Another day ...

Long Weekend: Day 1

This begins the long weekend: Labour Day. This typically signals the end of another summer. Some shots from this first day:

Early tee-time at Spring Lakes Golf Club

Water by the third tee

Slide show

Ladies Golf 2008: Day 3

Our third and final day was spent at Whirlpool Golf Course. This is an older course, dating back to the 50's. Older courses tend to lack the detailing in landscaping and bunker design. This makes them a less picturesque or some might say less flamboyant. Whirlpool lands somewhere in between. Regardless, it is a fine course although it is situated in an area where there are a lot of helicopters. So much so that it became distracting.

Post for Day 2

Zoom, Bang, Gone

For the second time this year travel plans need to be rearranged at the last minute. In May we had to reroute our China tour out of Chengdu as result of the earthquake just days before our departure. Today, a week before our departure to Angleterre, Zoom has suspended all flights [1]. This may seem like bad news, but it is really good news as it is preferable that such events occur before we depart than after we arrive.

Ladies Golf 2008: Day 2

On the second day of our excursion we golfed at John Daly's Thundering Waters Course. The course design is not one that I would have expected from Daly. Rather than long, driving fairways, many are short and narrow. I heard similar comments from others who have played the course. Regardless, the issue is really a mismatch in expectations, the course itself was a lot of fun to play; a very enjoyable experience.

The course has 5 tee positions offering one for most golfers. This was good given the range of skills we had in our group; it meant everyone could enjoy an appropriate challenge.

After our game we enjoyed a fine dinner at Peller Estates

We were hosted in a private dinning room off the main area

The set tasting menu was supplemented with matching wines

Smoked salmon on melon

Strawberries with sherbet

There was an entrée but alas it was gone before I could get a shot of it :)

Post for Day 1
Post for Day 3

Sign of the times

"No Meat from Maple Leaf" is the sign posted on this restaurant's door.

The discovery of the Listeriosis bacteria in some meat products as a result of some yet-to-be-determined-number of deaths has sparked a number of recriminations, including lack of governance. Similar calls where heard as a result of the sub prime failure.

But are such accusations of poor governance are unfounded? Is the real issue who executes the governance: government through legislation and review or the public through their support of products in the market place? Those who are concerned about the role of government often recommend the latter mechanism.  Or is it a question of preventative measures vs. cure? Or is it that no system is perfect?

The cost of failure is high, 15 deaths so far and may be more [1]. It's probably best therefore to make sure that the governance process is as transparent as possible and lacks any scent of conflict of interest. Handing over more responsibility to the producers might not be consistent with such objectives. For a market-driven approach to governance should Hammurabi's code be enforced: for a death of a customer should not the company be put to the death? As we see from the sub prime, the opposite was the reality. 

6 weeks with my iPhone

I bought my iPhone 3G on July 11. Since then this has been my experience:

• 400 mb data transfer / month is more than sufficient for my needs. I'm using in the range of 30 mb per week. There are a couple of reasons for the low usage, prime among them is that I use the internet mostly at home where I have wireless access. An unlimited data plan would not be of use to me.
  UPDATE
  It looks like I'm not alone. MacNN reports that 91% of Roger's users use less than 200mb / month [1]
  
• 16MB storage is the right amount for me. I currently have loaded 925 songs, 983 photos, 8 videos and 27 (all free) applications leaving 7.17 GB available

• Last month I used 120 minutes talk time of my 150; this month I'm at 27 minutes
• My only complaint relates to battery life, but I have a charger at work, home and in the car so I usually don't run into any problems.

I'll be travelling to Europe in a couple of weeks so we'll see how widely I am able to use it there (mental note: use wireless access; turn off roaming)

Ladies Golf, 2008: Day 1

This is the fourth year of what I have come to call "Ladies Golf" which is basically a three-day golf excursion. Myself and Jason are invited along to drive, take pictures and be the muscle (although this year three other husbands joined in to share the burden.) This year we revisited the Niagara Falls area, playing at Thundering Waters and Whirlpool. However our first game started off early Friday morning at Parkview in Markham.

A sunrise tee time

Morning dew on the golf carts.

Parkview Golf Course has two 18's: the Valley Course and the Upper Course. While we usually play the Valley course, on this day we played the Upper course. The Upper course has a dual personality, each one separated by railway tracks.

The beginning and end of the Upper course are just like any other

The mid part of the Upper course is under high wires. It is almost surrealistic.

After our game we went for lunch and then met to form our car pools.

A pre-departure photograph

En route to Niagara Falls we stopped off at a couple of wineries, including Wayne Gretzki's No. 99 Estate Winery in Vineland Ontario.

Wendy, Jason and Sandy tasting wines

Ellen and Olga at the wine bar (sophisticated looking blond thrown in for free). Reminds me of a scene from the Three Penny Opera, or was that a Whiskey Bar

The Girls sharing a glass with Wayne

After checking in to the hotel and dinner we watched the fireworks display.




Click here for the slide show.
Post for Day 2
Post for Day 3

Ball

A friend sent the link to the attached "game":

click to play game

Click on the ball and it changes colour. The sequence I came up with was: blue; brown; salmon; green/grey; mauve; yellow; bright green; dark green; cyan; bright purple; cyan/grey; light mauve; orange; purple; violet.

Then it all became very tedious and I moved on to the rest of my life.

Will it Blend

Willitblend.com coveres the iPhone:

Will returns to China

William left for China today. Year two teaching English in Yangzhou

I guess we've moved on from him living with us to him coming to visit.

Big Bang

The propane explosion in Toronto at Keele and Wilson this morning is, as the car drives, about 19kms away from our home; may be 15km by bird. We heard the explosion and it shook the house. It didn't quite sound like thunder, but there was no other immediate explanation. Not knowing at the time what was going on I got up to check, but there was no rain, no thunder. Just another unexplained mystery.

3:43

Nike Tournament

Arriving at the course just as the sun rises for a 7:20 tee time, ones spirits are full with hope and anticipation.

Some practice shots on the driving range loosen the muscles, build the confidence and prepare one for the coming game.

Yet on the way to the first tee an omen presents itself: how will this day really turn out.

08-08-08

If you're Chinese today is a great day to be married.

What planning!

From the garden

Water Lilies, from my pond.

I like the texture of the background leaves

BBC: Britain Seen from Above

A new BBC series makes use of satellite technology to create stunning images of Britain from above.

83 Pictures: Summer Garden Flowers

In this series of pictures I have been experimenting with depth of field and bokeh. Depth of field is basically how much depth along the line of sight (of the camera) is in focus. The area before and after that part of the line of sight are out of focus. Bokeh refers the quality of that area (usually behind the subject forming the background) out of focus.

Depth of field is a function of the aperture, focal length of the lens and the distance of the subject. All the shots below, except the last one, where taken within the range of 15 - 30 cms. At that distance from the subject, the depth of field is about 0.25-1.11 cms. However, boost the distance to say 10 meters and the depth of field increases dramatically (e.g., f/4.8, 23mm DOF=20m)

f/4.0, 16.7mm: The subject is in focus with a nicely blurred background. The blur of the background helps make the flower stand out and highlight the crispness of detail of the flower.

f/5.6, 15.6mm: a darker and flatter background helps highlight the brightness of the flower.

f/4.9, 25.2mm: Close up of an Hydrangea. At this aperture and focal length the depth of field is less than 1cm

f/4.9, 23.2: Close up of the front and side of an Hydrangea. Here one can see the petals enter the field of focus. The picture below expands on a region showing an interior view of the flower head.


f/4.9 25.2mm. This shot of a Canna Lilly is interesting because it shows in one shot the effect of darker vs. lighter backgrounds. It may be a matter of taste but I think the darker background at the top of the flower helps highlight the colour and the sharpness of the edges.

Click on slideshow to see a larger rendition of these and other photographs in the series.

Murphy's other 15 laws

Sent from a friend:

1. Light travels faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
2. A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
3. He, who laughs last, thinks slowest.
4. A day without sunshine is like.well.night.
5. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
6. Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.
7. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
8. The 50-50-90 Rule: Any time you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.
9. It is said that if you line up all the cars in the world end-to-end, someone will be stupid enough to try to pass them.
10. If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.
11. The things that come to those who wait, may be the things left by those who got there first.
12. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat all day drinking beer.
13. Flashlight: A case for holding dead batteries.
14. The shin bone is a device for finding furniture in the dark.
15. When you appear in court, you are putting yourself in the hands of twelve people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.

Long Weekend: Day 1

In my July 19th Post, Early Tee Time, I included a self-portrait, in the form of a shadow of myself. It seemed to cause a bit of a stir, specifically I received some comment asking about my legs: where were they?

I hope this shot confirms I do have legs and I don't wear a kilt on the golf course (two other queries I received from questioners struggling to explain the gap).

Today's game was at Westview Golf Club. A mostly cloudy day with only a few periods of sun. We were lucky in that the rain held off until we were leaving. There's been lots of rain this year. The greens are in great shape.

I took this shot waiting at the first tee. It struck me that these flowers looked almost supernatural or alien.

Other shots are available in a slideshow