as I live a few more questions

Google+ is the New Facebook -- Pass It On!

I have been exploring Google's new social network, Google+, for almost a month now, and it is fantastic!  It's still in beta but it already has about 25 million members.  

If you want to experience it yourself, please click on the following link for an invitation (I've never tried this before so I hope this works!)

 

https://plus.google.com/_/notifications/ngemlink?path=%2F%3Fgpinv%3Dq0KF43JpBr0%3AaM-ILF2xqAY

 

Welcome.

If you're coming here because of my posting on the Library 2.0 discussion group for Week 2, welcome.  If I had to categorize this blog, the words I would use are "eclectic", "personal", and "bizarre" ;-)

So feel free to wander around, you might want to start by scrolling down a bit and choosing a subject category from the Categories listed alphabetically in the right-hand column.  The original layout of this blog was modelled on the nine virtues and the nine passions of the Ennegram (think "seven deadly sins" plus their flip side and you'd be pretty close).

Passing of an Era

I know, it's been a long time since I last posted to this blog.  I'm spending most of my online time split between connecting with friends on  Facebook and  exploring the explosively creative 3D space of Second Life, and in addition, I've not felt the pressing need to *blog* anything.  End of an era?  We'll see.  I'll keep this account for now.

Another end of an era:

"IST is examining the possibility of ending modem dial-up access to the University of Manitoba in 2009 on January 1. If this will cause a major problem for you or your users, please contact XY describing the nature of this problem."

Wow.  Changes are happening so fast that sometimes it makes my head spin.  I know that fewer and fewer people are using dial-up modems, but I didn't realize the decline was quite that precipitous. 

I can remember back to 1982/83, when I connected to the University to work on programming assignments using a TRS-80 Model III and a 300-baud acoustic coupler modem.  The lines of the text editor I was using, good old in-house MANTES, were 80 characters long, but the TRS-80 could only display 64 characters, so the lines would all break at character 65.  At the I'm sure I was among the first set of users to conect to the University via modem.  That was.... that was.... 25 years ago.

Holy shit!  A quarter century ago... argh.  How time flies indeed.

See You In September....

I've been spending waaay too much time online, so I am taking a break from the Internet for the rest of the summer.  I'll be back and updating this blog again September 5th, 2007. 

Hiatus (and some more postcards from Second Life)

I'm taking an Internet break for the summer.  (Don't worry, I'm coming back.)

And to tide you over until then, here's some more pictures from my travels through the virtual reality of Second Life (click on each pic to get a link to the Flickr page for a brief description and for larger picture sizes, or click here for a full 56-picture slide show via Flickr):

Self Portrait

Been a quiet weekend, spent most of it alone.  Actually made a dent on the dishes and laundry piling up around me.  Somehow in the middle of folding, I got this urge to start taking pictures of myself.

Then I pulled out one of my folded sheets and draped it over my bedroom door, for that el-cheapo photo studio look ;-)

I usually don't like the way I look in photographs, but this one turned out well, I thought.

Hmmm... on second thought, maybe I should do some suntanning WITHOUT my glasses... (*goes to check this week's weather forecast*)

*sigh* Back to Mount Laundry...

Personal Mission, Vision, and Values

I was exploring a search engine I'd never used before (O.K., O.K., I was egosearching, all right?!), and I came across a blog on mission statements which included my personal mission statement!  I had forgotten I had put it up on an older blog I used to have, but deleted when I decided to focus on this one. 

This would be a good time for me to review and revise my personal mission statement.  It's been four years, it's long overdue.

April 9th, 2006, in an Osborne Village café

I asked John to take this picture of me to the left.  It was the third shot; the first two "takes" were accidentally shot while my digital camera was still set to movie-taking mode. I'll post Takes 1 and 2 below; they're pretty funny.

Self-Portrait, 2006

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I'm taking a blog-break until the start of the new year. I am a rich man indeed to have been blessed with such wonderful friends and acquaintances (both real-life and online). Joy and peace to you all.

--Ryan.

(Photo taken by flickrfriend creativity+, photoshopped by me)