Archive for March, 2006

Fundamental differences

Thursday, March 30th, 2006

I’m not sure I can generalize this to all men and all women, but I’m sure that this will at least illustrate one of the fundamental differences between my wife and I.
Were my wife to look at this:

I bet her reaction would be something along the lines of a cross between “Get that away from [...]

Neologism

Thursday, March 30th, 2006

A lovely neologism that I had my first encounter with today: Pajamahadeen

Practical applications of fluid mechanics

Wednesday, March 29th, 2006

We actually learned this important lesson in my undergraduate fluid mechanics class:

For those of you who didn’t have the benefit of my exciting engineering education, the full technical explanation is online.

Bachelor Weekend Over: Final beers

Wednesday, March 29th, 2006

Family is home. All is well. Apparently they are keeping me as husband and father, at least for a while longer.
As for the beer sampling:
Flying Dog Road Dog Porter turned out to be really rather good, and I’ll probably pick up a case for the poker tournament this weekend.
Flying Dog Tire Bite Golden Ale was [...]

What’s the worst that could happen?

Tuesday, March 28th, 2006

Want to know how far I’ll go for a cheap joke?
One of the boards I hang out on has a game each week where you get to write up a little something in response to the topic of the week. Last week the “assignment” was to come up with a “what’s the worst that could [...]

The glorious day has come!

Monday, March 27th, 2006

Sometime this weekend a new Kleptones release made it’s way into the Intarweeb. This makes me so happy. And it’s a double album!
I’ve had a chance to spin the first half, and it’s pretty awesome. I’m hoping to get a chance to check out the second half tonight.
Of course it will be some time before [...]

Colour me unsurprised. Atheist, and unsurprised.

Monday, March 27th, 2006

Hm. Apparently I am deeply distrusted by most Americans just because I don’t need mythology to get through the day.
American’s increasing acceptance of religious diversity doesn’t extend to those who don’t believe in a god, according to a national survey by researchers in the University of Minnesota’s department of sociology.
From a telephone sampling of more [...]

Bachelor Weekend continues

Monday, March 27th, 2006

Bachelor Saturday kind of disappeared: I stretched out Saturday afternoon for a short nap, and then woke up at 2AM. Apparently I needed an 11 hour nap. I rattled around the house for a bit, watching a couple of decent flicks (The Big Empty which was weird but fun, and Layer Cake which I quite [...]

Bachelor Weekend

Saturday, March 25th, 2006

Tomorrow at 7AM Trish and Sarah are headed off to Ontario to visit Sarah’s grandparents until Tuesday. That means I’ll be bachelor-man for four days.
It is a sign of my advanced adulthood that what I am most excited about is not the potential for sloppy drunkeness, or rowdy behaviour, but rather the notion that I [...]

I am not making this up

Thursday, March 23rd, 2006

I had no idea what was happening.
I had come home from poker Tuesday night around half an hour after midnight, and had puttered around for a while, finally going to sleep around 1:30, and the next thing I knew Trish was screaming at me.
I kind of expected Trish to wake me up on Wednesday, as [...]

No Virus Keeps Me Down.

Tuesday, March 21st, 2006

Instead of resting and recovering tonight, I opted to instead go into town and be a part of the Halifax comic scene.
At one point, if I had been carrying a video camera, I could have shot a 15 minute short feature, in one take, that would have won awards. Awards, I say. I would have [...]

I Can Shoot Fire From My Hands!

Monday, March 20th, 2006

You know who really talks with his hands?
Donald Rumsfeld.
It’s like he’s doing some kind of hand jive in every picture you see of him.
And the one’s I’ve been seeing lately show a disturbing trend.

First, he’s got this kind of “Look, nothing up my sleeve” pose, that just makes me think he’s trying to misdirect [...]

I need to write something SERIOUS with that…

Monday, March 20th, 2006

The good news Friday, which was somewhat overshadowed temporarily by my illness, is that my birthday gift from Ralph arrived.
This year, he made me a gorgeous fountain pen, turning some box elder (a.k.a. “Manitoba Maple“) to produce a really wonderful item.
The pen’s cap is threaded, so you can screw it on to the pen (I [...]

“Celebrating” St. Patrick’s Day

Monday, March 20th, 2006

This year was pretty clearly the worst St. Paddy’s Day of the decade for me.
I was already mocking myself on Thursday night because my plans for celebrating were basically:
1) dress Sarah in a green shirt
2) go see V For Vendetta
which is a much less rambunctious celebration than it has been for most of the last [...]

Yes, that is my wife. Yes, that is my daughter.

Thursday, March 16th, 2006

(Note: This is pretending to be about politics, but is really about MY WIFE and MY DAUGHTER being in the newspaper. So, if you don’t care about the political stuff, keep reading until you get to that part!)
I know I go off a lot on American politics here, way more than I do about the [...]