February 2006 – Home of the Bridgers

Introducing The Newest Bridger – Part 2

We’ve just passed the 7 month mark and are feverishly working on getting the nursey up to par for the pending baby action. Yes, the “Art Room” can now officially be called a nursery.

Here, as promised, are pictures of Alisa and the baby, getting to know one another while the babe’s still in utuero. Alisa’s being very brave in letting these pictures out on to the Internet … I just hope they don’t hurt her chances at becoming Prime Minister some day.

Below then are the pictures thus far. Each image, when clicked, will take you to a much larger version.

August 2005

At the time this picture was taken, we didn’t know Alisa was pregnant. She and her friend Liz had just finished running a half-marathon in Edmonton. However it was during this race that the clues started to pop up that Alisa was running with something a little ‘special’ that day. In fact we think she is 9 days pregnant here.

Alisa and Liz after a half-marathon (9 days old)

September 2005

Back in September we had this little secret with Marty and Nathalie – we were all four of us expecting babies. I’ll let you figure out who was expecting and who was actually pregnant. But to commemorate our great moment of secrecy we took a few pictures that we couldn’t share with anyone. But now the curtain has lifted. So here then is our picture from September.

September on the Sunshine Coast (7 weeks old)

Continue reading Introducing The Newest Bridger – Part 2

K-Os And The CBC Radio Orchestra

Anyone familiar with K-Os may be interested in watching a documentary available called Burning To Shine. It documents a process where he tries to collaborate with the orchestra to create a new song melding hip-hop with classical music. The single is called Burn To Shine, as is the documentary.

I find the documentarey interesting, as it leaves a few raw edges out there for everyone to see. K-Os follows his muse but not everyone is on board in the end.

The single itself sounds great – definitely a K-Os song. He ended up pushing the orchestra but I wonder how much he ended up pushing himself – his self-proclaimed goal in the process. Either way I’m happy to pimp K-Os, he’s a good example of how hip-hop does not have to be about the bling and the babes, that it can contribute to the music scene rather than detract from it. If you’re willing to listen you can check out his latest album Joyful Rebellion – I highly recommend it (it’s part of my collection).

Who Wants to Know What Social Networking Is?

This is a funny bit of video – anyone interested in a new phenomenon that many people believe is warping the Internet and the next generation of users should take a few minutes to watch. Social Networking: it’s funny, I swear. Sorry it is Flash format.

On an unrelated note, here’s another Jon Stewart interview concerning the recent shooting by the Vice President of the United States of America.

Blind Man Sues Over Website Design

News has surfaced that a blind man has sued Target over its website’s inability to be used properly by blind computer users.Â The link I’ve included is, frankly, embarrassing because I think of that online community at arstechnica as intelligent and typically non-reactive.Â However if you follow the article’s discussion link you’ll see some really, really stupid responses.

This particular issue strikes a chord with me because in a past life I wrote a research paper on the experience blind users have on the Internet.Â I interviewed a blind man and talked to him about his experiences with the Internet and the pages he uses daily.Â The sad part is that he pointed out this exact problem to me though it was with the Vancouver Sun’s website at the time.Â That was over 5 years ago now I believe.Â Isn’t progress grand?

I am doubly perplexed by people’s comments that coding web pages for blind people is difficult.Â Continue reading Blind Man Sues Over Website Design