Syndicated Blog Posts by Downes

Testing the Camera

by Downes
April 4, 2022

April 1, 2022. Here I am in a food court opening and testing out my new Fujufilm X-T200. Not the greatest of shots, but that wasn’t the point. Why this camera? It records video quite well, and will also take decent photographs, allowing it to fulfill multiple roles on bikepacking…
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Space Base at Night

by Downes
April 1, 2022

March 31, 2022. This is a view of my ship flying past a space base on a small moon near a giant planet in No Man’s Sky. Thinks like this (if we can get more comfortable headsets) are the real killer app for VR. Some meetings today plus work on…
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Billboard Impressionism

by Downes
April 1, 2022

March 30, 2022. I saw this along Coventry Road walking toward the Best Buy today. I was in the city to change my tires, walked a short distance to purchase a GoPro. In fact I never did buy the GoPro – I came home with a FujuFilm X-T200 mirrorless camera…
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Gas Prices

by Downes
April 1, 2022

March 29, 2022. Here’s what it looks like when I fill up my car. It’s up about $10 over what it cost when I bought it in 2018. This – plus the electrical charge – will get me about 400 km, which means I’m paying this every three or four…
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String Time

by Downes
March 29, 2022

March 28, 2022. This is Charlemagne on the shelf behind my kitchen chair (where he insists on being carried every evening) playing with the string. Today was the day of the data literacy presentation; I finished off the slides in the morning and delivered it this afternoon, where to my…
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World Cup Bound

by Downes
March 29, 2022

March 27, 2022. I know I already shared a version of this, but this is my official ‘daily photo’ version. Yes, we’re headed to the world cup. I watched the game (and also the Blue Jays game before it) as I worked all day on my data literacy presentation. For…
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Dark-Eyed Junco

by Downes
March 29, 2022

March 26, 2022. This is a dark-eyed junco lurking in the weeds in the back yard, its favourite location. Nice how it blends in. Today was an indoor day spent entirely on preparing my data literacy presentation based on the last few month’s research. https://flic.kr/p/2nbjshj…
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Comedy Night in Cornwall

by Downes
March 26, 2022

March 25, 2022. We saw a line-up of seven comedians at the Aultsville Theatre in Cornwall last night, a presentation of the CrackUp Comedy Festival. Sure, there was some rust – they haven’t performed live in two years, and this was the first night the theatre has been open…
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Butternut Creek

by Downes
March 25, 2022

March 24, 2022. This is a very swollen Butternut Creek as seen today on my longest bike ride of the year (17km). Still working the gravel bike along road shoulders to build up my strength. Google Maps is terrible at recording creek and even river names, and of course it’s…
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Tripod

by Downes
March 25, 2022

March 23, 2022. Busy today and just thought I’d take a top-down photo of a tripod, but of course around here you can’t do anything without a cat. Also, because I’m now depending much or on the corporate laptop, I bought a new monitor. Also a new keyboard-mouse set for…
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Supporting Ukraine

by Downes
March 25, 2022

March 22, 2022. This is a house just outside town with a Ukrainian flag. The Russian invasion and Ukraine’s fight for survival has been on everyone’s minds over the last month. It’s hard to stay focused when all this is happening. But it also highlights how important my current work…
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Still Frozen

by Downes
March 22, 2022

March 21, 2022. Back out on the bicycle today, though it’s still cold. This is a pond in a local park, still frozen (though I wouldn’t walk on it). Today’s work was entirely focused on data literacy, reviewing a number of academic articles from our literature search. https://flic.kr/p/2na8hDG…
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Just the Two of Us

by Downes
March 20, 2022

March 19, 2022. Had fun posing with Charlemagne this evening. Quiet day, played some video, created a bunch of posts, puttered on data literacy, mostly just rested and enjoyed the ball game. https://flic.kr/p/2n9C5sx…
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Waiting for Spring

by Downes
March 20, 2022

March 20, 2022. Things aren’t growing yet but the snow is melting and the forest breathlessly waits for sprint. We only walked about 4.5 km today; it was difficult to walk even on packed snow. But still, there was more colour and more atmosphere on the trail. https://flic.kr/p/2n9L7bp…
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Welcome Buddha

by Downes
March 19, 2022

March 18, 2022. This Buddha used to sit in the hallway in Moncton, but we don’t have a hallway here so it sits on a table. I didn’t realize the hat was so dusty; time for some spring cleaning. I finalized all accommodations on Anticosti for the summer. The rest…
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Ready to Ride

by Downes
March 19, 2022

March 17, 2022. The bike is back from the shop and I took it for the first ride of the year, a 10 km jaunt through the new housing development. Otherwise 100% focused on data literacy. Learning a lot. Using gRSShopper to manage my learning, which is an interesting exercise.…
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Up At Dawn

by Downes
March 19, 2022

March 16, 2022. Up at dawn to get on the exercise bike. It’s only dawn because we changed to Daylight time. Add me to the list of people opposed to changing the clock twice a year. Spent the full day on my data literacy project. Making good progress. https://flic.kr/p/2n9thhu…
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On Step Closer

by Downes
March 16, 2022

March 15, 2022. My new Garmin InReach Mini 2 arrived today, representing an expensive but necessary piece of insurance for my upcoming adventure. On Anticosti Island I will be hundreds of miles from the nearest cell tower. Or even from the nearest person! This will track my progress and allow…
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Chicken on the Wall

by Downes
March 16, 2022

March 14, 2022. This is a picture of a chicken we bought at the Victoria Craft Fair back when we first moved into our house in Moncton. It has hung in our kitchen ever since, first there, and now here, and to me it signifies a sense of permanence and…
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Larose Forest in the Sun

by Downes
March 14, 2022

May 14, 2022. We went for a snowshoe hike through Larose forest. I also completed a short report on XR. Overall, a good day. The end of winter is in sight. https://flic.kr/p/2n8CJb6…
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I, Climbing Wall

by Downes
March 14, 2022

March 12, 2022. Sitting in my office with a cat climbing my shoulder. Spent the day playing No Man’s Sky, finishing Expedition 5. I recorded the whole expedition on live video (and even had an audience for some of it). https://flic.kr/p/2n8vZHq…
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Julia in her Cave

by Downes
March 14, 2022

March 11, 2022. Friday. Stayed in all day, and Julia stayed in her cave right by my chair. The red is an Ottawa Redblacks backpack given out at a game a few years ago. Finished off the Latex cold and wrapped up the day a bit early and played video…
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First Robin

by Downes
March 14, 2022

March 10, 2022. We saw the first robin of the year today, in our crabapple tree. Poor robin, arriving before winter has ended. Feeling better today but still missed a bunch of meetings I was supposed to attend. Instead, I wrote a script to have gRSShopper save pages as Latex…
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Negative

by Downes
March 11, 2022

March 9, 2022. I felt pretty under the weather today and messed up my meds, so I decided to take a covid rapid test. Here you see the result: negative. So I’m still covid-free and attribute my state to stress (I guess). I took a sick day today and didn’t…
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Reflection

by Downes
March 11, 2022

March 8, 2022. This is the Buddha that sits by my computer in the kitchen and which reminds me to relax and reflect (so very unlike the Buddha in my office that looks stern and says “work!”). Today was meeting day, and later in the afternoon I was host for…
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Wear

by Downes
March 10, 2022

March 7, 2022. Wear. That’s how I’m feeling right now. This is the wear on my table in the kitchen caused by the amount of sitting and working I’ve been doing. I had to give up and admit defeat today, asking for a one-month extension on my Data Literacy project.…
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Common Redpoll and Two Goldfinch

by Downes
March 9, 2022

March 6, 2022. The redpoll is attracted by the finch seed. It has a distinctive red cap. You can see the icicles from the freezing rain. They didn’t last long as it got quite warm (and windy) today. Spent about half the day working on my Data Literacy project, the…
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Pine Cone

by Downes
March 9, 2022

March 5, 2022. This pine cone landed in the fork of this small tree and is just hanging there in midair. We went for a snowshoe walk on a Saturday this week because Sunday weather looked questionable. Same route as last week, though just a little bit longer. Spent the…
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RanknVile

by Downes
March 7, 2022

March 5, 2022. This is Kenny Robinson from the rankbvile stand-up comedy show at the Atlantic in Alexandria. The ‘Tic is a fun place with decent food, though it was really short-staffed. The comedy was offensive, as it should be, but I’ve seen far worse. Good for some chuckles and…
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Pine Cone

by Downes
March 6, 2022

March 5, 2022. This pine cone landed in the fork of this small tree and is just hanging there in midair. We went for a snowshoe walk on a Saturday this week because Sunday weather looked questionable. Same route as last week, though just a little bit longer. Spent the…
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