Modern computers, televisions and other electronics continue to use power even when you turn them off. Plug anything that can be powered by a remote control or that has a power cube transformer (little black box) into a power-bar, and turn it off, and/or unplug it, when not in use. ![leaf emoticon_thumb[1]](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_3FCGyAqM3Qs/TPhc0FTBLsI/AAAAAAAACqU/ZV270Brmhro/s1600-h/leaf%20emoticon_thumb%5B1%5D%5B3%5D.jpg "leaf emoticon_thumb[1]"){kind=small}
“A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.” – Carl Reiner.
You know you know the words and you know this song will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. I actually seem to remember having a Vanilla Ice nightgown – is that the same as having Justin Beiber pajamas today?!
“Christmas is the time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell government what they want and their kids pay for it.” – Richard Lamm
This month’s How-To Tuesday is on Calibrating your computer monitor. First things first, if you are running on a newer Mac System, you won’t need this as it more or less does it itself.
I am going to show you two ways that I am able to colour calibrate my monitor, however, both methods requiring either specific software or hardware.
The first way is through Adobe Photoshop. If you have Photoshop CS3 or older then there will be a program called Adobe Gamma that does a subjective colour calibration for you. Adobe Gamma is a little hidden in CS3 so here is a YouTube video that really nicely shows you how to find and use the program:
The other way I calibrate my monitor is through a piece of hardware called Spyder3Pro. Essentially you place this device on your monitor and run the program. It senses the lighting in the room and by displaying certain colours on your monitor can set a calibration to get the truest colours possible. It is made by Datacolor and is a little on the expensive side, mind you it is still cheaper than Photoshop.
You may be asking yourself, why does colour calibration even matter? Well, if you are into photo editing or photo manipulation, then you will want to ensure that the colours you are seeing on your monitor will be what others see and more importantly what will come out of the printer once you want a hardcopy – colour calibration can do this for you. I have found that my calibrating my monitor, I have to do a lot less work when I want to print.
Yep so I posted a Christmas List for 2010 and have since found something that I REALLY want: Moleskine: Passions Recipe Journal!! I have been thinking of a way to organize my recipes for some time - since my recipe book got a little ruined during a dishwasher or sink (I forget which) overflowing situation. If I don't get one for Christmas I will end up buying myself one, but I am going to be as patient as I can and wait ... but I don't want to.
Now I realize Tetris is still around, but the Tetris I am talking about is the one for the original Nintendo game system (NES).
I remember the system being hooked up to the television in my parents room (the television that was in a wooden case) and my dad playing for several hours. Come to think of it, it was one of the only games my dad really played. Later on, we got Tetris for the Nintendo Gameboy and I played it a great deal on that system. I do believe the Gameboy and Tetris are sitting upstairs right now…perhaps I will go play some classic Nintendo.
(photo found through Google)
As pretty much everyone knows, I love photos. I really love old photos. Forgotten Old Photos is a blog dedicated to posting old photos found in antique shops garage sales, etc. They have had several successful reunions with the old photos by returning them with the families of the subjects.
My life the past month has been more than a little overwhelming. Work has been very hectic, leaving me tired and burnt out by the time the weekend comes. Laundry, groceries and housework all seem to get put off as long as possible – and those are the things that I actually need to do to keep running on a day to day basis. I feel like I don’t even have time to refuel before Monday comes. I very badly need some time off, at least a week if not more is needed, but I really don’t know if it is at all possible.
My photography is rather active as well. I have had a few clients this year and am trying to wrap up a few things for them before the end of the year. My most recent photography class has been awesome to say the least, but it also needs a lot of time and commitment on my part to ensure everything gets done and done to my standards.
I am quickly running out of time for Christmas. Normally by now I would have almost all of my gifts purchased and the few I still had left I knew of, just needed to arrange or finalize. I haven’t really even started this year – the ones I do know about need a great deal more work and the ones I don’t --- well I really don’t know about them.
As you readers can probably tell, I have been running on fumes in terms of my blog. I set up the features a month in advance and pretty much let the blogs take care of themselves. All I can say about that is thank goodness for scheduled posts or else all my blogs might have been completely barren for the past month or so.
I am getting December’s feature posts ready over the next couple of days and hopefully will be able to find the energy and topics to do some non-feature posts as well. *fingers crossed*
This Christmas should, in theory, be 'easier' than the last couple as we only have one family get together to attend. That being said, I am very unprepared for Christmas. Very few presents have been purchased and I have even fewer ideas for the ones that are remaining. While I stew over what to get my friends and family, here is a list of gift ideas for me - for convenience I split it into completely camera related stuff and then everything else, and yes I realize the camera list is much longer and more specific and no I don't expect anyone to get me the expensive gear.
Camera Wish List:
Everything Else Wishlist:
For the movies and TV series, I think this will take you to my Amazon wishlist - it has most of the movies, etc I currently want on it (above mentioned ones included).
“Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.” – Mohandas Ghandi
Switch to cold water when doing you laundry and save and estimated 80 percent on energy used for laundry and an estimated $60 a year. There is also less risk of shrinking your clothes.
"Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function." - Unknown.
I know this was on when I was younger, but I really didn’t start watching Bewtiched until I was in high school – about the time we got satellite television. I came home from school and popped out TVLand and there it was along with some other great classics (to be used at a later date).
Essentially the show was about an adult witch you married a mortal. Later on they have a child, Tabitha, who also have witchy-powers. I loved it (still do actually).
Found this guy on Cute Overload the other day and thought it was so adorably nerdy – I had to share it.
The original group – From left to right, Top row: Christine and Mark, Bottom row: Justin, Stephanie and Emily. We grew pretty quickly as the year progressed, but this is how it started.
No, no not that kind of shooting – this month’s How-To Tuesday is all about photographing glass.
Glass can be a little complicated when photographing because it takes on the colour of your background. The easiest way to deal with this is to place reflector of the opposite colour on either side of your object.
For example, if you are shooting on a white background, place black reflectors (or pieces of paper) just outside of your frame. This will make the edges distinguishable from the actual background.
The above photo has a reflector on the left side of the image and above it as well to reduce glare from the soft boxes that are lighting the subject. Another trick that helps is to put something in the glass itself (e.g. water).
The above photo has coloured water in the glasses and black cards on either side of the image.
Blog of note this month is a tasty blog entitled Love Letters in a Pan. Dave’s sister and her best friend have created a really original recipe blog in which they write letters to each other about their most recent baking and/or cooking endeavour. Check it out for some really tasty food ideas.
Switch to a laptop instead of using a desktop computer and cut three-quarters off your electrical use. Turn off the laptop at the end of the day.
“Civilization is unbearable, but it is less unbearable at the top.” – Timothy Leary.
I know Goosebumps novels are still around today and can be seen in book stores and catalogues on a regular basis, but I remember when these novels first became popular and I especially remember sitting in front of the bookshelf at the Brockville Mall trying to pick out which Goosebumps novel I would buy next. I would save up my money and once I got the roughly 10 dollars they cost I would lay out the options and spend way too long determining which one I was going to purchase this time. R.L. Stine definitely hit the nail on the head when he started this series.
This weekend was a pretty good one. It started off with Dave's sister Jessica coming down on Friday evening. The three of us took some photos around town and played lots of Rock Band and Rock Band Beatles - and by lots I do mean LOTS!
We went out for a few big meals and pretty much eliminated the need for cooking by doing so which was awesome because Dave and I don't really have much food in the house right now and I wasn't in the mode to go grocery shopping.
I also got the chance to do a photo-shoot with our friend Kate, which was really fun. I am hoping to get the photos edited and to her shortly and will be sharing them everyone on Flickr and Stephanie Beach Photography after that.
“Born again?! No, I'm not. Excuse me for getting it right the first time.” – Denis Miller.
Happy Birthday Dad!!
The above photo was actually taken over two years ago at Tyler and Lynn’s Rehearsal Dinner. I have several others I could have used, more recent ones as well, but he just looks so happy in this photo that I can’t seem to use any other photo. I love you Dad.
I do not understand for the life of me, how I was allowed to watch this show. But to be honest, I don’t really care because I loved it – and still love it to this day.
Beverly Hills 90210 started out as a less dramatic sort of show than what it is remembered for. The first three seasons were much more after-school special-like in that Brenda and Brandon or one of their friends, would get into some sort of troubling situation. Someone would make a bad decision but it wasn’t likely to be either of the twins. The Walshes would come to rescue of whomever was in trouble and everything would be solved by the end of the episode. Later one, shortly before Shannon Doherty left the show started to get much more dramatic and much more mature.
I remember being in love with Dylan (played by Luke Perry). I had legging and a shirt with 90210 on them which I actually wore during our family trip to Disney in 1992 (that’s right, I wore the shirt and watched the show when I was in grade 2!).
The show ended in 2000 but a new version of it has since started and is similar to the later, more mature version of the show. I haven’t watched too much of the new series, not because I don’t like it but because I don’t really watch television. The ones I have seen though, give me happy memories of watching the original series.
Last year I blogged about Dave’s Kisame Costume and it seems to be a rather popular post, though this may just be because it is based on a character from a fairly popular anime series. Either way, Halloween is coming up and being a big fan of the holiday I decided that I would do another Costume How-To.
My costume this year is more-or-less the same as last year, an Elf Ranger. I created the cape in a similar fashion to Dave’s Kisame cape by using the Simplicity pattern 5840. I made it using a heavy green material. I purchased a gold tassle for the hood and a wooden button to hold it shut (the loop was made with gold cording). I sewed gold cording around all the edges (around the cuffs, bottom edge, front opening and around the hood) and gold ribbon around the chest for added detail.
I got elf ears from a costume shop here in Ottawa, Malabar, and after gluing them on I put cover-up/concealer over them and my ears to blend the two together a bit better. (the trick to the ears is not where to buy them or how to get them on, but rather getting them off at the end of the night. It was a true ordeal last year that was incredibly uncomfortable, but apparently not too bad as I am wearing them again this year.) I
wore black yoga pants and a black shirt. I would have liked some sort of dark brown vest with a slot for a knife, but couldn’t find anything and ran out of time to make it myself.
For a bow, I actually used Dave’s bow but brought no arrows to the party as it is an actual weapon and that mixed with alcohol could have resulted in some very bad things.
I will be wearing the same costume this year but with the addition of
fantastic brown boots I purchased from Town Show at a discounted price recently. I may even get around to finding/making the vest I wanted last year.
Perhaps this year I will actually get around to taking some photos of me in my costume…but I wouldn’t place any bets on that.
Today is turkey day...officially. Yesterday was Turkey Day #1 for Dave and I as we headed up to Peterborough and then Newmarket to have Thanksgiving Dinner with his family. We also celebrated Christmas at that time to make things easier for everyone as with children growing up and parents moving further and further away from their siblings, it is harder for all of us to get together as often as we would all like.
We will be having my family's Thanksgiving dinner next weekend (Turkey Day #2). As per usual, the Beaches got moved as both in-law families have tighter schedules (and more people to fit into said schedules). Luckily no one really minds as this actually means we get to spend more time together than we would have if we just squeezed it into the actually Thanksgiving weekend. And as an added bonus, with Christmas being taken care of for Dave's side of the family, we will have more time to spend with my family then too! Though it will be a little weird to not see his family during the Christmas season.
Today is my Mom’s Birthday. I hope she has a fantastic day.
Today also happens to be my parent’s wedding anniversary…it’s actually harder to find a photo of the two of them so we will just have to stick with wishing them a Happy Anniversary.
Make a grand wish!
A few interesting 10/10/10 events and facts:
- 101010 is 42 in binary code;
- Slang for a person who spends too much time on the computer;
- Global Day of Doing;
- Global Work Party;
- A Family Celebration for Women & Babies Hospital;
- lots of weddings will be occurring today;
- many bloggers and photographers are encouraging people to commemorate this day with a photo;
- Hooha Fun Run; and the final fact/event is:
- Nothing significant appears to have happened during the year 1010 or 10.
To celebrate I will be having Thanksgiving lunch/dinner with Dave's extended family. You?
Some time ago I bought a 70-300mm telephoto lens for my photography. I love the ability to shoot at this distance and the only reason I am unhappy with this purchase is because I bought the older, non-Vibrance Reduction (VR) version. For only about 100-150 dollars more I could have gotten the newer, VR version. I find that my current lens is hard to focus and get exactly the shot (composition) that I want because of the vibration I get when it is at the maximum focal length (300mm). I plan on upgrading this lens but am not sure if I will get the VR version or wait until I can afford the f2.8 version.
“Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. It encourages a man to be expansive, even reckless, while lie detectors are only a challenge to tell lies successfully.” – Graham Greene.
Oh Rock Band…how I love and loathe thee simultaneously.
Justin’s parents were up over a week ago and brought his Rock Band with them. It is now set up in our living room and we have spent quite a while playing it. In fact, Justin and Dave are playing as I blog.
I like the drums the most but am still not very good at any of the instruments (guitar, drums, vocals). I do however, really like the free drumming parts like at the end of certain songs and when you want to activate your star power (I think start power is the guitar hero term, but I can’t think of the rock band term).
(image from Google – our version is also for the PS3 though the photos is the XBox 360 version).
“I don't know whether war is an interlude during peace, or peace an interlude during war.” – Georges Clemenceau.
There were several boys who adorned the walls of my bedroom when I was growing up and JTT (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) was definitely one of them.
When cooking smaller meals, try using the toaster oven rather than your conventional oven. Not only will this reduce electrical use from your kitchen appliances but also reduce your electricity bill.
I know I am not always the greatest at staying on top of my feature
s, but I really do enjoy them. I have made a new one recently and decided to call it Green Ideas. As the name implies, it will be quick tips and suggestions for greening up your life. T
opics from electricity and water saving to dispelling common myths will be discussed and I am working on a few longer discussion like posts as well. As always, comments and suggestions are always appreciated.
“A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.” – Robert Frost.
Today is Dave’s sister’s birthday. I hope you have a wonderful day Jess!!
Even though they covered everything in glitter, everything in my pencil case and my desk, all of my clothes and anything I touched with my hands, I loved glitter pencils – well for a time. I remember when they were the coolest thing and having them was a big deal. I even had to buy them with my own money because my mom said that they weren’t essential school items to have and not very practical either. In hindsight, I agree with her. The actually quality of the pencil was quite poor as was the eraser. But I still had to have them in grade school.
The above photo, found through Google, is actually of glitter pencil crayons rather than pencils and since I do not believe these were available when I was in grade school, I think these impractical school items are still available and probably just as desired now as they were several years ago.
Today is my brother and sister-in-law’s second wedding anniversary.
Two years ago today Lynn walked down the aisle of the Wilno church and married my wonderful brother. It was a beautiful ceremony and I was very honoured to be a member of the bridal party.
A while back, Dave and I watched the movie Se7en starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. It is a good movie, but incredibly graphic and quite gorey. But still a pretty good movie with a couple twists and an interesting plot. This post however, is not a review of the movie.
The Seven Deadly Sins (hereafter called the 7) are also known as the Capital Vices and are 'a classification of the most objectionable vices that has been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct followers concerning immoral fallen humanity's tendencies to sin'.
Every time I hear about the 7 I think about how they relate to me (is that pride?). In other words, which of them am I the most guilty of. So I decided to rank them and give some kind of justification as to the ranking...
(image found through Google - originally taken on America's Next Top Model, Cycle Four)
So I have been slacking with my Blogs of Note so I spent a few hours surfing the net finding some really interesting sites…this is one of them.
LoopyBoopy is a blog showcasing Art Dolls created by Colleen Downs. They are slightly creepy and very odd and actually remind me of Tim Burton characters…perhaps that is why I like them and find them very interesting.
I have said it before and I will say it again – I love Scheduled Posts!!! I think it was the best thing Blogger introduced to its users and has enabled me to do so much with my blog. It is actually very likely that I would have stopped blogging by now if it wasn’t for this feature. My day-to-day life is too busy with work and night courses and entertainment that I think I would only post at best once a week without scheduled posts.
I spent several hours this long weekend getting the next two months worth of posts scheduled (features at least – the remaining posts are done more or less on the fly). I created a new feature to be introduced on the 24th of this month. I had been working on it for two weeks now but wanted a little emoticon graphic for at the end and finally got the time and motivation to sit down and create it (it’s not that impressive and wasn’t time consuming, I just enjoy procrastinating).
Now it is off to cross a few more items off my to do list…though I do have two more feature posts to write for September and October.
Write about a food that gives you a specific emotional response.
Most foods give me an emotional response because I am an emotional eater. I am trying to work on that. I am able to identify when I am eating because of my emotions and am doing my best to find something else to make myself feel better rather than eating or at least trying to find a healthier alternative to my normal comfort foods.
Okay, I know I geeked out recently about WoW but give me another second okay.
Xanara is my first Horde character. I am going to be honest and tell you that I avoided Horde characters as they were not pretty. Trolls, undead, taurens and orcs tend to be less attractive than the Alliance alternatives. But ever since the Burning Crusades expansions, Blood Elves have been available and though they look spacey and ditzy they are pretty. Their ditziness was confirmed when using the /silly macro and all of their jokes were about getting facials or other superficial things. Oh well.
Xanara is a paladin and a tank at that. I am enjoying it so far and levelling her pretty quickly.
The final guest post is up today. Not a very long post – in fact it is really just an altered photo to interpret Chris’ trip to Iceland. Check it out.
“The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.” – Dorothy Nevill.
Anyone remember these toys? Not only are Popples adorable, but they are also neat. They could be adorable toys with hearts for ears or you could roll them into themselves and toss them around.
What kind of change is scary to you? What kind of change is exciting?
I am not a big fan of change…never have been, probably never will be.
Daria originally aired on MTV from 1997-2002. It was created by Glenn Eichler and Susie Lewis Lynn. For those of you who don’t know the show, or didn’t have the pleasure of watching an episode or two, it is about “a smart, acerbic and somewhat misanthropic high school girl” (Wikipedia).
I bought the complete series (five seasons and two movies) from Amazon for just over 50 bucks and am really happy with it. I watched it pretty much non-stop all weekend – though it did give me lots of time to catch up on blogging.
What I believe to be the second last post over at Always Standing went up a few days ago. It is all about my and Chris’ trip to England way back in 2008.
Let me geek out for a couple minutes...
First there was Laidelle, my death knight. Despite the fact that she was far from my first alliance character, she was the first to hit 80. But now I have two characters sitting at 80. My Hunter Cyndelle is now sitting at 80 as well. Now I just need to get her some decent equipment.
The guest posts over on Always Standing are starting to wind down now (I wrote a total of 17 posts and we are apparently up to number 15). That being said, I have been slacking in letting you know of their existence so here is a longer post about each of the guest posts I have missed.
Post XII was supposed to be about Russian vodka but now that I try to create a link, it seems to be blank now...interesting...will have to inform Chris about that. Either way, perhaps it is jus tmy computer or perhaps it will be fixed shortly so check it out in a little while.
In the meantime, check out Post XIII. This is a more in depth post about my weight loss blog Road to a Better Me. I talk about my past success and also my current inspirations for joining Curves and taking a better stab at making my life healthier.
Post XIV is all about Ottawa Festivals. They are a wonderful aspect of this beautiful city that I really enjoy. Of course my favourite is the Tulip Festival, as any of my readers will know, but I also enjoy Winterlude and some of the smaller festivals in town. Greekfest just ended and The Gatineau Balloon Festival is coming up shortly.
And finally (for now at least) Post XV was just posted today and is all about My and Dave's morning routine. It's pretty short so a really easy read if you don't have a lot of time this morning.
That is all of them until XVI and XVII are posted in the next week or so. Chris comes back to Canada in a little while so no more guest posts then, but many more (regular) posts from the world traveller - which I know I am excited about.
So once again I have gotten behind in the guest post updates over on Always Standing. The two latest ones are rather different from each other. Guest Post X is a recipe for peanut butter cookies, one of two peanut butter based foods that Chris likes. Guest Post XI is a brief synopsis of my trip to Stonehenge and my attempt to describe what that meant to me. I didn't succeed in getting it across really, just as I didn't when I wrote out my journal for the trip either, but it is still a pretty good attempt and has a photo to boot!
So vacations #3 and #4 are officially over and I am slowly working my way through the photos. As per usual, my summer collection of photos has grown at a much faster rate than I can edit. As a result I will likely be dealing with a great deal of summer photos through the Fall and Winter seasons (well more like the Winter as I tend to take a lot of photos in the Fall as well).
Despite the fact that I don't really have any photos to show you, the trips to Toronto and Quebec City were great. I have realized that Quebec City is awesome and far superior to Montreal, in my opinion and I am sure Dave and I will be going back again.
As previously mentioned, both of these trips revolved around Cirque du Soleil shows. They were both good shows but Totem has definitely won the title of favourite Cirque show so far. We absolutely loved it! Not only were the performers great, but the clowns had actual acts and the stage was amazing (especially when you consider that this is a travelling show)! Totally worth the money and I highly recommend seeing this one if it comes even remotely close to you. I am sure I will post more about the trips but for now, hopefully that answers some questions about how they went.
As usual, the end of a vacation has made me start planning the next one - not entirely sure what it will be though Dave is interested in going camping at Bon Echo and we both still want to go to Vegas sometime soon. I will of course keep you all updated on what we do next.
Oops...it appears I missed informing you of two of my guest posts over on Always Standing. My posts about the magical Super Freeze button and my 5 favourite gifts are now posted and ready for you to enjoy.
"A career is wonderful, but you can't curl up with it on a cold night." - Marilyn Monroe
The third and final installment of my Planes, Trains and Automobiles is up on Always Standing today.
If you read Chris' blog, Always Standing, then you will have heard about the neat things some of her friends and co-workers did for her big trip (like hat photos, photo pins and finger puppets). I mention this because I am pretty disappointed in myself for not doing something. I thought about it and came up with a few ideas, but thought that Chris wouldn't have room for the things in her luggage or time to deal with them. I don't know why I came to these conclusions as it is a very Chris thing to do (games, etc for her trip). I have been working on a few things for later on when she returns, but nothing for her current 'travelling' status. Though I did work extra hard and wrote something like 17 guest writer posts for her blog.
Anyway, props to those that did what I apparently could not and made her trip a little more friend-filled, they are all such great ideas.
My fifth guest spot over on Always Standing is the beginning of a three-post series called Planes, Trains and Automobiles. The posts are predominantly about travel in the three forms and memorable trips I have taken using each. Check it out. :)
I went for a walk today along one of the Stony Swamp Trails called Lime Kiln. It was during this walk that I remember why I usually only go in the Spring and Fall – bugs. There were so many mosquitoes and deer/black flies buzzing around it was ridiculous. As a result, I am now covered in bug bites and am feeling very itchy. It is a very nice trail though. 
“The Flood Lime Kiln is one of the few remaining examples of a 19th-century industrial lime kiln in Canada. Lime was an important building and household chemical used to make mortar, fertilizer, whitewash, plaster and many other products. Francis Flood built this kiln in the late 1800s on a miniature escarpment of exposed limestone bedrock known as the Hazeldean Fault. Most lime producers went out of business in the early 1900s as new larger industrial kilns were constructed and Portland cement was introduced from Europe. The Flood ceased operations in 1906, and the site was abandoned and fell into disrepair. The ruins of the kiln were rediscovered and its significance realized in the 1970s. The site was restored in 1999.” From one of the plaques at the Lime Kiln Trail.
I had tried to get to the Lime Kiln last year but ended up at Chipmunk and/or Beaver trail every time I ventured out that way. You see as I drive down Moodie Drive to get to the parking lots, I always get excited and end up turning into one of the first ones and walking along that trail. Parking lot 10 is the entrance to the Lime Kiln trail and is situated a little bit down the road, past parking lots 8 and 9 where you gain access to Chipmunk/Beaver and Jack Pine trail, respectively. This time I worked very hard on driving past these lots and toward lot 10.
Despite the bugs, I managed to get some nice shots of the ruins and of a happy, little frog (okay, terrified, fairly large frog) that sat for me for quite some time. 
During the summers when I was younger, my mom would make me a pita sandwich with lettuce, cheese and alfalfa sprouts and I would watch the Pink Panther cartoon show with my delicious lunch. Those are good memories.
“Vegas Baby” is going up on Always Standing today. My fourth guest post is about a future trip Dave and I intend on taking to Las Vegas.
My third guest post entitled “Top Ten” is going up on Always Standing today. This one is a review of the Top Ten travel books. Check it out.
The above photo shows just how small my new portable external hard drive is. And, with the addition of the tiny monkey (I think it might be a spider monkey) it looks even more adorable than it does normally.
I got the 500GB version to hold my entire collection of photos and then some. I currently have backed up all the photos on my laptop as well as the music and intend on getting the new hard drive connected to the old one to get the rest of my photos from there as well.
You may be asking, if I had an external hard drive already, why did I need to buy this one? The answer to that is simple, ease of accessibility. The old hard drive needs to be plugged in to operate which means that I rarely use it. My laptop moves around the house on a regular basis and having to get close enough to a plug to allow the external to be plugged in is a huge hassle.
My second guest post over on Always Standing is entitled “Over the Years” and is a photo collection of Chris over the last 7 years.
When Justin moved back home last year it left a void in my and Dave’s social life. He visited us a couple times since then and we of course stayed in touch via Facebook, email and Skype but it hasn’t really been the same.
I am happy to announce that he recently found a job here in Ottawa and has since moved in with us until he finds his own place. It is really great having him back in Ottawa and even better to have him so close by. There have been lots of games played and reminiscing done – good times had be all. 
Today also happens to be Justin’s birthday – Happy Birthday Justain.
While she is away Chris has asked for guest posts over on Always Standing. Today marks the first of my guest posts entitled, “Nothing to Say”. The post is about why I chose to start each of my blogs and blogging in general.
Dave got me a gift about a week ago – the latest expansions for the Sims 3. I have not gotten any of the previous expansions for this game as they really didn’t interest me, but when I started playing Sims 3 again, the expansion definitely peaked my interest.
In it you are granted new professions for your people. So far I have tackled stylist, interior designer and self-employed artists. I tried to get my sim to be a tattoo artist but the tattoo chair broke (by this I mean it is glitched somehow) and she was unable to give anyone tattoos or even get the tattooing skill.
I haven’t gotten the hang of it just yet – the professions are trickier than the normal careers and a fair bit more time consuming as well. But I am slowly getting it and my sims are starting to thrive in their new, expanding world.
On July 9, 2010, between 5:00 and 5:30pm Nicolas (Nico) Strang married Alison Campbell. As it was mentioned during the toasts last night, the two had a sort of movie-plot love. They met on when they were both travelling (separately) to Africa and despite living on different continents, they made it work. They lived in England for a period of time, and have since moved here to Canada to make a home together.
Dave and I were very honoured to be invited to their wedding as it was a small wedding in terms of guests, friends and family only. Nico even mentioned us in his speech, which was unexpected, though very thoughtful and nice.
The wedding was beautiful, the food served was delicious and all the guests were so nice. Alison looked like a princess in her dress and you could tell that both the bride and the groom were very happy to be starting their new life together. Congratulations to them both.
A couple weekends ago Dave and I were in Toronto for a conference but the point of this post is not our conference but rather the Wish Come True Festival that was going on in Queens Park. 
We were walking around Downtown Toronto on the Saturday night when we came across the festival. We weren’t quite sure what was going on at first as there were all these balloon creations and funny characters around the park. It took us a little while but we eventually found a sign full of information. Apparently the festival is part of the Luminato Festival and according to the website I cam across, “This year’s Luminato presents colourful totems, bounce houses and inflatable friends. Presented by FriendsWithYou, Queen’s Park transformed into an artistic wonderland. Characters led by the Rainbow King will be spread out around the park with messages of happiness. People of all-ages are invited to check out the spinning creatures, lounge areas and 12-metre high inflatable characters.”
We enjoyed the scenery and watched children play with the inflatable objects. there was also a band playing on a main stage that we listened to for a while. And I of course took photos of the odd decorations.
(cartoon image from Luminato website. Other image from me.)
“'To the complaint, 'There are no people in these photographs,' I respond, 'There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer.'” – Ansel Adams.
Another of Dave’s finds though this time it comes from DeviantArt (I therefore can’t embed it in my blog but rather have to post the link for you to go and see it). http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs13/f/2007/077/2/e/Animator_vs__Animation_by_alanbecker.swf
It is a flash animation of what would happen if your stick man came to life in flash. My description doesn’t do it justice, so go check it out.
A couple weeks ago Dave and I participated in the Heart and Stroke Big Bike with work. It was pouring rain so we got absolutely soaked but we completed the ride in a decent time (despite the rain) and had a bunch of fun too. The above photo was taken by one of the volunteers working at the event and you can’t see many people in the team, but you can see me!!
I found Hyperbole and a Half through one someone’s Facebook. Essentially the author writes about her life but includes images created in paint to illustrate things. I find her to be so freaking funny and though the posts are pretty infrequent, they are well worth the wait. I think you should check it out, especially her posts about the alot.
Throughout most of the year, Dave and I spend our weekends and vast majority of our downtime in general, doing nothing. We laze about the house playing video games and ever so slowly getting our chores done. This summer, this has not been the case. We have had trips planned and outing with family and friends and unfortunately tons of work to do. The summer has been so busy that I bought a moleskine to be able to keep track of it all. We have also had to resort to booking time off. All this being said, the things we have had planned have been really fun and I am looking forward to the events coming up, but I am a hermit and enjoy my time around the house and when I do not get to do it that often, I start to get stressed and really worn out. We have a weekend off coming up so hopefully that will help me out as my stress levels are pretty high lately.
Dave and I joined the baseball team at work called the DST Destroyers (the above photo is from our first game – it is a pretty bad one of me, but I am having to deal with it). So far we have been scheduled to play 4 games but two of them have been cancelled (due to a shortage of players). It has been a lot of fun and I have found that I am not that bad – well I can hit the ball at least when I am up to bat. I likely wouldn’t have such a good batting average if we weren’t pitching to our own team mates.
“Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.” – Gerard Bernard Shaw (1856-1950).
Only problem with this statement is that Canada actually is the best country.
This show was where I was first introduced to Geordi La Forge. Mind you this clip doesn’t show him in his non-Star Trek glory.
The show promoted reading (and writing) for children. I believe Geordi would read a couple books and some kids would review some others that they had read. Cute little show really.
“It’s the friends you can call up at four am that matter.” – Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992)
Does anyone else remember this show? I used to watch it all the time on TVO. I also played the video game on our home computer – the game came on 12 3 1/2” floppy disks. Now there’s a memory!
A little while back I showed you how to switch back to English when you computer automatically changes your keyboard to French. Now I will show you how to stop your computer from doing this completely. As an added bonus, it is super quick and easy to do.
All you have to do is right-click that same keyboard icon down by your clock and then ensure that Auto Adjust is not checked. Tada – you are done.
But don’t worry, you will still be able to manually switch between language options – this just stops your computer from changing randomly on its own.
The other day I stumbled across a blog entitled The Bitchy Waiter. As you can probably figure out, the blog is the trials and tribulations of being a waiter. The author is quite funny and the stories are the type that we all see/live. Check it out and see if it is for you too.
I love optical illusions. There were tons of comments about this being fake, either way the drawings are neat.
"Character cannot be developed in peace and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." - Helen Keller
I am an avid planner. Seriously – I will plan just about anything I can, from a vacation to a tiny trip to the mall, even my daily routines and mundane events get planned. When I was in school I always used the planners they would give out but when I finished school I figured I didn’t need a formal planner anymore. I had an electronic one in the form of an excel spreadsheet (which acted as a secondary planner while I was in university) that I figured could do for my primary planner.
Recently, I realized that I do in fact need a formal, hard copy planner. I have had so many things going on; dinners with friends and family, photography shoots, classes and work events that I have come dangerously close to double-booking myself. I have even forgotten about upcoming civic holidays a couple times. For my planner, I went the way of Chris’ moleskine and purchased one for myself. It is however the pocket-sized weekly notebook version. In other words, it is much smaller than the one I bought for her and is a slightly different style. The days of each week are on the left hand page and there is a lined page on the right for notes. As I don’t have too many events on each individual day, this works out really well for me as it also feeds my list addiction enabling me to create them near the days I will be needing them.
Another handy feature of this version is that I didn’t have to order it from the American website. I purchased it from Amazon and was therefore able to ship it to my house after using my credit card as compared to last time when I had to ship it to Dave’s parent’s condo in Florida and use their American credit card.
This past weekend Dave’s parents brought us a ‘new’ freezer. It’s quite big, larger than we actually need, but still fits nicely in our kitchen/dining room. I plan on freezing fresh fruits (like strawberries, etc) and having them in there so that Dave and I can eat delicious food like that without the fear of wasting them. Right now, however, it just has frozen meats and treats in it (Dave’s ice cream sandwiches and my low-calorie, non-fat fruit pops).
You may have noticed that my blogs have been pretty quiet over the last week or so. That is for a couple of reasons, but primarily because I have been working on some guest posts for Chris’ blog, Always Standing. As she is going on a very long trip this summer (and then sadly moving to Toronto) I have been putting a lot of effort into them and they have been taking the majority of my blogging time. They have all been submitted now and we are only left with the regular delays in my blogging (eg. work) which I am really getting used to.
Dave and I attended two retirement ‘parties’ this weekend; one for my mom and one for his dad.
My Mom worked as a nurse at a psychiatric hospital since she graduated from nursing college. She started off in the ward (working shift-work) and when I started high school she got a promotion to Outpatient Nurse. She would work in three different locations throughout the week helping many different patients. My mom is a very hard-working and dedicated person who helped teach me to be the same. She deserves her retirement and I hope she enjoys every minute of it. To celebrate, my Dad arranged a surprise dinner for her at one of their favourite places, the McIntosh Inn in Morrisburg. She seemed very happy to see all of us there (Tyler, Lynn, Dave and myself). We then went for a walk near the water in Morrisburg. It was a really nice evening – I am so glad my Dad set it up.
Dave’s dad retired from the fire department, in which he was a Captain. This is obviously I very honourable job as he risked his life on a daily basis to help save others. He too is a hard-worker and I know this is where Dave gets his work ethics. He will be spending just over half of each year here in Canada and the rest in Florida – that will definitely lead to a happy retirement. To celebrate, Dave’s parents and sister came to Ottawa for the day. We went out for lunch and walked around Hogs Back park and did a little bit of browsing around a few stores in Nepean. I really enjoyed the day and of course took tons of photos of everyone (and a few geese).
You may have noticed, that with the exception of our two weeklong vacation to Florida, Dave and I tend to take long weekend vacations rather than weeklong ones. I find this to be a more effective use of our vacation time and also allows for us to go to several different places, albeit for less time at each place.
We are currently planning Vacation 2010 #3 and #4, Toronto and Quebec City respectively and as a great deal of our trips do, these both started out because of Cirque du Soleil shows.
The Toronto trip will be mixed with a trip to see Dave’s parents and his mom’s side of the family. We will be spending July 2 at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and then seeing Cirque’s show Alegria at the Air Canada Centre. Then we will spend the 3rd in Peterborough and then head to Guelph for the family reunion on the 4th. We plan on taking the 5th off from work as well to drive home and relax from all the visiting. It should be a nice semi-vacation.
The Quebec City trip is based around Cirque’s newest show TOTEM. It is currently showing in Montreal and is then moving to Quebec City for a month (as all new Cirque touring shows do). I don’t really know what else we will do as I just thought of doing this and also just bought the Cirque tickets, but we still have plenty of time to get everything else set up.
We were also planning a Vegas trip (also based around Cirque shows) but due to all the other smaller trips, and the rest of the events we are doing in the Ottawa area, I think we will push this to further in the year. It would also be nicer to go to such a hot location when it is cold here at home.
Dave and I went to see the Eddie Izzard show last night (called Stripped) with Chris and Jerrica. Though it was really good and very funny, it wasn’t as amazing as I thought it would be. To be honest, I spaced out during one long bit about Latin and then came back in for the punch line. I also kept getting distracted by the lit square in the set. It started out as a sun then changed to an eye and then later to a moon and finally to the whirring stars. It was neat and I took a bunch of photos in the different states.
I think one of the best lines was about the letter C. Eddie thought it was a stupid letter and it could fuck right off. But don’t worry, K and S have it covered.
Dave found this one day at work and I was simply amazed. Yes it is technically an add at the end – but the abilities of the sheep herders (and their amazingly talented dogs) is amazing.
"Be great in act, as you have been in thought." - William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Today is Dave’s 25th Birthday. Don’t quite know what we are doing to celebrate other than the Eddie Izzard show later this week and the fact that we just got back from the cottage, but I hope he has a fantastic day. I love you sweety.
Today is birthday #26 for the beautiful Christine. We are spending it with her at her family cottage on Lake Erie with tons of friends – should be really fun.Like most people, I have searched my name before and realized that you can find my blogs and Flickr account through that. I have also learnt that if you search something relating to the Naruto character Kisame (specifically if you search Kisame costume) you came find photos I took of Dave and Justin’s Halloween costumes from last year. I have also learnt that if you search Winnie-the-Pooh you can find some of my photos from my 100 Possibilities Project. That being said, today I learnt that of a search term that leads to me that isn’t so obvious.
If you search night beach you can find some of my night time photography photos. This is not because they were taken on a beach, or have anything to do with a beach, it is actually because they are night photos taken by Stephanie Beach. Apparently my name is not only awesome, but also quite handy at drawing people’s attention to my photos.
“Nope. Still look stupid.” – SoMuchPun.com
Dave found the above comic on the I Can Haz Cheezburger family of websites that he loves oh so much. The comic is hilariously true because Crocs are stupid and shouldn’t exist – I really wish people would stop wearing them.
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