Years ago, I remember Chris, Neil and Sascha telling me about how they ended up in the middle of a gypsy clan war when they were hitching through Ireland. As I recall the story -- and please correct me if my memory is tricking me -- but they were in a pub and, as if on cue, everyone else in the pub had started pounding on each other. So they grabbed their pints and snuck out through the kitchen. When they got onto the street they found that fights were spilling out of all of the pubs in sight. Vendors in the market square were prepared and were already defending their stalls against any stray ruffians who might think to add vandalism to the mayhem. One of these vendors informed them that it was a gypsy clan war.
Now, in the present day, one of my new colleagues is also my next-door neighbor. I didn't know this when I got the job. Small world. They were having a bonfire/skating party (the lake is frozen) the other night and I stopped by with the family before we went to bed and we got to chatting about Ireland, where she's from. When I mentioned this anecdote she said, "Oh, I bet that happened in September." Apparently there is a big pagan festival somewhere (she told me where, I didn't recognize the name) in Ireland in late August and old scabs are picked between the Walsh's and the McDonough's. By September there's Hell to pay.
These two clans lost their land during the potato famine and have been "rovers" ever since. The locals call them gypsies, and generally call the Roma by their own name. It's not political correctness, as far as I can tell, it's just that the Walsh's and McDonough's are considered to be more deserving of an epithet than the wandering folk who keep to themselves...
Present company excepted, I'm sure.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Pond Skating
Apparently there were a few people skating out on the lake yesterday afternoon and the kids are sort of eager to go -- me too, to be honest. So I was looking up information on the ice conditions but HRM hasn't started measuring ice depth yet, due to the warm weatherso I moved on to ice safety. Maybe there are some reliable ways to guage the safety of the ice without going out and buying an auger. Probably not.
I got a kick out of the advice found in Safe Sport.co.uk. As far as I can tell it is either some sort of NGO, or a bored parent. Apparently their experience with water is rather limited.
If a friend falls through the ice when pond-skating, do not go out on the ice to help. Instead, you should, "Provide the victim with something to hold onto such as an emptied plastic milk jug or soda pop bottle to keep them afloat. Once safely afloat, toss the person rope or a branch."
Call this a general disclaimer, if you will. If I ever fall through the ice I will not consider you negligent if you skip Step One and jump right into Step Two. If you do happen to have an empty plastic milk jug in your hand (you know who you are) feel free to toss it to me, but don't wait until I am "safely afloat" before proceeding to Step Two. Finally, an "emptied plastic milk jug or soda pop bottle" cannot under any circumstances be substituted with beer, wine or liquor bottles regardless of whether it is in your hand or not.
Play safe, kids!
I got a kick out of the advice found in Safe Sport.co.uk. As far as I can tell it is either some sort of NGO, or a bored parent. Apparently their experience with water is rather limited.
If a friend falls through the ice when pond-skating, do not go out on the ice to help. Instead, you should, "Provide the victim with something to hold onto such as an emptied plastic milk jug or soda pop bottle to keep them afloat. Once safely afloat, toss the person rope or a branch."
Call this a general disclaimer, if you will. If I ever fall through the ice I will not consider you negligent if you skip Step One and jump right into Step Two. If you do happen to have an empty plastic milk jug in your hand (you know who you are) feel free to toss it to me, but don't wait until I am "safely afloat" before proceeding to Step Two. Finally, an "emptied plastic milk jug or soda pop bottle" cannot under any circumstances be substituted with beer, wine or liquor bottles regardless of whether it is in your hand or not.
Play safe, kids!
Stuffy offices
So when I was interviewing for my current job, I was also interviewing for another job (not to be named). On paper the other job was the obvious choice: longer contract, slightly higher pay, etc. But everything was still in the same ball-park as what they were proposing here. But a big part of me was hoping that I wouldn't be offered the other job so I wouldn't have to choose.
You see, during the interview the librarians at this particular firm went on at length about how much that they liked to work hard and put in long hours even on evenings and weekends. They genuinely seemed happy at the thought of 60 hour weeks for 40 hours worth of pay and disapointed that they don't get that opportunity all the time. When I interviewed for this records management position the same sort of story was told: not enough resources, high demands, work hard, sometimes long hours. The difference was that the interviewer didn't sound like he liked that part of the job and wasn't trying to sell me on the position based on how hard I would be allowed to work.
So the culture seemed like a better fit here and I got lucky and they didn't offer me the other job.
My suspicions were confirmed on my first day on the job. The fridge in the lunch room has those random word-magnets for constructing poetry. On my first day it read:
"I worship the darkness
and am consumed with desire
You want me."
Today when I was looking at the in-house coffee options, I noticed that the last line had been changed to:
"Me want you"
A bit more informal and puckish than most offices.
Cheers
You see, during the interview the librarians at this particular firm went on at length about how much that they liked to work hard and put in long hours even on evenings and weekends. They genuinely seemed happy at the thought of 60 hour weeks for 40 hours worth of pay and disapointed that they don't get that opportunity all the time. When I interviewed for this records management position the same sort of story was told: not enough resources, high demands, work hard, sometimes long hours. The difference was that the interviewer didn't sound like he liked that part of the job and wasn't trying to sell me on the position based on how hard I would be allowed to work.
So the culture seemed like a better fit here and I got lucky and they didn't offer me the other job.
My suspicions were confirmed on my first day on the job. The fridge in the lunch room has those random word-magnets for constructing poetry. On my first day it read:
"I worship the darkness
and am consumed with desire
You want me."
Today when I was looking at the in-house coffee options, I noticed that the last line had been changed to:
"Me want you"
A bit more informal and puckish than most offices.
Cheers
Monday, January 22, 2007
Rory Fitzpatrick redux
[Apologies for semi-cross-posting this. It was mostly written as a response to a post over at Jason's Blog.]
There have been recent allegations that the NHL has stuffed it's own ballot box to ensure that Rory Fitzpatrick wasn't voted onto the All Star Game's starting lineup. It's a long story, really, and either you are interested and you know it already or you aren't interested and you don't. In my opinion the ballot stuffing angle is beside the point. Sure some of Rory's fans must have used bots to boost his ballot numbers, but I'm not so naive as to think that fans of Lidstrom and Neidermayer, the two defensemen who ultimately beat out Rory, or even Sakic (what's up with him making the starting line, he hasn't been one of the top 3 forwards for years). So if the NHL did think that they were correcting a systemic injustice by jacking the votes they were probably mistaken. It was just a matter of Rory getting enough support to attract more and better bots than the others.
More to the point, though, the NHL missed out on a glorious marketing opportunity. From the beginning they were spinning the Vote for Rory campaign as an oddity. Gretz said it made the league look like a joke, and Don Cherry (Why doesn't anyone call him Grapes anymore?) said he thought that the campaign for Rory was having fun at his expense -- laughing at him rather than with him. I think that this impression is partly the fault of the league.
I think that the campaign could have been spun as an homage to the grinders and journeymen who will never go to the all star game based on their statistics, but who are essential to the league and to even the most successful teams. In 2004, I was hoping that my Sens would pick up Chris Simon at the trade deadline to add some physicality and passion to an already skilled team. Instead they got Peter Bondra (if I recall correctly) and tanked out in the early rounds of the playoffs. Calgary picked up Simon and made it to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals.
Simon and others will never be in an All Star Game, but I almost voted for Rory because I think that it is classy to have that sort of player represented rather than just the puck-hogs. This sort of happened in 1993 when the league still felt obliged to send one or two players from every team to the All Star Game. The Sens were setting a new standard of dreadful in their first year in the league and there wasn't much to choose from. So they appointed Brad Marsh (originally of London, ON) to represent Ottawa at the game. He was a classy and respected veteran defenseman who managed to score only 23 goals in over 1,000 NHL games and was probably one of the worst skaters ever to play in the NHL. Granted he stuck around for over 1,000 games so he must have been doing something right, he just wasn't the sort of player that put up a lot of numbers and he didn't look too stylish doing it.
Ottawa fans loved him in the same way that the Buffalo fan who started the Vote for Rory campaign loves Rory Fitzpatrick -- not for his grace, skill or pinache, but because he worked hard and was humble without apologizing for his success. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
The only goal that Brad Marsh scored in the 1992-93 season was during the All Star Game. 'Nuff said.
Cheers
PS I could only find one image of Brad Marsh in a Sens sweater, but it was too small. Oh yeah, and the league sent Sens goalie Peter Sidorkiewicz to the 1993 All Star Game as well. He really wasn't that good, but he was the best player on the team.
There have been recent allegations that the NHL has stuffed it's own ballot box to ensure that Rory Fitzpatrick wasn't voted onto the All Star Game's starting lineup. It's a long story, really, and either you are interested and you know it already or you aren't interested and you don't. In my opinion the ballot stuffing angle is beside the point. Sure some of Rory's fans must have used bots to boost his ballot numbers, but I'm not so naive as to think that fans of Lidstrom and Neidermayer, the two defensemen who ultimately beat out Rory, or even Sakic (what's up with him making the starting line, he hasn't been one of the top 3 forwards for years). So if the NHL did think that they were correcting a systemic injustice by jacking the votes they were probably mistaken. It was just a matter of Rory getting enough support to attract more and better bots than the others.
More to the point, though, the NHL missed out on a glorious marketing opportunity. From the beginning they were spinning the Vote for Rory campaign as an oddity. Gretz said it made the league look like a joke, and Don Cherry (Why doesn't anyone call him Grapes anymore?) said he thought that the campaign for Rory was having fun at his expense -- laughing at him rather than with him. I think that this impression is partly the fault of the league.
I think that the campaign could have been spun as an homage to the grinders and journeymen who will never go to the all star game based on their statistics, but who are essential to the league and to even the most successful teams. In 2004, I was hoping that my Sens would pick up Chris Simon at the trade deadline to add some physicality and passion to an already skilled team. Instead they got Peter Bondra (if I recall correctly) and tanked out in the early rounds of the playoffs. Calgary picked up Simon and made it to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals.
Simon and others will never be in an All Star Game, but I almost voted for Rory because I think that it is classy to have that sort of player represented rather than just the puck-hogs. This sort of happened in 1993 when the league still felt obliged to send one or two players from every team to the All Star Game. The Sens were setting a new standard of dreadful in their first year in the league and there wasn't much to choose from. So they appointed Brad Marsh (originally of London, ON) to represent Ottawa at the game. He was a classy and respected veteran defenseman who managed to score only 23 goals in over 1,000 NHL games and was probably one of the worst skaters ever to play in the NHL. Granted he stuck around for over 1,000 games so he must have been doing something right, he just wasn't the sort of player that put up a lot of numbers and he didn't look too stylish doing it.
Ottawa fans loved him in the same way that the Buffalo fan who started the Vote for Rory campaign loves Rory Fitzpatrick -- not for his grace, skill or pinache, but because he worked hard and was humble without apologizing for his success. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
The only goal that Brad Marsh scored in the 1992-93 season was during the All Star Game. 'Nuff said.
Cheers
PS I could only find one image of Brad Marsh in a Sens sweater, but it was too small. Oh yeah, and the league sent Sens goalie Peter Sidorkiewicz to the 1993 All Star Game as well. He really wasn't that good, but he was the best player on the team.
Budding Superstars?
Connor and Mika had their first real ringette game yesterday. They played down the South Shore a bit near Upper Tantallon. That's not too far from Peggy's Cove, if you need an iconic landmark, and out here you never seem to be too far from an iconic landmark.
Connor started in goal and Mika was a roving forward -- at that age all of the skaters are roving forwards, really. Mika really threw herself into it and battled for the puck, er, ring on every shift. She's a bit smaller than most of the others so she didn't win any of the battles really. The league that she's in covers 5-7 years olds with a few 8 year olds thrown in. So I was proud of her that she could keep up with the flow of play. The fact that she touched the ring at all was a success.
Connor loves playing nets but has only been practicing with the big pads for a couple weeks now. He seems to understand the position well enough for his age -- he doesn't flop around in the crease, but will dive or butterfly at more or less the right times. He has to work on staying at the top of his crease, though. There are a lot of breakaways and two-on-no-one breaks at this age and he tends to back up when someone is breaking in on him alone from the blue line.
He lost the game 3-2, and doesn't really like losing but I told him before the game that he was playing a good team (rumour had it that they actually new their positions, and they did) and that if he only let in 3 or 4 goals he would have done his job. I would estimate that 80% of the game was played in his zone and he made more than half a dozen really good saves. So he wasn't taking it too hard, but still felt motivated to get better at it.
The next teams that played finished with final scores of 7-3 and 8-2, so his stats were good despite the loss.
Connor started in goal and Mika was a roving forward -- at that age all of the skaters are roving forwards, really. Mika really threw herself into it and battled for the puck, er, ring on every shift. She's a bit smaller than most of the others so she didn't win any of the battles really. The league that she's in covers 5-7 years olds with a few 8 year olds thrown in. So I was proud of her that she could keep up with the flow of play. The fact that she touched the ring at all was a success.
Connor loves playing nets but has only been practicing with the big pads for a couple weeks now. He seems to understand the position well enough for his age -- he doesn't flop around in the crease, but will dive or butterfly at more or less the right times. He has to work on staying at the top of his crease, though. There are a lot of breakaways and two-on-no-one breaks at this age and he tends to back up when someone is breaking in on him alone from the blue line.
He lost the game 3-2, and doesn't really like losing but I told him before the game that he was playing a good team (rumour had it that they actually new their positions, and they did) and that if he only let in 3 or 4 goals he would have done his job. I would estimate that 80% of the game was played in his zone and he made more than half a dozen really good saves. So he wasn't taking it too hard, but still felt motivated to get better at it.
The next teams that played finished with final scores of 7-3 and 8-2, so his stats were good despite the loss.
Gainfully Employed
Hi all, sorry for the lack of posts. I started working at the Nova Scotia provincial NDP caucus last week and have been a bit busier than usual. Not that I haven't had time to post a short note here and there, but I haven't had much to say. Life has pretty much settled into a busy (and messy) version of leafy-suburban bliss. In other words, fun enough but not much that anyone else would find interesting to read about.
My job is a 3-4 month contract, so I'm still looking for work (send leads, please) but it is pretty interesting and I've been clear right from the interview that the amount of work they want done probably can't be accomplished in that time-frame. Having no experience in records management - and having been neglecting the system for nearly a decade - they had good reason to believe me. In a nutshell, I'm revamping their records management system and it is as much of a mess as they thought. I've already recommended that they tear it down and start from scratch, then buy some software to help them out. It always surprises me how organizations that deal exclusively with information put so little thought/time/resources into managing that information.
So it feels good to be working. It feels even better to be working in a place that recognizes me as the expert I am. Now if only I could jerry-rig a self-cleaning kitchen, all would be perfect.
Cheers
My job is a 3-4 month contract, so I'm still looking for work (send leads, please) but it is pretty interesting and I've been clear right from the interview that the amount of work they want done probably can't be accomplished in that time-frame. Having no experience in records management - and having been neglecting the system for nearly a decade - they had good reason to believe me. In a nutshell, I'm revamping their records management system and it is as much of a mess as they thought. I've already recommended that they tear it down and start from scratch, then buy some software to help them out. It always surprises me how organizations that deal exclusively with information put so little thought/time/resources into managing that information.
So it feels good to be working. It feels even better to be working in a place that recognizes me as the expert I am. Now if only I could jerry-rig a self-cleaning kitchen, all would be perfect.
Cheers
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
The Hinterland of Violence
Cate used to joke about how the first time she visited my home town it seemed like every landmark I pointed out was significant because of a murder that took place there. I'd always considered Smiths Falls to be a tough town compared to Merrickville or Perth (but not Kemptville) but not extraordinarily so. Sort of started to seem that way, though.
When I was in Smiths Falls earlier this week, I stopped by the library (an old Carnegie Library that has been recently renovated) and found a very comprehensive book on the town's history: Glenn J. Lockwood's Smiths Falls: a social history [...], 1794-1994. One chapter is titled, "The Hinterland of Violence" and it turns out that this reputation for violence is niether new, nor entirely unfounded.
During the early 19th century, when the village sprung up based on the building of the Rideau Canal and the railways, "The village on the Rideau acquired a notorious reputation for rowdiness, lawlessness and crime that was largely based on fact." (p. 214)
"[An] inhabitant complained in 1860 that most young men in Smith's Falls gathered together in a thieves' convention at the combined locks every Sabbath where 'grown up youths bathe and expose themselves' and where during 'Divine Service the devils work is planned and executed.'" The devil's work included "[t]heiving, swearing, yankee slang, shouting and unearthly screeches."
Various gruesome fights are mentioned, including "an assault by one man on another with a broken-bladed jack-knife during a quarrel while 'playing cards and drinking at a low groggery' in 1864." Apparently he was not, however, a member of of the gang of ruffians that the the Ottawa and Perth newspapers incorrectly refered to as the "Slashers". Everyone at the time knew they were called the "Thrashers".
120 years later, when I lived here not much had changed really. The town has grown much larger so there isn't really a mono-culture of crime, just a sub-culture, and it has mostly shifted away from the canal to the neighborhoods near the rail-yards (i.e. the other side of the tracks). But the young men, toothless and tattoo'd, still hang out on the corner of Beckwith and Main swearing, shouting and using Yankee slang, and the fights spill out of the bars on a regular basis.
Not really much point to this rambling either, just something I thought might be of interest to my friends who grew up there.
Cheers
PS Is "low groggery" British or "yankee slang"?
When I was in Smiths Falls earlier this week, I stopped by the library (an old Carnegie Library that has been recently renovated) and found a very comprehensive book on the town's history: Glenn J. Lockwood's Smiths Falls: a social history [...], 1794-1994. One chapter is titled, "The Hinterland of Violence" and it turns out that this reputation for violence is niether new, nor entirely unfounded.
During the early 19th century, when the village sprung up based on the building of the Rideau Canal and the railways, "The village on the Rideau acquired a notorious reputation for rowdiness, lawlessness and crime that was largely based on fact." (p. 214)
"[An] inhabitant complained in 1860 that most young men in Smith's Falls gathered together in a thieves' convention at the combined locks every Sabbath where 'grown up youths bathe and expose themselves' and where during 'Divine Service the devils work is planned and executed.'" The devil's work included "[t]heiving, swearing, yankee slang, shouting and unearthly screeches."
Various gruesome fights are mentioned, including "an assault by one man on another with a broken-bladed jack-knife during a quarrel while 'playing cards and drinking at a low groggery' in 1864." Apparently he was not, however, a member of of the gang of ruffians that the the Ottawa and Perth newspapers incorrectly refered to as the "Slashers". Everyone at the time knew they were called the "Thrashers".
120 years later, when I lived here not much had changed really. The town has grown much larger so there isn't really a mono-culture of crime, just a sub-culture, and it has mostly shifted away from the canal to the neighborhoods near the rail-yards (i.e. the other side of the tracks). But the young men, toothless and tattoo'd, still hang out on the corner of Beckwith and Main swearing, shouting and using Yankee slang, and the fights spill out of the bars on a regular basis.
Not really much point to this rambling either, just something I thought might be of interest to my friends who grew up there.
Cheers
PS Is "low groggery" British or "yankee slang"?
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Nothing to see here, move along.
Not that this information is for anyone in particular... but if one of my friends did happen to mention that they might be interested, here it is.
The best vasectomy doctor in Ottawa
Cheers
PS Chris, that triple-bock wheat beer is truly the Devil's drink. Actually, I'm not sure that he'd want someone's soul after drinking a few pints of that.
Mike
The best vasectomy doctor in Ottawa
Cheers
PS Chris, that triple-bock wheat beer is truly the Devil's drink. Actually, I'm not sure that he'd want someone's soul after drinking a few pints of that.
Mike
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Pyromania
No not the Def Leppard album, Renee.
This link is more for Brad.
How to start a fire with a chocolate bar and a coke can.
Cheers
PS Yes, this is a placeholder post, to fill in until I have time/inspiration to actually write something.
This link is more for Brad.
How to start a fire with a chocolate bar and a coke can.
Cheers
PS Yes, this is a placeholder post, to fill in until I have time/inspiration to actually write something.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Sort of out of touch
Hi all, sorry it's been quiet in this here space. It's been hard getting internet time for the past week or two.
I've picked up a few weeks work at the Canadian Housing Information Centre in Ottawa, so I've flown back with the kids for the holidays. Cate will be following as soon as her exams are finished. I figured that a few weeks here would make me as much money as a few months working at McDonalds -- even after airfare, etc. -- and the kids get to see their friends and family at the holidays.
But I'm sort of hard to get ahold of while I'm in town. Actually, this is the best way to reach me. I can't access web-mail at work, but I can read blogs, so if you leave a reply to this message I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
It's been a busy couple weeks. I got the idea on a Wednesday, made the calls Thursday, got hired Friday, told them I couldn't start Monday (they weren't paying me *that* much), flew out Tuesday morning, started work in Ottawa Wednesday morning. I figure that I'll catch my breath just in time for the manic energy of Christmas/New Years.
Take care one and all.
I'll talk to you soon.
Cheers
I've picked up a few weeks work at the Canadian Housing Information Centre in Ottawa, so I've flown back with the kids for the holidays. Cate will be following as soon as her exams are finished. I figured that a few weeks here would make me as much money as a few months working at McDonalds -- even after airfare, etc. -- and the kids get to see their friends and family at the holidays.
But I'm sort of hard to get ahold of while I'm in town. Actually, this is the best way to reach me. I can't access web-mail at work, but I can read blogs, so if you leave a reply to this message I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
It's been a busy couple weeks. I got the idea on a Wednesday, made the calls Thursday, got hired Friday, told them I couldn't start Monday (they weren't paying me *that* much), flew out Tuesday morning, started work in Ottawa Wednesday morning. I figure that I'll catch my breath just in time for the manic energy of Christmas/New Years.
Take care one and all.
I'll talk to you soon.
Cheers
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Engineers vs Librarians
So to pick up a few extra bucks, I've been marking papers for one of Cate's advisors. It's a third year engineering class. I haven't taken a science class since grade 10 and flunked out of grade 11 advanced math. This falls in line with my philosophy that if they're dumb enough to hire me, I'm smart enough to do the job.
The course is on sustainability and other such issues in engineering so it isn't as math heavy as most engineering, I'm sure. It is mostly essay questions about environmental footprints and resource conservation.
I would love to rant about how poor the writing is, but the range is probably similar to any other cohort in any other discipline of undergrad. What I found funny was that the first thing I did when I started marking the first batch of assignments was to run an arbitrary (but not entirely random) sentence or two through Google to check for plagiarism. Of course I found a handful. I think that it worked out to between 5%-10% of the total number of assignments. Entire paragraphs cut and pasted without quotation marks, let alone attribution.*
Wikipedia was the most common souce, but it was just a significant minority.
So when I asked the prof whether I should bother to mark the papers with significant plagiarism she was rather taken aback: "I don't think that anyone has ever checked for plagiarism before. I wouldn't even know how to do it."
Engineers 0, Librarians 1.
Cheers
*Actually few included any sort of sources for their work. I became so jaded that I would only dock marks if they presented statistics or quantitative facts without acknowledging any outside sources. I mean, either they just made up the numbers, which is stupid, or they got them from someone else. Duh!
On this batch, I'm actually adding 5% for anyone who has included any indication that they refered to outside sources. I think that's more fair. I know that almost every one of them refered to outside sources -- well, except the ones who wrote really awful papers -- but I would be hard pressed to point to specific sentences that would prove it. So the ones who do cite their sources get a bonus to differentiate the good guys from the bad guys.
MT
The course is on sustainability and other such issues in engineering so it isn't as math heavy as most engineering, I'm sure. It is mostly essay questions about environmental footprints and resource conservation.
I would love to rant about how poor the writing is, but the range is probably similar to any other cohort in any other discipline of undergrad. What I found funny was that the first thing I did when I started marking the first batch of assignments was to run an arbitrary (but not entirely random) sentence or two through Google to check for plagiarism. Of course I found a handful. I think that it worked out to between 5%-10% of the total number of assignments. Entire paragraphs cut and pasted without quotation marks, let alone attribution.*
Wikipedia was the most common souce, but it was just a significant minority.
So when I asked the prof whether I should bother to mark the papers with significant plagiarism she was rather taken aback: "I don't think that anyone has ever checked for plagiarism before. I wouldn't even know how to do it."
Engineers 0, Librarians 1.
Cheers
*Actually few included any sort of sources for their work. I became so jaded that I would only dock marks if they presented statistics or quantitative facts without acknowledging any outside sources. I mean, either they just made up the numbers, which is stupid, or they got them from someone else. Duh!
On this batch, I'm actually adding 5% for anyone who has included any indication that they refered to outside sources. I think that's more fair. I know that almost every one of them refered to outside sources -- well, except the ones who wrote really awful papers -- but I would be hard pressed to point to specific sentences that would prove it. So the ones who do cite their sources get a bonus to differentiate the good guys from the bad guys.
MT
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Combustion and Comestibles
Yep. A new feature here on our show is favorite foods. Today I'm going to talk about smoked foods. Yeah. I'm killing time for 5 minutes until I take the kids to a birthday party. And we went to the market yesterday.
1. Have you ever been sitting around the campfire and thought, "that smells so good I wish I could eat it." Now you can. Russian double-smoked sausage is the closest thing you can get to chewing on a burning cedar log. Minus the heat, of course.
2. My brother-in-law's smoked trout. Vaughn sent me a bottle in September and it was awesome. I forced myself and the kids to only eat tiny bits at a time, like candy, so it would last longer. Apparently he just uses plain old brown sugar to sweeten it during the smoking process, but it tastes better than any maple or honey smoked meat from the store. Also, trout is a strong tasting fish, but not as strong as salmon, so all of the flavors blend a bit more.
3. Cold-smoked mackerel. I just picked this up at the market yesterday and haven't actually tried it yet, but it comes whole and intact, so it actually looks like a meal.
edit: Just tried it. Very good. Extra-smoky. If you like fish on the oily side it is excellent, your enjoyment will drop from there depending on your tastes.
4. Smoked brie -- 'nuff said. (Brie is cold-smoked, too.)
5. Montreal-style smoked-meat. Interestingly, I've never had really great smoked meat in Montreal. I'm sure it's there, but I'm always going after other tastes when I'm there. I've only had it once and it seemd fine, but not dramatic.
6. Prosciutto. Love the taste, better than Montreal-style but I find the stringy fat impossible to chew. Too much work for the taste.
7. Edit 2: How could I forget smoked mussels and oysters? I guess it's because I tend to think of them as being in the pickle family more than the smoked-food family. Must be the oil that they are packaged in. One of my favorite snack foods, made even better by the fact that the kids like it too.
So there's my Sunday morning diversion.
Cheers
1. Have you ever been sitting around the campfire and thought, "that smells so good I wish I could eat it." Now you can. Russian double-smoked sausage is the closest thing you can get to chewing on a burning cedar log. Minus the heat, of course.
2. My brother-in-law's smoked trout. Vaughn sent me a bottle in September and it was awesome. I forced myself and the kids to only eat tiny bits at a time, like candy, so it would last longer. Apparently he just uses plain old brown sugar to sweeten it during the smoking process, but it tastes better than any maple or honey smoked meat from the store. Also, trout is a strong tasting fish, but not as strong as salmon, so all of the flavors blend a bit more.
3. Cold-smoked mackerel. I just picked this up at the market yesterday and haven't actually tried it yet, but it comes whole and intact, so it actually looks like a meal.
edit: Just tried it. Very good. Extra-smoky. If you like fish on the oily side it is excellent, your enjoyment will drop from there depending on your tastes.
4. Smoked brie -- 'nuff said. (Brie is cold-smoked, too.)
5. Montreal-style smoked-meat. Interestingly, I've never had really great smoked meat in Montreal. I'm sure it's there, but I'm always going after other tastes when I'm there. I've only had it once and it seemd fine, but not dramatic.
6. Prosciutto. Love the taste, better than Montreal-style but I find the stringy fat impossible to chew. Too much work for the taste.
7. Edit 2: How could I forget smoked mussels and oysters? I guess it's because I tend to think of them as being in the pickle family more than the smoked-food family. Must be the oil that they are packaged in. One of my favorite snack foods, made even better by the fact that the kids like it too.
So there's my Sunday morning diversion.
Cheers
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Breakfast at TIffany's
I was watching Dragon earlier this evening. It's not entirely unpleasant, but don't rush out to rent it unless you are already a Bruce Lee fan. What hooked my mind was the scene where he and his future wife are watching Breakfast at Tiffany's and as code for her love for him/cultural awakening she suggests that they leave half-way through. Whether or not this actually happened in Bruce Lee's life, it does highlight one of the low points in depictions of Asians in the cinema. Not only is the Chinese neighbour in Breakfast at Tiffany's only there for comic relief he's played by... Mickey Rooney. Yep, complete with over-sized dental prosthesis.
But you know, otherwise, I liked the movie and loved the book. So I was thinking that this is a movie that really deserves to be remade. The Chinese comic relief isn't necessary except when you are trying to turn a low-key social study into a romantic comedy. I'd rather see the relationship between these friends develop than yet another love-affair blossom. And really, they aren't even close friends -- she doesn't tell him about... Oh, you haven't seen it? Okay...
There are a lot of movies that have benefited from going back to the source material and starting over. (cf. Jude the Obscure/Jude, or West Side Story/Romeo and Julliet) Not that it would have to be slavishly bound to the book, but a remake doesn't need to hide the fact that in Breakfast at Tiffany's "Fred"/Truman is gay. So the love story is out. Er, so to speak.
So I was trying to think about who I would cast as Holly Golightly and "Fred" Varjak -- Yes, the quotation marks are in the credits. And as mainstreamish as it sounds, I think that Scarlett Johansson would be perfect as Miss Golighly. Audrey Hepburn was great and all (even a milquetoast version of Ingrid Bergman is a classic) but no one ever really bought her story of being from Texas -- she was just too comfortable in the smart set. When her... Oh yeah. Would you just go out and rent it already! But Scarlet Johansson is probably able to pull off all three aspects of the character: socialite, bohemian and yokel. The yokel part has to be just under the surface, though, so you don't notice it until just the right time.
The tougher part is casting "Fred". He has to be gay, as in the book, but not Truman Capote. That would be an interesting movie on its own merits. Probably a better documentary, though. Capote chose a more neutral character for his body-double. But the actor has to be able to communicate his own sense of lost youth and his envy of youthfulness while at the same time realizing more and more concretely that he doesn't want to be young again. Sort of like Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation".
Waitaminute.
Okay, Bill's too old for the part but it does sort of fit. Yeah, the character isn't gay either, but he's unavailable through being married and being a lot older than Scarlet Johansson. That does create the right distance though. He isn't after sex, he's after vibrance and that needs to be clear. It takes two social taboos to roughly equal one pheremonal inevitability, but details aside I can really understand Lost in Translation as a variation on the theme of Breakfast at Tiffany's.
I would still set my remake in the 1950s, though. The past is much better at suggesting timelessness than Japan is. Er, again, maybe not.
I should quit while I'm ahead.
Cheers
PS As great as he is, Johnny Depp should never, ever play "Fred". Chime in with any suggestions if you have 'em.
Anyone... C'mon, someone's got to have seen it.
But you know, otherwise, I liked the movie and loved the book. So I was thinking that this is a movie that really deserves to be remade. The Chinese comic relief isn't necessary except when you are trying to turn a low-key social study into a romantic comedy. I'd rather see the relationship between these friends develop than yet another love-affair blossom. And really, they aren't even close friends -- she doesn't tell him about... Oh, you haven't seen it? Okay...
There are a lot of movies that have benefited from going back to the source material and starting over. (cf. Jude the Obscure/Jude, or West Side Story/Romeo and Julliet) Not that it would have to be slavishly bound to the book, but a remake doesn't need to hide the fact that in Breakfast at Tiffany's "Fred"/Truman is gay. So the love story is out. Er, so to speak.
So I was trying to think about who I would cast as Holly Golightly and "Fred" Varjak -- Yes, the quotation marks are in the credits. And as mainstreamish as it sounds, I think that Scarlett Johansson would be perfect as Miss Golighly. Audrey Hepburn was great and all (even a milquetoast version of Ingrid Bergman is a classic) but no one ever really bought her story of being from Texas -- she was just too comfortable in the smart set. When her... Oh yeah. Would you just go out and rent it already! But Scarlet Johansson is probably able to pull off all three aspects of the character: socialite, bohemian and yokel. The yokel part has to be just under the surface, though, so you don't notice it until just the right time.
The tougher part is casting "Fred". He has to be gay, as in the book, but not Truman Capote. That would be an interesting movie on its own merits. Probably a better documentary, though. Capote chose a more neutral character for his body-double. But the actor has to be able to communicate his own sense of lost youth and his envy of youthfulness while at the same time realizing more and more concretely that he doesn't want to be young again. Sort of like Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation".
Waitaminute.
Okay, Bill's too old for the part but it does sort of fit. Yeah, the character isn't gay either, but he's unavailable through being married and being a lot older than Scarlet Johansson. That does create the right distance though. He isn't after sex, he's after vibrance and that needs to be clear. It takes two social taboos to roughly equal one pheremonal inevitability, but details aside I can really understand Lost in Translation as a variation on the theme of Breakfast at Tiffany's.
I would still set my remake in the 1950s, though. The past is much better at suggesting timelessness than Japan is. Er, again, maybe not.
I should quit while I'm ahead.
Cheers
PS As great as he is, Johnny Depp should never, ever play "Fred". Chime in with any suggestions if you have 'em.
Anyone... C'mon, someone's got to have seen it.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Friday, November 17, 2006
Twisted Video of the Week
Okay, so all of you hipsters are probably way ahead of me on this one...
But this is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. Moby is a genius and paired with Debbie Harry. There's nothing wrong with that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbQNgOKzZh8
Cheers
But this is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. Moby is a genius and paired with Debbie Harry. There's nothing wrong with that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbQNgOKzZh8
Cheers
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
The Ethics of Dancing
So, is it wrong to encourage your kids to appreciate the talent of a young man who has turned out to be a creepy middle-aged man, even if the talent and creepiness are not directly related?
Earlier this evening when listening to some music with the kids a Jackson 5 song tipped the random shuffle and we were dancing around the kitchen. Little Michael Jackson was around Connor's age when this particular song was a hit and it seemed innocent enough. I mentioned to them that the singer was also known as a great dancer and they wanted to see for themselves. Now, little Michael Jackson could hoof it best of 'em but it was "Thriller" era MJ that really cemented his reputation in all respects -- at least in all of the ways worth remembering.
In 1983, when I was 15, I didn't see his performance at the Motown 25th anniversary concert when it aired on TV. But within days I saw it through the magic of betamax -- my friends Phillip and Alan were gushing about it and showed me the clip ASAP. As an aging hipster wannabe, I hate to admit that I was entranced for awhile as anyone by Jackson's unique and charismatic style. That performance of Billie Jean was the beginning of Michael-mania. In the annals of popular music it is probably in the same ball-park as the Beatles first American tour and Elvis Presley's first Sun Studios sessions -- watershed moments that both defined the course of popular music for a generation of teens (i.e. a 5 year era), and the bathos of that course's decay.
The Beatles demise was not as sad or twisted as that of the King or MJ, but it was still a product of the fact that they deserved the feral adulation of millions at the beginning. At least that was my opinion. I wanted to know what two kids (aged 8 and 5) who know nothing about Michael Jackson, then or now, thought of that performance. After all, I lived through the backlash as well and was a Jackson hater (even before the unsubstantiated but probably too-close-to-the-truth accusations began to circulate) for many years before I managed to start appreciate his early work with the Jackson 5. I've spent a lot of years considering him to be a media-darling, not a talented entertainer. So I looked that performance up on YouTube and played it for them.
Mika couldn't stop moving to the music and they both watched silently, but intently through the entire performance -- until he broke into that moonwalk. Then they gasped and fluttered in the joy of witnessing a miracle of art. They made me replay it and needed reassurance that it was not special effects, just talent. In short, I know that this is just anecdotal evidence and my fingers are burning as I type this but, I think that Michael Jackson just might be timeless.
But don't worry, that doesn't mean that you have to start liking him any more than you like Elvis or the Beatles. I'm just lobbying for grudging respect for the talent that opened the door to the creepiness that was to follow.
Yeah, slow news day.
Cheers
Check it out here if you haven't clicked above.
PS Mika's both fashion conscious and observant. Half-way through the clip she asked in entranced bafflement, "Why's he only wearing one glove?"
Earlier this evening when listening to some music with the kids a Jackson 5 song tipped the random shuffle and we were dancing around the kitchen. Little Michael Jackson was around Connor's age when this particular song was a hit and it seemed innocent enough. I mentioned to them that the singer was also known as a great dancer and they wanted to see for themselves. Now, little Michael Jackson could hoof it best of 'em but it was "Thriller" era MJ that really cemented his reputation in all respects -- at least in all of the ways worth remembering.
In 1983, when I was 15, I didn't see his performance at the Motown 25th anniversary concert when it aired on TV. But within days I saw it through the magic of betamax -- my friends Phillip and Alan were gushing about it and showed me the clip ASAP. As an aging hipster wannabe, I hate to admit that I was entranced for awhile as anyone by Jackson's unique and charismatic style. That performance of Billie Jean was the beginning of Michael-mania. In the annals of popular music it is probably in the same ball-park as the Beatles first American tour and Elvis Presley's first Sun Studios sessions -- watershed moments that both defined the course of popular music for a generation of teens (i.e. a 5 year era), and the bathos of that course's decay.
The Beatles demise was not as sad or twisted as that of the King or MJ, but it was still a product of the fact that they deserved the feral adulation of millions at the beginning. At least that was my opinion. I wanted to know what two kids (aged 8 and 5) who know nothing about Michael Jackson, then or now, thought of that performance. After all, I lived through the backlash as well and was a Jackson hater (even before the unsubstantiated but probably too-close-to-the-truth accusations began to circulate) for many years before I managed to start appreciate his early work with the Jackson 5. I've spent a lot of years considering him to be a media-darling, not a talented entertainer. So I looked that performance up on YouTube and played it for them.
Mika couldn't stop moving to the music and they both watched silently, but intently through the entire performance -- until he broke into that moonwalk. Then they gasped and fluttered in the joy of witnessing a miracle of art. They made me replay it and needed reassurance that it was not special effects, just talent. In short, I know that this is just anecdotal evidence and my fingers are burning as I type this but, I think that Michael Jackson just might be timeless.
But don't worry, that doesn't mean that you have to start liking him any more than you like Elvis or the Beatles. I'm just lobbying for grudging respect for the talent that opened the door to the creepiness that was to follow.
Yeah, slow news day.
Cheers
Check it out here if you haven't clicked above.
PS Mika's both fashion conscious and observant. Half-way through the clip she asked in entranced bafflement, "Why's he only wearing one glove?"
Monday, November 06, 2006
Hockey on the Web
I just found this!! It's a godsend for Hockey fans without TV access, or access to Canadian TV at least. The "current" games are uploaded two or three days after the original broadcast, so if there's a game you have in mind you have to avoid reading the box-scores for a few days. But there are no commercials and you can pause it whenever you want.
As an added bonus there are some classic games that you can watch. The '79 Conference final between Montreal and Boston is a great one. I intend to watch the '89 Stanley Cup final between Montreal and Calgary sometime soon. They also have the '93 game seven between Toronto and L.A., but I remember that one too clearly still. And the wrong side won. Then again, Cate's a Boston fan so she probably disagrees with my assessment of the '79 Montreal/Boston game.
Anyway, I had something for Cate and the gals a few posts ago. This one is for Cate and the lads.
Hockey on the Web
Cheers
As an added bonus there are some classic games that you can watch. The '79 Conference final between Montreal and Boston is a great one. I intend to watch the '89 Stanley Cup final between Montreal and Calgary sometime soon. They also have the '93 game seven between Toronto and L.A., but I remember that one too clearly still. And the wrong side won. Then again, Cate's a Boston fan so she probably disagrees with my assessment of the '79 Montreal/Boston game.
Anyway, I had something for Cate and the gals a few posts ago. This one is for Cate and the lads.
Hockey on the Web
Cheers
Quick catch-up
I wish I had more detailed updates. Things are good. Halloween was fun. Mika was half crazed with desire for candy and rocketed between houses. Connor had fun, but would have gladly gone home after 20 minutes or an hour. He wasn't grumpy or sour at all, just not all that into it.
I had a job interview at Halifax Public Library last week. It was for an Head Cataloguer position, which is exactly what I want. I think that the interview part went well, grueling but well. It was close to 2 1/2 hours. Then I sort of lost it on the test. It was another two hours, and I could have kept going for another half an hour or an hour but I had to go pick up the kids from school. All told it was 4 1/2 hours from 10:00 to 2:30 with no lunch. So I'm usually pretty good at cataloguing, but by the time I got to the test I wasn't at my best so who knows what the results were like.
I'll keep my fingers crossed. At least I'm getting interviews. I have another one tomorrow at the NS Legislative Library. It's a reference position, but it should be an interesting collection.
I had a job interview at Halifax Public Library last week. It was for an Head Cataloguer position, which is exactly what I want. I think that the interview part went well, grueling but well. It was close to 2 1/2 hours. Then I sort of lost it on the test. It was another two hours, and I could have kept going for another half an hour or an hour but I had to go pick up the kids from school. All told it was 4 1/2 hours from 10:00 to 2:30 with no lunch. So I'm usually pretty good at cataloguing, but by the time I got to the test I wasn't at my best so who knows what the results were like.
I'll keep my fingers crossed. At least I'm getting interviews. I have another one tomorrow at the NS Legislative Library. It's a reference position, but it should be an interesting collection.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Halifax Shoes
The kids pointed out to me today that there are a lot shoes in Halifax hanging on telephone lines. We counted 5 separate incidences on our drive down to the Commons this afternoon. That's not five pairs of shoes, just five sightings. One wire had two pairs and the one in the Commons had about a dozen pairs.
I'm almost afraid to ask the locals what's up with that?
I'm almost afraid to ask the locals what's up with that?
New Tom Waits album
I know that he's not to everyone's taste, but this three disk set of rarities and new material sounds excellent.
Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards is in stores Novemeberish.
Here's what he has to say about it:
"Orphans [contains] rough and tender tunes. Rumbas about mermaids, shuffles about train wrecks, tarantellas about insects, madrigals about drowning.
"Scared, mean, orphaned songs of rapture and melancholy. Songs that grew up hard. Songs of dubious origin rescued from cruel fate and now left wanting only to be cared for. Show that you are not afraid and take them home. They don't bite, they just need attention."
I dig his act.
Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards is in stores Novemeberish.
Here's what he has to say about it:
"Orphans [contains] rough and tender tunes. Rumbas about mermaids, shuffles about train wrecks, tarantellas about insects, madrigals about drowning.
"Scared, mean, orphaned songs of rapture and melancholy. Songs that grew up hard. Songs of dubious origin rescued from cruel fate and now left wanting only to be cared for. Show that you are not afraid and take them home. They don't bite, they just need attention."
I dig his act.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
