Wow – I can’t believe I haven’t posted here since December! It’s not that things haven’t been happening – in fact, I am very excited that I am enjoying a period of extreme creative and collaborative satisfaction – I just find it hard to keep up with all the social media and posting everywhere all at once, so while I have been sharing things here and there, I just haven’t been managing my website so Read more…
Although orcas can be found in all of Earth’s oceans, the different populations vary considerably in behaviour, diet, dialect and appearnace. In fact, there are at least 10 recognized ecotypes distributed across southern and northern hemispheres. According to the UK organization Whale and Dolphin Conservation, the fjords of Arctic Norway attract the North Atlantic Type 1 ecotype, a unique population of whales who have mastered the “carousel” feeding technique. Having followed the numerous (and plump) Read more…
Experimenting with the Insta360 On Saturday November 26, I finally made it back home and had a chance to look more into some of the footage I was able to collect with the Insta360 ONE X camera that I borrowed from my husband. I have to say, I’m pretty blown away with the quality, and it made me regret not using it more (I was expecting the light levels to be too low and chose Read more…
I have to admit, the fact that my original orca model wasn’t ever going to be able to open its mouth, bothered me A LOT. So, despite having many many MANY more pressing things to do to get ready for my departure to Norway on Friday, I decided it was a fabulous idea to completely remodel it – complete with mouth parts – and start to rig it. I even had a go at making Read more…
Early October As we get closer to departure date – less than a month to go – I have been putting some time into figuring out how to use modern GIS programs, importing elevation and bathymetry (water depth) data, making maps, and even converting the data into 3D meshes in Blender (for use in Unity later). Despite being a geologist (and child of a geography teacher), with lots of experience with maps of various types, Read more…
The Geological History of Norway and its Fjords Late September 2022 Well, it has been a busy couple of weeks since I returned from my trip to Ireland, and things are certainly ramping up now that we’ve left the “50 days” milestone in the rear-view mirror: it’s getting real, folks! As a team, we’re preparing for the Women’s Leadership Program, completing advanced exercises that will help us learn more about ourselves and each other so Read more…
Excited after my educational session with my husband, I was anxious to try it out for myself. But, I had a wee holiday to Ireland to enjoy first! It had been postponed since 2020, so we couldn’t believe we were finally going to get to do it and we had a fabulous time, but as soon as I got back to Canada, I made arrangements to head to a local dive shop to get the Read more…
Back in late August, I was excited to take advantage of my husband’s expertise to learn more about what to expect playing around in cold water with a drysuit (he’s a former rescue diver with the Calgary Fire Department). Unfortunately, my initial plans were thwarted because he got stranded in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan because of a last minute directive that grounded the fleet (now he flies planes with the Canadian Air Force). I finally got Read more…
I have been very bad at keeping up to date with my posts on here and transferring updates from my GoFundMe page, but as we get closer to the expedition, I’ve had people ask me why they can’t see some of my posts on my website as I had promised, so I am going to finally transfer them over. This is one of my earliest posts about the expedition, not long after one of my Read more…
One of the more surprising discoveries that I have made about myself since embarking on this new adventure in VR is that I really really love 3D modelling. Apparently I was pretty heavily into art as a kid (even wanting to be an artist once upon a time), but at some point dismissed that side of me as being frivolous or something else that you do as an impressionable kid in a world that places Read more…