Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Digital Elevation Model

I'm trying to come up with some neat graphics and figure out what this program can do. So far, nothing simple.

JP Posted by Picasa

Landuse

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Precipitation


Ah my… has it been a day or what. I’ve been compiling climate data 1 year at a time for 61 years (well, actually it took me about 2 hours – to get all 61 years together, and cleaned up and sorted out). So much for my plans of success and draft completion – ha… so much for my night of sleep.

I did take about 2 hours off to visit my sister n laws for halloweening – she did some pretty cool pumpkins – see Air In’s and/or Geoffs links on the side. It was weird. I remember leaving and covering as much subdivision as was physically possible before people blew out there pumpkins. No stunning costumes – I mostly saw young teens in black clothes by the time I drove home. I really like Halloween, hopefully next year I can do something exciting, rather than feel guilty about homework… and on that note…

Here I go back to work.

Jenn

Monday, October 30, 2006

I don't know what is going on

just in case I pressed discard Posted by Picasa

Missing Pics

Here is the missing pictures and a few more for the road in a Picasa photogrid.

Blogger seems to be happy again - You'll note the link to isaac and blewett under musicians.

I'm working on my watershed design report, but I was so excited to hear blogger was briefly working again, I thought I should rush and post.

Cheers,

Jennith Posted by Picasa

Twas the night before Halloween

Greetings,

This is still really me testing to see if blogger has got its act together. This picture is a repost from yesterday.

Today is a reading like crazy day. I'm not sure I'm actually doing anything for Halloween - except homework. I have a huge project due Thursday.

Its actually a beautiful day out... sunny and clear. Although I'm still feeling groggy from last night sleeping in BaseOp. I'm a bit spoiled at home to have a decent bed, although it might be the rookie is my radio going off jitters too. I remember back at LU I slept my first night with my jacket, radio, keys, glasses and shoes on. Truth is that I continued sleeping with shoes and keels on for the first few years...and then I broke down and took off my shoes (and they were hiking boots in fact) because they made my feet fall asleep which woke me up. Guelph is a big and confusing campus compared to LU. Not living here doesn't help either. I'd probably know residence better if I lived here and would spend more time just wandering around.

Anywho... must read... hopefully blogger will recover soon and I'll ahve time to write something usefull and interesting - like the mini essays I planned originally.

Cheers,

Jennith Posted by Picasa

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Bloggity blog blog blog

Spurgitz.

Still no blog entries on scene. Sometimes coming from the direct source also helps. I'm almost done another chunk of the project. although I'm huddled in my office with a hat and fleece on... I should try and figure out the heating system one day.

alright.. last try

Jenn

Snow on the last green
Tamarack turn brilliant gold
Windy Strange weather

Taking the back roads
Past fields and neat homes, tucked in woods -
Scenic route worth time

Winding roads teach much -
Lessons of true distance that
Travelled, increases view
tra

Blogger's Eating blogs

Umm... I"m mostly throwing this in because blogger hasn't picked up my lastest writings from picassa and sometimes the best way to get them through is to blog another one for the road and it pushes them through.. kinda like when you get something stuck in the vending machine....

cheers,

Jennith Posted by Picasa
Here is a stormwater management greenway visited on a recent class trip Posted by Picasa

Here is the dam from the other side

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Taking the back roads

"Taking the back roads" is the theme for my life lately. I guess that could be interpreted as taking the slower, scenic route. This applies on a grand scale to my long and convuluted education, but on a smaller scale to my recent short trips and general driving preferences. I actually consider it a real treat to be able to drive on the backroads, rather than the faster highway - when possible.

Today, I decided was too pretty to save myself 15 minutes by taking the 401 - so I took a slew of random sideroads, lines and avenues through the remaining rural bits of Ontario. It was nice - from sun to light snow, falling to fallen leaves and a few tamaracks turned yellow...

The picture.. has nothing to do with backroads.. its the speed river in downtown Guelph...taken from atop the dam.

All in all... I guess I'd better get back to work.. but I hope all of you take the time to "take the backroads" savouring the quieter parts of the countryside and enjoying the nooks and treats hidden in the best kept secretes nearby. Still, I seem to be too busy most of the time to actually live my life...this being a long term bad habit.

One day...

Jennith Posted by Picasa

Friday, October 27, 2006

Martha Hall Findley: Overlooked

While still fond of Bob Rae, I am extremely impressed with Martha Hall Findley's list of achieves and stance on the liberal party.

I've included a link to her webpage, where I would encourage you to read her essay on why she is running and her principals. I wish her luck.

The star also had an interesting article on her. The author was also clearly impressed.

I hope that leadership or not, she has the opportunity to play a leading role in the future of the liberal party. Cheers and good luck Martha.

Jennith Posted by Picasa

Thursday, October 26, 2006

And Colin said "Your ice was frozen."

Well, it sounds dumb out of context, but imagine 3 big guys all in suits and a girl in nice clothes...all in black - walk into your gas station store and start doing battle with your freezer. They then turn around and leave, purchasing nothing... Well, I supose if they could have removed the product from the freezer, it might have worked out better. Apparently, the woman looked at them upon leaving and my brother simply explained that her "ice was frozen".

Uncle Stevie funeral was well done - I think between the wonderful funeral conductor (I'm not sure her actual title) and the speeches of those who loved him, they managed to capture the essance of what made him special and send him off the the beyond with our love and best wishes. I met relatives that I never knew I had - and who I hope I may run into again - a neat group of people all round. I'm not sure that it'll hit me until the next family dinner that he is really gone...perhaps his spirit never will be - perhaps he'll come back and haunt our family dinners once and a while - surely he will in our hearts if not in spirit.

I think I realized today the importance of people in society to carry these events and help the living make sense of their grief and their joy (i.e. weddings) and responsibility to be a good person on earth. If only major religions could focus on making the world a kinder place - rather than carrying on about inane things like creationism (Even if God did follow genesis to the letter - I really don't think any deity worth worshipping is going to get their knickers in their knot about a bit of factual misdirection on ancient history - I suspect that they'd rather see people work on taking care of their own communities (rather than killing people because they have a different point of view/different community) and be good folk in genreal. Sigh, they've done a good thing to get religion out of politics in the West - but the world would benifit if they could get the politics out of religion. One thing I didn't know about Uncle Stevie was how much he thought about spirituality - he even wrote a cryptic and esoteric book on it. I've thought about it less lately - as items like Watershed Systems design have been hogging my attention a bit - but one day hopefully I'll have time to think about non school-stuff again.

Cheers,

Jennith Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Farewell Uncle Stevie

Digging through old Christmas pictures to find this one, I'm afraid it isn't the best, but, its okay.

Uncle Stevie passed away quietly on Saturday night, it'll be strange this Christmas without him, since I don't think either of us have missed my mother's turkey in 30 years... well, 29 anyways (I don't remember the first few that clearly.

Uncle Stevie was our great explorer uncle - sending postcards from crazy places like Ecuador, India and the Galapagos. He had an environmental streak -purchasing us each an acre of rainforest one christmas in the 1980's and always encouraging us to read nature magazines and scientific books.

He was awesome about sending mail - although deciphering his tiny handwriting was only slightly less challanging that reading Grandma's. I have stacks of letters and clippings that he's sent me over the years.

He had good stories. One of my best memories was an afternoon spent in a park in Toronto - listening to him tell me about his war stories. I also remember the excitement of looking at his photos whenever he came back from one of his trips.

I appreciate his many years of encouraging me as a poet, musician and artist. He was undeniably biased, but I kept writing all these years, and I'm not sure I wouldn't have completely given it up without that.

He will be missed - its too bad that I've so recently made it back to Ontario. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to take him out to lunch. There will be times, when his absense at the dinner table will be felt, when his goofy jokes will be missed, and we'll wonder what stories were lost forever with his passing - I hope they have good libraries and plays where he's gone, and an in tune piano. I thank him for all the moments of kindness, generousity and encouragement he added to my life. I wish him smooth sailing on his next travel to excotic places, and hope he knows that all of us will remember him fondly for the rest of our lives and tell stories about him to our children (if and when we ever have any). Farewell Uncle Stevie.

Love Jennith Posted by Picasa

The storm overflow inlet from "afar"

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Smart city... I've been duly impressed by Guelphs Storm water management inovations. This inlet is on the side of a wide swale to capture overfull, in the event of a significant storm. The swale has natural, unmowed vegetation (to slow the water down and capture sediments) and blocks at medium intervales to store water if necessary.

Yeah Guelph Posted by Picasa

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Marching on Rememberance Day

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View from Frogmore

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Pretty little lake

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A Haunting Fall of Autumn Rain

Well, I've never seen it rain this many days in a row. It isn't pouring, just a steady drizzle... I took the dog for a nice walk in it... did some thinking - wrote a few haiku poems on the way.

Fire-feathered limbs
Reflected in rainwater
Sombre October

Leaf stained concrete holds
Permanent shadows of life
Tracing to winter

Oak leaves tinted gold
Red-edged leather shivering
Lapped by wet wind's tounge

Fading summer greens
Pass to brassy shades, falling
Discarded merry robes

Stark naked trees dressed
Only in ridged bark husks that
Wait for solar energy

Okay.. enough morbid autumn poems

Jennith Posted by Picasa

Friday, October 20, 2006

Sugarbush House

Sigh... where did Autumn go.. the bright sunny part - today was dim and dreary - okay the last week was dim and dreary. Although the sunset on the way home was amazing.. the tones were subtle and crazy and just plain awesome.

Couldn't get a picture while driving... esp. with my camera far away... bedtime for me.

Night,

Jennith Posted by Picasa

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Way too horky

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My Grandparents

Rocks, bricks, words, voices
A pair of aces unafraid of ice
Yet like warm ocean

Knowledge and wisdom -
Balanced with eye twinkling fun
And fine chicken soup

Know best way to build
Sandcastles, mines and stories
The gift of Grandfolk Posted by Picasa

Shallow Tea-Hued Pool

I've been gathering a collection of the Haiku I've been posting on this site, so I can print it off for my Uncle Stevie - who always appreciated my poetry more than anyone else.

I cheated on this one, but I just liked it with the extra syllable in the last line... it flowed well

Silent leaf falling -
Spiralling slow descent ends
In shallow, tea-hued pool

Jennith Posted by Picasa

Rickety Bridge in the Hanlon Watershed

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Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Happy Birthday Erin

I seem to find myself stuck at school with neither phone nor photo - however, I still want to wish Erin a happy birthday and a measure of my appreciation and admiration for her many accomplishments.

I'm not sure who I'd be if I hadn't grown up in your circle of influence, however, it most certainly would not have been as interesting a result. We found refuge in our similiar forms of spazziness and in the unique ability of close friends to read minds, finish sentences and understand all of the information effortlessly. At least relatively speaking.

When all is said and done, neither of us ended up quite where we expected (i.e. not in a classroom full of gifted children), but neither of us turned out bad somehow.

Congrats on all those years of being yourself and teaching me to think outside the frame of reference given to me.

I must off too sleep now,

bu I didn't want you thinking I'd forgotten... tee hee hee.. picture to be posted soon.

Jennith Posted by Picasa

Ah Highschool Students

I wanted to blog a random link to "Totally Tescellated". THere are a few simple tescilations in the back ground...

This is alex tasting th biggest heaviest fiddlehead in New Brunswick in front of the Saint John art gallery.

Look to the evening for exciting blog entry - maybe tomorrow. Today is my first EFRT shift.

Jennith Posted by Picasa