A Few Quick Notes 424

-While this morning was beautiful (clear and warm), things have taken a slight turn for this worse this afternoon. The sky is now overcast and the winds have picked up. All of a sudden the thunder and lightning that have been forecast for this evening seem much more reasonable than they seemed earlier today.

-Just as a point of comparison on the changes in conditions of the weather in Halifax, here is a photo that I took early this afternoon.



This photo was taken just after 4:00 PM, the switch to a grayer sky is quite obvious.



-It seems that today is election day in the UK. It was about a week after the last election that I left Keele after my year as an exchange student in the UK. After the last election the Blair government retained its relatively significant majority. According to recent reports the present election isn't expected to produce such a clear result. The Globe and Mail is providing live coverage, as is my favourite newspaper, The Guardian. Hopefully I will be able to follow (at least intermittently) the coverage of the election results tonight.

-In April 2008 I posted a few videos on my YouTube account of the riots/violent celebrations that occurred after the first round success of the Montreal Canadians. Not only did these immediately become some of my most popular content, but I also ended up licensing them to the TV show Most Shocking. Anyway, after almost two years of YouTube obscurity these videos seem to be generating renewed interest with the current playoff success of the Montreal Canadians. I guess I should make it clear that 'renewed interest' only means that they are now sometimes receiving upwards of 30 views a day (I guess they are still relatively obscure as far as YouTube videos are concerned).

If you are interested, this is the most viewed of the set of videos.



[Embedded Video]

-Since I started working on this post it has started to rain intermittently. Tonight should be fun.

-This afternoon I finally motivated myself to move my old filing cabinet and place the new one.



Unfortunately I have not yet been sufficiently motivated to start filling the new filing cabinet. Also, hopefully within a few weeks the pots on top of the filing cabinets will be filled with plants.

-Yesterday I had the good fortune to pick up and start reading a book of essays by John Stuart Mill. Though it is not my habit, in this case I started reading the introduction. The introduction, at least the part I have read, describes aspects of Mill's intellectual development and charts his thinking on certain topics. One of the aspects of Mill's life (which seems to generally well known) that I found most impressive was that Mill's father, in association with the philosopher Jeremy Bentham, developed a program of education for Mill that was intended to create a perfect utilitarian. Perhaps not surprisingly after such a regimented upbringing Mill eventually moved away from some of these ideas and even went so far as to actively criticize Bentham's utilitarian positions. I am really looking forward to reading the rest of the introduction as well as a few of the essays.

-I had an ultrasound yesterday afternoon. It seems that I still have at least a few big stones, though I will likely only get the formal confirmation of this in a few weeks. That this is the case wasn't surprising in the least.

Big Shopping Day

On Tuesday night, after a series of delays, Neil and Rebecca returned from their trip to Regina (and Winnipeg). To get back from the airport they decided to rent a car (which is about the same as taking a taxi and only about $18 more than taking the bus). The side effect of them renting a car to get back from the airport was that we then had a car for much of the day yesterday.

After a little discussion we decided to head to the Bayer's Lake shopping district yesterday morning.

We started our expedition off with a trip to an office supplies store. Almost immediately upon entering the store Neil spotted an eReader that interested him (though the staff was less than helpful and seemed anything but interested in making a sale on a $200 item). Eventually we made our way towards more pedestrian items like printer paper and file folders (I ended up buying 2000 sheets of paper and 100 file folders). I also acquired a second 2-drawer filing cabinet. Rebecca selected a new computer mouse. It was all pretty exciting. I did not acquire two plant watering devices for $9.99 (though I was tempted).

We next made our way to a sporting goods store as I was interested in acquiring a new pair of shoes. Almost immediately it became clear that we were basically the only customers in the store. That this was the case allowed me to have the almost undivided attention of the saleslady, who was quite helpful when it came to retrieving shoes for me to try. After trying on a number of pairs of shoes Neil or Rebecca alerted me to the fact that there was a sale that would mean a second pair of shoes could be purchased for 50%.

At first this seemed unreasonable (who needs two new pairs of shoes at the same time?), though eventually I found two pairs of shoes that interested me. In the end the two pairs of shoes that I ended up buying were not only some least expensive shoes that I tried on all day, but also the most comfortable. I guess I should point out that the second pair of shoes that I purchased were cleats (for Summer Ultimate).

If my memory serves me correctly we then made our way to Dollarama, where we all purchased a few items. I ended up purchasing quite a number of supplied for my gardening related activities. I bought a few trellis structures that I am looking forward to have the plants grow on (as well as a few stakes and pots). The other neat thing that I found were individual plant water bulbs (similar to those available at the office supply store) for $2 apiece.

We eventually made our way to a kitchen store where Neil and Rebecca were able to acquire a few items with a gift card. I am particularly impressed with their egg poaching set (which was over $100 off). While there I picked up a new wooden spoon (it has a thicker handle than many of my other wooden spoons).

As far as I recall this was basically all of the shopping we did at Bayer's Lake. Eventually Neil and Rebecca made their way to the Halifax Shopping Center (and its Dollarama). And we made a return trip later in the evening before the car had to be returned (I purchased a few more garden related items).

All-in-all it was a pretty productive shopping day. Now I just need to find places for all of the newly purchased items.

A Few Quick Notes 358

-My recollection is that today (Saturday) was pretty nice, though I think that there may have been at least a few overcast periods. I am a little less certain of today's weather conditions than normal as I haven't really spent much time outside today and my desk window is now relatively obstructed by my plants.

-For dinner tonight we had a some chicken noodle soup that I made. The broth was based on some chicken breast bones that I boiled while I was making dinner yesterday. We also had some nice rolls that Neil and Rebecca purchased this afternoon. While I don't normally consume bread products with my meals, these really complemented the soup nicely.

-I have quite a bit of reading to do this week, and every week until the end of the term. Though I haven't done as much reading as I might have hoped today, I have managed to put at least some time in. Though not exactly reading, I also managed to put some time in to locate a few articles and then print these articles.

-This afternoon I spent about an hour, or maybe a little more, catching up on some filing that I had allowed to accumulate over the summer as I worked on my thesis. Not only are things organized again, but I have managed to eliminate a few stacks of paper that had been on my bedroom floor for a few months. Sadly, I am almost out of room in my two-drawer filing cabinet. I think that it is quite likely that I might have to buy another one in the not too distant future.

-For the past few months there have been a number of incidents in the South End of women waking up to find a man watching them while they sleep, not surprisingly this individual has been referred to as a 'night watcher.' Shortly after a police sketch was issued a few days ago an arrest was made and a general sigh of relief breathed by residents of the South End. It now seems that the suspect has been released, presumably putting us back to square one in terms of night watcher issues in the South End.

-For some reason, a recent announcement that in Nova Scotia schools will have to play the national anthem every day really upset me. Though I can't quite articulate why this frustrates me, I think part of it is that such a scheme just seems hokey and low-class (kind of like plastering images of a country's leader on street corners). Maybe part of the issue I have with this policy is that the whole thing seems to really skirt the real issue, which is encouraging some sense of national pride among Canadian/Nova Scotian students. If this is the goal it seems to me that it would be more appropriate to teach students why such pride is merited rather than just try to get them to learn the words to the national anthem. Furthermore, such a program, by associating the national anthem with the start of the school day, could have the opposite effect and actually cause students to associate the national anthem with something that is almost universally understood to be unpleasant, the start of the school day. Anyway, if I can figure out what I really find frustrating about this decision I will try to let you know.

-As I believe I mentioned recently, a number of the pepper plants are now bearing fruit. At the moment the peppers are purple, though they are supposed to turn red when they are ripe, which seems like a helpful indicator. The downside is that we are likely to end up with more hot peppers than we need in a few weeks instead of getting a more tapered ripening period.



-I think that I also mentioned that one of the tomatoes is showing signs of redness. I guess it will still be another few weeks before it ripens.



-The plants in my bedroom window are really starting to obstruct my view. Each day the tobacco leaves grow larger and more numerous, working their way towards completely obstructing my view. If things keep going like this I will no longer be able to see whether my neighbour is still taking her dog to defecate on the grass in front of my window.



(Edit: In the two days since this photo was taken some of the tobacco plants have grown a number of inches. The tallest of the plants is now just a little taller than the middle tier of the hanging plant shelf.)

-There is a rather noisy party that has been going on for some time on a property not to far from my apartment. While I normally don't mind a little light partying, this has been going on for some time and is definitely distracting me from my studies (hence the blogging). Though they are showing no signs of quieting down, I really do hope that it ends sooner rather than later.

I can now get down to work

Today, after all most two and a half months, I finally put acquired a key piece of furniture: a filing cabinet. This new acquisition should allow me to both organize my documents and get down to work. Within minutes I had my files in place and was beginning to feel better about life.

The wait has been far too long and led to too many sleepless nights.