Blog Update

This post doesn’t really have a particular subject, just letting people know what’s going on in the world of kaluuja.

There probably isn’t going to be much activity in the near future in terms of blog posts, and this is for a number of reasons.

1. I’m between places at the moment and won’t be properly settled anywhere until about 2 weeks time.
2. I’ve uploaded most of the photos from my travels for the time being (am still waiting on some from other people though).
3. And perhaps the most exciting is that I am designing the new website at the moment, which will hopefully be up and running fairly soon (within the next week).

In terms of the new website I’ll just be getting some basic features up, transferring my blog over and adding a forum to it (I figured those who wanted it could join, and if people didn’t want it, then they didn’t have to join!). I’ll be throwing a few things together, so when it does go live, you might have to bare with me a little bit 🙂 It’s gonna be  a website more for function to begin with, and then hopefully; little by little, I’ll change bits to make it even more awesome!

Watch this space for news of that!

ToneMatrix

This is something that a friend of mine introduced to me a while ago and that I have recently rediscovered. The premise of it is very simple, basically you click on the squares and create a audible tone, different patterns of squares combine to create different tunes. The best way to understand it however,

is to experience it. I do have to warn you however that it is highly addictive, and you will probably be playing around for hours!

Here is the link:  http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix

What kind of music will you make?

The Tone Matrix

Here is a link to Andre Michelle’s blog for those interested.

Niagara Falls

It’s taken me a while, but I’ve finally managed to get my hands on the photos of when I went to visit Niagara Falls.

My camera decided not to work that day, but luckily enough a friend who I was with that day was kind enough to let me use his photos!

Our day comprised of a wine tasting session at one of Ontario’s vineyards (if you have a sweet tooth when it comes to wine, then I’d highly recommend ice-wine!) then we manged to see the world’s biggest natural whirlpool, a memorial to the battle of 1812, Niagara-on-the-lake (a lovely little village comprising of quite a few British shops! I got a pastie, a Caramac and Lucozade there… cracking lunch!) and finally was able to visit Niagara Falls itself and ride the famous ‘maid of the mist’ boat ride.

Here are some of the photos from my buddy’s camera:

Forum of Kaluuja?

Just wondering whether or not this blog would benefit from a forum? I’m thinking more in terms of people back home here, or people I know who are also on their travels, just as a way of keeping in touch, asking questions etc. But obviously everyone would be welcome 🙂

Seeing as I don’t know who reads this blog or how many even, I thought I’d do a little poll, answer honestly!

It seems like a very easy way to organise things and keep in touch, especially if people don’t have facebook (or don’t check facebook a lot!) ordon’t have each others emails… let me know what you think!

The CN Tower

The CN Tower is one of Toronto’s main tourist attractions. For those who don’t know, it’s a communications and observation tower standing 553.3 metres (1,815 ft) tall. At the time of writing it is the world’s 3rd tallest free-standing structure, and is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

So really, having been in Toronto since June, it made sense for me to finally go and see it!

The elevator takes 58 seconds to travel up to the main observation deck (there is a higher ‘sky pod’ experience for a bit extra, but I stuck with the standard observation deck this time around). When you get up there it’s quite incredible how high up you are and how far you can see, and the pictures I took don’t really capture the experience fully. There was also a glass floor that enabled you to see right to the bottom, and although logically I know that it’s reinforced glass and wont break, I didn’t spend too long on it! So I got a slushie instead.

<update: Have added more pics to the Vector Art post check them out!>

Royal Ontario Museum

Recently during one of my days off, I realised that although I’d been in Toronto for 2 months now, I hadn’t really visited many of the ‘Tourist’ sights that the city has to offer. So I got out my Toronto guide book (which I hadn’t really looked at since the first week!) and had a look at the top 10 things to do in Toronto. Apparently I’d only done two of them! So I took the opportunity to visit the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and tick another top 10 off my list.

I managed to take a few pictures around the museum of things that I found interesting whilst I was there. Obviously there is so much more in the museum, and there were a few exhibits where you weren’t allowed to take a camera. Especially the ‘Warrior Emperor’s Terracotta Army’ exhibition which was fascinating. I’d highly recommend seeing or learning about it, it was a great experience learning about the man who unified China, built himself a tomb (probably the biggest ever in the world) with thousands of terracotta soldiers and underground lakes made from mercury!

I couldn’t take any pictures in there, but here are some of the others I took around the place… including dinosaurs… and who doesn’t love them?

I tried to organise them so they’re in a very rough chronological order, from dinosaurs, to the first humans, to ancient Egyptians and Greeks, to medieval times, to 16th Century Europe, Victorian times and finally to the modern day art of Dan Perjovschi.

Anyway, enjoy! And I’d recommend viewing the photos on full screen by selecting it from the menu.

This Too Shall Pass

I’m a fan of OK Go’s music videos, they’re always innovative and enjoyable, this one included!

If you’re never seen any of their other videos, then check them out on Youtube, I’d recommend especially ‘Here it goes again’ and ‘A million ways’.

Anyway, enjoy and just imagine how long it must have taken to get this right!

Ontario Part 2: Algonquin Park, The Wolf Den, and Dave

During the week of the G20, a lot of Toronto was shut down, including the university halls that we were living in at the time. So all of the group went spent the week out of Toronto, in various different places. Three of us (Craig, Lexi and Myself) decided to go to a place about 2-3 hours from Toronto called ‘Algonquin Park’, so we rented a car for the week and made our way to experience the natural beauty, and wild animals of Algonquin.

To set the scene a little bit for people who aren’t that familiar with Algonquin, the actual park is about 7653 square kilometers large (about a quarter of the size of Belgium I’ve just found out!) and has 2400 lakes and 1200 km worth of streams and rivers. It’s also covered with trees and many wild animals including bears, moose, beavers, loons, snakes, squirrels, chipmunks etc. So it’s a great place for hiking/rambling, cycling and canoeing… and we wanted to experience all of them while we were there. So we did.

We stayed at an awesome place called the Wolf Den, and if anyone’s ever staying in Algonquin, I’d highly recommend it. It’s just an awesome place as you’ll see from the photos, but the chilled atmosphere, and the people you meet there make it even better. I had a great time calling that place ‘home’ for a week, and learnt so much as well.

Anyway before I get to the photos, I have to explain the ‘Dave’ in the title of this post. Dave was what we elected to call the wild moose we saw in the middle of our first trail in Algonquin. I had never realised how big moose were until I saw Dave, and how majestic and powerful they are as creatures. And just in case you’re wondering; the plural of moose, is moose. Not mooses, or meese… I asked.

Anyway, enjoy the slide show!

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Vector Art

Now I’m usually not that into visual art, not that I can’t appreciate the time and talent that goes into it. It’s just that most of it just doesn’t resonate with me for some reason.

However I’ve come across a type of art recently that I actually really like, and I’ve never liked most of a particular genre before, it’s usually just the odd piece of art here and there. From what I gather and have seen so far it’s mainly done on computers and is called ‘Vector Art’, it’s actually what I based the banner at the top of my blog on, and what I’ve been using as my desktop backgrounds for a while now. Anyway here’s a few examples, let me know what you think, maybe it will resonate with you as well.

(26th Feb 2012) UPDATE: Have added a few more wallpapers and art I’ve found recently. Also Links to some awesome brushes for making you own vector art! (Links mainly taken from DeviantArt, which is an awesome place for vectors and art in general, highly recommended.)

• Vector Curves by IHEA (Photoshop)
• Vector Line Brushes by PhysicalMagic (Photoshop)
• Vector Brush Pack by 1deadpixel (Photoshop)
• Vector Brush Set by Spekta (Photoshop)
• Vector Foliage-Plants Brushes by redheadstock (Photoshop and GIMP)
• Gimp Vector Brushes by tycity (GIMP)

 

(26th Aug 2011) UPDATE: After ages of scouring the internet for a GIMP tutorial on how to ‘vectorise’ your pictures, I’ve found a great one! This is originally done for renders, but I’ve tried it on photos and it works just as well… and it’s so simple! Huge credit goes to ‘Curly Haired Boy’ for this awesome tutorial! Vector Your Renders! A tutorial by Curly