We've just gone through a bit of painting at home and are planning some more. The thing is that it always takes longer than I thought that it would and it never looks as nice. I see all the flaws, even if no one else does.
We ran out of time, but I regret not doing a little more prep work. Going around with a really bright light and finding and fixing all the flaws. It would take a bit more time, but I think that it would be worth it.
If you don't want to put in the time to do the extra prep work - my advice is to start taking lights out of a room. Nothing shows flaws like lights close to walls. When you can't fix 'em, hide 'em.
Monday, 31 August 2009
Saturday, 15 August 2009
Cost of biking
Being unable to fall alseep (even though I'm pretty tired) I figured that it would be interesting to do a cost analysis of different commuting methods. Just rough estimates, but let's see where it takes us.
According to google maps, a route that's close to what I take to work is 7.7 km. Let's assume that it's closer to 7.2 km each way. Aprox 20 working days in a month, times 8 months of possible biking a year, that works out to 2304 km. Actual costs would be almost zero (let's not count extra food I eat during biking season nor when I take the bus when it rains).
Using the bus actually takes longer even though I'm 10 minutes walk from a major downtown hub. Monthly bus pass is $84.75, times 8 months is 678 $. That works out to aprox 0.29 $ / km.
For a car, let's assume that I could get parking for 10 $ / day. That works out to 1600 $ in parking. Our car's fuel economy is listed at 10.7 L / 100 km in the city (I consider this a lower limit). That works out to 246.528 L of gas. Assuming aprox 1 $ / L, that works out to a total cost of 1846.53 $ or about 0.80 $ / km.
Again, to put that into a daily amount, that works out to something like 0 vs 2.09 vs 5.76 $ / day for bike vs bus vs car. The one that I find helps me the most? Biking of course. ;-)
I was surprised that the km came out to 2304 km. With those numbers, I wouldn't be surprised if the actual km that I put on / season was in the 2500 - 3000 range. 2300 km is like biking from Ottawa, ON to Brandon, MB.
According to google maps, a route that's close to what I take to work is 7.7 km. Let's assume that it's closer to 7.2 km each way. Aprox 20 working days in a month, times 8 months of possible biking a year, that works out to 2304 km. Actual costs would be almost zero (let's not count extra food I eat during biking season nor when I take the bus when it rains).
Using the bus actually takes longer even though I'm 10 minutes walk from a major downtown hub. Monthly bus pass is $84.75, times 8 months is 678 $. That works out to aprox 0.29 $ / km.
For a car, let's assume that I could get parking for 10 $ / day. That works out to 1600 $ in parking. Our car's fuel economy is listed at 10.7 L / 100 km in the city (I consider this a lower limit). That works out to 246.528 L of gas. Assuming aprox 1 $ / L, that works out to a total cost of 1846.53 $ or about 0.80 $ / km.
Again, to put that into a daily amount, that works out to something like 0 vs 2.09 vs 5.76 $ / day for bike vs bus vs car. The one that I find helps me the most? Biking of course. ;-)
I was surprised that the km came out to 2304 km. With those numbers, I wouldn't be surprised if the actual km that I put on / season was in the 2500 - 3000 range. 2300 km is like biking from Ottawa, ON to Brandon, MB.
Friday, 7 August 2009
A regular day in Gatineau Park
Today we took my sister zip lining at camp fortune which was awesome, if a long activity. Then we headed over to OíBrien beach on Meech Lake. It's kind of a small beach that's close to the road. Nothing out of the ordinary happened until the bear showed up.
A small black bear tried to get into the animal proof garbage cans. It was the closest that I have been to a bear while not being in a car / house before (let's say 40'). The life guard made a phone call and a guy in a fluorescent vest showed up. He put on some ear protection and used something that looked like a spray can on the bear. It didn't enjoy that much and took off. This was only after the bear discovered that it didn't have to get into the garbage cans to get to food - some was on tables with people just milling about it.
Since my mom was quite concerned about us taking VR zip lining we made sure that she called home with a message along the lines of "we're safe and well and the bear didn't eat our lunch". You know, 'cause it's never too late to mess with your mom's head. ;-)
A small black bear tried to get into the animal proof garbage cans. It was the closest that I have been to a bear while not being in a car / house before (let's say 40'). The life guard made a phone call and a guy in a fluorescent vest showed up. He put on some ear protection and used something that looked like a spray can on the bear. It didn't enjoy that much and took off. This was only after the bear discovered that it didn't have to get into the garbage cans to get to food - some was on tables with people just milling about it.
Since my mom was quite concerned about us taking VR zip lining we made sure that she called home with a message along the lines of "we're safe and well and the bear didn't eat our lunch". You know, 'cause it's never too late to mess with your mom's head. ;-)
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Indistinguishable from magic
I love Clarke's laws, especially the 3rd:
Until today I never really thought of that it would seem so literal until I saw some new interface prototypes (via /.). Particularly the "3D Teleconferencing" which looked straight out of Harry Potter.
Next time I re-read Harry Potter, I'll try and imagine it as a sci-fi story filled with fantastic devices and genetically engineered creatures rather than magical. Right now I can't picture where that analogous fails. Perhaps one day Muggle will mean "non-technological folk".
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Until today I never really thought of that it would seem so literal until I saw some new interface prototypes (via /.). Particularly the "3D Teleconferencing" which looked straight out of Harry Potter.
Next time I re-read Harry Potter, I'll try and imagine it as a sci-fi story filled with fantastic devices and genetically engineered creatures rather than magical. Right now I can't picture where that analogous fails. Perhaps one day Muggle will mean "non-technological folk".
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