The Dark Side

I now reside in an apartment with cable TV - Cake Boss/TLC/VISION here I come.

A Few Quick Notes 463

-We had something of an overcast day today in Halifax. As I didn't really spend that much time outdoors the absence or presence of sun had little effect on me.

-It seems that yesterday's election in New Brunswick will result in a change of government. After a few years out of power the Conservatives have been returned to government, of course without Bernard Lord as leader. While I was more aware of the fact that New Brunswick was having an election than I ever have been before, I somehow know next to nothing about what drove this election or what any of the key issues were. Consequently, I have no idea why the voters in New Brunswick opted for such a change (that being said, I have to assume that attempted sale of the power utility may have had something to do loss of support of the Liberals).

-I recently received my new US passport, which means that I got it just in time for my upcoming trip to Phoenix, Arizona. Hopefully my first trip to a place with 'dry heat' will go well.

-I cranked out four loads of laundry today. Wow, that was a fair bit of laundry.

-I made a really sub-par batch of black bean soup this evening. I think that the soup was somewhat undermined by my inclusion of some really bad ham and canned rather than soaked black beans.

-In relation to yesterday's post about strange news article titles, I thought that I should pass along this gem from Newfoundland: Mount Pearl fire drill turns serious.

How did any of these things happen?

Earlier today I happened to see a story that reported that the owner of the company that makes Segways has died, apparently in a freak cliff/Segway accident. Though the details surrounding the death have not all been released, it seems that his body was found below a cliff next to a Segway. I should note that that the individual who died, Jimi Heselden, is not the inventor of the product, Dean Kamen. (A few years ago, when I was living in New York, I happened to be listening to Matt Drudge's weekly radio show when he broke the story of the Segway. While then hailed as an invention that was likely to revolutionize modern transportation, these scooters seem to have still had only limited market penetration.)

After seeing this strange (and tragic) story also also saw a few more that struck me as odd, though with a similar je ne sais quoi.

Firstly, there was CBC's follow-up to their story "Tug-of-war severs man's fingers," "Man's fingers reattached after tug-of-war injury." Amazingly, they seem to have been able to reattach the victim's four fingers, though the the reattachment procedure apparently required a 25 hour surgery. The strangest part of the whole story is that no one seems to know how the fingers came to be severed in the first place. They also didn't explain the mechanics behind a 25 hour surgery. Was there more than one surgical team? Did they do it in shifts? Simply put, the public needs more details.

Of course, I wouldn't want to forget "5,000 chickens dead in road accident." I imagine that if I was slightly more talented in the the writing of humorous comments I could come up with a good way of tying the title of this story to the classic joke structure "Why did the chicken cross the road?" Given my ineptness when it comes to writing such things I will just leave it to each reader to make the connections themselves (I don't think it should be too hard).

What I find funny about all three of these stories is that I didn't have to go looking for me, though various mechanisms they all came to me.

A Few Quick Notes 462

-Today was a predominately overcast day in Halifax, though we did have occasional periods of more intense sun.

-Today at the grocery store I was able to purchase 22.2 pounds of food for $5.97. Even more impressive is that 20 of those pounds cost only $2.98. For those of you who are curious, I purchased 10 pounds of potatoes for $1.99, 10 pounds of carrots for $.99, and 2.2 pounds of green beans for $2.99.

-We had roast beef and mashed potatoes for dinner tonight. I quite enjoyed the meal, though isn't really that surprising as roast beef and mashed potatoes are two of my favourite foods (not that most of you really care).

-On Saturday I was reminded of my embryonic attempts at game development a few years ago with Montifax: The Board Game. Maybe I should try to bring this project back to life, at least on a part-time basis. I think it would be neat to eventually have a playable version of the game, even if that is as far as it goes.

-Friday's Pauly Shore show has come and gone. And while I didn't manage to get free tickets to the show, I was able to find something of a review from someone who did. As a side note, I can confirm that the local comedian, Peter White, who is positively mentioned in this review is as funny as suggested. I had the pleasure of seeing this guy perform a few weeks ago at a show at Bearly's.

-Even though it is now after midnight, I should get back to work and try to finish an article I have to read.

Hair cut

I was recently reminded that I will shortly be heading to a wedding. One of the most important aspects of this reminder was that it finally allow me to accept that I would be well served by getting a haircut. At some point yesterday I decided that today should be the day that I get my haircut.

As I am not really into barbershop cuts these days I decided to get a kitchen haircut. Jeannette, somewhat to my surprise, wholeheartedly agreed to provide me with such a haircut. Originally, I also expected Neil's participation.

By the time that I finally got around to sitting down for my haircut I had to rely on Jeannette alone (though this isn't to suggest a lack of confidence in her abilities).

Actually, I am quite impressed with my new haircut. Even though I insisted that Jeannette use the clippers instead of scissors I don't have a haircut that looks as though my head was buzzed. I think that this haircut is one that, if regularly maintained, should last for a while.

Anyway, I now have one of my pre-trip preparations out of the way. Now I have just a few more things to take care of (like packing, the purchasing of a wedding gift, and trip planning) before heading.

Well put

Check out Rebecca's recent post. I couldn't have said it better myself.

A Few Quick Notes 461

-We had another great day in Halifax today. Unfortunately, I didn't really get to take advantage of the great weather.

-We managed to win our Ultimate game last night, though it certainly wasn't pretty. Sadly, we should have forced the win through the power of the default though we, for reasons unknown to me, didn't take advantage of that opportunity. Anyway, the resulting game was a bit infraction-heavy and touchy, which wasn't too surprising given people's nerves going into things.

Jeannette had a somewhat different take on the game. She quite enjoyed the experience as she caught 3 of our 9 points and generally played well. Of course, even these successes are somewhat tempered by the fact one of our players broke a toe and another player bruised their knee (a somewhat serious injury that was accompanied by a somewhat serious crunching sound).

-This evening Neil and I attended the 3rd annual Ransom A. Myers Lecture on Science and Society. This evening's lecture dealt with science communication. I was particularly intrigued to hear the story about the run-up to the public of the Myers and Worm paper published in Nature in 2003. Apparently Myers and Worm worked with a science communications expert (the woman giving the lecture) to prepare for the release of the paper and were thus ready to capitalize on its release. The extent of the success of their strategy still impresses me.

-I have been busily working since school started a few weeks ago. I suspect that this pace will continue until at least the end of my degree program. Bummer.

-Apparently my breath stinks at the moment. Maybe I should go do something about it. Word on the street is that my not doing anything about it is rude.

-Oh, I guess I should also mention that Igor's effects are still being felt around Newfoundland. Not only are matters relating to property and road damage still being resolved, but key portions of St. John's (and presumably elsewhere) are still without power.

Big Show

Tomorrow is the day of the big show in Halifax. Pauly Shore is playing the Nova Scotia. Though I don't yet have tickets, through the power of Twitter I have asked Mr. Shore if he has any extra free tickets (I am not really expecting a response).

For those of you who are interested, here is a sample of the comedy stylings of Pauly Shore that I will be missing by not going to tomorrow's show.



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Forget bungee jumping

SCAD (Suspended Catch Air Device) diving is an extreme activity that I recently heard about on RadioLab. It kind of makes bungee jumping look tame, though it doesn't have the face-first element that bungee jumping does.



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Of course squirrel suits make both SCAD diving and bungee jumping look tame.



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I guess what I am really getting at is that you should check Radiolab out if you are in the market for a great podcast.

Streaming Movies

It seems that as of today Netflix, at least the streaming component of their service, is available in Canada. It seems that the company is offering people a free month of access, after that the service will be $7.99 a month for unlimited streaming.

Amazingly, within just a few hours of the service going live and the free month deal being available Neil had signed up and started streaming content. When I returned from the university I found Neil and Rebecca watching About a Boy.

Hopefully this won't prove to be too much of a distraction in our apartment.

What amazes me the most about this service is that it has taken so long for it to come to Canada. Why are so many of these streaming content services so slow to come to Canada, at least in comparison to the US? Particularly because the absence of such services seems to encourage people to use the illegal alternatives.

A Few Quick Notes 460

-Much to my surprise today was beautiful. Instead of experiencing the side-effects of Hurricane Igor we had a pretty regular fall day.

-Contrary to what was reported by Reuters earlier today, Canada did not escape Hurricane Igor unscathed. As noted earlier today, Newfoundland has been suffering from Igor's consequences for the better part of the day. According to my family many trees have been knocked down and power is still out in certain parts of St. John's (and presumably the rest of the province).

Not surprisingly, a number of photos of the damage have been posted online already.

-Last night, after several people suggested that we use baited traps, we made the switch. So far it would seem that these baited traps have been a little less effective than the unbaited variety. Last night we didn't catch a single mouse though each of the two previous nights we caught mice with unbaited traps. Apparently you can mess with success.

-I should get back to work.

-Oh man, there are some associated with commenting on Globe and Mail news articles that will be rolled out over the next few days. Just tonight I learned that one of the major changes was something that I suggested. Maybe I will try to provide a few more details at a later date (and once the changes have been fully implemented).

Real weather

Since I have been on the mainland (2006), I have noticed that the meteorological events that are called 'storms' don't seem to really compare to some of the meteorological events that are given the same appellation in Newfoundland.

The Hurricane Earl vs. Hurricane Igor comparison is a good one, or so it seems to be to me.

The following is a video that I took of a good portion of the worst of Earl. As you can see, the plants still have their leaves. So while I do need to acknowledge that several trees were knocked over and power lines downed, it really wasn't that bad as far as hurricanes go.



[Embedded video]

As a point of contrast, this is a video taken during Igor's time in Newfoundland. Notice how an entire barn is washed away by the power of flowing water.



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I think it should now be clear where the real storms reside. (And I should be clear, I am fine with the Mainland having wimpier storms - just don't insult me by trying to claim that they are the same thing).

Another near miss

We managed to catch another mouse last night, this time with our kitchen/living room trap line. And, like our last catch, this mouse just barely managed to be caught. Apparently it was so lightly trapped that it dragged the trap to a hiding space, though wasn't able to bring the trap in with it.

My understanding is that it took Neil about an hour to deal with this.

The only good news, at least from my selfish perspective, is that I managed to sleep through this entire ordeal.

I presume four mice in about two weeks and two in two days indicates a problem?

Information Gathered

As some of you may recall, a few days ago I posted a poll asking our readers whether they preferred animal babies, celebrity babies (though it should have been celebrities' babies), or Muppet Babies. Now, after the requisite waiting period (which happens to be the same amount of time as the Blogger poll default), we have been able reach a conclusion as to which of these three options is preferred by our readership.

Amazingly, with the help of a last day vote, Muppet babies surged into the lead and obtained support from exactly 50% of those who voted. Not surprisingly, animal babies came second, with 41% of support. I was pleased to see that celebrity babies only managed to garner the support of 8% of those who took the time to vote.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to participate. I feel that we now one, admittedly small, step closer to understanding the human condition. A few more of these polls and we may have something of consequence.

Something approaching success

At about 8:00 AM this morning Neil and I were both roused from sleep by the sound of a mouse trap snapping shut. When we went out to investigate we learned that the trap had been set by a mouse, and that the mouse was still in the vicinity of the trap but was not quite dead.

After a little hemming and hawing as to how we should proceed, a scenario that likely wasn't helped by our respective sleepiness, we continued to hem and and haw. Then, as we were standing around the engaged trap, the mouse moved and engaged at least one more trap, this time catching another part of its body. The resulting situation was anything but pretty.

So this is all to say that while we were eventually able to catch yesterday's intruder it wasn't pretty, nor was it quick. Furthermore, the capturing of a third mouse in about two weeks would seem to suggest something of a real mouse problem. The only good news is that we seem to be slightly more proficient when it comes to trapping that we were even a few weeks ago.

False Alarm

Just a minute ago we all heard a snap-like sound come from the living room. Of course we were all hoping that it was a mouse trap with a mouse. Sadly, upon inspection we learned that none of the traps had been sprung and that the source of the noise was not immediately discernible.

I guess we will just have to keep waiting.

The invasion continues

After a day or two of mouse-free living, Rebecca and Neil happened to see a small mouse earlier this evening. At one point it seemed to be hiding out beneath the table holding Neil's printer.

Shortly after the mouse was observed in the living room Neil and I set up a few trap lines. We have one such line in the hallway that leads from the living room to the bedroom and another in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen. In each case a narrow gauntlet with multiple traps has been created. In addition to these (hopefully) impassable walls, we have scattered a few traps around the living room in areas that we suspect could be potential mouse highways (or where we have seen mice before).

I guess we should soon find out whether or not our most recent trapping efforts will be successful or not. I am hoping that they will be successful.

Oh, aside from this development meaning that we have a mouse, it also means that the hole that we located and filled with steel wool either hasn't been completely blocked or that it wasn't the only point of entry (a somewhat disheartening development).

A Few Quick Notes 459

-We are in the midst of another beautiful fall day in Halifax. Of note, though, is that this nice day is looking as though it will be sandwiched between two somewhat wet and unpleasant days.

-I am hoping to do a fair bit of reading today, though thus far I have not made much progress.

-We had something of a social gathering with the poli sci grad students yesterday. Considering how bad the weather was I was quite pleased without turnout of close to ten people (though that doesn't sound very impressive).

-I'm just stalling for time and space here.

-I think there might have been something else I wanted to say. Unfortunately I can't remember it at the moment.

The times have changed

I am presently in the midst of reading Governing From the Centre by Donald Savoie. Just a few minutes ago I came upon a section of the book that deals with Cabinet briefings and how they are conducted. Savoie noted that in many cases decks of slides, or 'decks' were the preferred mechanism for conducing such presentations. Savoie then goes on to include a very 1990s era statement on page 133:

Finance officials report that their minister, Paul Martin, has now taken decks to a new level. He prefers to brief Cabinet with power points rather than a simple deck. Power points are developed through the aid of the most modern computer techniques involving colour, large print, small print, and other forms of visual enhancement. The more substantive aspects of power points are captured in just a few words and, according to officials, do not lend themselves to in-depth policy disuccsions. They are, in the words of one, ‘overheads with panache, a kind of Disney production.’

I wish I could remember when PowerPoint seemed newfangled and technologically advanced. And, sadly, it seems that the characterization hat PowerPoint presentations have more 'panache' may have been a little too hopeful.

Big News on the Education front in Nova Scotia

It seems that a consultant's report has recently been submitted to the Government of Nova Scotia by Tim O'Neil on the subject of the university system in Nova Scotia. Not surprisingly, the consultant has made a number of recommendations.

One of the recommendations is to completely deregulate tuition, a change that would be expected to facilitate tuition increases. As a current Dalhousie student, and a former Memorial University of Newfoundland student, this particularly recommendation isn't particularly appealing to me. Furthermore, as the consultant notes, given a declining enrollment environment I don't see how increasing fees will help solve the financial problems of the universities. Actually, I can imagine a situation in which such a change may actually prove damaging. What will happen to enrollment in Nova Scotia universities if tuition fees in both Newfoundland and Quebec are several thousands of dollars less a year? Why would anyone come to high-priced, underfunded universities?

Another suggestion that the consultant makes is that a number of the universities consider merging. In particular, the consultant suggests that Nova Scotia Agricultural College, NSCAD and MSVU might be potential candidates for absorption or affiliation. I was a little surprised that the consultant recommended against a more all-encompassing set of mergers. I suspect that the duplication at the administrative level among Nova Scotia universities is quite costly. For instance, Nova Scotia seems to be paying 11 university presidents even though there are only 40 000 students, a number that in many jurisdictions in the United States might be associated with a single institution.

Of course there are a number of other recommendations that the consultant makes, but I found these two to be the juiciest. And I am sure that over the coming days we will see responses from groups associated with the universities and civil society. I suspect that at least some of these recommendations, notably the deregulation of tuition fees and potential mergers of long-standing institutions, will face serious public criticism. I am kind of curious to see how it all plays out.

Waterfront WiFi

Apparently a good chunk of the Halifax waterfront is now a free WiFi hotspot. It seems that the Waterfront Development Corporation has decided to provide this service to the public.

I am curious to know how popular this service will be as, at least as far as I know, most of the area in question is outdoors. Do many people use wireless devices while outside? While I might use my iPod Touch, it seems unlikely that I will bring my laptop along to the waterfront with me (though I suspect that I am more likely to now than ever before).

Anyway, I guess I wish this program well as I like the idea of having at least some free internet connectivity in public places, particularly as I am not a cell phone user.

Not too surprising

CBC is now reporting that a number of companies who provided services for concerts on the Halifax Common this summer haven't been paid. At least one of the companies quoted has indicated that they are owed a substantial sum of money (though exactly what that sum is was unstated).

After having viewed one of these shows from outside of the concert area, I can't say that I am surprised that funds are not flowing freely. Not only did it appear that not many people paid to attend the show, at least one seems to have made it in for free by hopping the fence.



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Also, after the concert it was reported that at some point during the final act the gates were opened and non-paying members of the public allowed to attend for free.

Anyway, when all of this is taken together with the fact that the acts were likely guaranteed a certain fee I don't see how the concert promoters couldn't have done anything but lose their shirts on this show.

And though at least one of the unpaid companies has indicated that they are confident they will eventually be paid, that they have participated in a story about not being paid seems to suggest at least some apprehension about whether or not they will receive payment. Maybe the aggressive action is aimed at encouraging such a payment? Anyway, whatever the case may be, I suspect that at least one party won't be making as much money as they expected on backs of Weezer and the Black Eyed Peas.

This isn't good

A few days ago it was swarmings, now it just seems to be robberies and beatings that are taking place in Halifax.

This most recent incident is particularly scary as it is my neighbourhood, a part of Halifax that is typically quite safe. I am starting to wonder if I should have a walking partner (or two) when I go out at night.

A Few Quick Notes 458

-Though today was mostly nice, we did have a brief period of heavy rain. Fortunately, this period of rain was brief and to the point.

-We had our first Fall Ultimate game this evening. Somehow we managed to tie the game. For most of the game it felt as though we were being smoked. At least this brings our undefeated streak to eight, a number that is surely a person record for both Neil and I.

-My Eight Treasure Porridge seemed to turn out pretty well. Not surprisingly, given the relatively short cooking time, the beans were quite undercooked and a little crunchy. I think that if I made it again I might try to soak everything overnight and then cook it in my pressure cooker for about an hour.

-At some point today Neil and Rebecca discovered a hole in the wall in our apartment. They suspect that this was one point of entry for mice, and I happen to think that they are likely right. Hopefully the plugging of this hole will lead to a diminishing of the mouse population in our apartment.

-Jeannette, much to my surprise, cancelled her Empire Avenue account cold turkey. I suspect the whole thing will be less fun if I don't have people to engage with in-person on related matters. Maybe I too will have to give things up in the near future as I really can't afford to spend much time engaging in such activities.

Eight Treasure Porridge

This afternoon, while making a quick trip to one of the local Chinese grocery stores, I happened to see and decide to buy a package of what looked like rice and a few other things. It turned out that what I was looking at was Eight Treasure Porridge, a mix of "sticky rice, rice, crushed corn, red bean, red kidney bean, black rice, white kidney bean, hushed buckwheat, mung bean, peanut, red jujube." Though I didn't know it when I first looked at the list of recipes, this is supposed to be served as a desert porridge or, to restate, it is intended to be a sweet dish.

After allowing the dry ingredients to soak for about 2.5 hours I just recently put them on the to boil, though I am not sure if I was able to "boil it with roaring fire, then change to slow fire" as the instructions suggested. Right now it is slowly simmering.



Though this picture makes it look as though the porridge is an unappetizing brown, it is actually closer to an appetizing purple. That being said, I am still quite curious to know how this will taste. Now that it is cooking I really hope is is good as I decided to make the entire package instead of holding some back for a second batch (meaning that once it is done I will have a fair bit to consume).

A Few Quick Notes 457

-We had another somewhat overcast day today. I guess there might have been a few sunny periods, though as I didn't really spend much time outside I can't really remember if there were or not. More recently there have been a few periods of very light drizzling. Hopefully this drizzle won't make the transition to full-fledged rain.

-I cranked out a quick loaf of bread today. I think I may have some as a snack later this evening.

-I managed to make it to the grocery store twice today. Not surprisingly, I was able to find quite a number of things that I forgot to buy on the second trip.

-I took a pretty satisfying nap this afternoon.

-Tomorrow, for the first time in three years I will be able to attend Dal's annual teaching assistant professional development session. Typically they schedule these sessions at times when I have classes. Apparently being so far along in your program that you don't have classes is best way to make sure that you will be able to attend.

-Wow, I should get back to work.

Pest invasion

I think that what I hoped would be aberrant incidents with two mice in our apartment over the past few days may actually be indicative of a wider trend; that mice are now moving indoors for the Winter.

Not only do we seem to have continued mouse activity at our apartment, this evening, when Jeannette and I entered her apartment (having just preemptively purchased some mouse traps) I saw a mouse skitter away from us. I guess the purchase of mouse traps five minutes prior was entirely justified (even if I didn't think so at the time).

Anyway, I guess many of us in Halifax will likely be experiencing similar encounters over the coming days. Hopefully they will peter out shortly, I am not sure if I am interested in having too many more of my night's sleep disrupted by mouse related activities.

On a related note, Neil and Rebecca purchased about 12 new traps tonight for several new trapping schemes. Though Neil and I disagree slightly about the best locations for the traps, I am sure that these newly acquired traps will be put to good use.

Might be worth a listen

A few days ago I noticed that This American Life was now allowing others to embed their episodes. I thought I should mention this feature but didn't really have a good excuse.

Fortunately today I started to listen to their most recent episode and realized that it was worth sharing. Both stories in the episode deal with somewhat scary trends in the administration of 'justice' in the United States.

[Embedded audio]

If you have time, another favourite episode of mine is Running After Antelope, which features the work of Scott Carrier(my favourite This American Life contributor).

[Embedded audio]

I guess I should also mention that This American Life's entire radio archive is online and free to access. Check some of their shows out if you have the time, they are worth a listen.

New stats

Montifax has now been ongoing for almost 4 years. For the first year or so we had basically no idea of our traffic numbers/readership. For the past two years, or so, we have had some basic access to readership and traffic numbers, mainly through services such as Google Analytics and Feedburner.

The general trend that these two services seemed to suggest is that we have, and have had, a somewhat small and stable readership.

More recently we have been able to access a new source of stats from Blogger, our blog's host. While this service has confirmed the general trends that I previously outlined, it has also provided a slightly clearer, and real-time, picture of how our content is typically used.

I guess the point I am getting to is that this picture, as consistent as it has been for years, is a somewhat more limited picture of our readership than it should be. Some recent tweaks to our Feedburner account have lead to indications that our readership through RSS subscriptions is actually about three times as large as I suspected. I always find it strange to learn that more people than I expect are reading this blog. I guess I shouldn't just assume that I know all of our readers by name.

A Few Quick Notes 456

-Though today was mostly overcast it really wasn't that bad of a day. The temperatures remained reasonable all day, and, most importantly, the rain stayed away. Hopefully we will be so lucky tomorrow.

-This morning at about 7:00 AM I was abruptly awoken by a loud snap. A mouse trap in my bedroom had been sprung. When I got up to investigate the matter I learned that not only had the trap been sprung, but that it had been engaged by a hapless mouse. The mouse, not surprisingly, was dead.

This makes the second mouse that we have trapped in less than a week. I wonder if this means that we have a 'mouse problem' in our apartment?

Also, it seems that my various trap schemes of last night were completely ineffective. Somehow what I thought was a series of inescapable obstacles was actually easily avoidable. Or maybe the mice are smart and more agile than most normal mice.

-I had my second class this year. While I have taken this class twice before I learned that it has now been somewhat re-imagined. The consequence of this re-imagining is that I will now have more new readings to do than I had last year. On the whole, though it means more work for me, I think that the new version of the course is an improvement and will be better.

-I guess I should get down to work.

Important information gathering exercise

Montifax now has a second poll.

We are trying to get to the bottom of the long-standing conundrum as to which are the cutest of the forms of babies: celebrity babies, animal babies, or Muppet Babies.

Feel free to check out Chinafax's related poll regarding animal babies.

A Few Quick Notes 455

-We had the pleasure of having an almost entirely overcast day today. Only for brief flashes was the sun kind enough to shine through somewhat consistent cloud cover. These brief interludes, while they were always brief, did create much more favourable and warm conditions.

-We seem to be in the midst of something of a mouse invasion at the moment. Not only has Neil recently trapped one mouse, another mouse (or mice) has made two appearances in the living room in the past hour or so. Amazingly, in both instances, the mouse avoided a six trap gauntlet to peer into the living room and the avoided the traps again to return to it's hiding place.

Moments ago I decided to rework the gauntlet to try to force the mouse over the traps. I guess the coming hours will offer some evidence as to whether or not my modifications were improvements or just modifications.



On a related note, Rebecca recently purchased, and installed, a number of electronic buzzers that are supposed to deter pests. Our recent experience would seem to suggest that these provide, at best, a limited deterrent (the mouse ran right under one).

-We had a very successful day at our Ultimate playoffs. Much to everyone's surprise we managed to win all three of our games, though, aside from the last one, not by particularly large margins. Though everyone is now quite tired and sore, I think that we all had a good time and were glad to have participated in the event.

-Our Fall Ultimate league will likely be starting on Wednesday. This doesn't provide much down time.

-It seems that my new and improved mouse gauntlet wasn't much of an improvement. Just moments ago, while I was writing this post, I saw the mouse run from behind the gauntlet to under the fridge (where I presume it still is).

I have now added a barrier and traps to the area surrounding the fridge (and modified the original gauntlet). Hopefully these new modifications will do the trick.

-Last night we purchased (at a deep discount) the movie The Marc Pease Experience. Jeannette provided her take on the movie here. Though I won't say that this was the best movie ever, I was definitely pleasantly surprised and found the movie to be quite watchable, maybe even re-watchable. I think that Neil, Rebecca, and Peter also enjoyed it, though I am not sure exactly what they thought about it.

Apparently it was illegal

A few days ago I noted the existence of a new series of graffiti ads from EastLink that were beginning to appear on local sidewalks.



Obviously, these ads didn't appear to be particularly legal, nor was I a fan of the idea of companies defacing public property for profit.

Eventually, though just before Hurricane Earl, I reported the ads to the City through an online form. While at first I saw no action and couldn't tell if my complaint had been acknowledged or not, today I was pleased to see that the ads have been removed from at least one location (the location I reported).



What I don't know is whether or not the company has been charged/fined for their offense. I guess I can use the follow-up number that was provided to me to learn exactly what will be happening to EastLink as a result of their graffiti ad campaign (which I hope they have now stopped).

Edit: Apparently The Coast also noted the problem. Furthermore, based on EastLink's Twitter account it seems that they had to deal with a degree of negative feedback regarding the ads, which were apparently made of chalk.

Another Swarming

It seems that since my last post about swarmings CBC has reported that there has now been an eighth swarming since Labour Day weekend. Like the others, this one apparently started with the attackers asking the victims a question. Eventually one of victims were subjected to the following abuses: punches, kicks, tree branchings.

The only good news coming from this most recent attack is that one individual is now in custody. I am really hoping that now that one individual is in custody they will be able to locate the others or at least scare the other perpetrators into inaction (though this maybe somewhat hopeful).

As my friend Peter and I were noting last night, these swarmings seem to be part of a pattern of runs of strange crimes in Halifax. Last year at this time the South End was suffering from repeated appearances of the night watcher (a guy who used to like to watch young women sleep from inside their bedrooms), at various points there have also been guys who have been serially exposing themselves to others, and there was also a string of shootings/stabbings that saw close to one person a day suffer from either a shooting or a stabbing. Hopefully the recent swarming trend will mark the end of the larger string of violent and invasive crimes in Halifax.

A Few Quick Notes 454

-We are presently in the midst of another beautiful day in Halifax, though, if the forecast is to be believed, this won't last through the end of the day.

-Our Ultimate play-offs are tomorrow. While we were unlucky enough to have our first game at 9:00 AM, we were also unlucky enough to be in a position that won't allow us to win anything more than a few of our games. Consequently, at least a few of us are going into this with a great outlook.

-I should probably head to the store this afternoon to pick up a chicken for dinner. On the other hand, I guess I could consider cooking the chicken breasts we already have? Though the more I think about it, this latter options seems like a bit of a suckers game - it strikes me as being just a bit too easy. Aren't humans supposed to have to work for their food?

-Apparently today is the ninth anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre. In many ways it is hard for me to believe that that event took place nine years ago. Some aspects of the post-attack rush seem as vivid as if they had happened yesterday while other aspects, such as the resulting Afghanistan war, seem as though they have always existed in the background and thus don't merit much attention (though I am not saying that they do not merit attention).

On a more personal note, today is the day after the ninth anniversary of me not getting to see the Boston Red Sox play the Yankees at Yankee stadium. Tomorrow will be the ninth anniversary of me having to go into work at the UN early and then help various countries sign on to the anti-terrorism resolution that was to be brought before the UN General Assembly (something that was not as much fun as you might think it would be).

Big day for Dal Grad students

After a year-long wait, today is the day that the new DAGS Grad House is set to finally open.

Unfortunately, rather than the expected capacity of 110, it will initially only be able to hold 50. Furthermore, it is unclear to me whether they in fact yet have a liquor license or whether they will just be open for food service.

Either way, DAGS is kicking off the opening with a free BBQ this afternoon. While I hope to at least swing by for a few minutes to see the new facility, I suspect that I won't be able to stay for long because of a pre-existing commitment at the time of the BBQ.

Swarmings?

Why, all of a sudden, are there so many swarmings in Halifax? That there have been seven recently makes me feel a little bit uneasy. I am not sure if I should take any comfort from the fact that they are in the North End or not. Anyway, I hope this situation is resolved shortly as it is somewhat disconcerting to think that 6 to 7 people might just jump me while walking down the street at night.

Back at it

Today marks the beginning of another new school year at Dalhousie.

Hooray!

I marked the start of the new year by auditing a seminar course.

I will continue my beginning of term celebrations tomorrow my assisting my supervisor the launch of one of her courses. I presume that this first contact with undergraduate students will actually feel like more of a start than sitting in a room with five other grad students and a prof did today.

A Few Quick Notes 453

-Today was a steadily overcast day. From the time I awoke in the morning until now things have been consistently grey and calm, but not quite rainy. The consistency of the weather, even if it hasn't been nice, has been impressive.

-The Political Science beginning-of-term social was this evening. Much to my surprise, though I didn't expect to have a bad time, I really had a good time. Unfortunately, because of a headache I have had all day I wasn't able to take advantage of the open bar and had to stick to water.

-School things will start in earnest tomorrow as that will be when I will be attending my first class of the year. This class, like the only other class I will be taking, is one that I will be auditing. That I will be auditing these classes probably means that they won't have quite the same intensity kick that most classes with marked components have.

-Our Ultimate play-off session will be taking place this weekend. Some how we have been scheduled to start playing at 9:00 AM on Saturday, a real bummer of a time. Hopefully this doesn't cause too many problems in terms of attendance.

-I am exhausted.

Quick Visit

A few weeks ago my uncle called me to tell me that he was thinking of taking a cruise that would stop in Halifax for the day.

And it turns out that today was the day of his arrival. Neil and I met his ship at the cruise ship terminal early this morning. Not surprisingly, there weren't many other individuals waiting to meet people, though I think that there were a few.

After making our way to the grocery store to pick up some supplies, we made our way back to the apartment where I started to prepare a pot roast. Eventually, we had the pot roast, a relatively heavy mid-day meal, for lunch.

Amazingly, this meal basically took us up to the boarding time of the ship so we made our way back to the terminal, though not before stopping at a local brewery for a beer sample.

While I have a good sense of how my uncle spent the day, I am really a little confused at how the other 2900 passengers spent the day. I am not exactly sure what one does with 6 hours in Halifax on an overcast day (though I guess a good number of them went on pre-arranged bus tours).

For those of you who are interested, the ship will be heading to Saint John tomorrow. I have no idea what anyone will do there for the day, though something a 'pink bus' was mentioned by numerous people.

A Few Quick Notes 452

-Though today was somewhat overcast, it really wasn't all that bad of a day. Actually, I found today to be quite relaxing and pleasant.

-We have had an unusually large volume of mouse related activity recently. This is rather unfortunate as it is both distracting and time-consuming. Recently, Neil and I had to move and re-arrange most of our bulk foods so that they are now all in large plastic containers.

Hopefully the level of activity that we are experiencing presently isn't a sign of worse to come once things actually start to get cold and autumnal.

-Tonight, while I was sitting at my desk studying, I heard someone yell "Hey, get your hands off that or I'll call the cops right now." Unfortunately, I don't know what they were talking about or how the situation was resolved.

-Today, as a gift, I received a 4 GB flash drive from the Globe and Mail. Unfortunately, the flash drive doesn't seem to fit in my computer's USB ports.

-An uncle of ours will be arriving, via cruise ship, tomorrow for a single-day visit. As of yet I don't exactly know what we will be doing. Unfortunately, it look as though the weather won't likely be cooperating.

-I made good progress reading today, something I am sure that you all wanted to hear.

-We have had a strange burst in traffic at Montifax recently. I suspect that our recent involvement in Empire Avenue and our Hurricane Earl coverage are the main drivers of this sudden surge.

A Few Quick Notes 451

-Today, even though we are less than two days away from Earl, was beautiful. Actually, I might go so far as to suggest that it was verging on perfection. The temperature was in the mid-twenties with non-blistering sun and a slight breeze. Now that the sun has set the temperatures have dropped slightly, just enough to merit a jacket if one decided to go on a late night stroll.

-I seem to have managed to temper my Empire Avenue activity, which is a skill that is important considering the onset of the new school year. For better or worse, some acquaintances of mine seem not to have yet developed this skill.

-We made a return trip to the Oaklawn Farm Zoo today. We took this trip so that Rebecca's brother could have a chance to visit the zoo for the first time. I think he, like the rest of us, was quite impressed with what he saw. I know that even though we told him about many of the animals that he could expect to see he still under-estimated the breadth of the zoo's holdings.



[Embedded video]

The gibbons were particularly active today. Jeannette was able to capture some of this activity in the video posted above.

-On a related note, we finally took the time to ask a staff member about the origin story of the zoo's zonkey (donkey-zebra hybrid).



Apparently, as I suspected, the zonkey has a zebra mother and donkey father. Apparently the zebra was impregnated by the donkey, a pygmy donkey, during the brief period of time during which the two types of animals were housed together. They put the donkey in with the zebras because it was a pygmy, and, they thought, not tall enough to mate with the zebras. As it turns out, even a pygmy donkey is tall enough to mate with a zebra. Un/fortunately, this pairing did not result in a pygmy zonkey.

-My friend Peter returned to Halifax today and moved into an apartment a block away from my apartment. I am looking forward to having another friend in the neighbourood.

Hurricane Earl Follow-Up

As previously mentioned, Earl knocked out our power for a good chunk of the day on Saturday. Not surprisingly, this wasn't all that Earl managed to do, it seems that quite a number of our friends felt quite a number of different effects.

One of the most obvious Earl related problems was the extended power-outage. While most of our friends managed to have power restored to them by Saturday night, a few friends were without power until late Sunday evening. Fortunately, at least as far as I know, basically everyone has had their power restored. So I guess much of the damage wasn't too bad, though a good number of power lines were knocked down.

Earl did do a number on a number of trees. Fortunately, most of the trees in our part of town (the South End) escaped without too much damage. Sadly, the same cannot be said for trees in other parts of the city. For instance, our friends who were without power for over 24 hours, also had a tree from their neighbour's property come crashing into their backyard.



It seems that on its way down this tree smashed the neighbour's empty shed. Fortunately, the she seems to be the main victim.



Somehow the deck seems to have escaped relatively unscathed.

Down the street there was another tree that suffered rather dramatically at the hands of Earl. This tree seems to have had branches snapped off. These broken branches then came to a rest on the roof of the house. While it doesn't look as though too much damage has been done (at least from what I could see), it seems possible that there is damage that isn't visible from the outside.



Another friend felt the effects of the storm through it's impact on the Marine Atlantic ferry schedule. What was most shocking about the delays he experienced is that while they were bad enough to be annoying, they weren't bad enough to put them behind schedule by more than a few hours.

While there certainly were a few other consequences as a result of Earl's presence, in general, I am impressed by the lack of damage and quick clean-up. I suspect that within a few days visitors to the city won't even know that we were recently hit by a tropical storm.

More citing

It seems that the previous blog citation that I mentioned wasn't the only one that yesterday's post received. Strangely, I recently found the same content under a different label here.

Cited again

It seems that Montifax's coverage Hurricane Earl was used as a source by at least one other website in their online coverage of the storm. That they also posted my time-lapse video likely explains why it has so many views.

Whenever stuff like this happens I find it quite strange, but I guess I do similar things all the time with other web content so I really shouldn't be that surprised.

Hurricane Earl Live 21

Just moments ago we returned from a several hour excursion to the Bayer's Lake shopping district. Though the primary justification for the trip was to find places with power, we did allow ourselves to engage in some shopping and shopping related activities.

Eventually we even decided to head to a movie before returning to our apartment. The idea was that a movie would provide us with a few hours of refuge from our unfanned apartment during the power outage. Eventually we all agreed on The Other Guys, which we all ended up enjoying.

I should note that just as the sun was setting we happened to be waiting at an intersection in Bayer's Lake when we heard something of a thud and screech. At first it appeared that a three car pile up had occurred just across the street from us. Rebecca, sensing a confrontation between several of the drivers/participants, decided to report the incident to the cops. After the reporting process was complete we went on our way.



When we drove by this intersection a little later in the evening it seemed as though there were ambulances on site and at least six cars involved (and I could see about six police cars). Presumably there was either a second accident or a further pile up in relation to the first accident. (Though when I just showed the above photo to my fellow witnesses they said they were sure that there were more vehicles there at the time of the accident - the photographic evidence did little to convince them otherwise).

When we returned to our apartment we discovered that our building had power. Once we were inside Rebecca was able to determine that we had actually had power since about 6:00 PM, meaning that some of our refuge/shopping activities were not entirely necessary. Unfortunately we didn't have a good way of determining whether or not our power had been restored and thus decided to play it on the 'safe' side and keep on trucking at Bayer's Lake, a decision I don't entire regret (and certainly wouldn't regret had we come home to find we were without power).

Anyway, I guess this will be it for the Hurricane Earl updates, seeing as the storm seems to have passed. Thanks for following along.

Hurricane Earl Live 14-20

11:47 – Moments ago Jeannette and I returned from a brief trip outside (we were wondering if we might be able to get discount pizzas from the local pizza shop as a result of the recent power outage). Not surprisingly, we were unable to acquire such pizzas.

Nonetheless, we did snag some good information from our superintendent on our way out. It seems that our building’s underground parking garage door doesn’t work during power outages. The significance is that no one with a car in the garage will be able to get it out until power is returned, which might not be until tomorrow or the day after.

On the upside, we did see that the Airporter is running, so transportation to the airport isn’t impossible.

12:59 – Things have slowed down somewhat significantly since we lost power about an hour and a half ago. For the most part people seem to have engaged themselves in either reading or napping.

Just a few minutes ago Neil and I read some rules for a new game, Montego Bay, which we are hoping to play shortly. I guess we aren’t likely to play until everyone is awake and fully functional.

I am starting to get a little hungry. I guess it is lunchtime. I am not really sure about what I should do to deal with this problem. I don’t want to open the fridge as I am not sure when we will again have power, but I don’t know that we have too many things to eat that are not in the fridge (I guess we do, it is just that they aren’t particularly exciting). I am sure that I will be fine, I don’t think one can starve to death over the course of an afternoon.

13:04 – I just remembered my recently purchased package of Fudgee-Os. It seems that my food shortage problem has been temporarily solved.

13:42 – It seems that the rain has stopped, at least for now. This has allowed us to open a few of the our windows in an attempt to get a breeze as it is still surprisingly warm (apparently the Hurricane didn’t blow away the heat way like I hoped it would).

Though the winds have also died down we are occasionally subject to strong gusts. During a number of these gusts we have heard what sounded like cracks coming from some neighbouring trees. Thus far no major branches have fallen in our vicinity, though I suspect that a number of trees have been substantially weakened.

14:46 – Though there is still some wind, we are now able to see blue sky over the harbour. This suggests to me that we have made it through the worst of the storm, though, of course, we are still without power and seem likely to continue in such a state for some period of time.

15:01 - There has recently been some talk of heading out in the rental car to find an open restaurant to acquire food. Since the power has now been out for several hours it has been some time since any of us have had a proper meal.

17:44 - We are presently at a Starbucks in a Chapters at Bayers Lake. Sadly, the free internet access brought with it the bad news that we are still without power and will likely continue to be without it until tomorrow morning.

We originally came out this way to find a restaurant to visit for a late lunch. Since then we have been shopping and loitering, hoping to delay our return to our power-free apartment. Who know how far this avoidance of our apartment will take us.

Hurricane Earl Live 13

Radio silence will now commence (Neil is turning off our internet to save our battery back-up).

More than 75 000 people are now without power.

Hurricane Earl Live 12

B'ys, she's gone, she's gone.

We are now without power. Now the fun starts.

Hurricane Earl Live 11

The National Hurricane Center's most recent images seem to suggest a stronger hit for the Halifax region than those of yesterday.



(Source: National Hurricane Center)

It seems that the more recent of their predictions with regards to the hurricane's path is the more accurate of the two.

Hurricane Earl Live 10

We can now hear all kinds of emergency service vehicles. Fortunately they seem to be driving out of hearing range.

Hurricane Earl Live 9

Just as I was walking out of the bathroom after my shower and just as I was about to comment on successfully making it through my shower without losing power the power failed, though only for a few seconds. I am not confident that we will continue to be so lucky and only have such brief outages.

Nova Scotia Power is now reporting that more than 50 000 customers are without power, many of whom are located in Halifax.

My recent YouTube videos (short clip and time-lapse) have been relative successes, meaning that they both already have more than 10 views. Actually, the first of the two videos already has more than 50 views, making it one of my more popular videos of late.

Hurricane Earl Live 8

We just lost power for a second. A sign of things to come?

Hurricane Earl Live 7

The number of Nova Scotia residents without power keeps rising. At last check, more than 36 000 (up to 40 000) customers were without power. Unfortunately, certainly for those involved, it has already been suggested that some repairs won't be completed until September 6, 2010, two days from now.

For a while I took a time-lapse video looking from our living room out past our balcony. Sadly, I don't know that this clip really demonstrates the intensity of the storm (it is really quite intense at the moment).



[Embedded video]

I guess I will just get back to my paper and waiting things out.

Oh, and Halifax has posted an update.

Hurricane Earl Live 6

Things are still kicking here in Halifax.

Nova Scotia Power is now reporting the more than 30 000 customers are without power.

A few minutes ago I snagged a quick video of our surroundings. While nothing particular impressive happens, I hope that, if anything, this will convey the intensity of the winds.



[Embedded video]

Hurricane Earl Live 5

Things are definitely getting harrier by the minute in Halifax.

In particular, the number of power outages seems to be up to almost 30 000, several thousand of which are now in the Halifax region. For better or worse, many of those without power are being told (if they have battery back-ups) that they should expect to be without power for about 24 hours. A definite bummer for those people.

In our apartment we now expecting to be without power, a situation that may lead to a reduced frequency of posting.

Hurricane Earl Live 4

Moments after making the last post I decided to check a few web sources to see if they might give me a better picture of the storm.

Nova Scotia Power's Live Outage Map is showing that almost 7500 customers are without power. None of the outages are in the immediate Halifax vacinity, and only one is in the Valley (Kentville).

Environment Canada's satellite imagery makes it clear why we are experiencing what we are experiencing.



A tree branch just feel from a tree and hit our building. Good thing that Neil moved the rental car last night.

Hurricane Earl Live 3

Within in just the past few minutes things really took a turn for the worse as far as Hurricane Earl is involved.

For at least an hour, the wind had been blowing in noticeable gusts but not much else appeared to be happening. In particular, the absence of rain was quite noticeable.

Just a few minutes ago the wind dialed itself up another notch and is now accompanied by sideways-falling rain.

I think it is safe to say that we are not in the midst of something, and this is hours before the eye of the store is supposed to be at its closest.

Hurricane Earl Live 2

It is now almost 2:00 AM and there is still now sign of rain or Earl. Presumably by the time I wake up in the morning his presence will be more apparent.

New blogs are what make the world go round

Because the endorsement and publication of new blogs is an important part of modern life I feel that it is my duty to inform our regular readers of the creation of a few blogs (some of which I was kind enough to mention yesterday).

Anyway, the first I will mention is Chinafax, which is Jeannette's new blog.

Rebecca now has a re-vitalized blog, Rebecca's blog. Like Jeannette's blog, this new blogging activity is largely related to Empire Avenue activity and a desire for an improved Empire Avenue performance.

Of course, last but not least, I would like to encourage everyone to check out my three new non sequitur blogs: Red Non Sequiturs, Green Non Sequiturs, and Free Non Sequiturs. Neil, who was initially hesitant, has decided that some of these are actually a little amusing (if not an entirely worthwhile endeavor).

Hurricane Earl Live 1

Well, we are gearing up mentally and physically for the impending doom that is Hurricane Earl.

Earlier today I moved a number of my plants from elevated locations to the balcony floor. Hopefully the new locations will prevent the plants from receiving too much damage, though I am sure that at least some damage will be inflicted.

Just moments ago Neil and I parked his rental car in a location out of the way of potential falling tree branches. Our own building's parking lot is anything but free of such potential hazards (though I don't recall any cars being damaged during Hurricane Bill last year).

On the mental side of things, we are definitely all prepared for rain and wind, not that this really took much time or effort. That being said, I am really not sure if I am completely ready for a summertime power outage, certainly not one that lasts any length of time. Now that I am a buyer of groceries the thought of such an occurrence instills me with great fear.

As far as the storm goes, not much has happened yet (the sole exception may be the increase in the level of humidity). That being said, word on the street is that it should start raining heavily before sun-up.

Hopefully we will be able to keep people updated and post some multi-media content as things progress. Also feel free to check out Jeannette'sas well as Nova Scotia Power's Live Outage Map, a storm-time favourite of mine.

A Few Quick Notes 450

-As expected, today was incredibly hot (kind of like the past few days). The humidity made the relatively high temperatures incredibly unpleasant and sweat inducing. As the evening has started to set in the temperature has started to drop, amazingly this hasn't seemed to caused much change in our apartment (presumably because of the heat retaining power of our apartment building's bricks).

-Today, because of the expected arrival of Hurricane Earl, a number of non-standard actions were taken in Halifax. One of the first of these actions that I learned about was the holding of an auxiliary farmer's market this afternoon. Strangely, they seemed to suggest that tomorrow morning's edition of the farmer's market was also expected to go ahead (I guess I will have to wait and see if this actually happens). The second somewhat unusual going on was that Halifax closed all of its sports fields for the long-weekend in anticipation of the storm. The result of the closure is that our final regular season Ultimate game of the season has been cancelled. As much as it might have been nice to play one more regular season Ultimate game, I am particularly pleased to know that the game won't be going ahead several days ahead of time.

-Jeannette and I ended up visiting the auxiliary farmer's market this afternoon. The trip was definitely a waste of time, there were very few vendors and basically no deals to be had (a fact that was driven home by a recent trip to the Valley, where they have real deals).

-Hurricane Earl is definitely on course to hit the Maritimes in the next few hours. That being said, I am not entirely convinced that Halifax will be hit to hard (at least if the imagery is to be believed).



(Source: National Hurricane Center)

On the other hand, it looks as though the North coast of the province will be hit pretty hard. Of course, this is of increased interest to our apartment now that Rebecca's brother, Nick, lives on that side of the province.

-We discovered more mouse activity in our apartment this evening. Hopefully all available food has been secured and any incentives for further presence removed.

-Tonight Neil signed up for a Costco membership. Because I was there, reside at the same address as Neil, and have a drivers license I was given the second membership card. We then went on to purchase quite a number of item, very few of which were complete extravagances.

-Just a few minutes ago I reported the advertising graffiti that wrote about earlier. Hopefully the city will clamp down on the offending company and consequently discourage other companies from adopting similar practices. I guess for any thing to happen the city will actually have to take action, which likely won't happen until after the long weekend.

Is this legal?

This morning, while walking to a doctor's appointment, I noticed that there was more colour on the sidewalk than normal. Eventually I looked down and examined the situation more closely. What I found was a spray-painted ad about high-speed internet services from EastLink.



I was somewhat taken aback by this ad. Not only was it hard to read, at least I found it to be, but I don't know how it isn't illegal. Even though this was placed on the sidewalk by a company, I don't see how it isn't different than regular graffiti, except that it has as more obvious commercial purpose (which means that they are defacing public property for commercial gains). I wonder how long this ad campaign will stick around, or if there will be any legal repercussions for EastLink.

New Blogs

It seems that Empire Avenue parameters have encouraged the creation of a few new blogs today.

This afternoon Jeannette decided to create a blog for herself. Her new blog, Little Trouble in Big Chinafax, will deal with something or other. I am not sure that much thought has yet been put into what type of content the blog will eventually contain. Nonetheless, check it out, if only to see what Empire Avenue activity can get a person to do.

Because of all of this blog creation activity, I decided to create a new blog for myself. Due to typos and screw ups I ended up creating three new blogs, all of which focus on the same theme: non sequiturs.

Anyway, my new blogs are, in alphabetical order:

Free Non Sequiturs

Green Non Sequiturs

Red Non Sequiturs

Nothing says productivity like the creation of three new blogs.

Anyway, check these new blogs out, drive up the traffic numbers (if only to give me a strange sense of satisfaction), and subscribe in your favourite RSS feeder (for your own benefit, as you won't want to miss out on this top rate content).

A Few Quick Notes 449

-As regular readers will already know, we are still in the midst of a heat wave in Halifax. For the past few hours it has been about 33 degrees, though it feels more like it is 40. This, as you might imagine, has been incredibly unpleasant. Fortunately, it is supposed to drop a little tomorrow, though this drop will be brought about because of the arrival of a hurricane, Hurricane Earl.

-I was finally able to harvest a few cherry tomatoes yesterday.



I was able to harvest a few more tomatoes from Andrew's plants, which have now been transferred to our balcony. These new plants also have a few more tomatoes that should soon be ripe, really upping my level of production for the summer.

-Yesterday's move went well, though it was as sweaty as one would expect. Within moments we were all dripping with sweat, something that wasn't as fun as it might sound.

-Our Empire Avenue activities have also continued today, though at a somewhat slower pace than a few days ago. As expected, we have now added a fifth person to our feeding frenzy, which means that we can really get things going if we want to.

-I have now officially engaged in some Hurricane Bill preparations, though I can't say that I have yet done much to prepare. Thus far all I have done is to buy a 3 liter bottle of water, one of the few remaining such bottles at the grocery store. Hopefully not much more preparation will be required.

Behind the eight ball

Environment Canada, as usual, seems to be behind the eight ball as far as Hurricane Earl is concerned. Though various news outlets and forecasters have been talking about this oncoming hurricane for some time, my recollection is about 24 hours or more, only a few minutes ago did Environment Canada get around to posting a 'watch' on their Halifax forecast page.

I find this tardiness particularly funny considering that HRM has posted a notice/warning to its residents, as has Dalhousie.

Anyway, this seems to be just another reason for me to be disgusted with our national forecaster and their seeming inability to be of much use when it comes to providing timely forecasts to Canadians.

And it continues

The Halifax heat wave is still on going. At the moment Environment Canada is reporting that it is 33, but that it feels like 41. As someone who is presently experiencing this weather I can confirm that this is what it feels like.

Unfortunately, it seems that what is eventually likely to cause a significant change in the temperature is the appearance of a hurricane, Hurricane Earl. What fun.

I guess this means that while it is still 30+ we will have to try to trudge over to the beer and grocery stores to pick up supplies incase there is something of a problem as a result of the storm (that being said, I really don't want to have too much in the fridge if we don't have power).

Anyway, the intensity of the weather is likely continue for at least another few days.

Oh, and because you were all wondering, I ended up taking five showers yesterday. I really think that I haven't taken that many showers in quite a long time, maybe ever.

Four and counting

Wow, today has been blazing. The thermometer temperature reached and stayed above 30 degrees for the better part of the heart of the day.

This wouldn't have been so bad if I had spent the day in an air conditioned environment. Unfortunately, this isn't how I spent the day.

I started the day by helping some friends move. Within minutes we were all dripping sweat all over the place, it was pretty impressive/gross.

By early evening I was three showers in and ready for another, which I soon took.

Anyway, though I am four showers in today, I am still feeling as though I need another ( and I will likely take one).

Sorry, the high heat and humidity is helping me to be somewhat less coherent than I would like to be.