an intermittent record » miscellaneous

Coyote in the City

Cecily — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 05:21:52 +0000

I never cease to be amazed when I encounter wildlife – serious wildlife – in the city limits. A friend and I rode our bikes to Mountain View Cemetery yesterday, and just as we were leaving, we ran into an unexpected visitor. You’ll need to click the thumbnails for a larger view.

I think I was just as afraid of it as it was of me, and it was clear that neither of us wanted the other to come any nearer. I felt sorry for it – it was obviously looking for food, and it looked really out of place in a city cemetery. But today, as I walked around the neighborhood while waiting for my laundry to dry, I noticed quite a few missing cat posters tacked to telephone poles and light standards. It occurred to me that while the coyote was looking for dinner, it didn’t really look underfed.

*gulp*

Wednesday's Child

Cecily — Sat, 16 May 2009 06:43:25 +0000

I took a peek at Wolfram Alpha, the Computational Knowledge Engine, and while I can’t think of any use for it in my daily life, it’s still an interesting use of data gathering and manipulation. I entered my birth date and the city of my birth and came up with the following data:

I was born on a rainy Wednesday morning
It was approximately 17° C / 64°F when I was born
There were 12 hours, 17 minutes of daylight that day
The moon phase was waning crescent moon
It was the 262nd day of the year
The time difference between that date and the time I ran the data scan is 40 years, 7 months, and 27 days

Taking a Back Seat

Cecily — Wed, 06 May 2009 08:07:38 +0000

I’m going on a break for a while. I need to sit back, put my feet up, and have a look around at the world from a new angle, instead of staring at it out of the corners of my eyes because I can’t bear to take my eyes off my laptop’s screen.

I hope to come back. I hope to come back better than before, and I hope to have a clearer idea of the kind of content and writing I want to put online.

Until that happens, so long for now.

Secretly Canadian

Cecily — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:48:36 +0000

I just found out that the first four seasons of Newsradio – one of my favourite television shows of all time – have been added to Hulu. One of the things I always wondered was why the show insisted on making Dave Foley’s character American instead of Canadian, when all Foley had to do was open his mouth and reveal his true nationality. Thanks to Wikipedia, I found out that in Season 3, Episode 11, The Truth About Dave was revealed:

(If you’re in Canada, you’ll need a nifty little app called Hotspot Shield to watch the show. Google it.)

Renewal

Cecily — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 06:20:02 +0000

Lately I’ve been thinking about spirituality, self-renewal, and the ways in which I push the reset button on my life. I’m not someone who takes well to silent meditation. If the room is too quiet, I’ll find some way to fill up that space with noise, music, television, idle conversation, or food.

It’s as if I don’t like, or am afraid of what is/might be revealed in those silent moments, and am ill-prepared to accept or deal with the consequences of what might happen as a result.

I find that as I get older, this isn’t acceptable. I need to find something, some place that I can turn to in those moments when my soul demands that I sit still and listen.

My Twelve (!) Things That Make Me Happy

Cecily — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:40:33 +0000

I got you, Tiffany and Melle. Tagging me twice. Y’all aint slick.

Link to the person who tagged you.
Post six things that make you happy along with these rules.
Then tag six others
Let the person who tagged you know when your entry is complete.

In no particular order:

Working in this building every day.

Ladybugs.

Pie.

People who can tell a good story.

When I take a portrait of someone and I know it’s awesome without even looking at the LCD on the back of my camera.

Dogs.

This guy.

Bicycles.

Summer in BC.

These people.

Adorable little black girls.

Having the best friend in the world — and knowing it.

Who to tag? I don’t think I even *know* six bloggers who haven’t been tagged already, let alone twelve. Still, I’ll tag George, Raul, and Tris, for starters.

Inventive Uses for Liveblogging: WSB-TV (Atlanta)

Cecily — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:27:22 +0000

Tornado season has started in my home town, and because I’m concerned about friends and family as well as interested in severe weather because I dig weather porn, I’ve had the WSB-TV Doppler Radar open in one browser tab for most of the afternoon. The image refreshes whenever there’s a change to the radar, which gives me a chance to keep an eye on the sky from 3,000 miles away. What has me super excited, however, is how WSB provides frequent updates by liveblogging the storm system.

Every few minutes, WSB’s “Severe Weather Team” *eyeroll* updates their site with predictions of where severe weather will hit next. It’s part of their doppler radar package, which can forecast the arrival of storms within minutes, but this is the first time I’ve seen this information posted to their website. By posting this information online, they’re expanding their coverage and providing a necessary service to viewers who might be in the office at the end of a workday, but not within viewing distance of a TV.
The only things that could make this better would be posting the updates in reverse chronological order, and posting severe weather updates to Twitter. If they ever start posting this stuff to Twitter, I might just die of happiness right on the spot.

My road-trip mix tape

Cecily — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:08:19 +0000

I suppose it would depend on the nature of the trip and the destination. Radar Love is for those long dark stretches when you're driving and your passenger is sound asleep, and the sound of the tires on pavement is making you drowsy. It's a quick pick-me -up. Somewhere Down That Crazy River is almost the exact opposite. Sinuous, slow, sexy. Perfect for taking rides up twisty mountain roads or snaking your way carefully down a coastline. As for Broken Social Scene, well, Looks Just Like the Sun feels like an optimistic song even though it may not really be one, but if you've been driving for awhile and you're starting to feel crazy, it'll help remind you that you're very near the end.

Radar Love by Golden Earring

Somewhere Down that Crazy River by Robbie Robertson

Looks Just Like the Sun by Broken Social Scene

Snowblind – the Great Vancouver Snowstorm of '08-'09

Cecily — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:10:07 +0000

Snow has been falling for the better part of three weeks. I’ve felt housebound for most of that time, thanks to unsteady knees and a fear of falling. I rarely move from this chair on any day that isn’t a work day, and even then it takes a battle of wills to make it into the office.
Today I reached the breaking point. Snowflakes, drifts, and icy conditions be damned, I decided to go out for a walk, not once, but twice on Sunday.

Slip, slide, stomp, stomp, stomp. SNAP. I’m out and about with my camera. I stare upward to watch as the flakes keep falling. I stare ahead at the mountains of weeks-, days- and hours-old snow drifts expand, contract, and expand with each passing day.
It isn’t as cold as it was when the snow started falling three weeks ago, but I don’t think the thermostat has moved above freezing for very long, or for very many days in a row. The stuff on the ground is obstinate, used, grouchy snow, while the fresh stuff is as sticky as velcro, or as wet as a spring rain shower. Sometimes it even falls as sleet.

I marvel at the sound of icy snow as it trampolines off my umbrella. Distant sirens punctuate the silence, but only briefly. I hear my breath leaving my lungs loudly, accompanied by the soft slush, slush, swish, swoosh of cars passing gingerly over unplowed city streets.
As much as I’ve complained about Vancouver’s cold, rainy winters and how my feet and fingers are never warm enough all winter long, I’m actually looking forward to a few days of gentle soaking showers and a several days-long stretch of temperatures around the 4 to 5° C mark. I long for lawns and sidewalks. I’ve grown tired of feeling like I’ve moved to the Moon.

Polling the Audience: Photos on this Blog

Cecily — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:01:45 +0000

After moving to a private server, Dreamhost has informed me that I’m using more resources than before (what?), and as such my hosting bills have increased. The biggest culprit seems to be WordPress’ built-in Gallery feature, along with the Lightbox-style image displays I’ve been using to share larger copies of my photos.
I’ve been experimenting with using a combination of WP Gallery, the NextGen Gallery plug-in, and hosting photos on Flickr to see which would be the least drain on my server’s resources, and Flickr is the winner, hands down. The problem is that if I use Flickr to embed images in my posts, you can’t see the full-size versions unless (1), you click through to Flickr and (2), if you’re one of my Flickr contacts.
So I’m asking your opinion: do you like it when I use lightbox to display my photos on this site? Is the Flickr embed good enough? Do you care whether I post my photos here?
Please leave your answer in the comments. Thanks!