A Few Quick Notes 43

-In the past 24 hours the temperature has really risen in St. John’s. Yesterday at about this time it was almost -10, and now it is just about 0. The forecast is predicting that it will hover at about this or a slightly lower temperature for the next few days.

In Montreal they are in the midst of a freezing rain warning. Such events have a history of causing serious problems in the areas. Earlier this year freezing rain brought down all kinds of trees and branches, knocking out people’s power for days.

-Yesterday I went skating for the first time in a few years. It was a strange feeling to be back on skates after a multi-year absence. The up side was that I learned that my skates needed to be sharpened, the downside was that I did not figure this out until I was on the ice.

My current plan is to take my skates back to Montreal so that I can go skating in the various ice rinks that are built around the city, particularly the one that is located in the Old Port of Montreal. This rink in particular is impressive when it is all open, skaters have access to a huge ice surface.

-Today is New Years Eve.

-I finally got around to getting some contact info for a few friends of mine. The nice thing was that in one instance I was actually able to talk to my friend rather than just getting his phone number.

-Sorry about the slow down in posting over the Christmas season. This should be rectified upon my return to Montreal. It is likely that Neil will still post less than his fair share once he returns to Halifax.

Saddam is Dead

It seems that Saddam was recently executed.

Several other famous people have died this Christmas season, including James Brown and Gerald R. Ford (whose museum in Grand Rapids is worth visiting).

Happy Third Day of Christmas

I have continued to take shots of snow falling, at least when we have snow falling.


This clip was taken this morning, making it clear that snow continued to fall during the night.



This morning was filled with post-Christmas shopping (is this a North America only phenomenon?). Both of us set our alarms for 8:15 AM so that we could be out of the house and at the store for opening.

The first stop was a discount store that seemed to have some very good prices. My goal was to buy a blender and a home hair cutting kit. If all went as planned I would spend about $15. Upon arriving at the store I learned that things weren't going to be quite as straightforward as I might have like. There seemed to be two flyers, the one distributed to homes had better prices and was not available in the store, that had varying content. The layout of the store did not really assist shoppers in finding their desired products.

When we were finally ready to leave this store I had only my two desired products, I had had to fight a few enemy urges during the trip (one of which was to buy some cheap trumpets and sell them on eBay). Neil was a bit below his desired price range. This result occurred because an MP3 player he was buying for Rebecca's brother came in $10 below the advertised price and a hoped for phone had already sold out. He too did not buy any unplanned items, only his own home haircutting kit and the previously MP3 player.

After our first (well second if you count my coffee) commerical experience of the morning we went all the way out to Mount Pearl to pick Rebecca up and drop off the MP3 player. With this mission complete the three of us went to an even cheaper discount store and picked up a few items apiece for our respective out of province apartments. I purchased a set of three wrenches for $1.25, hopefully one of them will help me remove my infamous peggle.

We then returned home. I then quickly left so that I could go pick up the paper, though between these two events I checked my email and learned that Jerry Ford died.

Upon my return I decided to check out my new blender. As soon as I opened the box I noticed that things did not seem to be quite right, something seemed to be missing. It turns out that the bowl/glass was missing, I only had the motor. Fortunately, Neil was to head back to that part of town for a dental appointment and offered to exchange it for me. Hopefully in the next few minutes he will come back with a full version of the super cheap blender.

Merry Christmas

So far Christmas Day has gone well. Though we started the day's festivities at about 8:15 AM we managed to stretch it out until almost 3:00 PM. As far as I know this is a family record, with the credit going to a very strictly enforced guessing requirement.


Hope things are going well for everyone else.

There should be a clip or two over the next few days, stay tuned for continued Holiday season updates.

A Few Quick Notes 42

-Much of the snow that has arrived over the past few days is quickly disappearing in the relatively heavy rain that is currently having. I had really hoped, and still hope, that we might still have some snow on the ground for Christmas day.

-Yesterday was “Tib’s Eve” or “Tip’s Eve” or “Tipsey Eve” in Newfoundland. This is the day before Christmas eve. It seems that the people used to go around and get loaded at this time of year, maybe even going from party to party as the night progressed. How I long for the good old days. My brother’s girlfriend recently heard it referred to as “Tim’s Eve.”

-Our Christmas tree is up and in place. To me it looks quite nice, but this may just be because I am a fan of tradition and all of my favourite ornaments are up.

-Since I arrived in St. John’s from Montreal I have been feeling a little under the weather. This condition seems to have almost been worsened, likely because of a large number of late nights and a very few number of sleeping hours. On top of all of this I haven’t even been able to regularize my napping schedule, or for that matter take many naps.

-In reference to an imaginary conversation with a cousin of mine, my sister stated that “the dog is nicer than you, and the dog bites.”

-Tonight we had roast beef for dinner (I peeled the potatoes, carrots and onions). Tomorrow night we will be having traditional Christmas Steaks (served rare so that they maintain their Christmas color). On Boxing Day we will be having Turkey with all of the traditional sides (hopefully I will peel the potatoes). The first of these three meals was very tasty, hopefully the other two will be as good or better.

Promised clip

I was finally able to post the pigeon clip, though it certainly took a while. Unfortunately, I did not realize that I had an easy means of taking away the sound until after I gone too far. So you may want to turn down the volume as it really adds nothing to the clip. Additionally, I apologize for the shaky camera work, my arm started to get tired as I was leaning across my desk to be next to the window.

A Few Quick Notes 41

-We seem to be receiving a surprise snowfall today. What seemed like a few flurries at first is now a full-blown snowfall.

-I will be staying at home with my sister tonight. It is likely that we will rent a movie of some sort and hopefully head to bed early (at least that is my wish).

-Last night, with my brother and his girlfriend, I got together with a few friends, many of whom are no longer full time residents of Newfoundland. We started the evening at Bitters, the graduate student bar, but quickly learned that they would be closing at 9:00 PM. We then moved over to Big Bens, a nearby pub. Some people in our group played a card game called 120s. As I think that this is a horrible game I did not play. Eventually, around midnight, I left and returned home.

-While at Bitters a slight dispute arose between the bartender and myself. I requested a “Black Velvet” and learned that the bartender had no clue as to what I was talking about. When I described what I wanted, Guinness layered on a base of cider, she instructed me that the drink I was requested was called “snakebite.” What I described as “snakebite,” cider and lager, she called “black and tan.” I was pretty sure this was off, so I found this , though I can’t say that it is my favourite source. At the end of the day I guess I shouldn’t be too upset considering that I ended up with the drink that I wanted.

-For some reason since I have been home I haven’t been eating all that much, it is really quite strange. For instance, so far today I have only had two pieces of toast and I have been up for almost eight hours. Many of my days seem to go like this, with maybe one proper meal and very sparse quantities of food throughout the rest of the day.

-There are some leeks in the fridge, I really should make some potato and leek soup in the next day or two.

Snow falling earlier today

Another short clip of snow falling in the backyard. As you will note, there has clearly been a little accumulation since the last clip.

I should also let you know that I have not forgotten the promised pigeon clip, it just seems that I have had no luck in posting it to YouTube, and now my flash drive seems to be crapping out. What fun.

A Few Quick Notes 40

-We have maintained our nice snow cover, though I would not mind a little more. On top of that it would not be too bad to have the temperature drop by a few degrees, as a snow preservation function.

-I had a rather nice night on the town last night. My evening started at a house where my friend is staying for the holidays. From the house we headed downtown and visited a few local drinking establishments. We were able to see not only traditional Newfoundland music but also more contemporary music as performed by a friend of mine.

-I was just listening to the radio and the host was talking to a guest. The guest passed out wishes to his family and friends, as well as the entire population of Newfoundland. The host then asked the guest how his mother was, to which the guest replied that his mother had died earlier in the year. Not an answer that you want to get on live radio.

-Moments ago I received a phone call telling me that I had just won a free Caribbean cruise. All I had to do was to press 9 and deal with a few steps. Being the nice guy that I am, I let my brother proceed with the call, and presumably my free cruise.

Another video clip

Another shot of snow falling in our backyard. This one was taken a little later in the day, as evidenced by a greater amount of accumulation.

Another YouTube Test

A shot of some snow falling in our backyard.

Winter goings on

Last night I was able to participate in a curling match. My former skip guessed that I might be back in town and invited my to join his team for last night’s game. It turned out that it was a thumping. We managed to score only one point.

As I hadn’t curled in almost a year I was certainly a bit rusty at the beginning of the game. A few ends in I started to get a feel for things and made a few shots, mostly draws and guards. The plus side of losing was that I did not have to buy beer for the other team but instead received the beer.

As I was leaving the curling club I noticed that there were a few snowflakes in the air. Obviously a few more came during the night because when I woke up this morning there was a rater nice dusting. The snowflakes have continued to fall intermittently throughout the day, resulting in an even greater dusting. Small patches of snow covered pavement are even starting to show.

De Square

So far I have spent most of my day just lounging around, though I have had to make two trips over to the Square* to pick up a few things.

My first trip over was to pick up a things to read along with a coffee. I first stopped by Bennington gate and looked for a copy of Zeugma, a local periodical, which I ended up finding in the periodical section. I was a little disappointed, but not really surprised, to see that the price had jumped from $5 an issue to $8. While in the store I was also able to pick up two free local papers, the Current and the Scope.

After finishing my errands at the bookstore I decided to walk to through the basement of this building, which would take me to an exit nearer to my next destination. As I was passing by a few stores I noticed that the liquor store did not seem to be open. I went to investigate. When I was a bit closer I could see that it was not just temporarily closed, but permanently closed. It seems that the have moved to a more inconvenient, larger location in a misguided attempt to provide better service. The move seems to have happened in early December, on wonders why they didn’t have the opening and closing date overlap so that they would have an extra store open at their busiest time?

The next stop was Monty’s, to pick up my paper. I think that the cashier may have recognized me but my longer hair and shoddy attempt at a beard may have thrown her.

My next stop required that I backtrack a bit and stop in at a famous Canadian coffee and “donuts” chain where I picked up an extra large black coffee. I was wondering how the price would differ here from Montreal. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I paid six cents less in St. John’s that I would have in Montreal. From there I went home.

Later this evening I once again found myself in the square, this time on a mission to pick up some molasses for some gingerbread that I had been requested to prepare. Upon reaching the grocery store I was a little thrown, the door through which I have been entering this store for over twenty year is no longer in use, it has been closed and turned into an emergency exit only door, which was somewhat of a disappointment.

Once in the store I walked around to do a little comparative shopping, and was not really surprised to learn that many products were more expensive here than in Montreal, in come cases by a fairly wide margin. I quickly completed my shopping and returned home to make the gingerbread, the scent of which is wafting through the air as I write.

*The Square is Churchill Square, a local shopping area.

Mr. Smallwood

As I was reading the Globe just a few minutes ago I came across the obituary section (rather intentionally I might add). The main obituaries were on a geologist and a musician, though in a side bar they had a small section about someone that had died on this day. It turned out that today’s subject was none other than Mr. J. R. Smallwood, former Premier of Newfoundland from 1949-1972. It seems that this Mr. Smallwood died 15 years ago today. Some of you may know that opinions of Mr. Smallwood vary; some feel that he was Newfoundland’s savior while others see him as a corrupting influence.

Back in Newfoundland

I made it safely back to Newfoundland sometime early this morning. Yesterday evening the airline staff members had lead me to believe that their could be some problems with my flight, fortunately nothing funny happened.

Based on various factors I ended up not getting to sleep until about 4:00 AM, a bit later than I had originally hoped. This was somewhat troublesome as I had to get up a make a few final changes to a paper that I had to submit today. Once the changes were finalized and the paper submitted I had to start to prepare for an showing of the Nutcracker that I was to attend at 2:00 PM.

As some of you may know, for many years I took part in this annual production. What encouraged me to go back this year to see it is that the artistic director/producer/founder will be leaving the province after almost 30 years. It was also enjoyable to see which elements were the same and which had changed in the few years since I was last involved.

It seems that most of the formal activities of my day ended after the show. The four of us in attendance came back and have largely been lounging around since that time. In a short while I hope to check out the mini-series in which I was an extra and then head to bed, though I managed to forget all three books that I am reading recreationally. So I have now started a fourth.

A Few Quick Notes 39

-Another warm day for the time of year. I was able to take my bike out for a few errands that I had to run. Unfortunately, it is now a touch overcast. Hopefully the rain will hold off until I make it into the air. It seems that by early next week we are scheduled to have colder temperatures.

-I will be leaving for St. John’s this evening. On January 3, 2007 I will return to Montreal. Maybe when I get back it will feel like winter.

-While there were a few functions at work last night the main bar area where I worked was pretty quiet by 10:00 PM. I punched out just before 11:00 PM because I wasn’t really needed and I wanted to be able to head home to take care of some things before my departure. After I clocked out I decided to stick around for a bit to have a beer with my co-workers, something I don’t normally get to do because I work until close.

Anyway, I was sitting at the table when I suddenly noticed my father approaching. This was somewhat of a surprise as I had not expected to see him. It turns out that his flight from Ottawa to Halifax was turned around over the destination and then re-routed to beautiful Montreal.

My dad joined me and my co-workers for a few drinks. The result was that I did not leave as early as I had originally intended. All in all it was a pleasant evening, even if it did not go as expected.

-The pigeon couple was back on the building across from me today. I was able to get some footage to demonstrate the behaviour patterns I have observed with these two. If I get a chance in the next few days I will try to put it on YouTube with a link here.

Shutting down in Halifax

I'm shutting down my computer in about 90 seconds. All in all I had a good, but busy semester. I'll post more next year. I hope to see some of you in St. John's. Let's hope good ol' flight AC 656 gets Rebecca and I there safely.

Winter activities that I may not be able to do this year because of the early arrival of global warming

The following list is based on activities I have actually done in recent winters.

1. Shoveling snow
2. Sledding
3. Scrapping ice from a car’s windshield
4. Make snow angels
5. Participate in a snowball fight
6. Fishtail
7. Get trapped on a one-way street by two snow ploughs
8. Experience a white Christmas
9. Push someone into a snow bank
10. Lose money in a snow bank while trying to put it in a parking meter
11. Catch snowflakes in my mouth
12. Break my collarbone in a staged sled crash
13. Be tempted to walk on the pack ice
14. Wear my full winter outfit because it is needed
15. Seem manly in my shorts during a snowstorm

In which winter activities will you not be able to partake this year because of global warming?

A Few Quick Notes 38

-Another beautiful day today, so warm that I did not even need a jacket while the sun was out. It seems that it should remain above zero for at least the next few days.

-Work last night was not very much fun. To start off, I was a little under the weather and really just wanted a quick in and out night.

As I arrived and went to pick up the key to access the staff coat closet I noticed that someone was working on the dishwasher. I later learned that it had been out all day that that dishes from lunch were still waiting to be done. This basically set the tone for the rest of the shift.

Eventually the guy finished up with the dishwasher and we were able to use it by 7:30. Though by this point we were pretty backed up because of functions in the basement and the ballroom. On top of all of this we blew about 5 kegs.

Just before two I left, though several employees were still working. I was feeling as much worse than at the beginning of the night. The good side of this is that tips were good.

-With just about two days left I still have plenty to do. The first priority is finishing a paper I still have not completed, second is packing, and third is gift buying. I am suspecting that the first two priorities might be bumped in favour of the latter priority.

-For a few days now I have been thinking about my favourite Newfoundland hip-hop/rap group, Gazeebow Unit. Unfortunately I have found no one with whom I can reminisce about the quality of their rhymes or their quick rise to fame. Of course when a person-to-person relationship is not possible the next place to go is the web. After a quick googling I learned that Gazeebow Unit have a MySpace page with a few available tracks (most notably “Trikes and Bikes). At least once I am back in St. John’s I will be able to get this off of my chest.

For those of you who have not heard Gazeebow Unit you are in for a surprise/treat. The skeet lifestyle has never before received such an eloquent treatment.

Blogs are like forums

bump

-Neil

A Few Quick Notes 37

-Another overcast, rainy day here in Montreal. The temperature is so high that I basically only need a coat because of the rain. The bright side of these high temperatures and lack of snow is that my flight on Saturday shouldn’t be affected by typical winter problems, all of the other seasonal issues will take care of that for me.

-My final exam for the season took place this morning. 50 multiple choice questions, only a few repeats, on an auto read card. How exciting. The exam seemed to take most people somewhere between 30 and 40 minutes. From my point of view, the main problems with the exam were the poorly written questions that left room for doubt. In several cases I got the sense that what they were looking for was not the answer that I wanted to give. I tended to side with their answer and then leave an explanatory note. This actually didn’t happen too many times, may be once or twice.

-Tonight is another work night, and like most of my work nights people from school will be heading up for a few beers. It would be nice if on occasion I could actually join them for a beer and not just clean up their empty glasses.

-As I write I am in the midst of doing a few last loads of laundry before I head out. Nithum is hoping to do the same thing shortly.

-With my last post I seem to have bumped Neil off of the front page of our blog. Clearly he is not keeping up with his blogging responsibilities.

Newfoundland and da (h)arts

Bys oh bys, over the last few days I have been noting that Newfoundlanders have a huge presence on CBC Radio and TV. This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and Rick Mercer’s show both have their origins in Newfoundland, and reasonable audiences. On radio, both the Debaters and Cross Country Check-Up are hosted by Newfoundlanders.

Just tonight I learned that a former resident of Newfoundland was named the parliamentary Poet Laureate.

Newfoundland’s authors also are frequently mentioned also.

For such a small population, Newfoundland seems to have made a big impact.

A Few Quick Notes 36

-Another mediocre day, overcast and cool, but by no means cold. Apparently there was some rain or drizzle this morning, but I missed it. Seems like more of the same all week. All of this is hard to believe because for months I had been told about how harsh Montreal winters could be, and now I have something about as exciting as the Midlands, though with less snow.

-I had the pleasure of waking with a sore throat this morning. This is the time of year when one does not really want to deal with such things. I am back to my good old stand-bys, zinc and Fisherman’s Friend. Hopefully my sore throat won’t mutate into anything more serious.

-One down, two to go. This first exam today was not bad, though depending on how the professor decides to grade it my score could swing quite a bit. We found that on the first test the use of certain words and phrases were very important, more than just getting the concept correct.

-This afternoon, after a brief nap, I went out for a quick shopping expedition. I purchased some drain de-clogger, some all-purpose cleaner, some general foodstuffs, and some spices. One of the important purchases was some herbal tea to replenish my quickly diminishing supply.

-We acquired a new showerhead today. The last one squeaked quite severely, hopefully this one will be a bit better. Unfortunately, even if the showerhead does not squeak the pipes still will.

-The drain de-clogger that I purchased for $1 seemed to make the situation worse, if that is even possible. Maybe I should have splashed out for quality.

-Tomorrow is my cataloging exam! Sounds like fun!

A Few Quick Notes 35

-An overcast day in Montreal, though on the warm side. As far as I can tell it was not below freezing all day.

-This morning I went over to Val’s place to have breakfast with her. We had breakfast at a local place, a Quebec based chain that recently opened up a place in Newfoundland. The experience was quite good.

-On my way back home from Val’s I stopped at the bakery down the street from her apartment. While at the bakery I purchased two baguettes, the last of which I just finished eating moments ago. They were both very tasty pieces of bread.

-A former St. John’s resident, Rebekah Rimsay, a first soloist in the National Ballet of Canada, was mentioned in yesterday’s Globe and Mail. In an article discussing her troupe’s version of the Nutcracker Rimsay’s first appearance as the Sugar Plum Fairy was discussed. It seems that the first time that Rimsay danced the role was when the original dancer fell ill during the show and the substitute had left for the evening. During the intermission as much of the part was explained as possible, arrangements for several parts to be cut were made, and decisions about were improvisations made. It would seem that this is not how one would want to go about getting the female lead. In later years Rimsay was properly awarded the part.

-My first exam is tomorrow morning at 9:30 AM. I am currently trying to memorize various bibliographic and factual sources.

-I went for a walk last night and came across Crescent Street, the Anglo bar district. Even though I had not been there before and don’t plan on going in the near future I don’t think that I will be missing all that much.

-For dinner tonight I had grilled, herb crusted chicken breast sections on a bed of leftover spaghetti and bean mush.

A Few Quick Notes 34

-In less than 24 hours the temperature has risen by about 10 degrees, which, to me, seems to be a pretty big change. We are now just above freezing. Generally it has been overcast, though not particularly bad.

-Last night was one of my busiest nights at work. Aside from the normal Friday rush we also had a chemistry dinner with 100 people and a philosophy party with at least 50 people. The up swing of all this activity was that our tips were quite good. Another positive benefit is that I was able to have a very tasty turkey dinner instead of my normal meat only pizza, though I must say I did miss the pizza. The main downside of the night was that a group of people did not want to leave at closing time and were pretty rude when I requested that they leave (it was really not a very pleasant experience).

-I have done some studying today, but I need to do a fair bit more. Just recently I finished creating a list of reference sources that I need to memorize for my test. My next study goal will be going through a booklet handed out by the professor. On top of my studying I should also be working on my essay. Unfortunately, I didn’t take my usual citation based research approach to this essay, instead I took a subject approach and ended up with articles that weren’t as relevant or good as I could have found. The problem is that one dosen’t always know when they have a good seed article.

-Yesterday afternoon I photocopied an article from 1953, this article is still quoted in many contemporary discussions on censorship. After quickly reading it, the article is only about 5 pages, I was able to see why. The author very effectively lays out his arguments and makes his position easy to understand, on top of that, the issues he discusses, censorship and selection, haven’t really changed that much in the past 50 years.

-It looks as though I will be a member of our departmental intramural soccer team next semester (no tryouts were needed). Our team will be registered in one of the lower skill divisions, which is fortunate because as far as I know none team members have play soccer in at least ten years.

While I am not necessarily a big soccer fan, I am looking forward to the social and athletic benefits of this activity. It will also be something to get me out of the house once a week.

The Hawaiian Guy

When Neil and I were children our parents used to tell us about a Hawaiian guy university with them. What made this guy (sorry, I don’t know his name) noteworthy is that he wore shorts all year long (obviously a seed was planted). He was always presented as a quirky guy, hell; he wore shorts all winter long.

For years now I have been doing the same, at least to the greatest degree possible. Shorts are my preferred form of lower body covering. Rain or shine, or even snow, I usually choose shorts.

I have worn shorts during snowfalls in St. John’s, New York, Newcastle-under-Lyme, and now Montreal. For six or seven years this has been my habit.

I now wonder if I have, or will, become the Hawaiian guy? Will kids be told of this crazy guy from Newfoundland that used to always wear shorts in the winter? Certainly it was never my goal to achieve a dubious form of recognition through the wearing of shorts, though that is what seems to be occurring. I happen to find shorts more comfortable than pants, a condition that encourages me to wear them as frequently as possible, even it that means during the winter. It seems a day doesn’t go by when I don’t hear someone one commenting on my clothing choices.

On the positive side, this guy from Hawaii, years after the event, was able to demonstrate to me that wearing shorts in the winter is a perfectly achievable goal. All one has to do is decide to wear shorts and then wear them. His actions show that just because a standard is in place it does mean that it is correct or necessary. I am sure that this was not his goal. He, like me, probably just liked wearing shorts.

A Few Quick Notes 33

-It is a touch on the chilly side today, at the moment Environment Canada is reporting that it is -8, which is up from earlier today (according to their 24 hour trends graph). Oddly, by Monday they are expecting the temperature to rise and there to be a chance of showers. My hope is that it drops enough to make these potential showers into some form of frozen precipitation. There aren’t many types of weather I like less than cold wet falling stuff from the sky.

-Last night I went out for a beer with Val and a friend of hers. We ended up going to a brew pub on St. Denis. This place served beer in German style 1 liter units. I was reminded even more of Germany by being able to order weiss (sorry about the spelling) beer, which in Quebec is called blanche. It was a very pleasant experience, I hope to return after Christmas.

-I am really behind on my newspaper reading. There are still a few sections of last Saturday’s Globe that I need to read. I may just skim the comics and obituaries and call it a day.

-Tonight is another work night for me. At least I didn’t have to get up for a 9:00 AM class, this should be an improvement.

It looks as though a few people from my program will be there. They have been requested to be neat and tidy, we will see what happens.

-My reading on censorship has been quite informative. The American Library Association seems to have really changed its view towards the role of the library. In the late 1800s it was seen as a place that would provide wholesome materials. By the middle of the 20th century the emphasis had shifted to supporting intellectual freedom cases.

A Few Quick Notes 32

-Another passable day, though it actually feels as though we could be in for some rain. This somewhat warmer weather has removed much of the few centimeters of snow that we received on Sunday.

-With the departure of the snow has come the return of the squirrels. On my way back from school today I saw at least three in their normal locations. Apparently wherever they did go it was not far.

-Today was my last day of classes for the year, only exams and an essay left. It is quite likely that these things will keep my quite busy until I head out for the holidays. Today’s class was quite entertaining, the professor was at his best, he got laugh after laugh will presenting his point.

-Today as I was scrambling some ground beef for lunch I started to prepare the rice that I was to eat with my meat. I went to the table in the kitchen and found the bag of rice, measured two cups and went over to the stove to pour the rice in the pan. Unfortunately, I ended up pouring the rice in the meat instead of the proper pan. My immediate reaction was one of disbelief, I didn’t know what to do. Fortunately Nithum was there, he quickly suggested that I take the large chunk of frozen meat out and then just do my best to take the meat out.

After a few moments I had pretty much separated most of rice from the beef, though there were a few signs of the mishap in both. All in all the end result didn’t really seem that bad, though if you don’t like ground beef in your basmati rice you might not have liked it.

-I just spent a while printing articles on censorship, the super-broad topic on which I have to write a paper. The last paper that I printed seemed to basically be a guide to avoid trouble with picky parents, so basically a guide to affect public library censoring. One of the earlier articles I printed had to do with depublication of government materials in the US, an interesting and possibly ineffective form of censorship.

A Few Quick Notes 31

-Pretty decent day today, a few flurries but all in all not bad.

-Since the snow arrived on Sunday it seems that the squirrels have disappeared. Where do they go?

-Work was very busy tonight. We had a few functions that really clogged things up. The downside was that after all of the work we did the tips weren’t really all that great.

-My last class is tomorrow. My exams then start on Monday, then a paper is due on Friday.

And People Laugh When I Tell Them I Live In A Ghetto

When I woke up this morning I was somewhat inclined agree with some members of my class in their contention that the McGill Ghetto is not a “real” ghetto. As I was heading to school today I learned otherwise, we are as ghetto as they come.

My morning started off like most other mornings. I got up, ate, took a shower, and prepared for school. At my normal time I started my descent from the fourth floor to the main floor. I then proceeded through the lobby to the vestibule.

Then I saw it, as I was heading through the lobby on my way out it came into view. A real live homeless person was hanging out in the vestibule, sitting there drinking a big bottle of the most typical American beer. He had obviously been there for a while as the entire room smelled of beer.

It was so intense! Ghetto life can be rough sometimes, but keeping it real helps me get through the day.

A Few Quick Notes 30

-The weather was pretty nice today, a little on the cool side but nothing intolerable. Unfortunately, it looks as though some of the snow that melted in the noon-time sun turned to ice this afternoon. They really need to be a bit quicker with the salt around here.

-As I am always a sucker for beans I ended up picking up a few bags of romano beans. My idea is to try to replicate, with these new beans, the minor successes that I have had with my Brazilian black bean dish. I will let you know how things go.

-This morning I had a new type of hot cereal. It seems that the main ingredient, or at least the one after which it is named, is barley. It might be the barley, or it might not, but something about this stuff is seriously off. It was a less than pleasant flavour and texture experience.

-Two projects are due tomorrow. The past few days have been pretty busy preparing this for tomorrow. I think that they are ready to go, which isn’t all that bad, it isn’t even midnight.

-Shortly I will be heading out to the grocery store to pick up some provisions for this upcoming week, in particular some bacon for the bean dish. Maybe the trip will be slightly stretched so that it can be considered a walk.

-I also meant to clarify the picture in one of my recent posts. This was not meant to be an endorsement of any particular candidate, we just happened to find that sign in the garbage. If we had found anything from any of the other candidates photos would have been taken with those things also.

-Today I learned that our class received an extension for the last project that I have to hand in. The downside of this is that because a hard copy of the essay has to be submitted I won’t be able to take advantage of this because the new deadline occurs after I leave for St. John’s. Wonderful.

Snow in Halifax

Today Halifax had its first snowfall in which there was any sort of ground covering. In exchange for working for me last Wednesday night while I was returning from Banff, I was supposed to work for Rebecca this evening in the Math Learning Centre. To be sure that Dal was still open (it was quite a snowfall) Rebecca and I checked the webpage. The conclusion we came to was that we would have found any reasonable attempt to post news on the page that the university was closed. Hence, I dressed up and walked to school. Traffic was backed up everywhere, and I saw a bus without any standing room parked on the side of the road, unable to go anywhere. As I approached campus it seemed surprisingly dark. As it turned out, about half the buildings had lost power. This included the math building and the library, where I was supposed to work, so I turned around and came home. The hour-long trek was nice, but I probably could have done without it. The power is on here at Fenwick though which is good.

The semester is coming to an end very quickly. On Wednesday, the Dalhousie Association of Graduate Students (DAGS) is having a general meeting. As I am the DAGS representative for the Math and Stats Grad Society (MSgrads), I will go. Rebecca will go as well (also potentially some other MSgrads exec members). Next week I will also mark some first-year calculus exams. I think that'll be about 6 hours of work. As well, I have my last 7 hours of work in the Learning Centre for the semester. The rest of my commitments are more academic. In my three courses, I have an exam on the 12th, a take-home due on the 11th, an interview in two days (for a project I have already submitted), and I have a project to do (in Game Theory). After that, I come home on the 15th (and I will come back to Halifax on the 3rd or so of Jan).

A Few Quick Notes 29

-We received a few centimeters of snow today, our first real snowfall of the season. While I was pleased with the snowfall itself I was disappointed with the various removal operations that didn’t seem to materialize as promised.

I had been told that Montreal was quite good at removing the snow from sidewalks and streets, seemingly as soon as it fell. This did not happen today, though they eventually did get around to sending a rather ineffective sidewalk plough around.

McGill was another story altogether. When I went back this evening it seemed as though nothing had been done. In many places the snow had been packed down into an ice-like substance that was quite slippery, almost treacherous. By the time I left at about midnight a plough had clearly visited a few places, though not the packed down snow in front of the Arts Building.

-As you might recall, yesterday I was following the Liberal leadership convention, which was in Montreal. In many ways I found it somewhat hard to believe because I saw very little evidence of its existence, aside from a shirt and a sticker, it could have been anywhere in Canada.


I mentioned this feeling to Val while we were at a restaurant in old Montreal eating dinner. Then I asked her where the Palais des Congres was located. She almost laughed; actually it is likely that she did laugh. It turns out that the subway station from which I had exited on my way to dinner is in the Palais, though I did notice this. We decided that after we finished eating we would head back and see if anything was going one, and to let me see how inobservant I had been.

By the time we were due to arrive I was pretty sure that the leader should have been determined, though I couldn’t really tell just by looking, it was pretty dead. As we approached, actually as the large sign came into view we saw a sign in a garbage can. We went over to check it out and saw that it was a Dion sign. Upon pulling the sign out of the garbage we decided that it would be neat to take a picture with the sign and the Palais in the background. Obviously, this is the photo that has been embedded in this post.

We then continued our approach but still could not tell who had won. As we drew closer we saw more and more political do-dads. I quickly realized that I would likely have to ask someone if I wanted to know. Val refused to accompany me as I went of in search of an informed individual.

I quickly spotted a door with a few obvious Liberal smokers. A woman wearing some Dion gear was the easiest to approach so I asked her if she could tell me who won. She then told me, with a smile and a hint of joyfulness in her voice, that Stephane Dion had won. I thanked her and went back to Val to tell her the news.

-For dinner tonight I had wiener schnitzel, it was quite tasty. It seems that the fresh lemon juice really makes the dish work. It was served with freshly mashed potatoes and yellow beans. Very tasty, and there will be enough leftovers for tomorrow.

-I made two trips to McGill today. The first was to work on a cataloging project, which I did from 1:00-4:00. Then this evening I had to work on a short Reference assignment due tomorrow morning. I am not really sure how much time I spent there, though I know that it was less than two hours.

-Today, just as the snow was starting to fall, I brought my bike in. It turned out that the timing was just about perfect. The downside of all of this is that I have to deal with my bike in my room until I can figure out a better place for it to be stored.

It Happened

It finally happened, they (CBC, or more importantly the Quebec media) referred to the little bit of freezing rain we had a few days ago as “that big storm two days ago.” Apparently this wind free storm that I seemed to have missed took out power for 71 000 people.

I will concede that this “storm” did manage to do some damage. Some of the tree limbs that came down were impressive. I can only imagine what would have happened if there had been even a little bit of wind thrown into the mix.

Convention update

It seems that Dion has shot into the lead at the Liberal Leadership Convention here in Montreal, leaving Ignatieff trailing and Rae out. The results of the last vote should be made available in the relatively near future. By dinner time things should be relatively settled.

Last Night

As soon as I walked in the front doors at Thomson House I could tell that it was a busy night. Firstly, there were more people than normal. Secondly, there seemed to be a party atmosphere along with several formal party-type events.

I was expecting a few people from my classes to show up, and I was not disappointed. Shortly after I clocked in at 6:00 I observed the first few liberrians. With in an hour or so the group had grown quite large. My guess is that at its peak the group neared 30.

While my classmates were showing up I was changing kegs. Between 6 and 8 we changed about 8 kegs and had to do some major re-stocking. During this time the busing was pretty intense, particularly since it had to be abandoned at certain times for the previously mentioned activities.

Things finally started to calm down at about 10:30 and were able to start preparing to close. As I was to clock out before close we advanced our normal time frame. By 12:00 I clocked out and joined my classmates for a few beers before Thomson House closed at 2:00.

It was a very busy, but enjoyable night. I actually wouldn’t mind if more of them were that busy as helps the time pass more quickly.

It's Snowing

Just a few minutes ago a good number of snowflakes started to fill the air. I wouldn't mind if this kept up for a while.

Liberal Leadership Convention

A short while ago I woke up and had the pleasure of listening to a few minutes of convention coverage. It seems that already today several individuals have dropped out (at least Dryden and Kennedy) while Ignatieff has not made very much progress.

Voting for the next round started a few minutes ago. With the newly freed delegates on the scene we might see how things will start to shape up.

It seem that the coverage to which I was listening was on for just a few hours, which is disappointing as I think that I could have listened to it all day. So maybe it is actually a good thing that full coverage is not available.

Winter seems to have finally arrived

I woke up this morning to another overcast day and what appeared to be rain.

As I was getting ready I listened to CBC. The weather reports indicated that throughout the island of Montreal there was a mixture of rain and ice pellets, but that the ice pellets were still limited in their distribution.

As I was under the impression that I was in the rain section of the island I was not looking forward to going out. As I am a diligent student I persevered and went to class.

As I exited my building I was pleasantly surprised to find that our area was actually receiving snow-like ice pellets. Immediately the thought of walking to school seemed more pleasant, my entire disposition changed for the better.

In a few moments I will take a nap. Hopefully by the time I get up the ground will be covered in a fresh coat of snow, or the nearest approximation.

A Few Quick Notes 28

-It is raining but warm today. As I was walking to school today I ran into a classmate of mine. She said that she wasn’t really enjoying the unseasonably weather in the sense that she found it hard to dress for it.

-Over the past few days I have noticed that news stories mentioning the Harper nationalism motion keep referring to it as a “pre-emptive strike.” To call it this seems rather odd. Not only has the issue been on the table for weeks if not months, since Ignatieff first brought it to the fore. Furthermore, Harper’s motion was clearly in response to previously brought forward by the Bloc. Whatever this is I don’t see how it can rightly be called “pre-emptive,” as far as I can tell it didn’t really many to pre-empt anything.

-Earlier this week, for an assignment, I was looking at a few cataloging records in the McGill catalogue. I was struck by their use of certain MARC fields; the records just didn’t make sense. They were using 830 fields to represent information that was identical to that contained in the 490 field. It seemed to me that they should have just used the 440 field and saved themselves the hassle of re-entering the same data.

A classmate of mine works in the cataloging department so I asked her if she knew of any particular reason why this was happening. She didn’t know but offered to check with her boss for me.

The next day I ran into her and she gave me an update. It turns out that McGill had taken the records from another catalogue, the library term is copy cataloging, and not noticed the error. As of right now this should be fixed in the record that was presented to the cataloging supervisor.

The problem is, according to my classmate, that 6/7ths of the catalogers have been cut in the past year. Now there are only 3 fully trained catalogers supervising 20 technicians and students. It seems that there just aren’t enough people checking to ensure that a certain level of quality is maintained.

-In class today assignments that we handed in a few weeks ago were handed back. The mark was written on the front page of the assignment in pencil. I quickly noticed that something had been written and then erased in the same place that my current grade was located. With a little work I was able to see that the first number written was a 10 and that the number now showing most prominently was 9, I felt robbed. Though, to be honest, I did deserve to have lost that one mark and not have received the 10.

-If one has a bit of time on their hands one might want to check out www.jacksonpollock.org or www.mrpicassohead.com. It turns out that this is what library school students with laptops do while in class.

-It was brought to my attention that for filing purposes it would make the most sense if dates were presented year month day. This is because we want the like years grouped with like years, and so on. What we don’t want is like days grouped with like days. This filing arrangement would get us nowhere.

With this said, I will continue to write the date day month year, which I feel still makes more sense than month day year.

-How does one represent the Howard Dean scream in writing? Is “a;lgha[owighao[wieg[aowiwgn” a good approximation?

The sense of frustration that he must have felt to cause that scream is something that I can understand right now. Tonight, at about 8:00 PM I learned that an assignment that I had believed was due tomorrow afternoon is not actually due until Tuesday at Noon. It seems that most of my class, except my partner and I, knew this as of yesterday. I was working busily away none the wiser.

The good side of this is that we will be able to hand in a better assignment. The downside is that I will have to spend some of my weekend on this assignment when I had hoped to spend most of it on cataloging and reference assignments.

In many ways this change of due dates does not surprise me. Once I became aware that the professor knew that some individuals in the class, including your humble author, had been given incorrect instructions on how the project should be completed it became clear that an extension would be fair, if not likely.

A Few Quick Notes 27

-It has been quite warm today, and is expected to be warmer tomorrow. So much for these harsh Montreal winters.

-Because I was delayed in getting to the gym today I was unable to pick up my free copy of the Gazette. I had expected this and I intended to just go to the depanneur. It seems that I am a creature of habit and was almost all the way to the gym before I remembered that I didn’t want to go there today. In the end I then had to head back to the store to pick up my copy.

-I recently learned that the band of the son of my former driver’s ed. instructor has made the Grammy long list in the Reggae category. Several years ago our family received a cassette of their music, I believe that I was the only one that ever listened to it. If you are interested, their site is www.theprocessonline.com.

-Writing, writing, writing, my non-writing based assignments seem to have a fair bit of writing.

Leaving Banff

I'm here in the "Professional Development Centre" waiting for a CS prof from Dal to show up to give myself and Mahdi a ride to the Calgary airport (YYC). It's pretty nice just waiting, the couch is nice and the fire is too.

I might have to go any second, so this could be brief, so finished later. I'm flying on a Embraer (sp?) today. I believe I will have my own tv screen in the seat in front of me. I have a lot of work to do though, so I don't know what will happen.

My flight is at 12:10 local time arriving in Halifax around 9:30 pm local time. There is a brief stop in Montreal, but I don't think I'll be getting off the plane. If something crazy happens though, Cameron can expect a call.

The winterschool was good. I enjoyed it very much, and I learned a thing or two as well. The facilities here are amazing though, and I recommend anyone with the opportunity come to the Banff Centre. In total I think I saw about 9 deer, all of which were within 30 feet of me.

I think the average temperature during my stay was at most -25 degrees celsius, so for that reason especially it will be good to be back in Halifax. On the other hand the high here tomorrow is -7 degrees, which is very tolerable. Either way I'm looking forward to my return. The only problem is the work I'm going back to. I'm going to be going non-stop until I come home on the 15th. Then maybe I can sleep for a couple days.

What is it about this place?

Again we have been given an ambiguous project and then received clarification at the last minute. Today I learned that a project that I believed I had almost completed was in fact just at the beginning. I am starting to believe that they work on ambiguous project writing skills in my program.

Park Avenue will have its name changed

The vote, held over to this morning, ended up being a rout. CBC is reporting that the vote was 40-22, or something close to that. It sounds as though some people went back on their commitments to maintain the Park tradition.

A Few Quick Notes 26

-Yesterday I went to the grocery store and found that they were out of refried beans, not just the kind I like, but all of them. This was somewhat surprising as I wasn’t aware that these were a popular food stuff in Montreal.

-As I was walking back from class today I heard the fire alarm as I approached the building. As usual I continued past the building and went up to the gym to pick up my free paper. By the time I returned the alarm had stopped, though I did not see any evidence of the fire department.

When I entered the building the alarm system was making a semi-regular beeping sound. While clearly the alarm had been tripped it seemed that things were safe. Since I returned several minutes ago the alarm has briefly gone off several times for only a second or two each time. Hopefully this problem will not persist throughout the day.

-For the past few days the construction project has been a bit quieter, so I have decided to jinx myself and let you all know this.

-I was totally smoked by yesterday’s New York Times Monday Crossword, it was embarrassing.

A Few Quick Notes 25

-Today is the big day for Park Avenue. The issue will be coming up at tonight’s city council meeting. When I last heard the pro-Park side still needed a few votes to prevent the change, hopefully this count has changed since I last heard.

-In class today I learned that the Gazette began as a bilingual paper, something that is rather surprising to its current day readers.

-Last night while reading the McGill Daily I was somewhat surprised by a few comments in an interview. The interviewee, a budding anarchist, seemed to believe that instead of Buy Nothing Day we should have Steal Something Day, that this would be more actively more concretely affect change. Aside from some problems with her other comments this one rather struck me. I am not really sure how stealing something on one particular day, say a bag of chips, is going to send a decipherable message.

-The overcast weather has continued today, though it is not raining.

-Since the new sales begin at the grocery stores today I should probably head out and see if there are any discounted items that would fit into my dietary needs.

-It would seem that both the subscription and hit counter associated with the FeedBurner service are a touch inaccurate, to say the least. At one place it indicates that we have 3 subscribers, 2 of which are by email. It then provides 3 email addresses as the subscriber list. I know that the number of Yahoo subscribers is also off.

The "live hit" count has been off since we signed up. The first few times I visited after creating the account were clearly marked, but since then none of my visits have been recorded, or properly recorded.

-During the last few days of last week I saw McGill crews putting up lights on the Arts building. The columns in the front of the building had a very fancy set up with each perpendicular ridge having a string of lights. As of today they are all gone, no explanation, just gone. One wonders why they would have guys putting those lights up for three days just to take them down one work day after the job had been finished.

-I bought some toiletries today and was quickly reminded how these things quickly add up. A few vitamins, toothbrushes, bottles of shampoo and sticks of anti-perspirant later and I was up over $50. I guess some of this is due to the fact that I always buy personal grooming supplies in sets of at least 3.

A Few Quick Notes 24

-The dinner Nithum and I attended was quite pleasant. Instead of being the only American present I was surprised to learn that there were at least three more, at least two of whom the host had never meet before. From the library perspective, there was a librarian, a library director (not a librarian), a library student, and a few library users.

-Unfortunately today is rather overcast. According to the forecast we are not supposed to receive rain until this evening or early tonight. I guess this means that I won’t need to bring my coat when I go to the library shortly.

-A few days ago during a cataloging lab some of my female classmates were telling me about a film that they had watched in which one of the main characters had to learn the Dewey Decimal Classification system in a night. They watched this film at a “girls night” event. As I realized later, this was rather odd. The entire program is a “girls night” of sorts, at least 75% of the class is female.

-On my way to the library today I saw a dead squirrel in yard on the corner of Lorne and Prince Arthur. What is odd about this squirrel is that it looked like most live squirrels, its tail was fluffy, its paws outstretched. As a matter of fact it looked as though someone had frozen it mid-leap and placed in on the ground. The only odd characteristic was that its mouth seemed to have some kinds of dark material surrounding it. I couldn’t quite tell if this was dried blood or if the squirrel had been eating something akin to motor oil.

Pigeon Back Ride

Several times since I moved into my apartment I have been sitting at my desk, which is directly in front of my window, and observed pairs of pigeons behaving as though they weren’t being watched.

The roof of the building opposite seems to be a popular pigeon hangout. What I have observed is that two pigeons will arrive and start to get to know each other. You know, walk around each other and that kind of thing. The relationship then moves onto the “kissing” or more aptly “beaking” phase. The two birds will lock beaks and bob their heads up and down. This may occur a few times, after each beaking session a bit more of the getting to know each other goes on.

Finally, the climax, the pigeon piggy back ride. One of the pigeons will bend down and the other climbs up. This lasts for a few seconds. The upper pigeon then climbs down and they both walk around for a while and then take off.

When I saw this occur for the first time I thought it was pretty strange. Now that I have seen it a few times it is slowly becoming slightly more normal, or at least predictable because the birds have been following similar patterns each time.

A Few Quick Notes 23

-Tonight Nithum and I have a dinner engagement at a neighbour’s apartment. Moments ago I returned from buying the wine that I am to bring. I have a slight sense that I was hosed.

My initial goal was to buy a reasonably priced wine of good quality. I had hoped not to buy a wine with a screw-top, something that is becoming more difficult, or a wine from the US. In the end I purchased a wine with both of these characteristics, and I a touch worried about the quality. The reason for this somewhat questionable purchase is that for the first time I decided to rely entirely upon the recommendations of the liquor store staff, possibly an unwise decision.

As the time of our departure nears I am wondering what the proper etiquette for approaching a neighbour’s apartment is, do we go down to the first floor and then walk up the normal staircase at the front of the building or do we just cut across the fire escpate catwalk and arrive in about 2 seconds?

-Last night was pretty busy at work. Much of the reason for this business was because of a Salsa dance session that was held in the ballroom. This drew a fair number of individuals.

For some reason last night also seemed to have a strong focus on game playing. Throughout the night I saw 3 groups of people playing cards, a group play Scrabble, a group play Trivial Pursuit, and one of the card playing groups playing Monopoly.

-Rex Murphy’s opinion piece in today’s Globe pretty clearly sums up how I think about the Quebec/Nation issue. As stated earlier, much of this seems rush without an appropriate amount of thought having been given to the consequences of these actions.

-It is a beautiful day today, and getting warmer by the hour. When I went out for my paper this morning, a sweater was needed and just barely enough to ward of the cold. Now a very light sweater or an open light jacket would certainly be enough. On top of all of this the sun is shining and the wind not blowing.

A Few Quick Notes 22

-Today, while picking up my paper at the gym, I happened to come across two guys getting a talking to from an administrator type. The administrator was telling them that they would be kicked out and that they had jeopardized their friend’s membership, for which he had paid a lot of money. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to figure out what it was that these guys had done that was so bad. I guess I will never know.

-I am getting used to my new nationality, though it may take me a few days to fully understand what it means to be a member of the nation of Quebec.

-It has been quite nice here during the past few days. The weather has been what would likely be called “crisp.” It sounds as though we might be in for some snow in a few days, though I would not be surprised if we don’t get a major snowfall before I leave for Christmas.

-Once again it is Friday, which means that I will be heading to work shortly. Tonight there will be some kind of Salsa dance in the ballroom, and of course it is Pizza Night.

-One of these days my Meatzza should be one of the options on the menu, even if only for a laugh. On a more serious note, there must be more people that can’t eat cheese or tomatoes.

-It turns out that one of my classmates is from Chicago. When I learned this I mentioned that my favourite radio show, This American Life, is from the same town. She was familiar with the show, actually a fan, and pleased to find someone else familiar with the show. I was able to tell her about some similar shows in Canada. On the plus side for me she has offered to lend me one of the show’s CDs.

Montifax Subscriptions Now Available

To lazy to check Montifax every 8 minutes?

That’s ok, now one can have all new posts emailed to themselves by subscribing to Montifax.

All one has to do is enter their email address in the appropriate location in the box on the right and then acknowledge a confirmation email. Before you know it all kinds of Montifax posts will be showing up in your inbox for easy access.

Packing for Banff

Right now I'm starting to pack for my trip to Banff. My plane leaves Saturday at 7 am. I have to leave the apartment at about 3:40 am to catch the 3:55 shuttle; it should be fun. I come back on Wednesday evening. Two of my profs are on trips at the same time, so over 3 class days with 3 courses I'm only missing two classes.

I'm going to Banff for the cold weather (low of -32 on Sunday!). Well it's really the cold weather AND a "winterschool", which is essentially a series of lectures. The topic of the school is Algorithms and models for the Web. The will be many big names from the field there, most notably Fan Chung Graham (also known for being the wife of Ron Graham, both of whom were good friends of Paul Erdős.)

The trip should be fun, but I'm going to be very busy when I come back.

I lack photo-blogging skills

Let's try again. Here the current view from my window thanks to the Fenwick Place Web Cam. I'm pretty sure this isn't working, but you can click on the empty photo to see what I mean.

Fire in Dartmouth

I'm at my desk in my apartment (see ME on the map), and I just happened to look out my window. Normally across the harbour in Dartmouth there is a small flame similar to that of the Come-by-Chance oil refinery (I think); this comparison might be good for those of you that have driven across Nfld. However, today the flame is huge and black smoke is filling the sky above Dartmouth. In fact, the light of the fire is reflecting off the water so much I can plainly see it from here (being 11 floors up helps though). The other tip-off that something is wrong is the collection of flashing lights near the base of the fire. Oh, and now the sirens. The fire doesn't seem to be spreading, but there are lots of oil tanks in the vicinity. If this turns out to be as big or bigger than the Halifax explosion, I'll let you know.

P.S. I don't own a camera, and FIRE! is where the fire is on the map (approximately 3.5 kilometers away).

Library Thing

Since my post yesterday I have been playing around with Library Thing. Some of you may have even noticed that I have added a “widget” to the blog so that you can see new additions to “my library.” One can view the complete collection by clicking on the “my library” link.

While this service is not perfect, it is a neat idea. Over the coming few days, especially as I add more books, I will try and keep you updated on what I think.

If any of you are opposed to the thing in the side bar let me know, if there a groundswell of popular support it can be removed.

What is a Nation?

This seems to be a question very few of us have asked ourselves, though many of us have been quite willing to discuss whether or not Quebec is one. Very few of us have even discussed what we mean by Quebec, are we defining it geographically, or by its inhabitants, or any number of possible ways?

In the few short weeks since Mr. Ignatieff brought the idea of Quebec being a nation to the national agenda (I consider this to have previously been a relatively dormant issue), we have had a great number of people weigh in on the issue. Just recently Mr. Harper said his piece, and indicated that he believed Quebec to be a nation. Mr. Harper went further, he tabled a motion that, if passed, would give the House of Commons’ support to this assertion.

In this mess of rhetoric I have not heard one person try to define “nation” and what it might mean in this context. Maybe to some it just seems obvious, but I believe that we might all be better off if we clarified the definition and how Quebec, or is it French Canadians, meet this definition. Once we have established this definition should we attempt to see how it fits with other groups in Canada and pass similar motions?

I guess my main concern is that choices are being made before we have fully evaluated what is being decided. Without groundwork, in this case a definition of the contentious term, we cannot have an informed or even truly useful discussion. What we are getting is just raw emotion and political posturing; something reminiscent of the now criticized post-September 11 anti-terrorism laws. Taking our time and making sure that the correct, as opposed to politically expedient, decision is made is important, as it is quite likely that this issue won’t just go away after this vote.

A Few Quick Notes 21

-Back to work again today. During my extra shift last night I was able to trade away a shift on the 30th and pick up tonight. On this whole this should be good, though having only one work shirt will be a bit of a problem this week seeing as laundry day was Monday.

-A few moments ago I started to play with the www.librarything.com website, a utility that allows one to catalog their books online using Library of Congress or Amazon.com records. This sounds like a neat idea but needs a bit of work. For one their search function is a bit limited, for some reason I could not find a way to search for standard numbers (ISBN or ISSN, etc.). Downloaded records didn’t seem to be fully editable, though some of this might just be me. I will let you know what I think a bit more once I have given it a full assessment. (A little poking around later and I have found that it is a bit more adaptable than I thought, some of the problems I had originally identified are beatable)

-I am falling behind on my newspaper reading this week. I still have some of Monday’s paper to skim through, as well as all of Tuesday’s and much of today’s left to read.

-It seems that the deconstruction project next door has now turned into a construction project. This is a big improvement. While there is still some noise it is not as much or as persistent as it has been over the past few days. If things continue like this I will be fine, if they revert to the destruction level I will be quite upset.

nithum wishes he had a left leg

I saw Nithum's gmail chat name today, just as you have done if you read the title of this post. Thinking that it might have been like the "Neil needs" google search trick I decided to try it out. As it turns out, I wish I was Daft Punk. On the other hand, Cameron wishes he was there (http://www.cherwell.org/news/news_in_brief/cameron_wishes_he_was_there). Nithum is apparently better than all of us though, because he doesn't need or wish for anything.

A Few Quick Notes 20

-The destruction project is going strong next door. This morning I was somewhat disturbed to hear, what sounded like, glass being shattered by hammers. In addition to this tinkling we had the normal array of destruction related sounds. The only good news is that it seems that they have gutted the top floor, which is just outside my window, and have moved down a floor.

-Last night’s lack of car horns and burning trash bins can be explained by the loss suffered by the Als in their attempt for Grey Cup glory. Once again, it is only the Gazette that seems to really care.

-The temperature has finally started to drop in Montreal. I am not exactly sure what it is but it is now on the chilly side. The scarves, mitts, gloves, and hats that the McGillites have been wearing for the past several weeks are finally justified, though oddly not that many more people are now wearing them.

-This new temperature is perfect for walking. Two times yesterday I took very pleasant walks around my neighbourhood. Hopefully over the coming days I will be able to explore the surrounding area a bit more.

-I did a quick count yesterday and we seemed to have posted many more words in October than we are on track to post in November. This difference will likely be a few thousand, though maybe we can make it up in the dying days of this month.

-Because of our discussion about the ability of the IMDB top 250 to be influenced by the movie industry I have started to think about other user-community influenced sources. The one that came to my mind first was Wikipedia. How much are entries on corporations edited by corporations to ensure that the views and opinions presented are in line with the official stance. Are unflattering comments deleted? Are flattering or explanatory comments added? I guess we could check some of this out by looking at the page history. Once again, I have a hard time believing that at least an element of this does not occur. Wiki is even easier to manipulate than IMDB and we know that millions rest on the public opinion of major corporations. It might be worth looking into. My other thought is that even it is not happening now, give it time, it will eventually start.

Get on with it, spite them already

For the past few days Mr. Dumas, from a distance of a few hundred years, has been stealing my time just like Danglars, Villefort, and Fernand stole that of Edmond Dantes.

What is frustrating about this books is its complete unwillingness to resolve itself. Within a relatively short number of pages Edmond is shown to be a great guy, wrongly sent to jail, and then escapes. Revenge is then this man’s mission in life.

Most of the book takes in place in Paris while Edmond is the Count of Monte Cristo, an unknown and unfathomably rich Italian gentleman. The reader is there as Edmond slowly sets up the downfall of all of the individuals that caused his imprisonment. The detail is painful, but as the reader one wants to see how the whole thing will resolve itself.

It is now making sense why many copies of the book, including mine, are abridged. This guy just goes on and on, though as indicated, I am still reading (unfortunately because I have school work that I could otherwise be focusing on).

Grey Cup Fevah!

What is most noticeable about this weekend in Montreal is the lack of the above mentioned condition.

On a walk I just took I failed to see any signs of this condition, not even a shirt, coat, or hat, worn in support of “our” team. Though the game will be shown on CBC TV this evening, it will not air on Radio One.

For that matter I have seen very few signs that we even have a CFL team playing just behind my apartment. One of the few indications that such a team exists are the occasional articles in the Gazette, apparently the only place that still cares.

Peggle Bike (Definition and Discussion)

One of readers/commenter recently indicated that he/she was unfamiliar with a peggle bike and would have to look up what one is. Unless one goes through our archives this will not likely be an easy task, because as far as I know the term originated here.

For those of you who have somehow forgotten what a peggle bike is, or started reading this blog after the definition was posted, it might be defined as a normal bike with the noticeable absence of at least one peddle. Instead of a proper pedal the rider uses a metal peg instead to propel the bike, hence the term peggle bike.

My peggle bike has only one peg, implying that there is also one pedal. In my case, I don’t think that I could safely ride the bike without that one peddles. This may be in part due to the diminished capacity of my bakes.

Note: If one searches for “peggle bike” in Google they will find that Montifax leads the way in use of the term (we are actually the only site returned). Any questions in terms of usage of this phrase should be directed to Montifax, we don’t want a good term like this to be miss-used right of the bat.

A Few Quick Notes 19

-After the staff meeting that I attended today I had a brief introduction to bar tending. During this introduction our boss was able to get up quite agitated by pouring “vodka” down the sink. He eventually allowed those interested in the sample drinks to have them. Oddly no one commented on the fact that they should have tasted a little weak. After a while it was made clear that he had been serving water, those that had consumed the drinks felt cheated.

-Odd night last night at work. While there were many people there they were not on the main floor. All kinds of people were in the restaurant for karaoke and upstairs for an MBA event.

-Finally I had a chance to move on to PC beer. I decided to go with the lager. All things considered, if one bases one’s opinion on the packaging, it looks fine. It is like that I will have to crack into one in a few minutes.

A Few Quick Notes 18

-For lunch today I had nachos with refried beans and extra onions. There were so many extra onions that I had to leave a few of them on my plate, which I left in my room when I went to class. I came back to find my room stinking like cheap onions.

-It seems that among many of the trendy McGill female types rain boots are in. This is once again a case of my being ahead of my time. As a child I was convinced that these were the best type of footwear, likely because they did not need tying. For what seems like years I wore nice black rubber boots as much as possible. Unfortunately, now that I am no longer in that habit it has come back and I have once again missed my chance to be cool.

-The Gazette was back at the gym today. I am now pretty certain that I was just a bit late yesterday.

-In this afternoon’s lab a classmate and I were having some fun with a citation index. After completing the assigned question we decided to play around a little more. A mutual field of interest happened to be our current professors. If you have access to an online citation index this can be an amusing way to spend a few minutes.

-After about two years I am finally updating my iPod. I will lose some music that I had on my old computer but gain much more.

-Horse (cheval) meat is on sale this week at one of my local grocery stores. The only format is ground horse meat, which is a bit of a richer red than beef. It is tempting. I think that I may buy some and try a horseburger, or maybe horse-nachos. I will keep you updated.

-I am just finishing off my last Hek 6.2% beer, this means another 24 will have to be picked up tomorrow. I am thinking I will give the PC beers a try, at least they will be cheap.

A Few Quick Notes 17

-For the first time in months I was unable to get a free weekday Gazette at the gym. I am not sure if they have finally wrapped up the promotion or if I arrived after they had all been distributed. My hope is that I was a bit late. The evidence that I have to back this up is that the distribution stands are still there, just as they have been for the past few months.

-The dark, overcast weather continues in Montreal. Oddly, it is reasonably warm.

-It is always nice to have a little bit of string. Many I have been looking for just a few feet of string and been unable to find it.

-Last night at Thomson House it was wondered if “Chuck-Tony” would be an acceptable Anglicization of Charles-Antoine (a TA of ours). I think one could have a bit of fun with double names in the same form as the one previously mentioned, one could go back and forth between English and several other languages.

-For those of you following the Grey Cup you may be aware that the Allouettes have made the game. Some of you may find this surprising because they had such a dismal record during the regular season. I am one of those individuals. Does every team in the CFL make the playoffs? If it is not every team it must be almost every team.

-After class today I needed to speak to the professor about an upcoming project. As we started to talk I could see that he was looking to at my shirt and trying to figure out what it said. Was the symbol a clover leaf, he asked. No, I said, it is a club. It clicked, he then figured out that my shirt, with the use of pictograms, said “I club baby seals.” He then laughed a hearty laugh.

-Some of you may have heard that a Russian spy was arrested in Montreal on Tuesday. This is rather amazing. We don’t hear about too much spying these days. What is odder is that much of the details read like classic spy novels, things that I had believed were exaggerated to say the least.

A Few Quick Notes 16

-The Gazette reported today that Montreal is well above average this year for the amount of rain it has received. As I have noted over the last few weeks, it did seem to be raining a fair bit.

-Today I attended an EndNote workshop at McGill. This was very informative. It seems that this program, and others like it, are a bit heavy on the start up time but useful in the long run. Fortunately McGill has a site license and I was able to download the program for free. It now seems to be up and running, I only need to start adding references, something that I don’t look forward to doing.

-Today in class we had a guest lecturer talk to use about freedom of expression and limitations of that freedom. Much of the talk focused on obscenity, hate propaganda, and child pornography. While I had hoped the focus would be on access to information and protection of privacy legislation this was thought provoking.

-Just got back from Thomson House. Though I had intended just to go with Val I ended up running into a few of my classmates, actually about 10 of them. It was nice to socialize with them outside the classroom setting. Discussion was a little freer regarding certain subjects.

-Another story in today’s Gazette was on the topic of industrial pollution in California. It turns out that the film production business is one of the largest pollution producers. The stars may come out to show their support for environmental causes but it would seem as though their industry is not as friendly as they are.

Oh, I see. Then everything is wrapped up in a neat little package.

Only after I typed the title of this post did I realize that I saw the episode of the Simpsons from which it comes yesterday.

Now back to the main story, I got some mail today with my name on it (and also Cameron's, although his was with the return address). In an average week I get about 12 pieces of junk mail and 0.4 pieces of mail with my name on it. Today's package was from Cameron. It was a little bubble wrap Canada Post package. My first guess as to the contents was pieces for Settlers of Catan. When I opened it up and saw string I had no idea what was inside. I looked in further and saw some plastic bags, putting my mind back on Settlers mode.

To make an unnecessisarily long story slightly shorter, the parcel contained 6 purple 'knights' (for Settlers), 8 plastic bags for Settlers pieces, string, a St. Hubert chicken moist towelette, and a hand-written note dated November 1. The Settlers pieces are to go with the previous purple pieces that my Mom brought me (through my Dad) in October. I believe the plan is that I will eventually own a full set of purple pieces for the full collection of Settlers expansions. According to the letter, the plastic bags were picked up on the cheap, and that string and moist towelettes always come in handy. The letter was of course included to explain why the string and moist toweletter were included. In Cameron's defense, St. Hubert was my favorite chicken joint when the had a location on Kenmount Road in St. John's.

You can thank Cameron for this post too. He told me to post more. Seriously though, I've been pretty busy, but I'm sure all of the readers out there have been too, and I'm glad you take the time to read this (or maybe you only know Cameron and skip my stuff, that's okay).

Maybe I should just post a couple times back-2-back and then have another lull.

Outters.


P.S. I'm sure there are some of you who don't know what Settlers of Catan is. I'm going to work on that and come up with a way for you to learn about Settlers of Catan and what it means to me. I promise results within 2 years.

A Few Quick Notes 15

-The construction project continued again today. As I was walking past the building today it looked as though it is being gutted, something that does not indicate that the project will end shortly. Something about the whole thing that I found rather odd was that they have covered the front lawn with gravel.

-It seemed that the world was conspiring against my attempts to nap today. After two attempts, and several interruptions I decided to give it up.

-In the past few days our discussion regarding the IMDB top 250 seems to have garnered a bit of action and attention. It has been fun to have a some comments going back and forth.

-In relation to my previous point, at least two individuals commented on their use of the IMDB top 250 list in determining which movies they watch. I suspect that they are not the only two individuals that use the ranking services provided by IMDB to help set their movie agenda. As a matter of fact, I, from time to time, have even done so.

Wide spread use of the top 250 list as well as the rating system, at least to me, would suggest that there would be a motivation for distribution companies to attempt to manipulate the ratings. Why would be believe that this would occur? A huge amount of money is riding on the success of these movies, and this rating system may be able to increase viewership. I should note that this applies to both large and small budget films.

When I have witnessed examples of high ranking officials encouraging individuals to support certain Canadian Idol officials when no cash is involved I am disinclined to believe that the movie business does not in some way attempt to make it look like their product is more popular than it may be. I might also note that VOCM NiteLine and other political call-in shows across North America have disguised partisans call and act as though they are just John Q. Public.

On the other hand, maybe the movie business is much less manipulative that I believe. Maybe they don't take advantage of free advertising opportunities, such as the IMDB top 250. So even if they don't, be sure that it would be pretty easy for them to do so.

A few thousand people voting the same way, as directed by a higher power, would certainly have the ability to sway the rating of a new movie by a fair margin.

-I still have not had a chance to read today's newspaper, nor any of the three student newspapers that I picked up.

-The free book box made its come back today. On its first day pack I was able to pick up about 5 books. I am hoping that this will continue throughout the year.

A Few Quick Notes 14

-I think that I might need to start thinking about getting a new toothbrush, maybe I actually need to start thinking about more than just thinking about it because I have been doing that for several weeks now. Maybe Wednesday I will head over to St. Laurent and try to pick one up.

-I had forgotten that MLA style involves in text citations, something that I hate. Not only do these break up the flow of the reading, they also mean that one has to go to the back of the book to find the full citation details. I also find that this style encourages a rather clunky, name dropping style of writing.

-The forecast for this week does not sound good. They are calling for more rain. When will they learn and just stop calling for rain, no one likes him at this time of year.

-For the past few days a major construction project has been going on below my window. It seems that part of the building next to me is being taken down.

The part of this whole thing that I am not so fond of is that they start quite early in the morning. Today it was at about 7:00 AM, which is about an hour before I was planning on getting up. On Saturday they woke me at 7:37, several hours before I was planning on getting up. I am wondering if there is a by-law that would disallow such early starts?

A Few Quick Notes 13

-I had been thinking about heading to the theatres to check out the Borat movie, but now I guess I might wait to see it on DVD. This is likely what I would have done anyway because with my current schedule and financial situation movies in theatres just don’t make sense.

-One should be very leery of the IMDB top 250. Hasn’t it struck some of you as strange that there are so many films from the last 5 years on the list. A movie gets a bit of a buzz and it shoots right up to no. 2 or 3. As the years go by it seems that this list has become less representative of good movies and more of big hits. A little bit of credibility is maintained by a few classics being spread throughout the list. I guess I should keep in mind that it is pretty open about the fact that it is based entirely on user votes and not dictated by movie gurus.

-About two hours ago I woke up from a short power nap and found myself completely disoriented and unable to think. It was a very strange and unpleasant experience. Hopefully this is not the beginning of a trend, because if it is I might have to give up the almighty name or just learn to deal with a few minutes of disorientation.

-My union meeting this afternoon was very informative. While I might not be the strongest union man my current feeling is that if I am going to give up 2% of my wages to be a member I should at least have a say in how they represent me and try to get them to fight for good things in our to be negotiated collective agreement.

-Earlier this afternoon, while visiting Val, I helped her out with her grocery shopping. While in the store I decided that I needed a few new herbal teas to replenish my diminishing stocks. Fortunately, the grocery store we were visiting had a better selection that the one that I typically frequent. After a few minutes of contemplation I selected a pretty standard peach herbal tea and a rooibos/lemongrass mixture. This last choice is a bit of a gamble. The last time that I had a rooibos tea I was quite unimpressed. But as I sit hear and smell it as it steeps I believe that I may have made a good choice. I will let you know.

Crap, it turns out that nice smell was not coming from my tea but another source. The tea actually smells a bit funky, just like the last time I had it. I guess I really shouldn’t expect that much from something made from boiled twig bark.

Yup, still tastes like boiled twigs. It is unfortunate that I keep buying less that tasty herbal teas, at this rate I will have quite a collection by Christmas.

-I haven’t heard from Greg or Rick since they each moved to their respective ends of the earth. If they want to contact me to let me know how they are doing it would be appreciated.

Borat

I can't believe I wasted an otherwise perfectly good coupon to see this movie. I've just returned from the theatre after having seen Borat with Rebecca. A lot of people might disagree with me on this, but this is the worst movie I can remember seeing in the past 5 years.

The theatre was almost sold out, with Rebecca and I just about perfectly in the middle of the crowd; if we had been closer to an aisle we would have left. This movie was crude, offensive and unintelligent.

The highlight of the movie was when Borat arrived in New York and the music playing was the same as when Joe Buck arrived in NYC in Midnight Cowboy, which I did really like, but still (editor's note: Rebecca actually pointed this out to me as it was happening).

I feel like the internet has betrayed me by giving me the impression this movie was worth my time to watch. I'm also pretty disappointed with IMDb's top 250 which has Borat at #149.

A Few Quick Notes 12

-Today has been a cold and rainy day. I became quite wet when I walked over to school earlier this afternoon.

-With this cold my room is finally a suitably cold temperature. For some reason I find a nice cold room to be a good place to accomplish work. When the fingers become cold to the touch you know it is just about right.

-Some herbal tea that I had been hoping to purchase was unavailable at the store where I had hoped to buy it. This is too bad as it was tasty and reasonably priced. Maybe it will become available in the next few days.

-While I have not finished any of my projects today I have been able to make considerable progress, or at least progress, on three. One in particular has seen some major advances. Tomorrow I will have to quickly work on an assignment that is due on Monday morning. It will also be necessary for me to work on a few other projects to some degree.

-The disease name “tumoral calcinosis” is frequently mis-used. It should only refer to a hereditary disease, which typically starts to affect individuals before the age of 20. Unfortunately, this term is frequently used to refer to any calcinosis, particularly calcinosis stemming from renal failure. If you are wondering what calcinosis is, it appears to be the accumulation of calcium in the body, sometime in tumor like forms. These forms can occasionally be visible (when the are large enough) and might be removed by surgery. When the disease is tumoral calcinosis these clumps tend to form around joints. The real disease is fortunately quite rare.

-The previous point demonstrates that valuable information can in fact be gleaned from abstracts.

-Ah, nice and cold.

-My schoolwork has not allowed me to read all of the Globe today, something that I quite like to do. Maybe I will some time tomorrow to polish of the last section or two that I would like to read.

-Unfortunately all of this schoolwork that I am having to deal with has pushed Montifax: the Board Game to the back burner. Hopefully in the next few days I will find some time to devote to the development of a side deck and a rulebook.

Newfoundland Reunion

Last night seemed to be Newfoundland night at Thomson House. Within just a few hours I had identified four people that were either from Newfoundland or had attended Memorial.

As I am not one that normally seeks out residents of my home province I was somewhat surprised by the evenings findings.

The most impressive element was that a former classmate from High School was there with someone that I had met while at Harlow in 2002. They had also meet at Harlow and met again for the first time last night.

While the Newfoundland love-in was going on I started to ask a few questions about our union. What I learned quickly is that we are not one happy union family. Several staff members are very pro-union, for particular reasons. Other members of staff don’t really care and don’t exactly understand why we are unionized.

Some of these issues are likely to be brought up at the union meeting tomorrow. One of the most important issues may be whether or not we will remain unionized, as we haven’t even been able to sign a collective agreement so far.

A Few Quick Notes 11

-I was mentally prepared for rain today but it did not come. Instead I woke up to a very sunny day, oddly I was a little disappointed. I am over that now as the sun seemed to have the effect of waking me up more than I was before I entered its direct presence.

-Apparently the speaker that I mentioned yesterday has been replaced, by his boss. In an odd way this is a bit of a disappointment. I know that I wanted to see the head of Library and Archives Canada, not some ADM that has probably floated around Ottawa, going from department to department, for years.

-Aside from our guest speaker, it seems that some big hot shot will be coming to campus today. There was a very strong security presence and parking was restricted in certain places, even to McGill vehicles

-Yesterday I should have mentioned that Belinda and Bill were in town together for an anti-poverty event. As many of you may know, for several years now rumors have been floating around about the nature of the Belinda/Bill relationship.

My Own Version of “One Red Paperclip,” or How to make a Million

A few weeks ago I was thinking about the paperclip guy. Pretty neat alright. Start with a paperclip and turn it into fame and a house.

It seems that much of this was blog based, a game I am now playing. This guy’s success caused me to wonder if there might be a way that I could do something similar, though that would require less work on my part. I think I have figured it out.

It seems that with Blogspot blogs one can have a Google AdSense account. This means the more hits the more money that the site creators get, or at least this is my understanding of the situation. As you can see we don’t yet have one of these accounts so I have not had a chance to deal with all of the ins and outs of such an account.

Anyway, my plan or idea is that we can use one of these accounts to reach a goal of our one. We should become blogionaires (make a million dollars or more from blogging). All this would entail would be the mass distribution our URL and people that coming to visit out site. If it became a “project” people might be more into the whole idea.

The way I see this working is in a web like fashion. You, our loyal readers, send out our URL to everyone you know and explain the deal (we could actually come up with a short write to be included) and ask them to visit our blog. In this same message they would be asked to forward the address to their friends. To entice people we could commit to giving 90% of all money over a cool million a piece to charity, people would feel all warm and cuddly. If the idea starts to work we could also agree to help others with similar projects, soon enough we will all be blogionaires thanks to Google.

To show people that the plan is actually working we could post our payments. This would show people that with just a click of a mouse they can help two guys become blogionaires. The nice thing about this from our side is that we wouldn’t really have to do anything, or at least not much more than we are doing now. We could just sit back and watch the money roll in.