The Brown Knowser

For months, I've applied a strategy to playing Wordle. Never did I ever think that this strategy would ever have me solve the puzzle on the first try. I always start with the same five-letter word. Actually, I say 'always' but I only started using this word every day a few months ago. Prior to then, I'd occasionally use this word but I'd usually start with a new word each day. The word is AUDIO, which just happened to be the word for yesterday, August 30, 2023. The reason that I had started using this as my first word was because it uses four out of the five vowels in the English alphabet. If one or two of them appear, I can often solve the puzzle within four guesses. The same is true if none of these vowels appears. Then, at least I know that there's at least one E in the puzzle, and possibly a Y. One time, when I used AUDIO, I had actually discovered that I successfully found the A, D, and I in the word, though in the wrong order. My next guess was DAIRY, whic...

Because I had watched a few random YouTube videos about photography, likely because of the algorithm that the site uses through Google, there are some photographers who have caught my attention and that I now follow by subscribing to their channel. The hosts of these channels don't talk about specific equipment or go into details about camera settings, though occasionally one of these photographers will provide general tips that you can do with your camera to improve your shots. But I don't subscribe to them to get advice on how to use my cameras. I watch them to become inspired. Sometimes, seeing the work of a photographer or hearing background stories about how a photographer achieved a particular shot—through choice of lens, lighting, aperture, subject, composition, interest, or more. Two of these YouTubers often show examples of other peoples work to illustrate a style of photography, such as colour versus black and white, while the other YouTuber only shows photos that ...

I haven't worn one in more than a decade. But I shouldn't have been surprised that one could still fit. When DW and I were dating, we went on a spring vacation with a couple of friends to Daytona Beach, Florida. It was the typical university-student thing to do in the early 90s—I imagine it still is but there's no way I'd ever set foot in that state again. While we were there, we were partying with a bunch of other young folks at a nightclub, and in one corner of the room, a woman had set up to give piercings. Egged on by DW, I agreed to get my left lobe pierced. I even got one of our friends to do the same. In the early 90s, it was still relatively uncommon for a guy to get his ears pierced, and once home I received heckling from my father. My manager at the camera store, where I was the assistant manager, demanded that I remove it. I refused and had the regional manager's backing, though even he didn't think it was suitable attire. Still, he respected my d...

A few months ago (three or four... I can't remember), Google gave me a free subscription to the New York Times games site. As a regular contributor to reviews and adding photos for Google Maps, they decided to reward me, no doubt because they likely track me and know that I like to play Wordle and would periodically play the free version of another game, Spelling Bee. Spelling Bee is a game where you have seven letters arranged like a honey comb: six hexagons surround a central hexagon, which is coloured yellow. You can rearrange all six letters around the central letter but not that central letter. And you must be able to make a four-letter word, or longer, by using any of the outer letters plus the central letter. For example, one of the puzzles a couple of weeks ago had the letters A, O, U, K, W, and L on the outside, and T in the middle. The first word that popped out for me was OUTLAW. I also found LOOKOUT, OUTLOOK, TATTOO, TOTAL, and more. The longer the word, the more point...

One of the biggest things about an outdoor photo meetup is that you can never count on the weather. Unless an event has a backup rain date, you pretty much have to take whatever outdoor conditions that present themselves. If the weather isn't perfect on the date of the event, you can either choose not to go or you can go and make the best of the situation. On Monday, I joined a gathering of people from my photography meetup group at Sultan Farm, near Ashton, east of Ottawa. There were both photographers and models for this meetup, though in truth, I was only interested in photographing the farm field, which was full of sunflowers in bloom. If you've seen Wednesday's post , you've seen some of my photos from that day. DW also tagged along, which was nice, because she's never joined a photo meetup with my group and I wanted to show her that it wasn't about a bunch of men ogling models . I brought three cameras with me for the shoot: my Nikon D750, with a 50mm f/1....

I'm doing something that I told myself that I shouldn't do. When I go shopping for beer at my friendly neighbourhood LCBO , I strive to pick up a varied collection of brews from different breweries and I try to also vary the styles of beer in my basket. I don't want to seem to favour one brewery over another nor do I want to focus strictly on IPAs or stouts. Yet, on my last shopping trip to the LCBO, I pulled a couple of cans from the same brewery because I hadn't had any of their stuff in a while and I saw two different brews that interested me, even though both were modeled after an IPA. I also visited a Toronto brewery and came away with several selections of beer, which I feel that need sharing with you. My fridge is almost empty so I'll try to return to my better-varied selection of beer soon. I plan to also shop for brews that are produced outside of Canada, as I really have neglected the international market. I found a real winner of a brew in Le Trou du ...

I'm an idiot. One of the lessons that I took away in journalism school, some 35 years ago, is to confirm a source. Don't just get one person's word for anything. Get more than one source. And always go for the authority on a subject. I failed that lesson on Tuesday. I knew that the fireworks festival in Gatineau was underway. I had seen lots of photos from various people on social media, and I had gone to the Grands Feux du Casino Lac-Leamy Web site to look at the calendar of events after the first night. I had already learned that a display from Ukraine would be featured on the second-last night of the event but as the days went by, I had forgotten the actual date. So at the start of this week, I quickly Googled "Lac Leamy fireworks" and received a date–not from the official site–that said August 15. I had no plans for that evening so at about 40 minutes before sunset, I packed my camera gear into my car and headed downtown. I crossed my fingers that I would fin...

DW has a lush vegetable garden that's growing in our backyard. Every summer, she plants various squash, tomatoes, peppers, and more, but this year, she seems to have gone overboard and the garden is thriving, thanks to the ample rain we've received. She's added cucumbers, watermellon, and various other green, leafy items, but so far the biggest harvest so far has been zucchini. In my late teens and early twenties, I'd go to pubs with friends and we'd pig out on deep-fried zucchini sticks, so much so that after one night of heavy drinking and a bad batch of zucchini, I had vowed that my days of eating this veg were done. I couldn't help but associate the zed-veg with the mushy, slimy pulp that ended up coming out of me later that evening. I had gone overboard with zucchini—some may say 'over the top,' and it took a few decades before I would venture to try it again, though the memory of that night is still a sore spot with me. Well, DW decided to take ...

One of the things I love about Mastodon * (I mean, besides the wonderful people and interactions, and the ability to edit a post) is that you have the option of providing descriptive text to any image that you include with a post. This is known as alternative text, or  alt text . Alt text is used by search engines and by users to understand images they cannot see. Ever since I learned about alt text, I've strived to include it any time that I post an image on Mastodon. And, being a writer, I try to be as descriptive as I can be to help anyone who might be curious to what I've posted. For example, take the following photo: Adding alt text, I would write: A closeup of an orange tabby cat who is asleep on a footrest (not shown). Only his head and part of his upper body are framed in the photo. An off-white fleece blanket is folded under him and his chin hangs off the edge of the blanket. His head is on the left half of the photo and his body stretches to the right. What do you t...

I took it out of my back pocket because I didn't want to break it. DW and I were hiking in Gatineau Park with a couple of our friends, Nina and Brian, and were making our way to the Carbide Willson ruins, a place we've visited too many times to count. You would think that, by now, I would be tired of bringing a camera, that I've captured enough angles of the remains of the mill and the waterfall. But no, I could never get tired of photographing this site. Every season brings a new look. The light can vary, depending on whether the sky is sunny or overcast. There's always a new angle that I haven't shot. Sometimes, I dropped behind my companions to capture a moment but I would always catch up. I had a quick pace and I knew the trail well. By the time we reached the ruins, we were together, though once at the site, we would split up and explore the structures and the falls on our own. I'll share some of my photos on Wednesday. Just before we were ready to head bac...

At first, yesterday's thunderstorms in Ottawa looked as though they were going to miss Barrhaven. Just a bit of rain, at most. The bulk of the storm system looked to be tracking further north, closer to the Ottawa River and into Gatineau, on the other side. Indeed, when I was in video meetings with counterparts in Québec, I was being told that some of my colleagues where receiving lots of rain, hail, thunder, and lightning. As I spoke to them, I looked out my home-office window, which faces north, and the sky looked black. When our meeting wrapped up, I stepped outside and took the following snapshot. There was plenty of cloud movement and I could see flashes of lightning, followed several seconds later by distant thunder. But there was no rain in Barrhaven. Until recently, we've talked about a "Barrhaven Bubble," in which we'd experience clear skies while in the downtown core, torrential rains fell. My neighbourhood seemingly escaped severe weather. This year, ho...

I had seen this beer in my friendly neighbourhood LCBO many times over the past couple of years but never picked it up until just recently. There was something about the label that screamed "over the top," and I didn't want to be disappointed if the contents didn't match the ostentatious artwork. The can features a unicorn that is backed by a starry sky. Somewhat fantastical. Would the beer be equally fantastical? This time, as I was perusing the shelves of myriad craft ales, my eyes also fell to the bottom of the can and I read White IPA in purple, on a goldish-yellow band. I had just picked up another white IPA from Le Trou du Diable and I thought I would do a comparison of the two. Last week, I tried and loved  Les Quatre Serfeurs de l'Apocoalypso ; would an electric unicorn trample the four surfers? Let's find out. Electric Unicorn White IPA (6.5% ABV) Phillips Brewing & Malting Company Victoria BC Appearance: pours a slightly hazy deep gold with ...