Let's Make Some Art, Dammit

March 31, 2021. This is the end of the day looking out the front door and down the street. You can see what the weather was like today by looking at the road. Another day focused on coding and I can see the end of the conversion project in sight. https://flic.kr/p/2kJfP8r

March 30, 2021. The robins are avoiding the cluster of birds in our back yard so I photographed this one on a neighbour's lawn. Another indoor day today even though it was nice outside as I rest my strained muscle. I spent the day wrestling with a cluster of errors in my page publishing script (it's a wonder it was workinbg at all on my website). Working on it for the container version I kept hitting edge cases - cron that created files before they were published, scripts trying to publish non-existent authros, etc. I think I've caught the worst of it, and improved error handling to catch other edge cases. I also wrote a short blog post over lunch. https://flic.kr/p/2kGG8R4

March 29, 2021. Julia sits on the rack by the back sliding doors watching the assortment of birds on the gazebo. Though it cleared later in the day it was still cold, and I stayed indoors and remained relatively pain-free all day (for which I am truly grateful). Aside from a planning meeting, it was mostly paperwork and coding today, focused on tracking down a permissions problem in print_page(). https://flic.kr/p/2kGumRb

March 27, 2021. This is a fenceline at RRR Ranch on the 700 at Burelle Road. It looks a lot better on Google Maps; time has not been kind to it. Things are still pretty brown, and as I discovered on my bike ride, still pretty muddy. Still, I put in 30 km on what was a cold 4 degree day. I also made some pushbuttons on my application. Listened to the Jays lose. And finished the Barack Obama audiobook. https://flic.kr/p/2kPstXg

March 26, 2021. This is looking at a nearby railway crossing using full zoom from our front door. The photo flatters the weather. That was as close as I got to going outside today on a cold rainy day. It wasn't a bad day; I felt like I made good progress. Tomorrow, though, looks like a good day for a bike ride. https://flic.kr/p/2kHbdMM

March 25, 2021. This is the tiny village of St-Albert, as viewed from across the South Nation River (which is currently packed with tens of thousands of very loud geese). Since I had a late meeting this afternoon, I took a short 25 km bike ride early this afternoon. Otherwise, it was a slow work day with meetings and catch-up work, and fixing the bug in my newsletter. https://flic.kr/p/2kP55Y2

March 24, 2021. I went for a short walk in the rain today and took a photo of these dripping leaves left over from last year. Not a bad day today, but not a great day, as I bounce back and forth between painkillers and productivity. The result was a system that accidentally sent out yesterday's newsletter and an inability to think about fixing it until tomorrow. Still, I'm happy overall with the way the work is going, though it's slow. https://flic.kr/p/2kNR9Ld

Bonus daily photo for March 23, 2021 https://flic.kr/p/2kGx4Wz

March 23, 2021. Our local blue jay paid us a visit today; here it is with a beak full of seeds from the feeder. We had an an abundance of different birds in the back yard today: woodpeckers, cardinals, grackles, sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, and more. Today was also a really nice day for biking, but unfortunately pain kept me indoors (I'm pretty sure it's just a muscle strain, as there are no other symptoms at all). Still, I managed to make pretty good progress on gRSShopper, which is looking better than it ever has. https://flic.kr/p/2kGwYv9

March 22, 2021. This is farmland just outside St-Albert shedding its winter blanket in rivers of meltwater. Spotted on a 24 km bike ride there and back late this afternoon on an absolutely gorgeous day, 17 degrees and sunny. I also attended a meeting, looked at R a bit, did some proposal evaluating, and coding. Not a bad day overall. https://flic.kr/p/2kNjugK

March 21, 2021. To be precise, these are maple seeds from a tree in front of Gloucester High School in Ottawa. We were in the city to do an emergency prescription refill. I went for a walk, as per usual, and as I was passing by the school someone asked me if I wanted a rapid Covid test. I thought, "why not?" and got one. Result: I'm Covid free. I also took a nap and did some coding on a generally unproductive day. https://flic.kr/p/2kN5sfM

March 20, 2021. I passed by this trailer loaded with wood on a bike ride this afternoon, 22 km riding on the dirt shoulder on the gravel bike. What people do is cut wood during the winder, so you can see similar stacks all over in the spring. I also played with some coding, making for an overall relaxing if non completely pain-free day. https://flic.kr/p/2kMJ9ki

March 19, 2021. Charlemagne is pictured mid-yawn while sleeping on the bed, head resting on the pillow, just like he sees us do it. Not really a good day as I'm still dealing with groin pain. I had a meeting and then struggled for the rest of the day to do anything productive. https://flic.kr/p/2kMFMPP

March 18, 2021. This is in Appleford Park in Ottawa, near the Costco, where I went for a nice spring walk. Today included a trip to the dentist and a meeting along with the usual newsletter stuff and some background reading. https://flic.kr/p/2kMavHp

March 17, 2021. This is another photo the frozen Nation River, but from a different location, this time downstream from town and below the falls (you can see some open water to the right from the falls). It was my second day out on the bicycle, an 11 km jaunt, on an even warmer day. But I'm 100% sniffles and sneezes today, probably because of all the spring dust in the air. I had a couple of meetings, got caught up on my publications, and worked through the file upload issues - it works, but there's still some cleaning up to do (the Jquery Blueimp file upload plugin is probably the most complex piece of tech I've worked with). https://flic.kr/p/2kLQ71z

March 16, 2021. Today was the first day out on the bicycle for 2021 and I rode down to the river near the highway to get a photo of its still-frozen surface. With warm days the rest of the week the ice won't last long. Today I had a couple of meetings and made more progress on the file uploads. https://flic.kr/p/2kLCTHQ

March 15, 2021. I was able to go walking again today and crossed a ditch 9getting a soaker in the process) to get this photo of the woods along Du Boise Street. A good part of my day was spent working on file upload, which works great on my website but was broken (so I discovered) by my new secure sessions system. https://flic.kr/p/2kLmZiz

March 14, 2021. It was another indoor day partially because of the weather and partially because of my health. So we get a cat picture taken with my phone. Nothing accomplished today, though I did get my bicycles given their spring tune-ups first thing in the morning. https://flic.kr/p/2kLjgiF

March 13, 2021. This is the Casselman railway station as seen from the other side of the tracks (and behind a fence, so you can't simply cross over). Not too cold today, perfect for a longer walk than usual. Other than driving to the pharmacy in the city and walking, I didn';t do much today except rest on painkillers. https://flic.kr/p/2kKDkoj

March 12, 2021. We're not out of winter yet, as this unusually fierce overnight snow squall demonstrated. I didn't get out today - I'm being bothered by some sort of pain that might be a muscle pull, kidney stone, or who knows what else? It's very distracting and it makes it hard to work. https://flic.kr/p/2kKDV94

This is a bonus photo of the day because I like how it came out. It's a photo looking back at Doran park taken on my daily walk. It wasn't quite this dark, but it does capture the way the sky looked. https://flic.kr/p/2kK8ydS

March 11, 2021. The doves have returned from their migration, stopping to feed at their usual spot before settling in. I took this photo through the window; hence the reflection of the glass. Today was another day spent fine-tuning the look and feel, and each day the progress is faster and faster. https://flic.kr/p/2kK8wkD

March 10, 2021. I did a quick loop around Cardinal Heights, the neighbourhood just north of the Costco in Ottawa, and took this HDR image of a particularly interesting cedar. Otherwise, my sole focus was still on CSS and Javascript, but I cracked some key puzzles and made good progress. https://flic.kr/p/2kJLy7n

March 9, 2021. I've been playimng with HDR photos the last few days so I tried this one in low light in my office of a Jeff Bannister bobblehead. I got it a number of years when I watched a ball game in Arlington, Texas. I did exactly two things today: a morning meeting, then a day of struggles with blocks and web application CSS styling. I actually learned quite a bit about modern CSS in the process, so it wasn't a wasted effort, but everything takes so long. https://flic.kr/p/2kJLppn

March 8, 2020. The cold weather is in retreat and it was almost nice out for my walk today, though there's still enough snow on the ground to surround this fire hydrant (it's old multi-layered paint job appeals to me). I woke up early in order to be ready for my presentation this morning, then spent time getting files uploaded for the presentation pages, working in the newsletter, and cleaning up my harvester interface (still a work in progress). https://flic.kr/p/2kJd4xT

March 7, 2021. This is me and my companion animal in No Man's Sky. I'll leave it to you to figure out which one is which. I was able to enjoy it for an hour or so this evening. Otherwise, I spent the entire day preparing for my talk tomorrow. That is all. https://flic.kr/p/2kHXQU3

March 6, 2021. This is Casselman's water tower taken from a parking lot along Principale, from a longer-than-usual walk today. I played a bit with HDR, shooting bracketed photos with the camera and merging them in Lightroom. I otherwise spent the entire day preparing slides and websites for my presentation early Monday morning. https://flic.kr/p/2kHzAtE

March 5, 2021. These were called super-mailboxes when they were first installed, but nobody really liked them, and I don't think they're called super-anything any more. As you can see from the photo, it was another bright brisk day with a stiff cold wind. Good day today working on my presentation for Monday and fixing up the gRSShopper harvester. https://flic.kr/p/2kHihCM

March 4, 2021. There was a time when Ottawa was well-known for its chip wagons. These wagons (trailers, really) dispensed greasy thick-cut well-salted french fries that were to die for. We're past that now, but there's still a good representation of semi-mobile eateries, including this (currently closed) site at the Canadian Tire on Ogilvie Road, spotted during my walk. Good day today: the heat stayed on, I got some work done (getting a head start on my presentation next Monday) and I just finished watching a really good talk by NRC's Patrick Littell on automated translation and indigenous languages. https://flic.kr/p/2kH2ib2

March 3, 2021. This is Charlemagne resting in a nook just behind my chair in the kitchen. It's a place where he can be secure but close to where things are happening. Today was day 2 of the furnace issues, but I think we have them sorted out. Otherwise, I made some good progress with the gRSShopper API. I know it may feel like a lot of work to spend on something that will never be a product, but I can't think of any better way but to use this script to show how to set up a decentralized personal learning network. https://flic.kr/p/2kH5fTe

March 2, 2021. It's a cat photo, so you know my day was disrupted. The goblins of technology attacked us today, making it a bit stressful. When I woke up it was cold and the furnace wasn't running. We also had issues with the wifi. The scale started reporting my weight in British stones. My dental appointment was rescheduled. The toilet clogged. Andrea's computer acted up. And there were numerous small things - I'd click on one link and another would show up, Andrea would select a TV channel and get something different. I know it's all coincidence but it's funny how things go in waves sometimes. Ah, but I still wrote a blog post and was moderately productive. https://flic.kr/p/2kGD44d

March 1, 2021. I spotted this very large and healthy woodpecker along the Nation River on my daily walk. Today was a good day: I started by giving back-to-back presentations to different groups, both of which went well, then I successfully ran a gRSShopper image. https://flic.kr/p/2kGfpUq