Category: Daily updates

Generally musings of the day, usually accompanied by a photograph

Oxford graduation

As of today, I am officially a graduate of the University of Oxford. My name was read in absentia at the ceremony in the Sheldonian Theatre today. As such, I am now a member of the Convocation.

Admittedly, it is somewhat anticlimactic to finish my degree in this way. It was, however, the sensible choice. The things I miss most about the place are the conversations, the engaging seminars and lectures, the overlapping social spheres, and places including the botanic gardens, Natural History Museum, and various canals.

US and Canadian electoral predictions

As of today, fivethirtyeight.com is projecting a 93.8% chance that Obama will win the American election, with a projected 351 electoral college votes compared to McCain’s 187. They are giving Obama an 84% chance of winning Florida, which would basically decide the election by itself, giving Obama a lead McCain couldn’t counter with other swing states. They are also projecting 56 Democratic senators.

The UBC election stock market is putting the odds of a Conservative majority in Canada at around 10%. The Tories are projected to gain seven seats (ending up with 131 total), while the Liberals are projected to lose eighteen seats (ending up with 85). The big winner is expected to be the NDP: gaining fourteen seats (for a total of 43) while the Bloc loses four and ends up with a total of 47. Two seats are projected to go to Greens or independents.

La Ronde and my return to rez

The weekend in Montreal has been going well. Largely, it has been and interesting opportunity to re-visit undergraduate residence life – at least, the kind that exists when classes are not in session and most people have headed home to be with family. I appreciate the late night gatherings that turn into extended conversations, the excellent views of the city from dorm rooms on one side of the building, and the 3:00am to 11:00am expected sleeping time.

Yesterday, we visited La Ronde: Montreal’s amusement park, on l’Ile St. Helene. I had only been there once previously, when I was living in Montreal in the summer of 2003. Since they were only $2 more than single passes, my brother and I got passes that are good until the end of October, though only on Saturdays and Sundays. If someone would like to borrow one or both (they don’t have named associated with them), you can send a message for me to pass along.

Tonight, we are attending a Thanksgiving dinner with friends of my brother living in the Plateau area. As such, we must head off to find some kind of food and/or drink offering that does not require cooking facilities to prepare.

I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving.

Keeping track of discussion threads

One of the major reasons for which I keep writing here is because of how it forces me to engage with and clarify my own thinking on important issues. One of the most important mechanisms through which that occurs is the discussions that often accompany posts.

I realize that it is awkward to keep re-visiting the same post over and over, looking to see if anyone has responded to your comment. To make it easier, there are two alternative options for seeing new comments:

  1. You can subscribe to an RSS feed of the comments. If you don’t know what that means, this guide provides an introduction.
  2. You can sign up to receive the comments daily by email.

Either way, you can keep track of discussions (as well as links to news items relating to posts) more easily.

Cyclists running red lights

A few minutes ago, while I was cycling east on Somerset in search of groceries, I came up behind another cyclist heading in the same direction. She was dressed in all black, wearing earmuffs, and not using any lights or reflectors. As we approached an intersection near the Umi Cafe, the light went red. She carried on for 1/3 of a block, went right through it, and carried on beyond there.

When I caught up with her in the next block, I stated bluntly that riding right through a red light is a crime, and that doing so when it is nearly completely dark, you aren’t illuminated, and when others may be about to make left turns is fairly dangerous as well. As cyclists, we cannot expect drivers to expect invisible, illegal moves on our part. We definitely bear primary responsibility for any accidents that result.

This being Somerset Street, I found myself stuck at the next red light, engaging in a very awkward (though not hostile) back-and forth-about the importance of illumination and following traffic rules. Less expectably, but more awkwardly, I ran into her again at the Herb & Spice checkout: she buying organic cranberries, me buying sun-dried tomatoes, red peppers, and hot sauce. To her credit, she was very courteous about the whole thing, and seemed to take my commenting as well-intentioned scolding rather than a maliciously motivated personal attack.

I do believe it’s very important for cyclists to make themselves visible and behave legally and predictably in traffic. A lot of drivers who are generally sympathetic to cyclists seem to consider the violation of traffic rules as the most objectionable thing about bikes. It is also sensible and efficient to require cyclists to follow minimum standards in terms of conduct and visibility: taking responsibility for those elements of their own safety they can actually control.

Despite her tactful responses, I hope I don’t run into her at a future dinner party, Ottawa event, etc.

Bearded men and climatic doom

The Onion has a brief article that may seem uniquely pertinent to readers of this blog:

A man with a piece of food stuck in his beard is currently addressing an auditorium full of world leaders and prominent scholars on what seems to be the subject of global warming, sources are reporting. The food particle has been dangling from the man’s facial hair for more than an hour while he has mentioned such phrases as “sulfides,” “ice caps,” “immediately, otherwise we all may,” “underwater tomb,” and “of human life as we know it.” It was briefly dislodged during a particularly animated portion of the presentation in which complete global apocalypse was remarked upon, only to fall one inch and reattach to a lower portion of beard.

It joins such favourites as: U.N. Orders Wonka To Submit To Chocolate Factory Inspections and Fundamentalist Aesopians Interpret Fox-Grapes Parable Literally. My all-time favourite remains: Bush Regales Dinner Guests With Impromptu Oratory On Virgil’s Minor Works.

A few Apple complaints

Last night, after the Bluetooth connection failed for the hundredth unexplained time, I switched back from my Apple wireless Mighty Mouse to my old Microsoft optical scrollmouse. I must say, the change is for the best. The old mouse is lighter, smaller, and more comfortable. It is possible to press both buttons at once, and press the middle button without accidentally scrolling. Most importantly, the scroll wheel itself is much less finicky – it may not be able to scroll horizontally, and it lacks the Might’s Mouse’s useless ‘squeeze’ buttons – but it seems the superior device overall, despite the need for it to be tethered to my computer.

In general, I think Apple does a magnificent job of making computer gear and software. If I had to make two complaints, the first would be about the way they sometimes privilege form over functionality. Alongside the Mighty Mouse (and the infamous prior hockey puck mouse), there is the interface of Time Machine, which is pretty but probably less useful than it could be. My other complaint is their willingness to change things after the fact in ways that cannot be reversed and that people might not like. For example, there was when they locked iTunes so that only three people per boot session could access your library over the network (a real pain in university residence), or when they limited the volume on my iPod Shuffle through a software update.