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?

Now I'm fixing the radio

Yesterday afternoon I was listening to CBC Ottawa's All in a Day when I heard the host reading a listener letter chiding the host for warning cyclists about a location where police were actively handing out tickets.  After reading the note the host agreed that he wouldn't issue such warnings in the future.

I was immediately reminded of a story tweeted about by On the Media.  In the story it was reported that a man in Florida had been charged after he had been flashing his car lights to warn drivers about an upcoming speed trap.  The judge considered headlight flashing a form of protected free speech and the ticket was overturned.  Despite the fact that the case related to free speech protections that are specific to the US, I thought one the concepts that the judge mentioned was particularly relevant to the issue of warning cyclists.

At an earlier hearing Circuit Judge Alan Dickey said, "If the goal of the traffic law is promote safety and not to raise revenue, then why wouldn't we want everyone who sees a law enforcement officer with a radar gun in his hand, blinking his lights to slow down all those other cars?" reported The Crime Report.

My thinking is that the judge has it right.  Whether one is flashing lights or issuing a warning over the radio the end result is, hopefully, less of the prohibited/dangerous activity.  And isn't reducing the number of incidences of the action in question usually the justification for such check-points?  And, as far as society is concerned, isn't reducing these incidences what we really want as an outcome not the issuance of more tickets?  Are we necessarily served by the police issuing more tickets (which implicitly means that instead of being prevented the behaviour was ongoing until after it had been observed)?

Anyway, I quickly dashed off an email to All in a Day expressing my disagreement with the listener's letter, citing the aforementioned case.  Just a few minutes ago I received an email from someone from the show looking for more information about he case because they are interested in doing a follow-up piece on the topic today.  So if all goes well the radio will be one step closer to fixed by the end of the day.

Ethical Question

This morning Jeannette and I were talking about a short 'ethics' she has to discuss in an upcoming assignment. After a few minutes of contemplation I realized that the scenario she was dealing with was somewhat similar to a scenario that had been dealt with by Radiolab in one of podcasts.



[Embedded audio]

Actually, I think that the ethical scenario I remember them dealing with in this episode may have been the first Radiolab segment I ever heard (as it was featured on an episode of This American Life.)

Anyway, if you have the time both This American Life and Radiolab are worth checking out (and would be incredible additions to the daytime CBC Radio One line-up).

It only took them 15 years

After about 15 years of producing some of the best public radio content in North America CBC has finally decided to jump on-board and start broadcasting This American Life in Canada.

While this is definitely a step forward for the CBC, they have definitely not gone quite far enough. Instead of having the show air at an hour when most people might actually listen (and taking a poor quality show off the air) they have decided to clump it in with their late night filler content (most of which comes from international sources). Bummer.

Anyway, This American Life is definitely worth listening to. I have been listening been listening to the show regularly for just over ten years now and have to say that it is one of the best radio shows I have had the pleasure of hearing.

The Shepherd on CBC

For years at Christmastime (likely Christmas Eve) I remember listening to CBC and again and again hearing the same story about a pilot running out of fuel and then being guided by a phantom plane to safety. Only a few years ago did I learn the name of this story (The Shepherd) and that it was being performed by long-time CBC personality Alan Maitland. Even without the basic details regarding the origins of this piece it became an important part of my Christmas celebrations.

Presumably I eventually learned these facts about the broadcast when I received a CD copy of the story (along with a few other Christmas classics as read by Alan Maitland) for Christmas a few years ago. Not surprisingly, I was really quite excited to get this CD so that I am able to listen to the story as frequently as I like, and not have to wait for the one a year broadcast on CBC.

For most of the years that I listened (and looked forward) to this story I assumed that almost everyone in Canada felt similarly. I guess I assumed that even if they were not fans of the story they would at least know what it was and know to respect it as an important part of Christmas.

It seems that, once again, I was wrong - listening to this story just isn't as widespread a Christmas tradition as I had imagined. When I tried to throw on the CD a few nights ago when Kirsten and Jeannette were in the car not only were neither of them interested in listening to the story, neither of them had heard it before and neither of them could figure out why it had anything to do with Christmas. Both were incredibly underwhelmed by the whole thing. Though they didn't mean their reactions to be so, they were definitely disappointing to me.

Anyway, if you are one of those people that routinely listens to The Shepherd, as read by Alan Maitland, at Christmas I am pleased to be able to provide you a link to an online version of the recording (which can be downloaded by left-clicking or the equivalent).

Questionable move

Because it exists, not because I think it is necessarily a good idea, here is the audio of the interview I did yesterday morning on the CBC St. John's Morning Show about the Nova Scotia constituency allowance spending scandal. The amazing thing is that you can even download an mp3 of the interview so that you can listen again and again (it is sure to become my most frequently played track in iTunes in the not too distant future). Also, if you decide you would rather not listen, that is also just fine with me (maybe even better than you listening).

Blog-off Score

Neil: 0
Cameron: 19

Slight delay

This morning, as planned, I woke up at about 6:45 so that I would be awake and ready for my early morning radio interview, which was scheduled for 7:15.

Almost as soon as I awoke I checked my email and RSS feeds, which is how I start most of my days. Almost immediately I noticed that St. John's was in the midst of a snowstorm that had closed the university, among other things. This didn't bode well for things being on-track as my planned interview was concerned. As I hadn't yet heard otherwise I continued with my preparations, which included making a pot of coffee and reviewing/arranging my notes.

Not surprisingly, a few minutes before I was expected to be on the air I received a call from the station indicating that the storm had preempted the story and that they would likely be interested in re-scheduling for Monday. Almost immediately I went back to bed.

So it seems that I will have the pleasure of re-playing this early-to-bed process again on Sunday night, which is probably a good thing in the long-run but will certainly be unpleasant in the short-run.

Blog-off Score

Neil: 0
Cameron 12

It continues

So it seems that this whole MLA spending issue has continued on into today, which isn't all that surprising given the breadth of the issues in question.

What was a little more surprising to me was that my involvement in the media coverage of the event seems to be continuing. Early this afternoon I was contacted by a local television station who were interested in taping an interview with for their evening news show. Unfortunately due to class obligations, and a moderate disinclination to be on TV (but really the former), I had to turn them down.

A few minutes later I received a call from another CBC radio station about an interview for tomorrow. In this case I didn't have any conflicting engagements so I was able to agree to do the interview. The downside of this interview is that I will have to get up several hours earlier than normal. I just hope that I am awake and coherent during the interview (which will likely cover more Nova Scotia than the first one) to not make a fool of myself. In preparation for this interview I am catching up on today's media coverage and also reading some of the Auditor General's reports from both Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia (which isn't how I planned on spending my evening as of this morning).

While all of this was happening I received an email from the local paper indicating that they are interested in printing the item that I submitted. Assuming that have space, and I am not making such an assumption, they might print it on Saturday. Because of this possibility I won't post the text here until Saturday at the earliest, as I wouldn't want to possibly scoop myself (or something like that).

Blog-off Score

Neil: 0
Cameron: 10

Instant Expert

This morning as I woke up CBC was reporting on a story involving a variety of inappropriate constituency expenditures outlined by the Nova Scotia Auditor General in a recently released report. As I listened to this story I was struck by the similarities between this instance of constituency allowance abuse and some of those abuses uncovered in Newfoundland a few years ago. As much as the story struck me as worth following and in my general area of interest I ended up just going about my day as normal.

At about 12:30, while taking a break from my coffee and newspaper, I noticed that I had received an email from one of my professors. In the email it was suggested that I might consider thinking about writing something on the topic given its clear relationship to my recently completed Masters thesis (which looked at the connection between the responses to constituency allowance spending scandals in Saskatchewan and Newfoundland). As much as I was somewhat disinclined to engage myself in such activities I soon realized that the only good reason I had not for taking up such a suggestion was laziness (and that I didn't know what I might write).

Anyway, shortly after reading the email I was at work one my interpretation of an editorial/opinion piece that I was thinking of submitting to the local daily. Not too long after finished the main body of work associated with this self-assigned project I received a phone call from the local CBC radio station, they were interested in talking to me about my take on the scandal (they had received my number from the professor who suggested I write on the topic).

After talking to the CBC guy (presumably a producer of some sort) for a few minutes he asked me if I would be willing to be interviewed in their studio in about an hour. Again, as I didn't really have a good reason to say no I said yes. This did mean that I would have to put the finishing touches on the opinion/editorial piece once I returned.

Before making my way to the interview, which was now less than an hour away (and I had about a 20 minute walk ahead of me to make it to the studio) I quickly skimmed and read the Auditor General's report. For the most part the reading was pretty easy and straight forward, which is one of the good things about such reports. Anyway, with only about 20 minutes to go before my interview I had to leave even though I was still a few pages short of finishing the report (or more accurately, the chapter of the report that dealt with the problems in the House of Assembly).

Soon after I arrived at the station I was seated in the waiting area, where I quickly hauled out my copy of the report so that I could finish before going on the air. As I was finishing the final pages of this report a well dressed man was escorted to the same area. Immediately I recognized this individual, though was a little thrown as I had been told that a Conservative MLA was likely to be on the air before or after me, not someone that looked familiar. Anyway, it didn't take me too long to comfortably reach the conclusion that my first hunch was correct, this other individual waiting to be interviewed was the Auditor General.

Within a few minutes of his arrival a staff member came out to talk to us about timing. Eventually it was suggested that we both just go to the studio and that I sit quietly while the interview with the Auditor General was conducted.

As much as I tried concentrate on what was going on in the interview preceding mine, particularly as his answers were apropos my upcoming interview, I really had a hard time concentrating on exactly what it was he was saying. Fortunately, a few of the words that he used reminded me of points that I wanted to remember (I was able to make a few good notes as a result of this process).

After what seemed like, and likely was, a few minutes the interview finished and the Auditor General was lead out of the room. Now it was my turn.

After only a brief interlude and few instructions about how to comport myself we started.

For the most part I really don't remember much of the interview. I do know that I was speaking incredibly quickly. At several points during the interview I could tell that I was speaking too quickly but I could also tell that I likely wasn't going to be able to speak carefully and clearly and slowly at the same time. I decided that I would sacrifice speed to keep the other two (I really didn't want to let any number of letter bombs drop, and as far as I know I didn't).

I do remember at least two aspects of the interview (though the specifics are somewhat fuzzy). Firstly, the interviewer asked me some great questions that lead me precisely to the places I wanted to go. It was really fun to get such appropriate questions. Secondly, I think I was able to avoid over generalizing, as there were a few questions that were structured in such a way to allow me to make very general statements that I couldn't necessarily support.

Oh, I have absolutely no idea how long my interview was, though I guess I might guess that it was about 6-8 minutes.

Amazingly, after arriving at about 4:30 I was on my way home by 5:00, which seemed to be a pretty quick turnaround time considering that I had to sit around for an interview before I went on the air.

Later this evening, after we returned from dinner, I submitted my opinion/editorial piece. As of yet I have no idea whether or not it has been received or not or whether or not it might be printed in an upcoming edition of the paper. I guess I will know in a few hours whether or not it has been published.

What is so impressive about all of this is that 24 hours ago this issue didn’t even exist (though it was clearly just about to) but within the last twelve hours I have somehow managed to become something of an ‘expert’ who may be consulted. While I am surely overstating the significance of today’s events (as they relate to my life and the world more generally), it certainly does feel a little bit odd to go from being a regular, run-of-the-mill student to someone that respectable media outlets consult for their knowledge and analysis. (Maybe even more impressive is that I have included none of this knowledge or analysis here, even though this post is now more than 1100 words long).

On a related note, if my aforementioned early take on this affair doesn’t end up being published I will try to post it hear in the coming day (because there is nothing like reading something rejected by a local daily for an accurate and perceptive take on things).

Blog-off Score

Neil: 0
Cameron: 9

A Few Quick Notes 360

-We seem to be switching between periods of rain and periods when it is overcast, and about to rain. I guess such a situation is better than having a thunderstorm, which might still be in the works for later this afternoon or this evening.

-We had a beef stir-fry for dinner last night. As I am trying to cut back on red meat I didn't include all 2.5 pounds of meat that were available to me, instead I went with only about 1.25 pounds, which was still likely more than enough.

-On Tuesday I went in for my second round of lithotripsy. As far as I can tell things went well, though I seem not to have passed as many fragments as after the first time. The nice this is that I felt much less discomfort after the procedure that I did after the first round. Actually, discomfort level is so low it is almost hard to believe that I was actually even blasted.

-Last night Neil, Rebecca and I went to the weekly trivia night at the Grawood (though Neil and Rebecca left early). In retrospect this decision was a bit of a mistake. Not only were there other things I should have been doing, I was far to tired to really enjoy the experience or contribute in any meaningful way.

-My sense of things is that the comedian Louis CK is performing in Halifax at the Rebecca Cohn auditorium tonight. While I wouldn't mind seeing him perform at some point, I don't think that tonight will be the night (mainly because I don't have tickets, nor do I expect to have tickets). Furthermore, while being interviewed on Q this morning he seemed to suggest that he wasn't as big a fan of auditorium shows as of club shows, so this might not be a particularly good venue in which to see him anyway. Maybe when he comes back to town to play the local Yuk Yuk's I will get a chance to see him.

-On Wednesday we had another Ultimate game. Neil didn't attend because he was claiming his neck was hurting (given that he has kept his story consistent for a number of days now maybe I should consider accepting that his neck actually does hurt). Unfortunately, Neil wasn't the only male that couldn't attend so we were down to 5 males, which means that we had only one substitute. This wasn't so bad until we ended up playing a single point that took almost 30 minutes, really tiring the 7 of us on the field.

During this monster point I dove for the disc and made a relatively impressive (or so I have been told) catch. Of course soon after making the catch I made a relatively poorly thought out throw that resulted in a turnover. The most consequential aspect of the catch, that I didn't figure out until a little later, was that while diving I managed to give myself quite a turf/carpet burn on my right arm. I guess this means that I might have to be a little more careful about this things in future games.

-A number of the tomatoes are now, seemingly quite quickly, working their way towards ripe. I have been quite impressed at how quickly they have been turning red. I would guess that close to 8 or 9 have now started to make such a transition, though I still have to work about protecting them from frost between now and the time they will fully ripen, which may be another few weeks.



-I feel that there were a few more things that I wanted to comment upon, but it seems that that is not going to happen today, I just don't have the energy at the moment. Maybe if I get my act together I will make another post later this evening/afternoon.

A Few Quick Notes 265

-Today was a pretty standard winter day, not particularly great, but not bad either. Temperatures rose to about zero, and then dropped to a few degrees below freezing as the afternoon progressed. We now seem to have settled in to a nice equilibrium at about -7 (it doesn't take to long for me to assert that we have reached a temperature equilibrium).

-As some of you may have noticed, Neil doesn't tend to post all that frequently. I find this somewhat bothersome because the idea behind Montifax was that it would be a joint venture, not simply a blog that Neil started and that I continued.

Anyway, over the past number of years I have tried to get Neil to post more frequently through a number of means. Of course I started by asking him nicely, and occasionally dropping hints as post scripts to email. More recently I have just been telling him that he should be posting more (using 'please' didn't seem to work so I dropped it from the routine to conserve energy). It seems that none of the methods I have tried so far have had any noticeable effect.

Just this evening I think that I may have come up with something that might get him to post a little more. Not only did I suggest that his lack of posting indicated that he was yellow (though I didn't use those words), I decided to challenge him to a blog-off, a competition to see who could post more in a given period of time. I thought that I turned it into a game and added points I might be able to get him to post more (he has such a hard time resisting games).

Anyway, after a few brief negotiations we seem to have preliminarily settled on a few ground rules and parameters.

Neil gets 5 points for each post he makes while I only get 1, he seemed unwilling to participate without me handicapping myself.

Each post, to qualify for the blog-off, must be at least 30 words long and tagged (within reason). I also feel that there should be at least some content, though who am I to talk, I post content-free crap all the time.

The event will run for the duration of February, so he has a few hours to mentally prepare himself.

An additional condition that I think that we should add is that for a post to count a tally of the score must be included (though this wouldn't count towards the word total).

Hopefully I will have a few more details in the coming hours or days.

-For those of you interested in learning a little more about the video New Townie Man that I posted yesterday you can listen to this CBC Morning Show interview with Roger Maunder and Colleen Power, the makers of the video.

-Today is a big day for me, I have consumed what may be my last Flintstones multivitamin tablet. While these are targeted at children, I have continued to consume them for years. Then, all of a sudden a few weeks ago, I just became sick of having my mouth filled with a sugary substance every time I had a vitamin and consequently decided to finish off the bottle and move on to swallowable multivitamins. Now I have to finish my chewable vitamin C so that I can go all swallowable and not taint my mouth with vitamin flavour.

-I baked a Texas Sheet Cake this evening. The downside of the decision to undertake this task was that it meant I had to head out to the grocery store to pick up some icing sugar. Only after I returned from the store did I realize that I also needed some milk, causing me to return to the store for a third time today.

-Though I have a fair bit of work that I should be doing, I don't seem to be doing a very good job at focusing on it. Maybe once I get this post off my chest I can hit the books hard for a few hours before going to bed.

A Few Quick Notes 253

-Today has been pretty consistently mediocre. The temperature has hovered at about zero with a little snow falling at periods during the day. The only downside is that it is likely pretty icy at the moment. The plus side is that the weather has likely made it pretty safe as far as personal fireworks are concerned.

-A few days ago Neil and I played in a one-day Ultimate tournament hosted by the NLUA. Though I still feel as though a truck hit me, the event was great. I ended up playing four games while Neil, by making it to the final, ended up playing five.

-Though I am not a huge fan of fan of New Year’s Eve, it seems that I will be spending a few hours with friends. Hopefully this will be a pretty low-key event.

-A few minutes ago I was racing to get this post down because I thought that I had something to say. Then, almost as soon as I was ready to type, I completely forgot why I was so antsy to post (the ‘great’ idea completely gone from my mind).

-Neil, Rebecca and I will be back in Halifax in a few days. While this means the beginning of eight months of hell for me, I am kind of looking forward to getting back to work. I guess it might be fun to see how I feel about this in a few minutes.

Tonight I ended up listening to a few minutes of an As It Happens New Years’ quiz. At some point during the quiz they ended up playing the new Hockey Night in Canada theme. In some ways I was glad to hear this as I was curious to see what they would chose to use to replace the previous, and iconic, theme. It seems that they went something that almost seemed to be designed to be forgettable. The joke that some of the contestants made was that even though they had only heard it a few seconds ago they could not even remember how it went. I am of a similar sentiment (though I am not sure the old theme was worth several million dollars).

A Few Quick Notes 228

-Today started off overcast, kind of like many of the other days this week, but then turned to rain in the later afternoon. Amazingly, the rain almost perfectly coincided with my walk home from school, and since then it has been dry (but still overcast). Apparently the forecast I read yesterday about sun for the rest of the rest of the week wasn't quite accurate.

-Based on further research (conducted by Neil) I feel relatively comfortable saying that Brad Kilpatrick will be playing with Holy Fuck on Q tomorrow. Unfortunately, Brad will not be with Holy Fuck when they play in Halifax on October 23 (though this hasn't discouraged Neil and I from thinking about going).

-This evening, Neil, Rebecca, and I went to see Burn After Reading at the local cinema. Though I didn't know all that much about the film before I saw it (aside from the fact that there was something about the CIA) I was quite satisfied with the experience. It was particularly nice to take an evening away from reading (though this means that I will likely have to pay for it tomorrow and Saturday).

-Thinking of reading, I seem to be spending several hours a day reading for my various classes. My guess is that this is how I will spend much of my day tomorrow.

-Several days ago I received a notice that I had been assigned a study carrel in the library. This was somewhat surprising as I hadn't asked for one (though I did want one). Today, after some number of days, I finally got around to heading to the library to pick up my key.

While the carrel isn't particularly large it is at least a place for me to leave my coat once winter hits. Also, it should be useful once I start using the library a little more.

-Funny that I should mention libraries as today I happened to check a book out for the first time this academic year. More impressive that it took me until October to do this is that I didn't check the book out from a Dalhousie library, but from the King's library (one of the nicer looking libraries I have encountered). The only problem is that I don't have the book for as long a period of time as I would had I checked it out from a Dalhousie library.

-For those of you in Halifax area tomorrow night you may be interested in knowing that Dalhousie will be hosting the first Ransom A. Myers lecture. The lecture, which is to be given by Andy Rosenberg on the future of the fisheries, will be held in the Ondaatje Auditorium in the McCain building at 7:00 PM. Ram, formerly of St. John's and DFO, studied the decline of fish stocks at Dalhousie until unfortunate passing in 2007.

[Update: This was our 500th post.]

A Few Quick Notes 227

-Today has been overcast all day. For most of the day I have been expecting it to rain at any minute, though this hasn't happened yet. Apparently, things are supposed to be rather nice for the rest of the week.

-Holy Fuck will be performing on Friday morning's episode of the CBC Radio 1 show Q (though I imagine that the host will call them 'Holy F'). This might be of interest to those Brad Kilpatrick fans out there (or to fans of the band). Actually now that I have looked into it a little more, I am not so sure if Brad is with the band or if he will be with them on Friday as it seems he has a series of concerts with another performer.

-The .docx file format is really frustrating me. Never before have I had so much trouble opening files from classmates. I hope that either this file format falls out of fashion or is modified in such a way that would allow individuals without the newest word processing software to open it.

-This evening I went for a nice walk on Barrington and Spring Garden. At one point on my walk I stopped at a CD store for a few minutes. Fortunately, their selection was somewhat poor so I wasn't tempted to buy anything.

A Few Quick Notes 212

-Today the people of St. John's have had the pleasure of experiencing period of sun and clear skies as well as longer periods of rain and wind. Fortunately, as the day heads towards evening things seem to be better and not giving too many signs of a return to the conditions that we experienced earlier in the day.

-I have an Ultimate game on Wednesday. This game will mark the beginning of the play-offs for our team. If we lose we will be sent to some kind of consolation pool while if we win we will have a chance to play for the tier championship. Assuming I am reading thing correctly, we will be playing Mike and Andrew's team, a team we have not yet played. Hopefully things will go well and we get passable weather and a good turnout.

-My parents went out for dinner this evening. This meant that I was able to have dinner along with Kirsten. This afternoon we decided that we would have bratwursts, cauliflower, boiled carrots, and perogies.

While I prepared the sausages and cauliflower on the grill and boiled the carrots Kirsten took care of the perogies.

Things turned out remarkably well. I enjoyed all of the dishes that we prepared. I was particularly impressed with the grilled cauliflower as it was both flavourful and crunchy. Unfortunately, I don't think Kirsten sampled the cauliflower before I put the leftovers in the fridge.

-This afternoon I started to pack up my belongings at my house-sitting house. I think that, for the most part, I have managed to round most things up, with the obvious exception being those things that I will still need to use between now and my departure.

What surprised me was how much I have managed to cart over to the house in the past two and a half weeks. Clearly I still need to work on reducing my reliance on things as they seem to still have my number and follow me where ever I go.

-My beans are still showing very few signs of progress, actually I might go so far as to say they are actually looking worse than they were a few weeks ago. The reason for this depreciation is some kind of plant eating organism that seems to be eating the blooms and leaves of the plants. Some of the plants have been turned into twig like structures in just a few days.

The only exceptions to this trend are the scarlet runner beans, several of which seem to be in passable condition. Some of these plants even have a few blooms, something that will hopefully lead to them bearing fruit in the coming days.

-On Friday night my friend Peter returned a Vinyl Cafe CD set that I had loaned him some number of months ago. In the time since he returned the discs my sister has started listening to them rather aggressively. I think that she actually managed to plough her way through the entire set in about a day and a half (which is pretty good considering she was doing other things during the day and night).

Just this evening I remembered that I had another such set. As we prepared dinner we listened to a few of the stories. As I type this she is listening to the remaining stories. The only problem with this aggressive listening style is that it means that in the very near future she will have no more new content to listen to, though this is presumably a consequence that she understands.

A Few Quick Notes 188

-Though things started off poorly today, by mid-morning we were in the midst of a rather fine day. Again, we had clear skies and reasonable temperatures. As far as I am concerned I can deal with the crappy, overcast mornings if the afternoons and evenings were always this nice.

-As I was preparing my lunch this morning I noticed that we were out of carrots, and peppers. While in past months this wouldn't have been too much of a problem, I am presently in this midst of a quite the vegetable surge. So for the first time in almost a month I didn't have to prepare vegetables with the rest of my lunch. On the consumption end this was also a little frustrating, a few carrot sticks would have gone quite nicely with my sandwich and piece of gingerbread.

-It seems that I missed the first episode of the Gordon Pinsent obituary show. More troubling is that I may have completely misunderstood when it was to air. It now looks as though I was 12 hours off the scheduled time. Even worse that just missing the show or the correct time is that I have now learned that it is likely that the show will only be broadcast during the work day, making regular listening almost impossible.

-Last night my parents, sister, and I played Pictionary. My parents played on a team against my sister and I. More than ever before it seemed as though there were a ridiculously large number of all-plays. It seemed that we could hardly go a turn without an all-play hitting.

Even worse than the large number of non-category specific all-plays was the one that Kirsten and I were stuck on for about 30 minutes. We couldn't seem to catch a break. Do any of you know how hard it is to draw 'hangover' for a 12 year-old girl? Another one that we were hit with, 'box cars,' was particularly hard considering that we haven't had trains in this province for longer than Kirsten has been alive.

Not surprisingly, we were smoked. I am not sure that we even made it half-way around the board. I guess my desire to exchange Cranium for Pictionary as the family game isn't quite about to happen.

-At about 2:00 PM today Kirsten called to see if I was free to go to Mount Pearl. At first I wasn't exactly sure what they were talking about, particularly as I was then at work and would be for the next few hours (and I knew that they knew this). Eventually I was able to piece things together and confirm that they were in fact just about to head to Mount Pearl, and seemingly thought that I could just drop work and take the trip out with them. They didn't seem to quite understand that being at work means that I can't just take off with no notice, even if I will eventually have to head to Mount Pearl at some point this summer to get a new driver's license photo taken.

-For a second Thursday in a row my weekly ultimate game will fall on a Thursday. Though I am likely in a minority, Friday would really be preferable to this. Furthermore, this is likely to be a hard fought game against one of the more experienced teams (More Cowbell) in our division. Hopefully we will be able to pull out a victory.

A Few Quick Notes 187

-For the third day in a row we have had pretty decent weather. While we now have blue skies, they were not visible when I awoke. Strangely, the temperature seems to be higher than predicted, but still not particularly hot and unpleasant.

-At some point during the night before last I was awoken by the ka-chunk feeling of a kidney stone moving through my innards. Fortunately this wasn't a bothersome enough experience to truly jar me from my sleep (probably because I knew that there was nothing that I could really do about the matter at that point in time). Anyway, after a few brief, but sharp, spurts of pain I seem to have reverted back to my status quo antebellum (and the 'bellum' would be a reference the mono that I experienced last summer).

-While looking through the Globe today I saw an article about a new CBC Radio One show to be hosted by Gordon Pinsent. My understanding is that the show will basically be radio obituaries for individuals who are not particularly well known. As I am a big fan of obituaries and CBC Radio One I will have to make an effort to tune into the first show this evening (though it would really be better if the show was available via podcast).

-The newspaper also gave me some surprising news about George Carlin. It seems that Mr. Carlin passed away on Sunday.

Just a few days ago I listened to an interview that suggested that Mr. Carlin played an important role in the growth/changing of American comedy. His use of 'obscenities' might be the aspect of his comedy that is most famous, and, at the time, groundbreaking.

-Yesterday, while looking through my wallet I noticed that I had a few unused Roll-up-the-Rim winners that I hadn't used. All three of them were doughnuts. I guess it would seem that I might not eat as many doughnuts as I once used to.

-While at work today I competed in a long putt competition. The goal was to get one's ball as close to an 'x' on the ground as possible. Due to a slight mis-understanding of the rules I didn't take advantage of the fact that I could bounce by ball off the walls as well as the door behind the 'x.' The result was that my balls were pretty wimpily swatted done the course for poor results while other were really rocketed a the target for fair degrees of success.

A Few Quick Notes 116

-Aside from a brief period of showers today was a pretty nice day. One possible flaw might be that even though the sun has set the temperature has not really dropped all that much. This trend is somewhat problematic when it comes to sleeping, or attempting to sleep.

-For the past two nights I have worked until close. While neither of the nights was problematic it certainly was tiresome. These long shifts were not made any easier by the fact that I have been suffering from a cold for the past number of days. Hopefully my Sunday afternoon shift will involve fewer keg changes than the last two.

Actually, that is the other thing that has been impressive my last two shifts. I am not sure if I have ever changed as many kegs. At one point on Thursday four went almost simultaneously. On top of that two sets of lines were not working properly and required continued attention.

-The mouse problem seems to be expanding, or at the very least continuing. While in bed after work on Thursday movement caught my eye. It turned out that one of the mice was on my bedroom floor near my closet. Shortly after its movement caught my eye it ran back into the closet.

Though I didn’t really want to do much about the mouse at 3:30 AM it seemed a pretty opportune moment, mainly as I knew exactly where the mouse was. Within a few moments I had re-arranged the contents of the closet to form a barrier, inside of which I hoped to trap the mouse. Though once the barrier was constructed I could not find the mouse. I quickly realized that the only place it could be hiding was the poison box in the closet.

With a curtain rod I tapped the box to limited effect. Confident that the mouse had to be inside I tapped again, this time more vigorously. After the second round of tapping I managed to get the mouse to leave the box and enter the open space of the enclosure. The mouse went from the box to the bedroom door, which it then managed to scurry under, meaning that to continue my hunt I would have to rummage around Nithum’s bedroom with him asleep at 3:30 in the morning. At that point I decided that the hunt was up for the night, I had failed.

Since then all that has happened on the mouse front is that I have been unable to get the motivation to go to the store and buy some wire traps for the creation of my trap line. Maybe I will get around to this on Monday (as the store where I was planning on making my purchase is closed on Sundays).

-While at Lobos yesterday I bought a few hard peaches as well as a pair of hard plums. As far as I am aware, these, aside from lemons, are my first fruit purchases of the academic year.

Actually, that is not the case. I just realized that I have purchased (during a sale) several bags of frozen raspberries.

-While listening to Randy Bachman’s Vinyl Tap tonight I was again reminded of a question that has been bothering me for some time. The question is whether or not Canadian Content rules apply to Mr. Bachman, and if not why? It seems that other shows could not play almost exclusively foreign music, particularly American music, and get away with it. Does his playlist mean that the rest of CBC Radio One’s content has to balance his high level of foreign content?

-For the first time today I saw an entire football game in person. The infamous McGill Redmen played the Acadia Axemen. In the final minute of play McGill managed to score to take the lead and then allow Acadia to score a field goal for the win.

The final score of 45-44 is somewhat indicative of the quality of defense. It seemed that both teams were more interested in offense.

Something else that was striking was the size of the players. Some of them were tiny and none of them were huge. I feel that if I stood next to the McGill football team I wouldn’t look particularly less athletic than most of the members of the team (though this may be a slight exaggeration).