Alex Ivanov's Thoughts

An Indian Feast and Storytelling at the Saugeen First Nation Amphitheatre

2009-07-27T20:36:00.000-07:00

My wife and I arrived one lovely evening to the territory of the Saugeen reserve in Southampton, Ontario, where an Indian traditional feast and storytelling took place. I planned to take pictures of the local Indian colour, but the night was not quite sunny, and I had to do some Photoshopping later on in order to adjust the images to my aesthetic ideals.

There is a church and an amphitheatre behind the church. The feast took place at a long table where all the people gathered together.

The feast consisted of home made bread (“bannock”), deep fried Georgian Bay whitefish and mashed potatoes mixed with wild leeks, with strawberries and blueberries for desert and cedar bark Indian tea which had a taste of resin. The tea was not bad at all. Maybe too strong that time. The lady in front of me said: “The tea is OK at first , then oh!”, and poured it out to the ground eventually.

After the meal everybody gathered around the stony stage where Priscilla Yellowhead Tobey told Indian stories and legends.

When the cultural program was over, the guests were allowed to wander around the place to admire the sights of the church, the amphitheatre and the gardens.

Southampton Ontario

2009-07-19T16:16:00.000-07:00

One day my wife, Elayne, and I went to the Traditional Indian Feast in the the Saugeen First Nation reserve. We stayed for a night in Southampton. Here are some of the pictures I took.

On our way back home to Guelph we stopped in Mount Forest for a cup of tea at Along The Picket Fence. A very nice place.

The Chronicles of Guelph:St. George's Park and Surroundings

2009-07-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

These are the pictures I took in St. George's Park in Guelph.
Enjoy.

The Chronicles of Guelph:The Royal Recreation Trail

2009-07-07T11:43:00.000-07:00

July 06, 2009

The Royal Recreation Trail is a straightforward gravel road. It doesn't offer a lot of spectacular sights, it's just a plain clean path suitable for walking, running and bicycling.

Along the river there is another little path, though.

The Main Trail

The Path by the River

Web Sites for Small Businesses:Secrets Revealed,No Need for an Expensive Design, Free and Cheap Solutions

2009-05-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

By Alex Ivanov, Guelph, Wellington County, Ontario, Canada

Phone: 519-265-0637
Web Site: webguelph.host22.com

Email:

Introduction

How many times have you fired up the old Google and looked for specific companies offering services in your area, only to find none listed? It didn't mean there were no companies there, it meant the information about them was unavailable. Such a lack of information is a disaster for a business. No information means no business, nothing. Here we approach the theory of information that states that information comes in bits. It should be no more and no less, just of the right amount, otherwise people will miss it or suffer from its lack. Thus, an entrepreneur starting a new business doesn't need a sexy overbloated and expensive web site unless he is pretty sure about what he is doing. In general that means he needs the information to be delivered to the public and searchable by web-spiders. Search Engines is another important issue. No matter how wonderful the web site is, if due to some reason web-crawlers missed it and didn't index it, the information won't be searchable and available. No information means no business. Thus, the information should be optimized for Search Engines. I know all this stuff and want to share this knowledge with you.

Theory

It's like a Russian Matryoshka, the set of dolls where each piece integrates into another and all of them constitute the whole. Web technologies work pretty much like that.

When an entrepreneur starts a new business, he has a general idea but often has no clue how that idea will turn out and what it will bring, ...if it will. It's the smallest doll inside of all other dolls.

If the business grows, the businessman becomes more and more confident and full of sweet expectations and eventually turns into a Wall Street plutocrat. Isn't that nice? The bit turned into the terabyte.

In the terms of the web the picture will look like the following.

Note: This will only work if the information is indexed by the Search Engines and available for the Internet users.

Blog

When an entrepreneur starts a new business, he needs to collect his thoughts and focus them on the future. Writing a blog is a good idea. The Internet users will be able to find the information and contact the entrepreneur personally to ask for more, if they are attracted and interested. The blog can be like the one on blogger.com and doesn't cost anything.
Free Web Hosting

When a businessman has more information to deliver to the public than a blog can offer and still less than the Wall Street Journal, the services of a free web hosing can be useful. They don't offer a huge amount of disk space and traffic, but cost nothing.
Commercial Web Hosting and Real Domain Name

When a businessman feels more than just a businessman, like a real magnate, the shark of capitalism, he will probably want his name to be known in the world. That's where registering a domain becomes important. He also can place his web site on a paid hosting or even run his own web server. It's another story, though.

Solution

Call Alex Ivanov at 519-265-0637 or email. He knows all the stuff and is eager to terminate your information problems for an affordable price.

Here are some web sites he has designed:

www.huronstringschool.com
www.servairfilters.com
www.3dplumbing.net
seniors.host22.com

Computer for Seniors: Get Connected

2009-05-14T13:21:00.001-07:00

By Alex Ivanov, Guelph, Wellington County, Ontario, Canada.

Phone: 519-265-0637
Web Site: seniors.host22.com

Email:

Introduction

When people retire they may discover that they would like to become more skilled at communication with family and friends via the Internet, and as well to be able to manage their digital photos. A computer brings a wonderful opportunity to develop existing and new hobbies and to connect to other people sharing the same interests.

The Internet brings connection to the outer world.
Seniors shooting pictures with digital cameras can post them on Flickr and get the appreciation of the whole world. They can create movies out of these pictures and upload them on Youtube to share with the world community.
Seniors can find and communicate with old and new friend on Facebook.
Seniors are a bottomless well of knowledge and experience. Instead of keeping this spiritual treasure for themselves, they can write blogs and get responses from people of other countries.
Email gives the opportunity to contact any person on the planet and get a reply in no time.

A computer develops the mind and soul, a wonderful growth opportunity for everyone. I am offering affordable help and lessons to seniors in Guelph and Wellington County, to help them overcome their fears about using a computer. I will show them the boundless horizons of the Internet, and teach them the basic and advanced usages of the computer in the comfort of their own homes.

Services

With my help seniors will learn how to:

Install and uninstall programs
Browse the Internet
Send and receive emails
Use Google Earth
Compose office, PDF and HTML documents
Edit images and manage photo collections
Manage files and optimize system performance
Backup data and important documents
Protect computer from viruses and malware
Create and upload movies on Youtube
Compile and upload HTML Photo Albums
Share photos on Flickr
Rip and make Audio CDs, iTunes music store, iPod players
Burn CD and DVD disks
Share thoughts and experiences with the world on Blogger
Find friends on Facebook
Set up and manage online banking

Equipment

Computer:

AMD Athlon™ X2 Dual-Core Processor, 4 Gb RAM, DVD drive/burner

Operating system:

Windows XP or Vista 32-bit

Note: I would recommend seniors who have no clue of what they are actually doing to start with Windows XP because it is much more stable and reliable than Vista.

Internet Connection:

Broadband

Recommended Software

My primary goal was to choose only excellent free programs which seniors can start with, but I couldn't resist including some commercial ones that are really nice.

Internet:

Firefox (Freeware)
Opera (Freeware)

Email:

Outlook (part of the Microsoft Office, Commercial Trial)
ThunderBird (Freeware)

Office:

Microsoft Office (Commercial Trial)
Corel Word Perfect (Commercial Trial)
Adobe Acrobat(Commercial Trial)
OpenOffice (Freeware)
Abiword (Freeware)
Foxit Reader (Freeware and optional Commercial Pro pack)

File managers and restoration tools:

PowerDesk Pro (commercial)
FreeCommander (Freeware)
ExplorerXP (Freeware)
FileZilla (Freeware)
Recuva (Freeware)

Archivers:

WinRar (Commercial Trial)
7-zip (Freeware)

BackUp:

SyncBack (Freeware)
DVD Shrink (Freeware)
Alcohol 120% (Commercial Trial)

Antiviruses:

Optimizators:

Registry Mechanic (Commercial Trial)
Smart Defrag (Freeware)
Ccleaner (Freeware)

Media Players:

Cyberlink Power DVD (Commercial Trial)
VLC (Freeware)

Audio Players

FooBar2000 (Freeware)
Zinf Audio Player

Audio Rippers:

CD-DA X-Tractor (Freeware)
DeepRipper (Freeware )
Audiograbber (Freeware)

Burners:

Nero (Commercial Trial)
CDBurnerXP Pro (Freeware)
DeepBurner (Freeware)
ImgBurn (Freeware)

Photo Managers:

ACDSee Pro (Commercial Trial)
Picasa (Freeware)

Photo Editors:

Adobe Photoshop (Commercial Trial)
Corel Painter (Commercial Trial)
The GIMP (Freeware)
Paint.NET (Freeware)

Slideshow Maker:

DVD Photo Slideshow Professional (Commercial Trial)

Image Viewers:

IrfanView (Freeware)

Seniors Directories

Guelph and Wellington Seniors' Association

www.3dplumbing.net

Benjamin Button's Evolution

2009-05-03T07:51:00.001-07:00

Home

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a great movie, but it is a bit illogical. Unlike regular people who are born young and get older until they die, Benjamin Button was born old and grew younger. And he died, too, as a baby. And that where the things are messed up in my opinion. The point is that Benjamin Button was already a baby when he was born. That was an ugly baby like an old man. And he had to die as a nice baby. This makes no sense. If regular people are born as nice babies and die as ugly old men and women, it's OK. None of them is born as a nice baby and dies as an ugly one because things don't work this way. Here is the mistake. If the death spit him out of its womb, Benjamin had no choice but to grow younger for ever. And the creators of the movie failed to show this growth. Let's take a look at what was done.

And this is how it should be in my opinion.

Man is no more confined to his body than he is to an atom of substance within it or within his brain. Neither are the atoms of physical Matter composing that body confined to it and limited in expression by that body or Matter-mind density.

(Studies in Alchemy: The Science of Self-Transformation by Saint Germain).

Hayley Westenra looks pretty much like the Archangel Gabriel while singing Ave Maria by Giulio Caccini. Try to find her on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQQSW35PrEY