cumulus

Anyone reading my Blatherings knows that I take a lot of digital photos. I carry my Canon Elph PowerShot S100 everywhere with me; it's so small that I can stick it in a purse or pocket. On a typical day at the cottage, I'll take at least 40-50 photos.

My digital photo collection has grown exponentially since 2000, when we first bought our cameras (Jeff has one, too!). I've been storing the photos in chronological order by year and month and sometimes event, but because I don't take the time to rename all my photos, I can never tell what's in a photo unless I open up the file.

I've been using iView MediaPro to browse my images, but unfortunately iView doesn't search very well, and only opens one folder at a time. This is a major pain when looking for a particular photo, since the only way I'll be able to find it is if I know approximately when I took it (so I can look in the appropriately-named folder) or if I've posted it on Blatherings.

I'm reaching the point where I know I have to switch to a more efficient method, or I'll end up with many gigs' worth of digital images I can't easily access. Jeff suggested a program called Cumulus, by Canto.





I downloaded the demo and PDF user manual, tried it out. The demo has all the features of the full version, but limits you to two catalogs and 50 images. VERY cool program. It organizes other types of files as well, not just photos. After playing with it about an hour or two, I bought a registration key (US$89.95).

I'm going to gradually cull and categorize all my photos, starting with the present and working my way backward. One of things I really like about the software is that you can assign multiple categories or descriptions to multiple images at the same time.

I've created my categories in terms of what kind of search queries I'd be making. One category is Family, with subcategory of Ohi and sub-sub-categories of my dad, Ruth, Kaarel, Sara and Annie. Whenever I download a new batch of photos, I just select all the photos with Annie in them, select the "Annie" category and then "Attach Selected Categories". This means that anytime I want to see all the photos with Annie in them, I just select the "Annie" category.

I can finetune my search by specifying a specific date range, or add other search criteria. The search function is extremely flexible, with lots of boolean possibilities. If I wanted to, for example, could search for all the pictures of Zoë, for example, which were taken at Disneyland and that contain Amanda but not Scott. And of course, I could search for specific text in the picture description.

Looking forward to learning more about this program.

Hope you're all enjoying your long weekend!





Links/Update:

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Today's Blatherpics:

The following photos were taken yesterday evening, at my sister's place. Sara and Annie have invented their own version of Quidditch, the game in Harry Potter.

	Sara with the blodger, ducking around Christopher, a neighbourhood boy. The evening light was somewhat dim but I opted not to use the flash, following Sara's motion instead. The results were kind of cool, I thought.
	Annie, the beater, protecting the goal.
	Sunflower in my sister's garden.

ephemeral

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Phoebe Gilman, a Canadian children's author and illustrator whose books included the Jillian Jiggs series. Ms. Gilman was also very supportive of my sister and her work. More information at the Canscaip site (obituary) or Phoebe's own Web site (bibliography).

When I heard about Ms. Gilman's death, I did an online search for more information. When Google turned up a PhoebeGilman.com site, I half-expected to find a fan-run site or one of those slick but impersonal author sites created by a hired third party. Instead, I found a well-designed but very personal site with photographs of the author as a child, with friendly and conversational text.

Even though I've never met the author in person, I couldn't help but experience deep regret that the creator of the site would no longer be updating it herself. Would her family choose to keep the site online? Would they update it?





That started me thinking about mortality, history, and the ephemeral nature of the Web. I've been keeping an online journal since April/97. I've been writing on a daily basis since the beginning of the year. While I probably won't continue to write every day forever, I don't see a reason why I shouldn't keep Blathering for as long as I can keep typing.

But how long will the Web last? Web sites come and go; so do Internet service providers and hosts. Bryan Fullerton has been kind enough to host my sites so far (including Inkspot -- thanks, Bryan!).

I began Blatherings as a lark, but now it's become an essential part of my daily routine, my equivalent of many peoples' morning cup of coffee. Not only is it a great writing exercise for me in preparation for a day's work, like warming up before a run, but I've also begun to realize how great it is to have a searchable archive of all my entries. I can remind myself what I did on the last day of 1999, did I really give Sara a brussel sprout named Susie, the closing of Inkspot.

Now that I'm adding photos, it's become my personal photo album as well, MUCH more organized than the boxes of loose paper photographs I have in my closet and our basement locker. I've also gotten a bit paranoid about losing everything, so have gotten into the habit of using MovableType's backup feature on a regular basis.

I don't tend to read through my past Blatherings that often. When I do, it's usually because I'm searching for a particular date or piece of information, and get distracted by re-reading past entries. Some make me cringe, some nostalgic.

Some I don't recall writing at all, making me wonder if I'm losing braincells over time. But hey, won't that make it all that more exciting for me when I'm 102, reading my own Blatherings as if for the first time. Holy toledo, I'll say, what was I thinking? Then I'd shake my head at the follies of youth, and go back to packing for my canoe trip with Jeff.





News/links:

I'm even more jealous of those who got to go to ConJose this weekend. Just heard that Patrick Stewart gave a talk on Friday night!

Those looking for a feedback page for their blogs/journals might want to check out SignMyGuestbook.com. I noticed that Funny The World (one of the online journals I read regularly) uses it, and it seems nicely-designed and reliable.

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Today's Blatherpics:

These photos were taken at the cottage, when Jeff and I paddled to Adaskin's Bay on our wedding anniversary.

poll: board games

I'm seated at a table in the basement of a friends' parents' house, around 12:30 a.m. My head is fuzzy because of the late hour; I'm usually in bed two hours earlier.

"I've got sheep! Who wants wood for sheep?"

"How about a rock?"

"I don't rocks, I need wood."

"How about some wheat?"

"You have WHEAT? What do you want for your wheat?"

We're playing The Settlers of Catan, a board game in which players establish roads, cities and commerce on a remote island. I like it better than the usual games that this group plays on Friday nights because it's a "nurturing" type of game rather than the "betray and stomp out your enemies" type that tends to be more popular. There is some betraying and stomping, of course, but at least it's subtler.

I think it's very cool that this group of friends have gotten together every Friday night for years. The exact individuals change from week to week, but a core group has made it a regular part of their lives. Jeff used to play Magic with them, but then dropped out for a long while. I'd come sometimes, but would usually read on the couch or play/work on my laptop.

My family used to play board games pretty often. Our favourites: Candyland, Stock Ticker, Monopoly, Masterpiece (I think that was the name? art auction game), Clue. I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

Jeff and I haven't played many board games until recently, when we picked up Scrabble and started playing, at least as of the last visit, Settlers and Puerto Rico at the cottage. I tend not to like battle strategy games like Risk and Diplomacy, or games where part of the strategy is making deals with other players and then betraying them when the time is right. Jeff has accurately summarized my general board game and computer game preference as one leaning toward "nurturing": helping villages and cities grow, helping Sims manage their work and love lives, taking care of a virtual pet.

Speaking of which, Aspyr is coming out with a virtual pet expansion package for The Sims! Can't wait!





Yesterday my female Sim character, Candy Flirtatia, did hit it off pretty well with an exotic-looking hunk named Ocean (yes, really) in a pinball shop in town. I played The Sims last night while the others were playing Puerto Rico. The guys mocked my fascination with my little virtual people, but some of them drifted over out of curiosity and got hooked into watching for a while.

Amusing to compare my technique for getting a couple together to their technique. While I focussed on establishing a good rapport and trust between Candy and Ocean before even thinking of progressing towards any kind of physical intimacy, my observing companions were mainly interested in seeing how quickly Ocean could get Candy in bed. :-D

Sadly, Candy got distracted by a tragic clown, an annoying figure that invades the character's house if you let any of her emotion/wellbeing scores fall below a certain level. After he showed up, the clown spent all his time following Candy around, trying to cheer her up in annoying ways and trodding on Candy's and Ocean's private moments. I combed the Sims message boards for clues on how to get rid of the clown, and finally succeeded by setting him on fire.

I've never liked clowns.

But I digress. Back to board games and today's poll question...

Poll: What were/are your favourite board games?

Answer in Blatherchat

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Today's Blatherpics:

	Settlers game at Vartan's & Hrach's place with Vartan, Hrach, Scott, Jeff, Walter, John, Mark. Reid left earlier in the evening.
	Luisa & Scott at a Greek restaurant last night.
	Reid, during a game of Puerto Rico.

woohoo!

So I took my Articles of Dissolution forms and permission letters and payment to the Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations yesterday, waited in line for about 20 minutes. After much hemming and hawing and checking of records, the woman finally relented and stamped an approval on my copy of the Articles. I swear it caused her pain; she was so obviously reluctant to let me go free without further bureaucracy.

When she handed me my papers and said, "That's it, you can go", it took ENORMOUS restraint for me not to jump in the air and cheer and kiss everyone in the room. Well, maybe not everyone.

In theory, I shouldn't be getting any more harassing calls or letters from the government about anything Inkspot-related ever again. I'd love to have a ritual "burning of the corporate seal and minute book" party in the near future, but with my luck I'll find out I need both items someday. Does anyone use their corporate seal? I seriously want to know. I don't think it would burn very well, anyway. The minute book, however, would make a fine blaze.

Some people have asked me if I plan to ever start up another Inkspot or Inklings, particularly since my non-compete contract with Xlibris (which forbids me from doing exactly that) expires next year.

My unhesitating answer: No.

While I loved working on Inkspot, at least until things got brain-numbing, I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying being able to finally focus on my own writing. I also enjoy not working 12 hours a day, the constant stress. Sometimes I look back through my Blatherings archives to when things were the worst; those days seem so far away now.





Jodi, Allison and I went out for sushi and a movie in Richmond Hill last night. We saw Simone, which is about a producer who uses a computer-generated actress for the lead in his movie. General consensus: entertaining, but not enough was done with the idea. The best part of the movie was seeing the Two Towers trailer! It was the first time I had ever seen it on the big screen. It looks VERYVERY cool. Also saw the trailer for Chicago which looks intriguing.

Links/News:

Spam makes up 36% of all e-mail traffic. Some predict that it could take over the majority of message traffic by the end of 2002. (Source: ZDNet)

Check out this trailer for Comedian, which is pretty funny. You'll recognize the voice of the guy in the booth for sure. :-) Thanks to Jeff for the link.

Blue French Fries? (from BoingBoing)

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Today's Blatherpics:

	Sara on the merry-go-round at Centre Island yesterday.
	Sunrise at the cottage last week.
	Zoë during my visit earlier this month. Zoë turned 1 year old yesterday! Here's the Blathering entry in 2001 where I posted her birth announcement.

poll: amusement parks

I went to Centre Island yesterday with Ruth, Sara, Annie and my father. I really should go over to the island more often. The short ferry ride is fun, and once you're on the other side you can wander the island at will, picnicking or snoozing on the grass or sneaking crusts of bread to the hordes of ducks. I probably wouldn't go on a regular basis during the summer season, when it's swarming with strollers and impatient parents, but opt for a run in cooler weather.

As some of my friends already know, I get motion sickness pretty easily. I can't even watch Jeff play Doom or Quake, let alone play it myself. One of the reasons I fall asleep so readily in moving vehicles is because I developed the habit when I was much younger, in self-defense against my tendency to become carsick. As you might expect, rollercoaster-type of rides are not my thing. Even ferris wheels sometimes make me sick.





I found it impossible to say no to Annie and Sara, however, when they eagerly asked me to accompany them on various rides. We went on the ferris wheel twice, the rollercoaster once, the logjam ride twice. To give you an idea of what I'm like on rides, even kiddy thrill rides, here's a scene from the first time that Sara and I did the logjam ride, where "log" cars carried us, bobbing like corks in a river, up a steep slope and then whooshing down the other side with a tremendous splash at the bottom:

ME: (screaming)

SARA: Auntie Debbie, we haven't started going down yet!

Poll: Do you like amusement parks?

What do you like most? Least? Do you like rollercoasters? Do you prefer to stick to the exhibits? What's your favourite amusement park food? What's your favourite amusement park?

Answer in Blatherchat

Links/news:

My friend Michelle still uses her Newton. Looks like there are other Newton enthusiasts as well, despite the fact that Apple discontinued it in 1998. (Source: Wired)

Want an easy US$10,000? Name your child "Turok", after a video game, and Acclaim Entertainment Inc. will reward you. (Source: GlobeTechnology.com)

In an attempt to return to profitability, Indigo plans to close six of its stores. (Source: Canoe)

A year ago:

Beachcombing: Wandering the beaches at the Wickaninnish Inn.

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Today's Blatherpics:

	My father and Annie at Centre Island yesterday.
	Annie, Ruth and Sara on the ferris wheel.
	Dad serving birthday cake with Sara's assistance.
	Sara's and Annie's guinea pigs, doing what they do best: eating. Fluffy and Stripe have expanded considerably in girth since they were bought in April. Hard to believe that guinea pigs roam wild somewhere in the world. They might as well just have "EAT ME" tattooed across their furry little foreheads, don't you think?