I have the elevator in the Hilton Checkers in Los Angeles to thank for my new blog slogan. It’s about the fire alarm.
Author: scruss
-
minutemen moment
I’m in Los Angeles, and it gave me rather more jollies than it should have done to drive under a road sign to San Pedro like on Double Nickels On The Dime.
-
really big, and really ugly
I saw not one, but two International XTs on the way back from Michigan. These are without doubt the most obscene vehicles on the road. Of course, neither were towing anything.
At least the Scion only offends the eyes briefly.
-
last morning of Banjo Camp
Well, just two more sessions to go at banjo camp. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’ve learned so much. I do need to get my chord skills down, but even my half-formed frailing did garner compliments.
The concerts were great. Last night we had Wade & Julia Mainer perform some gospel numbers. Wade turned 100 this year, but you wouldn’t know it to hear them play.
So it’s a long drive back, but it was worth it.
-
it’s official – i suck at banjo
okay, I need to work on my basic G chords and getting to know the standard jam canon. I knew none of them at the slow jam tonight – no Boil Them Cabbage, no Cripple Creek, no Buffalo Girls. I might know a bunch of modal tunes, and one in F even, but can I fret a C chord … ?
-
orange
massed roadworks lights on Roncesvalles
-
and i wish and wish again
Fully installed at Midwest Banjo Camp at East Lansing. It’s green, there are chipmunks, and many, many banjo players – oh, and Clif Ervin, bones player extraordinaire.
-
speeding motorcycle
Twee popsters rejoice! The complete works of Trixie’s Big Red Motorbike will be re-released on CD this year!
-
scary movie
I’m watching Jesus Camp; and it’s about the most alarming thing I’ve ever seen.
-
a word on domestic wind turbines …
From Real Goods, who’ve been doing the sustainability thing for almost 30 years:
We generally advise that a good year-round wind turbine site isn’t a place that you’d want to live. It takes average wind speeds of 8 to 9 mph [3.6-4 m/s, or 12.9-14.5 km/h] and up, to make a really good site. That’s honestly more wind than most folks are comfortable living with.
— Solar Living Sourcebook, 12th ed., p.80
-
the same desiccant
Pelican Peli desiccant pack, as sold by Vistek – $21.99.
40g Silica gel dehumidifier from Lee Valley – $6.95.
Can you spot the difference?(and I’m not particularly picking on Vistek; they’re as cheap as anyone for this product when sold as a photo accessory.)
-
probably doesn’t sell well in Glasgow
I’m guessing that “Hummer” brand cologne doesn’t sell too well in Glasgow, where a hummer isn’t an obscenely-proportioned vehicle, but merely someone who smells bad.
-
your vote counts – or does it?
I was a little bemused about Ontario wanting 21 extra MPs, so I did some sums to see how many MPs each province/territory should have:
2005 Population ‘Fair’ Ridings Actual Ridings %age over/under represented Canada (total) 32,270,500 308 308 Newfoundland and Labrador 516,000 5 7 +42% Prince Edward Island 138,100 1 4 +203% Nova Scotia 937,900 9 11 +23% New Brunswick 752,000 7 10 +39% Quebec 7,598,100 73 75 +3% Ontario 12,541,400 120 106 -11% Manitoba 1,177,600 11 14 +25% Saskatchewan 994,100 9 14 +48% Alberta 3,256,800 31 28 -10% British Columbia 4,254,500 41 36 -11% Yukon Territory 31,000 0 1 +238% Northwest Territories 43,000 0 1 +144% Nunavut 30,000 0 1 +249% The population data is from StatsCan for 2005, and the riding counts from Wikipedia, and checked on CBC’s election 2006 site. My analysis is a bit simplistic; everyone counted as population gets the same federal representation.
Ontario, BC and Alberta are getting stiffed. Quebec is the fairest of them all. But if you really want your vote to count, and you can’t handle the Territories, move to PEI.
-
Erie Shores Wind Farm
We stayed over in St Thomas the other night, and on the way back came through Erie Shores Wind Farm. I spent a lot of time working on the layout design for this project, but up until now I’ve never seen it built. Sure, I saw some holes in the ground, but nothing higher. Here’s my gallery of mediocre photos: Erie Shores Wind Farm (and man, I must clean my D70’s sensor).
There’s clearly good local acceptance of the project. The beach washrooms have been repainted with a mural that includes a wind turbine, Bayham’s building an interpretive centre, and in downtown Port Burwell, there were cars with Support Wind Energy stickers. It made me happy.
