SLC

A couple days ago, I found out that I am the successful candidate for a very cool position here at my new place of work. One of the immediate benefits is that I get to go to Salt Lake City in a month, somewhere I have never been.

In the course of other jobs, I have travelled to most of the large cities in North America. Although I have changed my mind on the subject a few times, I have come to enjoy travelling quite a lot.

Since I haven't been on a business trip in over a year, I'd say I'm looking forward to it.

When checking out the surrounding area, I was amazed to see how many caches were located in such a small area.

I'll be getting my money's worth out of that GPS receiver I just bought.

Showcase

Okay, Valerie Buhagiar might have been good (okay - she was great) in Highway 61, but she absolutely sucks at reviewing movies.

A Smile on Every Face

In the aftermath of my company winding down, a lot of office furniture and computer equipment was left over. A small collection of items went home with corporate officers, others went to friends, and still more pieces sit at the office, awaiting their fate.

A few weeks ago, my super told me that his computer had gone 'on the fritz' and being the dot-com wonderboy that I was, could I take a look at it?

I showed up a few days later and discovered the problem: the computer was completely toast. It was an ancient-looking IBM 386 from about 8 years ago. It wouldn't power up and the motherboard had a strong smell of ozone.

Even though he only used it for playing Solitaire and other simple games, he seemed quite upset that his PC had died.

Yesterday, I took one of the old machines left over from our corporate shutdown and made a surprise visit. I brought it in and hooked it up as he stood there and smiled.

Late Night Ebay

I rarely dispense advice online, but I implore you:

Don't surf Ebay late at night if you want to keep your house and home.

By some stroke of (bad?) luck, I managed to win 5 auctions in a row, thinking that I would maybe win only one of them.

At least they weren't too expensive.

You Are Here

I got some good use out of that new GPS unit I got this past week.

Check out the adventure I had today.

Tricks of the Trade

After yesterday's post about my last-minute bidding shenanigans on eBay, Allura tells me there's a web site that'll do it for me.

eSnipe will put in your bid just seconds before the auction closes.

Hardly seems fair to anyone who doesn't know about it.

I love it!

One Of My Own

After getting sniped 3 times on eBay, I finally managed to pick up a GPS unit of my own:

Garmin GPS III+ Auction

I lurked around, refreshing the page until there were only 45 seconds remaining in the auction and I struck.

As an unexpected bonus, the guy selling it works right across the street.

I'll let you all know my co-ordinates tomorrow.

Finally, There Was Light...

Okay, I finally sat down and processed the images from the Illuminaires Festival that happened a few weeks ago.

All images were taken at night, without a flash. I was relying on my intuition for exposure and aperature settings.

Two versions available:

• Low Bandwith
• High Bandwidth

You know, this has renewed my interest in becoming more proficient with a camera. If anyone knows of a great place for photography courses, let me know.

Cool Blue

After some lobbying, my department had full spectrum lighting installed today.

I thought the effect would be subtle, but it makes quite a difference.

When looking at workstations illuminated by FSL and others using normal lighting, the normal lighting has a orange-yellow tinge. Colours render more accurately and images on my monitor have a crisper feel to them.

They seem to cast a bit more blue light, which cools the room down from the warmth of the normal lighting giving it a 'cleaner' look.

I like it so far.

I Made It

5 days, 1500 kilometers, 4 nieces, 2 sunburned limbs and 1 shattered window later, I'm back in the Lower Mainland.

Kaslo, called the Little Switzerland of Canada, is an exceptionally beautiful and remote place to live. My brother and his brood have been there a couple of years now, moving from another picturesque town in the Kootenays: New Denver.

I should have pictures online by the end of the week (one of the pitfalls of old fashioned film). Be prepared for obligatory family photos.

The shattered window? I'll explain later.