Archive: August, 2007

----- 08.20.2007 --------
Today I started my new job and I must say, as first days go, this was a good one. I'm very happy to be getting back to work. As great as it was to take a break, I feel so much more productive while I'm working. And in many ways, work has defined a very significant portion of who I am. While I was out of work, it was as if I wasn't whole.

It's a little strange starting in a new company and being introduced to so many people at once. Sooner then later, I'll get to know everyone. One of the great parts of being in IT is that you get to interact with the entire company, not just a department. After being at my last place so long, I knew everyone quite well. And as new faces came on board, it was easy to remember. At most, it was a few a week. Sooner or later, I'll get back to that state with this company, and I'm really looking forward to it! :)

Another sort of strange thing is the weather. It's cooled off considerably on Friday. And with work around the corner, and the cooler weather, it brought me back 10+ years to a feeling I used to get before the first day of school. Anyway... that's all for now. Short & sweet... wanted to let everyone know I'm doing great, I'm back to work, and all's well over here in the land of robgirard.com.

----- 08.17.2007 --------
UPDATE: Camping pics are available HERE or through my pics page.

Wow, I can't believe it's already been 10 days since my last update! It's pretty fair to say I've been busy. As I mentioned before, we were going camping over the weekend. It was a great trip and I'll elaborate more in a bit. Wednesday, was my last Digital Photography III class at George Brown. I handed in my final composition, which I've posted here for you to see. Orginally I did an animated picture with a bird flying, but due to memory constraints and limitations of .gifs, that idea got scrapped. But not before I invested a good 8+ hours into it :( I had shot pics of a bird in continuous mode (3.5 shots/second) and then painstakingly cut the bird out of each pic.... over 40 of them! Anyway... lesson learned (I hope!). And the last thing I want to mention is that I'll be starting work on Monday! After an awesome summer off work, it's time that I rejoin the workforce. And I'm looking forward to it! I guess I can tell you more about it in the coming weeks, after I've started.

Now, back to the camping trip! We left really early last Thursday morning (like 5 AM early!) and headed up to Algonquin Park. Along the way, we pulled into a Tim Horton's on HWY 400 to meet up with the rest of the group. In total, there were 14 of us. We arrived at the Northwest Corner of the park, just past South River at Lake Kawawaymog. We made great time and were there before 10 AM. We got our canoes, loaded them up, then set out.

It wasn't going to be a very long trip... only about 10 KM to our destination, which was an island in the west arm of North Tea Lake. There were a couple small portages along the way, but nothing we couldn't handle. I should mention also that this was Jen's first canoe trip. And only her second time in a canoe.... the first being a short paddle around pog lake last year. Once we found a spot, we started setting up and then prepared a bit to eat. The next few days would be spent laughing and playing around on our island. Swimming, camp fires, beers... the usual :) On the Saturday, we took a day trip and paddled to the other side of North Tea Lake. We were told about a waterfall so we seeked it out. Sure enough, we found it on one of the portages to another lake. It was awesome! We played in the rapids for atleast an hour. I got some pics of the trip, but don't have them posted yet. I was hoping to get the pics from another guy on the trip, Omar, so I could post the best of both sets. However, if I don't meet up with him soon to get his pics, then you'll be waiting even longer for mine. Alright, you've convinced me to post just my pics.... and if I can find more, then I'll post them at a later date :)

The weather was amazing for our trip! When it was time to leave, we were faced with a strong headwind and battled it across North Tea Lake. When we hit the first portage, the rains came... but we were ready for them and already had rain gear on. We paddled through the small Amable du Fond river until we finally hit Lake Kawawaymog, then paddled the home stretch (still into a headwind), until we reached the west shore. We made it! Anyway, and awesome trip and Jen really enjoyed it too. She's definately up for another next summer. I think it might be a little early to attempt a Missinaibi Trip with her yet.... he he he. Anyway, I'll get those pics up....

----- 08.07.2007 --------
I had to take the car in for service this morning, and the job they're doing (some kind of power steering hose recall) will take a long time on my car. Because mine is the SS model with a V8, the job takes them about 6 hours because they have to take a bunch of stuff apart. "Bunch of stuff apart".... real techincal! I do computers, not cars... remember? Anyway, apparently the V6 model is a 20 minute job! OK, now that I've totally lost my thought... where was I going with this? Oh ya... since the job's going to take a long time, I decided to bring my blades so I could get home. Then I remembered I had to go up to Henry's (camera store) to return something, and then continued on and bladed home. It wasn't much for the blade-o-meter (only 5 KM), however it was fun! I forgot how fun it can be to skate right in the city. Most of the sidewalks were pretty good, and since it was 10 AM on a weekday, the sidewalks weren't too busy.

Now that I'm home, I've got to gear up for another camping trip. Jen & I are heading up to Algonquin with a group of my friends. It will be pretty much the same trip as last year. We'll drive up to the Northwest corner of the park, grab some canoes, paddle about 10 KM, hit 2 small portages, then stay on the same island for 3 nights. There are about a dozen of us, and the island has 2 sites. If all goes well, we'll be able to nab both of them and enjoy our stay. We're going to bring the dogs too. I'm looking forward to being able to leave them off leash so they can enjoy themselves in the great outdoors. Sally's especially going to love it! She's such a little explorer! I'm sure Trixie will stay by our side.

Speaking of Trixie... after many trips to the vets and tons of meds, she's doing well now. The lump has disappeared, and her hacking cough is gone. She gave us quite a scare... and a huge vet bill! But how can you put a price on one of your family members? You can't! I'm glad she's doing better, but somewhere along the way, she seems to have lost her hearing. She's almost completely deaf now. Not sure if it's related to her other problems we were trying to take care of, or just old age. She can hear us if we're really loud or high-pitched, otherwise she's totally deaf. And the truest test is simply saying "Want a treat?". If she could hear you, she'd be in the kitchen jumping up and down on her back legs like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh! Well... I better run... camping preperations await! And most importantly, I better make sure my camera batteries are in good shape :)

----- 08.02.2007 --------
I don't have a ton of news today specifically, however I did want to post a few pics. As most of you know, I've been taking Digital Photography courses at George Brown College since the beginning of the year. I'm 2 weeks away from finishing my 4th course: "Digital Photography III". I'm not sure what the next course will be, but I'm about half way towards a Digital Photography Certificate. Not sure if that really means much, but it's been fun working my way towards it. Here a couple quick images from my last class. 2 are panoramas that were done in Photoshop (one was with the photomerge tool, the other was done manually). Both panoramas are taken from our condo in Toronto. And the other, is a mix of 3 source images that I mixed together in class. It was a quick job, but I like the way it came together. My final assignment is wide-open. I have to make a final composition in photoshop. I have a few ideas..... and a couple weeks to get it figured out & composed. I'll post it when I finish it.

Click here to view on Youtube.com (where you get the full screen option). Or alternatively, watch the embedded version:

Enjoy!

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