Someone’s nicked all The Decemberists‘ stuff: Our Trailer, Stolen.
Blog
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now writing with …
J. Herbin Lie de Thé cartridges in the Rotring 600. It’s a little like writing with strong tea. The cartridges come in a very nifty little aluminium pot.
I think I still prefer Waterman Havane, as it’s a warmer brown. Lie de Thé writes well and I’m happy with it for now.
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new category: WAGDAIYF
Anouncing my new category on climate change: WAGDAIYF, acronym for “we’re all gonna die, and it’s your fault”.
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where are the hybrids for hire?
We’re about to hire a car. I’d like to price a hybrid. So I go looking for hybrid rentals. Nada. Well, not quite; Discount said they’d added a bunch of hybrids to their fleet, but they can’t be found on their fleet page.
I walk through a Ford dealership every day. When the Escape Hybrid came out, there were a couple in the lot. They seemed to hang around for a while, but now there are none. I guess it was all greenwash after all, ‘cos I see a lot more Mustangs and trucks selling than hybrids.
In short, we’re all going to die, and it’s your fault.
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red
We have a very small, somewhat bedraggled, poinsettia in our front room. We got it a couple of Christmases ago, and we surprise ourselves that it’s still alive. Since its initial forced colour faded, it’s just sat as a small green plant.
Today, though, it’s got a splash of red on it. Who knew that the Christmas plant would be doing its thing near Easter?
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Ryan is in the house
My DVD of the Chris Landreth/NFB animation arrived today. I’ve watched it, and the supporting material, several times already. There are so many tiny details in the frames that it’ll take me many viewings to catch even some of them
The closing scene is the most poignant for me, with the fragmented Ryan panhandling outside Schwartz’s on Saint-Laurent. Reflected in the deli’s window is the bold young Ryan of his Street Musique heyday. All the lettering in the Montréal street scene is reversed, as if to say that the reflection is the real world, and what we’re seeing a distorted mirror.
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my Rs, they are
Lazy wee sods can’t be bothered with the famous Scottish rhoticism: Glaswegians throw the R away.
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tim gotta dexit
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my wind-powered PC
As a thank-you for speaking at the ESC/EWB Power Shift lecture series, I was given a Pembina Institute Wind Powered PC tag. That means that the energy equivalent of three years of PC usage has been bought for me from a windfarm.
I’d like to thank the folks at UofT for putting up with me for the evening, and buying me dinner at the (in)famous Peel Pub (would that be innfamous?). I enjoyed it, and I hope they did too.
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it’s spring, I think …
These two doos were sat on side fence for ages; long enough for me to get through Catherine’s tax return, and get quite far into mine. They’ve flown off now. -
book no fair
I thought I might’ve had a couple of books waiting for me at the library yesterday, but all of these holds were waiting for me:
- Banvard’s folly : thirteen tales of renowned obscurity, famous anonymity, and rotten luck / by Collins, Paul
- Been brown so long it looked like green to me : the politics of nature / by St. Clair, Jeffrey.
- Hey Rube : blood sport, the Bush doctrine, and the downward spiral of dumbness : modern history from the sports desk / by Thompson, Hunter S.
- Mutants: on genetic variety and the human body / by Leroi, Armand Marie.
- The pencil : a history of design and circumstance / by Petroski, Henry.
Looks like I’ve got a lot of reading to do in the next three weeks …
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Wind Energy, Appropriate Energy
The slides for my talk tomorrow are online: Wind Energy, Appropriate Energy. I used the very nifty S5 presentation package.
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S5: A Simple Standards-Based Slide Show System
Eric Meyer’s S5: A Simple Standards-Based Slide Show System is extremely cool. I’ve chosen it for my presentation on Thursday night, because it’s very simple yet quite pretty.
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urban critter
A big raccoon just walked along the back wall of our garden.
Yeah, I know, I really should stop being amazed by city wildlife. Maybe when I grow up.
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Farewell, Mayor McCA
I hear that Hamilton’s beloved Mayor McCA is heading off to London (UK, that is) indefinitely. We’ll miss you, CA. Our loss is London’s gain.
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concrete Picaresque
I just scored a used copy of The Decemberists‘ Picaresque. And it’s not even due out for a couple of weeks.
You’ll like the photos. They’re very silly. Chris Funk looks good as a tree.
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stewart speaks!
When: Thursday 10th March 2005, 6–7pm
Where: Bahen Centre BA 2179 (40 St George St., Toronto)
What: As part of the ESC/EWB Power Shift lecture series, I’m giving the following talk:
Stewart Russell currently works for Zephyr North, a wind energy consulting company. As an executive of Windshare, he contributed his years of experience in the Scottish wind industry to establishing the TREC wind turbine now installed at the CNE. His presentation will contrast the case of large, industrial wind farms with the technological solutions that are appropriate for developing countries. He will outline the special issues that arise when siting and designing modern wind farms in Ontario, and discuss the special challenges of creating simple, small wind turbines out of locally available materials.
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Toronto Spring Bike Show
above: Oracle Cycleworks‘ beautiful and light Omega USS recumbent. Image links to my mediocre photogallery.I scooted around the Toronto International Bicycle Show last night. As usual, there were the usual huge amounts of offroad bikes, but there were a few surprises:
- The standout for me was the Oracle Cycleworks Omega (available from triketrails). This light, USS recumbent was stunning, and designer Jack Sochacki was extremely proud of it. Their Jack Squat suspension looks like a more refined version of the HPVeloTechnik’s NoSquat system. The lack of chain guide rollers is a nice touch.
- Urbane Cyclist had the Rans Fusion semirecumbent, and the extremely inexpensive Sun EZ Tadpole trike.
- BionX had an electric-assist hub that looked like it would fit standard rear axle widths.
- Backpeddling of Guelph had some beautiful custom cruisers from Firebikes, and the quite over-the-top Hello Kitty and John Deere cruisers from Nirve.
- … and Raleigh have re-released the Chopper. They’ve removed the product-liability-on-a-stick gearshift, but let’s hope it retains its legendary speed and agility (cough!)
Lowriders were even more prevalent than last year. While they’re not the most practical of rides, they do have a certain panache that all those MTBs lack.
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Aargh, couriers! %^$%&$!!!
What took two hours out of my life, involved my getting lost in a snow drift in the middle of nowhere, and is ultimately only the size of a postage stamp? This:
When I registered my Cybershot, I got a $20 coupon for the SonyStyle store. The coupon was about to expire, and I noticed that I could get a spare Memory Stick for less than any of the stores. So I paid on the website, and expected the thing to turn up.
Wednesday evening I came home to a Purolator delivery note. Catherine was in the house when they tried to deliver, but the courier didn’t make enough effort to actually check. When I called them to reschedule, I was dealt with someone who knew exactly how much of a mess of my day they could make by being wilfully stupid and obtuse, and used this knowledge to its fullest.
So in the end, I trogged out to the depot. This is hardly in a central location; Silver Star Boulevard is remote. It didn’t help that the street sign was missing if you were heading north from Finch Avenue East, as I was. So I ended up half-stuck in a snowdrift just south of McNicoll, plaintively calling Catherine from my mobile for directions. Sidewalks run out just north of Finch on Midland, you see. Also, Purolator’s customer service line shuts down before their depots do, so you’re stuck if you call between 8–9pm.
When I finally got to the depot, there was a huge line. It took about 20 minutes to finally get my package. This was a pretty sizeable box; it could easily have held a good-sized telephone directory. In it was about ten of those air pillow packaging things, and my tiny Memory Stick. It was, of course, ensconsed in one of those ridiculous PVC blister packs that weigh at least 5× the product inside.
I’m regretting that I scarfed a Harvey’s indigestiburger at Union station before setting out. Silver Star Boulevard’s one saving attribute is that it’s right in the Agincourt Chinese Restaurant Zone. I’m sure I could have had all the food I’d have wanted for about 2/3 the price of the processed muck I had.
Next time I’ll check before ordering if a company plans to use Purolator. If they do — see ya later! It’s not worth wasting 2½ hours of my life on again.