Category: Daily updates

Generally musings of the day, usually accompanied by a photograph

Montreal hospital experiences

Since Friday night, I have been in Montreal to visit my brother Sasha, who had his appendix removed last week. I will be returning to Ottawa on Tuesday, at which point I will seek to correct any hiccups in blog posts, photos, and comment responses that have accumulated while I have been here.

The latest symptom of my laptop’s continuing decline is a stubborn refusal to get IP addresses from DHCP servers. As such, even when I do find a free wireless network to take advantage of, the actual process of connection is often proving slow or impossible.

I will soon be returned to full internet splendor.

[Update: 10 November 2008] Sasha has also written a post about this.

Winter photography

With the transition to daylight saving time, it is now guaranteed that I will be leaving work in darkness until spring is approaching. This is a bit disheartening in itself, and it also poses a challenge in terms of producing photos of the day for this site.

The best option is probably to undertake some more purpose-driven photo shoots. Normally, my approach is just to take photos in situations that I would find myself in anyhow. This has the virtue of not requiring too much time, but it makes it harder and harder to produce quality original images the longer you live in a certain place and continue to act in certain ways. Making a conscious choice to shoot some specific subjects or places could be fun, and could produce some good images. So could experimenting with some new techniques, styles, or equipment.

I have been pondering shelling out the cash for a fancy digital SLR camera. I think I should use the possibility for some self-motivation, and insist on doing some artistic work with my old P&S before I shell out more than $500 for a new light-trapping box.

Obama elected

Judging by the blogs I read and the company I was in last night, the historical significance and emotional force of Obama’s victory was universally felt. It was certainly a remarkable evening. After almost a decade in which the American president was selected by slim margins in single swing states, it was impressive to see the election called before Florida had even been decided. Obama clearly has a strong mandate, and we should all be hoping that he proves as effective and capable in government as he has been on the campaign trail. Obviously, there are a lot of immediate problems that need to be sorted out, at the same time as we need to be laying the critical groundwork for the transition to a sustainable global economy.

Somewhat surprisingly, I think the best speech of the night was actually McCain’s concession. It was the best speech I have ever seen him give. One might cynically observe that it was only after losing that he felt he could step back from some of his campaign’s more baseless attacks against Obama. More optimistically, perhaps the graciousness of the gesture will be mirrored in at least a temporary willingness on the part of Congressional Republicans to support the new administration in dealing with the trickiest and more immediate difficulties facing the country.

It’s a shame the open-mindedness demonstrated in the presidential election didn’t extend to some of the ballot initiative races that took place. I remain confident that, in fifty years, we will view bans on gay marriage as just as reprehensible and absurd as we would view a ban on interracial marriage today. The pathetic bigotry that drives voters to amend their state constitutions to strip basic rights from their fellow citizens is a demonstration that the slow process of building a tolerant and empathetic society, even within a single state, has a long way to go.

Election night in the US

Back on October 13th, FiveThirtyEight.com projected that Obama would win the presidential election by 351 electoral college votes to McCain’s 187. Their final projection, based on yesterday’s polls, was Obama 349, McCain 189.

Tonight, we get to see how good their projections really were (provided the election doesn’t degenerate into another drawn-out legal fiasco, that is).

[Update: 2:10am] The victory was decisive and exceptional. It cannot help but make a person more optimistic about our collective future.

The durability of Etymotic ER6i headphones

Recently, my second pair of Etymotic ER6i headphones failed. Once again, it seems that a wire broke in the connector, causing sound to be cut off in one ear. The first time it happened, the headphones were still under their one-year warranty and Etymotic cheerfully replaced them. This time, it is a question of buying a third set or switching to another style or brand that seems likely to be more durable.

The headphones are excellent in terms of sound quality, but somewhat lacking in terms of toughness. In fairness, they only weigh a couple of grams and I did use them virtually every day, including sometimes while cycling. There were a fair number of cases when the wire got caught on something and yanked rather violently. The headphones are a pricy US$149.00 if you buy them directly from Etymotic, but a far more reasonable $80.48 on Amazon.com (of course, buying them from Amazon requires paying customs duties or the song-and-dance of having them sent to a US address and then shipped to Canada). $7 or so per month actually strikes me as a tolerable price for excellent headphones, though I rather dislike the notion of treating them like a disposable commodity. I would be willing to spend more money on headphones that are more likely to last, or those with a three-year rather than a one-year warranty.

The competition in terms of high quality earbuds seems to be the Shure E2C or SE110s. Does anyone have experience with those, or recommendations for other brands to consider?

[Update: 27 December 2008] I am now on to my third pair of ER6i headphones. In the end, they sound great, but cannot be expected to be durable. My advice to potential buyers is this: expect them to last for between one or two years. If that length of high quality, highly portable sound is worth their price to you, go ahead and buy them.

[Update: 23 June 2010] That third pair of ERis suffered the same fate as those before – a wire failed, causing them to cut out in one ear. Despite having had them since December 2008, I called Etymotic and they told me to send them in. Much to my pleasure, Etymotic then replaced them, despite the warranty being over. As such, I now have my fourth pair of ER6is.

Denture-compatible foods

For saving some equipment, I was recently awarded a KitchenAid Hand Blender. So far, it has contributed to the production of hummous (ordinary, garlic, red pepper, and sun-dried tomato), mashed potatoes, and ice-blended drinks. Do readers have any other ideas for blended foods? My culinary skills are quite modest.

Given the deepening chill outside, I am hunting for recipes for thick creamy soups, possibly involving squash. Giving my abiding love of beans, blended bean recipes would also be appreciated.

Yachting with dictatorial style

Multi-millionaires who have lost big in the credit crunch are probably on the lookout for purchases that will rebuild their self-esteem. On that front, it seems difficult to do better than buying Saddam Hussein’s yacht, which is being auctioned off by the Iraqi government.

Assets include swimming pools, a surgical theatre, a helipad, and an escape tunnel and submarine. Problems include the lack of a gym and a decor that “may not suit all tastes.” Like the baby shoes in the extremely short story by Ernest Hemmingway, the yacht was never used – apparently because Saddam was fearful that leaving Iraq would cause political instability.

Three more days in the big T

Until Wednesday evening, I will be in Toronto for a conference. Does anybody know about any interesting plays, shows, art exhibitions, and so forth that are ongoing in the city now or happening during that timespan? Options that are inexpensive and unusual would be preferred.

My days will be full, but the evenings are pretty much completely free. Photos from the expedition will emerge when next I can bring my camera and my main computer into contact with one another.

Contemplating netbooks

Having played around a bit with Tristan’s EEE PC, I am considering getting a netbook computer myself. My old iBook is not very portable and, while the big screen and keyboard it offers have advantages, there is considerable appeal in a machine that could be a default content of my backpack.

Do any readers have experience with particular netbooks? I would be looking for something that is tolerable for writing emails and blog posts on, and good for surfing the web. Long battery life would be an advantage, as would an operating system that does the most common tasks well.

I won’t be buying anything for a couple of months, at least, due to a bit of a financial crunch, so machines that look promising and have not yet been released are also worth mentioning.