Unsupervised Design

  • Today was a quiet milestone. Hugo is 11 today! This birthday was extra sweet after the scare he gave us a month ago.

    11 year old Hugo, the blue nose pitbull sitting patiently for a photo
    Hugo patiently waiting for his “cake” (a dog treat cookie)
    Hugo eating his birthday cookie with some crumbs on the floor

    Naturally Luna wanted in on the party

    Up close snout shot of Luna excitedly taking her “pawty” dog treat cookie
    Luna eagerly eating her cookie. The floor below her is covered in cookie chunks.

    Finally, the sign of a good party is a good nap.

    Hugo napping with his chin on a pillow. Luna is cuddled in between Hugo and the back of the couch.
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  • This weekend we had a good friend come by and do our annual family photos. He brought a special treat of a camera that took me back to using iMac’s in the computer lab in school. A Sony Digital Mavica MVC-FD7 complete with floppy disk storage.

    Naturally I used it to take photos of my dogs and you know what, they turned out much better than I expected.

    Sony Digital Mavica with its floppy disk storage in front of it
    The back display of the Sony Digital Mavica MVC-FD7 while “Recording” a still image of my Pitbull Hugo to floppy disk
    Hugo the 11 year old Bluenose Pitbull as captured by the Sony Mavica MVC-FD7 camera that is 17 years older than he is
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  • It is NHL playoff season again and as is tradition I have made my absurd bracket picks by gut alone. Somehow I ended up with an all Canadian final and I really don’t feel good about it

    NHL playoff bracket made at NHL.com showing a Jets vs Leafs final with the Jets as the Champions

  • Today was my twentieth year volunteering at the Lego Robotics competition at Acadia. It was also my first with an “Assistant to the Head Referee”

    Head referee Griff in a white lab coat with Gwen helping at the Lego robotics competition.
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  • After spending the fall watching me teach skating lessons Gwen joined the program to learn to skate. She insisted on carrying her own bag.

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  • I love that absurd projects like “Every UUID dot com” exist, but I really appreciate when their creators document the process in detail

    There are a few things that I think the site is currently missing. Having more social features would be really neat – maybe you could see the UUIDs your friends have favorited so that you could use those UUIDs too? Or maybe the site could feature “trending UUIDs” that are particular popular across the world right now.

  • My wonderful partner threw at me Taskmaster themed birthday party last night complete with guests having to compete in tasks and a custom trophy for the victor.

    An open task card, with red wax seal, that reads “Have the most fun at James’ birthday party. Your time starts now”
    A gold, long haired, funko head mounted on a black base with a red wax seal on the base in the style of the trophy from the popular British show Taskmaster

  • Today is a big day in the land of arbitrary “nice” numbers.

    Screenshot of the Apple Fitness app showing my progress towards 2750 move rings closed. Currently I have closed my move ring 2749 times.

    Only four years ago I was celebrating 1500 move rings

  • I hope you all know where your towel is you hoopy froods!

    Blue towel hanging on a silver hook
  • A green, blue, and white hammock hanging on a black hammock stand in the corner of our front porch

    I celebrated the official start of summer, the Maple Leafs losing to the Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs, by setting up my hammock this morning.

  • It’s that time of year where I capture my wholly incorrect thoughts about how good or bad NHL teams are and record them in a playoff bracket.

    My 2024 NHL Playoff bracket. In the Western Conference Vegas defeats Dallas 4-3, Colorado defeats Winnipeg 4-2, Vancouver defeats Nashville 4-1, and LA defeats Edmonton 4-2. In the Eastern Conference Florida defeats Tampa 4-1, Boston defeats Toronto 4-2, New York Rangers defeat Washington 4-1, and Carolina defeat New York Islanders 4-0. The predicted final matchup is Carolina vs Colorado with Carolina victorious.
  • Gwen posing with left foot resting on a fallen tree while wearing a polka doted rain coat, rain boots, and blue ball cap.

    Sometimes you capture a moment that gives you a glimpse into future adventures

  • After more than a year I finally took some time to lop off some hair. Ended up sticking with a length that can still be pulled back when necessary.

    Selfie wearing a grey hoodie standing in front of a pin board with hair long enough that it falls past my shoulders

  • Happy Pi day to Americans that celebrate. For the rest of the world we can bake in July!

    Pi Approximation Day is observed on July 22 (22/7 in the day/month date format), since the fraction 22⁄7 is a common approximation of π, which is accurate to two decimal places and dates from Archimedes

    Wikipedia

  • The dogs often compete over who gets the bed by the window so today we upgraded to a bed big enough for the both of them and they took right to it.

    Large grey dog bed next to patio doors. Hugo on the left and Luna sitting alert on the right.
    Close up of grey dog bed next to patio doors. Hugo on the left and Luna yawning on the right as she settles in.
    Large grey dog bed next to patio doors. Hugo asleep on the left and Luna sprawled out asleep on the right.
  • Steam year in review 2023 showing 69 games played, 319 achievements earned, 705 play sessions, and 38 new to me games.

    Nice.

  • Maximum nostalgia achieved! Raquel got me a new GameBoy game for Christmas! In 2023!!

    Fydo’s Magic Tiles GameBoy Cartridge atop the packaging it came in.

  • One of Gwen’s favourite animals this year was the octopus so I got my arts and crafts hat on for Christmas.

    Purple felt octopus sitting on the back of my left hand with tentacles wrapped around my fingers and wrist.
    In progress construction shot showing pattern pieces traced onto felt and the first 2 pieces cut out.
    In progress shot showing the leg pieces stitched together and the first seam of the head.

  • I think I got lucky with the time I picked for travelling this morning. The weather warning here kicks in later in the day and it appears like I should fly right over quite the system.

    Flight path from Halifax to Toronto with a weather overlay showing a large snow and rain storm from Labrador to Washington D.C. but not affecting Halifax or Toronto.

  • This summer saw us evacuating due to wild fires in the woods and also flooding coming from the forest behind the house. Today’s view was oddly peaceful in that context.

    the view of my backyard with the lawn, shed, and trees covered in a few centimetres of snow.
    the view of my side yard with the lawn and trees covered in a few centimetres of snow.