A Few Quick Notes 170

-Today, as well as yesterday have been particularly nice. Environment Canada is claiming that it is presently 23 degrees. It seems that similar weather has been forecast for the next few days.

-It seems that I must be somewhere near 14/85 on the year for Roll Up the Rim. It seems that my end of year drive has failed me. I am presently on a pretty long dry spell, which may be permanent as places are started to run out of contest cups.

-Nithum returned unexpectedly today. With him he brought a friend. Once my father arrives tomorrow we will have a pretty full apartment.

-On Wednesday I was able to hand in my final library school assignment. Assuming that I pass all of my courses I will soon be able to call myself a librarian. A few years ago not all that many people would have guessed that this is a path that I would have taken.

-In preparation for my summer employment, I obtained a haircut yesterday evening. The hair cutter was Nick, a co-worker. We did the deed on his balcony so that the wind was able to take care of most of the clippings.

The result is that my hair is very short on the sides and in the back, longer on the top. What I got was exactly what I was looking for.

-Last night, while playing around with my camera, I decided to take a picture of the street in front of my building. Upon stepping onto my balcony with my camera I heard someone muttering something. I soon realized that the muttering was coming from someone sitting on a planter across the street and that he was muttering about someone taking photos at that time of night (1:30 AM). I think he may have been suggesting that I not take a photo of him (which I wasn't planning on and did not do). I did take a photo of the street next to where he was sitting though.

Some period of time later, maybe a half an hour or so, someone (whom I believe to be the individual from the planter) was having a minor dispute about money with two other individuals. Eventually things were settled and all three faded back into the night.

My theory is that it was a drug deal and that the first guy wasn't particularly pleased to see someone taking photos (as he knew what was supposed to be happening in the very near future). Fortunately, this individual's displeasure with my photographic activities didn't lead to any further actions on his part (something I was mildly concerned about last night).

A Few Quick Notes 169

-Today has be largely overcast, though with clear periods, and occasional periods of precipitation. This is quite a change from the weather of a few days ago, which was close to perfect. At least we are generally heading in the right direction.

-It seems that I am now about 14/79 for this year's Roll Up the Rim contest. I received a bit of a boost in my numbers yesterday when a new employee double cupped my coffee with context cups. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to convert this good fortune into further wins. Hopefully I can really kick it up in these next few days as places are starting to run out of cups, meaning that it is really now or never.

-It seems that with changes in weather we are also starting to get other signs of spring, most notably plant growth. Just today I noticed that leaves (or 'leafs' for our hockey fan readers) are starting to sprout on some of the trees outside of our windows. Not only with this be a pleasant sight, but it will provide Nithum with a degree of privacy that we haven't experienced since last Fall.

-Last night I attended the library school end of year party. The event was largely successful and people seem to have enjoyed themselves. I was particularly pleased that I was able to speak to a number of people to whom I hadn't really been able to speak with much these past few weeks. Also, the turnout seemed to be pretty good.

Though I missed much of the performance, we did have a male stripper who danced to "Another One Bites the Dust." Those who did see the show seem to have been quite pleased with what transpired.

-For about an hour and a half I have been trying to do laundry. Every time I head down to see if there are any empty machines I find people loading recently vacated washers. Hopefully I will find some empty ones tonight. It will be very disheartening to have to re-make my bed with a dirty duvet cover.

-In the past few days I have been making curry quite frequently. I am not really sure what explains this recent trend. As this seems to be working out relatively well I don't think that I will be doing all that much to try to break myself of the habit.

A Few Quick Notes 168

-These past few days have been close to perfect. The temperatures have been quite pleasant, maybe near the ten degree mark, maybe a little higher, but certainly nothing unpleasant. Furthermore, the sun has been out and the days bright. Hopefully we can keep this trend going for another couple of weeks, though word on the street is that we are due for some less than pleasant weather in the coming days.

-It seems that I am now 14/74, though I wouldn't be surprised if my count was a little off. My goal of keeping my win rate up has fallen on hard times. Maybe I need to re-group and re-energize and bring my best game to next few days of the competition.

-I have been busy with school work these past few days, which is the reason for my shortage of posts. Hopefully my failure to post hasn't caused you too many problems. In the next few days I should be back on the wagon and supplying Montifax with regular posts.

-Today, as I was walking home from school a guy in a fancy black car honked at me as he was approaching, and then waved his finger at me as he drove past. I really have no idea what his problem was as I was on the side of an intersection waiting to cross the street. My only idea is that he thought that I was going to walk out in traffic in front of him, but I really don't know why he would have thought that, as my actions were no different than most people approaching an intersection.

-On Monday I was able to submit two final assignments. A third was submitted yesterday. My fourth, and final, final assignment is due next Wednesday. Fortunately I have already done a fair bit of work and am not at all worried about having the work done on time.

-While in Lobos today I noticed that they were selling raspberry flavoured malt beverages for 69 cents. Not surprisingly, I was suckered in and went for the impulse buy. After refrigerating the beverage for some number of hours I eventually decided to give it a try. Much to my surprise, the experience wasn't too bad, though it wasn't all that great either. The raspberry flavour was quite strong, certainly much stronger than the malt flavour. I may try to go back and pick up a few more before they well out.

-Today, while waiting in line at the library a guy cut in front of me. Upon realizing that he cut the line he turned around and said "Sorry, did I cut in front of you?"

I indicated that he had cut in front of me. He seemed to acknowledge this, but then went on with his transaction.

Why ask if you are going to do nothing about it?

-For the first time in some number of weeks I baked some bread. I am not all that pleased with the way things turned out, mainly as some of it is a little closer to burned than I would have desired. Hopefully it tastes good.

A Few Quick Notes 167

-Today was another pleasant day in the slightly above zero range. It is now possible to see almost all of most sidewalks and diminishing, but still sizable, snowbanks. More importantly, for the first time this year, I was able to spot an early bloom (reminiscent of a crocus). I guess all of this is to say that it is starting to feel like spring.

-As of moments ago I moved to 12/54 on this year's Roll Up the Rim. As you can see, I am still playing hard. I hope to keep up my momentum for the rest of the contest.

-While walking to school yesterday morning I noticed a seagull in the air above me. It seemed to be swooping around rather frivolously. Moments later I noticed and heard a splotch of bird feces. Fortunately, I was unhit, but only narrowly. Had my right foot and attached leg been about 6 inches further to the right I would have been nailed.

-Upon returning from school today, I noticed that one of my recent bean plants has started to sprout. Nearby there seems to be another sprout, though at the moment I don't know exactly what it is (as I planted beans, peas, and peppers simultaneously).

-As the temperatures begin to rise as we enter spring, the level of heating in our apartment remains unchanged. This means that while it is only a few degrees above zero, I am able to sit comfortably in shorts and a tee-shirt while the living room window and balcony door are both open. (I am also blasting the Planets).

-In the past few days I have really begun to notice that Nithum and I seem to generate a large amount of garbage. This is striking because we both take care to recycle many items, and additionally don't eat many foods with excessive amounts of packaging.

It is possible that part of the issue is that we don't fill our garbage bags completely before tying them off. This is largely because of our relatively small main garbage can, which seems to only accommodate a few items before we are required to engage in some pretty complicated stacking activities.

-A few days ago I recall coming up with a great idea to post. I was thinking that it would be well received, and also useful. Of course, now that I am ready to post, I have no idea what it was I was going to say. I need to start writing these things down as I come up with them if I don't want to forget them.

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 166

-Today was another nice day, though a bit on the chilly side. My understanding is that such weather is not to hold, snow or some other form of precipitation has been predicted. This is rather unfortunate as just now the sidewalks are starting to clear and the snow disappear.

-I must now be 11/51 on this year's Roll Up the Rim contest. The decision to pick up my game that I made several days ago seems to have paid off. My win ratio has definitely started to improve. Hopefully I will be able to manage this level of intensity for the rest of the competition. If you are curious, my strategy is to play for more smaller prizes, such as coffees, rather than the big and rare prizes. So far this seems to be working.

-I was able to do some laundry yesterday. Once I started the process did I realize that I had less to wash than I expected. What caused this to be the case still baffles me, particularly as it seems that it was about the standard interval between washes.

-I am really having a hard time getting down to work. Though I have been trying all night, I have managed to make very little progress. Maybe if I take a walk I will be ready to work when I get back.

-A few days ago I heard an interview with George Saunders about his work, which tends towards satire. This motivated me to see if the library had any of his work, which they did. I was able to check out two of his books, one of which I completed that day. Generally I have been impressed and would consider looking into other of his works.

-A few days ago, at the Purim party, some of the guests noticed the 'take a book, leave a book' box and found some content that interested them. In class today someone gave me a book for the box to replace the one that he took. I am glad to see that this has finally worked in the way that it was supposed to, though it took much longer than I expected (but that may be because of the limited number of people that visit my apartment).

-A few days ago I planted some beans, peas, and peppers. While I am hoping for some action on the growing front before I depart, I don't know if this is actually going to happen. So far all three seed varieties have disappointed me, but it may be that I have not given them enough time to sprout.

-When I returned home from school today I found that the north-bound lane of my street was closed by a police car. At the end of the block I was able to see some more flashing lights, as well as a few at the end of the block to the south of my apartment. Fortunately, my apartment doesn't seem to be in any immediate danger.

I should note that this is all after there were two police car outside of the building to the south of mine. As these cars didn't have their lights on I assumed that there wasn't much of an emergency, though I am now wondering if something developed during the course of their visit.

Weekend Socializing

About a week and a half ago Nithum and I came up with the idea that we could host a Purim party. Upon receiving support from a number of friends we decided to go ahead with the party, which we were originally thinking of hosting on a Friday evening.

Until about Tuesday evening nothing had really started to move, so I informed a friend that it was likely a no-go. Surprisingly, Liam, a friend present when the comment was made, immediately threw his support behind the idea of the party. Nithum confirmed his support for the party. So, again, the party was on, though this time for Thursday rather than Friday night.

Due to the short period of time between the final decision to host the party and the time of the party only limited planning was possible. A further problem was inviting people with such short notice, particularly before an amazingly long weekend (four days for the McGill community). Eventually a few invitations were distributed via email, though to a limited number of people as I blanked out under pressure.

On Wednesday night I decided to try and find some appropriate music for us to play during the party. Within a few minutes I found a site that listed klezmer bands with free samples online. Once I had visited all of the listed sites I had over 4 hours of such music in my possession, several of the pieces even had 'Purim' in their titles.

At about this time I learned that Nithum had come down with some kind of illness (of the cold variety) and would likely not be attending the party.

As the school day on Thursday drew to a close I hit took to the streets to pick up the needed supplies. I was able to hit the dollar store, the grocery store, and the liquor store and acquire pretty much everything that I needed. The only type of item that I was unable to find were special Purim noisemakers that are used to drown out the name of Haman during the reading of the book of Ester.

Upon returning to our apartment I did some work on cleaning, but much more work on food preparation. I baked some shortbread, made some humus, didn't make some bacon appetizers, and cleaned and chopped some vegetables, finishing only moment before the scheduled start time.

Shortly after changing into my costume the first guests started to arrive, causing me to open the first bottle of wine. As the time went on more and more people began to arrive, eventually peaking at about 20.

One thing that I noticed was that people tended to bring red wine with them but that the white wine went much more quickly. I know that this would be my preference, but I bought more white than red wine. Maybe it was just a quirk of the evening, or, as Neil hypothesized, that the white was more tempting in the context of an overheated apartment.

Anyway, as people arrived the seemed to quickly hope on to the drinking and feasting components of the evening, which was the intended outcome.

By about 4:00 AM most of the guests had departed, the exception being Mary, who crashed on the futon.

The next morning, upon waking, I surveyed the apartment. Much to my surprise, there wasn't all that much to clean up, aside from basically all of the glasses in our apartment. Within about 45 minutes I had returned the apartment to a more orderly state than when the party started the previous evening.

Shortly after finishing my clean up I returned to bed so that I could rest up for Friday night's events, which were to be plentiful, and which I hoped to take full advantage of as this was to be on of the few Friday nights I haven't had to work.

At about 6:30 a few of us from the Ghetto walked over to a bar on Crescent Street to celebrate a classmate's birthday. If I recall correctly, about 10 or 12 people showed up and we had a very enjoyable few hours of socializing. At one point we were even able to discuss local Newfoundland beers (as the celebrant is the only other person from Newfoundland in my class).

From the bar, a handful of us moved to a party on St. Laurent. Shortly after arriving at the party we ended up meeting the celebrant's former roommate, who, if my memory serves me correctly, is a friend of the host's, though I am not too sure about the connection.

After a brief, but pleasant stay at the party, we again were on the move, this time to a bar further North on St. Laurent.

The reason for visiting the bar was a party that they were hosting, which was called "Revenge of the Librarians." Though it was likely that my friends would be the only library community related individuals present, I did feel an intense desire to put on a cardigan and see what was going on. I should also note that it was a fundraiser for a feminist/gender neutrality cause (meaning that I knew that I would be one of the few males before I even entered the bar).

Upon entering the bar it was clear that the librarian stereotype is pretty easy to hit pretty accurately. There were plenty of cardigans and pairs of glasses (though I don't know if they were wearing comfortable shoes).

As the bar had only one bathroom playing the line was particularly important. As I have taken a management class and am familiar with the ins and out of strategic planning I hopped in the line shortly after buying my drink as I was sure to need to use the bath room my the time that I reached the front of the line.

One of the best aspects of the bathroom line was being between two or more people twenty minutes. I had some really fun conversations with my fellow patrons. It is likely that I wouldn't have really talked to anyone but my friends had it not be for the need to wait twenty minutes to use the can.

Eventually things started to slow down and people started to clear out. Soon enough a few of us were just about the last people there.

For some reason, we ended up visiting a local 24 hour bagel bakery shortly after departing. Somehow I ended up eating four of the six bagels, though I wasn't even the one with a particular inclination to get them.

Soon enough, after scrapping together bus fare, I was able to hope a south-bound Parc bus with Kyla. Upon making it back to the Ghetto we each headed home, drawing to a close my weekend of socializing.

A Few Quick Notes 165

-Today is like the past few days in that it is pretty beautiful. The temperature is a few degrees below zero, with a crisp bone chilling breeze. Skies are clear and the sun is shining. This is a significant improvement upon the somewhat overcast skies and precipitation of a few days ago.

-It seems that I am about 10/49 for this year's Roll Up the Rim Contest. I seem to now be immersed in a solid two time a day habit.

-Today is Easter, but one would have a hard time telling from the appearance of our apartment. Much to my chagrin, the Easter bunny seems to have skipped our place. Also, some seeds that I planted yesterday have yet to sprout and give the sense of re-birth, or birth.

Anyway, things will certainly pick up on the Easter front later today when I slap my baby turkey (A.K.A. a chicken) in the oven and prepare a bit of a solo feast. I presume that my chicken will be accompanied by some vegetables (frozen green beans) and mashed potatoes, and maybe some carrots as I have a bunch kicking around.

-Shortly after waking this morning I decided that I needed to head out and hit the last day of the butter sale at one of my local grocery stores. While on my way there, I stopped at another store and picked up some celery.

While waiting in line to pay for my celery I noticed that one of the professors from my school as behind me. This is somewhat funny as the last time I was in this store buying only one item she was in line with me. In previous year and a half of frequenting this store I have not seen her there once, nor have I every made such specific purchases. I guess I will have to see if the trend continues (though I am running out of time).

Once I finally made it to the final destination grocery store I was able to find the butter and also some margarine (of the soft, easy to spread variety). After picking up my main selections I decided to browse the herbal tea section. While kneeling down I saw some cheaply printed white bags that reminded me of candy surprise bags of my childhood. After further inspection I learned that they were actually host cuttings, the sections of dough from which communion hosts are cut.

As it is Easter, and these of religious in nature, I thought I would splurge and spend the $2.49 for the 115 gram bag.

-This morning Nithum was noting that Montifax was a little out of date, which is certainly true. Sorry to all of you who have noticed this and not received your regular dose of Montifax during the last couple days.

-On a related note, there should also be a Purim Party/Good Friday rundown later today or this evening.

A Few Quick Notes 164

-Today was a beautiful day, the first in a while. The weather was quite warm, certainly warmer than reported by Environment Canada, and the sun was out, making it a nice day for walking and being outdoors. As the night progresses, the temperature has begun to drop, a somewhat common trend.

-With two more loses today I am now 8/38 with this year's Roll Up the Rim contest. My attempts to pick up my game have clearly failed. Maybe if I try hard I will be able to improve tomorrow.

-As my milk was about to go I decided to bake some bread today. This seemed to go relatively well. As I was doing laundry at the same time I didn't really waste too much time.

-My laundry washing was also quite productive. Though I am beginning to become somewhat frustrated that each time I wash my duvet cover items seem to migrate inside, and then don't dry properly.

-As term will be ending in a few weeks I need to start thinking about moving. Unfortunately, it seems that this is going to be a somewhat unpleasant process, particularly as I will likely be forced to leave things in Montreal and then re-buy equivalents where ever I end up next year. I guess it really isn't worth moving crap half-way across the country though.

-For some reason my library use seems to be way up this term. Particularly my checking out of monographs seems to be way up. I would guess that I have checked out more books this term alone than in the three previous terms combined.

-It seems that Sunday is now my big podcast day. Both Jordan, Jesse, Go! and This American Life Tend to release new episodes at around the same time on Sunday evening. The downside is that most new podcast content is consumed withing about a four hour period. Maybe I will try subscribing to a few additional podcasts to fill the void.

A Few Quick Notes 163

-Though I haven't really been outside all that much today, it doesn't seem as though it has been a particularly cold or aggressive day. Unfortunately, the skies again overcast, continuing the trend.

-I think that I must now be 8/36 for this year's Roll Up the Rim to Win contest. I will need to pick up my game if I want to keep well ahead of the standard 9 to 1 win ratio.

-The Globe and Mail seems to have about two levels of Sudokus, the easy ones and the hard ones. Instead of switching these levels up from day to day, they seem to only change difficulty levels once every month or so.

This means that for about a month I think that I am doing quite well, so well that there isn't really much point in me continuing to try to complete these puzzles as they seem to complete themselves. Just as I start to think this, they change and I am not able to complete any.

After about a month of not being able to complete any of the puzzles I start to wonder why I am even trying as no matter how hard I try I don't make any substantial progress. Just as I start to think this they get easier, causing me to think that I have improved, and I continue to attempt them, and the cycle keeps on going.

-I really meant to bake some bread today, maybe that will have to happen tomorrow. If it doesn't happen in the next day or two I will have to toss my milk and start again.

Mary, Montifax's New Audio Correspondent

A few days ago I mentioned to my friend Mary that Montifax now had the ability to take calls, as well as the ability to post such calls. Upon tell her this I encouraged her to call and act as our correspondent, an idea to which she seemed receptive.

The following message is her first piece audio commentary.




[Embedded Audio]

In response to the message, I will say that I purposely tend to omit names as I am not always sure to what extent people want a presence on the web. In particular, I know that there are many people who wouldn't really mind a somewhat anonymized version of their story being told, but might not want their name associated with my take on the story over which they had no control (except to post a rebuttal in the comment section). Once I know that someone doesn't mind having their name used I am more than willing to use it as it typically makes the recounting of a pertinent tale a fair degree easier.

So this comment is relevant to all of you whose names I don't use. It is not meant to be a slight, but a way of preserving a degree of privacy.

Message to Montifax

A few minutes ago I returned from work to find that I had received a call, and a corresponding voicemail from the New York area. Presumably, though I can't be sure, the person has called in to tell me how much they appreciate Montifax and that it is a very satisfying blog experience.

Hope this message brings you as much joy as it brought me.

[Embedded Audio]

A Few Quick Notes 162

-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.

A Few Quick Notes 161

-Today was another pretty nice day in Montreal. We didn’t really have much of anything in terms of abnormal weather conditions, I mean, it wasn’t even all that cold today.

-Seems that I am now 6/27 with Roll Up the Rim so far this year. During class this afternoon, one of my classmates was convinced that I was about to win one of the boats. Both of us are dreading such an occurrence as we would have no particularly good way of dealing with such a prize at the moment. The joke is that if we win a boat we will have to have to store it at our parents’ houses.

-A few days ago a few co-workers and I were talking about the unpleasant experience that is drinking spruce beer. If I recall correctly, the general consensus, or maybe just what I thought, was that this stuff should be avoided at all costs.

As I was walking down the beer/pop aisle at the grocery store a few days ago I noticed that the store brand made a spruce beer. Assuming that they would have cut come of the spruce flavour and added some sugar, I decided to give it a try, for old times sake.

After letting it chill in my fridge for a few days, I eventually got around to trying it. Shortly after pouring myself a fair sized glass I tried it, only to find that it tasted pretty much like tree. The 40 grams of sugar per 355 ml seemed to have done nothing to make it sweet and tasty. I very quickly reached the conclusion that I wouldn’t be having any more.

When Nithum returned a few days ago I mentioned that he was welcome to have as much of the spruce beer as he wanted, and that whatever he didn’t drink we could just throw away. After his first taste he thought we could keep it around for a while, he would give it a chance.

Later that same evening I went into the kitchen and found that the spruce beer had been removed from the fridge and placed on the counter. It seems that Nithum’s infatuation hadn’t lasted even a full evening. Sometime in the next couple of weeks one of us will get around to throwing the rest away, though we don’t’ want to rush it as who knows who may want to try some.

-I should be working on assignments right now, particularly my presentation on the development of support for intellectual freedom in the American library community. I have plenty to do on that front, far more than I like to admit to myself.

A Few Quick Notes 160

-Today has been a beautiful day. The temperature has also been quite reasonable today, not like some of the frigid days of this winter. Unfortunately, some of the streets are still filled with snow from Saturday’s storm. This makes walking around town a little more difficult than normal.

-If my count is correct, I am now 6/25 on my Roll Up the Rim coffee cups. So far I have won one donut and a number of coffees. The general consensus among my fellow classmates seems to be that winning a boat would just be a pain in the ass, particularly as most of us don’t have anywhere to store such an item, or a car with which to move it.

-The aforementioned storm caused most of the schools in Montreal to be closed today. Apparently, they had to do some work on snow removal before they were willing to send kids outdoors.

While I think that this was probably overkill, this isn’t as bad as the fact that CBC is reporting that the extreme number of school closures this year (3) is making it difficult for teachers to fit in the year’s required content. At the moment, at least this is what is being reported, the schools will likely re-schedule in-service days rather than add days to the end of the school year.

I can’t believe that this is an issue (though I know that it is in many jurisdictions), as we all know that elementary school isn’t so much about learning a list of things, but about socialization and day-care. Missing 3 days, or even several weeks, really isn’t that big a deal at the elementary school level, one has years to make it up, and likely will without problem. I know that missing the last six weeks of grade six because of a teachers strike has not been a problem for me (though it may explain why I still can’t do long division).

-Last night I was doing some reading about library education and thought that it was somewhat disappointing that many of the complaints people had about such education many years ago are largely the same complaints that my classmates have today. I guess people like me are at least partly to blame, we see these problems and then proceed to do absolutely nothing about them (except complain privately).

-A few weeks ago I tried to make some falafel from scratch. While the final product was edible, it certainly was nothing that I would want on a regular basis. This did get me thinking about home-prepared falafel options though.

A few days ago, while shopping in Lobos, I saw a falafel mix for $1.20. Not only was this about the same amount of money that I would pay for the raw ingredients, but it was also in a format that would give me some sense of what the pre-cooked product should be. At the moment I am in the midst of letting it stand, which is to be done before the cooking process is to take place, but after the mixing process has occurred.

My current concern is that the resulting mixture will not be thick enough to form patties, as directed on the box. I may have to add some flour, or other thickening agent, to achieve the desired consistency (though this would then screw up my chance at figuring our the desired consistency based on the pre-made mix).

-As some of you, our vast readership, may have noticed, we now have new buttons at the top of the right side bar of the blog. These buttons, when pushed, allow you to contact us (we each have our own buttons). At least in my case, this button will direct you to a voicemail service. We should be able to post particularly good voicemail messages to the blog for others to hear.

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

Call Cameron

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.

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.)

Apartment Update 4

-Almost everyday it seems that I am discovering new portions of our parquet floor that are no longer attached to the sub-floor. This trend is somewhat frustrating as it seems to be leading to the furthering of the problem. I feel that at some point, maybe even before we leave, most of the wooden slats will actually just be resting on the sub-floor, only kept in place by the presence of the other pieces and the force exerted by gravity.

-Over the past few weeks Nithum and I have had several periods of time during which we didn’t have water. It seems that as time is progressing these periods of waterlessness are increasing in frequency, as well as in vagueness of definition.

The instance of waterlessness several days ago included a relatively concise time frame during which we could expect to find ourselves without water. The outage scheduled for tomorrow includes no such details, and simply states that we should expect to be without water for the day. I really wish they had included a start time as it would have given me an indication of when to get up to ensure that I would have time for a shower before the outage.

Hopefully I remember to fill our Brita and a soup pot tonight.

-It seems that we may finally have to start paying for electricity, though who knows when we might actually get our first bill.

-During the frequent temperature fluctuations that we have experienced this winter it has become painfully obvious that our building is heated centrally and that the quantity of heating to be outputted is not dependant upon the amount actually needed. This means that on days like today when the temperature is above zero, the apartment has a tendency to be unbearably warm, leading me to go as far as to open several windows as well as our balcony door.

-Our freezer is pretty full.

A Few Quick Notes 156

-Today has been an absolutely beautiful day. Though the temperature is being reported as below zero, it certainly doesn’t feel that cold. Having the sun shining brightly hasn’t hurt things either.

-Because of the previously mentioned great weather, I decided to go for a walk shortly after I awoke this morning. Though most of my walk was indoors, as I went to the Staples by walking through connected shopping centers, it was nonetheless quite pleasant.

While at Staples I decided to try and buy some envelopes to go with the ream of paper that I had previously decided to buy. Shortly after arriving in the envelope section I learned that I could not buy five of the envelopes, only six or more. I also learned that for an additional 97 cents, I could have 25 envelopes instead of 6. Of course I ended up buying 25 instead of six, though I really can’t quite imagine what I will be doing with more than about four of them.

-As it is a nice day today, and as I purchased some milk a few days ago, I decided to bake some bread. While all seems to be going well, I have noticed that the dough is taking longer than usual to rise to the appropriate level.

-It seems likely that for dinner tonight I will try to continue my recent tradition of success with chickpea curries. In a change of tradition, I think that I may try to do something with beef instead of chicken. Hopefully the fact that I won’t really be changing my spicing all that much won’t be all that problematic.

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.

A Few Quick Notes 155

-Today, as predicted by Environment Canada, was quite warm. As far as I can tell, there wasn't a part of the day during which a full winter coat was needed, and when the sun was out during the middle part of the day things were really quite pleasant. Since that time there has been some deterioration in the form of precipitation, but nothing major.

-As regular readers of this blog will know, for years I have had an inability it cook beans and other legumes in a personally satisfactory manner. Somewhat surprisingly, this does not mean that I have stopped trying. Actually, my culinary efforts have been quite to the contrary, bean dishes spring forth from our fertile kitchen with a surprising rapidity. The problem is that most of these dishes verge on inedibility.

Remarkably, for dinner tonight I managed to make a bean dish that was more than just edible, it was actually tasty.

For some reason I decided that I would try to make chickpea curry. To find out how to do this I slotted both words into a handy Google search box. If I recall correctly I examined only the first entry and found that I had all of the needed ingredients (why go further just to find that I wouldn't be able to make another version of the same thing).

Of course, being me, I decided that I didn't really need to follow the recipe and would rather just use it as a form of guidance.

Within a few minutes I was on my merry way, frying onions and tossing in unmeasured quantities of spices.

One early, though major, modification was to add a chicken breast. This was mainly because I had earlier in the day thawed the piece of meat and felt that it would be best to use it before it spoiled. Also, who wants to eat a meal that doesn't have at least some form of meat?

After allowing the meat, chickpeas, and spices to simmer for some period of time I added a few stalks of celery. I didn't have a particularly good reason for making this addition, but I guess I felt that I should have some fresh vegetables with my meal.

Anyway, after allowing the celery to cook with the rest of the dish for some period of time I served myself a generous portion on top of a bed of rice. Immediately I was surprised to find that it was edible. As I continued to eat I learned that it was not just edible but tasty. Maybe I will have to try this again in the future, or maybe I want to stop cooking beans/legumes on a high note.

-For some reason all of people covered by today's Globe and Mail Obituary section were quite young. If I recall correctly, the oldest individual to be profiled was 67, while one or two were in the 56-57 range. Such a range of ages is much more depressing than the typical coverage of ninety year-olds.

How can I read on after this?

In an article I was reading about William Caxton, the first person to print English language materials, the author suggested that most illiterate members of 15th century English society wouldn't have been able to read latin. As we are talking about illiterate people I think that we are on pretty safe ground with this assertion. Unfortunately, about a line later the author goes on to suggest that "the presence of latin lends authority in a way that would have discouraged pulling down Caxton's bill [poster] even among the ill-lettered."

For this to make sense we must be talking about the type of illiterates who, though they can't read, can distinguish between two different languages printed in the same (gothic) script. These individuals were then able to determine that because one of the languages present is latin that they shouldn't tear down the poster, which, had it been only in English, would have been the obvious action for most of them.

It is pretty hard to keep reading something after encountering such a train of thought.

Curling Clip

Yesterday a few of us library school types went curling. Officially, this was a McGill ACA sponsored event, though there were many more library students than archives students. As far as I could tell, everyone had a good time. Hopefully this sentiment is evidenced in this short clip.



[Embedded Video]

MPs?

Just a few moments ago I happened to see the descriptors following the names of various national politicians.

After the names of those individuals who were members of the House of Commons the letters 'MP' appeared. After the Senator's name it said 'Senator.'

In many ways this seems somewhat strange because both Senators and members of the House of Commons are members of Parliament. How is it that common usage has developed in such a way that only members of the House of Commons are referred to in this way?

Presumably this has something to do with the corresponding usage practices that have developed in the UK, though it might be interesting to know if this has always been the case. I wonder if there has been a time when Lords were known as MPs?

Surely all of you are equally as concerned with this question and will likely lose some amount of sleep in the coming days, at least on until some sort of resolution has been reached.

A Few Quick Notes 154

-While the past few days had been quite cool, today is significantly warmer. When I first went out today I was surprised to find that a full winter coat wasn’t really necessary. More recently, some wet-ish snow has started falling and melting in the above zero temperatures.

-In the past few days I have been listening to the The Sound of Young America family of podcasts. In particular, I have been listening to The Sound of Young of America and Jordan, Jesse, GO, both of which are particularly enjoyable in remarkably different ways.

-For the past few days I have also been trying to work on a grad school application. While I have been putting in hours the product doesn’t seem to be materializing. For some reason I seem to be handcuffed in terms of productivity. I wish that I could find a way past this impediment (the same holds true with other academic work).

-Yesterday about 20 library school types went curling at the Royal Montreal Curling Club. Officially, the event was held by the library school wing of the ACA (a Canadian archives organization), though more participants were from the library stream. The other thing that was noticeable was that most of the participants were library rather than archives students.

While I was one of the more experienced curlers I didn’t really manage to make all that many shots. Part of this I blame on the curling club liaison indicating that the ice was fast, something that was quite clearly not the case.

Fortunately, I was able to impress people with my yelling of ‘hurry’ and ‘hard.’ Most people don’t quite expect me to be as loud as I am.

-Last night I made some nice chicken, potato, and vegetable soup. I will likely have some of this for dinner tonight, how exciting.

A Few Quick Notes 153

-Today is another standard winter’s day in Montreal. If I recall correctly, temperatures have been below zero and we were blessed with a few flurries.

-Last night, while laying in bed reading I heard the building power down and saw lights flash off. After a brief investigation I noticed that the Hydro Quebec truck was stationed outside our apartment building, seemingly working on things. This suggested to me that we would be without power for some number of hours (as was the case last time they worked in the same way).

My main concern was how I would go about waking up the next morning as my alarm clock was plugged into a non-functional power outlet. After a few minutes I decided that I would bank on the power being back on by 8:30 AM.

I set my iPod alarm and then hooked it up to my speakers, making sure that both were also plugged in. My desire being that the power would be back and that the speakers would be powered by the time I wanted to wake up.

Fortunately, by about 5:17 AM the power came on and I was able to ensure that my normal alarm was properly set so that I would be up for class.

-Tonight I made some short bread. It came out a little differently than I expected, so I hope it is edible. One of the surprising things about most of the recipes that I came across was that they called for brown sugar when I would have expected white sugar.

-The several times that I have tried to buy beef for roasting this week have failed. It seems that the stores either don’t have, or are out of the appropriate sale cuts of beef.

A Few Quick Notes 152

-Today has been a somewhat overcast, damp day. Instead of nice forms of precipitation such as snow or hale, we received batches of rather unimpressive drizzle throughout the day. This drizzle was accompanied by temperatures just hovering slightly above zero, allowing for plenty of slush and water at each intersection.

-If I recall correctly, some snow removal was done in my part of town yesterday night, or certainly between last night and Saturday.

As I was operating under this assumption, I was somewhat surprised to hear the snow-removal procession moving my way this evening. More upsetting was that they decided to do this while I was trying to take a nap.

-Nithum and I have started the cupboard and closet emptying process that must be complete by tomorrow morning at 8:30. Though we have to stay out of the apartment for at least four hours after the treatment, they haven’t given us a precise time at which we might expect the treatment to occur, or some way of knowing when we might expect to be able to make it back into the apartment.

The particularly strange thing about the process is that they request that we don’t clean the treated surfaces for a month. This would seem to be a somewhat hazardous concept as they locations in question are where we store our food, plates, cups, and glasses. Maybe it is that the stuff they are using to keep cockroaches away isn’t all that poisonous.

-Last night I happened to notice all kinds of flashing lights at about 9:30 or 10:00 PM. Once I got up to survey the situation I learned that about four fire trucks were responding to some kind of situation at the large apartment building across the street from us. All kinds of people had exited the building and were standing on the front steps. Fortunately, after only a few minutes the investigation found nothing dangerous and the residents were given the all clear signal. What an inconvenience in the winter.

-Today I was introduced to a social tagging game that has been developed by the McCord Museum. Strangely, the goal of the project is to accumulate a wide variety of words to describe photos, yet points are given for common answers. This means that the best way to win is to supply the most obvious answers, though this may be completely contrary to what the project is hoping to collect. It seems a somewhat ill conceived concept, or that the game is promoting something contrary to the primary goal of the project.

-I guess in the very near future I might want to check out some of the preliminary Super Tuesday results.

Apartment Update 3

-It seems that on Wednesday Nithum and I will have to vacate our apartment for some number of hours to accommodate a visit by the exterminator. In the notice we received were told that this visit is pre-emptive in nature (is this the same thing as ‘shock and awe?).

While this shouldn’t be too big a deal, the major problem is that all of the cupboards in the kitchen and bathroom need to be emptied. This will presumably take some amount of time and be of some inconvenience. My initial thought is that I should reassemble some of the moving boxes that we have and quickly load them up and then place them in the living room.

We also have to clear out the floors of our closets, which shouldn’t take me too long in the context of my bedroom. In the context of the main coat closet this may not be the case, particularly as it will involve moving a large air conditioning unit, boxes, and a sleeping pad.

Actually, the worst part about it all is that it means that we need to vacate the premises by 8:30 and then remain out for a number of hours, before coming back to our torn apart dwelling.

-It seems that the number of sections of our parquet floor that are not actually attached to the floor is growing. My theory is that the lose pieced move and then knock free additional pieces, causing the problem to grow at an almost uncontrollable rate.

-I have installed my first piece of bottle-cap art in the living room. We now have a ‘flower’ coming out of the ground with the sun shining above. Pretty classy if I may say so myself.

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.

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.

Maybe About Something

Last night, while I was trying to study, I finally came with something that I could do with the flattened beer bottle caps that I have been collecting for the past number of months.

It seemed like a stop-motion film with the bottle caps was the obvious solution.

I grabbed my digital camera and tripod and started sticking the bottle caps to the wall and taking pictures between each new cap being attached to the wall.

While the final product isn’t much, it was fun to play around with. Even if for no other reason that for my own personal enjoyment, I think I may try to make more of these in the future.

Below is an embedded version of the clip.

Things I have come across in the past few days

The following are selections from texts that I have been reading in the past few days. Typically the reason that each section caught my eye should be fairly obvious.

From ‘Miami and the Siege of Chicago’ by Norman Mailer (New York: Signet: 1968):

Chicago is the great American city. New York is one of the capitals of the world and Los Angeles is a constellation of plastic, San Fransisco is a lady, Boston has become Urban Renewal, Philadelphia and Baltimore and Washington wink like dull diamonds in the smog of Eastern Megalopolis, and New Orleans is unremarkable past the French Quarter. Detroit is a one trade town, Pittsburgh has lost its golden triangle, St. Louis has become the golden arch of the corporation, and nights in Kansas City close early. The oil depletion allowance makes Houston and Dallas naught but checkerboards for this sort of game. But Chicago is a great American city. Perhaps it is the last of the great American cities (p. 85)

From the article “Broadening Concerns for Intellectual Freedom” by Everett T. Moore in ‘The Library Quarterly’ (1968: Vol. 38, No. 4: p. 309-314):

Why wave the red flag of intellectualism in the faces of some of our best friends? (p. 309)

From the article “Censorship of Books by the Library” by Margery Bedinger in Wilson Bulletin (1929: Vol. 3, No. 21: p. 621-626):

With writing whose only intent is frank salaciousness, I have nothing to say. There has never been doubt among librarians as to how it should be treated. (p. 621)

We all know what tremendous changes the automobile has made in our way of living, how it has affected home life, the relations of the sexes, economic and industrial conditions, bringing all parts of the country near together and revolutionizing farm life. In the light of this knowledge, who can day what greater changes, what more acute social problems, what differences in mental attitudes the airplane will bring about! (p. 622)

Librarians are a very homogeneous group; with negligible exceptions we come from the same sort of families, have had the same sort of (and here’s the pity) sheltered upbringing, moved in the same protected and genteel circles all our lives, and to crown all, our ranks consist overwhelmingly of one sex; very, very largely of unmarried members of that sex. (p. 623)

The sheltered, protected girl is more handicapped when she tries to cope with the world and form just, wise decisions than any other sort of normal person whatever. (p. 624)

O, my sisters, we have thought that upon us lay the heavy burden of guarding the morals of the youth, 90 per cent of whom could tell us many things, and the funniest of all, we really thought we had the wisdom and ability to do it! (p. 624)

And if, contrary to my contention, it were best to pick and choose what young people should know, I still maintain that it is presumptuous and indeed absurd for the ordinary librarian to do the picking and choosing; when we have especially trained people for the Intermediate rooms, then perhaps those people might. But if it must be done (and remember, I firmly believe it should not be done) I should far rather have a committee of child psychologists, juvenile court judges, probation officers, and trained psychiatrists pass upon the books, than leave it to the personal reaction of women, or men, not widely experienced in life and knowing little of the difficulties and attitude of youth in the changing world today. (p. 625)

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.

OMG! WTF? No power, water, or heat?

A few minutes ago Nithum asked me if I knew anything about the power, heating, and water outages that are to take place in our building tonight. He indicated that he had seen a such to such effect on the building’s main doors.

This was a bit of a shock as I had not idea such an event was in the works. The last time that I had entered the doors this had not been posted.

Upon checking the sign I saw that Nithum’s assessment was quite accurate, we are supposedly in for a complete shutdown this evening, though does appear to be a slight lack of clarity as to whether this will actually go through. As much as possible, an answer one-way or the other would be nice. This maybe, maybe not scenario is less than pleasing.

What I find particularly shocking about this is that there may be a good number of people in the building that have no idea that such a shutdown is to occur as the sign was not posted until well after 5:00 PM. Many of us likely entered the building for the evening by that time and won’t find out that something is up until they find out that everything is out for eight hours.

I guess I will just wait and see. I particularly hope that I am able to finish my reference assignment before the bewitching hour.

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.

Apartment Update 2

-Today, after taking a shower, I noticed that a section of our bathroom floor seemed to be covered in water. More surprising was that it was quite clear that this water did not come from the bathtub area, but from a seemingly non-existent source. After some investigation Nithum and I failed to locate the source. Fortunately, it seems that the water did not continue to accumulate and lead to a substantial problem.

-Various sections of our parquet floor seem to be no longer attached to the sub-floor. While this isn't typically much of a problem, it is somewhat annoying to find a section out of place.

-Our walls are still pretty bare. We haven't really put much of anything up to cover our plain white walls.

-Though I thought I had figured out a way around it, our oven still seems to bake unevenly. I now fear that I will have to put up with this inferior cooking apparatus for the duration of my residency in the apartment.

-A few nights ago, for the first time since I moved in in September, I changed a few light bulbs. As most of our fixtures seem to hold about three bulbs losing one or two isn't a bit problem, allowing me to one undertake the task every few months.

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.

A Few Quick Notes 146

-Today was another unseasonably warm day in Montreal. On my way to school I would guess it that it was approaching 10 degrees, though it has since dropped a little. On top of the warmth we have also had a fair bit of moisture and win kicking around. Moments ago the wind was strong enough to blow my building’s large recycling bins into the street.

It should also be noted that the temperatures appear to be dropping and are forecasted to dip below zero in the coming days, though this is still relatively mild considering the location and that this is supposed to be a harsh winter.

-Last night I was invited to a classmate’s for lunch today. A few of us went over for vegetarian nachos. I was quite impressed with the lentil dish that served as a substitute for ground beef. This dish has inspired me to try lentils again, though I know that I am sure to screw them up, as I seem to be unable to cook beans and legumes properly.

-Upon leaving our host’s house after lunch three of us stopped at Segal’s, a Portuguese grocery store on St. Laurent. The advantage of this store is the range of products, many of which appear to have originated from Portuguese speaking lands, as well as its commitment to low prices.

I ended up purchasing some olive oil, bacon, crackers, and a raspberry pie. Unfortunately, the pie was a bit of a dud and didn’t end up tasting all that much like raspberry. If I had to describe the pie I might say that it tasted like red flavoured goo with a stale crust, fortunately it wasn’t all that expensive.

-Segal’s also sells various salt cod products, most notably full split fillets and split heads. A few months ago, and still kicking around in the back of my head, I was thinking that it might be neat to mount of the cod items on my wall as a decoration. The idea being that in some ways this might be somewhat reminiscent of something that Mary Pratt might do.

Anyway, soon after thinking about the idea the problem of smell came up. Having a salt cod fillet on one’s wall would be a little nauseating after a while, and may frighten any guests away.

As I am lazy and running out of time in Montreal I probably won’t get around to solving this problem (which will also be more difficult as I don’t have that much space), but it seems that I might be able to coat the cod in some kind of clear spray paint or sealer. Several applications of such a product might be enough to seal the smell in and assist in the preservation of the item, as well as making it somewhat more rigid that such things tend to be in their natural form.

-By tomorrow evening I will have completed my first week of my last semester of classes at McGill.

Back to the Ghetto

As my flight was scheduled to leave at about 5:30, meaning that I wanted to be at the airport by about 4:30, I was decided to set my alarm for 3:30.

Upon waking, I checked the flight status and learned that the flight was still listed as on time. I then proceeded to make the final preparations for my departure. Fortunately everything went very smoothly, actually well ahead of schedule.

About fifteen minutes before we had originally planned to leave, my father, brother, and I headed out. Our first stop was a local fast food restaurant so that I could pick up some food to help me through the trip. Just a few minutes later, after completing my meal, we arrived at the airport.

As I had checked-in online I was able to use the short baggage drop-off line and proceed almost directly to the security area. While going through the security area I noticed that the protocols had changed since my last trip through the St. John’s airport, and even since my trip to Halifax in October. Of course none of these new changes made me feel any safer as all they did was prove the fundamental weakness of the system.

Anyway, once through security I claimed a seat near the gate area and proceeded to wait for the upcoming boarding announcements. Unfortunately, the next announcement was about delays that our flight would be experiencing because of mechanical problems. After several more similar delays they finally told us that the flight was cancelled and that our baggage would be returned to us.

After notifying us of the cancellation, which they only did about 15 minutes after the same information was posted online, they requested that we wait around the gate area so that they could inform us of re-booking arrangements.

After some number of minutes they informed us that a replacement flight was scheduled for 4:00 PM that afternoon. We were requested to head down to the baggage area and reclaim our luggage and then return to the check-in counter to hand over our baggage for the next flight.

Strangely, when I arrived at the baggage area I noticed that much of the baggage had already been unloaded and placed next to the carousel, indicating that it had never even gotten near the plane. The rest of the baggage took a surprisingly long time to appear, particularly as a fair portion of the batch had never even been loaded. In the end I think it took me about an hour to receive my one bag.

With my bag in hand, I proceeded to the check-in counter to hand over my bags and receive my new boarding pass. After about a half an hour or so I was nearing the front of the line. With only about three parties in front of me the airline announced that they would not be checking anyone else in for the make-up flight, some kind of computer delay was the stated reason. What they would be doing was giving us all breakfast and lunch vouchers, though from a different line.

The problem then was whether I should leave my position and possibly lose the chance to ask the ticket agent about the flight or hit the back of the voucher line.

Within a few minutes I noticed that the people in the voucher line were taking advantage of being able to ask agents questions more complicated and pertinent than where they could use the vouchers. I decided that it might make more sense to join that line, which I did and quickly was able to talk to an agent.

The agent gave me my vouchers and informed me that I would be able to check-in online, once the flight became available. It also seemed that the flight had been bumped back from a 4:00 PM departure to a 6:00 PM departure.

With my vouchers in hand I hopped in a cab and headed up. By about 9:30 AM, six hours after waking, I was finally back home and ready to return to sleep. Once home much of the day was spent in and out of sleep, trying to deal with the previous night significantly abbreviated sleep.

At one point I was woken by my brother to take a phone call from Air Canada who was calling to inform me that the flight had been further delayed. The flight was now scheduled for an 8:30 departure. My plans of a day in Montreal before the resumption of classes were quickly falling apart.

Before dinner I checked-in online and then returned to the airport to drop off my bag (which I only had to check because of my pocket knife). Shortly after dinner I returned to the airport for the third time and proceeded to the security line. My brother, father, and sister instructed me to look for the observation area once I had completed the security process.

Upon entering the secure area I noticed that the café was about to close. Completely forgetting about my commitment to wave to my family, with voucher in hand, I went to the café and ordered a coffee. The cashier informed suggested that as I couldn’t get change I might want to buy a few more things. As the only items available were bottles of pop I ended up with three.

With my free goods in hand I realized that needed to go and fulfill my previous commitment. As I approached and my father and brother saw my coffee they started to laugh, thinking that I had some kind of coffee addiction, not realizing that it was just an example of me taking advantage of free goods.

Within a few minutes I was back to waiting for flight announcements. As I continued to wait and the time passed the normal boarding time I began to worry about the likelihood of the rescheduled flight making it out. Eventually we were informed that there would be a delay because of a mechanical issue.
After what seemed likely a exceedingly long period of time we were allowed to board, only to find that they had still not fixed the mechanical problem and that the delay was likely to continue. The fortunate aspect, as the captain informed us, was that the problem did not relate to safety and would not cause us to remain in St. John’s. I did see a guy with a toolbox going back and forth from the back to the front of the plane.

Eventually we took off, without ever being informed whether or not the problem had ever been solved. At that point I don’t think anyone on the plane cared, we just wanted to be on our way to Montreal.

Early in the flight a relatively long announcement was made, presumably about the delay and how they would be making it up to us. Unfortunately, as I was sitting next to an engine I didn’t really hear much of it. When the started handing out $100 travel vouchers and free drinks I started to get the gist of what must have been said.

Amidst heavy fog we landed in Montreal just before 11:00. Unfortunately, I then had to wait over an hour for my bags to come from the plane. The waiting was made less pleasant by the fact that the baggage area was over-filled with people from a range of flights and hundreds of unclaimed bags. The other downside of this was that my bag was one of the last to be unloaded. By the time I left I recognized no one from the flight, many of the people having left many minutes before.

I quickly then found a taxi and started the final leg of my trip. The taxi ride was relatively uneventful, except at the very end when there seemed to be some confusion about which way certain streets ran.

The only remaining obstacle was gaining access to my apartment. Contrary to what had been promised me earlier in the day by the superintendent, my apartment had not been unlocked for me when I returned. I had to wake up the concierge at about 12:30 and get him to let me in, an experience that I am sure he would have quite pleased to skip.

By the time I made it to sleep last night it was well over 24 hours after I originally awoke for my early morning flight. Hopefully I won’t have too many such experiences in the future, particularly with relatively short direct flights.

A Few Quick Notes 145

-Today, like the past few days, is a pretty beautiful Newfoundland winter day. Snow, with the assistance of wind, seems to be falling horizontally in multiple directions. According the Environment Canada this mess will become even messier in the afternoon as the freezing rain replaces the snow. I guess there is nothing quite like a good blackout to help a family bond.

-A few weeks ago, for some reason still unknown to me, I decided to read a few Douglas Coupland books. As I had never read anything by him or even really knew what to expect I decided that the best route to take would be to borrow books from the library. As I was using an academic library only hours before my flight home for the holidays I didn't have time to be picky or research my choices. In the end I decided to borrow "The Gum Thief" and "Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture."

After quickly reading "The Gum Thief" I started "Generation X," and then largely ignored during the Christmas onslaught. Though in my continued reading today I have noticed that his description/content seems not all that different than what might be written about the same age group today.

-For no particular reason I decided to bake a few loaves of bread on New Year's eve. I eventually ended up with nine regular sized loaves and three mini-loaves. Within about an hour of the commencement of the baking process the three mini-loaves had been devoured and a fair-sized dent made in one of the full sized loaves. Shortly there after one of the loaves was given to a neighbour who came to borrow a Foosball ball (and eventually ended up borrowing a book also).

Later that night I brought two loaves as a belated Christmas gift to a friend hosting a New Year's eve party (one of which was eaten as three of us spent the first hours of the new year talking). Last night a fourth loaf was given to a family by my sister. Between these giftings of loaves my family continued to chow down on the available loaves.

I guess all of this is to say that though it is less than 48 hours after I baked over eight loaves of bread we now only have one full loaf left. Maybe I will have to make another batch before I depart.