Let's Make Some Art, Dammit

January 30, 2016. Aside from a trip into the city for weekly supplies, I spend the day working on my project. I'm happy to report that the first bit is done: I can now post from gRSShopper to Facebook. Sure, it's easy just to write some script that will write a post - I did that a couple of weeks ago. But this is integrated right into gRSShopper. Now I'm on to part 2 of the project. Was so engrossed I didn't stop thinking about it until late this evening, when I thought to photograph the ceiling fan in the bedroom. Accomplishments: - gRSShopper writes posts to Facebook From Flickr http://ift.tt/1nxAySl

January 29, 2016. I had a meeting in M-2 today after our review meeting. Good stuff all around. I messed around with GitHub some, managed to upload some code (part of my project, which is ongoing). From Flickr http://ift.tt/1nxAySf

January 28, 2015. Snow today. Just another day in the office. No accomplishments, because I'm working on a project. From Flickr http://ift.tt/1SS5r13

January 27 , 2016. Got a fair number of odds and ends done today, but my most important work was probably this photo of a potato. After all, if Kevin Abosch can sell his photo of a potato for $1.5 million, I should be able to get a half mil for mine, right? Accomplishments: - background study on open education frameworks From Flickr http://ift.tt/1QEB4tv

January 26, 2016. It was not a great day for driving, with wet snow in the morning and drizzle fading to freezing rain in the evening, but I made my way to Boucherville and back for meetings. The best bit was the sky, which on the way home was a slowly-changing impressionist's dream. Beautiful. This is a shot from just south of Boucherville on the highway, at a dead stop (because it's Montreal traffic) on the way home. Accomplishments: - wrote a shortish critique of learning design From Flickr http://ift.tt/203ilxz

January 25, 2015. I saw this through the front windshield of the car parked next to me at the office. I can't help but think it's a distraction. Accomplishments: - wrote draft list of features for a product for a potential development partner - submitted draft text for a book chapter - submitted list of conference priorities and objectives for the next fiscal year - fixed the feed title problem in gRSShopper JSON harvesting - fixed the longstanding CDATA problem in gRSShopper harvesting - synchronized the two versions of gRSShopper currently in production, in preparation for an upload to GitHub From Flickr http://ift.tt/1S7q0qs

January 24, 2015. It was errand day today. Pictured is an orchid in the Decorator's Choice paint store near Innes Road, where we bought drop cloths to use as curtains. We also went to Shopper's, Costco, Home Depot, and the Home Warehouse. Accomplishments: - Got all the bills paid From Flickr http://ift.tt/23poiUK

January 24, 2015. It was errand day today. Pictured is an orchid in the Decorator's Choice paint store near Innes Road, where we bought drop cloths to use as curtains. We also went to Shopper's, Costco, Home Depot, and the Home Warehouse. Accomplishments: - Got all the bills paid From Flickr http://ift.tt/23poiUK

January 23, 2015. You're looking at the most productive part of my day. I did nothing today except play Civ. I'd feel guilty except I needed a break. From Flickr http://ift.tt/1Pec0Zl

January 23, 2015. You're looking at the most productive part of my day. I did nothing today except play Civ. I'd feel guilty except I needed a break. From Flickr http://ift.tt/1Pec0Zl

January 22, 2016. Some time in the spring of 1991 or so I stopped at the St. Albert Mall on my way back from teaching in Slave Lake and bought these paper butterflies. They have been on my fridge doors ever since. The paper is fragile and the butterflies look every bit 25 years old. But I like them. Today was a quiet day, a couple of meetings, and some getting odds and ends done. Accomplishments: - sent the last of the project change approvals - sent thank you notes to all the OLDaily donors - Wrote What I Learned Using Paypal (and accidentally published the whole article in the newsletter - the harvester still isn't working quite right). From Flickr http://ift.tt/1WFIrBh

January 21, 2015. I got lots of sleep last night, was able to exercise on the trainer this morning, and was focused on presenting our six-month review today. Seeing the sunshine and blue light through the kitchen window his moring filled me with energy. It went well, and I finished the day putterinbg on tasks I've put aside while doing reports. Accomplishments: six-month review. From Flickr http://ift.tt/1PlTYGj

January 20, 2015. Almost home, waiting for the train to cross the street in the centre of Casselman. Tired. Long day, and even a short trip can wear you out. Accomplishments: - submitted slides for the program 6-month review. From Flickr http://ift.tt/1lx9x01

January 19, 2016. Waiting to be seated for breakfast at Marverick's in the Four Points hotel in Moncton, where I was staying (as the house is being renovated). Flew back home to Ottawa in the evening. Meetings? Yes. Accomplishments: nil. It was a useful trip, but these trips are hard on the waistline (I gained 7 pounds) and slow the stream of reports and such expected from me by management. From Flickr http://ift.tt/1OFLUL1

January 18, 2015. I went to have a look at the state of renovations on the house, and while I was pleased at first, I was horrified to discover that the contractors had destroyed my oak tree. Yes, they will replace it, but it's not the same. Accomplishments: plan for the next sprint agreed on. From Flickr http://ift.tt/1ZB5VYj

January 17, 2015. Meetings in the morning, flight to Monbcton in the afternoon. Accomplishments: nil. This is a pop-up safety cone in the Ottawa airport. I had to stop and think about it - was it like an umbrella? No - it is one of those cones they put on the floor to mark a wet floor. From Flickr http://ift.tt/1ZB5VYg

January 16, 2015. Andrea and I went snowshoeing in Calabogie with Mike and Sylvie today - it's the first time I've seen Mike in decades, but we knew each other quite well when I was younger and working at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa. Our fathers worked together at Bell. The weather was perfect, it was my first time on snowshoes in 20 years or more, and though I had to use my phone, I still got a nice set of photos. A great time was had by all! From Flickr http://ift.tt/1J9FMh9

January 15, 2016. Andrea made nice comfort-food cookies today. Delicious! Accomplishments for Today: - 6.4 km on the trainer today (8 out of the last 10 workdays started with a morning spin) - created a list of LPSS reports and publications (and have them collected too) - created list of technologies in different market spaces that LPSS works in - submitted LPSS Waterfall revenue report for January From Flickr http://ift.tt/1RqUoeG

January 14, 2015. The snow was heavy enough this morning that traffic came to a dead stop on the 417, allowing me to snap this photo of south Ottawa. Accomplishments for today: - approved changes to a number of projects, five in all - Submitted B152 Program Support December report From Flickr http://ift.tt/1J7QGUM

January 13, 2015. I loved the way the morning sun shone into my office; unfortunately this photo doesn't do it justice. I made today a work-at home day, and got quite a lot done. Accomplishments: - Sent out monthly program business review - Wrote 'The Banality of Death' - Got odometer working for bicycle trainer (has to be on rear tire) - Successfully made gRSShopper work with Facebook Graph From Flickr http://ift.tt/1JPPju3

January 12, 2016. The coming snowfall hung like a shroud in the air, a finger-freezing cold high in humidity and still. The snow did come, I left work early to avoid the chaos, and I'll work from home tomorrow. That's a tree on the NRC campus, and the CSIS building in the background. Accomplishments - prepared some slides describing a reorganization of the program's core projects. Yeah. I was a bit of a slacker today. I admit it. From Flickr http://ift.tt/1ZrQ0Rr

January 11, 2015. A bright blue sky, cold cold weather, and birds etched against the sunset as I stop in a Costco on the way home. Accomplishments: - Submitted the final version of the quarterly report. About 15-20 minutes effort to finish this off. But through the rest of the day I had four meetings, a Costco run, and of course the usual newsletter and such. From Flickr http://ift.tt/1ZrPXVI

January 10, 2016. We had the first blackout of note in our Casselman home. It was new - in Moncton, we never had blackouts, because we were a block from the hospital. But rural Ontario is a different story - wind and freezing rain can create problems. Accomplishments today: harvesting and parsing DOAJ journal recordings from their JSON API for use in gRSShopper. This took me about 10 hours of solid coding, stopped only by the blackout. In the end I have a nice elegant solution in about 140 lines of code. Still some tweaks, but I'm very pleased with the overall result, which should be generalizable to other JSON feeds. From Flickr http://ift.tt/1nhbqiP

January 9, 2016. Ottawa is a beautiful city, but parts of it can be dreary, especially in winter. One such part is this shopping mall on Olgivie. The mall is mostly boarded up, but there's a liquor store and a Shooper's Drug Mart which attract a fair bit of traffic. The parking lot is an abandoned construction zone. It's near where i work, so we were going to use it as our primary pharmacy, but we've had nothing but problems with our prescriptions. This stretch of handicapped parking typifies the overall attitude of the place. So we will probably change locations. Accomplishments: nothing in particular. From Flickr http://ift.tt/1nh7Pl1

January 7, 2016. It's dark these days when I get home to Casselman, and more so today as I was late getting out of the office. But it allows me to appreciate the gentle lighting of Paroisse Ste-Euphémie, the signature church in the centre of town. Accomplishments today: - updated by ORCID profile and added publications That doesn't seem like much, but I only list as accomplishments the things I finished. It was actually a pretty productive day but I still have a bunch of half-done things on my desk. From Flickr http://ift.tt/1ITGW08

January 6, 2015. This is the new shower curtain I bought yesterday. It's for the downstairs shower, which is what I use after riding the trainer. Third day in a row on that, which is good. I haven't seen the fitness and weight benefits yet - that will take time - but there is an immediate payoff in improved mood. Accomplishments today: - sent out draft text for the quarterly report for comments - HuffDuffer now being used to add video soundtracks to ed Radio podcast, which I listen to on the morning drive From Flickr http://ift.tt/1Oc52Qr

January 5, 2015. Very cold and crystal clear this morning as an ice fog shrouded the city and coated the trees with hoarfrost. I had a quiet day spent digging into the technology for a bit. Accomplishments today: - installed Python on my desktop, set up Bottle, learned it, and wrote a simple 'task list' web application - got my new glasses From Flickr http://ift.tt/1OLPzpM

January 4, 2015. First day back in the office after the break and it was a productive day (albeit one with four hours of meetings). This is the scene from the parking lot as I headed home in the evening. Accomplishments for today: - used the trainer this a.m. - first draft of text for the LPSS quarterly report written and distributed for feedback - OLDaily donation page added to newsletter From Flickr http://ift.tt/1TAUFt5

January 3, 2016. Worked on using Facebook Graph with my Perl script, but this did not go well at all. I also spent some time setting up the room in the basement, and sorting photographs. Accomplishments for today: - set up the trainer in the basement From Flickr http://ift.tt/1OtS5VK

January 2, 2016. I planned to get a bunch of stuff set up downstairs. Instead I spent the day puttering online. Also, I had intended to list daily accomplishments, but completely forgot. But hey, no time like the present, and these daily posts are a good place to list them. Accomplishments Today: - My downes.ca stats engine is working again - http://ift.tt/1mxFYMD From Flickr http://ift.tt/1RXX1EF

January 1, 2016. The first day of the year, the first New Year in our new house. This is the front lawn of the house, and I've only just now noticed that we have yet another spruce tree on our lawn, just like in Moncton. Makes me feel happy. From Flickr http://ift.tt/1PBXf30

December 31, 2015. We went from store to store in search of 4mm machine bolts (for the televsion stand) and finally found one here, at the Lowe's in Orleans. I toopk the opportunity to take a Kubrik-esque photo of the lighting aisle. From Flickr http://ift.tt/1UkEHUf

December 30, 2015. The cats' characters have all changed a bit since we moved and since we lost Bart. Polly has become less active, more skittish. But she also lives on this stool or the counter just behind it, always within a couple feet of Andrea. From Flickr http://ift.tt/1mV89pl

December 31, 2015. We went from store to store in search of 4mm machine bolts (for the televsion stand) and finally found one here, at the Lowe's in Orleans. I toopk the opportunity to take a Kubrik-esque photo of the lighting aisle. From Flickr http://ift.tt/1UkEHUf

December 30, 2015. The cats' characters have all changed a bit since we moved and since we lost Bart. Polly has become less active, more skittish. But she also lives on this stool or the counter just behind it, always within a couple feet of Andrea. From Flickr http://ift.tt/1mV89pl