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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