Not To Be Trusted With Knives

The Internet’s leading authority on radicalized geese

Oct
11

By

Stock Images

Category: random Tags: , 1 Comment

So I was looking for images to use in slides for the class I’m teaching this semester – I’m a big fan of using striking images in my slides and I also make a point of only using ones that have copyright licenses to allow me to use them for free1. I have a few sites that I go to for such images: Freepik, Unsplash, Pixabay, Free Images, and Flickr (where you can search for Creative Commons licensed photos). I’ve found some pretty good ones and have some slides that I really like this semester, but in the process of searching for images is not always so smooth. Like yesterday when I was searching for an image to represent “causation”. Three sites2 gave me no images and one site gave me 484 images of carnations. #EvaluatorProblems.

I’ve also come across some weird stuff. Like this image3, which is currently haunting my dreams:

hand-2571553

So, um, Happy early Halloween?

Image Credit: Posted by SarahRichterArt ((Be warned: I just went on the page of this photographer and she also has photos with spiders in them. And you know how I feel about spiders! Gah!)) on Pixaby with a Creative Commons license.

  1. I know a lot of people take whatever images they want off the interwebs and use them with impunity, but I choose not to do that. [↩]
  2. Flickr gave me a bunch of unrelated photos plus this photo, which made my head explode, because it’s completely not true. We don’t use correlation to give credit to vaccines for preventing diseases – we know vaccines work to prevent diseases from randomized controlled trials!! #ScientistRant. [↩]
  3. For the record, I was searching for “reports” when I found this abomination! [↩]

Oct
26

By

1,120

Category: travel Tags: , , , 1 Comment

So it’s taken me three weeks, but I’ve finally gotten all the photos from my Australia trip uploaded1 – all 1,120 of them!

Here are some of my favourite ones:

Quokka selfie:

Quokka selfie!

I caught that Australian-specific Pokémon before I even got to my hotel in Perth:

I caught a Kangaskhan on my first day in Australia!

Didn’t actually end up going here for a drink, but couldn’t resist taking a picture of the sign at the Lucky Shag Waterfront Bar:
The Lucky Shag Pub

Absolutely no dog picnics at Bootleg Brewery in Western Australia:
Bootleg Brewing

Mammoth Cave in Western Australia was amazing:
Mammoth Cave, Western Australia

I saw a lot of lighthouses on my trip, of which this was the first one:
Lighthouse in Western Australia

I did actually go to Australia for a conference. Here’s proof that I went to it!
Conference nametag selfie

These toys were used in an activity in a workshop that I went to:
Little toys used for an activity in the pre-conference workshop I went to

I’m not even sure what to say about this one:

Freemantle, Western Australia

Just living the thug life, where “thug life” = disobeying signs in low risk situations:

Freemantle, Western Australia

This little house on Rottnest Island, Western Australia, had the name “Stark” on it. When I saw it, I yelled: “The king in the south!!!”

The King in the South!

This building in Perth had cool colour lights and the lights were changing2:

Perth, Western Australia

Sign at a Mexican restaurant in Byron Bay:

Hilarious sign

Found this dead jellyfish on the beach. Until I saw it, I had completely forgotten hat I should be worried about being stung by a jellyfish!

Jellyfish I found on the Beach in Byron Bay

I’d been to the most easterly point of North American in June, so going to the most easterly point of mainland Australia seemed like a thing to do:

Most easterly point of the Australian mainland

I like the trees in Australia – then have interesting shapes”

Byron Bay

Cool tree

Sydney Opera House:

On the Ferry to Watson's Bay

Can’t sleep. Amusement park will eat me. (Luna Park in Sydney):
Luna Park's entrance is the creepiest clown ever

At the Peak in Hong Kong. The view wasn’t as spectacular as it could have been that day due to cloudiness/smogginess/smoggy cloudiness:

The Peak

Hong Kong is big. This photo really doesn’t do it justice:

Hong Kong

The whole photo album, should anyone actually want to look at all 1,120 of them, is on Flickr.

  1. Mostly because I’ve been too busy with other things, like catching up on work and my other work. And I had to find some spare time to get rid of duplicates and photos that turned out fuzzy, and then edited them to do things like tone down shadows or turn up the brightness so the photos looked good. And then upload them all! [↩]
  2. I got a video of it, but haven’t uploaded it yet. [↩]

Aug
7

By

Home Sweet Home

Category: travel Tags: , , , 2 Comments

It was a lovely trip to Oregon, but now that I’m home, it’s nice to be here too! The drive home was uneventful and since I’ve been home I’ve unpacked, then taken a quick trip to the produce to buy some fruits and veggies. And as soon as I stepped into the produce store, I realized how sick I am of eating in restaurants – so nice to make my own food again!

Anyhoo, I’m going to get back to getting ready for the week, so I’ll just leave you with this planking photo from Multnomah Falls:

Planking at Multnomah Falls

Jul
29

By

Officially On Vacation!

Category: family, rampant narcissism, travel Tags: , , , , , , Leave a Comment

I had a ridiculously productive day at work today, getting three major things done that needed to be done, as well as helping out two people with computer problems1, and reviewed a paper for a colleague. Like I said, ridiculously productive. So I feel that I have extra super duper earned the vacation that I am now on. I ended up staying a bit late to get all this done, but I left the office by about 5:45 p.m. and by 5:54 p.m. I was at home drinking a beer. Drinking this beer, in fact:

IMG_2359

And thus begins my vacation. Of course, this first night of my vacation won’t be that exciting. I’ll be packing my bags and going to bed early so that I can get up at the crack of dawn to try to beat  some of the long weekend border traffic. But I am super stoked that by a roughly this time tomorrow I will be hanging out with my sister, my brother-in-common law, my niece, and my nephew!

In unrelated news, while uploading my beer photo, I also uploaded a few other photos that I had sitting on my iPhone. Photos such as this awesome  sign that I saw on the weekend:

IMG_2280

And this photo that I took for Dr. Dan:

IMG_2262

As you know, Dan and I have a thing for disobeying signs while taking photos of us disobeying said signs go to sleep. Guess what I was about to do in that photo? If you guessed proceed through that door uncautiously, you win!

Also, I took a screenshot on my iPhone when I checked in on Foursquare at the Mercedes dealership when I took my Smart car in for its service appointment because the tip at the bottom was just too hilarious:

IMG_2276

And with that, I am off to pack my bags for Portland and then play with my new Dragon Dictate2 some more before bed.  I love this vacation already!

  1. I’m the unofficial IT support person in my office, thanks to my mad computer skillz. Where “mad computer skillz” = I know how to use AutoFilter in Microsoft Excel and I know how to format things in Microsoft Word. [↩]
  2. Believe it or not, Dragon Dictate just wrote “Dragon Dictate” as “Reagan Dictate.” FAIL! [↩]

Jan
13

By

Snowmageddon!

Category: rampant consumerism, Vancouver Tags: , , , , , 3 Comments

So this is what Zaphod Beeblebrox the Car looks like under a foot of snow:

IMGP1980

After crying “SNOWMAGGEDON!” several times this month, the meteorologists were finally right and we got a big dump of snow on the night of my birthday. Thankfully it waited until after I got home from the Indian buffet I went to with a few friends to celebrate my being born1, because I hate, hate, hate driving in the snow.

Also, yesterday I learned that my dashboard flashes a warning light when my car starts to slide on ice/snow.  In case you don’t notice, you know, that your car is sliding. Guess the bag of hockey pucks I keep in my car in the winter was not sufficient to weigh down Zaphod and prevent sliding. Fortunately, it was only the side streets that were slippery – the main roads were completely clear by the time I left for work yesterday and now even the side streets are mostly clear. And the forecast is calling for rain and 7-8 degrees C for the next week or so. W00t!

  1. this was just a low key dinner on my birthday. I’m having a big birthday bash on Saturday, since my actual birthday was on a school night, but I like to do something special on the actual day [↩]

Sep
20

By

Tee Hee

Category: random Tags: , 1 Comment

Spotted at BC Women’s Hospital parking lot:

IMG_0678

Jun
9

By

Happy 65th Birthday to My Dad!

Category: events, family Tags: , , , 2 Comments

Today my dad is officially a pensioner!  Though he has retired many times before, today he officially gets to call himself “retired for good” and start collecting his CPP1. In his honour, I shall purchase a Lotto Max ticket today for this week’s draw – who knows, maybe I’ll win $50 million!  If I do, I’ll share it with my dad!

This is a picture of my dad and his brothers, Bob and Greg.  I have no idea who is who in this photo. From left to right it is: Uncle Bob, my dad, Uncle Greg.  Which I should have been able to tell by the heights really, since the order of descending heights is also the order of descending age.

Hope you are having a great birthday, Dad!

  1. for my non-Canadian readers, that’s Canada Pension Plan [↩]

Jan
28

By

Do You Get This?

Category: Geekery Tags: , , , 3 Comments

OK, before I tell you what I’m all excited about here, have a look at this picture of a license plate and tell me if you get why I saw it and thought, “I MUST PHOTOGRAPH THIS!!”1:

When I saw this license plate as I was driving up Knight St. today, I got super excited. I may have even yelled, “CHIRAL!!”  And then I immediately thought, ‘that’s a pretty obscure thing to have on one’s license plate. I wonder how many people see that and know what it’s about.’

So here’s my informal, completely unscientific poll: If you saw that license plate while you were driving down the street, would you know what it was about?

You can’t see it in the photo, but this vehicle also had a UBC sticker in its window, so I’m guessing that it belongs to a chemistry prof.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, go here.

  1. for the record, we were safely stopped at a red light when I took the pic [↩]

Jun
1

By

It only happens once in the life of every car…

Category: rampant consumerism Tags: , , , Leave a Comment

It only happens once in the life of every car... by you.

And you only get 1 km in which to capture the photographic evidence.  Fortunately, I was driving down 12th Avenue when it happened and I was stopped at virtually every red light, so I was able to snap this photo without endangering myself and those around me.

And speaking of my beloved car, I dropped her off at the dealership this evening, where she will be diagnosed and fixed and hopefully given back to me soon.  They’ve given me a loaner smart car with a sunroof and A/C, which, given that it was 31 degrees1 (!) when I got off work today, I really shouldn’t complain about. I figure I’ll enjoy that while I’ve got it and I’ll try not to miss my Zaphod Beeblebrox the Car too much!

1For my American readers, 31 degrees C is ~88 degrees F.

May
26

By

This Is What Greeted Me In My New Office Today

Category: events Tags: , , , , , 11 Comments

Welcome by you.

Random facts about my new job:

  • It took me & Zaphod about 40 minutes to drive to my new office this morning and about 50 minutes to drive home.
  • There are 31 people in my office, 30 of whom are female.
  • I was introduced to pretty much everyone who was at the office today. I think I can put four names to faces. Which for me is actually pretty good.
  • Everyone at the office was very friendly and welcoming (as evidenced by the above photo).
  • Tomorrow there will only be four of us in the office, as everyone else is going to be at a big meeting off-site.
  • It was one women’s last day working at this office, so she brought in some really delicious cinnamon buns.  My new officemate informed me that although they claimed these were because of a special occasion, pretty much every day someone brings in cake/cookies/sweets of some kind or another. I may need to up my running to account for this1.

1And by “up” I mean “resume.”