Sometimes the simplest solutions are right in front of you

See, studying pure math isn't as hard as people think it is. When you come up against a question you can't solve, just make up the answer.

Basically, some guy invented a number (which he calls 'nullity') to represent what happens when you divide by zero.

First, if you're going to invent a number at least give it a cool name.

Second, I'm no math genius, but I fail to see how this is beneficial. He hasn't solved anything that I can see. All he's done is given a centuries-old problem a new name.

Of course, I haven't looked at the research, so I really have no idea what I'm talking about.

But this guy has inspired me to invent my own number: Giggity!

From now on, this number represents all numbers, to an infinite level of precision. That's right, all numbers from +infinity to -infinity are represented in this single, handy, easy-to-use number. Don't know the answer to a problem? It doesn't matter anymore. Just use Giggity and you'll be fine. Since it represents all numbers, you can't be wrong!

How long will your trip to Spain take? Giggity hours.

How far is it from Moscow to Anchorage? Giggity kilometers.

6+4? Giggity.

Speed of light? Giggity m/s^2.

In a first year physics lab I managed to prove that gravity pushed things up at 14 m/s^2 (seriously). My lab instructor wouldn't believe my math, and there was no way my math could have been wrong (I got a D- for crying out loud, how could I have been wrong?). Had I used Giggity he would have had to believe me.

Giggity!

Incubus: Light Grenades

I just finished listening to the new Incubus album Light Grenades, and was thinking of giving an opinion on each track. Then I had a brainstorm that all the former Purple Raiders can relate to:

Oh veg chart, how I've missed you. :)

As for the album, I was a little underwhelmed, but that's normal for me with Incubus albums. In a month I'll be listening to it non stop.

NaNoWriMoNoGo

Okay, something tells me I'm not going to get this novel finished by the end of the day. I find I write at a pace of about 1000+ words per hour at my best, so it would take me about 37 hours of nonstop writing to actually get to 50000 words, and since there are only 8.5 hours left, I don't think that's going to work.

At least I got a good start on it though, and that's what I was hoping for most. And I'm not going to stop writing it either, I'm just going to work on it at a much more leisurely pace (read: when I feel like it). You can't force creativity, that much I know.

A few things really hampered me from getting this done:

1) Final Fantasy XII, I've spent time playing this game that I should have spent writing.

2) The 2 and a half week stretch that I spent not doing any writing at all. Had I done a reasonable amount during that time I probably could have finished.

3) I'm not willing to sacrifice quality when I write. One of the important things the NaNo people say is that you shouldn't worry if what you are writing is good, just keep writing. I simply can't do that. I do a lot of technical writing and I've trained myself to write at a reasonable level of quality at all times. If I don't like it then I'm not going to write it, and I ended up spending way more time refactoring my novel than I did actually writing new content. It may take longer, but I'll be much happier with the result.

4) I like to practice word economy. What most people need a paragraph to say, I say in one or two sentences. This goes against the whole "write a lot of words" philosophy. I also get right to the point, if a character in a story enters a room I don't need 4 pages telling me what shade of green the plant in the corner is. It's green, be done with it.

Overall, it was an interesting experience. I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't finish, but it was an insane goal to begin with. I will finish it though, it's a great way to hash out the story for the game version :)

Why Canadian Politics is more interesting than American Politics

Actual (abbreviated) transcript from yesterday's question period in Parliament:

Bill Graham: "Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the Prime Minister on his photo op. He was spectacular in that gown he was wearing."

Stephen Harper: "I can add in terms of photo ops that there is a tradition at APEC to do pictures in traditional garb. Unlike the Leader of the Opposition, I had to wear the silk on the outside."

Bill Graham: "Mr. Speaker, I can assure the Prime Minister that I have just as many embarrassing pictures of myself as they do on that side."

Stephen harper: "Also I can say in regard to my well-known agenda to control the press, I will work closely with the Leader of the Opposition to keep those photos of him out of the media."

Seriously

I'm not making this up

Canada's awesome.

Originality at its Finest

Imagine being the DJ for this station. "And now here's the new one from Walk Away, called Walk Away. You can hear it on their new album Walk Away."

And now, a gratuitous cute cat picture:

Me Brain No Worky

So it turns out that when you completely shut your brain down for an entire weekend, it's hard to get started on Monday.

Frankly I'm surprised at the amount of work I've accomplished today in my pseudo-sleepwalking state. Let me give you a rundown of what I "did" this weekend:

Friday night:

• 5:30pm: drove out to Wheatley
  
• 7:00pm: Watched Buffalo vs. Pittsburgh (that Sabres team is scary good)

Saturday:

• Slept until almost 11am
• installed a ceiling fan (with a remote!)
• 12:00: Minnesota vs. Iowa
• 3:30pm: Michigan vs. Ohio State (damn that was a great game)
• 7:00pm: Leafs vs. Devils
• 10:00pm: Red Wings vs. Edmonton (I made it through the second period before I damn near passed out)

Sunday:

• 1:00pm: Pittsburgh vs. Cleveland
• 4:00pm: Detroit vs. Arizona (the Lions are freakin' terrible)
• 6:30pm: Grey Cup: B.C. vs. Montreal
• 9:45pm: Drive home from Wheatley

That might be a record for me, watching 8 whole games (with some slight overlap) in just over 48 hours...no wonder I'm tired.

Happy GIS Day!

Okay, so it's not exactly a holiday, but it's time for geography geeks like me to celebrate!

We spent the day at City Hall putting on presentations from both the City and the University, and we had the council chambers decked out with posters and whatnot describing our work. The chambers were actually standing room only for the whole day, with visitors from Walkerville High School and St. Clair College. There were also people there from CBC news and A-Channel, so watch for us! (I'm sitting in the front row of the gallery)

Geography Awareness Week

Aren't you all excited? This week is Geography Awareness Week, and at the U we're celebrating GIS Day on Wednesday November 15th. We'll have posters and speakers at the City of Windsor all day, it's a joint effort of the University and the City of Windsor.

So everyone, be extra aware of geography this week!

I done been tagged!

1. If you were a muppet, and had to pick ANOTHER muppet to be your best friend, who would you pick?

Beaker (only since I didn't want to copy Scott), but I'd have to have Dr. Honeydew translate for me.

2. Would you rather live on Sesame Street, with the Muppets on the Muppet Show, or down at Fraggle Rock?

Muppets!

3. If you were forced to date a Walt Disney Charcter (human or animal), who would it be?

This is tough, but I've gotta go with:

4. If you could only eat one vegetable ever again, what would it be?

Mushrooms.

5. Do you have any recurring dreams?

I still have the occasional dream where I work at Shell, only there's triple the number of pumps and I'm working alone. I still get through it though, I was the best gas jockey ever.

6. If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

I'd say flying, but with my luck I'd get hit by a plane or something. Let's go with shapeshifting, that way if I needed to fly, I could just turn into a bird.

7. Did you rename your Cabbage Patch Kids, or keep them with the name Xaiver Roberts gave them? What were they called?

No cabbage patch kids here.

RANDOM FACT: Scott and I used to make parachute men out of GI Joe's using twine and shopping bags. We would throw them out the 2nd floor window in my bedroom and watch them glide down. There are probably still one or two stuck in the tree in the front yard. We also learned that you had to wrap the parachute properly otherwise, well, things don't end quite so well.

8. First Concert you ever went to?

Our Lady Peace, early 2000.

9. Does it bother you that Sebastian Bach from Skid Row was acting in Gilmore Girls?

I have no idea who that is. I do know who Skid Row is though. I'm aware of the Gilmore Girls.

10. What are the Best 3 Simpsons episodes?

1. Na-na na-na na-na na-na LEA-DER!

2. Homer smokes weed. ("We have a kitchen!?")

3. Stonecutters.

11. BONUS QUESTION (since Sara didn't include a #11). What was the last book you read?

Treason by Orson Scott Card (not as good as Ender's Game, but then what is?)

12. Who do you tag?

Jonathan, Dani (since she never posts to her blog), and anyone else who might read this.

White Poppies

It's been a while since something's made me want to "sound off", but here we go.

White Poppies anger Edmonton veterans

I first heard about this story yesterday evening when one of the local radio stations was interviewing someone who was supporting this white poppy idea. For those who have never heard of this before (which included me up until hearing this interview), the white poppy was created by the "Pledge Peace Union" and the "Women's Cooperative Guild" as an alternative to the traditional red poppy.

The idea behind it, and this is directly from the woman who was being interviewed on the radio, was that it symbolized both a remembrance of those who have been killed in wars, and as a symbol of hope that we will someday live in a world without war (this was supposedly what separated the white poppies from the red ones).

Now, maybe I'm crazy, but isn't that exactly what the red poppy stands for? Isn't that the whole idea of "We will remember them" and "Lest we forget?". I fail to see the difference.

After some poking around on the PPU's white poppy page, I saw this:

The Guild stressed that the white poppy was not intended as an insult to those who died in the First World War - a war in which many of the women (from the Women's Cooperative Guild) lost husbands, brothers, sons and lovers.

So it's not intended as a replacement for the red poppy, yet as far as I can tell it has the same message as the red poppy. The part about the women who lost people in the war was pretty much quoted verbatim in the radio interview I was listening to, and when she said that it came across as a "women's rights" issue, but I might be reading too much into it so I should probably leave that one alone. After all, it wasn't just women who lost people in the war, and it wasn't just men who died in the war. (This is one of those language pet peeves of mine, like when you hear about people trying to "Stop violence against women"...why not just "Stop violence"?)

On a page about the red poppy, it talks about all of the trouble that the red poppy has caused:

... a growing number of people have been concerned about the poppy's association with military power and the justification of war.

I know I only speak for myself here, but never once have I ever heard of anyone using the poppy for this purpose. I know I certainly don't associate the poppy with anything other than remembrance, and I would think that the vast majority of Canadians feel the same way.

I have no problem with people selling or wearing the white poppies, it's a free country after all (which is kinda why we wear these things to begin with), but I just can't wrap my head around what the difference is.

NaNoWriMo Update

Yeah, so this whole writing 1667 words a day for a month thing isn't going as smoothly as I had anticipated.

It started out great, I wrote 1500 words the first day and came to a logical place to stop, anxious to keep the momentum going. Since then, however, I've written another 1500 words...in six days. So that leaves me at ~3,000 words when to keep pace I should be at 11669 by the end of the day.

The sad thing is, I've got the majority of the story mapped out in my head, I just haven't sat down and put it on paper yet. That's the only thing that makes me think I can still get this done in time.

Nonetheless, I will persevere...though next year I may follow in the footsteps of Scott and Sara et. al. and do NaBloPoMo instead :)

Oh, and I'm aware that writing this blog post is time I could have spent increasing my word count, but I'm still at school and have a lab to teach in half an hour...during which I plan to be increasing my word count :)

Guess who said it?

"I refuse to do nude scenes. These Hollywood producers want to capitalize on my obvious sexuality, but I don't want to be just another beautiful body."

The answer may surprise you.

This guy's the best game show host of all time, without question.

NaNoWriMo

I was reading Lifehacker this morning when I saw a post titled "Write your novel this NaNoWriMo". It turns out that every November a bunch of people try to crank out a 50,000 word novel in a month. I thought to myself, "these people are crazy". But I explored it a bit and read some comments from people who've done it and it seemed like a cool experience, so I decided to sign up.

Sure, a couple of weeks ago I laid out the timeline for the next phase of my thesis work and had a bit of a "Holy crap I've got a lot of work left to do" moment, and wondered if I'd have any kind of social life in the next 10 months, but I kept reading about how rewarding it has been for the people who've done it and got excited.

Truth be told, I've had a story floating around in my head for the last few months and was considering formalizing it a bit. I never really considered writing it as a "novel" though, I actually had thoughts of making it into a game, which would have given me some good programming experience in a different domain (along with a chance to tell a story). I always put it on the back burner though, seeing it as one of those "I'll do it some time down the road" projects. I ultimately decided, though, that this writing would serve two purposes. First, it would give me a chance to formalize the story so that whenever I actually do the game it will already be hashed out. Second, in about 6-8 months I'm going to be under a serious writing crunch working on getting my thesis done, so this will be good practice for deadline-time writing.

This may prove to be an insane undertaking, and I may decide two weeks in that I just don't have the time, but right now I'm looking forward to see what I can accomplish.

Line Rider

Proof that the best things in life are simple:

Line Rider

Draw a line, press play, and watch the guy crash!

Flashback Time...

They can make all the fancy DVD board games they want, but they'll never compare to this:



Or this:

Music Renaissance?

Maybe it's just because I've been listening to different stuff recently, but it seems to me that there's a ton of good rock music out there right now.

Bands like Breaking Benjamin, Avenged Sevenfold, The Mars Volta, Muse, Blue October, and Snow Patrol have got me really fired up about music right now.

And in November we get the new Incubus album, the Raine Maida solo effort, and the OLP greatest hits CD. I'm a very happy music freak.

Where are the locusts?

Ten minutes ago it got really overcast and dark....then it started to snow...and five minutes later it stopped.

Now it's a bright blue sky with white cumulus clouds high in the sky and dark grey (almost black) cirrus clouds below them (that's white puffy clouds and grey wispy clouds for everyone other than Scott).

I'm expecting it to start raining frogs next.

Rhetorical Question

If a GA shows up to teach a lab, and no students come, did he really show up?

Random Randomness

• I'm still laughing my ass off over Windsor losing the new arena to Tecumseh. This stupid city.
• Raine Maida (of OLP fame) is working on a solo project (www.myspace.com/rainemaida). He's posted his first composition, and it's definitely not typical OLP. It's more poetry set to music. I have to say, after a couple listens, the chorus is getting stuck in my head. It should be interesting to hear more.
• I draw way too many flowcharts and diagrams...I have a drawer by my desk in which I keep nothing but scrap paper
• Lost starts back up this week!
• Hockey Night In Canada starts back up this week!
• I'm not going to get anything done this week!
• Lewis Black is almost as funny as George Carlin
• I was in a store this weekend that had Christmas decorations for sale. Someone should tell these people that it's the 12 DAYS of Christmas, not the 12 WEEKS of Christmas

I think that's it.

"How big is this frickin' spaceship?!?"

Spaceballs: The Animated Series is in production, and it does have Mel Brooks involved, so it should be interesting.

Of course, when I hear spaceballs, I can only think of poker night at Matt and Dani's when Jonathan and Matt got blasted and decided to watch spaceballs. Hilarity most definitely followed, and its on video tape somewhere :)

I Heart Google

Google's takeover on my life continues on two fronts:

1> I've switched over to the google beta of blogger, and it's not really different, except for creating the layout of your blog. You now can choose a base template and then modify it as your heart desires. I've decided to deck mine out in Colorado Avalanche colours...puck drop is only a few weeks away after all.

2> I was quite impressed with the Fotki pages that Scott had, and wanted to do something similar, however I'm much to lazy to import my photos and organize everything, especially when I already have all my pictures organized with Picasa. Well, enter google again. They've now given you the ability to upload your albums in Picasa to web albums with a single click. For the lazy people like me, its a dream come true. To see the result, check out my online albums.

They're doing this on a first come/first serve basis by invite. I did mine today and didn't have to wait.

We Can't Bust Heads Like We Used To,

but we have our ways. One trick is to tell 'em stories that don't go anywhere. Like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe...so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time.

Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumble bees on 'em. 'Gimme five bees for a quarter', you'd say. Now where were we? Oh, yeah. The important thing was...that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...

Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay..........

I'm currently listening to "Common People" by William Shatner. I didn't search it out, it came on my favourite XM radio station. I sat and listened to the whole thing, and you know what?

It wasn't that bad. I'm a little concerned about my own sanity now, though, because I just assumed that anything "sung" by William Shatner must be awful. But it wasn't.

To paraphrase Lewis Black, the left hand side of my brain just looked at the right hand side of my brain and said "It's dark in here."

I need sleep

I had an absolute blast this past week in Ottawa/Kanata/Arnprior. Scott and Sara's wedding was a great time and went off without a hitch (even though the weather forced us inside). The ceremony was beautiful, the reception was fun, and I got to see a little bit of a city I've never seen before, and I even spent some time on the dance floor without making a total jackass of myself!

I also got to spend some time with family who I don't get to see nearly as often as I would like, which was great. The only downfall, of course, was the lack of sleep. But when you cram a lot of driving and late nights into a week, that's what happens.

Congrats guys!

Math and Mapping talk, on a Friday? Unpossible!

I came across this site about a half hour ago, with maps showing gas prices across North America. Now, as fate would have it, my mother and I were discussing the gas prices and were wondering who actually paid more for gas, us or the Americans. This was spurred on by a report on rising gas prices we saw on the news. So we both did a little bit of conversion in our heads, and both came up with similar numbers saying that we payed a noticable amount more than our American friends.


So, when I got to this site and saw these maps, I was quite surprised. Not only did it blow my conceptions out of the water, it appeared that not only do we pay less for gas, but our highest prices seem to match their lowest prices.

I began to question my math skills, which I haven't really needed to use much since 1st year physics. So I broke out the old pencil and paper and did some math, using the average U.S. and Canadian prices noted on the site:

Avg US Price: $2.860/gallon
Avg CDN Price: 106.461/L

Converting their price to CDN dollars:
$2.86/gallon * exchange rate = CDN$ 3.17194/gallon

Then converting to litres (1US gallon = 3.785L):
CDN$ 3.17194/ 3.785L

Simple division gives us:

CDN$ 0.838/ 1L

Well, isn't that interesting. On average, not only do we pay more for gas, we pay over 20 cents per liter more per gas. So, undaunted by the map maker who should probably have syncrhonized the colour ramps he used to symbolize the maps, I needed to find out why we paid more. The answer, it seems, is simple...and is very Canadian:

TAXES!

It turns out that (on average) 32% of our gas price is taxes. I figured it was probably around 15%, so that's a bit of a shock.

Source

So, that must be the culprit...until I saw that the average gas tax in the U.S. is ~40%.

Source

So, using those tax figures, we pay ~72.4 cents/L before tax, whereas in the states they pay ~50c/L before tax. FIFTY CENTS PER LITER?

So, I'm at a bit of a loss. The way I see it, we either pay more for the crude oil (which doesn't make sense since it's a commodity that's traded globally, so should have a constant price), more for refining, more for distribution, or we give more to the retailer. But I'm done looking up statistics for the time being, except for one last one:

In the UK, the prices work out to around 2.00/L, so it could be worse :)

Survivor: Race Wars

Well, that's the idea anyway:

Linkage

The new Survivor season is going to split up the cast into tribes according to race. This should be some interesting train wreck TV...maybe it will generate some interest in a show that's past its prime, though.

I haven't really payed much attention over the last few years, I can typically find something better to do for an hour. However, the train wreck factor here may be too much for me to resist.

Google SketchUp

So I'm lurking in a forum somewhere yesterday trying my best not to do any actual work, when a poster mentions "Google SketchUp". Now, I thought I was quite the Google junkie, as evidenced by the fact that I use Gmail, Google Calendar, Google News, have a custom Google homepage/RSS reader, have experimented with Google Pages and Google Spreadsheets, rely on Google Maps for directions, and spend far too much time playing with Google Earth than one person should (although, to be fair, Google Earth is basically the definition of my field of interest: computers and geospatial technology brought together).

So how is it that there was a Google tool that I hadn't heard of before? Especially because it's not a new tool, it's been around for a little bit. I check the homepage for Google SketchUp, download it, and am immediately blown away. Within 10 minutes, without having read any documentation, I had created a three dimensional model of a house from scratch. Now, granted, I have no immediate use for this tool, but it would be wicked for anyone who does design work. I have no idea how precise it is or anything, but simply as a conceptual modelling tool, it's very powerful. Check it out.

Why didn't I think of that?

I just read that some guy in Tennesee wanted to have his middle name/nickname added to the ballot on the U.S. elections in November. It seemed like a good idea, as some others had been allowed to put their nicknames on the ballot. However, the courts seemed to have a problem with his nickname. I mean really, it's not like it stands out or anything:

Bob Smith
Willie Jones
David "None of the Above" Gatchell

Now that's a smart idea...it only works if his name is last on the ballot though :)

And as a sidebar to this, why are the American campaigns so friggin long? I've been seeing these damn ads on tv for what seems like months, and there's still another 2-3 months to go!

They need to adopt the Canadian system: six weeks from election call to election day. End of story. No campaigning before that, period. It makes politics much easier to deal with during election time.

AirTap

Any music lover will appreciate this (I think). I know my fellow guitar players will :)



BTW, the guy's name is Erik Mongrain, he's got more videos on YouTube as well as a website if you want to see/hear more.

I Love Double Standards

I was just listening to the radio, and there was a commercial talking about what to do to make things easier when travelling at the airport this summer. They were going through things like not bringing knives and things like that, which is good info.

Then he said, "and remember, always be polite".


















Let me regale of a story from my recent trip to Quebec. We're on our way back from Quebec, arrive at Metro, and go to clear customs so we can get into the U.S. In the customs area, there are signs with big arrows leading to two different lanes, one for Americans, and one for visitors. We, not being American, go into the visitors line. Being a flight from Canada, it's about a 50/50 split of people being visitors and American. There are 5 lanes open for Americans, and 2 lanes open for visitors, but that's beside the point. We're standing in our nice long visitors line, when this customs lady (and I use that term loosely) bellows out "You at the back of the line, over here!". She was telling us that she wanted us to come over to the American lines to make things move faster, but the way she said it, it was like "Why the hell did you go to that line???". Hey dingus, that's what the sign said, don't yell at me because I did what you said.

You all have guns, so I'm going to do whatever the hell the signs say. It's not like we went in the wrong line, we went where we were supposed to. You get what you give folks. I'm curtious to these people because they have a tough job (although this lady's only job seemed to be to yell at the people in the "wrong line"). But if you yell at people who haven't done anything wrong, you should be quite willing to get a snarky response. "Always be polite" my ass.

STOP IT!!!!!

Why are news outlets allowed to espouse theory as fact???

Temperatures are reaching triple digits across the country and air conditioners are working overtime. They are also injecting additional carbon into the air, a gas known to insulate the planet and contribute to global warming.

Yes, the emphasis is mine, but hey, I have a response: YOU DON'T KNOW THAT, AND NEITHER DO I! NO ONE DOES! I'm all for clean air, and doing whatever we can to keep the air clean and breathable, but let's not present theory (well grounded, well researched theory, but still theory) as fact!

I think this post needs a dose of the flying spaghetti monster:

Global Warming and Pirates

So there, I'll get off my soapbox now.

This is getting ridiculous

What the hell is with this heat? The temperature today is expected to be 37 C. With the humidex, it's going to feel like 51 C!

51 freaking degrees! Before I left the house this morning I filled my water bottle. I put 6 ice cubes in the bottle and filled it with cold water from the pitcher in the fridge. I went outside, had been out there for about 2 minutes, went to take a drink, and the ice had all melted. I've got a 10 minute walk to the school, and I was beading with sweat by the time I got here. I think the "world jump day" people had it right.

Damn the geological processes warming up the earth!
Damn all the pollution that causes the smog!
Damn the sun!
Damn August!

Bring on fall!

so double the killer delete select all

It seems that Macrohard's Vista operating system is moving along quite well. At a demo for the voice-recognition software.

Instead of typing, "Dear mom," as Shanen Boettcher had instructed, the computer spurted out: "Dear aunt."

After the first round of chuckles, Boettcher said "Fix aunt," but the words, "let's set" appeared on the screen.

"Delete that," he said - three times to no avail before suggesting that an echo in the room was foiling the presentation.

The loudest laughs came after he told the computer to select all, which prompted it to finish the sentence it had started with the words: "so double the killer delete select all."

Link

I was reading this article thinking it sounded very familiar, well, here's why:



Fear not however, we all know how great Windows 98 turned out...that's why ME was so good, because it was based on the 98 framework. It was much more stable than the 2000-based XP.

/end sarcasm

Vista will drive people to Linux...I can see it now.

Muppet Goodness

Anything with Beaker AND Animal is gold:



Say goodbye to dull bananas:



Animal rules:



I wish I could get paid to watch things on YouTube all day...so much reminiscing!

Quebec City

You know how some places have so much hype surrounding them that when you get there, you're underwhelmed? Quebec City is not one of those places.

With all the things I heard leading up to this trip with people telling me how great the city was and how much I'll like it, I was fully expecting a letdown. I was clearly wrong.

The whole city (well, at least the parts I was in) has a certain energy that most modern cities try to artificially create. Our hotel was only a block or so from the St. Lawrence, and about five minutes down the road was a stretch of road with a couple dozen restaurants which were all basically sidewalk cafes. We ate at one on Monday night after we got in, and while the food wasn't anything special, the atmosphere surrounding the area was what I've imagined Europe would be like (never having been to Europe).

Tuesday night we were guided around parts of the city by one of our research colleagues who lives there, and he was able to show us some great things. The boardwalk, the old fortress-style walls in the city, everything was just so visually appealing. It's really hard to describe without pictures or actually being there.

The other thing that we noticed right away is that there are trees everywhere. Everything was so green and alive. There were parts of the Laval campus where you felt like you were walking through trails in a park. For the architecture fans, it seemed like every block presented something different. You would be a block away from the main commercial street in the area and you would feel completely isolated from it. No noise, no lights, as if you were in a small town.

If you ever get the chance to go to Quebec City, take it. And go for more than one day, because you'd need a week minimum to see everything.

YouTube + Boredom =

1337 Final Jeopardy Wager ... likely only the nerds in the audience will get this one.




The Ken Jennings you never thought you'd see:



Taking a huge crap (sorry, inside joke):



Peter Griffin rules:



Me fail english, that's unpossible:



A chicken is a bird, but a cow is an animal...I see:



PumpCast News:

I Hate Buzzwords!

I'm getting so sick of hearing and seeing all these damn buzzwords in every aspect of life. People use them, often having no idea what they mean, just to sound "with it".

One of the most popular ones right now in the tech field is "Mashup". Ever since Google Earth opened up their API (provided interfaces to the Google Maps software and databases), every few days I hear about a new "Mashup" for Google Earth.

Other buzzwords I'm sick of seeing

Paradigm, Synergy, Innovation...

Any others?

It's not a good sign...

when this is what shows on your ForecastFox toolbar:








That thermometer makes it look like you'll burst into flames just by stepping outside.

Sweet, Sweet Air Conditioning!

I loves me some air conditioning!

Big thanks to Matt for help with the ever technical install which included both cardboard and duct tape...I am Red Green after all :)

The thought of another 30+ degree weekend with no air conditioning in this heat box of an apartment didn't appeal to me, so I finally installed the damn thing.

YEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAW!

World Cup headbutt from different 'views'

This one's pretty amusing...it's different views on the Zinadine Zidane headbutt from last weekend's World Cup final. They shed some light on the situation...

Linkety

----------------------

UPDATE!


I just stumbled on this video, not sure if it came before the previous one or after, but the video is much more entertaining, and features appearances from the likes of Street Fighter's E. Honda and Ryu, MC Hammer, along with many other 'versions' of the headbutt. And to top it off, it's set to a delightful Benny Hill soundtrack.

Free Slurpee Day!

Need to cool off? Head down to your nearest 7-11 and pick up a free slurpee. They're uber tiny (7.11 oz, or 210 mL in normal people units), but they're free nonetheless.

Oh, and if you don't know why they're free, check the calendar.

Rice Lake 2006 - In Pictures

Let's set the tone early with the first thing we did after unpacking the cars and going grocery shopping. The beer fridge:


And the vodka-melon. Mmmm....vodka-melon....



This is when I named the cabin "Slanty":







Oh captain, my captain...where are we?



Random boat scenery:



Including the road to nowhere:



And the gazebo where we scared all the fisherman away the last night we were there:



More boat scenery:



Our pontoon boat, with one improvement. Arrrr!





This is by far the greatest town name of all time. So much so that I had to take a picture, no one would have believed me otherwise. Just past this town was a fluorescent yellow sign that said "CAUTION. HIGH ACCIDENT INTERSECTION." I took a picture, but it didn't turn out well enough to read the text. Those are the types of signs that make you feel safe.



All over the inside of the cabin people had carved their names and the year they stayed, so we continued the tradition by carving near where we slept:



And near where we sat. The arrow pointing to my chair underneath was a hit:



And the beer watched my chair while I was off carving up the walls:



I was trying to take a picture with my carving, when Steph decided to interfere. It's just as well, you can't see the carving anyway.



We also made one other very important carving:



Here are some pictures of Slanty from the inside, including our beautiful sleeping quarters:



Along with a prime example of why the square was invented, and why it should be used when constructing walls:



And window frames:



Exposed wiring always makes you feel safe, especially when it's in the ceiling of your room. Although to be fair, the entire ceiling had exposed wiring.



The night we scared the fishermen away from the gazebo. I guess this was Jay's birthday present for Matt:



Note, I'm not squinting because I'd been drinking, but because I'd been in about 20 pictures that night and the flash had destroyed my eyeballs. Matt, on the other hand, was trashed :)



This picture still gives me nightmares:



And you have to end with a nice group shot. Well, it would have been nice had the timer worked and Jay had been able to get into the picture, and if Matt wasn't staring at the ceiling, and if Steph wasn't staring out the window.



Good times.

Rice Lake 2006

Ahh, vacation. How I needed you.

There's nothing like a week of doing nothing to recharge your batteries. I guess I shouldn't say we did nothing. We went to the chocolate factory...we went boating a lot...we imbibed the occasional adult beverage. Though the real star of the week was the cabin itself, which I started calling "Slanty" after seeing it from the outside. When I post pictures you'll understand.

We also played games...poker, asshole, this cool dvd game where you shout out answers to questions about music or tv. We also tried the "Dark Side of Oz" thing where you sync up Dark Side of the Moon to The Wizard of Oz. I always figured that this was just some stoner myth or something, but I must say there are some really strange coincidences between the music and the movie. I still think it's only a coincidence, but it's still worth doing. The best part was when we were outside the next morning and the guys from the cabin next door said to us "Next time you guys jam to Floyd, crank that shit up!".

It was a weekend without incident, except for the drive home when some degenerate decided to almost kill Jay and I. Yes, it's time to rant about driving, but I feel I'm justified.
We're driving along in moderately heavy traffic having just come through Toronto. I'm clicking along in the far left lane at 120, just going with the flow of traffic. I check my rear view mirror and see this prick in a silver 300M come flying toward me going probably 135. He gets so close to my rear end that I can't even see his headlights or the grill on the front of his car. There's traffic to my right so I can't get out of his way, so I figured I'd try and get him to back off a little bit by dropping down to 115 hoping he'd get the message (not by hitting the brakes, just by slowly letting up on the gas - had I even tapped the brakes he would have hit me which is why I wanted him to back off). I slow down, and he does too but he still stays as close as he was. Once there was an opening to my right I was about to get out of his way when he pulls into it (without signalling), passes me on the right, and pulls back into my lane (again without signalling) and comes so close to my front bumper that I actually cringed and braced myself for an accident. Right as he gets in my lane, before I'd had a chance to get some distance between us, he SLAMS ON HIS BRAKES (with no one in front of him) then floors it and takes off. Man, I've never been so pissed at another driver. Jay and I were yelling and screaming things at him, I damn near punched the steering wheel, and Jay put down his window and flipped the guy off.

He got a little bit ahead of us and started riding the next guy's tail and had to keep hitting the brakes because he refused to slow down. Watching this, I actually screamed "I hope your ________ brakes fail", and I'm not one to swear very often. Man, I'm pissed off again just thinking about it.

Luckily I have good memories of the vacation itself to make me happy again. Pictures to follow tomorrow.

Happy Little Trees in the 21st Century

Everyone's favourite painter, Bob Ross, is going digital.  Some company is actually planning a Bob Ross: The Joy of Painting video game on the Wii (Nintendo's next console).  I give these people credit for a very different idea, and one that'll take advantage of the Wii's controller. 

I remember I always watched this guy on Sunday mornings before church...he was always so calm and relaxed, it was like meditation

--

"We're just gonna put a happy little bush down in this corner, and
that'll just be our little secret. But if you tell anybody that bush is
there, I will come to your house and I will cut you!"

Game 7!

Game 7!  Go Oilers!

That is all.

"A New Look"

You know, people complain about service charges and such from their bank, but I can see now how CIBC is putting them to good use. For instance, a few weeks back I logged into my account online and found an announcement that excited me:


It appears that the sign on page would be getting a new look to make it easier to navigate. And boy did it need it, after all, look at this mess:

How anyone could figure out this mess was beyond me. The promises of having my log on process streamlined excited me to no end. Well, today I went to check my account and THE WAIT WAS OVER! I was able to see the brand new, streamlined, easier to use log in page:



Boy, what a difference! This new page is so much easier to use. Now, instead of having to type my card number and my password, I only have to type my card number and my password. Thank heaven that CIBC is here to make my life so much simpler!

Another improvement they promised was to move the "Rates, Tools, Contact Us, Help and Sign Off links to the top of the page for quick access." And indeed, they did deliver on their promise. The header for the pages went from this:

To this:


Yep, that's much better, now the links for these useful things are SMALLER, and FARTHER AWAY from where the banking is done. Good thinking on that one. I know when I want "quick access" to something I always make it harder to get to. That's why when I get home I always take my keys and wallet and tape them to the ceiling in my shower with three rolls of duct tape, that way I can have "quick access" to them whenever I want them.

I think what scares me the most, is that this was probably the result of some 6-figure study into what the best way to "serve their customers" was. It's change for the sake of change, a make-work project if you will. I have no problem with the bank trying to improve service, but when you promise improvements, maybe you should deliver actual improvements. Or is that too complicated?

Sidekick

This page is making the rounds on the internet pretty quick, but I thought I'd point it out to those who haven't seen it.  Basically this guy's friend left her sidekick (mobile phone, camera, etc) in a taxi and the people who found it decided to steal it instead of trying to return it.  Long story short they found the people that took it and those people refuse to return it.

So now they've tracked down where these people live, their myspace accounts, etc.  It's a great use of the internet, trying to embarass the hell out of these people to get them to do the right thing.  If you haven't seen the page yet, go check it out.

Linkage


Oh, and check out the R/C plane demo video on John's blog (aka CobbleDick Potter).  Very cool as well.

The NHL's low ratings

So the NHL playoffs are generating essentially no buzz in the U.S., which is a bit surprising since Carolina has appeal in the south as well as in New England (from when the team played in Hartford). So I decided to check NBC Sports' web site to see what kind of hype they're giving the NHL finals, and see for yourself:


The first two sports that are billed on the top of the page are baseball and basketball. Way to advertise the competition num-nuts! I'm sure FOX and ABC respectively like the fact that you give precedence to their programming over your own. In fact, the first mention of the NHL is the sixth bullet point down in the "Other Top Sports Stories" section. This is the flagship sports programming on your station, and this is how its treated? No wonder no one cares.

You think they'd be hyping that the "new NHL" has produced some fantastic hockey, and that game 1 was one of the best games of the season. But what do I know? I'm not a big shot advertising executive.

Diet Coke and Mentos

Did anyone ever notice that when you drink diet pop just before or just after you've had a mint that you get hiccups?  I always thought it was just me, but it seems that I'm not crazy this time.

Video

It's interesting to think that this is what's going on inside you although on a much smaller scale (thankfully).

Why are we so surprised?

I know I just posted, but I've got a week's worth of thoughts to get through :)

What my title is referring to is the (in my opinion) surprising number of people who are surprised that accused terrorists were found in our own backyard with plans to attack Toronto/Southern Ontario. Should we really be surprised about this? I know there is a certain shock value to a story like this and there's no question that it shook me a little bit, but that wasn't out of surprise, it was out of a sense of realism. The threat of a terrorist attack on Canada has been, in my mind, a real possibility since September 12, 2001. Why did people think we were immune here in Canada?

This is the same Canada that was part of the coalition that brought down the Taliban in Afghanistan. The same Canada that vocalized the denouncing of terrorism worldwide along with everyone else. This is the same Canada that's now leading the fight in Afghanistan, trying to restore peace by chasing remnants of terrorist cells out of caves and tunnels. Tell me again why we're any different than anyone else?

For whatever reason, people thought that terrorist attacks were only a problem for the U.S. Tell that to the citizens of Bali, Madrid, and London. Sure we didn't join the war in Iraq, but that didn't stop attacks in Indonesia did it? (And I know that they were targeted because Bali is a tourist destination, but that doesn't change the fact that locals were killed as well).

And now we're hearing calls that we need to "toughen our stance on terrorism", and how "we're now a target". Now a target? The fact that these 17 people have been arrested should prove that we have been a target for quite a while. People are more concerned about their own security now than before, shouldn't we feel safer now that these alleged terrorists are in custody? Albeit, we're only incrementally safer since for every one of these cells we find I'm sure there are 2 more to take their place. That said, I think we need to commend law enforcement officials for doing a great job in apprehending these alleged terrorists. These are the people responsible for our safety, and I feel good knowing that they're working at this problem.

The thing that concerns me the most about this whole thing is that many of the accused are homegrown Canadians. I know that being born here doesn't stop someone from adopting another ideology, but I'd always hoped (against my better judgement) that thoughts like that wouldn't be passed down through generations or spread among our own citizens.

Oh, and just as a note to end on, would someone take these idiots who are vandalizing mosques and throw them in jail too? It's not the religion of Islam that teaches hatred, it's a certain ideology that some people adopt. Timothy McVeigh was raised in a Catholic household, so does that mean all Catholics were responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing? Of course not. So why is it any different in this case?

Hedging your bet

I just heard that odds makers in Vegas are giving 10-1 odds that the world will end tomorrow.  For those that haven't noticed, tomorrow will be 06/06/06.

Anyone who would seroiusly place a bet on this should immediately be locked up for the safety of the rest of society.  People that dumb are a threat to us all.  Talk about a lose-lose situation.

Blogging from Banff

I'd like to share pictures, but I don't have any camera hardware here so just take my word for it for those who haven't been here before: Banff is awesome.

The weather is great, the air is clear, the views are unbelievable, and these last few days have been so unreal. And if it makes you all jealous that I get to spend tomorrow morning being a tourist in Banff before going to the hot springs in the afternoon, well...tough...I'm going to enjoy myself anyway. :)

We're All Doomed!

If a crackpot says it, it must be true.

Linkage

This guy says that he had a premonition that is backed up by scientific data that an asteroid is going to hit the Atlantic Ocean and the resulting tusnami will destroy the east coast. When does he think this will happen?

May 25th.

That's right, this thing is going to kill us all...yesterday.

BUT WAIT! Now, all of a sudden, there's a 48 hour window on his crackpot theory, centered on May 25th at midnight...meaning that it actually could happen as late as...this morning. Hmm....

I love how this guy ties in completely unrelated happenings to his theory claiming to reinforce it. He says that the FEMA exercise at the gulf coast yesterday (which was completely botched, though that's another topic) was proof that he's right. I see.

* Channeling Family Guy *

Tom Tucker: We now go to Ollie Williams with the blackie asteroid forecast, Ollie. what do you see?
Ollie: THERE AIN'T NOTHIN'!
Tom: Thanks Ollie.

* End Chanelling *

I do give this guy credit, he's (sort of) sticking to his guns, despite an overwhelming onslaught of evidence against his premonition. So what if NASA says that this asteroid is going to miss the earth by several thousand km, this guy has a picture of the asteroid on his web page. Who are you going to believe. I mean, this guy has a picture of something, which is proof that it's going to hit us.

LOOK! I've got proof that David Hasselhoff, Gary Coleman, and Mr. T are conspiring to kill me! I posted their pictures on my webpage, and therefore it is true!



See, undeniable proof that these three are trying to kill me.

Oh, and if this guy turns out to be right after he expands his prediction window to 48 days instead of 48 hours, I'll be glad to retract my opinions and apologize to the crackpot.

Must Share...

I know Scott will be interested in this, don't know about anyone else, but I encourage you all to check out Kenna's myspace. He's got a new song on there called "Face The Gun". This guy writes some of the best music out there. He uses a little bit of everything in his music, it's truly exceptional.

I've been waiting for new stuff from this guy forever, and it turns out he'll be releasing his second album this year. It's certainly not for everyone, but if you're looking for something a little different then check it out.

For those of you who don't know who the claymation guy is in my profile picture, check out the "Hell Bent" video on the same page and you'll understand.

*End Pseudo-Commercial*

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Only a month left until vacation! This makes me happy.
Lost season finale tonight! This makes me happy.
I get to spend a week in Banff next week! This makes me happy.
The Oilers are one win away from the Stanley Cup Finals! Even though I'm an Avs fan, they're the only Canadian team left, so this makes me happy.

I'm just all kinds of happy right now.

Average Homeboy Part 2

Ahh, he's back. Inspired by Jonathan's post of the first average homeboy video, he's back with another....only this time he's going by the name Blazin' Hazen'. Seriously.

Link

If you want to see a white guy in a sweater vest in the 80's doing some really bad rap, then make sure you click the link.

Do not use while sleeping...and other randomness

That is what it says on the warning label on my new electric razor. Do not use while sleeping.

And the scary thing is that the reason it's on there is probably because someone tried it, hurt themselves, sued the company, and won.

Now they have to put stupid warning labels on everything to save people from their own stupidity.

I've been convinced for a long time that common sense no longer exists, and this is just more proof.

------------------------------

I've recently learned that "luxuriating" is acutally a word. I heard it on the news during a promo for one of these hidden camera things where there were teachers "luxuriating" at fancy hotels for meetings and laughed, thinking to myself, "that can't be a word". But, I looked it up and was proven wrong. My apologies to Super Action Authority News Channel 7.

------------------------------

On the same topic of words, I've always thought that "beaching" should be a word. That way if you spend a day at the beach and someone asks you "What did you do yesterday?", you can respond "I went beaching." It sounds like it should be a word.

------------------------------

Only a few weeks left until I can go the bar and not reek of cigarette smoke when I get home! I do find it funny that in the commercials advertising it here in Windsor that the head of one of the bingos is on there talking about how "it won't change anything", yet this same guy was all over the news when the public smoking ban was announced talking about how it's going to destroy bingos and hurt charities. I guess everyone has their price.

------------------------------

Finally, in the greatest baseball game promotion ever, a minor league baseball team in the States is holding "Salute to Frivolous Lawsuit Night". Some of the items include:

The first 137 women 18 and over will receive lukewarm coffee so they will not burn themselves

The first 137 kids will be given a beach ball with a warning not to ingest

Linkage

It sure beats "bat day" at Tiger Stadium. There was a good idea. I don't think me ears ever recovered from the 9 innings straight of bats banging concrete floors. Old Tiger Stadium was the best. Who wouldn't enjoy a day full of trough urinals, 5 dollar water (it's probably 10 now), concession people walking around yelling unintelligable things like "HADOW!" (which apparantly meant "Hot Dogs"), and ushers expecting a tip for showing us to our seats even though we had just walked through a gate with a big sign saying NOT TO TIP.

Lost: The Online Experience

Well thanks to Scott posting about the Hanso Foundation, and my natural curiosity, I'm now officially engulfed in the online side of Lost. Not so much the rumours or anything like that, but all the easter eggs and stuff that's been coming out over the last week. It's a lot to take in at first when you're behind, but all the neat hidden stuff on the Hanso Foundation website, the newspaper ad, and everything else are quite interesting. It's obvious they've put a ton of thought into this whole thing, and it'll be interesting to see where it leads. They've definately given a lot of clues to what the whole island thing is all about, but it's still being done in a mysterious kind of way so it's not like they spoil anything. If you want to get caught up, then this is probably the best place to start.

This is only the first week of the online side of things, so I'm glad I got on board now, I'd hate to think about trying to get caught up after a month.

If Stephen Harper does eat babies...

Then my guess is that this one is next...


More fuel for Sara's theory.

American Inventor

Is anybody watching this show? It's actually pretty decent. I haven't seen all the episodes, but they do a pretty good job with it.

For those who don't know, the show had people pitch inventions to a panel of experts and they get moved through the show American Idol style. Right now it's down to four. The inventions are all pretty neat too.

One is a "receiver's training pole". It's used to teach football players to catch the ball with their hands instead of up against their chest. It's a vest which has a pole running parallel to the wearer's chest about 6 inches in front of them. I thought there were two really funny things about this one. First, the guy's from Detroit, and if you've seen the Lions play in the last 5-10 years, the one thing they've been best at is dropping easy catches. Second, everyone was talking about how much money they've invested and how it's taken over their lives. When the panel asked this guy about how much he spent, he says "50 bucks". Classic.

The youngest guy on there is 19. He's got this really cool double-ride bike that has a seat built into the handlebars and a second set of pedals attached to the front wheel. It's quite cool.

The most boring one is the guy who has a word game for kids. It's pretty cool and all, it's just not interesting to talk about.

The one that I thought was absolutely brilliant the second I saw it was from this guy whose young daughter was killed in a car accident. It's a new type of child seat for a car. It's kind of hard to describe, it's like a half-bowl with another bowl inside it that rotates and swings so that in the case of an accident, the child swings back and forth instead of being held against the force of the crash by a seatbelt. It's a lot cooler than I'm describing it.

Of course, American Idol-style means really crappy inventions too. Like:

The Pet Petter (it pets your dog)

The Bladder Buddy

My Therapy Buddy (this guy's gonna go nuts one day)

Speaking out against record labels

A group of Canadian musicians have come together to protest the way that record companies are handling things.

www.musiccreators.ca

They have three main points:
1. Suing Our Fans is Destructive and Hypocritical
2. Digital Locks are Risky and Counterproductive
3. Cultural Policy Should Support Actual Canadian Artists

It's nice to see someone standing up for the rights of consumers against record companies. Hopefully with some of the biggest names in Canadian music behind this, something will actually get done.

WalMart Revenge

This is pretty funny. I wouldn't have the stones to try something like this.

Linkage

Random OLPness

Courtesy of YouTube

Anti Bush Slideshow set to Wipe that Smile off Your Face

One of the best videos ever: In Repair

Somewhere Out There Live on Conan

Not Afraid Live at the Junos in 2003 - this may be the best song they never released (though Trapeze and Out of Here get nods as well)

OLP Holiday Greeting 2004 - an early version of Where Are You...I still miss the first set of lyrics that leaked before the song was even called "Where Are You". I still catch myself singing them sometimes instead of the final version.

I tried to find the Cars cover they did, but no one has it up. Ah well, that's why I have the DVD.

Kingston Trip: Part 2

Okay, so it's Friday morning. Check out isn't until noon and we don't have to be at the Conference Centre for our project management workshop until 1pm, so we both ended up sleeping until like 10am. Not something a grad student gets to do very often on a Friday, but I enjoyed it. We got our bags together, showered, and checked out. We then made the poor decision to walk to the conference centre from the hotel instead of taking a cab. It's not that it was a ridiculously long walk, I figured we'd be going for about 25 minutes or so. But we didn't think about the fact that it was already 20 degrees outside with a bright sun and we both had two pieces of luggage to carry. That, and it wasn't quite the straight line I thought it was to get there. It probably took us a bit over a half an hour. But we made it anyway. We got to the conference centre at about 12:30 or so, checked into our rooms, then grabbed some lunch provided by the course we were taking.

The course got started at about 2pm, and went until 9 that night, interspersed with some buffet style dinner that was better than most "sit-down" food you can get. It turned out the fantastic food would be a recurring theme. So, at about 9:30, group work started. We were randomly divided into groups and proceeded to analyze a case study about project management. An hour later we were finished, and were the first ones done. As we left the meeting room, we could see animated discussions and arguements going on in the other rooms. We had discussions, but basically agreed on everything afterward. So I grabbed my laptop and started to put together our group's presentation for the next morning with the help of a couple other group members. We got all our ideas down and into the presentation and I then took my laptop back to my room to practice and make it "look pretty". It was during this moment that I damn near had a heart attack. I was working on the presentation, when I heard a "pop" come from my laptop and it turned off. I started to freak out. It's almost 1am, I've got a presentation to give in less than 7 hours, and now if my computer is dead I have to redo it from scratch after finding some way of rebuilding it.

Luckily, I realized my comupter wasn't plugged in, so my battery had died. I plugged in my computer and was off to the races. I ended up going to bed at about 1:45 Saturday morning and got up at 6:30 that same moring to shower, do one last run-through, grab some breakfast, and be ready for 7:45 for our presentations. The presentation went really well, I even had a few compliments from other people (not in my group). All the presentations were really good. We then continued with project management lectures until lunch, and then after lunch. We broke at 5:30 for a one hour break, with cocktails scheduled for 6:30 and dinner for 7pm. It was "business attire", but I didn't feel like bringing my suit all the way to Kingston with me, so I got all fancied up with my shirt and tie and headed down to the room where cocktails were being served. Any establishment willing to give me free beer is good. Any establishment that sells Upper Canada Dark is good. This place did both, and so are amazing. I mingled some more, then sat down to dinner. The food was absolutely awesome. By far the best catered/banquet style meal I've ever had. There was this really cool two-coloured cheese and spinach soup, the two colours weren't mixed though, it looked like the yin-yang symbol without the dots. Then we had salad, and then some of the greatest chicken I've ever had...and I love chicken. It was a chicken leg topped with shaved ham and coated in this cream sauce that was soooooo good. The only thing that was out of place was the mushed beets that were served with it. Dessert was some of the richest cheesecake I've ever had. Then came the only real negative of the whole trip. And it wasn't so much a negative as it was a combination of circumstances. The nights activities were a guest speaker who works as a project manager. It was good to hear someone from the field who does the job on a day to day basis, but his talk was supposed to run from 8:30 - 9:30, and instead it ran to about 10pm. The information he gave was good (though a bit redundant at times), but starting at 2pm the previous day we had been working for about 25 of the last 32 hours, had just had a half hour of free cocktails, followed by a big meal (with endless wine supply). So it wasn't that the presentation wasn't good, we were all just exhausted. Needless to say I went straight to my room afterwards to get some much needed....hockey watching....then sleep.

The next day we had a bit more group work, again as smooth as could be, then finished at about 11:30. Our train didn't leave until 2pm so we had time to do yet more mingling over lunch. I met so many people over such a short time it was crazy. But it was good. Conference mingling is harder because most of the people are professors. Here it was all students so it was easy to just sit next to someone and strike up a conversation. Everyone was really friendly too.

After lunch we went to the train station by cab...and this guy might be the craziest cab driver I'd ever seen. He was weaving in and out of traffic and speeding, but we made it to the train station in record time :). We found out our train was running late and so would be about 45 mins late getting into Kingston and, subsequently, Toronto. But it was no big deal since we had a 3 hour wait in Toronto anyway. When we got to Toronto we went to BCE Place to the Richtree Market restaurant for dinner. This was such a cool concept, someone needs to open one of these in Windsor. Basically, when you walk in, they give you a debit card, and you walk around this market and get whatever you want for dinner. They had stations for sushi, fish, breads, pastas, steaks, stir frys, and a bunch of other stuff (including a bar). When you asked for food they just swiped your card and when you left you paid the balance off. I settled on some really good chicken alfredo with veggies after wandering around for 15 minutes considering my options. Most of the food was continuously being made, so you didn't have to wait long for your food and it was still fresh. Perfect for what was now a 2 hour layover in Toronto. We then went back to the train station and waited in another pointless line to get into a half empty train. It wasn't a total loss though, the woman behind us decided that we needed to know her life story even though we'd never met. Apparantly when someone asks me if they're in the right line, that's all they need to know about me to tell me their life story. Fortunately, she was going somewhere else and so didn't get on the same car as us. The rest of the trip was uneventful. We got in at about 11:15 or so into Windsor, cabbed it home, I crawled into bed, and was asleep about a minute later.

I'm almost caught up on my sleep, but the combination of a double overtime hockey game last night and some 8:30 proctoring this morning has caused me to be still a bit tired today. Ah well, as I kept saying to Xitao over the weekend, I'll have lots of time to sleep when I'm dead. :)

Kingston Trip: Part 1

Well, I'm back from Kingston. I'm not awake enough to do any actual work right now, so I thought I'd share my experiences from Kingston.

Wednesday

Xitao (my labmate) and I left Windsor right on time on Wednesday morning and had an uneventful train ride to Toronto. With only about an hour or so until our train from Toronto to Kingston left, we grabbed a quick bite at the Harvey's at Union Station, then went back to the gate to find a massively long line going into the gate, and it was still about 25 minutes before our until the train left. I do understand the amount of people, since the train eventually goes to Montreal, but this train had assigned seating. What's the use of waiting in line to get a good seat (if there even is such a thing on a train) if your seat is assigned anyway. But really, the ride to Kingston was uneventful as well. We got to the station right on time, hopped in a cab, and headed to our hotel.

I told our cab driver where we wanted to go, and he kept asking me which route I wanted to take. I said, "I'm not from here, so whichever is fastest", but he kept asking. Finally he managed to make a decision. So we set off for the hotel from the train station, only to find downtown in a bit of traffic chaos because of construction. Our cab driver was somehow unaware that multiple city blocks were closed to traffic (even local traffic). This did not make me feel good. But we got to the hotel and everything was fine. We checked in, got to our room (which was very nice), and after unwinding for about half an hour we decided to go get dinner. We considered the restaurant in the hotel, but decided that we would explore downtown Kingston a little and see what we could find. The only problem is that neither Xitao or I are capable of making a decision. We eventually settled on a restaurant that served Korean food and sushi and the like. We placed our orders and waited for our food....for a long time. It wouldn't have been a big deal, except I had made plans to grab a drink with Joe after dinner. Eventually our food came, and it was very good. Some of the most flavourful chicken I've ever had, served over a bed of rice and stir-fried veggies. Mmmm.

When we got back to our room it was about 7:30, so I gave Joe a call and we met down by the water (which was about a 1 minute walk from our hotel) and we grabbed a drink at the Kingston Brewing Co. which was right next door to our hotel. We caught up a bit, typical family stuff, and made plans to get everyone together for dinner the next night. I went back to my room and got a little work done before getting some much needed sleep.

Thursday

On Thursday Xitao and I were to meet with a couple of geotechnical people from Queen's who we collaborate with. We got up, figured out directions, and headed out. It was quite a productive meeting for something that had no preplanning. Actually, I've been in well planned meetings that were much less productive than this. We made some very good headway on integration of the work from our side and theirs, I got some excellent information and resources for my thesis work, and we were able to actually accomplish things. We also had some excellent Thai for lunch. The meeting ended in the mid to late afternoon and we went back to the hotel to get more work done. That night I met up with Joe, Dianne, and the kids and went for dinner at The Keg right near my hotel. Again, an excellent dinner. We went back to the hotel and Joe and the kids utilized the pool while I had access to it since we were moving to different accomodations the next day. We had a good night, then said our goodbyes since everyone had work/school in the morning, and I didn't figure I'd have more than a half a day or so to myself starting on Friday. And as it turned out, I had even less...

This is brilliant

Well, if you've never played the Final Fantasy games then you won't get it, otherwise read on.

The people that made this had waaaaay to much time on their hands. It's basically people acting out a Final Fantasy battle. They actually did a damn good job with it, complete with the music and sound effects.

Enjoy

Dani California

I absolutely love this new Chili Peppers song. They have a great feel for writing sing-along, driving in your car summer music. (You can get a listen at their myspace page).

The one thing I've noticed with them is that they tend to write a lot about California...but seeing as they're from there I guess that makes sense. I think I need to release an album of songs about Windsor. Possible song titles include:

"Ballad of the Lost Arena"
"Drink the Night Away"
"I Can't Breathe"
"Don't Drink the Water"

Any other suggestions?

Government at Work: Watch for Stupidity

Hydro Rates

So it appears the cost of electricity may be going up...I can live with that. I usually pay on the order of $30/month, and I know I could be more energy conscious if I needed to. I expect costs to rise every so often, so I'm not really concerned (though for people who have to pay for an entire home's worth it's a different story). However, one thing that bothered me was this statement:

Energy Minister Donna Cansfield says Ontarians have to pay the real cost of generating electricity.

The board will estimate what the cost to generate power will be over the next year, and factor in the 377 (m) million dollars Ontarians underpaid on their bills last year.

What the hell?

I'm not 100% sure what "underpaid" refers to in this case, but I figure it's one of two scenarios, both of which piss me off:

1) By "underpaid", they mean that some people basically haven't paid their bills in full (or at all), which means they're owed money. Well guess what? I pay my bills every month, in full, and on time. If this is what's meant by "underpaid", then go after the people that haven't paid their bills. Don't force me to pay for electricity that I never used.

2) By "underpaid", they could also mean that it ended up costing them more than they figured to supply people with electricity, and that their rates should have been higher, so they're going to make it back by charging us more this year. That doesn't fly in the real world, why should it work now? If I hire a roofer to redo the roof on my house and he charges me $1000 when it's finished, he can't come back to me 6 months later and say "well, you know what, it turns out that with overtime and extra supplies, it actually ended up costing me $1200, so I'm going to need you to pay me another $200." Yeah, that's gonna happen.

It's not my fault that other people don't pay their bills. It's not my fault you took on additional expense. Don't charge me for things that aren't my fault!

Strange Dream

Okay, so I'm not usually one to remember dreams. Typically they're nothing special and when I wake up, they're gone. But the one I had last night was just odd. Basically, I'm sitting in my apartment, and I get a call from the US gov't, they need me to go to the White House and kill a rat. Yes, a rat. I agree to do it, and now suddenly I'm worried, because mice/rats tend to freak me out. So a helicopter lands outside my building to escort me to the White House. As I'm flying there, I notice a TV in the chopper, and it's showing CNN. So now I'm flying to the White House to kill a rat while watching CNN in a military chopper. I see on CNN, however, the breaking news that 3 UFOs had just crashed on the White House lawn, so now I don't have to go kill the rat. The chopper gets orders to fly me back home, he drops me off, and that's the end of my dream.

Is anyone here a psychologist?

BoreIS on Google

Heh, when you type "BoreIS" into Google, my webpage comes up third on the list.

Granted, the chances of someone randomly typing "BoreIS" into Google are pretty slim, and the chances that the person actually has any interest in it are essentialy null, but I'm still happy. :-}

It's Official....finally

The Simpsons movie will be out on July 27, 2007. It should be interesting to see what they've got planned.

Bird Flu? Mad Cow? Don't Worry.

Soon you'll be able to....

Grow your own meat!

That's right, scientists are growing meat from a handful of cells, they say it tastes like typical processed meat (ie chicken nuggets, hamburger, etc).

Now, I like meat, but growing my own meat in a machine on my kitchen counter isn't something I find particularly appealing.

Song to Memory Correlation

I've been noticing more and more recently that certain songs are conjuring up memories and images for me. Nothing exact or specific, just fleeting images...and a lot of them don't make sense. As an example, right now I'm listening to "Wipe That Smile Off Your Face" by OLP, a song that's essentially an anti-war ballad, and all I can think about is driving around with my arm hanging out the window on a warm summer day...why?

I know you are, but what am I?

You have to love it when a Senator acts like a 4 year old.

You're a doody head

So there's this family from Minnesota that cancelled plans to travel to Canada in protest of the annual seal hunt. Seems reasonable enough, that's a sensible way to protest. In order to get their point across, the family wrote a letter explaining this to all Canadian Senators, saying that they love Canada and have Canadian anscestors, but they would not travel to Canada again if the seal hunt was to continue. Now here's where it gets good. The only senator (capital left out intentionally) to respond was Liberal Celine Hervieux-Payette. She sent a letter to the McLellan family saying, in response to the McLellans finding the seal hunt horrible and inhumaine, that what she finds horrible is

"the daily massacre of innocent people in Iraq, the execution of prisoners – mainly blacks – in American prisons, the massive sale of handguns to Americans, the destabilization of the entire world by the American government's aggressive foreign policy, etc."

She said Americans are not in a position to criticize others. "They must start to look at their own behaviour, the permanent heightening of the planet's insecurity since the election of Bush"

This is one of the most immature and childish things I've ever heard come out of a Canadian politician, and that's saying something. You'd think she was a child. It sounds like something out of a 2nd grade classroom...

Family: we think the seal hunt is inhumaine and will not travel to Canada until it is stopped

senator: your President is stupid

Family: what does that have to do with anything, I'm simply voicing my displeasure with the seal hunt

senator: if you people wouldn't have elected Bush, the world would be a better place

Family: not that it's relevant, but Minnesota voted Democrat in the last 2 elections

senator: you're a stupid head

Lord help us if we're all judged by the actions of the people we elect...not all Americans are megalomaniacs and abusive soldiers, and not all Canadians are baby eating robots or senators with the tact of a child.

Blogging Withdrawl

I haven't blogged in a while, so I thought I'd share the only bit of news I can think of...

My thesis now has a title:

"Using sensor ontologies for real-time reasoning and geotechnical hazard monitoring in a spatial decision support system"

Now that's thesis-y

Awesome Simpsons Video

Someone took the time to recreate the entire intro to the Simpsons with real people, it's almost scary how close it is, even down to the camera angles.

Link

Crazy Hockey Brawl

This is nuts

Towards the end, one guy actually chucks his stick tomahawk-style at another guy.

Hey Hey Let's Go!

Let's Fighting Love

You gotta love South Park.

IEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I'm trying to figure out what the difference is between an "Electronics Engineer" and an "Electrical Engineer". The reason? I referenced the IEEE in my thesis proposal, and found out it stood for the "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers".

Holy redundancy Batman!

Not that there aren't stupid differences in the Earth Sciences either. We have people who are "Hydrographers" and people who are "Hydrologists", and they would likely fight to the death to defend the differences between them...yet both fields of research can be summarized as "Water flows downhill".

Working music

I've found that there are two types of music which are great for getting work done. The stuff I usually listen to isn't really cutting it, it's too distracting. The first thing I've found that I like to work to is the Saxophone Jazz station on AccuRadio. Being a former Saxomophonist, it's great to listen to. It's upbeat but ambient at the same time, perfect for working.

The second group may seem a little nerdy for some people, but it works for me. I've downloaded MIDIs of all the songs from Final Fantasy IV, VI, and VII, Secret Of Mana, and Chrono Trigger. It provides me with good ambient music that's great for working. Not to mention the nostalgia factor. Especially Chrono Trigger...how can you not get pumped up listening to Frog's theme?