Marc's Ripples – Marc dit Vagues

Old Blog / Vieux Blogs

Saturday, January 13, 2007
Move / Demenagement

I am moving! It is like when you live in an appartment and then suddenly you move to your own house. I got used to Blogger a little too fast (which is still fine, don’t get me wrong) but there are things that I would have liked to do but couldn’t. Without Blogger, I probably would never had tried blogging and would not be writing this right now. One of the main reason is that I would like to personalize this blog to reflect a little bit more my personality, especially after I tried to post some pictures on the last blog and I couldn’t get them to show up the way I wanted… So I started looking around to find alternatives. I found one, my blog will now be hosted on Lucie’s server. This will give me more flexibility and control over what I am doing. I will be less limited by space and technical restraints. Lucie was kind enough to set everything up for me. so I am ready to move to a new address, hoping you are ready to follow me. From now on you will be able to read me at my new blog address:
www.finfond.net/marc/ .
The house is much nicer and better decorated, so see you there.
Make sure you update your bookmarks.

Bon bien je demenage… C’est comme quand vous etes dans un appartement et que tout d’un coup vous allez vivre dans votre propre maison. J’ai commencé avec Blogger et je m’y suis habitue tres vite. C’est encore bien, mais il y a certaine chose que j’aurais aime faire qui n’etaient pas disponibles. Je crois que si je n’avais pas decouvert Blogger je n’aurais jamais eu la chance de commencer et je ne serais surement pas entrain d’ecrire ceci.. Une des raisons pour le changement, c’est que je voulais personnaliser mon blog pour que ca represente un peu plus qui je suis. Surtout apres avoir tenter de placer des photos qui ne voulaient pas aller ou je voulais qu’elles aillent lors de ma derniere mise a jour. Donc j’ai commence a faire des recherches pour voir quelles autres alternatives etaient disponibles. Et bien j’ai trouve! Mon blog va a partir de maintenant etre heberge sur le serveur de Lucie. Ca va me donner plus de flexibilite et la possibilité de faire a ma tete. Je vais etre moins limite par les contraintes de Blogger et d’espace. Lucie a ete assez fine pour tout installer pour moi. Donc je suis pret a demenager mon blog a une nouvelle adresse, j’espere que vous m’y suivrez. Maintenant mon blog sera accessible a cette nouvelle addresse:
www.finfond.net/marc/
La maison est pas mal plus grande et la decoration est pas mal mieux.
N’oubliez pas de changer vos signets.

Posted by Marc at 2:55 PM 

Thursday, January 11, 2007
Internet

Nothing new today… The weather wasn’t that great, strong winds wind and later snow so I stayed home all day and surfed the net. As you can see from the picture it wasn’t that great. I was not alone, I had my two sidekicks with me all day, Spock and Loki. For those of you who don’t know Spock, he is a 13 year old black lab. His name comes from Star Trek. Wonder who is the fanatic in this house. The second one is a 1 year old mutt, his name has 2 sources, first one from the tv series Stargate (one of these little grey aliens) and from the Northern mythology, Loki god of mischief. The only thing I can say is that his name really suits him well…. They were around all day. There is a cat too, but I am not too found of him, the only time we see him is when he wants something, so we won’t talk about him.

Next week I have to drive across the island because of work. Last night I checked all the Geocache on the way, the ones closest to the Trans-Canada Highway. So I might try to find some to cut the monotony of driving for 8 hrs. I will let you know the result upon my return.

Tomorrow is back to work…….agrrrrrrrrr. Oh well need to pay all those bills and besides with 3 children here I might as well go back to work…

Each day I receive an e-mail with a famous quote in it, from time to time there is a one that catches my eye. Here today’s quote:

“Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life.”

While surfing I found a nice little site with high resolution picture and some nice effect, check it out: http://www.xrez.com/

I am not sure when I will be posting again as I will be working until middle of next week. Will see what happens.

Rien de neuf aujourd’hui… La temperature etait pas terrible. Bien sure du vent et plus tard de la neige. J’ai donc passe la majeure partie de la journee sur l’internet. Comme vous pouvez voir de l’image. C’etait pas vargeux. Je n’etais pas tout seul, j’ai eu la compagnie de 2 bons copains toute la journee, Spock et Loki. Pour ce qui ne les connaissent pas, Spock est un Labrador noir de 13 ans. Son nom est inspire de la serie Star Trek. Je me demande qui peut etre le fanatique de star trek ici? Le second est un petit batard qui a un an. Son nom vient de 2 sources, la premiere de la serie Stargate. (Un des petits extra-terrestres gris) et la deuxieme, Loki est le dieu du feu et de la discorde dans la mythologie nordique. Tout ce qu je peux dire c’est qu’il porte bien son nom! Ils etaient autour de moi toute la journee. On a un chat aussi, moi et lui c’est pas l’amour fou. Le seul temps qu’on le voit c’est quand il veut quelque chose. Faqu’on n’en parlera pas.La semaine prochaine je dois aller de l’autre cote de Terre-Neuve pour l’ouvrage. Hier j’ai verifie sur le site Geocaching pour trouver toutes les geocachse sur le bord de la Trans-Canadienne. Comme ca je vais essayer d’en trouver d’autres et en plus ca va changer le mal de place et couper la monotonie d’avoir a conduire pour 8 hrs. je vais vous dire les resultats des mon retour.Demain c’est retour au travail. Grrrrrrrrrrr. Y faut bien y retourner pour pouvoir payer tous les comptes et surtout pouvoir subvenir a tous les caprices des 3 enfants.

Posted by Marc at 10:51 PM Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Geocaching

This morning I got up fairly early for someone who did not have to work, 09:00 am. Yes it is early. The weather was not so bad, cloudy, a bit of wind, -1C. I thought that as you get older the only thing you want was to stay home comfy and relax in the warmth. In my case, it is the other way around since I am here in Gros Morne Park, I can’t wait to go out do a trail or out on the kayak. So we decided to give it a try, we dressed warm and left.

My first objective of the morning was to try to find a Geocache. Geocaching is like a treasure hunt but it is played with a GPS. People hide small boxes around, noted the coordinates and then post them on the official geocaching web site. Usually in these boxes are only pieces of paper, logs, so people can leave comments. Sometimes there will be little things in them, like pins, toys, etc…. so if you take something the rule is that you are supposed to replace it with something else.

Yesterday while I was on the web, I checked to see if there were any Geocache around here. I found one just outside Rocky Harbour near the lighthouse at Lobster Cove Head. So this was my goal for the morning, finding the Geocache. Took the GPS, got the coordinates in it and we were on the go.

We got to the lighthouse no problems, even if the road had not been plowed since the beginning of the winter and the pavement was a big piece of ice. Yes I did it, didn’t get stuck…. At least no one will be able to label me as a bad winter driver, especially after the other post. That one time was just bad luck.

The lighthouse is right by the shore, duh…. The wind was blowing from the ocean, that was so cold, going right through your clothing. But after a short walk and a little bit of looking around we found the little pill bottle under a rock. That was a good feeling, reading all the log entry and comments that people had left. But just finding it was the highlight of the day.

I can see myself getting hooked on this pastime. In the future I might even try to hide some of my own. In the meantime I will be looking for more. There are 115 other Geocache in our area. So 114 to go…. Besides presently there are 348 467 Geocache in the world. Now I know what I will do when I retire…

When I got home, I went online and registered my finding on the website and left some comments and a picture. See details at : Geocaching/LobsterCoveHead

After warming up a little in the van, and talking about how fun it was to find Geocaches, we went to Berry Head Pond. This is a small trail around a pond. We did it several time during the summer, but was quite different altogether in the winter time. This was nice walk especially that we were sheltered from the wind. I took several pictures.

all the trails in Gros Morne Park are on the internet at:

http://www.cbc.ca/grosmorne/en/interactives/trails/

On this site you will find descriptions of each trails and some of them even have a video. There is a link on the side of this blog for my next story telling as reference. This one was #14.

Then we went back to the van, warmed up a little more and we went to Bakers Brook. But instead of doing the trail, #15 coastal, we went on the other side of the brook toward a small group of fishermen’s shack. I again took several pictures. We were once more subjected to the ocean wind, so we didn’t stay too long. Beside it was time to go home for dinner and I was out of coffee….

The result of all that is that I have several new photo albums on webshot. Some new panoramas, and now I am a Geocache enthusiast. That’s not bad for one day. Got cold but I don’t feel as old…

So trails to do, Geocache to find, water to paddle on, blog to write, but all that is for another day.

Ce matin je me suis leve assez tot pour quelqu’un qui est en conge. 09:00 am, oui pour moi, c’est de bonne heure. La temperature etait pas pire, nuageux, un peu de vent et -1 C. J’ai toujours pense qu’en vieillissant, on passe plus de temps a l’interieur a se la couler douce, au chaud… Bien moi c’est le contraire, depuis qu’on a demenage ici pres du parc de Gros Morne, la seule chose que je veux faire c’est d’aller faire des sentiers ou du kayak. On a donc decide de tenter notre chance ce matin, on s’est habille chaudement et on est parti.Mon objectif ce matin etait de trouver un Geocache. Geocaching c’est comme une chasse au tresor mais ca se joue avec des GPS. Les gens cachent des petites boites avec un p’tit quelque chose a l’interieur. Ils notent les coordonnees et vont enregistrer leur Geocache sur le site internet officiel de Geocaching. Habituellement dans les Geocaches il y a un log, bout de papier pour laisser des commentaires ou des notes. Parfois il y a des petites choses, comme des pines, jouets, etc… La regle est que si vous prenez quelque chose vous devez le remplacer par quelque chose d’autre. Hier pendant que j’etais sur l’internet, j’ai verifie pour voir s’il y avait des Geocaches dans notre coin. Et bien oui, la plus proche est juste un peu en dehors de Rocky Harbour, pres du phare a Lobster Cove Head. Ca a donc ete mon but pour la matinee, trouver la Geocache. J’ai pris mon GPS, j’ai sauve les coordonees et on est parti.On est arrive au phare sans probleme, malgre que la route n’avait pas ete deneige de l’hiver et que c’etait pratiquement une patinoire. Et bien oui on s’est rendu et je ne me suis meme pas pris… Faque ca devrait faire taire toute ceux qui pensent que je suis un mauvais conducteur l’hiver. Il fallait bien que je souligne ca surtout apres mon blog de l’autre jour. L’autre fois c’etait juste un manque de chance et non pas un manque d’habilite.

Posted by Marc at 11:08 PMSkating / PatinageYesterday the weather was miserable, cold and high winds. So I spent most of the day at home, surfing the net and watching television. Everything was nice and quiet until about 3:00pm. Do you know what happen at 3:00pm? The kids are back from school… Forget about nice and quiet, the day just took an all new different turn. I lost my computer and was condemned to watch cartoons on television. Cartoon is not bad but when you already saw those episodes several time, it’s not so good. There are lots of repeats with satellite tv. So I went to check the mail, which was not much better, nothing but bills, the satellite tv one to make matter worst. I was hoping to received my cd for my GPS which will allow me to put more precise maps on it, this is going to be cool. Kids did their homework and Idecided that to change mood I’d do some cooking for supper. Nothing elaborate, just macaroni with a bunch of stuff in it.After supper Kim wanted to go skating at the arena during the general skating hour. The plan at the beginning was to just drop her off at her friend’s and she would get a ride from there. But Alain wanted to go to, because he wanted to see the zamboni. Don’t ask…. So finally we all went. Vincent and his girlfriend tagged along and met up with some friends there.

Kim is not so sure on skates but she is trying. She is probably better than I am. What am I saying, she is better….. I mentionned earlier that it was cold, windy and miserable outside… I didn’t remember that it was so cold in an arena. Brrrrrrr. I froze my little ass. But just the same it was a nice family outing and we will have to go back sometime. I will bring a cushion next time.

We then went back home, put the kids in bed and then Iooked at the tv for a while. So this was my first day off.

La temperature etait pas vargeuse hier, froid et venteux. J’ai passe la majeure partie de la journee a la maison a parcourir l’Internet ou a regarder la television. Tout etait tranquille et relaxe jusqu’a environ 3:00 P.M. Savez vous ce qui arrive a 3:00 P.M.? Les enfants reviennent de l’ecole… A ce moment la on peut oublier le tranquille et relaxe. La journee a pris une toute nouvelle direction. J’ai perdu mon ordinateur et ai ete condamne a regarder des emissions pour enfants a la tv. Les cartoons c’est pas si pire mais quand on a deja vu les episodes plusieur fois bien la ca devient gazant. Il y a beaucoup de repetition sur la television sur satellite. Bon ben j’ai ete au bureau de poste pour voir s’il y avait du courrier. C’etait pas vraiment mieux, il n’y avait que des comptes, pour tourner le couteau dans la plaie, on a recu celui de la tv sur satellite. J’esperais recevoir un disque compacte que j’ai commande pour mon GPS qui me permetttra de placer des cartes plus precises sur mon GPS, ca va etre pas mal cool. Les enfants ont fait leurs devoirs et j’ai decide de changer de mood en faisant le souper. Rien de bien epatant, juste des nouilles et tout plein de choses dedans…. Apres le souper Kim voulait aller faire du patin a l’arena durant le patinage general. Le plan etait d’aller la deposer chez son amie, mais en fin de compte on a change d’avis et on y a tous ete. Alain voulait y aller pour voir la Zamboni, cherchez pas a comprendre… Vincent et sa blonde sont venus aussi pour rencontrer leurs copains la-bas.Kim est pas trop sure d’elle en patin mais au moin elle essaie. Elle est probablement meilleure que moi. Que dis-je? En fin de compte elle est meilleur que moi. J’ai dit plus tot que c’etait froid a l’exterieur. Venteux et froid. Je ne me rappellais pas que c’etait si froid dans un arena. Brrrrrrr…. Je me suis gele le cul. (Litteralement) ca nous a fait une bonne petite sortie en famille et on devrait y retouner de temps en temps. La prochaine fois je vais emmener un coussin.

Posted by Marc at 8:19 PM

Monday, January 8, 2007
Kayak

This is the infamous photo from yesterday’s story. I just swallowed my pride and smiled for the picture, what else was I to do?

Not much new today, we are bracing ourselves for a storm. We are supposed to get snow and later on rain. Lovely… For once I hope that they are not completely off the track with their predictions. It is supposed to be really nice on Wednesday and Thursday. So I hope this is true, as I am off until Friday, yeah! That is so cool! I might be able to either go do a trail or even, if I am really lucky, be able to put my kayak on the water for a little while.

When I am not working, and when it is not so nice outside, I spend most of my time on the internet. Surfing sites about what else but kayaking, photography and now GPS…. In the last few weeks I came upon two sites that I want to mention.

The first site is Kayak Newfoundland and Labrador’s website, at http://www.kayakers.nf.ca/ , they will be offering kayak pool session in Corner Brook from March 04th until May 13th, every Sunday night at 08:00 pm. That must be fun kayaking in a pool. Doesn’t matter if you end up in the water…. It is warm at least. So I will try to attend as much sessions as I can, meet other enthusiasts, learn a few things and who knows maybe even learn the Eskimo roll. So I am really looking forward to that.

The other site that I found is Pygmy Boat at http://www.pygmyboats.com/ . This company sells wooden kayak kits. Basically they sell kits with all the pieces of the kayak and you built it yourself. I am not much of a handyman, however since the renovations of the house in Carbonear I have discovered some talents that I didn’t know I had. Besides, on the website they say that anyone can do it. I think that I might be in this category. So this is my next project for when I can put some money aside. The kayak I have my eyes on is the Arctic Tern.

If I own more then 2 boats, does that make me an admiral I wonder?

I added some new photographs in my albums. 3 in the various and several new panoramas that I am very proud of. Have a look.

Next blog entry will probably be either on Wednesday or Thursday, or whenever the weather is nice. In the meantime I will be on the internet dreaming of nice weather, smooth water and kayaking. As the kids would say “kayak wow” when they see calm water.
Until next time…

Voici la fameuse photo de l’histoire d’hier. J’ai du mettre ma fierte de cote, prendre la pose et meme offrir un sourire pour la photo. Je ne pouvais pas faire grand chose d’autre n’est-ce pas?