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- links for 2009-01-07Today
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- Picasa for Mac - Not Ready for Prime TimeJanuary 5
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It took a couple of hours, but I was finally able to download Picasa. A review is forthcoming, but early impressions aren’t great.
Wired reported that Picasa, Google’s image editor, was available for the Mac OS. I like iPhoto, but I find iPhoto ‘08 runs a bit slow on my MacBook, so I was eager to try out this alternative.
I went to the URL posted in the article, only to be greeted with this:
Whoops.
- Snowblind - the Great Vancouver Snowstorm of ‘08-’09January 5
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Snow has been falling for the better part of three weeks. I’ve felt housebound for most of that time, thanks to unsteady knees and a fear of falling. I rarely move from this chair on any day that isn’t a work day, and even then it takes a battle of wills to make it into the office.
Today I reached the breaking point. Snowflakes, drifts, and icy conditions be damned, I decided to go out for a walk, not once, but twice on Sunday.
Slip, slide, stomp, stomp, stomp. SNAP. I’m out and about with my camera. I stare upward to watch as the flakes keep falling. I stare ahead at the mountains of weeks-, days- and hours-old snow drifts expand, contract, and expand with each passing day.
It isn’t as cold as it was when the snow started falling three weeks ago, but I don’t think the thermostat has moved above freezing for very long, or for very many days in a row. The stuff on the ground is obstinate, used, grouchy snow, while the fresh stuff is as sticky as velcro, or as wet as a spring rain shower. Sometimes it even falls as sleet.
- Polling the Audience: Photos on this BlogJanuary 5
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After moving to a private server, Dreamhost has informed me that I’m using more resources than before (what?), and as such my hosting bills have increased. The biggest culprit seems to be WordPress’ built-in Gallery feature, along with the Lightbox-style image displays I’ve been using to share larger copies of my photos.
I’ve been experimenting with using a combination of WP Gallery, the NextGen Gallery plug-in, and hosting photos on Flickr to see which would be the least drain on my server’s resources, and Flickr is the winner, hands down. The problem is that if I use Flickr to embed images in my posts, you can’t see the full-size versions unless (1), you click through to Flickr and (2), if you’re one of my Flickr contacts.
So I’m asking your opinion: do you like it when I use lightbox to display my photos on this site? Is the Flickr embed good enough? Do you care whether I post my photos here?
Please leave your answer in the comments. Thanks!
- My Year in Movies (2008)January 3
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Have you noticed that your taste in movies has changed as you’ve gotten older? What about your willingness to drop $12.00 (the average ticket price here in Vancouver) on a film that you’re not sure you’ll like?
What follows is a list of movies I saw in 2008. Those I enjoyed most appear in bold. It was quite a year for superheroes, if my list is any indication. I’ve also noticed that I’m far more likely to go see a “popcorn pusher” in a theatre, but I usually rent smaller films on video.
In order of release date:
- How She Move
- Leatherheads
- Baby Mama
- Iron Man
- Get Smart
- Wall-E
- The Dark Knight
- Pineapple Express
- Tropic Thunder
- Ghost Town
- Nick + Norah’s Infinite Playlist
- Religulous
- Zack and Miri Make a Porno
- Slumdog Millionaire - my pick of Best Film of 2008
- Quantum of Solace
- Milk
- Doubt
Are you surprised that Milk didn’t make my list of favorites for the year? While it wasn’t one of my favorites, it has stuck with me for weeks now, primarily because I can’t quite put my finger on why I was so dissatisfied with it in the first place. It may have something to do with the overt sexuality of the film. More correctly, I think it has to do with the fact that Hollywood wasn’t able to make a movie about a Gay historical figure without making Gay sex such a large part o
