Tempus Fugit

Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies

Posts

  • News Photographer with NowPublic

    Out of the blue I got an email from NowPublic. According to their “about us page”

    NowPublic is a participatory news network which mobilizes an army of reporters to cover the events that define our world. In twelve short months, the company has become one of the fastest growing news organizations with over 15,000 reporters in 130 countries. During Hurricane Katrina, NowPublic had more reporters in the affected area than most news organizations have on their entire staff.

    NowPublic Technologies, Inc. is a Vancouver-based company. The company owns and operates NowPublic.com, which showcases its platform for citizen journalism. Learn more about the site, our management team, our advisors or contact us with your comments or questions.

    They requested the use of three of my Flickr pictures from a recent trip to the Kennedy Space Center where I had taken some photographs of the shuttle Discovery on the launch pad. They wanted to use the pictures in conjunction with the story about the foam coating coming off the external fuel tank. Since the trip to KSC and getting high speed Internet at the lake I’ve been following the shuttle launch with a little more interest than usual.

    So, does this make me a published news photographer? – The photo credit is as Big Dadoo, my Flickr name.

    After two scrubs it would be great if they could launch on July 4th and mark the day as the Return to Space Flight.

  • Riding at the Lake


    The Ride
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    Unfortunately the ride at the lake doesn’t look like this. The picture is from last years Maah Daah Hey trip (pictures), but the bike is still the one that gets me around. I figure that this year I’ll have logged over 10,000km on this bike since I purchased it in 2000.

    This morning it’s overcast and a little cool at about 20C, a nice temperature for a ride. I went over to Rushing River Provincial Park which is just under 20km, but this is not the flat road riding of Manitoba. First there is getting out to the highway from our cottage with  lots of hills. On the way out the longest and steepest climb is the one out of the gravel pit. I still remember the first time I tried this when the bike was new and I was still getting used to clipless pedals. About 2/3 of the way up I ran “out of gas” and stalled and didn’t clip out fast enough and just fell over right in the middle of the road. Well, things have improved and while the hill was still a grind, there was no stalling or falling off.

    The highway ride is not too bad, if you ignore the traffic. The shoulders are wide in 17 and most folks move over to give you some extra space, which is always appreciated. After the turn th 71, the shoulder narrows a bit but the traffic is lighter and going a little slower too. After 45min. I’m looping around the park. With the cooler weather there is nobody on the beach or in the lake and several campers are packing up. After a look at the river and an almond snack, it’s back in the saddle. Now there is a head wind and some of the long grades uphill are seeming a little tougher.

    Some of my gear selections are starting to slip and skip. I know there is a little bit of excessive cross chaning in the selection, but this never used to be a problem. Must be time for a bit of a tune-up.

    Pretty uneventful trip, no wildlife sightings, no road kill, no interesting objects on the side of the road, just the steady whir of the knobby tires on the road and some time to think.

  • I feel the need, the need for speed.




    Antenna

    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    I’ve always like that line from Top Gun.

    This weekend we put an new addition on the cottage, a little antenna. The little antenna connects us to a big tower just down the road. Thankfully, we can’t see this big tower as it’s a bit on an eye sore, so out of place at the lake, just like so many other cell phone towers plunked around the world. But, here we are supporting this kind of thing. Anyway, this big tower connects us to somewhere in Kenora which in turn connects us onto the Internet.

    Lets face it, once you become accustomed to high speed Internet access there is no going back to dial-up, well only under extreme duress.

    The verdict is still out as to if this was such a good idea. It has it’s pluses. I uploaded some large photo files to Flickr, checked on the Shuttle launch and plan to watch the Sunday attempt. I can work from the lake. Hmm, is that good or bad? There is the temptation to while away hours online instead of disconnecting and enjoying being un-plugged. Oh well, time will tell.

  • Happy Canada Day




    Canada Day Spirit

    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    We’re enjoying Canada Day on beautiful Lake of the Woods and yesterday, while we were in Kenora, I decided to get more in the spirit of things and do a little flag waving.

    Last night there was quite a strong storm with lots of rain but things settled down over night and we boated into Kenora this morning to catch some of the harbor side festivities that were taking place. Lots of folks out enjoying the day and the weather cooperating. a nice mix of sun & cloud, warm an a light breeze.

    We took an untraveled route back from Kenora, investigating a couple of narrow passages and are going to hang out at the dock for a while with a good book.

    Enjoy the day Canada, eh!

  • To iPod or not to iPod

    I’ve been thinking for some time about buying an iPod, but it hasn’t happened yet, probably for a couple of reasons.

    One certainly is the price. At $349 for the 30gb video iPod + taxes + the required accessories like a case, dock, FM transmitter etc. this couple be a $500+ purchase. Seems like a lot for portable music.

     But, I like my music and I subscribe to a couple of podcasts and while riding the bike or walking it would be kind of nice. Plus I like the toys and this one certainly has the “cool-factor” going for it, perhaps too much, everybody has got one.

    That lead to the next reason why I’m hesitating. Ever notices about how the web is big on building community as we sit in isolation looking at a little screen and interacting with people at a distance? I know I’m guilty. Next time you’re out and about, look at the people you pass. How many have those little white buds tucked in their ears? If it’s not that, how about the cell phone. Everybody seems to need to plug into something other that where they are and who they are with. Have you seen couples waling together where one or more of them are plugged into the little white device? I have, many times. The one that really gets me is the guy & girl walking together and he’s plugged in and she’s talking to him. Is he paying attention? I think not. That will cause trouble down the road buddy, trust me.

    So, there is the appeal, perhaps the need to have the toys that all the others have. I can almost justify it for listening to work related podcasts and at IBM we’re really cranking them out. Everything recorded is being pushed out as a podcast. However when the voice says “as you can see on slide 23…” the podcast starts to fall apart and you know that some folks really don’t get the full podcast picture, but that’s another story.

    Maybe I’ll just borrow my son’s Nano from time to time and get my iPod fix that way. Free is good.

    Technorati Tags: ipod, podcast

  • New template & stuff

    You may have noticed the new look, I hope so as it’s quite different and a big improvement over the old theme. The new theme is Alexified and it’s working out great. Now the theme colours match my bike!

    The previous theme was working OK in Firefox, but one day I looked at the blog in IE and OH MY, what a mess! There must have been some evil CSS or non-compliant or for sure non-IE friendly stuff in that theme. Rather that figure it out, I switched, it’s easier and more fun.

    On another note, after being all excited about Pandora I’m now having a listen to last.FM. It’s a little early to tell but it’s interesting and has a plugin that tracks what I play in iTunes. Hey, that might be a bad thing eh? Where are the privacy police when you need them. Pandora still has the browser simplicity going for it and has served up some pretty good tunes. I’m still pretty keen on the Squeezebox connection, that looks so sweet.

  • He came all the way

    I’ve been reading the Purpose Driven Life daily devotionals via email, and they are all quite good. Today’s especially hit home, perhaps because I can relate all too well to the authors “peace at all costs” strategy. But the final paragraph really make me stop in my tracks and take some extra time to think about what I was reading. It must have something to do with where I am personally but you probably know the feeling. You see or read something and it has an impact on your heart, a deep down impact that is kind of hard to explain, that makes you stop and think in that special way.

    I’m so grateful that “He came all the way” for me.

    Purpose Driven Life

    If there is a chasm in a relationship, you may have to reach further than you thought to establish peace. You can’t always count on the other person meeting you somewhere in the middle. Thank goodness God didn’t meet us halfway or he’d still be waiting there for us. That’s much too far for us to reach. God did the only thing that could bridge the chasm between us. He came all the way.

  • Quick Trip & Father’s Day

    We made a quick trip out to the lake this weekend going out Friday at about 5pm and back for the Father’s Day service at church on Sunday at 11:30 am. The weather was great at the lake and very hot until late Saturday night when the temperature dropped back into the high teens. This was one of the rare times when we actually ran the air conditioner non-stop for 24hrs. I’m normally a purist at the lake preferring to just deal with the heat by spending more time in the lake, but it was quite nice for sleeping on Friday hight when the humidity was thru the roof.

    Eric & Dez were out and we enjoyed a great sun tanning day on Saturday with them. I took care of the last few “opening up” tasks by fixing the gear shift of the outboard, the one I broke putting the motor on the boat this year. It’s interesting how after doing the same thing for over 25 years, one year you can get a different result. For some reason the tilt mechanism jammed up a bit just as I was lowering the outboard onto the transom of the boat. Instead of investigating I forced the throttle into Forward gear (required to get it to tilt up for the install) but instead of that working there was this funny little “pop” sound as the linkage broke under the hood. Well after being given the wrong part a couple of weeks ago and only finding out last weekend, I got the correct part this week and everything went back together just fine and all is good.

    Father’s Day service at church was very good, and quite an elaborate production with several special events. It’s also interesting how a day that is set aside to value, honor and affirm fathers can cause you to  think  a lot about where you’ve been in your own personal journey as a dad. Not only the things you did that were good and right but also the things you did or didn’t do where there are regrets. On of the best bits of advise I heard this morning when you’re thinking like that is Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV)

    13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

    I’ve been blessed with two wonderful sons whom I love, respect and I am very proud of them both. As they get older I tend to think that they need me less and less as they are so much more independent (I guess that’s a good thing as one is married).However, I’m reminded that once a father always a father and no mater what the age or what has happened or not happened to date I can always strive to be a better father to my children in days ahead.

    The best is yet to come, Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads.

  • Dr. Doom & Friend


    Dr. Doom & Friend

    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    The last night of the Rational Conference in Orlando, Florida and we’re at the Universal Studio’s Islands of Adventure. On the way in a couple of characters are posing for pictures. This one made me laugh.

    Back in Winnipeg a couple of days ago while walking by a store in a mall, I had another good laugh. This just struck me for some odd reason as being very hilarious. The store was selling t-shirts with funny sayings on them and behind that rack, there was a display of door mats, each with a saying written on it. One simply said,

    Hi,
    I’m Mat


  • Art of Possibility

    The entire Rational Conference just became very very worthwhile. While the conference it self has been good and the sessions covering a wide range of topics have been excellent, this mornings presentation by Benjamin Zander was outstanding.

    While most conferences will have a motivational or featured speaker, I think in the long term, this one will be different. In his presentation he positioned his talk as transformational rather that motivational, likening motivational talks to Chinese food, a few hours later and you’re hungry for more. With me, thinking back over the last several conferences there are few I can recall and fewer that made a lasting impact. Actually, I remember one keynote speaker at Lotusphere a few year back when they had Gene Kranz the flight director on the Apollo 13 mission who established the phrase “Failure is not an option”. This may be because I was at the Kennedy Space Center this week and they use that phrase heavily on their merchandising in the store.

    Zander’s highly energetic and yes motivational presentation got me to but the book and I’ve read half of it on the plane back to Winnipeg, and it’s great stuff.