Listening to: Negative Scanner - Nose Picker

Photo: Fraser River Park

Stanley likes digging a hole at the beach, dropping his ball into it then barking at the ball for a spell. Dig another hole, move the ball, bark at the ball…

Brain the size of a pea, I swear.

Listening to: Girls With Knives - Handsome Men

Because they’re not advertised, lots of folks are not aware of free or open source software packages, often suitable as an alternative to commercial products. Not that they are copies, in fact some features of commercial packages are first developed in open source. It goes both ways.

Here’s a short list of packages for common tasks although there are far, far more:

• Paint = Krita
• Image Manipulation = Gimp
• Vector Drawing = Inkscape
• Photo Grading and light-table = Darktable, digiKam
• 3D Graphics = Blender
• Office Suite = Libre Office
• Video Editing = OpenShot, Shotcut, KdenLive
• Web Browsing = Firefox, Brave, Chromium
• DAW = LMMS, Ardour
• Audio Editing = Audacity, Rosegarden

Listening to: The Shiverettes - Dead Men Can’t Cat Call

This is my “Oh, hey. While you’re up can you grab me a beer?” photo.

Stanley was born atop Chilliwack Mountain. Runt of the litter, it was hit or miss whether he lived. Lucky for us, he not only pulled through, but became largest of the bunch. Size AND personality.

If you met him, you’d know he’s rather outgoing. Assuming he’s welcome wherever he goes, whether you’re a stranger sitting quietly reading on a park bench or a family having a picnic. Welcome to Stanley.

We did a lot of training with him at first. A lot because he was considered “wilful for the breed” and had to stay after class. Even so we eventually won a trophy for “most improved” of the year. Though he immediately forgot everything. Probably my fault.

He’s worked as a support dog both in workplaces during crunch times and as an anxiety dog of sorts at other events. He’s even been asked to help children get over their fear of dogs. If you wander about with him chances are people won’t remember your name. Been called “Mr. Stanley” on more than one occasion. All good.

If you see him out in Vancouver, please say hi. His entire reason for being (besides food) is to love strangers. Walks are great as you’re never alone for long. Even those brief distanced conversations help a lot during these isolating times.

I love the bugger. He lives upstairs now because of pet number 2. Willy the attack cat. More on him in another post.

Listening to: SBDC - Bad At Sex

We (Stanley and I) were to depart this summer for a long awaited trip across Canada.

When he first came home I promised him the best life ever and, for the most part, it’s been a promise upheld. Travel, love and adventure. Snowshoeing on Seymour, swimming in Lynn Creek, Sunday morning “pizza crust hunting” on Commercial Drive, lots of friends and even a few concerts. He once expressed a desire to pee on Newfoundland. I’m not sure he entirely understands WHAT the maritime provinces are. PEI may indeed be a form of cookie. None the less, a plan was made.

The vehicle in question was a cheaply obtained 1987 G20 ‘Get-Away Van’ in need of repair. Even after finished those, the mechanic who inspected it gave us “at least a 50-50” chance of making it. With these odds are adventures made.

“The Thing” scuttled all those plans and will likely do so for next year as well. I hope Stanley lives long enough to pee across Canada see the other side of the country, he’s getting to be an old dog these days.

Ugg. Fuck 2020.

Listening To: Au Pairs - Live in Berlin (video)

Stanley at ten weeks old. He’s still a cutie.

That snores like a dump truck.

Listening to: Paddywak

Not a lot of photos in 2020. Not with my m4/3 cameras anyway. Going to get back into the swing of it in 2021 (though we’ve done a lot of video work at a venue, more on that later). This turned out to be my favourite this year, a pretty sad day…

I showed up for morning coffee, bright and sunny, only to notice a trickle of smoke pouring out of a chip shop down the street. It eventually burned out a few long-incumbent businesses and forced more to close due to water damage. Including a old friend of mine’s record shop. Bleh.