A Few Quick Notes 253

-Today has been pretty consistently mediocre. The temperature has hovered at about zero with a little snow falling at periods during the day. The only downside is that it is likely pretty icy at the moment. The plus side is that the weather has likely made it pretty safe as far as personal fireworks are concerned.

-A few days ago Neil and I played in a one-day Ultimate tournament hosted by the NLUA. Though I still feel as though a truck hit me, the event was great. I ended up playing four games while Neil, by making it to the final, ended up playing five.

-Though I am not a huge fan of fan of New Year’s Eve, it seems that I will be spending a few hours with friends. Hopefully this will be a pretty low-key event.

-A few minutes ago I was racing to get this post down because I thought that I had something to say. Then, almost as soon as I was ready to type, I completely forgot why I was so antsy to post (the ‘great’ idea completely gone from my mind).

-Neil, Rebecca and I will be back in Halifax in a few days. While this means the beginning of eight months of hell for me, I am kind of looking forward to getting back to work. I guess it might be fun to see how I feel about this in a few minutes.

Tonight I ended up listening to a few minutes of an As It Happens New Years’ quiz. At some point during the quiz they ended up playing the new Hockey Night in Canada theme. In some ways I was glad to hear this as I was curious to see what they would chose to use to replace the previous, and iconic, theme. It seems that they went something that almost seemed to be designed to be forgettable. The joke that some of the contestants made was that even though they had only heard it a few seconds ago they could not even remember how it went. I am of a similar sentiment (though I am not sure the old theme was worth several million dollars).

Xmas Check 15

We managed to make our way through a round of gift opening with no
correct guesses, though Neil was rather close. I am particularly
proud of my wrapping of a mini-keg of beer for my uncle. Amazingly he
guessed bottled beer, even though the package did not have the
stereotypical beer bottle against beer bottle sound.

We finally made our way to food prep after the gifts. Just moments
ago I finished chopping the beef for the fondue, soon I will have to
move on to vegetables.

Xmas Check 14

We have started some of the cleaning that is needed before the food
prep can begin in earnest. Though I hadn't anticipated it happening,
it seems that we will opening another round of gifts before we move on
to the final stages of food prep.

Xmas Check 13

It seems that the only ones up are the three of us children. As none
of the there of us know what us going on we have decided to return to
Fluxx.

Actually, my mother has just made an appearance and has clearly
started to think about dinner.

Now my fatherchas surfaced, making my uncle the only yet to apper.

More importantly, the rain has continued to fall at quite a rate.
Several green patches on the lawn are now apparent.

Xmas Check 12

It seems that since I began my nap about three hours ago the rain has
only gotten worse. Amazingly, it seems that most parts of the yard
are still covered in snow, though I not sure how much longer this can
possibly last. On the other hand, as temperatures are expected to
drop this evening, if we do manage to keep our snow we should be then
have a nice white covering for a number of days.

Though I haven't yet checked, I presume that people have or will soon
be be arising from their naps and re-emerging. I presume that this
will be a signal to start working on preparing the food for tonight's
fondue session. On the other hand, Kirsten did get a copy of Ticket
to Ride: Europe this morning so it may be necessary for us to first
play that game before getting down to work on other more timely
matters.

Xmas Check 11

We are still playing Fluxx, which means that the games are going on
longer than I expected. Neil managed to win the first game, though if
you ask me it was a bit of a weak win (someone just played the goal he
needed).

Just moments ago he managed to pull a second win out of thin air.

The good news is that it is definitely now nap time.

Xmas Check 10

Instead of a nap it seems that I will be playing a game or two of
Fluxx with Neil, my mother, and sister. If lucky I may be able to
fluke into a win.

In terms of weather, we seem to be having some rain, which isn't doing
much for our snow cover. Actually, I am wondering if we will still
have a white Christmas this evening.

Xmas Check 9

We just finished breakfast a few moments ago. A few people are now
cleaning up the recently dirty dishes.

In a few moments we are all likely to head back to bed for naps. If
everyone feels as I do these will be quite welcome.

I guess this means that I will take a break from the live-blogging of
Christmas for the next few hours.

Xmas Check 8

We just finished our first scratch-off bingo ticket moments ago. Neil
managed to pull off a $3 line, which should be good enough for a free
ticket.

We are now in the midst breakfast prep.

Xmas Check 7

Stocking examination seems to be winding down. I am looking forward
to testing out my new pressure cooker.

It seems likely that the next activity on the agenda will be a few
scratch off bingo games, and that might be followed by breakfast.

Xmas Check 5

At 8:04 my sister woke me up to see if Santa had arrived. After a few
minutes of waiting for final approval we made our way to the living
room.

At the moment we are in the midst of assessing and checking out
stocking contents of our stockings. At the moment I am wearing the
neon orange full-head hat that came with my stocking.

Xmas Check 4

Neil and I just returned from a trip to Mount Pearl to drop off
Rebecca. Not surprisingly, there were not all that many cars on the
road, meaning that the trip went rather quickly.

More importantly, it seems that Santa has still not arrived. It seems
that if he does not arrive soon he may not have time to finish his
various tasks.

On the aesthetic front, it has started to snow, making for a rather
picturesque scene.

Xmas Check 3

It seems that instead of sitting in front fire place on Santa patrol I
decided to do some last minute wrapping.

One of the wrap jobs was rather complicated as it required the
construction of a box and the use of a fair bit of packing tape.

Now that I have finished with the wrapping I have moved back to Santa
watch, which has been uneventful so far.

Xmas Check 2

We just spent a few minutes taking photos in front if the tree and
other seasonal locations.

It seems that the rest of my family will now be heading out to church.
I am staying behind to keep an eye out for Santa, though so far I
have seen no evidence of his impending arrival. I guess I might grab
another beer and take a seat in front of the fire place just to make
sure the man in red does not slip past me.

Xmas Check 1

So it seems that the live blogging of this Christmas has started a
little earlier than I originally expected due requests by Neil and
Rebecca.

We started the festivities with a leg of lamb and mashed potatoes.
Afterwards we cleaned up and waited for the preliminary gift opening
festivities. Though a number if gifts were exchanged two were
particularly important. My uncle gave my mother a new toaster oven
while I gave my sister a game called Fluxx.

Soon after the game was opened we began to play. Though my previous
experience with the game was not of particular advantage I did manage
to win.

Eventually my parents and sister made there way to a party and Neil,
Rebecca and I continued to play the game, which is where things stand
now.

Presumably as the night progresses I will keep you updated on any
Santa sightings or seasonal happenings that are of consequence.

Until later.

Recent Gaming Activities

A few years ago while in Bristol, England I ended up playing a few games of Jenga with two Irish circus performers. This games are particularly memorable because I was introduced to a new strategy, speed Jenga. These two Irish guys advocated removing the blocks as quickly as possible, and just pulling instead of testing to see which blocks are loose and ready for easy removal. Since these games I have almost consistently used this approach, typically to good effect. Below are a few clips of a few of the games we played earlier today. As you will see, the speed method is frequently employed.



[Embedded video]

(The preceding video was made using iMovie, as come standard on most Macs. And though I was a fan of previous incarnations of this program I can't say I am a fan of this version. Not only is it less user friendly, it seems to have fewer features or they are significantly more difficult to access. I can't imagine that I will end up using this version of the program as much as I used the old version unless I can figure out how to do some of the things that I was able to do in the past. This is really an unfortunate development.)

Later in the day Neil and I managed to play a few games of Scopa, which is an Italian card game played with a forty card deck. According to a half-Italian friend of mine this is a particularly popular game among old men, and is frequently played by these individuals while they are hanging out at coffee shops. Though I can't vouch for the veracity of these claims, I tell you that it is a pretty easy and fun two player game. I can certainly imagine sitting around and playing for hours on end.

Though we have only played one game so far, I would guess that we will be playing some Settlers in the near future. As we are quickly approaching Christmas I am not exactly sure when we are going to fit these games in (maybe tonight).

A Few Quick Notes 252

-It really seems to have turned to Winter in St. John's. I woke up to find high winds and snow. Unfortunately, my only morning commitment of the trip meant that I had to drive in near-white-out conditions.

Amazingly, the weather has gotten a little worse as the temperature is now above zero so the snow is turning to slush. The only good weather news of the day is that the predicted rain wasn't as plentiful as expected. The bad news is that the wind is expected to remain relatively high and the temperatures are expected to drop, meaning that the slush will turn to ice.

-As it snowed today I got my first chance to use the snowblower this year. As I only use it once or twice a year I still haven't figured out my style or technique and basically have to re-learn everything about the process every year. The nice thing is, even with my inefficient style, it is still faster and easier than shoveling. Maybe if it snows again I will have a chance to refine my approach, but it is possible that I will be battling Neil and my uncle for snowblower access (as they both also have only limited snowblower access).

-A few nights ago Greg and I hung out for a few hours. After heading to the local bookstore we went to a bar where one of his co-worker's was to be performing. After chatting to the band and having a beer and still seeing no signs of the show starting any time soon (one of the guitarists still wasn't there) we decided to head on to the bar where one of Greg's co-worker's was doing sound.

Almost as soon as we arrived it became clear that the band performing was pretty far away from good (which may explain why they were playing at a bar way out on Torbay road). Anyway, hanging out for a while the guy doing sound mentioned that he was hungry. After a few quick negotiations it was decided that we would head out and pick him up a fish sandwich at the nearby fast food joint.

As soon as Greg and I pulled into the lot we noticed that that there was quite a line for the drive-thru, but because the restaurant section wasn't open we joined the line. After waiting about ten minutes we were finally able to place our order. We then waited another few minutes to proceed to the window where we were to pay for our food. When we finally reached this window we were informed that they didn't have any more fish. This left us in a tricky spot as the individual for whom we were ordering food was a vegetarian and the restaurant didn't have any other acceptable main courses. After a few minutes of discussion we settled on a two patty burger with the patties on the side.

When we eventually made it back to the bar with the food the recipient wasn't particular pleased with the outcome of our trip. His initial reaction was to reject the 'burger' and focus on the fries and drink. After a few minutes he cracked and ended up chowing down on the bun, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and sauce that comprised the meat-free burger. Greg and I each had one of the patties, which weren't particularly good on their own.

-A few posts ago I mentioned that one of my contributions was featured on the podcast Stop Podcasting Yourself. It seems that I have extended my streak by having a photo I submitted featured on their blog and mentioned on the most recent episode of the show. If you check out the blog, the photo, also posted below, is the one I submitted. I still can't believe that such a sign exists.



-I had the pleasure of getting my teeth cleaned today. It seems that this is starting to become a Christmas tradition for me, which is a slightly better tradition than getting my teeth knocked out or catching a seasonal malady.

-I am not sure what is causing it, but I have been very unproductive and unmotivated since having returned to St. John's. You may have noticed that this has resulted in a drastic reduction in the number of blog posts (which is problematic because they are so highly anticipated by our readers) and my general crankiness. Though I don't know the cause of these problems I am starting to wonder if they are related to the drop in coffee consumption that came with the change in location. Maybe if I increased my coffee consumption to my pre-departure levels everything would be fine. I guess I might as well try as I don't have much to lose at this point.

-As we received a relatively positive response from our last Montifax live-blogging experience I am tempted to try and either live-blog Christmas or some other event, maybe if I go for coffee at some wifi coffee shop. Anyway, be on the look out for a very exciting seasonal live-blogging event from your good friends at Montifax.

A Few Quick Notes 251

-Things took a slight turn for the worse weather-wise here in St. John's. Not only do we now have several centimeters of snow on the ground, but the temperature has also fallen several degrees below zero. I guess this is kind of what I wanted, full-fledged winter weather, none of that rain and near-freezing stuff that we had been having when I arrived.

-Yesterday I managed to wake up in the morning and move ahead with my plan to bake some bread. I ended up baking ten full sized loaves and five mini-loaves. So far I have been quite pleased with the product. The only problem is that we don't have enough freezer space to store the bread so we are giving it away pretty quickly. Consequently, this may mean that I will have to bake another batch if I want to leave my parents with a few loaves before heading home.

-A few days ago Neil suggested that we go bowling, so we ended up going last night. Six of us ended up making to Holliday Lanes for two games. What struck me about the games was the number of marks that we seemed to be bowling. Dave or Neil even managed a turkey, and the other one was within a strike of a turkey.

At one point I went up and bowled a strike only to learn that I had done it on Neil's turn. Obviously he had no interest in getting it fixed. Fortunately, I was able to follow up with a strike on my turn, otherwise I would have been pretty upset with myself.

-A few months ago I started listening to the podcast Stop Podcasting Yourself (a comedy podcast from Vancouver). Of late I have started making a few comments on their blog and sending emails. I was pleased to see that one of my suggestions from the blog comments ended up making this week's show. I am kind of curious to see if the picture I submitted makes the cut.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood

When I arrived in St. John's a few days ago the temperature was above freezing and there was no snow on the ground. The situation wasn't quite the same when I woke up this morning.

While I was standing on the porch taking pictures of the snow I noticed that there was a guy walking down the street with a shopping cart. It didn't seem like the best time to be walking around with a shopping cart, and it wasn't apparent why he was making such a trip.

It has been such a long time

Neil, Rebecca and I managed to make our way back from Halifax to St. John's on Tuesday.

A few weeks before our departure from Halifax we realized that with three of us traveling it would be as cheap to take a taxi to the airport as it would be for all three of us pay bus fares. Anyway, it turned out that that is what we did when the appropriate time arrived.

The taxi worked out quite nicely and we were able to make it to the airport in no time. It seems that leaving at about 9:00 AM is a pretty good time to leave as there is very little traffic heading out of time at that time of day.

Because our taxi ride only took about 30 minutes were arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. Almost immediately after checking in and going through security we purchased some drinks and snacks and secured a table. Almost as soon as we were seated we proceeded to break out the cards and play a game of hearts. Within about a hand it was clear that I was playing poorly and taking far too many points. Not surprisingly, I was smoked in no time.

After our game of hearts we moved to the area near our gate and staked out a few seats. Soon after arriving in the new location Neil and I decided to play another card game. After a few suggestions we came up with War. As we were about to start we decided to modify the game by adding some elements from Cribbage, making the game Cribbage war.

Some of the modifications included that if the sum of the cards was 15 the win would go to the person who played the lower card and if two suited cards were played, and one of them was the jack, the trick was won by the jack. Eventually we modified even these rules so that jacks would only win if the cards were suited and we gave the winner the option to decline the cards (so you didn't have to take the 2 that you took with your 3). The other modification that we added, based on cribbage, was to have aces be low, so there value dropped rather significantly.

Anyway, even with these rules in place the game was still rather slow and tedious. We managed to keep the game going for the rest of our wait in the waiting area, through the pre-departure time on the the plane, during take-off, and through about half of the flight (before Neil eventually won). We then played again and I won (this second game was much shorter).

Playing war for about two hours really made things go quite quickly. Almost before I knew it we were in St. John's and waiting for our luggage. Though the luggage area was maggoty with travelers it didn't take us too long to get our bags. Almost as soon as we had our bags in hand we found Rebecca's Father and made our way to his car. Within another 10 minutes or so we were home.

As we returned home I was surprised to find my mother and father waiting for us. Almost as soon we were through the front door my mother asked if we would like some soup and muffins. As I hadn't eaten all day (as is frequently my practice when traveling) I was quite grateful to have such ready access to food. Furthermore, the food was really quite tasty. The soup was homemade chicken rice soup and the partridgeberry muffins were still warm (and seemed to have extra fruit).

Since my arrival I haven't been as productive as I might have liked, though I can't say that I am too surprised. Coming home for Christmas doesn't seem to be a time for great productivity, though I do really need to take care of a few things in the coming days.

A Few Quick Notes 250

-Today, like the past few days, has been rainy and somewhat less than pleasant. For most of the day it has been raining and the only expected change is for the rain to turn into freezing rain.

-We had a rather fruity batch of black bean soup tonight. I think that the fruitiness can be explained by my rather large squirt of lemon juice. Fortunately, I didn't mind the fruitier version of the soup (though I didn't think to ask either Neil or Rebecca what they thought about it).

-As our Christmas departure draws near we are trying our best to consume and not replace our perishable foods. So far we seem to be doing a pretty good job. Unfortunately a day or two ago we purchased 10 pounds of carrots and 10 pounds of potatoes. Neil's comment was that if we each consumed 1/2 a pound of carrots a day we would be fine, and so far we seem to be on track.

-For the past few days I have spent much of my time grading papers or reading about the Scottish Parliament. While reading an article by Cowley and Lochore this evening I came across the following line: "An 18-year old Scottish Parliament - able to vote, drink, drive and have sex - may well turn out very different from the one of today."

Maybe I am just tired, but the thought of a parliament out on the town searching for one night stands really cracked me up. Unfortunately, as the local Nova Scotia legislature is 250 it is probably past going out for wild nights on the town (though I am sure that it has witnessed a fair bit during the past quarter millennium).

-For the cooler kids out there, it seems that the journal Parliamentary Affairs now has a podcast. Though I have downloaded all of the episodes I haven't had a chance to listen to any of them yet. I keep wondering if it will be as good as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography podcast that I also download (but then forget to listen to).

-While checking out the corn this afternoon I noticed evidence of our first ear of corn. It seems that so far we have only one ear, and, not surprisingly, it is on the largest of our corn plants. Hopefully we might get a few additional ears in the coming days (if only for show).

A Few Quick Notes 249

-We finally had another temperature drop, which has now gone as low as about -10, though it seems that like the last time this one is not meant to last. In theory, by the end of the week we should be back above zero.

-Neil and I had our second ultimate game on Saturday. Unlike last time, we were smoked by the opposing team. Actually, I don't think that I have ever been so over matched by an opposing team. Basically all of the males on the other team could lose any of the guys on our team at will. Amazingly, we managed to break 25, though I don't quite know how.

More importantly, just as the game was nearing its end, I managed to jump up and have my feet knocked out from underneath me. I managed to land on my right elbow and the right side of my hop. While the bruising wasn't as substantial as I expected, both contact sites are still somewhat sore. Hopefully things will have cleared up by Saturday.

-As I was getting the impression none of us were getting enough coq in our diet I decided to make coq au vin for dinner last night. To wash down the main course I prepared another sticky toffee sponge pudding, which was quite tasty.

-Though I haven't been incredibly productive today, I have managed to mark a few papers and do some reading. Hopefully I will be somewhat productive this evening.

Door cam: the low-speed chase of the 21st century

For almost two hours we have been watching the streaming footage of the main door at Rideau Hall. Basically nothing has happened during this time, though the media have been talking non-stop about possibilities.

This reminds me of OJ's low-speed chase of 1994. Neil and I spent hours watching the white Bronco drive down an empty highway, surrounded by cops, while nothing happened.

I wonder how many other people have spent hours watching a door listening to nonsense?

A Few Quick Notes 248

-Though I didn't spend much time outside today, the weather, if I recall correctly, was on the passable side of things. When I did go outside, while cool, it was nothing problematic. Most importantly, I didn't have to deal with any rain, as I did yesterday.

-This weekend Neil gave me a haircut. This is the second haircut that he has given me. Aside a slight resemblance to a bowl cut, it is pretty good. Hopefully he will be able to tidy things up a little once things grow out a little more.

-Based on a suggestion from my mother, I made Turkey Potpie for dinner yesterday. Considering I had never made it before and kind of winged the recipe, I think it went pretty well. Tonight, with more of the left-over turkey I made turkey noodle soup.

-It took me a while to figure out why we were getting all kinds of hits on the images of the 'tanned' turkey, but a few days ago I realized it was because American Thanksgiving was approaching. It seems people must have been looking for turkey preparation ideas as the holiday was approaching. Not surprisingly, in the days since Thanksgiving the number of people coming to Montifax for pictures of turkeys has fallen off rather significantly.

-All three of us are closely following the discussions surrounding the possible Liberal-NDP coalition that is hoping to replace Harper. Who cares about Obama appointing Hilary when we have such exciting politics in our own backyard?

Interview on Media and Politics

For the past few weeks I have been reading about media and politics (mainly because of an assignment on the same subject). Much to my surprise, this topic has really stayed on my mind and caused me to think about at least some of the media that I consume on a daily basis.

A few days ago I had the pleasure of listening to a The Sound of Young America interview with Gideon Yago (former This American Life contributor), which happened to be on a similar subject. Yago, a former MTV News employee, talks about his experiences with that organization as well as about other media related matters in the United States. Maybe it was just my recent reading, but I found this to be a particularly informative and insightful interview. If you have any interest in the subject matter you might want to check it out.

1-900 Meteorologist Service Now Available in Canada

I was somewhat surprised to learn that Environment Canada is now offering a 1-900 number for private, one-on-one consultations with a meteorologist. If this is something that interests you, it seems that all you need to do is call the number (1-900-565-5555), agree to pay $2.99 per minute, and talk away.

Aside from not wanting to pay $12.00 to hear about a storm that either won't come or is in the midst of striking, I am not sure how I feel about such a program. Something about the arrangement just seems a little off-putting. I wonder how many people actually use this service and what type of information they provide in such situations but then don't include in their free services.

Most importantly though, I really want to know how many times Weather Canada gets callers who are hoping to reach a more traditional 1-900 service. Do these callers keep talking because they are too embarrassed to admit that they were actually looking for something a little juicer than a one-on-one weather forecast?

That time of the year

As American Thanksgiving has come and gone it is now officially holiday decorating season. Like last year I decided to go with hand-made paper snowflakes and a single string of Christmas lights. Hopefully this will be visible but not overstated (one never wants to make such decorations too obvious). Also, if I keep things to a minimum I am less likely to annoy either Rebecca or Neil with my decorating scheme.

Yes, this second picture is of our corn. It has done shockingly well considering that it was planted in Halifax in late August. Though it may be hard to see this in the photo, it seems that he corn is sporting the tussles that are common to mature corn. As of yet we still don't have any evidence of ears of corn, though I expect that these will show up in the very near future.

A Few Quick Notes 247

-Given last weekend's 'storm' I am very pleasantly surprised to see that today is snow free and sunny. Also, it seems that almost all of the snow from the storm has since melted, which makes walking around a little easier than it was for a few days.

-For the third time this fall we will be having a turkey for dinner. Amazingly, it wasn't until several days after purchasing this turkey that I realized that we would be having it on American Thanksgiving weekend. Unlike the previous turkey, and like the first turkey, this one will be stuffed. Hopefully things go as smoothly as the previous two attempts, and are somewhat unlike my most recent roast chicken attempt (the chicken wasn't quite done when I thought it would be).

Possibly the best part of this meal is that I can use it as an excuse to prepare another sticky toffee pudding. I think I have been looking forward to another since before we finished the last one.

-Neil and I played our first game of winter Ultimate last night. Both of us were quite pleased with our team, which was a bit of an unknown as we didn't recognize any of the names of the team roster. The facility, which is part of the Stadacona military base, was also pretty good. The only problem is that the gym floor didn't allow for quite as much traction as any of us would have liked.

After an hour and twelve minutes of play we managed to pull out a 38-34 victory. Neil and I, and presumably the rest of the team, started to drag a little in the second half. Neil and I were hampered by colds, which were really slowing us down in the second half.

-Many of the plants I have been growing from seed have really taken turns for the worse in the past few days. My suspicion is that the reduced access to the sun is really starting to hamper growth and development. In the case of the corn and peppers I really hope that they can hold on until they develop fruit, which seems to be only days away (under normal growing conditions). Fortunately, though they have not gone unfazed, the plants in my bedroom seem to be faring a little better. It seems that the additional light they are getting in the bedroom is of a great degree of consequence.

Trendy New Snack: Turnip Sticks

In the last few weeks, thanks to a sale on turnip, Neil and I rediscovered raw turnip sticks. Not only do these make a great, low-calorie snack food, but they are also relatively easy to prepare and cheap.

It seems that Neil prefers his chilled in water while I opt to chill mine without water, providing the edges with a slightly drier feel.

Anyway, I highly recommend turnip sticks if you are looking for an alternative to carrot sticks, or any other snacking vegetable.

(I am pretty sure that Neil and I consuming turnip sticks makes it a trend).

Trip to the store

This evening Neil and I decided to head out to the store to pick up a few items.  The justification for the trip was to buy a frozen turkey, as they are on sale this week.  As we needed to buy $25 worth of goods to get the Tuesday 10% discount we also ended up buying a stick of butter and a green pepper.

As we were checking out the cashier asked us if we wanted our turkey in a bag.  This question shocked Neil and I as we weren't quite sure how else we would have carried it home, particularly as neither of us relished the idea of carrying a frozen turkey in our hands on the walk home.  Fortunately we were eventually given a bag (Neil eventually double bagged it) so we weren't forced to deal with this problem.

After finishing up at the grocery store we moved on to the convenience store to buy a few lighters.  I thought that these would be appropriate given the degree to which our lights have been flickering tonight (and how are we to light all of our recently purchased candles if we don't have lighters and only 20 matches).  The only hitch with the purchase was that the only lighters available had all kinds of fancy designs, making the lighter the fanciest looking thing in my pocket (my keys will surely be jealous).

Storm Check 12

The snow has stopped falling and the skies have cleared. So while
there definitely was some snow it wasn't as bad as predicted, nor did
it last as long. What is impressive is how little drifting their is (
though of course I am generalizing from my observances from a single
location).

Upon examining the shoveling being conducted by someone below my
balcony I would say that we had about 17 centimeters of snow.

I think that that about wraps it up for the live-blogging of the storm.

Storm Check 11

It seems that the wind has finally picked up, making it a less than
situation. Iwoukd guess that we now have between five and ten
centimeters of snow.

I will probably call it a night now and pick up the live-blogging
experience in the morning.

Storm Check 10

Shortly after making the last post I took a seat on the futon. Almost
as soon as I sat down I noticed something in my periferal vision. As
I turned my head I noticed that it was a mouse. This development
meant that I had to find the mouse traps and set a trapline, all while
perfectly good storm was going unreported upon in the background.

Anyway, it is still snow with just a little bit of wind for texture.
So far we seem to have a few centimeters, though nothing too
remarkable.

Storm Check 9

The snow is still falling, though at about the same rate as before.
If anything, the wind seems to have died down.

Strangely, the neighbours seem to have selected this time to have
their dog run around in their backyard. Presumably it wasn't part of
the plan that the dog disrupt the neighbours's live-blogging attempt
with its barking.

Man, it is cold out here.

Storm Check 8

The snow has continued to fall since the last post, actually the rate
at which it is falling seems to have increased. So far it seems that
several centimeters have fallen. As far as I can tell there is no
sign that it will be stopping any time soon.

Also, it seems that the wind is picking up a bit. Some of the snow is
starting to blow around.

For those of you that are curious, all of these updates have been sent
from the balcony. Hopefully the intensity of the experience is coming
across in well crafted prose.

Storm Check 7

Now that Neil and Rebecca have turned in I fear that I won't have a
particularly large following for the rest of this live-blogging event.

It seems that the snowflakes I saw earlier were not just anomalies,
the snow has definitely started to fall. Actually it is coming down
quite heavily and starting to accumulate, though the wind is still
low.

Storm Check 6

I have started to see a few snowflakes, but nothing approaching a storm.

Storm Check 5

Still no snow, though I have started to hear the weekly procession of
drunks heading home from parties and bars.

I really want this to start soon so I can at least log a few real
storm updates before I call it a night.

Storm Check 4

It seems that we are still without snow, or even wind of any strength.

At this rate I will have been live-blogging for hours before anything
happens, if anything happens.

Storm Check 3

Still no snow, though it does seem that the sky is a little more
obstruced than earlier this evening.

We have yet had to light any tea lights or batten down the hatches,
though we are physically and psychologically prepared for such an
eventuality.

Storm Check 2

it seems that it still has not started snowing.

Storm Check 1

Earlier this evening I decided that I should live-blog the storm from
the balcony. Neil agreed, so here we go.

As the night/storm progresses I will try to provide live upates from
the centre of the action (at least what I see as the centre).

So far the sky is still clear, though it is definietly on the cool
side of things. If it starts snowing I will hop on the iPod provide
our dedicated readers with an additional Storm Check update.

Is this snowstorm really on its way?

It seems that Environment Canada is predicting that we will get a winter storm, starting some time tonight. In the description of the storm that was provided this morning, Environment suggested that we would be subject to 'snowsqualls,' though I don't quite know what these are (unless they are 'white-outs'). In the most recent version of the storm warning the snowsqualls seem to have been eliminated and replaced by "dangerous winter weather." Unfortunately, I don't know if this means the forecast has gotten better or worse.

It seems that in the lead up to the storm the locals, including us, are getting a little antsy. The local military base preemptively closed its base, thus postponing our first ultimate game of the season, before a cloud or snow flake even appeared (and they still haven't yet appeared). On the home front, Neil and I went to the grocery store to stock up in case we had to stay in for the weekend. While we remembered to buy 100 tea lights (small candles) we somehow forgot to buy any emergency beer or steaks. Maybe we will have to take a quick trip over to correct our previous oversights.

While I was willing to buy some candles and food (mainly as we didn't have these things and are likely to use them anyway) I am still a little skeptical about this storm hitting in the predicted timeframe, and certainly skeptical that it will be bad enough for the military to need to preemptively close its gym (which I take as very a bad sign of Canadian military strength). I guess by tomorrow we will know if I was correct, or if the crack team at Environment Canada once again hit it out of the park.

On the other hand, it could be a matter of scale. The more time I spend outside of Newfoundland the more I am starting to think that the weather there is just more intense. For instance, what is considered a storm in Montreal would hardly be seen as bad weather in St. John's. What passes for a windy day in Vancouver would hardly be noticed in St. John's (aside from the lack of wind, of course). So maybe we will have a 'storm' tomorrow, but not quite what I am used to in terms of storms.

Non-Winter garbage disposal option

Soon after I moved into our apartment it became clear that we are positioned above the garbage and recycling dumpsters. Somehow, and it may have originated with our superintendent, the idea of tossing our garbage in the dumpsters from above was suggested. Though we were initially somewhat hesitant to try, it really did seem much easer.

As you can see, it really isn't that hard to hit the dumpster from the area just beyond are balcony. Going to the dumpster is for chumps.


Unfortunately, now that we are into Winter this isn't as nice an option. It seems that, at least for the next several months, we may have to actually walk our refuse down to the appropriate bin to dispose of it.




[Embedded Video]

A Few Quick Notes 246

-We have had several hours of a combination of rain and snow today. Unfortunately, this precipitation was mixed with a little wind, making for a less than pleasant day.

-On Sunday evening I cooked a 7-pound picnic for dinner. While 7 pounds may not seem like all that much in the universe of picnics and hams, it was a fair bit of meat for three individuals. Not surprisingly, we didn’t even come close to finishing the hunk of meat at dinner. I have since chopped the remaining meat and will use some of it in soup while it is likely that the rest will be consumed in a haphazard manner in the coming days, though so far our consumption of this meat has been slower than expected.

-I am presently in the midst of making chicken noodle soup for dinner tonight. It is likely that I have add more carrots than necessary, but I am looking forward to it nonetheless.

-It seems the class that I expected to have tomorrow has been delayed by a week. While this will mess things up a bit at the end of the term, it should clear my schedule in the interim.

-In less than a week the class for which I am TAing will be submitting their third assignment of the term. It will be my responsibility to grade the papers once they are submitted. I must say that I am a little worried about the process and how much time it might take. Hopefully everything will be smoother than I imagine it will be.

-The classes that I did have this week were quite rousing, at least from my point of view. In both instances I was quite involved in the discussions that took place. Furthermore, I may have managed to get people agitated in today’s class by taking an anti-CanCon position (but while not being opposed to Canadian content).

-Several days ago I pruned/removed some of the bean plants that had recently died. This basically means all of the beans that aren’t in my room. Now that the planters are devoid of living plants I may try to re-arrange things so that the plants that are still alive have access what is left of the daylight that enters our apartment.

While the bean plants didn’t provide as many beans as I had hoped they would, I really did enjoy seeing them grow. I think that I may try to start again in the spring, once we start getting a little more sunlight.

It's Snowing (well, it was for a minute or so)

Just moments ago the rain turned to snow, or maybe I should say that some of the rain turned to snow. As far as I know this is the first snow that I have seen in Halifax (what a momentous occasion).

Oh, I think that the snow has reverted to rain. That didn't last long.

Either way, the upcoming walk to school is going to be less than pleasan

Rebecca said she only wanted one potato

Since I have been living in Halifax Rebecca has made it quite clear to me that she typically eats about one potato when potatoes are served. As much as I try to suggest that 3-4 potatoes is an appropriate serving size she continues to resist. Thanks to a potato in our last bag of potatoes I have found a way around Rebecca's unwillingness to eat an appropriate number of potatoes. The solution, as demonstrated below, is to serve larger potatoes, thus allowing her to keep to her one potato rule and me to be satisfied by my emphasis on an appropriate volume. It is nice when people are able to reach mutually agreeable arrangements, as was the case in this instance.

A Few Quick Notes 245

-Today, like yesterday, has been overcast and rainy. Fortunately, thanks to the internet, I haven't had to head out into the rain all that much. Hopefully things will clear up in the very near future, though I am not sure that that is likely.

-For some reason, at about 4:00 PM yesterday afternoon I decided that I would make a sticky toffee sponge pudding. As I had never made one of these before, nor had I even ever seen a recipe I had to do a little research before I got started.

At first I was a little thrown off when I found that several of the recipes that I found called for dates, something I am hesitant to use when cooking. Anyway, after seeing enough recipes with dates I got the sense that they were likely a key component of the recipe (I was convinced when I saw that the BBC recipe had dates).

The recipe that I settled on was quite straight forward, and required both dates a self-rising flour, two things that I neither own nor typically use when baking. This meant that I had to take a trip over to the local grocery store. Once there, and while in the British mood, I noticed that they had Marmite, which I ended up purchasing rather impulsively.

Soon after returning to the apartment I started chopping the dates. It is likely that I haven't quite figured out the optimal method yet as it took me about 20 minutes to chop a cup of dates. It seems that this took much longer than it should have.

Fortunately the second unfamiliar ingredient worked out well and didn't cause any further delays.

The final result was quite passable. Surprisingly, I think that it might even taste better today, presumably because the sauce has had an extra twenty-four hours to soak into the pudding. On the other hand, it wasn't quite like Heinz (canned) Sticky Toffee Sponge Pudding.

-Last night I started watching Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Something that I found rather funny, given the context of the story, is that Mr. Smith was appointed to Senate rather than elected. Rather ironic that the saviour of democracy is an unelected appointee.



-Yesterday I got a call from the Dal library about a request for an article that I had placed online. During the course of the phone call I ended up asking a question about a related service. While looking at the Dal Library website the employee had a very hard time finding the appropriate link, and she knew what she was looking for. Imagine what those less familiar with the site think when encounter it for the first time?

-The beans and radishes in the living room are looking quite bad. I imagine that this is likely related to both age and a reduced access to light. It is likely that in the next few days I will have to compost them.

Shockingly, the beans in my room seem to be in slightly better condition. Just as of a day or so ago I noticed that a few of them now have a few beans, which is nice. Hopefully they end up developing to full size.

The laughs never stop

Earlier tonight Neil and I were talking and I mentioned that 'Cameron' is as close as I am likely to get to 'romance.' Neil responded by suggesting that 'dyslexia' is as close as I am likely get to 'daily sex.'

A Few Quick Notes 244

-Though cooler than yesterday, today has been a pretty nice day. For much of the day the sun was shining and the wind was relatively unnoticeable. Though cool, the temperatures have remained above freezing these past few days. I keep expecting the temperatures to drop but am then surprised to see temperatures in the teens forecast for later in the week, which is what happened to me today.

-On Sunday evening Neil asked me to give him a haircut. I declined the offer as I am pretty sure that I am not able to do what it was that he wanted. As he still wanted the haircut and I had declined to give it to him Rebecca stepped up and offered to give it a try.

After a few minutes with the clippers Rebecca switched over to the scissors, at which point I asked if I could give it a try. After a few snips Rebecca and I felt that we had likely gone as far as we could comfortably go with the haircut. Fortunately, Neil seemed pleased with the results, largely because all he had wanted, and all we did, was a trim in the back.

Almost before we were finished with Neil I decided that I too could use a haircut. Not surprisingly, Neil agreed to take the buzzers to me. He was able to buzz the sides and back without too much trouble. Though there may be a little unevenness, I was pretty impressed with the results considering it was a first attempt. I will have to get him to give me haircuts in the future.

-Yesterday Neil and I got up bright and early to register for a winter Ultimate league that will run from late November until some time in the Spring. This league, run by HURL, will take place at one of the gyms at the local Canadian Forces base. While I am looking forward to playing, I am a little worried that I will be a bit out of shape for the first few games. Hopefully I will be able to manage without too many problems.

-I have spent these past few days busting hump for a paper that is due on Thursday morning. Though I have spent many hours working on it already, it seems that I still will have several more to put in before I am done.

I can now get down to work

Today, after all most two and a half months, I finally put acquired a key piece of furniture: a filing cabinet. This new acquisition should allow me to both organize my documents and get down to work. Within minutes I had my files in place and was beginning to feel better about life.

The wait has been far too long and led to too many sleepless nights.

A Few Quick Notes 243

-Most of today has been rather overcast, though this is a significant improvement on yesterday's weather, which saw us get quite a down pour. Amazingly, temperatures have stayed rather high, certainly much higher than I expected at this time of year. In recent days only a light coat or sweater is required if one decides to venture out-of-doors (something I avoid most of the time). The only definite signs of Autumn are the falling leaves and the progressive shortening of the days.

-Neil, Rebecca, and I made it over to the Grad House on Tuesday evening to watch the election coverage. As I made it to the venue a few hours after Neil and Rebecca I found the place blocked when I arrived. Fortunately, they Neil and Rebecca and associates had staked out an area so there was room for me to lay my coat and sit.

What is more impressive than the fact that the place was packed, was that it was such a contrast to the same location when they were showing the Canadian election results a few weeks ago. Not only was almost no one in attendance, the crowd was also much more sedate than they were on Tuesday. There was even a bit of cheering when CNN finally made the call (though every know the results before the evening even kicked off).

With regards to the CNN coverage, I wasn't particularly impressed with their use of technology. It seemed that they had all kinds of flashy effects but they were not put to great use. People popping up and digital buildings didn't really enhance my understanding of the situation, but rather served to cloud my understanding of things because I was trying to figure out what any of this had to do with the election. Furthermore, there was far too much focus on the in-studio team and very little emphasis on what was going on around the country, of course, aside from a few shots of the crowds in Chicago. It seems that they surely must have been able to come up with a few more locations and senate races to follow in some detail.

-Last Friday, I ended up speaking to a few students after my third and final lecture. As this took a few minutes I was somewhat anxious to get out of the classroom so that I wouldn't prevent the next class from starting on time. One result of my desire to vacate the classroom was that I ended up finishing one conversation with a student in the hall outside the classroom.

About ten minutes after finishing up with all of my related obligations I realized that I had forgotten to erase the blackboard. While under normal circumstances this would be bad enough, in this case it was particularly embarrassing as I had written my name on the board several times while giving examples of citation styles. Realizing it was too late to do anything I just hoped that the person following me wasn't too upset about my lack of attention to classroom courtesies.

That evening Neil asked me if I had been teaching in a particular room, the very room in which I had been giving my lectures. It turns out that his tutorial session was the next group to use the room and that he had recognized the writing (as well as my name). I guess I am glad that he was the one that found it, though I hope that in the future I will remember to erase the board.

-It is definitely crunch time for me. I somehow need to find a way to motivate myself to put in more and more effective hours in the coming weeks. I can't imagine that the coming weeks are going to be anything approaching pleasant.

-We will be having ham, oven roasted potatoes, and vegetables for dinner tonight. And though we won't be eating them, we will also be having guests for dinner tonight. Hopefully the potatoes will be done by the time everything else is, otherwise we may end up with some overcooked vegetables and a dried out ham.

A Few Quick Notes 242

-Today, though cool, was quite nice. Actually, as far as Fall days ago it was about as nice as one might hope for.

-Several weeks ago Neil requested tickets to attend a taping of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, a news satire show that is filmed in Halifax. Not too long after the request was placed we were notified that we had tickets for the November 3 taping of the show.

Soon after hearing about the tickets I managed to forget about them. At some point this weekend it dawned on me that would be be going on Monday and that I had best mentally prepare myself.

Anyway, tonight was the night, and, all things considered, I think it went pretty well. Actually, it was a much more pleasant experience than the taping of Letterman that I attended a few years ago. The topical news satire as well as the pre-recorded sketches were both funny. As one might expect, this weeks show was somewhat heavy on US election content. Surprisingly, some of this content wasn't as funny as I might have expected, especially considering there are so many possibilities for humour.

As usual, the view of the performance is somewhat impeded by the cameras and various pieces of equipment needed to tape the show. Also, the crowd is relatively far away from the performers so that this equipment can be used to its fullest effect. This was only a real problem at the end of the show when they were filming a sketch and I was basically unable to see two of the three performers.

-Several days ago I discovered a bottle of port that Neil and Rebecca had been hiding in the booze cupboard. While the port is of the cheap variety I have been quite impressed with the flavour and overall port-consumption experience.


-After several days of threats and ineffective planning, I eventually got around to shaving my beard. I was motivated by a desire not look like too much of a slob, though I am sure that such motivation won't be long lasting and that before long I will have a beard of some sort again.




Fortunately, I wasn't too hasty with the clippers and I was able to save a 'stache from the mess that was my beard. While the 'stache is in fine shape at the moment, it isn't like to last all that long. Who knows, it may even be gone by the time I head to class tomorrow (though that would require more motivation that I think I might have).

-Tuesday is election day in the US. I was able to cast my absentee ballot a few weeks ago. Hopefully it made it safely, but as I didn't send it registered mail I really have no idea if this is the case.

A Few Quick Notes 241

-Today was a beautiful day. The sky was clear and the temperatures were pleasant all day.

-For dinner this evening we had roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, and vegetables. The beef was particularly beefy, which is how I like my beef.

-After dinner I started to make pea soup. The primary goal was to use some ham that I cooked a few days ago, it also was a good place to use some celery that is just a few days from kicking the bucket.

-A few days ago while looking at a flier I noticed that the store was selling a few things that I was interested in purchasing. Most importantly, the store was selling a card table for less than $40, which seemed like a good price.

This afternoon Neil and I took the bus to the store and scooped up the last of the tables. While in the store we also managed to pick up a few additional items that were on sale for at least 50% off of the regular price.

-In a break with recent tradition, last night I actually managed to socialize with some people other than Neil and Rebecca (not that there is anything wrong with them). I first went over to a classmate's house for a few beers before heading to a party at his friend's place. Though I didn't know all that many people I had a good time. It was particularly nice to get out and relax for a few hours.

As it was Halloween and a costume party I ended up dressing up. As I didn't have much time or money with which to pull together an elaborate costume I went as a pirate (vest, bandanna, and nautically themed 'tattoos'). Brian, my classmate, made a rather elaborate Dale Earnhardt, Jr. outfit. Amazingly, while everyone was in costume very few, if any, of the attendees were in gore based costumes. As I am not a fan of such costumes I was quite pleased with the choice of costumes worn by the other guests.

Don't scream if you have this bag on your head

Earlier today Rebecca received a new laptop computer. Once it had been unpacked and turned on Neil showed me the bag in which the computer was packed. The symbol on the bag was not quite what I expected. Instead of warning people against putting the bag on their head, they seem to be discouraging screaming once the bag is on the head (because, where else would you place a plastic bag). Not that any of us plan on putting the bag over our heads, but we will be sure to try not to scream (as the directed by the bag).

First Harvest

Today, after several months of waiting, I harvested my first batch of yellow beans. Not surprisingly, as the beans were grown inside during the fall, the harvest wasn't as large as I might have liked. For some reason many of the beans failed to develop and those that did failed to grow to particularly large sizes. Hopefully once spring rolls around and I have a chance to plant a few more bean plants these problems will find a way to resolve themselves.

For those of you that are interested, I am still holding out some hope that the corn will produce some kind of consumable product, though I imagine that this is not particularly to occur.

A Few Quick Notes 240

-Yesterday and today have both been quite wet. Both days have been marked by periods of heavy precipitation. Fortunately, I seem to have managed to avoid some of these downpours on my way to school, which is nice as I am never a big fan of starting my day wet.

-A few days ago Neil, Rebecca, and I watched the documentary American Movie. The film follows Mark Borchardt as he attempts to complete Coven, an independently produced and financed short film. While there are many moments of humour, the film is in many ways strikingly sad. Not only does the viewer witness the mental and physical deterioration of the the protagonist's uncle, but the viewer also gets a rather close look

-It seems that the New York Times is reporting that in the near future the Christian Science Monitor will transition from a daily newspaper to an online newspaper with a regularly published magazine component. While this is not the largest of daily newspapers in the US, this change may be a sign of things to come in the very near future. One wonders how long other papers will be able to hold out in an era of declining circulation and increased competition from the online news media.

-My uncle was kind enough to forward me Gerard Damiano's obituary. For those of you who are not porn aficionados, Damiano was the director of the classic porn film Deep Throat. Surely fans of the film will be saddened by this news.

I am now curious to see if the Globe will carry his obituary, and if so how long it will take to appear.

-I managed to get through my lecture on Monday. While it likely wasn't the world's best lecture, I also don't think that it was the world's worst lecture. I am hoping that tomorrow's lecture on the American presidential system and elections will generate at least a modicum of excitement in the class. On Friday I will get the pleasure of talking to the class about writing and citing, with particular reference to the assignment that they have to do for me.

-For much of the evening I have been reading critiques of the work of George Grant, a Canadian political philosopher. Unfortunately, I haven't found these works particularly illuminating or accessible. I keep skimming my eyes over the page without getting much information. Hopefully I will eventually get some sense of what is going on by the time I decide to pack it in later tonight.

Turkey tan lines

A few years ago I was shown a picture of a turkey that had been tampered with during the roasting process in such a way that it appeared that the turkey had tan lines. While I didn't attempt this trick on the turkey I prepared for Thanksgiving a few weeks ago (mainly because of the mild embarrassment that such a stunt might cause) I decided to give it a try on the turkey I prepared today.









To start, I arranged the turkey in the pan and then coated it with olive oil. I then cut out some tin foil pieces to lay on the turkey. Unfortunately, I didn't plan the attempt all that well and thus had a difficult time visualizing the shape of the bikini top cut-out. Once I had the cut-outs they were laid on the turkey and the turkey was placed in the oven to roast.





After the several hours of roasting time that were required the turkey was removed from the oven for consumption and examination. At first I was quite impressed to see that the tin foil seemed to be quite intact and hadn't managed to move or become damaged during the roasting process. I also learned that, unfortunately, it didn't really do all that much on the tan line front either. It seems that the tin foil had at best a minimal effect. Maybe on the next go around I need to find some way to plan a little more and think about a way to get crisper tan lines.

A Few Quick Notes 239

-Today has been slightly overcast, but nothing particularly bad. I just hope that any rain holds off long enough for me to make it to the library tonight without too much hassle.

-Because our last turkey was so successful we decided to try another, which is cooking right now. While the last turkey was stuffed and accompanied by a rather full spread, this one will be a little more bare bones with just a few vegetables and some mashed potatoes. Hopefully things turn out well, otherwise we will have about 12 pounds of sub-par turkey to get through in the next week.

-A few days ago I was looking around the apartment for something easy to read and I happened to come upon Advanced Calculus of Murder by Erik Rosenthal. After a quick examination I learned that the book was a murder mystery written by a math professor about a crime solving sessional lecturer (and part-time private investigator). What was particularly fun about the book was the way in which the university life was treated. Based on my experiences, many elements included in the book rang true (though as it was written in a time before email and the internet there are a few aspects of university life that don't work quite the same way today). Anyway, if you are interested in books about crime-solving mathematicians written by mathematicians I would recommend that you check this one out.

-I managed to spend a few hours on both Friday and Saturday evening at the library. Amazingly, the place wasn't deserted. I guess Dalhousie student like to study. It is still a bit of a toss up whether or not I will try to head in tonight. Instead of heading in I may just try to stay at home and work on a few things, though I tend to be more focused while in my carrel. The prison like conditions don't give me much to focus on other than school work.

-I have to give my first lectures tomorrow. Hopefully I have spent my time preparing the right content. I guess I will find out how things go tomorrow morning.

Amazingly, much the time I have spent preparing has been focused on content, not the creation of topical jokes. I think I have spent more time thinking about creation of jokes for the lectures than actually working on any such material. If nothing comes effortlessly tonight the students may just have to go without such content for the next few days.

Window Plants

A few day ago I posted this photo to show the progress of the plants that I have growing in my bedroom window, progress that has been largely mirrored by the plants growing in the rest of the apartment.

As you can see, in the past two weeks the beans and corn have really taken off, each growing several inches. The beans and corn now take a fair portion of the window and are likely to continue to take up more in the days and weeks to come.

Though less noticeable in through an examination of these photos, the banana plant (the plant furthest to the left) and the aloe droplets (in the empty looking pot next to the banana plant) are also making surprising progress, especially considering that we are heading into Winter in Halifax and these are both plants that are used to much sunnier climes.


The thyme and bay tree, while holding their own, haven't really exhibited spectacular growth. I am hoping that they both make it through to the Spring and then start to really thrive.

A Few Quick Notes 238

-The past few days have been on the cool side, which isn't all that bad as it means that I am sweating less on my walk to school. Today, unlike some of the days earlier in the week, is quite nice with clear skies and little wind.

-I still don't have any good on one liners or jokes for my upcoming lectures. As my first lecture is on Monday my time is running short, though maybe it is more appropriate that I spend my time preparing the actual content of the lecture rather than the jokes that I don't expect anyone to get.

For those of you who are curious, I don't expect that I will go to my Friday class in costume, though my short-shorts and pink top probably would help them to remember my lecture for years to come.

-Is it just me or have all Halloween costumes taken a turn for the slutty? No longer can one just go as a French maid, one must go as a slutty French maid.

If I can get my hands on a Dick Nixon mask I am thinking about trying to go (where I don't know) as "Slutty Richard Nixon," the side of Richard Nixon you have always wanted to see.

-Due to illness my presentation originally scheduled for last week went ahead yesterday. Though not superb, I think it was passable. My general problem with presentations is that they don't scare me enough to actually try and prepare for them. I always assume that I will just be able to wing it rather effectively, and as it turns out, this isn't a skill that I have.

After the presentation, while the professor was leading a discussion on the topic of the presentation, my pen started to leak all over my hands. I found this rather amusing because just a few days ago I was wondering if pens still did this, or whether pen design had moved so far in recent years that this phenomenon was a thing of the past. It seems that the answer is that pen design has not moved to a stage in which leaks are impossible, though they do seem rarer than even a few years ago.

-Based on a trend I am witnessing in my apartment I am starting to wonder if pork chops are the new ramen when it comes to cheap student eating. Though I have only witnessed an increase of pork consumption in this apartment, I presume that the frequent pork sales are a sign that other students are also doing their best to make sure that this is a trend, not just a blip in our apartment.

-Due to school work I have recently been falling behind on my newspaper reading. This is a little disappointing as I quite enjoy reading the newspaper.

-For a second Friday night in a row I will likely have to head into my library carrel to crank out a few hours of reading and work. On the up side, while at the library I will be able to pick up an inter-library loan book that came in, and maybe find a few materials for my upcoming lecture.

A Few Quick Notes 237

-While today was passable for the better part of the day things eventually managed to go downhill. By this evening we were experiencing intermittent showers and gusts of wind, though this was nothing that I couldn't deal with.

-It seems that the video of the shopping cart races at Bubbles Mansion has been posted in a Trailer Park Boys forum. I am pretty impressed that within 24 hours someone had been searching for such videos and found mine. As far as I can tell it was the first one on YouTube to cover this year's event.

-As of today I have started to prepare my lectures for next week. Fortunately it seems that I will be speaking on a topic with which I feel relatively comfortable. On the other hand, I am still somewhat nervous about giving three hour long lectures. Hopefully they will be as successful as I imagine is possible. I guess as soon as I figure out the content I will have to start working on a few obscure jokes to fit in the lectures (it really is too bad that I am not covering the chapter on 'cleavages').

-Yesterday we purchased a full pork loin. At the moment it is rammed into the bottom of our fridge. It is likely that by tomorrow I will have to chop it up into pork chops so that we have some space and so that it doesn't go bad. I can't say that I am really looking forward to the idea of wrestling a 3 piece of meat on a counter that is only about 2.5 feet wide. The up side is that we should get about 30 pork chops out of the piece of meat. And it turns out that pork chops are very easy to cook.

"Bold Move by the Shit Hawks"

This evening while my mother, Neil, Rebecca and I were walking around downtown looking for a restaurant we noticed that there was some activity on a street just below Citadel Hill. I suggested that we try to head up and find out what it was. As we approached it became clear that the event was associated with Bubbles' Mansion and that the event was hosted by Bubbles himself.

Within a few minutes we figured out that Bubbles' Mansion was hosting a series of shopping cart races and that Bubbles was officiating and hosting the event. We were able to stake out a good position at the bottom of the course and watch a few of the heats.

In the first race we saw (and the one that is posted below) the Shit Hawks make a daring move and cut off their opponents. Bubbles was quite clearly shocked that they had made such an aggressive move, suggesting that it was a "Bold move by the Shit Hawks." For some number of minutes after the race he continued to comment on the gutsy/dangerous move made by the Shit Hawks.

Within a few minutes we were on to the final race. The teams made it down the hill without incident and headed towards one of the turn-around sections. Though we couldn't see it, it soon became clear that something happened on the turn and that the team that emerged second was less than pleased. As the second place team neared the finish line it was clear that one of their wheels was damaged and no longer fully functional.

Hopefully I will hear about Bubbles' cart races before they happen in the future as it would be nice to see a few more of the heats, and maybe even free up the evening so that I could attend the after party at Bubbles' Mansion.

A Few Quick Notes 236

-It is presently a little overcast. Though the more noticeable feature of the weather is that the temperatures have finally dropped to just above freezing. While my computer is telling me that it is near 10 degrees this is not the case, it is really much closer to 0, as Environment Canada is reporting.

-Shortly after my mother arrived yesterday morning we went for breakfast. After breakfast we made a trip to the local farmers market. Not surprisingly, the farmers' offerings are now significantly reduced I didn't see a single stall selling celery, though most did have things like carrots and beets. Though I don't think I will be making weekly visits, I am somewhat curious to see what happens in the place in the winter (I guess the butchers and bakers can sell just as easily in the Winter as the Summer).

-On Friday night I was trying to do some reading but was particularly distracted by some of the unfounded assumptions that were made by the authors. For some reason this really distracted me and prevented me from working.

-Yesterday, in preparation for one of my classes I read an article about anarchy and was surprised by the relative size of the portion of the article devoted to religious anarchy, particularly when this didn't seem to be a particularly influential component of anarchy. Even after the reading I am not particularly convinced that I am ready to lump these groups in with the other anarchists, almost everything about their beliefs seems different than more traditional anarchist thought. I almost feel that the author had some special affinity for these groups and thus included them in his review article.

-For several hours each of the past two nights I have had the pleasure of spending a few hours reading in my library carrel. What was particularly striking about my visits to the library on these two nights was number of people present. While not every table was taken, as would be the case on a normal weeknight, enough were taken though you wouldn't be so bold as to consider yourself alone and start talking to yourself or acting erratically. Presumably if I head back tonight (which is my plan) I will find the library in a similar state.

Neil, Rebecca, and are wondering if the consistency of the library hours are what is leading to this use of the facility. Each night the library is open until 12:00. The result is that people don't have to know have to guess about when the library is open late or if it will be open. Most other academic libraries I have visited have different hours on Fridays or the weekend, something that may cause confusion among users (though of course we have no evidence to suggest that this is the case other than my observations on two nights).

A Few Quick Notes 235

-While we had some rain yesterday, things seem to have turned around today. We had a pretty nice fall day as far as I can remember, though I feel as though I spent much of it inside.

-Yesterday my class was canceled. It seems that my professor was ill. The result is that the presentation that I was supposed to give yesterday has been postponed until next week, which is fine with me. Now, instead of preparing for a new topic I can spend this time trying to catch up on other work that has started to pile up.

-Because some of my time was freed up because of the canceled class I felt that I could take the time to head to Point Pleasant Park for a stroll, which is a trip that I have been meaning to take since I arrived. As expected, the visit was quite nice, though it would have been even better had the skies not been overcast and threatening showers. Maybe I will try to head back at some point in the coming weeks, but I can see that I might be on the busy side.

-Yesterday Neil and I got around to mailing absentee ballots for the upcoming American election. It ended up costing us $2.17 per envelop to send our ballots to US. This seems a little high as they weren't particularly big envelops, and as it only cost the New York Board of Elections 97 cents to send them to us. Can it really cost that much more to send things from Canada to the US than from the US to Canada?

-It seems that I can avoid my TA obligations no more, I will finally have to start working on the three lectures that I have to give at the end of October. On Monday I will get a final confirmation of the topics/unit that I will be covering. Unfortunately, this really doesn't give me all that much time to prepare, and as I still don't have a copy of the text book I imagine that I will even have less time. Anyway, how long can it possibly take to prepare for three one hour lectures that I have never given before? Surely not more than 2 or 3 hours and I can probably count on the class jumping in with contributions to fill up any extra time I have. Oh, I also need to come up with an assignment/essay topic that relates to the as of yet unknown lecture topics.

-I recently had a few ideas about the recent Canadian election and proportionality, if they come to anything I may try to post them here. Basically I am trying to find a way of determining if the elections are becoming more proportional or not, or if there is even a trend in either direction.

A Few Quick Notes 234

-Today was pretty beautiful. The sun was out in full force and the temperature quite nice for walking.

While I feel as though I keep indicating that it is superb weather we actually have had a little sub-par weather recently. Notably, on Thanksgiving we had some rain, and we might get some later in the week (meaning as early as tomorrow), not that I am looking for this to end or meaning to complain.

-On Monday evening we had three people over for Thanksgiving dinner. While I was somewhat apprehensive about this decision, mainly because I had a paper due on Tuesday, it turned out quite well. Actually, that I had something to take a break from may have made the evening more enjoyable.

We had what I consider a pretty standard Thanksgiving meal, meaning turkey, vegetables, potatoes, gravy, and stuffing. For my first turkey I was quite pleased with the results, especially considering that I did it without the ideal roasting equipment.

-As some of you may know, there was an election in Canada yesterday. After about four hours of library work and a notification that the building would soon be closing I decided to call it a night and head over to the Grad House and watch the election coverage with Neil and a few of his friends. By the time I arrived, which was at about midnight, most people had cleared out and the results of the election were largely known, though CBC held off on officially calling it a minority government win for the Conservatives for some time.

Unfortunately, the CBC coverage was pretty bad. Not only did they not provide us with the information we wanted (like how people were doing outside of Atlantic Canada) the broadcast was simply not well put together. At one point we watched in disbelief as one of the presenters stood in front of a screen and gave a very hastily prepared presentation on election related Twitter activity. This stood out because they didn't even use the normal technology that would have allowed them to directly broadcast the images, or green-screen technology that would have allowed the woman to stand in front of the image. Instead she stood in front of a TV screen and manually flipped through the pages of a presentation, all the while the guts of the program were available to views. I won't continue any further complaints as I don't think my complaints about the coverage will be particularly useful to anyone, nor will they be pleasant to read.

-Yesterday my American ballot finally arrived. While I was quite pleased to see that it had finally arrived, I was quite disappointed to learn that like in the Canadian case I have to provide my own stamp to return my completed ballot (though to be fair I didn't expect that this would work from Canada). I guess what I found particularly shocking about the return envelope is that there appear to be several spelling mistakes, though it is possible that I am just not reading things correctly. Anyway, if you can figure out why the spelling in the adjacent picture is I would be quite interested in hearing about it.


Anyway, I guess I will have to figure out how I am going to vote and then find an appropriate stamp and send it back before it is to late.

Do you see what I see?

This image, originally part of a larger picture, was on the front page of a local free daily newspaper a few days ago. Almost as soon as I saw this section of the picture I felt as though they had gone a little further than normal by putting such a risque image on the front page. While I am willing to accept that the intent wasn't to be suggestive, they surely should have been aware that someone would either take offense or delight in such a positioning of individuals

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A Few Quick Notes 233

-Today has been beautiful so far. Hopefully this weather will manage to hold for the next several days.

-While at the grocery store yesterday afternoon I noticed that they were experiencing a celery shortage, it seems as though they were out of regular celery. When I went to their competitor I found that the situation wasn't much better. While they had celery in the second store it was some of the worst celery that I have ever seen. Much of the celery was yellow instead of green and just generally unappetizing. Unfortunately, as I really wanted celery I was forced to settle for a distinctly sub-par option.

-For the past few weeks I have not been able to motivate myself to read recreationally (aside from newspapers). A few days ago I was listening to an interview on The Sound of Young America with Chip Kidd and realized that we had one of the authors book at our apartment. Almost as soon as I located the book I started reading it and am now almost done. It is great to be reading recreationally again. My next problem will be to find something to read once I am done with this book.


-Several more of my beans have sprouted. While dealing with the newly sprouted plants I decided that I would like one of the pots in my room. This means that I can now spend my time watching my beans grow instead of doing work. The picture is of the variety of plants are presently in my window (left to right: banana plant, aloe droplets, corn, thyme, yellow beans, bay tree).

-Last night we had chicken rice soup for dinner. In a divergence from my normal pattern, the pieces of meat were actually large enough to identify as meat, and there was more than one piece per bowl. Though I might be biased, I thought it was pretty passable.

-Google Analytics seems to be showing an increase in search activity for our blog in the past few days. Not exactly sure what is causing the surge in interest or why it all seems to be because of people finding us through web searches.

-On Thursday night the fire alarm in our building sounded at about 11:00. Once we had gathered things like our pass-ports we made our way outside. Within a few minutes a few fire trucks arrived to check out the building. Fortunately, nothing was on fire and we were able to head back in. Though as this was taking place Neil and Rebecca decided to go to Video Difference to rent a movie. I quickly decided to tag along (though only after I dropped off my belongings).


-Last night, while trying to work on a project I started to play around with some of the features associated with my computer's built-in camera. The following is one of the ways I was busy wasting my time.