The Story Behind This Photo #4

The Terror-Bear
Originally uploaded by ehdtstudios

This time last year I felt the need to buy one of those trendy afghan scarves. For what reason -- I have no idea -- but it proved awfully useful in the desert.
In fact, I would recommend the scarf (more affectionately known as the shemagh) to any of my comrades looking to partake in a desert adventure. The shemagh really does do a great job at keeping sand away from your face -- keeping you warm, or cooling you off. It's the perfect desert tool! And you'll look stylish while riding a camel!

Onwards,
This photo has grown to be my online identity. Despite this blog, I really like to keep myself under an alias when online, just to stay safe. I use this picture on forums and whatnot...oh great, I just revealed my secret. Well, there goes my web-anonymity.
So I took this flying to New York City from Beijing some time in September of 2008. The photo features a panda bear that I bought at the Chinese duty free, donning a desert style shemagh. Why you ask? I'm getting to that.
The important thing here is what that panda is actually hiding. Underneath that scarf is... A POLAR BEAR.
Yes, you heard me. The great Canadian Polar Bear. He is wearing a panda costume that features a pull over hood, disguising him as a Chinese Giant Panda. Clever eh? See now your more interested. Our specimen is clearly trying to hide something very important...
Well, maybe.
See I had wrapped him in a shemagh whilst running through the Beijing airport. I did this to avoid the stupid scarf from getting caught in the wheels of my cart. Instead of putting it my my bag, which would cause a whole new world of clutter, I found it rather fitting, and quite cute to outfit my suspicious bear in high desert fashion!
Now what happened next wasn't expected. I drew some rather suspicious glares from passing civilians. I guess airports are scary places these days with all the fear of "terror." (is this post going to get me black-listed?) It was soon funny that I had created a perfect example to represent the people's fear of terror on an airline! This little guy gave me copious laughs and giggles. So I took a picture! Shortly after taking the photo I named this crafty little creature the TERROR-BEAR!
His cunning disguise not only represents a generation of fear, but my reign of domination on the interwebs! A perfect avatar!

This is likely the worst written and most nonsense post I've ever made. Fuck it...I'm bored.

The Story Behind This Photo #3

broken metacarpal!, originally uploaded by ehdtstudios.

So this one's a doozy.

That my friends, is my right hand. I took this photo shortly after realizing what I had actually done to it. I took this while waiting in the hospital emergency wing-- suffering!

Oh, for reference -- here is what regular 5th metacarpals should look like. Straight, relatively.



So I'm not going into detail as to how I fractured it. I'm just saying, it was dumb. Really dumb. Hard objects, versus bone...bad idea.

I cleanly separated the bone right before it turns to the metacarpal joint into two pieces. Pain is an understatement. Agony is just the tip of the ice berg. Well, not so much while it was broken and resting -- but the reduction of the fracture. Picture a regular sized male doctor putting all his weight on my poor hand. I nearly fainted. I went pretty pale, sorta...fell asleep for a minute. It got mad hot in that tiny room. I didn't cry though...oh yeah.

So it was about 1 month in an ulnar gutter splint. Which looked badass.

And that's how I broke my hand -- and that's why there is a picture of my hand -- because it is deformed into a grotesque position.
Great.

Two Hundred More Pixels

Many thanks to Haoxiang for an extra 200px on the body of the blog. Makes adding photos much easier!

My Home Weather Station

Today I spent about 6 hours on a really cool project.
Last night I bought a home weather station -- something I've wanted for a very, very long time. And no, it's not one of those cheap ones that you stick out the window -- it's a little bit better.
See this one has instruments! No, not musical instruments, but meteorological instruments that measure things like wind speed/direction, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, rainfall, wind chill, and forecast. All of this is wirelessly transmitted to a receiver that can be kept inside that also gives you indoor temperature readings.

At this very moment 09:53 EST (13:53 UST) (July 24th,2009) my station is reading a 21.1° outdoor temperature, 69% relative humidity, 29.41inch on the barometer, 0.0cm of rainfall, and winds are at a standstill. Earlier this evening we had 3.2km/h winds at 280°
This is a little off from Hamilton's standard weather station at CYHM airport because I am sheltered by trees and houses. However, the idea isn't to have a perfect weather reading, but one centralized to your location. If I needed general city weather I could just look online, or turn on the TV. This one is perfect for planning backyard dining, kite flying, and what to wear in the morning.
By the way, it's a smoldering 26°C inside :|

Thermometer/Hygrometer/Transmitter
This is the most important part of the whole system. The small unit mounts on any flat surface and contains a sensitive thermometer, solid state hygrometer, and a wireless radio transmitter. It has a range of about 100m -- which works great for me. It takes two AA batteries -- lithium is recommended for efficient operation below -10°C. I'll be replacing my alkalines shortly. The unit also covers two RJ 11 cable receptacles for the wind and rain sensors. All of this looks really discrete and clean.

Rain Gauge
The rain gauge is a really simple, yet incredible piece of engineering. On the outside there is an oval structure with a funnel on top. This funnels rain inside the machine towards a see-saw tipping bucket like mechanism. When water hits one side, it sinks and registers a unit of rain. When rain keeps flowing, it makes the mech flop the other way, again, registering rainfall. The more times it flip flops, the more rainfall there is! See! I told you that it was cool! It is imperative that the rain gauge is located on a level surface. To achieve this I mounted it on a piece of a 2x4 and simply placed it on the ground, routing the RJ 11 cable underground and back to the transmitter.

Anemometer/Wind Vane
This was the most difficult, yet fun instrument to install. You see, in my backyard we have a very large tree. I'd say it is the better part of 80 meters and it was one of the only places where I could put the unit without interference from walls or other structures. Ideally, I would have attached it to the chimney on my roof, it is way out in the open -- making it perfect for measurement. It was a combination of both fear and laziness that prevented me from getting up there. So I grabbed the giant 40ft ladder that was laying around and put it halfway on the tree. Believe it or not, it was an incredibly stable platform. Initially, I went up there with a hatchet and hacked away at the bark to expose some hard wood and level out the surface, that was fun, and it weirded out the neighbors. The mounting hardware consisted of a plastic platform that was about 2x2.5 inches. I figured that eventually, attached to a tree, this installation would fail because living wood tends to expand, contract, rot, and grow. So instead I screwed the platform on to a strong 2x4 and drove that whole system into the tree using very large spike nails. Three of them! This, created a very strong, stable, and handsome method of installing the instruments nice and high. Now there is some blockage from the tree, and the wind vane is aligned to the exact north -- but it seems to do its job much better than if I were to put it on a wall (stupid idea) To finish off the installation, I wrapped the main shaft and some of the brackets with camouflage duct tape, making it bird friendly as well!

All together, this system was a great investment! I can't wait for an extreme weather day so that I can really experience all of the instrumentation it its glory!

To conclude I've thrown in a cool set of photos from my flickr account. I'm a pro user now! I love it!

The Story Behind This Photo #2

West China Part Four - 08, originally uploaded by ehdtstudios.

This is one of my most memorable photos from China. It captures a wonderfully redundant event humourously and seriously.

You see, this hotel room was INFESTED with cockroaches. It was terrifying trying to sleep whilst they were crawling up on to the bed and all over the walls and floors.

Fed up with the insanity, Eddie called the front desk at 1:00am to come fix the abomination. A gentleman arrived promptly wielding a very large can of poison. I was half awake, and half asleep while he sprayed the perimeter with this stuff. However, I was quickly awoken in a mad fit of coughing. I threw open the window and hung out the fifteenth story to try to relieve the tickling in my throat...

I was so frustrated with the lack of sleep, and over-abundance of cockroaches that I began doing what any insane person would do -- play with fire.

Cockroaches are, well...cockroaches. They are incredibly resilient, persistent, and prevalent filth with two goals in mind; Procreation, and annoying humans. So I decided to burn them.

I captured cockroaches in glasses and then slid a burning match under each cup-- filling it with Carbon Dioxide, suffocating the creature inside. Barbaric yes... amusing? Hell yes.

I'll admit it was a morbid, and rather unnecessary method of disposing the roaches, but it was actually the only feasible process of actually killing the little sons-of-bitches that I could conceive at 1:50am.

The photo illustrates my frustration perfectly. I grabbed an envelope from the complementary stationary and scrawled a short letter (in english of course) to the management. Whether or not this message was conveyed to administration or not is still a mystery. However, I feel that if SOMEONE regardless of their position in hotel staff, or native tongue spotted that letter -- they at least got the point.

And yes, the specimen is a real cockroach, with real matchstick residue surrounding it.

I felt the need to take the picture...and that's the story behind it.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

The Story Behind This Photo

This photo is great for so many reasons.

1) This was taken during my second last exam of grade 12. This was an english exam and as you can see I was already partially a sixteenth of the way done. The blissful irony is that I am using a cellphone..ahh...CAMERAPHONE in an exam! Totally forbidden, but as you'll learn, things are a bit liberal here.

2.)That's pizza.

3.) I bought that pizza MID EXAM from the pizza store across the street from my school. Yes, I left the classroom, unescorted, to buy pizza off the property. I also picked up that bottle of coke too.

4.) That gum was free. We were given it as a parting gift/exam tool. So awesome.

5.) An iPod? During exams? Oh yes, I listened to the 1812th if I recall correctly. Also a forbidden item.

6.) My brand new prescription, polarized Ray-Ban Wayfarers--yeah I wore them during the exam, what of it?\

Last but not least, it's not in the photo but I got a 97% on this exam.

Life is great.

Revolution!

Well comrades, it looks as though the day has come. It appears that film is no longer my thing -- and EHDT as a video mogul will not prevail. For as I advance in my institutional career I find that life doesn't make time for such amusements. With myself and all my friends leaving for University, it will be impossible to continue producing movies. And I say to myself "No Biggie." For I planned this. The memories captured in video will last forever as indicators of how important EHDT was in our lives through high school.
And at this moment, I feel it necessary to reveal why EHDT is so important, and reveal its true name.

The moment everyone has been waiting for.

EHDT stands for;
-----
-------
---------
----------
-----------
------------
-------------
--------------
---------------
----------------
-----------------
------------------
-------------------
--------------------
---------------------
--------------------
-------------------
------------------
-----------------
----------------
--------------
-------------
------------
-----------
----------
---------
--------
-------
------
-----
-------
---------
----------
-----------
------------
-------------
--------------
---------------
----------------
-----------------
------------------
-------------------
--------------------
---------------------
--------------------
-------------------
------------------
-----------------
----------------
--------------
-------------
------------
-----------
----------
---------
--------
-------
------
-----
-------
---------
----------
-----------
------------
-------------
--------------
---------------
----------------
-----------------
------------------
-------------------
--------------------
---------------------
--------------------
-------------------
------------------
-----------------
----------------
--------------
-------------
------------
-----------
----------
---------
--------
-------
------
-----
-------
---------
----------
-----------
------------
-------------
--------------
---------------
----------------
-----------------
------------------
-------------------
--------------------
---------------------
---- Just kidding. You didn't think I'd crack that soon did you??


For four years people have been begging to know the meaning of that clever acronym. I say "In time, you will realize young grasshoppers"

In the meantime, I need to let everyone know what will happen to EHDT Studios.

This blog is rather important to me, while it generates nearly zero visits a day -- I still appreciate it's existence very much. As EHDT Studios still exists -- it is time for it to move on to greater things. Like I said, I will be taking a year of Honours Arts at Waterloo until I can obtain the requirements for Geography and Aviation. I'll be living in residence, to be specific, UW Place. UW Place is a big scary concrete polygon that sits on the south campus -- sort of isolated from civilization. While my family is at home, and my friends are at their universities, I will need a way to keep in touch and communicate my adventures about Waterloo. I find that the blog is a perfect method to convey such ideas. Therefore, come september 7th (move in day) www.ehdtstudios.com will become my personal blog. I will post photos and texts to keep the people who are interested in me updated. I may even throw in some videos.
I know I've said a lot about this site and where it will go in the future, but this one is certain.
I plan no aesthetic or operative changes for I feel EHDT Studios is still a suitable, and rather badass name. In fact, it's much better than say "Evan's Blog" <--lame
Plus, I printed 250 business cards last year...

So that's it then. It's not really anything new, but a revolution. Just like the soviet union people!

I've actually become quite active on Twitter, http://twitter.com/ehdtstudios . There anyone can always find more a frequent and delightfully abbreviated timeline of events in my chaotic life. How nice.

At this point, I'm going to list some information about my next year at school for those interested or for those referred. Enjoy!



In september I will be taking the following courses at the University Of Waterloo for Honours Arts, year one, with an interest in English. These courses aren't necessarily my favourites, but the ones I chose to "get inside the doors."

ANTH 101 Human & Cultural Evolution --> Not really interested, but sounds good for writing essays.
ENGL 101B Intro to Rhetorical Studies --> Yay! I like this stuff.
ENGL 105A 20th Cent Lit in Engl 1900-45 --> Good GRAVY I love 20th cent. literature (that is NOT sarcasm)
PSYCH 101 Introductory Psychology --> eehh, maybe meet some nice people here? maybe?
SOC 101 Introduction to Sociology --> GROOAAANNNN

I will divulge schedule and class number info once it is firmed up later.

Residence wise, I am living in a suite style setting, hopefully in the layout below;



This means I have to live with people *sigh* oh well, new friends right?? ehh
Naw, I'm sure it will be great.

Depending on my exact room location, my mailing address will be;

Evan RC MacKinnon
*The suite number I receive*
108 OR 159
Seagram Dr
Waterloo Ontario Canada
N2L 3B9 OR N2L 3E8

Confusing right? Here's a Google Maps View

Plus side of this residence, it is closer to the second cup...fuck starbucks.

As for other university details...

I don't have an email yet, but I feel it will be somewhere along the lines of ercmacki @ uwaterloo . ca --> that again is just a guess.

I've been to Waterloo, and it's an alright place. In fact, I went with El Sebai in May, and took some photos, I'll leave you now with some of those. Enjoy!

-evan