Archive for ◊ April, 2008 ◊

30 Apr 2008 Xena in the Spotlight
Author: Gail |  Category: Consumer, Critters + Creatures, Xena & Beano, cameraphone  | 4 Comments

Xena in the spotlight

Daytime is siesta time on the bed, where the sun streams in through the skylight. Taken with my cameraphone, so you don’t see the crazy amount of cat fur on their blanket. I just washed it two days ago, but you’d never know it!

I’m also vacuuming far more than I usually do, to try and keep up with the shedding of fur. I’m thinking about shelling out for a Dyson, but they’re expensive*. I tried to find a used one on Craigslist, but nobody seems to be selling… everyone I know who owns one swears by it, usually pet owners who also have to deal constantly with fur.

Is Dyson really in a league of its own, or is there a cheaper competitor who can give them a run for their money??

* I just checked out the U.S. online store, which has more products than the Canadian online store, and items are about $100 cheaper. There’s a $150 PINK Limited Edition Issey Miyake handheld vacuum??? What?

30 Apr 2008 Taxes Done. (Whew.) Note New Deadline!
Author: Gail |  Category: Blah Blah Blah  | One Comment

Netfile was particularly busy today, and I completely forgot to change my address with Canada Revenue Agency beforehand. The deadline of April 30 was never much of a consideration before since I’ve always had refunds. But this year I have a balance, and I wasn’t too optimistic about getting through to them on the phone on the day of the deadline to file, and THEN file electronically on the busiest day of the year.

I only had to redial twice to get through to CRA, and I sorted out all the filing and payment issues quite quickly. The agent warned me that the Netfile site was super busy, but that CRA extended the Netfiling deadline to May 6:

http://www.netfile.gc.ca/bulletinboard-e.html?

April 29, 2008
The filing deadline is April 30, 2008

If you have difficulty sending or correcting your NETFILE return, you have until midnight (local time) on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 to transmit it. Your tax return will be considered as filed on time.

Self-employed individuals and their spouses or common-law partners have until midnight Monday, June 16, 2008 (filing due date) to file their tax return.

Please remember, if any balance is owed for 2007 taxes, it must be paid on or before April 30, 2008.

It took about 15 minutes for me to download the submission page at Netfile, but the subsequent pages loaded quickly.

So if you can’t get through, don’t despair! The Netfiling deadline has been extended to Tuesday.

29 Apr 2008 Fortune (Cookie) 500
Author: Gail |  Category: Food + Drink  | Leave a Comment

Fortune 500

Ooh, can’t wait! Funnily enough, this was taken last Sunday at a restaurant near my previous workplace, where my former workmates and I used to go to for lunch. Was this my fortune delayed, then?

Chinatown – Dundas West, Toronto

28 Apr 2008 Weekend Preview
Author: Gail |  Category: Out + About, Toronto, Videoclips  | 2 Comments

The weather forecasters were all wrong about the weekend, and this time it was in our favour — it didn’t rain! In fact, it didn’t really rain until today, which is fine because it’s Monday and most of us are working.

The fact that the TTC was on strike didn’t seem to deter people from getting out and about over the weekend. Motor vehicle traffic was heavier, as expected, but there were plenty of people around town. I was barely at home so the stories and photos from the second half of the weekend will have to wait a little while, but here’s a little preview of the literally HUNDREDS of photos I took (700+ yesterday ALONE!):

Saturday night was a Ta-Ta-For-Now party at a restaurant/lounge on Yonge Street for a quartet of CS friends leaving for adventures further afield:

an accidental double-exposure (that I quite like)

For the last week or so, my shutter has been sticking but it wasn’t affecting my photos. Now it is! But only on the longer-exposure or wider aperture shots, for some reason. The photo above is of the four people we threw the party for, and I liked this sticky-shutter accidental double exposure shot more than the normal one.

The A and E of JEAR, plus Austin! Viva Germany, Columbia, Nepal, Russia, England, Ireland, etc.!

On Sunday I went to Dundas Square for International Dance Day, where our very own Neesa was performing the zombie dance from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. The weather was fantastic, and we stayed all day in the square. I was in shooting heaven (I love photographing dance), with plenty of room to move around (unlike bigger events with barricades and 10x more photogs):

b-boys

Here’s a short clip of the audience (you can see five of our group in this clip) learning the zombie dance.

It was a great weekend! More to come!

26 Apr 2008 Don Valley Ravine Walk
Author: Gail |  Category: The Great Outdoors, Toronto  | One Comment

Had to set the alarm to get myself up to do this; Saturday mornings are typically lie-ins for me. This walk had already been postponed once (last weekend), and the forecast for today called for rain. Not to mention there’s a transit strike on right now, so anyone who didn’t have a car or didn’t live nearby wouldn’t be able to come — it seemed like the walk was jinxed. But I figured I would go unless it was pouring outside, because I wanted to be outdoors this weekend.

The sky was looking pretty tame through the skylight (a little overcast but far from rainstormy), so I stopped snoozing the alarm and got myself cleaned up and motoring to Davisville Subway Station, the meeting point. There were 10 of us in total, a group of mostly locals who either lived nearby or biked over; only a couple of us had to drive.

an alternative to a traditional memorial

We started off at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, a huge property on the other side of Yonge Street where I used to live for my first three months in Toronto. During that time I thought about visiting to take photographs, but I think it was too painful for me at the time. I did make an outing of it once when I was living beside the Rogers Centre, in February last year. I made a mental note to return by myself, because everyone was walking rather quickly and I was lagging behind so much I had to speedwalk to catch up again.

Moore Park Ravine

Other people had cameras, but I took the most photos other than Hanson (Hansen?), who is also interested in photography and was snapping away at the back of the group. We discussed camera equipment at great length while we walked, which would likely bore the others to tears, so it was just as well we were bringing up the rear!

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26 Apr 2008 TTC On Strike
Author: Gail |  Category: Toronto  | Leave a Comment

The TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) started striking an hour ago (midnight) with a notice of an hour and a half, and I just started reading the news about it:

Torontonians in shock after transit workers strike
Updated Sat. Apr. 26 2008 12:38 AM ET

Oh boy, this is going to wreak havoc. It’s times like this I’m glad I have a car. I went out to dinner with some friends and dropped them off at Union Station around 11 o’clock — they live quite far away, by GO Train. It’s a good thing they caught the subway before it shut down!

25 Apr 2008 Ready For The Disco, Age 2
Author: Gail |  Category: Ancient History, Family, Other Photogs  | One Comment


from Father O’Five

My older brother, Allan, recently scanned and uploaded this photo of our family (minus Alvin, who was still a bun in the oven) of the day we left the Philippines in October, 1974, from a photo album that belongs to my Aunt Felipa (the lady holding a bag). We were bound for SASKATCHEWAN*, by the way. I mentioned it was October, right? My parents had never seen snow before. Click on the pic for more info.

Guess who’s wearing the boogie trousers in the front row?

* Unsurprisingly, we didn’t last long in Saskatchewan. Although, 10 years in Manitoba wasn’t exactly tropical, either.

25 Apr 2008 You Will Travel Far and Wide (And Wrestle With Colour)
Author: Gail |  Category: Friends, Out + About, Photography, Unabashed Geekiness  | 4 Comments

You will travel far and wide.

Jose-Jose’s fortune cookie is right — he is travelling far and wide. Actually, we all are, but he’s going the third-soonest after Anf and Rosie, who are leaving next week. That’s one thing I love about the CSers: everyone is either catching a flight soon or just got off a plane. Everyone’s on the move — road trips, day trips, camping trips, photo walks, cross-country trips, international trips, you name it, someone’s doing it. That’s the spirit!

A bunch of us gathered at Full Moon Restaurant on Dundas Street West for some nosh, and of course I showed up last since I work the oddest hours. There are always some leftovers, though, and I got my fill of Chinese veggies while I gabbed on about cameras and lenses and whatnot. I mentioned in conversation that I believe equipment and technical skill isn’t everything; good results come largely from creativity, and technical skill can (but not always) overcome equipment limitations.

Just how much processing is happening, you might ask? Well, I’m going to put my money where my mouth is and show you. Here are some photos from the evening produced with a $400 (Pentax K100D entry level DSLR) camera, a $200 lens (Pentax 50mm f/1.7), and Photoshop 10 (CS3). Images were shot in JPEG, mostly processed in Adobe Camera Raw, with a bit more processing in Photoshop. I’m going to post links to the original files, which are uploaded to Flickr but not public, so you can see how much processing is going on.

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24 Apr 2008 Your Age By Dining Math
Author: Gail |  Category: Memes, Polls, Quizzes  | 5 Comments

What??? How does this work? It’s correct! Try it and see if it works for you. I’ll put in a little poll at the end after publishing so you can answer in one click.

(DON’T CHEAT BY SCROLLING DOWN FIRST!)

It takes less than a minute. Work this out as you read. Be sure you don’t read the bottom until you’ve worked it out! This is not one of those waste of time things, it’s fun.

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to go out to eat. (More than once but less than 10)
2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)
3. Add 5
4. Multiply it by 50
5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1758… if you haven’t, add 1757.
6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number. The first digit of this was your original number. (i.e., How many times you want to go out to restaurants in a week.)

The next two numbers are YOUR AGE!

THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2008) IT WILL EVER WORK, SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE IT LASTS.

Anyone have a guess at how this works?

more at twiigs.com…

24 Apr 2008 With Spring Comes Feline Fascination
Author: Gail |  Category: Critters + Creatures, Xena & Beano  | Leave a Comment

Since the new windows were installed in late January, the room at the back of the house has been occupied. In about a week, the room will be free again and I suspect the cats will be the main occupants, judging by their intense fascination for the gigantic trees in the backyard filled with birds and squirrels:

Xena window traffic
the giant tree full of squirrels and birds

In other kitty news, on Tuesday one of them peed on the same carpet spot that I’ve been trying to clean for two weeks. My friend mentioned to me last weekend that cats don’t like the smell of mothballs, so to keep a neighbourhood cat from spraying her front door repeatedly, she’s crushed some mothballs and put them under her front doormat and so far that’s worked.

UGH! I hate the smell of mothballs, but I hate the smell of cat pee more! I wonder if I gate the stairs, that will stop the peeing? Or will he/she go somewhere else??

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