For the past few years my father has tended towards politically charged/relevant pumpkin carvings for Halloween. If I recall correctly this trend started with a carving of the UN logo and then transitioned towards political figures.
This year Newfoundland's premier, Danny Williams, was the subject of the carving. And while I may be slightly biased, I think that this is a pretty accurate likeness, at least for a pumpkin carving. It was certainly good enough for me to know the subject without being told.
Anyway, it seems that at least one of this year's trick or treaters was moved by the carving to the point of putting a foot through it. Though this was a rather unfortunate turn of events, I think that I have to consider this year's pumpkin a resounding success.
So you think the Canadian constitution is a bit strange because it omits a number of key features (like the existence of a Cabinet)? It turns out that you are not alone, the Supreme Court of Canada in the Secession Reference has noted similar omissions, in particular any specific reference to the fact that Canada was to be a democracy. On the other hand, they do suggest that
the democracy principle can best be understood as a sort of baseline against which the framers of our Constitution, and subsequently, our elected representatives under it, have always operated. It is perhaps for this reason that the principle was not explicitly identified in the text of the Constitution Act, 1867 itself. To have done so might have appeared redundant, even silly, to the framers.
It is comforting to know that so much of a country's constitution is just assumed. There is no way that such a practice could ever go wrong.
-We had another grey and overcast day in Halifax today. At points, much to my chagrin, it was raining somewhat consistently.
-I made a monstrously large batch of bean soup this evening. Though the soup may not be having a particularly beneficial impact on my digestive system, it was pretty tasty.
-We played our final fall league Ultimate game on Wednesday. The game was played in some of the heaviest rain of the year. Amazingly, the rain, though heavy, was relatively warm. Though the game was played in less than ideal conditions it wasn't too bad a game.
-Today, for the first time in my life, I submitted a letter to the editor to the Globe and Mail. I suspect that my letter won't be published but I am glad submitted a letter that pointed out a rather glaring factual error (the suggestion that Harold Innis was alive in 1969).
-Jeannette and I are presently watching the modern classic Groundhog Day. I am allowing myself a few minutes of relaxation after a long day of TA related responsibilities. For those of you who are interested, Stephen Tobolowsky, the actor who played Ned Ryerson, released a series of stories on the making of the film.
As some of you will likely recall, just a few weeks ago I was in Arizona during a period of strange weather. One of the weather phenomena that occurred during our stay was hail, though where we were the hailstones were so small that they were mistakable for snow once that had fallen.
It turns out that that wasn't the case everywhere in Arizona, particularly in Phoenix. In Phoenix the hail that fell in some places was golfball sized. Not surprisingly, these hailstones were capable of doing a fair bit of damage. While I was still in Phoenix I heard that several hundred rental cars had been taken out of service because of broken windows as a result of the hail storm.
This morning, because of a video that my father sent me, I was finally able to see some footage of this hail storm. I am not sure what I was expecting, but this was much more intense that I thought possible.
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Hopefully I never have to experience such a storm.
-Today turned out to be a much more pleasant day than I expected, largely because we didn't have the rain that I expected. It looks as though we are due to be really slammed tomorrow though.
-I managed to spend a good chunk of today dealing with TA related activities. It seems likely that I will also spend much of tomorrow dealing with similar activities.
-Yesterday, because of a TSOYA-related blog post I ended up subscribing to a few new podcasts.
Freakonomics Radio, a podcast based on the book and blog by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. This afternoon, while walking around campus, I managed to listen to a few episodes and was quite impressed. I found the episode dealing with education reform (and the use of personalized teaching approaches) in New York City particularly interesting.
Another one I happened upon during this podcast directory browsing experience is called Hmmm.... and seems seems to be related to RadioLab, already a favourite of mine, though with somewhat different content and an emphasis on shorter, easier to access pieces.
To The Best of Our Knowledge, the podcast that lead me down the path to the aforementioned podcast subscriptions, seems to be more general in nature than the other two that I mentioned. Unfortunately, unlike the other two (because of the length of the episodes) I have not yet had the chance to listen to a full episode. Nonetheless, the part of the one episode that I did hear was pretty good.
Earlier today I came across a local CBC news story in which Duff Conacher, out-going leader of Democracy Watch, criticizes the Government of Nova Scotia's decision to have the legislature sit for fewer than 70 days since their election in June 2009. Conacher suggests that a "Politicians [sic] role is to solve systemic problems and a lot of those solutions mean making legislative changes and those can only be done when the legislature is open." In light of this view it is argued that the legislature should sit for about 150 days a year.
The suggestion that Nova Scotia would be well served by a legislature sitting twice as many days a year struck me as strange, even if we accept the role that Conacher has assigned it.
First of all, is there universal agreement that there are "systemic problems" that need to be tackled? While I suspect that most people, including members of the government, would acknowledge that there a number of problems but I don't think that everyone would agree on the set of outstanding "systemic problems" that require the attention of the legislature. Some things that some people think are problems might not even be considered problems by others.
Secondly, if we accept that such a set of problems do exist and that provincial legislators are the right people to deal with them, given such a sitting schedule, when would the politicians tackling 'systemic problems' have the time to investigate and examine such issues? How does one analyze and understand such problems when they are spending more than half of their working year in adversarial meetings? I just don't see how more time in the legislature is necessarily good - even if we are just looking at Conacher's concerns.
Thirdly, though this point is related to the second point, with which resources are the legislators supposed to examine these 'systemic problems'? As it stands now government backbenchers and members of the opposition do not have access to resources that would allow them to conduct the quality of work conducted by the government (through the public service). I am not sure exactly what would be accomplished if we just increased the number of sitting days without introducing fundamental changes to things like committee and funding structures. Is it possible that we could just end up with twice as much uninformed meddling as we have presently?
(If I put a few more minutes into thinking about this issue I could probably come up with a few more problems with the proposal. Since it seems unlikely that the Government of Nova Scotia will consider such a change this extra time seems hardly worthwhile.)
While it is quite likely that the aforementioned article does not do justice to Conacher's arguments (and may have abandoned some key components of his position), the ideas that do come across in the article seem somewhat ill-conceived and possibly more problematic that advantageous. Arbitrarily adding more days to a legislature's calender without also making other changes will likely lead to more of the same rather than a new approach to politics. Much more change is needed if the role of the legislature is to change fundamentally to start examining "systemic problems," and those changes may not include increasing the number of days a year that the legislature sits.
Last night, as I mentioned earlier, I decided to have a beer or two to celebrate a successful week of work. Of course, to have a beer or two meant that I would have to head to the store to pick up the beer that I would later be drinking.
Shortly after indicating my intentions Rebecca and Jeannette asked that if I could pick them up some candy while I was shopping. Because I am such a nice guy I agreed to pick them up some candy, though they were a little vague about the type of candy they wanted.
When I arrived in the store a few minutes later I started haunting the aisles, just checking things out and looking for inspiration. At one point I passed an end-of-aisle display that contained a number of on-sale cake mixes. I was immediately tempted. I quickly settled on a 'Swiss chocolate' mix, though I didn't and still don't know exactly how a 'Swiss chocolate' cake is any different than a 'chocolate' cake. Anyway, I then made my way to the candy and icing aisles to get my other purchases. Of course, I then when next door to the beer store to complete my acquisitions.
Almost as soon as I returned home I started the baking process, though to much less excitement than I expected. Not surprisingly, given that I was using cake mix, things moved quickly and I soon had two cake pans in the oven.
Until this point things were going well. Everything was working out exactly as I might have expected. It was only when I took the cake pans out of the oven that things started to go awry.
Though the cakes look fine, they weren't particularly interested in coming out of their pans when I turned them upside down. Instead of forcing the issue I decided to let them rest for a while. This is a trick I have used in the past to some success (I have always presumed that it has something to do with the baked good sweating and then loosening any of the item that is stuck to the pan).
Sadly, in this case, even after the extended sitting period, the first cake pan was left with about 25% of its content when the cake eventually did come out. Of course, the resulting cake was still circular, just not particularly iceable or photogenic.
Given this outcome I decided to let the second cake pan and cake rest a little while longer. Sadly, even with this additional rest/sweat the outcome was similar, though maybe somewhat less dramatic.
Given these two unstackable cakes I was somewhat at a loss as to how I should proceed. Instead of really dealing with the issue last night I decided to just cover them and leave them until this morning, hoping that I would somehow come up with a solution.
My solution, as unglamorous as it was, was hardly even complete. This morning I iced the more complete of the two cakes (and then had two pieces for breakfast). The second cake is still laying covered on the counter. I have no idea what to do with it as spreading icing on each piece like you would jam on a scone just seems strange and I am otherwise drawing blanks about appropriate consumption means.
Anyway, this outcome was really not what I expected when I dropped $1.49 on a cake mix last night. I really thought that things would be easier and not nearly as cognitively complex.
If you have any ideas about what I can do with the uneaten remnants of the first cake let me know. I would prefer not just composting it in a few days, or once it starts showing signs of mold.
-We are in the midst of another pretty nice fall day in Halifax.
-Last night Nick, Rebecca's brother, and his girlfriend came into town and were at our apartment for a portion of the evening. This dovetailed nicely with my relatively intense week. Their presence gave me an excuse to take a break from work and relax. That being said, I think I may have found ways to relax had that not been here, though I may not have convinced myself that having a few beers was a worthwhile endeavour.
-We managed to lose our ultimate game on Wednesday by a wide margin. The irony being that the team to which we lost on Wednesday is the team against which we won our final game of the summer season, a win which made us pool B champions.
Actually, tonight is the night of summer Ultimate league party at which we will be presented with our prize for winning pool B. At this point I don't think any of us know what this might be, though I can't imagine that it will be too impressive.
-On Thursday night, after a week of intense reading, I finally finished John Porter's classic The Vertical Mosaic. I will have the pleasure of discussing this book in a classroom setting on Monday.
-I am just finishing my most recent round of laundry. Nothing quite like two loads of laundry to really kick off a Saturday afternoon.
Wow, I have reading been doing a fair bit of reading these past few days. It has really cut into my blogging time, though I guess that is an expected consequence of being a Ph.D student.
The real bummer of all of this reading has been that it prevented me from being able to hear the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada speak last night. Maybe next time.
As Loverboy, in their classic song Working for the Weekend, suggests, I have been working for the weekend. Based on the upbeat nature of the song I would have imagined that working for the weekend would have been more fun that taking it off and relaxing, turns out that is not the case. Working for the weekend is a real bummer, it doesn't even feel like much of a weekend.
On the other hand, it does feel good to know that I cranked out quite a bit of school-related reading.
-Wow, we have had some really bad weather these past few days. Yesterday was incredibly windy and rainy, and, in our part of town, may have actually been worse that Hurricane Earl (though we didn't lose power). Today we were just stuck with heavy rain for several hours and then grey skies for the rest of the day. Sadly, tomorrow doesn't look as though it will be much of an improvement.
-This week wasn't a particularly successful Ultimate week for me. On Tuesday I played on Jeannette's intramural team. We were slaughtered, and Jeannette managed to sustain a minor leg injury when hit by two opposing players near the end of the game. On Wednesday, our regular team was decimated. Hopefully this upcoming week isn't so bad.
-I have been working hard these past few days. Aside from readings in a few books that I have completed throughout the day, I just quickly read (and enjoyed) two articles. I guess I should try to do a bit more tonight. And whether I like it or not, tomorrow is also going to be heavy (as are the rest of the days of the week, month, and year).
-One of the aforementioned articles happened to be about the implementation of multiculturalism policies, which makes it pretty funny that just before I learned that that would be the subject of the article I happened upon an article about Germany declaring multiculturalism to be a failure. Ironically, the work that I read specifically cited Germany as a country without a real multiculturalism policy, making this article all the more interesting.
This morning I received an email notification from Amazon.ca indicating that they were now offering free shipping on orders exceeding $25.00 in value.
Just a few minutes ago I received an email from Chapters/Indigo indicating that they would now be offering free shipping on orders exceeding $25.00 in value.
Similar announcements are also on the main pages of both sites.
As these two emails came from distinct businesses I presume that these two emails are unrelated?
What I find most impressive about this is how long it took for this relatively low free-shipping limit to make its way from the US to Canada. I know that when I left New York in 2003 Barnes and Noble were even going so far as to offer free same day delivery in Manhattan on purchases over $25.00, and now, almost seven years later, we only have some of the services that have long been available in the US.
Wow, quite a number of things happened between now and my last post.
After spending a beautiful night in Williams we made our way south through Sedona and the surrounding areas. As expected the scenery was fantastic.
It was also the case that Sedona was a little infested with new-agey types, many of whom seem to have been attracted to the region because of its 'vortexes.' If you are interested in learning more and happen to find yourself in the region it won't be hard for you to find a crystal store or tour guide who would be willing to explain the mystical powers of the region to you.
From Sedona we made our way to a 45 000 acre cattle ranch for an hour long trail ride, though on horses rather than mules. As we were riding we saw thousands of prickly pear cacti, though no cattle. Even though our ride was cow free it was great. Actually, that it was an hour rather than three likely made it better rather than worse.
On Thursday evening, the day we visited Sedona and had our trail ride, the family side of the trip started. We attended a family barbeque at my cousin's house. As it turned out, it was Rebecca's first chance to meet many of my aunts and uncles. And we got to see the bride and groom to be. Amazingly, though my cousin and her husband have been friends for 18 years (and I have heard his name many times over those 18 years), this was the first time that I actually got to meet him.
On Friday morning my father, brother, and I, while 'the girls' were getting mani-pedis, made our way to the Arizona state legislature. We visited the public galleries of both the House and the Senate and also the Capitol Museum. At the museum, aside from visiting the old legislative chamber, we took in an exhibit on the legislative process in Arizona. Strangely, at least according to the exhibit, they seem to use a fair bit of randomness when creating legislation in Arizona.
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On Friday afternoon we made our way to Phoenix Deer Valley Airport, reputed to be the busiest general aviation airport in the US. While at the airport a few of us were able to take short flights in our host's small Piper mono-plane. While on our respective trips Neil and I both got chances to pilot the plane for a few minutes. I was particularly pleased to get a chance to turn the plane around and then descend a few thousand about 2000 feet.
On Saturday morning we made an early morning trip to a tourist store where I was able to purchase a few souvenirs, including things like prickly pear jelly and prickly pear candy. Oh, I also acquired some cactus seeds. Not surprisingly, almost everyone else who made the trip purchased similar items.
Our next stop was the Desert Botanical Garden, the site of the wedding. As part of the wedding package the guests of the wedding were provided with free access to the site on the day of the wedding.
After a relatively short visit to the botanical garden we met up with Neil and Rebecca and made our way to a restaurant for lunch and then to the hotel where we would be spending the evening. Then, after a brief swim and a quick check of the internet, we made our way back to the botanical garden for the wedding.
The wedding itself, as expected, was great. The weather and the location cooperated perfectly. The wedding ceremony, which was held in an amphitheater, was short and to the point (though there were a few questionable biblical interpretations). The reception, which was held immediately afterwards in an unwalled pavilion, was longer and generally more free-wheeling. For better or worse, I accepted this free-wheeling atmosphere and ran with it, dancing harder and longer than was likely good for me or anyone else in attendance. Anyway, it's done now.
Sunday, our last full day in Phoenix, started with a brunch at the home of the newlyweds. After a few hours there Neil, Rebecca, and I made our way out for some touring and shopping in the Phoenix area. Not only did we manage to visit quite a number of major chain stores, we also were able to visit a local 'Indian casino,' the Casino Arizona.
While this is the largest casino I have ever visited, in many ways it was quite like the two other casinos I have had the pleasure of entering. Not surprisingly, even though it was midday, quite a number of this casino's slot machines were in full swing. Actually, the place was really hopping considering that it was still well before evening and many of the games tables weren't even open. It was also not too surprising to see that a similar demographic, the over sixty set, seemed to be the most prevalent demographic taking advantage of the casino's offerings.
Monday, as many of you might have expected, was largely spent traveling. After an early departure from Phoenix we were able to go through customs and immigration in Toronto and then have a quick lunch. From Toronto we flew to Halifax, where my parents et al had to make a quick connection to their return flight (fortunately they made it).
At the moment I am awaiting the return of Neil and Rebecca, which will finally mark the conclusion of my family's trip to Phoenix and Arizona. As it turned out, Arizona was much more biologically diverse and fun than I expected. Though I didn't really expect to be saying this a few weeks ago, I really don't think that I would mind a trip back in the future. Not only would it be great to see the Grand Canyon on a clear day, but there are a number of things in the Phoenix area that it would be neat to see, it would also be neat to see a few other regions in the state that we weren't able to visit on our brief trip.
Wow, what a day. Things started with us being awoken in the middle of the night by a alarm that was sounding in Grand Canyon Park. We were then re-awoken by a similar incident later in the night. It turned out that in both cases these were false alarms, though we didn't know it at the time.
In the morning, at 6:00 AM, when we eventually got up to prepare for our mule ride we learned that it was still raining and that there were tornado warnings. From this point on I didn't have a good feeling about our prospective mule ride.
After breakfast and a little messing about we made our way to the mule ride headquarters to begin the sign in process. After some more messing about we were all ready to go (we had to buy some straw hats and tie our other belongings down) we made our way to the stable. Within moments of arriving at the stable we were told that because of tornado warnings the mule ride would be cancelled. Despite my objections we re-scheduled the mule ride for the afternoon.
This meant that we had to hang around in the morning, even though it was rainy, cold, and wet. We eventually decided that driving to some of the lookouts might be the best use of our time. When we eventually made it to our final destination we discovered that parts of the park had recently been hit by a substantial hail storm (when we arrived many places had about an inch of hail on the ground). Obviously, the conditions convinced us that visiting the lookout wasn't as good an idea as visiting the canteen to pick up a warm beverage.
When we eventually made it back to the mule headquarters we learned that the afternoon trip had also been cancelled. After a little more Grand Canyon touring, which was occasionally made spectacular by clear skies, we moved one and started to head south.
While traveling south to Flagstaff we encountered the beautiful Painted Desert, a nearby canyon which was adjacent to the Little Colorado river, a trading post/community named Cameron, a volcano, and, finally, Flagstaff. As soon as we reached Flagstaff we continued on to Williams, which is where we are now.
Williams seems to be a strange combination of tourist shops, motels, and restaurants. They also have a train station and a grocery store. I am not sure if there is much else there (aside from Route 66).
Anyway, tomorrow should take us to Sedona and, eventually, Phoenix. Hopefully we will finally be able to shake the rain and grey skies.
What's the deal with all of this Arizona rain? Everywhere we have been (first Phoenix and now the Grand Canyon) we have been followed by heavy rain and lightening. It is a total bummer. Much of the scenery that we expected to see has been obscured by clouds and rain.
Though the rain has definitely been a bit annoying we were still able to see a few neat sites today. Our first stop was Montezuma's Castle, a cave-dwelling/castle. Eventually we also made our way through Jerome and Prescott and then up to the Grand Canyon, where we will be spending the night.
In the morning we are scheduled to go on a 3 hour mule ride. Hopefully this experienced isn't damped by more rain, that would be a real bummer. I don't think mules and rain really mix, and it would also likely mean that our view of the Grand Canyon would be obscured, thus undermining much of the justification for this trip north.
We will soon be heading back to our room and out of the lodge, so I will be internet free for a while. This state of affairs probably isn't actually so bad, though I might be nicing out from time to time.
Arizona is definitely not Nova Scotia or Newfoundland. Not only is there basically no grass, but there seems to be a serious cactus infestation. Oh, and the sun is more intense here than anywhere else I have ever been.
After a great trip to Taliesen West, Frank Lloyd Wright's Western retreat. On the tour we took we were able to see quite a number of the buildings and facilities he designed over the years he lived there.
Immediately afterwards we made a trip to Taser International, where I had a few photos taken.
As we walked out of the restaurant where we ate lunch it started to rain, and then it poured. Apparently this is the first time it has rained in months here. It was a somewhat surreal experience.
Anyway, things are going well and we have seen quite a number of local sights, though nothing in Phoenix proper. At some point tomorrow we will be heading to the Grand Canyon for two nights. While there we should have the opportunity to take a mule ride, which should be neat.
Anyway, I should probably try to do at least a little studying before dinner. Though I am on a trip I am still a student with comps fast approaching.
Today we made our way to both the old and new farmer's markets. While we were in the old farmer's market we happened to see a kid on a training wheel clad bike peddling aggressively but not getting anywhere. At times he was really givin' 'er. While I was able to catch a little bit of this activity on camera, I, sadly, missed some of the most aggressive peddling.
It seems that former McGill University president David Johnston has sworn in as Canada's new Governor General. Even though I bear something of a strong antipathy towards McGill administration, somehow this individual's past association with McGill has encouraged me to listen up whenever I hear his name. As much as I might not like to admit it, my association with McGill has likely left some kind of mark on me, even if I don't yet know the precise nature of that mark.
All of this being said, I think that Johnston's back ground and experience will serve him well in his new role. Furthermore, I am inclined to go so far as to think that he will actually do a very good job. Hopefully he will bring to the job an understanding of the constitution and operations of government that has not always been present among our Governors General.
For the past few days I have been undertaking a variety of tasks with hopes of preparing for my upcoming trip to Phoenix. Not surprisingly, some of these undertakings have been mirrored by Neil and Rebecca.
The most notable instance of this mirroring effect has been in the haircutting realm. As many of you will know, several days ago I had my hair cut. Yesterday afternoon Rebecca went for a haircut and ended up losing a few more inches than she expected to (even though it was shorter than expected I think it was a fine haircut). Neil, last night, asked me if I would be willing to take care of his shaggy locks. So now all three of us have been shorn of our gorgeous locks.
Laundry has been another area that has received attention. Yesterday I did a final load of laundry so that everything I need will be clean. Neil and Rebecca were doing some similar loads today, though I think that due to their later departure date that they may have more to do before they go.
I have also been collecting school work to bring with me. Of course this is likely going to be a waste of time as I suspect that I really won't manage to do much while I am away.
Anyway, the bewitching hour is now very near. Hopefully I am not forgetting anything key.
-Today, like the past few days, has been relatively warm and incredibly humid. As I am writing this Environment Canada is reporting that the humidity is 99%, one of the few statements of their's that I am willing to take a face value.
-Neil and I had another brutally long DAGS meeting this evening. Hopefully the upcoming meetings won't be multi-hour drudgery sessions, though I guess these things tend to be a little like this. And, to be fair to those involved, the meeting went relatively quickly considering the quantity of business that we had to get through.
-We won another Ultimate game yesterday. Some how, even though we lost four players to injuries, we managed to gather enough people to field a successful team.
-I recently learned the creative force behind one of my favourite podcasts, Stephen Tobolowsky, signed a book deal based on the content of the podcast. I presume that this development isn't particularly surprising for regular listeners, the content always struck me as something that could easily be converted into a great book. Anyways, if you are into podcasts that transmit personal stories The Tobolowsky Files is definitely worth checking out.
-Through he reality show The Amazing Race our apartment has been introduce to the videos of KevJumba (AKA Kevin Wu). Over the course of the past few days I have been subjected to gales of laughter as a result of viewings of his videos. I guess that such reactions are an indication that I might consider checking them out.
-Apparently, after thousands of years without them, Newfoundland is now home to a breeding population of snakes, garter snakes to be specific. This is quite a development, and follows on the heals of the relatively recent introductions of squirrels and coyotes. What else will be living there by the time I next visit?
-While on the subject of snakes, Newfoundland seems to have recently introduced changes to allow its police officers to snake their way around probable cause when stopping cars. Apparently a reason is no longer needed for a police officer to pull a driver over to determine whether or not they have been drinking or committing some other infraction. While I suspect that this change won't receive too much press, I hope that this is either rescinded or challenged. It is not a minor change to remove probable cause from the range of considerations police must deal with before engaging in searches.
-It seems that the Western portion of the US, including Phoenix, is presently in the midst of a record-breaking heat wave. This should be fun. At least I will get to experience this 'dry heat' that I have been hearing so much about.
