Art on the 'net.

Found some really cool things. Wanted to make a post. Don't have my notes from Halifax with me. Can't blog because I should be writing my thesis.

There's nothing I like better than an old-fashioned looking photograph. They're doing very cool things with Polaroid printing at she hit pause studios. I need to get my lomo out and order an film adaptor so I can use it more often and not go broke.



Here's a neat site I keep coming across from Canon. Very cool free paper crafts to print and assemble.



Here are some interesting sketches by artist Mattias Adolfsson. He makes incredible things like floating cities.



And last, but not least, a book binder from Pawtucket. Rag & Bone Bindery.



That's all for now, Cass

Nova Scotian Hops.

I've got soooo much to post about my trip to Halifax. I just got home last night though, and I'm really motivated to work on my thesis after the conference, so I have to focus on that first. I just wanted to post about this article I read in Westjet's free Up! magazine. They stick it in the back of every seat on the airplane and I flipped through it on my flight yesterday.

The article was about Lazy Acres Hopyard. The owner and operator of Lazy Acres, Joshua Herbin, has been growing organic hops in Nova Scotia for two years now. He supplies a few microbreweries (and there are A LOT of those in NS!) with locally produced hops. This is one ingredient that is very difficult for the breweries to find in the region. On his site, Joshua also links to the Canadian Agricultural Skills Service (CASS). This link caught my attention because on the acronym. This Government of Canada initiative gives grants to farming families in order to help them take courses that improve the productivity of their farm. Various levels of government have shown interest in providing support for this sort of business lately. I learned about a program in Toronto to encourage Market Farm development in the surrounding area. I have to look into that a little more, I think.

Anyway, I was checking out these sites and thought I'd mention them here before i head off to grab some lunch.

What a cool thing.

I found this really neat website called TiltShiftMaker. It allows you to take your digital photos and add a filter that makes the scenes look miniture; like you built a complex diarama and took a picture. There's an amazing photo pool on flickr with all sorts of creations people have made.

This isn't the best example, but I tried to make a little mini of Misery Bay on Manitoulin Island:



I think I'm going to add a new section for interesting flickr pools here. I found a mini food one today too! And I want to get more lomo photography going this summer.

Man, I love loldogs ALMOST as much as lolcats.

see more dog and puppy pictures

"Novel quarry after-use."

This weekend I'm heading to the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution Annual Meeting. It's being held at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia this year. I am very excited to see the east coast of Canada. Halifax has been on my places to visit list for a really long time.

I'm actually presenting my work this year and it should be good practice for my upcoming, date-to-be-set, thesis defence.



In other exciting news, Paul stopped by one of my restored quarry sites. He sent pictures of some of my plots and they are doing so well! I got really excited when I saw these and I can't wait to take a trip around to see all my sites. Hopefully Alex can tag along once the sea lamprey move is over.

These are two of the seed plots. I can't get over how diverse they appear. Almost all of the species I planted did very well.





Some of the adults have even started to escape!



O, and Paul also included this cool link to the an architecture blog that had a post about a winner of an international design competition. The objective was to design an after-use for a giant decommissioned quarry in Shanghai, China. Check out an artists rendition of the winning design:

The Songjiang beauty spot hotel.



And an even move spectacular nighttime shot.



When we colonize the moon, I hope this is what the hotels will look like.

Bunny Cake?

From cakespy.com.

O, and the original:

Who'd you rather be?

What no posts since last April?! I've actually been kinda down, I think. Luckily, I've got Emily Haines to bring me back up:

I've got a lot about the OEEC. I took a few notes and everything. I just haven't had the motivation to bring it all here. Perhaps in a few days.

O, and my workshop was accepted for Hillside this year. Yay! So much fun in July.