Archive for the ‘general’ Category
Bad Font
Aug.05.2010
My son passed this over to me.
Comic Sans is simply a bad font.
Earthquake in Toronto
Jun.28.2010
An earthquake hit Toronto last week and the pictures of the damage are horrific. I hesitated to share this one with you as it is one of the most extreme forms of earthquake damage yet seen in Toronto. But a friend passed this along and the picture must be shown. Tragic.
Feng Shui
Jun.23.2010
A designer came out to our home last night. We have a few things to work on before the wedding guests descend in July and we felt that we needed some outside expertise. The designer loved our home and also loved our uncluttered style of living. I know that this is a surprise to many of you who follow me regularly on the blog, but I am a bit of a neat freak. When we moved to Kingston, we did a lot of purging. Frankly, we still need to do some more. But our house does present a calm, minimalist tone although apparently a bit too much Yang and not enough Yin.
The designer introduced me to the work of Terah Kathryn Collins. She wrote the book The Western Guide to Feng Shui. I will get a copy of her book and last night I was able to read a number of her articles here.
The system itself is a bit more complicated than I originally thought. As you can see from the chart below, it is no easy task to balance design. Our designer had some terrific ideas and I am looking forward to working with her. We start the process on Friday.
Lego Matrix
Jun.15.2010
This video is for my youngest son, Matthew.
Where There Is Smoke
May.24.2010
We were stargazing last night. Beautiful evening. Warm. Night sky was clear. Saturn was within reach of the telescope. It was so cool to see the rings of Saturn.
Then the sky became less clear. And a certain smell became apparent. Smoke!
We live on a rural property with about 7 acres of heavily wooded land. At 11pm at night, willows of smoke drifting up to the house was not a good sign. Where was the fire? Was it somewhere on the property?
We grabbed a cell phone, flashlights and began walking through the property. It was actually a bit scary. The smoke created a thinly visible fog — everything seemed strange and unfamiliar. After about twenty minutes of hiking through the land, we could find no fire. Lots of smoke. But no fire.
Could it be coming from another property? Lorraine and I headed out to the street and began walking east. Sure enough, there was a fire. Adjacent to a neighbour’s house. I held the beam of a very powerful flashlight on the fire until someone stood up and walked toward the light. Granted, the firepit was about 300 feet or so in from the road. As soon as I saw a person attending the fire, I turned off the flashlight and we headed back home.
Odd that a small campfire would generate so much smoke. Not so odd was the feeling of anxiety over seeing and smelling all of that smoke late at night.
Of course, it is the long week-end. Everything is so quiet here that even when someone nearby has an outdoor event, there is no noise. At least not coming from humans. The noise from the wildlife was almost deafening. A forest is rarely quiet at night. When there is smoke, the forest changes. Not for the better.
Dial Tone
May.19.2010
Off for this week. Regular blogging will resume on Friday.
The House Always Wins
May.04.2010
“What was that noise?”
It was 6am. And a sound similar to a loud gunshot reverberated in the air. It turns out that the sound originated from an impact collision. A ruffled grouse flew at a high rate of speed directly into one of the front windows of the house. The impact killed the bird.
He was prone on the front entrance of our home. A beautiful bird and I felt very badly that it was dead.
Bird-window crashes are unfortunately quite common. I have read estimates that suggest up to one billion birds are killed each year in the United States. Yes. One billion.
The bird strike at our home is not the first one. There were several last year. Always on the same window. I suspect that the reflection of the trees gets painted on this particular window and it fools the bird into thinking that there is open space. If there are continued bird strikes on the window, I may need to consider putting some form of covering to reduce the reflection.
épater le bourgeois
May.02.2010
épater le bourgeois is a French phrase that became a rallying cry for the French Decadent poets of the late 19th century including Baudelaire and Rimbaud. It means to shock the middle-classes.
A new phrase for me as I did not follow the French Decadent poets of the late 19th century. Decadent writers used elaborate, stylized language to discuss taboo and often unsavory topics, such as death, depression, and deviant sexualities.
Solo Ride
Apr.26.2010
I’m not a big fan of group rides. I prefer to set my own pace and draw my own line when I ride. I prefer to ride solo.
When I was actively racing, many years ago now, I would frequently ride in packs. I used to do weekly rides with the cycling club and daily club training rides along Lakeshore Boulevard in Montreal. I learned how to set a group pace and how to lead a group ride and I learned how to race a bike. Racing is a very different experience. And, now that I am a bit older, I find that I do not miss the racing experience at all.
Over the week-end, I had a chance to ride a 25km loop with my future son-in-law. First time I have cycled with someone else in years. I called 25-27 km/h for the pace and we managed an average pace of 26 km/h with a maximum of 44 km/h. My computer does not track a minimum but we held to about 18 km/h on the longer, higher grades. For the most part, a solid class B pace.
My future son-in-law had no issues with the pace and I think we enjoyed a great ride together. It certainly was one of those picture perfect mornings. Beautiful sunshine. Little in the way of wind. Nice country ride. Comfortable temperature. Only a few cars.
Great memory.
I have collected pictures of some of the most stunning recording studios in the world and you can travel through the set by clicking 
