Slight-Snow Country

For a part of the country that normally is thickly blanketed with snow at this time of year, we are in short supply right now. From this photo that I took yesterday afternoon, you can see we certainly don't have much snow on the ground.


Denver, Colorado, on the other hand, is in a much different situation with their second blizzard of the holiday season! This is of particular interest to me because, Lord willing, tomorrow evening I should arrive at the Denver International Airport from Timmins via Toronto.

Eking out a snowmobile expedition

Yesterday afternoon Cameron and I took a 2-3 hour ride on his snowmobile. Although grass was poking through in many places, there was enough snow to reasonable ride. Whatever the case, it definitely doesn't look like late December outside here!

Not croaking, but rather cloaking

Need to be invisible for a while?
It may be possible in a while!

The mathematics of cloaking (external link to physorg.com)

Artificial Snow

Since natural snowfall amounts have been quite abysmal so far this winter, we've decided to do our part to remedy the lack of frozen precipitation. Mixing water with a small amount of these tiny white crystals we purchased for $1.29 produces a rather realistic-looking, snow-like substance. Ok, ok, maybe we won't be skiing on it any time soon...however, we managed to made a small area of the kitchen table look rather "snowy" for a while!

Christmas Wishes

May the miracle of Christ's birth fill your heart with peace, love and joy this Christmas season!

Hopefully your holiday season requires only
a small amount of corn and no pickles...
I hope you're having a wonderful Christmas :-)

Cameron's Close Cash

Photo by: Cameron Donaldson

Above is an uncropped photo of the tiny yellow "20"s on the White House side of a US $20 bill. Cameron took this photo using the setup described in my previous post. Click to download full res image (~1.5 MB). For perspective, here is an area photo...

Photo by: Cameron Donaldson

Some Super Macro Magnification

This afternoon my brother added a massive extension tube (i.e. poster board lined with black hockey tape) to his DSLR camera & macro lens setup.

The results were quite impressive, as can be witnessed in this album* of his gallery. Most images are of prepared microscope slide specimens.

* (external link to camerondonaldson.com)

There's lots of snow somewhere!

While most of eastern North America has little or no snow, the West Coast seems to have no shortage. Take the Shames Mountain (external link to shamesmountain.com) ski resort in British Columbia for example: in the last few days they have received over 2 meters (~6.6 feet) of fresh snow, effectively closing the resort!

Screenshot from: http://www.shamesmountain.com/mountain.html

Resumption of Unicycling

This evening Cameron and I went out for a short unicycle ride; my first in more than three months. While my technique is still valid, I am definitely out of shape! I guess that's what a few months at college, with only mediocre exercise, can do for you...






Archived 2005 image of Cameron by: Bonnie D.

My Weekend

While the first few days of my return home were quite quiet, Friday to Sunday were quite the opposite. After supper on Friday, Ben and Melissa arrived from La Sarre via Timmins, where they picked up two rental ATVs.


Soon after they arrived, we departed to attend a Bible study which lasted about 1.5 hours. We looked at Hebrews 10:22-25, and the various "let us" admonitions in that passage.

Following the study, we returned home and suited up. In the December darkness, we explored the trails around Cochrane for about two hours before turning in for the night.

Bright and early (i.e. ~6:30am) Saturday morning we set off again into pre-dawn darkness.

Turning down one unused country road we were slightly spooked by multiple sets of large, quite fresh, paw-prints in the snow. Wolf, we think.

Soon, the morning dawned. We stopped at our friend's place to pick up my brother's snowmobile before continuing our exploration. Over the course of the day we managed to find plenty of snow, water, mud, ice, and gravel to ride on, over, and through.

Click here for more photos from our ATV expedition!

As part of the Sunday morning service I gave a very brief update from college, followed by a short devotional highlighting the "Miracle of Christmas". Sunday evening I preached from Romans chapter 12 at New Post First Nations reserve, about 20 minutes from town.

Quick Update

Sorry for the lack of posts in the last several days. So far, my Christmas vacation has been great! The first few days following my return home were mostly spent sleeping, talking, eating...and sleeping some more.

Friday afternoon Ben & Melissa arrived for the weekend. We rented ATVs in Timmins which Ben transported here with his new truck. In the coming days I plan to post more photos (and maybe some video) from our adventures Friday night and Saturday.

Photo by: Cameron Donaldson

Safely Home!

Just a quick note to say I have arrived home... Thank you to those who prayed for a safe trip!

Proverbial Sunset on the FA-06 Semester!

Earlier this evening I completed my final final of the FA-06 semester! Lord willing, tomorrow will find me flying back to Canada for the Christmas holidays. This has been a terrific semester in so many ways! Here is a photo of this evening's sunset; a fitting close....

Majestic Monday Morning

Reflection of a December Sunset

Late afternoon sun reflecting off an office building in downtown Cincinnati:

GBS Christmas Program

This evening I attended the first of three nights that GBS is presenting this year's Christmas program, "I Choose Jesus". Here's a photo showing most of the cast on stage...

Friendship Fountain - Christmas Config.

Accumulation of Snow

Snow this morning on the GBS Campus!

Free Antivirus & Firewall Software

Do you have up-to-date antivirus software installed on your computer? Are you SURE?

Most new computers come with only a limited subscription (several months) to virus definition updates from McAfee or Norton. Once this expires, unless you pay to renew the subscription, your system is no longer protected against new virus attacks. If you are looking for a free (quality) alternative, try AVG available on download.com:
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition (external link to download.com)

Also, for good free firewall software, try:
ZoneAlarm (external link to download.com)

God's Way or My Way

The topic of rebellion in a recent class reminded me of a powerful presentation by Frank Peretti I heard this past summer, entitled "God's Way or My Way". My Mom purchased the CD recording of the program from Focus on the Family, which is available here (external link to family.org). I also found a streaming version of the two-part program online, but am waiting to hear back from FOTF concerning possible copyright issues before posting the link.

In my opinion, this presentation is well worth the listen! If you do listen to it at some point, I welcome your thoughts/comments in reply to this post.

10,000+ Views!

The view count on my Photo Journal has surpassed 10,000! Thanks to everyone who views my site and makes it enjoyable to maintain...

It Snowed Today!

Just a quick post to say today it snowed here at GBS for the first time this fall (that I've noticed)! No photo though, sorry...