Friday, December 14, 2007

On my subconscious

So, I had a dream last night, which is weird, because I don't normally remember such things. Secondly in this great of detail. I drempt that I was at an airport, I'm not quite sure which airport, there were two long levels to it almost like a train station. I remember I was going home in the dream, and as usual had my two traveling bags. One is very large for clothes, toiletry's, books and pretty much everything else I own. The other is my carry on, just my laptop and camera. While waiting, I seemed to have lost my larger bag somehow, either in the washroom or while I was working on my laptop. I looked though the entire top level of this airport, and couldn't get to the lower level. So the choice essentially was to look for my bag of all my stuff, or board my plane armed only with my laptop and camera, and move on in life.

I wonder if my subconscious is trying to tell me something.

Monday, September 24, 2007


So I sort of fell behind in my over all plan to feature a photo a day.... so screw that. Right now I'm thinking of the nuances of weather manipulation via a powerful effect known as the "Krueger effect (and or factor in some circle) in order to sweet concert Tuesday. (DJ champion)

Right photos:
On Thursday I noticed a huge cloud, thinking it was smoke I decided to investigate. The wind was strong that day. I realized that the wind was blowing salt off a salt flat. Yeah....SALT! it was creating salt clouds 300 feet tall!

I've never seen anything like it.


And my theory remains, people in Estevan.... crazy.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007


Sept 9

More hills and such,
pretty flower I think..

oh the flatness

wow, some of you actually read this! RSS feeds and all?

Right, I wanted to add some photos to some of my rants, and continue the Manitoba, and at this point prairie rant.

I Also want to do a photo a day... or try also adding them to my flickr page
These rants may or may not make sense... your call

End of Manitoba, end of august 2007

North of dauphin Manitoba I encountered a lot of old Ukrainian churches and snakes (there may be a pattern there) The interesting thing is, as the grain elevators are being torn down due to high upkeep costs and upwards mobility, the only thing left are these huge churches... many of them in dieing towns. Glistening icons of geography and demographics.

Funny enough, the tops look a lot like garlic.... coincidence i think not.....



September
When hitting Sask a noticed a lot more abandoned buildings:




One of which actually was an art installation:


This installation was an old abandoned farm house that the artist (Heather Benning) took the back off and decorated in 60's style, then plexy glassed. (http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2007/06/11/benning-dollhouse.html)





The more small towns I wandered around the more I realized anyone my within my age demographic had moved. It's getting alarming actually.






Sept 10

Surprisingly they have topography around here...




Sept 11
I like roads like this, curvy and such...


Friday, August 03, 2007

Random rants on my Travels

The first rant comes from me sitting in a Cafe in a small town somewheres

All too often when sitting in a small cafe in southern Manitoba I see seniors sitting around talking over coffee, being served by a waitress just graduating high school, or a middle aged women, probably continueing a family restaurant. This is much different than that of southern Ontario whereas people in the 18-30 come back to the country, and work at restuarants and such. For them it's nice to get out of the city, and stay with old family in friends in the "scenic, rustic, historic"or other adverbs they use to describe the towns. The opposite is happening in Manitoba. Everyone young is moving to the "city" because of jobs, entertainment, and well all their peers are there. The advertising isn't the same lureing people into the country. In Manitoba the country is seen as boring, dull and old. It'll be interesting to see what happens to small towns within the next 20 years? Are these oasis of trees in a sea of grass doomed to be blown over?

Why is it wherever I am, there always is a country station, a Christian station and a French CBC station? Do they have some sort of super powered FM frequency that no one else knows about?

northern manitoba is really big
i mean... really big

Sunday, June 17, 2007

beach and kayak


beach and kayak
Originally uploaded by Keith Hartley
So what exactly am I doing in Tobermory Kayaking on a Saturday? And why have I not disappeared?

Well this post should be the first of many, specially cause I figured out how to link my photosite with my blog.
Anyho why I'm here:
I landed myself probably one of the sweetest jobs ever; working for a company that makes digital maps (www.TeleAtlas.com) they do mainly road information sourcing for company's like tomtom gps, and google maps.

One of the methods they use to source this information is by actually checking information from the ground with a mobile mapping van (MMV for short). This van has cameras, GPS and lasers in order to measure road attributes like how fast one can go, where you can turn, or whither or not there is even a road there at all.

Because of the vast territory to cover (all major roads in Canada) there's alot of travel involved. Hence one of the main reasons I wanted to work for them.

I flew to Toronto for initial training for a week, then they sent me on my way. I was assigned central Ontario along bruce and grey counties.

This is a beautiful area Because of the escarpment, and other erosional features. Interestingly enough many of the small towns around here are growing rather than shrinking due in turn to the large population that hates the city.

I almost finished this area, and was going to move to western ont, but unfortunately some of my equipment has failed and i'm waiting for new parts. I'm essentially stranded in tobermory for the time being, which isn't that bad of a place to be stranded. Two nataional parks, warm people, nice shops, Tobermory is one of the warmest towns that I've encountered so far. For example yesterday, I rented a kayak (seen in photo) then went to some islands in the area, ate whitefish and was invited to the legion for sing karaoke.


Over the last week, I've hung out in caves, swam hiked, overlooked things, and went flying for a bit. (some of which is in my flickr page. www.flickr.com/photos/keithh) As well as met many interesting people.

Unfortunately my batteries running out on my laptop and I should get moving. More updates to come!

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Fog wandering:

Jay and I decided to wander aimlessly in the fog and brought the camera with us. Now I have to find a cheap frame.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

I really need to update this and such... but this is my thoughts for now :

Author laments lonely life of bloggers

Michael Keren says individuals who bare their souls online are isolated and lonely and live in a virtual reality instead of forming real relationships

Canadian Press

CALGARY — Bloggers are living in a world where emotions may be real but everything else is make-believe, says a University of Calgary professor in a new book.

Blogs are everywhere on the Internet these days and often reveal the innermost feelings of individuals who hate their jobs, activists with a political cause or even angst-ridden teenagers in the throes of first love.

The popularity of sites such as MySpace.com, which contains virtually thousands of blogs, is a testament to the world of self-expression.

But Michael Keren, who has written "Blogosphere: The New Political Arena," suggests individuals who bare their souls in blogs are isolated and lonely, living in a virtual reality instead of forming real relationships or helping to change the world.

"Bloggers think of themselves as rebels against mainstream society, but that rebellion is mostly confined to cyberspace, which makes blogging as melancholic and illusionary as Don Quixote tilting at windmills," the author says.

Keren, who teaches in the faculty of communication and culture, spoke to reporters Tuesday at The Loft, a student cybercafe at the university, where many students were busily typing away on laptops - perhaps updating blogs of their own.

"In this world of blogging, which the whole world can read, you have a personal expectation about a readership that's just not there for the millions of bloggers who are writing their personal feelings."

Keren praises the Internet as a great place for self-expression, but he also suggests that blogs often have the opposite effect by creating feelings of loneliness for those who aren't lucky enough to reach "celebrity" status.

"Many of us end up like Father McKenzie in the 'Eleanor Rigby' Beatles song, who is writing a sermon that no one is going to hear," he suggests. "Some of us are going to be embraced by the mainstream media, but the majority of us remain in the dark, remain in the loneliness."

In his book, Keren follows the blogs of nine individuals, including a Canadian woman living in the woods in a cabin in Quebec. She discusses her identity through stories about her two cats.

"One day one of the cats dies and the whole blogosphere becomes crazy about the death of this cat, and what happens is she gets a community of support which is not real.

"These are people with nicknames who express enormous support, but they can disappear in the next minute and they are not real, and she remains lonely in the end."

Keren's view of the blogosphere is not shared by everyone.

"That's harsh," declared Arian Hopkins, 36, of Calgary, who has a spot on MySpace.com.

Hopkins said the web, along with community portals and blogsites, has become a great tool for Generation Y to spout on everything from "how much they hate their mom to the best show that is out there."

Saying bloggers are lonely and living in a make-believe world is unfair, she said.

"I don't think it's based on these poor people who are so lonely and sad. I don't think that's really fair because it's being used in all sorts of mediums," said Hopkins, a business analyst for TransCanada Pipelines.

Living in a make-believe world can help some people deal with loneliness, she suggested.

"There are these crazy relationships that are happening online from people getting to know people through their blogs. Who cares if they're not real people?" said the mother of three.

"Bloggers tend to be a little more extroverted. They say, 'I have a story and want you to hear it.' It's kind of like my story is as important as everybody else's."

Fellow blogger Peter Leveque agrees.

"I would disagree with anyone whose thesis is that people who blog are lonely outcasts," the Calgary lawyer wrote in an e-mail.

"I expect bloggers are like everyone else and come from all walks of life with all sorts of different interests.

"But what do I know? Not much likely."