16 Mar 2010 Remembering The Irish
 |  Category: Linkage, Other Photogs  | Leave a Comment

Irish Famine Memorial

Another one of the shots from the lakeshore photowalk on Feb 21 that included the Irish Famine Memorial. St. Patty’s day is actually tomorrow, but there was a parade last Sunday, which I missed — again! Argh!

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about St. Patrick’s Day in Canada:

The longest-running Saint Patrick’s Day parade in Canada occurs each year in Montreal, the flag of which has a shamrock in one of its corners. The parades have been held in continuity since 1824.

In the City of Toronto from 1919 to 1927, the Toronto Maple Leafs were known as the Toronto St. Patricks, wore green jerseys. In 1999 when the Leafs played on Hockey Night in Canada (national broadcast of the NHL) on Saint Patrick’s Day, the Leafs wore the green St. Pats retro jersey. There is a large parade in the city’s downtown core that attracts over 100,000 spectators.

Although the baseball season is still in the spring training phase when Saint Patrick’s Day rolls around, the Toronto Blue Jays wear green uniforms for the occasion.[citation needed] The Toronto Raptors professional basketball team also wears a green alternate uniform to celebrate the holiday.

Some groups, notably Guinness, have lobbied to make Saint Patrick’s Day a federal (national) holiday.

In March 2009, the Calgary Tower had changed its top exterior lights to new green-coloured CFL bulbs just in time for Saint Patrick’s Day. The lights were in fact part of the environmental non-profit organization, Project Porchlight, and were Green to represent environmental concerns. Approximately 210 lights were changed in time for Saint Patrick’s Day and almost resemble a Leprechaun’s hat during the evening light. After a week, regular white CFLs took their place, saving the Calgary Tower around $12,000 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 104 metric tonnes in the process.

Anyhow, you can check out everybody else’s St. Patrick’s Day 2010 parade photos that made Flickr’s Explore page here as thumbnails, or a slideshow.

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15 Mar 2010 Look Up, Look Wayyyy Up
 |  Category: Mobile Blogging  | Leave a Comment

Very spring-like today, so I opted for the streetcar instead of the subway.

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14 Mar 2010 Can I Have That One Hour Back?
 |  Category: Mobile Blogging, Xena & Beano  | 4 Comments

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14 Mar 2010 March Showers Bring April Flowers?
 |  Category: Blah Blah Blah  | Leave a Comment

GEF_4765_edit

Beautiful blooms at The Brides’ Project yesterday, courtesy of Bernard Thibault.

It’s been storming mightily out there, on and off, since Friday. That’s what took down the power on Friday afternoon and hopefully that won’t repeat before it begins to warm up again this week. It’s blowing rain and, ahem, gale force winds…

While I love the deep red tulips, my focus here is on the green roses. I’ve never seen green roses before, and I love this shade of green.

GEF_4762_edit

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13 Mar 2010 Young Artists For Haiti – Wavin’ Flag

I have to say, even though I now fall in the ranks of the “older generation” and am not a fan of all these Canadian artists, I have nothing curmudgeonly or cynical to say about this remixed version of K’naan’s song. (Does it count if I say I’m glad Nickelback’s not in it?) I did find it mildly amusing that “Young Artists For Haiti” included a few older rockers and stuck them in the back — is that Tom Cochrane at 2:19/3:38 and Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo at 2:22?

In fact, as a song and as a video, I like it very much. I’ve watched it several times and grow to like it a little more each time. As well, there are images that really hit home, eg. the tiny child with the big eyes and wee smile at 3:56 tugged at my heartstrings at every video play. It is aimed to inspire a younger generation (and I believe it will), their voices sound great, and the message isn’t drowned out by “oversinging” like the kind you would find in a show like Idol. I also liked that they included at least a bit of French!

The version that’s on the CBC website is longer and includes part of an interview with K’naan and spokespeople for the three Canadian humanitarian charities which benefit from the sales of the song and video. Links are here:

Young Artists For Haiti (official site): http://www.youngartistsforhaiti.net/
(purchase the mp3 for C$1.29, video for C$2.29)
Young Artists For Haiti (Facebook site): http://www.facebook.com/youngartistsforhaiti

World Vision Canada: http://www.worldvision.ca/
Free the Children: http://www.freethechildren.com/
War Child: http://www.warchild.ca/

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12 Mar 2010 Home to a power outage!
 |  Category: Mobile Blogging, Xena & Beano  | Leave a Comment

Which was thankfully restored before it became completely dark.

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11 Mar 2010 I’ve Gone To The Dark Side
 |  Category: Blah Blah Blah, Consumer  | 7 Comments

That’s right, I’ve upgraded my phone. Finally.

upgraded

This is why:

  1. The wireless company gave me the Blackberry for free.
  2. I’ve kept all my features, except free incoming call airtime (it was the only one I couldn’t transfer from the basic handset to the smartphone) without being subjected to price increases, and locked in the price for two years.
  3. My new plan that includes smartphone data (versus the unlimited PCS data I had before) is only $2.30 more per month than what I paid previously.
  4. My 100 minutes per month free long distance would expire in August.
  5. I couldn’t check my Mobile Me email on the old browser.

The iPod Touch will still get used daily, but since I can only use it with wi-fi, I couldn’t pass up a free phone upgrade. We’ll see if my cameraphone shots look any better!

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11 Mar 2010 Watching The World Go By
 |  Category: Critters + Creatures, Xena & Beano  | 5 Comments

not a flattering angle for anyone, not even cats

It’s been warm all this week and I set up a tall kitchen stool by the front window for the beasties to catch morning sun. The chair has a seat barely wide enough to accommodate the two of them, yet they both insist on watching the world go by from this perch, which results in bickering, the occasional smack with the paw, and begrudging co-existence.

{ continue reading… }

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11 Mar 2010 There’s A Little Hare In Our Food
 |  Category: Critters + Creatures, Linkage  | Leave a Comment

Cute Baby Animal - Theres A Little Hare In Our Food

The Daily Squee, if Cute Overload and Icanhascheezburger don’t satisfy your daily cute intake.

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11 Mar 2010 Me By V
 |  Category: Gail at Large, Photography  | One Comment

me, by V

These are test shots straight out of the camera, a Canon Digital Rebel XTi. I was teaching someone on Monday how to use her camera’s light meter and explaining exposure. Before I embarked on this instruction I gave myself a rundown on the whole Canon DSLR equipment line, not just because I’m a research nerd, but to prove that it’s not about brand loyalty but about learning how to use a device to the best of its ability, no matter what the make or model happens to be. If I have a proper understanding of photography then I should be able to show anyone how to shoot with anything.

First goal? Learn enough to take the camera off Auto!

me, by V without flash

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