Mmmm,coffee. I love coffee and usually have a couple cups a day. I’ve had the unfortunate incident of being served decaf when I needed caffeine. Using this little testing strip I could have avoided the drowsiness and the headache of a caffeine-less morning.
via Gizmodo
This font is designed to use less ink when printing, thus … making sure you don’t have to buy cartridges more often? Make sure less ink ends up in the environment? I am not really sure what the point is.
Perhaps if you want to save the environment you should consider not printing at all. No paper is used, and no ink is used. Perfect.
via Gizmodo
Friday night was pretty quiet and Sox and I got to watch some TV we taped earlier in the week.
On Saturday I got quite a few things done on the list I made, including a bunch of recycling which needed to be done before we leave. I was able to install some more shelving downstairs in the basement, and put a away a few more things. We also got our car serviced in the morning. I then got to spend some time with my kids. We stayed home and played while Sox was at a movie (Christmas present to some family friends).
Today Sox and Sprout headed out for a bit while Beet and I played. She had a huge morning nap which allowed me to get some computing in. When Beet got up we headed to Serious Coffee for an outing. Back home Sox dropped off Sprout and headed out to walk Yoshi with KaptainK and Digger. Sprout watched a little TV while Beet had her second nap. This allowed me to make dinner and tidy a little bit.
When Sox got home we had a bit of family time, then did a quick errand. After dinner the kids went to bed without a fuss.
In retrospect nothing big nor earth-shattering happened, but it was very enjoyable. I feel like I got an excellent break from work. I feel like I got to spend some quality one on one time with each of my family members (except Yoshi). I feel like I got a lot done.
It is disheartening that it has to come to this. Why can’t people just chill a little bit. Speeding through a school zone is stupid, dangerous, and won’t save any noticeable time on the commute. Try waking up 10 minutes earlier. Try taking a different route. Try relaxing. It is up to the driver to get out the door on time if there is a place you need to be at a certain time.
I know that kids and other circumstances can throw a hige wrench in to your plans, and that sometimes being late is not an option, but a school zone is no place for dangerous driving.
I think pace cars are an an ingenious solution to a rather bad problem.
via Daring Fireball
What happened was some idiot cut us off. Said idiot had cut me off once before when he merged onto the highway right before the Massey tunnel. For the first incident he was in the right lane, and just moved into my lane without checking. I layed on the horn while slamming on the brakes. That was no big deal.
After the tunnel highway 99 exits onto highway 17 which takes you to Tsawwassen. Jerko was in the right hand lane of the 2 exits lane. It is raining quite hard and as we take the exit and round the corner he starts to drift toward my lane.
I was keeping an eye on him from the first incident to avoid him. Slowly he moved back to his lane. Partway around the exit ramp a left turn lane opens to go North on 17. Dipshit then decides he wants to go left and crosses my lane to get over to the left turn lane.
Our vehicle bumpers were definitely overlapping. Instantaneously I was on the brakes, on the horn, and cranking the wheel to avoud hitting him. All I could see was the front right corner of my truck aiming for the left rear wheel. Somehow I avoided him, and I was lucky there was noone to my left.
The other driver continued on like nothing happened, but I had to pull over to regain my composure. It was way closer that I am comfortable with. I estimate that I was within a couple feet of his car, but Sox felt I was closer. Either way, I was proud of my situational awareness, my reaction, and my defensive driving.
I do wish there was a way to report drivers like that. Maybe there is, but I don’t know it, and I certainly didn’t write down the other guys plate number.
With coffee/tea in hand we were free to our own devices. We had a list of things we needed to get from Ikea for our new place so we were on a mission. Arriving at the ferry terminal it was quite a treat to be able to sit in the truck and relax. We both got to read quite a bit without interruption.
Our ferry was the Coastal Celebration. Gotta say I am pretty underwhelmed by the new ship. It felt small inside. I had thought that the Coastal ferries were bigger than the Spirit ferries, but after reading the stats I see that I was wrong. Anyway, the Coastal ferries have a strange layout that is very different than any of the other ferries I have been on. Very compartmentalized and no open space. Didn’t try the food, but it all looked the same.
Once on the mainland I was really glad I brought my tarps. It was pouring pretty hard and was windy. We got to Ikea jus before they opened and it wasn’t too busy yet. We got shopping and by 11:30 had all the items we had come for. We stopped by the cafeteria for a meatball lunch (mmmmmmm) then got ready to leave.
Things took a turn for the worse here. We paid for our stuff and on leaving the store could see that the parking lot was a madhouse. Nuts I tell you, just nuts. Sox waited with our stuff in the loading area, and I dashed through the rain to the truck. The windows were all fogged up from Yoshi so I started the truck up, and put the windows down. After a couple minutes I went to put the truck in gear and felt something gross on the gear shift. It was dog puke. I looked back at Yoshi and he had puked in the truck, then had been laying in it. Poor dog. He was not feeling well. Course we didn’t really have anything to clean this up with. I drove the truck over to where Sox was and gave her the lay of the land. We cleand up as best we could then started loading our purchases into the truck.
The toolbox got stuffed with a lot of things but the furniture was going in the back. I layed one doubled up tarp down on the bed, loaded up quickly, then doubled up the second tarp on top. It was crazy cold and we were getting rained on. I didn’t do the greatest tarp job and soon realized I’d have to fix it. I started scanning for some cover and figured we should drive somewhere to some underground parking. We started driving, and eventually found a hotel that had something that worked for me.
With everything secured we beelined for the ferry (more on that later) and spent another 1.5 hours relaxing. It was a fun day, but now I have the task of putting everything together (kinda fun actually).
I struggled photographically this year. I didn’t realize this until recently as I started looking back through 2008. I didn’t get out with the photo club, and I only made a few purpose photo expeditions. I was very busy this past year with my son, the arrival of my daughter, my return to Ultimate, and moving.
I still took a lot of pictures though, but most of them are of my kids and aren’t what I typically include here.
I think that for 2009 I am going to try and rekindle my photography skills. I am very proud of the work I do when I make time for photography. I need to do that more.
On to the pictures.
January
I spotted this stand of trees while out for a walk in Beacon Hill park after a friends birthday brunch.
February
A lonely stark tree.
March
A self portrait taken during a rest stop on one of my few mountain biking adventures.
April
Some pretty flower around Thetis Lake. Gorgeous in real life, yet extremely difficult to photograph.
May
A trip I took to Kinsmen Gorge park explicitly to take pictures. This was one of my favorites of my shoot and it was of some kind of over grown weed.
June
Canada Day fireworks. This was shot from Macaulay Point Park. There were a lot of people in the park watching the show.
July
My cat Aphro hiding behind a tomato plant on the deck of our old place.
August
One night while in Nanaimo visiting my mom I saw a spectacular sunset forming. I grabbed my gear and headed down to the beach to capture the colors.
September
A paused Snowbird.
October
My daughter during our pumpkin hunt.
November
A dreary day at Elk Lake saw myself, Yoshi, and my daughter going for a walk. There wasn’t much to capture that grey day.
December
A wonderful snow sunrise captured from my backyard.
Sunrise behind snowy trees
Our snowman waking up for the day.
Covered branches
Skyline behind our house
More snowy trees