Ugray.be

Tree with Good Aim

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 08:26:01 UTC

At work today (yesterday) I saw Sim, who (as I recall) had promised me that there would be no more random encounters in Ottawa. Wait, no, I guess that promise was actually restricted to the bus station. Funnily enough, I saw him from my cash at the other end of the store, and thought it looked like Sim (I didn't think it was because of the previously mentioned promise.) I was enjoying coming up with ways in my head of telling Sim about the doppelgänger sighting:

"Hey Sim, I saw this guy at work who looked like you, and no, I don't just mean that he was arabic, there was, you know, just... something more to it."
"Hey Sim, I saw this guy at work who looked like you, and no, I don't just mean that he looked like he had a bomb under his jacket...*

Sim came by, and I didn't get to make any of my comments right away because I had a customer in front of me who had decided to pay her entire $38.94 grocery bill in nickels and dimes, until she realsied that she probably had enough pennies to cover it and started recounting. I exaggerate, but not by much. Sim, the good sport that he is, was waiting while she counted so that he could have a quick conversation with me afterwards, but as the customer got to about $38.52, more customers started lining up. Seeing a potential cycle here, Sim pointed at the girl he was with informed me that it was his girlfriend, and took off. Hi Sim's girlfriend!

I biked home after work today (yesterday) in the rain, and a few houses up from mine there was a tree in the road. The amazing thing is that the tree had fallen right in between two cars parked in adjacent spaces without damaging either car. I'm not talking about a branch; I'm talking about a (potentially) car-crushing tree! For the less credulous, I took a picture:

I touched it up in GIMP (just colour adjustments) since I took the picture at 8PM and didn't have a ton of light.

*Disclaimer: For those who don't know Sim and me: We are good friends. He makes inappropriate Jewish comments (I am a Jew by birth), and I make inappropriate Arabic comments. We love each other very much, and only make such inappropriate jokes because we actually have what's known as a sense of humour. If this sounds like something you might like to have, try watching some Monty Python.

Linguistics Final Paper

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:49:11 UTC

I just finished writing a paper for my linguistics class. As a science student, I'm not usually writing papers - my homework is mostly mathematical problems that get worked out by hand, so it's been a while since I've used a computer for schoolwork. When I finished writing my paper, I hit save.... and it asked me for a file name! My heart rose about 3.5 ft, I quickly saved it, and then, the danger averted, I had a good laugh at my carelessness.

Back in Ottawa

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 01:59:15 UTC

Well, I took a break from blogging over the summer, but now I'm back in Ottawa and ready to get back at school.

I spent my summer back in Peterborough for most of the time so I couldn't get out to Vertical Reality - le sad - but I did keep up with my climbing by heading out to Rock and Rope with my dad where we found enough to amuse us. In this next scene, my dad plays the role of cameraman:

Coffee and Worms

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 14:43:57 UTC

Coffee...
Last night I had coffee with Laura, who I hadn't seen in the longest time except in passing on campus. It was good to sit down and catch up, though I ended up hearing some disquieting stories about her landlord, who it turns out is also the landlord of the place that Adam, Sarah and I just signed a lease for... thanks for telling me now Laura!

...and Worms
In taking a look at The Arrogant Worms' show dates I saw that they will be playing again in Peterborough, as I had hoped, at the Festival of Lights. Worms fans, mark Wednesday August 15^th on your calendar! For those of you who will be in Ottawa over the summer (my finger is pointing at you, Sim) never fear; they are also playing a few days later at the Ottawa Folk Festival on the weekend of August 18^th-19^th.

End of the Semester

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 23:35:33 UTC

In the time since my last post, I've managed to finish off all of my exams, which feels absolutely great. I've been enjoying some free time without anything to do except for when I've arranged to get together with friends. I've also used this time to finally convince my brother to start watching 24. We've now made it through the first season, and he's now a fan. As great as free time, friends, and 24 are, the main reason I'm hanging around in Ottawa still because I need to wait until I can move into my new apartment on the 1^st. That way some of the bigger things like my bed, dresser and desk don't need to be carted back home, only to be brought back to Ottawa later. After moving in, I'll be heading back home to Peterborough.

On Wednesday I apparently have to go in to Trent to take an eye test before they let me use the new lasers that will be in the lab this summer: they have a higher power. I'm still not sure what the test hopes to achieve from a safety standpoint. I would have thought that a laser could destroy a good eye just as well as a bad one. I have two theories though:

They want to conduct a blink reflex test, as I do know that it is possible for a laser to do only reparable damage if it is in your eye for only a very short length of time.
They want to have the results of my test on file so that if I try to sue them for eye damage, they can tell me that no, my eyes were actually that cruddy to begin with.

Language Notes
I was recently talking with Myriam while out on foot patrol about slight differences in language based on region, and one of the things that we talked about was a lollipop vs. a sucker. Sometimes you see a regional difference in which is used. For me, I hear those and think of them as two different things. When speaking with Myriam I suggested that a sucker was cylindrical, while a lollipop was spherical. I realised afterwards that that wasn't completely true - it holds true only for small versions of the candy. The image on the left shows a cylindrical candy on a stick, but because of its size, I would call it a lollipop for sure.

Sushi

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 07:57:06 UTC

I had my first sushi today. Myriam took me to a place on Rideau. I was planning on playing it "safe," that is, eating only crab (which is cooked) and veggies (where I don't find the word raw quite so disturbing). In the end I decided to go for some actual raw fish, and ate some salmon. I was surprised by how little taste it actually had. I enjoyed the sushi, though I preferred the nigiri (a single kind of fish laid on top of an oblong of rice) to the maki (the rolls) simply because they were themselves more simple. Each of the rolls I tried (containing multiple parts) had at least one component that I didn't particularly care for. While that took away from the overall taste, it wasn't enough to make me dislike it, and I'm definately keen to have sushi again sometime.

For the uninitiated, I would recommend finding yourself a sushi pro to take you out and show you the ropes. It's a tasty new experience!

Geeky Fun

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 23:57:18 UTC

I visited the clinic, and was prescribed an anti-inflammatory, and I've been getting better. Yesterday I wore a sling, but the doctor was recommending that I take it off as soon as possible, saying that as long as it's not killing me, the movement would be good, so today I'm going slingless.

In other news, if you feel like having some good geeky fun, check this out: http://mathsnet.net/geometry/solid/houses.html. The link was passed on to me by a friend who got it in the xkcd IRC channel.

I hate drivers!

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 06:43:17 UTC

I was biking to my friends' place earlier tonight when a car decided that turning right directly in front of me would be a good idea. My back breaks work, but not well, and I've been riding this bike long enough that my instincts made me jam on both breaks. I went flying over my handle bars and landed on my hands, hard. The driver kept going, despite a number of other drivers who had seen honking at him. I got up with my arms feeling sore, but okay-ish. I got back on my bike and carried on to my friends'. After being there for a while, my arms started to hurt more, and I found that their motion was restricted: I can't fully extend or bend either arm. I couldn't even get my coat on on my own as I was leaving. I ended up having to leave my bike there and walk home. At least I did manage to break in time; had I hit him, this could have been much worse. If I'm still like this tomorrow, I'll head in to the clinic.

Fame is mine!

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 22:44:04 UTC

I have been featured at PHD Comics! I made a random generator based on the comic, and sent it in to Jorge, the comic's author. The link at the bottom points to my generator. :D

Easter Weekend

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 07:09:05 UTC

I went home this weekend for Easter, leaving Wednesday afternoon since I didn't have any terribly important classes on Thursday. The extra-long long weekend was quite nice.

While at home I managed to get some work done on revamping my site, which, unless you're reading this from a feed reader of some kind, you can see. If you notice any bugs in the site, (I tried to catch them all!) do let me know. Of special note is the new Firefox section, where I have posted (and will continue to post) the extensions I've made, along with all the little scripts that I find useful.

The end is finally in sight, scholastically speaking I mean. It's so nice to have only two days of school left. Exams come after that, but at least they work at a different pace - a change is what I need. Still, I'll be glad when they're over, and I get to head home for the summer.

Ooh! I forgot to mention this earlier: I have a new place lined up for next year. It's at 166 St Andrew St. It's a decent walk in to campus, but I will probably have a bus pass anyway for going out to Vertical Reality, and there's a bus stop at Cumberland, where I can catch a bus to Rideau North, a quick walk through the mall, and if I'm feeling especially lazy (read: daily) I can take a bus to campus stop from there, no prob. As for the place itself: it's great. I'll be sharing it with my brother and his girlfriend, Sarah. It has hardwood floors, and a fireplace. Needless to say, it's bigger than the place where I've been living this year. Thank God. That, above all else, is what I'm really looking forward to.

Weekend Update

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 07:40:54 UTC

The Academic Olympics went very well on Saturday, all parts falling into place. Here's a picture of me with my family, all dressed up for the Medieval theme of the day:

The win ended up being a tie between two PCVS teams. Melina, who I know through Adam and Sarah, was on one of the winning teams, and ecstatic - she's been in the Olympics for 5 years, including this, and it was her last chance for victory. The best part though was that there were a ton of leftover cookies from the dinner that was served, and Adam, Sarah and I got to bring them back with us to Ottawa - and these are good cookies!

Sunday ended up being mostly a relaxing day. My dad, brother, and I happened to be in the car at 12:00 when Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe came on CBC. It's a regular program that's really worth listening to - a mixture of music and storytelling.

I've been posting some of the more artistic photos from my trip to Europe to my deviantART account, and a few more are to come shortly; you can take a gander if you like.

Let's see if I can start doing this regularily...

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 07:38:27 UTC

Today, (by which I technically mean yesterday, as I haven't yet gone to sleep (that's when the "day" changes according to me)) I had my second Logique midterm. Yes. Midterm. No, not a final; that comes in a couple of weeks. I don't get it. It doesn't seem very loqiqual to me, but there you go. The good news is it was, as expected, a breeze.

After the exam I sat down to get some homework done as I will be going home this weekend to help my parents with the PCVS Academic Olympics, which is super cool. It'll be a lot of work, but well worth it. The way it works is that highschool students from all across the board head over to PCVS where different academically based challenges have been set for the teams of four, each team trying to bring back the win for their school.

With one of my assignments done, I couldn't resist the pull of the gorgeous weather we're finally getting, so I grabbed my book, hopped on my unicycle and headed down to the canal to do a bit of pleasure reading. It was actually so hot in direct sun that for a while a had to take my coat off.

After calculus (7-8:30PM.... grr!) I went over to vertical reality to join Jen, Vanessa, Karen, and Ian, as well as some new people they'd brought along. One of them, Markus is German, and so I got to speak with him auf Deutch für ein Bissen! As usual, it was a ton of fun. I did however end up ripping off one of my callouses, which forced me to quit significantly earlier than I would have liked.

Math Skillz

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 07:39:23 UTC

Who wants to loose all faith in humanity?

http://i.thefairest.info/verizon_billing.mp3

24 :D :D :D :D :D

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 06:04:50 UTC

Getting back into the swing of things

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 08:13:42 UTC

It's generally a good idea to check your schedule and make sure it's all understandable before you have 40 min to the first class of a new semester. I know I wish I had, as when I looked to see that my first class was in POR, I went "hunh"? I had to scan the campus map to see that POR is a little tiny portable behind L'Amoureux. It all turned out fine, but it gave me a moment of panic.

I went over to my brother's place earlier today (or actually yesterday by now - Saturday, in any case) to join him and Sarah (his girlfriend) for dinner and to see Little Miss Sunshine. It's an amazing movie, and if you haven't seen it, you should.

Grandpa (to Granddaughter): "I love you sweetheart, and it not because of your brains or your personality; It's because you're beautiful."

It's pure brilliance I tell you.

Tomorrow, the three of us plan to take a look at apartment options for next year.