Old times, new times…

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Between cleaning up my various websites (see here) and reuploading the old RCAF images I scanned for Zak, and my visit to the Alberta Aviation Museum last week it’s been a pretty reminiscent couple of days. Reminiscent is an odd word to use because I actually don’t remember any of it. It’s all hearsay and pictures and my own imagination.

At the museum they had two things of real interest to me. A CF-86 Mark I. Not particularly interesting as it was the only one of its kind made and barely flown as it was just a prototype for Canadair’s program to build their own Sabres. It was, however, of interest because I was allowed to sit in it. Both my brothers have pictures of them on Sabres, but I, alas, was too small.

The other notable thing was the presence of a CF-100. It wasn’t there the last time I was by and I have not seen one close up before. This was the aircraft that my father died in and I have always had a morbid curiosity about them.

There was a note at the museum that said this aircraft had been with the 414 Squadron which became the EWU in St Hubert, the squadron my father had been flying with when he was killed. So ever since then I have been meaning to dig up my father’s log books and check to see if he had ever flown this particular craft.

Turns out… he had. On F/L J.G. Keith flew this plane May 10 to 11, 1965 with F/L Bill Naylor, on May 12 with F/L Martin and from May 25 to June 4 with Captain Jim Fitzgibbon on a number of varied missions.

His final flight was July 21, 1965, so this is about as close to him I have ever stood. Talk about things that make you go Hmmmmm. While I was at the museum I was a bit … well pissy towards the plane because it was a symbol of what might have been, Now I’m just downright flummoxed by the thing and have no idea what I’ll say to when next we meet.

The log book also indicates F/L Keith flew #18152 which I saw a few years ago at Nanton.

This one he only flew from April 7-9, 1965, the second aircraft he was assigned after being posted to the EWU. Weird.

What’s weirder is when I was talking to the Director and he stated their long-range intention is to make it flight worthy again. Wouldn’t that be … well freaky.

Anyway, at one point I wonder if I should consider donating some of the memorabilia around the house. There was a bunch of stuff there that had been loaned with the reason that “it wasn’t doing any good lying around in boxes” and sometimes I think the same thing.

Hmmmmm, this post goes from past to future… whaddya know, time moves on.

Cataloguing

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I’m a barcode!

Scan this with your smart phone camera using Scanlife‘s app and you’ll be directed…

…right here!

***

Leslie found this image of a library supposedly in Stockholm. Now since image came from here, I am starting to suspect its not real… But, sigh, it sure is enviable.

Almost as cool as this bookstore from a previous post.

Ah… found it. http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=5097. It is digital, but the concept was made for an International Competition of Architecture, for the Stockholm Public Library.

Testing Smooth Galleries… Again

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Basically for the Next Gen Smooth Gallery plugin to work, I have to resize the images. I was hoping to avoid this as I’d like to link to the full size ones but so far no-go… I think there is a way to link to the wordpress galleries as well…

The following gallery is coded:

smooth=id: 8; width:530; height:500; timed:true; delay:6000; arrows:true; carousel:true; transition:fadeslideleft; links:true; info:true; align:center; frames:True; open:true; text:Pictures;

[smooth=id: 8; width:530; height:500; timed:true; delay:6000; arrows:true; carousel:true; transition:fadeslideleft; links:true; info:true; align:center; frames:True; open:true; text:Pictures;]

Smooth Gallery page

[smooth=id:xx; width:xx; height:xx; timed:xx; delay:xx; transition:xx; arrows:xx;
info:xx; carousel:xx; text:xx; open:xx; links:xx; margin:; align:;]

id: The id you were already using on [ gallery=id ]
width: Width of your image container
height: Height of your image container
timed: true/false to slideshow your images
delay: Time in miliseconds before moving to the next image
transition: Animation when moving to the next image: fade, fadeslideleft,
continuoushorizontal, continuousvertical, crossfade, fadebg
arrows: true/false to see the arrows for next/previous images
info: true/false to show the image description
carousel: true/false to see all thumbnails
text: Text relative to the Carousel
open: true/false to show the carousel opened/closed
links: true/false to click on the image and open the original image alone
margin: Distance from the gallery border to the text
align: Gallery alignment: left, right, center, float_left, float_right

So long and thanks for all the books

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I attended the retirement soirée for Neal Fossen today, my long time print rep and friend from Quebecor (later to become Worldcolor). I’ve known Neal for at least 13 years now and he is my favorite small ‘c’ conservative ever. We had many a lunchtime conversation and I hope to have many more.

As well he is one of my favorite colleagues. He never shovelled me no shit and always was accomodating to our idiosyncratic methodologies. And that’s saying alot in an industry of commision sales. He’s still around but the world isn’t likely to see many like him in the future.

Crazy…?

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[singlepic id=166 w=320 h=240 float=none]
[singlepic id=168 w=320 h=240 float=none]
[singlepic id=174 w=320 h=240 float=none]

…and always, more in the gallery.

I am eternally grateful, literally

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I found this post from March in my draft folder. Somehow it never got posted... Oh well, better late than never!

If I ever leave this world alive…

Upon occasion of watching P.S. I Love You and hearing If I Ever Leave This World Alive by Flogging Molly.

If I ever leave this world alive
I’ll thank for all the things you did in my life
If I ever leave this world alive
I’ll come back down and sit beside your
feet tonight
Wherever I am you’ll always be
More than just a memory
If I ever leave this world alive

If I ever leave this world alive
I’ll take on all the sadness
That I left behind
If I ever leave this world alive
The madness that you feel will soon subside
So in a word don’t shed a tear
I’ll be here when it all gets weird
If I ever leave this world alive

So when in doubt just call my name
Just before you go insane
If I ever leave this world
Hey I may never leave this world
But if I ever leave this world alive

She says I’m okay; I’m alright,
Though you have gone from my life
You said that it would,
Now everything should be all right

She says I’m okay; I’m alright,
Though you have gone from my life
You said that it would,
Now everything should be all right
Yeah should be alright