Sleepy Day in Quebec
Ah, I guess some things are similar to home. The sun came out and the cold came. It’s much more dramatic here but it’s the same pattern. Those darn clouds may keep out our friendly sun but they blanket the earth and hold in … Read More
Quebec City – Museum Break
Usually my Museum breaks in cities are timed to rainy days. London for instance has a million museums, which is good because it will rain (and rain some more for emphasis). Those first trips to London was where my practice of museum days being … Read More
Magical Snow of Quebec
I have to start this one by saying that I’m incredibly biased. I grew up in Middle Georgia where you’re lucky if it snows at all in a given year. When snow was predicted, it always involved a caveat that several factors had to … Read More
Fresh Start in Quebec’s Old City
Wow, I guess my adventure in packing the other night tired me out more than I expected because as a perennial night owl, going to bed after midnight is not the end of the world for me. Yet I found I slept in this first day … Read More
New Year’s In Quebec City
I have to say that I’m quite impressed with Quebec City’s New Year’s eve party despite the relatively little press I could find on it. Perhaps that’s simply owed to language, i.e. maybe if I had searched using French terms instead? The day passed … Read More
Chilly Farewell to 2011 in Quebec City
Well, after a long, long sleep, I got a late start to the day here in Quebec, but that sleep was fantastic. There was only one room-mate in my room last night (looks like two tonight) and he must have come in quietly as … Read More
The Art of Packing & How I Got to Quebec
No doubt there’s a fine art to packing that I’ve never mastered. When I was younger and visited my grandmother, I practically re-invented my environment there, taking many times what anyone else would have carted for a month much less a week! Compared to … Read More
Spotify is Annoying
I’ve tried to like Spotify, and I suppose as a service where I can listen to new music – i.e. try before buying, it works but beyond that I don’t understand what the fuss is all about. I find it about as user friendly … Read More
Farm Bus – One Couple’s Journey
Amongst my many offbeat day dreams is doing just what this couple has done, convert a school bus into a home. There are whole communities online centered around bus conversions, and while many are creating their own custom RV’s, I’ve stumbled across more than … Read More
Quebec & New York City Plans
Well, I waffled all over the place this year. To those who don’t realize, I have my own small tradition going. For the past seven New Years I’ve been in another country when the proverbial ball dropped to usher in a new year. The … Read More
Duck Duck Go As A Verb?
I have no idea how many years I’ve been using Google as my default search engine. We’re certainly in the borderland of 10 years if not beyond. You know Google is dominant considering we use it as a verb these days, i.e. I don’t … Read More
The Twitter Effect
In case you were wondering, this is an excellent illustration of what I don’t like about Twitter and it’s cousin, Google Plus. If you’re wondering what you’re looking at, it’s not a piece of strange art but an anonymous screenshot for someone who uncircled … Read More
Care and Feeding for your Social Network
Wow, I watched F8 today and really look forward to playing more with the Timeline feature and seeing what’s possible with the new open graph. I like the idea that you can more than like media now, for instance, someone could look at one … Read More
Facebook Updates – Subscriptions & Smart Lists
I feel like I’ll be a hypocrite if I even gush a little over Facebook’s latest updates to their network, but I also really like them! Make no mistake, I’m not a fanboy of either company. It still makes me slightly nauseous to read people … Read More
You Are Not Your Social Network
After my last post on G+, I finally managed to piece together more thoughts on the subject and I think the title in this post is where my thoughts last time were going but hadn’t quite come together well enough to put them into … Read More
The Perfect Social Network
Google’s new G+ has been making a lot of waves the last few weeks and I’m good with competition and new ideas, but I’m frankly on Social Network overload at this point, how about you? I won’t even list how many I’ve been part … Read More
Needs Versus Wants
It’s been two months since I had a full-fledged iPhone at my disposal. And not only has it been a cheaper two months, it’s been an oddly liberating experience. I’ve read about various people taking digital sabbaticals over the past year and honestly wasn’t moved … Read More
Rockfest 1999
As many years as I’ve blogged (off and on, not consistently I fear), it’s amazing to me some time to look back on memories that I was sure I blogged and discover, nope I didn’t. It’s like my memories are somehow now in text … Read More
Tiny Texas Houses – Essay Contest
Ah, now this is a contest I wish I could enter! It should be obvious that I have a real soft spot for small houses of course and although I may not have mentioned it, I love the style of old homes. We’ve also … Read More
Green Lantern Two Hours Well Spent
One of the few things I miss about my old place in the suburbia of Atlanta is that in my old townhouse, I was literally 5 minutes from the seats of an 18 screen cinema. Not five minutes to the door or the parking … Read More
And Along Came a Monitor
I know monitor’s change, after all, if you are using them for color sensitive things like design or photography, you’re expected to calibrate them regularly. And over my years of doing photography, I’ve been able to tell when my monitor needs it even without … Read More
Absolutely Random
I need to do a separate post on Doctor Who thus far this series, but I will go ahead and say my favorite episode so far is without question The Doctor’s Wife – the episode written by Neil Gaiman. I think I watched it four … Read More
Farewell Smallville
The end of an era, the end of Smallville. It’s funny actually, the entire first season of Smallville had passed before I watched the first episode. The second season was underway already! Partly work was to blame, but mostly I had written the show … Read More
Three Episodes into Series 6 of Doctor Who
I suppose now is as good a time as ever to revive my poor old personal blog. Those who are all about the pictures and the oh-so-glamorous travel should pop over to those respective blogs, but I hope some friends (old and dear and … Read More
Camper Re-Use
Sorry for the absence in internet land. When the weather finally looked up again here, I spent my time hunting for a phantom energy drain in the camper van. Considering my relative lack of knowledge about all things automotive, I’m proud to have finally … Read More
Commercial World
One of my favorite videos on the subject of commercialism is the story of stuff. If you haven’t seen it before, I highly recommend it. It provides an awesome explanation of why our current cycle of consumerism can’t last forever. In a nutshell, we … Read More
Slave to the Grind
I’ve shared my own story already, so I’ll try no to re-tread there too much. It’s taken me awhile to get to this topic for the very reason that I did share my story and I’m hard pressed to come up with a lot … Read More
Our Impact On the World
I’m sure there are people who are living small who do it for the world, the environment, etc. With the realization that some of us on the planet are using far more of our resources than the rest. There are, also, I suspect, many … Read More
Is Minimalism For Me?
Minimalism seems to be at the heart of a lot of unconventional ways of living. Take the people who live in Tiny Houses or RVs as an example. When your home is designed to move down the highways you have a very finite space … Read More
Frost – The Road Not Taken
While I am not a massive poetry person, this particular (well known) poem has always been one of my favorites. Robert Frost (1874 – 1963). Mountain Interval. 1920. The Road Not Taken TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not … Read More
Tiny Houses
I very nearly fell down the same rabbit hole that so much of America has. When I applied for a mortgage for my first home, the bank approved me for much more than I wanted. In my favor at least, I didn’t see the … Read More
Living in a Van
It’s funny that one of my more popular posts on my personal blog is on Living in a Van Down by the River. It wasn’t a post I expected many people other than immediate friends and family to read but I can see through … Read More
Home is not an Investment
I bought a house for all the wrong reasons. Mainly, it was the thing to do. I never considered myself a follower, but friends were buying houses, and I was sick of my commute to work, it seemed the bright thing to do. After … Read More
Mr Pine’s Purple House
A favorite childhood book of mine was Mr. Pine’s Purple House. Although I remember quite a few childhood books fondly, this is one that I think still speaks to me today. The gist of the story was that Mr. Pine lived amongst a group … Read More
Back to Cancun
There will be a lot of beach photos to show for my time in Playa del Carmen. That and relaxing memories. Despite hours and hours of walking, when it’s a beach, it’s just by default relaxing! There were unfortunately a lot of rainy days … Read More
Back in the Yucatan!
Gosh, where to start?! I’ve been painfully lax in keeping the blog up-to-date this trip. Partially I guess due to the busted netbook. Thought about using a net cafe this afternoon but the couple I saw were packed so back to ye olde iPhone. … Read More