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Aug 27, 2006 18:10

I hope everyone is doing well! I haven't been up to a whole lot of late (hence my lack up updating of late), but I felt i should let everybody know that I'm not dead! Over the past couple of days, I've been poking around my flickr account, and hopefully I'll get to using that more. Over my threeish years here are Livejournal, photos have always been a huge part of my posting... but I've used several different hosts to put my pictures online (namely rogers, butabara, 1&1 internet). While I do use imageshack for my Ottawa Google project, I don't feel that it's something that I would want to use for all my image posting. And for fear that I don't renew my online webspace when that expires this winter, I wanted to find a relaible palce to put pictures! Hence my return to flickr.

I really need a pro flickr account. Perhaps that's something I'll invest in. at least for me, it would be more useful than a paid LJ, for example. So, as bandwidth allows, I'll update flickr with new images, and a back catalog of stuff to the point where I bought my digicam. And maybe I'll revamp my pod site. hmmm.

So, if you have flickr, add me, ok :D

Ok enough of that, some interesting things I've done over the past few days:

Chantal and I went to the Ottawa Super Ex on Friday. Typically a group of friends go to the Ex together, bu this year, there was only two. I guess nobody had any real interest/time to go. Anyway, without a large group, we got to see everything that we miss with larger groups: the other side of the Ex. There are two sides, really... one, the rides and games, and two, the performances, shows, and everything else.

Nintendo was back with their craz-e-crew show. Though, this year, they had people on stunt bikes, skateboards, and inlines. It's pretty amazing some of thst stuff these guys can pull off, even though they did fall from time to time. These two kids were so enthusiastic and were at the fence screaming their heads off. Crazy!




The Nintendo Booth. AS I expected, they had a small booth this year, with only a handful of games, including: New Super Mario Bros., Mario Kart, Metroid Prime Hunters, Tetris, Brain Age, and Tony Hawk's American Sk8land. They have avay prizes every hour wo winners of a multiplayer Mario Kart tournament. The prizes were a far cry from two years ago when they gave away an arcade cabinet.

Chantal and I actually spent a lot of time there, though not entirely of my doing. She was engaged with New SMB and MKDS, learning new things from this great guy they had working there. He actually knew a lot about Nintendo, moreso than people from previous years. This one kid, Grant, had all the swag from being at the ex earlier in the week. He was acting all "i know everything and I'm going to teach you". Two other Kids, Zach and Ben were there. We played Mario Kart, and they were impressed at how good I was. Later, one of them spotted Shanti and I, and he talked with us for a brief second.


There was a kiosk of some sort for the Army. I didn't really check it out, but they had a tank on display. I was surprised at how small the projectile launching mechanism was, though that's probably because I dont' hang around tanks often. To the side was a "paint ball" targeting practice set-up that used these durable bouncy balls instead of paint shells, probably to keep it clean and to keep the targets easy to spot.


Chantal finally got to play Bingo. I played as well. Neither of us won :( Close, though! I bet everyone playing was close, just needing one of a few numbers to win. It's at that moment when I realised how much money the Ex must make off the people who think they can win. This one person working a game where you have to get rings on the neck of ducks tried to get me to play. The duck's bill made it look nearly impossible, so I asked if she couple do it. She replied rather flatly, "I'm not allowed to paly my own games." I tried to talk it up with her, but she wasn't very open to talking, so I left not playing her impossible game.

I also tried the hammer game where you need to hit 100. I won it last year, but this year, no such luck. I didn't win anything at the bowling-valley game either! SIGH!


I didn't have a ride bracelet, which lets you go on unlimited rides for a day, this year... so I had to choose my rides carefully, or else I would spend a fortune. One ride I did go on was the ferris wheel. I tried it for the first time last year and didn't die, so I didn't think I would die this year. I was still a bit scared, but here I am!


'round and around. On top of the Ferris wheel, I did bumper cars, and the scrambler. No tilt-a-whirl or cortina bob or polar express for me this year!


Being on the ferris wheel does give you a nice view of everything. Ottawa should invest in an observation wheel, one of those huge ferris wheels, like the Eye in London.


The Aberdeen Pavillion. Shanti and I caught a snakes show at one of the pavillions (not this one). It was clearly targeted at younger kids, but it was still fun. The best part was the ractio this one kid had when his father asked him if he wanted to hold the snake. The kid was terrified to hold it, though he did hold the about a fifth of it (the head part). I held that same snake (it was black, their second-longest snake). Shanti refused to even touch it, but I thought it was cool to hold. I've held snakes before (I cna't remember when though)... they feel and act completely unlike what you'd expect.


Chantal, with her newly waved hair. If I were in my photography workshop that I was in in Saskatoon, I would note the golden effect of the sun in the evening, and how it softens the composition, how shadows are more prominent because the light source is to the side, and how the odd angles in the composition catch your eye.


Once I got used to the ferris wheel's motion, I went hands-free. I didn't know what kind of pose to do, though, so this bizarre one came out!


From the Nintendo Booth, I got a belt (and Chantal a hat) because the DS' local connection kept dropping us. This wasn't so much the fault of the systems as much as it was the staffer who didn't use a DS in the middle of the displays. We were far enough away form the host that we got dropped. They rearranged the setup afterwards.


After being a good sport and playing and talking with that awesome staffer that I spoke of earlier (Magamus is is DS name), he let me have the NES-style flip flops (and Chantal a red and white belt). Gotta love Nintendo Swag!


On Saturday, I met up with Jennifer at her place of employment. The last time I had gone to a Bridgehead's (fair trade, organic coffee place), I was disappointed with the vanilla crush (it had coffee in it despite the fact the menu said "no coffee"). TO prove that Bridgeheads was good, she made me one the way it was supposed to be, with extra vanilla. It was really good!

Once she was off work, we went to her new apartment, which is located downtown. Her room is very yellow (and blue). We tried to solve her internet problems, and determined that it was because the antenna on the wireless router was broken. We went to Staples to check out what they had in the way of router antennas. Along the way (back), we found interesting buildings. Like this one. This is the Embassy of Hungary.


Then, there was this curved office building that reminded me of a Roman aquaduct. Only with offices inside.


It's not surprising that there are lots of embassies in the governmental captial of the country. Enroute back to her place, we found the Embassy for Iran.


It had a werid fence that initally looked threatening, but isn't that dangerous when you get close up. I geuss it's more ornamental than people-keepouty.


Lastly, there is the Embassy of the Czech Republic. It's pretty small looking compared the the US' massive building. Personally, I like it better because of its quaintness. I wonder if security knows who I am... recently I was snooping around the Saudi embassy, and now I'm snooping around Czech, Irani, and Hungarian embassies? Taking pictures to boot!


Once we got back to Jen's place (her living room is red-orange-pink, depending onthe lighting), I had to take advantage of the large windows that access the fire escape and balcony. I've never been on a fire escape before! It's ver... metallic.


The steps down are really steep. You would think if there was an emergency, people could easily lose their footing and tumble down, potentially injusting themselves and others.


The metal paint is being eaten away by air and water. It's a sturdy structure, thoug, so don't worry!


Even more steep steps. I went down about halfway, and it was a bit scary. I didn't want to go alll the way down in case Jen's underneighbour spotted me or something.


Too bad nobody was standing on top of this, as the angle of their picture would have been interesting. Even moreso if they were wearing a dress! Not that I would intentionally take a picture of someone wearing a dress from such an angle.



Jen joined me in photo taking. She realised that I was tring to take her picture.


Jen's bathroom. Neither her nor her suitemate was occupying the room when I went to take a picture of its window. Her apartment overlooks a huge brown/gray wall. While not the best view, at least they don't have to worry about people peepint into the bathroom.... unless someone is on the fire escape!


Sasha, the cat, shares the apartment. Surprisingly, Sasha isn't scared of much. I rolled a soccer at her, and she just stood there, jumping over it once it hit her. Silly cat. She is afraid of Jen's plush animal cat, though. It's pretty funny.


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