I’ve also just launched my very own photoblog: Fotografia. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while but I was, as usually, being very picky and selective about not only when to start but also what software to use. I finally settled on Pixelpost and customized it a little. And I also realized that I might as well just do it. I hope to post each day with whatever I find interesting. Hope you enjoy it.

Oh, and since 3 blogs aren’t enough, you should also check out SnappyTracks with SmackyJacks, which is a blog that my dearest and I update with our adventures. Ok so Sandy does most of the writing, I just take pictures

If you are interested, i’ve started a Portugal collection on flickr, where more images will be posted as I get to process them.

• Continuous Deployment – insane
• Canadian Oil Sands – dirty
• Shortcovers – Discover new reads on your mobile. Publish yourself. Awesome – grats
• “Watina”: A Look Behind the Music of Andy Palacio – love
• Everything’s amazing, nobody’s happy – true
• Nothing But Awkward – fitting

• Slumdog’s young stars promised better housing – real
• Galaxies may be full of ‘Earths, alien life – giddy
• Moleskine Notebooks – crap :/
• You Should have Seen This – behind
• Chromasia update – story
• The Credit Card Debt Crisis: The Next Economic Domino – scary

Today marks Johnny Allen Hendrix’s 66th birthday. It’s hard not to ask the question of how music would be had he stayed alive. It’s also useless because there is no way we could ever know. He left his mark at the right time and at the right place.

I’m not the biggest Hendrix fan. Some would disagree since I have the man’s head tattooed on my left shoulder, and I’m not really going to get into why I have it. But you cannot deny the influence he had on music, and in particular the way he elevated the way a guitar was played. In an age of guitar hero’s, he was the first to actually earn that title. You could even say he created the very notion.

I remember when I first learned about Jimi. I must have been around 16, and had just started getting serious about playing guitar. I kept coming across his name in countless articles I read about other guitar players of the time. Who the heck was this Jimi guy? So I went out, and purchased 1967′s Are You Experienced. After the first couple of listenings, I distinctly remember having the feeling that my world now made more sense. I was hearing the origins of a lot of musical things I was already familiar with from listening to other guitar players. It was like finding the missing link. Aside from the obvious blues and rhythm and blues influences, he injected into his playing a unique style that can still be heard in today’s music.

His influence spans more then just the way he changed the way the guitar was played. His approach to song writing, performing, musical experimentation, producing, recording and integrity to ones music are all ways that I think he uniquely defined. This is harder to come by, but I encourage you to read one of the many biographies out there on the man, to get a sense for this if you are interested. The stories of the time alone, for example how Eric Clapton wanted to give up playing guitar and went into a depression after seeing Jimi perform live, are priceless and worth reading about.

He was also an amazing blues player, which a lot of people do not know. At par, if not above, his contemporaries, his blues recordings are actually some of the best material he ever recorded and stand the test of time. Have a listen.

He has a special place in my heart. As I write this, listening to his version of Born Under a Bad Sign I can’t help feeling sad. Burned too brightly. Faded too fast.

So, get out your guitars, tune them down to E♭and play, its what he would likely have done. Happy Birthday Jimi Hendrix.

Yet the sun reflects from the office towers to the east with its first rays touching the surface of the city. A warm and welcoming pink glows from the clouds. Birds start their songs and take to the skies from their sleeping places in groups, feeling the sharp morning air and looking for their first meal. The noise level on Queen Street West is at first quiet. Then slowly it raises as more streetcars travel on the steel tracks, and the cars start to come awake with their masters at the wheel heading towards their destinations. A city man with its bright reflective yellow jacket, sweeps the sidewalk. Construction cranes are already moving their heavy loads. The beeps from a truck backing up can be heard echoing and bouncing off the faces of the buildings. Car horns. Metal pipes hitting the ground. Screakie streetcar breaks. It is a slow cadence that if one listens for it, can give you the feeling of a city waking up. But it’s not just a feeling. The city is waking up. And somewhere out there, some lucky pigeons are enjoying a fat piece of banana bread.

I’ll be part of this process in a short little while. I’ll be just another human, following the daily routine that gets one to work. It sounds boring yet not always. You do the same thing every day. Some days its easier then others. Some days you don’t want to leave the warmth of your bed, the softness of your pillow, the tender touch of your partner. You hit snooze a few times hoping for a little more blissfulness, the return to the dream you were just having. One more sweet embrace…

But you get up. You belong out there too. You have a place to take, a part to play. Soon you’ll be in it. Soon you will struggle to remember what right now feels like. Soon you will be standing in the crowded street car, reading your book, listening to your ipod or alone with your thoughts. Soon you’ll be at your desk, or behind your counter, saying good morning to your co-workers or customers. Knowing that they too have gone through their own struggles to get up and be here in their own way. Different yet the same.

The day has started. There is new hope in the air, a smile on your face. Get out there.

• Open up Regedit and navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.htm
• Change, or add the value of .htm to “ChromeHTML” minus the quotes.

That does it. I also read that this should be fixed in the next version of Chrome.