Forbidden Planet

All I long for, all I have longed for for years is to retire (prior to wanting to retire, my ambition was to play). Given a chance not to work, I would take it. However, this is not because of laziness or some inherent trait of sloth. Rather it is because I want to pursue my own interests and ideas; I want to do my own thing. One of the saddest things I find in talking with people about not working (aside from obvious disapproval) is that they like working, they would get bored not working, after all, there is only so much TV one can watch. Hmmm ... a pretty sad comment I think. I have a mind full of ideas. There are lots of things which grab my interest, which distract me as I journey through life. Finding what I want to do is hard., because every week I can have a new thing I want to pursue. Some might argue that I am not disciplined. Definitely, I am a poor finisher - great starter, but lousy finisher. I believe I have found what my ideal job would be: owning and running an incubato...

While on holiday in Peru this past summer , I observed a young girl who sold chickens across the street. I think she was around 16, but don't hold me to that since I am lousy at estimating people's ages. She would be there every morning from around 09:00 until she sold all her chickens (usually no later than 14:00). Photo Credit: Richard (me) of Forbidden Planet

About two weeks ago (17-December-2006), I saw Canada Geese not flying in traditional V formation, but more swarm like. This was on the 417 around the Maxville / St. Isidore area (exit 51). Photo Credits: Richard of Forbidden Planet

I grew up in the Montreal area from 1971 until 1986 (ages 4 to 20) and only knew grey squirrels. It was a surprise moving to Toronto and discovering black squirrels. In fact, black squirrels predominate in the Toronto, Cornwall, and Ottawa regions. I don't particularly like the black squirrels, I think they look like black rats and am much more partial to the grey ones. Judge for yourself: Photo credits: Grey squirrel - me Black Squirrel - here

While it had snowed in Ottawa and Montreal earlier in December (starting with freezing rain December 1st), it had all melted due to rather warm weather later in the month. Consequently we had a green Christmas. However, today it is snowing and things are getting pretty nice and white. Backyard and apple tree in Montreal Christmas day Boxing day morning, same tree and backyard The same scene with a bit more snow Close up of snowy branches on the apple tree Snow covered main street, near the house in Montreal Some icicles hanging on a ceder hedge at the home in Ottawa Photo credits: Richard (me) of Forbidden Planet. [Updated 13:18, 26-December-2006 to add a few more photos]

Image nabbed from here .

In Montreal, the lowest street price I could find for pate-fois-gras was $130 per kilogram.

You shall not leave ‘Christ’ out of Christmas, making it ‘Xmas.’ To some, ‘X’ is unknown. You shall prepare your soul for Christmas. Spend not so much on gifts that your soul is forgotten. You shall not let Santa Claus replace Christ, thus robbing the day of its spiritual reality. You shall not burden the shop girl, the mailman, and the merchant with complaints and demands. You shall give yourself with your gift. This will increase its value a hundred fold, and the one who receives it shall treasure it forever. You shall not value gifts received by their cost. Even the least expensive may signify love, and that is more priceless than silver and gold. You shall not neglect the needy. Share your blessings with many who will go hungry and cold if you are generous. You shall not neglect your church. Its services highlight the true meaning of the season. You shall be as a little child. Not until you become in spirit as a little one are you ready to enter into the kingdom of Heaven. You shal...

They have blocked access to blogger and blogspot at work, so I have been unable to update this blog and visit other blogs (aside form a brief visit to the library on Wednesday). This started two weeks ago, but I wasn't sure if it was temporary (since it seems to dynamically block sites based on content - sometimes a seemingly innocuous search on Google will have its results blocked). However, since it has persisted this whole week, I presume it is a permanent block. I suppose a benefit is that I might do more work, another benefit is that I might go to the library some more.

According to wiktionary it has the following definitions: 1) To set a price or value on; to estimate justly; to value. To appreciate the motives of their enemies. --Gibbon. 2 ) (U.S.) To raise the value of; to increase the market price of Lest a sudden peace should appreciate the money. --Ramsay. 3) To be sensible of; to distinguish. To test the power of bees to appreciate color. --Lubbock. 4) To view as valuable. I appreciate your help I think #2 is interesting. When we appreciate something, when we show appreciation for something, do we through our appreciation increase its value and worth? I think the act of appreciation is more than simply a good feeling, it is an action (after all this is a verb) that increases the value and worth of what we are appreciating. When I appreciate someone, I increase their worth. When I appreciate what I have, I increase its value to me.

Occasionally I will buy pre-seasoned meat from the store. Invariably, the predominant taste that comes through is salt. I am not talking about a little salt to enhance flavour, I am talking salt with hints of other flavours. This most recently happened a few days ago when I bought some Tandoori seasoned chicken legs (save me the trouble of buying, or better still, mixing up, some Tandoori seasoning). As is my habit, I washed the meat. Yes, I wash my meat from the store (a little hard with ground meat, so I prefer to avoid it for the most part) - even seasoned meats. While the aroma during cooking was pleasant, the promise of tantalizing flavours was crushed with the reality of salt. bleh.

Ah, if only it was so easy. I give in far too often to bouts of listlessness and unproductivity. Other times, I am able to rouse myself and do things. Funny thing is that I always feel better when I am doing things, but even so, I still let sloth drown me in its viscousness. A corollary to this is knowledge acquisition without putting it to use. I am really, really good at gobbling up books and information, but then letting hesitancy stop me from applying it. Maybe I will go and wash the dishes and see how that helps - seemed to work yesterday. I followed up the dishes with preparing turkey soup, some chicken Tandoori and spaghetti with meat sauce. For the curious, I am in Montreal watching over the kids while Sofia is in Quito, Ecuador on business. I also enabled word verification for comments because I was getting too many spam comments (personally, I hate it. Unless blogger allows me to delete comments after they have been posted, I have no choice. Comment moderation is even less a...

As I drove home to Montreal last night, there was a moment when I felt I had entered into "The Twilight Zone". It was a dark overcast night, no stars, no moonlight. There was a thin fog. You really didn't experience while driving. The headlights did not diffuse in it, but you could see it in diffuse lights of distant farm houses. At one point, while driving, everything was black, all I could see was the road in front of me and the lines on the road, beyond that I was just driving into darkness. At that moment, my mind thought, "Where am I going?" (a silly question since the 417 heads straight from Ottawa to Montreal - it changes into the 40 at the Quebec-Ontario border). Sometimes, it does not take a lot to make one question where one is going - just darkness, the road and white lines. Image copyright by me.

Found this on ms. q's blog , so I thought, I would give it a whirl.

Even without violence some nice people and nice things tend to get upset." Greece and the Hellenistic World (1986), John Boardman, Jasper Griffin, Oswyn Murray (Actually, it is George Forrest in the chapter Greece: The History of the Archaic Period )

a literary event, a drawing on an embroidery; it cannot be done with elegance and courtesy. The revolution is an act of violence..." - Mao Tse-tung

Ever have your brain seize up on you such that you can't recognize a word? I was reading something and the word going came up. My brain wasn't going anywhere, rather it was going, "Goy-ng? Goy-ng? What is goy-ng?"

Got to love alliteration, just string together a few adjectives and adverbs, sprinkle in the odd noun or verb (ensure they all start with the same sound) and you get a smug "aren't I clever" feeling deep inside. One of my problems - aside from starting things, finishing things, or just doing things - is remembering things. There are lots of things I do remember - like people’s birthdays (women's birthdays at any rate). However, I find that ideas pop into my head and I think, “Gee, that's a good one, I'll have to remember it for later." Of course, I never do. Of late, I have taken to sending myself e-mails to record my ideas - which works great … if I have access to a computer with e-mail privileges. Since I was young, I always remember reading that I should keep a log book where I write things down. I don't do that - it never felt right (as an aside, I have a log book at work. I have had it for 6 years - it is about 3/4 full. A snail's pace when ...

Six humans trapped by happenstance In dark and bitter cold Each possessed a stick of wood-- Or so the story's told. Their dying fire in need of logs, But the first one held hers back, For, of the faces around the fire, She noticed one was black. The next one looked cross the way Saw one not of his church, And could not bring himself to give The fire his stick of birch. The third one sat in tattered clothes He gave his coat a hitch, Why should his log be put to use To warm the idle rich? The rich man just sat back and thought Of wealth he had in store, And keeping all that he had earned From the lazy, shiftless poor. The black man's face bespoke revenge As the fire passed from his sight, For he saw in his stick of wood A chance to spite the white. And the last man of this forlorn group Did nought except for gain, Giving just to those who gave Was how he played the game, Their sticks held tight in death's stilled hands Was proof enough of sin; They did not die from cold witho...

I wonder how that is supposed to help console a person. Imagine: You lose your job, your home burns down, your spouse leaves and your kids get eaten by alligators. "It could be worse." Great! So I could go even lower. [Note: none of these things have happened to me. I am just musing.] Image nabbed from here .

Shot of a field outside my work place – just across the parking lot and street. Experimental night shot. The shutter stayed open three seconds. Yes, I had the camera perched so it would not move. Sight I see a few kilometers into the Quebec border after entering from Ontario. A field about half way between Montreal and Ottawa. This and the previous picture do nothing to dispel the myth that Canada is a vast wilderness. Actually it is. Traveling between Montreal and Ottawa it is about 140Km of forest and farmland. A foggy morning outside my home in Ottawa. All images are copyright by me.

While I struggle to keep up with my blog (let alone with every one's elses), I have created another blog. This makes my third. My second blog has sort of faded into dusty abandonment - mostly because I think it really needs pictures and I would prefer to use my own rather than constantly nabbing other peoples'. I think I should showcase what I have done not what someone else has done. The new blog is called Five Successes . The idea is to post five successes, achievement, positive things that happened that day. Anyone is free to post - all you have to do is send an e-mail and blogger will post it. E-mail address is listed on the blog. The dusty blog was called Recipe a Day .

Albert Camus, 'The Rebel'

So far it has been a fairly mild Fall. We are pretty late into November and there have been no terribly cold days. I have managed to make do with sweaters this whole time - my coat still hangs in the closet, waiting for me to don it. Mind you, it was a pretty wet Fall. I remember trimming the bushes in Montreal one weekend and then having hard time finding a dry weekend to collect the sticks (I use paper yard waste bags. As you might imagine, paper bags don't hold up very well in the rain). We did have one brief moment of snow flurries a few weeks back. Recently, a few morning have been below zero - I even had to scrape frost off the car windows on two mornings. I've enjoyed it (as much as one can, locked up at work). The only change I would make is to have had it a little less wet.

We all know (or should know) that debt erodes our spending power. If we are carrying $100 @ 5% interest, that means that is $5 less we have for ourselves. Might as well give ourselves a 5% pay cut. Some of us are better, we don't carry debt (well at least not the crippling credit card type). We pat ourselves on the back for not paying interest to the banks - but we don't save. Somehow every penny we have, gets spent. Even fewer of us manage to actually save some money (the pay yourself first principle). Even if we only stick it in a bank account or a GIC, we earn a little bit of money - sort of like a reverse debt. My best line of credit charges me 6%. My best savings account pays me 4%. They are both with President's Choice Financial . Let's say that I decide I need a new computer and borrow $1000 to purchase it. In the end I pay an extra $60 ($1000 x 6% = $60). Money that if I hadn’t spent it could buy a nice dinner for two for Sofia and me. Let's say that I have ...

Yesterday afternoon Bif Naked's Leader was running through my head. Ok, maybe that is a bit too much, it is more like bits of it were running through my head, because I can't remember the lyrics to a song to save my life. You can have a listen to it from the video where it is used as the background music. I have no idea what the video is about. It has nothing to do with the song. I find it just distracts from the song If I could, I would disable the video and only play the audio - but I can't. I recommend you just close your eyes, turn up the volume and enjoy. If you don't want to close your eyes, you can always scroll the video off screen. May not exactly be the sort of ambience music you want at work.

Do we always have to be killing / destroying things? Does it make our world safer? I suspect not. While antiseptic soap, hand cleanser, dishwashing liquid, and other things that kill germs dead (the fine print often say kills 99%) in our everyday life seem like a good idea, "Germs bad. Dead germs good." I suspect we may be doing more harm in the long run than good. The problem is the same as with antibiotics - those that aren't killed by it are to some degree resistant to it and survive to come back again another day. Where do we find the most resistant bacteria? Hospitals.

Many of the larger grocery stores have U-Scan check out lanes. These are lanes where you scan and bag your own grocery items. I use them at Loblaws here in Ottawa and Kirkland (Montreal). There are definite experiential differences between the two stores. Maybe it is a store thing, maybe it is a cultural thing - I don't know. Ottawa is a city in the province of Ontario (a predominantly English speaking province with an English history). Kirkland is a city on the island of Montreal in the Province of Quebec (a predominantly French speaking province with a French history). Geographically Ottawa is larger than Montreal. Population wise, Montreal is larger than Ottawa. Both are very multicultural. Both store have the same type of U-Scan setup. There are two extra wide checkout lanes, with four U-Scan terminals in each lane - two on each side of the lane. I prefer the experience in Ottawa to Montreal principally because I find it faster and less of a hassle. In Ottawa, most items scan...

There are many signs of aging: greying hair, wrinkles, aches and pain, noticing deaths. Over the past little while, I have noticed that listening to deaths is becoming increasingly personal When I was younger, hearing about the death of an individual was not terribly poignant. It might be tragic in the case of a young person, but in the case of an old person, it was something that happened. Nowadays, even the death of an older person seems more personal. I pay attention and wonder how short their life seemed. Ruth Brown (a blues singer) died on 17-November-2006 at the age of 78. Image nabbed from here .

"Some statues fall over," replied Jason. JJ is a very active kid, he can't sit still for a moment (much like me at that age). Image nabbed from here .

I overheard that a few days ago between two coworkers.

You Are The Moon You represent the unconscious side of life, what happens in dreams. You are capable of great genius - but also of great madness. Emotions tend to be primal for you, both your fears and your fantasies. Your intuition is always right, listening to it is the difficult part. Your fortune: You are about to embark on a very important journey - and a very difficult one. Some of your deepest dreams will be realized, as well as some of your deepest nightmares. Follow your creativity and visions; stay away from your weaknesses. You are taking a voyage to the center of yourself, and you may be pleasantly surprised by what you discover. What Tarot Card Are You? It doesn't really matter what name you enter, it randomly assigns something to you. Some might call it chance, others fate.

Back in the 17th century, when the modern scientific method was still being worked out, a Flemish scientist / philosopher / alchemist named Jan van Helmont set out an experiment to determine what was the principle agent in tree growth - water or soil? Up to that point, nobody had really bothered to try and figure out what caused a tree to grow (or any plant for that matter). People might discuss it. They might have there pet ideas, but none of those ideas were put to the test - they were just common sense, or good arguer might make a compelling case, or it was clearly documented in some ancient text (people have this really annoying habit of assigning far greater authority to something that has been written down, or ascribed to some dead person than to their own thoughts and ideas). Anyway, nobody really knew what was the principle agent in a tree growing - water or the soil. So Jan performed an experiment. He got himself 200lbs of soil and put it in a box. He planted a 5lb tree in the...

JJ (my son) asked me last night. "I'm pretty sure I will", I replied. "Thanks! You’re the best!" he declared. "Are you going to buy me a present for my birthday?", I asked. (Pause while thinking) "I am going to buy you Doctor Who number 5" he declared. "Really?" I asked raising my eyebrows in wonder. "Yeah, it's very cool. I watched it as a kid. I was three years old." he stated, matter-of-factly. Jason turned 5 a little over a month ago. Image nabbed from here . If you don't recognize it, it is Ultraman - which I used to watch as a kid. [Updated 13-November-2006 @ 17:36 to add speaker identification and avoid any possible ambiguity.]

I hate those words. Anyone who defends or argues based on principle and not on what is right or wrong demonstrates inflexibility, intransigence and narrow-mindedness.

I have to say that it was not unpleasant or painful. It is not something I would recommend as a recreational activity, but having a root canal was no big deal. I was well frozen and felt nothing. After the freezing wore off, I still felt nothing. Although, when I would bang my molars together while chewing, I would feel pain in the jaw around the tooth socket. I never realized that while chewing, I occasionally knock my teeth together. Hmmm. Tuesday, the socket was a less sensitive and today everything feels perfectly fine. No pain, no discomfort. So for those who may be having a root canal in their future, I have to say that it is nothing to worry about. One thing I found need (aside from looking at the X-rays of my tooth) was the spacer the stuck in my mouth. Previously, I have always had to keep my mouth open when visiting the dentist. This time (because the procedure lasted 1-1/2 hours), I was given a small plastic block, which I placed between my molars (on the side not being work...

I rather like the church I go to in Montreal. It is very culturally diverse. This is not a church that can claim to have any predominant ethnicity. There is also a wide range of parishioners from young to old - making me wonder where the young people were when I was young. However, what clinches it for me as a very diverse congregation is a very old man who can sometimes be seen during the 9 A.M. Sunday service, unobtrusively standing behind a pillar. He is not hiding, nor is he drawing attention to himself. What makes him special, is that he is not a Christian. He is Jewish. He wears a prayer shawl (tallit) and dons and removes phylacteries (tefillin) during the course of the service. I presume he is praying independently of us. However, when we are asked to exchange a sign of peace, he does participate. I don't know why he is there. I presume it is because he regards the church as a holy place. This sort of communion and peaceable tolerance always helps to strengthen my hope.

Arrived in Montreal Thursday night and noticed the hot water was … erm … not very hot. After checking (and flipping) all the circuit breakers on the main panel, I had to go to the burner motor and trace the wires back. This led me to a completely separate circuit breaker, located on a different wall. I turned it off, then turned it back on, but nothing. So I opened it and found a blown fuse. Taking it out I noticed it was a 25 amp fuse. At the time, I thought this was excessively large. My hot water heater is an oil fired one and the I was pretty sure the pump motor was nowhere near 25 amps. I stuck in a 20 amp fuse, powered up the circuit breaker and everything worked fine. The next day I checked the rating on the motor, it is 2.8 amps. This definitely makes me think the fuse was (and still is) too high. As well, the circuit breaker is rated for 30 amps. As far as I am concerned, this is definite overkill for the circuit in question. Of course, this is an older home, built back in the...

I hadn't been to my dentist since May-2004 (normally I went on weekends, but since Sofia and the kids moved to Montreal, I am not in Ottawa on the weekends). Last night, as I was munching on some cashews, I felt a pain in one of my molars and then some grit in my mouth. I went and washed it out, assuming that maybe there had been a stone or something amount the cashews. Turns out I noticed a hole in the surface of the molar (top right, second from the back, my wisdom teeth were removed years ago). Fishing around for grit in my mouth, it looked like crumbled filling. So I assumed that my filling had cracked and crumbled and come out. Went to the dentist this morning, he took an x-ray and came back with bad news. I have a large cavity under the filling, which gave way. The filling did not fall out, but rather impacted into the space of the cavity. He did not rework the filling, since the cavity is very near the root - cleaning it out would likely result in exposing the root. As some...

I have had a number of paranormal experiences in my life which spurred an interest in the paranormal when I was younger. However, in spite of all that, I am decidedly skeptical of paranormal claims. The second paranormal experience (here for the first) I recall occurred when I was 7 or 8 (grade 2 or 3). It was a dark, gray, cold day in December. I was walking home from school with my friend Sheldon. It was probably near 16:00. We had gone up 36th avenue and had turned right on St-Antoine, when I noticed lights in the sky over the golf course (back in the early 70s, Grove Hill park was an open field and north of Provost was a golf course). They darted about quickly. Sometimes they stopped. Through out the whole routine they would change colours from red to white to orange. I pointed it out to my friend and said I thought someone was playing on the clouds with a coloured flashlight. He replied that it was UFOs. "What are UFOs?" I asked back. “Unidentified Flying Objects. Space...

Since blogger is refusing to upload even small teaser images at the moment (the message that comes up mentions something about a firewall … blah, blah, blah). You will have to leave my blog to go and check out some really nifty icons and desktops over here at the 2006 GUI championships.

At least that is the way Sofia heard the line from Bif Naked 's song Choking on the Truth . The actual line was "I am honesty". Later I popped "The Best of the Animals" in and Sofia remarked, "This is better, you can enjoy it without having to be on drugs."

In the building I work, we have a pair of large metal-framed glass doors in the central corridor. I presume they are fire doors. Anyhow, it is not obvious whether you push or pull on them. So, they had lettering put on the doors, near the handles, to let you know if you should push or pull. I don't think it made much difference because I, and others, still push or pull at the wrong time. I think this falls in the category of poor user interface design. The problem is that putting the lettering near the handle is pointless, unless you have never used a door before and have to think about grabbing the handle. For most of us, this is an automatic reflex and we simply reach out for where we expect the handle to be and then push or pull. We keep our eyes pointed straight ahead, there is no need for us to lower them and look at the handle. Image nabbed from here .

Discovered an interesting psychological test called the IAT (Implicit Association Test). The claim is that even if we exercise a strong control over conscious thoughts and attitudes, the truth is that we have subconscious biases that this test is able to ferret out. It requires you to quickly sort through a variety of items and assign them to one of two columns. The first set might have the columns "Male" and "Female" and you will be asked to sort male and female nouns and pronouns. The next round may have the columns "Career" and "Family". Again you will be asked to sort items. Finally, each column will get two categories, for example, "Male or Career" and "Female or Family" and you will have to sort 4 sets of items into those two columns. The theory is that we subconsciously associate certain concepts, say male and career or female and family. When we mix up the categories to be "Male or Family" and "Female or...

I have mentioned before that Anthony de Croud is the most popular search term landing people to this blog. Sometimes makes me wonder if I should delete the post and references to it. Today, someone left an anonymous message on my blog - incongruously placed in my post Thirty Days Hath September My best guess is that it was placed by a robot which crawls the web looking for references to Anthony de Croud and then posts this: Anthony Le Croud: I have received a card from you saying that good luck will follow if i resend the card. (Chinese proverb) If you are a missionary, what kind of missionary are you. If you are a Christian missionary i have good news for you: Christians don't believe in luck. They trust in the Lord. Unfortunately you are placing curses on people by saying bad luck will follow if they do not do as the card says. I break the curse you place on me in the Name of Yeshua and hope that you will forgive me for my bluntness. Have a blessed day and may you find peace i...

The past few months I have been reading a lot on writing - everything from how to write, how to get published, even how to do book binding. The most recurrent theme is how hard it is to be a writer. There are always wonderful quotes like: "There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein." - Walter Smith "Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead." -Gene Fowler Holly Lisle , an author (someone I have notread), has a pretty interesting web site filled with resources for writers and inspiration and support. However, in her free ebook, Mugging the Muse , she has this to say: "Let me define the act of writing for you. As a writer, you're going to attempt to sell the products of your mind to a world that doesn't care right now whether you breathe or not. You're going to strip your soul naked and parade it in front of editors and agents, publisher...

When I was a kid growing up in Canada, Rocket Robin Hood and Spiderman were two classic cartoons put out by Canadian animation company (Krantz Films) in Toronto. You can see the opening credits to both. I am pretty sure that Spiderman aired in the States, I am not so sure about Rocket Robin Hood though. I have a feeling that was distinctly Canadian fare. Each Rocket Robin Hood episode was probably no more than 10 minutes long, but was stretched out to a full half hour by playing the same interlude pieces over and over again (there were maybe 8 or so interlude pieces). Krantz had also done a cartoon version of Hercules back then, each episode was about 5 minutes long and was stretched by having on of the characters (a centaur) repeat his lines twice: "Hercules! Hercules! Look! Look! It's Daedelus! It's Daedelus!" (they also made a number of historical vignettes featuring Max the 2000 year old mouse - "I know. I was there.") This is the Rocket Robin Hood openi...

I recently read Without Conscience by Robert Hare - it is about psychopaths. There are a number of characteristics which define a psychopath, including: - glib, easy free flowing speech - thrill / excitement seeking - charming - egocentric / self centered - low empathy While I see these characteristics in other people, the one characteristic I found most interesting was the lack of fear. Dr. Robert Hare performed an experiment on test subjects who were wired up to receive a painful, but non-lethal electric shock. As a countdown timer approached zero, most test subjects would become anxious – detected by measuring sweating in the fingertips. Psychopaths were the exception, they showed no response. This has interesting consequences because it shows that psychopaths (sociopaths) do not anticipate or respond to pain or suffering. Therefore, any form of treatment which relies on some form of punishment (aversion training) will fail with a psychopath, since they don't learn or get it....

You can read the story here . I always thought they were called humans. [updated 18-October-2006 @ 17:45 to provide missing link. Thanks Rennyba ]

Last night I decided to conduct an experiment using myself as a test subject (although, not quite in the Timothy Leary sort of way). I was curious what effects I would observe when reading with only one eye. Each eye sends information to the opposing brain hemisphere - information from the left eye goes to the right side of the brain, information from the right eye goes to the left side of the brain. Each hemisphere specializes in different functions and the way it interprets the world. The two hemispheres are joined by a bundle of nerves called the corpus callosum . How would biasing which hemisphere received information affect my reading experience? I lay down to read a short story called Dead Run. It is about a trucker who hauls souls to Hell (found in New Stories from The Twilight Zone ). I started by closing my right eye and quickly changed to simply covering my eye with my hand since it was more comfortable. Instead of propping up my head with my hand on my chin, I sort of propp...

There is something warm, inviting and elegant about spiral or winding staircases. Certainly, both Sofia and I would love to have a home with a majestic curved staircase. For the time being, we have to make do with a simple straight stairwell. Pictures nabbed from here and here .

Aside from finding grey hairs on my head and chest, I now have another sign of aging, increased eyestrain while reading. I had my eyes examined a few months ago and my near vision is fine (for the curious, I am near sighted and have 20/30 vision in my right eye and 20/40 in my left, with some very mild astigmatism - this has not changed in more than 25 years). I have noticed over the past few months that when I read, I need to have the book a little further away from me than I used to. It needs to be further than 12 inches (30cm) from me. If it is closer, I can still read, but I definitely notice increased tension on my eyes, as well, the pages and words take on an unreal flatness. This makes reading in the bathtub, with book propped on my chest, harder since I find myself having to now hold the book a little higher and a little further away - tiring my arms. Image nabbed from here .

Since I do a lot of highway commuting between home and work and Ottawa and Montreal, I am able to obtain pretty reliable information on my fuel consumption (it is between 6.9 and 7.5 L/100Km - I do a quick compute in my head every time I fill up). Various factors will affect fuel consumption including weather, road conditions, and the type of driving I do (city versus highway). One of the things we are constantly told is that a car burns 10% more fuel for every 10Km/h you are above 100Km/h. So if you are doing 120, you burn 20% more fuel than if you were doing 100. I can categorically state that my experience contradicts this idea. Websites promoting this idea often display charts showing diminishing fuel efficiency over 100Km/h. The stated reason is a combination of engine efficiency and drag. The door to door trip from my home in Ottawa to Montreal is 170Km, about 165 Km of that is straight highway. The door to door trip from My home in Ottawa to my work is 32Km - 30Km of which is ...

Apparently, according to this blogthing: Your Life Is Worth... $535,500 How Much Is Your Life Worth? It would certainly be nice - in cash, of course. Don't know why the hands are chained up though. Seems a strange image to associate.

I generally cook on the weekends as Sofia does it during the week (mostly because she is here and I am in Ottawa). The challenge is always trying to prepare something that will not have the kids turn up their noses. As I rummaged through the fridge looking for what was available, I found a chicken I had boiled the previous weekend (to make the stock base for Barscz - pronounced bar-sh-ch - Polish beet soup). Since there was a lot of meat, I decided that I would make chicken-a-la-king - however, I lacked mushrooms and, so, used chef's discretion to make a substitution or two. Meat from 1 boiled 1.5Kg (3lb) chicken, chopped into pieces. 1/3 cup (80ml) butter 2 medium onions, chopped 1 Red bell pepper, chopped 1-1/2 cups (375ml) chicken stock 2 cups (500ml) milk or cream or similar 1 teaspoon (5ml) salt Dash of pepper 3/4 teaspoon curry powder 1/3 cup (80ml) flour Sauté the onions in the melted butter until soft and translucent (about 10 minutes). Add the chopped bell pepper and sauté...

Everyone has a need to belong, to have connection with other people, to be part of a community. Most people belong to several different communities: ethnic, linguistic, sports, religious, etc. However, I find that most people give in and conform to mode of speech, style of dress, or some other conformant behaviour or mode. I do not. Adapting to a group is alien to my way of thinking. I like to be with people, I like belonging, but I do not feel the need to dress the same way, to talk the same way, to think the same way. I seek people similar to me, but I do not seek to adapt to them. Of course, in some case you have to learn some of the basic rules; if you are going to play soccer, then you need to know the rules of the game (which I suppose could be argued is a form of conformity). I have a strong distaste for wearing branded clothes and avoid it if I can. I remember, in high school, my mother asking me if I wanted clothes like the other kids were wearing -- my answer was no. She did ...

When I was younger, I found the world to be a hostile environment. This was in part a result of the Cold War, in part because I was of Polish ancestry (my surname is very distinctly Polish) and experienced the prejudice and discrimination of being 'suspect' (just as Muslims are today). After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world climate seemed to change, to improve and become less hostile. There were some growing pains, but they did not seem to be ideologically driven as they were in the past. However, I find today's climate no better, and perhaps worse, than it was when I was growing up. I offer for you this passage from George Orwell's 1984: Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are cre...

While investigating why my computer seems to be using more memory than usual, I zeroed in on the google toolbar which came preinstalled on my computer. It did not seem to be taking up too much memory, nonetheless, I targeted it for uninstallation. Prior to uninstalling it, I decided to see what features and options it offered (I never used it - which was another good reason for uninstalling it). In doing so, I noticed that it offered a translation feature (disabled by default): by hovering over a word, it would translate the word into your language of choice, or you could send the whole web page for translation. Several weeks back, I had a similar idea, I thought how great it would be to have a dictionary plugin for the browser which would allow you to (1) translate words from one language to another, (2) provide thesaurus functionality, (3) allow spell checking. I envisioned it working by either hovering the mouse over the word to get a list of translations (which is how google's ...

Today is Jason's birthday. He s 5 years old (finally). He has been waiting for this day for months. We had a small celebration yesterday with my parents for him. It was a good time. I have taken the day off work today and later we will assemble a robot kit he got yesterday. The picture was taken while we were in Peru this past summer. Image is copyright of me.

I am always amazed how people I don’t know, or don’t know well, seem to know so much about me. It is not as if I go about advertising myself or trying to draw attention to myself, but nonetheless, people always surprise me by seeming to know more about me than I would expect. Case in point: as I paid for my gas before heading home for Montreal, the attendant, an elderly gentleman whom I only know from the gas station 2 blocks from my house in Ottawa, said to me: "Your neighbour is doing a big construction." Yes, it is true, the neighbour across from me is doing a major renovation of his home, however, I do not expect this gas station attendant to know where I live. While I do live two blocks from the gas station, it is not line of sight (it is 1 block, 90 degree turn, another block). The gas station only came into being after Sofia and the kids relocated to Montreal. I come home late, I don’t hang around the neighbourhood, nor am I there on the weekends. These types of incide...

Today is Sofia and my 10th wedding anniversary. This was the final song at our wedding and reflects well my feelings then and today. Covenant Hymn by Gary Daigle and Rory Wherever you go, I will follow, Wherever you live is my home. Though days be of blessing or sorrow, Though house be of canvas or stone, Though Eden be lost to the past, Though mountains before us be vast, Wherever you go, I am with you. I will never leave you alone. Whatever you dream, I am with you, When stars call your name in the night. Though shadows and mist cloud the future, Together we bear the light. Like Abram and Sarah we stand, With only a promise in hand. But lead where you dream: I will follow. To dream with you is my delight. And though you should fall, you will find me, When no other friend can you claim, When foes beat you down or betray you, And others desert you in shame. When home and dreams aren’t enough, And you run away from my love, I’ll raise you from where you have fallen. Faithful to you is ...

I suppose it could be a reference to my diminished presence on the web this past week-and-a-half or so, but it is not. For the last month I have been consciously aware of not hearing birds chirping as I wake up in the morning – there is no 5am roll call. Image nabbed from here .

I love libraries. I have spent a lot of time in them. I have borrowed lots of books from them. One of the great things is the Dewey Decimal Classification system - which allows you to reasonably quickly find a book (at home I tend to organize books roughly by subject matter and size). What I have always found odd, is how precise some of the numberings are. I am aware of the gross categorizations, you can look at it here , but many go well beyond being 800 or 650. They include narrowings like 803. They go to even further precision by appending some decimal digits - 808.02. Today I picked up a book that has a very long decimal sequence 791.430233. Not only that, but it has a further refinement of R514. It makes me wonder me wonder what range of titles lie between 791.430232 and 791.430234. The book I picked up (among others) is this one , but, before following the link, why not try to find it by the DDC classification.

DVDs are wonderful, they provide exceptional video quality for viewing. However, this also works against them in some instances. Secret Agent , a TV series I particularly enjoy, is an old black and white British series. One of the wonderful things about it was the continually changing story locations. One week the story may take place in Rome, the next in Santiago, the next, Macau. When I initially watched it over the airwaves, from a PBS station over the border, the image quality was good, but not perfect. This helped to enhance the believability of the exotic locals - almost every episode began with an opening shot of a plane landing in some foreign local. When I got the DVD set, some of the mystery was lost because it was obvious that sound stages were being used - which was not so obvious from the slightly fuzzier, slightly grainier images coming in over the air.

We all have different ways of speaking and pronouncing our words - I am no exception. Where I find it most obvious is when talking about programming with fellow programmers, most notably when talking about the programming languages C or C++ (C's successor, or sorts). One of the language keywords is char . Everyone else I know pronounces it the way it is spelled - char . I pronounce it kar . The reason is simple, I learned C in isolation, from a book, some 20 years ago. char is the shortened form of character (just as int is the shortened form of integer), consequently the logical pronunciation must begin with a hard k sound not the soft ch sound. Another word I mispronounce is kludge . When I say it, it rhymes with sludge or fudge . The way everyone else says it, it rhymes with stooge . However, when I use it as a verb or adjective, I use the long oo sound, but as a noun, it is definitely the short u . Image nabbed from here .

I always like to see the search terms that bring people here. I blogged once before on this. Award winning chili no longer seems to make the rounds, although anthony de croud still does. In order of popularity, from the past week or so, the search terms are: anthony de croud palladium oxide uv fluorescence forbidden planet pictures how can a elephant adapt to its environment masa & purple corn how did organisms changed the planet forward chino de la suerte cold cuts slimy personality test circle, square, triangle calliope planet star ovo-lactic vegetarian return to the forbidden planet - poetry forbidden planet california jason nathalie richard montreal heavy rye bread touch her belly to things that originated from canada arequpa the white city rocotto relleno recipe my nice nieces today i married my friend zno is not a good photocatalyst Twenty six came in from google, and one from yahoo - this is not surprising since google owns blogger. Some of these are pretty obscure and peop...

Found a 5 minute clip from one of my favourite episodes from The Prisoner : Free For All . Short synopsis: After resigning from a sensitive government job, the prisoner is abducted from his home and brought to a place called The Village. A cosmopolitan place populated with people who have been similarly abducted. It is a story of his struggle to retain his individiuality in the face of increasing pressure to give in and become a model citizen. There are no names, only numbers. The prisoner is assigned the number 6. In this episode, he is encourage to run in The Village elections for the position of number 2.

Until I get around to posting something real, here are the result of a personality test. Inspiration (or should that be lack of inspiration) from ms. q - her results are here . My Personality Neuroticism 39 Extraversion 14 Openness To Experience 21 Agreeableness 65 Conscientiousness 61 Test Yourself Compare Yourself View Full Report MySpace Codes , MySpace Layouts and hi5 by Pulseware Survey Software While you are at it, you might want to check out other tests I have taken: How logical I am. Another personality test. My Roger's indicator of multiple intelligences Three highly dubious, but ego inspiring, instant insight internet interrogations indulged in. What kind of soul I possess. My personality DNA.