Tuesday, March 2, 2010


The lovely thing about writing on the computer is that no one will notice the drool on my computer monitor.
This car is sexy. But that isn't the only great thing about it, it's green too. That's right Ferrari has made a hybrid. Imagine a V12 electric motor. Still in the development phase this car could change drastically, but I hope not.

This car is amazing.
Read the article here.

Friday, February 26, 2010

The question is not can they, but will they

I read an interesting article yesterday on Wired. The concern was over Apple's censorship of it's apps store. "From a legal perspective, Apple can do whatever it wants with the content in its App Store. Apple is not government, and thus it is not governed by the First Amendment. In light of the recent ban, many have correctly compared Apple’s App Store to Wal-Mart, which also doesn’t allow porn." While the author doesn't seem to have an issue with Apple removing sexual content, he is concerned whether or not this could extend to news apps in the future.
Now admittedly, I am an Apple girl, but this doesn't mean I wear blinders. Apple does have a scary amount of power, but it is their store and if they choose not to have an 18+ section who am I to say that's wrong. But what if somewhere down the road they do start getting complaints about say a New York Times article, will they be able to pull that too? The news shouldn't be censored, it's there to inform the world about actual events.
I don't believe that they would stoop to censoring the news even if it was obtained through one of their apps. People who get news apps know that not all of it is going to be to their liking. People don't complain to the newspaper vendors when something offends them in the paper, so why should they expect electronic newspapers to behave differently.
Yes, Apple probably can censor the news, but I don't think they will.

Read the article here

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The state of global cyber security...who knew?

I just read a thought provoking article, thanks to Wired. Apparently our international internet borders are not being protected thoroughly. As far as I can see most of the internet isn't terribly secure, but that's the price you pay to be globally connected. There's always a risk online, my dad still won't use his credit card, even for well established sites like Amazon.
This article seemed to be encouraging a cooperative system that what's already in place for law enforcement. "A priority for regulators is to find ways of tracking down criminals across borders and ensuring they are punished, a tough task when criminals can use proxy servers to remain anonymous." Pavan Duggal, Indian cyber law expert and former Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff both hinted of a large scale online catastophy: granted they were only saying that to imply that nations need to start talking now, before it's too late.
However, their visions of a cyber 9/11 got me thinking, what if it did happen, can it happen. How much do we really know about what's going on out there. I'm sure a few of you are reading this and thinking, well I know and it's not hard to find out I say good for you be informed, but the rest of us are just merrily surfing away in our own little bubbles. I don't have a credit card so I'm not too concerned about that, but I've entered my name and address a few times. I tend to worry more than necessary, but what I always come back to is this: I'm a student so I'm broke, and don't know anything terribly sensitive or important. I always figure they've got bigger fish to fry. But what if the internet were down for a long period of time, or even just down?
I think I would be okay. I would miss the unlimited knowledge at my fingertips and the instant access to design from around the world, but I would be okay. I'd probably whine along with the rest of the world, but in the end I'd get over it. I would probably do a lot more art, which I always say I want to anyway. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if the internet went away for awhile. That's given me an idea.
For either two days a week or a week a month I will go internet free. With the exception of email because I get important information from my instructors. We'll see how I fare.

Read the article here

Saturday, July 12, 2008

I finally understand Busy as a Bee

Wow, summer leads to business. I know it's busier in general on the island, but I don't usually get that much busier, just more work. This year though, I'm out all the time: movies, fashion shows, dinner, potlucks. I think I've been out every night for just over two weeks straight. I love it, but at the same time I'm not used to it. I'm not a terribly social creature, Hornby works for me in the winter...well, mostly.

Last Tuesday I went to Helen and Steve's wedding. It was a lot of fun, to start the ceremony they did a spoof/skit of Romeo and Juliet. Steveno and Helenet. He was a Republican and she was a Democrat. He found her by using Google Earth and MapQuest. Quite entertaining, but nowhere near as good as the reception. I danced from about 8pm to 12am. I haven't had that much fun in a long, long time.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Hello Again

Wow, it's been a long, looooong time. Life has been rather crazy, but boring at the same time.

I went to the preschool fashion show on Sunday. My charming date was Savannah. This is the first one I've been to since the one I was in when I gradded...I think. There were some very nice clothes. Lots and lots of super cute sun dresses. The models did well. Unfortunately there were no men. :o( Matt and Anthea did a salsa number somewhere in there. There were doing awesome, until the music just stopped on them. Good job guys!

The biggest thing that's happened though is my "auntie" Joanne's death. She died on May 27th. There were three families that have spent every New Years together for as long as I can remember. The parents were friends before they were parents. We were eachother's adoptive families. I'd like to honour my honourary aunt here. We loved you Auntie Joanne. We'll miss you.

Her celebration of life was really tough. My "cousin" spoke about her family being out East and us becoming her family. That was really hard. The barbecue the night before was fun. Played some wii and hung out with my cousins and some of their friends.


I love you guys!

Monday, April 14, 2008

Inspiration strikes again.

Last Sunday I spent a the last few hours needed to get my dad's logo dialed. He is so happy with it. It's his third iteration of his logo, he didn't even use the last one because he didn't like it. I think he's going to stick with this one for a long time.


I'm not sure about the water, you lose part of the logo when it's small because of the shadows in the waves. I like how it looks like stained glass and it looks awesome without the water. All in all I'm quite pleased with it.



On top of designing my dad's logo I got into the Art Program at North Island College for September. I was pretty sure I was going to get it, but I got my letter a few days ago. I'm really excited to be going back to school. Go figure, eh. I never thought I'd be glad to get back to school, but this time it's something I'm really interested in. I just hope that the good looking Art History is being run this year and not next year. There's one I really, really don't want to take and the other one looks super interesting. The courses were supposed to be posted on the 11th, but still nothing. Bah.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

We got to go out!

Saturday Jer and I were just hangin' in the shop when Jeff Bishop came in. Jer asked what the Breeze was up to and Jeff mentioned an optional wine-pairing dinner. We were both so desperate to go out we added out names to the list.

We got there at 6:30 dinner was supposed to be 7, but our first course was served at 6:45. It was a mescalin salad with local watercress, candied pecans, smoked cheddar, and hearts of palm. It was great, the flavours played off each other so well.

Our next course was scallops in a chili lime buerre blanc sauce. I've never knowingly had scallops before, I tend to not like shellfish. I loved these, I definitely could have done with seconds, like some people... :o) I was starting to get rather full by this point, but we still had two more courses to go, one of which was dessert.

For the main course Jer and both chose the "melt-in-your-mouth" black cod with sage potatoes and grilled veggies. The veggies and potatoes weren't terribly exciting, but the cod really did melt in your mouth. Again, I'm not fond of white fish, but this blew me away. Jer wants to get a smoker now because the smoked items of dinner were so good. I'm all for that.

Lastly, was orange-apricot layer cake with dark chocolate ganache. Dessert was disappointing. The slice of cake was way to big. Apparently it wouldn't stand up if it was thinner. The taste was good, but way too much after the light tastes of the meal. Plus I was full.

All in all, Ben was in fine form. I don't find their buffet dinners all that exciting, totally not worth the rep and the price, but the sit-down dinners are always incredible. I'm going to try to get to more of them.