NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month

I'm seriously considering giving NaNoWriMo an attempt next month. 50,000 words in 30 days, how hard can it be? I think I have a novel in me, I've tried getting it out a few times, but the effort allways petered out and failed.

I don't know if I really have time to try something like this, but I think if I cut back on TV watching and net surfing I should be able to give it a solid effort.

I've had a few ideas for novels over the years, the first was an adaptation of adventure scenarios from a role playing game based on Lord of the Rings. It would chronicle the adventures of my charachter that spanned several years of real life time. I still want to write this novel, but it'd require a lot of research and trying to recall scenarios from quite a few years ago. Theres also the hassle of basing the book in the world of Middle Earth, and any rights that might trespass upon.

The other novel I began was a science fiction adventure based in the not too distant future (couple hundred years) this faltered pretty quickly, just because of things going on in my life. I think, after all the sci-fi that I have read, that I should be able to write a good sci fi. Again this might be too ambitious to write in the 30 day time frame, and require alot of research...

I'm not sure what project I might pick up (if I decide to do it) but I'm gonna give it some serious thought.

The ultimate goal isn't to have something that is ready to publish at the end of 30 days, it's just to write the darn thing. If you edit it and get it published afterwords, more power to you :) There have been a couple NaNoWriMo novels published.

Maybe I could release the unedited work as a serial as I write it... perhaps if I had some friends express interest.

Other Things

What else is going on lately? Not alot. Been pretty busy with school stuff, and sick for the last week or so. I had a month or so of a dry spell in photographs... But I rectified that with my trip downtown the other afternoon when a cruise ship was in port.

Looking forward to the weekend now, should be a good time. Friday I'm hanging out with the gang, boozing and cruising. Saturday my sister and fiance will be in town, and we're all going to The Keg for supper.

Well, best clue this up, Trivia in a few minutes.


Things you gotta check out

Serenity

You gotta check out the firefly movie, Joss Whedons canceled series is transitioned to the big screen in a big way. One of the best Sci-fi films I've seen in a long time (and I'm a huge sci-fi fan). It seems that even with a smallish budget a film with a solid plot; an interesting setting; and a great cast can be put together to great effect. One of the great sci-fi authors, Orson Scott Card of Ender fame, has a great review of Serenity

New album from Harvey Danger

Harvey Danger has released their third album, Little by Little, for free from their website. This may seem a little counter to the profit making, but they have some great articles on their site explaing their reasoning. I'd never listened to their previous material, but I gave this a try and was very pleased with it. I highly recommend checking out this band, I'll be looking for their previous CD's next time I'm at HMV.

HIM -- Dark Light

I've been a fan of HIM and their "love metal" sound for several years now, introduced to it by Bam Margera and the Jackass/CKY videos. Their new CD Dark Light is a great album, great sound and lyrical content. I highly recommend checking out this Finnish group, and their new CD.

Baen Free Library

Baen Books has an awesome section of their website called the free library. Baen is a sci-fi publishing house, and they have a great slate of authors. Many of these authors have agreed to let some of their books be posted for free. They're available in several formats from HTML to e-book. Several of my favourite sci-fi authors have some great books available there. I highly recommend John Ringo, David Weber, and David Drake.

Time flies

When you're having what?

Classes have begun in earnest again for the semester, I'm taking one and TAing another. The TA doesn't seem to bad this semester, pretty regular schedule, one two-hour lab a week, and an assignment to correct. The course isn't too bad either, I have a basic grasp of much of the material from previous courses, so I should be able to muddle through pretty good.

I recently broke down and purchased a new computer, a Compaq Presario R4025CA laptop for those interested. I'm liking it, it's powerful enough to be my only computer, but light enough on my budget that I can somewhat afford it. It's a good thing too, as my desktop computer died on me (we'll it's still in the midst of its death throws, but it won't stay running for more than 10 minutes at a time).

A nice thing about the laptop is that wherever I go my comfortable and familiar computer set up is with me... no putting up with missing programs, or data being far away.

Unfortunatlty I can't use it on the network at Instrumar (the company that is sponsoring my masters) as It's against their company policy to allow outside computers on their network for security/virus reasons. Thats ok, I can still do my work on it and transfer it with a USB flash drive if need be.

I like being able to write this blog (or do work) in the cafeteria here at school, I can do my thing and still people watch :)

I can't seem to get into the habit of writing this regularly, doesn't seem to be in my nature to do it.

I'd like to find something to regularly write about, maybe mini reviews of things in my life (movies/books/technology). Or things that tick me off.

Thats it for this update post, maybe I'll work on some other things to discuss...

Jon

Summer coming to a close

It really blows me away that summer is coming to an end... just a week left to August. Where has the time gone?

The Whale tour never generated the photos that I hoped, the weather conditions weren't great for scenery shots (cloudy and very hazy). Also we only saw 2 whales. While this should have generated some good photos, these whales never did anything except breach the surface and breath.

However on Sunday past I attended a gathering of fellow members from the DeviantArt website at Bowering Park. That generated a set of nice photos, and I had a great time.

Thunder showers this morning woke me up early. Now I'm feeling lazy and uninterested in getting some research work done.

I was surprised to find the other day an e-mail in my gmail inbox from a high school teacher asking permission to use one of my blog posts for a lessen in her english class. Thats kind of neat to think about. Of course anything that I post on-line is (unless otherwise noted) available for use, I believe in the creative commons licenses.

Well I really should get things going for the day.

Jon

Life or Something like it...

So, I've been pretty busy lately with school and whatnot... but I'm finished for the summer now. I'll be working more or less full time from Instrumar for the next month, hoping to make good progress on my masters research work.

I've been having lots of fun with my photography lately, even sold some prints of my photos. Not going for great profits at the moment, just happy that my photos will be on some walls.

This afternoon I'll be going on a whale watching boat tour out of Bay Bulls. It should be a fun couple of hours on the sea. I really hope to see some good sights.

I've got my memory card empty, and my batteries full... hopefully the whales and other wild life will be plentiful, or at least the scenery clear.

I'll be posting any of the photos that come out well to my website (http://jmilley.com/gallery/ and any that come out great/are edited will be posted to deviantART.

Well, I best take off and get some research work completed before heading off to bay bulls.

Dune is the best sci-fi

The TV movie Children of Dune has been on in parts the last 2 sundays... I want to start rereading the dune books now.

Frank Herbert was an awesome author. Any sci-fi fan is doing themselves a disservice if they haven't read the series. The scope of the series is so vast spanning thousands of years. The in-depth and enthrawling expanse of the universe he created is the sci-fi equivalent of Tolkiens work.

I'm also really enjoying the expansion of the universe by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. The prequels are based off history notes by his father Frank. This makes them flow and fit into the older works much better.

I think someone should bring Dune to the big screen, It's crying out for expansion to new audiences.

I want to start doing a lit review section on my website... I think it'd be fun.

Tis the summer of my 26th year

It's my Birthday today, I've passed the midpoint of my second decade on this planet...

It's really just another day. I'm in class as I write this. We're having people over to the house, but it's really unrelated to my birthday, most of them will be April's friends.

My parents are going to be in town this weekend to help my Aunt and Uncle settle in their new house. I'll get a good meal out of it anyway...

As a house warming gift I'm having one of my photos (High Water at Quidi Vidi) plaque mounted. I'd have liked to have had it matted and framed under glass. However, that would have been quite expensive.

I suppose I should pay some attention now...

Enjoy the weekend.

Jon

Feeling Strangely Fine

Well, yesterday was an awesome day. The temp peaked at over 30, and I spent like 4 hours walking around. Between the 20min to Instrumar and Back and 3 hours downtown, I had an awesome day.

Of course I took my camera along. Never captured anything spectacular, but I kind of like a couple pictures of St. Patricks Church. I'll be posting them to my Gallery soon.

I walked from the top of harbour drive to Victoria Park in a kind of meandering exporation, and then walked back up past St. Patricks and and down all sorts of side roads before getting back to Water St. and the bus back up town.

Victoria Park is a really nice shady spot to stop and rest. They have a WWI artillery peice there that is really starting to crumble. It was refurbished some time ago (the plaque said it was done in conjunction with the Cabot Institute, so that dates it some.

Another nice day today, hopefully I'll get a couple hours to enjoy this one as well. I need to find a photography project to take on, rather then the sort of random "hey lets go here and snap some shots". If anyone has a classic car, a pet, a child, or themselves, etc. that they'd like photographed let me know. I'll throw in a free print (reasonable size 8x10, or something like that).

Well, time for some chores.

Jon

rough 2 months

This past couple months have been pretty rough, I've had really bad luck.

First I sprained my ankle pretty bad, so far I've had 9 physiotherapy sessions trying to improve the fnctioning, and repair the damage. Right now it's pretty good. I haven't felt the need to wear my ankle brace in a couple weeks.

Not too long after that (around the 1st of June) I had an accident in my Jeep. The truck ahead of me stopped very suddenly, and I was unable to stop my vehicle before hitting him. Then the person behind me struck the back corner of my vehicle. It's been a bad scene, as the fault is automatically mine since I was too close to the truck. The Jeep is pretty much wrote off, and we're trying to sell if for parts.

Then last week I went home for my sister Breannes High School graduation. I was supposed to be the family photographer, but was sidelined when I threw my back out just minutes before her graduation. It's almost a week later and I'm still suffering...

In between all that there were several bouts of illness (colds/flus whatever I never saw a doctor about it)

So I really wanted to enjoy this summer, but now it's kind of hard. Maybe things will pick up. I'm still snapping away with my camera, and loving this pasttime.

I'd hope to do some hiking this summer, but with a bad back and bad ankle, walking into the wilderness would seem to be a bad proposition for me, and any acompanying friends.

So I'm excited to do a calendar of my photography for 2006 as a Christmas gift for most of the people on my Christmas list. I figure for family I'll include all the birthdays etc.

I'd love to find a way to make money with my photography, I see others with books. and prints. I like to think that my work is as good, or better (in rare cases) as a lot of what I see on the shelves.

Well, this is long winded (and highly overdue I suppose) so I'll cut off here.

Enjoy Summer,

Jonathan

updates

Seems I'm pretty bad at maintaining any form of on-line journal. I'll keep trying though, thats the kind of guy I am :)

I managed to pass my two courses I was taking last semester with A's, much to my pleasant surprise :) I was going into one course with a 65% (just a pass in Grad school) and managed to come away with an 80% which blew me away.

I had a week or so between semesters to recover and get ready for the next. I'm taking only one course this semester, and am hoping to get a lot of research done. It'll be hard to balance school and research with enjoying the summer, but I have previous experience being cloistered doing work while the sun beats down outside.

I busted my ankle a couple weeks ago, doing nothing stupid (tripped leaving my house) and it has really hampered my ability to do many of the things I enjoy. I'm feeling much better now that I have a brace for it. I also started Physiotherapy today, which should help with recovery and prevention of further injury.

I really want to enjoy this summer. I plan to do all sorts of stuff from hiking, walking, fishing, swimming, lots of BBQing, etc. All with my trusty sidekick, my camera, close at hand. I've really been taken with a serious photography bug in the last couple years, especially now that I have a decent camera of my own. It's my main creative outlet, and I like to think I am improving.

I might take a photography class this summer. Theres one offered that involves some indoor classes, at a studio, as well as a couple afternoons of outdoor instruction.

I need to get some of my photos printed for a portfolio of sorts.

Well, I've been blathering on so I should take off, look for further updates at some point sooner than before :)

Jonathan

Our Perishable forms of Expression.

A Thousand years from now what will have survived to tell the future generations of our hopes, dreams, fears, loves, hates, and desires?

What are the chances that our fragile digital lives will still be machine readable, even a hundred years from now?

Great works of art and literature from our own history survive now because they were preserved by the wise in houses of learning. They remain available to us because they rely upon nothing aside from their own physical form to be viewable.

Even in our own life time we can see the loss associated with our fragile media and fleeting technology. For example, early seminal works in cinematography have been lost to time because the medium they were recorded upon could not stand the test of time, and the elements.

There is now the trend of transferring forward works from the past into current media. But how many times are we expected to re purchase that one item? What are we buying, the media or the medium? A shift in perception is needed to allow easier, less costly future proofing of our collections. Are we buying the artists works, or are we merely renting them till the medium are no longer viable?

We need to seriously consider the impact of our increasing reliance on pure digital forms of expression. Without the underlying physical form, what can we do to carry forward our digital lives? Even a modern compact disk has a limited lifetime before the disk fails from environmental decay. Even if the physical disk survives will future machines be expected to be compatible? Or will we be required to actively future proof our digital compendium of our lives? At each shift in storage media we will require transference of vast quantities of bits.

It seems obvious that there will be no passive preservation of digital data, active nurturing of our archives will be required to preserve them for the edification of future generations. Want your grand children to see that beautiful digital photo of their parents as a child? Well your going to have to plan for it and work for it, it’s not an easy road you embark upon. Good luck to us all.

Yours truly,

Jonathan Milley

Engineer, Software Developer, Digital Photographer, Website designer, and worried denizen of our digital age.

Happy Easter

So I've done it... I bucked the 2 week trend... only 7 days between posts now...

I went home for Easter Weekend, which was good and bad. Good in that I got to see the family, but bad in that I fell behind on school work. This next 4 days are going to be quite hellishly busy.

It was really great seeing the family, Dad is home from Manitoba for a week, so I got to see everyone. Alexa is quite fun to play with now, she's really growing up fast. She's still a handful, but she's becoming more independent and free thinking.

I took a tonne of pictures this weekend, so look for some soon. I really need to start an on-line photo album for collecting these pictures, more of a barrage of unedited snapshots than edited and polished photos like I've been posting to deviantART.

I'll make that my next project for my website (which might still be a ways off yet).

Well I better sign off, time is at a premium at the moment.

Jonathan

So yeah, whats new...

Seems that 2 weeks is my usual time between posts... thats not intentional... I just get caught up in things and put other things on the back burner.

I haven't really done much with my camera yet, aside from play with it... I went to Bowring park and shot some photos of the various birds there, that was kind of fun. And I managed to take a pretty nice portrait of my roommates Chad and Tim. Tim moved to Ontario last week, so this was a going away gift I guess you could say.

You can keep up with my photography at barastol.deviantart.com. It's a nice community website for all sorts of arts.

I received my ca lander last week, it came out pretty nice... I look forward to doing one this winter for next year as a gift for family. That should give me tonnes of time to get some nice photos.

I'm pretty sure no one is reading this, but if you are, let me know...

Take care,

Maybe it won't be 2 weeks before the next one.

Jonathan

Big Week

This week has been a pretty big one, I bought a new Camera last weekend, and today I got contact lenses. Yay!

The Camera is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ3, and I'm pretty happy with it's performance. The 12x optical zoom lens is amazing. I'll post some pictures later.

I really needed new glasses, so I decided to also get contacts (for the first time) and I gotta say it's taking a while to get used to them.

I'm pretty sure it's just a little temporary adjustment period, I hope anyway, I love being about to see my peripharal vision :)

Going home to Grand Falls this coming weekend, can't wait to see Alexa, what a cutie :)

Well, best go get some stuff done.

Jon

Midterm Break

Well this is supposed to be midterm break untill Thursday coming... but I have exhausted my allowable break time in the past 2 days... now the rest of this "break" is work time...

It's ok though, at least I get to work without the interruptions of classes.

I've posted new deviation on my deviantART site, and hope to post a couple more today. They are from older photos I have taken, but am now just getting around to touching up and posting.

Look for more in the near future, especially if I ever get my hands on a new digicam.

Jon

First Masters Evaluation

Well I managed to pull out a 73% on my First evaluation for my Masters degree, I recieved this mark for my first midterm in Digital Signal Processing. I am pretty pleased with this, as I had feared a much lower mark.

Unfortunately course work has seen fit to fill up altogether too much of my time, leaving me with precious little to devout to my research. Much to the consternation of my Supervisors, and Instrumar. but hopefully I can get on top of it more, and ration my time better. I will use Midterm break as my catch up time and plan my time better going forward.

It still seems foriegn to me to be back in school... that first test was sobering. I gotta get my head wrapped concretely around this idea, and get into a groove (and not a rut).

I really miss having a digital camera, I think I'm going to have to talk myself into getting a cheaper one till I can afford the more expensive one I want. I'm currently lusting over the Cannon Powershot Pro1, an 8megapixel, 7x zoom lens... it has all the features I need, and I got a bad case of the "wants". Unfortunately the camera is $1000+ and I would need accessories such as memory cards, carrying cases, etc.

I also need a new computer, I think I am going to go with a laptop this time around, and maybe invest a little in upgrading my desktop system.

All these things of course rely on me getting some income... money is always trouble...

Well, back to work...

Jon

I've Published a Calendar

I recently made a Calendar using my Photography of Newfoundland, titled "Newfoundland's Natural Beauty" I'm publishing it on the on-demand publishing site Lulu, you can check it out at http://www.lulu.com/jmilley

I just ordered my copy, and should have it in a couple weeks. I will update my blog with my opinion of it's quality when I recieve it.

Ciao

So I'm Doing a Weblog...

So I'm Doing a Weblog...

Yup, It's official, I'm going to keep a weblog (Blog). This blog will be used for whatever strikes my fancy at the time. I love posting digital Pictures on-line, and will continue to do so, using this medium as well as my Deviantart site http://barastol.deviantart.com . The deviantART site will be used more for polished works, where as snapshots and the like will often find there way here.

I'd like to start by saying why I'm joining the blogging community. There are a few reasons, but mostly it's to give me a place to rant and write where I can get some feedback, but also return at a later date and see what was on my mind at any time. Other reasons such as giving my friends insight into my life are of course there, but it's mostly for me.

I invite any and all comments, questions, feedback, hate mail, whatever.

Keep coming back, and I'll keep writing.

Jonathan

My Fav Digital Pic

This is one of my Favorite digital pictures that I've taken. It's a spontaneous shot that I took while leaving work one day. For more of my Photographty, check out http://barastol.deviantart.com

My Neice Alexa

Alexa Enjoys a Snowy Day in January

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