A Few Quick Notes 403

-We seemed to have had a slight temperature drop, putting us back in the 0 to slightly below 0 range. Thus far this change hasn't really caused us any problems, and without snow or precipitation I don't expect it to anytime soon.

-I got some great news today. Jess has suggested that I compete for her (meaning that I compete for both of us) in this year's Roll Up the Rim contest while she is out of the country. I wholeheartedly accept this challenge as it will give me something to be playing for. This extra burden will give me that "baby needs new shoes" motivation that should allow me to take my game to the next level and really pump up my win rate. So far this seem to be working as I am now 1/2 (there will be a free 'donut' coming my way in the near future).

-I have so much work to do that I don't even know where to start (though now that I have spent a little more time thinking about this problem I think I will probably be able to come up with a starting point in the near future).

-Not only do I have school work to do tonight, I should probably also try to do some laundry.

-A few day's ago I made my first visit to the Saint Mary's University library, it was great. Not only do they have plenty of light, the books were where they were supposed to be on the shelves, and the staff (at least at the circulation desk were friendly). Maybe my favourite aspect of the library, aside from how it looks, was that most of the public access computers weren't in the library proper but in an atrium area just next to the library (meaning that the first floor of the library isn't flooded with people just checking their email and preventing people from accessing the library catalogue as so frequently happens when the computers are placed inside the library).

-The reason for the trip to the aforementioned library was to pick up About a Boy by Nick Hornby, which I then read that night. Presently I am reading Fever Pitch by the same author (which has the unique distinction of being the only work of Nick Hornby's that I have read that I haven't read in a 24 hour period).

-We already have almost half as many post as we did in all of 2007. I am not sure what to make of this.

-I guess I really should try to get to work, I really can't afford to write tonight off.

A Few Quick Notes 398

-It has been hovering around 0 for the past day or so. This is rather unfortunate as it means that most of the snow that fell on Wednesday morning is beginning to melt and make a mess of many of sidewalks and intersections. The other problem is that the situation will quickly become quite dangerous if the temperatures drop below freezing as everything will turn to ice (as is wont to happen in such conditions).

-It seems that Wednesday's snowfall managed to close a number of our local institutions of higher education. Dalhousie was closed for the day, which seemed a little excessive to me. SMU, on the other hand, was only closed for the morning. And if you are wondering, contrary to what was reported by several media sources, it was not a storm at all, just a snowfall (at least in downtown Halifax).

-In my class today I had the pleasure of giving a presentation in which I was able to touch on the 1995 Turbot War (and presumably introduce a number of my younger classmates to this incident). My parents were forward thinking enough in 1995 to suggest that I accompany them to the St. John's harbour front to watch the Estai be towed into port. Though I didn't quite get the significance of the event at the time, I think that I now have a slightly better handle on why it was they suggested we head down to the harbour with thousands of others to watch what turned out to be a relatively historic event.

Generally I think that the presentation went pretty well. I think that I engaged my classmates and presented the material in a way that drew attention to a number of issues that weren't addressed directly by the assigned readings for the week (which was the goal of the presentation).

-In the second half of the class, which was after my presentation, we were joined by Alexa McDonough, the former leader of the federal NDP. It was nice that she was able to stop by and present an opposition politician's view on Canadian foreign policy and the ability of an MP to influence it.

-I guess I should either get back to work or go to bed.

Blog-off Score

Neil:0
Cameron: 31

Halifax to St. John's: 2009 Holiday Season

Yesterday, after almost a year's absence, I finally returned to St. John's and Newfoundland for a brief Christmastime visit. Aside from the many more phone calls than would be the case in Halifax it has been quite nice to be home.

When we left yesterday we started our trip with a cab to the airport. Three things were quite memorable about the cab ride. The first was the the cab was much colder than most cabs. While I didn't find this to be a problem, it did really stand out. Secondly, both Neil and I likely fell asleep for some portion of the ride out (Neil was in the back with Rebecca and I was in the front). Apparently we both feel asleep at approximately the same time and then woke up at about the same time. Rebecca was observant enough to notice that my quick glance down as I was waking up was to check for drool. I really hoped that I hadn't drooled on the seatbelt while I was sleeping (and I hadn't).

Once we got to the airport we made our way to the Porter check-in area. Unfortunately we encountered an employee who was new to the position, and thus rather slow and cumbersome. Anyway, without too many problems we managed to check our bags, pick up two free newspapers, and be on our way.

Once we had checked in we made a brief detour to the arrivals section of the airport to visit the ATM. While in the general area Rebecca and Neil spotted a fresh cotton candy vending machine and decided to go for it. While I was a little bit skeptical about the whole thing, I was glad to see the machine in operation (and that it wasn't my money that had initiated the process).



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As you can see, the machine seems to have really done its job well. I think that we were all surprised that it was a full-sized cotton candy serving for much less than one might pay at fair/street food booth. So if you see one of these you should feel comfortable that they do have the capacity to pump out real, fresh cotton candy.

Eventually we made our way through security with few problems, though they did change the regulations again so the plan that Neil and I had regarding our computers and thin neoprene sleeves was foiled. Anyway, none of us were wanded, which is really the most important thing.

Almost as soon as we were through security we noticed that our flight was delayed, something that we were surprised that the check-in desk staff didn't mention. Furthermore, based on information available on the arrivals and departures screens, it was clear that something was amiss, there was no way that our plane could arrive and then depart in the expected time frame.

We decided that with our extra time we would head to one of the restaurants in the secure area. We ended up sitting in the VLT zone. So not only where we about to watch drunken travelers pound down $6 singles, we were also able to watch many more people pump money into VLTs. What was amazing about the experience is that most of the machines were in use for the entire period of time that we were there. Only occasionally would a machine free up, and then it would be snapped up by another customer.

While watching the VLTers we ate our rather sub-par food and sent out a few rather detail sparse emails. Eventually, after maybe an hour and a half, we decided to move our operation to a coffee establishment so that we could access a larger table.

Once settled with our beverages and donuts all three of us attempted to do some school-related work. Rebecca was doing some course prep for a course see will be teaching in the Winter, I was trying to do some overdue grading, and Neil was doing some computer based stuff (and some reading). Not surprisingly, we weren't particularly productive in this setting. After only a few exams I packed it in.

Eventually we made our way to the waiting area for our flight. Amazingly, the airline was still insisting that the plane would be leaving at originally re-scheduled time, even though it was clear that the plane we were to be catching still had not landed and was really even likely to be that close.

When the plane eventually did land we were able to board quite quickly, and after a quick trip to the de-icing station we were off. Only once the plan started moving did those of us in row 7 (Rebecca, Neil, me, and a guy named Justin) realized that we were sitting right next to the propellors. This was somewhat of an intimidating and loud position to find one's self.

Fortunately, I had a very pleasant chat with Justin, a St. Mary's University student from Newfoundland. Sitting next to him made the flight go much more quickly and pleasantly than it would have otherwise.

We eventually landed in St. John's, a few hours later than expected, we found that it was raining quite heavily and windy (not exactly my favourite December weather). Fortunately, the car wasn't too far away and we were soon on the road.

The other fortunate thing is that my mother had prepared dinner so we didn't have to wait a particularly long time to get food after we had returned.

Though I have managed to really stretch this post to several hundred words, it was generally a pretty uneventful, pleasant trip.

Union Brothers and Sisters

Neil and I attended our union local's annual general meeting this afternoon. As we expected, together we represented half of the TAs present. Most of those in attendance are part-time faculty and instructors from Dalhousie, St. Mary's, and Mount St. Vincent.

This was the first time that I had attended a meeting of this union local and was curious to see how things worked. For the most part things were much as I expected. We were told about how many grievances had been filed and arbitration outcomes as well as the general activities of the executive.

What surprised me most about the entire experience was that when addressing one another many members of the executive inserted either "brother" or "sister" before the person's first name. At first I thought this was a bit of a joke, but as the meeting went on it became clear that this is standard practice.

Assuming that all goes as planned, I guess I might try to attend the next meeting, which I presume will be sometime in the fall, though I don't think that a date has yet been set.

A Few Quick Notes 298

-According to Environment Canada it was 9 degrees above zero at times today, though it certainly didn't feel that warm in downtown Halifax. If my sense of the temperature was correct this may be one of the few times I have experienced lower temperatures in town than at the airport.

-I am now 2/18 in this year's Roll Up the Rim to Win contest. Almost after snagging a free coffee on Tuesday I re-invested my winnings in a losing cup, and have subsequently entered a three cup losing streak.

-As you can see, the corn has now been chopped down and not yet replaced. At the moment I don't know what I should plant to replace the corn. I kind of think that something rather vertical, like more corn, would be good, though I would rather have a larger pot for corn. Anyway, surely within the next few days I will have come up with something to plant in the pot recently vacated by the corn.



-As I have previously mentioned, I am finding it very difficult to take pictures of the scarlet runner beans in my bedroom. While this shot shows some of the growth, I don't think it does the plants justice. Hopefully I will be able to figure something out in the coming days, though I am not particularly hopeful given the space I have to work with and the unfortunate location of a few walls.

I should also note that it seems that the plants aren't growing as quickly as those in the living room did. I find this a little strange as the pot is larger than any of those that I used in the living room. Maybe scarlet runner beans actually like to be pot bound much more than I originally imagined. If this is the case I might expect growth to speed up as the root structure develops, so I guess I should start seeing changes any day now.



-None of us made it to the Ice Castles filming session at St. Mary's University today. Last night Neil and I both realized that we both had MSU hats that we could have worn to add a touch of realism to the session. Hopefully a few dedicated Spartan fans were present in dressed in green and white.

-Normally we don't get all that many phone calls, so that I had to field five calls was rather anomalous. I feel that I sometimes can go at least a week without having a real phone conversation, so I really wasn't mentally prepared for such phone activity.

SMU for MSU?

Apparently at least a few people think that St. Mary's University, a small university in Halifax, is an appropriate stand-in for Michigan State University (MSU) in the context of the filming of a motion picture, a re-make of the 1978 film Ice Castles. I find this a little funny given the disparity in sizes of the two universities. SMU reports having over 8500 full and part-time students while MSU indicates that they have over 46 000 students, more than 10 000 of their students are graduate or professional students. Also, the campuses are quite different. The MSU campus is huge, as is appropriate for an agriculture school, while the SMU campus is rather small, comprising just a few buildings.

Anyway, it seems that if you are on SMU campus tomorrow you might be included in some of the background shots, so if that is your thing you might want to head to SMU tomorrow.

Also, it seems that some of the filming took place in Windsor, which was being used as a stand-in for Iowa.

I wonder if this explains why I saw someone walking around in MSU Spartan sweatpants yesterday?

Rebecca deserves the credit for giving me the heads up on this.

A Few Quick Notes 260

-When I woke up yesterday morning Environment Canada was reporting that it was -23, today it was -22 While I think that the location of the weather station may have skewed the reports slightly, they were still pretty cold mornings. Unfortunately, yesterday it wasn't quite cold enough for spit to freeze before it hit the ground, a temperature target that I think I would like to experience about one time in my life. Aside from cool temperatures things are really quite nice. The sun has been out and the wind continues to be low or non-existent.

-This Christmas I was fortunate enough to receive a range of winter hats as gifts. Two of the hats are of the balaclava style, which surprised me as I wasn't aware that I had made my fondness for these hats widely known. Anyway, one of the hats is a hunter's fluorescent orange, and quite warm. Not surprisingly, I used yesterday's temperatures as an excuse to break it out for the first time (aside from in apartment use) since arriving in Halifax. The hat was great, it really kept the cold away from the part of my head that it covered, which was most of my head. If you have the opportunity to get one of these I recommend them, even if they do stand out.



-Yesterday I was able to test the coffee/mug warmer that I pulled from the free crap pile on Thursday. While it seems to do its job I am not sure how much I will actually use it. I think I am a little more comfortable with my mug resting directly on the desk, rather than on some piece of electrical equipment.



-Yesterday Neil and I took advantage of some coupons that a international fast food chain recently distributed. Unlike most coupons, these are returned to the customer once used, meaning that they can be used repeatedly. The best of the two coupons is for a free, no-purchase-necessary coffee. Based on people in line ahead of us, I am getting the sense that this in particular has been a popular coupon, as it basically means free coffee for a month. I am pretty sure that I will make an effort to head back a few more times for free coffee before the coupons expire.

-Yesterday there was a story in the Chronicle Herald about university enrollment in the Halifax area. It seems that the Halifax Chamber of Commerce would like to see it slightly higher, and has even gone as far as to set enrollment goals. Strangely, it seems that these goals were set without the support of the university and without any offers of support from the Chamber of Commerce (at least that is the impression that the article gave me).

Not surprisingly, the enrollment targets have not been met. Thus the Chamber of Commerce is a little disappointed in the situation. Amazingly, the Chamber of Commerce seems to have failed to grasp a number of the challenges faced by the local universities when it comes to increasing enrollment. A huge impediment would seem to be tuition, which is much higher than one would pay in other Canadian provinces. Not surprisingly, as noted by the president of St. Mary's University, a relatively large number of students have decided to go to Memorial (where tuition is much lower). So not only are these universities going to lose local students to cheaper tuition, they are also going to have a hard time attracting out of province students.

While many of the problems faced by the universities in this context are relatively obvious it seems strange that the Chamber of Commerce would set a goal and then seemingly do nothing about fixing some of the problems so that their goal could be met. Additionally, it seems a rather strange that the Chamber of Commerce would try to involve themselves in such an area without the support of the universities.

I guess there is no pay-off for having read the above rant, I just found the situation rather amusing and absurd on a number of levels.

-It seems that we should be having a guest for a few hours this afternoon. In preparation for the guest's arrival I decided to make some humus and a sticky toffee sponge pudding (really, I was just looking for any excuse to make these things). While I think the humus should be fine, I am a little worried about the pudding. It seems that I accidentally doubled the amount of butter in the pudding. This has obviously changed the nature of the dough, hopefully not too negatively. I guess I will find out shortly whether my error has made the dish inedible, or whether it is a great improvement.