11th
March
2008
Our species loves the record process. Highest, fastest, farthest; as long as there’s been a historical record there’s been a line to cross. How about those seven wonders? Guinness (the beer or the book)? Olympics? I’m involved in a more home-grown contest this year, and today the newspaper confirmed it. We have the greatest snowfall in the city’s history (400 years and counting). As of this morning the “snow-dometer” shows 460 centimeters since back in late November 2007.
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posted in Wx |
10th
March
2008
Let’s begin with a little exaggeration. How about: “This evening I was held prisoner, without food or water, against my will”. No, that raises too many questions. The reality is that I worked through suppertime, without eating, and I would have rather been at home for a birthday, and the doors were locked on the building because we were outside regular hours. There you go, I’ve managed to set a fictional scene and then deflate the whole thing into a heap of banal balloon rubber.
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posted in education |
9th
March
2008
When you have to learn an important life skill, who you gonna call? Not the nearest parent, if my progeny are an example of the new world. This evening I offered to demonstrate how to build a big lasagna. Note the italic active verb; around here we should have a permit from the city authorities. To my dismay, the kids didn’t care; supper was over so they weren’t in any danger of going hungry. This was a meal for a different day.
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posted in education |
8th
March
2008
The good old days: when a single telephone line provided a channel for pizza and all the BBS connectivity one could ever hope for. But that was a simpler time in our lives, and we’re a greedy family. Tonight I ran short of ports.
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posted in computing |
7th
March
2008
It might have been Shaw, or Leacock, or Twain or a composite drawing of them all, but someone summed up academia with the disparaging phrase “Those who can do, and those who can’t teach”. I’ve done and I’ve taught so I’m neither praised nor insulted. But for the poor student who seeks knowledge, some days just make you say “Huh?”.
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posted in technology |
6th
March
2008
Just as the season prepares to change and give way (we’re starting to think maple syrup drips under all that snow), so must the idle world I watch. Tonight, the auditions are over and the run toward the ribbon begins on American Idol. With the report of the voting for this week, the cast of thousands is now down to an talented dozen with equal expectations.
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posted in Idol |
5th
March
2008
One of the principal differences between my present “life in a big city” and the earlier Island era is the reaction to winter. Not my reaction; those who live close to me still remark on my checking the weather forecast before going for groceries, in case we should be “storm stayed”. Rather, the institutionalized handling of the white months make all the difference.
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posted in Wx |
4th
March
2008
I spent more of today thinking about family and friends than I had expected. No special reason related to the calendar, nor were there any communications with me from any of them. Instead, I was trying to probe the deep, mysterious depths of the contact list.
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posted in computing |
3rd
March
2008
As I watched a test RSS feed of this blog “come in” this morning, it struck me that the titles (and by extension, the content) over the last while have had a rather negative tone. I felt as s if I was turning into a curmudgeon (with steel-hued locks), only before my given time. To thwart this pattern (and by extension, a label from family and friends) I’m going to try and be “a bit more jovial” in my approach.
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posted in politics |
2nd
March
2008
Somewhere in the Bible, I am exhorted to “suffer fools gladly“. I shall, but only because you’ve asked me nicely. Imagine the chef who is presented with a rich garden, full of succulent plants, all ready for harvest, of an amazing variety. When that same chef manages to prepare a meal of KD, I suffer, and perhaps not so gladly.
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posted in music |
