TubaOrNotTuba

This afternoon, I returned a couple of books to the public library. I have never seen the place more crowded, which begged the question “What’s going on?” Some questions are better left unasked. Today is the day on which all currently valid library cards are no longer so. Due to a software update, all borrowers in the city now must renew their membership. As well, the two databases are incompatible, both on the borrower and book fields, so according to the information sheet being distributed by volunteers, for the next four to six weeks the system will be unable to track any loans currently in progress. Books will not show their real status in any catalogue search.

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Environment Canada upped the warning tags to four, and the day changed direction. This morning the weather left much to be desired, and sometime before 06h00 the “other” school boards saw fit to declare closure. My gang were able to make a decision, albeit one hour later. Were they waiting for an official translation?

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The newspaper mentioned that for the first time in close to four decades, no ice has formed in the Gulf waters north of the Island. At first glance, it’s a “fluke of nature”. I mean, how can we have a cold winter without a warm one in comparison. But the next part really caught my attention. If there is a windy spell that lasts more than a few days, the lobster are expected to come ashore. That would be anomalous. Beyond the possibility for harvesting (after all, it shouldn’t qualify as illegal fishing) one must consider that maybe this whole global warming is starting to affect MY GLOBE.

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While on vacation last summer, I made the impulse purchase of a laser printer. Which led to wireless printer servers and needs for paper that were untoward, and other recycling issues but I digress.

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Today the net brought me the sad news that Urban Carmichael lost his ongoing match against cancer. The boxer won’t be catching any more nickels off the back of his elbow, at least not in the usual ring.

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Today I took the time to install “Ruby On Rails” which has received a lot of press recently in the web development circles I pretend to frequent. After following a number of recipe pages and creating another MySQL instance, something ran… I guess the next problem will be to figure out what I did. It appears that the Ruby server has to be running for any of it to work, so until I find the script again all is safe. The ease with which the stuff ran is usually inversely proportional (another of those terms I learned in university) to something else. How clear and limpid are the waters in the data pool.

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About this time of year, many people head off to a beach in the south. I’ve never done that, so it isn’t part of my wish set. Instead, I have a very pragmatic view; if there must be weather, let it provide entertainment and relaxation time. Right now, I’m in deep weather envy.

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Today, I went to work. If you check the calendar, it shows that we have landed on a Saturday, yet I was at the board office to operate a videoconference. Highly unusual; I haven’t had to break the Monday to Friday routine in a very long time. All to assure that one person in Chibougamau could listen in to presentation of the QEP / Reform / rewrite of the curriculum by four of the consultants. Note that this was really a “listen in”; the communication was not in both directions. Oh well, so the name videoconference is mis-applied. Extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary measures.

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One would think that a member of the press, (more specifically, the editor of a newspaper) would understand when the “freedom of the press” is inappropriate. This week, the editor of the UPEI Cadre has shown that to be perspicacious is not innate. A decision to republish the “Muslim cartoons” from a Danish newspaper has led to the issue from this week being banned from campus, and the story has been repeated from sea to shining sea. The university president has weighed into the fro, and the campus police have shown their ability to show up too late for the party (the copies were hidden elsewhere).

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Some days have nothing remarkable about them. The bus came on time. At work, someone had a virus on their machine. I found an empty CD case that someone had “lifted” from Melo-Mags on Maguire so I played the good citizen and returned it to the shop owner. The bus came on time. The mail had nothing interesting. TV had nothing interesting. Just an ordinary day.

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