The power went out earlier today. Six hours later, the neighborhood is still very dark. I hope it comes back on in the middle of the night and gives my toys iPhone and iPad their well needed overnight charge.
Q “And after you held me down, I asked you, ‘Why did you do that?’ And then, what did you say?”
A “I did not hold you down and I believe I apologized if I might have because, if I did, which I firmly believe I did not, it was completely unintentional.”
Everyday I feel awful about not having a chance to meet her. One more week, maybe?
It has been a wonderful weekend. We went hiking and swimming and ate the most delicious meals and had some really lovely wine.
We are going to drive out to Lake Louise and take some photos there. I’m looking forward to it.
We didn’t go to Lake Louise, it was much further from our hotel than we first thought. Instead we went to Troll Falls. It was nice—they were frozen!
Sending a handwritten letter once a day for a month? Well, basically. Here is the challenge.
Photo by Janson Smith
I went to Castle River Rodeo Campground again this year with my good friend Andy for the long weekend kayaking festival. This was my 6th year participating in the event and once again it was a really good time.
Photo by Janson Smith
Organizer, Chuck Lee, and his crew of volunteers put on a great event each year with all sorts of river runs and clinics available for paddlers of all levels. Andy and I hit up the “Upper-Upper Old Man” and also the section known as “The Gap”. We also ran the Castle River Falls and the Castle Canyon run. Here’s a video from near the headwaters of the Old Man River shot on the GoPro HD Hero 960 that I was given for Christmas. (Which I love by the way).
Each year they have a boat stacking competition — we were eliminated in the semi-finals — which is too bad because the winning team each got a brand new helmet. Here we are in a round where we did NOT get eliminated.
Photo by Janson Smith
This year I helped start a new tradition that they’re now calling H2O Limbo. Just Liquid Sports provided the prizes in three contests — one for men, women, and kids and I came in second in the mens which earned me a new pair of neoprene gloves! (Thanks Rob) The guy who beat me must have been about 65 years old and could limbo better than just about any guy I’ve ever seen.
Photo by Janson Smith
Some dude ran Lundbreck Falls again this year — I did not. Luckily there were no injuries at the falls. Here’s the photo I snapped:
Photo by Jeff Milner
And the video from my iPhone (thanks Andy):
There is a photo of me running the same falls in 2008.
Another year has come and gone. This year has been a good one. Some highlights for me include:
It was a good year but I’m hoping that in 2011 I’ll have more opportunities to travel the world. I don’t think I even left Canada this year! At least I went back to Quebec and that’s almost like visiting another country.
Happy New Year!
To the man or woman that found and returned my iPod touch today, I hope someone else returns the favor because You are a wonderful person.
I think it happened when I decided to jump up the stairs six at a time. I was feeling in a particularly good mood this morning and (if you can believe it) was even on time for my last class on “Evaluation”. The instructor continued making the day great by telling the class how much she enjoyed teaching us this semester and that she would miss being our teacher. I assumed I must have left my iPod in the car because I was certain I brought it with me this morning. I refused to think about the chance that it may have fallen out of my pocket because I was afraid of what that might mean.
I called security and found out that a modern day hero turned it in. THANK-YOU!
When I got home this afternoon I flipped my room upside down looking for some paperwork that I forgot to deal with before. It’s a form for my student loan that needs to be taken to the post office before they will “release” the loan to the school. Pretty dicey that I’ve taken this long since the semester is almost over. Oh well, I’m pretty sure things will work out just fine.
I’m glad I live in a place where University is just a student loan away and that people turn things in when they find them. Life is good.
I’m slowly finishing off each of the classes for my PS1 semester. We had a terrific class this morning in my Communications and Technology class. Our sessional instructor hooked us up with a video conference “experience” with the Tyrrell Museum.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, in fact, I was pretty sure I was going to study for my psychology test during it, hence I sat in the back, but it didn’t take long to realize this was something I would really enjoy.
Some students in the hallway outside were making a huge racket. I felt a bit odd going out to tell them to be quiet, because, while it seems like you’re just watching a talking head when the man on the screen is giving his lesson, it’s pretty jarring when he asks what’s going on with you walking out of the room.
As the video conference continued we learned about some of the different types of activities and lessons that take place during a typical video-conference with the museum and an individual classroom. We had a short virtual tour of the museum and learned about different dinosaur facts. I loved that I was able to answer a lot of the questions — I guess I remembered a lot of what I learned about dinosaurs from when I was a kid. Here’s one for you:
Q. What the name of the dinosaur in this picture I took a few years ago?
(Hint: It’s Alberta’s most famous dinosaur)
A. The Albertosaurus.
The Tyrell Museum is not the only place that offers video conferencing presentations, in fact, there is a huge list at the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration. I’m going to remember this for when I’ve got a class of my own.
Because we went in early for the video conference, we also got to leave an hour or so earlier than normal. I took the opportunity to go for a swim at the pool and did the usual 1km workout. I have to say that skipping out on it so much lately makes it hard to get back in the water. As I floated at the edge, I decided to put in 2 more lengths and really go all out — to see if I’ve still got it.
28 seconds for a 50 meter free, I guess you can say I’ve still got it, but I think I left “it” in the water because when I got out, I felt sick! Oh my, I had pushed myself too hard. I left myself with no choice but to sit it out for the next 15 or so minutes and even had the lifeguard a bit worried about me because my face was completely white and I must have looked like I was just about dead. I certainly felt that way.
If school doesn’t kill me, maybe the pool will.
A very short summary of my life:
Jeff Milner’s 2 minute autobiography.
(Made for one of my education classes).
Autobiographical writing and representation
By Jeff Milner
Due September 29, 2010
Images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffmilner/sets/72157624935640311/show/
(to be played simultaneously with the audio)
Transcript of the audio:
I began my school life in the autumn of my sixth year. Over the next 12 years as I finished elementary, jr. and sr. high I felt that I would never complete school. I spent winter evenings playing basketball at the gym and my summers in the pool. I developed a passion for travel. My family would often take road trips to the United States. At age 15 I took part in an international art camp in Japan.
I learned the value (and grind) of manual labor working on a huge vegetable farm packing corn and carrots. In the eleventh grade I decided not to rejoin the basketball team and instead took a job with a local computer shop fixing PCs and eliminating lemons by checking new computers before they left the store. It wasn’t glamorous work, but it sure beat packing corn.
At 19, I moved to Salt Lake City volunteering a year of service to my church. This remains one of the most memorable years of my life.
After returning, I got a job working for the City of Medicine Hat in their GIS department. Using an air photo covering the city limit I traced the outline of every building within the municipal boundary. It was during this time that I began to kayak.
The job only lasted for about a year and then I began work as a pre-press assistant at the Medicine Hat News. Working nights didn’t suit me, so I found a new job working for a local engineering company that did defense research at the nearby army base. My job was to bury electronic landmines for research purposes.
Moving from job to job and living at home, while building an interesting set of skills and experiences, did not give me the same satisfaction as the more stable and independent life I would find when I moved to Lethbridge to start university in 2002. I found a great source of friendship on the university swim team.
I completed a degree in New Media 4 years later with a work experience placement in Malaysia helping create channel identity clips for Southeast Asia’s music channel, Channel V. Although it was a wonderful opportunity I didn’t take full advantage of my time there because I was distracted with heartache due to the break-up with my university sweet-heart.
After convocation I went into web design and photography full tilt. My skills in kayaking improved and I also took a couple of teaching jobs in the summer at the University. I alternated between teaching the Movie Making, animation, and swim camps. I found a love for teaching there that in part inspired me to return to school and get a second degree in formal education. Sometimes I still feel like I will never finish school but now I look at the journey itself as my destination and it doesn’t bother me that I’m still not done. I’ll always keep growing.
Reflection on the process of creation:
I wanted to fit in as much as possible in just two minutes. This restraint left me with the arduous chore of deciding what to include and what to cut. I’m not sure I made the best choices as many very interesting things about myself didn’t make it. (I do have about 10 years more than most of the students, so perhaps if I had an extra minute I could have fit it all in there).
Some of the images fit perfectly with the story, while at times other images that I wish I had, just don’t exist.
The music that goes with the story ads a level of interest that I personally really like. Creating a podcast is something that I’ve been interested in for a long time and I’m glad this assignment pushed me into creating one.