My Favorite Psych Prof

He's awesome. He has interesting lectures and is very personable. And during class breaks we go outside where he and Steve smoke cigarettes, while I smoke a bowl and we chat. He's a smart guy who's won prestigious psychology awards, but the man is a self proclaimed terrible speller. This is an accurate assessment.

The first class I took with him, he was listing animals on the board and misspelled 'emu'.

He laughed as we corrected him and said, "See, I told you guys I was a bad speller!"

"Yeah," I replied, "But dude, that's a three letter word!"

Removable Post #3

Next Door To The Amphitheatre

I've arrived in California and I'm all settled into the Vagabond Inn in Sunnyvale. No time to relax though, I'm due to meet some people at a bar near here before we revel in the live music of the DMB. Here's to Never Ending Summer 2006!

California, Here I Come

I'm flying to San Francisco later this morning to catch two Dave Matthews Band Shows at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountainview, CA on Friday & Saturday. Then on Sunday night I'll be rocking to Mike Doughty at The Independent in San Francisco. There's no time to recuperate from the Gorge, I've got to keep the tour going!

Happy Birthday...

...to me!

In honour of my birthday, I've decided to try something new. I'm going to allow comments on posts. Let's see what, if anything, happens.

Science In Wood

My Internet travels randomly led me to an awesome wooden periodic table of the elements.

Braemar, you totally need to make a coffee table like this... for me!

Triumphant Return

We have returned from the Gorge! It was SPECTACULAR! N1: Awesome show. N2: Incredible show. N3: Insane show. I have loads of pictures, and likely a few little stories, but we got in late last night, I'm at the office and school starts tonight so things will have to wait a little. Oh, and I'm also flying to San Francisco for two more DMB shows the day after tomorrow. I'll do my best to get some stuff up here, and in the meantime I'll leave you with a random quote from the weekend;

"I've been using birth control since I was 18... do they have tinfoil on their headlights?"

Sad Day For Critters & The Planet

The animals of the planet have lost one of their greatest champions. Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, was killed yesterday.

"Irwin, 44, had been filming a documentary off Port Douglas in northern Queensland when he was killed by a stingray barb through the heart. He was rushed to hospital by helicopter, but he died en route." (article 1 & 2)

I still can't believe it, and the sadness I feel for him, his family and the animals he loved so much has caught me a little off guard. I haven't seen his movie or even an episode of his show in years, but I knew that he was doing something important, something that too few people do and I have infinite respect and admiration for him. I'm really going to miss that guy, and I know I'm not alone.

"He left this world in a peaceful and happy state of mind. He would have said, 'Crocs rule.'"

Gorge Amphitheatre 2006

Once again, it is time for the Gorge! In six hours, Braemar, Wookiee and I will be driving southeast to the Columbia River gorge for three nights of Dave Matthews Band madness. Happy Labour Day weekend!

It Took A Lot Of Courage

I just dyed my hair from orange with brown roots to white blonde. When I showed up at work Monday morning, three different people told me that I was brave for having done that.

Bravery has been seriously devalued over the years.

Mystery Beast Update

Following up on the story I posted here, new information has been released here. Not surprisingly, preliminary DNA results show that the animal with "charcoal-coloured fur, blue eyes and blue lips" is most likely a dog. Complete results are expected this week. The DNA test can tell us which animal genes are present in the specimen, but not the percentages.

Two Sad Displays

I got an e-mail from one of my superiors at my old office the other day. The e-mail included this gem from the recesses of her brain; "'To be crazy or not to be crazy, that is the question' or am I misquoting again?" Yes, you are misquoting again, for crying out loud.

This morning I was telling my co-worker about this fascinating, albeit extremely long, article I was reading in the Globe and Mail about federal Liberal party leader hopeful Michael Ignatieff. She suddenly looked confused and asked, "He's not our Prime Minister is he?" "No." I replied, "The Liberal party doesn't have an official leader right now, he's one of the top contenders vying for the job." She then laughs, "Whew! I wasn't sure! I mean, I don't follow news and politics very much, but I was pretty sure he wasn't the Prime Minister!"

Yikes, one can't remember one of Shakespeare's most oft quoted lines, and the other doesn't even know who the head of the country is, not to mention that the current PM is a Conservative, not a Liberal. People never cease to amaze and disappoint me.

Day Of Mystery

Another mystery with a small Canadian connection has made it's way onto the pages of CBC.ca. This article (Toronto lab tests mystery 'beast') is like a modern English version of Le pacte des loups (translation: Brotherhood of the Wolf).

"For 15 years, residents in Androscoggin County in Maine have reported seeing and hearing an animal weigh[ing] about 20 kilograms...ha[s] a bushy tail, a short snout, short ears and curled fangs hanging over its lips with glowing eyes and a chilling cry."

Well, some mysterious animal was hit by a car and they think this might be their beast, so DNA tests are currently being conducted in Toronto. If I see an update about it, I'll post it here!

Canadian Armchair Detectives

Want an introduction to some interesting Canadian 'cold cases'? Check out Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History where you can read about, well, unsolved mysteries in Canadian history. There are Mystery Quests too, but I think the highest age they're aimed at is 18 year olds. The website was featured in an article headlined; "New clues into identity of 19th-century legless, mute Maritimer". Call me a sentimental Canadian, but I think it's pretty cool.

Planetary Demotion

Astronomers have finally come up with the definition of a planet. We have been living in a world without that simple definition "since the days of Copernicus"! Under the newly ratified definition, Pluto does not qualify as a planet, so our solar system now contains 8 planets.

Pluto, which is smaller than Earth's moon, doesn't fit the new criteria for a planet: "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a … nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit."

I'm definitely happy about this decision, especially since a week ago we were in danger of having a definition that would have included Pluto and 3 other celestial bodies for a total of 12 planets in the solar system. I thought that would be a mistake, and it seems the astronomers agreed with me. And the funniest thing about the article? Well, it's trying to make it seem like this new classification is a really big deal, but the best "implication" that they could come up with, is that students will have to find a new mnemonic device to remember the names and order of the planets. Oh no! Not only is that incredibly easy and simple to do, but when I was in elementary school, we managed to remember that information just fine without a mnemonic device. Guess it just isn't 'news' unless it fucks with your life somehow.