Thursday, July 28, 2005

Palin's Travels


I came across this link that travel writing fans (and others) might be interested in (are you listening Margy?). It's Michael Palin's travel writing site. For those who might not know - Michael is from Monty Python and played 'K-K-K-Ken' in A Fish Called Wanda. The site makes 6 of his books available for free online reading. They've received excellent reviews. The site also contains other info such as news, videos and other interesting stuff from him.

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Globe Trotter






For anybody who hasn't seen it yet, Google has come out with a program called Google Earth. It uses satellite imagery to map the globe. Some portions of it have quite detailed images. It's pretty powerful stuff. Of course the first thing I searched for was my own address and luckily it has good detailed images for Beeton. You can see my house in the picture on the left (that black blob out in the end of the driveway is my Saturn!!), I added the arrow. It's also neat for going to far away places, again, some of which have very detailed images. You can see the screenshot that I took from the Grand Canyon. Somehow it also gets terrain information so you can really go into the canyon and actually look back out from the bottom of it. The navigation takes a little getting used to but once you get the hang of it it's quite fun. It can also superimpose roads, borders, and even lodging and restaurants! There's a lot here to fool around with. And of course the best part is that it's free. It really requires a broadband connection, but supposedly will run on just about any pc that's less than 4 years old. The power of typing in some address or town name across the globe and then watching as you zoom way way up and fly across the continents is really amazing. And it works very simply like google does. You just type in say, 'Beeton,ON' or 'Las Vegas, NV' or 'Swansea, Wales' and it just zips over there and starts zooming in. Very very neat.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Googling the Moon...


For those of you who haven't yet tried it, Google Maps is a pretty slick free map service with satellite imagery (for even more amazing capabilities, see Google Earth). Well anyways, they've now got a site called Google Moon which gives some NASA imagery of the landing sites of the Apollo missions on the moon. Give it a try and make sure you zoom in all the way! :)

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Uncle and Swim Coach


poolparty001
Originally uploaded by Richard Querin.
One of my favourite pics. I thought I'd post it separately in case it was missed on the flickr site.

Moore Lake


moorelakeJul05006
Originally uploaded by Richard Querin.
We were up to the Barker's cottage this past weekend for quick visit. Some photos have been added... both of the creeps and of the cottage (and even one of a wakeboard babe!)

More Fun Poolside


poolparty002
Originally uploaded by Richard Querin.
Some new pictures are posted in the gallery to have a peek at. Aunty and Uncle's pool has been a favourite destination this summer, let's hope they don't start charging admission! It felt a little weird not being up there this weekend...but we made up for it Monday night! Thanks guys.

Friday, July 08, 2005

Off to the races..


Off to the Toronto Molson Indy today, courtesy of Jen getting two friday passes (with VIP Pit walk-through no less!). Let's hope the hospitality tents are all they're cracked up to be!

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

The Great Gupster

Paul (and Sandy) have a blog! It's called The Great Gupster. Everyone run for cover!! :)

Go Wild...


safari005_
Originally uploaded by Richard Querin.
We made the trip down to the wilds of the Freelton-Cambridge area of Ontario this past weekend to African Lion Safari. We took my car in for the tour and luckily the baboons found it extremely boring compared to the multitude of roof-rack laden SUV's and minivans and didn't want to hop on for a ride - to Jen's disappointment. Emily absolutely loved it as she got to sit up front with Mom out of the car seat. A baboon immediately hopped on the side window of the minivan in front of us and peed on the mirror...likely to the absolute delight of the kids inside of it (but not to the poor van owner). One of the female lions circled our car a couple of times within inches of the side window. The size of these cats was just incredible. Unfortunately I didn't get a clear shot at that point. Click here to take a look at the photos I did manage to get.