Mathers' Blog

It’s a full moon!

Here are a set of pics with the d40 at 200mm.

The last photo was at f16, shutter 1/320. O’man and I read a blog once that said you can get great moon shots with a small aperture and fast shutter. That gets the details, then you can clean it up in photoslop.

These are 100% crops, so a better camera would give you a bigger moon.

Two pictures from two seasons take 2.5 years apart.

In one, a cold bitter landscape perfect for flinging yourself down in a hill in a card board box.

The other, an allergenic, mosquito infested hell scape.

I prefer box sled stunt man to cow in a field.

With newspapers around the world trying to find creative ways to get the next generation to value their content, it’s reassuring to see our local paper confidently sticking strong to the lazy-angry-old-people market with columns that offer nothing of value, information or insight. That’s right, just opinion. It’s expensive to do real reporting, but it’s cheap to let people rant.

Mel meets Ad Asner at one of his many opening nights

With headlines like “Is nobody responsible for anything?” and “Finally, I know why I’m so crabby lately” the Kamloops Daily News column “Armchair Mayor” is a fine distillation of elderly rants, diuretics and lazy self righteous opinion. Written by ex kamloops Blazer coach Mel Rothenburger (he coached one of those really, really bad teams a few years ago) the column or versions-of appear online, on twitter (lie! hasn’t been updated since 2010), and in a hand-held mobile version that uses shredded and chemically treated trees.

It’s really a great read. I didn’t know things were that simple! No one is responsible for things any more! Cellphones and driving? Solved! I also didn’t know ex-Councillor John O’Fee spent much of his time at city council meetings texting. Who’s got a little something on the side??

The Armchair Mayor idea was a great one. Everyone loves the backseat driver, the know-it-all, the guy that goes on and on about how things SHOULD be done that everyone else ignores but you get stuck listening to him because you’re too polite to interrupt.

I was also surprised when Armchair Mayor announced that TRU were the “best communicators on the planet”. I think that guy in Russia who taught his penis how to speak 800 different languages would argue the point.

Far and away the best communicators on the planet are the folks at Thompson Rivers University. [removed his choice for WORST because it's not very nice] TRU communicates almost to a fault. On a slow news day, or even a fast one, local media can rest assured TRU will come through with a press release, or two or three. The university churns out public information like linguini through a pasta maker. The slightest event will find its way into a media advisory. And, if the local media can’t work it into their schedules, not to worry — the TRU publicity machine will provide text and pictures.We’ve even been assured that, if we’re working on a story involving TRU, the institution will collect quotes from appropriate sources if we wish.
TRU tops the list in talking to public (Mar 8, 2011)

It was such a surprise because only 5 months ago, he was claiming quite a different story:

On the first, Shaver would seem to prefer a controlled environment. With Barnsley, if you want to talk to him you phone him and he answers. With Shaver, it goes something like this: phone him and leave a voicemail; voicemail gets referred to VP advancement Christopher Seguin, who calls you back in a day or two to assess the request and tentatively pencils you in with Shaver for sometime next week; a few days later, media coordinator Diana Skoglund calls to put you in the schedule. Total elapsed time: nine days.
Media finally close in on TRU’s man of mystery (Oct 14, 2010)

Hey, cut the guy some slack. It’s hard work writing about stuff you don’t know anything about and having no intention to find anything out. But it’s easier that actually finding things out.

Here are some future column ideas for the KDN when they find out that relocating printing presses doesn’t increase readership.
- the Backseat Snowplow Driver
- Phoning it in with John
- It’s not personal, I just don’t have anything else to do
- No really, this is all I have to live for. Please don’t take it away from me
- Captaining Drunk from Ten Forward
- Angry
- What are you thinking right now; I’ll write about that

These two bikes have been discretely parked outside Old Main for months. I took these pictures in October, when I first noticed their extended stay. I can’t say how long they were there before October, so let’s just call it years.

Aside from weather wear, they are brand new with manuals still wrapped around the frame. One has a seriously bent tire.

Are they bait bikes? Or left by thieves? Did a cute turkish couple purchase the bikes on warm fall day, then ride to campus for an evening walk only to get mauled by a kenna cartwright grizzly? Oh if these bikes could talk.

Check out the 3d extravanowza Killing Me video from Robyn.
I’m going to watch this all night.