A Few Quick Notes 411

-Today, while not as nice as the past few days, was pretty OK until some time this evening. Unfortunately, things are expected to get even worse tomorrow (meaning rainier), though I am still holding out a little hope that the forecast is as inaccurate as usual.

-I am now 2/9 with my Roll Up the Rim to Win cup. I am starting to feel a little like Chuck Knoblauch, in that that I am just not doing what doing what needs to be done. I keep missing my mark.

-I have recently been so busy tipping back diet passionfruit pop that I completely forgot how refreshing a nice glass of ice water can be. In case you too have forgotten how nice a glass of ice water can be and are curious the answer is great and refreshing. Glasses ice water are so good it is no wonder that they are my favourite drink and the one drink I would take with me to a desert island (assuming I am ever given such a choice).

-In class today we were talking about international development NGOs and their relationship to missionary work when the professor asked the class "Have NGOs assumed a missionary position?" After I broke the silence and laughed a few of my classmates joined in before the professor caught on and shamefacedly rephrased the question. Though I know my father might spend years crafting such a line, I am pretty sure that this one was spur of the moment and considered a misstep by the professor.

-I harvested some of my tobacco seeds today. I still have to separate some of the seed pods from the seed, but it is already clear that I have thousands and thousands of seeds. I have no idea what I might do with thousands and thousands of tobacco seeds.

-There is an awesome butter sale at the grocery store this week. I am hoping to head by tomorrow and pick up a few pounds.

-A few weeks ago I decided to "soften my image" by growing a beard. I was hoping that a beard would draw attention away from my super-short haircut and allow me not to look so intense. Generally I think that this worked, though it is kind of hard to say. Anyway, my beard was getting kind of long and my hair had grown out enough that I decided that I could go back to being beardless and would likely not look to intense so I got rid of my beard this morning. I generally think it was a good move.

So this happened this afternoon

This afternoon, while eating my lunch and getting ready to return to some reading, Neil approached me and asked if I might consider giving him a haircut. I immediately said that I would, though I didn't expect thing to get underway for a little while. It soon became clear that Neil was hoping to get things moving pretty quickly.

Almost immediately after finishing my lunch I started to gather the equipment and help Neil set-up. In just a few minutes, after quickly examining the how-to guide I launched into what was my first full-fledged haircut.

Within just minutes I had removed most of Neil's hair and was starting to tidy things up.



[Embedded video]

Amazingly, following the how-to guide seemed to work pretty well. I think that Neil ended up with a pretty reasonable haircut, or at least one that was pretty close to what he expected when we started the operation.

Anyway, now that we know I can do it, I guess I might be giving Neil haircuts on a more regular basis (and I hope that in the future he might let me to down to the no. 3 comb).

In related news, soon after getting his haircut, Neil removed his beard. The effect of both of these changes is quite extreme, Neil looks much different than he did just a few hours ago.

A Few Quick Notes 309

-Though occasionally overcast, today was a generally nice day. As far as I can tell, it was generally warmer than predicted. Apparently tomorrow is to be the first very warm day of the year, with temperatures that are expected to go as high as 26. If this is the case, it could be a little warm for my liking.

-I am now 2/22 on this year's Roll Up the Rim to Win contest. As supplies of cups are running out or have run out, I don't imagine that I will manage to really improve my rather dismal record at this point. I guess I need to re-group and come at things strong next year.

-Just moments ago I woke up from a nap. Originally the nap was supposed to be 45 minutes at most, it turned out to have run 1 hour and 15 minutes. As I ended up setting my alarm incorrectly I guess I am luck that I ended up only sleeping for an extra 30 minutes and not several hours.

-If my most recent 'stache was any indication, it seems that temporary tattoos may last longer than mustaches.

While I was out walking last night I realized that I had a conference to attend today which. Though it may have been unnecessary, I thought it would be best if I shaved before attending this morning's opening session.



-The conference, which is on the European Union and is my first full-fledged academic conference, is quite informative. Unfortunately, I was relatively tired for most of the day (the 9:00 AM starts really hit me hard). There are a number of sessions tomorrow that should be quite good.

-It seems that the swine flu problem in Nova Scotia has only gotten worse since it was first reported yesterday. CBC is now reporting that it seems that the disease has likely spread beyond the original four cases, which should not be all that surprising considering that it is contagious. As you might have expected, this news hasn't really comforted me.

What is life without the appropriate facial hair?

I wonder which tend to last longer, my moustaches or temporary tattoos?

A Few Quick Notes 271

-After yesterday's above zero temperatures, today's below zero temperatures have had the somewhat unwelcome effect of turning large sections of the city into ice sheets. Unfortunately, it seems that a number of the city's sidewalks seem to be presently located below these ice sheets. Aside from this, and occasional blasts of cold wind, things were pretty nice today.

-On Saturday I finally prepared some beans/legumes in my new pressure cooker. The preparation of such dishes was why I was given the pressure cooker in the first place.

For my first attempt I decided to go with a lentil soup recipe from the cookbook that came with the device. Not only was the soup relatively straightforward, basically just vegetables and lentils, it turned out quite nicely. Even Neil and Rebecca seemed to think that it wouldn't be too bad if we had it again. Hopefully I will be able to try a few more such dishes in the coming days and weeks.

-For those of you who are into comedy podcasts, episode 46 of Mike Schmidt's The 40 Year Old Boy is great. As far as I am concerned, the highlight of the show is the extended story about Mike going to Lake Tahoe with a friend to run a sports gambling system that the friend devised. As one might expect of 20 year-olds try to pull something like this off, it quickly went south and Mike and his friend were soon forced to fend for themselves in a relatively unknown city.

-On Saturday night our Ultimate team was once again smoked, though we did manage to hold things together for the better part of the first half. As usual, we really let things get out of hand as the game wore on.

-A few days ago I noticed that one of the recipes on the same page as a biscuit recipe that I frequent use was a recipe for "Cowboy Coffee Cake." For some reason I found this name rather tempting and have been trying to come up with a reason/time to make a batch.

After finishing dinner this evening I felt that the time had come and that I would try to whip up a batch of Cowboy Coffee Cake. Now that it is out of the oven I can't quite understand why they tried to associate with cowboys, it looks like pretty standard coffee cake as far as I can tell. I guess I should try a piece while it is still warm.

-This morning I removed the 'stache (olibama) that I acquired on Friday. I was pretty sure that its presence wouldn't endear me to the class to whom I had to give a lecture this morning.

Blog-off
Cameron: 11
Neil: 0

Friday night fun

On Friday evening at about 5:40 I decided that it was finally time for my beard to go. I found the beard trimmer, banged it a few times to get the batteries to make contact, and went to work on the beard removal process. About half-way through the process the power went out. Fortunately it was a battery powered trimmer and was thus able to continue the process with the assistance of a flashlight. The downside was that I wasn't really able to tidy things up at all, so I had to call it quits at a rather rough stage in the beard removal process. One result of the early finish was that I was left with a 'stache, which might otherwise have been removed.

Once the beard removal was finished and a few flashlights and candles had been gathered Neil and I settled into a nice debate about how one should go about taping the fridge shut (to prevent the release of cold air) in such a circumstance. After our rather exhaustive debate we moved over to the card table to play some candlelight cribbage. All this time we could see that even across the street a number of buildings did have power.



After not too long all three of us thought that it might be best if we tried to make our way to a restaurant for dinner, as it wasn't likely that we would be able to cook all that much on the tea lights. As we made our way out discovered that the outage was quite spotty. In some instances certain side of a street would have power, or long building on a block might have power. The downside of this inconsistency was that we had no idea whether the restaurant we hoped to patronize would be open until we reached its front door. As it turned out, the restaurant was closed, so we made our way across town to a restaurant we were pretty sure would be open.

We eventually made it to a restaurant on Quinpool and settled in for a very pleasant dinner. Actually, I think the dinner had the positive benefit of teaching me a lesson about Halifax fish and chips, which is that it does not tend to agree with my system. As we were hanging around after the meal killing time I managed to drop my cup of coffee on the table. Fortunately the napkin I had on my lap managed to soak up most of the liquid. This incident reminded me how important proper napkin placement is.

After a quick stop at a great video rental store near the restaurant we made our way back to our part of town. As we were walking down Spring Garden it became clear that power had still not been fully restored. It was suggested that we might try to a movie to kill some time (the movie theatre was on the side of the street with power). Unfortunately, once we made it to the ticketing area it became apparent that we weren't the only ones with this idea. Even at about 9:30 the place was completely packed and there was no way we would have made it into a movie on time.

Once back at the apartment Neil and I re-lit the candles and played some more cribbage while Rebecca read by candlelight. Eventually, at about 10:45, the power came back on and we were able to get on with our evening as planned, though by this time I really didn't have as much time to devote to reading and school work as I had planned on.

Throughout much of the power outage we were somewhat worried about the status of a can of pop that Rebecca had placed in the freezer just minutes before the outage. As we didn't know how long we would be without power we didn't want to open the freezer to take the can out. Fortunately, even though it had been in the freezer for four hours, the can did not rupture, which would have been quite a mess.

Blog-off
Cameron: 10
Neil: 0

Default Beard

A few days ago I realized that I seem to be well on my way to a new beard.

Through a lack of action on my part it seems that the beard is just developing on its own. Though I don't particularly want a beard, I don't seem motivated enough, or to not want it enough, to actually do anything about it. I guess I am probably falling back on the traditional winter arguement, which is that a beard will protect my face from harsh winter winds.

Hopefully before too long I will figure out where I stand on the issue and what actions might be appropriate.

A Few Quick Notes 242

-Today, though cool, was quite nice. Actually, as far as Fall days ago it was about as nice as one might hope for.

-Several weeks ago Neil requested tickets to attend a taping of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, a news satire show that is filmed in Halifax. Not too long after the request was placed we were notified that we had tickets for the November 3 taping of the show.

Soon after hearing about the tickets I managed to forget about them. At some point this weekend it dawned on me that would be be going on Monday and that I had best mentally prepare myself.

Anyway, tonight was the night, and, all things considered, I think it went pretty well. Actually, it was a much more pleasant experience than the taping of Letterman that I attended a few years ago. The topical news satire as well as the pre-recorded sketches were both funny. As one might expect, this weeks show was somewhat heavy on US election content. Surprisingly, some of this content wasn't as funny as I might have expected, especially considering there are so many possibilities for humour.

As usual, the view of the performance is somewhat impeded by the cameras and various pieces of equipment needed to tape the show. Also, the crowd is relatively far away from the performers so that this equipment can be used to its fullest effect. This was only a real problem at the end of the show when they were filming a sketch and I was basically unable to see two of the three performers.

-Several days ago I discovered a bottle of port that Neil and Rebecca had been hiding in the booze cupboard. While the port is of the cheap variety I have been quite impressed with the flavour and overall port-consumption experience.


-After several days of threats and ineffective planning, I eventually got around to shaving my beard. I was motivated by a desire not look like too much of a slob, though I am sure that such motivation won't be long lasting and that before long I will have a beard of some sort again.




Fortunately, I wasn't too hasty with the clippers and I was able to save a 'stache from the mess that was my beard. While the 'stache is in fine shape at the moment, it isn't like to last all that long. Who knows, it may even be gone by the time I head to class tomorrow (though that would require more motivation that I think I might have).

-Tuesday is election day in the US. I was able to cast my absentee ballot a few weeks ago. Hopefully it made it safely, but as I didn't send it registered mail I really have no idea if this is the case.

Mustache Free Since Oh-Three

As of last night I am facial hair free. At about eleven I finally chopped of my 'stache.

While it is likely that I could have just modified my 'stache so that it would not have frustrated me so much, for some reason I decided to just get rid of the entire affair. Maybe I will start some something new?

I should explain that the primary motivation was to try and look somewhat normal for my final few days in library school. I am hoping that people in Montreal's lasting impression will be one of me looking somewhat normal, rather than being the guy with the crazy facial hair. On the other hand, it may be a little to late for that.

A Few Quick Notes 157

-For the past few days, or at least the past day and a half, we have had a bit of snow. This hasn’t really been problematic as the amount we received has not been significant. Hopefully the temperature will stay below zero for the next couple of days so that we don’t just have puddles of slush at every corner.

-So far I a 0/4 on my Roll Up the Rim cups. This is not all that surprising. Actually, I have decided to see if I can beat my record of last year, which was something like 0/17 before I got a free coffee. I should also note that this year I have been able to use my newly acquired ‘rim roller,’ a small device that automatically unrolls a coffee cup rim to save one the hassle of having to do it with either one’s mouth or fingers. The only downside to this device is that the swath it unrolls isn’t quite as wide as I would like it to be.

-On Monday night I finally ditched my beard. This took a while as I had to do it with a pair of scissors and then a razor. For those of you that are curious, yes, I left the ‘stache, at least for the time being. So far I haven’t really noticed much of a difference in terms of quality of life or a diminishing number of people who look at me as though I am nuts (but this latter part is likely because of the shorts).

-Last night, for the first time, I went to Concordia to borrow some books from their library, a privilege afforded me because of reciporical borrowing agreements. I ended up selecting three books, at least two of which are not available at McGill. The only problem is that I now have to try not to mix these three up with the pile of books that I have that are from McGill. Fortunately, I have been able to read the necessary sections already, meaning that I should be able to return them shortly.

-As I mentioned a few days ago, I have decided to apply to do an M.A. in Political Science at Dalhousie. On Monday I submitted my application package and paid the necessary fee. I guess I will hear back from them at some point in the future, hope it all works out.

-More than in previous presidential elections, but this may just be my own persona perception, it seems that instead of the positions of the various candidates news sources are covering events as a battle for polling support. This means that what a candidate says is significantly less important than the fact that they said it to a group of union workers in Ohio on a Sunday.

Another problem with this year’s coverage is that candidates are able to say something outrageous, which is then reported almost verbatim, the veracity of the statement is never seen to be an issue worth examining. Particularly troubling are the claims by Hilary that she has more international relations experience than Obama.

This is troubling as it simply isn’t true. What is more troubling is that the two credentials that Hilary is tossing around are her experience as a senator, as well as her experience as first lady. As far as I can tell, neither of these two positions, the second of which isn’t even a formal position, involves any diplomatic responsibilities. Being one of a hundred people to approve a treaty is not even close to the same thing as negotiating a treaty.

I feel that the claim that living in the White House should count for experience is kind of like the idea of going to the spouse of your doctor for surgery, I mean they have lived with a surgeon for 20 years. Some of that knowledge and experience must have rubbed off, right?

(This should not be taken as a statement in support of or against any particular candidate, but rather as a call for better reporting of the campaigns of those running for President.)

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.

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).

A Few Quick Notes 84

-Another beautiful day in Montreal. While it has cooled off this evening, it is still a nice clear night. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to crack out my unicycle. Hopefully this will happen tomorrow.

-My facial hair is now completely gone. No mustache, and not even the soul patch. It is a little strange to see my unblemished face again. Now I only need a hair cut and I will be back to my good old self.

Many females that I know will likely be pleased with this development. While I did have the mustache I seemed to notice a very strong gender divide regarding whether or not mustaches were facial enhancements or not.

-My Roll Up the Rim record is now 3/33, nothing to smile about. As they are quickly running out of supplies I don’t know how many more chances I will have to win big and cover my expenses for next year.

-Tonight I made some humus. It seems that I put a fair bit of garlic in and maybe not enough lemon. Next time I will have to try and rectify this problem.

-So far tonight I have read three articles about library services for part-time students. One of these articles was about students in Nigeria, another about students in Northern Ireland, and the last about students in Ontario. Amazingly, between 1977 and 2006 the needs of part-time students in regards to library services don’t seem to have changed all that much.

More shopping this past weekend

I make my post titles in honour of Games of No Chance (GONC) and More Games of No Chance (GONC2), books edited by my supervisor, R.J. Nowakowski. The third book in the series will be Games of No Chance 3, although another student, Paul Ottaway, and myself thought it should have been More Games of No Chance 2.

Back to my story, at 4:30 on Saturday I jaunted across the road and down the street to the second closest haircutter's, the first being where I had my last scarecut, I mean haircut. They are open until 5, but I they asked me if I would like to book an appointment for Monday. I did, and I'll get back to this later.

Saturday evening came around and I decided it was time to do some buying at Ikea.ca. My main purchases were a desk and dressers. I tried to buy the stuff online, but I was getting an error saying that my postal code didn't match my city on my billing address. I figured the computer didn't like St. John's as a city because of its punctuation, but I didn't want to submit the 'wrong' billing address and not have my payment processed. I called them up and made my order instead. My shipment is expected in 7-11 business days (from Sat).

On Sunday, Rebecca and I only hit up Lawtons and Sobeys. Lawtons had a good deal whereby a free movie ticket was earned with the purchase of 3 Dove products (excluding soap and travel sizes). Rebecca uses Dove products, but if someone wanted to they could buy 3 of the cheapest Dove deodorants (thrown them away) and 'save' money over buying a full-price admission at some theatres.

I had also planned to make an online order from Staples on Sunday. However, the products I had liked at Staples weren't on the website, and I didn't have the product numbers (I had falsely ass-u-me-d that it would be no trouble to find them online). Rebecca then remember that she had wanted to pick up a chalk holder at Staples and had forgotten. As her hands react to chalk and she is giving a chalk-n-talk (that's just a talk using a chalkboard) on Tuesday I decided I would make the run over this morning before my haircut. So this morning came and I went to Staples. I planned my bus trips out quite nicely, and I managed to go from the chair I'm in now, to Staples, and back in less than an hour. My trip was quite sucessful. I have a chair and cabinet coming on Friday, and chalk holders (normally a steep $7.99 per each) were available in 2-for-1 packs, so I got one as well (which I had wanted).

I then went to get my hair cut in the bottom of Doug Wyatt's building, at Splitt Ends (clever name). While I was getting my hair cut the phone rang and the woman cutting my hair, Melissa, went to answer it. When she came back she told another woman there than it was her husband on the phone and he was going to the doctor's to get an AIDS test, which was for some reason necessary to go to Cuba (Melissa's husband works for the Department of National Defence). Melissa said he'd better pass, to which the woman responded that Melissa's should have made sure he would pass such a test before she got married. Burn. Melissa said they mostly get student business. I figure this is why she looked so surprised when I gave her a tip. My beard got the boot when I got home. I would almost definitely get IDed buying alcohol right now if I were wearing shorts. As it is, I think it's a toss-up.

A Few Quick Notes 79

-Today was another beautiful winter’s day in Montreal. The temperature as reported by Environment Canada seemed to be a little lower than it actually felt. It seems that Nithum’s prediction was really quite early.

-I am now 1/24 in Roll Up the Rim to Win attempts. This is a horrible record. I just can’t figure out what I am doing wrong. It seems that all kinds of people get two or three wins right off the bat.

-Earlier tonight when I was talking to my mother on the phone she passed a piece of information that she acquired from Shawyer. It turns out that an anagram for my name, Cameron, is ‘Romance.” This was pretty good news as far as I was concerned.

-The election in Quebec is less than a week away and I have not yet received a single flyer or knock on my door. I know that I can’t vote, but I still want to at least pretend to campaign in the Ghetto. Also, I would take the opportunity to try and learn a few things about Quebec politics.

-Yesterday before class I made some cornbread. Today while doing my laundry I made some hummus.

-This looks as though it is going to be a rough project season. It has been building up slowly and will crescendo in a few weeks. Hopefully I will be able to make it through without too many problems. One of these assignments is due tomorrow afternoon.

-I have to work on both Thursday and Friday of this week. After work on Friday I will be attending a “Mustache and Cleavage” party, hence the mustache.

As the mustache has been endearing itself to me I am not sure if it will go on March 24 as originally planned. Maybe it will have to stay around for at least a few more days.

-Over the past few days I watched the third season of a reality TV show called ‘Beauty and the Geek.’ This show was surprisingly watchable and disturbing.

A Few Quick Notes 78

-These past few days have been pretty winter-like. On Friday night we had a pretty reasonable batch of blowing snow, something that held over until yesterday. While today was it bit warmer, it was still definitely winter, with plenty of slush as evidence.

-Celery dropped in price from $2.99 to $1.29 at Lobos. This is great news for me as I eat celery more than just about any other vegetable, maybe even potatoes. I was beginning to wonder if I would have to cut back because of the high prices. Because of this great news I doubled my purchase, I am now the proud owner of two bunches of celery (well, one and a half).

-How about a Vokuhila to go with my Oliba?

Or in more standard English, how about a mullet to go with mustache?

My friend Thomas passed these two terms on to me from Germany. Both of them are derived from the longer and fuller form of the terms. This is key information, if you ever go into a barber shop remember to say ‘nein’ if you hear ‘vokuhila.’

-The Thomson House St. Paddy’s Day Party was a success in my eyes. As far as I can tell the main negative part of the evening was the Francophone/Anglophone fuelled bar fight. Fortunately this wasn’t a big fight and was interrupted quickly.

-Over the past few days I have started to listen to “When We Was Boys” by a Crowd of Bold Sharemen. This seems to be a song in support of Newfoundland nationalism, lamenting Newfoundland’s perceived loss of independence and reliance on Government.

-For the past few months I have had battery problems with my digital camera. In late summer, I purchased some very expensive disposable batteries for my camera. These batteries lasted until January of this year. Since then I have been using a mish-mash of disposable and rechargeable batteries, none of which have been very satisfactory.

It seems that the disposable batteries that I purchased yesterday came pre-depleted, while the rechargeable batteries that I have don’t last much longer.

This is annoying because it limits the functionality of my digital camera. For instance, it was of no use in documenting my celebration of St. Paddy’s day yesterday. I guess there are two solutions, either buy expensive disposable batteries or buy expensive rechargeable batteries. It is unfortunate that both of these solutions mean spending money.

A Few Quick Notes 76

-Today was another relatively warm day in Montreal. According to the Environment Canada 24 hour trends graph, we were above freezing all day.

If things continue like this we will be out of snow in no time. The problem is that it does not looks as though things will continue like this, snow is being forecast for the end of the week.

-My losing streak at Tim Horton’s ended today. I am now an impressive 1/16. The good thing is that I won a coffee, which I will re-invest in a new losing streak.

-My mustache is doing well. You may recall that it is a horseshoe mustache and a soul patch. Talk about classy.

Amazingly, the longer it stays the more I appreciate it. As far as I am concerned it is a serious step up from the beard in terms of looks, but a serious step back in terms of maintenance.

-I have too much boring work to do.

-It looks as though I will be going back to St. John’s for the summer. If anyone knows of any high paying part-time evening and weekend jobs please let me know, I will be looking to supplement my income. Another goal for the summer is to do some reading (though this will not happen to the same degree that I would like it to).

-Boring work has really helped my dedication to blogging.

-I should make some more cornbread, the batch I made yesterday is gone already.

Name that ‘stache

For a few days I have been wondering what type of moustache I am currently sporting. Several co-workers have referred to it as a “dirty Sanchez,” a name with which I am not enamored.

The problem is that I hadn’t been able to come up with a better name. It isn’t a handlebar moustache, I didn’t think it was a Fu Manchu, and after that my list of names ran out.

After a bit of quick research I was able to determine that it is a horseshoe mustache, with elements of a Fu Manchu creeping in. In addition to the Horseshoe I also have a soul patch under my lower lip.

The current schedule would indicate that both of these will be gone as of about March 24, 2007. If anything comes back it will likely be a full-ish beard.

A Few Quick Notes 70

-Another chilly day in Montreal. Apparently, with wind chill, it is down to almost -40. While this is the official story I am not sure that it is correct, at least where I live. It was certainly cold on my walk to school today, but not as cold as it has been at other points this year.

-As of today I have had my mustache for a week. While I don’t really think that it is much of an improvement over the beard, it does get more laughs. In fact, frequently when I look at myself in the mirror, say when I am brushing my teeth, I start to laugh. It is nice to bring a smile to people’s faces.

Another nice thing about the mustache over the beard is that I seem to be scaring people a little less. It seems that many people on subway platforms felt a little uncomfortable around a tall, unshaven, scraggily haired, shorts wearing guy. As I don’t consider myself to be a scary person I didn’t really enjoy getting this reaction.

-I have been suffering from a slight cold-type ailment for a few days now. While I have been taking some cold medication I finally switched to a sinus medication and it seems to have eliminated my sinus pain. Part of the problem is that it took me a while to identify the problem as a sinus problem. Even if I don’t get better at least I will be medicated correctly.

-I should get back to work. I have to head back to school this afternoon to work on a collection development policy project. Maybe when I get back I will try to tackle my case study.