Photos - Hearn Generating Station

I managed to capture only a small portion of the giant smokestack protruding from the decommissioned Hearn Generating Station in Toronto's Portlands area. Originally a coal-fired plant starting in the 50s, it was later converted to a natural gas-fired facility in the early 70s. Hearn ceased to generate power in the early 80s. Here's an analogy, or thought experiment. How many of us experience frustration and the futility of waste when our smartphones (apparently worth $600) last us a year? Scale that up to the humongous (650 000 metres cubed) power generating facility that is Hearn, which fulfilled its function for roughly 30 years.

I want to ride my bicycle, bicycle, bicycle

$45 bought me one beat-up beautiful bike off the end of the driveway of an old italian guy. After two full days of work on it at Bike Pirates, it was finally rideable. Yesterday, it got a makeover of new bar tape and a new seat! In Belgium this summer I saw people using deflated tubes as bungee cords for the back rack and tried to remember how they did it. Very excited to continue riding this beauty. Thanks, Bike Pirates!

Camera Trouble

Immediately before my trip to Europe, my >8 year-old Sony Cybershot died. It displayed only a white screen and would not take snaps! Up until then nearly all my pictures were done with that camera, as poor as its low-light performance and stability were. When I got back from Europe I decided to see if I could fix it at all. There had been a previous problem a couple years ago when I got a lens error which I fixed by smacking the camera on my knee (thank you, internet). This time it suggested resetting the screen by pressing all the buttons at once. I was sceptical, but it worked! The lens however started making the most horrible buzzing noise. Hitting it against my knee didn't work this time, and the internet suggested there could sand or hair stuck in the lens casing. I found a camera mod that allowed remote shutter control, which also happened to have instructions on taking the camera apart. I am always for taking apart electronics! 

 
Here is the result, which unfortunately doesn't involve the lens behaving afterwards. I think it is time for a new camera. Meanwhile I will have to rely on my Milestone camera (I used it for this picture), which has flash and zoom but only takes decent pictures in high sunlight situations.