-We have some really beautiful weather recently. While today wasn't as warm as it has been, it was certainly still a very beautiful day.
-I am now 4/20, which might be restated as 1/5, in this year's Roll Up the Rim to Win contest. So it seems that I am actually doing much better than expected. I would have to drop to 4/36 to be where one would expect to be, and then below that to be doing worse than average. So maybe this year hasn't been quite as much of a wash as I was thinking it would be.
-I am not sure quite what it is, but our post Underlining Fail seems to be quite frequently hit with spam comments. Though we have more of these in recent months than we have ever had before, this one post seems to attract the majority of them. I am always somewhat teased when I see that we new comment only to find out that we have once again been spammed.
-For the past two nights I have had my sleep disrupted by what I presume is a mouse in the wall between the two bedrooms in our apartment. The ruckus was so loud last night that both Rebecca and I were basically unable to sleep for more than an hour at around 4:00 AM. The worst part of all of this is that it almost sounded as though the little guys were chewing/tugging on some of the wiring in the wall.
Tonight I reported the problem to the superintendent's husband, who indicated that he would call an exterminator tomorrow (or throw down a few glue traps if he had them). Both Rebecca and I are really hoping that we end up with the exterminator rather than glue traps (which won't be anywhere close to the problem).
-We are down to our final few bottles of Club Soda. Apparently 56 liters of Club Soda doesn't last all that long.
-Today I had my last class for the term. I still have a few things to take care of before my 'summer' starts. Of course, it being summer means that instead of classes to attend each day I will have reading to attend to. Should be fun.
-One of my department's senior professors retired last Summer, though is only now being thrown out of his office. To prepare for the move he is getting rid of many of his books. I was able to pick up a few that should be relevant to my thesis research, as well as a few that relate to personal interests. The most noteworthy of my picks, at least from the standpoint of my place of birth, was Smallwood: The Unlikely Revolutionary by Richard Gwyn (I am presently part way through Gwyn's biography of Macdonald). Oh, I also picked up a copy of Creighton's biography of Macdonald (and to think that just yesterday I had a conversation with a friend in which I claimed to be better at reducing my acquisition tendencies than I had been in the past).
Showing posts with label Biographies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Biographies. Show all posts
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Friday, May 01, 2009
A Few Quick Notes 310
-After a few days of relatively nice weather we have slipped into rain and wind. Apparently this type of weather is supposed to be here tomorrow as well. The one major upside of this is that I presume it is helping with the Spryfield fire, so I guess in the long run this is probably a very timely turn of events (though maybe it would have been a little better yesterday afternoon).
-On the subject of the Spryfield/Herring Cove/Purcell's Cove fire that started yesterday afternoon (and that I covered in a few posts yesterday), while listening to the news I have heard suggestions that this may have had something to do with the end of the school year. As the public schools are still in session I presume these references are to universities, though I am not really sure I am following what it is they are suggesting. If these people are trying to suggest that people are going into the woods and having barbecues, or something similar, why not just say that. Instead every comment I have heard is vague and seems to jump around the point. Furthermore, as far as I know, the cause of the fire isn't known (and it certainly didn't seem to be known yesterday afternoon), so why people would jump to such conclusions seems a little strange to me.
-Neil, Rebecca, and Rebecca should be returning from their Saint John New Brunswick conference later today. Aside from them all getting there safely I don't really know anything about the experience. Presumably Neil will have plenty to blog about when he gets back.
-This morning I noticed that the two pots of chives that I had were rather infested with spider mites. Because chives don't have regular leaves with undersides the damage caused by the spider mites wasn't as noticeable. I now presume that these plants where what allowed the spider mites to jump to the bean plants I planted a few weeks ago. Soon after discovering the infestation I decided to get rid of the plants and wash all of the empty pots and trays. At the moment the only thing I have growing on the infested living room shelving unit is the zebra aloe, some dill, some beets, and two African violets. The reason these plants have remained is that they are showing no signs of infestation. I really hope this does the trick.
-I decided to bake a little more bread this morning. At the moment the final two loaves are in the oven. While the bread looks fine, the crust seems to have a slightly different texture than I was expecting.
-It seems that the name 'Swine Flu' has become a matter of some debate. My understanding is that a number of groups, including the WHO and the pork lobby, are interested in having the disease called by another name (ironically they want to call it the same name as the 1918 flu). I have a hard time believing that such a change is really worth the effort. It would seem that the efforts of such organizations might be more reasonably used for other matters relating to the outbreak. More importantly, it seems perfectly reasonable, at least to me, that the name of the disease reflects its origin (the animal not the food). To change the name of this disease helps downplay the significance of animal to human disease transmission, something that has the ability to be quite problematic. If anything we should at least acknowledge this risk, particularly as most of our recent flu scares in recent years have developed in this way (as well as other diseases). This isn't just a safe little thing that came out of thin air, it clearly came from a certain type of animal and other such diseases might come from other animals in the future, and this is something that we shouldn't forget. If this gets us to think about our food sources and farming practices it is probably not a bad thing, hopefully we might find ways to reduce such occurrences in the future. To ignore the origins is this disease is to increase the risk of similar issues arising again.
-A few days ago I started reading a pretty bad biography of G.K. Chesterton, so far I still have hardly any idea who he was or why I should be reading his biography.
-On the subject of the Spryfield/Herring Cove/Purcell's Cove fire that started yesterday afternoon (and that I covered in a few posts yesterday), while listening to the news I have heard suggestions that this may have had something to do with the end of the school year. As the public schools are still in session I presume these references are to universities, though I am not really sure I am following what it is they are suggesting. If these people are trying to suggest that people are going into the woods and having barbecues, or something similar, why not just say that. Instead every comment I have heard is vague and seems to jump around the point. Furthermore, as far as I know, the cause of the fire isn't known (and it certainly didn't seem to be known yesterday afternoon), so why people would jump to such conclusions seems a little strange to me.
-Neil, Rebecca, and Rebecca should be returning from their Saint John New Brunswick conference later today. Aside from them all getting there safely I don't really know anything about the experience. Presumably Neil will have plenty to blog about when he gets back.
-This morning I noticed that the two pots of chives that I had were rather infested with spider mites. Because chives don't have regular leaves with undersides the damage caused by the spider mites wasn't as noticeable. I now presume that these plants where what allowed the spider mites to jump to the bean plants I planted a few weeks ago. Soon after discovering the infestation I decided to get rid of the plants and wash all of the empty pots and trays. At the moment the only thing I have growing on the infested living room shelving unit is the zebra aloe, some dill, some beets, and two African violets. The reason these plants have remained is that they are showing no signs of infestation. I really hope this does the trick.
-I decided to bake a little more bread this morning. At the moment the final two loaves are in the oven. While the bread looks fine, the crust seems to have a slightly different texture than I was expecting.
-It seems that the name 'Swine Flu' has become a matter of some debate. My understanding is that a number of groups, including the WHO and the pork lobby, are interested in having the disease called by another name (ironically they want to call it the same name as the 1918 flu). I have a hard time believing that such a change is really worth the effort. It would seem that the efforts of such organizations might be more reasonably used for other matters relating to the outbreak. More importantly, it seems perfectly reasonable, at least to me, that the name of the disease reflects its origin (the animal not the food). To change the name of this disease helps downplay the significance of animal to human disease transmission, something that has the ability to be quite problematic. If anything we should at least acknowledge this risk, particularly as most of our recent flu scares in recent years have developed in this way (as well as other diseases). This isn't just a safe little thing that came out of thin air, it clearly came from a certain type of animal and other such diseases might come from other animals in the future, and this is something that we shouldn't forget. If this gets us to think about our food sources and farming practices it is probably not a bad thing, hopefully we might find ways to reduce such occurrences in the future. To ignore the origins is this disease is to increase the risk of similar issues arising again.
-A few days ago I started reading a pretty bad biography of G.K. Chesterton, so far I still have hardly any idea who he was or why I should be reading his biography.
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