the gas conspiracy

I've probably mentioned this before, but has anyone ever noticed how Gas Stations jack the prices for the morning and then drop them to where they were the day before by the afternoon/evening?

For example, Thursday night I saw 73 cents. Friday morning it was up to 84 cents. Friday afternoon it was back down to 78 cents. Why not just put it to 78 cents rather than gouging consumers on their way to work?

Sigh... I'm onto them, but not really going to do much about it, except for not fill up in the morning.

And now, to go get gas.

it's beginning to look a lot like "holiday"... wait, what?

I saw a somewhat humourous report on CKCO tonight about the city of Kitchener erecting a giant tree that had been donated at city hall and then sending out an official announcement labelling it as a "Holiday Tree". Well, it turns out that so many people were offended by the unconventional naming of a traditional festive icon that they city officially renamed it back to the traditional name of Christmas Tree and at least two people from CKCO news (Kyle Christie included) apologized for doing their job and reading the news. A different part of the report stated that the people who donated the tree would have never done so if they had known it would be called a"Holiday Tree." They then continued on to ask what the tree should be called "Christmas Tree", "Holiday Tree", or "I don't care." We decided it needed to be called George.

Sigh... politically correctness and inclusion is suddenly changing the way we look at everything. The Christmas season is coming, and I'm ok with calling it that.

In other news, I'm going to see Vinyl Cafe Christmas in Hamilton in December. Woo! It'll be good.

thesaurasaurus rex: origins

Here's a comic from a few years ago in Non Sequitor where I got the the title of the last blog posting:



Also, Indiana was a fun trip (for those who didn't know I was going, I went to visit my friend in Fort Wayne this weekend, hence the concern over the weather on Friday.)

The drive down wasn't so bad, except for driving through 5-7 snow streamers that acted like a wall of white, and driving along part of I-69 in southern Michigan that was covered in pure ice for a few miles. Oh, and Detroit's not so great when you come off the Ambassador Bridge. All under construction. We had a GPS and followed the detour signs. Still messy though.

The United States still hates my health, but I was onto their ploy this year and kept my grease intake to a minimum.

thesaurasaurus rex

I was reading through the Snowsquall warning in effect for much of south-western Ontario for tonight and tomorrow and I'm fairly certain the author must have used a thesaurus to write it...

A fresh resurgence of cold Arctic air is beginning to stream into southern Ontario in the wake of the Alberta clipper. A significant snow squall event is about to unfold.

At 12:50 PM weather radar indicated an intense snow squall arcing across the southern half of Lake Huron. It is moving southward and is associated with a weak low pressure trough over the eastern side of the lake. It will move into the western half of Lambton county and northern Chatham-Kent early this afternoon and linger for a couple hours before becoming disorganized. Snowfall amounts of 10 cm are likely with this band, although they may locally top 15 cm. The main event is slated for tonight. An intense snow squall is forecast to form this evening and affect southern portions of Lake Huron, near Grand Bend to Lambton shores to near Strathroy. Snowfall amounts in excess of 30 centimetres appear likely tonight into Friday before the squall realigns through London for a time in the afternoon. It will likely move back south again Friday night. Colossal snowfall totals in excess of 50 centimetres are possible near the south end of Lake Huron from this event by the time it weakens on Saturday. Amounts will be significantly lower around London.

Words like Colossal and Resurgence aren't really a part of my everyday vocabulary. Maybe I should read the Thesaurus before I go to bed.

And I'm hoping to to through that area tomorrow morning. Woo! We'll cross in Windsor if we have to.

meh

Newsflash: 'Meh' is now a word in the Collins English Dictionary.

Quote: "The dictionary defines "meh" as an expression of indifference or boredom, or an adjective meaning mediocre or boring. Examples given by the dictionary include "the Canadian election was so meh.""

Now you can feel released to use it as an adjective, like you know you've ALWAYS wanted to do.

a new waste of time

For those who don't follow Brock, here's the latest addictive game: QWOP

I've gotten to about 14 metres before falling on my forehead.

post 700

Here's where I've made it in Assembler. Any help as to how to complete this level would be appreciated... or if there's any more levels after it? I've pseudo beat it at home a few times, but it took me back to level 1 afterwards.

shenanigans

From the Sarnia Observer online today:

"Police searching for hoodlums that attacked woman"
Quote: "Police are looking for witnesses to a Sunday assault in Corunna where a group of hooligans strong armed a 51-year-old woman."

"Man savagely beaten "
Quote: "Sarnia police are seeking public assistance after two thugs savagely beat a man in the early morning hours of Saturday. "

Thugs, hoodlums, and hooligans. Great descriptions. Really.

pictures!

View from the balcony this week:


Another shot off the balcony.


First years are crazy. They built log structures on campus this week.


Wildlife (Snake!) on the Bruce Trail


Golf ball with a slug living in it.


Bridge over Dufferin Aggregates Quarry Road (you can see it from the 401 while driving west through Milton)


The bridge!


The stream that disappeared into the ground.


"Can't go over it... Can't go under it... Can't go around it... Guess we have to go through it!"


Waterfall / pond / stream near Speyside Road.


Blogger: Image upload to cursor would be nice... and post in order you upload in, not in reverse order... sigh.

hiked out

Today was the latest installment of the EBC Outdoors Club Hike / Photography Outing. The first one, in September, was a trip to Limehouse Conservation Area and the Cheltenham Badlands north-east of Georgetown. The second trip, early October, was to Rockwood Conservation Area between Acton and Guelph. The thing about these first two, is that they were mostly for photography, seeing as the trails in each place only really amount to 2 km or so. It's a nice walk, but not necessarily a hike.

Today, we fixed that. A few years ago, Gord, Valerie, and I hiked an approximately 22 km stretch of the Bruce Trail from near Milton to Limehouse Conservation area on a Saturday. It was long, gruelling, but it was a good hike. Since then, I've wanted to do something like that again because I really enjoy seeing new parts of the Bruce Trail. But, my thoughts for these hikes involving EBC students are to take them places that I've experienced already, so there's someone in the group that knows what's going on and where they're going. This stretch was my first thought as to where I could take them. But the 22 km is really long for the inexperienced. So we cut it in half, down to 10.6 km from Campbellville Road, just east of Appleby to Speyside Side Road, just west of 25.

After departing the school at 10:30, we got to the drop-off point at 11, dropped the students with our bags, and then we (Amy and myself) drove our cars to the end point to drop them off, and there Brock picked us up to drive us back to the beginning (Thanks Brock, for not being a jerk for this one moment in your life.) We returned by 11:25, and began our hike. Along the way, we saw rocks and trees and trees and rocks and snakes and squirrels, and other people (not so many this time around), water, birds, rain, views of Toronto from the cliffs, and more. It took us just under 4 hours to hike the entire distance (3:20 arrival time at the cars). We stopped not too often along the distance, but took our time when it wasn't raining and sped up a bit when it was. Afterwards, we ended up at Christian Chicken (AKA Swiss Chalet) in Milton for dinner around 4 and were back to the school by 5:30. Good, fun day, and I think the 6 of us who went ended up having a good time.

Pictures to come. I got more pictures this time through the trail than we did the last time, so it's a reasonable record of the trip.

My feet somewhat hate me at the moment... the last part of the trail was very rocky and slippery.

two things

1. This story made Fark today. From the Kitchener Record. Go figure.

2. A new, very addictive game. The first level with the circles isn't working so great for me. If you figure it out, let me know.

sunset in elora

The other evening, Gord and I went for a drive up to Elora just for the sake of getting out. There was an initial thought that we were going to hike near Milton, but then it was too late, so a drive sufficed... Anyway, it was around sunset, so here's a picture I liked from the trip.

gah...s

I went to fill up my tank tonight (88.0 cents / litre!!), and upon pulling out of the pump, they had dropped the price by 0.2 cents. I know it's not much, but it's still somewhat funny. The whole 4 cents I could have saved.

Oh well. It's still nice to be able to fill up your tank for less dollars than there are litres. We'll revel in this low price for as long as it continues as such. And when it goes up again, we can tell our kids: I remember when I filled up for less than $1/litre. Those were the good old days.

sweep!

Curling was last night and it was fun. Here's the group shot.