Recipe

Fruit Sorbet. Part of the reason it's so good is because the effort-->output ratio is so good. You can make something really nice but it might be a big production - you have to spend $30 and go buy a big fish or something and cook it. Or you can have something easy like instant noodles and be like "I'm eating garbage." But this sorbet only takes a few minutes and it tastes so good! And you can impress people when they come over - you can be like - I made this myself, and you can have some!

1. Put one cup of water and one cup of sugar in a bowl on stove. Cook and stir continuously until boiling, then turn off the stove and let it sit a couple minutes.

2. Cut up some fruit. Watermelon has worked best for me, but I've also tried mango, and green apple / pineapple combinations. Around 1/2 a watermelon, or 5 apples, should do it. Put the cut-up fruit and sugar-water in blender. Also squeeze in juice from one lime. Blend it (obviously).

3. Put in bowl in freezer. Take it out every hour to stir and mash-up. I've usually left it overnight.

Genius!

Environmental Management

A biodegradable home!

Faculty Hiring Committee

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

-Hunter S. Thompson

I have my first trial tomorrow (a small one). There's been a couple times where I was supposed to have my first trial but it settled at the last minute, but this one looks like everybody's ready to rumble. On cross-x I'll probably get to ask the question, "He didn't really call you a cocksucker like you claimed, did he?" which should be fun. I wish I had some kind of Popeye spinach or something I could down just beforehand to give me super-special powers.

I enjoy putting on a suit and tie before a big day in court. It's a ritual similar (I would guess) to putting on armour before a battle, or pads and jersey before the hockey game, or tuning your instrument before going on stage, that gets you ready to go out there.

Also, I got a thank-you card and a tie from a client that we helped today. I wouldn't be into a tie as a present for Xmas or B-day because it's too much of a "dad" present, but for a thank you gift it was really nice.

Air plane laughs illustrated

View from my window

Any port in a storm

Tomorrow I have to leave the house at 5:30 am because I have to drive to Port Alberni for court and that takes 3 ½ hours. I’ll have about 3 hours in between two different appearances and over lunch – not sure what I’ll do there. P.A. is pretty small. Maybe I’ll find a bar to have a drink in, maybe go to sleep in my car since I’ll be so tired, used bookstore hunting, Chinese buffet? Whatever I do I think it will be fun because I'll be rambling around town not cooped up in the office.

Yesterday I hadda go to the courthouse in Victoria to drop off some books at the library. I saw a lawyer from our firm there and tried to hide so that he wouldn’t see me and assign me work, but he spotted me and said “you look like you’re trying to hide from me so I won’t give you any work”. He told me not to worry because he didn’t have anything for me to do. I then asked him if there was anything I could do for him (knowing the answer) and if he wanted a coffee. He bought me a coffee. Success!

Blogs: a popularity contest?

First I thought I didn't have to go to work today. I wanted to cut back on my hours cause I've banked a bundle and I don't want to get in the habit of spending more time than what I'm paid for on a project. It's not professional. I want to be able to get everything done within the time allocated.

Then I remembered a workshop my boss asked all of us to sign-up for. The workshop was scheduled to run today from 8:30-4:30. So I spent the whole day at work. In fact I just finished sending a few emails from home now, at 9pm. I'm only supposed to work 18 hours a week!

Well at least I don't have to go in tomorrow.

Figuring out what I want to do and facilitating "communal" planning: that's what this blog was supposed to be about for me. So far I think it's helping: I have a place to post what I'm up to. And what's unique about it is that instead of just having scribbles in my own agenda or notebook, I'm sharing my thoughts with all of you. Public record. Maybe that forces me to think differently about myself.

I'm working on an article for publication based on my thesis. At least that's what I'm telling everyone. So far all I've written is a page. I have done a bit of reading and quite a bit of notetaking - scribbles in my book - but I wonder how serious I am about this. Time will tell I suppose.

Anyhow, those are some of my plans. And now I'm going to read or watch tv. What are you up to? and I was wondering, do you think blogs are mostly a kind of popularity contest?

Dion the road again:

As a rule I can't stand all politicians but so far I’m a fan of Stephane Dion and I would vote for him. He said a few smart things today. One was that he wants emissions caps with tradeable credits. The second was that there should be fast trains in Canada, for example a 3-hour Montreal - Toronto train. If there were, a lot of people would take it rather than flying, or even driving that route. By the way these trains should definitely have a piano car like the old days. That's a decent idea but it's public transit within cities that is the big thing. It doens't seem very effective to try to browbeat or guilt people into getting out of their cars. Instead, buses and subways and so on should be made a lot more attractive. There should be dedicated bus lanes throughout cities (just as there are bike lanes). If people are sitting in their cars stuck in traffic and they see buses go whizzing by because they have their own lanes then people might be enticed to take them. Also people's experience of taking transit should be taken into account. Taking the bus can suck sometimes. I'm sure if someone actually did a field study of people who take transit to find out what they liked and didn't like about it we could come up with some good improvements. Although to an extent the number of people who will get out of their cars is limited anyway because most cities themselves are built for cars.
Back to Dion, he at least understands that environment and the economy shouldn't have to be in opposition. Still I haven't heard anything really creative from him yet.


P.S. Also he looks like a muppet. I can imagine him giving a speech and those two grumpy old men muppets who sit in the balcony making fun of him.

More pictures from spain

Did the dishes, went for a run, and fixed an excel graph...now to post more pictures from Spain.

First, this is an urban park in Madrid. Most urban greenspaces seemed very civic - fountains, uniform patterns, statues, and sculpted bushes - but this beautiful shot reminds me of a marsh in Ontario.

Next, this stained glass is in the Sagrada Familia Cathedral designed by Gaudi in Barcelona. The columns on the inside were a pure white and they split into several branches - like a tree - as they went up to the ceiling, which resembled foliage.

Here's Marta in Park Guell also designed by Gaudi. Lots of peices of colourful tile arranged in patterns that remind of Australian Aboriginal art. The park's built on the side of a mountain. From a distance, the scenery looks quite lush. Up close, the park has a lot of structures and pathways, some of which reminded me of an enchanted kingdom from Disney World.

Photos from my trip to California last year.

photos from Australia

This is my niece and nephew: Charlotte and Sabin.

Airplane laughs

Ideas for a comic strip (sketches to follow, for now use your imagination):

Opening scene: an airplane aisle; stewardess notices a group of idiotic passengers paying no attention while she explains safety regulations.

Progression of scenes: stewardess begins cracking a smile as she imagines these passengers in the emergency situations she's describing:

- as she says, "If an oxygen mask appears, secure your own mask before helping others," she imagines a child dying of asphyxiation as mother takes excessive time adjusting the mask to fit comfortably on her own face.

- as she says, "Please turn off your cellular telephones and other electronic devices during take off and landing," she imagines a man using some archaic S.O.S/walkie-talkie device.

- as she says, "Your seat can also be used as a floatation device," she pictures that group of passengers having a pillow fight with the seat cushions.

- as she says, "A life vest is located in a pouch underneath your seat; please inflate it after exiting the aircraft," she imagines the passengers bouncing off each other, having inflated the lifevests while still in the plane.

- finally she says, "the washrooms are equipped with smoke detectors; tampering with or destroying the smoke detectors is against the law."

By the end of her instructions she's having trouble containing her laughter. She goes to the washroom to recover. A man is stepping out of the washroom as she arrives. He smells of smoke and she notices a piece of saran wrap sealed over the smoke alarm. To be continued...

You can find other people's airline jokes here: http://www.airtoons.com/toons.php?toon=22

What you up to?

Well it's Saturday just before noon. I've been putting off planning my day since 6 this morning when Marta and I woke up. Jet lagged I guess--we got back from Spain on Monday. Options: shopping, painting with my mom, music, working on this blog... I'll see if I can post some photos from our trip!