This was a more complicated than usual upgrade, but now that it is done, I am liking it. Hopefully everything made it across just fine. I had to update two of my custom modules (easy), and update my theme, and tidy up a few things.
Excellent. Fun Fathers Day project.
After my flip-flop fiasco last weekend, I still am not sure where to shop for the shoes I want. Perhaps I should turn to the net to find what I want. Hmmm, what about these flip-flops?
Nice looking? Check.
Not too pricey? Check.
Beer bottle opener? Check.
Hmm, we may have a winner!
Spammers are using my domain name and making up email addresses off of it to use as the from address. There are thousands of bounces, out of office replies, delivery status notifications, and other failure notifications. So far I have deleted probably close to 5000 of these.
It is my own fault for having a catch-all for the domain (since been deleted). I liked the catch all for a number of reasons.
Spammers are scum.
This morning was family morning. Sox, Sprout, Yoshi, and I stopped at Starbucks on our way to Colquitz River Park/Cuthbert Holmes Park. The sun was out, and it was a gorgeous day for a walk. Yoshi was certainly comping at the bit for a good run.
With drinks in hand we wandered the trails enjoying ourselves immensely. The trails were wonderfully suited for the jogging stroller that Sprout was in. He sat up mostly, and grinned quite a bit. We saw a little bit of wildlife too.
Yoshi also got the workout he needed. He ran through the brush, ducking under things, jumping logs, and tramping through the brambles and tall grass.
Near the end of the walk Yoshi gave us a bad scare. He disappeared. This isn’t too bad normally, but we couldn’t hear him at all. We located him though. In a creek with no way out. He jumped down an embankment and couldn’t get back up. There was no shore on this particular creek. He tried a few times to jump up but each time he fell back in. He never panicked (to his credit), but he also wouldn’t leave the spot since he saw me there. I had located another, easier pullout for him to use, but he wouldn’t wander far enough away to find me (no matter how much Sox and I called him).
After ten minutes or so I found a way to get him. Holding onto the base of a shrub, and getting as close to the edge of the bank as I dared, I was able to reach down enough that when Yoshi lunged, I was able to grab his collar and pull him up (I tried making a noose out of his leash but he didn’t like that idea). Back up on the path Yoshi was happy to be re-united with us (and we were pretty happy too). Yoshi was in pretty good shape, but I managed to get a little stinky, slimy mud on my shoes, shorts, and legs.
With Yoshi back in the car, we went shopping (had to continue the family time after all). Bought a nice aluminum case for my nano, and bought some shirts at Old Navy.
What I was really shopping for was some nice flip-flops. What a flip-flop fiasco. I want some nicer ones (no plastic), and those appear to be hard to find. London Thugs? No. Sport Mart? Close, but the ones I liked were too small (even size 12). Winners? No. Old Navy? No. I give up for today.
While shopping in Old Navy we ran into kaptainK and JJ who were also out doing some errands.
Along the way home we stopped for lunch, and then it was time for Sprout’s nap.
All in all an excellent morning.
Last night I finally did something I have wanted to do for a very long time. I went out for a night shoot to a fair. Buccaneer Days has a Midway complete with twirly rides, cotton candy, games of chance, and lights. Lots and lots lights. Fun.
I had to wait until it was pretty dark before I headed out shooting, but it was worth it. It was too light when I first left, so I headed down to a lookout and shot some pics of the harbour, and the cruise ships docked at Ogden Point.
Digital is the way to go for night photography though. Easy to see and correct for exposure mistakes.
The key is to try and imagine what you are trying to accomplish, and develop a plan to make that image. Some of the pictures I took were up to 10 second exposures. With time like this, you can easily miss out on chances to reshoot.
Do you want to stop the motion? Get a slight blur of the lights? Create arcs of light? Can you even achieve what you want with the equipment you have on hand?
The prize at the end of the shoot is the images you have created. Definitely a good investiment of time and effort.
Ahh Buccaneer days. Strange little phenomena in Esquimalt. The Saturday morning of Buccaneer Days a firetruck goes around the neighborhood waking people up at 7:30 for the pancake breakfast. The first year we were in Esquimalt Sox and I wondered what the hell was going on (for the longest time while laying in bed all we heard was a siren, and a muffled voice. As it got close we heard: “Wakey wakey wakey. It’s time to get up. Pancake breakfast time”).
We skipped the breakfast again this year, but decided to catch the parade. Yes the parade. Not sure if they have one every year, but they did this year. Excellent parade too. Not too long, lots of great floats and things to look at. A bit of candy thrown in our direction. Fun fun. The sirens scared Sprout though. Bit of a screaming fit when that happened. Poor guy.
Part of the fun of the parade was watching the cars that were trying to cross the parade route. Police were out to stop this, but there weren’t any signs anywhere that warned people that a parade would be closing Equimalt Ave. Bit of an over sight I would say. Esquimalt Ave is a pretty busy route.
The stupidest individual came whipping out of their driveway as the lead firetrucks approached, and sped up quite quickly. A police officer made the chickie stop and lectured her in front of the crowd before making her pull over (and presumably receive a ticket). Fun times in the Esquampton. 🙂
Back to the parade. JennV and baby L were on hand with us to take it in. After the parade wrapped up the 5 of us headed to the fair for “lunch”. Mmm, Mr Tube Steak, coke, and mini donuts. It was fair day. That’s all there is to say about that, other than Sox and I felt a little ill by the time we got home. 🙂
Lots of fun in a short period of time. Looking for a fun parade, I would suggest taking in the Buccaneer Days parade next year.
The past couple weeks we have had a spotty internet connection. Everything would work fine for a while, then nothing. I logged into the router admin interface and noticed that the router was having problems getting an IP address using DHCP. Figuring it was a Shaw problem I gave them a call yesterday.
I didn’t have to wait too long to talk to a rep, but then it was the usual crap to deal with. Unplug the power for the modem. No fix. Unplug the power to the router. No fix. Unplug power to both. No fix. Reboot the computer. No fix. Plug computer directly into modem. No fix.
FInally the tech pulled out some bizarre command line instructions:
netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt
and
netsh winsock reset catalog
I asked him what these were for, and he said that sometimes windows can get confused on bootup and not correctly configure itself. Bullshit. I called him on that. I asked: “How would that fix the problem when the computer had no problems getting an IP address from the router, and it was the router (not running windows) that couldn’t get an IP address. ” His reply: “Hmm good question”.
Turned out that these instructions did something. I got limited connectivity. He had me run a speed test and it was sloooow. My upload speed was faster than my download speed (both right around 340 KBits/sec). He asked me to wiggle the cables in the back of the modem, and as soon as I did that, the speed test completed. Interesting. Loose connections inside the modem?
The answer was to swap out for a new modem. Did that yesterday before closing time, and voila, blazing fast internet connection again. Stable too.
This past Wednesday I got out to shoot some pictures with the photo club. Sox and I had been in Saxe Point Park recently and had noticed the flowers, so that was where I decided the club should meet. The sun was out, but so was the breeze. Taking pictures of flowers in the breeze is always a difficult taks. You set up your shot, wait for the right conditions, then just as you squeeze the shutter release, the wind kicks up again. This can be incredibly frustrating.
Sometimes it is better to work with the conditions rather than fight them. Keep the shutter open a little longer, and aim for a blurry flower while the background is still. This can be an interesting effect.
I was quite happy with my shots. I even used my flash for a few of them to lighten up the shadows and to fill in the details.
Happy Birthday Sox. I’m sure you will have a great day today. Enjoy your afternoon off!