2. Blog

Bull Riding — Photo 91 — Project 365

Bull Riding — Photo 91 — Project 365

If barrel racing is about finesse, bull riding is about sheer power. Holding on with only hand, the rider aims to stay on for eight seconds. A surprising few make it. Those that do stand a chance at rodeo glory.

I liked this photo because it freezes the bull’s action so well, legs and in the air and rope flying, hinting at the bull’s power. It’s interesting to note the number of people around the periphery, watching attentively and ready to jump into action at the first sign of trouble to rescue the bull rider.

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Free Hosting for Static Websites

In addition to my blog, I have a couple of static webpages that I host at Minchin.ca. Sadly, they’ve been a little neglected of late, but I’ve enjoyed being able to put a few pages and play around with HTML. Since I don’t run any ads on them, or run a business from them, I’ve trying to avoid having to pay for hosting. In the almost 5 years they’ve been online, I’ve managed to find a place to host them for free: first at Google Pages, and then at Microsoft Office Small Business. Google closed Pages in 2009 and Microsoft’s offering will start charging for hosting the end of next month. So I’ve been looking for a new place to host them. Today I completed the move to GitHub!

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Low Cost Index Investing

One of the exciting parts about having a regular job is having a regular paycheck which means I can create a regular savings plan. Retirement is the biggest goal, but in reality, I think the goal is really about creating enough passive income that I don’t have to work anymore. Retirement (i.e. 65) just adds the time component to that goal, but I would be fine if I could hit that goal by 55 or even 35 (dream big, right?). So now that I have $100-200 per month to invest, what do I do with it? This isn’t really something they cover in school…

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The Wonder of Coastlines

The Wonder of Coastlines
A year ago, I travelled to southern France with my honey and some friends. As we visited Marseilles, a port town on the Mediterranean with a history stretching back some 2,600 years, we came to a plaque that commemorated the start of that history. Along the old harbour, the bronze reads “Here, in 600 BC, Greek sailors from Phocaea, a Greek city in Asia Minor, landed. They founded Marseilles, to serve as a beacon of civilization to the west.”

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Wagon Driver — Photo 88 — Project 365

Wagon Driver — Photo 88 — Project 365
The parade provided lots of interesting sights. I got his photo of one of the wagon drivers in the parade. I thought the outfit was rather timeless and I liked the look on his face.

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Boy in the Yellow Shirt — Photo 87 — Project 365

Boy in the Yellow Shirt — Photo 87 — Project 365
This summer while I was waiting for a parade to start, so I started taking pictures of some of the other people waiting around me. I ended up with this neat picture of this boy. There’s just something about the look on his face…

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Ethnic Canadians

Ethnic Canadians
I recently stumbled across this map of “Leading Ethnicity by Census Division,” based on the 2006 Canadian census (original on Wikipedia). Maps fascinate me and I thought this one was pretty cool. I thought I’d share a few thoughts, but first the map itself:

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