Where, When, and What Happened?

The last substantive trip was to China and Malaysia last fall.

Fate and personal choice determine what we do in this life. My partner and I choose to do a lot of travelling. Everyone has unique priorities, and having opportunities to see the planet on which we were born seem important to us. Furthermore, the memories and education of travel provide more satisfaction than accumulating objects. Shiny things soon tarnish, and new cars only seem new for about a month. Memories, however, seem more akin to gold.

Lots of our meandering occurred a long time ago. The 1980's are the stuff of history books nowadays. I've tried to capture and collect some of those times and places here in my eJournal and images. The loose structure and open-ended organization of a blog make that possible for a lazy writer such as myself.

However, I've been able to be a little more religious about documenting travel from September of 2003 when this ever-evolving document first went online. For during this time, I've, for the most part, been able to write about the trips as they've occurred. And to add further organization, I can link to them from one location.

Today's entry is merely a means to recap the journeys taken during my last eight years and four months of blogging. The majority of the longer trips are on multiple pages and, true to blogging format, they're in reverse chronological order. So reading an entire, lengthy past trip requires going to bottom of the page and using the Older Posts link. That's a bit of an annoyance, but at least it gives me quicker access to a particular location or event.

A List of Longer Trips Since Blogging

China / Malaysia - September / October 2011
Central America - April 2011
Spain / Portugal / Morocco - September / October 2010
Puerto Vallarta / Guadalajara Mexico - April 2010
New York City- December 2009 / January 2010
Siem Rep, Cambodia - October 2009
Sri Lanka - September / October 2009
Washington DC - March 2009
Las Vegas, NV - December 2008
Italy - August / September 2008
Phoenix / Grand Canyon / Palm Springs - May 2008
Mexican Cruise - February 2008
Europe / Eastern Europe - September 2007
Los Angeles - May 2007
New Hampshire - February 2007
Hong Kong - October 2006
Sri Lanka - September 2006
Pacific Coastal Cruise - May 2006
Europe - September / October 2005
New York City - May 2005
Singapore - October 2004
Sri Lanka - September / October 2004
Calgary, AB - December 2003
San Francisco - October 2003

Journeys That Were Blogged

I really enjoyed our six days in Barcelona in September.

---

Just before leaving on our recent vacation, I celebrated the fact this blog had existed for seven years. In 'blog years' that's an eternity, I think. If one is to then consider that I have created an entry every single one of those days, then this endeavor becomes even more unique. In fact I feel bold enough to make this bet: You will not be able to find a personal blog that has more entries than my eJournal and images.

That means I should be able to quickly locate all the vacations taken in the last seven years. I've surely mentioned about journeys earlier in my career many times, but the following trips were written while we were taking them.

Spain / Portugal / Morocco - September / October 2010
Wenas, WA - Weekends w/ Joel & Lynne - July 2010
Puerto Vallarta / Guadalajara Mexico - April 2010
New York City- December 2009 / January 2010
Siem Rep, Cambodia - October 2009
Sri Lanka - September / October 2009
Wenas, WA - Weekends w/ Joel & Lynne - August 2009
Portland, OR - June 2009
Washington DC - March 2009
Wenas, WA - Weekends w/ Joel & Lynne - February 2009
Las Vegas, NV - December 2008
Italy - August / September 2008
Phoenix / Grand Canyon / Palm Springs - May 2008
Mexican Cruise - February 2008
Europe / Eastern Europe - September 2007
Los Angeles - May 2007
New Hampshire - February 2007
Hong Kong - October 2006
Sri Lanka - September 2006
Pacific Coastal Cruise - May 2006
Europe - September / October 2005
Okanagan Winery Trip - June 2005
New York City - May 2005
Victoria, BC - February 2004
Singapore - October 2004
Sri Lanka - September / October 2004
Calgary, AB - December 2003
San Francisco - October 2003

I am pretty sure I have included a majority of times we were away for more than a weekend. The trip's lengths range from a few days to several months.

Hum ... 53?

No, it is not my age, although on Friday I will getting within a few years of that number. Instead, it seems as though I've got 53 Android apps on my phone at the moment. I didn't count but a website did. I signed on to appbrain and it's quite brilliant. It lets one manage one's applications on a website, and then automatically sync them up with one's phone.

A few week's back I made a listing of the apps that were on my phone but I did it by hand. By using appbrain.com it was as simple as just clicking a link. You'll notice that I do not have any paid apps installed. They are in the order of installation or update.

DennisSylvesterHurd's Installed Apps
Phone: Nexus One
53 total, 53 free (100%), 0 paid (0%), 47MB total size

• moveo pedometer (beta)
• c:geo ~ geocaching for Android
• Aldiko Book Reader
• Voice Chat Robot
• FxCamera
• GPS Status
• mSpot - Music Player
• AppBrain App Market
• 4 teh birds
• NPR News
• Foursquare
• Shazam
• Movies
• Shopper
• Unit Converter - ConvertPad
• Listen
• Scanner Radio
• DroidZebra reversi
• Blue Sea Live Wallpaper
• AppAware App Market
• Bubble
• Coin Flip
• Bump
• picplz
• antivirus free
• Backgrounds
• Google Goggles
• Meebo IM
• CBC Radio for Milestone
• Aquarium Live Wallpaper
• IMDb Movies & TV
• Sweet Dreams
• Flash Player 10.1 BETA 3
• Voice Recorder
• Earth Live Wallpaper
• File Manager
• Text-To-Speech Extended
• Google Translate
• Google Maps
• Google Sky Map
• Solitaire
• Advanced Task Killer
• WiFinder
• World Time
• My Tracks
• WeatherBug
• StopWatch
• XE Currency
• Twitter
• Talkback
• Facebook for Android
• Amazon MP3
• Google Voice

View this app list on AppBrain

I love my phone. I must admit that I never, ever thought I'd be saying something like that. It's just with a data-plan, a phone becomes something personally worthwhile. It's like a little part of me. In the movies, you may have seen the dramatic proof that the character is escaping from the confines of their existance. They show this by throwing their phone in the lake or tossing it out of the car window. Nobody who owns a smartphone would ever do that!

Playing Tag

The only way to keep good track of online photos is to tag each one. That way rather than simply being organized in a folder, they are available for search. Here's a tag cloud of my 200 most frequently used ones. Of course I've used many more tags than these few hundred as I have nearly 7,000 photos online. By typing in search terms, for example, I just discovered there are fewer than 500 photos with me in them! Okay, that's a lot, isn't it?

Today's "What's on My Phone" List

In February of 2006, I listed the timers that were current on my satellite TV PVR. It is interesting to see the programs I watched, especially since most of them are no longer being broadcast.

This fits into my general concept that even the most mundane aspects of life become noteworthy if enough time passes.

Discovering the contents of a time capsule, whether intended or not, can have a significant historical value. For example, I've only been the owner of an Android phone for a few weeks. Yet, I'll take a moment to list of the apps on my phone right at this moment. I know things will change and the items will take on added interest when time give greater perspective. I will only list the icons on the phone's 5 home pages. For example, you won't find the Solitaire card game on this list although it's loaded and accessible.

FREE GOOGLE OR ANDROID APPLICATIONS

Calendar - Tracks appointments.
Contacts - Syncs Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter apps.
Earth - The same as the PC version including Street View.
Gmail - My main mail client.
Goggles - Identifies products by using the camera.
Listen - Podcast collector via Google Reader.
Maps - Same as the PC version.
Messaging - To handle text messages.
My Tracks - Uses GPS to show routes travelled.
Navigation - Traditional GPS w/ Voice Turn by Turn
Shopper - Identify barcodes or logos online.
Sky Map - Shows what is in the night sky.
Translate - Speak English and translate to other languages.
Voice Dial - Just part of Android

FREE APPLICATIONS FROM OTHER COMPANIES

Advanced Kill - Saves battery by stopping apps.
Android Market - The official place to find apps.
Antivirus - Just to stay safe, I guess.
AppAware - Shows what apps other people are downloading.
Bump - Transfers business card info, by touching phones.
Calculator - Doh!
Camera - Also a part of Android. Should be above?
CBC Radio - Stream many stations live. Read news.
Currency - Finds XE.com exchange rates. Nifty!
Facebook - The offical Andoid app.
File Manager - See what's on the SD card.
Foursquare - Location aware app. Say where one is.
GPS Status - Shows satellite reception.
IMDb - Customized for the small screen.
Movies - Similar to the one above but from Flixter.
mSpot - Keep 1600 songs online for free streaming.
News and Weather - Nothing special. Forecasts seem accurate.
OverDrive - Works with my library's audio books.
Public Radio - Streams lots of NPR stations.
Shazam - Indentifies a song by listening to a sample. Magic!
StopWatch - As it says. I use at work.
Sweet Dreams - Turns off the phones functions at night.
Translink - Allows look up of local bus, SkyTrain schedules.
Twitter - The official Android app.
Voice Recorder - Good for making audio notes.
Weatherbug - Slick but too big. Can set multiple locations.
WiFinder - Helps choose wifi connections.
World Time - Shows time in chosen cities.
YouTube - Link to the mobile site. Android 2.2 does Flash.

From Two Thousand and Three

The very first trip after the creation of this blog was a trip to San Francisco (September 2003).

Starting Tuesday, we've got another little adventure coming. Mexico isn't far but two weeks there promise to be a change of pace and educational. Today's entry is just a little bit of personal blog housekeeping. I like things arranged in a tidy way so that I can go back and find things. The task grows more difficult as the information at my eJournal and images grows.

I've tried to at least mention most journeys we've ever taken. At one point, while still overseas, I tried to create a word processing document containing my vacations and trips. That has been a help in identifying some of the things that happened back in the 1980's and 1990's. After coming to Canada in 1996, considering it's not such a long time, I have probably been able to remember every sojourn.

What's marvelous now though is the ease at piecing things together since I started blogging. Not only have I told about but I was telling during. I so wish I'd kept journals during the first 44 years of my life!

Today's entry is merely an attempt at rounding-up those times. I have also tried to add pre-trip planning and post-trip remarks about each one. (Don't forget, in typical blog fashion, the information is arranged with the oldest entry at the bottom of each page.)

New York City- December 2009 / January 2010
Cambodia - October 2009
Sri Lanka - September / October 2009
Thomas Desert House, the Wenas, WA - August 2009
Portland, OR - June 2009
Washington DC - March 2009
Las Vegas, NV - December 2008
Italy - August / September 2008
Phoenix / Grand Canyon / Palm Springs - May 2008
Mexican Cruise - February 2008
Europe / Eastern Europe - September 2007
Los Angeles - May 2007
New Hampshire - February 2007
Hong Kong - October 2006
Sri Lanka - September 2006
Pacific Coastal Cruise - May 2006
Europe - September / October 2005
Okanagan Winery Trip - June 2005
New York City - May 2005
Victoria, BC - February 2004
Singapore - October 2004
Sri Lanka - September / October 2004
Calgary, AB - December 2003
San Francisco - October 2003

I am pretty sure I have included a majority of times we were away for more than a weekend. The trips lengths range from a few days to several months.

Be It Resolved ...

I looked in my eJournal and images for last year's New Year resolutions. I guess, I didn't make any last year. That's hardly surprising considering how near perfect I already am. By chance, I did find these created two years ago for 2006:

Travel to Bella Coola, BC.

Begin new work-related projects at BCIT.

Sign up for an adult education course.

Explore Costa Rica.

Keep up on my blogging and Flickr'ing.

Begin using Windows Vista.

Watch a wide-screen TV at home.

Play local travel guide for my father.

Continue to let our savings accounts grow.

View all unwatched movies from AFI's 100 list.

Paint some of the apartment.

Take more outdoor, scenic hikes.

Donate some time to charitable causes.

I seems as though I didn't get much of the list accomplished the year it was created. Let's see if I was able to cross off any of those in 2007.

1) I've still not been to Bella Coola, BC.
2) I taught several new courses last year but worked far too much.
3) I took no courses.
4) Costa Rica is still an unfinished dream. (Yet in 2007 we were out of the country for five weeks and did visit Central Europe for three of them.)
5) Blogging and Flickr'ing continue unabated.
6) I am typing on a new computer which is running Vista.
7) I've been completely in high-def. for more than a year.
8) My father's stroke and subsequent life choices have prevented him from getting out here.
9) I have a sufficient cash to retire abet extremely frugally.
10) Movie selection continues well beyond the current ten blockbuster releases.
11) Haven't done much in the apartment.
12) I sure walk around more but lean more towards urban outings nowadays.
13) I've not donated time, but we now regularly donate cash to charities.

Can I think of any new things to add to the list in 2008?

I've added Mach Picchu and all-of-Italy to the international travel destinations list.

The bathroom sink replacement is on the maintenance chart.

I want to select Bluray or HD-DVD as a format choice for HD player.

I've gone from 235 to 205 lbs but 185 would be better!

How Much Longer?

Any single entry in this blog may not explain me very well. You might not even be able tell much from a single week. What I'm hoping for is more of a long-term endeavor. If I keep up this habit long enough, a more complete picture will emerge from the words and photos.

I've said similar things many times before. A few years back I even likened it to the infinite monkey theorem.

I find having this growing database of Dennis available personally interesting. For example, through the search feature, I can check to see how frequently I use specific linguistic terms. I can add information about my past in a totally random manner but still have them appear on the same page through labels. Lastly, I can even check to see what I wrote on a specific day during any of the past four years. What about November 8th?

2003 - Commented about a newly purchased XBOX.
2004 - Advised that all recent, Sri Lankan trip blog entries added.
2005 - Provided a picture of new, BCIT students.
2006 - Mentioned how grass stays green here.

To the Spoiled Under-30 Crowd

Okay, I've been blogging for over four years and I have never, ever just pasted in one of those 'cutie' emails that one sometimes receives. You know who I mean. Everybody has at least one acquaintance or family member who frequently sends out junk to a huge list of people. I got this and I figured it does sort of fit here.

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning .. uphill BOTH ways .. Yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email! ! We had to actually write somebody a letter .. with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it! And we didn't have fancy Caller ID boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600 with games like "Space Invaders" and "Asteroids" and the graphics sucked! Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you were just screwed!

Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no onscreen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little bastards!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove or go build a friggin' fire ... Imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot.

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled!

You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

Regards,
The Over-30 Crowd

For the Record

I was up at four o'clock in the morning as I've obviously not adjusted to Vancouver time yet  We got back on Friday night from our recent trip to Central Europe.  Although we had sketched out our recent trip, the itinerary was fairly flexible. 

After a few days of taking photos, I remembered that I'd not reset my camera's clock.  Then, when I finally did, I think I was a day off.  Therefore, the EXIF data on my digital photos are basically way off the mark.  I thought it might be a good idea to type this chart here just to keep it straight in my own mind.  In the end, this was the schedule of cities where we slept.

DATE OF NIGHT	LOCATION
Sep 13	On Flight
Sep 14	Munich, Germany
Sep 15	Munich, Germany
Sep 16	Munich, Germany
Sep 17	Salzburg, Austria
Sep 18	Bus from Munich to Budapest
Sep 19	Budapest, Hungary
Sep 20	Budapest, Hungary
Sep 21	Budapest, Hungary
Sep 22	Bratislava, Slovakia
Sep 23	Bratislava, Slovakia
Sep 24	Prague, Czech Republic
Sep 25	Prague, Czech Republic
Sep 26	Prague, Czech Republic
Sep 27	Prague, Czech Republic
Sep 28	Prague, Czech Republic
Sep 29	Vienna, Austria
Sep 30	Vienna, Austria
Oct 01	Vienna, Austria
Oct 02	Zurich, Switzerland
Oct 03	Zurich, Switzerland
Oct 04	Munich, Germany
Oct 05	On Flight / At Home

One for the Bots!

Today is just for maintenance and to show you how my progress for organizing this blog is getting along. The labels listing continues to change and develop. I shouldn't think that that will stop at this point. So, today's lisiting is just sort of a work in progress. As well as giving you an idea of how I'm beginning to organize old entries, putting the list here will give the search engines a chance to find all the new blog pages.

[THESE LABELS ARE IN EFFECT OF THIS DATE. THEY MAY BE CHANGED OR ELIMINATED IN THE FUTURE.]

Feel free to click any of the following. But get 'em while they're hot because supplies may be limited.

Alaska (6), Alberta (12), analog (8), Bahrain (20), balcony (23), BBS (7), BC Ferries (12), BCIT (115), blogging (45), Bret (30), briefcase (6), camera (62), Canada Day (7), cars (16), Christmas (39), complaints (20), computer lab (16), computers (78), Creative Zen (6), credit card (4), cruise (16), Daily Picture Parade (13), dentist (5), Don (21), driving (9), Dubai (28), errands (19), Eurotrip 2005 (25), Eurotrip 2007 (4), file archives (16), fireworks (6), Flickr (97), flora and fauna (22), flying (12), food (41), Fraser River (16), games (8), glasses (6), Google Earth (7), government (23), GPS (23), hamster (3), hard disk (3), Hawaii (3), Hayack (5), HDTV (10), Hollywood (4), Hong Kong (7), humour (7), India (12), Joel (33), Kuwait (11), labelss (5), Laurie (8), library (9), lists (23), London (1), Los Angeles (12), maintenance (14), Mediaplayer (3), money (20), mother (4), movies (77), music (26), musical (9), Nepal (4), New Hampshire (65), New Westminster (104), New York City (11), Newfoundland (3), Niagara Falls (2), Okanagan (13), opinions (56), parade (2), Paris (1), passport (1), Persian (1), pets (21), pig (2), places (91), podcasts (9), Portland (6), PVR (5), Quay (19), Ranger (14), relaxing (12), review (2), Royal City Mall (1), San Francisco (10), Saudi Arabia (29), sci-fi (4), sharing (12), SkyTrain (4), Sound of Music (1), Sri Lanka 2004 (61), Sri Lanka 2006 (34), staff (2), Stanley Park (4), stars (9), students (11), Surrey (8), technology (31), telephone (5), television (56), temple (28), Thailand (3), The Wizard of Oz (2), Tim (19), topcasts (3), transit (29), travel planning (26), Turkey (2), UAE (23), vacation planning (4), Vancouver (30), Vancouver Island (13), voice recording (2), Warner Bros (3), weather (59), weight loss (5), Windows (24), world (21), World Vision (11), X Minus One (3), YouTube (11)

Are We Happy, Yet?

Damn, I hate the fact an improvement in the weather might affect my mood. Well, perhaps it's more than just the sunny, blue sky. Am I feeling good because:

This bottle of BC Growers Sparkling Watermelon Cider is empty

The Canadian dollar is worth more than 96 US cents

I completely finished up all teaching obligations this week

I could easily avoid work for a few years, if I chose to

I'm glad we chose to make Vancouver home

There's not much I'd change about my life, if given the chance

British Columbia's tourist advertising campaign keeps telling me I'm living in the best place on earth?

(Note: The correct answer is ALL OF THE ABOVE.)

Raindrops on Roses ...

I bought new windshield wipers a few weeks ago. As today's weather was typical for this time of year, I got a chance to use 'em. I like the sound of the new rubber against the glass.

I suppose getting pleasure from the inconsequential bits of life is important. I think I'll come up with a dozen other things that make me happy.

Sliding into newly washed bed sheets.

Having the hamster on my lap and petting it.

Solving a computer hardware or software problem.

Sitting around the living room with Jay.

Sneaking an occasional Whopper or Big Mac.

Watching a good HD prime time TV show.

Teaching a class that is exceptionally well organized.

Taking the time to go for a leisurely walk.

Planning for any vacation whether long or short.

Getting a good DVD in the mail from Zip Canada.

Noticing whenever gasoline drops below $1 / litre.

Sipping an evening glass (or two) of u-brew wine.

Just a Lot of Hot Air

I don't really have anything to say today, but that's never stopped me before!

Writing a blog is weird as I'm driven to put something under each date. For three and a half years, I've continued to add something to these pages every day. Of course, sometimes there are many things I wish to share; at other times, there aren't.

If you search through archives here, you won't find:

political discussions

poetry entries

sexual exploits

current events

cat pictures

funny jokes

work complaints, or

links to other blogs.

Which sort of begs the question:

What in the hell have I been rambling on about for so long?

Why not type something in box below to see:

[This search method was later upgraded. This link will no longer work.]

Making (and Saving) the Grade

From my first class at BCIT, I've used MS Excel spreadsheets to track marks. Right from the onset, I knew that making a few cell formulas would be easier than sitting with a calculator at the end of the term. This is because there are a number of marks to calculate. For example, here are the COMM 0004 components:

Weekly Writing Assignments 45%

Midterm Examination 15%

Oral Presentation 10%

Quizzes and myBCIT Message Board 5%

Final Examination 25%.

Although I started at the BC Institute of Technology in the autumn of 1997, the first .xls file I could quickly put my hands on is from September of 1998.

Chang, Chiao-Yun (Joey)
Chiang, Tai Hsien (Lisa)
Cho, Kyung Hoon (Kelvin)
Kang, Hyun Joo (Jeannie)
Kim, Tayleen
Kunitate, Ricaco (Rica)
Lai, Hung-Jui (Jim)
Lau, Pui (Elizabeth)
Lin Jiao (Vivian)
Lin, Yu-Wen (Tina)
Song, Hong Jin (Jin)
Tai, Fang Chi (Debbie)
Wan, Han Tsung (John)
Won, Sat Ching (Carol)
Wong, Tze Ming (Jasmine)
Wu, Yueh His (Brian)
Yen, Tsung Heng (Louis)

I could still check each of their grade components. I wonder where those students are today? I'll include them so if they Google themselves, they can drop me a line!

Kids, Don't Try This at Home

Question: What do the following have in common?

Buckingham Palace in London

A bookstore in Portland, Oregon

The Friday market in a Sri Lankan village

Zebras on the Kenyan savannah

The Brooklyn Bridge

Two seagulls on a BC Ferry

Answer: They were a random selection of my personal photos which appeared on a newly-created web page.

---

I've often discussed the advantages of having an e-collection of photographs. Old paper photos are always stuck in particular album next to others shot at the same time. Online photos, on the other hand, can be searched for and combined in a myriad of ways. On the page below you'll find six entirely random photos from a collection which is currently approaching 1,900. In real life it'd be most analogous to throwing several thousand photos into a pile in the middle of the floor and fishing out just six.

The fun only starts when you 'refresh' and a new, random selection appears. I just might have given you a way to waste the next five minutes of your life. Click the screenshot to load the page in a new window. Then, bookmark it.

May's Days

The month of May seems as if it has already been quite long but we've still got tomorrow remaining. I added a few entries to my myhistory.doc file. That's the place where I write a single line of actions for each month. I started this word processing document as an aid to help me remember specific occasions of my life. It's been sitting on a hard drive for years and years. The file continues all the way back to 1981, the year I graduated from college. Here are Mays for the past few years:

2006 - SD to Van Cruise (3 htl-5 night ship) Afternoon BCIT (#30), New Sofa.
2005 - One night at Lynne & Joel’s, New York City 7 nights, Weekend BCIT (#24).
2004 - Visited Bret/Joel in Seattle, Bought DV camcorder. BCIT (#22).
2003 - Nothing listed.
2002 - Trip to Tofino, Island, & Sunshine Coast, BCIT Class (#15).
2001 - Took Alaskan Cruise.

You Are What You Watch

I was wracking my brain for an entry idea. Then, it occurred to me. If this really is a journal of personal events, I should include the recording list from the PVR. Here is a listing of television that's a part of my life at present. These automatic timers change quite frequently. A quick estimate shows that I save 6 hours a week by using the machine to skip through commercials!

The titles followed by (C) indicate Canadian programming.

TUE
Godiva's (C)
Boston Legal

WED
Still Standing
CSI: NY

THU
Survivor: Panama
Will & Grace
Four Kings
CSI: Original

FRI
Malcolm in the Middle
Royal Canadian Air Farce (C)
This Hour Has 22 Minutes (C)
Hatching, Matching, and Dispatching (C)
Getting Along Famously (C)

SAT
Mad TV

SUN
Kala Kavaya (Singhala Language)
Desi Door Darshan (Hindi)
Ebert & Roeper
Grey's Anatomy
Nova PBS
The Simpsons
Family Guy
American Dad

MON
King of Queens
How I Met Your Mother
Las Vegas

Setting My Sights

It'd be easiest to just put up a picture with fireworks and add HAPPY NEW YEAR! Even though today is really just another day, we seem to harbor a lot of fear, hubris, and anticipation about this one.

Of course, it is a good time to create a list of goals for upcoming twelve months. I really have no bad habits that I wish to quit. Additionally, I'm very satisfied with things as they are. Still, I should be able to compile a list with a few things which would be useful or interesting.

At least I will have something to analyze here a year from today. I'll see how many I can successfully accomplish.

Here are a few possibilities in no particular order:

Travel to Bella Coola, BC.

Begin new work-related projects at BCIT.

Sign up for an adult education course.

Explore Costa Rica.

Keep up on my blogging and Flickring.

Begin using Windows Vista.

Watch a widescreen TV at home.

Play local travel guide for my father.

Continue to let our savings accounts grow.

View all unwatched movies from AFI's 100 list.

Paint some of the apartment.

Take more outdoor, scenic hikes.

Donate some time to charitable causes.

5 X 1000 Words = Big Entry Today

Each day, a few dozen people 'arrive' here at this blog, not to see my daily wit but because of doing a Google image search. These are the winners hands down:

The Brady Bunch

Rain on Street

Pumpkin Flowers

Old Cell Phone

Psycho Bates Motel

These are, indeed, images found on this blog, but Google's not the best place to look for a specific pictures. For one thing, they update images very slowly and I'd venture that Google has indexed only about 5% of my domain's images. People should go, instead, to the opening page of Flickr! and type nearly anything into the search box there.