Overpass near Montreal collapses
I can't say that I am too surprised. There was a story on this a few years back on the CBC after pieces of another overpass fell off. Must be the same people who made the Olympic Stadium!
9/30/2006
9/29/2006
"You Can't handle the Truth"
Leslie pointed me to this article from the Guardian that comments on a recent edition of Newsweek. The covers for the world editions (Europe, Asia, Latin America), show an Afghani fighter with the headline "Losing Afghanistan". The US edition shows photographer Annie Leibotwitz with some kids.
9/27/2006
This World of Water
One of the powerful things about the internet is that it allows you to verify the existence of things so remote in your past that you sometimes wonder whether they ever existed at all, or are just something you've concocted out of scrambled memories. Here is a perfect example. When I was around 12 or 13 years old and living in Daharan, Saudi Arabia, I caught a deadly fever. I was hallucinating. I saw these geometric glowing figures that talked and moved in strange ways. Everyone was quite worried. I was put on antibiotics which no doubt saved my life.
During the next few days I lay in bed and listened to the BBC feed that came over Radio Bahrain. One song I recall was about water and dolphins perhaps. In anycase I was still in enough of a brain freak state that any song I listened to on the radio appeared before me in vivid reality, or perhaps a better way to explain it was that I was inside the landscape of the song. Me the song, what was the difference. there wasn't one at the time as far as I'm concerned. I only ever heard the song once, but it's seered into my brain and tonight I stumbled upon it on YouTube. There was a video made at the dawn of the video age and here it is. It's called This World of Water by a band called New Musik from an album called From A to B (Straight lines). My trip inside the song, by the way, was much more impressive than this.
During the next few days I lay in bed and listened to the BBC feed that came over Radio Bahrain. One song I recall was about water and dolphins perhaps. In anycase I was still in enough of a brain freak state that any song I listened to on the radio appeared before me in vivid reality, or perhaps a better way to explain it was that I was inside the landscape of the song. Me the song, what was the difference. there wasn't one at the time as far as I'm concerned. I only ever heard the song once, but it's seered into my brain and tonight I stumbled upon it on YouTube. There was a video made at the dawn of the video age and here it is. It's called This World of Water by a band called New Musik from an album called From A to B (Straight lines). My trip inside the song, by the way, was much more impressive than this.
9/26/2006
It's late and I should be in bed, especially because I have a noggin full of gooey sickness. A September soupy sickness. It's cold and I'm wearing the comfy green wool socks my love knit for me. Fall has come early (or is it just that I'm late from Summer). The leaves are all crunchy like cornflakes and the air sifts the smell of smoke from wood burning stoves. I'm looking forward to John, Sharon' and Victors return to Ottawa. It was last year at this exact same time that they came to visit.
9/24/2006
OpenOffice
Having recently purchased a new computer I've spent a good number of hours installing software. One thing I've decided to do with this machine is to try substituting Microsoft Office with Sun Microsystems OpenOffice.Here's how it's described at Snapfiles.com
OpenOffice is a free, Open Source alternative to MS Office with a Word compatible word processor, a complete Excel compatible spread sheet program and a Power Point like presentation software and drawing program and also allows to save to PDF file. In addition, it offers enhanced printing capabilities and options for direct connection with external email software as well as form-letter management to send letters to addresses in a database. Also included are Indexing functions, a layout manager, third-party import filters, HTML export capability and a context-sensitive html editor. OpenOffice also includes a variety of graphics tools and manipulation options as well as slideshow support and an option to create "portable" presentations. If you are looking for a free office suite, don t miss to take a look at this one - you ll be impressed!It can open word, excel and power pont documents as well as save them in those formats so it's perfectly compatible with MS Office files, so far as I can tell. If your interested in trying it out or making the switch you can find it here>>. It's free to download.
Right On Maude
A while ago I was trying to explain to someone who grew up in the 80s (okay it's Leslie) who Maude was. It wasn't easy. Times have changed too much. Here you go Leslie, maybe this will help you understand the woman they called Maude, but probably not. She's far too complex. you'd really need to take a course.
This next clip is of the cataclismic confrontation between TVs loveable bigot Archie Bunker and the ever righteous Maude. Archie wants his chair but maude ain't givinn' it up without a fight. Right on Maude! Now I'm probably going to have to explain who Archie bunker was.
This next clip is of the cataclismic confrontation between TVs loveable bigot Archie Bunker and the ever righteous Maude. Archie wants his chair but maude ain't givinn' it up without a fight. Right on Maude! Now I'm probably going to have to explain who Archie bunker was.
9/19/2006
The Ottawa Valley
This was taken from the Champlain Lookout in the Gatineaus and overlooks the Ottawa Valley around Eardley
Click for a larger view
Click for a larger view
9/10/2006
Is it an Urban Legend if it's True?
snopes.com is a well established web site that has investigated the veracity of hundreds of urban legends. While most urban legends fall into the category of imaginative storytelling, in some cases what sounds like a tall tale turns out to be true. Here are some examples of urban legends all of them are true except one. Can you spot it? I didn't think so.
Lemmings were induced into jumping off a cliff for this Disney nature film.
The Marlboro Man died of lung cancer.
Blood from KISS band members was mixed with the red ink used to print the first KISS comic book.
A vengeful co-worker made it his practice to urinate into the office coffee pot.
A lawyer demonstrating the safety of windows in a skyscraper crashed through and plunged to his death.
A Texas woman who cast her vote for all Democratic candidates discovered her ballot marked for Bush/Cheney.
The "Hanging man" in funhouse turned out to be corpse of an outlaw.
A golfer was fatally poisoned after chewing on his tee.
The "Dell Dude" lost his job because of a drug bust.
Kryptonite brand locks can be picked with ordinary Bic pens.
Porn star Marilyn Chambers appeared on the Ivory Snow box.
Joe Namath is not on the List
For your convenience here's a list from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration of prohibited items from flights on American flights >>.
As of the date of this posting it is okay to bring a Dell laptop on board (just leave the ammo at home).
As of the date of this posting it is okay to bring a Dell laptop on board (just leave the ammo at home).
9/09/2006
Joe Namath Drunk
Just because it's a lazy Saturday afternoon here's a clip of a wasted Joe Namath saying he wants to kiss a female broadcaster.
9/04/2006
Bits of Summer Part One
Bits of summer is a series of photos in which all the elements are taken from the same photo and arranged to take a look at things in a different way. Texture, colour, contrast and form are all put in a strip that gives the eye a new context with which to look.
