Not a paperback writer

Like most days, this morning I read the daily installment of the Writer’s Almanac. Each day literary or historical events and authors (whose birthday it is) receive a brief write-up. In today’s edition, Alice McDermott’s life was the subject of one of the brief biographical sketches. At one point McDermott is quoted as having said that “In fiction you have to be fairly specific. And I know how Irish-Americans in the New York area talk, what kind of couches they buy, and what kind of plastic slipcovers they put on the couches. ... But I'm more interested in what's going on in their heads than what's going on their couches."

What struck me about this statement is that there is not an equivalent group about which I have a similar understanding (particularly when it comes to the ability to re-create speech patterns). It also struck me that in many cases this understanding of a particular culture or group would be particularly important in many forms of fiction. When I think about some of the more effective fiction I have read it is precisely for this reason that it is effective, the characters inhabit a place that is made real by the author understanding of their circumstances. Obviously, in some instances, such as with fantasy or science fiction, the understanding of the place comes from the inherent connection that the author has to the creation of the realm about which he or she is writing.

Moreover, I realized that I can’t differentiate between characters, or more accurately ensure that they have unique and identifiable voices. If I attempted to write a piece of fiction with several characters they would all speak with the same bland voice. An example of dialog might be:

“Hello” said John.
“Hi” responded Dave.
“How are you today?” asked John inquisitively.

And on and on it would go until I reached some arbitrary page or word count. Trudging through this would be a painful, pleasure-less process that might only be endured by family members and those that seek pain as a form of pleasure (and whether there are any individuals who accomplish this end through the reading of bad writing is questionable at best).

I guess this means that, along with ‘doctor’ and a few others, ‘fiction writer’ should be stricken from my list of available or potential careers.

A Few Quick Notes 105

-Today was another pretty nice day in St. John’s. While there were times today, such as now, when the sun was not shining as brightly as possible I still am willing to call it an acceptable summer day. One element that was particularly nice about today is that it wasn’t too hot, just around 20 degrees all day. This means that one doesn’t need a jacket but also won’t sweat buckets while walking. Hopefully we have a few more like this in the near future.

-Today, for the second time in about two months, I had a haircut. While not as much was chopped off this time as last, I still did managed to lose a few inches all over. The driving force behind this haircut is a dinner that I have to attend tomorrow evening. It seemed that having semi-orderly hair might be appropriate for a somewhat formal dinner.

-Since yesterday was a nice day I decided to risk exposure to the sun but instead to stay inside and play board games. At times up to eight of us were at my house playing Settlers. Eventually we branched out to Pictionary. And is usual at our house, we played Pictionary the way it was meant to be played – on easels. (Actually, on several occasions, typically before a wall needs to be painted, we have played on the walls).

-Since Friday was my birthday I played it low-key. I managed to get through most of the day with out much fuss and then make it back to have nice rare steaks for dinner. All of this was topped off by an early bedtime.

-I will be heading out for another night of Rose and Thistle trivia tonight. The regular host won’t be there (as he will be at sea) and the event will be hosted by the regular fill-in (whose name I can’t remember at the moment). For some strange reason we seem to do better when she hosts, even though Brian writes the questions for both of them.

Also, there has been some suggestion that we finally go in for the big name change. Since our night we have been “Team Steve,” but this hasn’t really been working all that well for us the past few weeks (meaning that we haven’t been winning as much). Maybe by switching up the name we will be able to get something going. It seems as though the most probable replacement name will be “Team Dynasty.”

-On Sunday I was able to return to Biscayan Cove, a location my friend Peter and I had visited earlier in the year (on an overcast day). It was pretty amazing to see the place on a sunny day. Even more amazing was that some number of people used to live there, in what must be a particularly harsh environment. It seems that the only buildings that are in use now are a few cabins in and surrounding the old town site.

-For the past few weeks the number of discussions I have had about numbers being ‘hot’ is incredible. It seems that a day can’t go by without someone suggesting that either the fives or elevens are hot, or damn hot. The only unfortunate part about this is that Neil isn’t hear to experience these comments, particularly as many are said in his honour, knowing that he would appreciate people noticing the hotness of certain numbers during supposedly random dice rolls. (Hint: Build on five, they’re hot)

A Sunday Afternoon Not Spent In The Park

This afternoon I had to head out on bike because I needed to buy a father’s day gift. While I had figured out what I wanted to buy some number of weeks ago the opportunity to actually make the purchase had never arisen. As today was father’s day it seemed like today was the day so I went for it.

Prior to my departure I was worried that the might not be open because today was a Sunday. Fortunately the store was in fact open and I was able to make the purchase that I desired which happened to be a CD of harp music. While in the store I noticed that they had a CD of accordion music that I had been thinking about buying. As both CDs were on sale for $2 less than the normal price I went for it and made the double purchase. As both CDs were made by local artists and sold by a locally owned store I was even more encouraged to make the purchase.

Upon completing the transaction I realized that I had taken care of my errands rather quickly and that I wasn’t ready to make the ride up the hill yet. I decided that I would head to a coffee shop and pick up a coffee before heading down to Harbourside Park where I would then drink the coffee.

Shortly after self-consciously ordering a soy latte I noticed that things were proceeding a little differently than normal. The first abnormal occurrence was that the worker poured something from a strange carton in to a mug and placed it in the microwave. After confirming my order she then proceeded to open a new carton of soymilk and begin the steaming process. Once partially steamed she but the soymilk in the microwave with the original liquid. Once the heating process was complete she poured the first liquid into a Styrofoam cup and quickly followed that up by pouring the microwaved soymilk on top. Though this seemed a bit strange I was accepting of her actions and chose not to question what had just transpired.

Upon leaving the store with my drink in hand I took my first sip. My initial reaction was that the beverage tasted nothing like I had expected it to taste. Noticeably absent was even a hint of coffee flavour. I also noticed that the beverage that I had been served was very sweet. Thinking that my first impression must have been wrong I decided to try again. Unfortunately, my second impression was even worse than the first. I was now certain that the beverage contained nothing even approximating coffee but it certainly did contain a pretty large amount of a very sweet substance.

While holding the beverage as I continued to walk in the general direction of the park I tried to figure out my next move. My first thought was to ditch that coffee and try again at another establishment. Upon checking the contents of my pockets I realized that I didn’t have enough money for that plan to work. I quickly decided that I would just ditch the coffee in the next available trash can and head west on Water Street. Once I finally came to a garbage can I was able to put the plan into action.

Once back on the bike riding along Water Street I noticed that there were a fair number of people out and about. What I found particularly strange was that I did not recognize any of them, something that is pretty uncommon in a town this small. Eventually I noticed that the upcoming block appeared to have been closed off and that there were flashing lights. As I didn’t really have much to do I thought that I would go and check it out and maybe take a picture. As I approached the scene I remembered that I had heard that morning that the downtown Big Bite had burned down. The street closure and flashing lights were obviously the remnants of this fire.

Once across the street from the building I could see that the building was quite damaged, particularly the pizza parlour. Several individuals, whom I suspect were investigators, were inside the wreckage poking around. I quickly noticed that I was not the only photographer. It seems that the photographer for the local daily newspaper had arrived on the scene just moments before I had. After we both took a picture or two from approximately the same location he walked forward to get a close look.

As the photographer was walking towards the investigators a woman approached the scene. It soon became clear that this woman lived in the apartments above Big Bite and had not yet heard about the fire. As far as this woman knew she had lost everything. It was a pretty strange feeling to be standing there gawking as she found out that her life had just hit a serious rough patch. Shortly after her appearance one of the police officers on the scene talked to her and was leading her towards the site.

I really wasn’t sure what to do after leaving the scene of the fire. The easy thing to do was to turn around and head back where I came from, so I did. Soon I was at the other end of the harbour. Heading to the Battery seemed like a viable option as I still wasn’t in the mood to head home. After a few minutes of guess work and backtracking I eventually made it to my final destination, the street just before the trail that head up Signal Hill. Upon reaching my destination I turned around and started on my return journey.

Instead of riding through downtown I decided to cut behind the telephone building. After briefly stopping in the Anglican Cemetery to take a few photographs I was back on my way and cruising along Empire Avenue. Soon enough I was back. After the bike was returned to the basement I immediately went to the kitchen and had a pint glass full of water.

My Life On Display

A few weeks ago my parents and sister went to Michigan to visit relatives. While there cousin decided to show my father and sister all of the jump rope tricks that he could do, though this demonstration was done without a rope. When my father returned he was kind enough to give me a demonstration of Owen’s routine. Since that time he has been willing to show people all of his jump rope tricks, of course always with the same rope that Owen used.



Today I made some more bread, actually another 10 loaves. This is a very short clip of me punching down and then kneading the dough.



[Embedded videos]

Google USPC 2007

In just less than 30 minutes I'm going to be writing the annual United States Puzzle Competition, sponsored by Google. The top finishers are invited to compete for the US at the World Puzzle Competition, this year to be held in Rio de Janiero. The competition also serves as the Canadian qualifier.

The competition consists of about 20 questions of varying point values, to be completed over the course of 2.5 hours. It is thought to be unlikely for anyone to complete all the puzzles in the alloted time. The puzzles vary in format from sudoku-esque puzzles to puzzles like you might find in a kiddie puzzle book, namely the puzzle asking you to find the 10 differences between the two pictures.

I first heard about this competition through slashdot just over 3 years ago. This is my third time writing. Last year I came 19th in Canada, which put me in about the 90th percentile of competition writers, although I wouldn't quote me on that. I'm hoping to do better this year, but I'm not expecting to. The results will come out on or about the 20th of June.

A Few Quick Notes 104

-Though we had a pretty warm and humid weekend, we seem to have slipped back into the weather that we had been having in early June. The temperatures are below 10 with pretty large amounts of fog. So much fog in fact that the Globe and Mail has been fogged out for the past two days. Word on the street is that things will turn around for the weekend, though I guess we will have to wait and see.

-After an early successful run at Rose and Thistle trivia we have now been winless for a number of weeks. Even worse than being winless, we haven't even been doing all that well. Part of the problem seems to be that we get screwed by the current pop culture questions, time after time the fact that none of watch TV comes back to haunt us. A secondary problem is that the academic questions are typically quite easy or result in a guess. There also seems to be a lack of history questions, or for that matter questions on topics that relate to any of our areas of study.

-Apparently the garbage covering by-law is now in full effect in St. John's. As I walk to work tomorrow I plan on surveying the garbage I come across to see which types of covering have been used. I am looking forward to the walk home to see if any of the garbage will be left on the street, and if so whether or not the infraction obvious. (Clearly I have a very exciting life).

Free Hospital

While reading a Industrial Inquiry Commission I came across the following few sentences:

"The [St. Lawrence] Hospital was built by the Government of the United States of America in appreciation for the humanitarian efforts of the people of St. Lawrence area during the marine disaster of February 18, 1942. At that time the U.S.S. Pollux and U.S.S. Truxton ran ashore on the Burin Peninsula during a storm."

If you are interested in learning more about this accident and there is a This American Life story on the subject (episode 201 - Them) that was produced by Newfoundland radio producer Chris Brookes.

Mainlanders

While at work a few days ago I had a discussion with a co-worker about what it meant to be a mainlander. It was my contention that the term ‘mainlander’ referred to just about anyone, though particularly North Americans, not from Newfoundland (the province not the island). This would mean that an Ontarian and Brit would both be mainlanders, while someone from Lab City would not be a mainlander. While we did not discuss the grey area of Labradorians, she did question whether or not an American, or anyone not from Canada, could properly be referred to as a mainlander. Actually, she believed that Americans should not be considered mainlanders and that the term referred only to Canadians.

The obvious first step seemed to be to check the dictionary of Newfoundland English (which is freely available online). Unfortunately, at least from my perspective, the dictionary did not explicitly define ‘mainlander’ only ‘mainland’ (mainlander only comes up in relation to ‘mainland’). They go one to define to ‘mainland’ as the provinces and territories that comprise the rest of Canada. Generally, it seems that this would be a relatively undisputed definition, but it also does not really help when it comes to defining what a ‘mainlander’ is.

It seemed that the next obvious step would be to consult people that might reasonably be expected to regularly use the word or at least have a fairly good grasp on the various contexts in which it could or should be used. To achieve this end I emailed about 20 individuals who had all been raised and educated in Newfoundland (and as far as I know they were all born here also, though there may be one or two exceptions).

The email that was sent was incredibly short and was intended to not include any material that might bias the answer of the respondents. The thrust of the email asked how the term would be defined and used. Within several minutes I started to receive replies.

While several people agreed with my co-worker and suggested that a mainlander is someone from anywhere in Canada other than Newfoundland, a few other individuals provided definitions closer to my own. In particular, the suggestion was that if you were not a Newfoundlander than you were a mainlander (a two category classification system into which almost everyone can be placed). The question then becomes how far this term can be stretched. In one case it was argued that certainly all North Americans could be considered mainlanders. A follow up question then is whether or not Europeans should also be considered as mainlanders (particularly in light of their past and they way in which Newfoundland was ruled from afar by some of these countries).

Two additional issues that were raised related to the status of Labradorians and those individuals from identifiable cultural groups. While no one suggested that Labradorians should be classed as mainlanders there was clearly apprehension about what they should be called (as it has already been stated – this is a two class system). A further point was whether or not Quebeckers, Acadians, Prince Edward Islanders, and Cape Bretoners should be considered mainlanders. At least two people suggested that they would have a harder time using the term mainlander to refer to an individual that could be a member of any of these groups.

All of this to say that there doesn’t appear to be consensus (at least among my friends) as to whom the term refers. The only element of the definition that did seem to be universally agreed upon is that Ontarians are definitely mainlanders.

Newfoundland Beer Consumption Statistics

According to an Industrial Inquiry Commission from 1987, the beer drinking population of Newfoundland consumed 12 million dozen beer in 1986. This works out to be 144 000 000 beer. If we divide this number by 500 000, the approximate population of the province (which includes, children, seniors and non-drinkers), we find that the average number of beer consumed per person in 1986 was 288 (or two dozen a month). Is it just me, or does this number seem a little high?

A Few Quick Notes 103

-Another sunny, yet cool, day in St. John’s. While we definitely had a little bit of wind it definitely wasn’t oppressive.

-While looking through judicial inquiries at work today I came across two suicides and a vehicle pedestrian accident that all occurred in the last week of October 1979. Deadly week b'ys.

-This evening, immediately after work I went to Signal Hill with my mother and sister. From this iconic location we were able to see three icebergs very clearly and some number of them in the distance. While my mother and sister were counting about eight in total I think that 4 or 5 would have been a more appropriate number.

-I wore my new Value Village wool sweater vest to work. It turned out that this was a very appropriate choice as the library was pretty cool today. Only late in the afternoon, with the help of the midday sun, did things start to warm up.

-Our first Ultimate game was tonight. While I was not able to play for medical reasons, I was able to stand on the sidelines and watch my team defeat our opponents in a nail-biter. The final score was 11-10. The game ended with the opposing team just outside our endzone.

-Last week’s episode of This American Life was one of their best in years (at least as far as I am concerned). While it is not quite up to the standard set by Running After Antelope, it was pretty good. Particularly from a library and information studies perspective it was of interest. The prologue seemed like a pretty good example of a (one of the few maybe?) knowledge management program. For those of you that are interested, This American Life now has a podcast which is updated every Monday.

A Few Quick Notes 102

-We were fortunate enough to have access to the sun today. Unfortunately, the heat that one might normally associate with sunshine did not also show up. I guess I will take the type of weather we had today of the rain and fog that we had earlier this week.

-On Friday evening I finally watched The Interpreter, the first feature film to receive permission to film inside the UNHQ. Aside from seeing many familiar locations, the film was a let down. My favourite part was at the end when the US deports one of its citizens. Maybe it was supposed to be a comedy rather than a thriller, it might have been close to working if that had been the case.

-For the first time in several years I saw an iceberg in the St. John’s vicinity. Apparently this piece of ice had been visible from St. John’s, though when I saw it had been blown around to Blackhead and appeared to have run aground.

-Tomorrow marks the beginning of another Ultimate season here in St. John’s. Hopefully my game will go well tomorrow evening.

-A few days ago my mother purchased a few pounds of cherries. While many connoisseurs would likely intimate that they are far from ripe, they are what I consider perfect. Growing up in Newfoundland and mainly being exposed to fruit picked weeks before it would be ripe has had a lasting effect. Now what I consider to be good fruit is what most people would consider to be substandard. If it won’t crunch when I bite into it I don’t want to even consider eating it.

A Few Quick Notes 101

-Today has been a very strange day in St. John’s. I awoke to a blue sky and what looked like a beautiful day. By about 10:00 I was certain that it was going to pour. By 12:00 it was dry and even more beautiful than earlier in the morning. A few minutes later it was raining, though still bright and sunny. Now it is relatively clear and dry. The only constant throughout the day was wind, which was unrelenting.

-I don’t have a bun in the oven, but I do have two loaves of bread there. Three have been completed and there are 5 more to go.

Not only have I made a significantly larger batch of bread than last week, I have also do this with less freezer space. I am sure that I will be able to figure something out.

-This afternoon my sister and I cleaned my laptop keyboard with cotton swabs and window cleaner. While it doesn’t have the typed on feel, it does look much more presentable. I think it is now clean enough that I won’t be embarrassed when I open it in front of people who are not family members.

-Leaves are finally visible on most trees, though only in a few cases fully formed. I guess the next step is for these newly formed leaves to be consumed by elm span worms.

The Big Bang

It was about 12:50 last night. I was watching a movie with my father.

All of a sudden there was a bang, the TV image shrunk to a dot, and then nothing. The lights disappeared. The router lights remained on (thanks to a battery back-up system).

My father and I went to the window and lifted the blinds. We saw that it was raining and that the other houses on our block were also without power. To get a better view, and to see if we could find the cause of the bang we went to the front porch.

While on the front porch we noticed that houses on the next block had power. We did not find anything that we believed might be the source of the problem. After being warned by my father to watch for downed power I donned some boots and a jacket and out to try and locate the source of the problem.

After checking pole that had blown a transformer that had blown a few years ago I went towards the telephone building. Throughout my search I only found evidence that everything was working, except the lines on our block.

Upon my return I learned that my father had called the power company to report the outage. To his delight he was the first one to make such a call and until that point the company was unaware of a problem. We then stood around and had a candlelight snack while waiting to see if we could spot the power company trucks. After about a 20 minute wait we both called it a night and went to bed. Candlelight gets old fast, and I was full.

I awoke this morning to find that power had been restored. I was able to rest easy, TV viewership and internet surfing averages will not be negatively affected by this power outage.