| Dear people who honk at me as I'm trying to bike-commute, |
[Wednesday 7 October, 2009 19h49] |
Just because your extra-wide wheel wells (and so far, you have all been in big pickup trucks) make your vehicle feel too fat to pass me safely doesn't mean I'm not entitled to ride my vehicle to and from work on the road. If you think I can ride further to the right, you haven't seen the mix of grates, holes and random construction garbage on the right on the bridges, or a cyclist smack into a car door in town. It seems like the arrival of October has made y'all more sensitive (maybe you think people should only bike in t-shirt weather, and are surprised we're still out here?), but I'm planning on cycling until there's ice or thick snow on the road. It's not like we won't meet again at the next red light anyway.
Thank you for not running me over,
Me. |
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| Thoughts on the healthcare "debate" in the US |
[Wednesday 19 August, 2009 21h16] |
Barney Frank paraphrases Godwin's Law with panache.
Barney Frank is my new favourite American politician; I checked his Wikipedia page to make sure he wasn't having an isolated moment of clarity, and I'd be happy to have him as my MP: he seems like a socially progressive civil-liberties hard-liner who has come up with more good one-liners than his most recent one, and who seems able to work with Republicans (when they're not completely insane) on projects that line up with his values. His voice and attitude remind me a little of Jean Chrétien. |
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| Miscellany including zucchinis, pagans and a meme |
[Thursday 6 August, 2009 14h13] |
I'm writing from the couch with Pixel the Relatively New Cat lying on my legs. She's kind of the Ernie to Noisette's Bert: sociable, talkative, stripey and drives Noisette a little crazy. They're getting along a bit better than they did at first, though.
I'm in my second week of a two-week vacation: Elizabeth's music school shuts down for two weeks in the summer, and my projects are all long-term enough that two weeks in the summer without me won't kill them, so we co-ordinated. Happily, Kaleioscope Gathering was also on, and so we hopped on our (fully-loaded with panniers and a trailer full of gear) bikes and went out to Planatagenet or thereabouts to camp under soft pines, participate in a communal camp kitchen, learn about partner yoga, thai massage, herbs, relationships, vocal techniques and esoteric stuff, hang out with fun pagans and pagan-friendly people, acquire a thumb piano, and attract most of the security on duty to our campsite — with rumours of chocolate fondue. Like ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) teinm_laida was reporting, people there for the most part have their guard down and are their genuine, enjoyably weird selves.
The garden is doing really, really well. The exciting bits lately are red Russian kale coming up where the spinach was, and a zucchini patch that wants to take over the world. Also of note are the beginnings of a blackberry patch behind the compost!
I commented with "words" over at stateofwonder's journal, and she gave me five words to riff on:
( biking • Quebec • Scrabble • Mathematics/Statistics • home cooking )
Well, it seems that this time last year is still on the first page of my Livejournal — I guess I'm a little uncommunicative on here. I hope a few more meaty updates will be in the near future, as well as the traditional good/blah table for all your point-form needs… |
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| PSAs galore |
[Saturday 11 July, 2009 9h37] |
First of all, fajitas in grocery stores.
The grocery store will try and sell you fajita kits. The spice mix packet usually says something like "salt, MSG, spices" to keep you coming back rather than making your own. The secret, my friends, is cumin. And look in the bakery section rather than the Mexican section for tortillas — they seem to be cheaper there.
Second, Firefox 3.5 for Mac OS.
This is the release of Firefox that really feels like a Mac browser. It's zippy, smooth and has all the features of Safari I care about. Also, it accepts add-ons easily. Like Fission, which brings back the nice progress bar in the address bar that Apple mysteriously scrapped. A progress bar makes pages feel like they load faster! Also, Aardvark, so you never have to print more of a Web page than you actually want to print.
Third, a message from my burlesque-singing, raunchy, funny, should-get-an-Ottawa-tour-date-dammit, cousins-in-law, the Wet Spots.
Not safe for work! If you see them live, maybe they'll do the longer, funny intro about hospital staff... |
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| Okay, Spock is hot. |
[Tuesday 26 May, 2009 22h40] |
I watched the new Star Trek movie tonight (for the first time, unlike some of the people I watched it with!), and enjoyed it. To cover the territory of most of the reaction I've seen to the film so far, Zachary Quinto as young Spock is uncanny and by far the cutest member of the cast.
The film was fun; I think the feel was as true to the old Star Trek as would've been achievable this decade. I found it felt less epic than I was expecting, though. It felt more like an action film than I remember the others being. The updated look of everything was very nice, even if it was obscured by shaking and violent lighting a lot of the time. There were lots of fun and/or funny nods to previous incarnations of Star Trek, and things flowed along at a brisk and generally exciting pace.
( spoiler, politics, cut. ) |
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| cheerful summer-y post |
[Saturday 23 May, 2009 22h17] |
I'm enjoying work lately, working on one of those projects that's fairly fast-paced and has lots of finnciky, almost craftsmanlike aspects to it. The people are really nice, too.
Today, Elizabeth and I went to the Great Glebe Garage Sale with a couple of our friends from up here and their 3-month old baby. Babies make almost everyone around you happy, and hanging out with recently-parentfied friends is a little hard to arrange but so nice.
I made off with a stack of books and CDs, as well as a shirt and a grater (one of those nice four-sided ones with different surfaces on each side), for around $20. The baked goods tables scattered around the neighbourhood were tasty, too. It was a little disconcerting to see so many people attempting to navigate the sale by car — but the other 90% seemed to be on foot!
Next weekend is Elizabeth's and my first anniversary. It's been an eventful and generally happy year. We'll probably go up to Wakefield to celebrate, and eat at someplace we enjoyed last year as newlyweds... |
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| update crumbs |
[Wednesday 13 May, 2009 22h41] |
Lately, we've been digging up the garden; the latest news is that tiny little beginnings of lettuce are coming up.
Last month, I sang Handel's Messiah in front of lots of people.
I almost changed positions at work, but decided to stay where I am for a while longer. The destination position was really cool and they seemed interested, though, so maybe later in my career they'll have another opening. I'm enjoying my current project enough (and needing to concentrate enough) to stay late some days.
I've been bicycling to work for a few weeks; today was the first time there was real congestion on the trail in the morning. It must be spring!
Elizabeth and I went to a highly entertaining wine tasting party on Saturday. We should do that again (and will)!
Our new favourite board game is Carcassonne… it helps that it's a very pretty game, plays fairly quickly (under one CD) and we're roughly evenly matched (I got thumped tonight). |
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| In the mountains |
[Wednesday 18 March, 2009 10h36] |
I'm writing on the night of St. Patrick's Day, on the train in the dark. We're sleeping in seats for this leg of the trip, right behind a family with a young child who's uninterested in sleeping just now.
The vibes in sleeper class and coach are quite different; our travelling mates in sleeper seemed like fellow summer campers — lots of interaction, kicking around the club car and talking, and stuff in common — VIA employees on retirement or vacation and teachers were way overrepresented back there, and our companions were on average gayer and greyer than the general population. Up here in the front, people seem to tend to have their own built-in groups: families and travelling companions, including the group of barely-eighteen Swiss kids who, on boarding in Edmonton, proceeded to jam barely-eighteen porn magazines in the window shades somehow, which the staff and older passengers studiously looked away from until one of the crew encouraged the youths to take their porn down from public display.
Sleeper class food is excellent and plentiful. I think K. at work warned me that we might put on weight on a trip like this one, and she may be right.
The views out the windows have been very pretty — most of the time the weather out here has been clear and bright (and not too bitterly cold when we've gotten out of the train to stretch our legs). Most of our time in Saskatchewan's famed flatness was in the dark, but we did see those rocking oil pumps in fields in Alberta, and a lot of countryside that looks kind of like Ormstown, with a different mix of trees — or not. Today, however, was my first time ever in the presence of mountains with pointy tops capped in snow, as opposed to the rounded, smaller mountains we have back home.
Tomorrow (most likely today by the time I touch the Internet and post this), we're going to spend our first significant amount of time on solid ground in Vancouver, but then get back on a wobbly surface for the ferry trip to Victoria and aeon_of_maat. |
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| Journey and politics |
[Saturday 14 March, 2009 19h57] |
I'm writing from Toronto, waiting for Elizabeth to catch up with me in the lounge they let us sleeper-class passengers use. I hope her audition for the Folk Festival went well... because now it's basically vacation time!
...aside from the little bit of contract programming for an old client of mine that I picked up and procrastinated on a bit. But I think the really important parts are done, and the files are sent off. I hope any little fixes will feel like recreational programming.
I can't quite believe we're actually doing this Crazy Cross-Country Rail Trip — it came up fast, but it should be fun. We'll have somewhat intermittent Internet once we get beyond Windsor later tonight, but I'll try to record the bits of our journey in blog posts and pictures, and fire them off when we have a signal. We leave Toronto at 10, so we'll grab some good food (I hope) near Union Station.
Good blog post on protectionist sentiment, the economy, gambling ads and appearing concerned:
http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/ephemera/too-many-symbols.php
Also, I'm a bit disappointed in our Liberal senators, who earlier this week seemed ready to strip un-stimulus stuff (bashing public service unions, removing women's right to go to court for pay equity) out of the budget and pass the actual spending stuff, only to be pressured, it seems, by the MPs to hold their noses and pass the whole omnibus shebang. It's back to the last Parliament, where the Cons are evil and the Libs have no backbone — same strategy, too: the Cons do something all-or-nothing with a few reasonable elements (stimulus package, not having another election), the Libs object briefly, the Cons accuse them of obstructing the few nice things in their package, conveniently ignoring the ideological payload, and the Libs fall over themselves trying not to look obstructionist, whether it's sitting out votes or pushing senators to skip the due dilligence. I think it actually kind of tied in with Matthew Skala's article above, it's all about perception and symbols and not much about what a measure actually does. |
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| Twenty-five things |
[Saturday 7 February, 2009 16h11] |
If you feel like it, consider yourself tagged; if not, don't!
1. I have lived in Quebec for all my life except for four months in Ottawa.
2. I have had over two dozen roommates over the years.
3. My great-grandmother was a radio personality, cookbook author and newspaper columnist who advised young wives to save their potato water for starching shirts.
4. The worm bin I started has now travelled with us through four different addresses, and the worms are still alive.
5. There are seven keys on my keychain, not counting my USB key and a RFID thingie for Communauto.( twenty more... ) |
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| Year in Review |
[Sunday 28 December, 2008 17h39] |
It seems I've been doing these since 2003!
1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Got married, bought a house, got a driver's license, went to Peterborough, went on tour
( yep, these questions again! ) |
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| (no subject) |
[Sunday 23 November, 2008 11h15] |
At breakfast in a hunting-lodgelike restaurant in Peterborough, the kids at the next table over dropped some silly putty on the floor. Fortunately, it got kicked out of the way rather than ground into the carpet, but it prompted a deep question for us:
Poll #1302647 Amusements without batteries, from a breakfast conversation
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 17Which is more fun? |
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| Wanderings, recycled art and food |
[Sunday 9 November, 2008 16h53] |
Went to the craft fair in Wakefield with Elizabeth today... it was really crowded and chaotic in there, but we did find some promising-looking jams and jelly, and looking around was kind of neat. I ran into one of our client-division people from work, selling her wares, too.
We then wandered into town, chatted up some friendly shopkeepers, and started on a bit of Christmas shopping. Wakefielders seem to be almost universally friendly.
Upon returning home, I made some celery root salad while Elizabeth washed the dishes.
Last night we made some recycled ornaments from aluminum cans. Embossing them with ball-point pens gives a really nice effect.
A week from tomorrow, I'll be in Peterborough doing a survey. Two weeks from yesterday, Elizabeth will be performing at The Spill in Peterborough, at 3 p.m., and two weeks from today, she'll be doing her thing at Tranzac in Toronto, at 7 p.m. If you're in the area, be there or be square! |
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| It's November and I'm posting again; here are some update segments. |
[Wednesday 5 November, 2008 23h42] |
Some of what's happened in the past two months and happening this month:
We sealed the deal on the piano. It is in the living room.
I am developing my survey skills for six weeks and liking it.
I will be in Peterborough and T.O. in a couple weeks.
I've had nice meals with a few people for the first time (each), parties too.
I keep getting more and more units with each RRSP purchase.
I've started DMing a 3.5 gaming group in our front room.
Two Thanksgivings were really tasty and laid back; lots to be thankful for.
Some shows, some driving, some friends left for way out west, and a wedding. |
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| Long weekend |
[Tuesday 2 September, 2008 22h01] |
We had a long weekend!
Thursday to Saturday we had some guests in from Waterloo — a colleague of mine from Concordia and his wife. Catching up was fun, and eating well was fun, too: they took us out to Haveli in the market, which was excellent, and we cooked up a couple of breakfasts and an egg-free vegetarian supper (it turns out that Indian vegetarians tend to shy away from eggs but not dairy products — although the danish blue cheese had them shying away for un-philosophical reasons).
We got supplies for a few improvements around the property on Saturday and used them on Monday: our back stairs are now much less disconcertingly springy, and we have an outdoor compost bin set up with a bunch of yard waste already in there.
Sunday, Elizabeth and I went to see the 1930s exhibit and a bit of the permanent collection at the National Gallery. It's only around one more weekend if you haven't seen it; it was worth a look — disconcerting at times, but it seemed intent on showing the variety of competing viewpoints and currents, and on connecting the art to the history. It was a bit more crowded than I would've liked in there, though. There were some really engaging portraits in the show, both photographic and painted. In the permanent collection, I was thoroughly happy to see Rapide et Dangereux by BGL, after seeing a piece under the stairs to the modern collection by them that was sort of like a sculpture of a storeroom.
The low point of the weekend was wonking my shoulder on Sunday before heading out to the museum — I thought I was done with that!
Now, it's back to work for a short week, and possibly a real piano in the near future... |
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| meme bis |
[Monday 7 July, 2008 22h56] |
I got gregorama to review my interests list and pick out the seven most interesting ones (to him). Here are the explanations-of-sorts:
- boop
- … is something I picked up from denkizero, I guess mostly a greeting/handshake thing sort of like coucou, which I also find fun.
- fnord
- it's a marker of the conspiracy
- generative design
- I worked on a project dubbed Generative Design for several years in university — it was about shape grammars, symmetry and cataloguing traditional pattern. I think it's sort of dormant now, but it was good fun and was the backbone of my M.Sc. thesis.
- sibboleths
- A shibboleth is a code-word which is unpronounceable or unknown to the out-group: "sibboleth" is how the out-group pronounces it. I got the out-group note here (in the footnotes), and have been sort of piqued by political shibboleths, left and right, of late.
- useful trivia
- Better than useless trivia! I'm pretty full of the useless stuff, and sometimes it does turn out to be useful, or at least pertinent.
- whimsy
- I like running with the joke (and remaining smiling).
- verbosity
- I read a fair number of blogs, and some of my good friends are academics.
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| interests meme |
[Friday 4 July, 2008 21h18] |
raccoonbonapart chose these interests as interesting:
- formative chess breakdowns
- Everyone I know with this interest got wrapped up in a game of chess one time as a youth, their game collapsed, they couldn't take it, and they cried when it was over.
- go-betweens
- Being a bit interdisciplinary, I'm kind of interested in translators, guides, interpreters and folks who have to read specs written by folks who may or may not have a clue.
- honey glazed babies
- The name of a zine with two issues (making it longer-running than 40% of all zines or something) by my wife rottenfruit and one of her high-school friends and accomplices, silverspar. Also a neat mental image.
- vermicomposting
- We have a bin with worms in our kitchen that turns vegetable waste, eggshells and shredded confidential documents into compost. I think that's really cool and take some interest in how my invertebrate minions are doing.
- masculinity
- I'm a man, sometimes the baggage of that sits well with me, sometimes it doesn't. I'm quite interested in what good bits of traditional masculinity are keepers and which ones should be fed to the worms.
- the decline of civilization
- In all of recorded history, some people have been convinced that civilization was falling apart (whatever that meant to them). I have a tag where I grouse once in a while about people in positions of power or esteem whose social leverage seems to me to be in use tipping us over the brink into spiralling stupidity and/or rewarding people for doing bad things.
- standards
- I'm interested in the negotiated or dictated standards of interoperability, whether they're Web standards, grammar, laws or jargon. I feel they're pretty central to any useful idea of civilization, and as such, good ones are very good and bad ones lead to the previous interest!
Contagious part: If you want me to pick seven of your interests for you to explain, leave a comment and let me know. |
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| Husbandry |
[Saturday 7 June, 2008 8h52] |
Who knows just how well this translates into modern terms:
Due to the advent of modern role flexibility, I bring you this, too:
It seems a lot pickier. I bet I lost points for walking around the house in sock feet. |
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| Wedding photos |
[Wednesday 4 June, 2008 22h34] |
On Saturday, Elizabeth and I got married out in Ormstown, and celebrated with a bunch of family and friends.
Elizabeth has already posted some of her thoughts here, I'll add a few things for now, starting with pictures.
( photos )
The ceremony was intimate and intense: Elizabeth and I both were on the verge of tears while we made our vows. We'd both known Ellie Hummel before we asked her to officiate, and it showed in how she did things. We'd planned on getting married outside under the apple tree, but it was threatening to rain, so we packed everyone into the basement of André's farmhouse, which felt like a tiny church, crypt or castle, with stone walls and metal and painted decorations. It was pretty hot, and very crowded, but it felt right. We did burst out to the yard with the tree for a toast and pictures afterward.
Later on, Owen had picked out a poem involving love and Scrabble for us at the cake-cutting, which was quite appropriate. I'll try and get the author and title. The folks at StatCan Scrabble Club will be impressed.
The day as a whole went really, really fast, and sort of unfolded before us due to all the help and merriness from everyone. |
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| Daily Living in Hull |
[Tuesday 8 April, 2008 20h27] |
Today I saw a pick-up truck with a rear spoiler almost as high as the cab.
I also ate some poutine at La Pataterie Hulloise. When I told my supervisor Elizabeth and I were going to look at houses in Wrightville, he exclaimed that it meant we would be close to there. The fries were excellent, but the gravy wasn't really my thing, being a little too like hot turkey sandwich gravy and not nearly blisteringly salty enough — they also have a secret vegetarian menu and fry their fries in vegetable oil, for any vegetarian Hullians out there (of which there may have been, as a pretty bohemian-looking car-load in a rusty little Honda came by for take-out, seemed to realize they'd forgotten one of their number, went away, came back and got their brown paper bags of casse-croûte goodness).
We also found some kitty litter made out of corn cobs at Maxi — Noisette has been using wheat-based stuff but it seems like a good idea to leave the wheat for folks to eat now (and the wheat stuff is hard to come by). |
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not really that grumpy
amused
awake
geeky
sleepy
bouncy
2 (11.8%)
sick
