Flickr has a “magic view” on its Camera Roll tab that auto-tags images.

Generally it really is quite magic-seeming.

It can find bicycles, for example:

But sometimes it misfires. Like when it thought Ethan was a bird:

From my friend Oliver comes a pointer to Of Oz the Wizard, an “alphabetized version of the entire film.” Watch it to understand what that means.

It brings to mind my Hacking Stuart McLean experiment from three years ago.

The Samuel Holland map of Prince Edward Island has been at the Confederation Centre of the Arts since midsummer; today is its last day on public display before it returns to the National Archives in London on Tuesday.

Oliver and I went for a last visit yesterday; you can visit today until 5:00 p.m.

Scott David Herman is a American living in Hamilton. He has blogged at erasing.org since 1999.

I moved to Canada in 2005 in order to more frequently go out to dinner with Laura. At the time she was my Canadian Girlfriend, which of course means imaginary girlfriend. We got married in 2006, at which point I became imaginary too.

I am also an American living in Canada (albeit for somewhat longer) who, for the longest time, lived around and about Hamilton (I remember the day that the new Hamilton Public Library was officially opened by Prince Philip).

I have also been blogging since 1999.

I found Scott’s blog because, like me, he found A Soldier’s Guide to the Cold.

I believe this may mean that I too am imaginary.

We arrived at the Charlottetown Farmers’ Market this morning to find the smoked salmon booth and the cheese booth had swapped places.

It’s really all rather disconcerting.

Last night at Catherine Hennessey’s New Year’s Eve party someone pointed out a painting that Oliver painted in 2008 and gave Catherine for Christmas. I’d never seen it before; I love it.

For contrast to this year’s levee report, see also the 2006 rundown. Plus ça change.

Back then Oliver was this tall (and not going to the levees):

And I had a camera phone that took photos that big.

A phone that looked like this in a selfie I took at the LIFT conference a month later:

The first day of the year is a good time to ruminate on life changing.

Peter Bevan-Baker, writing about his first months as a Member of the Legislative Assembly:

For over 30 years I went to work as a dentist, and knew with a pretty high degree of certainty what my day would look and feel like. I felt ready and capable to meet pretty well any challenge that I might face. A few months ago I started a new job, and those feelings of security, predictability and comfort flew right out of the window. Every day in my new job as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island is an adventure; and I say that with equal measures of affection and terror.

For the first few weeks in my new position, I had no idea what I was doing: I’m still not sure most of the time. If I were flying, the seat of my pants would have worn out long ago. The job description – if there is one (I haven’t found it yet) – would make interesting reading. I have always been a big fan of avoiding stagnation, and of introducing new challenges to one’s life, but I always imagined doing it in a gentle, incremental way. Going suddenly from decay to debate; from replacing fillings to resisting filibusters; from poking around premolars to promoting plebiscites is a larger leap than I had in mind.

Rands, writing about leaving jobs:

Your shields drop the moment you let a glimpse of a potential different future into your mind. It seems like a unconsidered off-the-cuff thought sans consequence, but the thought opens you to possibilities that did not exist the moment before the thought existed.

What is incredibly slippery about this moment is the complex, nuanced, and instant mental math performed that precedes the shields-down situation. When you are indirectly asked to lower your shields, you immediately parse, place a value, and aggregate your opinions on the following:

• Am I happy with my job?
• Do I like my manager? My team?
• Is this project I’m working on fulfilling?
• Am I learning?
• Am I respected?
• Am I growing?
• Do I feel fairly compensated?
• Is this company/team going anywhere?
• Do I believe in the vision?
• Do I trust the leaders?

Now, each human has a different prioritized subset of this list that they rank and value differently. Growth is paramount for some, truth for others. Whatever unique blend is important, you use that blend and ask yourself one final question as you consider lowering your shields. What has happened recently or in the past that either supports or detracts from what I value?