-It has been hovering around 0 for the past day or so. This is rather unfortunate as it means that most of the snow that fell on Wednesday morning is beginning to melt and make a mess of many of sidewalks and intersections. The other problem is that the situation will quickly become quite dangerous if the temperatures drop below freezing as everything will turn to ice (as is wont to happen in such conditions).
-It seems that Wednesday's snowfall managed to close a number of our local institutions of higher education. Dalhousie was closed for the day, which seemed a little excessive to me. SMU, on the other hand, was only closed for the morning. And if you are wondering, contrary to what was reported by several media sources, it was not a storm at all, just a snowfall (at least in downtown Halifax).
-In my class today I had the pleasure of giving a presentation in which I was able to touch on the 1995 Turbot War (and presumably introduce a number of my younger classmates to this incident). My parents were forward thinking enough in 1995 to suggest that I accompany them to the St. John's harbour front to watch the Estai be towed into port. Though I didn't quite get the significance of the event at the time, I think that I now have a slightly better handle on why it was they suggested we head down to the harbour with thousands of others to watch what turned out to be a relatively historic event.
Generally I think that the presentation went pretty well. I think that I engaged my classmates and presented the material in a way that drew attention to a number of issues that weren't addressed directly by the assigned readings for the week (which was the goal of the presentation).
-In the second half of the class, which was after my presentation, we were joined by Alexa McDonough, the former leader of the federal NDP. It was nice that she was able to stop by and present an opposition politician's view on Canadian foreign policy and the ability of an MP to influence it.
-I guess I should either get back to work or go to bed.
Blog-off Score
Neil:0
Cameron: 31
Showing posts with label presentations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label presentations. Show all posts
Friday, February 19, 2010
Thursday, March 19, 2009
A Few Quick Notes 290
-Today wasn't quite as nice as yesterday. Things have been rather overcast and wet for most of the day. I can't say that these are my favourite conditions.
-When my mother was in Halifax in September I acquired a 20 kg bag of flour. As of Wednesday this flour was basically gone. Though I am not surprised that I managed to make my way through such a large bag of flour, I am somewhat surprised that it went so quickly, I was expected this to last at least another month or so. Not so surprisingly, the 1 pound bag of yeast is still quite full, though I think I will be able to make my way through it in the coming months.
-Somehow I managed to make it through Tuesday and Wednesday without a nap. Sadly I wasn't able to carry my streak through to today, though I did make it to 4:00 PM before breaking.
-It seems that I am now 1/9 with this year's coffee competition. At the moment I am where I would expect to be, but if I don't want to fall below this success rate I am going to have to be sure to not miss any opportunities and compete at the highest possible level.
-I had a presentation to give this morning. Going into the presentation I was a little worried about how it would go as it was quite early in the morning I am not all that much of a morning person. Somehow, once I got going things seemed to go much better than they should have. The post-presentation question and answer session seemed to go particularly well, I was really having a lot of fun and I there were a number of good questions from the crowd (I even managed to get a few laughs).
-Yesterday, what at the helicopter crash memorial service, my sister observed Danny Williams and Stephen Harper shaking hands. Given the public rhetoric this might not be the behaviour one might expect, though it is quite appropriate given the circumstances. I am curious if any of the Newfoundland political bloggers will mention this interaction. As I don't follow all that many of these blogs it would be quite easy for me to miss such coverage.
-When my mother was in Halifax in September I acquired a 20 kg bag of flour. As of Wednesday this flour was basically gone. Though I am not surprised that I managed to make my way through such a large bag of flour, I am somewhat surprised that it went so quickly, I was expected this to last at least another month or so. Not so surprisingly, the 1 pound bag of yeast is still quite full, though I think I will be able to make my way through it in the coming months.
-Somehow I managed to make it through Tuesday and Wednesday without a nap. Sadly I wasn't able to carry my streak through to today, though I did make it to 4:00 PM before breaking.
-It seems that I am now 1/9 with this year's coffee competition. At the moment I am where I would expect to be, but if I don't want to fall below this success rate I am going to have to be sure to not miss any opportunities and compete at the highest possible level.
-I had a presentation to give this morning. Going into the presentation I was a little worried about how it would go as it was quite early in the morning I am not all that much of a morning person. Somehow, once I got going things seemed to go much better than they should have. The post-presentation question and answer session seemed to go particularly well, I was really having a lot of fun and I there were a number of good questions from the crowd (I even managed to get a few laughs).
-Yesterday, what at the helicopter crash memorial service, my sister observed Danny Williams and Stephen Harper shaking hands. Given the public rhetoric this might not be the behaviour one might expect, though it is quite appropriate given the circumstances. I am curious if any of the Newfoundland political bloggers will mention this interaction. As I don't follow all that many of these blogs it would be quite easy for me to miss such coverage.
Friday, October 17, 2008
A Few Quick Notes 235
-While we had some rain yesterday, things seem to have turned around today. We had a pretty nice fall day as far as I can remember, though I feel as though I spent much of it inside.
-Yesterday my class was canceled. It seems that my professor was ill. The result is that the presentation that I was supposed to give yesterday has been postponed until next week, which is fine with me. Now, instead of preparing for a new topic I can spend this time trying to catch up on other work that has started to pile up.
-Because some of my time was freed up because of the canceled class I felt that I could take the time to head to Point Pleasant Park for a stroll, which is a trip that I have been meaning to take since I arrived. As expected, the visit was quite nice, though it would have been even better had the skies not been overcast and threatening showers. Maybe I will try to head back at some point in the coming weeks, but I can see that I might be on the busy side.
-Yesterday Neil and I got around to mailing absentee ballots for the upcoming American election. It ended up costing us $2.17 per envelop to send our ballots to US. This seems a little high as they weren't particularly big envelops, and as it only cost the New York Board of Elections 97 cents to send them to us. Can it really cost that much more to send things from Canada to the US than from the US to Canada?
-It seems that I can avoid my TA obligations no more, I will finally have to start working on the three lectures that I have to give at the end of October. On Monday I will get a final confirmation of the topics/unit that I will be covering. Unfortunately, this really doesn't give me all that much time to prepare, and as I still don't have a copy of the text book I imagine that I will even have less time. Anyway, how long can it possibly take to prepare for three one hour lectures that I have never given before? Surely not more than 2 or 3 hours and I can probably count on the class jumping in with contributions to fill up any extra time I have. Oh, I also need to come up with an assignment/essay topic that relates to the as of yet unknown lecture topics.
-I recently had a few ideas about the recent Canadian election and proportionality, if they come to anything I may try to post them here. Basically I am trying to find a way of determining if the elections are becoming more proportional or not, or if there is even a trend in either direction.
-Yesterday my class was canceled. It seems that my professor was ill. The result is that the presentation that I was supposed to give yesterday has been postponed until next week, which is fine with me. Now, instead of preparing for a new topic I can spend this time trying to catch up on other work that has started to pile up.
-Because some of my time was freed up because of the canceled class I felt that I could take the time to head to Point Pleasant Park for a stroll, which is a trip that I have been meaning to take since I arrived. As expected, the visit was quite nice, though it would have been even better had the skies not been overcast and threatening showers. Maybe I will try to head back at some point in the coming weeks, but I can see that I might be on the busy side.
-Yesterday Neil and I got around to mailing absentee ballots for the upcoming American election. It ended up costing us $2.17 per envelop to send our ballots to US. This seems a little high as they weren't particularly big envelops, and as it only cost the New York Board of Elections 97 cents to send them to us. Can it really cost that much more to send things from Canada to the US than from the US to Canada?
-It seems that I can avoid my TA obligations no more, I will finally have to start working on the three lectures that I have to give at the end of October. On Monday I will get a final confirmation of the topics/unit that I will be covering. Unfortunately, this really doesn't give me all that much time to prepare, and as I still don't have a copy of the text book I imagine that I will even have less time. Anyway, how long can it possibly take to prepare for three one hour lectures that I have never given before? Surely not more than 2 or 3 hours and I can probably count on the class jumping in with contributions to fill up any extra time I have. Oh, I also need to come up with an assignment/essay topic that relates to the as of yet unknown lecture topics.
-I recently had a few ideas about the recent Canadian election and proportionality, if they come to anything I may try to post them here. Basically I am trying to find a way of determining if the elections are becoming more proportional or not, or if there is even a trend in either direction.
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).
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