A Few Quick Notes 324

-Though today started off looking rather overcast, by mid-afternoon things had turned around quite nicely. By late in the afternoon one could have safely gone so far as to say that it was a nice day.

-In the last post a I documented the developments of some of the plants on our balcony. It seems that I should probably do the same for the plants in my bedroom.



I guess I might start on the left, with one of the pots that looks as though it isn't doing much. I guess this pot looks as though it isn't doing much because it doesn't seem to be doing much. I planted some corn seeds a while ago but they seem to have done nothing. I will give this a few more days and if there is no growth I will either try planting a little more corn or maybe something different.

The aloe droplets continue to grow more quickly than I would expect a succulent to grow. I think that in the not too distant future I should consider re-potting them, but I guess this will likely have to wait until I have something to put them in that is a little nicer than a margarine container.

The pepper plant's continued growth pleases me a great deal. I am looking forward to the first flowers and peppers so that I may be reminded which type of pepper plant this is (we have a few type so pepper seeds and I can't remember which I planted in this pot).

The corn seems to be doing quite well for the size of the pot in which it is growing. The plant on the left seems to have stopped making upwards progress and now stands at about 41 inches. The plant on the right, whose development has somehow been delayed, continues to grow quite rapidly. Unfortunately, neither of the plants are yet showing signs of the development of ears of corn. I am hoping that such growth will be come visible on the larger plant in the very near future.

The thyme, which, as usual, is difficult to see, continues to grow rapidly. I think that in about a week or so I might be able to harvest a little more, or I might just wait and let the plant grow until I know what I want to do with all of my dried thyme.

The pot furthest to the right has some pepper seeds, one of which sprouted. In this case I am confident that the peppers I planted are a type of pepper that are supposed to produce rather nice looking purple (which turn to red) hot peppers. Hopefully a few more of the seeds will sprout in the coming days.

-The pots in the next window over also seem to be showing signs of growth, but not quite as much as the plants I have already described.

In this row of pots the two at the far end have chives (which are just starting to show signs of growth), the third, fifth, sixth, and seventh have purple hot peppers, while the fourth pot has thyme. Hopefully these plants are at least somewhat visible in this photo.




-We have another ultimate game tomorrow. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to practice this week because of the rain. I think a practice would have been good as a few of our players are pretty inexperienced and are still unfamiliar with all of the rules. Anyway, I am looking forward to the game (and hope that attempts to arrange will be successful).

-Some time past midnight on Thursday night I had the good fortune to pass a kidney stone. Amazingly, I didn't clue in to what was happening until it had already happened.

I can't tell you want a relief this stone was. Not only did I feel an immediate reduction in general pain and discomfort, knowing that the stone has passed has been incredibly relaxing. After a few months of somewhat regular pain and discomfort you almost forget what it feels like not to have a stone working its way through your system.

-As most of you likely know by now, the NDP won a decisive victory in Tuesday's election. Contrary to the many predictions of doom and despair, the sky has not yet fallen and, as far as I can tell, things seem to be carrying on as were in the past. I will be sure to let you know if things suddenly come to a grinding halt and the world ends.

A Few Quick Notes 323

-We had another beautiful day today. For much of the late morning and early afternoon the sun was out in full force. By early evening it was a little more overcast, but this wasn't much of a problem.

-A few days ago when reading about tomatoes and some of the other plants I have been trying to grow I also managed to read that coffee is, apparently, an easy house plant to grow. For the past few minutes I have been trying to find a way to get seeds in Canada. So far my search, though incredibly limited has been rather fruitless.

I do think that it it would be rather cool to have a coffee tree, even if it is only likely to produce a pound a year of coffee.

-One consequence of my search for coffee seeds is that I have now signed up to receive several seed catalogues (though none of these suppliers sell coffee). I am really looking forward to browsing these catalogues once they arrive.

-A few more of my pepper seeds seem to have sprouted. Unlike some of the other peppers I have planted, these are starting out as purple plants (the stem and the leaves). I am curious if this colouration will last, or if they will turn green in the near future.

Strangely, the chives I planted at the same time seem not to have sprouted at all. I find this odd as in the past I have had absolutely no problem getting chives to grow. I am starting to think that be the age of the seeds. If I don't see any action in a few days I may have to consider re-planting or planting something new.

-Today I read a story in the Globe and Mail about blogs and blogging. In the story it was reported that 95% of blogs have not been updated in the past 120 days. This story largely confirms something that I was thinking about a while ago, which is that as far as blogs go, Montifax has had a pretty stellar track record given that we now have more than two full years of regular updates under our belt. Of course, this doesn't really mean anything, particularly when most of our posts are about domestic goings on and whatnot.

-For the first time in a few weeks I went in to the library to work in my library carrel. Of course, when I arrived at the carrel I found that the light had burned out. While I have mentioned it to the proper authorities I have no idea how long it will take to be fixed.

-As we have now passed midnight we are in election day in Nova Scotia. Though some of the more recent polls have suggested that the NDP have a large lead, I am still not exactly sure how things will turn out. For some reason I suspect that Liberal/PC strategic voting may come into play and be a deciding factor in a number of seats. I guess we will find out tomorrow one way or another.

A Few Quick Notes 319

-As it is dark outside right now I can't see exactly which type of precipitation is falling, but it sounds as though we have made the transition from mist to something approaching drizzle or rain. What has been most impressive about today is that the temperature has been steady for the last several hours, seemingly unaffected by the setting of the sun. If all goes as forecast we could be in for some thunder showers this evening.

-For the past few days we have been on the lookout for the weekly flier bundles that are usually deposited in our lobby. By about 9:00 PM tonight I decided that I would just head out to the grocery stores to pick up the fliers myself. Having had a chance to examine the fliers I am not sure whether the trip was worth the effort as there really weren't that many deals to get all that excited about. Maybe we will have better luck next week.

-This morning while I was drinking coffee and reading the paper I heard a knock on the door, which is rather unusual because one normally has to get through the security door before they can reach the apartment. It turned out to be the superintendent and a maintenance worker. It seems a leak had been discovered in the basement and they were worried it was coming from our tub. Fortunately after some examination in our bathroom and in the basement, as well as in the neighbouring apartment they were able to determine that the leak was actually coming from next door, which is quite nice from our perspective, though rather unfortunate for our neighbours.

-We are still in the midst of an election in Nova Scotia though one might know this if they were just passing through. This seems to be one of the lowest key elections I have ever witnessed, and doesn't seem to have really picked up steam or slowed down since it started. I wonder if people will remember to vote on June 9.

-It seems that I may have a way to have my hand truck transported from Montreal to Halifax. Though I didn't know it until today, it has been stored in a dining room since September. I get the sense that Steven, and presumably Nithum and their roommate, will be glad to be rid of it once and for all.

-Several days ago I started developing a cold. There are few things that I can think of that are more fun than a cold in the summer.

-A few days ago, while still in PEI with my father and Neil and Rebecca I tried to come up with a math joke that was a play on teaching how to integrate functions. While the original was a little crude, I think I managed to improve it a little today. The moderately improved new version is "Do Irish math profs integrate functions by inviting Catholics and Protestants to their parties?"

While working on this quality piece of math humour I came up with another wonderful joke, though this one is likely better spoken than read.

Q: Which Canadian federal government agency should you contact to locate you sister?
A: CSIS

Maybe it still needs some work.

It seems that a major problem with my joke writing attempts is that I just don't know what is funny.

A Few Quick Notes 317

-Today was a beautiful day. The cloudy periods that were forecast were kind enough not to materialize this afternoon. Instead we had a relatively sunny and pleasant afternoon and evening. Now that the sun has set the temperature has started to drop, but it is still rather pleasant.

-A few of the lettuce seeds that I planted recently have started to show signs of growth, though at the moment they are only a few millimeters tall. The other recently planted seeds haven't yet started to show any signs of growth. I am hoping that with another few days of good sun I should see some rather significant progress.

-As today was quite nice I was able to move some of the plants to the balcony for a few hours. Though I have no real evidence that this will be particularly effective, it does seem that they are likely to receive at least a little more light in this location than they are to get in either my bedroom or the living room.

-We had homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner. I thought it was pretty passable.

-Tomorrow we will be heading out for a free Thai meal provided by the Dal math grad students.

-Aside from the freeness of the meal, I am looking forward to the meal as it should be during the meal that we are met by my friend Greg who will be coming into town for a few days. Hopefully Greg and I will get a chance to hit a few of the locations we visited when we came here on vacation in July 2005. Shockingly, we managed to visit all kinds of Halifax attractions, including the Dartmouth ferry and Bayer's Lake in just a few days. I imagine that this time our sightseeing will be a little more circumscribed, largely as the visit is shorter and also because there are a few places we have already thought about visiting.

-This evening Neil and I attended at talk by Tony Burman of Al Jazeera English hosted by the CIC at King's. While we both expected the talk to be about reporting in the context of Al Jazeera and the global south, as the lecture title suggested, it was really almost exclusively about Al Jazeera English's attempt to be carried by Canadian cable carriers and their CRTC application and why we should support such an application. While I likely would have attended such a sales pitch had I been given the opportunity, it was just not what we expected.

On the other hand, it was kind of cool to attend a talk by the head of a major international news channel. Though what this talked suggested to me was how much emphasis the channel was putting on having their application approved by the CRTC.

One thing that I did learn at this talk that I found to be of some interest is that one can view Al Jazeera English online for free (here, or here), if one is so inclined.

-Yesterday I subscribed to three new podcasts, as I have all kinds of free time that I need to eliminate. Instead of comedy podcasts, as has been my habit recently, I went for a slightly more eclectic mix. As I seem to be having a hard time segueing into the names of the three podcasts, I will just drop them now: Philosophy Bites, Planet Money, and Selected Shorts. So far all three of them seem pretty good, though I can't say that I have given either Philosophy Bites or Selected Shorts a thorough listening to yet. (Several moments ago, while editing this post, I subscribed to two more: Ethics Bites and Philosophy: The Classics.)

-For the past few days I have been meaning to mention that we are presently in the midst of a provincial election in Nova Scotia. For the most part if I didn't know this already I wouldn't be likely to pick it up by walking around downtown Halifax. It seems that it is a relatively low key election so far. And as I don't get to listen to the morning show on CBC I am really not all that in touch with how the campaign is going. I am hoping a few more canvassers swing by our apartment so I get a chance to talk with them and push my election issue (more accessible bottle return options).