| Heritage Chickens |
[Jul. 8th, 2008|08:36 pm] |
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I've been doing some digging into local chickens, and I believe I've stumbled across the chickens that ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ai731 was telling me about and is planning to have on her homestead.
The Chantecler Chicken looks to be a heritage breed that was originally bred by a monk at the Oka monastery specifically to be dual-purpose (both meat and eggs) and to be cold-hardy.
What's interesting to note on this information page (for me, anyway) is that the consensus appears to be that the future of the breed is in hobby farms and family farms. Right now they appear to be relatively difficult to come by, but I bet that with enough interest, these could be the next best thing in Ontario and Québec.
Anyone else come across good, sturdy breeds that would do well in a Canadian winter? |
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| More poop for the pot |
[Jul. 8th, 2008|04:29 pm] |
I've done it again. Or at least, I've decided to start something new again. This new blog has only one post in it, but I'm hoping to add one new post per day for the next 30 days (or as long as I have access to the Internet).
The blog is called Stuff White Neo-Pagans Like (inspired by Stuff White People Like).
Enjoy, and if you can't enjoy, be offended. But if you get offended, that probably means the posts are hitting a little too close to home for you. Deal. |
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| Hair? |
[Jul. 8th, 2008|04:15 pm] |
I have to say that now that the 35+ degree weather (+humidity) is here I so do not miss my long hair.
It's been a week and a half since I got it cut short and most people say it looks good.
I must say that the biggest reaction so far has been from the Ladies that work at the Tim Hortons near work. I had the whole staff looking at me and commenting on my hair. It stopped the morning rush. I'm sure more then a few that were waitting in line for their morning fix, were wondering who the hell I was.
HRH. |
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| Can someone explain this? |
[Jul. 8th, 2008|07:54 pm] |
This is the RCMP. We are supposed to be the thin red line that stands between ordinary citizens and the scum of the universe (or was that MiB?).
How the hell do we run out of STAPLES?!? |
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[Jul. 8th, 2008|04:31 pm] |
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Skywatch folks will appreciate this. Turns out that in the (old animated) GI Joe movie, there's a new Joe, callsign Falcon. And yes, he's a smooth-talking womanizer. He's only a Lt, though, but you can't have everything. This amuses me to no end. |
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| 0x20 |
[Jul. 8th, 2008|01:03 pm] |
So I kind of let it slip-past without fanfare, but now that my binary age has set the sixth bit I can pause to reflect upon the fact that in the past year I've managed to survive longer than Franz Schubert, Georges-Pierre Seurat, and Emperor Commodus. Obviously by their standards I'm a total underachiever, but I'm still alive at 32 so nyah. |
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| Plenty of hours in the day, just not enough energy |
[Jul. 8th, 2008|11:23 am] |
I overslept this morning. Well, I "overslept" only in that I got up much later than I'd intended to, which means a crimp in my plans to get groceries.
What I need these days is to work out a schedule and stick to it. I'm moving in seven weeks, and so far I haven't got much done by way of purging (not since mid-June, anyway), and nothing by way of packing. July is meant to be about the purging and August about the packing, but I haven't been able to muster the energy or motivation to do anything about that. Night shift hasn't helped, and having my "staycation" cut short last week also didn't help.
So, since motivation follows action, I think I need to set out a fairly rigid schedule and stick to it, starting with forcing myself to get out of bed when my alarm clock goes off. This week I'm planning to rescue my old bicycle from my parents' garage and bring it to Eddy's bicycle shop around the corner. Once it's fixed, I will attempt to ride it to work.
I also have a stack of bills to pay. Not a problem, just a hassle. It means I'll have to leave earlier than usual.
Wow. I'm reaching new heights of disjointedness in this post. Oh well. Long story short: this week I am pulling my shit together and getting organized. I've got a ton of obligations I'm not meeting lately. |
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| Teh Cute Continues. |
[Jul. 8th, 2008|11:26 am] |
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[Jul. 8th, 2008|11:13 am] |
So in looking at my maps and charts and papers and CAA triptychs and things I want to do ... yeah, I'm leaving a day early for Missouri, so I'll be out of here on Saturday, not Sunday, should be arriving in Columbia on Tuesday evening.
So far here's the plan ...
Montreal to Syracuse NY
Syracuse to Cleveland OH
Cleveland to Indianapolis IN
Indianapolis to Columbia
Haven't worked out the details with Mix96 yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I know.
I'm definitely enjoying this whole wake up when you wake up thing. It's awesome. |
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| Sacred Brewing Workshop |
[Jul. 8th, 2008|08:52 am] |
This is being held on beautiful land with some wonderful folk about 4-hours south of Montreal. Sadly, we already have plans that weekend, otherwise we'd be so there!
Sacred Brewing and Fermentation Workshop
August 3, 2008 10am-6pm
Grantham, NH
Cost: $75-$125, sliding scale, includes lunch and materials fees, no one will be turned away for lack of funds, contact registration for possibility of work-study scholarships
Registration contact: registration@casachaos.net
"The sacred power of fermentation is one of the greatest natural gifts through which we work transformative magic along with our green allies from the world of living, growing things. From the earliest times of humans on the Earth, we have gathered the bountiful harvest of grains, fruits, and honey, and by transforming them through the art, science and magic of fermentation...."
More info about workshop here. |
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| A stunning example of sloppy reporting. |
[Jul. 8th, 2008|08:40 am] |
It seems like the Nova Scotia Herald has been reading the Journalist's Guide to Gun Violence Coverage, and not realizing that it was satire. Their coverage of Momin Khawaja's trial on terrorism charges yesterday demonstrated many characteristics of incompetent reporting typical of the mainstream media's coverage of firearms-related issues.
First, the picture accompanying the article shows what the reporter describes as "two high-powered, 7.6-mm weapons, including one Russian-designed rifle that was equipped with a folding bayonet". In reality, that is a Yugoslavian-made SKS carbine (which, after all, are Russian-designed), chambered in 7.62x39mm Soviet and an aftermarket replacement stock for it, not an actual rifle (to be fair, the purpose of the image may not have been providing an accurate depiction of the weapons seized so much as it was alarming gullible readers). And yes, it has a bayonet. All SKSes do. Including mine. They come that way. It's a feature. And while bayonets may look scary, especially when photographed from as extreme a perspective as possible, with a Mountie in the background hovering over the nasty evil thing, presumably to make sure that it doesn't suddenly spontaneously levitate and skewer the hapless photographer, possibly through the liver, before flying off and chasing the Crown prosecutor around the courtroom, oh no, horrors, they're extremely rarely used by the military these days (even back in the American Civil War, less than 1% of battlefield casualties were caused by bayonets) and even less so in crime in Canada.
But what annoys me the most about the article, aside from the sensational image and the fact that the reporter got the caliber wrong, got the country of origin wrong, and failed to even correctly identify the firearm involved, is the use of the term "high-powered", which the media all too frequently misuse when describing firearms. The SKS is not a high-powered rifle (and neither are the AK47, M-16, and in fact most every modern military rifles). It is a rifle chambered for an intermediate-powered round. I wouldn't use one one on a deer outside of 100 meters. Just to put what I'm saying into perspective:
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A brief visual primer on rifle cartridges.
From left to right: .22 Long Rifle (a low powered small game round). 7.62x39mm (the intermediate powered military round fired by the SKS). .308 Winchester (a full powered (barely) hunting round; its military equivalent, 7.62x51mm, is too powerful for use in assault rifles). .475 Jeffreys Nitro Express (yes, finally, a high powered hunting cartridge). |
And don't get me started on the use of "high-powered" to describe 9mm pistols.
It's this kind of thing that makes me really skeptical of the mainstream media; if they get something as simple as this so wrong, and spin it so badly in the process, just imagine what they're fudging, faking, getting wrong, or downright misrepresenting. |
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| Random Thoughts |
[Jul. 8th, 2008|09:48 am] |
Did anyone else know that Blade (the vampire hunter) was actually English? Apparently he is, which makes perfect sense when i think about it but find hard to correlate with his various depictions in film, cartoon and even recent comics.
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So does this most recent regeneration count against the Doctor's tally? I'm fairly certain it should because he did go through a full cycle (repaired himself), just chose to stay in that form (which is fine, control there has been shown before). This only leaves him, what, one more life to go?
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The slow and steady start of our entry into the HD world starts today with the arrival (hopefuly) of a cheap HD TV courtesy of dabs.co.uk's homebrand range. Of course we have absolutely nothing in the house that can provide a HD input (both a Wii and the Xbox360, pre Oct 2007 model, can only do so through 'component cables', which i don't think this tv has the sockets for) but its all very much one step at a time.
Step 1.5 is looking at the tv's sound, as cheap televisions can sometimes sound quite tinny, but i've got means and smarts (and cables!) to sort that.
Step 2 is probably going to being Sky HD, though at £150 for the box (a lot, but still half the price of when it first came out) i will have to pick the time and payment method carefuly.
Step 3 is then a blu ray player (NOT a ps3), which currently clock in at around £190, not counting the need i'll then have for a hdmi hub.
Ah, upgrading...always a pain in the arse and the wallet...
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Gas bill goes down by £17 per month - yay!
Electricity bill goes up by £18 per month - d'oh!
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So, being a liche in the (classic) World of Darkness, can i find any rules references to them? Can i heck! So far i've got the negative of 4 dots of stat loss vs the positive of half damage from bludgeoning weapons (scales not quite balancing themselves too well!), with the whole 'oh, and you're dead' bit wedged firmly into the Jury: Still Out column. |
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| Quick Update From Rio |
[Jul. 7th, 2008|10:28 pm] |
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Fact - You can get through an airport in Brasil a LOT faster than one in the US, even in a city of seventeen million people. They will, however, change the gate on you at the last minute.
Fact - Rio is not entirely populated by gorgeous women in bikinis, scary bald dudes who know capoeira, and piranhas. Most of the people I saw wearing skimpy bathing suits today were dudes who looked more like me than I care to admit, because the comparison doesn´t flatter either party.
Fact - I can see Jesus out my hotel room window. Mind you, it´s the statue of Jesus that overlooks the city, but still, it makes a man want to close his blinds, just in case.
Fact - Unexpectedly, Brasilian cuisine seems to have an inordinate fondness for buffalo mozzarella. I am not complaining.
Fact - Rio is utterly, jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Where Sao Paulo is a city that has overwhelmed its place, Rio is very much a part of its environment, and that environment involves magnificent granite crags, beautiful beaches with a constant thunder of waves crashing on them, and lush mountansides. Sao Paulo went up and over its mountains; Rio went through its and let them be.
Fact - The buzzards that circle over Rio are titanic, and their silhouette is scarily reminiscent of a pterodactyl´s. I kept on straining for a closer look, just in case.
Fact - My connectivity is going to be weird-to-poor while I´m here, so updates will be erratic at best.
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| New Favorite Quote |
[Jul. 7th, 2008|07:26 pm] |
Just saw this today here:
There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves. ~ Will Rogers
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| Not quite Lance Armstrong yet |
[Jul. 7th, 2008|06:07 pm] |
Holiday is booked, so all being well on Thursday I haul myself and the steel horse out to the Fearsranch, a trip of approximately 100km or 60 miles. Despite not really needing an excuse to get out there and see the wonderful fearsclave, radiant C, their ménagerie of various assorted beasts, and all of that achingly lovely landscape they live in, this particular trip has in fact been timed to occur on the same day that kiwano cycles from Ottawa to the Fearsranch on his trans-Canadian tour. After an overnight stay at the Ranch, on Friday I turn-around and we cycle back into Montréal together. Weather forecast says it will be dry, sunny and cooler (yay) but into a westerly headwind (boo), but at least that means we get a tailwind for the trip back home. I also caved-in to my consumerist/survivalist addiction and bought one of those Hennessy hammocks I was jonesing-for the other week, so I intend to take that with me and christen it on the overnight stay at the Ranch. I don't think I've ever ridden this far in a single day, it should be fun. |
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[Jul. 7th, 2008|05:57 pm] |
It's too hot. Again.
More Mr. Freezies in my future. Oh yes. Come to me, my icy, multi-flavored babies! |
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| We are cute. |
[Jul. 7th, 2008|04:43 pm] |
Because Facebook is not enough.
End of June 2008 - At Home
The Matchy-Matchy outfit thing was not intentional.
Neither were the shaved heads.
It just happened that way.
Warren looks like he is up to eeeeeeeevil.
:-) |
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annoyed
sleepy
hungry
dismayed