Nature in a bag

I went to the Museum of Nature in Ottawa recently while it was undergoing major renovations. Amid the Einstein exhibit and dinosaur bones (including a neat giant turtle skeleton!), the mammal exhibit really impressed. Check out these pics:

Shrink wrapped and on wheels - like a window into the world! I think God himself would be proud of this... I bet that's even His handwriting.

Calmes tes nerfs...

... was the moral of the story today coming home from Toronto by train.

Isn't it funny how this time 'festive' time of the year is usually the most stressful for everyone? People are running around, killing themselves over shopping and planning, just to squeeze the last ounce of joy out of the Holiday season. Travelling home for the holidays definitely adds stress to that equation, and this was a good example. After avoiding a potential disaster in picking up my ticket (they almost lost my reservation!), I sat quietly in my seat, just sensing the tension on the train. Some seats were doubled booked, and people were generally unpleasant and jostling about.

This one woman was really something. She bought a cranberry juice from the concession cart, and I noticed after a while that she was curiously looking at the bottom of the can. Then she called the vendor guy over, saying "This tastes funny, and the expiration date says: November 2006. I don't want to get sick you know..." with that last part in an acrimonious tone. The vendor guy (who was a Quebecois, god bless him) could tell that she was all bitter, but was all cool about it and offered her another one.

He didn't actually apologize for it or anything, but commented out loud a few moments later that it was strange that an old can would still be kicking around. The woman repeated "Well, I don't want to get sick..." like it was the Via Rail worker's fault for an expired can of cranberry juice... haha

The guy shook his head and said, "Tonight's not an easy night" in a joking manner; the people around him shared a laugh or three... it was funny, what can I say?? I peeked around to watch the woman's reaction, and she was not pleased. She was mouthing some less than clean language... haha I pitied that guy having to deal with these uptight people. Good lord, RELAX lady. Sheesh.

(In retrospect, this could be the topic for another article - the beauty and subtlety of Quebecois humour. Although he said it in English, saying "Tonight's not an easy night" in French would have been an absolute classic)

To top it all off, some guy getting off at Oshawa couldn't find his luggage at the front. He was basically holding up the train, since he was scrambling to find it. The conductor was yelling at him to either get off without his bag, or to stay on. Everyone could hear him... yikes. The guy was pissed off but stormed off, probably without his gifts, or clothes, or everything.

After all this, the guy next to me said, "Man, this is the most entertaining train ride I've been on in a while." I agreed, and remembered that the only reason he was sitting there was because his original seat was double booked.

Talent

My friend EL has a flair for graphics and graphic design. He is a master at Photoshop and 3D Studio Max, and the stuff on his Web site is really top notch (http://orange.aspade.com). Recently he was approached by a UK Telecom company asking him if they could use one of the graphics he has on his Web site. He gave them the OK. Check it out:

http://www.telecomdirect.co.uk/

Neat0 huh?

Still at it

LN is now complaining of tired arms, burning wrists, and blurry vision.

HAHA

Tonight, addiction is spelled 'DS'.

Somehow EC and I convinced LN to buy a Nintendo DS. Unfortunately, she did not live up to the ideal situation of her buying a pink DS (which she wanted so badly, but couldn't find one) while wearing a pink top and a French poodle. But what the hey...

Unfortunately, LN has taken her gaming obsession to frightening heights (or lows) by offering to send out calendar invites to Nintendo DS parties (?!?!?!). Naturally I am curious, but let's not call it that. How about 'super cool chillout' or something?

I really felt like we were a bunch of kids when LN, MB and JC came over after a game of squash and sushi for dinner. LN instantly busted out her DS like a fiend, and we played until 11pm. We had big bowls of ice cream for dessert, reinforcing the supreme sadness of acting like little children playing Nintendo.

Around 11pm they all decided to leave... only to knock on the door about 5 minutes later. I thought they had forgotten something. But as soon as I saw JC and LN at the door, with LN clutching her DS, I knew what was going on. Yes, they decided that they weren't tired after all, and CAME BACK TO PLAY SOME MORE. They are here at this very moment, paying me no heed. They don't even know I'm writing this slanderous entry about them, instead they are playing some Mario DS minigames.

This is my life.

A new addiction

Check out this riddle game:

http://www.weffriddles.com/

I'm on level 21!

Black Poisoned Berry

Craigslist is a strange animal. Here are a bunch of people selling wares that are old, new, vintage, broken, underpriced, overpriced, etc etc. My favorite is the barter section, where folks propose ridiculous trades for things. Take a look:

http://toronto.craigslist.org/bar/

Here's one... someone is looking to trade their jigsaw puzzles. And another looking for sheets of drywall. Amazing.

So I naturally figure, I need me a piece of this sweet sweet bazar action. I won a Blackberry as a student conference prize recently, and since the service is way too expensive, I figured I would pawn it and possibly buy a Nintendo Wii instead. (On a side note, who gives a BB as a prize to a student...) Immediately after posting up my ad, some guy posts up an ad for the same item for much cheaper. I pay him no heed, figuring that he's looking for a quick sell. But I quickly figure out he's a Craigslist pro, resorting to age-old tactics such as the CAPITAL LETTERS WITH EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!!! AND ****.

After a while you really start to hate these kinds of ads, since they really work. I'm getting nothing from people. Nothing. The problem is that there is no way to channel your anger. They are a bunch of faceless ads, and no one puts there real name on the ad. All you have is an anonymous email address like "sale-247866880@craigslist.org" that you send emails to.

"WTF 24766880!!! Isn't that just like him to do that! Honest people like 373452411, 723465718 or even 9301646683 would never do that. Curse those capital letters!"

There are tons of scammers too. Oh the scammers. They make a point of including spelling mistakes and giving uncommon names just to seem more believable. Every email sent through Craigslist warns people to beware of scams like buyers using money transfers and money grams... and what tactics do they use? Money transfers and money grams. Try a little bit, people... sheesh.

Deals are constantly falling through. Unlike eBay, nothing is settled until the money is in your hand... it's chaos. One guy was going to buy it, but sent me this:

Thanks for excepting my offer, but I just came back from the car dealer with a hole in my bank account. Not a very good Christmas start. My loss some one else gain.

WTH guy...

Finally, after a couple of months later, I had a deal all worked out. This woman was all ready to meet me downtown to take the BB, and every conceivable obstacle came up. She lived far, her baby was sick, she had class, and so on.

As I was riding the streetcar to meet up, my mind kept filling up with a bunch of scenarios about how this could go wrong. I came up:

• Counterfeit bills
• She would reneg
• Her husband is a 300lb man named Biff
• She is a 300lb man named Biff
• Biff is very very lonely
  

But I'm happy to say that after all of this, I have successfully sold the BB. And I'm also happy to say that I probably made an extra $100 off this mother of a sickly baby. Booyah!

Discourse on women (and buying a Nintendo DS)

14:22

EC: i already gave (my wife) the heads up that i wanted one
EC: she'll be so happy to see me come home with it
EC: not
moi: HAHAHA
moi: you did the right thing; you warned her.
moi: if i know anything about women, i'll wager that she'll be ecstatic.
EC: you my friend are really knowledgeable
EC: i can already hear the conversation
EC: "omg, you bought it. that's so cool. i can't wait to try it."
moi: that is inaccurate, EC. where are the exclamation marks?
moi: "omg, you bought it!!!! that's so cool!!!!! i can't wait to try it!!!!!!"
EC: hahaha
moi: and the confetti??
EC: that's exactly what she's going to say
EC: she might demand to have her own

14:27

moi: haha a pink one.
EC: i should be proactive and buy 2
moi: HAHAHAHA
moi: now you're talkin'.
EC: it will be a very merry christmas
moi: life is so simple, when you think about it

Montreal - the best in salad??

So LN tells me the other day, that she ate at this great place in Montreal, and that they have quote: the best salad ever!!!!!!!11oneoneoneone

The best SALAD, no less.

Don't get me wrong; Montreal has its famous food: smoked meat, bagels and fine, even poutine. But who would go to Montreal for a SALAD? What makes it so good that it would be worth trekking all the way to Montreal, passing the succulent smells and tastes of Schwartz's and LaFleur, to find an obscure restaurant at the Old Port (which she can't remember exactly, mind you), for some lettuce?

The yummy bearnaise sauce, she explains.

Well, suffice it to say that after many minutes of yelling later, I thought I proved my point. However, she brought it up again recently... and this time, I almost choked on a mouthful of tender BBQ ribs at the sound of her going on and on about her green leafy friends moistened with lime drippings.

This supports my theory that there is a definite hierarchy of food, whereby certain types of food can never supplant other types. For example, a sandwich can only be so good. I don't understand how people can talk about a sandwich like it's a piece of filet mignon... or why anyone would pay $9 for a Subway sandwich for that matter.

I've also known people who claim that they can make a killer sandwich... my question is: why? WHY focus your efforts on wonder bread? There are more important causes such as sauces and cured meats, that a sandwich could only hope to live up to....!!

Damn, I'm hungry now. But I ain't reaching for that lettuce.

TAing can be fun

One student in my class wrote the following in his lab report:

The Muller-Lyer illusion can be used in applications as trivial as Super Mario falling down a dungeon hole in Level 2-1, or as important as the design of a fighter jet cockpit.

My comment was: You must mean Level 1-2; Level 2-1 is an overworld level.

On that note: http://ian-albert.com/misc/smb.php

Look at the size of this thing

So, ak needed volunteers for her research in functional MRI, and as incentive I got to keep the images. Neato huh? Man, these are so freaky... I love it.

ak has a strange fascination with brains (where strange = scary). I mean, who talks about internal organs as pieces of art?? Right and left symmetry, compactness of gyrus, increasing gaps of the sulcus...??? WTH, ak!

It was enough to even make me a bit insecure about my brain. I mean, what if my brain has no.... sulcus-ly goodness? Should I feel bad? and try to come up with an excuse?

ak: yah, your sulcus is really... REALLY... 'something'.
me: I... I... didn't eat breakfast today. Could that be it?
ak: no.

I could tell she was disappointed in my brain images, just trying to hold it back. She said something encouraging about my motor cortex or something, but the last thing I wanted was her brain pity.

haha