Geeky geeky geeky- June 30, 2008 Over at the Your Geekiest Photos photo pool that I set up at Flickr a few months ago, we have accumulated quite a collection, but it could be bigger. Don't forget to join up and add your own. Dig deep into your archives—it would make a nice birthday present for me.http://www.penmachine.com/2008/06/geeky-geeky-geeky Today I am 39 for the first time- June 30, 2008 I don't think I'll become one of those reluctant to reveal his age. Hell, I'm damn proud of each further year I get at this point. So today I turn 39, for the first and last and only time. It will be a hectic day, with much packing and running around. Why Because tomorrow, Canada Day, July 1, my wife and daughters leave for a week at Disneyland, and I'm taking them, with our friend KA and her son, to the airport at 4:00 a.m. (!) for their 6:30 flight. A few hours later, I'll be back at...http://www.penmachine.com/2008/06/today-i-am-39-for-first-time Sticky Neurotic looks baked- June 29, 2008 I don't play drums as often as I used to—I did it as a full-time job in the early '90s—but I am glad I still get to do it for money on occasion. Last night my band, The Neurotics, played a wedding in Chilliwack, one of Vancouver's eastern suburbs. And you know what When you play drums only occasionally and get home at 3:00 in the morning, your hands hurt the next day. No, I was not actually stoned in the photo. I do notice that the wig fits much better now that I have very little..http://www.penmachine.com/2008/06/sticky-neurotic-looks-baked An author chimes in- June 27, 2008 Steve Ettlinger, author of Twinkie, Deconstructed, which I wrote about recently, left a comment saying that my blog post was his favorite review of the book. In part that must be because I liked it, but it also seems that most other reviewers missed the winking irony in his use of Registered Trademark Symbols® throughout, which reminded me of Douglas Coupland's early-'90s novel Shampoo Planet. In that previous case the brands were made up, but the effect is similar: as a reader you feel a..http://www.penmachine.com/2008/06/author-chimes-in Unexpelled- June 27, 2008 No, I didn't end up seeing Expelled. Our Aussie friend Leesa and I caught the Adam Woodall Band in West Vancouver instead, and it was a fun time. I'm sure I enjoyed myself more than I would have at the movie.http://www.penmachine.com/2008/06/unexpelled High-definition Fairview- June 26, 2008 Today I had a meeting with the trial nurse for my upcoming resumed chemo treatments next month, followed by a series of blood tests, an appointment with my oncologist and the nurse again, then a CT scan. In between, I had some time to kill, so I had lunch at White Spot, then took time to walk around the Fairview neighbourhood and experiment some more with high dynamic range (HDR) photography. Here are the results: For each photo, I set my Nikon D50 camera to take three bracketed...http://www.penmachine.com/2008/06/high-definition-fairview Sayonara, "Search Engine"- June 24, 2008 A couple of months ago I noted that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has two technology-focused radio shows, "Spark" and "Search Engine," and that I couldn't always figure out how they were supposed to differ. (In the comments, Darren Barefoot noted that one way to tell is that "'Search Engine' almost always comes with a sense of righteous indignation, which gets a bit old after a while.") It looks like CBC also wondered why they had both shows, and has now dissolved "Search Engine" as a..http://www.penmachine.com/2008/06/sayonara-search-engine The best brainless, fun, hard-rockin' songs, according to Derek- June 22, 2008 There's a certain type of rock-n-roll song that bypasses your intellect and goes straight for the gut—or a bit lower. One that makes you want to shake your ass, or your head, and sing along, even if you don't know the words, because the words don't matter all that much. They're dumb and sophomoric, anyway, or at least unintelligible—probably about sex or cars or girls or something. Such a song features guitars, bass, drums, and singing, but probably no keyboards and definitely no...http://www.penmachine.com/2008/06/best-brainless-fun-hard-rockin-songs Quandary: should I see "Expelled" or not- June 21, 2008 Back in March I wrote about the dumb behaviour of the people who made the film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Now, probably because of that posting and my other entries here about science, I've been invited by distributor KinoSmith to attend a press screening of the movie here in Vancouver next week. I'm wondering if I should bother to go. Propagandumentary First, some background about Expelled. It is a purported documentary, supposedly a Michael Moore–style critique of the current..http://www.penmachine.com/2008/06/quandary-should-i-see-expelled-or-not The green bog- June 19, 2008 I accompanied my older daughter's school field trip to Burns Bog in Delta, south of Vancouver, today. We had fun, and managed to avoid any heavy rain. I also took the chance to create some more high dynamic range (HDR) photos. That involves taking three or more pictures at different exposures, and then combining them in software using a technique called tone mapping. You can see what that does below. On the left you can see my camera's calculated single optimum exposure, the "best pick" the..http://www.penmachine.com/2008/06/green-bog |