All the News that Fits ...

Last night, I had one of those 'wow' moments. You know, those rare times when a whole new world opens up because one's learned of a new technology? Oh, gads .. if you're a self-described news junkie .. then have I got a revelation for you!

RSS = Really Simple Syndication

Don, we shared information about the Google News. It is a completely automated news page that's created without human editors. It is possible for them to get hundreds of news media updates every few minutes because of a software framework called RSS (XML).

RSS has grown in importance, in part, because of the preponderance of blogging. It is a way of sharing items between web sites and programs. Running in real time on regular web servers, updates can occur constantly. The concepts are quite complex, but the program is fairly simple. I just downloaded an RSS News Reader (Aggregator) called NewsDesk. It comes with a few dozen publications set up. (There are thousands, no probably tens of thousands, of 'feeds'.)

Just a headline and a few lines from the net publication appear within the reader. However, the person can then click on the headline in order to load the page. Hundreds of thousands of people no longer slog their way through a multitude of pages on popular news sites. They now save time by going after only the content they're interested in. (It means that writers will have to pay close attention to creating good headlines.)

Any site that bothers to put up an RSS feed can be subscribed to. There are even work-arounds that provide RSS features to web sites that don't provide one.

A Lot of White

If it's going to happen .. the week between Christmas and New Year's is it! Thousands of people in the area feel like kids again today!

---

Santa you rat!

I wrote to you on December 24 and again on December 26. Now I fear I am wasting my time and will not bother anymore. However, I think you are really a jerk for not bringing me a wide-screen TV. I was extremely nice during 2003 but I have seen no reward for my good behavior. I have waited and waited but did not get my TV nor did I get any response from my previous messages.

My lawyer and I had a very long discussion and we have decided not to press charges. But please be advised that you have now made an enemy because of your negligence. I plan on starting an Internet campaign to bring attention to your obvious malice and disregard for my feelings. You will live to regret the day you ignored my simple request for a high-definition television.

Your adversary,
Dennis Hurd

P.S. As my hamster had to eat up the cookies you left, he has become fat and lazy. Also, I drank that bottle of wine in one sitting and now find myself beginning a new addiction for the new year.

---

Silk and Ice

When I was taking yesterday's picture at the Quay, I took this one too. You can send it along as a photo message to someone you want to impress. It's much cheaper than sending real flowers!

View a Webshot Photo [LINK EXPIRED]

I've got a number of albums on webshots.com. Check 'em out now!

[Editor's Note: I now use Flickr.]

A Little White

In last Friday's photo of Christmas Day, there's not a hint of white. But as last night's precipitation was frozen, I'm able to include a dash in today's picture. Granted, it's not much but it makes things feel a little more like winter.



The Esplanade is under supervision of New Westminster's Department
of Parks and Recreation. (See an autumn picture of the same area in this
blog's October 27th entry.)

EcoTeach Foundation

How's this for youth entrepreneurship in fund raising! I know Garrett, the author. The organization is legitimate, so please pass along this information to those who may be interested.

---

Hi, I am Garrett and I'm helping my sister. She is going to Costa Rica this spring with they Eco-teach. She is so excited! She will spend time in the Tropical Rain-forest, protecting sea turtles, planting trees and visiting farmers. She is selling coffee to earn her way. The coffee is Ten dollars a pound. You can have it in Ground or whole bean. It is strait from Costa Rica farmers and 4 dollars from every pound goes to them and one dollar goes to Eco-teach.

I have designed a web site for my sister. it tells you all about the coffee. It is named ...

Becca's Coffee For A Cause.

I hope you buy some coffee.

Till next time,

Garrett Wirta
My sister's webmaster

---

Moose on the Loose

Yesterday was the start of the real shopping season. Merchants have taught people to hold off on gift buying until after Christmas day. So, Boxing Day sales in Canada now generate larger crowds than the run up to the holiday.

We're not much into the great, end-of-the-year, buying-spree extravaganza. Although I make most purchases whenever there's a need, I did want to venture out yesterday. The crowded Canadian Superstore was enough to send me scurrying right back to the apartment. I did succumb to one purchase though. It's something that will have to be packed away with the Christmas ornaments. They all must fit into one shoe box and this guy's going to make it difficult! He was CDN $4.94 only.

[LINK EXPIRED]

So, here's a 38-second Windows Media Video clip of my singing moose. I was sure that a video file would be better than a picture .. but had forgotten how tiny, fuzzy, and unclear net video must be in order to fit down a standard modem.

Let It Snow?

We experience fairly warm and wet winters on the west coast. Statistically, there's a one in ten chance that there might be snow on the ground on Christmas day. It last occurred in 1998. This year, obviously, it didn't. The picture was taken yesterday at the Rose Garden area of Queen's Park in New Westminster.

Ready for Fight on Boxing Day

---

Hey Santa,

This is a follow-up note to my letter of Wednesday.

I waited all day yesterday for your delivery. I figured that since I got my request in late that you were having a bit of trouble getting my wide-screen TV here on time. So, I was quite patient.

Yet now it's Friday and still no show! What's up? No elves answered my email! I am now waiting for the televison AND an apology. If we can't rectify this problem, I am going to have to consider litigation.

Formerly yours,
Dennis Hurd

P.S. I had to feed the cookies to the hamster and you didn't even touch the bottle of wine that I left for you!

---

To You and Yours,

Express Delivery to Balcony

CBC Television has a great line up of specials for the Christmas season. There are many holiday classics. It's a Wonderful Life was on again last night. (I mentioned that movie in my December 13th entry when it showed on NBC.) Of course, it is only black and white but it looked great over satellite and an S-video connection. There's something quite seductive about richly-restored b&w movie prints.

Yet, this points to my current problem. My television is now 10 years old! It travelled by ship from the other side of the globe when I left Dubai. It's a 27" Hitachi 'flat screen'. Being multi-system is now an unnecessary option as North America uses only NTSC. It works flawlessly, but 'I want more' as a local electronics chain advertises.

---

Dear Santa,

I'm sorry to make this request so late but I assume that your sleigh still has some extra room. Your elves do process last minute email requests, don't they? Please bring me a wide-screen, high-definition TV for Christmas. I've been a good boy and don't need a plasma, or even an LCD model. A simple new, projection 46" Hitachi will do nicely. The fireplace burns natural gas, so you should just drop off the set via my balcony window.

With anticipation,
Dennis Hurd

P.S. Also, please advise as to the beverage you'd like me to leave with tonight's cookies.

---

Let It Snow

Okay, I seem to be getting completely into this Season's Greetings fixation.

View a Rocky Mountain Vista

So, click the link to view a photograph taken last week. It was from a Greyhound bus window somewhere near the Alberta / British Columbia border. It is best viewed at 1024 X 768. (The falling snow has been painstakingly added for dramatic effect!)

---

Hooray, today there's going to be 8:12 hours of daylight. The sun rose two minutes ago and will set at 4:17 this afternoon. The days have started getting longer. Amen!

Five ... Golden Tuques

Click the player to hear a 4:48-minute song by Bob and Doug McKenzie. It's a Canuk-inspired version of the 12-Days of Christmas. Oh, by the way, a toque has become the Canadian term for a knit, pull-over, winter stocking cap for one's head. (This Windows Media Player file requires the minimum of a solid 56K modem connection.)

Not a Creature Was Stirring? (2003)

H3 joins in the wonders of the holidays. (Oh no! This is
now just like a silly, photocopied Christmas newsletter!)

Walkingwaydowntown

We're now back from Calgary. I was trying to think of what today's entry could summarize or what event would be best remembered. There was one thing ...

It was near freezing so one wouldn't expect to see crowded streets. Yet, they sometimes looked quite bare! Where were all the people? Surely, the downtown workers didn't stay home because of the temperature. After a bit of traipsing around we discovered the 'Walk +15' signs. (See a pdf map.) Unlike Montrealers who can spend the winter in an underground shopping and subway system, Calgarians can spend a good deal of their time walking through and between buildings on an over-the-road, pedestrian walkway system.

During the trip, Jay asked if I remembered a Canadian movie that we'd seen a few years ago. He said it was shot in those Calgary walkways. He has such a good memory! I found the plot summary in the Internet Movie Database.

Waydowntown (2000)

There's no place like ...

... home.

All Friday on the Dog

We're heading to the Greyhound station pretty early tomorrow for the 7:15 AM (local time) departure. As the sun rises we will be travelling toward Banff. Then later during the morning, we'll be climbing back over the Rockies and some of BC's other mountain ranges. BC's wide and it'll be nearly 9:00 PM (PST) before we pull into Vancouver.

This morning we saw The Last Samurai. I like films when I come away feeling I've learned something while being entertained. I did.

Transit Passes

In order to squeeze out every penny from the day pass, we rode the rails today. We managed to visit an LRT station that's only been open for two days.

The weather guy on the news is talking about how warm it is, but I'm freezing! I never wear gloves in Vancouver so I promptly lost a pair I'd brought along. There seems to be quite a difference between Calgary's dry 3 degrees and those wet 12 degree days found in Vancouver!


Today, we went up the Calgary Tower. The view was worth the admission
of ten bucks. Here's a shot looking west towards the Rocky Mountains.

Downtown Calgary

Today the temperature got up to about 5 degrees Celsius. There's ice on some sidewalks which seems unusual for us. We're right on the edge of the downtown core in the Sandman Hotel. Although housing sprawls across the suburbs, the downtown is quite compact. I think there's just shy of a million people here. The LRT Trains are free down the street we're on but I've still walked my poor feet off. Maybe tomorrow we can buy a transit day pass.

As High as a Kite

The 22nd floor of the Sandman is fine!

I've discovered how to get a hotel deal: First, you research the very the best deal you can on Expedia. Then you dial up the chain directly and say that you're about to hit the enter key. They won't want to pay the rather expensive fee to the web agency, so they'll undoubtedly offer you a better deal. Even if they are at a loss at doing more than a few dollars cheaper, you can still demand a better room!

Greyhound Canada was efficient and comfortable; however, travelling through the night isn't as easy as it sounds. The stations are all nice. (This is unlike the ugly, dirty ones we visited when we once rode to Reno.) By taking the bus, we were able to travel directly here. If we'd have driven we would have had to allow an overnight in each direction cutting down on the time in Calgary.

Week's Entries Due Later

An occasional blog update may occur while we're in Calgary because I might duck into an Internet cafe or my hotel's business centre. I'll bring my digital camera, but will probably not find an access point to get the pics off the Smartmedia card.

So, please return next weekend to the see entries from December 14th to 19th. I shall post trip photos and additional comment upon our return.

In the meantime, perhaps you can find something interesting to read at blogger.com.

It's A Wonderful Life

The popular Christmas classic showed on NBC tonight. It was as heartwarming as usual but wouldn't you really rather spend an evening in downtown Pottersville than in boring Bedford Falls?

Free Wi-Fi

Here's an interesting nerdy article: TechTV | Free Wi-Fi Blankets San Francisco.

A Song on Christmas CD

Click the player to hear the 2:48-minute song mentioned in one of yesterday's blog entries. It is Santa Baby sung by Eartha Kitt. (This Windows Media Player file requires a 56K modem connection, at minimum.)

----- Original Message -----
Date: Friday, December 12, 2003
Time: 09:45 AM PST

Submitted by: Tim Conklin
Browser Info: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0)
Subject: Dennis Hurd's Web Form

It's 9:44 Friday morning and a slow day at work. Dennis, I'm going to give you two of my favourite links. The first is a link to the Penlovers website. I use it to navigate to Stylophiles on-line magazine. They have excellent graphics. The second link is to the Beowulf in Cyberspace website. It too has good graphics and a lot of information about the Beowulf story as well as interesting info on Anglo-Saxon England. I hope you and your bloggers (blog readers) enjoy them.

Best regards -- Tim

www.penlovers.com
www.heorot.dk


----- Response -----
From: Dennis Hurd
To: Tim
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 10:21 AM

Oh lord, how do I collect friends with such antiquated ideas? Timothy loves fountain pens! He believes that thoughts should be scratched out on smashed, dead trees with dark-coloured pigments. Yikes, it sounds rather archaic, doesn't it? To add insult to injury, earlier in the morning, it was suggested that I put this blog on parchment and lock in a vault for safekeeping.

How quaint, the both of you are! I feel like I'm swimming against the tide.

Anyhow, I appreciate your participation and links, Tim. : -)

Santa, Baby!

I really didn't know the song, Santa Baby.

Eartha Kitt's rendition ended up on this year's Christmas Compilation CD. (I think cards are rather dumb, so I send out a personalized, yearly music disc.) If you'd like a copy, there's still time before the holidays. Just email a request with your postal address, and I'll pop it into the mail!

Now, I've heard that song playing in stores and mall. I've discovered that it's also been sung by Marilyn Monroe as well as Miss Piggy!

----- Original Message -----
From: b.wirta
To: Dennis Hurd
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 6:48 AM
Subject: Re: Gimme a New Blog Topic

Dennis, I read your blog this morning all the way back to the final exam photo. All your work on your blog seems so transient. You need to print and save. Some future historian will love you.

Bret

----- Response -----
From: Dennis Hurd
To: b.wirta
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 6:55 AM
Subject: Re: Gimme a New Blog Topic

Print out and save? Pfff. Lame. What 20th century thinking that is! ... or maybe 18th?

If you look under my picture, you will see access to the archive vault. No information is lost .. but only the last seven days are on the main screen. Search works too .. so if I want to go back and see about when you visited .. I type in BRET. (One cannot do an easy search on paper.)

Bret, I'm betting that electrons will last longer than a leather binding.

==Dennis

East to the Land of Oil and Beef

Jay and I have some time off, so we'll head over to Calgary on the weekend. It's a bit over 1,050 km (650 miles) away. If not skiiers, who goes for a stay in Calgary in December? Many of its residents are probably on their way to Arizona, Mexico or a 'tropical' destination! That's okay; it's been a while since we've headed over the Rocky Mountains.


We last passed through Calgary in 2001. On that trip, we saw a lot of
Canada. In this picture we're at the big Falls. We did a 15,000 km
Vancouver-Newfoundland-Vancouver, camping trip for two months
of the summer.

New Feature: When I occasionally glimpse a weird, useful, cute, or interesting blog (at www.blogger.com), I'll post it.

The Illustrated Librarian

Bigger IS Better

I bought a monthly air-time voucher for my cell phone yesterday. I use a 'pay-as-you-go' service that doesn't have a monthly bill, but requires the purchase of time. While there, I was looking over things at the London Drugs electronics counter.

Do people really need to play games on the tiny, colour screen of a telephone? And is there REALLY a need to take and send mini-photos with one's phone? I've never even bothered to download ring tones for my present phone. Maybe, I'm just more involved in other things; but honestly, trying to 'keep up with the Jones' phone' seems somewhat frivolous.

I was a bit shocked by the size of the new sets nowadays. My Nokia is a few years old and if I were to replace it, I'd have to go to something roughly half its size. Then if I sneezed during a conversation, I might end up either snorting or swallowing the thing ...

Shopping at 6th & 6th

The majority of New Westminster photos that I've placed in this blog have been from the downtown area. The apartment is here, so it is most common for me to take a walk around here.

Yet, for over twenty-five years most business development has taken place uptown. This term must be taken quite literally as it's a fairly steep incline to the top of the hill. That could be one reason why my 'walks' are along the river rather than uptown! Yet, when I want to go to the library, hit the mall, visit my dentist, or sneak in to the closest McDonalds, I drive about a mile up 6th Street.


The area near the intersection of Sixth Street and Sixth Avenue is the
city's main shopping area.

Tell It Like It Is

I'm finishing up the final exams right now. Marking twenty-one papers is a real chore! I find Aaron Neville's music helps provide a suitable environment for this task ....

Doh

Vancouver Courier
Hole Lotta Love
Michael Kissinger
Friday, December 05, 2003

Rick Farmer, Tyson Konecny and Alishia Hebert are on a mission.

Piling out of a gunmetal blue 1969 Ford Falcon station wagon, the three walk with an air of determination common in these parts. Like many British Columbians, they've come to Burlington, Wash.--an innocuous strip mall of a town between Vancouver and Seattle--for one thing. Dozens of things, actually. Doughnuts. And not just any doughnuts. Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

(Click here to continue the article. LINK NO LONGER ACTIVE!)

Bucks in a Buxton

The new, Queensborough Wal-mart was fairly packed. Wal-marts usually are. I just returned from buying a new wallet. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but I can only remember buying about three wallets ... ever!

I wonder how long an average guy keeps the same wallet.

Light Rain

Hundreds of folks came to watch last evening's parade on Columbia
Street. The rain was very light.

Our Santa Parade This Evening

The 17th annual Christmas parade takes place on Columbia Street in downtown New Westminster. It begins at 4:00 PM and after the parade comes the lighting of the tree at Hyack Square. This city is fun because of its small size as well as its sense of history and community. Some other cities in the Southern Mainland are merely suburbs of Vancouver with no unique character of their own.

Today's the Final Exam!

Today, at the Burnaby Campus, we'll write the final examination for our COMM 0003 Course.

1 .. 2 .. 3 .. Audio Testing

Click the player to hear a short (2:46 min.) MS Media Player message from me. (Maybe, you've not visited with me recently and have forgotten the sound of my voice!)

Salmon Swim to Source

Last night, I sent out the regular monthly newsletters. They are related to the alumni from my high school and the site that I created and maintain. The names on the email reminded me of last summer when I returned to Sunapee, NH and attended our 25th reunion. Thankfully, the Internet had provided a means for getting hold of many of the former classmates.


Hey, Lori would NEVER make rabbit ears in a photo, right?

How'd I Miss Logan Lake?

I was on the Net and cannot remember how I came across the name. I found a place that's only 3 hours from Vancouver that we've not been. When one wants to go east there are only three possible routes from the city of Hope. Logan Lake seems to be between several of those routes. Hum .. snowmobiling? Must be at a high elevation to have snow. We must take a weekend trip! (The town boasts about its great fishing too. So, this entry DOES connect to the previous one through a 'fish thread'.)



District of Logan Lake - Offical Web Site

Today begins the fourth month of entries to this blog. To view past posts, look to the right under my picture and you'll find access to my weekly archive vault. You may want to try a search of this blog for particular keywords as well.

Something fishy ...

Somehow, I had missed Finding Nemo at the theatres. I got the DVD at Blockbuster yesterday. What amazing technology to tell a story! One would think that believable water would be a difficult computer generated effect. The scenes were extremely well done and beautiful. Surely, the guys at Pixar were just showing off.


These were NOT Nemo's buddies. I took the photo
of these fish at the New Westminster Quay Market.