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?