Miscellaneous

Magnolia II

A couple of months ago, I went on a quest at City Hall to find out the name of this flower. I’d taken the photo back in the winter of 2010 and had no idea what kind of flower it was. My niece was painting it for her art class, and the instructor wanted to know what it was called. Apparently this variety of Magnolia is not common in Australia.

Luckily the security guards and gardeners at City Hall are great folks, and I had my answer in just a few minutes. I passed the info along to my niece and forgot about it.

After finishing her painting, my niece was nice enough to send me a print for Xmas. I’ve put the photo and the painting together in a quick diptych here to illustrate her work. Not bad, eh? I hope to see more of it as time goes on.

Heh, she’s looking for some animal shots now that she’s mastering flowers. Guess I’ll have to get a longer lens in the new year…….. (evil grin).

I’ve tried drawing and painting, and decided I have no talent in those arts. Kudos to those that can master the subtleties involved. A local artist with a lot of the skills is Rain Longston, and you can see some of her realistic painting work on Flickr.

Winding Down for the Holidays

Pretty much everything is set for Xmas, and I seem to be entering ‘holiday mode’.

I went out to finish off a couple of errands today, but after that, things disintegrated to an afternoon of gaming with Call of Duty – World at War and then Angry Birds.

I’m going to try and keep the entries up here over the holidays, but there may be a day or two where I’m remiss. But you know what, that’s ok.

As an old friend and coworker once said, “It just doesn’t matter”. in the big picture, that’s so true of most things if you think about it.

So if I miss it on the day – Merry Christmas all. See you on the other side.

The Best Kind of Bootstrapping

Starting a business takes money; there’s no way around that. You need money for licenses, a website, marketing materials, office supplies and just plain living expenses, as you build up your clientele. That’s why most coaches suggest that while you are working, you should build up a reserve of 6 months to a year of cash to live on. When you leave your job, you can then use those funds to get things up and running.

That’s good advice.

Sometimes though, you get a little boost from an unexpected source. Over the last couple of days, I spent some time catching up with the pocket change I toss in a jar at the end of the day. I usually wrap it up once a year and take it to the bank, and it often adds up to a couple of hundred bucks. That comes in handy around Xmas.

This time though, I found quite a stash. I guess I’ve been remiss for the last couple of years or so. I actually found a couple of extra jars that I totally forgot I had. Seems at some point, I’d moved a jar or two off the top of the dresser and into a chest beside the dresser. Guess I wanted to make them less conspicuous for some reason or other and forgot they were there.

Anyway, after wrapping coins for a couple of hours a day over a couple of days, I ended up with a lot of rolls of change. So much in fact, that they were too heavy for me to get them all to the bank at once.

After two trips, turns out there was over $1200 total, and that’s now deposited in the bank earning (minuscule) interest.

What’s not to like about that? I can use most of it to bootstrap my business.

There should be a little bit for my Xmas present too. Don’t ya think?

Oh My

The SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) could be passed soon down in the states, and, according to reports, end the internet as we know it. It’s scary that the folks in charge of passing it freely admit knowing nothing about the internet. Some seem rather proud of that fact. Sick, don’t you think?

Dear Leader has died in Korea and his son, a total unknown, is now in power, getting guidance from who knows who in the army. Oh well, what’s to worry. It’s just another rogue nation (with a nuclear bomb) trying to find itself in the world.

And last but not least, the angry birds are losing out to the pigs in this house lately, causing no end of angst. Those three star levels are getting harder and harder, and two stars just doesn’t seem to cut it anymore.

Hopefully we can change things around to where saner folks are heard and the pig resistance isn’t quite so strong.

In the meantime, I really need to get out and take some pictures soon. #listeningtotoomuchnews

Angry Birds Challenge

I’ve been playing Angry Birds for some time now. Unfortunately, I wasn’t paying attention to how many stars I got on each level. I was just happy to complete the levels successfully.

I’ve gone back to the beginning of Angry Birds HD on my iPad to see if I can complete the whole thing with 3 stars on each level. So far I’ve managed to do it for Poached Eggs.

#sillythingspeopledo

The Social Graph Expands

I have this on and off relationship with Facebook. For some reason, I just don’t get the interface. I like the idea and the potential, but it’s just never clicked with me.

That may have changed.

I have some old friends that I’ve known since elementary school. We’ve drifted together and apart at various times of our lives and for some reason, I started thinking about them a couple of months ago.

What do you know. A few days ago, the son contacted me through Facebook and we friended each other. I didn’t see it at the time because of FB’s stupid algorithms that decide who’s messages you should see, but he also left me a message along with the friend request. I just found it tonight.

Further inspection of his info page, turned up the FB addy of his mom, one of the dear friends of old. We’ll see if she responds to the friend request I sent today. It would be really good to catch up again. Then again, it’s not like I’m a stranger. I could just pick up the phone and say hi 😉 We’ll see.

This will be the first time I’ve actually found someone I knew from the past via FB (ok, technically they’ve found me, but hey). I’ve tried, but people just haven’t shown up in search when I’ve looked. Go figure. Like I said, me and the interface just don’t seem to jive.

Perhaps I’ll have to try harder and see if I can figure out what I’m missing. Of course by then, they’ll probably have changed things around again. Sigh.

Reflecting the (Life) Stream

Today we have another reflection photo, from the same stream as the earlier photo from Green Timbers Park – just a different spot. I include it ’cause it’s kind of a reflective time of year, and because life just seems to be streaming by (groan, weak joke, I know).

Anyway, December and January tend to be when people think about the year past and the year ahead and to make their plans accordingly. There is a short lull in the business world, so it’s a good time to assess your goals and figure out why you accomplished them, or not.

That’s what I’ll be doing for the rest of the month, looking at what went well in 2011 and what didn’t. Then I can make some plans for 2012. This year has been a disrupted one for your’s truly, so a bit of reflection is in order. It’s time to move forward and get a few things done in 2012 that I didn’t get done this year. There are probably also a few new things to add to the ‘do’ list that weren’t there in 2011. Can’t wait to find out what they are 😉

Do you do anything similar over the New Year’s break, or do you do something similar at another time of the year? Do you have a favourite process that take you through it? If so, care to share?

More tc

A Shell of a Car

Or is that a car of shells?

If you’re out and about in Surrey, usually near the beaches, you might just see this small, crafty car. The shot above is a close up showing the wonderful detail of the hood.

Pretty much every inch of the car is covered with shells, or glass beads of some kind. Very creative.

Here’s the entire car, parked in the lot at Crescent Beach this last summer. Local art at its finest.

Creating a 20th Century Trail Network

Over the last few years, the City of Surrey has been developing networks of bikeways and walkways to encourage people to get out of their cars. Last summer, they finished off a couple of critical links in the form of bridges, one in South Surrey, and one in the Tynehead Park area of North Surrey.

Both bridges have a modern, striking design with colourful, animated lights. They cross over highways and let pedestrians and cyclists avoid the crazy-busy roads in the area. This bridge, near Tynehead Park, crosses Highway 1 and links up the residential areas to the north.

By all reports, the bridges are well received, and will do a lot to link up any future development in the areas north and south of the highway. In the meantime, they make great camera fodder 😉

Catch up for the month

Ok, I noticed tonight that if I spent a little less time on Angry Birds, I’d probably have more time to write for my NaBloWriMo effort through November.

Ah, decisions and priorities……