Archive for the Category ◊ Memes, Polls, Quizzes ◊

17 Apr 2010 Michelle + Jamie
Author: Gail |  Category: Memes, Polls, Quizzes, Videoclips, events  | One Comment

Behold, a video slideshow of a wedding I shot last month in an art gallery. This is the largest number of photos I’ve used for a single slideshow (248) because a) I had a hard time narrowing down the photos, and b) their first dance song (U2′s “All I Want Is You”, running at 6:30) is pretty long, anyways.

It was my first time to shoot in an art gallery, so everything I learned I will apply to my next art gallery wedding in July (different gallery). Biggest challenge? Space, right up there with the fear that I’ll knock over a $900 vase… it is a very real fear! I never drink when I’m working — booze and expensive camera equipment don’t mix — but that doesn’t apply to anyone else, of course. Everyone gets pretty merry!

If you have a fast internet connection and a fast computer, a higher-quality viewing experience can be found at my ImageLegacy site (it’s around 90MBs, so it’ll take a little while to load).

Ahem, there is one slide difference between the Vimeo slideshow here and the version hosted at ImageLegacy. With 249 photos, I doubt you’ll notice what it is unless you view the ImageLegacy version first (though I think it will be pretty obvious why I excluded it from the Vimeo version), but you’ll get a prize if you do…

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04 Mar 2010 Photography Poll: Which Eye Do You View With?
Author: Gail |  Category: Gail at Large, Memes, Polls, Quizzes, Photography  | 4 Comments

Flight Deck's loo
[Pilot Tavern, Toronto - Oct/07]

I didn’t notice this until Tuulikki brought it up more than two years ago (click on the pic for Flickr comments), but I use my left eye exclusively at the viewfinder. And, come to think of it, it is the first eye that opens in the morning. The first thing I do to wake up is to read info on my iPod Touch (after the cats walk over me and poke me to feed them), and I still only use my left eye! My right eye is shut tight, and this is involuntarily. I thought about it this morning when I noticed that I unconsciously kept my right eye closed until I went to exit my bed.

I wonder if it’s because my brain knows that my right eye has poorer vision than left, so it sends a motor signal to leave it at rest for as long as possible? Is one part of my brain so dominant over the other that it can’t manage both eyes until the whole noggin wakes up? I have no idea.

Anyway, I’m curious to know whether my particular eye/hand coordination is common. I use my left eye, but I’m mostly right-handed with some ambidexterity. From observing other people, this is a rarer combination than I thought, but maybe it’s a perception.

poll by twiigs.com

30 Dec 2009 Poll: Who Should Pay On The First Date?
Author: Gail |  Category: Memes, Polls, Quizzes, Music, Singleton Life, Videoclips  | Tags: ,  | 14 Comments

20060818(023).jpg

Last night I got into a rather heated debate with a friend about who pays for dinner on the first date. I will hold off on stating our opinions so as not to influence this poll in any way (until later!), but I think my close(r) friends would easily be able to guess what I said…

Anyway, my friend are I were completely divided over who should pay for the first date, so I put forth the question to people at work today… the selection zone was anyone who walked near the printer closest to me, haha! The dating question started another debate but I don’t think I’ll be polling THAT one… besides, most of the people I work with have been married or in a relationship so long they’ve totally forgotten who paid what and when.

Since this is a hypothetical situation, let’s assume a few things so it’s easier to answer (or not, we’ll see):

  1. It’s a date between a man and a woman (it was a gender debate, sorry to exclude anyone) who are romantic interests
  2. The date was arranged mutually, there was no official “date asker” or discussion about the tab/bill
  3. This is a FIRST date, with no discussion of a second date
  4. This is a blind date, i.e., first meeting for both people
  5. Both people are currently employed
  6. It’s a dinner date, but not fancier than business casual

I’ve answered similar polls, and there are a bunch I could link to, but I want to hear your answers first. I’ve randomized the possible choices to avoid bias, and I’m leaving this poll open for 30 days. I’m really curious about this one! Feel free to write a comment — the poll is anonymous, anyway. Most people just vote.

poll by twiigs.com

(By the way, the photo wasn’t from a date, it was just a random sushi meal with a friend. Mobile phone pic from 2006.)

Video for today: ABBA’s “Money Money Money”. This first video makes me laugh, but then I saw the official one from 1976 and I had to paste that one in, too!

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24 Mar 2009 Were You Read To As A Child?
Author: Gail |  Category: Books, Culture + Society, Memes, Polls, Quizzes  | 6 Comments

Michael reading a couple of books to me

I was listening to a CBC Radio program today where people called in to discuss how they were introduced to books as children and which books got them hooked on reading. In the course of the discussion it struck me that parents reading to children seemed very much a Western, Developed World activity. The first time I’d ever seen this was in a Disney movie or on North American television, because it certainly didn’t happen at home.

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15 Jan 2009 25 Things You Never Knew About Me
Author: Gail |  Category: Gail at Large, Memes, Polls, Quizzes  | 9 Comments

slacker

Beano was tagged by Krisanne in Facebook, but he couldn’t come up with 25 things that humans would find interesting. So here is my first meme of 2009. I think some people would know some of these things, but I don’t think any one person would know all of these things.

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22 Aug 2008 Backup, Backup, Backup!
Author: Gail |  Category: Memes, Polls, Quizzes, Unabashed Geekiness, cameraphone  | 3 Comments

Save your life.

Sticker on the cable bag of my Maxtor external firewire drive, purchased over the weekend.

I’m currently on my third external firewire drive. The first two are 250GBs, this one is 500GBs. Someone suggested that I get a 1TB (terabyte) drive, but I’m willing to wait — prices will always decrease for storage while capacity increases.

I have several archiving methods which include making a backup of a memory card download direct to DVD even before I cull any dud photos or do any editing. That DVD of full unedited originals gets filed chronologically.

I shoot on average 1,000 photos or more per month, so I burn a backup of about a month’s worth of shooting and editing and file that, too. Additionally, I archive each quarter of a year’s worth of photo libraries (2008 Q1, Q2, etc.) over to an external drive, separate from any other archiving.

I only keep three months (one quarter) of photos on my G4 PowerBook at any one time because it travels quite a bit and it only has an 80GB hard drive. All my email is stored on other servers (.Mac, gmail, the office, etc.), and my documents, calendars, address book, and bookmarks are synched with iDisk to Apple’s servers. I can retrieve them using any browser and can access most things from my iPod Touch.

Basically, if my PowerBook G4 ever fails, the only things I lose are the applications, which are no big deal. The only area I haven’t covered is if my house collapses or explodes because I need to move either the DVDs or an external drive with full backup off-site.

Are you a big archivist? Or are you willing to take a technological gamble? It’s time for a poll!

poll by twiigs.com

05 May 2008 The Non-Stop Weekend, And A Meme
Author: Gail |  Category: Memes, Polls, Quizzes, Out + About  | 2 Comments

umbrella drink

Umbrella Drink (not mine)
Swan & Firkin Pub
Bloor West, Toronto

Whoa! The past two weekends and the weekdays in-between have been the busiest I can remember since I moved here. I didn’t even get a chance to write about the previous weekend, and now another weekend has passed and it’s Monday?? How can this be?

Well, first things first: I’ve said before that I’m not much of a meme-r, but I promised Anf I would do his meme back on April 25. Yikes, that’s a week and a half ago.

Here goes:

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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…

01 Apr 2008 Website Design Poll
Author: Gail |  Category: Memes, Polls, Quizzes  | 3 Comments

As I have recently been designing websites, I have a question that’s been bugging me for years. Now, when it comes to design there is very little that doesn’t come down to the personal preference of a reader/user, but over time these preferences become stronger or weaker as websites mature and change with their intended audiences. For me, the more websites I look at, the more I want to tweak mine to make it better!

This preference also has a lot to do with screen width, and my market research experience tells me that using Twiigs’ simple polling feature won’t give me a chance to cross-tabulate the answers with the size of your screens… hmmm… I’ll have to rework the question a little bit, then.

The list looks rather long, but decide your type of screen first (wide screen – greater than 1024×768, narrow screen – less than 1024×768, or if your preference is for either size), and now there are only four three* possible answers. And no, there isn’t a “no preference” option. This poll is for the opinionated folk :)

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15 Feb 2008 Indulge My Curiosity While I Do Laundry
Author: Gail |  Category: Memes, Polls, Quizzes  | 9 Comments

I’m done with winter. Why? Only in this current wild and woolly Toronto Winter of 07/08 would doing laundry require crampons to prevent a treacherous fall while stepping outside carrying a laundry bag before going down to the basement to use the washing machine. Even the raccoons are smart enough to stay away from the side of the house, which is a veritable skating rink. Either that or the ‘coons are sharpening their skates.

I’ve got one more load to go, and I have this question for you about Facebook, whether you’re on it or not. (I’m not. Well, sort of — I entered my name last year and immediately tried to delete it but Facebook won’t allow account deletions. A Facelessbook? A FacelessNonBook?)

  1. If you’re on Facebook, what’s the draw for you?

    2. or

  2. If you aren’t on Facebook, what’s the drawback (or deterrent) for you?

Just wondering while wiling away the spin cycle. Arliin and I had several discussions about this over a game of baseball and, later, beer.

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