A Few Quick Notes 144

-Today, as well as the past few days, have seen additional centimeters of snow fall over the greater St. John's area. It seems that the region is being hit by snowstorm after snowstorm. The up side of all of this is that my father has been able to maximize the use of his new snow blower.

-For some reason I decided to bake bread today. I ended up with a somewhat sweet molasses multi-grain bread, though I didn't use a recipe. This is actually the first time that I have just eye-balled all ingredients, and fortunately it seemed to have worked out.

-As tonight is New Year's eve it seems that I will have a social engagement or two. This is really not what I was hoping for. I really wanted to be able to somehow miss the entire evening, or at least just have a particularly quiet night without the interference of New Year's parties.

-Several days ago I received a small tripod that can be fastened to various object through the use of an attached Velcro strap. Last night I discovered that that the tripod can be attached to my sister's remote controlled truck. I also think that I should be able to attach the tripod to my bike's handle bars, for all the fun that will be.

A Few Quick Notes 143

-Today has been a pretty traditional St. John's Christmas eve, cool, but not cold, and wet. As of late, the rain has been on the heavy side, something that doesn't mix particularly well with 18 inches of snow. If the rain keeps up there won't be enough snow for Santa to land on every one's roofs.

-Due to an unforeseen medical emergency the Christmas cooking and baking schedule has been a little modified for this year. Most notably, my cooking related duties have risen dramatically.

I rose to the occasion and prepared our traditional Christmas bread, with only a few minor hitches. Fortunately, in the end, everything seemed to work out in the end, and the nine loaves should be largely edible.

Tonight, I lead the way on the preparation of our Christmas Eve fondue meal. As this meal is cooked at the table the prep time wasn't too bad. The only hitch with this meal was that we forgot to buy bread yesterday meaning that I had to make a quick batch before dinner.

Tomorrow night, instead of the more traditional turkey, it seems that we will be having roast beef. Hopefully this won't be too complicated. I also presume that it will be a team effort.

On the 28th we will finally have our more traditional Christmas dinner with turkey and the rest of associated dishes. This is likely to also be the day on which we conduct our gift exchange, a slight detour from our typical practice.

-Neil and I attended a Christmas party last night. Not only was it great to see a few people that I haven't seen in years, there was some pretty awesome dancing. In particular, the break dancing (including the freezer door move) was pretty good.

-Though we are not doing our gift exchange until the 28th my father, uncle, and I did manage to head out this afternoon to hit the end of the Christmas rush. In all we must have visited about four or five stores between about 3:30 and 5:00. Surprisingly, the trip wasn't all that bad as it seems that most people had already finished their shopping or accepted defeat.

-Somehow I will have to managed to acquire a gift for my father between now and the 28th, though what I had hoped to purchase for him should have been ordered days ago. I am sure that things will work out in the end.

A Few Quick Notes 142

-Though the temperature in St. John’s has been on the rise, it still seems bitterly cold (which is what wind and water do when combined with sub-zero temperatures). Though I keep expecting it, we haven’t had much snow in the past few days.

-As hinted at in the previous post, last night my father, uncle, brother, sister, and I went to the Rooms for some free beer and an artist’s talk. The free beer, provided by Storm Brewery, was in association with the piece ‘Candahar.’ The artist’s talk was by Annette Manning.

-The fridge and freezer here are on the full side. It is my plan to get people to eat some of the contents so that we will be able to have room to store post-Christmas leftovers. As I haven’t articulated this plan to all that many residents of this house we will have to see how things go.

-My life has been relatively quiet and unsocial since my return. Maybe in the next few days I might actually get around to seeing a few people.

-This jump into the realm of socializing seems somewhat inevitable as I will be attending my grade 7 reunion on Saturday night. It should be just like library school as the gender balance was just about the same, or even a little more skewed.

-Neil is still a slacker and doesn’t seem to be able to find the time to post even though he does find the time to use his computer for several hours a day.

Free Beer at the Rooms

So it turns out that you will be able to get free beer at the Rooms on every Thursday (except December 27th) until some time in March.

The beer, provided by Storm Brewery, is being given away in association with a piece at the Rooms called ‘Candahar’ by Theo Sims. The piece is the recreation of a traditional Irish pub, hence the beer. It is possible that as the Thursdays progress the piece will develop and adapt to those that visit. In particular, it is hoped that in the coming weeks a musical element will be added. The goal being the creation of the relatively free jam space (with free beer).

It should be noted that while the beer is free, one does have to pay for admission (which grants access to the rest of the Rooms as well).

A Few Quick Notes 141

-Today brought with it a somewhat sizable snow storm. As of yet, the high winds and blowing snow have not been as bad as I expected, but as weather seems to be a bit tamer here than in St. John's, maybe this is all we were supposed to get. More interesting was that at about 1:00 PM we had lightning, followed by thunder. This is the first time that I have every experienced either of these phenomena in the snow.

-As of last night I and finished with my busing responsibilities. Unfortunately, a shift I had hoped would provide me with a little extra cash failed to do so. It seems that one sure way to have bad, or almost non-existent tips is to work a externally catered family friendly event. For eight hours of work we each made just a little more than we made in an hour the previous day. Of course, this didn't mean that we had to do any less work.

-My packing is going relatively smoothly. For the most part I am just packing clothing and items that I don't or won't need in Montreal in the coming months. Not surprisingly, my two extra pair of hiking boots, and the extra pair of winter boots that I have should be able to be sent back without too many problems.

The best part about this is that the packing has been very quick. As soon as some socks that I plan on packing air-dry I will be just about done.

-On Friday, after punching out at about 2:00 AM, I went over to a co-worker's apartment for a party. After a few hours I then had the pleasure of walking home at 6:00 AM. The only down side was that the sidewalks were particularly icy, which at one point caused me to slip and wipe-out just north of the Hotel Dieu hospital.

-As I will be flying out tomorrow I thought it might be good to get a sense of how much the storm is messing up today's flights. It seems that a huge number of other people are also interested in seeing how messed up today's flights are, so many that the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport web page is inaccessible because the "server is too busy." Hopefully I will eventually be able to get a sense of the delay situation. Though I don't expect this to be the case, I do hope that my flight isn't too screwed up.

-Neil did make it back safely to St. John's, though he clearly has not found the five minutes or so needed to make a post indicating such.

Old Time Pork Cake for Christmas

About a year ago, I mentioned to Cheryl that I had a recipe for an “Old Time Pork Cake for Christmas.” After some examination of the recipe we decided that we should try to make a batch of the cake. Unfortunately, neither of us knew where to obtain either ground salt pork or candied citrus peel in Montreal.

After several weeks or months Cheryl located a butcher’s shop on St. Laurent that sold salt pork, though in a pre-ground state. Apparently the butcher’s shop was unwilling to grind the meat, as it would likely damage the grinder. So as we solved one problem we encountered another. It was only some number of months later that my mother offered to loan me her meat grinder (which I will now have to transport back to St. John’s on Monday).

The citrus peel also proved to be a problem. The problem of the citrus peel was compounded as I misinterpreted what the needed ingredient actually was. Instead of dry candied citrus peel, we were actually just looking for the more readily available wet stuff.
While I knew where to find such things in St. John’s, I didn’t have quite as much luck in Montreal. It seems that many baking or related products that one can almost take for granted in St. John’s just don’t exist in the same way in Montreal, citrus peel and salt meat being two examples. Finally this fall I was able to locate a store that sold citrus peel, both the lemon and orange varieties.

Once the ingredients, and the means of preparing them properly, were scouted, the remaining problem seemed to be time. As this isn’t any old cake, but a pork cake, the recipe recommends a three-hour baking time rather than the more standard one-hour.

As term was winding down, I was to soon return the meat grinder it seemed a little more urgent to find an agreeable time. Eventually we arranged to do it after our exam yesterday.

We started the process by visiting the stores on St. Laurent that we had previously scouted for the rare products and acquiring the desired ingredients.

In the butcher shop I asked the woman behind the counter for a cup of salt pork. She didn’t quite seem to know what I want and kept repeating ‘bacon,’ which really wasn’t what I was looking for. Eventually an older butcher came over, clearly having overheard the confusion, and with a wink, said that he would take care of us shortly.

Upon finishing with a customer he slipped into the cold room at the end of the store and vanished for a few minutes. Eventually he re-emerged holding a spike, with which he had skewered a long piece of salt pork. He asked us if this is what we were looking for and I indicated that it was. He draped the meat across a cutting area and placed his knife a few inches in and asked us if that was how much we were looking for. I suggested that we wanted a little more, maybe about another quarter inch.

He cut the meat, slipped it into a plastic bag and handed us back to the woman that had originally tried to serve us. She weighed the meat and gave us the price, $1.89. After paying I took my purchase and felt the meat, which was much softer than I had imagined.

We then went north and found the vegetarian bulk store that I had previously visited in my search for citrus peel. We quickly located the peel and scooped up as much as we thought we likely needed and went to the cash register and paid.

Unfortunately, upon arriving at Cheryl’s apartment we checked the recipe, which neither of us had examined in months, and learned that we had only purchased half as much peel as needed, and didn’t have the raisins or currants that we needed. We were also missing allspice.

A second trip was then made to the vegetarian store. We quickly re-found the peel and scooped the desired quantity. The allspice was also quickly located and an appropriate amount scooped into a bag. Unfortunately, it took us a while to find the currants, mainly because of a lack of familiarity with French vocabulary relating to dried fruit products. In the end we were able to acquire the desired products.

As we were checking out for the second time in less than an hour the cashier, who had also served us the first time, asked, in a friendly way, what it was that we were making. After a moment of collective hesitation, I stated that we were making a pork cake. At first the woman didn’t quite seem to understand what it was that we were making. Eventually we were able to express that it was basically a cake with pork, and raisins, currants, and citrus peel.

Shortly after returning I set to grinding the meat. The grinder was attached to the slat of a bench and a bowl placed beneath the outlet. Quickly at first, and them more slowly, the ground pork started to be extruded from the nozzle. Gradually more of the pork was added to the hopper until it was full and the turning of the crank seemed to be doing nothing. Somehow a break through was reached and the pork once again began to move quickly through the grinder.

Once ground, the pork was mixed with a cup of hot coffee and set outside to cool. It was about at this point that it was realized that even after two shopping trips we still did not have all of the required ingredients. We were missing two-thirds of a cup of molasses. Hugh kindly volunteered to pick some up at the local grocery store.

After the pork and coffee mixture had cooled the traditional cake ingredients, such as the spices, leavening agent, sugar, eggs, molasses, and flour were added. Simultaneously, the fruit, the raisins, currants, and peel, were coated in flour. Eventually the two mixtures were combined, both of which were of similar volumes.

The resulting dough was then added poured into a pan on top of three layers of parchment paper and placed in the oven. After a period of cleaning we basically just had to wait until the cake had finished baking, which we expected to be in about three hours.
Fortunately, the cake was fully baked after only about a two hours. The delicacy was then lifted from the pan and allowed to cool on the parchment paper.

Soon after the baking process was complete we decided to test our product and see if it had been worth the effort, or if it was even edible. Much to my surprise, the cake was very tasty and quite passable, particularly considering that it is a basically a fruit cake.

As it was a rather large cake, and of a somewhat strange composition, Cheryl insisted that I take some with me. So now, Nithum and I, just like most households in North America have a hunk of uneaten seasonal cake sitting somewhere, waiting to be served in case company drops in unexpectedly.

Fortunately, this situation will only last for a few days as it is my intention to the transport the hunk of cake to Newfoundland with me when I head out on Monday. Hopefully it will taste as good in a few days as it did yesterday.

A Few Quick Notes 141

-Today has been another cool and clear Winters day. It seems that some snow has been forecast for this evening, though I don’t think that this was really supposed to amount to much, maybe just a light dusting.

-Moments ago I was recalling the days when I used to cringe at the thought of being required to complete a 500 word or a 1000 word essay. Though I am still not the world’s most prolific or natural writer, I am able to look back on those days and laugh. Not only would it have not been possible to say all that much in 500 or 1000 words, it couldn’t possibly have taken that long if I had put my mind to it (something I still have a problem doing).

-The Globe and Mail is reporting that Joe Clark was punched in the face while walking down the street in Montreal yesterday. Fortunately this has not yet happened to me in Montreal.

-Twice in the past few days I have made wiener schnitzel. In both instances I was pretty pleased with the result.

-In about a week I will be back in St. John’s. Though I don’t have any major plans I am looking forward to the trip. As usual, I hope to be able to spend a fair bit of time reading.

-It seems that our apartment building didn’t get its usual Sunday supply of grocery store fliers yesterday. How am I to know what to buy if they can’t get the fliers out to me?

A Few Quick Notes 140

-Today has been another cool, clear day. As there hasn’t been all that much wind the cool temperatures have not been all that problematic.

-At about 1:00 AM last night about 10 police cars, with their lights flashing, congregated on the corner of Milton and Parc. Neither Nithum nor I could figure out what was going on.

It seems that the cars raced to the location with their sirens blaring and lights flashing, only to stop at the aforementioned location. Once there, cars were able to pass without interruption on Parc, and weave through from Milton to Parc.

For about 15 minutes the police cars just seemed to sit near the corner, lights flashing. Then the police cars, without a reason being obvious, left as quickly as they arrived.

-Yesterday morning I baked two loaves of bread for breakfast. Though I have now done this on a multiple of occasions, I hope that I soon learn that bread really takes to long to prepare to be considered a appropriate thing to make for breakfast.

-Today, for no apparent reason, I baked some raspberry almond bars. Maybe later this evening I will try to sample this batch.

-Several days ago I moved my bike from street level to our balcony. A few days after that I moved my bike from our balcony to our living room. For the past number of days it has been sitting below our living room window, not particularly doing much of anything.

As the bike has been doing much these days, except taking up space, and as we don’t have a Christmas tree, nor as we likely to obtain one, I requested Nithum’s permission to decorate the bike in a seasonal fashion. Nithum OKed the idea and I have since started to adorn the bike with paper snowflakes, Christmas lights, and our lone commercially produced ornament.

-Today I read that there are 82 000 000 people in Germany and 79 000 000 cell phones. I also learned that Austria, Belgium, and China are Germany’s three largest trading partners.

-It seems that in the past few years I have started to combine foods in a frying based almost solely on availability. For instance, tonight for dinner I took out the frying pan threw in red onions, garlic, mashed potatoes, couscous, celery, and wiener schnitzel. Though I was satisfied with the result I can’t imagine that I will ever encounter it again (except the portion that was leftover and that I will eat either tonight or tomorrow).

A Few Quick Notes 139

-Today was another nice winter-ish day. We have snow on the ground and temperatures were below freezing, but not particularly cold.

-In a break with tradition, I will actually be doing something social tonight. I will be attending the library school Christmas party at Thomson House. As it officially started a few minutes ago I should probably be on my way.

-Tonight I finally got around to looking for some articles on DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers). From my basic understanding of these things it seems somewhat shocking that they haven’t been mentioned yet in library school. I guess we do have 4 months left.

-As I am out of bread and all other baked goods it seems that it is once again time for me to do some baking. Maybe I will get around to doing this on the weekend, and then study while the goods are in the oven.

-I had my last class for the semester last night. From here on out I have to complete one take home exam, one assignment, and a regular exam. Hopefully all will go well.

A Few Quick Notes 138

-Today start much like yesterday, with snow and a little bit of wind. As the day turned into night it seems that both the snow and the wind found more habitable locales as they don’t seem to have stuck around to wait for the clean up. It was also much warmer today than the day before the storm, I can’t really comment about yesterday’s temperatures as I didn’t venture outdoors.

-Today, just like the past few days, was full of schoolwork. Just moments ago I killed off another assignment, which means only about three more things on which to be graded for the rest of the semester. Unfortunately, as I have been working on other pieces of work these final three items have received less attention, though I guess I have a few more during which I can focus attention on them.

-Now that I have discovered that the space between my two window-panes can be used to cool beer I am using it more frequently for such activities. This means that I no longer have to either drink warm beer (which I don’t mind all that much) or go to the fridge when I would like a cold beer.

-My stash of leftovers is still holding up nicely. I think that I should get by for another few days without having to cook anything other than starch products and vegetables.

-Today I saw a job posting for a cataloging position in Fargo, North Dakota. I looked at the map only to find that Fargo seems to be about 150 miles from anywhere, which is nice if you like that kind of thing. I am a little more used to being about 1000 miles and a body of water from anywhere.

-At least one of you thinks that I am being hard on Montreal, which may be true. Though it is also true that Montreal has particularly dirty dust. Unfortunately, I tend to focus on the negative rather than the positive (as everyone can see the positive, and I only I can immediately spot the negative elements in any given situation). In the future, if I come across anything that is particularly striking (in a good way) about Montreal I will try to mention it, at least if I remember.

A Few Quick Notes 137

-It seems that the snowstorm that we were promised for yesterday arrived some time in the early hours of the morning, The wind that was promised to come along with the storm didn’t arrive until a few hours later, and then it seemed to have been tired out by the trip as it wasn’t particularly strong.

-Twice in the past few days I have made Raspberry Almond Bars. Not only are these pretty easy, they taste good and (if one doesn’t count the butter and sugar) approximate granola with fruit.

-Today has been another fun filled day of schoolwork. So far I have put in time on at least three projects, and plan on putting in a few more hours on one of them.

Even after this small rush is over on Wednesday I will have not time to rest as I will then have to be right back at it for the following Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Though after the final three day run I am done for the year and can focus on such activities as packing, busing tables, and Christmas shopping.

-It seems that even in the winter Montreal is a city with particularly dirty dust.

A Few Quick Notes 136

-As of yet we still have not received the snow storm that we have been promised for today. It seems that the promised temperatures did come through, meaning that it has been on the cool side all day.

-In an unnecessary attempt to beat the snowstorm, I made a mid-morning trip to a local shopping center to make a few purchases. In particular I hoped to buy batteries, an alarm clock, and a rubber pad for winter footwear. Fortunately I was able to find all of these items in one store and return home only about an hour after I departed.

With the 12 pack of AA batteries I received a small voice recorder that can double as a Christmas ornament. If Nithum and I chose to use the item in this way it will be our first, and likely only, Christmas ornament of the season.

The rubber pad that I purchased was originally intended for use in a car or van. The reason I purchased it was that it was the same price and about twice the size of other products that I saw that would accomplish the same end. Hopefully that I did not purchase a pad specifically designed for footwear won’t upset Nithum.

The alarm clock was the most time consuming of my purchases. I almost got suckered into buying a $40 clock that had projection and wire thermometer capabilities. Fortunately common sense prevailed and I made a more reasonably priced purchase. Unfortunately, I had a bit of trouble trying to figure out how to set the clock once I returned home. It seemed to be displaying a time but was not allowing me to change the time, only the day, month, and year. Anyway, after about 15 minutes I finally read the box and learned that I had purchased a self-setting clock (even though they include a heading in the instructions about how to set the time without actually telling you how). So far it seems to work, though I am worried about using it in Newfoundland as I don’t think that it has an appropriate time zone option.

-For dinner tonight I prepared a pot roast. As I am only one person I thought that 7 potatoes and 4 carrots would do. As it turned out, I only managed to eat three of the potatoes and will be able to have the rest of leftovers at some point this week. Combined with my previously existing leftovers, it looks as though I may not have to do all that much cooking for the next couple of days.

A Few Quick Notes 135

-In the past few days the temperatures have really dropped. It seems that we are now at about -15, and are scheduled to stay in this range for at least another couple of hours. More importantly, we are scheduled to get our first substantial snowfall as of tomorrow afternoon. As I plan on working on school work at the dining room table I should have a pretty good view of the proceedings.

-There are a few fire trucks that have been in front of the building next to mine for some time now. As there doesn’t seem to be too much action and no new trucks have come in the past twenty minutes I feel that I can safely rule out fire as a possibility. Hopefully nothing too serious has transpired.

-On Thursday night Steven and I went to a talk by Oliver Sacks. In many ways it was exactly what I expected, neurological problems as they relate to perception and interaction with music. Unfortunately, I can’t really tell you too much about the talk as I seem to have fallen asleep for the middle section.

While question and answer sessions after talks are usually quite unpleasant this one was particularly bad. The first individual to ask a question attempted to show the breadth of his reading and depth of his intellect only to fall flat on his face. Unfortunately a few other also asked rather broad and pointless questions about the nature of music and creativity, something that clearly isn’t in Sacks’ area of expertise (and he deserves credit for willingness not to provide a phony answer). The other type of question, which I presume occur wherever Sacks’ talks, is the desire for an on-the-spot diagnosis for a friend or family member’s condition. Fortunately there was only one of this latter type of question as was totally inappropriate and impossible to answer given the circumstances.

-After the talk I went up to Thomson House for the Mustache and Cleavage Party. I was amazed to find that I was by no means the only one with a mustache. Also, several people showed up with cleavage in tow.

-Hopefully within the next few days I will be able to buy a low cost thermometer and be able to provide temperature readings from our apartment. At the moment I am sure that my room is a shockingly low temperature (so cold that I am using my windowsill as fridge substitute. I may have to try to warm things up once Nithum returns as I know that he likes things a little warmer than I do.

-Several days ago my alarm clock crapped out. It seems that the radio function and the projection function still work, but that the clock and alarm components are completely non-functional. This has meant that I have been reliant on my iPod and speakers to function as an alarm clock. The problem with the set-up is that I seem to sleep through the single beep about 1 out of 2 time. For instance, my nap this evening went from about half an hour to an hour and a half without my even knowing what was going on. Things like this can’t happen too many more time. Maybe I will have to get some motivation and try to buy a new clock tomorrow.

Scott Carrier MP3s on HearingVoices.com

Last night, while looking for something to listen to I remembered that Hearing Voices occasionally has some good Scott Carrier material. When I arrived at the site my recollection was confirmed and I learned that they also provide MP3s of some of his stuff. Unfortunately, some of the longer pieces originally broadcast on This American Life are only available on as part of that show and not individually. Anyway, at least I now have a little more Scott Carrier than before, though I still don’t have the classic “Running After Antelope.”

A Few Quick Notes 134

-The snow has continued to fall in Montreal, so much so that we now have a layer of a few centimeters, or just enough slush to get your feet nice and wet. As far as I know this is supposed to continue tomorrow. I have no idea what type of weather we are to receive on the weekend.

-A few days ago, while looking at the This American Life website, I came across the podcast The Sound of Young America. Ira suggested that it was one of his favourite podcasts and as I like Ira’s show I thought that I would give it a chance. So far I have not been all that impressed with the several episodes that I have downloaded. I guess the straight interview format is not really working for me, though it is possible that I need to give another chance. Though it isn’t really all that surprising that prepared content is of a higher quality that that is recorded off the cuff.

-Thomson House will be having its first Mustache and Cleavage Party next Thursday. Though I will be attending an Oliver Sacks reading at about 7:30 I do hope to stop by afterwards. While it is unlikely that I will be bearing cleavage there is a very good chance that I will be mustachioed, at least for that night.

-Several moments ago I returned from a walk. The walk was pretty short, just up St. Laurent a few blocks. While out, I was able to stop at La Veille Europe and pick up a few new boxes of herbal tea and one box of Russian tea. The three herbal teas that I purchased were rosehip, hibiscus and rosehip, and mountain berry (whatever that is – seemingly rosehip and hibiscus with some other stuff).

On the way back I stopped at a kitchen store and purchased a knife sharpener, hopefully ending my hunt for a quality knife sharpener that I can use to sharpen our knives.

-For the past number of weeks I have been eating a fair number of saltines, though I have tried to stick to the classy multi-grain variety. This type was chosen mainly because it has a little more flavour and texture. A few days ago, while motivated by cost, I purchased an eight-sleeve pack of the traditional type of saltine. Aside from lacking a variety of grains, the most noticeable difference is the amount of salt. The new guys are coated in the stuff whereas the other variety had just a light dusting. It seems that I may have to revert to the multi-grain type, even if they are a little more expensive.

-I have been doing a very good job and ensuring that I always prepare leftovers these past few weeks. My new trick is to buy bone-in chicken breasts and cut off the easy part of the breast and use it as I would a boneless piece of chicken meat. The remaining section, with the bone-in, is then boiled and seasoned to form a broth from which chicken soup can be made. Or more accurately, rice is made with the broth, vegetables, and meat.

A Few Quick Notes 133

-I woke up this morning to find that an inch or two of snow had fallen while I was sleeping. Though I probably shouldn’t have been, I was quite surprised to see this turn of events. I was beginning to think that we might miss winter. Unfortunately, the temperature wasn’t in keeping with the snowfall so the snow has basically disappeared, I guess Montreal will have to try again when it comes to snowfall.

-As of last night I finally have phone access in my room. My mother was clearly becoming quite frustrated at her inability to call me. Fortunately, 24 hours in, I still have not heard the sound of the phone ringing.

-Today I cut up two pineapples that I bought a few days ago.

-Yesterday night I went out and cut a twig from a tree and then gave it a full AACR2 certified bibliographic description. It turns out that this is pretty easy as things such as edition statement and publisher can basically be ignored.

While waiting for class this morning I measured a chair. This was then described in full when I returned home for the afternoon.

-I have far too much work to be spending my time emailing and blogging, but of course that is what is happening.

A Few Quick Notes 132

-Today is another crisp fall day. The temperature seems to be cool enough to allow snow, collected by car in other regions, to remain in frozen form. The sun is out, making it a nice day for a fall walk.

-We were hit by something big, I still don't know what, at work last night. From the time I started at 6:00 PM, until about midnight we worked non-stop. In particular, the period of 6:00 to 9:15 was particularly intense. Throughout the night I had the pleasure of bringing in about 7 kegs, three of the same beer (if that is any indicator of sales). We also had a non-stop stream of dishes. Possibly the most surprising element of the night was that we seemed to be short of just about every type of standard glass ( i.e. pint glasses, half pints, and singles glasses), the notable exception being collins glasses, of which we had a glut.

Another indicator of the business that we all experienced was that the kitchen sold out of pizza some period of time before the kitchen was to close.

-After a several week delay, I finally received my Halloween costume prize money. Though I had hoped for a few hundred dollars I ended up with $60.

-Last night a few of Nithum's friends crashed at our place. They were all in town to take standardized tests, mainly to aid entry to grad school or other post-graduate programs. While I hoped to meet them at some point today they were up and out of the apartment before I woke. I was particularly disappointed not to have met the world champion fencer that was one of the group, maybe next time.

-Though I am not an NHLer, I have decided to go with my own version of the 'playoff beard.' Since about Halloween, until now, and continuing until the 29th of November (prime assignment season) I have not been and will not be shaving.

-As much as I don't want to spend any time doing, it will need to prepare some food today. After several days of eating leftovers I am down to just about nothing in the fridge. Maybe I will be inspired on my walk home from school.

A Few Quick Notes 131

-If I recall correctly, today was a pretty nice day, at times warm and sunny. Unfortunately, it seems that I spent must of the sunlight hours either asleep or in a building facing away from windows.

-Speaking of windows, today I tried to clean the windows in our living room. Surprisingly, I went to the extent of taking them out and placing them on the floor so that I could properly clean both sides. The only problem with all of this was that our $1 window cleaner just isn’t that good. Instead of nice, clean windows, we have clean-ish windows with a white-ish film.

At least there was some improvement, as I don’t think that I could have handled looking through incredibly dirty windows all winter long.

-Today in my business information class the director of Concordia’s libraries addressed us. I guess this was on schedule, but I seem to have overlooked it, as I was somewhat surprised by his presence. Actually, I am pretty sure it was on the schedule; I just didn’t quite pay attention to his title.

-After class I made a batch of humus. Maybe in a few minutes I will get around to sampling it before I go to bed.

A Few Quick Notes 130

-Today seemed a little warmer than yesterday, though on the crisp side of things. Other than that it was pretty unexciting in terms of weather.

-For breakfast this morning I made myself some scones. It has been a while since I have done this, something that I was reminded of during a conversation on the topic a few days ago. Unfortunately, the scones didn’t have quite the right texture, though they were still quite edible.

-For the past few hours I have been preparing a batch of beef stew for dinner. In a short while I will try to peel the potatoes and add them, finishing the last major step before the product is to be served.

-Since we put the curtain up last night Nithum has been taking advantage of his added privacy, something that I don’t find surprising at all. As far as I know, the curtains haven’t actually been fully opened since they were installed.

-I have been reading a fair bit about Access to Information laws over the past few days. Not only do I have to assist in the preparation of a presentation on the topic, but I also have to write an archives related paper on the subject.

-All week Nithum and I had been looking forward to the Saturday and Sunday only 50% off bacon sale at the local grocery store. Unfortunately, by the time that I made it to the store late this morning they had sold out. In the end I just purchased some crackers, garlic, and discount flour.

A New Era of Privacy

Shortly after Nithum returned home this evening it was decided that tonight would be the night that we installed a privacy curtain in his room.

For the past two months we have had both the curtains and the curtain wire needed to complete the job. The only thing missing was the motivation, something that we both seemed to never quite find.

Not surprisingly, the job only took us about 20 minutes or so. Nithum has since been basking in his newfound privacy. Though I don’t think that I will be gaining privacy, I am looking forward to feeling more comfortable about using the bathroom in the middle of the night without walking through the heart of Nithum’s room.

A Few Quick Notes 129

-The temperature has definitely dropped. It seems that we are now at about -4, and scheduled to go as low as -6 (what a change). More surprising was that while out this afternoon I saw several iced over puddles. Why this is surprising is that according to Environment Canada we were above freezing for most of today’s sunlight hours.

-On Friday I was named replacement judge for a mustache contest held at the library school. As I did not have time to prepare my judging criteria, I decided to go with only two categories, size and style (shortly after announcing the criteria and starting the judging I realized that these were horrible criteria). Hopefully the contestants and spectators were pleased with the affair, though in retrospect I realize that I could have talked it up a bit more, made more of a show out of the whole thing. I guess in this case I will blame my lack of preparation.

-The director of libraries was not able to make her scheduled appearance at the library school on Friday. Unfortunately, there was a death in her family that required her to leave the country for some number of days. Under the circumstances her staff filled in as best as possible, though it made the question and answer session a little less heated then I expected.

-After work last night I was able to have a few drinks with some library school (and archives) types. Upon leaving Thomson House we went to Bifteck (sp?) on St. Laurent. While at the bar on St. Laurent I witnessed some of the most aggressive tip demanding that I have ever seen, though to a more limited affect than had the people at my table been completely sober. Thinking that people who had been drinking for 8.5 hours could reasonably do math in a loud bar was expecting a bit much on the waitress’s part.

-After a hiatus of a few weeks, I once again did some baking today. Though I originally planned on baking some cookies, I ended up baking two loaves of bread. Maybe while taking a break from school work tomorrow I will try to bake some cookies or some other form of dessert (though I think that chocolate chip cookies are really the most likely dish).

A Few Quick Notes 128

-Both yesterday and today Montreal has experienced flurries, though in neither case did these have any real staying power. As one might expect, for this to have happened the temperature is relatively low, though my no means unpleasant. Actually, I have not started to wear a hat or scarf yet, something that might be necessary if they temperature continues to drop.

-Tomorrow is a big day at the library school. Not only will the director of libraries be giving a talk about the future directions of McGill libraries, but this will be followed by a school wide mustache competition.

If you are wondering, there will be at least two divisions in the mustache competition, all-natural and artificial. As of yet I am not quite sure if I will enter or not, and if so in which division.

-Today, while at school, I had the opportunity to watch the documentary “The Hollywood Librarian.” Unfortunately, I wasn’t all that impressed. The film seemed to want to cover all things library and proceeded to do so in a somewhat haphazard fashion. The one element that seemed to receive little attention was how libraries and librarians are portrayed by Hollywood. I was glad that admission was free, though as one of my professors commented, it did cost an hour and a half of my time (which may have been a bit too steep a price for admission in this case).

-I had to go on a herbal tea run tonight. As it is project season I am up to about 5 or six cups a night.

-Tonight I made a batch of humus with a grinder that I borrowed from my mother. In the past I had to use a food mill and found the process to be very slow and inefficient. With the new (actually it is quite old) I was able to grind the chick peas in just two or three minutes.

Apartment Update

Nithum and I have not been in our apartment for just more than two months. Slowly, we seem to be settling in and making the place feel (a little) more like home. Though, since we moved in we have had to deal with a few unexpected issues, some of which have been resolved, some of which haven’t.

-We have not noticed any mice for a number of weeks. It seems that the traditional traps were effective at killing mice, and also at scaring them away.

-The main door has been fixed, allowing us to exit and enter the apartment with ease. In its broken state, the door frequently prevented proper use of the door. In one case, Nithum and I were actually unable to leave the apartment for some number of minutes. The best part of the arrangement is that Nithum and I now know what the problem is so that if it occurs again (which is likely) we will know how to safely exit the apartment.

-While we have been planning to install a curtain in Nithum’s room to create a hallway like area that would connect to his door to my door we have still made no serious moves in this direction. The curtains have been in the living room for almost two months and the curtain wire set has been in the closet for longer. Maybe we will get around to doing this before we move out, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we don’t (as we are not all that motivated when it comes to such things).

-After a few weeks I finally got around to buying some plants. Though they aren’t quite as fancy as they could be, my thyme and basil plants are fitting the bill quite nicely. Actually, they are looking a little ragged, but that’s ok.

A few days ago they were actually supplemented with some birdseed, the idea being that we might get some wheat and sunflowers to grow alongside the basil and thyme. So far this plan seems to be working, but none of the new plants are well enough defined for me to know what we actually have growing with the herbs. My hope is that we get a few stalks of wheat and maybe a sunflower or two.

-Our living room really shaped up quite nicely. We now have a futon, a stuffed chair, an office chair, a coffee table, and a shelving unit. All of these items are used on a regular basis. Generally, having a living room has greatly added to our quality of life. It seems that both of us use this room on a daily basis.

-Unfortunately, our kitchen faucet seems to drip a fair bit. From time to times it seems that this problem can be solved by applying a great deal of pressure to the handles, while at other times it seems like something that we just have to live with. It seems unfortunate to waste so much water every day.

-Something that we have noticed more recently, particularly with the central heating system now fully functional, is that we are experiencing a relatively loud banging/jack hammering sound coming from the radiator pipes. While this banging does not go on all day, when it is present it is quite noticeable it both of our bedrooms. What is more problematic is that both of us sleep with our heads near the radiators, and source of the sound.

-Aside form the banging sound, the heating season has also brought about unreasonably high temperatures in our apartment. For much of this fall we have had to have several windows, and occasionally the balcony door, open.

-Shortly after we moved in we found that we have only one functional phone jack. The jack is located in Nithum’s room, almost as far away as possible from my room. Several weeks ago the plan was to purchase a splitter and extension cable so that I could have phone access in my room. Though as time has passed and no progress has been made in this direction, I have come to realize that I am not all that dissatisfied with the current situation. My current phone use is at an all-time low. I would guess that I am now down to less than a phone call a week (which is great). I can only imagine that my use of the telephone would increase with direct phone access. Additionally, by not having a phone in my room my sleep is less likely to be disturbed by incoming phone calls.

-It seems that our oven does not heat all that evenly. On several occasions I have managed to find that the bottom of whatever I am cooking is burning yet the center is still raw. Unfortunately, I have ideas as to how this problem might be rectified, aside from being given an all-new appliance (something that I don’t think is going to happen).

A Few Quick Notes 127

-Today was another relatively nice fall day. It seemed warmer than yesterday, though I have not evidence to support this statement. In some was this was a little disappointing, mainly because I had hoped to wear a particular jacket but found that it was too warm for an insulated jacket.

-For the first time this academic year I went on the hunt for printer paper. Since my arrival I have not found a particular convenient location for buying this product. Actually, that is not completely true, if I wanted to be ripped off, I could go to the McGill bookstore.

As it stands I tend to make the trek to the Gare Centrale and the Staples housed within. Though this is further away than I would like, it does give me the pleasurable experience of walking underground for several blocks. Additionally, my sense is that it is actually faster to walk inside than above ground because one no longer has to cross streets and wait for traffic.

As with my last purchase, I bought to bundles of 500 sheets apiece. I was pleased to find exactly what I was looking for at the front of the store and on sale.

-Several days ago signs appeared indicating that the McGill director of libraries is to be making an appearance at the library school this Friday. This, as some of you may know, was a somewhat surprising announcement as the relations between the library and the library school appear to be less than friendly. Students are now keenly awaiting the post-talk question and answer period, hoping that they will be able to learn why certain decisions have been made over the past number of years.

-Last night, for the first time as an employee of Thomson House I had the opportunity to work at a formal function. Though I did not know it when the shift was assigned, I was to be working a 20 year high school reunion.

After we finished the set-up I was assigned the door position. For the first 3 and a half hours of the event I just sat by the front door and directed people to the reunion and told them were they would find the coatroom. On a number of occasions I also directed individuals towards the bathrooms. Generally it was a pretty easy position, and one that cut me off from the reunion proper.

At about 10:00 I finally had an opportunity to learn about what had been happening for the previous 4 hours. Apparently, on top of not having enough of the main course, beef on sticks, the cash register broke. It seems that not all of the organizers were able to deal with these problems in stride and some of them became quite upset.

My sense was that after the food situation was sorted out things started to calm down. At least I didn’t have any problems. Though in all fairness to my co-workers, I think that I missed basically all of the problems.

-Today I started to work on my paper for my archives class. It seems that I will be doing something on the relationship of access to information laws and archives, presumably governmental archives (most probably just provincial, municipal, and national), though in some cases particular collections in other collections may deserve attention.

A Few Quick Notes 126

-Today is slightly overcast, but generally pleasant. The temperature is that of a nice fall day, which is rather appropriate as we are in the heart of fall.

-It seems that Thomson House did not attach my prize from the Halloween party staff costume contest to my most recent paycheque. I had really been hoping that I would find a nice additional component with this cheque.

-Work went relatively smoothly last night, though we weren’t as timely in our departure because of a banquet that was taking place in the ballroom. Amazingly, though many kegs were on the low side none blew all night.

-Tonight I will be working my first formal function, a high school reunion dinner and dance for 100 people. As of right now I am not really sure what to expect, aside from a huge number of dishes. I had been hoping that it wouldn’t be a late night, but it being a high school reunion may mean that this is not the case.

-In preparation for today’s formal shift I had to purchase a black shirt, which we are required to wear for such events. As I have not had to purchase all that much clothing in Montreal I really had no idea where to go for such a thing. A co-worker suggested a thrift store on St. Laurent, near Mont Royal.

As I rode north on St. Laurent I was shocked to see a store with a line up of about 45 people outside it doors. After a brief inspection of the area I determined that this was in fact the store that I had been hoping to visit. Though not particularly keen on the idea of waiting in line to enter a thrift store, I eventually joined the line. As I entered the line I noticed that there was a cameraman filming the line for CBC (or the French equivalent). After a few minutes and only a slight amount of progress I decided that I could not spend 45 minutes in line without a guarantee that I would find what I needed.

My next step was to ride from my current location to Place Alexis Nihon and try to find a black shirt in one of the many stores there. It seemed that either Zellers or Winners could be stores that would have such an item, and if they didn’t there would surely be something.

As it turned out, not only did Zellers have black shirts but also they were on sale for 40% off. This means that I was able to purchase a new shirt for less than $9. Unfortunately, I then decided to check out a display in the back of the store and ended up making a $24 impulse buy (though I think it can be defended as an amazing deal).

A Few Quick Notes 125

-Over the past few days temperatures have really started to drop in Montreal. Actually, just last night, for the time of the season, I was able to see my breath. Fortunately, the rain of a few days ago has let up and we are having a stretch of pleasant fall weather.

-The Thomson House Halloween party seemed to go relatively well, though the general consensus was that it wasn’t as busy as last year (even though we sold more tickets). This was backed up by tip rates, which were certainly lower than last year.

For the evening I was assigned door duties along with Nick. Each of us was supplied with a counter and he counted each time a person came in will I counted each time a person left. At peak times we had a difference of about 400 hundred in our counts, indicating that we had about 400 partygoers.

Along with counting, Nick and I were also responsible for admitting only those with tickets. Unfortunately, it seems that some people did not know that a pre-purchased ticket was mandatory. This meant that several well-costumed individuals were turned away at the door.

It also seems that I won the competition for best staff costume. Apparently there is some prize money, but I haven’t received anything yet.

-Our apartment door was getting quite bad this morning. It was so bad that it took me about ten minutes to open it, and I was only able to open it with the assistance of a knife. After my departure Nithum was able to contact the building manager and they sent someone to fix the problem.

-Today I started working on a project for which I was hired about two weeks ago. My primary task for the time being is to locate and copy a series of reports, with the eventual goal being an analysis of their contents. For much of the three hours I spend working today I was just familiarizing myself with the previously completed work and making changes to the tables outlining which documents in the series we actually have (as it seems that there are a number that we have that were not noted).

-I have been a bit lax on the blogging front the past few days because of school work. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will do a better job at managing my time so that I don’t have such a glut of work (though to some extent this is not avoidable because I only receive assignments a limited amount of time before they are due).

Hasta Luego Halifax

My time in Halifax is now drawing near a close. Within a few hours I should be on a bus heading out to the airport for a late night flight back to Montreal and a busy weekend of busing.

Fortunately, I am trying to take advantage of these last hours in Halifax as they could be the last hours here for some time. This morning I was able to go for a stroll along Spring Garden Road and locate the general area in which I need to catch my bus to the airport. Afterwards I was able to take a nice was to and then through Point Pleasant Park. As the name suggests, the area is quite pleasant and a nice place for a leisurely stroll.

Unfortunately after the trip to the park my degree of creativity hit a low point and I returned to Neil's apartment where I continued to read a book about Richard Feynman (which also happens to be by Richard Feynman). Luckily my Halifax creativity struck again, this time as interpreted though the hinternet. Basically, I started surfing around Dalhousie and Dalhousie-related web pages and the library catalogue. The only downside was that I was not able to access the full range of library resources, even though I am using a university supplied hinternet connection. This relatively brief process helped me find some very useful information that I hope to act on in the coming days, weeks, and months.

As I have not completed my packing this is likely where my energy should be focused. Though, as usual, the siren call of the hinternet seems to be pulling towards the glories of blogging and away from filling my suitcase with dirty clothes and White Swan toilet paper.

Actually I am going to be strong and step away now.

Next stop, Montreal.

Rainy Atlanta

As a four-year-old might say, I 'raced' Cameron to Georgia. I'm now settled in at the Holiday Inn Express in Carrollton, GA. If you happen to read this, and you'll be seeing me within the next few days lookout for really bad "but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night" jokes.

I'm here to go to INTEGERS 2007, a math conference being hosted by the University of West Georgia. Tomorrow afternoon I will give a talk roughly covering half of what I did for my Masters thesis. I hope it goes well. At worst, it'll only be bad for 20 minutes.

My computer is telling me that it's 2:48 ADT, so I should probably be tired enough to get to bed.

Halifax Update

So I have been in Halifax since Saturday evening. So far things have been going relatively well. The main reason for the trip was to see Neil's convocation ceremony, an event which took place on Sunday afternoon.

Since this event things have generally been pretty relaxed. One of the more explicitly exciting events to occur was that Neil and I ended up attending a reading by Brian Mulroney at the Lord Nelson Hotel last night. This ended up happening only because we happened to walk by the book store hosting the event and see that they still had a few tickets left. The general assessment of the event was that it was much more enjoyable than either of us expected.

While I have been here I have also been able to walk around Dalhousie a little. One of the places I wanted to see was the library school, now called the School of Information Management. Once Rebecca and I found the place we were surprised to see how small it was. Also, it wasn't a very welcoming location as one had to walk through the office to access the classrooms. Not surprisingly we did not take this next step and just admired the facilities from the atrium.

Afterwards I decided to check out the library, or at least the main library. All in all I was pretty pleased, though there were a few places in the microfilm section that were on the tight side. Actually, they were so tight that a person in a wheelchair certainly couldn't access them, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few larger individuals also couldn't access them. Another element that I found a bit strange was that the Z section of the reference section seemed a bit small. Maybe they placed many of the library related materials in the stacks instead of in the reference section.

Generally Dal seems to have fewer hipsters, something that is quite nice. It seems that McGill is infested, something that I occasionally find it hard to deal with. Dal also has a nicer campus feel, even though McGill does have a pretty clearly defined campus. It also seems that the buildings are also nicer on the inside, a problem that I have frequently noticed at McGill.

Anyway, I guess I should get back to my trip.

A Few Quick Notes 124

-The temperature has been somewhat higher for the past few days. It was so hot this morning that I was sitting on the balcony reading my paper in a tee-shirt and shorts. Actually, I heard that the expected high is to be 25. Unfortunately, these high temperatures are to be accompanied by severe thunderstorms starting this afternoon.

-In cataloging class on Wednesday 10 Library of Congress schedules were presented by members of the class. I was responsible for presenting on D-DJ, general history and European history.

Prior to the presentations it had been made clear to us that we would be timed and have an absolute maximum of ten minutes. Within several minutes of the commencement of the first presentation it became very clear that we were being time, a beeping noise kept coming from a timer in front of the professor. It was clear that this beeping meant something, but exactly what was not immediately clear. My sense, and I believe that the rest of the class felt the same way, was that the beeps were bad and likely an indicator of the 10 minute mark.

While I was giving my presentation I thought that I was on pace for an 8 minute presentation, which is where I wanted to be. I heard my first beep, thinking that I had already reached 10 minutes, and sped up, covering the rest of the presentation in about a minute.

As we learned afterwards, the beeping indicated 5 minutes, meaning that I was basically on pace and could have comfortably finished all I needed to say without fear of going over time. Hopefully this new knowledge will lead to a smoother round of presentations in two weeks when we get the next batch of 10 (when I will presenting the J, or Political Science, schedule).

-Shortly after I moved to Montreal last August I bought a multi-pack of cheap knives. With a cutting board and sharpening rod the whole package came in at less than $10. Not surprisingly, these weren’t really the best knives in the world, actually they were barely passable as knives.

This year I decided that I would take a step forward and buy a good, or at least passable, knife. I ended up with a $20 Ikea knife, with which I have been generally quite pleased. When I first opened the knife I read the care instructions and learned that the knife should not be kept sharp with a stainless steel sharpener, but with a ceramic sharpener. The problem this presented is that my knife sharpener is entirely stainless steel, and therefore not suitable for the job.

While I could tell this would be a slight inconvenience, I didn’t think it would be all that bad. I would just head out and pick up a ceramic knife sharpener at the next opportunity.

As it turned out, that next opportunity was yesterday. While at a kitchen store I learned that while knife sharpeners are expensive, ceramic knife sharpeners are obscenely expensive. They wanted $54 for a ceramic knife sharpener, something that was a little outside of my spending range (though I might have been suckered in for $40).

Maybe I will see about getting something at Lee Valley while I am in Halifax. They seem to have such sharpeners for only about $23.

-The previous note would suggest that I am heading to Halifax. I will be heading out on Saturday and returning on Wednesday. The reason for the trip is to attend Neil’s convocation ceremony.

-A few days ago I was hired as a research assistant for a project at McGill. Aside from the work being more in my area of interest, I will also be able to drop my Thursday night busing shift. Though for all of my loyal fans, I will continue to bus on Friday nights.

-While heading to school yesterday I noticed a TV truck outside a local chain coffee shop. On my way back from school, I noticed more TV trucks and protestors. Though I did not know it until I approached them, they were protesting the lack of French on the chain’s signs. It is interesting to note that a brief story on the protest appeared in today’s Globe and Main.

-It appears that today McGill will be starting a very large fundraising drive. To commence the drive they have erected a massive series of tents on the playing fields in front of the McLennan library. My thought was that if a university can afford to set up a tent village for a week maybe they don’t need hundreds of millions of dollars. Or if they do need hundreds of millions of dollars maybe they shouldn’t set up a tent city (particularly when I am using library resources that are 20 years out of date).

A Few Quick Notes 123

-Today has been another overcast day, though with less rain than yesterday. The only good thing about the weather is that the temperatures have been appropriately autumnal.

-Last night I played a game of ultimate as a replacement player. Many on the team, including Nithum, were unable to make the game. Actually so few people were able to make it that we were forced to play with six rather than seven people

Strangely, for the first point, the only time the other team played seven, we were able to hold the opposing team off for several minutes more than we were able to on any of their other points.

-On Friday night a few of the library school types were at Thomson House for a while. Unfortunately it seems that general stamina has diminished since last year as almost everyone was gone by 10:00 when I punched out.

-After Thomson House I joined the few remaining individuals on their trip to a party. Though one of the ideas was to meet some of the new students, this didn’t really happen. For the most part I spent time with the people that I already knew.

-Last night was attended Ren’s birthday celebrations at the Cock’n’Bull bar/pub. It was an enjoyable evening. I was also pleased to find that the pitchers were reasonably priced.

A Few Quick Notes 122

-For the past few days we have been making up for the lack of rain we had in September. Skies have been generally overcast with intermittent rain.

-The heaters have been turned on in my building. This means that even with windows open I am uncomfortably hot. I wonder if we live in a building that heats at a uniform level all year, or if the level of heating is adjusted to outside temperatures.

-Moments ago I bought our apartment’s first plant, a basil plant. Hopefully in the coming weeks and months we can develop this trend, though I have no idea where this or any other plant might go. And as I like my plants to either bare fruit or be edible my options are more limited.

-As of a day or two ago McGill has changed there email service in such a way that no longer allows me to import my messages to my Gmail inbox. The reason is supposedly security. A more reasonable explanation might be that things were to easy before, students should need to work to access any ‘official’ communication.

-Tonight is another work night. Fortunately I should be able to punch out early and have a few drinks with the library school types, or at least those that are still there at 10:30 or so.

A Few Quick Notes 121

-Today has been another overcast and cool day. Though that does not mean it has been unpleasant. Hopefully the grey skies don’t mean that we are in for rain in the very near future.

-As many of you may know, today is the statutory Thanksgiving holiday. As some of you may also know, I generally have Mondays off. I guess what is surprising about today is that it really feels like a holiday weekend, even though it is basically the same as my typical weekend.

-While on a walk today I saw what might have been my first dog sled. The sled, without dogs, was strapped to a mini-van heading north on St. Laurent.

-If anyone has any ideas for a costume that I can wear to Thomson House for the Halloween party I would be appreciative. So far all of my ideas haven’t really been that great.

-This morning for breakfast I had something that was approaching what my uncle would call a ‘Big American Breakfast.’ Unfortunately, as I did not have a fried potato product I did not meet the qualifications. I did have scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon, making a pretty unhealthy meal.

-Much to my surprise, I was able to get down to work and finish a variety of assignment for my business and government information classes. Typically when I set such schedules for myself I fall flat on my face and accomplish next to nothing. Hopefully this means I am turning a new leaf and will be able to maintain or improve upon this standard in the future.

A Few Quick Notes 120

-The weather today has been less than perfect. Aside from being on the cold side we have also had several periods of rain.

-Prior to my departure for St. John’s this spring I had been having problems with my computer speakers. It seems that transporting them to England and back, and then to Montreal and back may not have done them any good. Anyways, I realized that I would need to buy a new set, but had been too lazy to actually do so until this Thursday.

Though I was originally shopping for CD-Rs, when I saw a set of speakers with a subwoofer for $25 I decided to add them to my purchases. As this was within my originally decided upon price range I was excited to acquire the small subwoofer, something that seemed like a bonus item.

So far I have been pretty pleased, though I think that the sound quality is definitely a step down from my last set of speakers. Also, the subwoofer is funnier than it is essential. The only frustrating aspect of the new equipment is that the various cables and wires are shorter than I am used to. This means that the speakers can’t be as far apart as I might like, nor can they be as far away from the data source as I would like.

-While this pre-Thanksgiving Friday was busier than last year, it was still pretty dead. I was able to leave shortly before 10:00 PM, which was quite nice as I was very tired.

-As I was able to leave work early I hoped to be able to get to sleep earlier than normal and then get up early so that I would be able to maximize the amount of time that I could spend at the library and working on a range of school-related tasks.

I was somewhat surprised to wake up and learn that it was after 11:00 AM. This occurrence was particularly surprising, as I had set the alarm to go off shortly after 9:00 AM. Upon inspection I learned that instead of setting the alarm 12 hours off, as is my usual problem, the radio volume had been turned off. Fortunately, as I was well rested I managed to get going more quickly than normal and accomplished a reasonable amount of work.

-Since arriving in Montreal I have tried to buy my coffee at La Vielle Europe both because I have enjoyed their product but also to support a local business. Unfortunately a few days ago my supply ran out and I knew that I didn’t have time to make the trip up St. Laurent.

While shopping at Lobos I noticed that they had a range of coffee for what seemed like reasonable prices. I chose what I thought would be the most mundane and least exotic of their coffees. What I ended up with claimed to be both Brazilian and “Made in Lebanon,” a contradiction that I didn’t make much of at the time.

Shortly after returning I began to prepare to brew my first batch of the new coffee. My first realization was that the coffee was very finely ground, a feature that was not made apparent on the packaging, and something that typically doesn’t work well with my percolator.

Once the coffee finished brewing I noticed that the smell wasn’t quite what I was used to, actually it didn’t really smell like coffee at all. The taste wasn’t much better. The only aspect of the new coffee that resembled coffee that I am used to was the colour, a dark, full-bodied brown.

Today I decided that I would move onto a more traditional coffee and purchased can of a name brand pre-ground coffee. Surprisingly, the name brand was cheaper than the store brand, and the deciding factor in my purchase. Fortunately, this second purchase was much closer to what I was looking for. Maybe in the next few days I will be able to make it back to La Vielle Europe to buy more of their product.

-Upon returning from the library this afternoon I started preparing food. I started with a pie, making the crust and obtaining the filling from a can. The extra crust was used to make cinnamon rolls.

Once the pie was in the oven I started to scramble some ground beef.

While the beef was cooking I started making a cranberry salad.

Once the beef finished cooking I removed what I would need for pinwheels and turned the rest into taco meat.

The pinwheels were the final dish of the evening, as well as what I consumed for dinner. As a late night snack I may have a piece or two of the pie.

A Few Quick Notes 119

-The weather continues to be incredible in Montreal. We are experiencing what must be unseasonably high temperatures with clear skies and little wind. For the most part, if I could request a particular type of weather it would be like this.

-Yesterday marked the beginning of another two-day stretch of work. Fortunately, because of an Oktoberfest themed night, I was able to wear shorts to work (though it also meant that I got to wear knee-high wool socks). Actually, for the following two Thursdays I will also be able to wear shorts to work.

-No serious mouse action in recent days, though all of the traps seem to have been sprung (presumably because of furniture re-arrangement). Hopefully we haven’t missed any of the vermin because of this weakening of defenses.

-Last weekend I attended an antiquarian book fair in Montreal. Amazingly, there wasn’t really anything that I was all that interested in buying. I guess I feel that my 2003 edition of Sherlock Holmes will satisfy my needs just as much or more than the $3500 first edition.

-In the past few days I have finally started to ride my bike again, and it has been great. I am not sure why I continually forget how much I enjoy riding my bike.

-Yesterday I sent a package to a friend in St. John’s. Unfortunately, the shipping cost was about twice as much as what I had originally paid for the item that was being shipped. Now that I know how much it costs to ship parcels I will have to be more careful about such things in the future.

First Anniversary

A year ago today Neil made the first post on Montifax, we are now approaching 300 posts. It seems that in some months, such as those first few, we were posting pretty heavily. In more recent months we seem to have slowed down a little.

I don’t have any big pronouncements about the future of Montifax or anything exciting like that; it was just that I noticed that it was a year old as of today.

Hope you have enjoyed it so far and continue to enjoy each new post.

Crap

On Tuesday night I was quite pleased with myself. I had submitted a business information lab and was pleased at how well my answers compared with those provided by the instructor. In particular, I was satisfied with the information that I had found for the final question, particularly as it came from a different source than the possible answer provided by the instructor.

Today, while going through some papers while looking for a government documents lab I came across some suspicious looking documents. It turns out that I somehow managed not to staple the final question to the document I eventually submitted.

Hopefully I will be able to submit the answer to the final question, though I guess I will have to wait and see. If I am not able to submit this answer it would be somewhat ironic, as it was the answer that took me the most time to compile.

A Few Quick Notes 118

-Today was a remarkably warm day.  At one point I heard that the temperature was being reported as 29, though I find that hard to believe.  Also remarkable was that the sun quickly gave way to showers which then gave way to gray skies.  I guess that having only one or two rainfalls in a month is not actually all that good. Presumably there will be more rain in the coming days
 
-With the addition of traditional spring loaded traps to the arsenal we have managed to catch our third mouse.  This mouse, caught after only one night with the new equipment, was a fair bit larger than the second mouse.  Though this may be the last mouse, we have replaced the used trap and will continue to keep monitoring the trap lines until we go some number of weeks without a confirmed sighting or other evidence of mouse related activity.
 
-After a several week absence I am back at work on a controlled vocabulary side-project that I have been working on for the past several months. The original goal was to create a vocabulary of 2000 terms, something that seemed easy at the time. It still seemed easy after an early flurry of activity. Unfortunately, after about 1300 terms it no longer seems as easy. To be fair, with a little bit of effort and organization it shouldn't be all that hard to flesh things out and add a few thousand more terms without really stretching myself too much. Adding fewer than 20 new terms a day is just laziness on my part (something which I have plenty of).

-On Wednesday I have to hand in a project, most of which was done some number of days ago. The part of the project that was holding me up was the one page write up. For hours I stared at a computer screen, edited and re-edited, and wrote and re-wrote. Finally I have something that covers most of what I want to say, but still manages to be less than perfect. I guess I am out of practice when it comes to writing papers.

-After almost a month I finally unpacked my final two boxes this evening. Sadly, the motivation was create a space for my hand-truck, which I was tired of seeing in the front entrance. At the moment, my new 10 kg bag of flour is resting on the 'bed' of truck, ready for a quick evacuation.c

A Few Quick Notes 117

-Today was another beautiful day in Montreal. It seems that we are having warm weather for a longer period of time than last year. Still, the leaves have started to turn and in some cases fall. There is one section of sidewalk not far from where I live that is covered in leaves.

-As of several days ago I started to put things on my walls. As has been the case for most of my life, I have typically chosen maps as wall coverings. The same trend has continued in this new apartment. As of right now I have two maps of Montreal, one a street map and one a public transit map, a map of Canada, a map of the US, a map of the world, and a map of the Island of Newfoundland.

-Collins was in town for a few days this past weekend. On Saturday night a few of us played Settlers and were amazed at how hot/due some numbers were. Unfortunately, my game didn’t come together and I was slaughtered in both games.

-While working a special function yesterday I was able to bartend of the first time. I was asked to hop on the bar once the line started to go outside. Because it was a drink ticket based event things were relatively straightforward and I didn’t have to make any fancy mixed drinks.

-It seems that my pocket dictionary has a list of two letter words in the back. Though they don’t come out and say it directly, I am pretty sure that they are meant for Scrabble players. The only problem, as noted by Nithum, is that not all of the two letter words they list are in the official Scrabble dictionary. On the other hand, if you can define a word and know its origin one might be less likely to challenge you (if you play that way).

-It has been a week and I am still somewhat under the weather. It seems that I am not as ill as I was about a week and a half ago, which is quite nice. Hopefully I will be back to normal health for the first time in months shortly.

-The Globe and Mail offers a drastically reduced subscription offer to current students. If you are interested in the paper this is definitely the way to subscribe (that is if you are a student). It seems that the discount is approaching 50% off of the advertised regular subscription rate.

A Few Quick Notes 116

-Aside from a brief period of showers today was a pretty nice day. One possible flaw might be that even though the sun has set the temperature has not really dropped all that much. This trend is somewhat problematic when it comes to sleeping, or attempting to sleep.

-For the past two nights I have worked until close. While neither of the nights was problematic it certainly was tiresome. These long shifts were not made any easier by the fact that I have been suffering from a cold for the past number of days. Hopefully my Sunday afternoon shift will involve fewer keg changes than the last two.

Actually, that is the other thing that has been impressive my last two shifts. I am not sure if I have ever changed as many kegs. At one point on Thursday four went almost simultaneously. On top of that two sets of lines were not working properly and required continued attention.

-The mouse problem seems to be expanding, or at the very least continuing. While in bed after work on Thursday movement caught my eye. It turned out that one of the mice was on my bedroom floor near my closet. Shortly after its movement caught my eye it ran back into the closet.

Though I didn’t really want to do much about the mouse at 3:30 AM it seemed a pretty opportune moment, mainly as I knew exactly where the mouse was. Within a few moments I had re-arranged the contents of the closet to form a barrier, inside of which I hoped to trap the mouse. Though once the barrier was constructed I could not find the mouse. I quickly realized that the only place it could be hiding was the poison box in the closet.

With a curtain rod I tapped the box to limited effect. Confident that the mouse had to be inside I tapped again, this time more vigorously. After the second round of tapping I managed to get the mouse to leave the box and enter the open space of the enclosure. The mouse went from the box to the bedroom door, which it then managed to scurry under, meaning that to continue my hunt I would have to rummage around Nithum’s bedroom with him asleep at 3:30 in the morning. At that point I decided that the hunt was up for the night, I had failed.

Since then all that has happened on the mouse front is that I have been unable to get the motivation to go to the store and buy some wire traps for the creation of my trap line. Maybe I will get around to this on Monday (as the store where I was planning on making my purchase is closed on Sundays).

-While at Lobos yesterday I bought a few hard peaches as well as a pair of hard plums. As far as I am aware, these, aside from lemons, are my first fruit purchases of the academic year.

Actually, that is not the case. I just realized that I have purchased (during a sale) several bags of frozen raspberries.

-While listening to Randy Bachman’s Vinyl Tap tonight I was again reminded of a question that has been bothering me for some time. The question is whether or not Canadian Content rules apply to Mr. Bachman, and if not why? It seems that other shows could not play almost exclusively foreign music, particularly American music, and get away with it. Does his playlist mean that the rest of CBC Radio One’s content has to balance his high level of foreign content?

-For the first time today I saw an entire football game in person. The infamous McGill Redmen played the Acadia Axemen. In the final minute of play McGill managed to score to take the lead and then allow Acadia to score a field goal for the win.

The final score of 45-44 is somewhat indicative of the quality of defense. It seemed that both teams were more interested in offense.

Something else that was striking was the size of the players. Some of them were tiny and none of them were huge. I feel that if I stood next to the McGill football team I wouldn’t look particularly less athletic than most of the members of the team (though this may be a slight exaggeration).

A Few Quick Notes 115

-Today is another beautiful day in Montreal. For a while I was going to say that it is too warm, but upon further thought I have realized that that is not the case.

-It seems that the Globe must be reading this blog. One of the comments I posted yesterday about not seeing an increase in purchasing power was the subject of their headline story. I guess now that I have their ear I should push the big issues that are close to my heart.

-For lunch today I met up with a few friends from St. John’s. They are currently on their way across the country and back. While in Halifax several days ago they met up with Neil and Rebecca. In total their trip will last about nine months.

-Shortly I will be starting another weekend of work. In addition to my regular Thursday and Friday shifts I am also to be working a function on Sunday.

-On Saturday I am hoping to see my first college football game. The imfamous McGill Redmen will be playing a team from Acadia. As exciting as this may or may not be, I am sure it will be nothing compared to the Big Ten games many members of my family have attended in the past. College football isn’t quite the same up here.

In a strange way this timing is somewhat relevant as just a few days ago I started reading Paper Lion by George Plimption. Though this is by no means a rule or strategy book, it is helping me to understand a little more about the game.

-For the past few days I have been a little under the weather. Hopefully things start to turn around in the very near future. The strange thing is that I don’t seem to be alone. I get the sense that all kinds of people in Montreal have been or are sick.

A Few Quick Notes 114

-Today appears to be another beautiful day in Montreal. The only downside seems to be that the expected high will be approaching 26, which is a little warmer than I am interested in experiencing at this time of year.

-It seems that the Canadian dollar is now within 1 cent of the U.S. dollar. What seems striking about this is that none of my increased purchasing power has become apparent. In particular, I still seem to be paying more for books. A book I purchased a few days ago is $5.00 more in Canada than in the U.S. One would think that these differences would be a thing of the past. I guess vendors are taking advantage of our historical willingness to pay more than people in the U.S.

-Our mouse saga seems to be ongoing. While we have caught two, I have seen at least one more. I also worry that I have heard a fourth.

-Today is another day of back-to-back three hour classes. From 1:30-4:30 I have cataloging and then from 5:30-8:30 I have archives. Hopefully I won’t forget to pack a meal to consume between classes.

A Few Quick Notes 113

-While today has been generally overcast it is still quite pleasant. There is a slight breeze and the temperature is warm enough that one does not need a shirt, but not hot enough that breaking into a sweat is not an immediate problem. As long as the grey skies don't turn into rain I will be satisfied.

-While leaving the library today a friend and I saw several stacks of chairs near the free book box. As I have associated this location with free goods my immediate thought was free chairs. As we approached the stacks a sign was located that suggested that the chairs were in fact free and that people were encouraged to take as many as they wanted. Because of weight restrictions I was only able to take three, one less than I would have liked.

The chairs are not the most stylish chairs but their wooden frames seem sturdy, if old, and the red vinyl covering undamaged.

-With one of the new chairs in the living room it seemed the right time to assemble a $10 shelving unit that I purchased last Friday at Canadian Tire. Hopefully we will be able to place such things as plants and games on this shelf in the living room. While we have a few games we will have to get cracking on the plants front.

-Shortly after we moved in to our new apartment I noticed a mouse. That same night of the first sighting there were two other sightings. While we were not able to determine whether it was one mouse in three places or three mice we did go to the building manager to inform them of the problem. After several days an exterminator visited and laid a few traps.

After several days with no activity I was beginning to believe that the mouse or mice may have moved on to greener pastures (namely, the other apartments on our floor). This, it turned out, was not the case. Several nights ago I was awoken by the what I presume was at least one of the mice.

The next day I decided to place near the sight of the disturbance one of the inhumane glue traps left behind by the exterminator. As I did not want to have my pillow fall into the trap I pulled my pad into the centre of the floor. After several hours there was no change in the situation and I presumed that it would be quite similar when I returned from work.

Amazingly, one of the first things that I noticed upon my return from work was that the trap was no longer where I left it. My first thought was that it had been dragged somewhere, maybe my bed, by the mouse. After a relatively thorough examination of the area I determined that this was not the case and that the trap had been removed.

Shortly after waking up this morning Nithum was able to confirm that the trap had been removed. Apparently at about 10:00 or 11:00 last night he heard some noises coming from my room. Upon closer inspection they found the mouse in the trap. He and a friend then released the mouse in a neighbouring parking lot (apparently cooking oil does the trick).

Unfortunately I think that this may not be the end of our problems. While looking at some of the other traps I noticed that some of the poison in the living room was disturbed. Hopefully over the next several days we will learn that that was the only mouse and that we are living in a vermin free environment.

-Last night was another busy night at Thomson House. Hopefully tonight will be the same way. The only problem that I have noticed with working both Thursday and Friday is that I am quite physically exhausted by Saturday. Hopefully within a few weeks I will have managed to build up a level of tolerance that I don't yet have.

A Few Quick Notes 112

-Today is another pretty nice day in Montreal. Fortunately, things have started to cool down and feel a little more autumnal. For a while I was worried that I would be suffering through several weeks of summer-like conditions. Hopefully the newly overcast sky won’t lead to rain or any other form of precipitation in the near future.

-Several days ago I received my special ballot for the upcoming Newfoundland and Labrador general election. This is striking because the writ has not yet been dropped and candidacies made official. If I had been on the ball it would have been possible for me to vote in late August, many weeks before the campaign officially started.

-The mouse or mice that Nithum and I discovered several days ago does not seem to have gone away as we had hoped. Nor do any of the traps set by the exterminator seem to have worked yet. I know this because at about 5:40 AM I was woken by the sound of something being chewed or nibbled on, seemingly about 12 inches from my head. Upon figuring out exactly what it was that woke me I moved my sleeping pad to the centre of the floor and tried to get back to sleep. Unfortunately, the discovery had startled me enough that returning to sleep was more problematic than I had hoped.

-Tonight will mark the beginning of my second week back at work. Though it is likely that tonight and tomorrow night will be a little quieter than the equivalent days last week, I do hope that things are still pretty busy.

-Though my first class was on Tuesday I am already done for the week. So far they seem pretty good. Most importantly, the assignments seem to be worthwhile, something that, unfortunately, has not always been my experience in library school.

Take a book, Leave a Book Box

Several years ago Nithum and I, while in St. John’s, came across a box in a house that encouraged people to either take or leave a book. Before moving into our apartment last year we thought about establishing a box of our own, though because of space restrictions this did not occur.

Now that we have moved to a significantly larger apartment we finally have the space to establish such a box. The box was seeded with a few discards from the collection that I acquired through frequent visits to the McGill book sale free book box. The problem with the seed books was that most of them weren’t very good, which explains why they were being given away for free in the first place.

Fortunately, today I was able to find a fair number of classics for free. The newly available books are:

-Scoop by Evelyn Waugh

-Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

-Dracula by Bram Stoker

-Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

-Lord of the Flies by William Golding

-The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Reconnected to the World

After close to ten days, Nithum and I finally have an internet connection in our apartment. As one may have guessed, this period of time without such a connection was not intentional. Rather, the process of transferring our account from our old apartment to our current place of residence did not go as smoothly as we expected.

We first noticed that there was a problem when our phone did not work when we plugged it into the socket. Without phone service we expected that our DSL connection would not function properly. Fortunately within a day or two phone service was restored, though we were still not able to access the internet.

After several days and many phone calls later Nithum learned that simultaneous to our move there had been an equipment change and that our old modem would no longer work and that a replacement had been sent. Once acquired, the new modem also failed to work as we had been lead to believe it would. We were then informed that our line had to be checked, something that was to be accomplished within 48 hours.

After about 72 hours we learned that our line had just been checked and that the appropriate repairs had been made. Nithum was then told that after sitting for 19 hours the line would be functional. Fortunately, after about only 6 hours of the line sitting unused we seemed to have internet service.

Time after time Nithum was given timelines and told things that, in retrospect, appear to be complete fabrications. By the end of the experience the things he was told just sounded as though they were being made up by call center employees so that they would not have to deal with providing any actual service.

On the Move

As of tomorrow morning I will be back in Montreal after more than four months in sunny St. John’s. I have mixed feelings about my return, though this is mainly because shortly after I return I will have to move from my current apartment to a new apartment, though how this move is to happen has not yet been sorted out. Hopefully something will fall into place (my original plan was to buy a hand truck and move things between the two places several boxes at a time).

My return to Montreal not only means a return to class and school work, but also a return to busing and other related activities. Actually just today I received the schedule for my first week back on the job. It is hard to believe that it has been more than four months since I have changed a keg or bused a table.

Aside from a few busing shifts I will actually not have all that much on my schedule for my first few days in Montreal. This should be nice, and will hopefully allow me to see more of Montreal than I would see otherwise, or these several days off may just allow me to catch up on a summer’s worth of missed naps.

Thesis

That is to say that I'm doneish with my Masters thesis. I handed in my thesis to my readers on Friday. I defend next Friday. Corrections are due the Friday after that.

I've been working very hard for the past three weeks in particular. The last week was light on sleep, but I made up for it by sleeping for about 13 hours Friday night. I haven't slept that well since my NSERC USRA days. I've relaxed yesterday and today, but I'm going to be back hard at work starting tomorrow, when I begin the preparations for my talk.

Presuming I pass, I will immediately start my PhD here at Dal, again under the supervision of Dr. R.J. Nowakowski, which I am very much looking forward to.

A Few Quick Notes 111

-Another rainy St. John’s day today. What is surprising is how much time it has actually been raining this month. Maybe we will break a record.

-In 1998 or 1999, while I was still in high school, my mother and I made a small batch of dogberry wine. If I recall correctly we ended up with about 4 bottles, one of which was given to a friend for Christmas, two of which were consumed at the time, and the remaining bottle of which was left to age. For some reason that I still can’t quite figure out it became imperative that the bottle be opened a few days ago, or we were going to toss it. As someone who develops attachments to such things I was opposed to opening the bottle and preferred that we keep it in the basement forever. Anyway, the bottle was opened and after an initial sniff test it was determined to be acceptable to serve. Amazingly it seems that aging the wine made a huge difference. What had been an almost undrinkable product 8 or 9 years ago was palatable, though not in the realm of ‘good.’ Most noticeable was the very distinct and crisp bitter dogberry taste. In a few days this batch will be but a memory and it will be time to start on the next batch.

-Earlier this week, while skimming through the Globe and Mail online edition, I came across an article about $15 cups of coffee. After several descriptions of the supposedly abundant flavour of this coffee those of a less experienced coffee drinker were also included. While this woman acknowledged that the coffee was flavourful, it seemed odd to her that for the same price she could have had something she valued more, which in her case was lip-gloss. Aside from being baffled at a $15 cup of coffee, I was amazed that someone could manage to pay $15 for lip-gloss and not feel extremely ripped off. In full-blown student mode, not only could I buy lip-gloss, but also I could likely feed myself for 2 or 3 days on that kind of money. I guess some people value on different things.

-Recently, while looking at an undated report on portable classrooms I came across discussions regarding these structures at schools that I had attended. I was particularly taken aback by the photos of sub-par portable classrooms at I.J. These photos were disturbing not only because of the poor quality, but also because I had no recollection of these facilities (I can't even imagine where they might have been). Based on the evidence in the photos it is likely a good thing that they were gone by the time that I arrived, they seemed to be falling apart.

-While we have been doing relatively well at Rose and Thistle trivia the past number of weeks we haven’t been able to convert any of our success into a coveted $50 bar tab. Three weeks ago we had the infamous transcription error, two weeks ago we were out by a point, and last week we managed to foul up the tie-breaker question.

At Bitters this week we weren’t even close. Not only did we manage to do spectacularly poorly on the Tour de France round, we also managed to mess up several additional categories. Though we finished second last, we were only about 8 points away from the leader.