so what does this motion do?

... A day in the life of Mr. Speaker ...

RESOLUTION NO. 2149 - Tuesday, March 27, 2007

HON. CAROLYN BOLIVAR-GETSON: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:

... Okay, so just to make sure this is clear, this isn't the actual resolution but only a motion to vote on the resolution at some time in the future ...

Whereas we were all relieved to hear that a missing boy, only two and one-half years old, had been found in the woods near Moser River just before dark last night after being lost for more than four hours; and

... sniff tearful intro, but hey, that's why we do it, right? ...

Whereas family members were quickly joined by volunteers, including the Sheet Harbour and area ground search and rescue team, with several other volunteer teams also on the way to the area; and

... yes, the volunteers did great, and deserve a nod ...

Whereas a potential tragedy was avoided due to the prompt response and coordination among ground search and rescue, the RCMP, our own Emergency Management Office, paramedics, volunteer firefighters and the Natural Resources helicopter crew;

... Oh, this is building nicely. Quite the crescendo, and now we're at the climax. Could this be for additional funds many SAR teams across the province desperately need? Finally!??? ...

Therefore be it resolved that all members of the House join the Tibert family of Moser River and acknowledge the life-saving efforts of those who helped return the boy to his family last night, cold and wet, but otherwise in good health.

Mr. Speaker, I request waiver of notice.

... oh, well acknowledgement is good too, but why include the "cold and wet, but otherwise"? Doesn't that kind of sound defeating? ...

MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver.

Is it agreed?

It is agreed.

Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.

The motion is carried.

So what does this motion do? Anyone out there know? It's flattering and all, but not I'm sure what the point could possibly be other than PR for the MPPs who couldn't make it out to Moser River and kiss the toddler as he was being rescued. Hopefully, it's building to something. Maybe a record of such resolutions so that when it comes time to increase the funding there's something to lean on... Maybe. But I'm not holding my breath on that.

(Please excuse my cynicism. It's been a long week.)

fast molasses

Okay...this is just weird.

happy eyes

On the left, we have what I've had to look at for the last 2 years. On the right, we have what I get to look at now. Yay!

shaping up is hard to do

So it's that time of year.

The time of year when you start to realize how little you've done since last fall. When you realize that you have become sadly out of shape, and dammit, you're ready to do something about it.

About 10 days ago, I decided I was going to reverse the getting out of shape trend that had persevered all winter. I decided I was going to try to get in shape for the Blue Nose Half Marathon. (The website for the event has the witty(?) line "the thrill of victory and the agony of the feet".) But is that enough? Nooooo. I have also decided to sign of for the E2C, and another 4-hour orienteering event shortly before it...

Okay, I say to myself, maybe I should get in shape so I can do these things.

So I wrote a note to a friend of mine (who is ridiculously in shape) to see if he would go for a couple of runs with me and basically drag me around the blog a few times. His response was something along the lines of, "I'd love to go on some runs with you, but I must warn you that I'm not really in shape right now and doubt I could run the half in under 1:30."

Well, that's a relief, since doing that last year would have put him in the top 15 finishers, and I'm not quite at that level. At least not yet... I almost hit that time once, and I still partially blame poorly marked miles for missing it, but I don't know if I'm going to go for such a laudable goal this time. I don't want to set that as a goal this year, especially since Halifax will offer a hillier course, but I kind of know myself, so who am I kidding? If I decide to do this, I'm going to want to hit that goal. He knows this.

So last week I went for my first run, since ... probably September. It was slow, with lots of stops. I probably ended up covering about 7 km. To my surprise, I was stopping due to flares up pain from an injury I incurred in 1999. But I survived, without aggrevating the old injury. (Knock on wood.)

This week was less slow, and I (barely) covered 10 km.

The first 4 km were only 3 minutes slower than the pace I'd need to maintain if I wanted to do the half in 1:30. And that's less than 20% the distance to the finish line. Then I slowed down, and probably ran the remaining 6 km in about 35 minutes. And today I can barely walk without looking funny. So I have my work cut out for me.

I think I'll just keep my goal at "don't get hurt" for a while more.

just push the freakin' button

Many people I know loath the public washroom. It's an unsanitary mess of other people's business. Generally, I'd have to say my tolerance is relatively high on this front, but every now and then I come across something that makes me wonder about the general lack of cleanliness of the less fair sex.

Let me introduce you to my work environment. I work in a building of relatively well educated folks: I'd say the average person probably has more than one university degree. My building is quite secure after-hours: unless you correctly enter a 7-digit password, you're locked out. Each floor of my building has it's own pair of his and hers washrooms. By my estimate, the gent's room on my floor handles about 35 of us. Really, it's not an anonymous community; if you see a face you don't recognize you generally assume the person's lost and ask if they need help. So, you might expect, a group like this would try to take care of their environment. You know, keep it clean, be responsible enough to leave a common area more or less as you found it. That sorta thing.

So why is it that I walk into the washroom on a Saturday afternoon to find it smelling like piss?

The short answer, for those who don't have the luxury of entering the men's room on a regular basis, is because some guy was too freaking lazy to press the flush button on the urinal. He essentially peed on a wall and left his urine and all its olfactory goodness to evaporate overnight when all he had to do was press a freaking button to flush. I have never really understood why guys have such a hard time flushing after themselves. (And I hope for the ladies, that this is less of an issue for you.)

So really why is it?

Is it that some other guy was holding his ding-a-ling and then pressed the button and you're afraid that if you touch the button, your masculinity will be challenged?

Is it that you don't have time flush?

Is it because if you pressed the button, then you'd feel that you had to wash your hands and you weren't planning on doing that?

Is it because you still feel it is somebody else's job to help you go pee-pee?

Really, I'm sure you must have a good reason...something beyond my understanding. Hopefully it's something beyond laziness. Afterall, it seems that being irresponsible with your pee is not an isolated problem.

Hello World.

Yes, I'm still here.
No, I haven't forgotten about this site.
I'm just being pulled in too many other directions right now.

Yes, I will return soon and write something.

Hopefully, it will be something worth saying.
Hopefully, I'll have the time to say it clearly.
Hopefully, you'll think it was worth reading.

Until then, here's a fun toy to play with.

these are the waves I know

In case you were curious, I study what happens to underwater versions of these waves when they hit beaches. (Link to video.)

These waves, by the way, are the surface gravity wave equivalent of a sonic boom.

when "password" just won't do

You're famous, that'll be $12.50

I think most of us agree that if we were famous, the lack of privacy would probably be the biggest price to pay for it. Perhaps one of the biggest symbols of that loss of privacy is the Paparazzi.

But still, isn't there a part of everyone that would like to feel famous, if only for an instant? And, perhaps, if the Paparazzi were after you, would that make you feel famous? I don't know, but that's got to be the logic behind this ad, designed for a taxi window near you.

Best Birthday Message Ever

Last night, after viewing the premier of 300 with Sween, his Lovey Wife, and Allie, we got home to find a wonderful message on voicemail. It was a birthday blessing. Basically it went something like this...

Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday.

Yeah, sure it was a little late, but hey it was a Fraser girl leaving the message. (WHHATT??) And, let's be totally honest here, I'd probably be later. Besides, look at the messenger:

Anyway, I just wanted to say thank-you to GG. We miss you out here, so tell your mommy and daaddy that you have to come visit. With or without them. Only this time, you can get the banana split.

Idn't Dat Sweet

Awwww.

perspective

Sween gets excited about the cats...

I get excited about the Hamiltonians...

Hmmmm....

a vacation at home

Things have been very busy lately. But this weekend was a break from all that.

Each year I organize a student conference, which passed on Friday. Like last year, I have vowed that this year will be my last year organizing it. Unlike last year, I think the person that stepped up to learn how to organize it will actually want to do it again next year. Instead of doing things, I tried to take more of a delegation-style of management so other people did the work, thereby learning how to do it next time (without me). Still I had to prepare a presentation. I submitted the abstract for it only four days beforehand and still didn't have results at the time. I guess that's the beauty of a local student conference: preliminary results (i.e. two data points without error bars) are okay and deemed to be interesting...

Afterward, we had a departmental party which rolled into a birthday party at my house. We had copious amounts of sangria (served in a drawer), home-made meat balls and tiramisu from PG, delicious cakes from Anna, and a wonderful collection of friends to share it all with. Those who left while the buses were still running, while leaving earlier than any wished, made smart decisions because nobody scored a taxi. We had some rather freaky weather Friday night, with snow turning to hail turning to freezing rain and everybody was looking for taxis. One person got through at 1:30 and was told the taxi company would call when they were ready to pick them up. At 2:30 she got through to another company that told her the same thing. At 3:30 the 9 people that were still at our apartment decided to walk home. I did my best to try to assure people they could stay, and when they did decide to leave, I offered them as much rain gear as I could muster to help them stay dry. No taxi company ever called back. I hope they all survived their walks home.

I am now enjoying the spoils of having gone around the sun once again. I am eagerly reading A book about Pirates! that I received from Dan and Amanda. I am not sure how they found this book since Amazon says its release date is September 2007. But if anybody needs an absolutely silly book to read, may I recommend you start at the beginning of the story, and not expect fine literature. Next on my list is the first comic book I will ever read, which was delivered to me by Sween and his lovely wife (who you must read about when you visit his site). Seriously, I have never read a comic book. Perhaps this will be the dawning of a new era in my life. From the same man that introduced me to, um, the importance of monkeys, I guess. But the chance to read a comic book that has been called literature is kind of exciting. Plus I'll be able to say "I thought the book was better". I am also excited to finally have a copy of Baraka, from Mike and his Lovely Wife. I remember seeing this movie in the theatres and being blown away. I've probably rented it 5 or 6 times in the last 10 years. The word Baraka means blessing in several languages and the film is a series of images put to music that are meant to celbrate and humanity, our planet, and the interaction between the two. Its a stunning cinematographic piece and if you haven't seen it, it's worth renting.

On Saturday, which was my actual birthday, Allie and I agreed we were going to both do absolutely nothing all day. We didn't even take a day like that over our Christmas holiday, and I can't really remember the last time we both agreed to do nothing. We eventually rolled out of bed and got out the door around the crack of noon. Despite the weather the night before, it was a beatiful day. Temperatures were around 5 degrees and the streets and sidewalks were clear. We walked downtown, and had brunch at a restaurant called Deco. Then we perused random shops, mostly window shopping. (I picked up a orange long-sleeve shirt from MEC for SAR and that's it I think.) By about 4 or 4:30, we decided to head home but thought we aught to pick up a movie first. We had chosen two films neither of us had seen: Miller's Crossing and Syriana. But then while in line at the check-out, we saw they were selling the box set for the second season of Lost. After a short discussion, we decided to go and get the first season of Lost. Neither of us had really seen any episodes but have had many people tell us that we would love it. For the rest of the weekend we lay on the couch, watched Lost, and ate leftovers from the party.

It's kind of sad when you realize that you can't remember the last time you really did nothing for a whole day, let along two. But it was a much needed mental break.

...And we now return to our regularly-scheduled, daily fugue.