2004: Summer of Logic

A few years ago, I think it may have been the Summer of 2004, Neil and I took an undergraduate logic class (taught as a philosophy course) together, along with a few other math people. Not surprisingly, given their previous encounters with much of the material, most of the math guys did quite well with the material. Given my proximity to the math guys, and my unwillingness to be bested by too wide a margin by Neil, I also did pretty well with most of the content.

Unfortunately, many of the others in the class didn't have such an easy time with the material. One girl, try as she might, could never seem to make it through the practice questions without a handful of questions (most of which demonstrated her complete failure to comprehend the material). Another few also drew attention to themselves in a variety of ways, though one student in particular stood out, eventually getting the nickname Humpty-Dumpty as he thought words should be understood in terms of that which they were being used to refer.

Just moments ago I finally came across the passage (though I had heard the story paraphrased by the prof.) in Through the Looking Glass that gave rise to this guy's nickname. So here it is, the quote that was the reason for Humpty-Dumpty's nickname:

"When I use a word," said Humpty-Dumpty in a scornful tone, "it means what I want it to mean, neither more nor less."

I am sure all involved would be pleased to know that Neil and I still refer to Humpty-Dumpty all these years later.

A Few Quick Notes 374

-Today was another less than perfect day in Halifax. While there were periods of no rain, the day was marred by longer periods of rain.

-We had chicken noodle soup for dinner tonight. While I originally was hoping to make the noodles from scratch I eventually ran out of time and ended up using some from a box. I guess my noodle making attempt will have to wait for another day.

-Neil and I have our first Winter league ultimate game tomorrow. While we recognize the names of a few people playing in the league we don't know any of other members of our team.

-For the past few days I have been spending a fair bit of my time marking. The batch of essays I have before me need to be done by Monday. I guess this means that I should probably try to complete at least another two or three this evening.

-Neil and I gave each other haircuts today. While Neil's hair wasn't that long, mine was approaching 12 inches in places. I think that both haircuts were justified and will be good in the long-run.

-As much as I would like to keep on going, I think it is probably best if I try to make my way back to the aforementioned marking.

Dos and Don'ts while visiting Paris

Earlier this afternoon I was talking with my friend Jess about her upcoming trip to Paris. While we were talking about her trip I was reminded of my trip to Paris for Easter in 1995, and a few of the aspects of the trip that I would repeat and a few others that I wouldn't. Then tonight it seemed like the appropriate next step would be to create lists of some of these things so that our entire readership is able to take advantage of my experiences and integrate the information in their own Paris travel plans.

So I guess I might as well start with the positive stuff, the Dos

-Do go to the Eiffel Tower and do pay for the elevator ride to the top. I learned the hard way that while it is cheaper to take the stairs you don't get to the top that way.

-Do eat a baguette or two. When I was there they were a pretty cheap and tasty way of sustaining oneself while touring.

-Do watch local TV, it tends to be a little more daring than what you find in North America. This is particularly important if you are a twelve year-old boy when you are making the trip.

-Do visit the Moulin Rouge area, particularly if you haven't already been to a red light/sex district. I know that it is something that I haven't forgotten (though this may have something to do with me being a twelve year-old boy at the time).

-Do go to McDonald's and get a beer, if only so that you can tell me how the experience is (I wasn't able to partake when I was last there and have since been wondering how the beer is in a fast food restaurant).

-Do go to the Notre Dame bell tower.

-Do know how to ask where the bathroom is before you arrive.

-Do plan your trips to be bathroom in advance as you might encounter pay toilet situations or places with pesky attendants (which are best avoided).

-Do get on a train to the correct airport/transportation terminal when it comes time for you to leave.

That's about enough positivity, now I should move on to the don'ts.

-Don't stay in a hotel in Chinatown, it is definitely out of the way.

-Don't order the footlong hot dogs they sell in the Eiffel tower (they lube them up with something and then ram them in a baguette).

-Don't pay to go on the sewer tour, instead walk in the exit as the people from the previous tour are leaving (though don't do this knowingly or it takes the fun out of the experience).

-Don't go to the Palace of Versailles on Spring fountain cleaning day. Choose one of the 364 days of the year when the fountains are not shooting black gunk out of their spouts.

-Don't give your extra fast food restaurant food to homeless kids unless you want them to follow you around.

-Don't be a complete cheapskate all of the time.

I guess that is all I have for the moment, though I am sure that more will come to me at some point in the not too distant future. If I am appropriately motivated I may even get around to posting them here.

How is it possible that I am tired

So far today I have had three Coke Zeros, 1 liter of coffee, 2 cups of tea, and 1 hour long nap, yet I am still exhausted.

Not just exhausted but so tired I am having trouble concentrating.

And all of this is less than twelve hours after I woke up this morning. How is it possible that I can feel as though I could go to sleep right now?

As I have a few more things to do tonight I will have to find a way to power through for at least a few more hours.

Cornwallis park peace protests

About an hour ago a number of people showed up to protest the defence conference called the Halifax Forum. The event is being held in the Westin Nova Scotian, just across the street from Cornwallis Park, where the protests are being held. At just after the appointed hour not all that many people were there, though eventually a few more did show up.

This clip was taken at just after 1:00 PM.



[Embedded video]

When I went back to watch things a little later a sheet was in the process of being placed over the statue of Cornwallis.



Below the statue there was a little of the traditional call and response and drum banging going on.

All in all, things seemed to be pretty calm the last time I looked. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but the turnout out really wasn't as big as I expected given the list of attendees and the amount of time that people had to plan the event.

Montifax goes legit

Some of you may have been wondering about the credibility of some of the content found on Montifax. Turns out there is no need to worry, we provide content that is of a high enough quality that it can be cited in an academic publication.

I guess I should explain how I know that this is the case.

Earlier tonight while I was waiting for various SSHRC application/from pages to load I started strolling around the internet. In particular I was curious to see who was linking to Montifax these days (if you are curious, it is a rather short list of sites). I

Interestingly, one of the results that was returned was both new and a little different than some of the others. By following the link I was taken to an article in the Journal of English Linguistics by Sandra Clarke and Philip Hiscock. The article, entitled "Authenticity in an Online Newfoundland Rap GroupHip-hop in a Post-insular Community: Hybridity, Local Language, and Authenticity in an Online Newfoundland Rap Group," examines the content and context of the Gazeebow Unit phenomenon.

By taking a quick look at the article I was able to see that they had included a quote of mine from A Few Quick Notes 38. In the chosen quote I suggest not only that I have recently been "thinking about my favourite Newfoundland hip-hop/rap group, Gazeebow Unit" but also that "For those of you who have not heard Gazeebow Unit you are in for a surprise/treat. The skeet lifestyle has never before received such an eloquent treatment."

Anyway, in a strange way this seems to at least partly justify the time I have spent on Montifax over the past few years (though this was a comment that I wrote in the early months of the blog).

Attack of the bots

It seems that our comments sections are being spammed rather frequently these days (meaning about once a day for the past few days). I wonder if this means that we will have to implement some type of anti-spam bot filter in these areas?

I guess I am thinking about this because Neil directed me towards VK Couples Testing a few days ago. When I ran the test with Rebecca, just so that I could figure it out, I ended up failing (though only by missing the case on the final 'n').

Anyway, if we are motivated you might see a few changes in our comments section in the coming days (though the more I think about it the more I get the sense that these spam comments actually make it look as though people are reading our blog).

A Few Quick Notes 373

-Today was another great day in Halifax. Though it was above 10 for the better part of the day it is apparently forecast to drop as low as -2 tonight. I am somewhat curious whether this will actually happen or not. At the moment we need to drop another 10 degrees to get there (and that is on top of the 5 that we have already lost since today's high this afternoon).

-We had another tofu stir-fry for dinner tonight.

-Neil and Rebecca attended a few of the torch ceremonies yesterday evening. I was a little bit confused about when and where things were happening so I didn't participate (though I did get a free pre-torch Coke Zero while I was at Dal). Apparently they saw people like Dexter, Campbell, and maybe Crosby.

I guess I should also note that I am probably not a particularly big fan of the Olympic torch relay. The thing about it that I have been finding particularly frustrating is that every day they have been including a half-page story on page 3 of the Globe and Mail about the torch relay. This wasn't news to begin with and it certainly isn't news now that we are three weeks.

-I spent the afternoon in the Nova Scotia archives. While I wasn't as productive as I might have liked to have been, I think that in the end it should be considered a pretty productive trip. Not only did I find some of the stuff I was looking for, I also found a neat letter about Newfoundland in the 1920s.

-I just got back from the grocery store, where I had gone to buy another 10 pounds of carrots before the store closed for the night and the next week's pricing scheme was implemented. In the past week we have purchased 30 pounds of carrots at $1.99 per 10 pound bag. At the moment we have almost 30 pounds of carrots in our fridge.

-The German Marshall Fund sponsored defence conference is supposed to start tomorrow. According to a website I found a few days ago the protest plan is to picket the hotel's entrance tomorrow afternoon (if I recall correctly) and then hold the full-fledged protest on Saturday. I may or may not be here while the pre-protest is on-going tomorrow, but I will definitely try to grab a few pics of Saturday's events.

-I am in the midst of some marking, which is definitely going more slowly that I would like it to be.

From deep in the archives

Mr. Smith, a representative of the Government of Canada, spend several months in Newfoundland in the early 1920s while he was gathering information on the Labrador boundary dispute. While Smith was in St. John's he met with a number of prominent public figures on a relatively regular basis, providing him with some sense of the political climate of the day. It should be noted that Smith had been in Newfoundland 20 years earlier and seemed familiar with the individuals involved in public life at that time as well.

The following are a few sections of a relatively long and detailed letter Mr. Smith wrote on March 1, 1922 to W.S. Fielding, the Canadian Minister of Finance, about the situation he observed in Newfoundland. (For the real keeners among our readership, the letter in its entirety can be found in the Public Archives of Nova Scotia/NSARM at MG 2 vol. 528, folder 112, item 7370)

When describing the poor quality of parliamentary proceedings Smith notes that

the galleries having been packed by the Opposition, with idlers who had orders to interrupt the proceedings of the Government by heckling and otherwise annoying the ministers and their supporters. The disturbance reached a height that compelled the interposition of the long enduring Speaker, who ordered the Galleries to be cleared. Sir Michael Cashin, the leader of the Opposition, then got up and addressing the Galleries, said “Boys, this is your house, are you going to be ordered out of it”? With one voice the galleries should “No”, and the House itself adjourned.

That the use of the Gallery for the purposes of annoyance, was not a monopoly of the Opposition, I learned a night or two later. At the house of a friend where I was to meet Sir Richard Squires at dinner, Sir Richard came late, and announced exultantly that a Ministerial gallery, had effectually silenced the Opposition that afternoon.

I myself was a witness of a scene of the Government being overawed and overborne by a mob. Some thousand or more strikers gathered in front of the Legislative building, and when the house opened, as many as could find room crowded into the galleries. Three of their leaders addressed the Premier in the chamber, denouncing him for his conduct towards them, and demanding that their requests should be conceded. The Premier, after an attempt to parley, surrendered, and was flayed by the Opposition for the way he had treated the men, amidst applause and hooting of horns from the Gallery. The whole town was in a state of disorder. Many men were out of work, with the usual suffering, and in May, a general strike broke out among the longshore [sic] men. This was regarded as serious, and, to prevent an outbreak, themen [sic] on two British war vessels which were in the harbour, paraded Water Street, the principal business street of the town.

Indeed, the avowed object of these war vessels, was to impose a check on possible riots.

The unemployed continue to besiege the Government Offices, but with an empty treasury, little could be done. The Government endeavored to procure a loan of $150,000. for the City Council from the Royal Bank, and when the Bank intimated that the guarantee, by which the Government proposed to cover the loan should include a large sum already owing the Bank by the City, the Premier, in the House, denounced the management of the Bank as “a bunch of Shylocks”.

I found this description of Richard Squires rather amusing.

Sir Richard Squires, the premier, is perhaps 45 years of age, a lawyer without standing in his profession, and, his enemies say, very unscrupulous. Even his friends do not claim for him any excess of candour. He is said to be, not perhaps anti-British, but pro-American in his tastes, a rather rare thing down there. But he is so given to gasconnade that it is difficult to get at his real sentiments.

If all goes well I will be heading back to the archives tomorrow.

Hypocrisy $tar$ in the Globe or a Comment on Rex's latest column

As is my Saturday morning habit I started the morning off with a pot of coffee, breakfast, and the Globe and Mail. Not to long after I started making my way through the paper I ended up on the last page of the first section. After quickly skimming the page I decided that I would skip to Rex Murphy's column and then call it for that section.

It soon became clear that Murphy was using the column to take issue with the relatively large, and growing, budgets associated with Hollywood blockbusters (and particularly the monstrous budgets associated with James Cameron). Murphy seemed to find the contrast between the general economic restraint associated with a recession and these ever growing budgets something beyond distasteful. Eventually Murphy introduced the idea that the 'stars' in these films are now sometimes paid more than $20 million for their 'work.' Jim Carrey, and a few recent comments about greed and ambition, received particular attention and criticism.

As much as I might agree with Murphy about the absurdity of pay rates of contemporary Hollywood actors, I think that he missed the larger picture by making them the central component of his critique. These pay packages are really only a very small part of the picture when it comes to the economic implications of a Hollywood blockbuster (particularly a $500 million blockbuster, such as the one James Cameron is trying to make).

Unlike the picture that Murphy paints, the money used to make these movies does not just disappear, nor is it a case of feeding babies or making a movie (without such a movie no more money will go to the perpetuation of the welfare state). More accurately, money is invested a number of interests/corporations and people and then disbursed as salaries or payments during the making of the film. A much better way of thinking about a $500 million film is as a project that will take $500 million from corporate backers and distribute it among those parties involved in the production process. So instead of this money being wasted, it is likely providing pay cheques to thousands of individuals during the course of the production of the movie. If successful, such a movie would the replenish the coffers of the investors allowing them to invest in future projects. Ideally the cycle will repeat itself without pause (creating jobs and economic growth with each iteration).

I guess what I found strange about the column Murphy's seeming unwillingness to accept that transactions like those that result from the funding of a movie are what fundamentally drive our economy. To associate Carrey's comments about ambition and greed with such a picture was a rhetorical trick that did nothing but obscure the larger picture as well as the specific outcomes that are likely to come from a $500 million movie.

Only by investing money and creating jobs are we likely to exit such a recession. Staying at home and keeping our bank accounts tightly secured, on the other hand, isn't a viable solution to the problem.

While one may not like the package that comes with the Hollywood blockbuster (and I am not a big fan) it seems unfair not to acknowledge the positive economic benefits that are likely to flow from such enterprises. To impugn major capital investments, even if they are for Hollywood films, in a period of time when their absence is a notable part of the problem seems not only to be unreasonable, but to demonstrate a lack of understanding or misperception of the problem currently being faced by the economy.

So, yes, Jim Carrey may make ridiculous comments and be paid too much but that doesn't mean that blockbuster movies may not actually help us move out of the recession. Most importantly, it is not the case, as Murphy's comments seem suggest, that we should sit back with a sense of quiet respect and acquiescence as the recession runs rampant and refuse to attend movies, or other participate in other forms of economic activity that may stimulate further economic activity and growth.

It is rather ironic that Murphy didn't catch the hypocrisy in his own column yet was so quick to jump on it in Hollywood.

A Few Quick Notes 372

-Today (Friday) was quite nice. It was about 10 during the middle of the day, though it has not dropped to just above freezing. For the past few days the weather has been like this, which is nice as it makes for very pleasant walks to school.

-We had pork chops, couscous, and vegetables for dinner tonight. I know that Neil and I were both pleasantly surprised with how tasty and moist the pork chops were. I think our surprise came not because of any inability to cook pork chops that I might have, but rather because the chops were on the thin side (so more likely to dry out).

-My tobacco harvesting has really picked up in the past few days. At the moment I have 13 leaves drying, and a few more basically ready to go into the storage container. At some point soon I am going to have to start figuring out what I want to do with them (a thought that regular readers of this blog will likely find somewhat repetitive).

-A few days ago I made a batch of rum balls. Much to my surprise they have been quite popular. When I was making them I assumed that I would slowly pick away at them for a weeks until they were gone. As things stand now I may actually need to make another batch in a few days if I want more.

-It seems that the German Marshall Fund and Peter MacKay will be hosting a big security conference from November 20-22 at a hotel near our apartment. A week ago I had the pleasure of speaking with a local peace activist who was kind enough to inform me that protests have been scheduled for the conference. While I wasn't to surprised to learn that protestors would be present, particularly when I started to get a better sense of who would be attending, I was a little surprised to learn that this would all be going down within a few hundred feet of our apartment. I guess we will just have to wait and see how things go. Hopefully I will be able to snag a few photos or some video of the events.

-This morning when I woke up I discovered that my shoulder was hurting (I don't think it is enough to worry about it). I guess what surprises me is why this might be the case. What could I have done to myself during the night to have caused such a situation? Hopefully things will be back to normal by tomorrow.

-Today I signed up for a Google Wave account. At the moment I am not really sure if I will have an occassion to use such a service but it seemed that it would be better to have access than not.

Not a good semester for clothing

Just a few minutes ago I was putting on one of my cardigans when one of my fingers got stuck. Upon closer inspection I learned that what happened was that my finger slipped through a recently developed hole at the elbow on the left arm of the sweater. Though it hasn't developed a hole yet, I can now see that the right elbow is also starting to give way. I wonder if it is possible to patch such a hole?



This development is of course after a few similar clothing tragedies that have already occurred this semester.

The first problem occurred when I attempted to wash my wool sweater vest. Even though I used only cold water and air dried it, the vest managed to shrink. Now it is definitely tighter in the chest and doesn't quite come down to my waist. A definite bummer as it was otherwise a pretty nice sweater vest, and the only one that I owned.

More recently I was hanging up my 10+ year old Hawaiian shirt when I noticed that the shirt had worn out in the back. I guess this isn't surprising as I have been wearing this shirt pretty regularly for over ten years (I purchased it at a going out of business sale when I was in high school). Though I should have expected such a development it is still disappointing.

The problem is that if I keep going at this rate I won't have any clothing by the time spring rolls around. I guess when one does their best to avoid buying new clothing this is the type of problem they are eventually likely to encounter.

A Few Quick Notes 371

-Regular readers will know that we had some rather poor weather today. The worst part of the mess was the slush that resulted from the combination of the snow and rain. Fortunately, the precipitation seems to have stopped, at least for the time being.

-Earlier this evening I cut up a few vegetables. Of course it seemed like a good idea to make a time-lapse video of the ordeal.



[Embedded video]

-I attended the second half of a one day conference this afternoon. The conference was in honour of the 100th anniversary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. I arrived just after the lunch break as the Assistant Deputy Minister was speaking. By coming in part way through his talk I kind of missed the gist of the whole thing.

-We might play a few games this evening.

-The tofu kick continues. We had a tofu stir-fry for dinner and we have another pound in the fridge, ready to go.

Well this was a bit of a surprise

At some point yesterday I think I heard a few rumours about snow, but I don't recall if they were about Halifax or St. John's. Anyway, as the forecast didn't seem to mention snow I put such thoughts out of my mind.

This morning I woke up to find this.



It seems that not only did we have snow, we actually had a few centimeters of snow. The worst part was that by the time I awoke much of the snow had started to turn to slush and was also be accompanied by rain.

Not surprisingly, I got soaked on my walk to school. Fortunately by the time I started to make my way back home things generally calmed down and I didn't get re-soaked.

A Few Quick Notes 370

-It was a pretty nice day until just a few hours ago, when it started raining. Unfortunately, it seems that the forecast is suggesting that this is the type of weather that we will be getting tomorrow.

-For dinner tonight I prepared a pork roast, mashed potatoes, carrots, and beans and corn. I also quickly made a raspberry pie for desert. For those of you who are curious, the lard-based crust was light and flaky.

-The pork roast was part of a relatively large piece of pork loin that I purchased a few days ago. I turned the portion of meat not included in the roast into pork chops. I was quite surprised to see that I ended up with 12, I really would have expected about 7 had I been asked to guess in advance (but fortunately I wasn't asked to make such a guess).

-I have started testing out the free samples of male-targeted toiletries I received a few days ago. As expected, I have noticed that I have that traditional from-a-bottle/stereotypical man smell. As nice is give myself the pretense of being particularly manly, I am not sure that I will be able to deal with these scented products for much longer.

-My big news from school is that yesterday a fellow Ph.D. student and I rearranged the Ph.D. office so that all six desks are accessible. Prior to our changes only three of the six desks were accessible. Hopefully the other students who use the room, who weren't directly consulted, will find the changes as positive as I do.

-Oh man, I have so much work that I have been avoiding today. I guess I should try to get a little done before I turn in.

-I guess since I mentioned that I was watching the World Series yesterday I might as well mention that the Yankees were victorious. Unfortunately, the portion of the game that I watched wasn't particularly exciting (though once I started watching I couldn't stop until it was over).

It's all gone to pots

A few days ago I mentioned that I had emptied most of my container garden and was, as a result of these actions, left with quite a number of dirty plant pots on our balcony.



I allowed these pots to sit on the balcony for a few days. The most significant reason why I didn't do anything with them was because of the time commitment that would have been required. Anyway, every day they were there they were eating away at me (even more because I knew how I was going to clean them when it came time).

This afternoon while dinner was in the oven I finally got around to cleaning the pots. I filled two buckets with hot water and added detergent to one of the buckets. As you might have guessed, one of the buckets was for washing and the other for rinsing. Amazingly, this system seemed to work pretty well and in not too long (and only one water change later) I was done with the washing part of the process.

After allowing the freshly washed pots to dry outside for a few hours I moved them inside to my bedroom to finish the final stages of drying.



A little while ago I was able to stack them up. My hope is that this is where they will stay for the winter and that I will be ready to go as soon as spring rolls around and I start my early planting.



For our more observant readers, I did have to store a few of the lids/trays and the planter in my closet. For a while I was hoping that I would be able to get everything in this stack.

A Few Quick Notes 369

-I guess today was a little nicer than I expected it would be, meaning that I don't recall it raining.

-This change in the daylight allocation is really doing me in. It is now bright in them mornings when I get up on the early side of things and dark early in the afternoon. I think if it was up to me I would have kept things as they were before, but I guess the 9-5ers are a slightly more populous group that grad students without many morning commitments.

-All three of us are watching game 6 of the World Series. The funny thing is that while we are doing this we are using at least three computers (Neil and Rebecca are in the living from while I am in my room with my computer).

-A few minutes ago I looked at the grocery store fliers for the upcoming week and was pleased to see that a few of my favourite products will be on sale, notably cheap beef, pineapple, and potatoes.

-My baked fries should be ready momentarily. Much to my chagrin, I ended up throwing the entire bag on the tray.

-The Yankees just brought Rivera in.

A Few Quick Notes 368

-Today was definitely not as nice as yesterday. For the better part of the morning and early afternoon it was raining. Eventually things cleared up, though the earlier rain and low temperatures and lack of sun meant that everything was still wet at sunset.

-For the past few weeks I have been more frequently using the nice fountain pen that Neil gave me a few years ago. While I have been using this pen intermittently for the past few years, this is the first time that I have really given it sustained use. Now that I am using it on a regular basis I keep wondering why I haven't been using it on a daily basis since Neil gave it to me.

The only downside about my present rate of use is that I basically need to top-up the refillable reservoir once a day, and sometimes more frequently. Amazingly, the bottle of ink that I acquired a few months ago still appears to be quite full (so I guess each pen refilling session really doesn't use that much ink).

-I received a nice batch of four free samples this afternoon. I had been expecting that they would take much longer to arrive than they did. As the samples are all mens toiletries I will likely have a more stereotypical man smell for the next few weeks while I work my way through the body wash, shampoo, and anti-perspireant that I acquired today. Fortunately, the free disposable razor (the sample I am most looking forward to using) shouldn't impart much of a scent (unless you count blood from the nicks and cuts that are sure to result from my moderately inept shaving).

-This afternoon I learned that John Hodgman has a podcast. As far as I can tell there are only about 8 episodes so far, each of which is less than a minute, so it should be easy to catch up (though I still have a few episodes to go before I am fully up to speed with things).

-My lithotripsy session seemed to go well this morning, though things were a little delayed so I had a little more sitting around than I expected. The other thing that I keep finding weird about the experience is that during the history taking part of the process (which happens shortly after I arrive) they keep asking me different questions. The result is that it looks as though I am giving them different information each time I come even though I keep telling them the truth. I find this not only unpleasant, but very upsetting. I keep thinking that by the second or third time I should know how the process works and not be continually thrown for a loop during the history taking part of the process. Oh, and if you were curious, I received 3000 shocks at power level 3 (not that that means all that much to me).

A Few Quick Notes 367

-As far as I recall, today was a pretty nice day. As I now seem to have many fewer hours of sunlight exposure, the weather is making less and less of an impression on me (that is until it rains or is remarkably unpleasant in some other way).

-We have been having a slow internet problem for some number of weeks now. The incredible slowness of our connection was driven home today when I was at school with my computer and using a regular speed connection for the first time in weeks. Amazingly, things like my email inbox didn't take seconds to load and podcasts zipped from the internet to my hard drive. Of course the irony is that all of this happened at about the same time I received an automated call informing me that our internet service had been improved and that our connection speed had increased by 40%. (Rebecca and I are both waiting for Neil to call and either lodge a complaint or figure out what is going on, until then we will likely have to muddle through).

-I harvested some of my thyme today and have bundled it to dry. What I find amazing about this process is how little of the herb I get at the end of such a process. The last time I did this I ended up getting less than a quarter of a spice bottle of dried thyme from what seemed like a handful of sprigs. Given our slow rate of production I guess it is a good thing that I am not prone to using very much thyme in my cooking.

-On Friday I attended a seminar in the political science department. Amazingly, even after several emails from faculty and staff, I was the only student in attendance. Actually, when things started I was about 20% of the audience (and I knew three of other four audience members). I was a little surprised that so few of my fellow students attended.

-A few of my tobacco plants are now close to two feet tall. The other development is that the rate at which I am harvesting leaves is also increasing. I am starting to have a little (and I should make very clear that I really mean little) supply/stash of dried leaves. As of yet I have no idea what I might do with these leaves as I don't smoke and I am not sure that anyone that I do know that smokes would possibly want them. I guess I will just go on collecting them for now and figure something out later.



-A few days ago I made what was to be my last tomato harvest of the season.



Shortly after harvesting these tomatoes I ploughed in my plants, or, more accurately, I ditched the root heavy soil and plants. I now have a rather large collection of empty pots and garden things that I need to clean and then bring in for the winter.



Hopefully I will get a chance to do some of this cleaning either on Wednesday or Thursday, though Friday is another possibility.

-My Halloween evening didn't go exactly as planned.

Firstly, as Peter, Neil, and I were walking over to the local shopping complex to pick up some beer and last minute supplies we noticed a number of police cars with flashing lights. As we approached the scene we could see that they were talking to someone, but we couldn't really figure out what necessitated 5 police vehicles. When we entered the liquor store the security guard wasn't able to provide us with any further information.

Eventually, Peter and I made it to the political science event, which was much better attended than I expected. I think that there were about 8 people (including us) for a while, then another two arrived. Eventually, another guy and his wife (and her brothers) showed up (though they may have arrived independent of our event). All things considered I think it was a success. There has been some discussion of further events in the near future.

We ended up not making the history party because of the relatively poor bus service to the part of town where the party was being held. We basically would have had an hour from the time the bus dropped us off to the time we had to catch the last bus back to town. That this would have left us with at most 30 minutes at the party we decided that the couldn't be reasonably justified. In the end we came back and played two games of Settlers (in the second game we used the new anti-robber rule that Neil and I have been working on).

-I am due up for another round of lithotripsy tomorrow. The good news is that I appear to actually have an appointment this time, unlike the last two times I was scheduled to go in. The downside is that this will probably hamper my work schedule a little, though I guess it is worth it if it means that I don't have to pass a full-fledged kidney stone.

-Oh man have I ever been on a bit of a tofu tear these past few days. I think that in the past four days I have purchased about 5 pounds of the stuff. Originally I had been buying the high end organic stuff for $2.39 a pound, but today I discovered the bargain basement stuff that goes for 99 cents a pound (a pound of which I bought). Anyway, whether I am buying the classy organic stuff or the discount swill, I don't see how my pocketbook and general health won't be the overall winners.

-I hate it when I am tired but then can't get to sleep for hours. The worst part is that as the time passes I get more nervous about the amount of sleep that I am not getting, making it even less likely that I will be able to get to sleep anytime soon. I really wish I understood why this happens to me occasionally as it doesn't seem to correspond to how tired I feel (though it must).