Hard at work

This is the first time that I really include myself in one of my photos. Since some people who don't know me well maybe wonder what I do, I figured I'd post of a photo of me at work. Some people may say that I don't work, well this should maybe prove them wrong. It doesn't show me all gritty and dirty (as I can sometimes be when I'm at the farm in New Brunswick), but rather dressed up and moderating a panel. Today, I was moderating a panel on social media. The other panelists were talking about best practices, guideline development, official languages and privacy. It was a power packed panel that was well attended, to a sold out audience in the room and had over 140 people watching on the webcast! To those who were attending and those who watched, I hope you enjoyed the event.

Baby Piracha

Usually my photos try to highlight the best part of the day, well today's photo is definitely a big highlight! Today's experience was a true first for me. I had never held a baby that was less than 24 hours old. Sameya is really tiny. She weighs all of 7lbs and 1oz. She is very pretty, and incredibly quiet. I held her for about an hour and she fussed with her hands and legs, but as soon as she was bundled up again in her blanket, she became super quiet. This is definitely the highlight of my day and the highlight of my week and probably of my month! Here's a few photos of Sameya:

Hanging up the laundry

I didn't get out of my apartment today. I wasn't feeling well and took a sick day. As I am heading out of town on the weekend, I figured I had to do some laundry and thought I'd catch a part of my laundry cycle in my photos. As to save some energy, I use a drying rack to hang up my laundry. Normally, my clothes are dried within 24hrs, depending how much water they have retained. I also do not add any extra heat or doing anything extra.

#W2P Mania...

Tonight I was at a #W2P event that I was co-organizing with two great colleagues. The event was at Milestones on Wellington, near the Rideau Centre. It was one of the most attended events we've had so far, I've only seen maybe 2 or 3 events that had more people. However, I noticed something really interesting about tonight, I was surprised to see a lot of new faces, people that I had not met before. It was nice to see people coming up to me and saying thanks for organizing this event. I worked the room and talked to a variety of people. I am very happy, as my two other organizers should be about this event, as it was truly a social networking event! I figured I'd add some images from the evening, including my favorite name badge, aka Twitter handle and three random facts about yourself. At the last meetup, it was suggested that people add three random facts about yourself. These are nice as they are possible conversation starters for people moving around the room and not just wondering who'se that person via their Twitter name. Here are my photos:



I like my buddy Cameron is waving hello in this one!





And my favorite photo of the evening was a friend, who had the most creative way of adding her Twitter handle, and notes, with a nice little bird, quite stylish!

Out of port

Tonight I was out for a work meeting and ended up hanging out with a friend and we talked about my photo blog, her photo blog, taking photos, etc. Along the booth that we were sitting in, there was this lineup of empty port bottle and I figured I'd take a photo of the bottles as I like their alignment, and figured it would be a nice shot. However, a little irony in this photo, I've never really liked port, for some reason I can't seem to like the taste. I was once told, it will be something you grow into as you get older and as I look at those bottles, I still think: it's not for me!

Watch out for the ice

Yet another sign, this one was taken during another trip at a Winterlude site this afternoon. It's not the best pic, as I had forgotten my P&S at work, and didn't bring my bigger camera out as I wasn't expecting to make it out there, so this was shot with my IPhone. I figured since I had a mini theme of getting unusual signs, this one fits the bill. I kind of reminds me of the signs you see when people are washing floors, warning you about the wet floor and slipping. This is is related, but because of icy conditions.

Icy flow

The weather change from yesterday to today was quite harsh! We had 11C (52) and today it was -12C (9F), but really -22C (-8F) including the wind chill, so any way you look it, it's quite the change and probably explains a bit why I have a runny nose! So today, I hoped to catch a display of how the weather changed and I took this shot which isn't the greatest, but gives a bit of an idea of what can happen when things melt and freeze:

Old BMO building on Sparks St

Another view from my office is this nice brick building, which states:
"BANK OF MONTREAL FOUNDED 1817
INCORPORATED BY THE ACT OF PARLIAMENT
THIS BUILDING WAS ERECTED IN 1930

BANK OF MONTREAL

I find it neat to see this nice old building, with the Canadian flag dab in the middle of it, and Parliament in the background, at least the top of Parliament buildings. A little bit of Ottawa history and Sparks St history.

Rainy February night

Who would believe that in the middle of February, the temperature outside would be 1C (34F) and it would be raining. This shot isn't the clearest, but with the light from the car, it's actually possible to see the rain bouncing off the pavement (no shutter speed control on this camera). Too bad for the tourists in town for Winterlude, the canal is now closed (may re-open depending if we get another cold spell), but tomorrow the weather is supposed to go up to 10C (50F). That's incredibly warm and a tease if you were to ask me! However, I don't really mind it warming up a bit, but I wished it would have waited until Winterlude was done as I didn't get a chance to go check out the snow sculptures.

Ignoramus

Today, on the way home from work, I took the no.3 bus as per usual. The bus was pretty packed and there were no room to sit so I headed to the back of the bus and I saw this! I was really unimpressed, the guy looked at me and moved his foot and I just shook my head! He saw that I was unimpressed! The guy's shoe was dirty and so was the seat. I wasn't ready to sit on a dirty seat. He kept his foot there even until he left the bus! Many thoughts went through my head, how I could deal with the guy, but then thought to myself, violence isn't worth it for a prick like him. So I figured I'd catch his act on my blog. I took a shot of his foot, a shot of the full bus, and a shot of his full body including his face. If you ever see this guy on the bus, I'd say, don't do him any favors! If there was a way to revoke his access to OC Transpo buses, I think he should be suspended! I see his actions as bad as anyone who puts graffiti on a bus or damages the bus. That seat is now dirty because he was ignorant and has no respect for other people's property. I have no respect for this person! This might sound like a rant, but someone has to say things when they see things that are just wrong!

An anomaly

This is a view from outside my office and it reminded me a bit of the painted ladies in San Francisco, even though they are not Victorian style houses, they just look really neat and out of place in this big building environment. The buildings are located on Sparks Street. Maybe we could nickname them the Spark Street Ladies, just a thought. Enjoy:

another sign...

Today's photo represents a little bit of me, and what I do. I tend to run around a lot, tonight I was playing volleyball and on the drive home I figured I'd look for something to take a photo of, something irregular. When I saw this sign, I thought to myself, there you go, something un-expected but representative of my evening and somewhat a surprise to see in its location. The sign was on Preston St, which is located in Little Italy for those of you reading this and not from Ottawa. Little Italy is kind of a busy street with lots of restaurants, and to see this sign, I was kind of surprised. I figured it might have some historical meaning, where once kids might have played in the streets or something. As I have never seen any kids playing in the area, outside the park which is a few blocks up the road.

Gathering dust...

I decided to take a pic of something precious to me, but something I also take for granted. Years ago, I used to spend a lot of time on the twanger, but nowadays, I don't which is really too bad. I need to find the time and play a bit more, it's a good stress relief. Here's a pic of my baby:

Too many photos: Ottawa wanderings and Winterlude

Normally I try to post one photo or a couple of photos at most, but today it was difficult for me to just post one photo. I was out and about around Ottawa and checked out a bit of Winterlude at Confederation Park, and got some nice ice sculpture photos, signs, etc. Then walked in the market and headed for Jaques Cartier Park, and got some nice shots from behind Parliament and then walked across to the bridge headed to to Jacques Cartier Park. As we walked to the front entrance, we were told that the park was closing in 7 minutes and were not allowed in :( The good ole security folks in Quebec refused us entry! Ah well, on the way back, I caught some more photos of Parliament, and other sights around town. Here are some images, check out the slideshow a the bottom or to view all pics in a larger format, follow this link.

Enjoy:

From Winterlude and Ottawa walkabout Feb 12, 2011

From Winterlude and Ottawa walkabout Feb 12, 2011

From Winterlude and Ottawa walkabout Feb 12, 2011

From Winterlude and Ottawa walkabout Feb 12, 2011