-For the past day or two we have had pretty mild weather. It seems that the temperature has been about zero, or just above, with overcast skies, and little wind. The downside is that for the past few days we haven't really had that much direct sun. It seems that this might be affecting my wheat crop, but that could be something else.
-It seems that my Roll Up the Rim record is 8/34. Actually, as I was writing this post I finished a cup of coffee, rolled up the rim, and found that I had won another coffee, making 7 of my 8 wins free coffees.
-Last night we had a St. Patrick's day party at Thomson House. Not surprisingly, this meant plenty of Bailey's, Irish Whiskey, and, most importantly, Guinness. In many cases, all three were served together in the form of the Irish Car Bomb, a particularly unpleasant drink to clean up because of the presence of curdled milk products.
Anyway, after an early busy start, things calmed down a little, leading me to believe that we were in for a quite evening. Shortly after this deceptive lull, lines began to form and tables filled up. It was quite clear that we were in for a full evening, with keg changes a plenty.
The band playing in the ballroom, Squidjigger, seemed to be well received by the guests. I must say that I found the name a little off putting as I didn't quite get the connection between 'Irish' music and squidjiggers, but maybe that doesn't matter.
In total my fellow door person and I changed about ten kegs, did plenty of dishes, set up chairs, and generally worked our asses off. It was really an unrelenting night. Fortunately tips were good and people seemed to be enjoying themselves.
-In about an hour I have to head back to work for some kind of function. Hopefully it won't be quite as late a night as some of these dinner events can be.
-On Friday I learned that if I don't get my paper that the Globe will have it redelivered within 60 to 90 minutes. This is good to know as it seems that the number of times that I haven't been getting my paper has been increasing. This is particularly good to know in relation to Saturday papers as it is a bit of a frustrating financial hit to pay for the subscription and then have to buy a replacement.
Showing posts with label Thomson House. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thomson House. Show all posts
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Saturday, March 08, 2008
A Few Quick Notes 159
-Today, or at least for this afternoon and evening, Montreal has been riding out a storm. For maybe the first or second time since I have been in Montreal we actually have a combination of precipitation and snow. Though I should be clear, while it is some of the worst weather I have experienced while in Montreal, it is no where near the worst winter storm I have experienced. It seems as though it may keep snowing well into the night, which would mean more than 24 hours of continuous snowfall.
-I think that I must be 5/22 on Roll up the Rim. Unfortunately, as I have not been posting as frequently as I would like, I have begun to lose track of things.
-It seems that in the past few months, or the era during which the American and Canadian dollars have been almost even, or the American dollar worth less than the Canadian dollar, that I have been getting more American money as change. This is frustrating, not because it is worth less than the coinage I should be receiving, but because I don't like using foreign currency.
I became particularly sensitive to this practice while working in New York. Customers would frequently become quite upset if they received a Canadian nickel instead of an American nickel. Now I can't bring myself to pay with foreign currency, so I end up basically losing the value of the foreign coin as I just set them aside until I visit the other country, which in the case of the United States isn't all that frequently.
-Today, two group-mates and I spent a good number of hours working on a project. Fortunately the time commitment paid off, as we now have completed a fair portion of the work. This is particularly good for me as I have a number of other pieces of work to deal with this week.
-Pineapples have been on sale at Provigo this week. I purchased and consumed two a few days ago. This evening I purchased another two, which I plan on consuming in the coming days.
-Last night was a very busy night at work. From time I started at 6:00, until I clocked about over eight and a half hours later, I didn't stop hustling. Not only was there plenty of busing to do, we also had a fair number of keg changes, but plenty of furniture to move, as well as some shoveling and salting to attend to. Fortunately our hard work was rewarded with it being a very good night for tips.c
-I think that I must be 5/22 on Roll up the Rim. Unfortunately, as I have not been posting as frequently as I would like, I have begun to lose track of things.
-It seems that in the past few months, or the era during which the American and Canadian dollars have been almost even, or the American dollar worth less than the Canadian dollar, that I have been getting more American money as change. This is frustrating, not because it is worth less than the coinage I should be receiving, but because I don't like using foreign currency.
I became particularly sensitive to this practice while working in New York. Customers would frequently become quite upset if they received a Canadian nickel instead of an American nickel. Now I can't bring myself to pay with foreign currency, so I end up basically losing the value of the foreign coin as I just set them aside until I visit the other country, which in the case of the United States isn't all that frequently.
-Today, two group-mates and I spent a good number of hours working on a project. Fortunately the time commitment paid off, as we now have completed a fair portion of the work. This is particularly good for me as I have a number of other pieces of work to deal with this week.
-Pineapples have been on sale at Provigo this week. I purchased and consumed two a few days ago. This evening I purchased another two, which I plan on consuming in the coming days.
-Last night was a very busy night at work. From time I started at 6:00, until I clocked about over eight and a half hours later, I didn't stop hustling. Not only was there plenty of busing to do, we also had a fair number of keg changes, but plenty of furniture to move, as well as some shoveling and salting to attend to. Fortunately our hard work was rewarded with it being a very good night for tips.c
Sunday, March 02, 2008
A Few Quick Notes 158
-Though not reported on Environment Canada’s website, today’s temperature really fluctuated by a fair margin. When I first left this house this morning it was on the cool side. By the time went out at noon I didn’t even need to close my jacket and the snow was clearly melting. Then by 5:30 the temperature had clearly dropped again, making standing around outside less than pleasant. Hopefully things don’t get too much colder tonight.
-My current record is 0/10 on Roll Up the Rim. Though I haven’t quite reached it yet, I am approaching the record I set last year.
-Things were pretty dead at work on Friday night. This isn’t really that surprising as it was the final day of reading week. Presumably things will be back to normal as of next week. The only particularly exciting event occurred shortly after I punched out.
My boss got stuck in the elevator for a few minutes. Though I could tell that the door hadn’t closed properly, I couldn’t tell exactly what the problem was. Upon investigating the matter one of my co-workers saw that there was a small piece of plastic preventing the outer door from closing fully. By pushing the plastic into the elevator shaft my colleague was able to allow free door to close, which then allowed the elevator to move on to its desired location.
-My former boss and her husband are in town for the weekend. On her suggestion, we met for a coffee this afternoon. It was fun to sit around and talk about a variety of subject, particularly my former place of employment.
-I have an essay that I need to complete for Monday. I have been working on it on and off for the past number of days but am still not as far along as I would like to be. I will really have to put in a good number of hours tomorrow and knock it into shape.
-My current record is 0/10 on Roll Up the Rim. Though I haven’t quite reached it yet, I am approaching the record I set last year.
-Things were pretty dead at work on Friday night. This isn’t really that surprising as it was the final day of reading week. Presumably things will be back to normal as of next week. The only particularly exciting event occurred shortly after I punched out.
My boss got stuck in the elevator for a few minutes. Though I could tell that the door hadn’t closed properly, I couldn’t tell exactly what the problem was. Upon investigating the matter one of my co-workers saw that there was a small piece of plastic preventing the outer door from closing fully. By pushing the plastic into the elevator shaft my colleague was able to allow free door to close, which then allowed the elevator to move on to its desired location.
-My former boss and her husband are in town for the weekend. On her suggestion, we met for a coffee this afternoon. It was fun to sit around and talk about a variety of subject, particularly my former place of employment.
-I have an essay that I need to complete for Monday. I have been working on it on and off for the past number of days but am still not as far along as I would like to be. I will really have to put in a good number of hours tomorrow and knock it into shape.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Best Function Ever
A few weeks ago I was offered the chance to work at a function. Shortly after agreeing to take the shift I learned that it was to be some kind of Ukrainian dinner, though details were on the sparse side. The up side was that not only was it a dinner, but there was also to be live entertainment in the form of a band.
As the date drew nearer I became more and more excited about the prospect of the band being a Ukrainian band of some sort, and the possibility of the guests engaging in some form of traditional dancing.
Upon mentioning this hope to my co-workers I sensed a degree of skepticism about the likelihood of such events transpiring. The general belief seemed to be that it would just be a normal, run of the mill North American rock band to which the patrons may or may not dance.
My hopes were somewhat dashed when upon showing up for work I learned that during the band’s sound check they had played nothing but standard issue rock stuff, and that they were particularly loud.
Nevertheless, I managed to hold out some hope that the evening would be other what all the signs were suggesting it would be.
As the organizers began to arrive and discuss various logistical issues, which were many, I began to worry even more. Not only were things behind schedule, more dinner tickets were sold than seats were available. Fallback plans were constantly being made and then changed. The general level of stress among the organizers was quite high. The staff seemed to be an outlet for some of the tension.
Eventually, after much debate, and about an hour behind schedule, dinner was served. Upon finishing the salad course there was a round of speeches, the presence of which was unexpected by us, the individuals responsible for clearing the salad plates. Eventually, things progressed and we started to serve the main course.
Though I had been dreading it, I finally got my first serving experience at the function. All things considered, it was pretty easy as there was only one meal option, meaning that everyone just got a plate as we worked methodically through the room.
Soon enough everyone had been served and we were sent to go and eat ourselves. After our short break I returned to the door, where I then stayed for some period of time. Though unintentional, this move meant that I was not involved in either the clearing of the dinner plates, or the serving of desert.
Eventually, just before the band started, I returned to the ballroom to help clear away some of the remaining dishes. For the most part this meant picking up coffee cups, water glasses, and milk pitchers. This tends to be my favourite type of busing, maybe just because it the most familiar to me. Soon enough things were looking pretty neat and tidy and everyone was ready to party.
Almost as soon as the band took the stage it was clear that they were not just a run of the mill North American rock band, they were in fact a Ukrainian rock band (though I still have no idea whether they were playing original music or covers). As soon as they started playing patron’s started dancing, and were they ever dancing. Many females took their shoes off, though a surprising number left their shoes one, and soon found men to dance with. These people were really spinning and jumping at quite incredible speeds. That no one was injured was incredible. Also, that they were able to maintain the same level of energy throughout the night was also shocking.
This turn of events quite pleased me, as it was exactly what I had been hoping for from the time I learned what the event was to be.
As the night progressed and the band played on things kept this frantic pace. Eventually, when 2:30 rolled around, last call was announced and the staff was informed by the organizer that to cap off the night the revelers would be dancing in a circle. As obscure as this may sound, the meaning was immediately obvious to those of us present.
As soon as they formed the circle and the band started to play people would jump into the middle and perform some kind of solo Ukrainian dance for some number of measure before passing the spotlight off to another person or group of individuals. Basically all of the male participants demonstrated both that they were quite strong and flexible, and had maintained an ability to jump to much higher than most members of society.
For the most part the styles of these solos were quite like what most people would imagine, only performed at a much greater pace and with more energy. As the dance went one several solos involving both males and females took place, the most impressive of which involved two males locking arms to form a nucleus of a line, each also locking arms with a female to form the extremity of the line. This foursome then started to spin. As they picked up speed the females on the ends picked up their feet and the males in the center continued to spin, holding the girls above the ground as they went round and round. Myself and the other members of the staff were pretty blown away, and continued to be surprised with almost every solo.
One of the more impressive parts of the affair was that it was possible to see some of the females figuring our their choreography on the side, only moments before they took stage. In almost all instances, this recently improvised routine gave the impressions of both practice and spontaneity.
At one point, one of the guys, while jumping in a rather incredible fashion, managed to split his jeans. The tear was pretty impressive and soon over a foot long. After leaving the spotlight, he came to near where the staff was standing to examine the damage. It seems that not only did he really mangle his pants, but also managed to ‘sprain’ his ‘balls.’
After what must have been at least a half-hour, the circle came to an end, and the band played a final piece before unplugging and starting to pack up.
Instead of this causing people to leave, they instead, in unison, began to sing Ukrainian songs. Most impressive about this was not the somewhat intoxicated singing but that it was both good and involved several parts, somewhat more reminiscent of a choir rather than a mass of revelers.
Eventually people did make their way out and we were able to get on with the post-party clean up. Amazingly, thing went surprisingly quickly and we were able to make good progress. Though I don’t remember the time, we were finished at a much earlier hour than I would have expected (though it was still pretty late).
While tips weren’t amazing, and the night started off on the wrong foot, I will definitely go as far as to state that it was the most enjoyable function I have ever worked. As far as I know, none of my co-workers thought that this claim should be disputed, as they too were pretty impressed by the circle, if not by the Ukrainian rock band.
As the date drew nearer I became more and more excited about the prospect of the band being a Ukrainian band of some sort, and the possibility of the guests engaging in some form of traditional dancing.
Upon mentioning this hope to my co-workers I sensed a degree of skepticism about the likelihood of such events transpiring. The general belief seemed to be that it would just be a normal, run of the mill North American rock band to which the patrons may or may not dance.
My hopes were somewhat dashed when upon showing up for work I learned that during the band’s sound check they had played nothing but standard issue rock stuff, and that they were particularly loud.
Nevertheless, I managed to hold out some hope that the evening would be other what all the signs were suggesting it would be.
As the organizers began to arrive and discuss various logistical issues, which were many, I began to worry even more. Not only were things behind schedule, more dinner tickets were sold than seats were available. Fallback plans were constantly being made and then changed. The general level of stress among the organizers was quite high. The staff seemed to be an outlet for some of the tension.
Eventually, after much debate, and about an hour behind schedule, dinner was served. Upon finishing the salad course there was a round of speeches, the presence of which was unexpected by us, the individuals responsible for clearing the salad plates. Eventually, things progressed and we started to serve the main course.
Though I had been dreading it, I finally got my first serving experience at the function. All things considered, it was pretty easy as there was only one meal option, meaning that everyone just got a plate as we worked methodically through the room.
Soon enough everyone had been served and we were sent to go and eat ourselves. After our short break I returned to the door, where I then stayed for some period of time. Though unintentional, this move meant that I was not involved in either the clearing of the dinner plates, or the serving of desert.
Eventually, just before the band started, I returned to the ballroom to help clear away some of the remaining dishes. For the most part this meant picking up coffee cups, water glasses, and milk pitchers. This tends to be my favourite type of busing, maybe just because it the most familiar to me. Soon enough things were looking pretty neat and tidy and everyone was ready to party.
Almost as soon as the band took the stage it was clear that they were not just a run of the mill North American rock band, they were in fact a Ukrainian rock band (though I still have no idea whether they were playing original music or covers). As soon as they started playing patron’s started dancing, and were they ever dancing. Many females took their shoes off, though a surprising number left their shoes one, and soon found men to dance with. These people were really spinning and jumping at quite incredible speeds. That no one was injured was incredible. Also, that they were able to maintain the same level of energy throughout the night was also shocking.
This turn of events quite pleased me, as it was exactly what I had been hoping for from the time I learned what the event was to be.
As the night progressed and the band played on things kept this frantic pace. Eventually, when 2:30 rolled around, last call was announced and the staff was informed by the organizer that to cap off the night the revelers would be dancing in a circle. As obscure as this may sound, the meaning was immediately obvious to those of us present.
As soon as they formed the circle and the band started to play people would jump into the middle and perform some kind of solo Ukrainian dance for some number of measure before passing the spotlight off to another person or group of individuals. Basically all of the male participants demonstrated both that they were quite strong and flexible, and had maintained an ability to jump to much higher than most members of society.
For the most part the styles of these solos were quite like what most people would imagine, only performed at a much greater pace and with more energy. As the dance went one several solos involving both males and females took place, the most impressive of which involved two males locking arms to form a nucleus of a line, each also locking arms with a female to form the extremity of the line. This foursome then started to spin. As they picked up speed the females on the ends picked up their feet and the males in the center continued to spin, holding the girls above the ground as they went round and round. Myself and the other members of the staff were pretty blown away, and continued to be surprised with almost every solo.
One of the more impressive parts of the affair was that it was possible to see some of the females figuring our their choreography on the side, only moments before they took stage. In almost all instances, this recently improvised routine gave the impressions of both practice and spontaneity.
At one point, one of the guys, while jumping in a rather incredible fashion, managed to split his jeans. The tear was pretty impressive and soon over a foot long. After leaving the spotlight, he came to near where the staff was standing to examine the damage. It seems that not only did he really mangle his pants, but also managed to ‘sprain’ his ‘balls.’
After what must have been at least a half-hour, the circle came to an end, and the band played a final piece before unplugging and starting to pack up.
Instead of this causing people to leave, they instead, in unison, began to sing Ukrainian songs. Most impressive about this was not the somewhat intoxicated singing but that it was both good and involved several parts, somewhat more reminiscent of a choir rather than a mass of revelers.
Eventually people did make their way out and we were able to get on with the post-party clean up. Amazingly, thing went surprisingly quickly and we were able to make good progress. Though I don’t remember the time, we were finished at a much earlier hour than I would have expected (though it was still pretty late).
While tips weren’t amazing, and the night started off on the wrong foot, I will definitely go as far as to state that it was the most enjoyable function I have ever worked. As far as I know, none of my co-workers thought that this claim should be disputed, as they too were pretty impressed by the circle, if not by the Ukrainian rock band.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
A Few Quick Notes 151
-Today was another relatively standard winter day, not too far below zero, but with a little snow to remind people that it is definitely still winter.
-It seems that today is Stupor Bowl Sunday. I am surprised at how many of the people I know in Montreal have plans that related to watching this event. Particularly surprising is that I can’t see most of them as sports fan (but that may just be because I have a hard time understanding how anyone can be a sports fan).
-After completing a little work on campus I returned home. On my way back I stopped at a grocery store. Though I had originally intended to pick up one or two items, I eventually purchased almost $25.00 worth of goods (most of which were sale items). Unfortunately, I didn’t forget to buy a few cans of water chestnuts (as they will only be on sale until midnight tonight).
-Though I was a little worried about my shift last night, it turned out to be nothing to be scared of. We ended up with about 250 McGill residence dwellers for just over two hours. In part, that this party was tolerable may have been because of the brevity.
One of the more impressive sights at the party (which was to be a New Year’s Eve party) was a table covered in about 250 glasses of sparkling white wine. Not surprisingly, there was somewhat of a feeding frenzy type atmosphere surrounding the table. After talking with one of my co-workers who was more closely involved with the filling of the glasses, I am pretty sure that this was likely even truer that I was able to tell from my few quick glimpses of the scene.
In part because of the number of glasses used for the sparkling white wine, but also just generally it seemed as though it was a good night for stemmed glassware. We seemed to switch from our typical focus on pitchers of beer to glasses of wine.
The downside of the shift is that I didn’t make it back to the apartment until well after 3:00 AM.
-If people are interested, the recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in the Joy of Cooking is pretty good.
-About three different types of sirens are currently being used to alert car owners in my neighbourhood that snow ploughing is about to take place. After the siren phase, a team of tow-trucks removes any remaining cars and the ploughing begins.
As you may imagine, these are not ideal circumstances for studying or concentrating.
-I should eventually try to prepare some dinner this evening. It is likely that I will have something with a can or two of freshly purchased tuna.
-It seems that today is Stupor Bowl Sunday. I am surprised at how many of the people I know in Montreal have plans that related to watching this event. Particularly surprising is that I can’t see most of them as sports fan (but that may just be because I have a hard time understanding how anyone can be a sports fan).
-After completing a little work on campus I returned home. On my way back I stopped at a grocery store. Though I had originally intended to pick up one or two items, I eventually purchased almost $25.00 worth of goods (most of which were sale items). Unfortunately, I didn’t forget to buy a few cans of water chestnuts (as they will only be on sale until midnight tonight).
-Though I was a little worried about my shift last night, it turned out to be nothing to be scared of. We ended up with about 250 McGill residence dwellers for just over two hours. In part, that this party was tolerable may have been because of the brevity.
One of the more impressive sights at the party (which was to be a New Year’s Eve party) was a table covered in about 250 glasses of sparkling white wine. Not surprisingly, there was somewhat of a feeding frenzy type atmosphere surrounding the table. After talking with one of my co-workers who was more closely involved with the filling of the glasses, I am pretty sure that this was likely even truer that I was able to tell from my few quick glimpses of the scene.
In part because of the number of glasses used for the sparkling white wine, but also just generally it seemed as though it was a good night for stemmed glassware. We seemed to switch from our typical focus on pitchers of beer to glasses of wine.
The downside of the shift is that I didn’t make it back to the apartment until well after 3:00 AM.
-If people are interested, the recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in the Joy of Cooking is pretty good.
-About three different types of sirens are currently being used to alert car owners in my neighbourhood that snow ploughing is about to take place. After the siren phase, a team of tow-trucks removes any remaining cars and the ploughing begins.
As you may imagine, these are not ideal circumstances for studying or concentrating.
-I should eventually try to prepare some dinner this evening. It is likely that I will have something with a can or two of freshly purchased tuna.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
A Few Quick Notes 150
-Though we had a fair range of precipitation types yesterday, today seems to have been pretty pleasant. My only concern is that that some of the slush that accrued yesterday has frozen and turned into ice.
-After a few of us punched out last night, to take advantage of the snow a few of us decided to try and go sledding on McTavish. We originally thought that we could use shovels, but ended up settling for black garbage bags.
Initially I started by sitting down and then trying to just slide. As this didn't really work I realized that I would have to take a slightly more aggressive approach.
I then tried running while holding the bag in front of me and then jumping and landing on my chest. While the speed I achieved wasn't all that great, I did manage to travel about 60 feet. Even after a few attempts, I wasn't able to really beat this mark.
We also tried card board. Unfortunately, this didn't work at all. This failure was likely due to the texture of the snow, rather than the idea. If we had had a little more ice on the street I am sure that this would have worked.
-I will be heading back into work this evening. Thomson House will be playing host to some sort of month late New Year's Eve party. Hopefully everything will proceed smoothly, though I am somewhat skeptical.
-On Thursday night I made the oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe from the Joy of Cooking. I was pleasantly surprised with the results, particularly as the recipe calls for only as many chocolate chips as I typically use in recipes that have much more dough.
-After a few of us punched out last night, to take advantage of the snow a few of us decided to try and go sledding on McTavish. We originally thought that we could use shovels, but ended up settling for black garbage bags.
Initially I started by sitting down and then trying to just slide. As this didn't really work I realized that I would have to take a slightly more aggressive approach.
I then tried running while holding the bag in front of me and then jumping and landing on my chest. While the speed I achieved wasn't all that great, I did manage to travel about 60 feet. Even after a few attempts, I wasn't able to really beat this mark.
We also tried card board. Unfortunately, this didn't work at all. This failure was likely due to the texture of the snow, rather than the idea. If we had had a little more ice on the street I am sure that this would have worked.
-I will be heading back into work this evening. Thomson House will be playing host to some sort of month late New Year's Eve party. Hopefully everything will proceed smoothly, though I am somewhat skeptical.
-On Thursday night I made the oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe from the Joy of Cooking. I was pleasantly surprised with the results, particularly as the recipe calls for only as many chocolate chips as I typically use in recipes that have much more dough.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
A Few Quick Notes 149
-While we experienced a few centimeters of snow yesterday, today has been a pretty straight forward sub-zero day. Much of the snow that fell yesterday has been collected, meaning that if I had slept through all of yesterday I would only slightly wonder what I had missed during my exceptionally long sleep.
-For some reason, likely because I am not taking a course on science and technical information, I decided to look for math papers for a period of time this afternoon. As I don’t really know that much about math I decided to just try and find papers by people that I know.
After a few initial searches on Web of Science I switched over to MathSciNet. Though it doesn’t look like much, I was quite impressed with some of the features that are made available. Particularly impressive, and notably in contrast to Web of Science, was that different forms of authors names were kept together. Presumably this is possible as the body of literature is quite small and concentrated, unlike that covered by Web of Science. Another factor might be that this index is published by a math society rather than a commercial publisher. MathSciNet also included easy and accessible means of finding the institution attached to particular publication. Though I didn’t check it out, I presume it would also be quite easy to use this feature to locate all publications published by a particular institution. A final important component was that this specialized database seemed to include a much broader swath of math related journals (allowing me to find an article published by Neil).
-We did end up getting our promised power outage last night. Unfortunately, I didn’t stick around to find out if how cold it became or if we did lose water and promised.
In the end I ended up crashing on Sulin’s couch rather than sticking it out in the apartment. This presented me with an opportunity to have a functioning alarm clock so that I would have a much better chance of walking up in time for my 9:00 AM class.
-I was thinking about baking some bran muffins a few days ago only to realize that I don’t own a muffin tin. It seems that I may have to head over to the dollar store and pick one or two up so that I can use the bran I purchased a few days ago.
-The two pineapples I purchased a few days ago have already been consumed. Hopefully I will have a chance to pick up a few more before the sale ends on Sunday.
-On Saturday night while attending the Thompson House staff party at a bar/restaurant on Crescent Street I was surprised to see two cops, in full uniform (and presumably armed) come into the bar and have a drink (it looked like Gin and tonic but it could have been water). They sat next to each other at the bar for some time, seemingly enjoying themselves, before departing and heading back to the cold, harsh reality of Montreal streets on Saturday nights.
-For some reason, likely because I am not taking a course on science and technical information, I decided to look for math papers for a period of time this afternoon. As I don’t really know that much about math I decided to just try and find papers by people that I know.
After a few initial searches on Web of Science I switched over to MathSciNet. Though it doesn’t look like much, I was quite impressed with some of the features that are made available. Particularly impressive, and notably in contrast to Web of Science, was that different forms of authors names were kept together. Presumably this is possible as the body of literature is quite small and concentrated, unlike that covered by Web of Science. Another factor might be that this index is published by a math society rather than a commercial publisher. MathSciNet also included easy and accessible means of finding the institution attached to particular publication. Though I didn’t check it out, I presume it would also be quite easy to use this feature to locate all publications published by a particular institution. A final important component was that this specialized database seemed to include a much broader swath of math related journals (allowing me to find an article published by Neil).
-We did end up getting our promised power outage last night. Unfortunately, I didn’t stick around to find out if how cold it became or if we did lose water and promised.
In the end I ended up crashing on Sulin’s couch rather than sticking it out in the apartment. This presented me with an opportunity to have a functioning alarm clock so that I would have a much better chance of walking up in time for my 9:00 AM class.
-I was thinking about baking some bran muffins a few days ago only to realize that I don’t own a muffin tin. It seems that I may have to head over to the dollar store and pick one or two up so that I can use the bran I purchased a few days ago.
-The two pineapples I purchased a few days ago have already been consumed. Hopefully I will have a chance to pick up a few more before the sale ends on Sunday.
-On Saturday night while attending the Thompson House staff party at a bar/restaurant on Crescent Street I was surprised to see two cops, in full uniform (and presumably armed) come into the bar and have a drink (it looked like Gin and tonic but it could have been water). They sat next to each other at the bar for some time, seemingly enjoying themselves, before departing and heading back to the cold, harsh reality of Montreal streets on Saturday nights.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
A Few Quick Notes 148
-Today has been the coldest day of the year, and possibly the winter, in Montreal. As night approaches, and then begins to fall, the temperature is expected to continue to drop, until it reaches a nice -22 c. Fortunately, we don’t have all that much wind accompanying the cold to make it as unpleasant as it surely could be. Nor do we really have that much snow to go along with these mid-winter temperatures.
-Friday night was a pretty busy night at Thomson House. Not only did we have a pretty good Friday crowd on the main floor and in the Restaurant, we also had a pretty big party in the ballroom. The up side was that tips were good. The downside was that we sold out of pizza dough, something that caused staff pizzas and meatzzas (my cheese and tomato free pizza) to be made with pitas (something quite inferior to the typical dough).
-Last night we had the Thomson House Staff Christmas party at a new restaurant/bar on Crescent Street. While the location caused me some concern at first, the reality of the situation proved quite different than I expected.
We started the evening off with a few drinks, primarily wine and water, before taking our seats for the meal, which started with a salad. As the salad was a tomato feta salad I decided to pass. We then moved on to the main course. Though I chose the beef on a carrot puree option, I think that in retrospect I should have gone for the duck with mushroom sauce on potatoes. That being said, I don’t really have any complaints about the meal that I did eventually get.
For desert we had a white chocolate mousse on a chocolate and cookie base, with strawberries and basis syrup. While the mousse and chocolate and cookie base tasted quite good, the base was a little firm and challenging to break apart with the provided spoons. Sadly, most of us used a two handed technique that was only partially successful as a fair number of chunks ended up leaving peoples’ plates. Furthermore, I wonder about the idea of basil syrup as a desert accoutrement. Personally, I would probably give this a pass in favour of either nothing or something that didn’t make my mouth taste like a main course.
The only other strange part of the evening was the red wine, which tasted just like the inside of a barrel. While I can understand why such a flavour may be desired as a undertone, I don’t quite see why one would want this as the predominate flavour. Also, along with there seemed to be a corresponding fuzziness in how the wine felt in one’s mouth (or at least I had this problem).
-After the dinner section of the staff event there was talking going dancing a place on Crescent Street, something that isn’t really my area of interest. Instead I went to Nicole’s place to play some games.
Shortly after arriving I learned of a mustache party that was taking place just a few blocks away. Unfortunately, due to my confusion regarding the party I didn’t head up immediately (which may sound as though I wasn’t enjoying the games, which wasn’t the case). When we finally did get to the bar the band was just finishing and the party starting to disperse. The only up side of this was that we didn’t have to pay cover and were then able to watch all kinds of mustachioed individuals dancing up a storm.
-I should be doing some school work and reading.
-Beef for roasting will be on sale as of tomorrow at Provigo. This likely means that I will be having pot roast within the next number of days.
-Friday night was a pretty busy night at Thomson House. Not only did we have a pretty good Friday crowd on the main floor and in the Restaurant, we also had a pretty big party in the ballroom. The up side was that tips were good. The downside was that we sold out of pizza dough, something that caused staff pizzas and meatzzas (my cheese and tomato free pizza) to be made with pitas (something quite inferior to the typical dough).
-Last night we had the Thomson House Staff Christmas party at a new restaurant/bar on Crescent Street. While the location caused me some concern at first, the reality of the situation proved quite different than I expected.
We started the evening off with a few drinks, primarily wine and water, before taking our seats for the meal, which started with a salad. As the salad was a tomato feta salad I decided to pass. We then moved on to the main course. Though I chose the beef on a carrot puree option, I think that in retrospect I should have gone for the duck with mushroom sauce on potatoes. That being said, I don’t really have any complaints about the meal that I did eventually get.
For desert we had a white chocolate mousse on a chocolate and cookie base, with strawberries and basis syrup. While the mousse and chocolate and cookie base tasted quite good, the base was a little firm and challenging to break apart with the provided spoons. Sadly, most of us used a two handed technique that was only partially successful as a fair number of chunks ended up leaving peoples’ plates. Furthermore, I wonder about the idea of basil syrup as a desert accoutrement. Personally, I would probably give this a pass in favour of either nothing or something that didn’t make my mouth taste like a main course.
The only other strange part of the evening was the red wine, which tasted just like the inside of a barrel. While I can understand why such a flavour may be desired as a undertone, I don’t quite see why one would want this as the predominate flavour. Also, along with there seemed to be a corresponding fuzziness in how the wine felt in one’s mouth (or at least I had this problem).
-After the dinner section of the staff event there was talking going dancing a place on Crescent Street, something that isn’t really my area of interest. Instead I went to Nicole’s place to play some games.
Shortly after arriving I learned of a mustache party that was taking place just a few blocks away. Unfortunately, due to my confusion regarding the party I didn’t head up immediately (which may sound as though I wasn’t enjoying the games, which wasn’t the case). When we finally did get to the bar the band was just finishing and the party starting to disperse. The only up side of this was that we didn’t have to pay cover and were then able to watch all kinds of mustachioed individuals dancing up a storm.
-I should be doing some school work and reading.
-Beef for roasting will be on sale as of tomorrow at Provigo. This likely means that I will be having pot roast within the next number of days.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
A Few Quick Notes 147
-Today was a pretty nice day, though the weather was more of what one might expect in fall than the middle of winter. It was a nice surprise as yesterday turned out to be quite a messy day (as frequently occurs when snow and rain are mixed at near zero temperatures).
-Again last night we had a biggish party at Thomson House. This time the reason was the beginning of a new term.
Though slow to start, the party eventually picked up and proved to be quite successful. So successful that we ended up selling out of pizza well before the kitchen was scheduled to close. Another sign of success was that tips were quite good. One of the only problems was that as there were all kinds of people there at close we weren't able to complete many of the tasks involved with closing until everyone had left, delaying our departure.
-A few nights ago I played some Settlers and had a fairly good run. Unfortunately, in my second game I built a settlement for one point instead of a road for two, something that would have given me the win. After this mistake I wasn't able to turn things around and build a settlement or a city for my tenth point.
-While in the grocery store a few nights ago, I happened to stop by the discount DVD bin. As the prices seemed incredibly low, and as I didn't really want to rush home, I decided to look through the selection and see what they had in the under $5.00 category. After several minutes of searching I found a double feature that included "Shaft: Les Nuits Rouges de Harlem" and "Les Nouveaux Exploits de Shaft." The set did not include the third and final Shaft movie, "Shaft in Africa." Fortunately, while the packaging is in French, the movies are in English.
So far I have only managed to get through the first movie (just known as "Shaft" in English). While it was watchable, I did notice that I didn't really like the way the sound was mixed. It seems that the vocal levels are quite low while the soundtrack is quite high, meaning that one has to have the sound quite high to hear the dialogue and is then blasted by the Isaac Hayes for the rest of the time (a feature that may be intentional). Maybe in a few days I will get around to watching the second movie as it is sure to be more action packed than the first one.
-For dinner tonight I plan on having a pot roast. As the piece of meat is on the large size I hope to have enough for left overs for a few days. The only problem is that I may have have included enough potatoes and carrots.
-Again last night we had a biggish party at Thomson House. This time the reason was the beginning of a new term.
Though slow to start, the party eventually picked up and proved to be quite successful. So successful that we ended up selling out of pizza well before the kitchen was scheduled to close. Another sign of success was that tips were quite good. One of the only problems was that as there were all kinds of people there at close we weren't able to complete many of the tasks involved with closing until everyone had left, delaying our departure.
-A few nights ago I played some Settlers and had a fairly good run. Unfortunately, in my second game I built a settlement for one point instead of a road for two, something that would have given me the win. After this mistake I wasn't able to turn things around and build a settlement or a city for my tenth point.
-While in the grocery store a few nights ago, I happened to stop by the discount DVD bin. As the prices seemed incredibly low, and as I didn't really want to rush home, I decided to look through the selection and see what they had in the under $5.00 category. After several minutes of searching I found a double feature that included "Shaft: Les Nuits Rouges de Harlem" and "Les Nouveaux Exploits de Shaft." The set did not include the third and final Shaft movie, "Shaft in Africa." Fortunately, while the packaging is in French, the movies are in English.
So far I have only managed to get through the first movie (just known as "Shaft" in English). While it was watchable, I did notice that I didn't really like the way the sound was mixed. It seems that the vocal levels are quite low while the soundtrack is quite high, meaning that one has to have the sound quite high to hear the dialogue and is then blasted by the Isaac Hayes for the rest of the time (a feature that may be intentional). Maybe in a few days I will get around to watching the second movie as it is sure to be more action packed than the first one.
-For dinner tonight I plan on having a pot roast. As the piece of meat is on the large size I hope to have enough for left overs for a few days. The only problem is that I may have have included enough potatoes and carrots.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
A Few Quick Notes 139
-Today was another nice winter-ish day. We have snow on the ground and temperatures were below freezing, but not particularly cold.
-In a break with tradition, I will actually be doing something social tonight. I will be attending the library school Christmas party at Thomson House. As it officially started a few minutes ago I should probably be on my way.
-Tonight I finally got around to looking for some articles on DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers). From my basic understanding of these things it seems somewhat shocking that they haven’t been mentioned yet in library school. I guess we do have 4 months left.
-As I am out of bread and all other baked goods it seems that it is once again time for me to do some baking. Maybe I will get around to doing this on the weekend, and then study while the goods are in the oven.
-I had my last class for the semester last night. From here on out I have to complete one take home exam, one assignment, and a regular exam. Hopefully all will go well.
-In a break with tradition, I will actually be doing something social tonight. I will be attending the library school Christmas party at Thomson House. As it officially started a few minutes ago I should probably be on my way.
-Tonight I finally got around to looking for some articles on DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers). From my basic understanding of these things it seems somewhat shocking that they haven’t been mentioned yet in library school. I guess we do have 4 months left.
-As I am out of bread and all other baked goods it seems that it is once again time for me to do some baking. Maybe I will get around to doing this on the weekend, and then study while the goods are in the oven.
-I had my last class for the semester last night. From here on out I have to complete one take home exam, one assignment, and a regular exam. Hopefully all will go well.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
A Few Quick Notes 132
-Today is another crisp fall day. The temperature seems to be cool enough to allow snow, collected by car in other regions, to remain in frozen form. The sun is out, making it a nice day for a fall walk.
-We were hit by something big, I still don't know what, at work last night. From the time I started at 6:00 PM, until about midnight we worked non-stop. In particular, the period of 6:00 to 9:15 was particularly intense. Throughout the night I had the pleasure of bringing in about 7 kegs, three of the same beer (if that is any indicator of sales). We also had a non-stop stream of dishes. Possibly the most surprising element of the night was that we seemed to be short of just about every type of standard glass ( i.e. pint glasses, half pints, and singles glasses), the notable exception being collins glasses, of which we had a glut.
Another indicator of the business that we all experienced was that the kitchen sold out of pizza some period of time before the kitchen was to close.
-After a several week delay, I finally received my Halloween costume prize money. Though I had hoped for a few hundred dollars I ended up with $60.
-Last night a few of Nithum's friends crashed at our place. They were all in town to take standardized tests, mainly to aid entry to grad school or other post-graduate programs. While I hoped to meet them at some point today they were up and out of the apartment before I woke. I was particularly disappointed not to have met the world champion fencer that was one of the group, maybe next time.
-Though I am not an NHLer, I have decided to go with my own version of the 'playoff beard.' Since about Halloween, until now, and continuing until the 29th of November (prime assignment season) I have not been and will not be shaving.
-As much as I don't want to spend any time doing, it will need to prepare some food today. After several days of eating leftovers I am down to just about nothing in the fridge. Maybe I will be inspired on my walk home from school.
-We were hit by something big, I still don't know what, at work last night. From the time I started at 6:00 PM, until about midnight we worked non-stop. In particular, the period of 6:00 to 9:15 was particularly intense. Throughout the night I had the pleasure of bringing in about 7 kegs, three of the same beer (if that is any indicator of sales). We also had a non-stop stream of dishes. Possibly the most surprising element of the night was that we seemed to be short of just about every type of standard glass ( i.e. pint glasses, half pints, and singles glasses), the notable exception being collins glasses, of which we had a glut.
Another indicator of the business that we all experienced was that the kitchen sold out of pizza some period of time before the kitchen was to close.
-After a several week delay, I finally received my Halloween costume prize money. Though I had hoped for a few hundred dollars I ended up with $60.
-Last night a few of Nithum's friends crashed at our place. They were all in town to take standardized tests, mainly to aid entry to grad school or other post-graduate programs. While I hoped to meet them at some point today they were up and out of the apartment before I woke. I was particularly disappointed not to have met the world champion fencer that was one of the group, maybe next time.
-Though I am not an NHLer, I have decided to go with my own version of the 'playoff beard.' Since about Halloween, until now, and continuing until the 29th of November (prime assignment season) I have not been and will not be shaving.
-As much as I don't want to spend any time doing, it will need to prepare some food today. After several days of eating leftovers I am down to just about nothing in the fridge. Maybe I will be inspired on my walk home from school.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
A Few Quick Notes 129
-The temperature has definitely dropped. It seems that we are now at about -4, and scheduled to go as low as -6 (what a change). More surprising was that while out this afternoon I saw several iced over puddles. Why this is surprising is that according to Environment Canada we were above freezing for most of today’s sunlight hours.
-On Friday I was named replacement judge for a mustache contest held at the library school. As I did not have time to prepare my judging criteria, I decided to go with only two categories, size and style (shortly after announcing the criteria and starting the judging I realized that these were horrible criteria). Hopefully the contestants and spectators were pleased with the affair, though in retrospect I realize that I could have talked it up a bit more, made more of a show out of the whole thing. I guess in this case I will blame my lack of preparation.
-The director of libraries was not able to make her scheduled appearance at the library school on Friday. Unfortunately, there was a death in her family that required her to leave the country for some number of days. Under the circumstances her staff filled in as best as possible, though it made the question and answer session a little less heated then I expected.
-After work last night I was able to have a few drinks with some library school (and archives) types. Upon leaving Thomson House we went to Bifteck (sp?) on St. Laurent. While at the bar on St. Laurent I witnessed some of the most aggressive tip demanding that I have ever seen, though to a more limited affect than had the people at my table been completely sober. Thinking that people who had been drinking for 8.5 hours could reasonably do math in a loud bar was expecting a bit much on the waitress’s part.
-After a hiatus of a few weeks, I once again did some baking today. Though I originally planned on baking some cookies, I ended up baking two loaves of bread. Maybe while taking a break from school work tomorrow I will try to bake some cookies or some other form of dessert (though I think that chocolate chip cookies are really the most likely dish).
-On Friday I was named replacement judge for a mustache contest held at the library school. As I did not have time to prepare my judging criteria, I decided to go with only two categories, size and style (shortly after announcing the criteria and starting the judging I realized that these were horrible criteria). Hopefully the contestants and spectators were pleased with the affair, though in retrospect I realize that I could have talked it up a bit more, made more of a show out of the whole thing. I guess in this case I will blame my lack of preparation.
-The director of libraries was not able to make her scheduled appearance at the library school on Friday. Unfortunately, there was a death in her family that required her to leave the country for some number of days. Under the circumstances her staff filled in as best as possible, though it made the question and answer session a little less heated then I expected.
-After work last night I was able to have a few drinks with some library school (and archives) types. Upon leaving Thomson House we went to Bifteck (sp?) on St. Laurent. While at the bar on St. Laurent I witnessed some of the most aggressive tip demanding that I have ever seen, though to a more limited affect than had the people at my table been completely sober. Thinking that people who had been drinking for 8.5 hours could reasonably do math in a loud bar was expecting a bit much on the waitress’s part.
-After a hiatus of a few weeks, I once again did some baking today. Though I originally planned on baking some cookies, I ended up baking two loaves of bread. Maybe while taking a break from school work tomorrow I will try to bake some cookies or some other form of dessert (though I think that chocolate chip cookies are really the most likely dish).
Monday, November 05, 2007
A Few Quick Notes 127
-Today was another relatively nice fall day. It seemed warmer than yesterday, though I have not evidence to support this statement. In some was this was a little disappointing, mainly because I had hoped to wear a particular jacket but found that it was too warm for an insulated jacket.
-For the first time this academic year I went on the hunt for printer paper. Since my arrival I have not found a particular convenient location for buying this product. Actually, that is not completely true, if I wanted to be ripped off, I could go to the McGill bookstore.
As it stands I tend to make the trek to the Gare Centrale and the Staples housed within. Though this is further away than I would like, it does give me the pleasurable experience of walking underground for several blocks. Additionally, my sense is that it is actually faster to walk inside than above ground because one no longer has to cross streets and wait for traffic.
As with my last purchase, I bought to bundles of 500 sheets apiece. I was pleased to find exactly what I was looking for at the front of the store and on sale.
-Several days ago signs appeared indicating that the McGill director of libraries is to be making an appearance at the library school this Friday. This, as some of you may know, was a somewhat surprising announcement as the relations between the library and the library school appear to be less than friendly. Students are now keenly awaiting the post-talk question and answer period, hoping that they will be able to learn why certain decisions have been made over the past number of years.
-Last night, for the first time as an employee of Thomson House I had the opportunity to work at a formal function. Though I did not know it when the shift was assigned, I was to be working a 20 year high school reunion.
After we finished the set-up I was assigned the door position. For the first 3 and a half hours of the event I just sat by the front door and directed people to the reunion and told them were they would find the coatroom. On a number of occasions I also directed individuals towards the bathrooms. Generally it was a pretty easy position, and one that cut me off from the reunion proper.
At about 10:00 I finally had an opportunity to learn about what had been happening for the previous 4 hours. Apparently, on top of not having enough of the main course, beef on sticks, the cash register broke. It seems that not all of the organizers were able to deal with these problems in stride and some of them became quite upset.
My sense was that after the food situation was sorted out things started to calm down. At least I didn’t have any problems. Though in all fairness to my co-workers, I think that I missed basically all of the problems.
-Today I started to work on my paper for my archives class. It seems that I will be doing something on the relationship of access to information laws and archives, presumably governmental archives (most probably just provincial, municipal, and national), though in some cases particular collections in other collections may deserve attention.
-For the first time this academic year I went on the hunt for printer paper. Since my arrival I have not found a particular convenient location for buying this product. Actually, that is not completely true, if I wanted to be ripped off, I could go to the McGill bookstore.
As it stands I tend to make the trek to the Gare Centrale and the Staples housed within. Though this is further away than I would like, it does give me the pleasurable experience of walking underground for several blocks. Additionally, my sense is that it is actually faster to walk inside than above ground because one no longer has to cross streets and wait for traffic.
As with my last purchase, I bought to bundles of 500 sheets apiece. I was pleased to find exactly what I was looking for at the front of the store and on sale.
-Several days ago signs appeared indicating that the McGill director of libraries is to be making an appearance at the library school this Friday. This, as some of you may know, was a somewhat surprising announcement as the relations between the library and the library school appear to be less than friendly. Students are now keenly awaiting the post-talk question and answer period, hoping that they will be able to learn why certain decisions have been made over the past number of years.
-Last night, for the first time as an employee of Thomson House I had the opportunity to work at a formal function. Though I did not know it when the shift was assigned, I was to be working a 20 year high school reunion.
After we finished the set-up I was assigned the door position. For the first 3 and a half hours of the event I just sat by the front door and directed people to the reunion and told them were they would find the coatroom. On a number of occasions I also directed individuals towards the bathrooms. Generally it was a pretty easy position, and one that cut me off from the reunion proper.
At about 10:00 I finally had an opportunity to learn about what had been happening for the previous 4 hours. Apparently, on top of not having enough of the main course, beef on sticks, the cash register broke. It seems that not all of the organizers were able to deal with these problems in stride and some of them became quite upset.
My sense was that after the food situation was sorted out things started to calm down. At least I didn’t have any problems. Though in all fairness to my co-workers, I think that I missed basically all of the problems.
-Today I started to work on my paper for my archives class. It seems that I will be doing something on the relationship of access to information laws and archives, presumably governmental archives (most probably just provincial, municipal, and national), though in some cases particular collections in other collections may deserve attention.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
A Few Quick Notes 126
-Today is slightly overcast, but generally pleasant. The temperature is that of a nice fall day, which is rather appropriate as we are in the heart of fall.
-It seems that Thomson House did not attach my prize from the Halloween party staff costume contest to my most recent paycheque. I had really been hoping that I would find a nice additional component with this cheque.
-Work went relatively smoothly last night, though we weren’t as timely in our departure because of a banquet that was taking place in the ballroom. Amazingly, though many kegs were on the low side none blew all night.
-Tonight I will be working my first formal function, a high school reunion dinner and dance for 100 people. As of right now I am not really sure what to expect, aside from a huge number of dishes. I had been hoping that it wouldn’t be a late night, but it being a high school reunion may mean that this is not the case.
-In preparation for today’s formal shift I had to purchase a black shirt, which we are required to wear for such events. As I have not had to purchase all that much clothing in Montreal I really had no idea where to go for such a thing. A co-worker suggested a thrift store on St. Laurent, near Mont Royal.
As I rode north on St. Laurent I was shocked to see a store with a line up of about 45 people outside it doors. After a brief inspection of the area I determined that this was in fact the store that I had been hoping to visit. Though not particularly keen on the idea of waiting in line to enter a thrift store, I eventually joined the line. As I entered the line I noticed that there was a cameraman filming the line for CBC (or the French equivalent). After a few minutes and only a slight amount of progress I decided that I could not spend 45 minutes in line without a guarantee that I would find what I needed.
My next step was to ride from my current location to Place Alexis Nihon and try to find a black shirt in one of the many stores there. It seemed that either Zellers or Winners could be stores that would have such an item, and if they didn’t there would surely be something.
As it turned out, not only did Zellers have black shirts but also they were on sale for 40% off. This means that I was able to purchase a new shirt for less than $9. Unfortunately, I then decided to check out a display in the back of the store and ended up making a $24 impulse buy (though I think it can be defended as an amazing deal).
-It seems that Thomson House did not attach my prize from the Halloween party staff costume contest to my most recent paycheque. I had really been hoping that I would find a nice additional component with this cheque.
-Work went relatively smoothly last night, though we weren’t as timely in our departure because of a banquet that was taking place in the ballroom. Amazingly, though many kegs were on the low side none blew all night.
-Tonight I will be working my first formal function, a high school reunion dinner and dance for 100 people. As of right now I am not really sure what to expect, aside from a huge number of dishes. I had been hoping that it wouldn’t be a late night, but it being a high school reunion may mean that this is not the case.
-In preparation for today’s formal shift I had to purchase a black shirt, which we are required to wear for such events. As I have not had to purchase all that much clothing in Montreal I really had no idea where to go for such a thing. A co-worker suggested a thrift store on St. Laurent, near Mont Royal.
As I rode north on St. Laurent I was shocked to see a store with a line up of about 45 people outside it doors. After a brief inspection of the area I determined that this was in fact the store that I had been hoping to visit. Though not particularly keen on the idea of waiting in line to enter a thrift store, I eventually joined the line. As I entered the line I noticed that there was a cameraman filming the line for CBC (or the French equivalent). After a few minutes and only a slight amount of progress I decided that I could not spend 45 minutes in line without a guarantee that I would find what I needed.
My next step was to ride from my current location to Place Alexis Nihon and try to find a black shirt in one of the many stores there. It seemed that either Zellers or Winners could be stores that would have such an item, and if they didn’t there would surely be something.
As it turned out, not only did Zellers have black shirts but also they were on sale for 40% off. This means that I was able to purchase a new shirt for less than $9. Unfortunately, I then decided to check out a display in the back of the store and ended up making a $24 impulse buy (though I think it can be defended as an amazing deal).
Monday, October 29, 2007
A Few Quick Notes 125
-Over the past few days temperatures have really started to drop in Montreal. Actually, just last night, for the time of the season, I was able to see my breath. Fortunately, the rain of a few days ago has let up and we are having a stretch of pleasant fall weather.
-The Thomson House Halloween party seemed to go relatively well, though the general consensus was that it wasn’t as busy as last year (even though we sold more tickets). This was backed up by tip rates, which were certainly lower than last year.
For the evening I was assigned door duties along with Nick. Each of us was supplied with a counter and he counted each time a person came in will I counted each time a person left. At peak times we had a difference of about 400 hundred in our counts, indicating that we had about 400 partygoers.
Along with counting, Nick and I were also responsible for admitting only those with tickets. Unfortunately, it seems that some people did not know that a pre-purchased ticket was mandatory. This meant that several well-costumed individuals were turned away at the door.
It also seems that I won the competition for best staff costume. Apparently there is some prize money, but I haven’t received anything yet.
-Our apartment door was getting quite bad this morning. It was so bad that it took me about ten minutes to open it, and I was only able to open it with the assistance of a knife. After my departure Nithum was able to contact the building manager and they sent someone to fix the problem.
-Today I started working on a project for which I was hired about two weeks ago. My primary task for the time being is to locate and copy a series of reports, with the eventual goal being an analysis of their contents. For much of the three hours I spend working today I was just familiarizing myself with the previously completed work and making changes to the tables outlining which documents in the series we actually have (as it seems that there are a number that we have that were not noted).
-I have been a bit lax on the blogging front the past few days because of school work. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will do a better job at managing my time so that I don’t have such a glut of work (though to some extent this is not avoidable because I only receive assignments a limited amount of time before they are due).
-The Thomson House Halloween party seemed to go relatively well, though the general consensus was that it wasn’t as busy as last year (even though we sold more tickets). This was backed up by tip rates, which were certainly lower than last year.
For the evening I was assigned door duties along with Nick. Each of us was supplied with a counter and he counted each time a person came in will I counted each time a person left. At peak times we had a difference of about 400 hundred in our counts, indicating that we had about 400 partygoers.
Along with counting, Nick and I were also responsible for admitting only those with tickets. Unfortunately, it seems that some people did not know that a pre-purchased ticket was mandatory. This meant that several well-costumed individuals were turned away at the door.
It also seems that I won the competition for best staff costume. Apparently there is some prize money, but I haven’t received anything yet.
-Our apartment door was getting quite bad this morning. It was so bad that it took me about ten minutes to open it, and I was only able to open it with the assistance of a knife. After my departure Nithum was able to contact the building manager and they sent someone to fix the problem.
-Today I started working on a project for which I was hired about two weeks ago. My primary task for the time being is to locate and copy a series of reports, with the eventual goal being an analysis of their contents. For much of the three hours I spend working today I was just familiarizing myself with the previously completed work and making changes to the tables outlining which documents in the series we actually have (as it seems that there are a number that we have that were not noted).
-I have been a bit lax on the blogging front the past few days because of school work. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will do a better job at managing my time so that I don’t have such a glut of work (though to some extent this is not avoidable because I only receive assignments a limited amount of time before they are due).
Friday, October 19, 2007
A Few Quick Notes 124
-The temperature has been somewhat higher for the past few days. It was so hot this morning that I was sitting on the balcony reading my paper in a tee-shirt and shorts. Actually, I heard that the expected high is to be 25. Unfortunately, these high temperatures are to be accompanied by severe thunderstorms starting this afternoon.
-In cataloging class on Wednesday 10 Library of Congress schedules were presented by members of the class. I was responsible for presenting on D-DJ, general history and European history.
Prior to the presentations it had been made clear to us that we would be timed and have an absolute maximum of ten minutes. Within several minutes of the commencement of the first presentation it became very clear that we were being time, a beeping noise kept coming from a timer in front of the professor. It was clear that this beeping meant something, but exactly what was not immediately clear. My sense, and I believe that the rest of the class felt the same way, was that the beeps were bad and likely an indicator of the 10 minute mark.
While I was giving my presentation I thought that I was on pace for an 8 minute presentation, which is where I wanted to be. I heard my first beep, thinking that I had already reached 10 minutes, and sped up, covering the rest of the presentation in about a minute.
As we learned afterwards, the beeping indicated 5 minutes, meaning that I was basically on pace and could have comfortably finished all I needed to say without fear of going over time. Hopefully this new knowledge will lead to a smoother round of presentations in two weeks when we get the next batch of 10 (when I will presenting the J, or Political Science, schedule).
-Shortly after I moved to Montreal last August I bought a multi-pack of cheap knives. With a cutting board and sharpening rod the whole package came in at less than $10. Not surprisingly, these weren’t really the best knives in the world, actually they were barely passable as knives.
This year I decided that I would take a step forward and buy a good, or at least passable, knife. I ended up with a $20 Ikea knife, with which I have been generally quite pleased. When I first opened the knife I read the care instructions and learned that the knife should not be kept sharp with a stainless steel sharpener, but with a ceramic sharpener. The problem this presented is that my knife sharpener is entirely stainless steel, and therefore not suitable for the job.
While I could tell this would be a slight inconvenience, I didn’t think it would be all that bad. I would just head out and pick up a ceramic knife sharpener at the next opportunity.
As it turned out, that next opportunity was yesterday. While at a kitchen store I learned that while knife sharpeners are expensive, ceramic knife sharpeners are obscenely expensive. They wanted $54 for a ceramic knife sharpener, something that was a little outside of my spending range (though I might have been suckered in for $40).
Maybe I will see about getting something at Lee Valley while I am in Halifax. They seem to have such sharpeners for only about $23.
-The previous note would suggest that I am heading to Halifax. I will be heading out on Saturday and returning on Wednesday. The reason for the trip is to attend Neil’s convocation ceremony.
-A few days ago I was hired as a research assistant for a project at McGill. Aside from the work being more in my area of interest, I will also be able to drop my Thursday night busing shift. Though for all of my loyal fans, I will continue to bus on Friday nights.
-While heading to school yesterday I noticed a TV truck outside a local chain coffee shop. On my way back from school, I noticed more TV trucks and protestors. Though I did not know it until I approached them, they were protesting the lack of French on the chain’s signs. It is interesting to note that a brief story on the protest appeared in today’s Globe and Main.
-It appears that today McGill will be starting a very large fundraising drive. To commence the drive they have erected a massive series of tents on the playing fields in front of the McLennan library. My thought was that if a university can afford to set up a tent village for a week maybe they don’t need hundreds of millions of dollars. Or if they do need hundreds of millions of dollars maybe they shouldn’t set up a tent city (particularly when I am using library resources that are 20 years out of date).
-In cataloging class on Wednesday 10 Library of Congress schedules were presented by members of the class. I was responsible for presenting on D-DJ, general history and European history.
Prior to the presentations it had been made clear to us that we would be timed and have an absolute maximum of ten minutes. Within several minutes of the commencement of the first presentation it became very clear that we were being time, a beeping noise kept coming from a timer in front of the professor. It was clear that this beeping meant something, but exactly what was not immediately clear. My sense, and I believe that the rest of the class felt the same way, was that the beeps were bad and likely an indicator of the 10 minute mark.
While I was giving my presentation I thought that I was on pace for an 8 minute presentation, which is where I wanted to be. I heard my first beep, thinking that I had already reached 10 minutes, and sped up, covering the rest of the presentation in about a minute.
As we learned afterwards, the beeping indicated 5 minutes, meaning that I was basically on pace and could have comfortably finished all I needed to say without fear of going over time. Hopefully this new knowledge will lead to a smoother round of presentations in two weeks when we get the next batch of 10 (when I will presenting the J, or Political Science, schedule).
-Shortly after I moved to Montreal last August I bought a multi-pack of cheap knives. With a cutting board and sharpening rod the whole package came in at less than $10. Not surprisingly, these weren’t really the best knives in the world, actually they were barely passable as knives.
This year I decided that I would take a step forward and buy a good, or at least passable, knife. I ended up with a $20 Ikea knife, with which I have been generally quite pleased. When I first opened the knife I read the care instructions and learned that the knife should not be kept sharp with a stainless steel sharpener, but with a ceramic sharpener. The problem this presented is that my knife sharpener is entirely stainless steel, and therefore not suitable for the job.
While I could tell this would be a slight inconvenience, I didn’t think it would be all that bad. I would just head out and pick up a ceramic knife sharpener at the next opportunity.
As it turned out, that next opportunity was yesterday. While at a kitchen store I learned that while knife sharpeners are expensive, ceramic knife sharpeners are obscenely expensive. They wanted $54 for a ceramic knife sharpener, something that was a little outside of my spending range (though I might have been suckered in for $40).
Maybe I will see about getting something at Lee Valley while I am in Halifax. They seem to have such sharpeners for only about $23.
-The previous note would suggest that I am heading to Halifax. I will be heading out on Saturday and returning on Wednesday. The reason for the trip is to attend Neil’s convocation ceremony.
-A few days ago I was hired as a research assistant for a project at McGill. Aside from the work being more in my area of interest, I will also be able to drop my Thursday night busing shift. Though for all of my loyal fans, I will continue to bus on Friday nights.
-While heading to school yesterday I noticed a TV truck outside a local chain coffee shop. On my way back from school, I noticed more TV trucks and protestors. Though I did not know it until I approached them, they were protesting the lack of French on the chain’s signs. It is interesting to note that a brief story on the protest appeared in today’s Globe and Main.
-It appears that today McGill will be starting a very large fundraising drive. To commence the drive they have erected a massive series of tents on the playing fields in front of the McLennan library. My thought was that if a university can afford to set up a tent village for a week maybe they don’t need hundreds of millions of dollars. Or if they do need hundreds of millions of dollars maybe they shouldn’t set up a tent city (particularly when I am using library resources that are 20 years out of date).
Sunday, October 14, 2007
A Few Quick Notes 123
-Today has been another overcast day, though with less rain than yesterday. The only good thing about the weather is that the temperatures have been appropriately autumnal.
-Last night I played a game of ultimate as a replacement player. Many on the team, including Nithum, were unable to make the game. Actually so few people were able to make it that we were forced to play with six rather than seven people
Strangely, for the first point, the only time the other team played seven, we were able to hold the opposing team off for several minutes more than we were able to on any of their other points.
-On Friday night a few of the library school types were at Thomson House for a while. Unfortunately it seems that general stamina has diminished since last year as almost everyone was gone by 10:00 when I punched out.
-After Thomson House I joined the few remaining individuals on their trip to a party. Though one of the ideas was to meet some of the new students, this didn’t really happen. For the most part I spent time with the people that I already knew.
-Last night was attended Ren’s birthday celebrations at the Cock’n’Bull bar/pub. It was an enjoyable evening. I was also pleased to find that the pitchers were reasonably priced.
-Last night I played a game of ultimate as a replacement player. Many on the team, including Nithum, were unable to make the game. Actually so few people were able to make it that we were forced to play with six rather than seven people
Strangely, for the first point, the only time the other team played seven, we were able to hold the opposing team off for several minutes more than we were able to on any of their other points.
-On Friday night a few of the library school types were at Thomson House for a while. Unfortunately it seems that general stamina has diminished since last year as almost everyone was gone by 10:00 when I punched out.
-After Thomson House I joined the few remaining individuals on their trip to a party. Though one of the ideas was to meet some of the new students, this didn’t really happen. For the most part I spent time with the people that I already knew.
-Last night was attended Ren’s birthday celebrations at the Cock’n’Bull bar/pub. It was an enjoyable evening. I was also pleased to find that the pitchers were reasonably priced.
Friday, October 12, 2007
A Few Quick Notes 122
-For the past few days we have been making up for the lack of rain we had in September. Skies have been generally overcast with intermittent rain.
-The heaters have been turned on in my building. This means that even with windows open I am uncomfortably hot. I wonder if we live in a building that heats at a uniform level all year, or if the level of heating is adjusted to outside temperatures.
-Moments ago I bought our apartment’s first plant, a basil plant. Hopefully in the coming weeks and months we can develop this trend, though I have no idea where this or any other plant might go. And as I like my plants to either bare fruit or be edible my options are more limited.
-As of a day or two ago McGill has changed there email service in such a way that no longer allows me to import my messages to my Gmail inbox. The reason is supposedly security. A more reasonable explanation might be that things were to easy before, students should need to work to access any ‘official’ communication.
-Tonight is another work night. Fortunately I should be able to punch out early and have a few drinks with the library school types, or at least those that are still there at 10:30 or so.
-The heaters have been turned on in my building. This means that even with windows open I am uncomfortably hot. I wonder if we live in a building that heats at a uniform level all year, or if the level of heating is adjusted to outside temperatures.
-Moments ago I bought our apartment’s first plant, a basil plant. Hopefully in the coming weeks and months we can develop this trend, though I have no idea where this or any other plant might go. And as I like my plants to either bare fruit or be edible my options are more limited.
-As of a day or two ago McGill has changed there email service in such a way that no longer allows me to import my messages to my Gmail inbox. The reason is supposedly security. A more reasonable explanation might be that things were to easy before, students should need to work to access any ‘official’ communication.
-Tonight is another work night. Fortunately I should be able to punch out early and have a few drinks with the library school types, or at least those that are still there at 10:30 or so.
Monday, September 24, 2007
A Few Quick Notes 117
-Today was another beautiful day in Montreal. It seems that we are having warm weather for a longer period of time than last year. Still, the leaves have started to turn and in some cases fall. There is one section of sidewalk not far from where I live that is covered in leaves.
-As of several days ago I started to put things on my walls. As has been the case for most of my life, I have typically chosen maps as wall coverings. The same trend has continued in this new apartment. As of right now I have two maps of Montreal, one a street map and one a public transit map, a map of Canada, a map of the US, a map of the world, and a map of the Island of Newfoundland.
-Collins was in town for a few days this past weekend. On Saturday night a few of us played Settlers and were amazed at how hot/due some numbers were. Unfortunately, my game didn’t come together and I was slaughtered in both games.
-While working a special function yesterday I was able to bartend of the first time. I was asked to hop on the bar once the line started to go outside. Because it was a drink ticket based event things were relatively straightforward and I didn’t have to make any fancy mixed drinks.
-It seems that my pocket dictionary has a list of two letter words in the back. Though they don’t come out and say it directly, I am pretty sure that they are meant for Scrabble players. The only problem, as noted by Nithum, is that not all of the two letter words they list are in the official Scrabble dictionary. On the other hand, if you can define a word and know its origin one might be less likely to challenge you (if you play that way).
-It has been a week and I am still somewhat under the weather. It seems that I am not as ill as I was about a week and a half ago, which is quite nice. Hopefully I will be back to normal health for the first time in months shortly.
-The Globe and Mail offers a drastically reduced subscription offer to current students. If you are interested in the paper this is definitely the way to subscribe (that is if you are a student). It seems that the discount is approaching 50% off of the advertised regular subscription rate.
-As of several days ago I started to put things on my walls. As has been the case for most of my life, I have typically chosen maps as wall coverings. The same trend has continued in this new apartment. As of right now I have two maps of Montreal, one a street map and one a public transit map, a map of Canada, a map of the US, a map of the world, and a map of the Island of Newfoundland.
-Collins was in town for a few days this past weekend. On Saturday night a few of us played Settlers and were amazed at how hot/due some numbers were. Unfortunately, my game didn’t come together and I was slaughtered in both games.
-While working a special function yesterday I was able to bartend of the first time. I was asked to hop on the bar once the line started to go outside. Because it was a drink ticket based event things were relatively straightforward and I didn’t have to make any fancy mixed drinks.
-It seems that my pocket dictionary has a list of two letter words in the back. Though they don’t come out and say it directly, I am pretty sure that they are meant for Scrabble players. The only problem, as noted by Nithum, is that not all of the two letter words they list are in the official Scrabble dictionary. On the other hand, if you can define a word and know its origin one might be less likely to challenge you (if you play that way).
-It has been a week and I am still somewhat under the weather. It seems that I am not as ill as I was about a week and a half ago, which is quite nice. Hopefully I will be back to normal health for the first time in months shortly.
-The Globe and Mail offers a drastically reduced subscription offer to current students. If you are interested in the paper this is definitely the way to subscribe (that is if you are a student). It seems that the discount is approaching 50% off of the advertised regular subscription rate.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
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).
-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).
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