i had an eye exam today that included ultra high res shots of my retina. that is one of them; what you see in the bottom right are my eyelashes. i have a slight tear in my retina and i think i have mentioned before on here that if it gets too much worse i will become blind. two years ago it stopped tearing for whatever reason. the news today is that i am still fine. woot. i have dreams where the retina tears and detaches and i lose vision, one eye at a time. then i wake up and i am pretty glad i can still see.
weird dreams.
i got new contact lenses finally — with that xmas cheque from santa i was able to pay for my eyes for one more year. thank you, old bearded fellow.
it is nice to have my peripheral vision back..
i had a great time with matt on monday night, cruising locations and looking for shtuff to shoot. i love that kind of thing and it’s cool to do this with someone who is as excited about it as i am. yeah i love it.
it occured to me, as i looked out over the calm waters of the juan de fuca (which was out in an unusual low tide with the full moon overhead) that the .. words are failing me .. the tragedy that happened in the indian ocean over the last few days is just unreal; it’s hard to fathom, and even tougher to swallow. some islands have not even been visited and searched yet. the death toll continues to rise.
.. $40 million in aide from canada so far .. $35 million from the US .. i am not pointing out these figures to criticize the US’s contribution, but rather to put canada’s massive contribution in context.
please see julie’s blog as it says much of what i would like to say myself, and a lot more: www.perpetualkarma.com — i am not feeling super articulate about it, however, the conversations i had on monday with julie at qv’s are reflected on her site.
feel like you’re being watched? yeah. that is the same stone lady as pictured a few months ago .. different angle this time.
i am doing some prep for NYE now, sorting details, arranging a rendezvous at Swartz Bay, looking for a place to sleep after the party, listening to records to figure out my set, polishing off pieces of the new Tiebreaker tune (called “Settle The Score” .. this one is huge!) which myself and Anand wrote on Xmas Eve in a fit of creativity on a night that is typically hard to sleep on anyways.
sorted innit m8 know what i’m sayin!
i went to re-bar today for breakfast with em-dawg and it was really good. last time i was there years ago with brian it was so-so, if not kinda sucky. this time was different; i had never had breakfast there before. mmm.
so my costume for hallowe’en is set. oh yeah this is gonna be cool. and it fits with my nickname, which is great. so if you know my nickname, then this will make sense. if you don’t know my nickname, and you’re going to be at the same party as me on NYE, then you will soon know my nickname. heh!
arpegio arpegio arpegio arpegio arpegio
Actually, Canada has only pledged 4 million, unless that has changed in the last couple days, and if it has I can’t find any info. Here’s a breakdown of who’s giving what.
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/12/27/graham-tsunami041227.html
looks like they upped it yesterday to 40m, I was wrong!
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/12/29/dart-tsunami041229.html
wow, that’s an amazing shot of your retina. did they give the file to you on cd or did you take a picture of a picture? i don’t see the tear, but i don’t know what i should be looking for etiher.
Amanda, yeah, they raised the pledge. i ran some numbers last night, and including the C$8M being donated by the province of BC, that puts Canada’s contribution at C$48 million, which is just amazing, considering we about 1/10th the population/GDP of the United States:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_response_to_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#North_and_South_America
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29
That there hole is the tear?
And you are planning your halloween costume so early? Good for you. I’m such a procrastinator I tend to leave it ’til, oh I don’t know… October! 😛
oops! i mean NYE. guh!
Our government is now saying it will match all donations made by individual Canadians, up to January 11th.
Our own city (Vic) is outdoing everyone else from what I can tell — 650 grand so far from folks walking into, or phoning directly to the Quadra/Fairfield Red Cross office (more still through the web and 800 line). The volunteers there told of one young fella who returned all his Christmas gifts and donated nearly $300.
I think Ottawa, Washington, and all the rest are doing what they can. It takes time.
BTW, people may try to collect at your New Year’s Party — beware of crooks. I’d save it for a bank myself.
Just here to complicate as usual!
The US has pledged 350 million, not 35 million.