Justin Piercy

March 11 Shooting Challenge - “Someone You Talked to...

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 21:30:41 -0400

March 11 Shooting Challenge - “Someone You Talked to Today”. I’m truly blessed to be able to talk to this person every day:) Love you @traceypiercy.

March 8th Shooting Challenge - “Window”. Love this...

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 19:00:36 -0500

March 8th Shooting Challenge - “Window”. Love this little thing near to where I live. Only functional part of the wall remaining is the window.

March 10th Shooting Challenge - “Loud”.

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 19:00:10 -0500

March 10th Shooting Challenge - “Loud”.

March 9th Shooting Challenge - “Red”. I thought Kony...

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:09:48 -0500

March 9th Shooting Challenge - “Red”. I thought Kony 2012 was a fitting subject for this one. Apparently something wecan’tall agree on. However, for better or worse Invisible children is making something happen and all eyes are on the Kony 2012 campaign.

Got a make up shot coming for yesterday. Oral surgery kicked my butt. Got something very specific in mind.. just need to get there, be patient:)

March 7th Shooting Challenge - “Something You Wore”....

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:37:25 -0500

March 7th Shooting Challenge - “Something You Wore”. My dog chilling in one of my favourite ties. Yes I wear ties. Took this one using a neat technique called “lens whacking”. A technique used more for video but creates a similar effect when used in photography. Gotta give @jeff_andrews props for showing me this technique!

March 6 Shooting Challenge - “5PM”. Today at 5PM I...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:36:56 -0500

March 6 Shooting Challenge - “5PM”. Today at 5PM I was prepping to help direct a video shoot @ConnexusChurch. Props to @jeff_andrews for setting up the shoot and the help on this pic!

March 5th Shooting Challenge - “Smile”. In case you...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:43:22 -0500

March 5th Shooting Challenge - “Smile”. In case you couldn’t tell, she’s smiling:)

March 4 Shooting Challenge - “Bedside”

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 19:36:55 -0500

March 4 Shooting Challenge - “Bedside”

Make up shot from March 1. Challenge - “Up”.

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 19:33:16 -0500

Make up shot from March 1. Challenge - “Up”.

March 3. My neighbourhood. These types of flyers all over the...

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 22:05:05 -0500

March 3. My neighbourhood. These types of flyers all over the place in my neighbourhood. Apparently whoever runs these marketing campaigns thinks that college students would like to make hundreds of dollars per day by doing nothing. Fair enough. However, they also think that they will be convinced that this is a real possibility by cheaply produced flyers taped to poles. This was taken at an arena about 90 seconds walk from my house.

I’m joining my good friend and coworker to this photos day...

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 21:59:49 -0500

I’m joining my good friend and coworker to this photos day challenge for March. Looking forward to it!

jeffandrews:

My friend reintroduced me to Tumblr. I figured I would restart with a cool challenge. One themed photo every day in March. I’ll post three today to get caught up.

I hope you’re as excited as I am.

I despise the calendar.

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:14:18 -0400

Why?

Truthfully, because it’s not easy. It’s not seamless. It’s another system to manage that’s difficult to integrate across a wide variety of media.

I have a pretty good mind for my schedule, but it’s not perfect. I mess up, forget, as does anyone. I even recognize the need to keep a calendar, I just haven’t found a solution that seamless enough for me to implement.

I need a system that syncs seamlessley across multiple macs using a desktop app, my google account, and my phone. It also needs to sync with my to-do software, Things.app. I need sync’d alerts on all, my desktop calendar app to open at login, and I don’t need one way syncing. I need to be able to keep multiple calendars and share different calendars with different people. It needs to operate offline but sync in the cloud. Also, it has to be free and work over wifi.

On the front end I know that if it doesn’t do all of these things, then it just won’t work for me. If I could have everything above, then the step to actually keeping and maintaining a calendar would be easier. Until today, I couldn’t find a system that met all of these expectations.

Then I found CalDAV, a protocol that opens the gates of wonder for calendars. Using CalDAV, I can sync iCal and Google Cal, which I can then sync to my iPhone. Alerts go along for the ride and I can sync however many calendars I want. Also, Things.app can now sync with iCal, which then syncs with everything else. I can put in any event anywhere and it magically appears across all my devices, alerts and all.

Hallelujah. I may be late on this boat, but I know many people struggle trying to find a seamless calendar solution. This took a few minutes to set up, but it’s super slick. And free.

This is big. I have never kept a calendar. Until today.

If you suck at keeping calendars, have struggled to find a clean easy solution, and are Mac based, hit me up. I can help:)

How to make work-life balance work. This video is awesome. I...

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 18:40:04 -0500

How to make work-life balance work. This video is awesome. I love my job, it’s one of the most favourite things I do. For some of us, that can become a problem, but it doesn’t have to. The concept here is simple. Make the important things in your life a priority, it’s the execution that can be difficult.

Use the force….

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:16:59 -0500

Use the force….

I will sleep easier tonight after confirming my decades long...

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 21:51:29 -0500

I will sleep easier tonight after confirming my decades long suspicion….

Double Dream Hands!

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 12:00:50 -0500

Double Dream Hands!

Pre-Blessed Food

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:43:17 -0500

Pre-Blessed Food

Why I love British-Written, Mid-Century Science-Fiction.

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 10:40:00 -0400

I am a HUGE fan of this literary genre. I could eat it up all day and all night. Even though I have a pretty broad range of tastes as far as reading goes, time and time again I find myself drawn back to this very specific genre, time period, and geographic origination.

What is so magnetic about it? It’s more complicated that you may think. Hopefully I can give you a better appreciation for this niche body of works.

Let’s start with the content.

Science fiction works written between 1930-1970 were written in a time where science was much less sure of itself. The writers never needed to go into much physical or technical detail because the society on the whole was much less knowledgeable about the capabilities of technology. When reading these books there is one side of my brain that says “That would never work” or “That isn’t physically possible.” One great example is in an early work by CS Lewis called “Out of the Silent Planet”. In it, the main characters leave earth in a small spherical ship with absolutely no explanation given to the method of propulsion or internal gravity. Modern works spend paragraphs detailing how the engines and other systems of the technology itself phyically work. To me this actually detracts from the story line itself.

The absence of this in early works adds to the romance, and also enhances and better highlights the plot and character development.

Even though the books are often vague on the details, people were dreaming during this time period like they never had before. These books were written just prior to the dawn of the space age, so people’s imaginations were on fire. I find that adventurous and pioneering spirit carries though quite clearly in the books written in the science fiction genre in this time period.

One other thing I love about them is the vocabulary used. While modern works use lots of technical terminology, the mid-century works use a vocabulary that hearkens back to a different time. Also the British, particularly of that time period, tended to be much more wordy than modern western authors. While this makes for some long and often obscure word usage, they’re an absolute pleasure to read. On the whole, I find these books much more generally eloquent than their modern equivalents.

Lastly, their plots are often laced with overtones evaluating the human condition, the balance between good and evil, and often are much more philosophical than books of the same genre released today. I think this may be due to the fact that they were written in the shadow of two major world wars, when the men writing them were forced to think about what was really important in their own lives, as they never knew from one month to the next if the war would take a turn for the worse.

Next, let’s get down to a more tangible reason. The format.

I just love holding and reading these books! Everything about them is awesome. Let’s look at the various parts combining to collectively form their awesomeness.

The covers. Just look at these:

How can you not love that gorgeous vintage graphic design? Enough said.

The print. For some reason I just love the really small print, the tight spacing, the heavier weight of the printing itself. It makes the works feel…. denser, more substantial than newer works. Have a peek:

Compare this to the more delicate and wider spaced printing of an equivalent modern work:

The paper color and smell. I don’t know how to describe it, but the older a book gets the more distinguised an air it aquires. The yellowing of the paper, and that musty smell all help pull me into the story.

Here’s a big one, the size. Look at these two books:

I love both, but which one am I going to want to curl up with? Not personally looking to snuggle with something encyclopedia sized. However, that is common size in modern day works. Mid century british written and published works (printed in that era) all share the same, small, comfortable footprint that.. just fits.

Lastly, they’re cheap! You may have noticed a few of the ORIGINAL printings have price tags on them of about 2.50. Can’t beat that! Some of the cheapest “antique” items you can find!

All in all, I just think that every element of this genre leads to a very enjoyable reading experience. Do you have a favourite genre? If so, have you every thought about why it’s your favourite? What love to hear what it is and why.

If you’d like to have a go at reading one of these awesome books, then any of the ones pictured are great. If you have any suggestions for me too I’d love to hear them!

This video made me LOL. In some ways, it was easier to cover the Toronto election than the...

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 18:11:50 -0400

This video made me LOL. In some ways, it was easier to cover the Toronto election than the one in my (now) hometown of Barrie. The media coverage surrounding it was incredible. However, much of it wasn’t based on platform, ideas or political issues. The “progressive” people just seemed to really not like Rob Ford.

I don’t consider myself well informed enough to state whether or not I think Toronto ended up with the right mayor, however, this video hits the nail on the head when it comes to the often hypocritical attitudes of many “progressive” individuals in our society in general.

Funny:)

Disposable Cameras

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 20:47:06 -0400

Disposable Cameras