Let's Make Some Art, Dammit

January 28, 2023. This dragon watches over our kitchen and dining area from atop the cupboards. I bought it at the Forbidden City in Beijing (still one of my most memorable trips). Today was a stay-at-home Saturday, which I spent mostly playing No Man's Sky (for the first time ever, I have an S-class starship, freighter and multitool). https://flic.kr/p/2oeurD9

January 27, 2023. It was time for my check-up. I'm pleased to report that my heart is fully functional and I don't have any bad signs in my blood test, except for my kidney, which we see in slightly elevated serum creatinine levels (from 90 to 115 over the last six years). Cholesterol and blood sugar are fine. We're also making a change to my seroquel prescription in order to address side-effects. I also ordered my new bicycle today, and visited Bernie and Mum at her retirement home. She recognized me and gave me a big smile, which made my day. https://flic.kr/p/2oerQ93

January 26, 2023. I repotted a couple of my plants today - these were formerly office plants in Moncton that I transported here seven years ago when I move, meaning they're about 10 years old (and really needed a repotting). I think that now they're in the window getting full sun they'll thrive. https://flic.kr/p/2oerNMA

January 25, 2023. Such lovely weather. It was a classic Canadian snow day today, which meant that for me it was an indoor day all day. A good day to focus on work, which is what I did. https://flic.kr/p/2oeuiva

 This is for Bernie. Click here to see my Anticosti videos: https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeBQHgzQN9x3JAHR6wTflDk15foS8Me2P    

January 24, 2023. This is just an ordinary house I see when I go on my walk, but it's funny how a few trees and some snow make any old house a postcard picture. Had a few meetings today, discussed ontologies and instructional strategies, and gave an informal presentation introducing myself and my interests. https://flic.kr/p/2oe4E9N

January 23, 2023. These are solar panels set up alongside the railway a few blocks from home. One thing I noticed right away when I moved here is how much more solar and wind power is generated here than in New Brunswick. Back to work today, more work on the Protege ontology editor. https://flic.kr/p/2oe28XR

January 22, 2023. Same forest, new week. A warmer hazy overcast day. We snowshoed almost 5 km. https://flic.kr/p/2od1MqK

January 21, 2023. Julia prefers staying inside her cozy fur-lined house while Emma is distracted by the sunshine and the birds. This week I've been more like Julia than Emma. I had big plans for today, but didn't really have it in me to do anything more than play No Man's Sky and watch football. https://flic.kr/p/2od1xce

January 20, 2023. A last-minute photo of the day shot out the bedroom window just before I turn in. These dark days of January and early February are the hardest to get through. It was a long and not particularly productive day spent mostly fighting with old technology. https://flic.kr/p/2od6na8

January 19, 2023. Our regular birds have been joined by this blue jay, who find the new food selection to meet with its approval. I've mostly been puttering away with ontologies this week, trying to learn (inside and out) the Protege ontology editor. It feels like 20-year old technology, but stuff like this has been what's used in e-learning for a long time now. https://flic.kr/p/2od5ocz

January 17, 2023. In Ontario, all beer is sold through provincially operated beer stores. They have no real competition, so there's no real need for marketing. Hence the emergence of this slogan that has always puzzled me: "Meet Beer." It just strikes me as odd. Anyhow, I wasn't going in there, I was on my way to Timmies for a coffee. https://flic.kr/p/2od6g45

January 16, 2023. A pair of woodpeckers eats seeds in the back yard feeder. The main lesson here is that we need new (non-foggy) windows. https://flic.kr/p/2od6e5k

January 15, 2023. Snowshoeing in Larose forest. Then football. January winter Sunday. https://flic.kr/p/2obBnBz

January 13, 2022. This is our house. Today was another day of snowstorm. I went for a 2 km walk in 6 inches of snow in the roads; no cars, so it was nice. I focused mostly on trying to get a node.js application work in SSL, with limited success. But I did get one working on Digital Ocean, so that's something. https://flic.kr/p/2obzaN3

January 14, 2022. With the heavy snowfall the birds are flocking to the feeders, which is nice. Another day spent working on node.js in Docker running SSL, again with some limited success. But all this is a lot harder than it should be. https://flic.kr/p/2obzaLE

January 12, 2023. The snow hit today, prompting notifications from the office. I wonder, if the office is closed for snow on a designated 'office' day, what does that mean. Do I just not work, the way I could before I set up my home office? Are there make-up designated office days? Can you tell I'm annoyed by the new policy? https://flic.kr/p/2obdKTx

January 11, 2023. I have been redesigning the office to make it brighter. Naturally the plants now go by the window. And Julia discovered there's just enough room for a cat to enjoy the warm air vent in the space under the palm. It's her new favourite place.Meetings today, and I had to write a progress report. https://flic.kr/p/2obdK7N

January 9, 2023. This is Emma every evening as she comes upstairs with me and rolls around on the bed in anticipation of some attention. If I'm late, I hear about it - when you live with four cats, everything is regimented. She also makes he start work in the morning, waiting at my office door and squeaking until I get there. Today my day was focused on technology adoption barriers. https://flic.kr/p/2obcMNR

January 8, 2023. This week's hike was along the Ottawa River in the east end, the last part of the trail before it hits Orleans. About 8 km or so. It was fairly cold, at around -6, but we were dressed for it so it wasn't bad. The river was in that halfway state between frozen and not frozen. The light was really good, as you can see, https://flic.kr/p/2oawjTT

January 7, 2023. It took a few days, but the birds have discovered we put food in the feeder again. We had stopped over the summer because of avian flu, and we didn't want them gathering all together. This is a female cardinal; we haven't seen the male yet, but we hold out hope. There have also been chickadees, blue jays, and dark-eyed juncos. spent the full day toying around with node,js on the cloud, trying different things. https://flic.kr/p/2oavRDs

January 6, 2023. We had freezing rain yesterday and today with the result that there's a layer of ice over everything. It makes walking treacherous but I was till out for my lunchtime walk. It's good to take a break, especially in winter when the office walls close in on you. Same work today as yesterday, with about the same degree of progress. https://flic.kr/p/2oaw5MV

January 5, 2023. It hasn't occurred to me to try to make my own hot sauce, but Andrea picked this up in the Costco yesterday and it seems to me like it would be worth a try. I'll report on any results. I've been back to work all week, focusing mostly on instructional strategies, but also trying to make node.js work in a cloud environment using ssl. Slow progress on both fronts. https://flic.kr/p/2oauRX4

January 4, 2023. It took most of an afternoon but I was able to get my blood tests and an ECG done. All this is part of a regular checkup. I do notice that the private clinics of Doug Ford's Ontario are a lot slower, and a lot harder on their employees, than proper hospitals or public health care clinics. Sure, the tests were still covered by health care - this is Canada, after all - but by chipping away at the corners like this, conservative governments are making basic health care harder and harder to access. Which, of course, is their game plan. https://flic.kr/p/2oatseB

January 3, 2023. I'm back to taking my daily walks over lunch and what struck me this time is how much the new housing development a few blocks away looks like a dystopian landscape. I'm sure it'll be much better with cookie-cutter houses there instead. https://flic.kr/p/2oavTQe

December 30, 2022. Charlemagne is stuck on the ledge again. I know he can jump down; I've seen it. But he far prefers to be stuck and meows until I come down and let him climb on to my shoulder for a lift upstairs. Last newsletter of the year today, along with more work stuff and No Man's Sky. https://flic.kr/p/2o99bHC

December 28, 2022. The cats are overjoyed that we're back, and all the old routines are instantly back in place, including nightly string games. Today was an indoor day, except for a quick trip to restock bird seed. Did some work on instructional strategies, and played my video game. https://flic.kr/p/2o997Fe