Author: Bill

Friends Crawf and Ulli are in town today from Victoria, enroute to Europe, but first they are doing a whirlwind visit to relations in Ontario. Ulli was away visiting a cousin in New York until the evening, so Crawf, Danica and I went downtown to Brookfield Place. We checked out the parking situation at the Marché Restaurant because we’ll all be at a baby shower there on Sunday. The stars of the shower? Julianna and Brendan, daughter-in-law and son of Crawf and Ulli. Got all that? Good. That’s Julianna in the photo with Crawf and Danica. She joined us for lunch. They are posing in Brookfield Place’s Allen Lambert Galleria, in front of a colourful piece of artwork called Starburst. More details about the artwork below.

Click the type image to find out more about this good looking font.

Stuxnet is significant because it is the first cyber weapon known to have been deployed and used successfully. As the video explains, it certainly won’t be the last.

Stuxnet: Anatomy of a Computer Virus from Patrick Clair on Vimeo.

Pretty quiet down there today. I went to see if the shoreline offered any icy views but here is what I saw. Nice, but nothing like the visions we saw at this time last year.
I have a couple of souvenirs below.

A Standing Wave is John Robert Colombo‘s 2012 book of poems and literary “effects” as he calls them. Ideas, insights and impressions that came to his active, curious mind over the year. He has included his annual “dream diary” too, which he records month by month. It is revealing in its own right.
This latest book is hot off the press. John and I collaborate on covers for some of his books and this is one of them. John envisioned an homage to the Group of Seven’s Lawren Harris. I fired up Photoshop and took it from there.
A standing wave is a phenomenon that occurs when two waves of equal force are bounced back into each other. Equal and opposite, the forces combine to create a single wave held motionless in a dynamic balance.

Our local vote last summer made Beach Hill the official name for our neighbourhood. Now it come up in a Google Maps search, too. See?
I like it because Beach Hill was my entry in the naming contest and it won by a (squeaker) majority.

For many years, I thought that there was a predictive element in the phrase In like a lion, out like a lamb. I mistakenly inserted the notion that “if” March opened with particularly nasty winter weather, “then” it would end with benign conditions. But no. There’s nothing Farmers’ Almanacky here… just a saying that reflects March’s position in the calendar as a turning point for seasons.
I wonder why I never thought there was an “if” in April showers bring May flowers.

I won’t name the play because people Google for names, to find comments that have been made. Yesterday’s presentation on a small local stage was well acted, capably executed and even entertaining in spots, but it left me flat. I wasn’t the only one, from other reactions I heard. Too bad. What went wrong?

Rowyn is the talented grand daughter of my sister Joni’s longtime friend Mitz and everyone was very excited to hear the news: The Royal Conservatory of Music will be awarding a Grade One Gold Medal to Rowyn for her singing. The presentation ceremony will occur on March 3rd at the Concert Hall at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver.
Joni says Rowyn has a “beautiful, clear voice with a Celtic lilt. It is a pleasure to hear. She will go far!”
Congratulations, Rowyn. Well done!

Steve Ballmer spammed me with the message above. He must have gotten my email address when Microsoft bought Skype. I have never used Microsoft Messenger. Now I guess I’ll stop using Skype. Facetime is a better alternative anyway, but it’s between Apple devices only.
Time to research alternatives for general use.