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Hot enough to fry an egg?

June 17, 2006 in Pictures and Toronto by matt | 1 comment

Man is it ever hot outside today. We went downtown to see the Taste of Little Italy festival and we almost melted into the street. It was a lot of fun being down there though especially as it’s World Cup time and Portugal and Italy (whose fans make up a big stretch of College street between Bathurst and Dufferin) were both playing today so the fans were out in full force. I took my camera along and took a few pictures including some breakdancing shots and a man who decided it was fashionable to wear a suit jacket and shorts. You can make the call on that one once I’ve uploaded them to Flickr.

Fortunately we took the TTC downtown as the day pass is very reasonable ($8.50) and it covers both of our fares. It would have been almost the same price to park plus getting downtown is so much easier on the subway and streetcar than to have to deal with the cars and closed streets in your own car. I wish the streetcars would have been air conditioned though.

We were wondering as we were walking back to the car at Warden station whether it was hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement. How hot does it have to be anyway? My guess would be that the pavement is over 30 degrees Celsius today, maybe even hotter so it would seem reasonable to think that that would be a high enough temperature to do some cooking but alas we didn’t have an egg around to verify the hypothesis. I’ll have to keep that in mind the next time it’s this hot. That will be tomorrow.

As I was finding the link to the Taste of Little Italy festival I noticed that this isn’t the big one. This is Little Italy College Street. The Corso Italia Toronto Fiesta is July 7th to 9th. We have a wedding to go to that weekend but maybe we’ll check out the Sunday events. There’s also talk of perhaps going to Ottawa for their jazz festival during that time. Oh wait, that’s over by then. It runs from June 22nd to July 2nd. For some reason I thought that it ran until after the 9th. My mistake I guess.

New decorations

June 9, 2006 in Food, Marriage, Pictures and The Apartment by matt | No comments

Marcy went to HomeSense this evening to buy some shower gifts for Tara and while there she also purchased some nifty-looking lamps and small vases for our own mantle. Here’s what they look like:

IMG_0020

I think they look really sharp up there. Also here’s a closer picture of one of the vases:

IMG_0022

Marcy has a really good eye for these things and she’s added little touches to our living space that really make it warm and comfortable to be in. That’s what makes us such a great team (I keep coming back to this): things that I might not necessarily think to spend time on are things that Marcy is good at and vice versa. It’s fun building a home.

Tomorrow we’re going to spend some more time outside and clean up the backyard deck as it has been a general organizing ground while we planted our flowers and plants this spring. We need to find a new home for our recycling bins among other things and hopefully I’ll be able to get our hooks attached so that we can put our hanging baskets up. Also tomorrow night we’re having some friends over for bbq (Rob Rainford-style). It’s going to be a mango-filled dinner that is sure to taste great. Perhaps you can even stay tuned for some pictures of the event.

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Brickyard 400 distilled

May 27, 2006 in Pictures and Toronto by matt | 1 comment

Last night during the time between I dropped Marcy off at the Liberty Grand and when I came back at the start of the dancing I had about 3 hours to spend. So I do what I like to do during such occasions; I drive around and discover new parts of town. Last night I had a chance to see The Distillery District (warning Flashiness) and The Don Valley Brick Works. Both were quite remarkable and I will definitely have to go back with my camera and photograph some of the sights.

The area where The Distillery District is located is undergoing a revival and over the next 3 years there will be a massive redevelopment project completed that will bring housing and shops to the lower Donlands. It will certainly transform the whole area. I ended up having a crepe (smoked salmon and dill) and some wonderful tea (pepermint) for dinner and walked around the area looking at the old buildings and poking through some of the dozens of artists’ galleries they have there.

I then went up Bayview from the lake to where the Brick Works are located. I’ve driven by them before but never went in to the park before yesterday. It’s a really neat place; they’ve preserved a lot of the old historical buildings and transformed the quarry and other areas into wetlands and walking trails. They even have a canine park especially for dogs. Looking at the old architecture I was reminded a lot of downtown Kitchener with the old factories that still exist there. I’m a sucker for that kind of thing which is probably why I want to go back with my camera. I have a feeling that the view from the Donor’s Lookout will be fantastic particularly around sunrise or sunset.

The prom was a lot of fun and the dancing was over quite quickly. There was none of the questionable “dancing” this time and that’s probably because it’s a different bunch of students this time around. The venue was really fantastic and if the batteries had not died on the camera last night I would taken some pictures of the lobby, the ballroom and the courtyard because they were all noteworthy. We got home pretty late though and stayed up much longer than we’re used to. We had a nice treat this morning with a brunch at Sisters which is quickly becoming our favourite restaurant in the area.

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This is how close we are

February 19, 2006 in Pictures and Toronto by matt | No comments

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before, but almost literally a 2-minute walk away from our house we have this view:

IMG_9821

I went walking around with the camera tripod I got from my parents for my birthday. It was pretty cold but I figured that my body could use some acclimation to the elements. All around the Bluffs here (Scarborough Bluffs that is – better link here) there are little parklets that give you a fantastic view of the lake (Lake Ontario that is). Most of the parklets have some rather obvious signs. Also a lot of streets in the area must notify the drivers that there is no access to the Bluffs.

I really like these two shots – one and two. They look better at the larger sizes rather than the thumbnail. I think this little area is going to provide me with some fantastic shots in the summer time. I can’t wait.

You can see the rest of the shots from my photowalk in this Flickr set.

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Axworthy-Ignatieff talk is on

February 3, 2006 in Pictures, Politics and Toronto by matt | No comments

We’re going to try and go to this (mentioned yesterday). Perhaps we’ll see you there. I brought my camera with me to work so there might even be pictures to speak of at a later date.

Update (10:25 PM) – I did something better with my time tonight. I went out for dinner with my wife and walked around downtown. That’s better than Peacebuilding anyday.

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2002 in pictures

January 29, 2006 in Cameras, Travel and Work by matt | No comments

I’ve been uploading all of my first sets of digital pictures to my Flickr account. Things like Whirly Ball, my trip to Las Vegas, where I lived and where I worked are all detailed in these photos. These were all taken with my first camera, a Canon PowerShot A40 that we still have today though I’ve moved to using my Canon G5. That camera took me to a lot of new places and helped me experience a lot of new things. It’s hard to believe that 3 years ago I was there. I think I’ve matured and become a better person since then. I’ve also become a better photographer.

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Flickr Speedy

January 27, 2006 in Pictures and Technology by matt | No comments

I’m getting some pretty amazing speed uploading some old photos to my Flickr account. Maybe it only seems faster since they’re with my older camera and thus the file sizes are much smaller.

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Incredible

September 10, 2005 in Pictures by matt | No comments

This is an incredible set of photos. It’s one man’s encounter with Katrina over 5 days.

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The Mapping of a Cat’s Brain

February 23, 2005 in Cats, Humour and Pictures by matt | No comments

Cat’s Brain

This is so funny and so true. I especially like the “obsession with imaginary insects” and “inexorable fear of vacuum cleaners”.

Also somewhat related is this post – “Women prefer cats to men“.

PubliCity

February 17, 2005 in Links, Pictures and Toronto by matt | No comments

PubliCity [via]

I want to go to this. It starts on March 16th and runs until April 23rd. I really enjoy Rannie’s photography so it’ll be interesting to see what he has on display and the other photographers I’m sure will capture the uniqueness of this fine city.

Too funny

February 17, 2005 in Cars, Humour, Links and Pictures by matt | No comments

I love the idea of this site [via]. There are a lot of people who I’d like to put these stickers on. Maybe I’m someone who would get such a sticker from someone else. You have to wonder if some of the pictures on the sticker site are real, particularly this one:

Parking

That seems pretty staged to me. The others seem like your average everyday horrible parking jobs.

Lookin’ old

January 14, 2005 in Links, Pictures and Politics by matt | No comments

It’s good that Al Gore supports the Creative Commons. I applaud him for that. But wow he’s looking old/sunburnt. Those are not very flattering photos.

Look at me

January 11, 2005 in Links and Pictures by matt | No comments

I saw this neat site on the Photoblogs site this morning. Found photos are pretty neat especially if you’re creative enough to come up with a story. I guess I need to print off some of my own photos so that someone can do the same thing with my life in 50 years. What would they say about me?

Composites

January 7, 2005 in Links and Pictures by matt | No comments

Via the FlickrBlog I saw this really interesting series of photos (Photoshopped obviously) called Composites. Worth a look! I have a Flickr account but haven’t really done much with it yet. I’m not sure how I feel about relying on other servers hosting my photos. Maybe I’ll investigate how best to integrate it with my current setup.

Two out of three!

January 6, 2005 in Pictures and Technology by matt | No comments

I discovered through looking at my log files that if you search for formal tea on Yahoo! or MSN my photos of our tea reception last summer rank #3 on each site. I’m nowhere to be found on Google because apparently Google has stopped indexing my site for whatever reason. I’m sure people who are looking for instructions on how to serve a formal tea will be much appreciative of pictorial evidence of our formal tea. I say enjoy!

I should note that the pictures are only result #8 on MSN’s beta search site. Not bad for having near-zero web visibility!

Indeed it’s too much

December 16, 2004 in Life, Music and Pictures by matt | 1 comment

I can sympathize with this post (or more accurately the author of said post). I’ve discovered that I have been suffering the Digital Photo Effect with my music for well over a year now. I have not added (or deleted for that matter) any MP3s from my music collection since last June. I’m fairly certain that there are albums and whole artists in my collection (it’s pretty big) that I have never listened to. I never put it as such but the ramifications are definitely valid (photo-specific references replaced with music-specific ones):

  1. I feel behind all the time.
  2. Because there is so much to consume, I don’t enjoy each individual photo as much as I did when they were physical prints. I click through fast.
  3. Because of 1 and 2, sometimes I don’t even bother.

I’m sure there’s a lot of good (even great) music that I’ve missed out on over the last year and a half but I honestly can’t find the energy to go and obtain it. I often go back to either listening to radio shows (Gilles Peterson Worldwide, Off The Deep End or The Higher Ground) or old favourite albums. I’m listening to Akufen in honour of the linked post right now.

I suppose the Digital Photo Effect has also taken hold with my photos as well. Since we’ve moved I haven’t had much time for photography. Most of that is probably due to being busy but maybe a part of it is that I don’t have as much interest in taking pictures right now. Perhaps that will change once the holiday vacation starts next week. I’ll have to revisit this topic.

Eat it!

November 26, 2004 in Cats and Pictures by matt | No comments

Another picture from the Royal Winter Fair:

I love Canadian beef

I like this picture. Speaking of cows, it’s interesting how they sleep almost exactly like our cats:

Pumpkin cow

That’s like Pumpkin.

Elle cow

That’s like Elle. I hope they’ll be ok this weekend by themselves. We’ll give them lots and food and water.

Sweetcheeks?

November 25, 2004 in Pictures and Toronto by matt | No comments

A few weeks back we went to the Royal Winter Fair here in Toronto and I took my camera with me. I took a whole bunch of pictures but this one stands out.

Sweetcheeks

Crowd appreciation is the determining factor in this contest according to the poster. Fortunately we missed it.

This made me laugh

November 24, 2004 in Commuting, Life, Pictures and Toronto by matt | No comments

My previous post linked to a page talking about the QEW. I’ve spent the last little while navigating the rest of that site and discovered that it’s a really full and thorough resource on Ontario’s highway system. I ‘m interested in this kind of thing so I’m appreciative of having it around.

They have a section for old highway photos and this one made me laugh:

401 and Leslie

That’s a picture of the 401 looking east at the Leslie Street exit. I doubt that there’s any time of day or night where the highway is that empty. I wonder if someday we’ll look at the pictures of the highway in the east and west that is currently surrounded by farms and have the same thought. The growth of the Ontario megalopolis continues unabated. Well except for the proposed Greenbelt.

One photo

November 4, 2004 in Humour, Pictures and Politics by matt | No comments

I leave you today with one photo taken from today’s Daily Mirror:

Dumb

At least in England they don’t pretend to be nonpartisan in their media coverage.

Joi’s blog had an interesting find earlier this morning but CNN quickly changed the filename.

Jack-o-cat-o-lantern

November 1, 2004 in Pictures and The Apartment by matt | 1 comment

Here’s a picture of the pumpkin we carved last night:

Pumpkin

Isn’t it pretty? It’s a cat! What else could it be? Marcy did most of the carving; I did the left (right to the pumpkin) eye which is probably the weakest point on the whole item. The picture itself is mediocre I think – I tried increasing the exposure value by a notch but I don’t think I held the camera steady enough. What I need is a tripod I think.

Hallowe’en in our apartment was pretty quiet – we received no kids at our door. There were some kids who went out around the neighbourhood with some adults but there was nothing in the building. It would have been nice if they had had something in the lobby but I guess there wasn’t enough interest (or someone willing to take charge of organizing something like that) in the building.

One picture

October 28, 2004 in Pictures and Travel by matt | No comments

I haven’t really spoken about our weekend just past but let me say that it was very fun. Hopefully I’ll have some time to describe the new photos that I’ve uploaded.

This is my favourite picture from the weekend of Kristin (the birthday girl):

Kristin

I was experimenting not using the flash indoors. This of course increases the exposure time to compensate for the lack of light but I like the effect in this picture. I like the lighting on Kristin’s face and the sharpness of the foreground. I don’t like how the waiter in the background is blurry (he was moving) but I can’t do much about that except crop him out. I also could have abided by the rule of thirds a bit more but I wanted Kristin to be the focus of the picture, not anything else.

Oh well, I still really like this picture.

The new digs

October 18, 2004 in Blog Discussions, Cars, Pictures, The Apartment, Toronto and Work by matt | No comments

So Marcy and I are getting more and more settled into our new lives here in Toronto. Almost all of the boxes that we moved have been unpacked and the remainder are being stored in the spare bedroom (man it’s great to have one of those). We’ve already picked out our paint for the entire apartment and are looking forward to decorating together. It will make a huge difference. We’re also looking at new leather furniture for the living room as it seems that all of the furniture stores in the area are having these crazy promotional deals (buy 3 pieces, get a big-screen tv). We’re thinking of going with a 4-piece black leather-split set from Leon’s because we think it’s the best value for the dollar and gives us plenty of space to sit in the new living room. We’ll probably give our existing couch (after the addition of a new slip cover). We won’t need a third couch after buying this new furniture.

Work has been extremely exciting so far so that’s definitely a positive sign. There are many differences between this job and my previous one but I won’t mention anything here. The job is very interesting, the people are great and things are really moving quickly sales-wise. We have an offsite meeting tomorrow. I’m not sure exactly what that entails but it sounds interesting!

Marcy and I are going to have to purchase a car quite soon. Her car is having some troubles and it’s not worth risking her driving an hour per day and getting stuck on the 401. Today we commuted together and after work we’re going to look at some used cars in this area. We’re looking at a 2000-2002 Honda Accord and fortunately for us there are plenty to choose from in the area.

Yesterday we went to clothes shopping and I bought a whole whack of new things to wear. Pants, shirts, shoes, even a belt! It’s very exciting. The new shoes I love – they’re slip-on leathers that looks nice and feel great. I’m wearing them today.

I have lots of photos to upload this week so stay tuned to the gallery! Now that I have consistent Internet access at home (and I can connect to the server from work), there should be more frequent updates in this space.

BlogACatMas

October 1, 2004 in Cats and Pictures by matt | No comments

Well in honour of BlogACatMas, I should probably post a picture of our cats:

BlogACatMas

They’re best of friends. Except when they’re fighting.

Edit: You can find more cat pictures here!

A dream camera

September 21, 2004 in Cameras and Technology by matt | No comments

I saw mention of Canon’s new professional digital camera, the EOS-1DS Mark II this morning on the Digital Photography Review site. You can see 4 sample images. They are extremely large files mainly because the camera is capable of taking 16.7 million pixels with each shot. That’s more than 3 times my camera’s 5 Megapixel count. That’s an incredible amount of detail and looking at the sample images, the results are absolutely incredible.

Of course at an estimated street price of $8000 USD, I think it’s far far far outside of my price range. I can dream though.

Those pesky robots

September 21, 2004 in Pictures and Technology by matt | No comments

I was watching the real-time web log statistics for my web server a little while ago and noticed that the MSNBot was requesting pictures that it wasn’t supposed to have access to in my gallery (I won’t say which ones). Concerned, I investigated and found that the album permissions were correct but the individual item permissions were not. That wasn’t good at all but I quickly remedied the situation. Thankfully Gallery 2 is powerful enough to do that. This has taught me to be more diligent in setting permissions on things like pictures.

Ivan’s Impact

September 21, 2004 in Pictures and Weather by matt | No comments

Found on Metafiler:

U.S. Geological Survey before and after photos of gulf coast barrier islands in Alabama and Florida showing the impact of Hurricane Ivan.

Some pretty amazing pictures though as you find out when reading the abstract that the original photos were taken 3 years ago. Still, hurricanes aren’t something that people can brush off lightly. I think this picture is one of the most stunning of the set apart from the first one.

People think of the strangest ideas to get rid of hurricanes. My favourite is and always will be the suggestion that we use nuclear weapons against the storms. The National Hurricane Center in the US even has a Frequently Asked Question addressing this possibility:

Why don’t we try to destroy tropical cyclones by nuking them?

During each hurricane season, there always appear suggestions that one should simply use nuclear weapons to try and destroy the storms. Apart from the fact that this might not even alter the storm, this approach neglects the problem that the released radioactive fallout would fairly quickly move with the tradewinds to affect land areas and cause devastating environmental problems. Needless to say, this is not a good idea.

This is not a good idea. I’d like to meet someone who thinks that it would be a good idea and discuss with them some other issues.

Curiously, this year’s hurricane storm name list includes my name and my sister’s name. So if Hurricane Matthew devastates your area, I had nothing to do with it.

Aside: I still think this picture (or more accurately, the picture in that linked post) has a passing similarity to a hurricane though I’m not sure there was a hurricane passing through the area at the time.

Appeasing Phil

September 21, 2004 in Pictures and The Apartment by matt | No comments

While in an effort to make Phil (and more specifically his comment) happy I’m going to post some photos of the Nissan Altima that I mentioned in yesterday’s post about Anonymous Anger.

Altima 1

Altima 2

Altima 3

Altima 4

Altima 5

The car certainly isn’t one of the worst modified cars in Kitchener (there’s a car that I’ve seen that has a spoiler made out of wood nailed onto the trunk) but I just don’t think the modifications are well suited to this car.

I actually saw the owner of this car last night after doing some shopping. The owner is a lady in her mid-30s and has a son about 5 years old. That definitely wasn’t the person that I was expecting to drive a car like that. I suppose the stereotypical (male, mid-20’s) didn’t fit in this case.

Photo sites

September 20, 2004 in Pictures and Technology by matt | No comments

I’ve discovered a couple of really neat photo sites this morning.

The first one is called “I Found Some Of Your Life“. I saw it in Photo Matt’s feed and even if it is fictional, it’s still a neat idea for a weblog. Mark calls it “a Mark Approved use for a blog”. It would be fun to invent a storyline for a series of pictures. I wonder what such a storyline would look like for my photos.

The other site is called “Goodbye Romania“. The catch here is that each time someone visits the site, a pixel is taken from each photo so eventually the site will be destroyed by the actions of the visitors. I don’t have enough time to make up something like that.

CAFKA 2004

September 16, 2004 in Kitchener-Waterloo and Pictures by matt | No comments

I walked over to the bank this afternoon to deposit my pay cheque and I walked through the City Hall square. I noticed some fenced-off sections and some people looking very earnest and determined. I walked inside the building and found more similar people.

Then I remembered what time of year this is. It’s almost time for the Contemporary Art Forum | Kitchener and Area (shortened to CAFKA). These were artists setting up their projects for this year’s installment, entitled “Peace of Mind”. You might remember I posted about last year’s offering here and here. I also have pictures available in this album. I’m going to have to remember to bring my camera to work next week so I can photograph this year’s exhibition.

The Swamp Thing?

September 14, 2004 in Kitchener-Waterloo, Pictures and Travel by matt | No comments

I’m sorry to scare you with the picture at left. It’s from the opening ceremonies at Waterloo Region’s latest public school, Sir John A. MacDonald (named after of course our first Prime Minister). My guess is that they were going for the look of a statue of Sir John A. MacDonald but to me it looked more like The Swamp Thing.

This picture was blown up to a larger version on the front page of today’s The Record newspaper and believe me, it’s even scarier when it’s that size. I can’t give you a link due to the newspaper’s stupid online policy (ranted on here) so you’ll have to make do with what I provide at top there.

Another reason why I’m mentioning this new school is because they’ve had so many recent troubles getting the building completed and inspected on time. The school just opened yesterday, almost a week after school started. They say that it was due to a number of different reasons including a bricklayers’ strike. Students had to go to school for half days last week (I’m sure they were disappointed) but now that it’s open they can go full days again. Imagine that – a full day of school! Parents I’m sure were upset but I can’t say for certain because I don’t read the local paper and I don’t watch the local news.

A better example of statue-people is the original, Mr. Statue. He lives in Portland and I saw him on this trip (man, almost 2 years ago now):

Mr Statue

I’ve seen other copycats, like this one in Cannes:

Cannes

or this one in Vienna (with Lonnie beside):

Vienna

So there are definitely better statue-people out there. It’s too bad that Waterloo Region had to pick such a scary-looking one for the opening of their latest school.

Your New Kitchener Market

September 2, 2004 in Kitchener-Waterloo and Pictures by matt | No comments

Marcy and I went to the market Saturday morning. We’d been a couple of times since it opened in May (official opening still coming up this month some time) but I brought my camera with me and took a few pictures.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Part 13

Part 14

Part 15

Part 16

Sea or sky?

September 2, 2004 in Pictures by matt | No comments

Is this a picture of the sea or of the sky?
Sea or sky?

Well I’ll give you a hint – I took this picture and you might know where I live and its proximity to the ocean. In any case, I thought it was a neat picture. There’s no end to my fascination with nature.

SGML funniness

August 30, 2004 in Humour, Pictures, Politics and Television by matt | No comments

I liked this picture so much that I added it to my local collection of images:
End Bush

I found this on Boing Boing just now. Most people this week are focusing on the Republican National Convention (who seem to think it’s cute when they capitalize the middle W in their website name). I don’t know how much perspective I can have from up here but I do know that Canadians living in the US do tend to feel strongly about this election even if they can’t vote (found here). There are certainly some inventive signs displayed at the protests so far (look here or here for some great shots). I’m looking forward to Jon Stewart’s take on the week. Hopefully we’ll have enough time to fit in his comedic show into our busy schedules currently.

See here for an explanation to my post’s title reference.

Bring on the new bill

August 26, 2004 in CBC, Economy and Pictures by matt | No comments

The Bank of Canada unveiled the new $20 bill yesterday. It goes into circulation on September 29th (my parents’ wedding anniversary). This follows the release of the new $10, $5 and $100. The $50 bill will be redesigned later this year and the $10 will be redesigned again next year. Or rather the $10 bill will be “upgraded” like it’s software. This is according to this CBC news story. I noticed on other blogs this morning about the announcement yesterday but wanted to see a picture of the new bill. Our currency is becoming more like the European one in style and colour while the American currency is slowly (very slowly) becoming like our old currency.

What struck me is the picture shown in the CBC news story:
CBC picture
The Queen looks demonic and the colours looked rather atrocious. So I thought – that can’t be the real picture of the currency so I went over to the Bank of Canada’s website and found a better picture:
Front

and

Back

I think they look pretty nice and my guess is that something weird happens if you take a picture of the bill, hence the strange colours in the CBC picture. At any rate, I’m looking forward to seeing one of these new bills in person come September.

Sunsetastic!

August 25, 2004 in Kitchener-Waterloo, Pictures and The Apartment by matt | No comments

I’ll let these photos speak for themselves (this was last Friday evening’s sunset):

1

2

3

4

5

6

It was really strange how the sky turned from the first three pictures to the last three in about 5 minutes. It was one of the most stunning sights I’ve ever seen. This is definitely one of the benefits to living in my apartment.

Rocky V + Rocky II = ?

July 26, 2004 in Cats and Pictures by matt | No comments

Bonus points for identifying the source of my post’s title.

It seems that I’ve forgotten how to properly create Roman Numerals. My photo album for Elle has almost 50 sub-albums now and I was looking at albums 40-49 and noticed that the number didn’t look quite right. I did a quick search online and found the above linked page. I then had to go back and correct the Roman Numerals from XXXX to XL which is the proper way to represent 40 and above.

Cowbell

July 21, 2004 in Pictures and Technology by matt | No comments

Well the first alpha release of Gallery, Version 2 has been released. Its codename is Cowbell for some inside-joke reason. I’ve been running nightly “builds” of the software (quotation marks because it’s just a slew of PHP scripts) for the last couple of months and I’ve been very impressed by the progress and sheer flexibility of the application now. It’s miles ahead of the previous release, which was only really useful for small-ish installations with a few pictures. Since I’m on the verge of eclipsing the 11,000 picture mark, the database-driven design of Gallery 2 definitely meets my needs and I can’t wait to see the upcoming fixes and optimizations that will occur as the developers march towards Gold.

That said, when I updated my CVS code this morning, I noticed that certain things were broken, notably the cache. The install keeps a cache of each “entity” in a directory format depending on the database id of each derivative image. Well it seems like they’ve changed the format, using 2 directories per id instead of just 1 as before. This meant that my gallery didn’t work properly and this exposed a couple of other smaller problems that I had not noticed until now. Since I had so much fun building the derivatives in the first place (this continues to be the weak point of the whole “adding pictures” process), I didn’t really feel like rebuilding them a second time so I had to manually create the second directory in each separate cache directory and then move the derivatives into the proper location. I’m pretty sure I have everything in the right location now but it’s entirely possible that I’ve missed something. If I were following the proper upgrade path then I would not have all of my pictures in the database and it would be a trivial task to reinitialize the gallery everyday. Since I don’t feel like doing that (it’s taken a good two months to get the structure set up to where I like it), I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled on the commit logs and discussion forums for any significant changes that could affect my installation.

MySQL Mayhem!

July 9, 2004 in Pictures and Technology by matt | No comments

So what do you when you have very unstable hardware controlling your main server and it crashes while creating thumbnails and resized images for your latest pictures?

Well you wake up the next morning to find that some of the records in your database (which contains a not-insignificant amount of data) have been corrupted. Your gallery software spits out an error and you go off to investigate. You figure out which table is giving the error and then run a database integrity checker (myisamchk) on the suspect table and hopefully that fixes it. Thank goodness for tools like this because losing all of your data and being forced to start again is not something you’d like to face. You’re happy with the way your gallery is laid out and you think about the countless hours spent getting it set up and running smoothly. You forget that you’re running a pre-alpha build of a complicated software package on relatively unstable hardware that is used for a variety of other purposes. You long for the day that you can afford a new computer for this purpose and how wonderful it will be. Then you can throw the existing machine off of a steep cliff. It has given you countless problems since you took it last June. What a cursed machine.

Edit: Equally fun is going through about 30 images and creating thumbnail and resized versions of them. Yet another reason why I love how frequently this machine crashes.

Classy

July 7, 2004 in Entertainment and Pictures by matt | No comments

I think I ignored the relevant links before, but Accordion Guy has definitely put things into focus for me (via Stereogum).

This is a recent picture of Britney:
Britney

Isn’t she classy looking?

How about a closer shot:
Britney – closer

Possibly even more enlightening than those two photos is this New York Post article.

Some choice quotations:

She happily explained why her recent weight gain is a sign of happiness (”Not that I’m going to become some lardass”) and what a great chef her fiance is (”He can cook anything – macaroni and cheese, fried chicken”).

and

She also dismissed her first marriage – which took place this January in Vegas and lasted all of 55 hours – as a “total ugh.”

So it’s a total “ugh” not an “ick” or a “blech”. I wonder at which point it crossed from being a good idea to a bad one?

These shots give a slightly different image than the Showtime special previews that I’ve seen (link only valid in the United States – seriously). I also read today that Britney has refused to get a prenuptial agreement with her fiance, much to the horror of her parents. She’s worth about $100 million and in case of divorce, her fiance would get half of that amount. She claims that she’s marrying for love, not money. Allegedly he gave her a $40,000, 5-carat engagement ring. But she had to pay for it.

Design ideas

June 25, 2004 in Pictures by matt | No comments

Seen on one of Darren Barefoot’s great link round-ups is this outstanding exhibition. It’s described as “An exhibition of Europe’s
worst interiors of 1974.” I guess for some reason 1974 was a banner year for bad interior design in Europe. Looking through the various pages I came across this kitchen:

Eurobad ‘74

How would you like to have that as your eating space? Yes that is a horse stable leading directly off of the kitchen.

The only possible runner-up in the kitchen category would have to be this one. Enjoy the beautiful fragrances of your automobile as you dine!

Haunting

June 25, 2004 in Pictures by matt | No comments

I was just looking through my photo gallery and came across this picture:

Kent State

For some reason it really haunts me. This picture was taken last summer at Kent State University. I was there with my parents and Marcy and we were doing a tour of where my brother was intending on going in the fall (he’ll be at the University of Waterloo this fall).

I’m not sure how old the chalk markings on the statue were but the whole are was pretty solemn. My parents were probably affected more than I was since it was in their time that the shootings took place.

It’s hard to tell, but in this picture:

Kent State

you can see a bullet hole right where the lines of the peace symbol intersect. That’s kind of scary to think that this was the place where 4 people died and was the centre of 3 days of madness and violence. It seems to peaceful today.

Aside: did you know that the girl screaming in this picture was only 14 at the time? My mom told me that last year. She was a runaway staying on the campus at the time.

Next year is the 25th anniversary of the shootings. Perhaps I might try and journey to Kent State and watch the celebrations that are bound to occur.

Edit: I should probably link to the rest of the pictures in that particular photo album.

How do you like them quarters?

June 23, 2004 in Economy and Pictures by matt | No comments

From BoingBoing I find this image of the new Canadian quarter:

New quarter

It’s designed (according to this new story) by an 11 year-old in British Columbia. The coin will go into circulation next Thursday (which is Canada Day) and each new Canadian citizen that receives their certificates will receive one of these coins to commemorate the event.

I kind of like the coin though admittedly it does look a little cartoony. I’m looking forward to holding one in my hand.

The picture back log

June 21, 2004 in Pictures by matt | No comments

I’ve been accumulating quite a few pictures on my camera of late without downloading them to my computer. I probably have 10 days’ worth of pictures which may not seem like a lot but I know it’s probably around 200 pictures. I’ll probably transfer and put them live tomorrow night or Wednesday night while Marcy is away interviewing. I’m not sure if there will be any memorable pictures in the collection but I’ll post any humourous/good ones here. If you can’t wait you could always jump the gun by going here first.

Old cars

June 15, 2004 in Pictures by matt | No comments

I’m not sure why I like this picture:
May 1st, 2004

I really do like it though. In fact, that whole album was a great time to shoot. I liked discovering new territory and I especially liked photographing the cemetary though I’m always cautious to not upset other people. There are some beautiful cemetaries here in town, I should visit them this summer.

Lisa’s convocation

June 15, 2004 in Family, Food and Pictures by matt | No comments

Marcy and I went to Lisa’s convocation in Guelph this morning.

Thankfully it was in the morning because the afternoon one (which started at 2:30) would have been dreadfully warm. It was in the Gryphon Dome (more impressive if you say it in a “Sunday, Sunday, Sunday” kind of voice). They didn’t turn the fans on though and so once the sun was high enough, the building acted pretty much like a greenhouse.

The convocation was really nice – Annette Haas was there as well my parents and Aunt Pat and Uncle Rob. I even spoke with the Lootsma’s; Eric was graduating in Lisa’s class as well. Jeremy is teaching in Peel Region, an elementary school and Eric is going to teacher’s college in the fall. That is one family of teachers that’s for sure. It would have been nice to see Jeremy but I suppose it’d be hard to take time off from teaching.

I’m proud of Lisa for finishing her degree. I know she’s had some rough patches over the last 5 years.

We’re going back to Guelph this evening for dinner at The Other Brothers. It should be a good time. Marcy said that I’ve been restricted to 100 pictures but I think I’ve gone over that already and if not then I certainly will be after tonight.

Time for a change?

June 14, 2004 in Health and Pictures by matt | No comments

I saw this on the back of a bus a couple of weeks ago:
May 29th, 2004

You usually don’t see the abortion issue as “in-your-face” as this and it’s nowhere near as prevalent as in the United States. Sure there’s a pro-life group (and I don’t particularly like that term) right around the corner from my building. But I don’t see them distributing material every time I walk past them. I sometimes see people picketing in front of the hospital but I don’t see people shooting other people who want to get an abortion. Mostly the abortion issue remains hidden from sight (though that could certainly change after the election).

Another thing that struck me was that that seems like quite a few abortions per year (almost 80,000). Or rather I assume that the number they’re showing there is 2 million instead of 20 million because 20 million would be far too high. Fortunately though I can look at the Statistics Canada website and search for induced abortions and come up with this page. According to that page there were 106,000 abortions in 2001. That translates to about 15 abortions per 1,000 women. I suppose that might seem high when you look at the raw numbers but what the numbers quoted don’t illustrate are the circumstances surrounding these abortions. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your view of the issue), emotions and reasons can’t be boiled down into nice figures that can be splashed on the side of a bus.

Skylight

June 14, 2004 in Kitchener-Waterloo and Pictures by matt | No comments

I can’t emphasize enough how beautiful the sky gets looking from my apartment.

In my picture gallery I have a whole set of what I call “photoessays” on the sky and its brilliant colours. There are about 26 different albums in there and each one is pretty amazing in my honest opinion.

I’ll share a couple of my recent favourites:
June 1st, 2004

June 1st, 2004

May 26th, 2004

May 26th, 2004

Credit cards

June 11, 2004 in Cameras, Marriage and Money by matt | No comments

I have to ask why it takes so long for some companies to process credit card transactions?

Near the end of April I purchased a Canon Powershot G5 (amazing camera) from Henry’s, a camera retailer that has a great selection. I ordered the camera online and it arrived at my apartment on the 24th.

May was pretty crazy with the wedding so I wasn’t surprised to see my credit card balance jump once we got back from our Mini-moon. I assumed (but didn’t check) that the camera transaction was lumped in among the payments.

I log into my online banking this morning and realize that the camera purchase was processed only last Friday. It takes 6 weeks to do this? This seems kind of ridiculous especially since this means that I’m even further behind in terms of getting back to a zero balance. My goal is still to reach that point by next June.

I’ll be ok though – I’ll have the engagement ring and the bed paid off by August so I can start a) saving more of my income and b) putting more down towards my credit card debt.

Wedding photos

June 10, 2004 in Marriage and Pictures by matt | No comments

I’m going through the photos from the wedding ceremony and I’m going to have to cut a lot of them out because they’re just too blurry to be useful. It’s really too bad but there’s nothing that can be done about it now. We still have some of the photos Lisa took, the video footage from Jake (though I have to look at that too) and Rick’s photographs (I hope) to help us remember the day.

Events

June 3, 2004 in Kitchener-Waterloo and Pictures by matt | No comments

It seemed like every event in May was held last weekend. There were so many to choose from that I inevitably felt like I was missing out on something bigger. I went and watched the last event and the entire finals for the Ontario’s Strongest Man competition held here in Kitchener. It was so much fun! I’ve watched more than a few of the World’s Strongest Man competitions on ESPN and although I’m sure the competition is at a much higher level in that event, the competition here was still very strong. The crowd was very enthusiastic (probably owing to the fact that there were 3 people from Kitchener competing).

You can find the pictures that I took (210 in total) here.

Here’s one of my favourite pictures from the events on Sunday – a man struggling to lift an Atlas Stone onto the pedestal:
Atlas Stone

Sometimes Kitchener has some really amazing events. I’m hoping it’s going to be a great summer!

Creating thumbs

June 2, 2004 in Pictures by matt | No comments

Well I finally figured out how to use this script. Once it’s done going through my 9718 pictures the site should be much faster, particularly if people want to view the intermediate-sized images. Then I won’t need to have 40MB “convert” processes running or worse, multiple “convert” processes. I really love the new Gallery but it’s definitely a work-in-progress. I love how each day there could be some new bug fix (or better yet, bug fixes). The CSS still looks pretty horrible in IE but it looks very nice in Mozilla.

The downside: the whole creation of resized-images that I’m undergoing will take approximately 13 26 hours.

Update: The time I had calculated is incorrect as it does 2 hits per image (9718 total) and each 2-hit process takes approximately 10 seconds to complete (if resize is necessary). It’s already stopped once and I hope that I can leave it to run overnight and when I get to work tomorrow everything will be finished. That would be the ideal case but computers don’t seem to run in an ideal world.

I accept!

May 31, 2004 in Pictures by matt | No comments

James, I accept your challenge but in return I offer you a challenge. I think you should take a photo-journey through the non-tourist Niagara Falls (bringing your camera of course). I think it would make a wonderful juxtaposition of pictures between the ones you took yesterday with the Falls and the other set featuring the downtown area. This would be an interesting project for various towns and cities around Ontario – compare and contrast the tourist parts and the resident parts. You could do Niagara Falls, Stratford, Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ottawa, Kingston, all kinds of cities.