Archive for November, 2006
November 30, 2006 at 10:19 am · Filed under Geeky
You can get anything online these days, even radioactive isotopes.
Not having any current need for uranium ore but having an inexplicable fascination with magnets, I headed over to their magnets page instead. Now I love strong magnets, but these might be too much even for me:
Beware - you must think ahead when moving these magnets.
If carrying one into another room, carefully plan the route you will be taking. Computers & monitors will be affected in an entire room. Loose metallic objects and other magnets may become airborne and fly considerable distances - and at great speed - to attach themselves to this magnet. If you get caught in between the two, you can get injured.
And it gets worse:
Take Note: Two Super magnets can very easily get out of control and break fingers and even your arm if opposing poles fly at each other.
How do they ship these things??
November 29, 2006 at 10:57 am · Filed under General
For the moving sale we had recently, Jen carefully prepared a whole bunch of “surprise” gift bags containing various useless paper products and other goodies. We were selling them for $1 each.
They did not sell well.
We needed to get rid of them, so I decided to take them to work and hand them out to my colleagues. I got as far as the train and decided the bag was too heavy to carry all the way to work. My solution was to hand the gift bags out to all the people sitting in my chosen train car.
I guess in this cynical world we live in people don’t expect to get something for nothing, so I received many bemused looks. It seemed as though most people thought I was a complete weirdo or I was selling something. Some people even refused my offer.
Out of about 40 people I gave bags to I got about 5 thank yous. The people who said thank you were invariably under 16. Do we get less polite as we get older?
November 28, 2006 at 11:59 am · Filed under Games
I forgot the camera, so this is another descriptive one, maybe Greg will get out there with his camera again.
The rules: Identify the location from my description. Go there, photograph it if you wish, find the book hidden there and go register the catch at bookcrossing.com. Don’t forget to leave a comment here telling us where you found it.
Today you have to find a statue of Queen Victoria (there are more than one in Montreal, so you’d better hope you find the right one!). When you’re there, walk south (try not to get run over) until you come to a small alley that goes nowhere. At the end of the alley is some steps. The book is under the steps.
Happy Hunting.
November 24, 2006 at 8:48 am · Filed under Family+Friends
As some of my loyal readers know, my Dad died earlier this year. He was suffering from a rare blood condition called amyloidosis and was in hospital for stem cell treatment when his condition worsened.
I made it to France in time to have one last conversation with him before he lost the battle. That’s one conversation I wish could’ve been a lot longer.
Today would’ve been Dad’s 60th birthday.
Yesterday lunchtime I went for a metro ride to Metro Joannette in Verdun. I had heard good things about the beer selection. They do indeed have a massive selection of beer, just about every Quebec beer available, but the selection of imported beer is a lot smaller.
In the absence of a pint of real ale, I picked up a bottle of Bass which I will be enjoying tonight in memory of a man who taught me, among many other things, to appreciate a good beer.
November 23, 2006 at 10:11 am · Filed under Geeky
I just went to the bank to make a wire transfer.
The guy who dealt with me was almost completely clueless; he spent 10 minutes trying to find my account details despite having my access card in his hand, and spent another 10 minutes trying to figure out how the wire transfer screen worked.
Finally he gave up and went to get help.
He left me alone in his office, with his computer unlocked and logged into both the bank mainframe and the bank intranet. He left me there for 10 minutes.
Oh, the temptation.
November 22, 2006 at 8:41 am · Filed under Blogging
Unless you read my posts via RSS, you’ve probably noticed I have a new theme. It’s based on the Qwilm! theme and modified slightly for my needs.
The biggest change is that I now have two sidebars instead of one. The one was getting too long and busy so it made sense to add another. This means that the blog is now best viewed in a 1024×768 window, but I don’t like forcing people to use a certain size so if your window is smaller you will just see one or both of the sidebars run away to beneath the posts.
If you have any problems with the new theme, or you just hate it, please let me know. The one problem I know about is that IE6 doesn’t respect the fixed position of the icon set on the left. Firefox does and hopefully IE7 does too.
November 21, 2006 at 8:50 am · Filed under Games
I found a good spot. I took a photo. I planted a book. Then I got to work and realised I’d forgotten my USB cable, so I can’t upload the photo.
I’ll give you a description instead, but first the rules. Identify the location from the photo description, go there, find the book, post a comment here telling us where it is, and register the catch at bookcrossing.com.
So, the location is somewhere south of Sherbrooke, north of Rene Levesque, east of Peel and west of Bleury. The photo I took is of a corporate mural portraying the wine making process, painted on a wall at the back of a parking lot. Just east of the mural is a church. On the east side of the church is a sign that says “Minister”. Beneath that sign is a rock. The book is under the rock.
November 20, 2006 at 9:51 am · Filed under Books
Everyone should read Richard Dawkins’ new book The God Delusion. It doesn’t matter if you’re deeply religious or strongly atheist or somewhere in between, you will get something from this book.
If you’re an atheist the book will re-affirm your non-belief and threaten to turn you evangelical about it.
If you’re agnostic, there’s a very good chance this book will pull you off that fence you’re sitting on and let you admit that in fact you are an atheist.
If you’re religious, at the very least this book will be a huge test of faith for you. At best it will free you of your God Delusion. It will certainly make you re-examine your beliefs.
If you’re a religious extremist, it will deeply offend you and you’ll be able to have a good ole fashioned book burning to keep you warm one of these winter nights.
November 17, 2006 at 10:17 am · Filed under Family+Friends
Jen sings to Aidan when she’s getting him to sleep. Well, hums more than sings, but you get the idea. She hums Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore.
If she’s asleep and Aidan wakes up or fusses, she immediately starts up her humming, even if she’s still effectively asleep. The humming lasts until about “Boat” then drifts off into snores.
Aidan has a habit of “dancing” to any music. His dancing involves sitting and rocking back and forth (worrisome in an adult, incredibly cute in a baby).
These two facts led to an amusing series of events at 4 o’clock this morning:
Aidan started fussing.
Jen started humming.
Aidan sat up and started dancing.
Jen drifted back to sleep after a few notes.
Aidan keeled over and went back to sleep.
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