gerry gainford

Good design

I’m a fan of good design. I’m not talking the nice colour scheme and matching collars and cuffs which is all fine and dandy, but functionality gets me going. I’d get hard in an Ikea kitchen. So when I see something that is this functional I like it. OK, I might not have had dirty thoughts about this one but this was just such a good idea I’m surprised no one thought of it earlier.image

Yes, it’s a power socket in a hotel room safe. So you can leave your cell (or in this case a tablet, it was plenty big enough) in there and charge it. Brilliant.

This was in a hotel room in the Hyatt in Philadelphia. For those that care.

Galaxy S3

A few weeks ago I upgraded my phone and got the latest Samsung Galaxy S3. I love this phone. Then again I tend to like shiny new toys.
It’s fast, it’s light, it’s thin. The screen is big enough to use comfortably. Small enough to fit in my pocket.
It’s got a 6gb data plan. I’m writing this blog post on it.
It takes good pictures. OK, it takes crap pictures but that’s because I’m a crap photographer. If I was better it would take better ones. The camera is fast to respond and seems to work well. These photos were all taken on it with no tall setup. Choose a scene mode out leave it on auto. It’s all good.

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One of these was taken with either Sunset or Beach scene setting and the other was just on auto. Don’t ask me which. Both are a beach somewhere on the Oregon coast.

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This is the Devil’s Punch bowl in Oregon. Not sure what the setting was.

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This is the sunrise over White Rock’s East Beach taken on auto.

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And this is Pizza. In case you hadn’t guessed.

Heart Attack Heaven

I’ve found my new buger place. It’s Fiamma Burger in Bellingham. We ended up here last week and the burgers are awesome. (Yes, we were in the States so I can say awesome. And totally dude). But then there are the sides. The garlic fries. Take some great fries, cover them in garlic butter and sprinkle, ok snowstorm down, parmesan cheese and I think there was parsley somewhere for your health. Really, potatoes, garlic and parsley count as 3 veg, right?

It may not be good for my waistline / health / arteries / heart / liver / brain but damn it tasted good. We’ll be going back.

 

Sailing

For the Canada Day long weekend I went sailing so time to bore you with my slideshow.

Starting off in the rain

Starting off in the rain

Flags flying for Canada Day

Flags flying for Canada Day

Rafting the 4 boats in Winter Cove

Cooking lamb at the Saturna Lamb BBQ

The dinner

The dinner

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Vegas Baby

It’s going to be a busy week.

Sunday – fly to Vegas

Tuesday – drive to the Grand Canyon

Thursday – fly home after multiple board games, reading by the pool, catching up with friends, and other stuff that stays in Vegas.

Friday – go pack a boat, mainly full of beer but maybe other stuff like food, lifevests and a GPS.

Saturday – go cruising around the Gulf Islands for the long weekend.

 

Latte art

Latte art courtesy of Chris after Andrea cooked a huge dinner. And a shout out to Urs for the Martha-Strawberry-Shortcakes.

Shameless self promotion

It’s taken a while but my work website (yes work, that place I spend most of my waking and sleeping hours). You can find out about Tekbusters Managed Services and Online Backup and it’s the place for computer repair.

Yes, it’s a horrible bit of advertising this blog post, but I’m not done yet. Go ahead and like us on Facebook and then follow us on Google+. That is once I figure out how to link to a Google Plus page that I set up like oh, 5 minutes ago.

The bike

The bike in the picture above is a Hyosung GV 650. It’s taken about 2 years but I’ve finally got a Vetter trunk from a Goldwing, painted and mounted on the back which turns out to be so useful. I’ve ditched my Ford Escape and now use the bike for work. Having a trunk means I can strip off my waterproofs, helmet and gloves in a car park and then go into an office.

Or pick up groceries on the way home. And yes, by groceries I do mean beer.

I’ve also got 2 hard saddlebags I’m slowly working on the mounts for. Then I need to figure out what I’ll do with the indicators, but with those we’ll have lots of luggage space for touring. Though herself finds the bike too uncomfortable for anything other than very short distances. So it will be just me and extra beer.

Kelowna

We’re at the Cove Resort in Kelowna. Everyone agrees on one thing, this place would be great in the summer. 2 pools, on the lake, really really nice place. Unfortunately golbal warming isn’t working in BC and the local weather gods haven’t realised we’re well into June already. Some weather forecasts are hopeful for tomorrow though. We may see the sun yet.

In the meantime, I’m getting some writing done, some reading done and some serious coffee drinking.

I’ve also got some Nelson After Dark beer in the fridge for later, which I haven’t been able to find in Surrey in ages.

The problem with famous people

The famous person in question being Neil Gaiman. See, Ray Bradbury died and Neil Gaiman posted this quote on Facebook.

“Looking back over a lifetime, you see that love was the answer to everything.” Ray Bradbury.

And went on to write very nice blog about Ray Bradbury. However I’d like to find out where that quote is from. It does seem familiar, like it was in a movie, but I’d like to find out which of Bradbury’s books it is from, or was it something he said in an interview. But guess what happens when you Google it? Yes, you find that Neil Gaiman posted this on Twitter and the first 100 results are people re-tweeting this.

Anyone care to help out and tell me where this quote is from?

 

Update : It’s from an interview, not a book.