lows

There is a massive storm on the way here. So the weather channel and the news people keep warning us, every minute of the day for the last two days. This one is coming at us from Texas. Extremely dangerous weather. A very powerful low. The worst storm in years. The grocery stores were packed with people yesterday, stocking up. The morning traffic guy is in an early panic - "it's already started to snow".

I guess that will keep me indoors trying to understand this new computer. So far, I'm not enjoying it. I want my old familiar PC back. Am I the only one? It is so very disappointing. This is a much steeper learning curve than Apple leads you to believe. But, I took the $99 one-to-one option so that the friendly blue shirted employees could teach me, and spread their love of all things Apple. It is incredible how excited the staff are for me. They are all so happy, "oh, you are going to love using it". You should have seen the look on the blue shirted one's face when we were booking the next tutorial and I whipped out my Moleskine appointment book and pen (and I was asked - pointlessly, surely - once again, "do you have an iphone?" No.)

I do love the lack of cables and wires. And the thinness of everything. The wireless mouse and keyboard is rather cool, even if the idea of wireless still messes up my head. But the keyboard is so small that I keep hitting the cAPS lock key. And I will sorely miss the numbers keypad when I go to do my accounting. And I haven't figured out how to upload photos properly yet. And where is the 'save' option?? And what happened to the 'right click'?? And, aND... Okay, it will all come together soon. I will learn to love my Mac. I will.

And the good news? I don't have to shovel any driveways.

seeing things differently

When I drove from Ottawa into Hull, one of the first things that stood out for me, was that the traffic lights were different. Not only were they on a long straight arm over the intersection, they were ... horizontal.
That is just so wrong. Well, not wrong really, but so different than what my brain tells me to expect. It was startling.

Traffic lights should be on a pole at the edge of the sidewalk, or on a meridian.
Or on a short curved arm extending over one lane.
And most importantly, vertical.
And yellow.

But on a wire extending from one side of the road to the other with the signals twisting in the wind. Now that is wrong and deserves serious re-designing.

Now, I spend a long time (sometimes hours, even) on some of my blog posts. Especially the ones with photos. The photos have to be the correct size and positioned just so. And the accompanying text has to be specifically aligned. This can cause great consternation with the click and drag option. But I am particular about how I want everything to look.

The other day (week, actually, since this has been sitting in my 'drafts for oh, awhile...) I succumbed to one of the many pop-up invitations to try out Google Chrome. I had been with several friends and the conversation somehow turned to the glorification of the 'chrome'. It was so loved by at least two of my computer geek friends that I decided to give it a go. It was purported to load faster and I thought that in itself would be a wonderful thing.

It took a little getting used to finding where everything was. The font was a little different. I liked the instant spell check - though I had to constantly 'Canadianize' it by adding any 'our' word to the dictionary. The tabs were now on the top, instead of the bottom of the screen. And instead of eventually clumping together in a hidden vertical sequence when it got to be too many open tabs (I am easily distracted) they just kept being added in a long horizontal sequence. It wasn't what my brain told me to expect.

Neither was my finished post exactly as expected when I switched from IE to Chrome. All that careful layout was slightly off.

I once commented to another blogger who had posted a photo of her computer screen on one of her posts that I had no idea there was actually another column far off to the right hand side. In fact, I couldn't even see all of her photo without having to scroll down because it was too large to fit on my 17" screen. It wasn't until then that I realized there was also a scroll bar on the bottom. What she was obviously seeing on her screen was not what I was seeing on mine.

Which makes me wonder, is the image of our posts different if you are using a Mac vs a PC? Since Internet Explorer shows differently that Google Chrome, how many other variants are there?

...and why won't Blogger let me embiggen some of my photos??

a long drive in the woods

I'm not often easily impressed by new electronic gadgets. It takes me awhile. But a couple of months ago I was introduced to an iPhone, and an iTouch. My SIL and I had great fun playing with it. When a friend was telling me about her GPS that she had to get for her new car (that she rarely drives), I tried not to roll my eyes. Really, isn't a mapbook good enough? I have a large Rand McNally for the Golden Horseshoe. If where I am heading is on the awkward bit like the page edge or worse, the spine, I draw myself my own version on a sheet of paper and that usually suffices. I can always Google it beforehand and print off the map.

Then I got to play with the GPS and found out all that it could do. Just telling me something will not convert me. I need actual visual, hands-on proof. I had to concede that the features like distance and traffic delays and where the nearest ATM or gas station is could be extremely useful. It even tells you where restaurants are and what movies are on at the nearest cinema.

So much detail at a touch. I've been in love with this gadget ever since.

Many years ago, on a road trip to Winnipeg, a friend and I were cruising along the blasted out rock and pine tree filled stunning forests of North of Superior when it occurred to us that maybe we should have topped up the gas in Wawa (or wherever it was we left several hours ago, I forget at the moment). We saw a sign pointing down a road to the right that said Logging Camp, Gas Station. So off the highway we turned and drove down the rutted track. And drove, and drove, and drove some more because we were not quite deep enough into the never ending stunning forest. Seriously, we weren't sure we would even make it to the logging camp. Finally, after many, many minutes that may have equalled an hour, we reached what was obviously the end of the road. We knew this because after the few buildings and the gas station and general store, the road looped around back onto itself. The station sold le gaz, the signs were all in French, the attendant only spoke French and didn't understand our attempts at communicating. We filled up, bought a snack and headed back to the highway. By then we both needed to pee and since we hadn't passed a vehicle the whole way we stopped and checked out the lay of the bushes... a big logging truck passed us. We reached the highway and remembered that we needed to turn right to keep on towards the Manitoba border. About 1/2 km up the road, around a bend was a gas station. With a restaurant. And probably clean washrooms.

one-ringy-dingy

Brrrrp, brp, brp, brp, brrrppppp.
Brrrrp, brp, brp, brp, brrrppppp.
Brrrrp, brp, brp, brp, brrrppppp.

What the hell is that annoying noise?
(yes, I talk to myself. and yes, sometimes, even out loud, which is another post all to itself)

Finally, the cobwebs in my head cleared enough to realize it was the phone.

My new phone. The old one having become more of a nuisance than a useful piece of equipment, what with not holding its charge for very long. Sometimes, in the middle of a brrrrrp it will die. Or worse, in the middle of a conversation. No more 30 second warning biip, just an awkward noiselessness that tells me no one is listening to me anymore.

Not even returning the handset to the charger helps. Yeah, yeah, I know. But where is the joy of having a cordless phone if you have to keep putting it back where it belongs? You want to put it down where ever you have wandered while talking. It is a very handy excuse for screening your calls and picking up in the middle of someones message: so sorry, I couldn't find the phone...

Then there is the frantic searching for phone numbers when you try to call back to the person who wasn't listening to you anymore because your phone died, only to realize their number is stored on the phone ... that is ... dead.

So, on the weekend I noticed in the flyers a certain store that doesn't just sell tires* had phones on sale. I went and found a really nice looking model, with a "sleek European" handset. Pondered why there are never any "sleek Korean" designs on the latest LG (whatever) - it's only ever the European design that is sleek. But, for $3 more, I could get this other model that wasn't sleek, or Korean, but did come with an extra handset. Since I do have a tendency to 'lose' my phone, I decided this would be a great option.

Too bad that, sometime within the 16 hour charging period, and 16 hour waiting period for someone to actually phone me I threw out all the packaging. Because, I HATE this phone. I hate the ring. I hate the orange glow on the faceplate. I hate that I can't see the numbers on the orange glowing faceplate. I hate the big orange bar that lights up when the phone is in its charger (instead of the barely conspicuous green dot of my other phone). And I hate the way the handset feels in my hand.

I can be so picky about a $27.00 item I barely use.

In fact, I much prefer my old rotary phone. It has a receiver (note: not a 'handset') that fits quite comfortably in the hand. It has some weight to it, gives you something to hold on to. And a nifty coiling cord to twirl and fiddle with while you're talking. But, sadly it doesn't allow me to press 9 for entry into my building. Nor does it have that oh so convenient 'redial' option. And it does get annoying with those 10-digit numbers beginning with area code 905. It takes a looong time for that dial to go all the way around from 9, then 0.

But it does have a nice comforting, unmistakable 'ring' to it.While looking for a picture of a rotary phone because I thought it would be easier than taking my own I realize that North American phones have the cord on the LEFT while British phones have the cord on the RIGHT. Any ideas as to why this might be??

* Canadian Tire - an auto store that is fast becoming a favourite housewares store.

yellow

I am in love.
With my new camera.

Which isn't exactly brand new; I've had it since January, but am only now really getting back into photography. I think it is the digital amazement. Now I've figured out how to get the pictures from the camera onto my computer all by myself. Now I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't have deleted so many of my previous pictures. Yep, it is definitely that digital amazement.

Way back in my previous life, I studied photography in college. Had a darkroom and everything. Well, not exactly a darkroom; I had a windowless loo in the basement which served as a darkroom so long as you were really careful not to trip over any pans of developer or fixer on the floor. The stop bath was in the sink and the enlarger sat on a board on the toilet seat. It was not the best of set ups, but it was the darkest bit of the house with water access and I was determined. Then I lost interest. Or time. Or something. Possibly the cost was a huge factor. Developing black & white became quite expensive as did the developing from Black's. And being a bit impatient, my prints didn't always turn out as expected.

A few years ago, on one of my trips to Scotland I didn't even bother taking a camera with me. I was visiting family and I already had all the touristy pictures I needed and far too many that didn't do the real experience any justice. Besides, anything else, one of my cousins could send me as they always got double prints of everything. I found it to be surprisingly freeing. I enjoyed being in the moment and I think I saw more around me when I wasn't constantly searching for the perfect photo op. And because I was a bit slow, it usually took me awhile to get the perfect composition, the perfect angle, the perfect light... and people wandered off on me. Once, they all got in the car and slo-o-w-ly started to drive away.

But that was then, long before the digital age. Now, I don't have to worry about how many pictures I take - I don't have to spend a fortune to get back a bunch of blurry or too far away prints that never get looked at again. And I found out there was a photographic and digital imaging show on at the International Centre this weekend, so I hopped on over to see what was up and what I could learn from their many free seminars. Much of it involved buying new equipment and programs or was way beyond anything I needed. And a lot reinforced what I already knew but needed dragging out from behind the fuzzy parts of my brain. But, hot damn, if it wasn't exciting. I'm getting out of this luddite stage of my life.

The other day when I went out for my coffee I decided to walk to the old church yard to see if there was anything there blogpostworthy. The light was all wrong and the sky was darkening with clouds so I wandered to the lake to catch the change and stopped when it started to rain. I was surprised to see, when I uploaded my trip's takings onto the computer, that I had 36 pictures. That would have been a whole roll of film. I was just snapping away at so many useless looking things that struck my fancy. It was only about 15 minutes. I laughed when I read Yellerbelly's comment about getting a photographers eye! I think my 'eye' is coming back into focus. I was thinking about the things I would return to photograph another day, noticing things I'd not paid attention to before. Kinda the opposite of what I just wrote.

One of the the things I noticed was that there is an awful lot of yellow around and not just the leaves. And I was deciding as I walked home (getting drenched) that my first theme week would be on the colour yellow. So, each day I will head out for a walk, not far, maybe 6 blocks or about 1 km, and on SightLines I'll post something yellow that I find. Today, I'll start with the obvious.

...and we're back

Wow, is it that time already? How are y'all doing??

Well, I think maybe part of my not sleeping problem was corrected during the past 9 days as I had no computer to distract me. No computer to play games on. To read blogs on. To read The Times and The Guardian on. To get email messages on.

It has been HELL, I tell you. I've missed you all. And thank you those of you who sent messages and emails, but I am fine. It was my Dell that was very, very sick. So sick she crashed and required major surgery. Whole new innards. So this will be short while I try to find where all my recovered data has been put. Because, of course, I did not back up anything. Panic ensued, but all is okay now. I think.