April 27 Photo: Earth

I spent my Saturday at the Roots and Branches Family History Conference.  What a fantastic day.  22 different classes to choose from which was hard to narrow down to five choices. I attended England- Advanced, Ireland, Organizing Digital Media, Sweden and Descendancy Research.  Thank goodness for the 82 page syllabus with notes from these and all the workshops I wasn't able to attend.  And would you believe the entire day was free.  I have gotten used to the high price tags on conference registrations so the fact that this and the RootsTech conference in January were both provided without cost is amazing.  I have a lot of ideas and resources I need to follow up on now!








It also provided for a great "earth" picture - well - not artistically - but at least it fits the theme. I always park in the back when I come to this building, the LDS Stake Centre on 17th Avenue SW.  And I guess I never look out the front window. I had no idea that the front lawn was ripped out.  There used to be grass and steps leading up to the building but I found out that the front doors were going to be replaced with windows and the front landscaped without the stairs.  But for now, it is an open construction site (repairs were needed to the foundation so the project wasn't as simple as first expected).

LDS Stake Centre on 17th Avenue.

Flickr Friday: The Morris House

Wandering around Halifax, originally uploaded by whistlepunch.

It was a free day on my trip east for TESL Canada 2011 and I spent it visiting the Pier 21 museum and wandering the streets snapping photos and soaking in the misty Nova Scotia air.

I saw this very old home looking very out of place and so I snapped a picture as I passed by. I had no idea I had captured such a historic treasure. This home is 249 years old! It was built in 1764, 15 years after the city of Halifax was founded. (This is over 100 years before any of my ancestors would immigrate to what later became Canada.)  It was slated for demolition but in 2013 after being saved by the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia, the home was on the move to its new location to shelter young people who are experiencing housing challenges.

Thanks for Steve-23 who shared this information with me on Flickr.
He also included a link to the news story this past January.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/01/26/morris-house-move_n_2557759.html

April 26 Photo: Childhood

Like lots of kids in the seventies, I enjoyed Cracker Jack as a kid. One of the attractions was that when you opened a box of Cracker Jack, it came with a surprise toy inside and for awhile, that was a card from a small wildlife set with an optical illusion.  When tilted back and forth, the camel would walk, the blue whale would breach (bottom card in the page above), or the Canada goose would fly.  These "flicker cards" came as a set of 18 and you could send away for a small book to hold the set you collected. I still have my collection and keep it in the small toy box I pull out for special young guests.

April 25 Photo: Life is...

The only picture I took on Thursday.

Life is....

I started the day with this assignment and had no clear plan of how I was going to capture a resolution to this sentence in a picture.  As I drove to work, I considered "Life is what you make it" and was determined to make it a productive and successful day. Within minutes of arriving at work, I had changed to "Life is full of surprises" when the first "surprise" of the day was delivered via email. After spending the next 2 hours dealing with this first diversion (not that 2 hours covered it - it will involve multiple hours/days over the next 2-3 weeks to set this right), number two occurred as I began a task I had scheduled as my main "to do" of the day. And it all went sideways. Somewhere an error had been made and it had had a cascading effect that unraveled my entire work plan. Unraveled but I keep remembering that my job is to take what comes - I can't rely on my workplan being the agenda of the day and that always makes these side roads more palatable.

The day continued on along this vein and my "Life is full of sweetness and light" opportunities were not  appearing on the horizon, so I decided to salvage a bit of this and arranged to meet a friend for Korean food for dinner. Aah, "Life is good. and at times (when I am not cooking) delicious." I should have snapped a picture for the day then but I thought I had done enough food photo shoots.

The night appeared to be redeeming itself and a visit with my hometeaching couple continued to uplift my spirit. I love hearing about how someone found the gospel and their story was wonderful.

After that, I went in to the office full of optimism that I could get much of my marking and personal work completed and after creating a short screencast, I went in to listen to some student audio files but my speakers no longer would work. I didn't panic - just need to reset my default, right? But after 15 minutes of checking connections and fiddling around with the control panel settings nothing was going to work.  I was feeling a bit panicked - I had used up my limited bag of tricks. So at this point I took the one and only image of the day - a screenshot of my audio devices and messaged it to my nephew - who was out celebrating his last exam of his educational career.  He made a quick suggestion by text and while it wasn't the solution exactly, it did unlock one last option I had not tried and when I did - all was well with the world.

So in the end, Life is an adventure - ups and downs come and go. It helps to let go of expectations (both in the immediate and in the long term). By the end, I could say I had a good day. (I don't think I would have said that at 11:00 am) Instead of my initial "Life is what you make it" I'll say "Life is how you take it!"

April 24 Photo: I Saw This Person Today

I saw "these people" today. I left work early to drive up to Red Deer and present a workshop for the Central Alberta chapter of ATESL. It was a tour of the new atesl.ca website and how social media is integrated.

It was strange leaving without any handouts, notes, digital files etc. I put the content of my presentation on Prezi and didn't prepare a contingency plan if the tech failed.It all worked out and I even had the fun of using a Smartboard. You can see the presentation here.

We had a small turnout but I was happy to meet with them. And thank goodness for clear driving conditions and my favourite tunes. It was a good night.

April 23 Photo: Time

Time, quitting time. At least for today. I've not been as successful as I would like to work my 7 hours between 8:30 and 4:30. Not too late today and the sun is still shining. It feels good to have more of the day left when I leave the office. (Even if I use it to just trade my work computer for my home computer. Tonight it is preparing for a workshop tomorrow in Red Deer.)

April 22 Photo: Blurry

Blurry

Dinner at the Thai Chili Club. Yum! It was a working dinner for the condo board. A nice alternative to our monthly meetings at the property. For all the times I've driven past this restaurant on 17th Avenue, this was my first time to eat here. Loved the coconut ice cream at the end of the meal. Creamy cold coconut delight!

April 21 Photo: Fire

Fire. I had two options. My digital fireplace (DVD that gets brought out every Christmas) or candles. I opted for the candles. I have multiple holders and boxes of tea lights, votives and pillars. They shouldn't be just for Christmas!