365:36 Pink Game

   I (with friends) returned to the Urbandale Center (still sounds weird) tonight for the 67’s game.  In support of Breast Cancer Research the 67’s and the referee’s and linesmen were wearing pink uniforms.  It was pretty confusing from our first seats, which were all the way up, second last row.  I kept thinking we had a player hanging up way down by their blue line but looking closer it was a ref.  The uniforms looked fine and its great that they are supporting Breast Cancer but I just don’t really think it works for an actual game, sure its some nice novelty merch. but beyond that I think it was just additional chirping ground for the other team.

   As I kind of mentioned our seats were less than desirable so for the second period we moved down to behind one of the nets.  Unfortunately neither of these seats were great for pictures, first seats were just too far and high up, second I had to deal with netting and glass/supports.  This one picture is ok, the netting didn’t seem to have as much of an effect when I was at 200mm shooting the far end, it just made the colours kind of washed out.



   The final outcome of the game wasn’t that great either.  We ended up losing 7-4, with their final 2 goals coming in the last 4 minutes or so.  Perugini seems to have found a way to make himself permeable to pucks.  There were at least three that went right through him somehow, it was frustrating to say the least.

   I donated blood this morning and everything went fine.  There were a lot of first timers though that had similar experiences to what I had last June.  There was 5 people that needed additional care by nurses and probably at least 5 more people who were rejected for various other reasons.  My donation took about 7 mins which was pretty quick.  I think it was the hydrating and a full stomach which helped this time go a little better than last.

   I’m technically going to post this one a day late because it is after midnight now but I started on the right day so it’s all good.  I may or may not be doing a haunted wagon ride type of thing tomorrow and I may or may not bring my camera if I do end up going.  I kinda want to get out and get some more new picture but I’m not really sure what to shoot.  Anyways that about does it for about 8 days in a row now I think :D

Ciao,

Dave

365:35 Abstract Light Trails

  Real exciting and witty title eh?  I’m sure I could eventually come up with something but I don’t really want to sit here for a couple of hours trying to think up something.  I am going to try to get this post done in 18 minutes and then head to bed because tomorrow I have to get up earlier than usual to drive my brother to school and in an attempt to not repeat last years blood donor clinic incident of me nearly passing out I am going to try to get as much rest as possible.  I drank a lot of fluids today (2 cups of hot chocolate when I got home from school, and now I just drank about 1.1L of water after hockey.

   Today’s picture is a little bit of a deviation from the norm of what I have been posting here.  I grabbed my camera and turned off the lights and took a shot of the light on the computer speakers.  The length of the exposure and my unsteady hands made a neat little pattern.  I then proceeded to take many more picture in an attempt to come up with something.  Then the darker blue trails you see are from the lights on the computer tower.  The picture you see below is a composite of 5 images.  I did have most of the pictures I took in there but it just ended up being too cluttered so I got rid of most of them.



(7 mins gone)

   We had our second hockey game of the season tonight and we had our butts handed to us by the other team on the scoreboard.  We definitely got outplayed in the first period, pretty even second, and better third period.  The final score was 5-1 but in my opinion 3 of their goals were lucky tips.  We did have less guys show up for our team tonight and I played D so I got much more ice time as opposed to last game.  I got a new stick on Sunday and today was the first time I got to use it and I must say that I really enjoyed it :D.

   Looks like that about wraps it up (and early too, still 6 mins to go).  Hopefully tomorrow will go fine and there will be no exciting stories to tell but if there is, all the better, makes the thinking up stuff to say much easier. 

Ciao,

Dave

365: 34 Repeating

   Back again with a post, 7 days in a row now!  I’m going to keep this one fairly short because its late and I am very tired (even The Dudes weren’t enough to get me out of bed promptly).  With today’s picture (another one from Friday) I was trying to get some sort of repeating lines going on.  I think it kind of worked and kind of didn’t so I will let you decide if you like it or not.



   This evening there was an information night for all the Ontario Universities, I went to the Western one as well as the U of T one.  The only thing that they made me realize was that I am likely not getting any entrance scholarships, and I probably can’t afford to go there anyways :P
   Glee was pretty good tonight and if you are following me on twitter (*read* do it if you aren’t already) you know that it left me smiling :).  Anyways I am gonna head of to bed. 

Ciao,

Dave

365: 33 Church and the Apocalypse

   I contemplated not writing this post today but I figured I was on such a roll, why should I stop.  I think I am a little tired seeing as I set my alarm to go off for 6:30 this morning, I did not wake up until 7:10 and only then because my mom came in to wake me up.  The goal was to be at school for 7:30 but that didn’t really happen, I hopped in the shower and grabbed breakfast for the road and got to school for 7:40.  It was fine though cause Mr. Harvey never starts extra help at 7:30, I still had plenty of time once I got to his class.  The math test went alright first period, I kind of ran out of time and had to rush through a few questions, and one was ridiculously time consuming so that one didn’t get finished.  The rest of the day went ok.  I had subs all afternoon, chem. just for the day, french is going to be for the next month or so.
   On to today’s photo.  Again I am going back to last Friday's stash.  This one was taken from Majors Hill Park near the lower end of the canal.  The church is Notre-Dame Cathedral which is one of the nicest churches in Ottawa that I have been in, if not the nicest.

     
   I ventured on to the Ottawa public library site today for the first time in ages.  I downloaded the Frankenstein audio book because I am going to be reading it next semester in my Literature class.  As well I got in some pretty big lineups for some photography books.  Then by chance I stumbled upon an old favourite author of mine, Bill Bryson.  This guy is the funniest “travel” writer you will ever read.  I thoroughly recommend that everyone reading this reads A Walk In the Woods.  I read this book in grade 7, and I remember that because I honestly nearly broke out into laughter when I was reading this (I definitely had a smile on my face the whole time).  He has a book titled a short history of nearly everything, which is exactly what the title hints at.  My parents both read it and really enjoyed it but I never got around to it for two reasons, 1. The size of this thing is enormous (hmm, just looked and its only 554 pages, but I’m sure its not easy reading), and 2. just the content was probably a little too deep, he describes pretty much the start of the universe in a way the average person can.  I thought about getting that one too, or even going to the library to pick it up because Orleans said it had one checked in, then I though about Frankenstein and Oedipus the king and realized that would be plenty of reading for a while.
   Finally I have two nuggets of internet goodness to share with you all.  The first is the video you see below which was part of a Fox newscast and I just love how angry the guy gets. Secondly still along the lines of oh my god why would you do that we have this link :http://www.topcultured.com/bacon-jam-its-b...you-can-spread/ You can just read the title and pretty much get the idea but there are pictures that are really insightful. 

  Enjoy those? I hope so, cause I know I sure did!  Well now that everyone feels like they ate relatively healthy today (I hope) I am going to head to bed.  I hope that I don’t sleep through my alarm as bad tomorrow.  I think part of the problem was the music choice I had, Amy Milan isn’t exactly wake up peppy kind of music (no offence Amy :P ).  Might have to find some really upbeat music to start the day off.  I’m thinking The Dudes might do it :) Anyways,

Ciao,

Dave

365: 32 Monday Monday

   Hello again for the 5th day in a row!  Ah Monday’s, gotta love em.  Math review was non-existent this morning, I was almost falling asleep in physics, chem was review of the same organic chemistry we did last year, and a quiz (sorry “épreuve” ) that didn’t go so well.  What a way to start the week! Oh then I get home and have pretty much been doing math review for the test tomorrow the whole time. I’ve not done any in the last hour and a bit but before that I was pretty much working the whole time.  I’m almost done my review and I am going to go early tomorrow morning for extra help.
As bad as I made that sound it really wasn’t that bad.  Pretty much an average day for me this semester unfortunately.  

   I didn’t have a chance to get out today to take a picture with all the math work.  This is another one from Friday’s walk around downtown.  I did a fake tilt-shift lens effect on it.  I think it looks ok, not great but it kinda works.  I called this one Scary Bridge because when I was younger the sound that this thing made when we drove over it.



The following picture isn't really part of the blog its just a picture of the new IKEA tables that I set up yesterday.  The narrow one with the CRT monitor on it goes all the way into the corner and then the wider one with the computer that is on is against that one.  I much prefer this new setup to the old one.  There’s a lot more room, around the computer as well as space for math studying :P.



   Well that just about does it for day 32, I might take another look at my math before I head to bed and then up early tomorrow to extra help (which probably won’t be, as anyone has gone to one can attest to) but hopefully it will clear up a few things.

Ciao,

Dave

365: 31 One month down, 11 to go

   Well I’m keeping up with the posting now which is good.  Taking plenty of shots that you like also makes this a little easier. Today’s shot is another one from Friday’s walk downtown.  The colours of the leaves on this tree were so vibrant and contrasted the blue sky very nicely.  I did enhance the colours a fair amount afterwards in PS using both the burn and dodge tools.  I really didn’t have any final product in mind when I was doing it so it might be a little over the top :P . 



  To me this has a kind of HDR look to it but I can guarantee that it is only one photo :P .  This tree was in Majors Hill park if I remember correctly.  I think that was the only place where there were trees that I took pictures of because there were a few others that had amazing colours too them.   I don’t currently have any shots lined up for tomorrow but I’m sure I will be able to find one that I have already that I like, or get out and take another one for tomorrow :).  

   My parents picked up some new tables for the basement/computer area yesterday and we set them up today.  I really like them cause there is a lot more room than before plus its just a cleaner looking area.  It was a pretty big job of clearing the space, manoeuvring one table in, putting as much on that one as possible, clearing the old table off, moving the second new one into place and finally hooking up the newer computer again.  There is still a lot of cleanup of random cd’s and floppy disks that are lying around that need to be organized as well as clearing off some stuff off the table that really doesn’t need to be there.  I think we may be going back soon ‘cause we are going to get some better chairs because right now folding chairs just don’t cut it.  Adding that to the list of shopping that I need to get done soon which also includes, new winter shoes (mesh running shoes won’t cut it), hockey practice jersey (my old one just disappeared over the summer), and going to get a suit for our cruise.

   Yesterday and last night was my final shift at the Orleans Tennis Club for the 2009 season.  We had a round robin and the AGM in the afternoon and then the banquet at 6:30.  Dinner was a potluck with everyone supposed to bring their specialty and then we voted on which was our favourite.  Saturday night hockey started at 10 p.m. as well.  It was a pretty fast pace for the first night and only 3 spares a side.  That about sums up my weekend so I will end this one here.

Ciao,

Dave