The Best Comparisons. Ever

.....it was as abominable as a plate of scabs peeled from between the toes of a llama.

dooce

I don't know how she does it, but dooce manages to create the most visual similes. EVER.

technorati tags:similes, dooce

Blogged with Flock

Creating Art...

The wiz and i have been struggling for the past few weeks on what sort of art to have in our first "dining room".  Sounds strange, but true.

We looked all over - but it didn't seem right - finding a piece of art, be it a painting or photography or whatever, that didn't mean as much to us, as to the person who created it. And then i found art.com.

Where there are thousands of prints and reproductions, but even better - you can upload something that YOU created, and they will reproduce it on canvas. YOUR ORIGINAL ART. ON CANVAS. FOR CHEAP.

We picked a photograph i took from our old front door, of the marina in Toronto.  It means something. it has value to us.

I can't wait for it to arrive!!!

technorati tags:art, art.com

Blogged with Flock

Where Abandonned Blogs go to Die....

bLaugh

Very apropos. How many of you have lonely abandonned blogs pining away, looking for love?  I've got a bit of a bad habit of creating a new blog every time a new platform comes out.

Yes, i've got live journal (4 blogs), WordPress (2 blogs), Blogger (2 blogs)... and not to mention all the zillions of accounts on every new web 2.0 app. I need to recycle more.

technorati tags:dead blogs

Rainy and Sniffley...

.... ack. Going on day 5 of what could be the cold of the decade.  How I managed to stay so silly healthy for the past 5 years, and one trip out of province brings me to my knees... boggles the mind.

Up all night, up all day, over medicated, under medicated. Can't afford to be dopey during the day, and the night coughs laugh at the cough medicine shooters I have imbibed.

I sound like the Sea Lions of San Francisco (not the sports team), barking and coughing.

Throw me a fish, will ya.

technorati tags:sick, Sealions

Terror on the Great Lakes?

The United States Coast Guard have started to patrol the Great Lakes with machine guns mounted on their vessels and are conducting live-ammunition training drills on the U.S. side to prepare officers to combat terrorists flooding across the border from Canada by boat.

globeandmail.com : Great Lakes machine guns raise ire in Canada

Yeow - and this isn't even a joke. The idea that the US can "practice" military manoeuvers on the Great Lakes is utter nonsense.  Are these people out to lunch?  Practice on your own damn private military lake. 

C'mon over to the cottage for a beer, but leave the bullets at home.

technorati tags:US Military Great Lakes

Toronto Island Airport Gets New Airline

Travellers in Toronto will be able to begin booking charter flight reservations with Porter Airlines in the coming days now that the company has won approval to make the Toronto Island Airport its home base.The airline will begin offering round-trip service to Ottawa beginning in mid-October. Fare and schedule information have not yet been released. The private airline also plans on offering short-haul flights to other destinations in Canada and the United States.The airline said Tuesday it had received an Air Operator Certificate from Transport Canada and a licence from the Canadian Transportation Agency, an independent quasi-judicial tribunal.

Porter Airlines approved for take-off from Toronto Island Airport

I will take this as another good reason to move off the Quay.  New airlines at the airport, helicopters at Ontario Place... entirely too many fireworks for the average human (and neurotic dog).  The folks who live at the edge of the city, along the water live there for a reason.  The water, the peaceful vistas and the occasional magical storm. Now, noise makes it difficult to find the calm.

I would imagine the community groups are completely up in arms now. When we were leaving, they were aready planning to storm Ontario Place and take the helicopter pilot hostage.

Did i mention how quiet is is in Oak Ridges?

:-)

technorati tags:Toronto Island Airport, Noise Pollution Toronto

Building a Wireless Farm

In Southwestern Ontario, there's a black hole where no highspeed internet shall traverse.  No amount of fixed wireless, nor cable, not even a squeaky DSL line can penetrate. Despite the benefit of having an 80 ft silo on the property, there isn't a provider who can get connectivity to AQB Farms.

Really - I've been researching the problem for over 3 years now.  Almost got close with Execulink's fixed wireless, alas, the line of sight requirement alluded us.  Barret Explorer's Satellite service is our last hope - the alternative - holding our breath and waiting for BELL to appear, despite CRTC mandated rural broadband service, is unappealing.

So - 2 way satellite isn't the fastest, but it's faster than 56k dialup. It's more expensive than cable or DSL, but that's likely related to the hardware investments needed.

I've been kicking around an idea, as there are 3 houses on AQB Farms, and all want high speed internet,  but all are more than 200 ft away from each other. Picking a more expensive Satellite package, and splitting it among the 3 houses would be ideal...This translates to the need for wireless networking, and wireless accesspoints, to get the signal to where it wants to go.

I need to find wireless accesspoints that can live outside, and behave properly.  And getting power to them is going to be no easy trick either.

Ayone else have experience with building a mini wifi mesh outside?

technorati tags:wifi mesh, Appin, AQB Farms, Wreless access points

Where the Heck are These People Coming from?

.... not to be too self-depricating, but this has been the lamest 15 days in my life of blogging.  Between being busy, and being away, and being distracted, I haven't written a worthwhile bit in entirely too long.  And of course, the subscriber numbers are falling faster than the autumn temperatures in nortern ontario.

But the traffic is going bonkers.

Alas Internet.  There is no rhyme or reason to you.

technorati tags:blogging, traffic

the daily walk... in Oil Paint...

Art.com - Photos in to Art - Photo Details

technorati tags:art

More of the View

Art.com - Photos in to Art - Photo Details

technorati tags:art

Personal Art...

Art.com - Photos in to Art - Photo Details

I absolutely love this.

And the best part... it means something.  To me.

technorati tags:art

theview

theview
Originally uploaded by julebule.

what do you think? We are struggling with art. The idea of buying someone else's creativity doesn't sit well with me for some reason. I'd rather display something that means something. Not something that means something to someone else.

www.art.com lets you do amazing things with your OWN creativity.
I am addicted.

Using YouTube to Educate the Masses?

The US Office of National Drug Control Policy tried to get in on Web 2.0, placing 12 anti-drug clips on YouTube.by Patricia BatesAccording to Associated Press, as of Tuesday evening, the most popular ad had been viewed 2,000 times. By the next day, the entire ONDCP channel only received around 14,500 views.Today on YouTube, Bill Clinton Freaks Out video received 865,004 views.Ian Schafer, CEO of the agency Deep Focus, says “ the spots weren’t edgy enough to get far with YouTube users. They were not especially jarring, since they were designed for television, so they are not the kind of things that work as viral video.”For advertisers accustomed to a captive audience on TV, the web is a new world where consumers choose their content. Marketers, advertisers and content producers should use the ONDCP anti-drug campaign as a powerful example of how online ads should not be.

Web 2.0: A World Where Consumers Choose The Content - Advertising - BizReport

Interesting, how a staid US organization is tapping into YouTube to send out messages of anti-drug use.  Even more interesting, that they realized that their videos weren't "edgey" enough to attract a significant number of viewers. Curious - perhaps they should have got a few kids from Orangeville to promote their video.

technorati tags:YouTube

Apropos

DSCN2942
Originally uploaded by julebule.

imagine my surprise, the first day of work in Rimouski - to be greeted with this neat display…. better than ponies.

Rimouski!

DSCN2951
Originally uploaded by julebule.

Teen Fighting in Orangeville...Live on UTube.com

TORONTO — The strange phenomenon of students engaging in violent fights just so they can post videos of the clash on the Internet is something for parents to deal with, not Canadian lawmakers, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said Thursday.Orangeville District Secondary School in Orangeville, Ont., a small town north of Toronto, is the latest to have its students featured in fight videos posted on popular websites like youtube.com.“As parent, I think it is completely reprehensible,” McGuinty said.“The only word that comes to mind is it's sick for people to attack each other as some form of entertainment, either for themselves or for others to somehow, in some perverse sense, enjoy later.”

globeandmail.com : Teens posting schoolyard fights on-line

Wow.

This is sort of funny. Sort of.  It's a good thing that good old Dalton is going to stay out of it... it's completely a parental issue, not a legal one.

Fight Club 2.0?

technorati tags:Orangeville, teen fighting

Update on Tuesday, September 26, 2006 at 06:35PM by jules

Apparently this is a hotter topic than one might have thought of at first glance, considering there have been over 130 people looking for utube fighting, and hitting here.

Funny - it’s bigger news in canada than it seems to be in the US…. and my guess is that the more media attention it gets, the more kids will want to be filmed fighting. It will turn into a “most views” competition. A vicious circle of popularity and parental angst.  The on-line version of american idol. Without the cheezy tv hosts.  We’ve created a culture where very little is shocking.  And when you come across something with real shock value, people tend to gravitate to it, atleast when you are young.

It’s all about desensitization of the nation. 

Silly grown ups.  You are adding fuel to the fires. It could be worse. They could be stomping on kittens.  

Avec les Yeux d'Oiseau (with Bird Eyes)

… this sentence perfectly describes my visit to Rimouski….. with bird eyes.

It’s perhaps been the hardest 24 hours of my lfe, yet, perhaps I wouldn’t have it any other way. I had dreams that it would have been easy, yet, those were quashed when my *translator* made it known to all who came in contact with me, that I understood better than I spoke. Then the jig was up, as they say…. and i spent the better part of the day PAYING ATTENTION to everything that was said. And, of course, there were tests.

Can I say… Mme Davis, tu n’as pas me fais du favour, avec le francais.

I was hoping to write a great thank you letter, to the french teacher I had through out highschool (6 years of french, when there were only 5 years of schooling)… throughout those years, the general consensus was that we were learning “french from France”… well, Tres Bien!!!�� BUT I WILL LIKELY NEVER GO TO FRANCE!!!!!!!  There is only so much that you can do with Le Petit Prince.  The fact that I can conjugate verbs 5 ways from Sunday doesn’t amount to a hill of beans when faced with 5 Quebecers talking at once.

How about learning Quebec French???? Wouldn’t that be a novel idea? Crazy, isn’t it?? That the Ontario school system would teach Paris French, not Montreal French. The Ontario School system has created a whole generation of students who can faire quite reasonable in France, but not in out own country…… It’s no wonder that Quebec wants to separate….. Sweet Mary, Mother of God. The wee baby Jesus is crying now, because of my poor french.  And to not put the whole blame on the Ontario Public School system, the University of Guelph didn’t do any better. In fact, the University of Guelph French courses were extremely below the quality of courses I had in High School. Still….

Alors, comme Scarlet O’Hara, demain c’est une autre jour. Et Mme Davis, “Bonne Chance a Quebec.”

technorati tags:les yeux comme une oiseau, Gwen Davis, Ontario French Programs, Rimouski

reflection

reflection
Originally uploaded by julebule.

Weekends in Appin often result in a plethora of photos. The trick now, is to capture moments that are new. Ones that i haven't already done to death. I'm surprised that this mirror has evaded me. Until now.

When Canadians Act Like Americans...

Four Canadians dead in Afghan suicideNOOR KHANAssociated PressKANDAHAR — A suicide bomber on a bicycle attacked Canadian troops handing out candy to children in southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing four and wounding many others, NATO officials said. The Taliban said it was behind the blast.The attack in Kandahar province's Panjwai district came a day after NATO declared an end to a two-week offensive aimed at driving Taliban militants out of safe havens in the same area. More than 500 insurgents were reported killed in the Canadian-led operation, which NATO described as a success despite continuing violence in the south.

globeandmail.com : Four Canadians dead in Afghan suicide

We will invariably be treated like Americans. No offense american folks...

As if we needed another reason to get out....We don't need any more reasons to NOT be in this stupid war.

technorati tags:Canada, war

The Art of Packing...

… I’ve been procrastinating for the past few days. Packing. Rimouski. Flying. Driving. All those other activities have been mulling around my head, I’ve not had a chance to concentrate on the packing part. Other than to throw 3 Eddie Bauer non-wrinkle shirts in the wash.

So now I’m thinking, 6 hours till take off, i should pack something. It’s cold in the woods of Rimouski. I better bring boots.

technorati tags:Rimouski, Boots