (and also decided not to delete it) then I might as well tag it so it can be found later.

So now the decision is simple. Always tag with handles, if the photo is posted, and I can recognize the person in the photo.

Does this line up with how you feel about it? (This applies to everyone, not just flickr people).

My Wheelhouse

2006-02-26T21:31:00.000-08:00

Wheelhouse
Originally uploaded by slightly-less-random.

There seemed to be a moment yesterday when I distinctly began to feel like myself. I woke up this morning feeling certain that my body and my self had re-connected, finally.

Now I've been walking around all day (spending most of it hanging out with a friend of mine) thinking about these shiny controls as the relationship between my mind and body. Somehow it feels nice to think that my switches and buttons are chromed and attached to a sea-worthy vessel.

The Dentist

2006-02-25T16:40:00.000-08:00

I almost feel like myself again, instead of this crazy stranger that took over my body for the last week.

An important part of any serious quit-smoking strategy is to see the dentist and get your teeth cleaned after quitting.

Ow. No food/water for an hour.

The Gallery, Ideas and Art

2006-02-25T05:39:00.000-08:00

Even more confusing?

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting the Vancouver Art Gallery. Every time I go I enjoy the experience and yesterday was no exception. In fact, I enjoyed it so much I'm considering going back again today. The works of Brian Jungen are fascinating, but it was a painting of Takao Tanabe that caused me to bolt up out of bed around 5 am, open my image editor, and start working on one of my photos.

The painting in question is a colourful arrangement of abstract shapes, mounted in the corner of a room. The shapes and colours are somehow interesting (gotta love that abstract quality!) but it was the mounting of the painting that hit me as I slept. I'm not sure I've ever seen a painting mounted in the corner like that.

Now I've ripped one of my less favourite photos from its frame and mounted it in a corner, and I must say I like it better that way. I just wish it was about 5 times bigger.

The Week in Review

2006-02-24T09:21:00.000-08:00

2006-02-17 - I quit smoking
Originally uploaded by slightly-less-random.

Well it has been a week since I quit smoking, drinking, and generally taken the first shaky steps to clean up my life from the mess it has become.

Here's some of the things I've done this week:
- Started blogging more.
- Cried. Called someone, and cried some more.
- Connected with some new friends.
- Tried to re-connect with some old friends.
- Took lots of photos.
- Lied, and then admitted it.
- Helped a friend with a problem.
- Made dinner for two, and served it to my closest, most trusted friend.
- Called family in the middle of the night.
- Cried at work.
- Started reading a new book, and then stopped.
- Made an anti-suicide pact.
- Posted photos of dead flowers, and then the sun.
- Lost my temper, several times.
- Made some self-portraits.
- Was annoying as hell.
- Visited vice friends, but didn't take part in the vice.
- Walked, but not as much as before.
- Played board games, Go and Risk.
- Loved life.
- Held my head in my hands and wept.
- Had the support of an almost uncountable number of beautiful people.

It's been one hell of a week.

Enjoy it

2006-02-24T00:20:00.000-08:00

Today, a friend of mine gave me some excellent advice. I think that he may not have thought much of his comment at the time, but to me it really struck a chord, it was something I really needed to hear. I was telling him how I've been riding a rollercoaster of emotions over the last week, really not feeling like myself at all, and his response was simply this:

Enjoy the highs.

Way to go Hendrik, that was totally it.

Portraiture & the Music Man

2006-02-23T08:46:00.000-08:00

Music Man
Originally uploaded by slightly-less-random.

Ok, so I was out with the vandigicam gang and we came across this guy, walking along the sidewalk with a friend of his. He was obviously a musician, he has a flying V guitar over his shoulder, and a presence that just cannot be denied.

So I begged him for his photograph. Yes, begged him. This shows to me that I've learned about 10% of what it takes to take great portraits. I at least have an interesting subject and the will to engage, and that's got to count for something.

With careful attention and practice, I think that in 2 or 3 years I'll be able to take portraits that really pop.

I look forward to the day when I can let the less experienced photographer take the less perfect portraits. In the meantime, I'll enjoy engaging interesting people with every bit of skill that I can muster.