Sunday, October 26, 2008
The Librarian
Update Nov 1 - As Halloween has passed, the bat and ghosts who are mentioned below and who were haunting my blog have gone away. Hopefully they will return again next year.
Oh no! My blog has become overrun with scary critters. They have made it knownst to me that they intend to loiter in the general area until Halloween or until they get bored beyond reason, whichever comes first.
I have named the cute little bat Alice, after my favorite vampire and Ed's sister. Most of you will be able to see only her. That is actually a very good thing indeed.
For those of you who can also see two ghastly white, or maybe I ought better say, somewhat pasty, even skim milk translucent and completely stereotypical ghosts, you must beware. For only those rare few of you who possess The Sixth Sense™ or who are telepathetic will be able to see these two foul creatures.
Though they may seem friendly, in a Caspery sort of way, their intentions are genuinely sinister, of that you may be sure. They may at any moment when you're not watching, leap from your monitor, unbeknownst to you, and take up residence in your very own home and become your personal poltergeists.
Basically this would mean more unexplained noises, faint creaks and cracklings you have never noticed before.
It would mean finding keys which were positively hanged on their very own hook somehow appearing, only after much searching, in the pocket of the jacket you hadn't worn since... the last time you drove your car.
It would mean coming home to find that your computer had somehow restarted itself for no good reason, and that you have new updates installed and everything is running just a bit more slowly than before.
It would mean..... finding those dark corners and dimly lit spaces of your home, which were previously unspooky, now a bit more creepy and somehow occupied, by someone or something... even when you know no one is home but you.
It would mean unexpectedly waking in the deepest hours of the night only to, from under your covers, just catch a glimpse of a doomed face in the dark recesses of a closet left open...
Basically you'd be in for all the classic haunted house shenanigans, but only if you have seen the two ghosts.
Don't worry though, I haven't talked to anyone yet who can see them so you probably don't have anything to worry about.
Have a Happy Halloween!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
GYUNYU (milk)
This post is coming to you from the farthest reaches of left field, near the base of the foul pole but on the side that makes the batter happy. It may not be suitable for the faint of heart or for those unwilling or unable to tolerate lactose.
Lately, in a small effort to be um… not so fat, I have taken to drinking 1% milk. For the longest time I had been sticking with 2% feeling like I was already making a significant sacrifice by staying away from the real stuff.
Tangent A - Just for the record, I did try that skim milk stuff once but got a sneaking suspicion that all was not right within the carton. As one who has experience in actually milking cows and skimming the cream off the top then drinking the milk I don't remember it tasting quite like that. My fears were recently confirmed by an episode of “How it’s Made” on the Discovery Channel where they showed where skim milk comes from.
First they get a liter of that lukewarm water from one of those ancient white porcelain drinking fountains often found in public schools and maximum security prisons. You know, the water whose taste contains a hint of lead pipe mixed with just the faintest note of asbestos and basically just tastes like teen spirit©.
Next, into this liter of essence of spit valve they drop one piece of left over white chalk. Not a whole piece though, oh no. Apparently that would give the finished product a bit too much of a creamy taste so they use the tiny bits that are no longer usable to write with, and just one piece per liter. By recycling these bits of previously discarded chalk the skim milk people receive double satisfaction in that they are turning the concoction mildly whitish, in an obviously translucent definitely non-opaque kind of way, while still faithfully maintaining the stale and unrelentingly weak flavour of the water as well as somehow helping, I mean hurting (I think) global warming. They also often like to smugly point out that they have been recycling the leftover bits of chalk into this so called "skim milk" since way before global warming became trendy. Now back to the main story…
I’ve noticed the 3.25% or whole milk section of the supermarket getting smaller and smaller all the time. Even the old standard 2% seems to be losing space to 1% and that dissolved chalk stuff. Sometimes I even feel guilty reaching for my 2% when everyone else is taking the 1% or less and all the while giving me that healthier than thou, are you seriously buying that, slightly raised left eyebrow face.
A few days ago I was really craving some good old fashioned dairy fat so I decided to risk my 2% reputation and go for a liter of the 3.25% in the lovely red carton. No pink or yellow for me today, I’m going for broke. I pushed my mini (single loser person) cart over to the milk fridge and was pretending to peruse the attributes of the various whipping creams. Then, when no one was looking I grabbed a carton of whole milk with a certain quickness that would have made Batman, or possibly even Superman, proud. I hid it under a dozen large eggs and a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos and made a break for the self-serve check out. (No cashier would see me and I even paid cash so there would be no way anyone could trace that carton of whole milk to me.) As far as any of my fellow shoppers know I’m still a loyal 2% no, wait… I mean 1% guy.
When I finally got it home I immediately put it in the fridge to bring it down to optimum temperature and then later, with a couple of oatmeal cookies on the side I poured me a glass of forgotten glory into a traditionally shaped slightly tapered medium thickness glass (it just tastes best that way) and returned to heaven. I must say that it was well worth the risk and adventure. It really does taste different and so much better.
I know many of you have worked your way down to 1% or even skim milk and have convinced yourself that you don’t miss the taste of real thing and I know that the dissolved chalk is supposedly better for you and all that but I would invite you to, on some distant special occasion, risk the condescending glare of your fellow shoppers and buy a quart of the real stuff and let it take you back to the days when milk was delivered in big glass bottles and when you opened one, you could find just a taste of cream stuck to the underside of the cardboard paper lid. (OK maybe that far back is pushing it but you get the idea right?)
THE END
The preceding post may or may not have been brought to you by the Dairy Farmers of Alberta. It is offered to hopefully provide you with a small chuckle or at least a mild distraction for a few minutes. Don’t take it too seriously. As always, thanks for reading.
Lately, in a small effort to be um… not so fat, I have taken to drinking 1% milk. For the longest time I had been sticking with 2% feeling like I was already making a significant sacrifice by staying away from the real stuff.
Tangent A - Just for the record, I did try that skim milk stuff once but got a sneaking suspicion that all was not right within the carton. As one who has experience in actually milking cows and skimming the cream off the top then drinking the milk I don't remember it tasting quite like that. My fears were recently confirmed by an episode of “How it’s Made” on the Discovery Channel where they showed where skim milk comes from.
First they get a liter of that lukewarm water from one of those ancient white porcelain drinking fountains often found in public schools and maximum security prisons. You know, the water whose taste contains a hint of lead pipe mixed with just the faintest note of asbestos and basically just tastes like teen spirit©.
Next, into this liter of essence of spit valve they drop one piece of left over white chalk. Not a whole piece though, oh no. Apparently that would give the finished product a bit too much of a creamy taste so they use the tiny bits that are no longer usable to write with, and just one piece per liter. By recycling these bits of previously discarded chalk the skim milk people receive double satisfaction in that they are turning the concoction mildly whitish, in an obviously translucent definitely non-opaque kind of way, while still faithfully maintaining the stale and unrelentingly weak flavour of the water as well as somehow helping, I mean hurting (I think) global warming. They also often like to smugly point out that they have been recycling the leftover bits of chalk into this so called "skim milk" since way before global warming became trendy. Now back to the main story…
I’ve noticed the 3.25% or whole milk section of the supermarket getting smaller and smaller all the time. Even the old standard 2% seems to be losing space to 1% and that dissolved chalk stuff. Sometimes I even feel guilty reaching for my 2% when everyone else is taking the 1% or less and all the while giving me that healthier than thou, are you seriously buying that, slightly raised left eyebrow face.
A few days ago I was really craving some good old fashioned dairy fat so I decided to risk my 2% reputation and go for a liter of the 3.25% in the lovely red carton. No pink or yellow for me today, I’m going for broke. I pushed my mini (single loser person) cart over to the milk fridge and was pretending to peruse the attributes of the various whipping creams. Then, when no one was looking I grabbed a carton of whole milk with a certain quickness that would have made Batman, or possibly even Superman, proud. I hid it under a dozen large eggs and a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos and made a break for the self-serve check out. (No cashier would see me and I even paid cash so there would be no way anyone could trace that carton of whole milk to me.) As far as any of my fellow shoppers know I’m still a loyal 2% no, wait… I mean 1% guy.
When I finally got it home I immediately put it in the fridge to bring it down to optimum temperature and then later, with a couple of oatmeal cookies on the side I poured me a glass of forgotten glory into a traditionally shaped slightly tapered medium thickness glass (it just tastes best that way) and returned to heaven. I must say that it was well worth the risk and adventure. It really does taste different and so much better.
I know many of you have worked your way down to 1% or even skim milk and have convinced yourself that you don’t miss the taste of real thing and I know that the dissolved chalk is supposedly better for you and all that but I would invite you to, on some distant special occasion, risk the condescending glare of your fellow shoppers and buy a quart of the real stuff and let it take you back to the days when milk was delivered in big glass bottles and when you opened one, you could find just a taste of cream stuck to the underside of the cardboard paper lid. (OK maybe that far back is pushing it but you get the idea right?)
THE END
The preceding post may or may not have been brought to you by the Dairy Farmers of Alberta. It is offered to hopefully provide you with a small chuckle or at least a mild distraction for a few minutes. Don’t take it too seriously. As always, thanks for reading.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Haven't you always wanted to...
...listen in on the conversations between the pilot and the air traffic controllers when you were flying somewhere. (Hey get your finger off that mouse button and keep reading. That Youtube video will still be there after you've read all the way to the end of this post.)
Well here's your chance. I was down by the old YYC the other day and happened to have my little camera and scanner with me so I thought I'd turn them both on at the same time and see what happened. The video clip below is the result.
This is my awesome little scanner. An Icom™ IC-R2. It's a tiny little thing, only 4 inches tall not including the antenna, but it's got inner bigness.
I've had it for about ten years and used to use it in my work to accurately inform myself of the arrivals and departures of my clients at YYC. Of course there are monitors all over the place in the airport which supposedly tell you the arrival and departure times but I learned so long ago that they are not always faithfully updated and, to put it bluntly, were often full of... inaccuracies.
I was going to post just the video but I decided that it might be slightly less boring if i gave a bit of color commentary about what you are hearing, just in case you don't understand it all. This seemingly small decision will no doubt turn this into probably my longest post ever. Oh well! You will find the commentary below the video clip.
OK, so first we see a little rubber band powered plane coming in to land on runway 34 from let’s say… Moose Jaw. As soon as it’s past the threshold of 34 the tower tells Westjet 255 to line up into position on 34 and “be ready for an immediate” takeoff. (‘cause there is another plane coming in to land on runway 28 that he needs to be out of the way for.) (Runways 34 and 28 are intersecting runways which can be used at the same time, just not at the exact same time at the intersection for obvious reasons.) Tower then tells that other plane approaching runway 28 (Empress 467) to slow “back to final approach speed now please”. (This will give Westjet 255 a bit more breathing room to take off in time.) Empress 467 acknowledges.
We see Westjet 255 moving into position on 34.
Tower tells propeller boy to expedite off the runway onto exit C3 and to contact “south ground on frequency 121.9” (a different guy who controls the traffic between the terminal and the runways)
Tower then gives a heads up to Empress 467 that a 737 will be rolling (taking off) from 34 as he is coming in to land but that Westjet will be through the intersection of 34 and 28 when he is about a mile from the threshold of runway 28 so not to worry and that he is cleared to land on 28.
Another plane coming in to land on 34 begins to contact the tower when propeller boy just gets off the runway and the tower has to interrupt (step on) him in order to give Westjet 255 takeoff clearance so he will be away before Empress 467 lands on 28.
Tower tells Westjet 255 the wind is calm, to contact departure (yet another ATC) on frequency 119.8 when airborn and that he is cleared for immediate takeoff. (Immediate because another plane (Empress 467) is only 3 miles from the threshold of runway 28.)
Westjet 255 reads back the instructions and says good day. We then see WS 255 power up and start rolling.
Previously stepped on Air Canada 216 contacts the tower again to inform him they are coming in to land on 34. Tower tells him he is number two for the field (one other plane to land before him on 28, our good friend Empress 467) and to slow to final approach speed.
Tower tells AC 216 that the 737 landing before him on 28 will be through the intersection of the runways when he is short final and that he is clear to land on 34.
After a short wait we see AC 216 (from Vancouver) coming in to land on 34.
As we see AC 216 landing tower is talking to Empress 467, who has landed and is safely through the intersection, about where to exit the runway. There is a bit of confusion due to the tower assuming they were heading somewhere other than the terminal but it gets cleared up and ends with Empress 467 telling tower they are going to the terminal and gate D44.
Tower tells the most recently landed AC 216 to exit the runway at C4 and to contact the north side ground controller on frequency 25.35 (all the frequencies they use are in the one hundreds, so sometimes they just say 25.35 instead of 125.35)
Finally we see a just taken off Westjet 515 and hear him contacting the “departures” controller to give his current altitude 4800 ft and that he is climbing to 7000 ft. Departures tells him that he has been identified on the radar and gives him his next heading and clearance (when he reaches 6500 ft) to make a right turn and start climbing to flight level 250 which is 25,000 feet. The end!
Now wasn't that the most fun you've had in years!
Well here's your chance. I was down by the old YYC the other day and happened to have my little camera and scanner with me so I thought I'd turn them both on at the same time and see what happened. The video clip below is the result.
This is my awesome little scanner. An Icom™ IC-R2. It's a tiny little thing, only 4 inches tall not including the antenna, but it's got inner bigness.
I've had it for about ten years and used to use it in my work to accurately inform myself of the arrivals and departures of my clients at YYC. Of course there are monitors all over the place in the airport which supposedly tell you the arrival and departure times but I learned so long ago that they are not always faithfully updated and, to put it bluntly, were often full of... inaccuracies.
I was going to post just the video but I decided that it might be slightly less boring if i gave a bit of color commentary about what you are hearing, just in case you don't understand it all. This seemingly small decision will no doubt turn this into probably my longest post ever. Oh well! You will find the commentary below the video clip.
OK, so first we see a little rubber band powered plane coming in to land on runway 34 from let’s say… Moose Jaw. As soon as it’s past the threshold of 34 the tower tells Westjet 255 to line up into position on 34 and “be ready for an immediate” takeoff. (‘cause there is another plane coming in to land on runway 28 that he needs to be out of the way for.) (Runways 34 and 28 are intersecting runways which can be used at the same time, just not at the exact same time at the intersection for obvious reasons.) Tower then tells that other plane approaching runway 28 (Empress 467) to slow “back to final approach speed now please”. (This will give Westjet 255 a bit more breathing room to take off in time.) Empress 467 acknowledges.
We see Westjet 255 moving into position on 34.
Tower tells propeller boy to expedite off the runway onto exit C3 and to contact “south ground on frequency 121.9” (a different guy who controls the traffic between the terminal and the runways)
Tower then gives a heads up to Empress 467 that a 737 will be rolling (taking off) from 34 as he is coming in to land but that Westjet will be through the intersection of 34 and 28 when he is about a mile from the threshold of runway 28 so not to worry and that he is cleared to land on 28.
Another plane coming in to land on 34 begins to contact the tower when propeller boy just gets off the runway and the tower has to interrupt (step on) him in order to give Westjet 255 takeoff clearance so he will be away before Empress 467 lands on 28.
Tower tells Westjet 255 the wind is calm, to contact departure (yet another ATC) on frequency 119.8 when airborn and that he is cleared for immediate takeoff. (Immediate because another plane (Empress 467) is only 3 miles from the threshold of runway 28.)
Westjet 255 reads back the instructions and says good day. We then see WS 255 power up and start rolling.
Previously stepped on Air Canada 216 contacts the tower again to inform him they are coming in to land on 34. Tower tells him he is number two for the field (one other plane to land before him on 28, our good friend Empress 467) and to slow to final approach speed.
Tower tells AC 216 that the 737 landing before him on 28 will be through the intersection of the runways when he is short final and that he is clear to land on 34.
After a short wait we see AC 216 (from Vancouver) coming in to land on 34.
As we see AC 216 landing tower is talking to Empress 467, who has landed and is safely through the intersection, about where to exit the runway. There is a bit of confusion due to the tower assuming they were heading somewhere other than the terminal but it gets cleared up and ends with Empress 467 telling tower they are going to the terminal and gate D44.
Tower tells the most recently landed AC 216 to exit the runway at C4 and to contact the north side ground controller on frequency 25.35 (all the frequencies they use are in the one hundreds, so sometimes they just say 25.35 instead of 125.35)
Finally we see a just taken off Westjet 515 and hear him contacting the “departures” controller to give his current altitude 4800 ft and that he is climbing to 7000 ft. Departures tells him that he has been identified on the radar and gives him his next heading and clearance (when he reaches 6500 ft) to make a right turn and start climbing to flight level 250 which is 25,000 feet. The end!
Now wasn't that the most fun you've had in years!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Guess the movie! (again)
I figured it was about time for another quiz. It's another movie quiz but this will be a little different from the last one. I'll still be asking you to name the movie but this time instead of a quote, the hint will be a song or piece of music that is on the movie's soundtrack.
A couple of them might be very easy, others may be quite hard. I will be much impressed if anyone can answer them all.
Something else different from last time, sorry but there aren't any prizes this time, just a smug sense of superiority over those who didn't get as many right as you did, haha.
Please put your answers in the comments section. You don't even need an account. Just select anonymous and comment away.
Even if you don't want to play, there is some excellent music to be heard. I especially like numbers one, three and five.
Good luck!
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
P.S. The answers will be appearing in the comments so... just make sure you've decided on yours before you go there.
A couple of them might be very easy, others may be quite hard. I will be much impressed if anyone can answer them all.
Something else different from last time, sorry but there aren't any prizes this time, just a smug sense of superiority over those who didn't get as many right as you did, haha.
Please put your answers in the comments section. You don't even need an account. Just select anonymous and comment away.
Even if you don't want to play, there is some excellent music to be heard. I especially like numbers one, three and five.
Good luck!
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
P.S. The answers will be appearing in the comments so... just make sure you've decided on yours before you go there.
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