I’ve been on vacation since July 26th and return back to work August 13, 2008. In the meantime, as I start to go through all of my pictures that I have been taking ..

These are some of my favorites from Victoria Beach, Manitoba .. on Lake Winnipeg. We had some great days! We had some rainy days. We had some HOT HOT HOT days! We had some great hot days, but a little windy days. We went on walks, We went on bicycle rides. We went swimming. We boated down past Grand Beach towards the Red River docks. We had lots of Bakery. We had lots of BBQ. Did I mention we went to several fairs and craft shoes? And, despite all that .. my best pictures are probably boring to many – of the clouds and our dogs! Well .. the dogs will end up over at http://PapillonLvr.com/blog/ .. so you are stuck with the CLOUD pictures!~

For those of you watching Amazing Race 12 (congrats to TK and Rachel) or any of the other Amazing Race shows .. you probably have seen a lot of the modern train and metro transportations seen around the world in the various countries. I thought I would just show you some of these “Modern Metros” in action here in my blog. Enjoy the pictorial!

China – CRH2

Taiwan – THSR

Korea – KTX

Japan – SHINKANZEN

Spain – AVE

U.K. – EUROSTAR

France – TGV

Dubai – METRO

AND NOW THE BEST!

India – “ALL ABOARD”

GOODBYE OLD HEADER LOGO

The above picture was captioned as “Electrical Storm over Provencher Bridge in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada” and first displayed in my blog September 20, 1995 in this post: http://1800hart.com/blog/2005/09/electrical-storm-taken-over-provencher-bridge-in-winnipeg/ … the image was FWD’ed to me in a mass email and I thought it was pretty nice, with the electrical storm. Over the years, I tried to determine where the original source was for this picture, but I never did found out (until recently).

You see, on August 2, 2005 I was looking for a new logo .. and by November 11, 2005 .. readers voted this header logo to be the new 1-800-HART header.

But, it turns out that this image was taken by Dan Harper who wrote in his site on September 20, 2005 (the same day I received this original image and posted it in my blog) …

September 20, 2005

A little over two weeks ago at about 3am I was high up on a parkade taking pictures of lightning while getting pelted by small hail on the same night that all the planes where blown over in Southern Manitoba.
At 4am the same morning I posted the photo shown below on several local forums just before I went to bed. It was also used in the Prairie View School of Photography September newsletter.

In the last two weeks several people have told me that the photo has made its rounds in Winnipeg by e-mail. Thanks to all those who sent it out, I’m happy everyone enjoys it. That’s exactly why I got into photography, to take pictures of things that others haven’t seen yet and just fun stuff. I always like hearing from people who like my photos so feel free to e-mail me at dan@danharperphoto.com so I can see how far this photo has traveled.

The photograph will soon be available for sale at the Wayne Arthur gallery, 186 Provencher in different sizes. You can also have a copy for your computer desktop by going to my desktops area.

Enjoy the Winnipeg weather! =->

Source: http://www.danharperphotography.com/oldnews_05.html

Well .. Dan phoned and emailed me yesterday asking me to remove his pictures from my website, because apparently he sold this picture. I offered to provide a link in my footer for continued use of his image, but he refused. Despite this, to thank him for taking such a nice picture and because I have used it ever since, I have linked back to his site anyway! And, except for my mock image above, and on the November 2005 voting entry .. all instances of this picture will be removed from this site permanently. I’m pretty sure there are mini screen view images around the HART-Empire Network and on various domains and pages, and I will endeavor to replace these images in due course, as soon as practical.

Meanwhile …

HELLO NEW HEADER LOGO

By now – this is the image on top of my blog!

This picture was found at Stock Exchange .. and was provided by Erica Burrell with website Stock By Kai over at Deviant Art site. It is called “Lightning” taken 6/3/2007. As a new template rolls over the HART-Empire Network in upcoming weeks, I do not know if this will be a permanent logo or not. In the meantime, there is a credit in the footer and will remain as long as the picture is up.

I call it .. my “LeisureSuit Logo” due to the picture on the right side – which was a photoshop blurrg of my 1996 passport photo, when I was wondering what I would look like with green hair and red eyes. I thought it looked like LeisureSuit Larry, so I named it “leisuresuit.jpg” I’ve recreated the text site name and tagline in the new header logo to be similar to the colors found in the old header logo.

World’s Largest Cargo Ship

Get a load of this ship!

* 15,000 containers
* 207′ beam
* Longer than a US Aircraft carrier
* Crew size has a complement of 5,000 men and officers
* Notice that 207′ beam means it was NOT designed for The Panama or Suez canal .. It is strictly transpacific.
* “Cruise speed” 31 knots means the goods arrive 4 days before the typical container ship (18-20 knots) on a China-to-California run. So this Behemoth is hugely competitive carrying perishable goods.
* This ship was built in three, perhaps as many as five sections. The Sections floated together and then welded.
* The ship is named Emma Maersk.
* The command bridge is higher than a 10 storey building and has 11 crane rigs that can operate simultaneously.

Additional info:

* Country of origin – Denmark
* Length – 1,302 ft
* Width – 207 ft
* Net cargo – 123,200 tons
* Engine – 14 in-line cylinders diesel engine (110,000 BHP) Cruise Speed – 31
* Knots, Cargo capacity – 15,000 TEU (1 TEU = 20 ft3 container)
* Crew – 13 people First Trip – Sept. 08, 2006
* Construction cost – US $145,000,000+
* Silicone painting applied to the ship bottom reduces water resistance and saves 317,000 gallons of diesel per year

In Manitoba, you are required to hold two parts for your driver’s license

* Part 1 – License Photo Card (renews every 4 years)
* Part 2 – Drivers’ License Certificate (renews every year)

Well .. this year I had to renew my photo once again .. in 2007. My last photo was taken in 2003, and the one before that 1999 and so on and so on. Maybe one day I will collect them all and put them in a separate gallery.

The picture on the top right of this sidebar is really my passport photo taken in the Fall of 1996 just before I went to Europe (UK and Sweden).

Although, I have tons of pictures on the www from my Medieval Wedding on the http://HARTandYVONNE.com/ domain .. basically I look like hell in my previous driver license photos.

But – they changed the rules now. The department of motor vehicles (DMV) branch passed on the taking of these pictures to local Autopac insurance agents, who are authorized to deal with the insurance of the vehicles, and I must say – they are taking good pictures! Although, they have two new rules:

1) NO GLASSES
2) NO SMILING OR GRINNING

If you do any of the above, I am told that Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation (MPIC) will reject your photo and you will have to retake the picture.

Earlier this year .. my wife went to get her new photo and she forgot that it was the year for taking a picture, and went in on her way home from a 2-hour workout at Shapes. She hates it! But, I really like that picture .. (hot!~ whhooweet whewoo)

When I took my picture last week I forgot all about the picture and just got it over with. And, how do I look? I’m squinting like crazy trying to see where the camera was, and I never shaved for a few days because I was on vacation break inbetween cottage long-weekends! Now, I wouldn’t say I look like a gangster or anything like that – but, I think I look exactly how I THINK I WOULD LOOK to a policeman looking at me late at night, blinding me with his flashlight in my eyes, and asking to see my license and registration.

Here is a scan of my driver’s license ..

Naturally, I had to black out certain details for security reasons … I think it looks exactly like me! What do you think?

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Just kidding.. Here’s my real photo that I’m stuck with for the next four years .. and, if you see this person squinting and moving his hands all about on the floor or a table or something like that .. please stop and help him find his glasses!

A closer look at my ugly mug

Psssst! Deloitte & Touche, LLP .. has updated their “Quick Tax Facts 2007” publication. It’s worth printing it out these 2 pages and keeping a copy on your pegboard for quick perusal …

I keep a printout of something like this on my pegboard for quick estimates while I am on the phone with clients. For instance, if an individual in Manitoba makes $100,000 per year, the combined taxes would be about $32,270. If two individuals each make $50,000 per year, the combined taxes would be about $12,204 each (or $24,408 total). Just knowing this “on the fly” is helpful at times. In Canada, our marginal tax rates are ‘graduating’ in a sense, that once you reach a certain level of tax, the excess is taxed at a higher rate until the next level. In Manitoba, if you earn $100,000 income, you are effectively taxed at 32.27% .. but, if you earn $1,000,000 you are effectively taxed at 44.92%. It’s different in all areas of Canada, because in addition to the federal rates, each provincial or territory have their own tax rates.

As I mentioned earlier above – it’s just easier to sometimes look at a two page report than do all of the calculations!

Deloitte’s Tax Fact includes …

…tax tables on the income of individuals and corporations for all provinces and territories. The following tables are included:

* Federal, provincial and territorial income tax for individuals — 2007
* Top marginal rates for capital gains and other income
* Corporate tax rates for 2007-09
* Capital tax for 2007-09
* International tax treaty rates
* Deferred income plans — maximum annual contributions

Source: From the Newsletter – See the link at the bottom of this page

* Also see my previous post: What A Terrible Thing That Happened Out There in Elie, Manitoba

* aka AMUSING PICTURES ADDED 2007-02-20 … Which one do you think is the funniest? Click on each picture for the original size ..

* Alternate Title: Just checking out my IIMAGE BROWSER Plugin in the newly upgraded Blog version 2.1

10th Place: Positive Proof of Global Warming

9th Place: Latest Grill Accessories

8th Place: Tattoo Of The Year

7th Place: Good Reason To Wear Pajamas To Bed

6th Place: Boy Genius

5th Place: The Ass Family

4th Place: How To Handle A Problem Neighbour

3rd Place: Arkansas Razorback players Clarke Moore, Brett Goode and Casey Dick need to stop hanging out on the sidelines!

2nd Place: This was actually on TV… The commentators Paused and didn’t say a Word…

1st Place: How Was Your Cereal This Morning?