Footloosiety.com

Norah enjoying some grilled corn

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:29:00 +0000

607 5th Ave N

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:04:00 +0000

Our house is up for sale - http://goo.gl/4TMR8

Ordering glasses with strong prescriptions online - personal experience

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 23:44:00 +0000

I have a very strong glasses prescription (-11.50 and -9.50 spherical correction). When friends complain about their 'really bad' vision (usually -4 to -6), I scoff at their nearsighted-ness. Mentioning my double-digit correction usually surprises all but my closest friends, because I wear contacts in public almost all the time.

My current glasses were about 4 years old and getting worn looking, so I decided to buy some new pairs online. As you have undoubtedly read elsewhere, buying glasses online or from large retailers is much cheaper than from specialty opticians, especially for the average glasses-wearer (those with mild corrective lenses). But how about for people like me with horrible vision?

I'll present my experience of ordering glasses online in summary version below:

Many 'boutique' shops have prescriptions that max out at +/-10, so if you're above or below this (as I am in my left eye, your choices are limited).
As such, despite getting really nice looking pairs of try-at home lenses from shops like Tortoise & Blonde, Warby Parker, and Fetch Eyewear, I wasn't able to order glasses from any of these retailers in my prescription (which I unfortunately found out after-the fact).
Online shops usually have amazing advertised prices for frames & lenses, but will force high-index 1.67 lenses by default when your prescription is worse than +/-6 or so. These are usually about $60 more, but worth it to avoid the 'coke-bottle' look.
Get your pupillary distance (PD) checked by a professional. I tried multiple online tools / DIY methods, always coming up with numbers ranging from 62-64 mm. When I went to an OD office, he measured me at 66 mm. This is a big difference for someone with a strong prescription!
I tried getting some really small glasses using the 'first pair free promotion from Coastal (generally, the smaller the glasses are, the thinner the lens will be - but not everybody loves the 'harry potter' look)...unfortunately, they were too small for my face and had to return them, despite having an awesomely thin lens. And I only paid $60 for them (cost of upgrade to high index).
Coastal web support was great and allowed me a second try at the 'first pair free' promotion, and I did a 360, instead ordering a Weezer-ish pair of Derek Cardigan glasses (7008 model). Even with the high-index lenses, they are pretty thick. My eye size is slightly reduced by the distortion, but since i'll be using them mostly at night I don't care as much.

Bottom line - you can get glasses online for a great price even with really bad corrections - just make sure your details are correct - and keep lens thickness in mind!

FAA determinations on Wind Turbine sites in Montana - 2000-2011

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:46:00 +0000

As a wind energy guy currently living in MT, I was interested in getting a map of all the turbine locations across the State in Google Earth. After a helpful suggestion from another wind energy professional, I found geographical coordinates of all existing and proposed wind turbines on the FAA determinations website. Every structure over a certain height has to be approved by the FAA and put into a searchable database.

After some quick formatting I got the information in a form which is usable on GE here - metadata includes location, applicants name (usually the developer), and its application status.

Norah & Ellie at Fairmont Hot Springs, MT

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:18:00 +0000

Norah loving her new baby

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:32:00 +0000

Testing Pentax O-GPS1 module intergration with Picasa

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 04:09:00 +0000

I recently purchased the Pentax O-GPS1 module from BH Photo Video for geotagging photos, but had read in various older threads on it that it didnt work well with some software. The main reason I wanted it was to avoid having to manually geotag with Picasa.

After doing the calibration once and allowing under a minute to acquire the satellites, the gps module correctly applied geotags to all the photos I took on a road trip from Great Falls to Bozeman. It also got satellites again very quickly after being turned off temporarily. The coordinates were handled perfectly by default in Picasa and Google+. Although its a bit expensive at $199 (especially if you dont care about its astrotracing functionality), I'm definitely gonna keep it.

Content controls in Word 2007

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:27:00 +0000

Thanks th Nik Patel's sharepoint World's post on a simple way to use content controls in Word 2007. For some reason, every Microsoft site I google using the simple search term "add content control word 2007" led me to ridiculously-convoluted examples.

Funny how Microsoft products are typically so simple to use, but their integrated 'help' or 'troubleshooting' sections are so poorly designed that they're hardly ever useful. I mean, I cant EVER remember a time where Windows (whatever edition) build in troubleshooting helped solve the problem I was having at the time.

Judith Gap Wind Farm

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 19:39:00 +0000

Judith Gap Wind Farm, originally uploaded by footloosiety.

Photo Book

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Click here to view this photo book larger

We're back from our holidays

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 23:18:00 +0000

Just spent almost three weeks touring Southwestern Ontario (ho hum, family visit mostly), Copenhagen, Stockholm and the cities of Tallinn and Tartu in Estonia. Norah did well on the plane, crying for maybe 10 minutes out of 20 hours or so of total flight time. Not bad, but those ten minutes were rough.

Pics to follow

Mother & newborn sleeping

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:43:00 +0000

Mother & newborn sleeping, originally uploaded by footloosiety.

Born Feb 16th - 7lbs 8 oz. See other baby pictures here!

Sluice Boxes State Park

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 05:31:00 +0000

Sluice Boxes State Park, originally uploaded by footloosiety.

Thanks picasa2flickr!

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 07:01:00 +0000

for making uploading photos to flickr from picasa so much easier.
...also thanks to facebook apps for their similar tool for facebook (for Leanne).

On a side note, I've finally gotten some photos from Garnet Ghost Town uploaded and visible from the photos page.

My separated shoulder and following recovery

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 07:14:00 +0000

I didn't tell many people, but back in mid-April I injured my shoulder badly on a fall out hiking. It really hurt but I shrugged it off and went to bed that night thinking it would be better in the morning.

When I woke up in the morning and saw the bump protruding from the top of my left shoulder in the mirror, I almost passed out due to the shock. A trip to UBC hospital revealed that it was a bad grade 3 shoulder separation (see x-ray on left) - much less painful than a dislocation, but much more permanent. The ligaments in my ac joint tore completely, which separated my clavicle from my shoulder blade! I was given a referral to a shoulder specialist and told that I could get surgery, but it would be largely for cosmetic reasons as most people regain full mobility and use within a few months.

After discussions with a few shoulder specialists, I was still on the fence whether or not to get surgery. The docs always suggested against it, since there wasnt yet a widely-accepted technique (two of the main ones being the Weaver-Dunn procedure, where they basically tie your bones together with rope and hope it stays together, and the second being a 'hook-plate' - a piece of metal drilled into your bones that hooks the clavicle back to the shoulder, then needs to be removed later on).

In the end, I decided against surgery and instead opted for gradual natural recovery = a sling for the first few weeks, followed by daily exercise and physical therapy of gradually increasing intensity. Less than a year later and my shoulder is back at basically 100% mobility. Strength-wise I still have a while to go, but I havent been doing any major resistance until this past month. When I stand straight you can't even see a bump, although it looks wild when I roll my shoulders forward (the bump becomes more visible)!

I occasionally notice the one shoulder 'feels' a bit different, but I'm sure that will go away as the scar tissue forms and the muscles around the area adjust over time.

Chico Hot Springs

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 05:29:00 +0000

Leanne and I took a last-minute trip to Chico Hot Springs this weekend. Although its not really my style (I prefer undeveloped hot springs), we both we impressed with the uniqueness of the place. We'll be going back for sure.

Our wedding, in slideshow form

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 03:41:00 +0000

courtesy of cousin Daniel...make sure to maximize the player and turn up the sound.

David and Leanne Wedding Pictures from Daniel Viinalass on Vimeo.

Added bonus, the video right after this one on vimeo has lots of goofy childhood photos, so keep watching.

Cloud Gate in Chicago

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 06:29:00 +0000

Downtown Chicago Visit, originally uploaded by footloosiety.

Check out this in high-res, plus a few other photos from a trip I just took to downtown Chicago

Horseshoe Bend Windfarm near Great Falls Airport

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 11:01:00 +0000

Picasa geotagging not kept when uploading to flickr

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 07:58:00 +0000

One of the endless small frustrations trying to use flickr and picasa together...Sure it could be much worse (picasa works fairly easily with almost everything), but if it had the same upload and sync features with flickr as it does with Google Web Albums, it would be almost perfect.

Sharepoint constantly harassing me for login information

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 07:47:00 +0000

Thanks to this post for fixing my problems

Although I hate printing photos..

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 04:28:00 +0000

I've got to say that using Picasa in the US versus Canada gives you so many more options.
In fact, I could send my photos to Wal-mart and pick them up the very next day if I wanted. And in addition to Wal-mart, there are about 2 dozen other options.

Last time I looked in Canada, you could send your photos to Bonusprint UK or nobody.

Ryan dam from my blackberry bold

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:20:00 +0000

Ryan dam, originally uploaded by footloosiety.

The first time I've ever uploaded anything directly from a phone to a website. It worked alright, except for the lack of geotagging :(

Horses on the trail

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 04:11:00 +0000

Horses on the trail, originally uploaded by footloosiety.

These two were packed up for at least a few weeks venturing into the backcountry at the Rocky Mountain front. Taken with a Pentax 100m f/2.8 macro lens.

...after spending so long with the versatile superzoom Tamron 18-250mm on my camera, I had forgotten how much sharper the Pentax primes are.

Transfer of credit history from Canada to US while on TN Status

noreply@blogger.com (David J. Laporte) — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 08:35:00 +0000

The good news is that the major credit reporting agencies (equifax, etc) seem to be the same on both sides of the border. For example, when we needed to show credit history in order to purchase a home, the banks we dealt with (US Bank & Wells Fargo) were able to grab our credit records without much trouble (that said, the same bank that earlier gave us a +100k loan wouldn't approve me for a simple credit card a month later!).

If you happen to use Royal Bank, and are moving to a place where they have US presence, it's supposedly easy to transfer credit. Unfortunately there are no Royal Bank branches in Montana.

I also looked into banks operating under the same name in both the US and Canada (such as HSBC or ING), but either the operations were entirely different (as was the case for ING), or it was a service only offered on high-level account (at HSBC).

In the end, we went from having pretty good credit in Canada to being denied for even basic store accounts in the US (quick credit checks on my brand new social security number always came back denied due to 'lack of history') . Luckily, I just got approved for a $2000 line of credit, but only after giving up $2000 to secure it of course! Apparently secured cards are an excellent way to build credit.

Overall, annoying but perfectly manageable.