More Snow...

Actually, it's stopped snowing now. The original weather forecast had been rain but there was a drop in the temperature so we had snow since early this morning. Anyways, since it's stopped I can hear someone shoveling the snow outside our apartment building. Which is nice. Because I'm not volunteering to do it again. At least not for a while. Did my share on Christmas Eve. It had been done early that day so I did the afternoon/evening round. I wasn't shoveling light, fluffy stuff. It was the compressed stuff that would've been in danger of becoming a layer of ice.

What I found interesting (as opposed to tiring) was the reactions of people who walked by. A couple of people said "Thank-you". A couple of people engaged me in brief exchanges of chit-chat. Some walked up the parts I had cleared and waited for me to stop briefly so they could get by me. And then there were the ones who didn't walk up the part I had cleared and stomped up the part I would eventually be shoveling. Those people I just didn't quite understand. I guess it hadn't occurred to them that they were, even to a small degree, stomping on the stuff I would be shoveling and likely contributing to making it more arduous to remove. Or something to that effect...

Dr. David Suzuki, The Sylvia Hotel and Stuff...

The Sylvia Hotel
Originally uploaded by d.yaro

Tonight was one of those odd nights in life: One steps out the door and things happen. The initial plan for my evening stroll was simple - take my camera and to down to Lost Lagoon to take photographs of the Christmas tree mounted on the fountain dias and then head home. As it turned out, I did the first two things and then walked down to English Bay. Took photographs of the Sylvia Hotel and then went inside for a drink.

What happened after that: I ordered a pint of the Winter Ale. As I was enjoying my drink I was approached by a fellow asking if I was Japanese. I said "Yes, but I was born in Vancouver". He asked if he could join me for a drink. The conversation that followed lasted several hours. It didn't really have any direction. We talked about subjects ranging as far as the history of the British in North America, to the Second World War, quantum physics (I did Google the Higgs boson particle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider), LSD and Dr. David Suzuki. My new found friend had a point of contention with Dr. Suzuki (and he noted that I resembled a younger version of him) which turned into a point of embarrassment for him when I went over all the points in my life which intersected with that of the good doctor. I won't go into the details here. The whole escapade ended in an arm wrestling challenge which ended in a draw.

Anyways, there you go. Step outside the safe confines of your home and who knows what will happen. Such is the big adventure called "life"...



Postscript: Other nonsense we covered - US intervention in the Japan-UK alliance that cummulated in the Washington Naval Treaty: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Naval_Treaty, the significance of the British victory on the Plains of Abraham: http://www.ccbn-nbc.gc.ca/_en/index.php and the Heisenberg Principle: http://www.thebigview.com/spacetime/uncertainty.html.

Snow, Snow, Snow, Sundin????

Okay... Mats Sundin will not be in a Canucks uniform this Saturday. I'm going to be seeing them play the Chicago Blackhawks that night. Taking along a Japanese friend who had never been to see a hockey game until I took her to see the Vancouver Giants play the Tri-City Americans about a month and a half ago. Now she's going to see the big boys play in a big league game. Hopefully she'll have a good time at the game. As for Sundin...I really expected him to sign with the Rangers. Oh well. So much for all the goodies we could've taken off their hands.

As for the snow... Can someone take it off our hands now? Ship to Florida or Texas. What? They got their share already? Oh. Strange winter...

Okay...Happy, Sort of, and a Touch Embarrassed

Yes, I did submit a request for tickets to events at the 2010 Winter Olympics. I picked a package, a number of single event tickets, alternative choices, doubled up the quantities to pairs for all my choices and submitted the request. I had aimed for the events that weren't marked "high demand" and picked events on days which I think I can arrange to get time off from work to see. Nothing fancy. I had done this at near the end of the request period so I didn't bother with the "big ticket" events such as men's ice hockey medal or playoff games.

A couple of days ago I received the e-mail telling me "Congratulations you've been allocated tickets". Great. I go to the website and try to logon. Can't remember my password. Try the password reset mechanism. Wasn't sure what I had entered as the answer for my account's security question. Took several stabs at getting a password reset but no e-mail arrived telling me if I had succeeded.

The next day I called the ticketing centre and patiently waited on hold for about 10-15 minutes. Maybe more, maybe less. I got the agent to reset my password. Went in, checked my account, saw what I was allocated, printed it off and that was that. Then I checked my e-mail account and found the password reset request from the previous night had arrived while I had been on the phone.

If you read the comments attached to the story on www.cbc.ca/bc about the ticket allocation announcement and subsequent start of scalping of said tickets then you'll come across a few people who are very happy with what they got, a few people who got nothing and a lot of vociferous comments from naysayers and what-nots. Given that environment, I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I got everything I had requested. Yup. I got all my first choices. I feel sorry for those who struck out. Really. Because I had submitted my ticket request just several days before the deadline. I guess I chose wisely and was thus rewarded. It's not always the rabbit that wins the race...

Half a minute earlier...

Half a minute earlier...
Originally uploaded by d.yaro

This photograph would've been interesting. Well perhaps....

It was about 4:30pm in the afternoon. I had taken a couple of photographs of the mist enshrouding Swangard Stadium and the NW corner of Burnaby's Central Park (which actually isn't the geographical centre of Burnaby). I walked a bit and was standing on the NE corner of the intersection taking in the view of the North Shore mountains. I thought to myself "That would make a nice photograph. Those clouds are so interesting looking." As I was letting that thought pass through my mind a saw a bright streak of white light pass from east of the mountains (the right side of the photograph) and then vanish in the west. It must of been visible for less than a second or two. I was dumbstruck for a moment. Then I realized I had most probably witnessed a meteor (or very large meteorite) burning out as it entered the Earth's atmosphere. Later on I theorized it could've been space junk too. But I like the meteor theory better.

This event does highlight a bit of why I take photographs. Partly I'm trying to capture images that are visually appealing. Partly because I'm a bit of a "documentarian". I collect images and data just like I collect objects. Somewhere in me is this part of my character that says "You live in the now so it never hurts to create a record of those moments". Sometimes those images do tell a story but more often than not there have to be accompanying words that define the context the image comes from. If not for these words then the photo I've posted would be just a so-so image of clouds enveloping the local mountains. Which wouldn't be all that much to write about.

^%$#@! YouTube

The two videos I shot in Cambodia and which I've uploaded to YouTube include this one. Unfortunately the darn upload process got hung when it hit 94% completion. I let the session sit overnight, not being sure if it actually was hung or not, and was essentially annoyed when I found that it really had come to a crashing halt. The second video got uploaded on the first try which is good because the thing is in a 9.4MB .avi container. The file size limit for the service being 10MB. Given the amount of time it took to upload the thing I really wasn't in the mood for another crash at 90%+ completion.

Anyways, that's my rant of the day. Will think of something better to say next time.

Dressing a Wreath

Dressing a Wreath
Originally uploaded by d.yaro

The young girl in the photo I took probably doesn't have a clue as to what the full significance of the day's activities were, including the placing of the plastic poppy to make a wreath. In time she'll get to know though.

I was reading an article today on the CBC website about a graveyard in Gaza for Canadian soldiers who had died while serving as peacekeepers during the Suez Crisis in the 1950s (http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/11/10/f-gaza-war-cemetery.html). The article is quite nice and very touching. The one vitriolic comment posted a reader, accusing the author and the article of being anti-Israeli propaganda was...mind numbing. Thankfully it was removed by the moderators.