I was cleaning the kitchen counter the other day and saw this…
and for some reason I immediately thought of this..
What does it mean? Pareodolia or Apophenia?
Category: Uncategorized
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Teaching a dog a new trick
Cooper, Dez & Eric’s dog, learned a new trick the other day. During a break from home renovations on a nice warm afternoon, Dez turns on the hose and Cooper’s curiosity leads her to a nice cool drink. More photos here.
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A reminder
I was cutting he grass yesterday and the lawnmower ran out of gas. No problem, I’ve got a gas can in the shed. The picture is my gas can for the lawnmower. But, it’s not your average gas can. It’s not a hunk of red plastic from Canadian Tire, made in China by a machine or some unknown person.
This gas can was made by my Grandpa Stewart. I have no idea how old it it, but it’s been around as long as I can remember. Add the parts were made by Grandpa by hand. Sheet metal rolled and formed by hand, soldered together by hand. The wood handle turned on a lathe. The knurled brass caps, turned on a metal lathe. And here it is, in my shed, still working just fine after 50+ year. I doubt that any plastic gas can will stand this test of time. Oh, it will still be around, in a land fill somewhere, because that plastic is never going away, but I’ll bet it won’t be in use.
Another thing the plastic gas can won’t do is bring back memories. Ever time I touch this gas can I remember my Dad and my Grandpa and what great men they were and what a great legacy they left me and a wonderful deposit they made in my life.
Thanks for the gas can.
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Happy Birthday Scott
We’re so proud of the young man you’ve become. Happy Birthday. The best is yet to come.
Love,
Mom & Dad
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FOG #2
Today was the second ride of the year for me with the FOG cycling club. It went a lot better that the first ride. Today we did the full route of about 95km and I made it a lot farther that the first time before I thought I’d throw up and die on the side of the road. However, once we left Birds Hill park and were returning on Hwy 59 it was a real struggle. My speed drooped into the 20-25 kph range and all I could think about was making it back. Speaking of dropped, of course the rest of the group powered away, but a special thanks to Dan who hung with me, keeping me company all the way back despite several of my offers that he could just leave me.
The cycle commuting to work has defiantly helped, but there is still a ways to go before I’m back in the kind of shape I was in at the end of last season. These winter layoffs are killers. Note to self – more training in the off season.
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Bikini Booty Camp
I’m in Toronto today attending a conference on Monday & Tuesday, so I flew in extra early (6:15am red-eye flight) to enjoy the day. It was sunny and quite warm so I walked along the harbour front, for a very long way. Actually, I walked for most of the day and now I’m quite tired, and little sunburned.
I was taking photos along the way and this poster on a lamp post had me do a double take. I’ve heard of boot camp, but booty camp? Hmmm.
The reset of the photos are here.
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Dollhouses at the Home Show
This weekend was the Home Show in Winnipeg ant I took it in this afternoon. Lots of stuff, and lots of people. I normally skip this show, but there was somebody I knew with a very unique product exhibiting this year. Henry Hiebert is a master builder and the father of our soon to be daughter in law, Mandi. I’d seen Scott & Mandi put together the Heirlooms by EMRL web site and design some brochures for the show, and I was really interested in seeing these dollhouse in person. Some additional photos.
They are incredible! And wow, do they interest women of all ages. His young lady was immediately drawn to the dollhouse and instantly started re-arranging the furniture. Hmmm, that sounds familiar… like “just a little to the left, no too much back just a 1/4 of an inch, actually I think it looked better against the other wall, can you move it over there?” She would have spent the rest of the day there but her mom, pulled her away.
The rest of the show was quite interesting and since were considering some home renovations, I picked up a couple of brochures and a few ideas. On the way out, I stopped by the Advanced Home Entertainment display area. Big mistake. Have you seen the 112″ plasma HDTV for a mere $75,000? Perhaps not just yet. As about the same size, and for my taste the Sony projection unit against a screen was even better. The quality was outstanding, the viewing angle amazing, and I didn’t even know it was projection until somebody walked in front of the projector and caused a shadow in the screen. Projection has come a long way.
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Renovations
The renovations are on at Eric & Dez’s new home and I spent Saturday working with them. We’re having lots of fun and it’s great to be able to help out and do something creative and unrelated to the normal day to day activities.
The basement has been fully cleared to the outside walls and lots and lots of cool wallpaper has been peeled away already. Today’s focus was on this wall. or should I say “former” wall. One end of the wall has been removed and the other side has been opened up to create an interior window between the kitchen and living room. The electrical in the new wall has been installed and other older wiring removed. Eric had a little fun up in the attic as we strung new wiring to the kitchen lights. It’s quite dusty up there and he was wearing a dust mask that made him sound like Darth Vader.
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Garbage Mosaic
While listening to a podcast this morning I noticed that the “Album Art” in iTunes was a mosaic of a photo that I was quite familiar with, which inspired this effort, my first photo mosaic. After a very quick search I randomly selected AndreaMosaic as the first tool I’d try. It’s easy to use, fairly fast and seems to have lots of options to explore for controlling the output. Perhaps I’ll try a few more.
Of course I was working out while listening to the podcast, which is my normal pattern. Get up, head down to my home office/gym, fire up the Daily Source Code, and do a routine of crunches and Bowflex. Well, with the current tennis elbow issues, most arm exercises are currently off my list, so it’s primarily a leg workout. This is good for cross country skiing and keeping in shape for the cycling season. But even holding onto 20lb dumbbells while doing squats aggravates my right arm. I hope I can get this resolved soon, but it’s taking quite a long time so far.
