April 6, 2005
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STEPHANIE! Megan says the same!
Well, we all had a great barbecue at Brad and Margot's with all the trimmings and then came the ritual of birthday cake and presents! Steph was 11yrs. old this year---how time flies! Steph is growing like a weed, but one really pretty weed!!
I'll post some more pictures when I figure out where my photo gallery is! Guin left me an instruction sheet, but we didn't have time to practice it! I've also got some more photos to scan for my blog.
It's nice and warm today--around 15--roll on Spring!!
Here's some interesting tech news from Japan.The 2005 Aichi Expo opened in March and will run to
September. At the gates you will encounter a reception robot which looks like a Japanese woman, but which is clearly not human. Name Actroid, she, or it, is capable of understanding naturally spoken words, and can carry on a conversation with a guest in Chinese, Korean, English or Japanese. Other robots roam the site including those used for cleaning, security and transportation. But one of the most well-programmed and useful are PaPeRo child care robots. These amazing machines have a face recognition function that enables it to recognize a child's face and respond to facial expression changes. It is able to discern the speech patterns of different children and has a mobile phone link for staying in contact with the parents. It also reads stories, sings songs and organizes games--incredible!!
One more techie info. --Toyota Partner Robots which are humanoid in design, and will show off some of their talents by playing together in a jazz band. Ultimately though, the partner robots are to be used in assisting, especially the elderly at home and in hospitals, offices and factories.
Japan's famous Bullet Train reaches speed of 250 k/hr on raised tracks. It travels slowly while within the city limits of Tokyo but then speeds up when it's out in the country. There is a digital readout of its sped as it goes along. We travelled on it in 1983 from Tokyo to Nagoya Meals are served on the train in the form of either Western or Japanes style--you just point to the menu--there is a picture of the food! I tried a Japanese lunch which included sushi, noodles, etc. I asked our server for some milk and she said," Mirouk? Izor Hah!" Translate as milk--iced or hot!! It was funny but at least I got my milk!
In an article about sound producers they wrote about some interesting sources of getting sound effects for movies and video games.
To duplicate the sound of robot bees, one researcher finally hummed through a kazoo and ran an electric beard trimmer across the surface of his bath--voila! Robot bees!
To simulate a cock fight, the stock sound effects were all benign birds, the two stood around a microphone making angry clucking noises and later electronicallly altered--scraping the ground to fake talon noises and flicking towels to simulate the sound of wings!
One very interesting effect was produced for CSI Miami, they needed the sound of a bullet passing through human tissue. He recorded squirting a bowl of Jello with water, his own flapping cheeks and, to get the sound of a bullet striking home, Breaking lengths of rotting wood!
I'll bet that some of you Junior Bloggers would like to think about reating your own special sound effects!
Well, it's time for supper, so have a good day everyone!
Guin phoned yesterday and they are in Toronto at Allen's parents house -after the trip from Hell with the U-Haul! Guin and Allen will be doing posts about it soon
Love Mom, Grandma, Carol, Cas etc..xoxoxoxoxo and hugs to all!!
Posted by Cas at 5:00 PM | Comments (2)
March 21, 2005
SNOW BABY! March snow still here !
Snow greeted Steph on her arrival back home, and she had lots of fun playing with Guin,Josh and Jeremy snowboarding on home made jumps in our back yard! One jump included an old table in the middle of the jump which made for some added excitement!
Guin and Allen are busy packing for their proposed departure at the end of the month. It is going to be a new chapter in their lives and we all wish them well and lots of success! But, by gosh, how much we will all miss them! They have been part of our lives and I shall shed lots of tears when they leave! Anyway, they said they will get a 2 bedroom apartment so we can all go for a visit whenever we can!
Yesterday, we had a great family supper with Cary, Cheryl, Thomas and Cary over. We've been having all the kids over taking turns. Next week is Easter so we shall have an Easter Sunday's pot luck supper so think of what you are able to bring to the feast! Shelby has volunteered to make one of her famous chocolate cakes and we are going to cook the turkey!
We were invited to Brad and Margot's for supper the other night and had a yummy meal of chicken, salad and spaetzle! Yum! Brad then showed us all the photos he'd taken on his digital camera of the week they were in Florida.It must have been a gorgeous break for them. He said it only rained on the first day and after that it was 27 to 30. I loved the photo of Jeremy in a little wet suit confidently sailing his windsurfing board!! I hope Brad posts a lot on his blog for you all!
Tech stuff!
people moving category!
I'll have to check to see if that is how to put this on my blog!
Station break while I do this! ;)
Just checked this site but it is presently being upgraded!
I was watching a CBC program today and it was saying that video games are now bigger than Hollywood. In San Francisco there are $ 10 billion in sales now. In Quebec, the government realizes the potential of this industry and has donated money to a company Ubisoft. This company is scouting around in the States trying to drum up business for Quebec and Ubisoft's employees.
Did you know that 43% of our fuel is used while we sit in traffic jams.
A solar tower has been designed by a guy called Mau as he believes in environmentally friendly fuels. This type of tower will be especially useful in the tropics where the sun is a constant.
Daimler Chrysler has designed a car called "Pim" which utilized the design of a Canadian car designer--Canada rules!!
Another tech gadget! If you spill your coffee or wine, rhere is a syetem called the Tide Buzz system. It works with a Tide cleaning solution to create gentle ultrasonic waves. The starter kit costs $69.99 and includes the appliance,10 oz, of cleaning fluid and 5 Stain Catcher pads. It sounds pretty good for those of us who are slobs with spaghetti!
Had another station break while my nurse came and changed my dressings! Next week I have to go up and see the venous specialist about my legs so I hope he has some concrete suggestion. He's the same doctor that Shelby saw. I may be able to get a ride up with Alfred this time.
Today is another sunny day--temperature around 8 or 10..nice!!
Posted by Cas at 2:29 PM | Comments (1)
September 30, 2004
Internet radio
Standard radio, one of Canada's private broadcasters has started Canada's first internet radio service aimed at young adults--Iceberg Media.com.Inc. launched Fat Pipe Radio com, a site that offers 11 radio channels incl. Fat Pipe alt. rock, Whammy Bar, classic rock, Double Latte ault album altern.. To access site go to www. fatpiperadio.com and complete short regn. form
More tech. stuff--high tech printing houses are launching audio books that can be "read" on computers .Audio is storred on the CD and MP3 files which can be downloaded to a portable music player or the disc itself can be played in an MP3 CD player. The company's first title "Agent Orange" will be released later this year.
Posted by Cas at 4:20 PM | Comments (2)