Christmas Break...

Ahh, Christmas time, how I loathe you.

I've made it my personal mission to remove the cheesy archaic saying "Merry Christmas" from my vocabulary. Instead I try "Enjoy your Christmas" or "Have a good Christmas", I believe that this makes the comment authentic. (at least more so) You see I dislike something about this "Christmas"... maybe it's that damn Christmas music that gets to me... maybe it's those awful Christmas movies everyone's rushing out to see... maybe it's because we're more inclined to give stuff and not hugs... who knows.

You know all those Christmas Teddies?

They end up in a landfill. =D


Anyway, I'm back on Edmonton for the Christmas break and I've been back about 9 days with only 7 days remaining until I must fly back for my next 10 month period @ school. The last two months were just a warm-up.

I spent the first few days of my time here in Edmonton mostly sleeping and depressed. Getting "back into the groove" of Edmonton brought with it a flood of unfinished business and old emotion that I had the pleasure of diving into. I felt like I was almost socially inept initially... didn't know what to say... in a sort of "after shock" of coming home. The whole week I spent visiting friends trying to make sure to see everyone who needs seeing. I took a huge load off my back by resolving some things that had been heavy on my mind since I left. Matters with old friends... Big things left unsaid. I feel a lot better and had a great weekend visiting with my cousin Tyler. We both entertain each other with our sharp wit ;) We also watched all 11 episodes of the new show "Heroes" and generally lazed about. Twas a good time had by all (well maybe not the adults... they were all upstairs and looked bored -- twas a full house this Christmas)

Not very exciting I know... but that's just Christmas for you.

To jazz things up a little I put a bit of work into a little project of mine, my first equirectangular panoramic image. In other words a 2:1 ratio image size, 360 degrees horizontal and 180 vertical -- made in such a way as to be projected onto a sphere -- see below...


When projected on a sphere looks like this...



Click Here for a bigger window size
(It's quite high resolution -- it's worth it!!)


So this is what my living room in Edmonton looks like in the days leading up to Christmas... see for yourself. Cool no? Don't mind the minor stitching errors (mostly caused by parallax I believe) and the big black hole in the middle of the living room... it all started with some super heavy elements wandering into the living room and before I knew it they caused a gravitational collapse and matter and energy inevitably collapsed to a density beyond the limits of known physics. Oh well, just pretend it isn't there...

Anyway Hope ur xMASS break is goin great!!!

Peace, love,

Jeremy.

I'm on a role...

Wow 3 posts in 3 days... a testament to how little free time I have during school. Tonight is the second last night I spend at my crappy little place on Victoria Drive and boy am I happy to leave! =D The toilet's been fucked for a few days (luckily there are 2) so I turned off the water so no one would use it and spill piss and shit all over the floor when the toilet flooded... My landlord came screaming down the hall "Jeremy!!!" and accused me of using the plugged toilet and spilling shit everywhere. It was one of my roommates. The whole house smelled like shit.

My apartment was very gross so I decided now would be a good time to collect some more memories before the move... in keeping with my new fascination with panoramas... I took a panorama of the street and place that I've been living. It turned out well and it's *gasp* 360 degrees!! Wow!! Check it out...







I live in the ugly square pinkish building with 2 white doors directly across the street from where the photo was shot (in the center of the photo). My door is on the left and my window is the one on the upper left. Good riddance... too bad tho, I just found a good dealer who delivers. Can't have your cake and eat it too I guess.

Anyway after I snapped those photos I noticed a firetruck whip by and turn down 22nd street, I looked over and saw a massive column of smoke (if you look down the street just to the right of my house in the panorama you can see the black smoke) I ran over and saw a truck engulfed in flames!! Check it out!





There was like... an explosion and shit!! Cool!! (I later kicked myself for not recording a video) The one paper editor I contacted said they were tight on space for tomorrow or he'd run them but told me they were nice pics and to remember him for the future *beam* At that point I got lazy and didn't want to waste my time tryin to get them published.

So I got home and walked upstairs (WITH MY SHOES ON *GASP* so I wouldn't have to walk through the shit water all over the floor) the landlord dude is cleaning up the toilet and starts getting mad at me about the shoes (sue me for not wanting to walk in piss and shit) and asks me "Did you shave? There's hair all over the floor?!" I did shave I told him and I did clean up and would have swept once the floor was dry but didn't have a chance on account of the shit. He didn't go for it. Asshole. Later he comes pounding on my door telling me to wash my dishes. Now we all know how much I like taking orders to naturally I committed to not washing anymore dishes until I leave Friday. When I left the house an hour later he'd done my dishes for me (???) What the fuck? I thought I moved out of my parents house... hm.

Anyway I couldn't be more happy that I signed my lease and paid my deposit today on my new place 3 blocks from my school! Hooray!! =D And we're gonna get a cat! Yay! I miss having a kitty...

Anyway I re-rendered the Science World panorama and fixed the errors but now downtown Vancouver looks like it's sinking into the ocean... maybe it's just me? School has definitely brought out the meticulous perfectionist in me... Whatever.




Anyway I'm sick of rendering that one for now so it'll just be a natural disaster until I find time to pull Vancouver out of the sea...

Hope all is well in Edmonton,

See you all on Saturday!

Lots of love,

Jeremy.

A little fun with photography...

So in my first day off I went to see a christmas romance movie, "The Holiday". Bad combination I know. Scripting so corny and the acting so... wierd... Oh well, it was free! Yay for friends who work at the Theater!

After that I was near school and needed to return some equipment and while I was there I borrowed a tripod over the christmas break and took it out for some sightseeing (of sorts) Actually I just composed 2 panoramic shots on the way home from the movie/school.

I think they're neat and I've been itching to build some panoramas for awhile now... now I finally have the know-how and the motivation (yay for school??) The first one I shot (the skytrain station) I was unsure if it would turn out and I think it turned out the best... I think I should have manually set the white balance for the second (the Science World Panorama) although I deemed it unnecessary in the darkened conditions and left it on auto... this shows slightly in the image... as well there are a few mistakes in the images. In the skytrain image the mistake is unavoidable due to subject movement and the Science World image I may need to re-render at a later date since it took me prolly about an hour to render, crop and fix at full resolution (pumped out a 24193 x 3285, 300dpi, 45.4Mb file hahaha - my computer was crawling...) so I'll save re-rendering for later but check em' out!! Soo cool!! =D


This is a view of the south east end of Vancouver's downtown (not much of downtown is visible from here) What is here however, is the stadium and "Science World". Although this is a cool picture, it's not yet perfect so appreciate it for what it is and not for what it isn't because it isn't a few things, one of them being perfect... It is however, cool for my first "real" panoramic image...


This next one is pretty cool to... it's a tribute to the SkyTrain that I have to ride every day... and I hate so much! I hate you SkyTrain! You are too crowded in the mornings... you make me feel like a cow.







That's all kiddies! Hope you like my handiwork... it's taken me like... 4 hours of stitching... time to make some food and then sleep. Have to sign the tenant agreement for my new apartment tomorrow! Hooray!

Ahh, memories...

Well today (Dec 11th) marks the last day of my term 1 classes. I survived. So far. School is challenging not so much academically but mainly emotionally if that makes any sense. Stress and depression has pretty much been my life these past 2 months and it's really getting to me. On the bright side, I'm doing very well in school and I really absolutely enjoy the course content! This school is VERY atypical of most and they really work you. Hard. I remember what fun was like... sorta... I've been staying @ school until 2:30 on my WEEKENDS!! That's right I haven't gone out in 3 weeks -- I have no time much less energy!

Currently I'm living pretty far from school (20-55 min commute) depending on time of day and traffic conditions on the SkyTrain (The SkyTrain is over packed hell. If you like feeling like prodded cattle ride the SkyTrian to school or work every day. It just gets to you... I yelled at a poor girl on the SkyTrain... I haven't been myself lately I've been wound up tight and now that I don't have homework for the first time in 2 months I hardly know what to do with myself... I cleaned my room spotless in preparation for my half-move on the 15th. (I rented a car and everything! I can't wait to drive!! =D ) I'm spending FAR too much money on eating out everyday and it's impossible to carry around food to eat at lunch (I have enough equipment to haul everywhere as it is) so I'm moving downtown!!! W0007!!! So pumped! I'll be living 3 blocks from school and that will hopefully begin to help me solve problems (And I pray won't create worse ones -- finance is a worry -- very complicated I can't get into it) It's very crowded in Vancouver and I put a lot of energy into finding a place this past week. I almost ended up without a home as my lease is up on the 15th and the place I was to move didn't work out so I was plunged into a mad dash to get an apartment and I think this all should work out (please God...)

Anyway I spent my newfound free time cleaning, eating and getting my place ready for easy packing when I have to pack wed/thurs. I have this huge folder filled with all my school stuff from Term 1 and stuck a few memories in it too... then I got playing and combined my curiosity about panoramic photos with my anticipated nostalgia and made some panoramas of my bedroom!!!

Without further ado,

For your viewing pleasure - my bedroom @ 12am.







I think this could be the start of something.. panoramic photos really intrigue me!

In other news I'm flying back to Edmonton on December 16th - 31st for the break and moving into my new place when I get back! I'll try and be less depressed and blog more frequently... Life is just... hard right now. Plenty of self-discovery and not everything I discover I like. This school is a major test of meddle... I'm hoping Term 2 is better!! I'm getting to know people outside my class and I think that's key to happiness here in Vancouver...

Anyway I apologize for distantness... it's just hard enough to keep up with life here much less life back home/other places...

Love you kids!

Jeremy =D