Practically Euro
One of the major resolutions I made at the beginning of this year was to travel to Europe. As it turns out, you need to spend quite a bit of money to make your way over the pond they call the Atlantic.
Priorities in order, I’ve had to delay my trip to the homeland until at least next year, but I’m doing the next best thing! I have this idea in my head of what Europe is like, having fantasized for quite a while now about traveling there.
This constructed image basically resembles Montreal’s Old Port, a section of the city with cobblestone streets, and old brick buildings with wooden doors. Horse-drawn carriages trot down the street and jovial locals and tourists pour in and out of patios, bars, and art galleries that line the street.
I’m looking forward to one day visiting Europe, but for now, I’m substituting it with frequent trips to my second favourite city in the country.
Road Trip
There’s talk with some friends of mine about doing a road trip this weekend. Having been tasked with finding a good place to go, I got a little distracted, and drafted up my ideal driving tour of North America. There’s some extraneous cities thrown in there, and some missing that I’ve visited and don’t have much interest in seeing again (Vegas, at least not for a while).
Total travel time: 6 days, 1 hour. Hm, not quite doable over a weekend, I suppose. I’d like to take it on one day though, camera in hand, of course. Where do you want to go?
Six Feet Under
Photo by mdumlao98.
I was going to just throw up a video of the ending of Six Feet Under, but even the poster frame image is a gigantic spoiler, so I’ll resort to linking to it, for those of you that have already run the gamut through this fantastic TV series.
Typically, when I go back to watch an old series, I do so continuously and get through it in a month or two at most. It’s a funny thing with Six Feet Under; I’ve never had any TV series hit me so deeply, with so much ferocity. So much so, that I started watching the series probably close to two years ago, and only finally got through the last (fifth) season today. There were periods where I gave it up for months at a time, but always came back to it.
Nature Photography
Nature photography has always piqued my interest, particularly the macro shots of insects, or some other part of the environment that you don’t typically see in such great detail.
I’ve been frantically running with my camera each time I see a bug that’s even close to interesting lately, and finally got a halfway decent one of a butterfly the other day. Looks like a Monarch, but not quite as vibrant. It’s amazing the kind of details you can get when you get in close with a good lens.
This shot creeps me out a little bit too, just because of the degree of detail. Who knew butterflies were so furry?
Emotional Information Architecture
Let me get this out of the way first; Gregory Dizzia has a hell of a lot more guts than I do. This guy has put together a fabulous looking chronological chart of all the emotional/intimate relationships he’s ever had in his life.
Included details about each relationship are “how we met”, “impressive attributes”, “what we did” (eek!), and some facts related to how the relationship got started. Technological self-inflicted and architected voyeurism at its finest. Just rolls of the tongue, doesn’t it? [via Fimoculous]
30 Ways…
Wil Wheaton has a nice habit of linking to some good, inspirational stuff, and I saw another one pop up in the reader today, 30 random ways to a happier life by Shane Nickerson. Some of my favs, and those I agree with the most:
10. Love what you love. Don’t trick yourself or others.
11. Cut out people that bum you out.
14. Ignore social constraints if more convenient or sensible than abiding by them.
16. Feel free to simply let parts of your past go.
22. Change is unavoidable. Embrace it, on every level.
29. Always be ready to let go of your original plan…
A lot of these I’ve only recently learned over the past year and have embraced a bunch of them to the fullest extent. Particularly with #10 and #22, and I learned the hard way from #29. To be perfectly honest, I’ve never been happier!
Economies of Scale
I often look out for Hummers to sidle up to in parking lots, if for nothing else, then for the photo-ops. The colours even worked in my favour here.
Incidentally, this is the first shot I’ve taken with my point & shoot since picking up the XTi, and I feel naked when out & about without it now. While snapping this photo, I instinctively started to put my eye up to the viewfinder, only to remember it has none. Spoiled!
Diesel’s Dystopic Future Nuisances, “Human After All”
While I don’t usually pay much attention to purposely over-the-top ad campaigns, I saw Diesel’s new dystopic “Human After All” campaign on NOTCOT and felt it needed some love.
“Forget for a moment about the barbell that your angry ex-girlfriend is in the midst of hurling at your face from a third floor balcony, and rest assured that your ass looks out of this world in your new Diesel jeans.”
Be sure to see the rest of the present meets future annoyances portrayed by Diesel, like assembling Ikea furniture and figuring out how to get those pancakes off the ceiling of your spaceship. Seriously.
Star Wars Fan Assembles a Galaxy at Design Exchange
“We seem to be made to suffer. It’s our lot in life.”
- C-3PO from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
He just can’t catch a break, shown above (a reproduction mask, anyway) decapitated all over again at Ian A. Anthony’s Assembly a Galaxy exhibit at the Design Exchange.
In the relatively short time that I’ve been contributing to blogTO, it’s rare that I’ve been able to reveal my true geek nature, but I’m thinking that this just might do the trick.
You might say 37 year-old Ian Anthony enjoys Star Wars. His personal collection of Star Wars action figures, reproduction props, posters, and set pieces will surely bring any child of the 70’s or 80’s back a few years to their childhoods.
Visiting Anthony’s exhibit at the Design Exchange just a few weeks after the 30th anniversary of the series brought back fond memories and plenty of nostalgia in seeing all the action figures and memorabilia on display.
Firefox sponsors the Fire Fox at Toronto Zoo
Spotted at the Toronto Zoo, looks like Mozilla is cleverly sponsoring the fire fox exhibit. (also known as the red panda)
The Red Panda is also sometimes known as hǔo hú (火狐), which literally translates as ‘fire fox’, a name which can designate either the red fox or the Red Panda.
Very cute!
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Adam is a User Experience Specialist at IBM in Toronto and also produces content of all kinds around the Web.
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