Scott Carrier MP3s on HearingVoices.com

Last night, while looking for something to listen to I remembered that Hearing Voices occasionally has some good Scott Carrier material. When I arrived at the site my recollection was confirmed and I learned that they also provide MP3s of some of his stuff. Unfortunately, some of the longer pieces originally broadcast on This American Life are only available on as part of that show and not individually. Anyway, at least I now have a little more Scott Carrier than before, though I still don’t have the classic “Running After Antelope.”

A Few Quick Notes 134

-The snow has continued to fall in Montreal, so much so that we now have a layer of a few centimeters, or just enough slush to get your feet nice and wet. As far as I know this is supposed to continue tomorrow. I have no idea what type of weather we are to receive on the weekend.

-A few days ago, while looking at the This American Life website, I came across the podcast The Sound of Young America. Ira suggested that it was one of his favourite podcasts and as I like Ira’s show I thought that I would give it a chance. So far I have not been all that impressed with the several episodes that I have downloaded. I guess the straight interview format is not really working for me, though it is possible that I need to give another chance. Though it isn’t really all that surprising that prepared content is of a higher quality that that is recorded off the cuff.

-Thomson House will be having its first Mustache and Cleavage Party next Thursday. Though I will be attending an Oliver Sacks reading at about 7:30 I do hope to stop by afterwards. While it is unlikely that I will be bearing cleavage there is a very good chance that I will be mustachioed, at least for that night.

-Several moments ago I returned from a walk. The walk was pretty short, just up St. Laurent a few blocks. While out, I was able to stop at La Veille Europe and pick up a few new boxes of herbal tea and one box of Russian tea. The three herbal teas that I purchased were rosehip, hibiscus and rosehip, and mountain berry (whatever that is – seemingly rosehip and hibiscus with some other stuff).

On the way back I stopped at a kitchen store and purchased a knife sharpener, hopefully ending my hunt for a quality knife sharpener that I can use to sharpen our knives.

-For the past number of weeks I have been eating a fair number of saltines, though I have tried to stick to the classy multi-grain variety. This type was chosen mainly because it has a little more flavour and texture. A few days ago, while motivated by cost, I purchased an eight-sleeve pack of the traditional type of saltine. Aside from lacking a variety of grains, the most noticeable difference is the amount of salt. The new guys are coated in the stuff whereas the other variety had just a light dusting. It seems that I may have to revert to the multi-grain type, even if they are a little more expensive.

-I have been doing a very good job and ensuring that I always prepare leftovers these past few weeks. My new trick is to buy bone-in chicken breasts and cut off the easy part of the breast and use it as I would a boneless piece of chicken meat. The remaining section, with the bone-in, is then boiled and seasoned to form a broth from which chicken soup can be made. Or more accurately, rice is made with the broth, vegetables, and meat.

A Few Quick Notes 133

-I woke up this morning to find that an inch or two of snow had fallen while I was sleeping. Though I probably shouldn’t have been, I was quite surprised to see this turn of events. I was beginning to think that we might miss winter. Unfortunately, the temperature wasn’t in keeping with the snowfall so the snow has basically disappeared, I guess Montreal will have to try again when it comes to snowfall.

-As of last night I finally have phone access in my room. My mother was clearly becoming quite frustrated at her inability to call me. Fortunately, 24 hours in, I still have not heard the sound of the phone ringing.

-Today I cut up two pineapples that I bought a few days ago.

-Yesterday night I went out and cut a twig from a tree and then gave it a full AACR2 certified bibliographic description. It turns out that this is pretty easy as things such as edition statement and publisher can basically be ignored.

While waiting for class this morning I measured a chair. This was then described in full when I returned home for the afternoon.

-I have far too much work to be spending my time emailing and blogging, but of course that is what is happening.

A Few Quick Notes 132

-Today is another crisp fall day. The temperature seems to be cool enough to allow snow, collected by car in other regions, to remain in frozen form. The sun is out, making it a nice day for a fall walk.

-We were hit by something big, I still don't know what, at work last night. From the time I started at 6:00 PM, until about midnight we worked non-stop. In particular, the period of 6:00 to 9:15 was particularly intense. Throughout the night I had the pleasure of bringing in about 7 kegs, three of the same beer (if that is any indicator of sales). We also had a non-stop stream of dishes. Possibly the most surprising element of the night was that we seemed to be short of just about every type of standard glass ( i.e. pint glasses, half pints, and singles glasses), the notable exception being collins glasses, of which we had a glut.

Another indicator of the business that we all experienced was that the kitchen sold out of pizza some period of time before the kitchen was to close.

-After a several week delay, I finally received my Halloween costume prize money. Though I had hoped for a few hundred dollars I ended up with $60.

-Last night a few of Nithum's friends crashed at our place. They were all in town to take standardized tests, mainly to aid entry to grad school or other post-graduate programs. While I hoped to meet them at some point today they were up and out of the apartment before I woke. I was particularly disappointed not to have met the world champion fencer that was one of the group, maybe next time.

-Though I am not an NHLer, I have decided to go with my own version of the 'playoff beard.' Since about Halloween, until now, and continuing until the 29th of November (prime assignment season) I have not been and will not be shaving.

-As much as I don't want to spend any time doing, it will need to prepare some food today. After several days of eating leftovers I am down to just about nothing in the fridge. Maybe I will be inspired on my walk home from school.

A Few Quick Notes 131

-If I recall correctly, today was a pretty nice day, at times warm and sunny. Unfortunately, it seems that I spent must of the sunlight hours either asleep or in a building facing away from windows.

-Speaking of windows, today I tried to clean the windows in our living room. Surprisingly, I went to the extent of taking them out and placing them on the floor so that I could properly clean both sides. The only problem with all of this was that our $1 window cleaner just isn’t that good. Instead of nice, clean windows, we have clean-ish windows with a white-ish film.

At least there was some improvement, as I don’t think that I could have handled looking through incredibly dirty windows all winter long.

-Today in my business information class the director of Concordia’s libraries addressed us. I guess this was on schedule, but I seem to have overlooked it, as I was somewhat surprised by his presence. Actually, I am pretty sure it was on the schedule; I just didn’t quite pay attention to his title.

-After class I made a batch of humus. Maybe in a few minutes I will get around to sampling it before I go to bed.

A Few Quick Notes 130

-Today seemed a little warmer than yesterday, though on the crisp side of things. Other than that it was pretty unexciting in terms of weather.

-For breakfast this morning I made myself some scones. It has been a while since I have done this, something that I was reminded of during a conversation on the topic a few days ago. Unfortunately, the scones didn’t have quite the right texture, though they were still quite edible.

-For the past few hours I have been preparing a batch of beef stew for dinner. In a short while I will try to peel the potatoes and add them, finishing the last major step before the product is to be served.

-Since we put the curtain up last night Nithum has been taking advantage of his added privacy, something that I don’t find surprising at all. As far as I know, the curtains haven’t actually been fully opened since they were installed.

-I have been reading a fair bit about Access to Information laws over the past few days. Not only do I have to assist in the preparation of a presentation on the topic, but I also have to write an archives related paper on the subject.

-All week Nithum and I had been looking forward to the Saturday and Sunday only 50% off bacon sale at the local grocery store. Unfortunately, by the time that I made it to the store late this morning they had sold out. In the end I just purchased some crackers, garlic, and discount flour.

A New Era of Privacy

Shortly after Nithum returned home this evening it was decided that tonight would be the night that we installed a privacy curtain in his room.

For the past two months we have had both the curtains and the curtain wire needed to complete the job. The only thing missing was the motivation, something that we both seemed to never quite find.

Not surprisingly, the job only took us about 20 minutes or so. Nithum has since been basking in his newfound privacy. Though I don’t think that I will be gaining privacy, I am looking forward to feeling more comfortable about using the bathroom in the middle of the night without walking through the heart of Nithum’s room.

A Few Quick Notes 129

-The temperature has definitely dropped. It seems that we are now at about -4, and scheduled to go as low as -6 (what a change). More surprising was that while out this afternoon I saw several iced over puddles. Why this is surprising is that according to Environment Canada we were above freezing for most of today’s sunlight hours.

-On Friday I was named replacement judge for a mustache contest held at the library school. As I did not have time to prepare my judging criteria, I decided to go with only two categories, size and style (shortly after announcing the criteria and starting the judging I realized that these were horrible criteria). Hopefully the contestants and spectators were pleased with the affair, though in retrospect I realize that I could have talked it up a bit more, made more of a show out of the whole thing. I guess in this case I will blame my lack of preparation.

-The director of libraries was not able to make her scheduled appearance at the library school on Friday. Unfortunately, there was a death in her family that required her to leave the country for some number of days. Under the circumstances her staff filled in as best as possible, though it made the question and answer session a little less heated then I expected.

-After work last night I was able to have a few drinks with some library school (and archives) types. Upon leaving Thomson House we went to Bifteck (sp?) on St. Laurent. While at the bar on St. Laurent I witnessed some of the most aggressive tip demanding that I have ever seen, though to a more limited affect than had the people at my table been completely sober. Thinking that people who had been drinking for 8.5 hours could reasonably do math in a loud bar was expecting a bit much on the waitress’s part.

-After a hiatus of a few weeks, I once again did some baking today. Though I originally planned on baking some cookies, I ended up baking two loaves of bread. Maybe while taking a break from school work tomorrow I will try to bake some cookies or some other form of dessert (though I think that chocolate chip cookies are really the most likely dish).

A Few Quick Notes 128

-Both yesterday and today Montreal has experienced flurries, though in neither case did these have any real staying power. As one might expect, for this to have happened the temperature is relatively low, though my no means unpleasant. Actually, I have not started to wear a hat or scarf yet, something that might be necessary if they temperature continues to drop.

-Tomorrow is a big day at the library school. Not only will the director of libraries be giving a talk about the future directions of McGill libraries, but this will be followed by a school wide mustache competition.

If you are wondering, there will be at least two divisions in the mustache competition, all-natural and artificial. As of yet I am not quite sure if I will enter or not, and if so in which division.

-Today, while at school, I had the opportunity to watch the documentary “The Hollywood Librarian.” Unfortunately, I wasn’t all that impressed. The film seemed to want to cover all things library and proceeded to do so in a somewhat haphazard fashion. The one element that seemed to receive little attention was how libraries and librarians are portrayed by Hollywood. I was glad that admission was free, though as one of my professors commented, it did cost an hour and a half of my time (which may have been a bit too steep a price for admission in this case).

-I had to go on a herbal tea run tonight. As it is project season I am up to about 5 or six cups a night.

-Tonight I made a batch of humus with a grinder that I borrowed from my mother. In the past I had to use a food mill and found the process to be very slow and inefficient. With the new (actually it is quite old) I was able to grind the chick peas in just two or three minutes.

Apartment Update

Nithum and I have not been in our apartment for just more than two months. Slowly, we seem to be settling in and making the place feel (a little) more like home. Though, since we moved in we have had to deal with a few unexpected issues, some of which have been resolved, some of which haven’t.

-We have not noticed any mice for a number of weeks. It seems that the traditional traps were effective at killing mice, and also at scaring them away.

-The main door has been fixed, allowing us to exit and enter the apartment with ease. In its broken state, the door frequently prevented proper use of the door. In one case, Nithum and I were actually unable to leave the apartment for some number of minutes. The best part of the arrangement is that Nithum and I now know what the problem is so that if it occurs again (which is likely) we will know how to safely exit the apartment.

-While we have been planning to install a curtain in Nithum’s room to create a hallway like area that would connect to his door to my door we have still made no serious moves in this direction. The curtains have been in the living room for almost two months and the curtain wire set has been in the closet for longer. Maybe we will get around to doing this before we move out, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we don’t (as we are not all that motivated when it comes to such things).

-After a few weeks I finally got around to buying some plants. Though they aren’t quite as fancy as they could be, my thyme and basil plants are fitting the bill quite nicely. Actually, they are looking a little ragged, but that’s ok.

A few days ago they were actually supplemented with some birdseed, the idea being that we might get some wheat and sunflowers to grow alongside the basil and thyme. So far this plan seems to be working, but none of the new plants are well enough defined for me to know what we actually have growing with the herbs. My hope is that we get a few stalks of wheat and maybe a sunflower or two.

-Our living room really shaped up quite nicely. We now have a futon, a stuffed chair, an office chair, a coffee table, and a shelving unit. All of these items are used on a regular basis. Generally, having a living room has greatly added to our quality of life. It seems that both of us use this room on a daily basis.

-Unfortunately, our kitchen faucet seems to drip a fair bit. From time to times it seems that this problem can be solved by applying a great deal of pressure to the handles, while at other times it seems like something that we just have to live with. It seems unfortunate to waste so much water every day.

-Something that we have noticed more recently, particularly with the central heating system now fully functional, is that we are experiencing a relatively loud banging/jack hammering sound coming from the radiator pipes. While this banging does not go on all day, when it is present it is quite noticeable it both of our bedrooms. What is more problematic is that both of us sleep with our heads near the radiators, and source of the sound.

-Aside form the banging sound, the heating season has also brought about unreasonably high temperatures in our apartment. For much of this fall we have had to have several windows, and occasionally the balcony door, open.

-Shortly after we moved in we found that we have only one functional phone jack. The jack is located in Nithum’s room, almost as far away as possible from my room. Several weeks ago the plan was to purchase a splitter and extension cable so that I could have phone access in my room. Though as time has passed and no progress has been made in this direction, I have come to realize that I am not all that dissatisfied with the current situation. My current phone use is at an all-time low. I would guess that I am now down to less than a phone call a week (which is great). I can only imagine that my use of the telephone would increase with direct phone access. Additionally, by not having a phone in my room my sleep is less likely to be disturbed by incoming phone calls.

-It seems that our oven does not heat all that evenly. On several occasions I have managed to find that the bottom of whatever I am cooking is burning yet the center is still raw. Unfortunately, I have ideas as to how this problem might be rectified, aside from being given an all-new appliance (something that I don’t think is going to happen).

A Few Quick Notes 127

-Today was another relatively nice fall day. It seemed warmer than yesterday, though I have not evidence to support this statement. In some was this was a little disappointing, mainly because I had hoped to wear a particular jacket but found that it was too warm for an insulated jacket.

-For the first time this academic year I went on the hunt for printer paper. Since my arrival I have not found a particular convenient location for buying this product. Actually, that is not completely true, if I wanted to be ripped off, I could go to the McGill bookstore.

As it stands I tend to make the trek to the Gare Centrale and the Staples housed within. Though this is further away than I would like, it does give me the pleasurable experience of walking underground for several blocks. Additionally, my sense is that it is actually faster to walk inside than above ground because one no longer has to cross streets and wait for traffic.

As with my last purchase, I bought to bundles of 500 sheets apiece. I was pleased to find exactly what I was looking for at the front of the store and on sale.

-Several days ago signs appeared indicating that the McGill director of libraries is to be making an appearance at the library school this Friday. This, as some of you may know, was a somewhat surprising announcement as the relations between the library and the library school appear to be less than friendly. Students are now keenly awaiting the post-talk question and answer period, hoping that they will be able to learn why certain decisions have been made over the past number of years.

-Last night, for the first time as an employee of Thomson House I had the opportunity to work at a formal function. Though I did not know it when the shift was assigned, I was to be working a 20 year high school reunion.

After we finished the set-up I was assigned the door position. For the first 3 and a half hours of the event I just sat by the front door and directed people to the reunion and told them were they would find the coatroom. On a number of occasions I also directed individuals towards the bathrooms. Generally it was a pretty easy position, and one that cut me off from the reunion proper.

At about 10:00 I finally had an opportunity to learn about what had been happening for the previous 4 hours. Apparently, on top of not having enough of the main course, beef on sticks, the cash register broke. It seems that not all of the organizers were able to deal with these problems in stride and some of them became quite upset.

My sense was that after the food situation was sorted out things started to calm down. At least I didn’t have any problems. Though in all fairness to my co-workers, I think that I missed basically all of the problems.

-Today I started to work on my paper for my archives class. It seems that I will be doing something on the relationship of access to information laws and archives, presumably governmental archives (most probably just provincial, municipal, and national), though in some cases particular collections in other collections may deserve attention.

A Few Quick Notes 126

-Today is slightly overcast, but generally pleasant. The temperature is that of a nice fall day, which is rather appropriate as we are in the heart of fall.

-It seems that Thomson House did not attach my prize from the Halloween party staff costume contest to my most recent paycheque. I had really been hoping that I would find a nice additional component with this cheque.

-Work went relatively smoothly last night, though we weren’t as timely in our departure because of a banquet that was taking place in the ballroom. Amazingly, though many kegs were on the low side none blew all night.

-Tonight I will be working my first formal function, a high school reunion dinner and dance for 100 people. As of right now I am not really sure what to expect, aside from a huge number of dishes. I had been hoping that it wouldn’t be a late night, but it being a high school reunion may mean that this is not the case.

-In preparation for today’s formal shift I had to purchase a black shirt, which we are required to wear for such events. As I have not had to purchase all that much clothing in Montreal I really had no idea where to go for such a thing. A co-worker suggested a thrift store on St. Laurent, near Mont Royal.

As I rode north on St. Laurent I was shocked to see a store with a line up of about 45 people outside it doors. After a brief inspection of the area I determined that this was in fact the store that I had been hoping to visit. Though not particularly keen on the idea of waiting in line to enter a thrift store, I eventually joined the line. As I entered the line I noticed that there was a cameraman filming the line for CBC (or the French equivalent). After a few minutes and only a slight amount of progress I decided that I could not spend 45 minutes in line without a guarantee that I would find what I needed.

My next step was to ride from my current location to Place Alexis Nihon and try to find a black shirt in one of the many stores there. It seemed that either Zellers or Winners could be stores that would have such an item, and if they didn’t there would surely be something.

As it turned out, not only did Zellers have black shirts but also they were on sale for 40% off. This means that I was able to purchase a new shirt for less than $9. Unfortunately, I then decided to check out a display in the back of the store and ended up making a $24 impulse buy (though I think it can be defended as an amazing deal).

A Few Quick Notes 125

-Over the past few days temperatures have really started to drop in Montreal. Actually, just last night, for the time of the season, I was able to see my breath. Fortunately, the rain of a few days ago has let up and we are having a stretch of pleasant fall weather.

-The Thomson House Halloween party seemed to go relatively well, though the general consensus was that it wasn’t as busy as last year (even though we sold more tickets). This was backed up by tip rates, which were certainly lower than last year.

For the evening I was assigned door duties along with Nick. Each of us was supplied with a counter and he counted each time a person came in will I counted each time a person left. At peak times we had a difference of about 400 hundred in our counts, indicating that we had about 400 partygoers.

Along with counting, Nick and I were also responsible for admitting only those with tickets. Unfortunately, it seems that some people did not know that a pre-purchased ticket was mandatory. This meant that several well-costumed individuals were turned away at the door.

It also seems that I won the competition for best staff costume. Apparently there is some prize money, but I haven’t received anything yet.

-Our apartment door was getting quite bad this morning. It was so bad that it took me about ten minutes to open it, and I was only able to open it with the assistance of a knife. After my departure Nithum was able to contact the building manager and they sent someone to fix the problem.

-Today I started working on a project for which I was hired about two weeks ago. My primary task for the time being is to locate and copy a series of reports, with the eventual goal being an analysis of their contents. For much of the three hours I spend working today I was just familiarizing myself with the previously completed work and making changes to the tables outlining which documents in the series we actually have (as it seems that there are a number that we have that were not noted).

-I have been a bit lax on the blogging front the past few days because of school work. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will do a better job at managing my time so that I don’t have such a glut of work (though to some extent this is not avoidable because I only receive assignments a limited amount of time before they are due).

Hasta Luego Halifax

My time in Halifax is now drawing near a close. Within a few hours I should be on a bus heading out to the airport for a late night flight back to Montreal and a busy weekend of busing.

Fortunately, I am trying to take advantage of these last hours in Halifax as they could be the last hours here for some time. This morning I was able to go for a stroll along Spring Garden Road and locate the general area in which I need to catch my bus to the airport. Afterwards I was able to take a nice was to and then through Point Pleasant Park. As the name suggests, the area is quite pleasant and a nice place for a leisurely stroll.

Unfortunately after the trip to the park my degree of creativity hit a low point and I returned to Neil's apartment where I continued to read a book about Richard Feynman (which also happens to be by Richard Feynman). Luckily my Halifax creativity struck again, this time as interpreted though the hinternet. Basically, I started surfing around Dalhousie and Dalhousie-related web pages and the library catalogue. The only downside was that I was not able to access the full range of library resources, even though I am using a university supplied hinternet connection. This relatively brief process helped me find some very useful information that I hope to act on in the coming days, weeks, and months.

As I have not completed my packing this is likely where my energy should be focused. Though, as usual, the siren call of the hinternet seems to be pulling towards the glories of blogging and away from filling my suitcase with dirty clothes and White Swan toilet paper.

Actually I am going to be strong and step away now.

Next stop, Montreal.

Rainy Atlanta

As a four-year-old might say, I 'raced' Cameron to Georgia. I'm now settled in at the Holiday Inn Express in Carrollton, GA. If you happen to read this, and you'll be seeing me within the next few days lookout for really bad "but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night" jokes.

I'm here to go to INTEGERS 2007, a math conference being hosted by the University of West Georgia. Tomorrow afternoon I will give a talk roughly covering half of what I did for my Masters thesis. I hope it goes well. At worst, it'll only be bad for 20 minutes.

My computer is telling me that it's 2:48 ADT, so I should probably be tired enough to get to bed.

Halifax Update

So I have been in Halifax since Saturday evening. So far things have been going relatively well. The main reason for the trip was to see Neil's convocation ceremony, an event which took place on Sunday afternoon.

Since this event things have generally been pretty relaxed. One of the more explicitly exciting events to occur was that Neil and I ended up attending a reading by Brian Mulroney at the Lord Nelson Hotel last night. This ended up happening only because we happened to walk by the book store hosting the event and see that they still had a few tickets left. The general assessment of the event was that it was much more enjoyable than either of us expected.

While I have been here I have also been able to walk around Dalhousie a little. One of the places I wanted to see was the library school, now called the School of Information Management. Once Rebecca and I found the place we were surprised to see how small it was. Also, it wasn't a very welcoming location as one had to walk through the office to access the classrooms. Not surprisingly we did not take this next step and just admired the facilities from the atrium.

Afterwards I decided to check out the library, or at least the main library. All in all I was pretty pleased, though there were a few places in the microfilm section that were on the tight side. Actually, they were so tight that a person in a wheelchair certainly couldn't access them, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few larger individuals also couldn't access them. Another element that I found a bit strange was that the Z section of the reference section seemed a bit small. Maybe they placed many of the library related materials in the stacks instead of in the reference section.

Generally Dal seems to have fewer hipsters, something that is quite nice. It seems that McGill is infested, something that I occasionally find it hard to deal with. Dal also has a nicer campus feel, even though McGill does have a pretty clearly defined campus. It also seems that the buildings are also nicer on the inside, a problem that I have frequently noticed at McGill.

Anyway, I guess I should get back to my trip.

A Few Quick Notes 124

-The temperature has been somewhat higher for the past few days. It was so hot this morning that I was sitting on the balcony reading my paper in a tee-shirt and shorts. Actually, I heard that the expected high is to be 25. Unfortunately, these high temperatures are to be accompanied by severe thunderstorms starting this afternoon.

-In cataloging class on Wednesday 10 Library of Congress schedules were presented by members of the class. I was responsible for presenting on D-DJ, general history and European history.

Prior to the presentations it had been made clear to us that we would be timed and have an absolute maximum of ten minutes. Within several minutes of the commencement of the first presentation it became very clear that we were being time, a beeping noise kept coming from a timer in front of the professor. It was clear that this beeping meant something, but exactly what was not immediately clear. My sense, and I believe that the rest of the class felt the same way, was that the beeps were bad and likely an indicator of the 10 minute mark.

While I was giving my presentation I thought that I was on pace for an 8 minute presentation, which is where I wanted to be. I heard my first beep, thinking that I had already reached 10 minutes, and sped up, covering the rest of the presentation in about a minute.

As we learned afterwards, the beeping indicated 5 minutes, meaning that I was basically on pace and could have comfortably finished all I needed to say without fear of going over time. Hopefully this new knowledge will lead to a smoother round of presentations in two weeks when we get the next batch of 10 (when I will presenting the J, or Political Science, schedule).

-Shortly after I moved to Montreal last August I bought a multi-pack of cheap knives. With a cutting board and sharpening rod the whole package came in at less than $10. Not surprisingly, these weren’t really the best knives in the world, actually they were barely passable as knives.

This year I decided that I would take a step forward and buy a good, or at least passable, knife. I ended up with a $20 Ikea knife, with which I have been generally quite pleased. When I first opened the knife I read the care instructions and learned that the knife should not be kept sharp with a stainless steel sharpener, but with a ceramic sharpener. The problem this presented is that my knife sharpener is entirely stainless steel, and therefore not suitable for the job.

While I could tell this would be a slight inconvenience, I didn’t think it would be all that bad. I would just head out and pick up a ceramic knife sharpener at the next opportunity.

As it turned out, that next opportunity was yesterday. While at a kitchen store I learned that while knife sharpeners are expensive, ceramic knife sharpeners are obscenely expensive. They wanted $54 for a ceramic knife sharpener, something that was a little outside of my spending range (though I might have been suckered in for $40).

Maybe I will see about getting something at Lee Valley while I am in Halifax. They seem to have such sharpeners for only about $23.

-The previous note would suggest that I am heading to Halifax. I will be heading out on Saturday and returning on Wednesday. The reason for the trip is to attend Neil’s convocation ceremony.

-A few days ago I was hired as a research assistant for a project at McGill. Aside from the work being more in my area of interest, I will also be able to drop my Thursday night busing shift. Though for all of my loyal fans, I will continue to bus on Friday nights.

-While heading to school yesterday I noticed a TV truck outside a local chain coffee shop. On my way back from school, I noticed more TV trucks and protestors. Though I did not know it until I approached them, they were protesting the lack of French on the chain’s signs. It is interesting to note that a brief story on the protest appeared in today’s Globe and Main.

-It appears that today McGill will be starting a very large fundraising drive. To commence the drive they have erected a massive series of tents on the playing fields in front of the McLennan library. My thought was that if a university can afford to set up a tent village for a week maybe they don’t need hundreds of millions of dollars. Or if they do need hundreds of millions of dollars maybe they shouldn’t set up a tent city (particularly when I am using library resources that are 20 years out of date).

A Few Quick Notes 123

-Today has been another overcast day, though with less rain than yesterday. The only good thing about the weather is that the temperatures have been appropriately autumnal.

-Last night I played a game of ultimate as a replacement player. Many on the team, including Nithum, were unable to make the game. Actually so few people were able to make it that we were forced to play with six rather than seven people

Strangely, for the first point, the only time the other team played seven, we were able to hold the opposing team off for several minutes more than we were able to on any of their other points.

-On Friday night a few of the library school types were at Thomson House for a while. Unfortunately it seems that general stamina has diminished since last year as almost everyone was gone by 10:00 when I punched out.

-After Thomson House I joined the few remaining individuals on their trip to a party. Though one of the ideas was to meet some of the new students, this didn’t really happen. For the most part I spent time with the people that I already knew.

-Last night was attended Ren’s birthday celebrations at the Cock’n’Bull bar/pub. It was an enjoyable evening. I was also pleased to find that the pitchers were reasonably priced.

A Few Quick Notes 122

-For the past few days we have been making up for the lack of rain we had in September. Skies have been generally overcast with intermittent rain.

-The heaters have been turned on in my building. This means that even with windows open I am uncomfortably hot. I wonder if we live in a building that heats at a uniform level all year, or if the level of heating is adjusted to outside temperatures.

-Moments ago I bought our apartment’s first plant, a basil plant. Hopefully in the coming weeks and months we can develop this trend, though I have no idea where this or any other plant might go. And as I like my plants to either bare fruit or be edible my options are more limited.

-As of a day or two ago McGill has changed there email service in such a way that no longer allows me to import my messages to my Gmail inbox. The reason is supposedly security. A more reasonable explanation might be that things were to easy before, students should need to work to access any ‘official’ communication.

-Tonight is another work night. Fortunately I should be able to punch out early and have a few drinks with the library school types, or at least those that are still there at 10:30 or so.

A Few Quick Notes 121

-Today has been another overcast and cool day. Though that does not mean it has been unpleasant. Hopefully the grey skies don’t mean that we are in for rain in the very near future.

-As many of you may know, today is the statutory Thanksgiving holiday. As some of you may also know, I generally have Mondays off. I guess what is surprising about today is that it really feels like a holiday weekend, even though it is basically the same as my typical weekend.

-While on a walk today I saw what might have been my first dog sled. The sled, without dogs, was strapped to a mini-van heading north on St. Laurent.

-If anyone has any ideas for a costume that I can wear to Thomson House for the Halloween party I would be appreciative. So far all of my ideas haven’t really been that great.

-This morning for breakfast I had something that was approaching what my uncle would call a ‘Big American Breakfast.’ Unfortunately, as I did not have a fried potato product I did not meet the qualifications. I did have scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon, making a pretty unhealthy meal.

-Much to my surprise, I was able to get down to work and finish a variety of assignment for my business and government information classes. Typically when I set such schedules for myself I fall flat on my face and accomplish next to nothing. Hopefully this means I am turning a new leaf and will be able to maintain or improve upon this standard in the future.