While finishing my dissertation remains my top priority, I also signed up for an amateur radio course being offered by the Toronto Amateur Radio Club. It’s something like ten 2-hour instructional sessions, followed by the federal government exam to get a basic certification and call sign. It should be an interesting way to spend a […]
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September was a comparatively slow month for thesis work. A little bit of that is probably loss of desperation as the project has broadly come together and it has become clear that it’s possible to finish. More important, the social doldrums of August ended so now there are a lot more calls on my time: […]
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Given how much I have been thinking about ‘the summer’ as a unit, September might have been expected to arrive with a feeling like a sonic boom experienced from the ground or the tolling of an ancient clock bell. The temporary life reorganization arising from my mother’s short visit blurred the transition, as I had […]
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It’s 4:41am and I am in my 10 1/2th hour of thesis work since I last slept. For weeks I have been working my way through my notebooks, compiling interview reports based on my discussions with campus fossil fuel divestment organizers in Canada. I have been paying special attention to getting the details from this […]
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Now that my copy of NVivo has been delivered there is an extra impetus to finish converting my notes from the 62 interviews so far into text file interview reports which I can code using the software. That will be my main focus until the whole set of interview reports is written. Then I can […]
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Largely at my friend Neal’s recommendation, I began reading The Economist in high school and subscribed around the time of the 2000 U.S. election. I remember the political cartoons of George W. Bush with giant ears and cowboy boots, and how the magazine at that time was still just printed in red and black. I […]
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“In nuclear physics, double beta decay is a type of radioactive decay in which two neutrons are simultaneously transformed into two protons, or vice versa, inside an atomic nucleus. As in single beta decay, this process allows the atom to move closer to the optimal ratio of protons and neutrons. As a result of this […]
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My brother Mica was recently on the radio in New Zealand, describing his teaching experience and plans to live and teach in Aukland for at least two years.
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Toronto350.org asked me to photograph their action outside the Toronto Dominion (TD) bank shareholder meeting downtown this morning, protesting continuing investment in fossil fuel projects. The electrical system on my 5D3 flickered and died, despite fresh batteries. This is the first time I’ve ever really had to use the backup body, and my 5D2 rose […]
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I have one last blast of grading for my current TA contract: then I have dedicated the summer to completing my dissertation, getting chapters to committee members, implementing their proposed changes, and getting it defended as soon as possible. I’ll be trying to write every day at home, starting with the completion of data analysis.
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