RobotBlogger

You may have noticed Google advertising on this page. It's an experiment. You get paid when people see the ads (impressions) and paid 'bigtime' when people click the adds (click-throughs). Google scans you page for keywords and then pumps appropriate ads into those predefined little locations based on some relevancy rules. If i talk about Paul Newman enough, perhaps little adds for salad dressing will appear...

I can say that it's not, so far, been very relevant nor have i gotten that rich.

All tolled, from all the impressions (around 1500) and all the click-throughs (3 so far) i've amassed a bank-stretching $0.05 USD. That's right, one nickel!

That said, people are getting rich off this. Some bloggers with heavy traffic and giant ads make a comfortable living from it. Their blogs must be a lot more interesting than mine.

Regarding the relevancy, as i type this the current adds are: "Search and Destroy Spyware" Where did THAT come from?? 2 religious ones talking about finding god, and a yoga something. Er, how much of that stuff is going on here?

Because i'm sinister and evil in the most pablum kind of ways, i will here try and steer the adverts into something absurd. What ridiculous product has paid Google for advertising, yet is so obscure that it will basically leap into my add spots, should i craft the proper keywords....? Since i'm tired and it's late, what immature kind of thing could this possibly be? Hearing aids? Hemorrhoid cream? Teenage pregnancy? Poodle outfits? The Microsoft Zune?

Well, i guess i just made the list right there. Keep an eye out for any suspicious ads over on the right!

It's somewhat like Stanley park in Vancouver... ish. With a bit more Koalas, surfing and white sand beaches. Stanley park has a way better seawall.

There's a few giant lizards which live in Noosa. When i say giant, i mean 2 meter long lizards - kind of like those monitor dragon guys. We didn't see any, but a guy on the trail showed us some photos and a video from his digital camera of one, just up the trail. It was freaking Jurassic Park on that video - this meaty lizard dragon dinosaur thing walking around relentlessly.

A guy at work was camping and left a bag of potato chips out. He has a video of one of these lizard monsters busting into the campsite and crashing around looking for the chips. While they don't attack people - officially - they do seem to be rather into potato chips and will get a bit reckless in pursuit of them. My pal from work has it on video.

I usually like to wind up each blog entry with something insightful or funny. Today, however, there shall be none of that.














More pictures here

An old friend Dom told me that Vancouver has added another buzzword to it's vocabulary: Turbidity. It seems all the rain has caused sediment in the water, which you have to boil first before drinking. Bottled water shortages, endless rain, etc. I'm sure there's a few condos which will be added to the 'leaky' list after all this. I sure hope mine aren't one. Anyways, i thought i'd share this image, since i love contrasts:

Fantastic news, my camerabag has been found. Incredible! Someone found it and took it inside, opened the laptop to find my email address and emailed me. How utterly grand.

The woman who found it works at a media company putting television programs on the internet (it's all going to be mostly the same thing eventually anyway). A gift of a fancy box of chocolates and two passes to the local movie theater were my surprise reward.

Later that day, the police called me back asking if there's been any developments - the police called me back! - and i explained that all is well, the bag was found by a great soul.

Now... i can take some pictures of the fantastic mess that is this apartment!

It's been a while since i've written. All our stuff arrived and the apartment is a pile of boxes and mayhem. I'd take a picture of it all, but i can't. I left my backpack on the sidewalk, and realized 5 blocks away only to return to it gone.

My backpack had over $10,000 of gear in it: cameras, lenses and a laptop. I'm still in shock.

A Macbook pro laptop. The fast one. A Canon 30D DSLR. A 70-200 f/4L, a 10-22mm superwide, a Contax Zeiss 35-70mm lens, which is rare and hard to find. OMG, how can i be so absent minded?

This evening was spent with the police, who were very nice, but the looks on their faces weren't suggesting much hope. I have to now troll the pawn shops in hopes of somebody turning it in.

Things had been going so utterly well and smoothly too.

Here's some honest-to-gosh weirdness surrounding the topic: Just days ago, i was thinking about photography and effort, and how the two are directly linked. Want to take a nice photo? it's work. You just can't stand there and expect anything other than a snapshot as the result. All my best photos were work in the concept, work in the execution, work in the positioning, work in the timing or work in the lighting. It's effort to get a good shot. I've let good shots go because i was lazy, and i've pushed through the work to get some great images. It's basically that easy a formula - there's no quick trick to good results.

I started to think about the effort required and the phases one goes through. Sometimes it's fun, sometimes you can't be dammed. Having good photo gear is great, because when you're in the mood it's right there for you, ready. For me, it's not a hobby you can do all the time, it needs a rest. Something to flirt with occasionally, for best results.

The other fucker: When i put the backpack down on the ground, i had a feeling i'd leave it behind. I said to myself 'don't forget the backpack!' and i forgot it.

The other other fucker: Just a few days ago, i said to Brie "you know, if i lost these lenses, i don't know what i'd do, they're so expensive and took me ages to collect, i'd never be able to afford replacing them' And so it happens.

Perhaps someone with a beautiful soul turns them in. Perhaps someone sells them for a pile of drugs. Perhaps this is a great time to deal with one's materialism.

I guess i feel calm. But jeez... Those three lenses, man, such a treasure were they!