Eightish years tomorrow

Sure, one doesn't normally count partial years but when it comes to a blog with a questionable premise and minuscule readership I'm willing to play with the counting a little bit.

Back in 2006 did anyone think that Montifax would still be a going concern all these years later?

Could anyone have guessed Montifax's writers would end up living in six of Canada's ten provinces? And that one of these provinces would be Saskatchewan?

Anyway, thanks for reading - and if all goes well we'll return to something approximating semi-regular updates in the not too distant future (though I have to still work a few things out in my head before that happens).

Thanks for reading (even if we're not really doing much writing).

Things I've learned since I moved to Saskatchewan

1. There are people in Canada that actually follow the CFL

For most of my life I assumed that the CFL was mostly just a punchline or a trivia answer.  Turns out it is actually a going sports concern in parts of Canada.  Of course, at least as far as I can tell, those parts of the country that care about the CFL are likely found somewhere west of Winnipeg and east of Calgary (I'm pretty sure Vancouver is way too cool to be into anything in a big way).

2. Municipal snow plows are only for primary arteries

Yup, they basically don't plough residential streets in many communities in Saskatchewan.  Instead of ploughing residents just pack the snow into inches high sheets of ice that they are then expected to drive on.  Of course, over time deep ruts develop and those lower clearance vehicles may have a few problems - but that seems to be accepted as a consequence of owning anything less than a pick-up truck.

3. Saskatchewan is one of the world's primary sources for lentils

This cool fact seems to be under appreciated by most of the Saskatchewanians I've spoken to so far.  Of course, I'm still hopeful that eventually this informational nugget may form the basis of some kind of 'healthy protein' campaign, or at least as a protein heavy response to Alberta beef.

4. Saskatchewan mistakenly thinks that Shannon Tweed is a native daughter

Everybody knows that Shannon Tweed is really from Newfoundland.  Case closed.

5. 'Dry cold,' like 'dry heat,' makes all the difference

Though it's been at least -15 for the past few weeks it's not nearly as bad as -5 and the sideways-falling sleet-like precipitation that one often encounters in Newfoundland.  Of course, when you start getting really low temperatures your car may not start or you may get frostbite - but aren't these just small prices to pay for no slush?

It's been too long

So I'm sure that in my absence most of our regular readers haven't been getting their RDA of time-lapse content.

So here's a hot vid from our October trip to Indiana.

Turns out we had the pleasure of being able to watch the harvesting process as applied to a field of popcorn (a bigish crop in Indiana).

Enjoy!




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No need to thank me for helping to ward off your case of time-lapse scurvy.

Big changes

Sorry for the unusually long radio silence - the past few months (really since July) have been much more intense than usual.

Not only have I been travelling more than usual (two trips to the Maritimes, two trips to the Prairies, and a trip to Chicago/Indianapolis), but I also had the pleasure of getting married to Jeannette (in October) and somewhat suddenly accepting a new job in Regina (which started in early November).

Anyway, all of these things kind of piled up and lead to circumstances in which regular updates to Montifax were not feasible.

Now that you're all sort of caught up maybe I'll try to post a few items about a few of the months that we've all had the pleasure of just living through.

Two hot vids you won't want to miss

Of course taking photos from my window seat wasn't quite enough to occupy me on my flight from Winnipeg to Ottawa.  I also had the time to take a few quick time-lapse clips.

In the first clip, if you are careful, you can see a few hundred/thousand of the fields that I flew above.

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In the second clip you might be able to sense that as we head East it is quickly becoming darker as we head into the night.

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I don't know how this won't end up being North America's response to the overwhelming virality of Gangnam Style.

I wonder what's going on down there

As someone who had never been to or seen the Canadian prairies until two days ago I'd always wondered if the presence of agriculture was as prevalent as it often appears to be in media coverage of the region.  It turns out that flying into and out of prairie cities on a clear day is a great way to observe that, yes, huge seemingly unending swaths of these provinces are, in fact, devoted to agricultural production.  Moreover, on the flight from Winnipeg to Regina I saw few signs of economic development other than those associated with the agricultural sector.

Before I go any further I should probably make three points clear.  Firstly, I know that the economies of the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba are not exclusively agricultural.  Secondly, I also know that these provinces are huge and that the terrain differs from region to region (i.e. that there are at least a few hills in each of these provinces).  And, thirdly, that I know I saw only a relatively small portion of either of these provinces (though on my various flights I did probably see hundreds or thousands of square kilometres of each province).

That said, to reiterate, what I did see was overwhelmingly flat land devoted to agricultural production.  There were literally farms as far as the eye could see.

I couldn't help but wonder if there is more land devoted to agriculture in this photo than in all of Newfoundland and Labrador?

And if I focused more closely on a specific area it was pretty easy to see what was going on on the ground.

At times, particularly in Saskatchewan, some of the fields/regions were a little more pock marked.  I still don't know exactly what was going on in these situations.

And maybe it's just me and my unfamiliarity with prairie farming, but I kind of thought that the farms just outside of Winnipeg looked a little different than the farms near Regina.  But again, maybe that's just my unfamiliarity with prairie farming.

I was particularly pleased with myself when I found the line in the land a little east of Winnipeg where the farming, or at least the overwhelming predominance of farming, basically comes to an end and forested areas pick up.  Until yesterday I had no idea that such a line even existed - I had always assumed the farming gradually lessened.

And isn't it also nice to see a little of the earth's curvature?

Mission accomplished

As of yesterday morning at about 11:44 I have now visited all ten Canadian provinces. Of course, I still haven't made it to Edmonton so I'm still short on the provincial capital front.

I'm getting close!

Just a few minutes ago I arrived in Winnipeg. I have now been in 9 of the 10 Canadian provinces. When I land in Regina in a few hours I'll have the full set.

And we wonder why people are confused

I love that by reading multiple headlines/news stories one may be more confused about the nature of a situation than if they had just read a single story.  I think a great example of that is in the midst of happening in Halifax presently.

It seems that Halifax's mayor, Peter Kelly, is on his way out as the executor of a long-contested estate.  The CBC's headline for their story conveying the details is:

Halifax Mayor to step down as estate executor

On the other hand, the Coast - the independent weekly that first pushed the story of the mayor's challenges as executor, has the following headline:

BREAKING NEWS: Peter Kelly removed as executor of the Mary Thibeault estate

The CBC's headline gives me the impression that Kelly had some choice in the matter while the Coast's headline seems to suggest that Kelly had no choice in the matter.  These differences seem significant to me, or am I reading more into the headline differences than I should?

For Rebecca and Jeannette

For quite a while Jeannette and Rebecca have suggested that vids of cute kitties might help me drive up my YouTube views.  Well, now that we have a local feralish kitty I thought that I might give their suggestion a shot.

So, here's my first vid of our local kitty.



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Pretty exciting, right?  Maybe my first million view vid?

A Few Quick Notes 593

-Despite the fact that we've had nice weather during the day recently, our nights and mornings have definitely been getting cooler.  I'm constantly surprised in the afternoon that I need to take the sweater off that I'd been wearing all morning.

-This weekend, thanks to a reminder from my mother, I purchased some millet.  Since we fed this stuff to our pet budgie in the early 1990s I've been curious about the stuff.  Maybe I'll manage to get around to cooking some of it tonight.  I'm imagining that it will be comparable to quinoa, but I guess I'll have to wait to find out.

-I realize that I'm likely of a dying breed, but I really love waking up to a freshly delivered newspaper.  While I also check online news sources, there's nothing quite like being able to flip through the newspaper every morning.

-Today, while running an unrelated errand I happened to walk by the parliament buildings and was able to see the remnants of some protest activities.  I guess these protests were timed to coincide with the first day of the House's fall sitting.  I also witnessed a corresponding increase in the number of police officers.

-While out on my aforementioned errand I had the pleasure of walking along Sparks Street.  Despite the fact that the pedestrian-only nature of Sparks Street is one of the things I like most about it, I keep getting the sense that it's perceived as some kind of failure.  Though I don't necessarily head there all that frequently, it always seems like a resounding success to me.

-I suspect that the cooler evening and nighttime temperatures are slowing down the growth rates of our plants.  Presumably in the relatively near future I'll have to start wrapping everything up for the season. It will be strange to see our bare balcony after so many months of relatively rampant plant growth.

-On a related note, I think I spotted someone in an adjoining backyard engaging in some anti-squirrel sling-shotting.  I would guess that this means that I'm not the only one frustrated by their presence.

A Few Quick Notes 592

-After a few cooler days we've had a few return to summeresque temperatures.  Today, for the first time in what must be weeks, I actually had to turn on my AC unit for a little while.  Of course, by tomorrow overcast skies and rain should help drive temperatures down below 20.

-After weeks or months of delaying, this afternoon I finally got around to re-potting a few of herbs I originally planted a few months ago.  The seeds were originally planted in pots that were far to small.  I'm hoping that the new, larger pots will be more conducive to growth.  Of course because many of these plants were also in less than ideal growing mediums it's entirely possible that even with the transplanting that they will continue to under-perform as plants.

-The morning glories that I was busy bragging about a few days ago have stopped blooming quite as prolifically.  For instance, today there were only two smallish blooms.  As much as it was nice to have about 7 of full blooming, it would have been nice if months and months of watering had lead to at least a solid week of flowers.

-For some reason I got lazy and neglected to mention that last weekend Jeannette and I took a quick Sunday afternoon drive up to Wakefield, Quebec.  Had we done even a little planning we could gone up for a pleasant lunch, instead we went after we'd already eaten and ended up just walking around for a while.  It was definitely a nice looking town and I'm sure we'll head back at some point in the not-to-distant future.

Other exciting plant-related developments that I keep forgetting to mention

After months of waiting and watering our mo(u)rning glories have finally started to bloom.  For the past few days we've been getting between about 6 and 10 blooms each morning.  It's been pretty nice to have a few hours of flowers each day.

One of our avocado seeds has finally started looking like more than just a seed, though it still hasn't produced any leaf growth.  Maybe even more exciting is that despite the fact that they're still not doing much of anything we still have two other avocado seeds that are still alive and may eventually turn into something.

One of the squirrel caused plant casualties that I neglected to mention a few days ago was our banana plant.  For some reason the squirrel decided to rip up one of the incoming leaves.  It's this kind of squirrel behaviour that I just don't understand - what could it possibly be hoping to find in a leaf?

A few weeks ago I purchased a nice piece of ginger with intentions of sprouting my own ginger.  Of course I didn't put the ginger in a big enough pot, but it has started to do its thing and I'm hopeful that every few days we'll keep seeing new signs of growth.  Unfortunately, I'm not particularly hopeful that this ginger plant will ever lead to much edible ginger.

Those were some pretty exciting plant updates weren't they?

A Few Quick Notes 591

-We're in the midst of another hot and humid day in Ottawa.  As we keep creeping further into September I keep tricking myself into thinking that we'll soon be past such days - but they keep on coming.

-Our squirrel keeps coming back, though it's damage from this morning's visit wasn't as bad as a few visits.  I guess I really need to consider ramping up my cayenne use if I want to got a few days without these guys visiting and tearing everything up.

-So it turns out that the Quebec election was pretty eventful.  Not only did the PQ do a little worse than expected (along with the CAQ), the Liberal outperformed expectations.  At the end of the day the PQ managed only four more seats than the Liberals (and they were about nine seats short of majority territory).  Maybe most impressively, the PQ, the Liberals, and the CAQ all received less than 1/3 of the total vote - though the Liberals and PQ were close with 31% each.

And the least expected development of the night was likely the shooting that occurred at the PQ election night party.  Fortunately I had called it a night by the time this happened so I didn't trick myself into thinking that I should watch the coverage as the details of the shooting emerged.

-Aside from the sinkhole coverage, the big news from Ottawa today is that by 2014 there should be a AA team based here.  While I'm a little bummed out that we'll have to wait another season, I'm definitely looking forward to attending some minor league baseball.

-So if you're looking for some ongoing courtroom drama consider following the case regarding Toronto's mayor, Rob Ford.  It seems that if this conflict of interest based case goes against Ford he could find himself out of a job in the near future, or at least that is one interpretation of the possible outcomes.

A Few Quick Notes 590

-After a few relatively pleasant low-humidity days we seem to have transitioned back into that muggy weather that Ottawa does so well.  It's been so muggy and humid that I'm almost starting to think that the appearance of rain may be helping by cooling things off.

-I guess quite a number of university students started classes today.  Maybe that is why it was a little quieter last night?  I guess we'll probably have to wait until Friday to find out how much of a U of O party scene we'll have to contend with in this neighbourhood.  Hope it's not too bad.

-One of local feralish kittens has taken to sitting on our front steps.

And though at times I've simultaneously seen about ten cats hanging out in our neighbourhood, these days this is one of the few cats I see on a regular basis.  If only this thing was big enough to take on the local squirrels.

-So my cayenne pepper and water solution seems not to have worked (though the squirrels were absent for about 24 hours).  For the past two days they've been back and badder than ever.  If I didn't know better I'd think that they were purposely destroying things before they ripen just so that we can't have them.

The worst part is that I have no idea what it is they are looking for.  They keep digging in the dirt, but a far as I know there isn't anything there for them to find (aside from more dirt - and that doesn't seem to be what they are looking for).  

It definitely bums me out to look at the plants each morning and find that new damage has been done and a bigger mess made. 

-On Saturday Jeannette and I took a day trip to upstate New York.  In addition to witnessing what appeared to be a glee club sing-off in Potsdam, we also managed to find the world's worst homefries.  These bad boys were undercooked, soggy, cold, poorly seasoned, and over-priced.  Oh, and the same at the same place the 'side of fruit' was canned pears.  While we didn't see to many things that we would recommend, on the up side we have started to create a list of places that don't merit a return visit.

(Oh, and we saw five bros buying a 55 inch TV for their apartment.  Probably a pretty solid investment for your average undergrad student wouldn't you say?)

It's election day in Quebec!

Though I haven't been following Quebec's election too closely, based on the limited coverage I have seen I get the sense that we could be in for a bit of a change.  Of course based on the outcomes of recent provincial elections, polls don't necessarily seem to be wonderful predictors of the eventual composition of the legislature.

Of course predictable or not, I hope to catch some of the coverage somehow tonight.  I'm probably not quite motivated enough to head to a bar in Gatineau, but I'm sure I'll figure something out.

A Few Quick Notes 589

-It looks as though it is going to be a beautiful Labour Day in Ottawa this year, though maybe a few degrees warmer than ideal.

-Because we don't have the same morning rush to readiness today I'm hoping to crank out a batch of raspberry muffins for breakfast.

-Last night, based on a recommendation from my father, I sprayed our balcony plants with cayenne pepper water.  The idea is that this will deter the squirrel from visiting the plants.  I'm a little curious to see if it worked, or if the squirrel responded vindictively to the new flavour.

-Yesterday Jeannette and I engaged in a multi-hour cleaning and organizing event.  Is there any better way to spend a beautiful Sunday?

-Actually, because it's move-in weekend at the local universities (and one of these universities is only a few blocks away) it was nice not to be outside and in the midst of that craziness.

Caught in the act

Since my flurry of squirrel related posts a few days ago I've intermittently been trying to memorialize our pesky squirrel in a time-lapse film.  Until this morning I've been entirely unsuccessful and was evening starting to think that my recently installed ultrasonic rodent annoyer may have been working.

Of course today I've caught the squirrel out in various plants a few times.  Bummer.

On the upside, I was finally able to get some footage of it doing its thing in a few of the plants.

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I really have no idea why it keeps digging deep into these pots.  I don't think that there's anything at the bottom of these pots that the squirrel could possibly find useful.  Maybe at this point it's just trying to annoy me?

Third time's a charm?

So when I just went back to refill up my coffee mug I again noticed that a squirrel was digging around in a few of the plants.

This time instead of grabbing my water squirter I reverted to loud noise making.  Though the squirrel didn't immediately leave the balcony it didn't take too long before it was at the furthest point away from me and then looking an escape route.

Amazingly, this time, instead of just jumping off of the side of the balcony, the squirrel climbed up one of the support beams and then into a tree.

I'm not if I should be tricked into thinking that this is a different, smarter, squirrel or if the first squirrel has finally realized that just jumping from a third storey balcony onto a garage roof below is not the best idea.

Just to be clear, until today I'd only actually seen the squirrels in the plants one time (though they frequently leave evidence of their visits).  I have no idea why they keep visiting today, but hopefully I've seen the last of them for the day (but I guess I thought the same thing the first time I saw a squirrel make a hail Mary blind jump from the balcony to a roof below).

Damn thing just came back

So I just went out to refill my coffee cup and look at our plants again and again found a damn squirrel messing things up.

This time I was a little bit more careful about my closing the door thing and the squirrel was definitely less responsive to the squirting water thing.  Instead of leaving the balcony it just climbed around and tried to hide.  Of course because there aren't many hiding places on our small balcony this wasn't an entirely effective tactic.

Of course eventually the squirrel decided not to share the balcony with me anymore and again jumped from the side rail balcony across our car and onto the garage roof.  Again my stomach was in my throat as I worried that I may have to deal with a seriously injured squirrel.  Fortunately, like the last time, the squirrel again scurried across the garage roof to safety.

On the up side, I'm learning a little more about the jumps squirrels can safely land.  On the downside, I'm now pretty sure that making the jump the first time didn't scare the squirrel away from our balcony garden.

Maybe we'll have to hire an old guy with an air rifle to sit back there and mind the farm while we're away?

My heart is still pounding

I just went out to the kitchen to refill my coffee mug and take a look at the balcony garden.  While looking at our plants I noticed that one of our local squirrels was digging around in a few of the pots.

I opened the door and stepped onto the balcony to scare the squirrel away.  While reaching for my water squirter (a tool that I use because the squirrels don't seem to respond to me shouting at them) I noticed that there were actually two squirrels on the balcony and that the second squirrel was behind me.  Just as I was getting an accurate sense of the lay of the land squirrel-wise the second squirrel ran under the open balcony door and into our apartment.  At the same time the squirrel I first saw made an unseen departure from the balcony (but by this point I didn't really care where it went or what it was doing as long as it didn't involve the inside of our apartment).

The squirrel then ran around the kitchen at speeds that were unnecessarily fast.  Of course, in addition to running around it was also insistent on taking a convoluted path that seemed to involve jumping on just about everything around.

Almost before I knew what was happening it ran from the kitchen to the living room and continued jumping on things (including Jeannette's knitting box).  

At this point I was pretty worried.  Because I was standing between the animal and the door I was fearful that the squirrel would make its way further into the apartment and maybe even try to stake out a hiding place rather than run through me towards the exit.  And because I couldn't see how to get the squirrel between my body and the door I was worried that any step towards the living room might exacerbate the situation.

Fortunately once the squirrel entered the living room it cut left into the main part of the room and I was able to slip into the room and put the squirrel between my body and the door.  Of course, even though the squirrel was where I wanted it, it's not as though my body was an impenetrable shield that protected the rest of the apartment (all the squirrel needed to do to get past me was run around me).

Fortunately, I think the squirrel was less interested in being in our apartment than I was in having it there.  Once I was in position it ran out of the living room, through the kitchen, and right off the side of the balcony.

All of a sudden the squirrel was flying through the air, seemingly heading towards the pavement two storeys below.  Amazingly, despite the apparent lack of planning on the squirrel's part, the squirrel managed to leap off the balcony, make it all the way over our parked car, and land on a section of garage roof on the other side.  From there the animal, seeming uninjured, scurried away across the roof to safety.

Do you think it's too much to expect that this near death experience will be enough to scare the squirrels away from their now daily destructive visits to our balcony garden?  I really hope so because the visits are becoming more regular and more destructive.  At this point we're hardly harvesting anything because the squirrels keep destroying the fruits of our labour just as they start to ripen (and sometimes even before they start to ripen).

With (a) great car comes (a) great responsibility (to go on road trips)

A few weeks ago, long before we'd even thought about acquiring a car, my friend Nicole mentioned that at the end of August she would be in Montreal for a few days.  At the time the distance, though it is only 200 km, seemed almost unimaginably far.  And while I hadn't completely written off the idea of somehow making it to Montreal for a visit, it certainly seemed a little unlikely.

Of course once we had our car in hand travelling the 200 km to Montreal didn't seem so challenging (and what better way spend time with a new car than by taking it out for an extended test drive?).

So with the transportation issue out of the way I now just had to play catch up and get the dates of Nicole's visit.  Amazingly, after what seemed like just a few minutes I got a response back from Nicole indicating that she'd just arrived that day.  Within a few emails we'd arranged to meet for lunch the following day.

Though we had to deal with a few construction related delays while making our way out of Ottawa, the trip went relatively smoothly (though had our air conditioning been working it would have been even more pleasant).  The only noteworthy aspect of the trip, which was remarkably straight forward, was the traffic.  Though I haven't made the drive before it seemed that there was a fair bit of traffic for a Saturday morning in August (though this feeling may just be because I'm still unfamiliar with the traffic patterns).

In just about two hours from our time of departure we were in the Mile End neighbourhood of Montreal.  Despite the fact that I hadn't spent much time in the area there were a few names and locations that were familiar.

After a short stroll around the surrounding area we made our way meet Nicole (it being a hot and sunny day we were looking forward to not only our rendezvous but also the restaurant's shade and water).

It was really great to catch up on post-library school goings on a hear a little about life in New Zealand.

After a very pleasant lunch and chat we made our way over to my old stomping grounds.  I was able to show Jeannette where I used to live, work, and shop.  Unfortunately because of one-way streets and an unfamiliarity with streets from the perspective of a driver the trip to this part of town took a fair bit longer than it should have.

Despite the fact that I tend to think that I don't really miss Montreal all that much it was really nice to see the place again after about four years.  Despite the fact that there have been quite a number of changes in my absence, there are a remarkable number of similarities.  Maybe now that we're only a two hour drive away I'll have the chance to head back a little more frequently now.

Due to popular demand

Jeannette was a bit surprised that I didn't include a photo of our fancy new table in the last post.  To make up for my omission here's a photo of the table.

For better or worse (but probably worse) the table's base is a fair bit smaller than the table's surface.  Thus if one leans on the table they may end up toppling the items on the table into their lap.  Good thing we don't have too much stemmed glassware.

Isn't life exciting?

On Wednesday afternoon I received a call informing me that my recently ordered table was ready to be picked up on Thursday.  Much to my surprise, despite the fact that the store is closing and the table was suspiciously cheap, the call about the table's availability came right on time.

At about the same time I also received a call informing me the used 2000 Toyota Echo that Jeannette arranged to buy would also be available on Thursday.

Talk about synergy.

Now we could use the car to pick up the table, or at least that was the plan that was rapidly forming in my head.

On Thursday we bussed out to the car pick-up site and were back on the road within minutes.  Not surprisingly, our destination was the table pick-up site.  Of course, because it's construction season and because the loading dock is tucked away beneath a bridge getting to the pick-up point (even though it's only about 3 blocks from our apartment) took the better part of a half an hour.  Then, once we were finally on site, we found that the table was too wide to fit in either the back seat or the trunk.

So before we were back to the original table pick up plan - my hand-truck.

Of course the loading dock guys were amused to see that after the failed car-based load I came back with an even smaller means of conveyance.  Anyway, even if it looked a little funny, I made it back to the apartment with the table on the hand-truck in much less time than I spent driving around in circles trying to find the right one-way access point to the loading dock.

(I guess I somehow managed to spend more time and effort on the table pick up than I did on the new car details.  It's nice to know that even with the acquisition of a new vehicle I'm still not car (R)obsessed.)

Pretty good variety for a balcony

Today I harvested all four different varieties of beans we have growing on our balcony.  For maybe the first time in my balcony gardening career I have a harvest that is actually larger than a single meagre serving.  Exciting.

How are these not the subject of a major controversy?

While waiting for the bus on Rideau this afternoon Jeannette and I noticed a few symbols on a building across the street from us.  I was surprised that the symbols were still on public display.

Or maybe I'm just reading too much into this?

It finally happened

For quite a while I've been wondering when I would first get to experience a bus-other vehicle accident.

Well, last night the answer was revealed to me with a thump as the bus I was riding in clipped the mirror of a car it was passing with a loud thump.

Of course because this was my first such accident I wasn't up on the protocol.  And despite the fact that most of the passengers soon exited the bus I wasn't sure if this is what I should be doing, or if another bus would be sent to pick us up.

After speaking to the bus driver I learned that they wouldn't be sending another bus for us, but that we were supposed to walk to the next stop and pick the bus up there.  And because of my slight delay in getting off of the bus I almost missed the bus at the next stop - and that would have really been a bummer.

Anyway, I'm just hoping that yesterday's lite accident will be the one and only bus-other vehicle accident I'll have the opportunity to participate in.

A table in three prices

Today, while on our way back from lunch, Jeannette and I decided to visit a local department store so that we could peruse the store's going out of business bargains (which were recently bumped up to up to 40% off).

After taking a quick look at the clothing and kitchen departments Jeannette reminded me that we should head to the furniture department we've been thinking about looking for a new dining table.  And wouldn't it be nice if we could get such a table at a deep discount?

Almost as soon as we arrived in the furniture department we realized that the store only had about four tables to chose from, and most were too large for our apartment.  So it didn't take us to long to focus our attention on a round 48 inch diameter solid-wood table that should actually fit in our apartment.

According to a price sheet on the table the table was $349, though we were expecting that there would be at least a 30% discount.

When we finally tracked down a non-furniture department employee (the only employee handy) he suggested that he would try to make sure to order us a table rather than sell us the floor model.  While we were both excited to buy a non-floor model table, the idea of ordering something in seemed a little strange considering that the store is in the midst of closing and they are very actively trying to sell their remaining stock.  So despite the absurdity of the proposition we decided to just go with the employee's suggestion.

Things became even stranger when we saw that instead of being applied to the price indicated ($349), the 30% discount was being applied to $189 (we still don't know where this price came from).

So instead of paying $349 - 30% for a floor model, the store (despite the fact that they're closing) is ordering us a brand new table at more then 60% off of the original price.  Maybe this kind of special math is why they're closing?

And to make things even more bizarre, when I came home I went online to find a listing for the table on the store's website and learned that online it's going for $319.

It's moments like these when I am quite happy to accept the mysterious ways in which the world works.

Neighbourhood sights

Despite the fact that most of the time our neighbourhood is kind of quite, there are occasionally a few funny or noteworthy goings on (such as the car accident two blocks from us that made the news this morning or the flipped semi from a few days ago at a different nearby intersection).

Maybe these are a few of the less noteworthy features of our neighbourhood?

So I think I've figured out where the local pizza fanatic lives.

And then yesterday I saw this cool bike as I was walking home.

Isn't Ottawa life exciting life?

Which is the greater journalistic sin?

Is it worse to make up a quote to complement your argument, a la Jonah Lehrer, or to plagiarize another author's work, a la Fareed Zakaria?  Or maybe they're both offences equally egregious sins?

The more I think about the issue the more I'm inclined to think that fabrication of content is a greater sin, and is generally more likely to cause more harm, than plagiarism, though that doesn't mean that plagiarism isn't problematic in its own right.

Is this really the best route?

I know that in Ottawa there designated routes trucks are supposed to take to cross the bridges into Gatineau/Quebec, but does it really make sense that trucks carrying unmilled lumber end up in the downtown core?

I would think that for the trip from the forest to the sawmill most truckers would do just about anything possible to avoid being anywhere near downtown Ottawa.

Maybe truckers like to show off to each other by citing their number of successful trips through truck unfriendly locales?

A Few Quick Notes 588

-Though today started off hot and humid, a few periods of rain and thunder showers have done a good job at bringing the temperature down by a few degrees.  Of course, it's still incredibly humid and sticky here.

-Because I couldn't talk Jeannette into going with me I had to go to the local busker event solo yesterday.  Despite the fact that it would have been nice to have someone to share the experience with, it was also nice to be able to not have to worry about causing someone to stay through a show they weren't enjoying.

After a somewhat lacklustre first performance (I think the heat likely had something to do with it) I happened to walk by another show just as it was about to start.  Like most of these shows the ramp-up was a little long-winded, but once they eventually got down to business they did a pretty good job.  Though they are likely not the only group with their own portable aerial gymnastics equipment on the busking circuit, they were certainly the first group I've seen with such a rig.

Oh, and it turned out that this group is based in Michigan.

-It was nice to have a little rain today so that I won't have to deal with the afternoon and evening watering sessions.  In addition to this natural watering session, the main development of the past few days is the ripening of our sweet peppers.

Maybe in a few days these three peppers will be ready for consumption?  I certainly hope so.

The rest of our plants seem to be fine, though nothing particularly exciting has been happening.  I'm starting to wonder if we might have enough time for a second planting of a few of them?

-Jeannette's tricked me into watching too much of the Olympic coverage.  I'm starting to look forward to upcoming events.  Ugh.

A Few Quick Notes 587

-We're in the midst of another hot and humid day in Ottawa.  I made the mistake of going for a short walk at about noon and was really feeling the consequences of my mistake by the time I returned home a little while later.

-Despite the fact that Jeannette isn't a fan of buskers and their ilk, she was kind enough to let me know about a busking festival currently taking place a few blocks from where we live.  Though I didn't go to any full shows today, I did walk buy just in time to see a grown woman stuff herself in a  small plexiglass box.

Though Jeannette definitely won't be joining me, I may try to head back at some point this weekend to see one or two of the shows.

-Despite a relatively good harvest a few days ago, things have taken something a turn for the worse in our balcony garden.

We woke up this morning to find that something, presumably a squirrel-like animal, did some substantial digging in a few of our pots.

So not only are we losing consumables, but finally we've started to lose plants because of this infestation (at least one of the two bean plants in this pot seems to have died).  I really hope this soon comes to an end otherwise we aren't going to have many plants left.

This turn of events is definitely something of a bummer.

-I've definitely fallen out of the habit of blogging regularly haven't I?

A Few Quick Notes 586

-After a few days of lower humidity levels we seem to be back in the sweat zone.  Maybe even more than my trip to Arizona the past few days have made it clear to me how much humidity makes a difference.  30 with lowish humidity is entirely tolerable if you have a fan.  22 and high humidity is a recipe for sweat and aggravation.  Hopefully we can slide back down the humidity scale in the coming days.

-It seems that our balcony garden is a favourite site for at least one of the neighbourhood squirrels.  Frustratingly the squirrel seems to be picking tomatoes and peppers and burying these finds in the other pots.  This is frustrating because we keep losing almost ripe food, and because I know that the squirrel isn't even eating or coming back for its treasures.

Though the tactic was borne of laziness, by leaving the porch light on last night I think I have found a way to discourage this visitor.  Hopefully the squirrel won't clue into the fact that the light being on doesn't mean that there are humans watching.

-Despite my best efforts, Jeannette's interest in following the Olympics has spilled over a little.  While I seem to be able to keep myself away from the live television coverage, I must say that I find some of the newspaper and social media coverage particularly consumable.  The very positive aspect of consuming sports content in this way is that I don't have to listen to the inane commentary that typically accompanies live sporting.  I have no idea why broadcasters are so afraid of letting viewers watch the sports uncommented upon.  Is this a weird hold over from the visual-free radio era?

-I guess today was Regatta Day in St. John's.  Apparently we are due for a Civic Holiday in Ottawa this Monday.  Exciting!

Update: Apparently the upcoming holiday is called Colonel By Day, which I can't help wanting to read as the first part of the following sentence: "Colonel by day, X by night."

Some thoughts on writing and related topics

A few weeks ago I remember reading a story about the so-called self-plaigarism of regular RadioLab contributor and New Yorker staff writer Jonah Lehrer.  Aside from the general topic of the story, a topic find inherently interesting, I was curious about the story as a regular listener to Radiolab.

At the time I presumed that this self-plaigarism angle would the last I would be hearing about the journalistic practices, if that is the appropriate term, of Lehrer.

Thanks to an article published on Monday that outlines a number of fabricated or misattributed Bob Dylan quotes in his most recent book, Lehrer's journalistic practices have once again come up for discussion.  Of course, unlike with the self-plaigarism issue, in this case Lehrer didn't walk away from the dust up with his job (he has now resigned from his post at The New Yorker).

While it's clear that for a reader or publication an author fabricating sources, quotes, or data is unacceptable and is a firing offence, how one should handle of 'self-plaigarism' is likely not quite as clear cut, and readers and employers may approach the matter differently.

From the perspective of a reader that an author revisits a topic (sometimes with passages take directly from earlier iterations of a work), but each time refining his or her approach, may not be problematic.  Despite the fact that such an iterative approach to writing may not be a particularly common practice in popular literature, there are areas of publishing - like some scholarly domains - where this approach is quite common (Lukes' multiple editions of Power: A Radical View is one such example that comes to mind).   Of course, as a reader I do like knowing when I'm encountering something that I may have read a version of before (While reading Carol Shield's Unless a few years ago I was haunted by a sense of deja vu while reading a scene about gifting a scarf only to realize some number of years later that I'd first encountered a similar passage in one of Shield's short stories.).

Of course it is also important to take into consideration the extent to which author continues to re-engage and refine the ideas and arguments are being examined.  If the 'self-plaigarism' is nothing more than a re-jiggering of paragraphs and paraphrasing of past publications without any new substance then this practice becomes almost valueless to most readers.  In such cases I am inclined to feel duped by the author - and that is almost never a pleasant feeling.

'Self-plaigarism' when viewed from the perspective of the publisher raises an entirely different set of concerns.  Firstly, at least as far as I can see, is the matter of copyright.  If the publisher of second version of the text doesn't provide proper attribution and attain appropriate permissions from the publisher of the first version of the text (maybe because they don't know that the writing isn't all original) might they not have copyright infringement issues on their hands?  And I can't see prominent publications appreciating 'their' content turning up in another publication.

Secondly, I would have to guess that most major publications don't like paying full price for 'recycled' content.  Assuming the ideas discussed in these pieces haven't really been overly refined from iteration to iteration, which I think is a relatively fair assumption in this case given the short/informal nature of many of the posts in question, I can imagine that this breaks the spirit and letter of agreements that authors have with their publishers about submissions.  (I also have to assume that readers don't appreciate paying full price for a publication that has supposedly 'new' content that they may have already read.)

Unfortunately, I think that this confluence of conditions (from both the perspective of the reader and the publisher) and stories like this that that vilify 'self-plaigarism' (and that don't differentiate its various forms) may mean that professional authors may be less likely to re-visit and revise work as time and their understanding of the topic progresses despite the fact that technologies currently available may facilitate such regular revisions of a work and allow the reader to see how this work has been changed with each new iteration.  Though I certainly hope it's not the case, I fear that the appearance of an ever-changing, always-a-work-in-progress text like Whitman's Leaves of Grass may be less likely now than ever before (I can only imagine that what an author was paid to revise a text in the manual type-setting days was relatively little compared to the overall cost of a new printing/edition and would require only marginally more work on the part of the publisher, whereas in the current context a new printing that also entails a re-formatted and re-written document substantially increases printing and re-publication costs relative to just re-printing the same text you already had on file).

I'm not sure that I've really brought this to a satisfying conclusion, but I guess I can always come back to a few of these ideas in the future and see if I can add anything new to the conversation.  If I do take such an approach I'll try to remember to send you back here so you can see what I wrote the first time around.

The main thing I'm wondering about with the impending demise of the Canadian penny

In the Canadian federal government's most recent budget it was announced that the penny would soon be phased out, or at least that in the near future they would no longer be in production.  It was suggested that instead of using pennies transactions could be rounded to the nearest five cents when one needs to give change or pay.

My main question is who gets to decide when when the rounding rules are used and when exact change is given?  For instance, can a store opt not to give a customer a penny if they have one in the till and instead round down to the nearest nickel?  Can the customer pay only $0.40 even if the cashier can see that they have the two pennies that would be required to pay the $0.42 bill in full?

Presumably there isn't much that can be done about a customer deciding to pay with cash or electronic means of payment if one means of payment is more advantageous than the other.  But still, shouldn't we at least think about this issue?

I guess the point of all of this is that if hacking/digital heist movies (cf. Office Space) have taught us anything it's that if you skim pennies from millions of transactions you may eventually end up with millions of dollars.  Unfortunately I haven't yet heard how this problem will be resolved, or if it will be resolved, and which protections, if any, will be put in place for consumers and retailers (though I suspect that retailers are in a better position to make better use of these schemes than individual consumers).

Update:  The following quote from a Globe and Mail story doesn't give me much hope that the aforementioned problems will be adequately addressed prior to the demise of the penny.

Ottawa says it won’t be policing consumer-business transactions, but added that “businesses are expected to round prices in a fair, consistent and transparent manner.”

What did the world have against rabbit ears?

The switch from analog to digital TV transmission isn't something that I have spent much time thinking about over the past few years.  If memory serves me correctly, the most time I spent thinking about issues relating to the switch were associated with a digital antenna installation I assisted with a few years ago.

Of course when I purchased a device for a computer monitor that also has the capacity to be a TV and Jeannette decided to use it to watch this summer's Olympics the recent switch to digital suddenly became important.  Not only did we need to make sure that we had an appropriate antenna, but we also have started to have to contend with a few of the problems inherent to digital broadcasting.

Firstly, it seems that our neighbourhood's namesake, Sandy Hill, is itself something of a problem for digital transmission.  I gather that this hill blocks a good number of residents from receiving any of the channels that should be available in the area (when I was buying an antenna the salespeople were even kind enough to point this out).  I'm sure that the ever increasing number of tall buildings in the area aren't going to help either.

Secondly, my limited experience with this new transmission format seems to suggest that one either has a version of the channel or they don't, no longer is one able to accept fuzzy transmission if a clear version of the channel isn't available.  This is definitely a bit of a bummer.

Thirdly, though our experience is limited, it seems that channels intermittently appear and disappear.  For instance, just a few minutes ago Jeannette was watching Olympic coverage when all of a sudden the channel disappeared with no warning.  Despite the fact that we've moved the antenna around and reset the equipment we haven't been able to regain the transmission.  Back in the good old analog days I don't remember ever having such problems, unless, of course, someone bumped the antenna.

Given the cost incurred by broadcasters and consumers and the number of problems viewers are having with this new service I can't help but wonder why such a change was initiated?  Who are the beneficiaries of this change?

Anyway, I just hope we don't have too many more problems with this stuff.  We're less than a day into the two-week long Olympics and I'm already tired of fiddling with our antenna.

When time-lapse isn't quite the right way of capturing an event

A few days ago I paid a visit to Neil and Rebecca in Sackville, NB.  Throughout the visit I saw signs indicating that 2012 was the 250th anniversary of the founding of Sackville.  Not surprisingly, I didn't really pay much attention to these signs as I didn't have any plans to look into the associated events.

That being said, I was pretty impressed that Sackville was so old.  Though I'd been there 4 times previously, I had no idea that the town predated Confederation by 105 years.  (And it's not even on a river of significance).

Anyway, as the sun began to set on Friday evening Rebecca noticed that people began to gather on the lawn across the street.  She suggested that it looked as though people were gathering view something, maybe like a parade.

Of course it being 9:00 PM made it unlikely that people were gathering for a parade.  A little poking around the town's website allowed Rebecca to figure out that people were gathering for anniversary fireworks at 10:00 PM.

Despite the fact that the fireworks were to be set off almost immediately behind our base of operations none of us seemed particularly excited about the prospect of heading outside to see a small town fireworks show.  We didn't hold out much hope for it being much more than rinky-dink affair.

When at about 9:45 PM we heard a quick series of explosions and saw the reflection of these explosions on the building across the street we immediately raced to the building's back porch to check out the excitement.

The quick succession with which the fireworks seemed to be exploding caused us to wonder if we had a San Diego situation on our hands.



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We arrived just as these explosions came to an end and were left wondering if we'd just seen everything that was to be seen or if that first flourish was just some kind of test run.  A city worker we spoke to as the smoke cleared didn't do much to wash away these suspicions when he suggested that this was to be the first fireworks show in the town in about 20 years.

As the next fifteen minutes passed another one or two fireworks were launched, though if these were remnants of a botched show or additional practice runs was not the least bit clear.

Much to our surprise, at 10:00 PM the show proper started.

Almost immediately we knew that we were in for something special.

Not only were we close enough to feel each explosion, the fireworks themselves were quite impressive.

Of course, just before the show started I set up a time-lapse capture to record the event (if there was going to be an event).

While the event was progressing I could see that I was capturing a few of the explosions.  Of course it wasn't until after the event when I could see the full clip that I realized how bad my time-lapse set up was for capturing fireworks.



[Embedded video]

Anyway, despite the fact that I didn't get to see a fireworks show where everything was released at once, I did get to see the best fireworks show of my life.  It turns out that our fears that Sackville's fireworks would be rink-dink were completely misplaced.

A Few Quick Notes 585

-Wow, today was another hot one.  According to Environment Canada it has been at least 30 since noon.  Though a few of the weeds have retained their colour, almost all of the grass around here appears to be a drought induced drab colour.  So unless you look up it doesn't even look all that beautiful around here these days.

-After a two week balcony garden update hiatus, I can proudly report that the tomatoes have finally started ripening.  Other than that most of the plants seem to be just chugging along unimpressively.

I think it's even fair to say that we have at least a real serving of tomatoes for Jeannette to eat when she sees fit.

-It always seem like something of a waste when I make a loaf of bread first thing in the morning and then don't get around to cracking into it until the next day.  Observers may start to think that I prefer stale bread, and that definitely isn't the case.

-I've recently become a big fan of tofu burgers.  While tofu burgers don't really taste or feel anything like traditional meat burgers they take only a fraction of the time to prepare and they can be consumed 'blue' or 'rare' at no risk to the consumer.

It's hot, humid, and dry in Ottawa

Some kind of heat warning has been issued for today and tomorrow in Ottawa.  I'm not exactly sure what this means, or how I will be behaving differently as a result of this warning, but I guess it's nice to know that I should expect it to be hot (and humid).

Actually, despite the fact that the warning is a 'heat warning,' my understanding of the situation is that the warning has actually been issued because the expected combination of heat and humidity.  We've had higher temperatures and not had such warnings issued, so I guess we're in for particularly high humidity.

This doesn't bode well for today being a pleasant or productive day.

The other weather weather related news that broke yesterday is that Ottawa is apparently in the midst of a 'level one' drought. Given the recent absence of rain I guess this makes sense.

I guess I find it funny despite the basis for the heat warning is the presence of high humidity, but at the same time the absence of 100% is causing another set of problems.

Get your listen on

A few of my favourite podcasts recently came out with episodes that I quite enjoyed.

This American Life's Switcheroo episode had a particularly engaging story about a new form of outsourced journalism.  Despite the fact that I've listened to the episode and also read a few follow-up stories on the profiled company I still don't know exactly how I should feel about the practice of outsourced context-free reporting.  Anyway, I'm definitely glad to know that this kind of thing is going on and that we're now talking about it a bit more than we were a few days ago.

Radiolab's remix contest episode was also pretty fun (though in a very different way than their content usually is).  The contest's winning entry really worked for me and reminded me of the great Idea's episode by Adam Goddard More About Henry (available here as an episode of Living Out Loud).

I write such posts because I realize I am the internet's #1 source of audio content reviews.  If it weren't for these occasionally posted reviews this place would surely be a ghost town.

Or maybe you're actually coming here for the great Leacockian flourishes?

A Few Quick Notes 584

-We are in the midst of another sunny day.  Presumably this also means that we will soon be in the midst of another hot and sticky day.

-Yesterday was Canada Day (or not) and as we are in downtown Ottawa we are, I think it is fair to say, near the epicentre of the annual Canada Day celebrations.  Through out the day we heard various celebration-related noises, but as evening approached the frequency with which we were hearing these noises really increased.

At one point we saw about 60 people in red unitards running along a near by street while being accompanied by an orchestra of car horns.

Fortunately we were able to take advantage of a dinner invitation and make our way to a more residential part of town for the heart of the evening.  Unfortunately, the fact that we left the downtown core meant that at some point we had to return to the downtown core.

While the bus we took for the first half of our trip was almost completely empty, the second bus was packed with a number of semi-intoxicated Canada Day celebrators. Fortunately this bus ride wasn't too long.  Then on the short walk back to our apartment we were able to see a number of attempted acts of vandalism and general drunken tomfoolery.  The general attitude on display seemed to be "Canada's great, so lets destroy it!"

-Somehow in recounting our recent bike ride in Gatineau I forgot to mention that as we were passing the Museum of Civilization I looked up and happened to see a few familiar parachutes.

As we rode a little further we approached the parachute landing site and were able to hear the announcement that we had just witnessed a SkyHawks practice jump.  In a matter of about 24 hours I not learned about the existence of the SkyHawks, but I also saw them perform twice (and they were did different material in each instance).

-My bread just came out of the oven so maybe that means that I really need to get down to work?

Doing the tourist thing

As you may recall, earlier this week I made my way to the daily Changing the Guard ceremony on Parliament Hill.

Despite the fact that the aforementioned event is incredibly well known but still super boring, on Friday I talked Jeannette into attending another similarly well-known event - the RCMP's Musical Ride - hoping it would be a little more exciting (and because we were going to be attending the special Sunset Ceremony version of the event I was pretty sure it would be).

As soon as we arrived, which was a few minutes before the event was scheduled to start, we were able to catch the tail end of the pre-show riding competition.  Had I known that this was to take place before the start-time I would have made a point of arriving much earlier than we did.

We were incredibly surprised to learn that the show was to be kicked off with a parachuting demonstration team - the SkyHawks (a group I hadn't even heard about until they were jumping out of a plane overhead).

Thanks to brightly coloured parachutes it was pretty easy to follower the performers as they descended. As they descended the performers engaged in various formations and manoeuvres.

I was generally surprised to see how much the performers were in contact with one another with their parachutes out as part of their formations.

In some cases they didn't separate from one another until they were only moments away from landing.  And they did these things so nonchalantly that it was almost easy to forget that they were putting their lives on the line for the sake of our entertainment.  It was really kind of weird.

Anyway, the presence of a parachuting team was definitely an pleasant surprise and immediately made this event about 100 times more exciting than the Changing of the Guard ceremony.

 

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After the paratroopers we were treated to a pipe band and some dancing.  Unfortunately because they didn't have enough pipers (at least this is my diagnosis) the band wasn't quite as loud as I thought it should have been (what's the point of a pipe band if it's not loud enough to feel?).

The pipe band was followed by the only dud portion of the show, a Canadian boy band performing a few of their songs.  Not only did these guys not really fit the tone of the acts that had preceded them, or that were to follow, but they were seemingly unknown to just about everyone in the audience.  Despite the fact that these guys were really giving it there all, they just couldn't get the crowd to shake of their apathy (and to be fair to the crowd - I don't think any of us knew we would be in for a boy band).

Anyway, we were then on to the proper Musical Ride portion of the show.  As expected, the horses and riders seamlessly formed and transformed patterns for about 40 minutes.

Just a few minutes into the show I noticed that something that appeared to be a Mountie hat was in the performance area.  A few moments later I was able to spot the source of the hat, one of the riders was now without his famous headgear.

Despite the fact that the hat was resting in the performance area for most of the performance, I don't think it was stepped on by a horse a single time.  I just happened to be near the rider when the hat was returned and it seemed to be in perfect condition (and to think that all throughout the show I was wondering who would be responsible for paying for a replacement hat).  That the horses were able to avoid the had while continuing their routine is pretty impressive.

My only real complaint about the whole event (aside from the presence of an inappropriately booked boy band) is that the seating area isn't sufficiently large or well organized.  Firstly, the seating area just wasn't large enough to allow everyone to have a view of the performance area.  The embankments that they have created need to be elevated by at least a few feet.  If they had any extra money I would recommend that they then install bleachers so that people wouldn't have to bring chairs an so that everyone would be seated at the same level.  Presently too many people end up standing, and this forces other people to stand.  If everyone had a seat the the same height much of this could be avoided.

Secondly, despite the fact that the viewing area isn't huge, there are a number of items that obstruct views from large portions of the viewing area.  Given that this is a permanent performance venue there is no excuse for these obstructions.  These obstructions further constrain viewing options in a viewing facility that is already too small.

Anyway, complaints aside, if you are into seeing horses and riders perform a pattern making routine this event may be for you.  If you are ever in a situation  where you can attend either the Musical Ride or the Changing of the Guard my vote would definitely be to attend the former rather than the latter.

A Few Quick Notes 583

-Despite the fact that yesterday was not the hottest day we've experienced in Ottawa, it really felt particularly hot and stickily.  At times I felt as though I as though I was just wearing wet clothing for some unclear reason.  Anyway, despite the fact that today is a little more overcast, it's still on the muggy side of things.  Gross.

-Earlier today we were buzzed by a few jets.  I'm pretty sure these jets must have been Snowbirds and/or CF-18s as both plane types were set to fly over Parliament Hill as part of today's Canada Day celebrations.  I have to imagine that just being buzzed by these planes was a little less exciting than actually seeing them fly by at a low altitude.

-Yesterday while Jeannette and I were out on a bike ride in Gatineau we happened to be riding along the river when we saw a giant hovercraft doing its thing.

Just a few minutes later we rode around a bend in the path and found that the hovercraft had beached itself a few feet in from the edge of the rover.  I have no idea why it was out in the river or why it was beached where it was.

-Our balcony garden continues to grow, though I'm not sure if the plants are developing at the same rate they were just a few weeks ago.

The plant in the garden that seems to be developing the most quickly is the sweet pepper plant.  I can't help but hope that in maybe just a few more weeks we will have a few peppers to harvest.

I guess I shouldn't be too hard on our growing bean collection (which now includes two pots of edamame soy beans).

A few days ago we were able to harvest a handful of beans.

Definitely exciting times in the world of our container garden.

-Oh, just a few minutes ago I learned that there is a webcam that broadcasts an image of Parliament Hill.  This might be useful if you wanted to see which protests are occurring on a daily basis, or if you wanted to say that you watched today's festivities but you don't actually want to hear them or see them in any detail.

Apparently I do respond to news coverage

Yesterday I saw some of the coverage of the accidental self-impaling of a ceremonial guardsman at the daily changing of the guard ceremony on Parliament Hill.  Not only did this story remind me that it's now the time of year when I can see such a ceremony, but it also made it clear that these guys are carrying real bayonets.

I know these guardsman are technically soldiers, but why are they carrying real bayonets?

I hope their guns aren't also loaded with real bullets.

Anyway, because I was reminded of this ceremony by the story and also aware of its schedule I decided to head to today's iteration (and I haven't seen it since the summer of 1995).

Despite the fact that the news story indicated that the event occurs daily at 10:00 AM, as I was approaching about 10 minutes before 10:00 AM I saw the pipers and a batch of soldiers just beginning their march towards the lawn (they arrived on site a fell 5 minutes before 10:00).  Maybe this smaller parade isn't considered to be an official portion of the ceremony?

Just after this group passed me I crossed the street just in side the walls of the parliament hill compound only to see the manhole covers that were likely the cause of the aforementioned self-impaling.  It seems that at some point between yesterday and today they have been painted with some kind of gray anti-slip paint.

After the pipers, drummer, and soldiers arrived on the lawn they just stood around without moving for a while.  It was a little less than exciting.

After a few minutes of standing on a sidewalk watching these guys stand motionless in the sun we were informed that we'd have to move, but we couldn't stand behind where we'd been standing because that was an active road.  Really?  

They have major tourist event every morning and they still haven't figured out a way to effectively direct traffic and pedestrians?  Oh, and they probably shouldn't allow people to block the band's entrance until the band has entered, then they wouldn't have to clear everyone out and and help them find a non-road based spot for them to stand until the band enters.

Anyway, eventually the band and another batch of soldiers made their way to the lawn.  The presence of a few flags and cones allowed me to trick myself into thinking that we may be in for some fancy marching and whatnot.  

Boy was I disappointed.

Once the band (along with the pipers) were in position the two groups of soldiers stood across from each other on the lawn.  There was then some kind of 'inspection of the troops' that went on for about 25 minutes.  During the inspection, aside from a few shimmies and the placing and removal of bayonets, the soldiers were largely motionless. Of course at this point I was still hopeful that some fancy marching would still take place.  At least the band was occasionally playing during the inspection.

Sadly, after the inspection of the troops concluded everyone moved to the centre in formation to leave.  They then marched off of parliament hill and down Wellington and Elgin.

In case you're curious, as they left all of the soldiers appeared to have bayonets on their rifles.  Fortunately there weren't any additional self-impalings during the course of the event.

Anyway, if you are planning in being in Ottawa and though you might want to check this event out I would recommend getting there a few minutes before 10:00 to watch the arrival of the two sets of musicians and then leave a few minutes into the inspection.  Once you've seen a guy looking down the barrel of a rifle once you get the idea of what's going to go on for the next 25 minutes and there's really no need witness him looking down the barrel of every rifle present.

Dead voters aren't the only thing Newfoundland doesn't have

According to a CBC story, for at least the last five years, Securities Commission of Newfoundland and Labrador has not had to fine anyone for securities law violations.  Despite the fact that this sounds great, I can't help but think it also sounds too good to be true.

Because the CBC piece doesn't really address the issues in Newfoundland (because they, like PEI, haven't fined anyone recently so there are no unpaid fines to collect) I decided that I should probably try to find the name of the entity responsible for enforcing securities regulations in Newfoundland.

A quick search lead me to a Newfoundland Government page that kind of suggested that the name of the relevant entity is the Securities Commission of Newfoundland and Labrador (and that this entity falls under the aegis of Service NL).

Of course, because this first website included very little of the information I was looking for (like the names of members of the Securities Commission) I decided a little more digging was needed.  It only took me a few more seconds to find the page of the Canadian Securities Administrators, which includes names and bios of provincial representatives.

The bio for the Newfoundland representative was quite a read.  Not only does the short write-up include a few biographical details about the representative, but it also mentions that this individual

is the Director of the Financial Services Regulation Division and was appointed Superintendent of Securities in December 2009. He is also the Superintendent of Insurance, Superintendent of Real Estate and Registrar of Mortgage Brokers and has responsibility for the regulation of Prepaid Funeral Contract Sellers.

But maybe more important than the fact that the Superintendent of Securities wears quite a number of hats simultaneously, is the fact that this bio also mentions that Securities Commission was eliminated in 2005.

Funny that the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador's website doesn't mention this.  Actually, there are still quite a number of references to the old securities commission scattered throughout the areas of the site that deal with securities regulation.

And because I found all of this a little curious I decided to quickly skim through the old versions of the law to see how the Securities Commission was constituted.  Apparently it had at least one member, but additional commissioners could be appointed. The other aspect of the law that immediately jumped out to me is that related to the investigatory powers of the Securities Commission.  The old version of the Securities Act included the following section:

3.4  In carrying out its duties under this Act, the commission has all the powers that are or may be conferred on a commissioner under the Public Inquiries Act .

The current version of the act doesn't seem to  provide the Superintendent with quite the same range of investigatory powers and requires that investigators empowered through the act, at least in some cases, to go to judges to seek prior approval for searches (this might be something of an improvement, if it investigations are actually initiated).

I've been trying to find out a little bit more about the Superintendent's office, but as of yet I haven't found much.  This, of course, contrasts with the Nova Scotia Securities Commission, a organization that provides easy access to their organizational chart and overall goals (as far as I can tell the name of the position of Superintendent of Securities, and that they are the chief securities regulator isn't even listed in an obvious and clear way on the main portion of the Newfoundland website).

Oh, one last thing about the 'securities' section of the Service NL website.  If you follow the link titled Public Orders all you find is the following text:

Copies of orders, rulings and decisions relating to discretionary relief can be obtained by calling (709) 729-4189.

Am I the only one that finds some of this a little strange?