Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch relay hits Toronto…..

Today was lucky enough to be able to be a witness to a bit of history. A friend of mine invited me to watch his mother participate in the 2010 Olympic Torch relay. I also found this to be a great photo op! The relay has thus far been a well-oiled machine while traveling through Canada. The portion I was able to witness was in the Markville Mall area of Markham as it was on its way to Toronto. I was able to push my way through to the road and find a few excellent photo opportunities as my friend’s mother was passed the flame and walked her 300m to the next torch runner. Of course, you’re not supposed to be standing/crouching in the middle of the road so I was escorted to the side but not before I got several wonderful shots of Mary Jane Torrie as she possessed the torch and flame as she began her walk. Her courageous story can be found here. I found out later that some protesters created a little detour for the torch run as it was proceeding down to City Hall. I’ve never heard of this, but they SPLIT the flame such that it would be able to still continue on to The Hospital for Sick Children as well as City hall, just an hour behind schedule. I’m lucky to have been able to witness just a bit of history. February is just around the corner and perhaps I’ll find myself in the midst of the Olympic drama. I guess only time will tell.

The most wonderful time of the year…..

My favorite time of the year is among us…Christmas.  There is just something in the air this time of year, perhaps it’s just the crisp cool air of winter arriving mixed with that wood-burning scent of fireplaces roaring.  Thus far it’s been relatively warm here in Toronto. A positive from this is that it makes it far easier to take a few snaps of local neighborhood houses decorated with a festive them.  Some places do go far and beyond the traditional light setup and really step up to the challenge and also allow you to donate to a worthy cause.  In the past, my favorite were the Lindsey Lights which was also timed to music, however this year they have taken a year off so I’m out looking for this years replacement house.  I was finally able to head out tonight to check out some houses and came across this one in the Bathurst and Drury area of Toronto.  I was most amazed by the life sized snow globe! It’s not every day you see one of those on a front yard.

Playing around with Time Lapse....

The holiday season is upon us, December has come and the festiveness has taken over me. I've already had help from coworkers in decorating the office, next comes the home. The lights went up last night, but this past weekend was tree weekend.  I've been curious about Time Lapse video using images taken in intervals.  I still have a lot to learn when it comes to technique, but I thought I'd give it a try with my p&s while trimming my Christmas tree.  I used a total of 76 images from the camera and compiled it using iMovie.  I decided to use a simpler program since I wanted to put something together quickly and want to look deeper into other software another time. We'll see what other creations I'm able to do in the future. Hopefully some longer term ones will be in the works

Machine finally assembled....

I finally was able to assemble my machine on Thursday.  It was a bit of a wait after I picked up all the parts Tuesdays and Wednesday since work was really busy and getting in the way.  In the end I was able to obtain all the parts I wanted. The majority were obtained from the same store, however I had to venture a bit for the cabling and video card. 

I opted for a new case, as the old one wasn’t large enough to accommodate the video card as well as the option to expand in the future. I also wanted a bit more room to work in as my old case could barely fit my hands in after everything was placed inside. 

Click to read more ...

Step one of computer...complete....

Today I purchased 2 items on my list of computer parts. The main items I guess one could say, the I7 CPU and the Asus motherboard.  Unfortunately the RAM and power supply was not available at the location I chose, instead I opted to “order” the part and have them bring it in from their other location.  I'm not in too much of a hurry to get this computer set up, I have quite the hectic work schedule this week so I really don't have the time to build and configure the new computer. I have however begun to back up my old computer which is a painstaking process in itself. I may just buy a new hard drive and start from scratch and use the current drives I have in the old box as auxiliary storage. Next on the list of decisions…video card. Does brand matter when the core GPU is the same? Time to do some research.