Once more into the breach, dear friends

It's February 1, 2014 and that means that this year's incarnation of the annual Montifax Blog-Off is now underway.  I'm feeling particularly generous this year so I'll be spotting Neil 10 points per post while I'll only be taking one point per post.

Of course, I'm really hoping that this year's blog-off will get me back in the habit of blogging.  As regular readers will know, I've really fallen off the wagon these past two years.  Hopefully laying a thorough whooping down on my brother will be just the kind of motivation I need to get me back in the saddle.

Cameron - 1
Neil - 0

And we're off!

It almost slipped past me, but we're now in the midst of our 4th annual Montifax Blog-off.

I'm sure that our regular readers are very excited about this.  Not only is the blog-off a period of time when I try to post more than usual, but it also tends to be the only time of year when Neil comes out from hiding and posts on the blog.

Be sure to check back regularly throughout the month as we will be doing our best to make the most out of competitive blogging.

Cameron: 1
Neil: 0

We're getting close

Montifax's 4th Annual blog-off is almost upon us.

Unfortunately, Neil seems a little less than excited.  Sadly, this isn't much different than past years.

I have found that one of the best ways to encourage Neil's participation is to handicap myself to give Neil a real chance of success.  This year I have decided to give myself more of a handicap than ever before - Neil's posts will now be worth 6 points to the 1 point that I get for each of my posts.  Hopefully this will provide Neil with enough incentive to participate.

And that we have a longer month of February this year should allow for additional blogging activity and more blog-off excitement than usual.

I hope that you will all remember to check back frequently during the blog-off to follow the competition and cheer on your favourite blogger.

Hitting the big time (again) with my hot vids

Moments ago I received a request from CPAC to re-post my video of the recent Green Party rally with Elizabeth May. Not surprisingly, I agreed to allow them to re-post the video. Hopefully in the near future I will be able to post a link to the new home of this video.



[Embedded video]

Amazingly, particularly given the (low) quality of most of my YouTube videos, this isn't the first time I have had interest in my videos from deep cable channels. As some of you may recall, a few years ago I licensed some of my YouTube vides of the Montreal hockey riots to the reality TV show Most Shocking.



[Embedded video]

Every time things like this happen I feel a little more legit and a little more like a citizen journalist. Of course every time I post about going to the grocery store and buying butter or doing my laundry I feel a little bit less like a citizen reporter and more like a person just filling space to make Montifax look like an active blog.

That's a wrap

Well, our 3rd annual Montifax Blog-off has come to a conclusion. For the second year in a row I have managed to triumph, though I suspect that if Neil had really been trying in either instance he could have won easily.

Most of you are probably expecting a wrap-up video as have been posted following the two previous contests. As I am not inclined to disappoint our loyal readers here is this year's video:



[Embedded video]

Hope you enjoyed it.

We look forward to your readership during next year's blog-off.

A Few Quick Notes 481

-Today was a relatively grey day. As I spent most of the day indoors I hardly noticed that this was the case until just before sunset.

-It seems that for the first time in Montifax history we have reached a number of posts for the year that is greater than 365. Given that so many of these posts were filled with sweet nothings (such as my series of posts about yesterday's lunch) I am not sure that this is all that much of an accomplishment.

-At some point this afternoon I became interested in knowing how much time I spent away from Newfoundland in the first decade of the 21st century. It turns out that I spent 60 months or 5 years not in Newfoundland between 2000 and 2009. Another fun fact is that I haven't spent a full 12 months in Newfoundland since 1997 (I have always been away for at least two months of each year). And even though I have spent so much time away Newfoundland is still where my permanent address is. Talk about a hat trick of fun facts.

-A good chunk of my day has been spent reading.

-And I guess I should try to ensure that a good of my evening is spent reading.

Unexpected change

Yesterday I happened to be looking at Montifax, mainly just to see that everything was in order, when I noticed that three was a somewhat substantial change that I didn't expect to see.

It seems that our list of Labels has been converted from an alphabetical list that included the number of times each label had been used to a more graphic display that has eliminated the list format and that increases the size of the text proportionate to the number of times the label has been used.

While my gut feeling is that this makes the list of labels a little harder to read/skim. This is mainly because multi-word labels make the alphabetical ordering less apparent. Anyway, as my sense is that the list of labels wasn't frequently used I don't imagine that this change will cause many of our readers too many problems.

Traffic shortage/increase

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised, but it seems that my three non-sequitur blogs (Red, Green, and Free) are not really getting all that much traffic these days. What's up with this? Aren't people looking for non-sense content? How long will I allow myself to continue creating such garbage content?

On the other side of things, it seems as though Montifax has seen a traffic spike of late. What's up with that? Are people really looking for that the inside dope on my grocery shopping excursions?

A Few Quick Notes 387

-It strikes me that today was a bit chilly, but as I wasn't really outside very much so I don't really have much of a sense of how things progressed (now that I think about this I find it rather funny as I spent most of my day in front of my bedroom window but apparently forgot to look up for hours on end).

-Yesterday Neil told Rebecca and I about a new blog that he has started reading, it is called Ricecakes ARE Remarkable. The premise is that the author of the blog is slowly working her way through each recipe in a cookbook that features ricecakes in every recipe (and before you crap on the author for stealing someone else's idea she acknowledges that she was inspired by the Julie/Julia movie/blog/experience). The descriptions of the recipes and results are hilarious (and haven't yet encouraged me to run out and buy ricecakes). I can't wait to read future posts.

-Montifax is going to come out against a few more things, notably pouting and Valentine's Day.

To pout, which the New Oxford American Dictionary defines as "push[ing] one's lips or one's bottom lip forward as an expression of petulant annoyance or in order to make oneself look sexually attractive," is one of the more annoying facial expressions in which one can engage. If I was into outlawing things for the sake of outlawing things I am pretty sure that I would be inclined to outlaw pouting.

My animus towards Valentine's Day should also be rather obvious. Not only does the celebration of this day seem to undermine the idea that a committed relationship is a daily commitment, but it also disgustingly materialistic. It seems to send the message that one can be an ass all year but make it up to their partner by buying them something (typically this something is relatively disposable and unnecessary) on their way to a fancy dinner. I think that it is likely that without the cop out that is Valentine's Day many relationships would be much better off. In case you are curious, I think that Mother's Day and Father's Day are problematic in similar ways.

I guess that since they are coming up in the very near future I should reiterate Montifax is also against the Olympics. This event has started hogging a monumental proportion of my newspaper on a daily basis, in addition to my more traditional complaints about this event. We here at Montifax are likely to almost completely avoid watching Olympic coverage on TV (something that will be quite easy as we are without a functioning TV).

-Last night, because Neil was in possession of a number of good coupons, all three of us went to see a showing of the movie Youth in Revolt with Michael Cera. As far as I am concerned the movie was a bit of a bust (though it was nice to see Michael Cera do something other than just Michael Cera around), though Neil and Rebecca both gave it more positive reviews. Actually, they almost seemed to be bubbling over with excitement on our walk home.

-We had another tight game of Ultimate last night. While we were able to whittle away most of a 6 point deficit in the dying minutes of the game, we were one completed pass short of tying the game. I have mixed feelings about how I played. At the beginning of the game I clearly made a number of strategic errors. In the second half I felt as though I contributed much more effectively. I can't quite tell if my contribution was net positive or negative.

-We had black bean soup and corn bread for dinner yesterday, they were both pretty tasty.

Montifax Blog-Off 2010 rules

Neil wanted me to post a few comments on this year’s rules. So here you are, the first version of this year’s rules.

In last year’s Montifax Blog-Off I was kind enough to give Neil 5 points for every post while I only received 1. After much consideration I have decided that as reigning champion Neil needs to step up his game if he wants to win again, so this year I am going to give him 3 points for each post while I will still get only 1 point per post. The goals of this system are to handicap me and to make Neil work for the win (and he is going to have to work hard if he expects to win two years in a row).

Like last year, to qualify for inclusion in the competition a post had to be at least 30 words long (excluding the title). I think I would like them to be at least 100, but I am pretty sure that Neil talked me down from 100 to 30 last year and I am willing to let him keep this concession.

Also, the updated score must be included in text of the post (though it does not count towards the aforementioned 30 word minimum). While this should be done with the original post, when this component of the post has been omitted through genuine oversight the participant will be allowed to amend the post after the fact to include the updated score. If this becomes a problem we may have to re-evaluate the implementation of this rule and implement a less lenient version.

All posts should be 'tagged.' As one of us is more familiar with the terms that are presently in use I expect that there will be slightly different approaches to this matter in its application.

While I would like to give extra points for things like embedded photos or videos I don’t see how this can be done in a way that isn’t open for abuse (meaning that I don’t want either of us just posting funny YouTube videos or pictures as posts).

If you can think of anything else that should be included please let one or both of us know.

Oh, and the competition will run for the month of February (meaning midnight to midnight).

Two thumbs down to the Olympics

In the early days, Montifax was quite willing to to come out either in favour of something or as opposed to something. One example of this that sticks in my mind was Montifax's position that Avenue du Parc should not have had its name changed (in the end the name was not changed). For one reason or another, this practice seems to have fallen off a little over the past few years. Fortunately, this morning, I encountered something that disgusted both Neil and I and has lead me to revive the practice.

On the front page of today's print edition of the Globe and Mail there is a picture of an Olympic torch bearer running through the House of Commons, with MPs present, while carrying a lit torch. Not only does this suggest that longstanding parliamentary rules regarding strangers on the floor of the House were broken for the torch bearer, it also suggests an alarming disregard for safety (particularly in a set of buildings that have already had at least one run-in with fire). Generally torches inside aren't a particularly good idea. The incredible arrogance demonstrated by Olympic organizers in this instance has allowed me to feel relatively confident that I am correct in firmly planting Montifax in the anti-Vancouver 2010 Olympics camp.

To be perfectly honest, both Montifax and I had been leaning in this direction for some number of years. Not only do the Vancouver 2010 Olympics generally upset me because they are Olympics (which are generally wasteful and unpleasant), but they are also Winter Olympics (which are even more ridiculous than the Summer version). Also, for some number of years the Vancounver 2010 Olympics have been hogging an unreasonable amount of space in newspapers and media reports (the stories are frequently about either cost overruns or female ski jumpers who have not been allowed to compete). More recently, this media hogging has been really stepped up in the context of the torch relay. At least a half-page has been devoted to this non-story by the Globe and Mail since it started, and I presume that this will continue until the Olympics start in 2010.

Though this isn't my primary concern (the newspaper issue is), it seems quite clear that this event is likely to be incredibly environmentally unfriendly. Not only are thousands and thousands of athletes and tourists going to fly to Vancouver, but they have been taking greenhouse gas emitting torches to almost every corner of Canada for the past number of weeks. It is though they are making a show of their environmental unfriendliness.

And while I have nothing against businesses making money, I am not a particularly big fan of foreign broadcasters making millions on the backs of Canadian tax payers (and other equivalent situations). While I don't have the precise numbers in front of me, I really don't see how this will work out as a net positive for Canada in a financial sense in the end.

It is probably a little too late for our editorial position really to change much of anything, but it seemed worth putting out there, if only for educational purposes.

A Few Quick Notes 210

-Though we started the day with overcast skies and high humidity,
things seemed to have turned around. Instead of the mid-day
thundershowers that were predicted we seem to have the clearing skies
that were called for later in the day.

I just hope that this holds until about 8:30 this evening.

-I have my second Ultimate game of the week this evening. Tonight we
will be playing at the slightly sloped Brother Egan field. As it
happens, this is our last game of regular season play. At some point
in the coming days we will have to figure out our play-off position
and schedule.

-Last night, for the first time this summer, a few of us went to the
Rose and Thistle for their weekly trivia night. While we didn't win I
think we put in a respectable showing, and I know that I had a very
good time.

As much as a fan of Bitters' trivia, I am becoming more convinced that
the Rose and Thistle format is better. Having only questions allows
for a more relaxed pace. Additionally, the starting hour can be later
and the finishing hour earlier. Also, by counting down from 30 until
a winner is found is a very effective way of creating suspense among
the participants.

-According to the 1982 Report on the Births Marriages and Deaths in
the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador the rate of illegitimate
births (per 1000 births) rose from 113.0 to 196.1 between 1973 and
1982. It seems that this is the last year that these statistics were
included in this particular report.

-Last night Mike made a comment about wanting to sign up to a personal
newsletter, if I actually had one. I was then able to remind him that
I do have a blog, and the blog is set-up in such a way that it will
send subscribers daily email updates. While I think he found the
comment amusing and informative, I am not sure if he was persuaded to
sign up for the daily email (even though it is a great way to keep up
with all the goings on at Montifax).

Google Analytics and Montifax: A Partnership Built in Heaven?

About a week ago I learned of a new service provided by Google. The service is called Google Analytics and it provides relatively detailed traffic statistics for websites. One adds a section of code to one's website and then sits back and waits for the various stats to role in.

Almost immediately I thought that such a service could be used with Montifax so that Neil and I could get some sense of our readership. Not only would be be able to tell, to a limited degree, how many people were reading Montifax, but where they lived and how they were coming to the site (i.e. searches, referrals, or direct traffic).

So far none of the stats that have become available have been that surprising. Most of the readers, such as they are, are from the St. John's/Mount Pearl area, with Halifax the obvious second place. New York and Michigan (the two locations from which my uncle would check the site) are also represented. On top of that there seem to be a few people in the Montreal region, the Toronto region, Alberta, and B.C. (On the other hand, there are a number of people that could be reading by means not accessible to this application, RSS feeds being the most obvious means by which this could be occurring).

Even less surprising than the locations of the readers are the numbers. I would guess that the handful of regular readers are all people that are known to me (as I can't imagine anyone that didn't know Neil or I taking the time to read this).

In many ways having this knowledge makes writing these posts much more personal than it previously was. In the past it was possible, though unlikely, that just about anyone could be reading my posts at any time. While this is still true, I now have firm evidence to suggest that it isn't likely the case and that I do in fact basically know on a first name basis anyone who is likely to read this content.

Anyway, as time goes one and we gather more data it will be interesting to see if the usage and readership stays the same, or if it shows any change.

A Few Quick Notes 165

-Today is like the past few days in that it is pretty beautiful. The temperature is a few degrees below zero, with a crisp bone chilling breeze. Skies are clear and the sun is shining. This is a significant improvement upon the somewhat overcast skies and precipitation of a few days ago.

-It seems that I am about 10/49 for this year's Roll Up the Rim Contest. I seem to now be immersed in a solid two time a day habit.

-Today is Easter, but one would have a hard time telling from the appearance of our apartment. Much to my chagrin, the Easter bunny seems to have skipped our place. Also, some seeds that I planted yesterday have yet to sprout and give the sense of re-birth, or birth.

Anyway, things will certainly pick up on the Easter front later today when I slap my baby turkey (A.K.A. a chicken) in the oven and prepare a bit of a solo feast. I presume that my chicken will be accompanied by some vegetables (frozen green beans) and mashed potatoes, and maybe some carrots as I have a bunch kicking around.

-Shortly after waking this morning I decided that I needed to head out and hit the last day of the butter sale at one of my local grocery stores. While on my way there, I stopped at another store and picked up some celery.

While waiting in line to pay for my celery I noticed that one of the professors from my school as behind me. This is somewhat funny as the last time I was in this store buying only one item she was in line with me. In previous year and a half of frequenting this store I have not seen her there once, nor have I every made such specific purchases. I guess I will have to see if the trend continues (though I am running out of time).

Once I finally made it to the final destination grocery store I was able to find the butter and also some margarine (of the soft, easy to spread variety). After picking up my main selections I decided to browse the herbal tea section. While kneeling down I saw some cheaply printed white bags that reminded me of candy surprise bags of my childhood. After further inspection I learned that they were actually host cuttings, the sections of dough from which communion hosts are cut.

As it is Easter, and these of religious in nature, I thought I would splurge and spend the $2.49 for the 115 gram bag.

-This morning Nithum was noting that Montifax was a little out of date, which is certainly true. Sorry to all of you who have noticed this and not received your regular dose of Montifax during the last couple days.

-On a related note, there should also be a Purim Party/Good Friday rundown later today or this evening.

Message to Montifax

A few minutes ago I returned from work to find that I had received a call, and a corresponding voicemail from the New York area. Presumably, though I can't be sure, the person has called in to tell me how much they appreciate Montifax and that it is a very satisfying blog experience.

Hope this message brings you as much joy as it brought me.

[Embedded Audio]

A Few Quick Notes 120

-The weather today has been less than perfect. Aside from being on the cold side we have also had several periods of rain.

-Prior to my departure for St. John’s this spring I had been having problems with my computer speakers. It seems that transporting them to England and back, and then to Montreal and back may not have done them any good. Anyways, I realized that I would need to buy a new set, but had been too lazy to actually do so until this Thursday.

Though I was originally shopping for CD-Rs, when I saw a set of speakers with a subwoofer for $25 I decided to add them to my purchases. As this was within my originally decided upon price range I was excited to acquire the small subwoofer, something that seemed like a bonus item.

So far I have been pretty pleased, though I think that the sound quality is definitely a step down from my last set of speakers. Also, the subwoofer is funnier than it is essential. The only frustrating aspect of the new equipment is that the various cables and wires are shorter than I am used to. This means that the speakers can’t be as far apart as I might like, nor can they be as far away from the data source as I would like.

-While this pre-Thanksgiving Friday was busier than last year, it was still pretty dead. I was able to leave shortly before 10:00 PM, which was quite nice as I was very tired.

-As I was able to leave work early I hoped to be able to get to sleep earlier than normal and then get up early so that I would be able to maximize the amount of time that I could spend at the library and working on a range of school-related tasks.

I was somewhat surprised to wake up and learn that it was after 11:00 AM. This occurrence was particularly surprising, as I had set the alarm to go off shortly after 9:00 AM. Upon inspection I learned that instead of setting the alarm 12 hours off, as is my usual problem, the radio volume had been turned off. Fortunately, as I was well rested I managed to get going more quickly than normal and accomplished a reasonable amount of work.

-Since arriving in Montreal I have tried to buy my coffee at La Vielle Europe both because I have enjoyed their product but also to support a local business. Unfortunately a few days ago my supply ran out and I knew that I didn’t have time to make the trip up St. Laurent.

While shopping at Lobos I noticed that they had a range of coffee for what seemed like reasonable prices. I chose what I thought would be the most mundane and least exotic of their coffees. What I ended up with claimed to be both Brazilian and “Made in Lebanon,” a contradiction that I didn’t make much of at the time.

Shortly after returning I began to prepare to brew my first batch of the new coffee. My first realization was that the coffee was very finely ground, a feature that was not made apparent on the packaging, and something that typically doesn’t work well with my percolator.

Once the coffee finished brewing I noticed that the smell wasn’t quite what I was used to, actually it didn’t really smell like coffee at all. The taste wasn’t much better. The only aspect of the new coffee that resembled coffee that I am used to was the colour, a dark, full-bodied brown.

Today I decided that I would move onto a more traditional coffee and purchased can of a name brand pre-ground coffee. Surprisingly, the name brand was cheaper than the store brand, and the deciding factor in my purchase. Fortunately, this second purchase was much closer to what I was looking for. Maybe in the next few days I will be able to make it back to La Vielle Europe to buy more of their product.

-Upon returning from the library this afternoon I started preparing food. I started with a pie, making the crust and obtaining the filling from a can. The extra crust was used to make cinnamon rolls.

Once the pie was in the oven I started to scramble some ground beef.

While the beef was cooking I started making a cranberry salad.

Once the beef finished cooking I removed what I would need for pinwheels and turned the rest into taco meat.

The pinwheels were the final dish of the evening, as well as what I consumed for dinner. As a late night snack I may have a piece or two of the pie.

First Anniversary

A year ago today Neil made the first post on Montifax, we are now approaching 300 posts. It seems that in some months, such as those first few, we were posting pretty heavily. In more recent months we seem to have slowed down a little.

I don’t have any big pronouncements about the future of Montifax or anything exciting like that; it was just that I noticed that it was a year old as of today.

Hope you have enjoyed it so far and continue to enjoy each new post.