The title of this post may not be a direct quote, but it’s the essence of a sign I saw for the upcoming winter carnival here in Quebec City. And I think that statement goes a long way toward explaining the outlook here, making the most of the cold weather because it’s what you have….
Ah, I guess some things are similar to home. The sun came out and the cold came. It’s much more dramatic here but it’s the same pattern. Those darn clouds may keep out our friendly sun but they blanket the earth and hold in warmth in the winter. Yesterday was quite clear and cold. And…
Usually my Museum breaks in cities are timed to rainy days. London for instance has a million museums, which is good because it will rain (and rain some more for emphasis). Those first trips to London was where my practice of museum days being rainy days began. Well, there’s been plenty of snow here in…
I have to start this one by saying that I’m incredibly biased. I grew up in Middle Georgia where you’re lucky if it snows at all in a given year. When snow was predicted, it always involved a caveat that several factors had to line up just right; the cold front had to arrive before…
Wow, I guess my adventure in packing the other night tired me out  more than I expected because as a perennial night owl, going to bed after midnight is not the end of the world for me. Yet I found I slept in this first day of the year until after 11am! Gasp! I woke up at…
I have to say that I’m quite impressed with Quebec City’s New Year’s eve party despite the relatively little press I could find on it. Perhaps that’s simply owed to language, i.e. maybe if I had searched using French terms instead? The day passed by quickly enough. I had to shop for a few forgotten…
Well, after a long, long sleep, I got a late start to the day here in Quebec, but that sleep was fantastic. There was only one room-mate in my room last night (looks like two tonight) and he must have come in quietly as I only met him briefly before he left this morning. What…
No doubt there’s a fine art to packing that I’ve never mastered. When I was younger and visited my grandmother, I practically re-invented my environment there, taking many times what anyone else would have carted for a month much less a week! Compared to that baseline I have improved.light years but have miles to go….
I’ve tried to like Spotify, and I suppose as a service where I can listen to new music – i.e. try before buying, it works but beyond that I don’t understand what the fuss is all about. I find it about as user friendly as a rash. Half the time when I listen to music…
Amongst my many offbeat day dreams is doing just what this couple has done, convert a school bus into a home. There are whole communities online centered around bus conversions, and while many are creating their own custom RV’s, I’ve stumbled across more than a few who are using school buses as the base upon…
Well, I waffled all over the place this year. To those who don’t realize, I have my own small tradition going. For the past seven New Years I’ve been in another country when the proverbial ball dropped to usher in a new year. The first year, in Edinburgh, Scotland, there was no long ranging plan….
I have no idea how many years I’ve been using Google as my default search engine. We’re certainly in the borderland of 10 years if not beyond. You know Google is dominant considering we use it as a verb these days, i.e. I don’t know the answer, but I’ll google it! Lately though I’ve been…
In case you were wondering, this is an excellent illustration of what I don’t like about Twitter and it’s cousin, Google Plus. If you’re wondering what you’re looking at, it’s not a piece of strange art but an anonymous screenshot for someone who uncircled me this evening on G+. In this person’s circles, 30 people…
Wow, I watched F8 today and really look forward to playing more with the Timeline feature and seeing what’s possible with the new open graph. I like the idea that you can more than like media now, for instance, someone could look at one of my prints and click want and their friends would know…
I feel like I’ll be a hypocrite if I even gush a little over Facebook’s latest updates to their network, but I also really like them! Make no mistake, I’m not a fanboy of either company. It still makes me slightly nauseous to read people rant and rave over whether Google Plus or Facebook is the…
After my last post on G+, I finally managed to piece together more thoughts on the subject and I think the title in this post is where my thoughts last time were going but hadn’t quite come together well enough to put them into a concise statement. So, if you haven’t read that one, you…
Google’s new G+ has been making a lot of waves the last few weeks and I’m good with competition and new ideas, but I’m frankly on Social Network overload at this point, how about you? I won’t even list how many I’ve been part of in the past, but right now I have my toe…
It’s been two months since I had a full-fledged iPhone at my disposal. And not only has it been a cheaper two months, it’s been an oddly liberating experience. I’ve read about various people taking digital sabbaticals over the past year and honestly wasn’t moved to try it for myself. You see, I do like gadgets….
As many years as I’ve blogged (off and on, not consistently I fear), it’s amazing to me some time to look back on memories that I was sure I blogged and discover, nope I didn’t. It’s like my memories are somehow now in text form even if they aren’t?! Take today, I was reminded of…
Ah, now this is a contest I wish I could enter! It should be obvious that I have a real soft spot for small houses of course and although I may not have mentioned it, I love the style of old homes. We’ve also covered before I like the idea of re-using things. And Tiny…
One of the few things I miss about my old place in the suburbia of Atlanta is that in my old townhouse, I was literally 5 minutes from the seats of an 18 screen cinema. Not five minutes to the door or the parking lot, but to sitting and waiting for the movie to start….
I know monitor’s change, after all, if you are using them for color sensitive things like design or photography, you’re expected to calibrate them regularly. And over my years of doing photography, I’ve been able to tell when my monitor needs it even without handy reminders that the new software provides. Still, I’m convinced over…
I need to do a separate post on Doctor Who thus far this series, but I will go ahead and say my favorite episode so far is without question The Doctor’s Wife – the episode written by Neil Gaiman.  I think I watched it four times, the only episode this series I’ve watched twice already. I…
The end of an era, the end of Smallville. It’s funny actually, the entire first season of Smallville had passed before I watched the first episode. The second season was underway already! Partly work was to blame, but mostly I had written the show off without seeing it. It was basically Dawson’s Creek mixed with…
I suppose now is as good a time as ever to revive my poor old personal blog. Those who are all about the pictures and the oh-so-glamorous travel should pop over to those respective blogs, but I hope some friends (old and dear and possibly new) will enjoy some of the meanderings of my brain….
Sorry for the absence in internet land. When the weather finally looked up again here, I spent my time hunting for a phantom energy drain in the camper van. Considering my relative lack of knowledge about all things automotive, I’m proud to have finally traced the drain back to a faulty alternator that was still…
One of my favorite videos on the subject of commercialism is the story of stuff. If you haven’t seen it before, I highly recommend it. It provides an awesome explanation of why our current cycle of consumerism can’t last forever. In a nutshell, we use more and more resources on goods that are largely disposed…
I’ve shared my own story already, so I’ll try no to re-tread there too much. It’s taken me awhile to get to this topic for the very reason that I did share my story and I’m hard pressed to come up with a lot to add but I’d like some conversation with others who have…
I’m sure there are people who are living small who do it for the world, the environment, etc. With the realization that some of us on the planet are using far more of our resources than the rest. There are, also, I suspect, many who are simply looking for a different way of life, one…
Minimalism seems to be at the heart of a lot of unconventional ways of living. Take the people who live in Tiny Houses or RVs as an example. When your home is designed to move down the highways you have a very finite space to keep stuff. After all, if your house fits in a…
While I am not a massive poetry person, this particular (well known) poem has always been one of my favorites. Robert Frost (1874 – 1963). Mountain Interval. 1920. The Road Not Taken TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked…
I very nearly fell down the same rabbit hole that so much of America has. When I applied for a mortgage for my first home, the bank approved me for much more than I wanted. In my favor at least, I didn’t see the sanity in putting more of my salary into monthly payments. But…
It’s funny that one of my more popular posts on my personal blog is on Living in a Van Down by the River. It wasn’t a post I expected many people other than immediate friends and family to read but I can see through my stats that a lot of eyes land on it. I’m…
I bought a house for all the wrong reasons. Mainly, it was the thing to do. I never considered myself a follower, but friends were buying houses, and I was sick of my commute to work, it seemed the bright thing to do. After all, a house is an investment has been the mantra of…
A favorite childhood book of mine was Mr. Pine’s Purple House. Although I remember quite a few childhood books fondly, this is one that I think still speaks to me today. The gist of the story was that Mr. Pine lived amongst a group of houses that all looked alike. He wanted his home to…
There will be a lot of beach photos to show for my time in Playa del Carmen. That and relaxing memories. Despite hours and hours of walking, when it’s a beach, it’s just by default relaxing! There were unfortunately a lot of rainy days and some gray weather. On the good side it didn’t rain…