Last minute

I worked until 9 pm today, and didn't get home until about 10:30 due to the busses...so here is a photo I took about 10 minutes ago.

Gymnastics Weekend

Gymnastics Weekend

Not much of a chance to get shooting today (though I should have taken my camera to The Naked Brunch at Alibi to see Dennis Ellsworth playing with the full Nudie and the Turks lineup), because I've been working since 7 at the Prince Edward Classic Gymnastics Meet. It's fun, but very busy and tiring. I do the scorekeeping, which is good except when things go wrong. Unfortunately for me the software we use is extra buggy this year. It's so tempting to take some time and write something better, but it'd be a project of love, not money...

Well the day is almost over, time for the last big rush of the day, where everyone is desperate for the final scores, and that's all the pressure on me!

snow! oh my!

we got a snowstorm today! it's perfect for snowshoeing! i can't find anyone to go with me, though, and i haven't the ambition to go myself. didn't get much sleep, so i'm a bit tired today. i need some motivation.

...maybe i'll just take a nap instead.

i hope this snow stays. i want to go jumping into snow hills! and use my crazy carpets! (hmm.. if i can find them.. they were likely given away behind my back. grr!)

Terminal light

Here is a photo of something I saw today. I liked how the light was being reflected twice and the column in the middle is a nice element I think!! Again I am really drawn to this kind of artificial lighting, I just wish I could shoot in it forever.

A bit late, sorry. After midnight ain't so bad I think.

Mugs

It's Sekrit

Part of a secret project I'm working on at pottery, I took this this evening.

kitteh

we have a new cat! his name is taser. yeah, like the police weapon. i call him either Big Cat or New Cat. mostly Big Cat. he's fricken huge. like, not fat huge, but tall. really tall.

he loves to cuddle. i just curled up with him on the couch. he was up by my head. i nuzzled my face into his side, and wrapped my arm around him.

he fell asleep.

i can't let him in my room yet, though. the oldest is still scared and my room is his sanctuary.

Pup

I've been sick and in bed all day. Feel bad about calling in at work on my 4th week on the job but I could barely function today. Didn't get out of bed until 4pm or so. Sooo I wasn't able to go out with my camera. Here's a photo I just took of my dog. :P

Check Check

Well as Moe talked about in her post, this past weekend was a bit of a blur. It was great to hang out with Grant Lawrence here at the Music PEI Week and Awards Gala.

I'm going to be really lazy and not link (cause Moe already spent the time and effort to do so!) to all the great bands I saw, and some that I missed (Grass Mountain Hobos). But I really enjoyed English Words, Pat Deighan and the Orb Weavers, The Danks, Two Hours Traffic, Milks and Rectangles, Haunted Hearts, Raccoon Bandit, and Nudie and the Turks. I'm probably missing others!

Weekends like this last one reinforce how strong a music scene we have here, and how much I am looking forward to being some small part of it by documenting it (through photos and video)

A big thank you and congratulations to Music PEI for putting on a top quality event, full of great talks, bands and music, and awards (but somehow not for THT!). I'm already stoked about next year!

Music PEI Week

what a weekend. it's been so crazy. i've only just been able to sit here to write this, the next day (even though the timestamp says saturday..). and i'm supposed to be downtown 25 minutes ago. so i'll probably have to be quick.
but knowing me, probably not...

grant lawrence from cbc radio 3 came to pei for music pei week. although, he was just here for the weekend. (and music pei week isn't exactly a week long.. more like.. 4 days or so..?)

i listen to his show a lot, and am fairly active on the blog, so i sort of already kind of know grant (in the sense that i comment on the blog during his show so we've already had some sort of interaction). martin already met him when he took that crazy cross north america trip in december.
martin messaged me on friday "um, how would you like to have supper with grant and i...?"
uuuhh. WHEN/WHERE?!? heh

i'm a fairly nervous person, so was a bit anxious about this meeting. but within 5 minutes i was pretty much at ease. (ok still nervous, but i'm ALWAYS at least a bit nervous..)
friday was pretty busy. met for supper around 8, talked for nearly 2 hours i think. went to hunter's to see 'milks & rectangles', 'the danks', 'pat deighan & the orb weavers', and 'english words'. about 1:45, martin & i ran to baba's for the tail end of 'haunted hearts'. we stayed for a bit talking to grant, which was a pretty hilarious time.

saturday, i crawled out of bed (i really don't know how i did it..) and ran to the guild. grant was giving a keynote, and i wanted to catch it. katie was also in town! after the keynote, katie met up with me & along with martin, went to formosa.
we had heard that 'nudie & the turks' were playing at the alibi for naked brunch from 2 till 5 (which isn't really brunch i guess...)
then we gathered at kim's place for a couple of drinks before heading to the awards show. then to the after party. then to the after after party.

i have no idea what time i got home. 4:30? 5?

now i'm about to run out the door to go to baba's again. this time for comedy night.

grant got a taste of how we do things on the east coast. i guess we like to party?

also: two hours traffic didn't get a single award. uhoh?

(i definitely didn't proof read this. sorry.)

Cat

Went to my friends place after work. Here is a picture of one of their cats. I'm allergic and still feeling it today. Inhalers and pills can only do so much. It's kind of worth it though, I love these people.

16:9

Testing, Check Check

A picture I took with my new camera.

This one takes pictures so fast that if you were to reconstruct them and show them at a certain speed, they'd be moving pictures! Now if only there was a way to record sound with it as well, so we wouldn't have to have those piano parts over the action...

oh wait, I think it may do that too! :D

Yeah, all bad joking aside, I got an HD camera, mainly because I want to do a documentary on the Charlottetown music scene, but I'm sure I'll find fun other things to do with it as well! I'm excited.

Also, see Moe's post below for some great information on how to help out with donations for Haiti. Thanks Moe for putting all that together!

i previously mentioned and art gallery i'm participating in for music pei week. the reception was tonight, and i have to say, it went better than i ever expected.

a few people came up to me to make comments about my work. it was really nice, and really positive. i left with a pretty big smile on my face.

i've been stressing about my presentation of my work. i guess it was pretty decent, though.

i still see places that could use improvement, of course. lessons learned for next time.

it started to snow those awesome flakes on the way home. big enough to have a shadow just before they touch the ground.. looking up, my lashes became covered in snowflakes...

i purposely left this next bit for the last, and not the first. i find when i send someone more than one question, they almost always only answer the last one.

i've noticed there are a lot of benefits for haiti. it's been amazing watching them all crop up. it almost seems like the whole world came together. it's been cited as the worst natural disaster in the western hemisphere.

ever.

i don't know a whole lot about haiti. i should know more. i do know that they've had way more than their share of struggles. and that most of us could not possibly comprehend the level of devastation haiti is facing right now.

anyway. i came across this post on cbc radio 3, and thought it was really neat. just check your speaker volume before clicking on it. they also have a link to a list of great places to donate to. (if you click on anything here, please let it be that. lets spread the word!)

there is also this happening at baba's

and this happening at the alibi

and this happening at the charlottetown seaport

there is also a list over at NxEW of benefit shows all across canada. if you know of one happening in your area, feel free to post a comment there to add it to the list.

donating to a registered charity will be matched by the government. i know the red cross is involved in this.
information about the governments plan to match donations.

Stair, railing

This is a photo I took tonight while waiting for people to show up for bowling. I kind of have a thing for that neon florescent lighting you get in these open-but-enclosed spaces in cities (stairwells, parking garages, bus terminals..etc,) you know? It reminds me of old sci-fi movies for some reason.

Wooden Cobra

A Pretty Sight

A very fun gift my Mom gave me for Christmas, from Greece. Ok, so maybe it's not fun per se, but it is very cool.

One of my goals for photography this year is to take more closeup object pictures. Luckily this also means more indoor shots, which is fine by me this time of the year.

Not that I don't want to get out and do a photo day sometime as well of course. Winter wildlife and landscapes are nice!

today a friend told me that his wife wants to separate. i have no idea how to help him. he lives many miles away, and i have little advice to offer on the subject.

he is a wonderful and genuinely caring person.

i am heart broken that this is happening to him. he speaks of his family with love and adoration.

the only advice i can possibly give, are words that would not be helpful so soon.

the photo i took today was to talk about exciting news happening this week.

but i haven't the heart.

maybe wednesday...

Golfing, & a crane

This is the view from the bus stop to home, the morning after (this morning) my first experience with Urban Golf. Check it out, it's fun as all heck: Greater Halifax Lesser Golf and @HFXUrbanGolf on twitter. We went from around 7:30pm until 1:30 or 2am. It was surprisingly exhausting, and cold! But it's like nothing else I've ever done, and totally worth it. Pics from the actual golfing will be posted on the Golf blog within the next few days probably, or you can check out my flickr.

State of my Office

Messy.

Not a whole lot of words today, as I'm busy at work, and have a packed evening of curling then a Smothered in Hugs show. There will be no time later for anything, so you get to see what my workspace looks like.

art shows!

hey there! i have exciting news!

i am going to be in an art show! so is martin!

it's being put on by music pei. the show will run for 2 weeks, and one of those weeks is music pei week! the theme is art & music, and the title is 'art for music'. there are 8 or 9 incredibly talented artists involved.

i took down most of my work today, but i am going to go back tomorrow for some tweaking. there are still some artists to set up, but what is down there is FANTSATIC!

if you are in charlottetown, please stop down for a visit! CLICK HERE for info.

it's been a pretty crazy few days. this art show has had me fairly stressed out, which lead to a few late nights (even late for me!). i've had a few other things on my mind, mostly work. i need to find a day job. i'm fairly worried, but i know i'll manage. i always do.

but you have to stop and look at it all in perspective.

it's been a hectic few days all around the world. you'd probably have to be living under a rock to not have heard about the completely devastating earthquake in haiti. exceptionally devastating because structures are shoddy at best. building codes are basically non-existent. also, it is also an incredibly poor area. i can't even begin to imagine how crippled haiti has become.

there is a thought that is constantly in the back of my mind. i always think it, but rarely voice it. i would drop everything to go to these areas to help. earlier tonight i mentioned i didn't really have a skill. i have no medical experience. i'm not very strong so can't do much construction-wise. i don't believe in missionary work. ryan pointed out that i do have a skill. i'm a photographer.
i suppose i could be a photojournalist. i definitely would need to work on those skills, though.

anyway. just some thoughts that have gone through my head as i stare at my computer screen for hours on end and expose myself to disgusting spray adhesive fumes for far too long.

earthquake in haiti
haiti, 48 hours later
a first-hand report.

find out how you can help:
red cross
salvation army
medecines san frontieres (doctors without borders)
the humanitarian coalition

if you donate, please make sure it is to a reputable organization. i firmly believe that any organization that accepts donations to send shouldn't take any off the top. 100% of your money should to go helping rescue efforts in haiti.
there are also terrible human beings out there who prey on the good will of others and will scam you. verify!

Hi

I didn't take a picture today. I've been feeling kind of sad, angry, mopey and uninspired. So..I'm going to write about that. There are a few things going on, one of them is that I make really bad decisions. Like the decision to quit my job in October. I shouldn't have done that. I'm a fucking idiot. It's really coming back to bite me now. I started a new job on Jan 5th but I'm not going to be paid in time to cover some things and well, there's really nothing I can do about it at this point other than face whatever the consequences might be. I have one option but I won't know for sure about it until tomorrow.

The second thing I'm angry about is the fact that I'm so self conscious that I can't do what I love (take pictures) when there's people around (ie; in public). For some unknown reason I just seize up and don't do what I want to do. I don't even know what I'm afraid of. It makes me mad as hell. There are a lot of opportunities during the day when I could be taking pictures...but I just don't, because "what if" enters my mind every time. I don't understand why I care what other people might think. I know I shouldn't care...but I can't help it.

The third thing is that 2009 in general has been really shitty to me. I'm pretty much at the same point I was when I ended 2008, minus a lot of money. The last third of the year has been super stressful due to the issues mentioned above, summer was cool (europe trip) but other than the first 6 months of the year were really, really bad. A lot of that has to do with a personal issue that really kind of messed with my head for a long time.

I'm sorry to spill this all out, but I felt bad not posting anything at all, and moe wouldn't let me post an old photo. I'll have a picture next time, I swear.

Ryan

Geared Up For Winter

Geared Up For Winter

I love puns. :)

Since I moved to PEI I've turned into one of those nutters who bikes all year round. It's certainly not the most enjoyable thing to do for the 5 or so months that the weather could be considered 'winter' here. However the benefits outweigh the really bad days I think.

Last year I put about 1500km on my car, and that includes a trip to Fredericton. I think my total number of tanks of gas I bought was around 6. I don't have to buy a parking pass at the university where I work. I save on vehicular wear and tear. I save on insurance. I get an extra bit of exercise per day that I wouldn't normally get. I get to be outdoors, see some wildlife (including a nice grey fox bounding across the Confederation Trail in front of me yesterday), and take some pictures.

Downsides include wear on the bikes (last year I spent $700 in repairs on my good mountain bike), having to bike in some pretty abysmal weather, and the danger of getting hit by the terrible Charlottetown drivers (which I've managed to avoid thus far). This year I'm going to try to ride all winter on my much cheaper hybrid, so even if it is a write off in the spring, it'll be cheaper to replace. The problem of course is all the salt that gets laid down, much of it unnecessary in my opinion (especially on the Confederation Trail)

So far January has been quite warm, only the last couple days dipping below -10 C, and there hasn't been a major snow (since I got back from my big trip anyway). I'm sure that will be coming soon enough.

Only a three or four more months until it's somewhat spring like!

i've been sitting in front of my computer for 2 days straight.
no. not lazing all afternoon with my laptop. i mean all day. until the wee hours.

i am trying to prepare for an art show thing this week. i originally picked out 68 images. i've since narrowed it down to something realistically manageable.
i can't decide how i'm going to display them, though. i have an idea in my head, then no way to hang them. then i get another idea, but it's too expensive. then i get ANOTHER idea, but i don't have enough time to get it all done.

my goal is to be finished by tomorrow.

i'm pretty sure these photographs are going to kill me in my sleep. so, if you don't hear from me in 2 days, you'll know what happened...

...i think i dreamt about editing photo's last night...


also. this was a total cop out shot. i'm just going to put that out there.

Guitar

This is my guitar.I don't really have much to write about it. It's acoustic, it's orange & black. It has 6 strings.

Keeping Time

Keeping Time

While I was on my big train trip from San Francisco to Moncton, I figured it would only make sense to have a pocket watch. I haven't owned or worn a watch in about a decade now, and I wouldn't ever want to have to wear one on my wrist again, so this made a lot of sense.

I also figured while looking for one, why skimp out, why not get a nice one, and especially one where you can actually see what's going on inside! It's very mesmerizing.

I also debated about the background on this, and decided that I liked the lines on lined paper, especially cause I could make them off angled to hopefully give it a bit of dynamics.

Good thing about this project, it definitely has got me thinking again, and interested in trying to capture different things than I normally would.

a little bit of sugar...

i got a cold at the first of december. pretty nasty sinus cold. it's lingered ever since and has now turned into a sinus infection.

sinus infections are horrendously painful. i would not wish one on anyone. my face & teeth always hurt, but the real pain comes in waves. when it's at it's peak, it feels like my jaw bone is being crushed and hot pokers are being driven down into the very core of my teeth. last night the pressure moved up to my eye, & back to my ear.
i have a bottle of tylenol 3's from a knee injury so i took one the other night. i may as well have just drank the glass of water for all the good it did.

the fact that most of the pain is directed into my eye tooth had me very worried. this is all happening on the left side of my face, which is the side the cleft pallet is on. i will eventually lose my front teeth due to a bone graft done to fuse my top jaw. so there was concern that the pain was actually my eye tooth (directly beside the graft site) dying.

i went for xrays today and they showed a relatively healthy tooth. so unless something totally crazy is going on, the only logical diagnosis is a sinus infection.

all things considering, i'm glad. a sinus infection just needs antibiotics. a dead tooth needs to be pulled.

this is the first time i've taken antibiotics in a long time. when i had my hernia surgery earlier this year, i wasn't even given them.

looking at this picture, i should have had a white card in front.

coffee

Well, here I am writing a blog post when I should be writing actual important things. I'm pretty dang good at procrastinating.

This is a photo of one of my most favouritest things in the entire world: coffee. I had my first taste of coffee when I went to school the first time. I was taking culinary arts and the chef brought in a bunch of coffee and little German chocolates, and we sat down and just drank coffee and ate chocolate. I remember the chocolate would melt almost instantly upon dropping it into the coffee.

I'm the kind of person that can drink a coffee and not have it affect me too much. It's typical for me to drink it right before bed and still be able to sleep just fine. I guess I've had so much that I've built up a resistance. I love the taste, the smell, the sound & feel of the beans. I love the entire act of making it. I have a french press which I love to death, it makes a great cup. It's very cathartic to go through the whole process of doing everything manually. :)

Ryan

Hershey

Hershey

I was struggling (I know, already!) for something to post today, and Moe suggested a picture of Hershey, so I went and found her and voila! I'm crazy ridiculously busy these days so this isn't the best start by me for this blog. Lets see, my next day is Saturday, I should be able to have something better by then!

Hershey was adopted in 2007 from the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown PEI. She was used for 6 or 7 years by the students, helping them learn on a live animal. She had one major surgery done (Ovariohysterectomy), and a number of minor surgeries. From her time at the school, living in a kennel with other beagles, she comes as an older, fairly untrainable dog. But she's really sweet, and darn cute. And compared to a puppy that we've been looking after, she's actually really well mannered. She only rarely eats any of my clothes anymore!

novels pt2

so ryan talked about the novels project in his post, so i figured i'd follow suit.
i made 3 copies, but by the time i was ready to head out, the sun went down. so on my way to trivia, i decided to leave them in random places.
i still have 2 left. i got side tracked on the way to trivia then, well, free beer and all..

*EDITORS NOTE: if you are coming from the oknovels blog, i'm a she and in charlottetown, prince edward island. ;)

Novels

My turn again already, huh?

I found out about the Novels project earlier today via twitter, it's a new EP from 5 Canadian indie musicians who got together and recorded it over a 24 hour period last January.

The idea is that it's not be sold in-store or online, but to be shared freely, and then photos of the sharing are to be posted on their blog. To quote their site:

NOVELS won't be sold in CD stores, on the internet, or anywhere else. Instead, we'll give them away, or put them places. Maybe you'll find a copy sitting on a park bench. Maybe a masked man will hand you one as he passes you on the street. Maybe none of these things will happen. But we'll make sure that everyone gets a chance to listen if they want to.

So as soon as I heard about it it became my project today to give a copy away to a random stranger. The first person I approached was the mail lady as she was delivering the mail. I think she thought I was creepy, because she wouldn't let me take her photo and she wouldn't take the CD, and she left in a hurry! Oh well, I can get that. It is kind of a weird thing to do.

I walked around the neighborhood for a bit, and I noticed how many people don't walk around here. Lots of cars out and about but almost no pedestrians. I was resigned to leaving the CD sitting on a fence, but as I was taking photos of it sitting there I noticed someone coming up the path behind me.

I asked her if she liked music, the answer of course was yes, so I explained the concept and gave her the disc, and she was happy to have the photo taken. Her name is Naomi. It was actually kind of fun to go way outside of my comfort zone for a bit - I'm not one to randomly talk to strangers, usually, but the Novels idea really inspired me! I think the portrait turned out pretty darn good, too.

Travel

Bixby Bridge

Hello, I'm Martin, the rumoured third geek for this project.

As Moe mentioned I recently spent a month traveling around North America. First flying to San Francisco, spending some time in Monterey, then making my way up the coast by train to Seattle, then Vancouver, and finally Ontario for Christmas.

I visited a lot of impressive places on this trip, but the coast of California (once you get away from the populated areas), was the most impressive to me. The large rolling waves, big shorelines, and stunning vistas made me wish I had another month there. And I didn't even make it to Big Sur (something like 5 minutes past where this was taken), Yosemite, Joshua Tree, or anywhere where there are the big Redwood trees. Clearly a return visit is in order.

Well that is what I have been up to the last month, and why this shot isn't current, but I promise to get working on something more current shortly.

ay

my name is moe. i take pictures.

i'm #2 in this project. i had a few ideas for my first picture, but a series of events lead me to show the one i am.

there are two very important "things" in my life. photography and music. i also have a bit of a ridiculous obsession with hats & scarves. i'm not talking those fancy ones. no, i mean winter gear. the more ridiculous the better.
back to music. i listen to a lot of it. often, my photography compliments the music i listen to. i'm pretty lucky like that. a lot of the music i listen to comes from cbc. radio 3, to be specific.

so when i found out that they had scarves, ohmygawd i had to have one. as luck would have it, they're a fairly nice bunch and took pity on me. i got a scarf. much to my own disbelief.

then they came out with toques. real deal hoser style. it was damn near all i talked about. my friend martin (he should be the next to post) went on a ridiculous cross canada trip and visited both cbc headquarters. while in vancouver he scored a hat for himself, and another friend.
being the sort of selfish person i am, i thought it couldn't hurt to ask him to get me one, too. knowing that asking for a 3rd hat would be a pretty big deal, i pretty much dropped the thought as soon as i posed the question.

until tonight: when he presented me with one! oh, the excitement.

i have a lot of hair (!) so it's a bit of a tight fit, but if i pile all of the ridiculousness that is my mop onto the top of my head, it works.

it's like a +5 to my AC

This is lame, I know

Moe has been prodding me to make the first post (last I heard she's still in her PJ's right now.) The problem was that I hadn't been home in about 24 hours (with not much opportunity to take any photos anyway) and I only had my P&S with me, AND I forgot my memory card like an idiot AND my camera only has room for about 2 photos on internal memory. So on top of that and trying to catch busses home...this is kind of a last minute "we said we were going to start this Jan 1st so we should probably at least do something" kind of post.

I took this photo while waiting for the bus on the Bedford highway..oh about 2 or 3 hours ago. I know it isn't anything special, I just thought it was really neat that there are still phone booths out there with the old school "MT&T" logo. My mom has worked for them for about 35 years and she says the last time this logo was used was back in the 70's. It's interesting to me how little things like this can fall through the cracks.

Ok Moe, you're up next.

Ryan

do we need an F.A.Q.? sure, why not.

the point:
we each take turns taking a photo a day.

the "rules":
has to be original. has to be taken that day. anything goes. we can have themes. we can collaborate. we can take a shitty self portrait at 11:59p.m. we can use a DSLR. we can use a crappy phone camera. we can use a webcam. if it takes a picture, we can use it. high quality. low quality. as long as it's taken by whoevers turn it is that day.
we love what we do & are good at it, but not every day will be a masterpiece. don't panic, it's all organic, man.

how often we post:
generally once a day. there will be times where we'll be away from the internet on our respective days. we'll work that out as it comes.

who we are:
martin, moe, & ryan. we live on the east coast of canada. martin & moe live in the same city. ryan lives somewhere else. moe & ryan met online through flickr. moe introduced ryan to martin. martin & moe met through going to the same shows & taking pictures. martin & moe have never met ryan face to face. moe will probably use a lot of The Swears. martin & ryan seem to speak fairly respectfully.

we enjoy all things "geek" on varying levels. we support independent music.

we like comments. interact with us. we don't bite.