The Pencil Guy » photos http://hourann.com Hourann’s illogical blog Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:46:39 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 And now for a message about puppy-poo http://hourann.com/blog/2009/11/08/and-now-for-a-message-about-puppy-poo http://hourann.com/blog/2009/11/08/and-now-for-a-message-about-puppy-poo#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:05:52 +0000 azza-bazoo http://hourann.com/?p=654 Attention Dog Owners: Pick up after your dogs. Thank you. Attention Dogs: Grrrrr, bark, woof. Good dog.

Continuing with the dog theme: this cute little sign is in a park in Boston that was created by the Big Dig (an über-expensive project to put the city centre’s main freeway underground).

]]> http://hourann.com/blog/2009/11/08/and-now-for-a-message-about-puppy-poo/feed 0 Beagle on the bus! http://hourann.com/blog/2009/11/03/beagle-on-the-bus http://hourann.com/blog/2009/11/03/beagle-on-the-bus#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:31:35 +0000 azza-bazoo http://hourann.com/?p=641 So, @thesixthbaron was in SF, on his way back from a conference. We met up, wandered the Haight-Ashbury and Golden Gate Park, and it was cool.

Then I went to catch the bus back to my train station. At first I was entertained by staring out the window and listening in on the two Aussie tourists sitting opposite me who couldn’t quite figure out how to convert time zones. But then we stopped in North Beach, they got off, and a hipster girl came on and took their spot.

And then she motioned to her dog, which jumped up on the seat next to me.

A beagle sleeping on Muni bus 30!

]]> http://hourann.com/blog/2009/11/03/beagle-on-the-bus/feed 1 Happy new year! http://hourann.com/blog/2007/01/01/happy-new-year-2 http://hourann.com/blog/2007/01/01/happy-new-year-2#comments Mon, 01 Jan 2007 04:23:51 +0000 azza-bazoo http://hourann.com/blog/2007/01/01/happy-new-year-2 Gloucester Park NYE fireworks over the Swan River

With other plans having failed to materialise, I almost thought last night would be quiet and boring, until Bernard was kind enough to suddenly call me. We hit the South Perth foreshore and watched the fireworks at Gloucester Park, while trying to avoid the slighty-drunk mob milling around the Oyster Bar.

I didn’t realise that spending New Year’s Eve with a group of random people I mostly don’t know, assembled at the last minute, could be so much fun :-)

More NYE fireworks over the Swan River

]]> http://hourann.com/blog/2007/01/01/happy-new-year-2/feed 3 Christmas decorations in HDR! http://hourann.com/blog/2006/12/25/christmas-decorations-in-hdr http://hourann.com/blog/2006/12/25/christmas-decorations-in-hdr#comments Mon, 25 Dec 2006 11:28:14 +0000 azza-bazoo http://hourann.com/blog/2006/12/25/christmas-decorations-in-hdr Just when I was trying to focus more and reduce the number of distractions in my life, I think I may be becoming addicted to playing with 32-bit HDR images in Photoshop :-)

Lit-up neon angel figure in Forrest Place, Perth

There is, of course, more to be seen in my Flickr account. That said, the other photos have a fair amount of not-quite-right-ness about them, because my kit is woefully inadequate to do this HDR stuff properly. So if I continue down this path, I may run out of money as well as time. Oh dear oh dear …

So anyway, Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, a pleasant Eid ul-Adha, and a prosperous New Year to y’all ;-)

]]> http://hourann.com/blog/2006/12/25/christmas-decorations-in-hdr/feed 0 An experiment with a cat, a tripod, and HDR http://hourann.com/blog/2006/12/16/an-experiment-with-a-cat-a-tripod-and-hdr http://hourann.com/blog/2006/12/16/an-experiment-with-a-cat-a-tripod-and-hdr#comments Sat, 16 Dec 2006 08:21:12 +0000 azza-bazoo http://hourann.com/blog/2006/12/16/an-experiment-with-a-cat-a-tripod-and-hdr My cat, sleeping on a chair, in my first attempt at HDR

I’ve discovered High Dynamic Range photography in the last few days, primarily from seeing things on Flickr, so when I saw the cat being obligingly sleepy (and thus shootable at several exposures) I thought I’d give it a whirl.

Thus I present this slightly-higher-than-usual-DR photo as evidence of my first foray into this crazy world …

]]> http://hourann.com/blog/2006/12/16/an-experiment-with-a-cat-a-tripod-and-hdr/feed 1 Another short photo expedition http://hourann.com/blog/2006/10/20/another-short-photo-expedition http://hourann.com/blog/2006/10/20/another-short-photo-expedition#comments Fri, 20 Oct 2006 04:29:03 +0000 azza-bazoo http://hourann.com/blog/2006/10/20/another-short-photo-expedition I always feel horribly deceitful when I visit other universities to steal resources, like I’m rudely intruding on someone else’s turf. Oh wait, that’s exactly what I’m doing. Anyway, yesterday’s destination was the library at ECU Joondalup.

[Building 18, the library, at ECU Joondalup]

Wandering through the CBD on the way there, I got caught up in lunch hour, and was mildly surprised by the number of Ernst & Young employees watching the construction work at Esplanade station.

[Random folks watching the railway construction workers]

I also saw window cleaners! And which crazy hack at the City of Perth thought it’d be a good idea to have the Christmas decorations up at the start of October?

[Chaps cleaning windows on the Quadrant]   [Elderly lady walks past the already-decorated post office in Perth]

]]> http://hourann.com/blog/2006/10/20/another-short-photo-expedition/feed 3 Random sights of a railway construction site http://hourann.com/blog/2006/09/08/random-sights-of-a-railway-construction-site http://hourann.com/blog/2006/09/08/random-sights-of-a-railway-construction-site#comments Fri, 08 Sep 2006 09:07:07 +0000 azza-bazoo http://hourann.com/blog/2006/09/08/random-sights-of-a-railway-construction-site Aside from recently completing their tunnelling, the merry band of construction contractors has just re-started track laying on the bits of the southern railway closest to my house. As part of this, there are crazy trackwork machines parked at random spots in the middle of the freeway — weirdo sliding gantry cranes, machines that thump the sleepers for (I’m guessing) joining purposes, and ordinary-looking goods carriages that have holes in them to drop gravel under the tracks.

And freight trains. When Murdoch Station is finished I doubt you’ll see one of these parked there on a regular basis …

South Spur Line diesel freight engine sitting in the Kwinana Freeway median near Murdoch station

]]> http://hourann.com/blog/2006/09/08/random-sights-of-a-railway-construction-site/feed 2 Down with the old building! http://hourann.com/blog/2006/07/09/down-with-the-old-building http://hourann.com/blog/2006/07/09/down-with-the-old-building#comments Sun, 09 Jul 2006 14:21:37 +0000 azza-bazoo http://pencilguy.dview.net/blog/2006/07/09/down-with-the-old-building I shall chalk up my lack of posting to suddenly falling ill in the last few days, and to my attempt at clawing back from a position of behind-schedule-ness (with, alas, only limited success). But while I’ve been at UWA all week, I did get a chance to pull out my camera, as a response to the constant crunching sounds of demolition equipment bringing down the old Chemistry building.

The new chemistry building behind the half-demolished old one   Trails of rubble left by the demolition gear   It's 1.12 in a top floor lab

The once-busy UWA chemistry entrance   Backhoe framed by trees and grass

On the one hand, it’s kinda sad to see labs in which I spent so very many hours back in first-year reduced to rubble. On the other, I’m glad to see such an ugly building taken away from the campus … although I’d be far more glad if it hadn’t been replaced by an even uglier building.

]]> http://hourann.com/blog/2006/07/09/down-with-the-old-building/feed 1 A tall ship! With Mexicans! http://hourann.com/blog/2006/06/11/a-tall-ship-with-mexicans http://hourann.com/blog/2006/06/11/a-tall-ship-with-mexicans#comments Sun, 11 Jun 2006 07:45:58 +0000 azza-bazoo http://pencilguy.dview.net/blog/2006/06/11/a-tall-ship-with-mexicans This morning the Mexican Navy’s training and goodwill barque Cuauhtémoc ended its stay in Fremantle and sailed for Melbourne.

It lights up very nicely at night and made quite an impressive sight all week as my CircleRoute pulled in to Fremantle after long cramming sessions at uni. But it wasn’t until I was out and about yesterday that I had a chance to get some half-decent photos.

The Mexican barque Cuauhtémoc A Mexican flag by our very own Maritime Museum!

A military guard watches the curious Australians The eagle and the snake Engine controls in Spanish!

]]> http://hourann.com/blog/2006/06/11/a-tall-ship-with-mexicans/feed 5 Pismo on the operating table http://hourann.com/blog/2006/06/09/pismo-on-the-operating-table http://hourann.com/blog/2006/06/09/pismo-on-the-operating-table#comments Fri, 09 Jun 2006 02:45:29 +0000 azza-bazoo http://pencilguy.dview.net/blog/2006/06/09/pismo-on-the-operating-table I’ve become sick of the sluggish behaviour of my laptop ever since installing Tiger, but didn’t really want to splurge on new hardware (turns out the MacBooks are toasty). So this week I finally caved in and spent money to keep my venerable old PowerBook Pismo running, with a new 512Mb stick of RAM. Actually, I should really have done this some time ago — PC133 SODIMMs have been hovering around their current prices for months.

The PowerBook Pismo, laid bare for all to see

After some minor open-heart surgery on the poor little black monster, it now has a respectable amount of memory! There’s life in that old G3 yet …

More memory for me!

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