Imablog Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.

Shark Tale

Went to see Shark Tale over at the American Theater last night for my wife's Friday night outing with her classmates and friends.

I really enjoyed the movie. The jokes were corny but funny, and there were the usual name variations for selected commercial entities (Kelpy Kreme, Coral Cola, etc). One of my favourite was Robert DeNiro as the godfather shark. The animators did a really good job of capturing DeNiro's look and expressions. And as fish go, Angelina Jolie was pretty hot.

I think the best characters were the rasta jellyfish. For me, they definitely stole the show, and I loved every scene they were in. The octopus henchman was pretty funny too, but the jellyfish were the best.

Definitely one I'll be adding to my collection when it comes out on DVD.

Off to Houston tomorrow

Heading off to Houston tomorrow for a site visit to MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Normally site visits aren't my favourite thing. You fly out either the day before or the same day. You're trying to evaluate equipment and talk to the people operating the equipment one one side, while the sales rep is talking to you about how great their equipment is on the other side. Lunch, talk with more people, and then fly back later that afternoon.

Tomorrow's visit will be a little different though, since one of my friends just moved to Houston and doesn't live too far away. Even though I'll be getting into Houston in the evening and getting to my hotel late (after dinner with the sales reps), I'm looking forward to getting together and hanging out. Haven't seen him since my wedding 3 years ago, so it's going to be a lot of fun getting together and catching up. It'll be a mini Hooligan reunion!

She really can grab the bull by the balls

Monday's site visit at MD Anderson went exceptionallly well, although like many site visits, we didn't get to see everything we wanted to. But we saw enough during the quick 4 hour whirlwind tour and were very impressed by their operation and the efficiencies they've achieved.

Lunch was at Goode Company, a kind of divy hole in the wall looking place, but with some fantastic Texas BBQ. There was a line out the door to the cafeteria style place, and it was well worth it.

By far the most unique items in the restaurant were the handbags hanging over the cashier. Large sac looking things that you could have fit both fists into, with plenty of room to spare. Fairly decent sized handbags that would hold most of the things women typically stuff into handbags.

The material these things were constructed from was somewhat...unique. No doubt in the spirit of "Use Everything", if you've every wondered what happens to a bull's dangly bits, this is one way to use them. Yes, the handbags were made from bull scrotum (scrota?). And they were still hairy. Empty, but hairy.

Now, I wonder what they do with the other dangly bit...

7 donations, up to 21 people helped.

Yesterday the Red Cross blood donor clinic at work had their 2nd annual Blood Donor Appreciation party.

It was a fun time with music, snacks, cookies and door prizes, but mostly thanks for people who gave up a little bit of their time to donate blood to help others in need. At last year's party, there were 6 people who managed to rack up 7 donations for the year (still haven't figured that one out). This year there were a whopping 11, including little old me! That's up to 231 people those blood donations could have helped. Add that to the couple of hundred other people who donated up to 6 times in the past year and that's a lot of people helped.

One of the nice things about this year's event were the speeches from blood recipients sharing their stories about how blood donations helped them survive. It's really nice to put a face to the people I'm helping with each of my donations and adds just that much more satisfaction to giving blood.

Gobble gobble

Happy Thanksgiving!

Legos for big boys

Across the street the hospital is building a new parkade (parking garage). It's pretty cool watching it go up because it's all pre-fab slabs and columns. I'm sure whoever came up with this concept spent a lot of time playing with Legos or something.

There's no forms to build and no concrete to pour. A couple of times a day this big flatbed truck loaded up with large concrete slabs or pillars will back in to the site. A crane will hoist the pieces up and place them into position and then they get attached together in some fashion. And presto, there you have it, one instant wall, or instant floor/ceiling beam. Very nifty.

I think the outer brick layer must be fashioned in a similar way because one day there was just plain old concrete slab, and then the next day there was brick all over the outside.

In the light of a blood red moon...

Get ready for it! Another lunar eclipse to ooo and ahh over. This one is happening relatively early too, starting October 27 just after 9PM EDT and ending just before 1 AM with totality somewhere in the middle (around 10:23 PM EDT).

I've always found lunar eclipses much more interesting than solar eclipses. For one, you don't need dark welder's glass to see them. They happen at night when it's quieter, which isn't a problem as long as you've got a decent supply of coffee or whatever your stimulant of choice is. And I like the colours.

So in two weeks, head out with your comfy lawn chair, some blankets and a thermos of coffee or other caffeinated beverage and find a nice dark field to plop yourself down into. Chill out, watch the moon slowly dissolve into an orange disk and enjoy.

The photo is a lunar eclipse on May 15, 2003, photographed by Loyd Overcash of Houston, Texas nabbed from the Lunar Eclipse Gallery.

On Fedora's cutting edge

I'm slowly getting my Fedora box resurrected. After spending a couple of weeks and fitful starts getting FC3 Test 2 loaded back on, the box is finally running. Still working on getting it back to useful shape. The last couple of days have been spent downloading and installing the new packages associated with FC3 Test 3.

Problems like the X.org server refusing to start with build 1.603 of the 2.6.8 kernel, but working fine with builds 1.607 and 1.541. Gnome not being able to open the X display. Messy things like that.

Next task will be to get all the server apps reconfigured to the way I like them and installing stuff like needed Perl modules and stuff. And then there's the task of restoring databases and web pages I was working on before.

Much work ahead that will have to be squeezed in during my spare time between my real work.

Is it the calories, or is it the weight?

Today's lunch time discussion centered on food and weight gain. The question that was posed was this: Neglecting influences such as metabolism, exercise and such, if you eat a pound (or kilogram) of food and nothing else, can you gain more than a pound of weight.

The actual answer to the question itself wasn't important. What I thought was more interesting was the distribution of answers. One of my friends at work asked a few random people in the cafeteria at lunch. Almost all the men said no, if you eat a pound of food, the most you could gain was a pound of weight.

However, the women that were asked all responded by saying yes it was possible, and that it was the calories that mattered, not the weight. Most of them quoted the rule of thumb saying 3500 food calories = 1 lb, so if that 1 lb of food you just ate had 5000 calories, then you could gain more than 1 lb of weight.

Interesting. So if eating 1 lb of food can make you gain more than 1 lb of weight, where does the extra come from? On the other hand, if calories is the only thing that's important then eat as much as you want as long as it's low-caloric density food.

Of course to really answer the question you need to factor in variables such as metabolism, physical activity and the like.

So how would you answer? Based on the trend from my friend's informal poll, you'd say no if you were a guy, and yes if you were a woman.

Political Quote of the Day

"They're scary. You know, the extreme right wing are...are...are scary because they are very extreme in their beliefs" - Alberta Premier Ralph Klein speaking about the Alberta Alliance Party

Stupid geek toys

Decided to buy a couple of these funny little USB Christmas trees from ThinkGeek. They're small, cute, lights up in 6 colours and seems like they would be an amusing addition to my desks at home and work for the holiday season. Doesn't look like the star lights up though, which would have been neat too.

I can watch CBC news online!

I don't know why I didn't look for this before, but discovering that CBC Edmonton and CBC have Canada Now and The National available as RealPlayer feeds has me just happy as a clam. I'm sure they've been around for a while now. I just never thought to look for them.

So now in the mornings, while I'm working away I can plug in the headphones, fire up the feeds and watch/listen away to the news going on back home. It's definitely a very different perspective on the news than you get from the local news here, or even on CNN.

I love it :)

It's the cool season

It's mid-October, which means the weather is cooling down. Back home, this is about the time it starts snowing, and that means that all those people who've forgotten how to drive in snow are getting into accidents all over the place.

It's really stupid you know. Hello, it's October. It's going to snow soon! Time to get ready! Every year it snows. Every year, the first snow of the season brings accidents all over the place because people aren't paying attention. You'd think they'd see the snow and think "Ok, time to take it easy now". Same thing happened in Detroit too. Go figure. It's that time of year again though.

Here, the cool season means oysters. Oysters by the bucket and bushel. Oysters and oyster roasts. It's a big thing here, and just about every organization out there will have some kind of fund-raising oyster roast.

I have to admit I've only been to one oyster roast in the 5 years I've been here. That was about 4 years ago and was put on by the department the wife was working in at the time. Oysters were plentiful and tasty, and there were hot dogs for the kids and non-oyster eating people. It was on the cool side, nothing extreme for me. The oysters were hot and tasty and there was lots of socializing and fat-chewing going on.

Figuring out the magic trick to opening an oyster without getting shell fragments all over the place was a challenge, but with the help of a few friendly oyster eaters I managed to pick it up pretty quick. Just find that tinly little opening, wiggle the oyster-opening knife in and twist. Inside you'll find a little mound of oystery goodness waiting to be slurped down. Straight up or on a cracker with a dash of hot sauce. Chew or let it slide straight down. Eating methods are about as varied as the people eating them.

Maybe it's time to go to another one.

It's a Great Pumpkin Thanksgiving Christmas Charlie Brown!

I saw the Peanuts Holiday Collection and just had to have it for my collection.

It's a 3 DVD set containing 6 cartoons, all of which are classics and familiar to anyone who's grown up watching them on TV as a kid. It's not chock full of extras or anything, just two half-hour cartoons on each disk. No matter how old you are, they will be a delight to watch. Big kids can watch and enjoy them and can introduce their little kids to the Peanuts gang.

Definitely a must-have item for any Peanuts fan.

My desk is all aglow

The USB Christmas trees came in yesterday after a bit of a UPS misdirect. Not sure if they're worth the $13 each (maybe $10 or so might be a more appropriate price). They are kind of neat though and will look fun on my desk when the holiday season starts.

11 cm (4.25") tall and maybe about 8 cm diameter (3.25") it's small enough to fit just about anywhere without taking up too much space. The cord is a decent length and uses some of the 500 mA provided by the USB port to power the LED light. It cycles through 6 different colours about every 5 seconds. The red isn't nearly as bright as the other 5 colours though.

It's just a fun silly geeky little toy. Definitely would have been cooler if the star lit up too.

3/5 stars for this one.

Hey, put out that cancer stick!

Somewhere there's an air intake for the building my office is in. I think when the weather cools off, whoever runs the ventilation must open some vents somewhere to bring fresh air inside. Judging from the smell in my office, those vents must be somewhere that smokers congregate. Either that or someone in this building is smoking where they shouldn't be. The last few days there's been that old, trashy second-hand smoky smell all over the place. Ick.

I think I'm going to have to get one of those air freshener things or cover up this vent in my office.

Memorable wedding moment #42

Just about every wedding has at least one memorable moment. Many times, that moment is the climactic 'Throwing of the Bouquet'. Ours was no exception.

I especially love the part when she spikes the remains of the bouquet after getting back to her seat.

It's all FUD

In the end, all this political campaigning comes down to who can generate the most FUD. And bonus points if you can link your FUD to terrorism.

Yesterday on the news there was some guy claiming that making it easier for people to buy prescription drugs from Canada would open the door to terrorists. Terrorists could infiltrate Canadian pharmacies and send out poison-laced drugs. Terrorists could set up fake internet storefronts to send out tainted drugs. Terrorists this, terrorists that.

Factcheck.org is an interesting website I found out about while watching the Today show (I'd link to it, but NBC makes you go through an ad just to get to the website).

Sure, in the beginning all the campaigning starts off noble, and all the candidates say they're against negative campaigning and they won't do it. But eventually it all degenerates to who can slander/libel whom the most, who can twist and distort the opponents record the most.

I'll be glad when the election is over and all these crappy campaigning ads are gone. Then the networks can get back to showing ads geared towards trying to get me to buy crap I don't need.

Hmm, this seems like an uncharacteristically cynical post, doesn't it...

The mini-bottle debate

There are a lot of big issues being slung around this year before the election. Terrorism, prescription drugs, social security, the economy. All big and weighty things.

Here, it's different. Here, one of the more contentious issues is the mini-bottle. Specifically, whether restaurants and bars should be allowed to stick with mini-bottles, or go with free-pour.

Yes, South Carolina is the last state in the US that mandates the use of mini-bottles of alcohol. Those little bottles of booze you thought you only got on airplanes. You get them in SC too. And in SC, that's the only way liquor is allowed to be served. Tiny little 1.7 oz (42.5 mL) bottles.

You wouldn't think it would be such a big issue, but it is. The main reason why is of course money. Each mini-bottle carries a tax of $0.25, or 14.7 cents/ounce. The 5-8% sales tax (depending on where you live) on a regular 26 oz bottle of booze that costs around $15 is just 4.6 cents/oz. Or 5-8% sales tax on a $5-6 drink at the bar. That makes mini-bottles a huge source of revenue for the state.

Those that favour getting rid of mini-bottles say it will decrease the number of drunk driving deaths (apparently a similar decrease was seen in Utah when they got rid of mini-bottles). Tourists will get the amount of booze in each drink that they're used to instead of getting a wallopped by almost twice what they're usually accustomed to. Inventory management will be much easier for bars and restaurants. It'll be easier on the environment. Mixed drinks will be easier to make. And, drinks will be cheaper.

Those in favour of keeping the mini-bottles say people will just end up drinking more because the drinks will be watered down by free-pour (bollocks I say). Mean bartenders will serve watered down drinks. People know how exactly how much they're getting for their money. The state will have to find a way to make up for the lost revenue.

And that's essentially what it all comes down to...the all mighty $.

The pumpkins are here!

Hallowe'en is here again, which means it's time for MUSC's annual pumpkin carving contest. This year there weren't quite as many pumpkins as last year, but there were still a lot of good pumpkins.

I particularly liked the one from the Cardiovascular Perfusion/Life Support Team. Note the contents of the IV bag.

Random medical student quote

Wife's friend: You know one of the bodies in the lab? It's fresh.
Wife: Oh, you mean juicy?