Rock Ruminations

My New Favourite Christmas Carol

2006-12-30T16:14:00.000-05:00

This is priceless...

Enjoy!

Happy Holidays

2006-12-26T11:26:00.000-05:00

A happy holidays to you and your's, particularly all of those lucky individuals who get to celebrate the holidays in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Remember, you can always tell the Newfies in heaven, they're the ones that want to go home!

Statistics for November

2006-12-02T07:22:00.000-05:00

Anyway, this past month there were 91 unique visitors: 78 first timers and 13 repeat offenders for an average of 3 visitors a day.

These visitors came from the Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

Until next month...

Tags: blog, blogging, blog

Imagine That!

2006-11-27T10:47:00.000-05:00

Not sure where I found this, but... [Not sure why the formatting isn't working]

Your results:

You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man		65%
The Flash		60%
Superman		55%
Iron Man		45%
Hulk		40%
Robin		37%
Supergirl		35%
Green Lantern		35%
Wonder Woman		30%
Catwoman		30%
Batman		20%

You are intelligent, witty,
a bit geeky and have great
power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

To Be Suspected I Guess

2006-11-22T21:05:00.000-05:00

I found this from Dr. Four Eyes in his entry You like me! You really like me!. Apparently it came from this entry, which you can use to find out how you rank, courtesy of Musey Me.

I Would Have Hoped For More

2006-11-10T23:32:00.000-05:00

I got this from vegreville (see is entry No surprise, eh).

You are 87% Canuck!

You rock, you are an almighty Canadian through and through. You have proven your worthiness and have won the elite prize of living in a country as awesome as Canada. Yes I know other countries think they are better, but we let them have that cuz we know better than they do, eh?

How Canadian Are You?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Statistics for October

2006-10-31T20:48:00.000-05:00

Anyway, this past month there were 75 unique visitors: 65 first timers and 10 repeat offenders for an average of 2 visitors a day.

These visitors came from the Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

Until next month...

Tags: blog, blogging, blog

And I Thought One of Me Was Enough!

2006-10-27T10:29:00.000-04:00

I got this from http://rebecca-goetz.blogspot.com/2006/10/yikes-would-other-rebecca-goetzes.html.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
238
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Apparently, some interesting tidbits:

There are 3,961,085 people in the U.S. with the first name Michael.
Statistically the 4th most popular first name.
99.55 percent of people with the first name Michael are male.
Names similar to Michael:

Micah
Mickey
Mike
Mitchell

There are 17,998 people in the U.S. with the last name Barbour.
Statistically the 1943rd most popular last name. (tied with 338 other last names)

Interesting indeed...

And Another...

2006-10-24T10:20:00.000-04:00

Okay, I should have gotten this up yesterday, but it just didn't get done in time. The lady on the right is my Nan Barbour (dad's mother). She turned eighty-three yesterday.

Like my Pop, there is a great deal that I have learned from my Nan, the greatest lesson has been how to care for others.

Happy belated birthday Nan!

Tag: family, birthday

Longevity

2006-10-22T20:59:00.000-04:00

This is my Pop Humphries (mom's father). He is 90 years old today. This picture was taken two years ago this coming Christmas (i.e., Christmas 2004).

Born during the middle of the First World War, he's seen a lot in his lifetime. More than that though, after his second heart attack I watched him undertake what can only be described as an almos complete change in his lifestyle - from hobbies and actions to eating habits. For a man that had been so set in his way for years to undergo such a change was both remarkable and inspiring.

Thinking about being up in Newfoundland with him today makes me a little sad for home, but I know that he'll still be ther when I get up there sometime in 2007.

Happy Birthday Pop!

Tag: family, birthday

Finding Closure

2006-10-17T09:16:00.000-04:00

Well, it has been some time - three months in fact - since I had my final good-bye to my companion. That time has been one of trying to simply move things to the back of my mind and focus on other things because when I think about it, it still makes me sad.

Today I finally decided it was time to face it again. Good Shepherd Pet Services has a web page that lists all of their pets and their dates. Natasha can be found at:

http://www.goodshepherdpet.com/July_2006.htm

The allow owners to write something to be added to the page next to their pet's name. Today I finally had the [insert appropriate word here] to sit down and think enough about it to send something off.

I can still remember when my friend told me that she had found the perfect pet for me. Little did I know at the time that this young stray would also become the perfect companion. For many years it was just Natasha and I, alone but yet together - keeping each other company and providing support to one another. She was playful and lovable, and seemed to know exactly what mood I was in and adapted her actions accordingly. Even in her final days, which must have been troubling and painful for her (not knowing what was happening to the body that she relied on), she was still my constant companion. Rest now my little girl, you'll always have a special place in my heart.

According to the website it should appear in a week or two. She deserved so much more, but this is the best that I could come up with.

Tag: cat

Statistics for September

2006-10-04T21:20:00.000-04:00

First of all, let me say that I appreciate those people who contine to come to this blog, even when I haven't been updating it that much in this past month. I have been busy working on my dissertation, a post-doctoral fellowship application, and five presentation at AECT and three at the Virtual School Symposium. I will be honest and say that October probably won't be much better, although as I have mentioned there are at least two entries that have been eating away at me that I'll need to make in the coming week or two or three.

Anyway, this past month there were 71 unique visitors: 63 first timers and 8 repeat offenders for an average of 2 visitors a day.

These visitors came from the Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Until next month...

Tags: blog, blogging, blog

Bad Hockey Logos

2006-09-20T19:53:00.000-04:00

Okay, I found this courtesy of my friend over at vegreville - worst hockey logos of all time. Being a Canadian and true hockey fan, I couldn't resist.

Although I'm still trying to figure out how the old Vancouver Canucks logo from 1971 to 1980 didn't make the list. You be the judge!

There's another series of them here - http://www.bushparty.com/htms/hockeylogos.htm

Tags: hockey, NHL

Learn from Montreal... Again

2006-09-14T07:11:00.000-04:00

Okay, so it has been a week and a half and there has been this one entry that I have been meaning to make, then last night I had an idea for another post - which will come in a few days time - but this morning there is something that I just need to get off my chest.

As some of your know, prior to getting involved in teaching I came from a background in politics. In fact, I was a professional political organizer for four years working with a variety of Members of Parliament, Senators and candidates for office. Political issues are still near and dear to my heart, even though I try to divorce myself from them (as they serve me little use in the realm of education and I have my dissertation to be thinking about at the moment).

Almost seventeen years ago fourteen women were killed in Montreal in what became known at the École Polytechnique massacre. I was only in grade nine at the time, but I can remember the event quite vividly and it was probably one of the first major events that shaped my own political views. In addition to the impact that it had on me, it also helped to shape the current gun control legislation and firearms registry that we have in place in Canada.

Coming from a rural province, while I believed in the concept of gun control the people whom were part of my everyday life were much like the gun owners that were most upset with this legislation - hunters, collectors, and law-abiding citizens. It was something I was always torn over, but usually came down on the side of protecting the rights of many (to live in a society freer of gun-related crime) than to protect the rights of the few (the gun owners themselves). Part of that collectiveness that makes us Canadians I guess.

Now, however, after having been living in the United States for the past three years, there is no debate in my mind. Gun control and the registry of firearms are two measures that MUST be maintained. There is a reason why the gun-related crime in the United States is so out of proportion with other developed nations in North America, Western European, and Southwestern Asia - the rest of us have gun control legislation and the United States doesn't.

This past May, when I was back in Newfoundland collecting my data for my dissertation it was reported that the new fascist, I mean conservative government was getting rid of the firearms registry - no doubt the first in a series of moves to revert to American-style gun control (as our unmandated Prime Minister seems to look up to his unduly elected American counterpart).

Let the events of yesterday in Montreal serve as a reminder that events like these are a common occurance in the United States - and the reason for that is because of the current regime of gun control, including the firearms registry, that we have in Canada. Can you really put a price on public safety and isn't what you are proposing Prime Minister Harper too high a price?

Tags: Dawson College, Montreal, Montreal Massacre, gun control

My First Cassette

2006-09-03T11:06:00.000-04:00

If I had to produce a cassette today for Rock Ruminations, this is what it would look like:

Not sure where I found this now, other than it was a post by someone in my Bloglines, probably Vegreville. Cute nonetheless.

Anyway, you can use this little tool yourself at Cassette Generator.

Tags: blog, blogging, blog

Stats for August

2006-08-31T23:52:00.000-04:00

This past month there were 62 unique visitors: 52 first timers and 10 repeat offenders for an average of 4 visitors a day.

These visitors came from the Canada, the United States, Mexico, France, Singapore, Poland, and Nigeria.

Until next month...

Tags: blog, blogging, blog

Bloglines Update

2006-08-22T12:25:00.000-04:00

Okay, you may remember that I started back in May trying to clean up my Bloglines account. At the time I started, I had "well over 250 feeds that produced some 800 to 1000 entries a day, down to just under a 120 feeds now producing about 400 to 600 entries a day."

Well, as of today I have exactly 100 feeds (I did have it down to 99, but needed to add one for some of my teaching this semester). I am averaging only about 50-80 entries a day from those 100 feeds. I have even managed to get some of the 137 saved entries that I had put aside to blog about at later dates down to about 63 now, and hoping to decrease that number even more before the end of the day.

This is a good place for me now, because even if I miss a day or two of checking my Bloglines, it is still at a managable number of new messages that I can actually skim the content of all of them and not just mark them as read.

Tags: blog, blogging, blogs

St. John's in New York

2006-08-19T10:10:00.000-04:00

I think it was the VOCM site, or maybe through a forward that I came across this news item. Just reading it makes you feel good to be a Newfoundlander and a little homesick for the island. The original article was (and may still be) available at http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/07/28/travel/escapes/28hours.html?pagewanted=print. Take a read and rememberwhat a great place Newfoundland really is.

July 28, 2006

36 Hours

St. John’s, Newfoundland

By JEFF SCHLEGEL

FOUNDED in the late 16th century, St. John’s was already a settlement when New York City was a mere gleam in the eye of European colonizers. Cod was once king here, but now it’s the offshore oil industry that is pumping cash and confidence into this quirky city of nearly 100,000 that sits at North America’s easternmost edge. Icebergs, whales and puffins pass by in summer. And the typical friendliness of Newfoundland and Labrador comes with a decidedly Irish twist — many locals speak with the thickest brogues west of Galway. George Street is the North Atlantic version of Bourbon Street in this attractive city where brightly colored row houses cascade down toward the harbor. With its steep streets, devotion to the arts and stirring views of the harbor and surrounding hills, St. John’s calls to mind a smaller but earthier San Francisco.

Friday

3:30 p.m.
1) TITANIC, BUT NO DICAPRIO
An ideal first stop is Signal Hill, above, a rocky sentinel that overlooks the entrance to the harbor. Before reaching the top, though, visit the Johnson Geo Centre (175 Signal Hill Road, 709-737-7880; http://www.geocentre.ca/), where one exhibition tells the tale of the Titanic’s sinking 350 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. Shake your head in disbelief as you read how the ship’s owners neglected safety in favor of luxury and how they refused to equip the ship with enough lifeboats because it would “clutter up the deck.” Atop Signal Hill looms Cabot Tower, a castle-like structure next to where Marconi received the first trans-Atlantic wireless message in 1901. And if you had to pay — which you don’t — the sweeping view of harbor and city from the lookout would be worth the price.

6 p.m.
2) RELAX, TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES
The sophisticated St. John’s dining scene is traditionally centered on Water Street, but exciting newcomers have opened elsewhere. Waitresses at Taste of Thai (179 Duckworth Street, 709-738-3203) welcome patrons with a sawadeeka greeting — hands pressed together and a slight bow. The restaurant sizzles with spicy curry dishes and a tasty cashew chicken (14 Canadian dollars, or $12.60 at 90 American cents to the Canadian dollar). Sit at Western-style tables and chairs, or take off your shoes and sit on floor cushions at low traditional tables.

8 p.m.
3) OFF OFF OFF BROADWAY

Take in a play at the Resource Center for the Arts, the focal point of the city’s arts scene. Housed in the former Longshoremen’s Protective Union Hall (3 Victoria Street, 709-753-4531; http://www.rca.nf.ca/), a large 80-year-old building with a big pink, white and green flag — a 19th-century symbol of Irish assimilation in the area — painted on the front, the center plays host to theater, dance and art shows ranging from experimental to traditional; it promotes emerging artists in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

10 p.m.
4) HAVE A COW, MAN

For a post-show treat, visit Moo-Moo’s Ice Cream (88 Kings Road, 709-753-3046), a boxy building painted a mottled black and white in dairy-cow fashion. The store makes more than 300 flavors of ice cream in its basement factory, including Fish Pond, which blends the leftovers from that day’s production. Turtle cheesecake — a mix of cheesecake, Oreo crumbs and English toffee — is among the most popular. “We’ve had lines out the door and around the corner,” said Ruth Ryan, an employee.
Saturday

9 a.m.
5) MUFFINS, YES. HAMMERS, NO.

Fuel up on coffee and homemade baked goods at Auntie Crae’s Specialty Foods (272 Water Street, 709-754-0661), in a 100-year-old building that was once a hardware store. The partridgeberry muffins — a Newfoundland treat — are just 75 Canadian cents each. Buy the local newspaper, The Telegram, and take your food to the common room, a cozy space with wooden floors.

11 a.m.
6) SEA LIFE

After breakfast, drive about half an hour south to Bay Bulls (Highway 2 south to Highway 3, which merges into Highway 10 south). Gatherall’s Puffin & Whale Watch (Northside Road, 709-334-2887; http://www.gatheralls.com/) is one of three eco-tour operators in town that ferry passengers to the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, a group of offshore islands that in summer are host to 2.5 million mating seabirds, including about 500,000 puffins. Whales also appear in the bay during their summer migration and, if the currents are right, you might see an iceberg or two floating down from Greenland.

3 p.m.
7) PROVINCIAL, BUT THAT’S O.K.

It’s hard to miss the Rooms (9 Bonaventure Avenue, 709-757-8000; http://www.therooms.ca/), a huge museum and art gallery that towers above the city from its hilltop perch. Opened last year and designed to resemble traditional Newfoundland fishing rooms where families processed their catch, the Rooms combines the Provincial Museum, the Provincial Art Gallery and the Provincial Archives under one roof. The spotlight is on artists from Newfoundland and Labrador and from throughout Canada. Unofficially, among its the best displays is the view of the harbor’s meeting the Atlantic at Signal Hill.

5 p.m.
8) PEWS AND STOUTS

The Ship Pub (Solomon’s Lane at 265 Duckworth Street, 709-753-3870) is a classic watering hole with a laid-back vibe. There are several tables scattered about and a lot of old wood, including church pews set along the walls. It’s easy to belly up to the time-worn bar and chat up the barkeepers or the mix of locals ranging from artists to lawyers. “It’s just not a pub,” one customer said, “it’s a living room.” After a drink or two, it’s time for dinner. Restaurant 21 (21 Queens Road, 709-576-2112) is a slightly upscale corner restaurant on a residential street up the hill. The menu is seasonal and includes a smattering of organic items, like the delicious organic pork loin, blue cheese and double-smoked bacon with spinach au gratin, tomato basil pesto and red onion sauce (24 Canadian dollars). Bread comes with intriguing butter options, like barbecue blueberry and strawberry kiwi.

9 p.m.
9) PLEASE, NOT ‘DANNY BOY’

George Street is party central in downtown St. John’s, a stretch of pedestrian-only mayhem jammed with loud bars, dance spots and clubs for Irish music. On a recent Saturday night at Bridie Molloy’s Pub & Eatery (5 George Street, 709-576-5990), an acoustic trio played to the occasional accompaniment of an Irish step dancer. Over at O’Reilly’s Irish Newfoundland Pub (15 George Street, 709-722-3735), a band with electric guitars played a more raucous set of Irish-tinged music. The music starts at about 10:30 p.m. and throbs late into the night. But whatever you do, avoid the hokey organized pub crawls.
Sunday

10 a.m.
10) IS THAT EUROPE YONDER?

You can’t get much farther east in North America than Cape Spear National Historic Site (709-772-5367). Follow Water Street southwest, turn left onto Leslie Street and look for the sign for Cape Spear Drive. The nine-mile drive passes through rugged terrain until it meets the ocean. There are two lighthouses — the original from 1836 and one built in 1955. You can pick up the East Coast Trail (http://www.eastcoasttrail.com/) at the parking lot and hike south along the high sea cliffs.

1 p.m.
11) COD TONGUES, ANYONE?

Velma’s Place (264 Water Street, 709-576-2264) specializes in healthy helpings of traditional cuisine. An appetizer of cod tongues with scrunchions, or fat pork (8.95 Canadian dollars), and a meal of baked cod au gratin (10.95 Canadian dollars) or fish and chips made with cod (two pieces for 9.95 Canadian dollars; three pieces for 10.95 dollars) is as Newfoundland as it gets. Home-cooked food is the rule, and the hot turkey sandwich (9.95 Canadian dollars) is made with real roast turkey with dark meat, not bland deli meat. The strong taste will linger, even as St. John’s recedes in the distance.

THE BASICS

Continental flies from Newark to St. John’s twice daily. Fares start at $419. Car rentals are available at the airport.

The Murray Premises Hotel (5 Beck’s Cove, 709-738-7773; http://www.murraypremiseshotel.com/) is a downtown boutique hotel on the harbor; it has an electric fireplace, a Jacuzzi and a towel warmer in every room. Rates are 189 to 249 Canadian dollars (about $170 to $225 at 90 American cents to the Canadian dollar).

The Winterholme Heritage Inn (79 Rennies Mill Road, 709-739-7979; http://www.winterholme.com/) is a national historic site in a Queen Anne Revival house. Rates are 159 to 249 Canadian dollars.

Cantwell House Bed & Breakfast (25 Queens Road, 709-754-8439; http://www.cantwellhouse.nf.net/) is a stylish 1893 house with a third-floor porch that offers a fabulous view of harbor and city. Rooms are $90 Canadian dollars.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Talk about making it to the big leagues... :)

Tags: Newfoundland, travel, New York Times

Saying Good-Bye, Saying Hello

2006-08-04T18:06:00.000-04:00

Well, I've put off this post for long enough I guess. It has been three weeks now said I last saw my companion of the past decade. I won't lie and say that it has been an easy three weeks, nor can I say that it has been a horrible three weeks. Each day brings with it more good memories and less hurt. Having said that, there is still a great deal of pain in thinking about that day and even in many of the little things.

The last time I posted about my Natasha was three weeks ago (see She's Sleeping With The Angels). While our trip out of town was good, as it kept me busy which meant that my mind was occupied most of the time, it was still a difficult few days. The ride home on monday was tough and walking through the door for the first time was even tougher. Even now, like when I first came home, I often look atop my Montreal Canadiens throw that sits on our chair where she would perch herself waiting for Lisa or I to come home. I don't know if it is forceof habit or guilt over the whole situation, but I still find myself looking to that spot when I come home expecting or wanting to see her.

But with this sorrow their is also a little joy in our household. This is Charley. She was found as a stray downtown by friends of our's. I had been after Lisa for much of the past year to get a kitten (as early as two Mays ago in fact), I had hoped as a playmate and companion for Natasha. Given that Natasha was a stray when I got her, she had already had one or more litters of cats and I thought that nuturing her materal instinct would have been good. We got Natasha's diagnosis a day or two before we were supposed to pick up Charley, but the vet felt that a kitten in the home would do more harm for Natasha than good. As I didn't want to stress her out during her final days, the two of them never met.

I wasn't sure how I feel about this new addition, but still wanted to go through with it. Partly because we had committed to our friend, herself a cat person but already owning three, and partly because I still did want a kitten. It has been an interesting two and a half weeks with Charley. I have found that while she has adopted many of Natasha's old toys and things there are still things that I refuse to let her have or refuse to do with her - as they were Natasha's or mine and Natasha's things. When I get mad at Charley for being bad - which is often given that she is a kitten - I oft times call her Natasha, which makes me even more sad that m companion is gone.

I'm sure in time I'll have to face the same things with Charley, but for right now I'm trying to build a bond with her while I still remember Natasha.

Tag: cat

Stats for July

2006-08-02T20:06:00.000-04:00

Well, it has been a tough month and I apologize these are a couple of days late. This past month there were 128 unique visitors: 90 first timers and 38 repeat offenders for an average of 4 visitors a day.

These visitors came from the Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, France, and Japan.

Until next month...

Tags: blog, blogging, blog

Now This Is Kind of Funny

2006-07-17T20:13:00.000-04:00

Okay, more on Natasha and finally coming home tomorrow - can't really get myself to write anything right now.

But hey, I found this on the side of Dale Kirby's blog, Cove Blogger.

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Peaceful Spear of Mindful Forgiveness.

What's yours?

Tags: blog, blogging, blogs

She's Sleeping With The Angels

2006-07-14T22:58:00.000-04:00

These guys must be suckers for punishment, they keep coming back.
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

I can't recall the first time I heard that saying, but I know that I was a young child when I did. For whatever reason, I always found that a comforting notion.

I'll be honest and say that I have never really lost anyone that close to me. I had two great grandmothers who passed away when I was a single-digit age. I did lose a great uncle who I was very close to, but he went both fast and unexpectedly in a car accident. Natasha was even the first pet that I lost.

Last night I stayed up with her for most of the night, just watching her, talking to her, spending time with her until shortly after 3:00am. I was up again at 6:20am to spend her last few hours with her.

The actual visit to the vet was odd. I carried her inside in my arms, we laid her on one of her blankets and talked with the vet for a few minutes. He took her back to put in an IV-type thing and brought her back out to us. We got to spend as much time as we wanted with her, which wasn't that long as it turned out. I guess after spending so much time together the night before, I had said most of my good-byes and within a few minutes gave the vet the go ahead.

It only took about thirty seconds or so, she appeared to be asleep and then the vet said that she was gone. Out of the whole process over the past few weeks, that was the most difficult. A copleof things about it really bothered me (and kind fo continue to haunt me). The first was that one of her eyes didn't close, which bothered me because I thought that her eyes would be closed.

The other thing that bothered me was just looking at her after she was gone. We didn't stay that long afterwards, the vet told us we could stay as long as we wanted, but we were only there for three or four minutes. As I rubbed her head and down her back, kissed her on top of the head, I finally understood the term "lifeless body." I've seen people who have died in the past, I've seen dead animals too... But in looing at Natasha after she was gone, it really was a lifeless body.

Natasha was an active cat (see you can see from the picture). That particular at toy got a lot of work, as she would play with it for ten and fifteen minutes at a time, four to six times a day - in many instances so aggressively that she'd knock the entire thing over. We had this laserpointer that she would chase the red spot around the floor, even up the walls. Every Christmas morning she would spend the morning, sometimes the entire day, attacking and chewing up all of the Christmas wrapping - for that matter she'd do the same thing every time I'd ball up a piece of paper and throw it towards the trash basket and miss (and in a Ph.D. program, that's where a lot of my writing ends up).

In addition to her energy, she was also a very loyal cat. I've talked about how it was just Natasha and me for such a long period of time, and that seemed to cntinue to be an attachment with her, even after Lisa came around. If she was sitting up on the top of her chair (which was also know as our rocker which we haven't sat in for pretty much the last two and a half years). and I came into the living room and sat on the floor to watch television, she would get up and come over and sit next to me so I could scratch her head or her belly. If she was sitting next to Lisa while she was scratching her under the chin, if I got up and left to go to another room, she would leave Lisa and follow me into the next room and settle down where ever I was.

During the course of the day after it happened, we tried to keep busy. We actually left town altogether to try and keep our (mainly my) mind occupied. It has been good actually, when I have been seeing things, watching things, or visiting things - even doing work, reading, and watching television - it has only been in the back of my mind. When I stop, I tend to get lost in my thought about her and that is when I don't do so well. During one of the times that I wasn't doing so well, one of the things Lisa said to me did resonate with me. She told me that "Natasha had lived as good a life and that I had treated her better than some people treat their children." For whatever reason, that made me feel a little better.

One of the things that my wife gave me was a copy of this poem that someone at work gave her for me. It appears to be a common one when you Google losing a pet. It reads:

Rainbow Bridge

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Regardless if it is the rainbow bridge or when it is finally my time to be sleeping with the angels (hopefully not for quite some time yet), I do hope to see my little friend again.

Tags: cat, Flickr

Our Last Day

2006-07-13T07:48:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

Well, today is our last day together. Right now Natasha is walking around the top of my desk as I type this. I don't normally let her jump up here, as my transcriber is there and she likes to chew on the headphone wire, but today I just move it somewhere else. Today she can do whatever she wants.

Over the past few days you can tell that her breathing is probably more difficult.. Her belly moves more with each breath and when she is lying on her back you can hold your ear to her belly and actually hear the fact that she is probably struggling a little.

On the outside, minus the more pronouced physical action of her belly when she breaths, you wou;dn't know she was sick. The things that the vet said would indicate that she had moved from mild discomfort to pain, stress, and even panic (i.e., coughing and not being able to catch her breath, making a sound whe she breaths, and open mouth breathing) still haven't occurred. But I know that it is time.

She still isn't eating a lot, even though we are still able to get her to take her steriods, which are supposed to help her appetite. It is a challenge to make sure that she is getting what I think is enough food and water. I'm glad that the wet food that she does eat always has lots of sauce or gravy in it, as it is the water that I have been most concerned about.

Not sure how the day will unfold for me, thus far I haven't been the pillar of strength (and I've only been away for about 90 minutes). I'm kind of glad that it is just the two of us for most of the day, as Lisa is working again today. I have a couple of afternoon meetings myself, which will take me away from her for about two and a half hours, but other than that it is just me and her one last time.

Tags: cat, Flickr

D-Day Looms for Natasha

2006-07-12T16:55:00.000-04:00

Wake me up when you've got something for me!
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

Well, we decided earlier this week (actually shortly after I posted Eight Days In ) that Friday morning was time. We have our appointment scheduled at the vet's office for 8:00am. So in less than forty-eight hours I wil be losing a companion that I've had for pretty much all of my adult life.

It's been tough, these past two weeks. And the past two days have been kind of odd. Some moments I'm okay with the whole situation, knowing that it really is for the best, then there are other times that I am just a wreck.

The biggest difficulty that I have had during this entire process, right from last August when we found out that it was cancer, that the mass was active, and based on its size that she had about a year, has been guilt. For upwards of a year, maybe more, I was aware of that lump in her belly - I could feel it underneath the skin. At the time I chaulked it up to the fact that she was getting old and it was probably a calcium deposit, like th kind of family dog has gotten (as she's sixteen or so now).

I feel guilty because had I brought her to the vet earlier, had they removed the mass earlier, there would have ben less of a chance that cancer cells could have spread into her body. A mass of less than 2cm means an expected lifespan of two to five years. A size of 2cm to 5cm means about a year and more than 5 cm indicates six months or less. Natasha's was in that middle category.

What if I had brought her earlier and they had caught it sooner. Two years wouldn't be up yet, five years would still be a long time away. For a cat her age it may have even taken us the course of her natural life.

But I guess it is too late for "what if"s at this stage. I have about forty hours left with my kitty (as they'd say down here in the south). I'd like to spend it with her lying on my chest and me scratching her head the entire time - but alas life will get in the way: the need to sleep, a couple of meetings at the university tomorrow, plus there is always the fact that Natasha has always been cuddly only on her terms (i.e., when she is in the mood).

To watch us over the past few days it would have been kind of funny to an outsider. I've been doing a lot of work on my laptop in our home office. I'd start the morning in the cushy, comfortable chairand she'd start the day lying on the floor. Before too long she'd jump up on a second metal chair in the office, with only a half or quarter inch of foam for support. The first time I'd leave the office, she'd jump down out of her chair and up into mine - the cush, comfortable one. When I'd return, knowing the fate that awaits her, I haven't had the heart to push her out of the comfy chair so here I sit on the hard metal one. :)

A little something to make me smile in a week that hasn't seen many of them...

Tags: cat, Flickr

Eight Days In

2006-07-08T12:17:00.000-04:00

Where Did I Leave that Article?
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

Well, that "days, maybe a week or two" that I told you about in How Do You Say Good-Bye? continues. We are now on day eight.

Thus far Natasha's appetite and her behavior have remained fairly consistent, minus of course Lisa's troubles outlined in Natasha- the superior being!

I know that I've spent most of te past week by her side, with the exception of Monday and Wednesday when I had to go into the university for a few hours and then the fourth of July, when I was gone from about 1:30pm to 9:30pm. I've either just sat and watched TV, read a little, or spent time on the computer - but regardless Natasha always seems to be less than five feet from me, and in most instances close enough to be in contact with me.

I know that this can't last much longer, and I still have no intention of letting her suffer. The vet told us last Friday that based on her chest x-ray, she was in a little discomfort (he likened it to the kind of chest discomfort we would feel if we had a really bad flu). In the vet's office, he got her to cough and then she started breathing with this raspy sound - distressed breathing he called it (probably due to both her condition and the stress of being at the vet). I've been listening for that all week long. She has only coughed three times while I have been here and awake (which has been much more time than I would normally have been). The first time was on Monday for 30-40 seconds and then she had distressed breathing for about two or three minutes. The second time was on Thursday for about 20 seconds, but she was fine afterwards. The third time was Friday for less than 10 seconds and, again, she was fine afterwards.

Lisa and I had talked about Monday being the day, but we've since pushed that back again... Tentatively to Friday now. In my own mind, I had concluded that when her breathing became regularly distressed or when her coughing was happening frequently, we'd call to make the appointment for the next morning (that way I'd get to spend one last night with her). Not being a vet, I don't know if that's selfish of me, but based on what I understand of what we've been told, those are the two signs at this stage that the fluid in her lungs from the cancer has become painful for her or that she has simply become too stressed about the situation. As I don't want to put her through that, those were my own warning signs (along with the normal ones: refusing to eat, going into secluded places and not coming out, etc.). But I can't seem to justify to myself picking a firm date until I see those signs, because I do want to spend as much time as possible with her.

Tags: cat, Flickr

Natasha - Flickr Photo Set

2006-07-03T08:30:00.000-04:00

What are you looking at? Ya I'm a Habs fan, you got something to say about it?
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

Shortly after writing How Do You Say Good-Bye?, I created a photo album in my Facebook account with various pictures of Natasha which I tried to write humourous captions for as a way to try and deal with the situation.

This morning duplicated that album as a photo set in my flickr account - see My Cat, Natasha. I hope that you enjoy.

Tags: cat, Flickr

Statistics for June

2006-07-02T23:06:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in my previous post (see How Do You Say Good-Bye?) this has been a tough time for me, so the stats this month will be fairly bare bones...

There were 14 unique visitors: 13 first timers and 1 repeat offender.

These visitors came from the United States, Canada, France, Brazil, India, Germany, Portugal, and Argentina.

Until next month when hopefully much of this will be past me.

Tags: blog, blogging, blog

How Do You Say Good-Bye?

2006-06-30T21:39:00.000-04:00

Helping Me With My Filing
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

Some time ago I introduced you to my cat, Natasha (see Under the (not so) watchful eye of Natasha). Well, I guess sme time has past since I first posted that entry back in July of last year.

You see at the time Natasha had a lump in her belly. I had put off getting it looked at for some time, thinking it was just a sign of age (as she was somewhere between eleven and fourteen years old). When I finally took her in last August and they checked on the mass we discovered that it was cancer. The vet removed the tumour, but it was an active mass and based on its size they gave her about a year.

That took me back a bit, but after a week or so she had returned to normal and I simply thouight that maybe she could beat the odds. Five months later another mass appeared. After consulting with the vet agin, we decided against an aggressive treatment of radition and chemo - as she was an older cat anyway and I felt that this was simply needless torture at this stage in her life. We began a treatment of a igh dose of steriods to keep her appetite intact, to keep her joints loose, and as a way to fight the cancer. For the next three months things went well, there was very little spread of the mass and only trace signs of additional masses, so it was recommended that we reduce her steriod dosage to once daily - which was good for us, as we were leaving (my first then two weeks later Lisa joined me) and we would need someone to come in and check on Natasha only daily now (instead of twice daily).

Well, when we returned two and a half weeks later the masses hd spread significantly. A month later we began to notice some changes in her appetite and her behavior, which brought us back to the vet today. After x-rays it appears that the cancer has spread to her lungs and we were told that whileshe is not in pain, there is some discomfort and we have days, maybe a week or two left with her.

For the first year and a half that I had Natasha, it was just me and her. I as living in Hull (just outside Ottawa). I only had her for a few months when I quite a good job in the Senate to move to British Columbia to run a friend's campaign. When that ended aburptly, I was unable to get back into politics at the level that I had left and spent about six weeks without a job and then another seven months in a private sector job that I did like much. During that entire time it was just me and my cat, and for the most part no one else.

After I moved back to Newfoundland I got my teaching degree one year and spent the next substitute teaching. It was at this point that I moved to Bonavista to take a teaching position there. While I had met Lisa at this stage and she would come out one out of every four to six weekends for the first year or two (which increased to once every four weekends by the third year and once every second weekend by the fourth year), again for the most part it was Natasha and I.

I can still remember coming home from school at the end of the day and she would be sitting on the back of the couch, watching the door waiting for me. I'd say "Hi girl" and she'd meow. I'd ask her how her day was and she'd meow. We'd probably keep this up for two or three minutes. If I'd lie down on the couch after supper and fall asleep watching the news, which was a regular occurance, I'd wake up with Natasha curled up in the small of my back more often than not. When I went to bed, she'd start off each night up nea my arm and would end up down by my feet by the time I woke up.

And after today, I have an unofficial cut off date in mind when if she hasn't gotten worse b this date, we'll visit the vet one last time. I know this may sound selfish, and I do know that it is best and I have no intention of letting her suffer - she simply deserves that from me for the companionship that she has given to me over the years - but I still struggle thinking about the next week or so. Knowing that for the first few days, I have writing commitments and classes and can't simply sit and scratch her head and rub her back - I just don't know what to make of it all. As you can probably tell, this is the first real pet that I will have lost. Sitting here, searching for a way to end this entry, I had hoped that writing this would help the process - not really sure if it has or not.

Tags: cat, Flickr

The New NHL

2006-06-19T23:04:00.000-04:00

Well, it appears that my predictions were wrong (see Finals Fun and Game Seven). Carolina managed to hold on and win the cup. Kind of funny that a team that wouldn't have made it out of the first round had they not taken out the best player on the other team with an uncalled penalty. Come to think of it, a similar thing happened in round two. And to think about it a little more, didn't Carolina crashing the net (as they have done all play-offs without being called) took Edmonton's number one goalie out of the series - and won the first game for Carolina.

In any regard, the first full season of the "new" NHL is now in the books. As a life long hockey fan, I have to be honest and say that the changes that the league has made to make the game more exciting for the non-traditional American auidence has really ruined the game. And the officiating is the orst that I have seen in years. I found it somewhat funny that on NBC, the American broadcast of the game, the showed the last penalty that was called on Edmonton during the first period. Then they showed three hits where gloves, sticks, and elbows were up that Carolina made - none of which got called. I'm normally not a conspiracy kind of guy, but watching both the semi-finals in the west and the finals, it really seemed like the referees were trying to decide games to ensure an all-American final and then, when that didn't work, an Amercian cup winner.

Needless to say the best hockey I saw all year long was while I was back in Canada collecting data for my dissertation and was able to watch the entire Memorial Cup (Canadian junior hockey). At least the league hasn't been able to get its flithy hands on that and ruin it in the name of appeasing an American audience who would rather watch grass grow than hockey (I mean the finals games on NBC for the Saturday games were the least watched programs on any of the networks).

In the future, I think I'll stick to junior, minor league, and youth hockey - because the NHL is no longer the game it once was.

Tags: hockey, Stanley Cup, NHL

Game Seven

2006-06-19T19:47:00.000-04:00

Okay, just a quick note in between transcribing and watching game seven of the Stanley Cup finals. I note that there are a few others who are finals blogging like myself (see Virtual Game One from EDITing in the Dark and Finals Blogging! from Lawyers, Guns and Money).

While I still stick by my prediction that Edmonton will come out on top, I have to be honest and say that tonight will be a close game and whoever scores first will probably win the game. It will be a tight one, kind of like game one was, kind of like game five was as well.

I'm going to say that the Oilers will win 4 to 2, which includes an empty net goal.

Tags: hockey, Stanley Cup, NHL

Is Ya Happy?

2006-06-07T22:32:00.000-04:00

Well, I was in my Bloglines tonight and saw an entry from Cognitive Daily entitled Test your happiness. Apparently the BBC have some little quiz on their website, to test how happy you are.

It seems that I am...

Satisfied

People who score in this range like their lives and feel that things are going well. Of course your life is not perfect, but you feel that things are mostly good. Furthermore, just because you are satisfied does not mean you are complacent. In fact, growth and challenge might be part of the reason you are satisfied. For most people in this high-scoring range, life is enjoyable, and the major domains of life are going well - work or school, family, friends, leisure, and personal development. You can draw motivation from those areas of your life that you are dissatisfied with.

Who would have thunk it...

Tags: blog, blogging, blog

Finals Fun

2006-06-05T17:48:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I was correct in both predictions for the semi-finals - although I was one game too many in the Edmonton series and one game short in the Carolina series (see "The time has come," the Walrus said...). So, and then there were two...

Okay, I know that this may seem like the home town pick, being a Canadian and all,but I'm going with Edmonton in six. There are a couple of reasons for this.

Goaltending - while both Ward and Roulston are playing well, Ward got lite up and chased in the Buffalo series, plus at this time of the season you have to go with experience over youth.
Defense - While Carolina has a bunch of unsung heros on the point, Edmonton has Chris Pronger - need I say more. To quote Edmonton's coach, "Pronger is a horse, he comes to the bench, we give him some hay and an apple and send him out again."
Offense - I'll have to give the nod to Carolina on this one, but only a slight nod. They do have more talented forwards that have produced more throughout the year for them than Edmonton does. But Edmonton's group of nobodies has proven themselves against some high powered offenses thus far, and veterans like Peca have really stepped their game up when needed. Plus Pronger is the only defense in the top twenty scoring in the league this year.

But overall, like I said about Edmonton in the last series, regardless of how the series have gone in the past Edmonton has found a way to win.

Tags: hockey, Stanley Cup, NHL

Statistics for May

2006-05-31T16:20:00.000-04:00

This past month there were 27 unique visitors to this blog - 19 first timers and 8 repeat offender.

My peak days were 10 May ad 27 May. Anyway, given the spike in the dates (and my Statcounter), one would guess that they came to see the entries on:

Well, these 27 people came from the United States, Canada, Spain, France, Brazil, India, Germany, and Portugal.

Until next month...

Tags: blog, blogging, blog

To Those Misinformed Seal Hunt Crusaders

2006-05-26T13:07:00.000-04:00

Okay, I think by now that most of you know that I'm a Newfoundlander. This post is to the Paul McCartneys, Pam Andersons, and even David Pollards (see An Apology for Canada's Treatment of Animals and later at the bottom of The Weather Makers for his pot shots at this industry).

I'll admit that I haven't read much in the blogsphere on this topic, as it boils my blood so much to read those who are so "oh holier than thou" in their attitude towards an industry that they know little about, only what gets fed to them by the money-making US lobbies. I also throw into this mix those who are selective about which industries that they'll turn their nose up to - which is largely directed at the likes of Paul and Pam (I mean what is the point to hug a cute and cuddly sea pup when they are already protected, expect that peole wouldn't give money to crooks such as the Humaine Society of the United States without that photo op - hugging the seals that are actually part of the hunt just isn't as eye-catching - and let's face it, for these people it is all about the benjamins).

In any regard, one did manage to show up in my Bloglines (other than the ramblings of David Pollard - who I would say falls into the descriptions provided in the previous paragraph). It was titled The Seal Hunt and was posted at eGram@sd40.bc.ca. In a sea of mindless ranting, I think this was one of the first posts that I have seen that makes sense to me.

The author, Randolph Decker, is a Newfoundlander like me. And while he isn't a supporter of the sea fishery (I guess I should have included the disclaimer that I favour a sustainable hunt - and the hunt at current levels is not only sustainable, but has actually allowed the sea herd to grow to the point that it is affecting other species), he asks a basic question - why seals?

When you look at how other animals that we consume on the dinner table, throw over our bodies as a part of a garmet, or use as a source of energy, why single out seals? Where is Pam Anderson to hug the sheep, cows, chickens, etc. of the world that are being raised simply to be killed? Why isn't Paul McCartney bringing dozens of reporters to the slaughter houses in his home country? Why isn't Dave Pollard lamenting about the animals that are force feed, simply to become dinner on our table?

Maybe all of these are animals that we raise for food, but seal is wildlife. I can accept that, if that is the logic. Then why isn't Pam out hugging little rabbits, which are hung in snares or shot as they go about their merry ways? Why isn't Paul bringing his media out to the rivers to save all those helpless trout and salmon? Why is Dave lamenting about the birds, moose, caribou, deer, elk, etc. that are shot for food or in some cases just sport by hunters (including the US VP - I mean come on Dave, an environment lament that allows you to be anti-American at the same time, why aren't you jumping all over this one)?

The answer - seals sell! What these groups and individuals fail to tell you is that seal harvesters use more of the animal than almost any other hunt or commercial slaughter. What these groups and individuals fail to tell you is that the number of seals continues to increase, even with the annual hunt, and continues to affect the health of other fish stocks. What these groups fail to tell you is that those cut animals that they hug and get photographed with are already protected. Like I said, its all about the benjamins for these people!

And Dave, the reason why the hunt was closed due to the seal numbers being down wasn't because the number of seals is decreasing, it was because there was no ice to bring the seals to the locations where the hunt was open (i.e., no seals floating around where they were allowed to be killed).

Tags: seals, Newfoundland

This Is Great!

2006-05-23T12:53:00.000-04:00

I saw this in an entry by NYC Educator and thought it was the funniest thing I have seen in a while (see Thank God for Congress). I never bothered to even read the post, I was just too entertained by the picture.

Tags: blog, blogging, blogs

"The time has come," the Walrus said...

2006-05-18T11:30:00.000-04:00

Well, round two is now in the history books and round three is upon us. After going three for eight in round one (see Lord Stanley's Cup), I went zero for four in round two (And Then There Were Eight). As you may remember, I picked:

(1) Ottawa vs. (4) Buffalo - Ottawa in 6 [Reality - Buffalo in 5]
(2) Carolina vs. (3) New Jersey - New Jersey in 6 [Reality - Carolina in 5]
(5) San Jose vs. (8) Edmonton - San Jose in 6 [Reality - Edmonton in 6]
(6) Anaheim vs. (7) Colorado - Colorado in 5 [Reality - Anaheim in 4]

I don't feel quite as bad, as Michael Berube and Scott Lemieux only went zero for four as well (see Round two NHL playoff predictions: exclusive! must credit michaelberube.com!).

So, let's turn our sights to the semi-finals. I think we are getting to the point where I need to discuss my picks, as opposed to just picking them.

(2) Carolina vs. (4) Buffalo - Okay, I know what you are thinking- I picked both these teams to lose in both round one and round two. But I think I have a feel for both of these teams now and feel confident with this pick. Up until now, I think that both teams have reached this point because of their goaltending. Both teams have young goalieswho have played beyond themselves and their opponents. Whichever of these goalies can keep this upin this series, their team will win. Personally, I think that Cam Ward will be the one who can accomplish this - nothing against Miller, but I just think that Ward has a better supporting cast immediately in front of him (i.e., better defence). Carolina in 6

(6) Anaheim vs. (8) Edmonton - It would be easy, as a Canadian to simply go with the hometown pick and select Edmonton, but it isn't that simple. Anaheim have a hell of a team and a goalie that is peaking at the right time. However, Edmonton has found a way to win leading up to the end of the regular season just to get into the playoffs, in round one against ateam favoured to challenge for the Cup, and in round two after going down two games to none. I can't see how Edmonton won't be able to fight and scratch and claw their way to a victory in this series as well. Edmonton in 6

See you in two weeks to see how I did this time around...

Tags: hockey, Stanley Cup, NHL

Bloglines

2006-05-17T08:27:00.000-04:00

So, I've been trying to get my blog habit in check. While I may not post as often as I would like or as often as I really need to post to ensure that people actually stick around to read this blog (or any of my other blogs for that matter), I do have a blogging habit.

These days that habit seems to be focused upon managing my Bloglines account. I have made a conscious effort to actually clean upmy Bloglines account and start to manage what I track, simply so that I have less to read and that would in theory mean less time spent on reading other's blogs.

I think that I am doing well. I went from a high of well over 250 feeds that produced some 800 to 1000 entries a day, down to just under a 120 feeds now producing about 400 to 600 entries a day.

My goal is to get less than 100 feeds and less than 200 entries. I'd also like to get rid of those 50-odd entries that I have marked as saved, but that will require some blogging on my part as those are all entries that have sparked some kind of though in my head that made me want to file it away to be blogged about another day.

If I meet my goals, I'll let you know, until then I'm off to do more reading than writing again ...

Tags: blog, blogging, blogs

And Then There Were Eight

2006-05-04T08:26:00.000-04:00

Okay, you may recall that two weeks ago I made my first round predictions in Lord Stanley's Cup. And for a guy who didn't see much hockey this year (only one Thrashers' game and maybe another eight to ten games on television all season), I didn't do too bad.

I had predicted:

(1) Detroit v. (8) Edmonton - Detroit in 6 [Reality - Edmonton in 7]
(2) Dallas v. (7) Colorado - Colorado in 6 [Reality - Colorado in 5]
(3) Calgary v. (6) Anaheim - Calgary in 5 [Reality - Anaheim in 7]
(4) Nashville v. (5) San Jose - Nashville in 7 [Reality - San Jose in 5]

(1) Ottawa v. (8) Tampa Bay - Ottawa in 5 [Reality - Ottawa in 5]
(2) Carolina v. (7) Montreal - Montreal in 6 [Reality - Carolina in 6]
(3) New Jersey v. (6) New York - New Jersey in 5 [Reality - New Jersey in 4]
(4) Buffalo v. (5) Philadelphia - Philadelphia in 7 [Reality - Buffalo in 6]

And if you look at it, I got the correct teams in three of the eight series (it would have been four, but as a Habs fan you have to pick them even when you know that they aren't going to win). I still blame it on not seeing enough action all season long, particularly from the western division. [I should note that Michael Bérubé went six for eight in his Cup crazy, part one predictions, thats what happens when you live somewhere like Pennsylvania and get to actually see some hockey - but I'm not bitter!]

In any regard, round two is up and I need to make some predictions here now.

In the East:

(1) Ottawa vs. (4) Buffalo - Ottawa in 6
(2) Carolina vs. (3) New Jersey - New Jersey in 6

In the West:

(5) San Jose vs. (8) Edmonton - San Jose in 6
(6) Anaheim vs. (7) Colorado - Colorado in 5

It is interesting to note that the top four teams in the East made it past their first round series, but the top four teams in the West all lost their series.

In any regard, we'll see in another two weeks how I did.

Tags: hockey, Stanley Cup, NHL

Settling A Debate

2006-05-03T07:32:00.000-04:00

Gum
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

Okay, while unconventional, I am looking to settle an on-going debate that I am having with my wife. When you buy a pack of gum that comes in one of those packages where you pop the piece of gum out of the tray, it has a half circle cut into one end of the box (kind of like what you see in the picture to the right).

My question for you... Is that hole to push the tray out the opposite end or is it there so you can pull the tray out towards you?

This is high drama here folks, as I'm looking to be right on this and I need everyone's confirmation.

Tags: gum, debate

Statistics for April

2006-04-30T09:26:00.000-04:00

Well, last tie I did this - back at the end of February - I remarked that "I actually have a readerhip." I guess I did my best to remove that from the equation.

March wasn't a bad month, I made ten entries (although only one in the last two weeks of the month). But April appears to have been the killer, with only four entires (and three of those in the past eight days. So, I had a period of five weeks with only two entries. And I wonder where my readerhip went.

Anyway, this past month there were 25 unique visitors to this blog - 18 first timers and 7 repeat offender (Lisa - yopu appear to have some friends joining you!).

My peak days were 23 April and 25 April, but there were also seventeen of the last thirty day that no one visited (can you blame they with that little content). Anyway, given the spike in the dates, one would guess that they came to see the entries on San Francisco and Lord Stanley's Cup. Although my Statcounter tells me my most popular page has been Are You A Mink?.

Oh well, these 25 people came from the United States, Canada, Spain, France, Brazil, Barbados, and Norway.

Until next month...

Tags: blog, blogging, blogs

Now That's Something

2006-04-28T20:07:00.000-04:00

Okay, I flew back to Newfoundland on Thursday (yesterday actually). It was a pond jumper flight - Atlanta to Toronto, then Toronto to Halifax, and finally Halifax to St. John's. I got up at 2:45am and didn't arrive until 8:00pm.

Sunrise from an Airplane
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

Anyway, on my 6:00am flight from Atlanta to Toronto I saw what I think is one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. While I slept for most of the flight, about half way through I opened up my window shade and looked out the window, only to see the sun start to rise over the tops of the clouds we were flying over.

Now I'll be honest, when I packed Wednesday night I decided not to pack my still or digital camera - as I didn't think I'd be needed them. Lisa will bring those up when she comes up in two weeks time. I found this picture at the Letters of Marque, but the shot would have kind of looked like this.

Clouds from an Airplane
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

With the exception that it would have been on top of a layer of clouds that looked like this (and this one I found at the 4th Grade Cloud Gallery 2005 from Mrs. Brezna's class at St. James Catholic School in Falls Church, Virginia).

It made quite the impression on me and I regretted not having a camera then, even more than I did when Lisa and I forgot to bring them to San Francisco (see San Francisco).

Anyway, I am back in Newfoundland now as I get ready to spend a month in an small all grade school doing observations for my dissertation data collection. So between actual data collection updates at Breaking into the Academy, along with pictures and other random thoughts that I have about being home (and being able to watch hockey regularly) again that I post here, stayed tuned for more...

Tags: clouds, sunrise, Flickr

San Francisco

2006-04-25T18:13:00.001-04:00

Me at the Japanese Tea Garden
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

Okay, so here is the much promised and long awaited entry on our trip to San Francisco. I actually had to go to San Francisco for the annual AERA conference. As Lisa had never been to California and San Francisco had been described to us as one of the more romantic cities in the United States, we arranged it so that she came with me.

It was a nice trip. We arrived a two and a half days before the conference started and then stayed until the final day of the conference - so all and all, we got to spend a day over a week there. Which was nice, as Lisa hadn't been able to travel to many conferences with me my first two years down here, but this past year she went to AECT in Orlando with me and now AERA in San Francisco.

It would appear that our initial planning wasn't what it should have been though, as we travelled to California without packing our film camera, our digital still camera, or our digital video camera. We did eventually get them, three days into our trip (thanks to my friend and colleague Peter who swung by our apartment, picked them up, and brought them to San Francisco with him). So for the first three days we relied upon disposable cameras. Unfortunately our packing to return to Athens was as careful as our packing to come to California, as we packed one of the disposal cameras in our luggage (as opposed to our carry-ons) and it got largely expose and ruined by the x-ray machines.

Lisa at the Japanese Tea Garden
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

Minus our camera problems (which as you can see were largely self-inflicted), it was a great trip. Even though there was a great deal of rain before and after our trip, as you can see from this picture it was pretty good while we were there. We did get some rain, but only for one day where is really limited us - the remainder of the time you only had to go inside for a bit and wait it out.

We rented a car and went to the Napa Valley for the day, driving over the Golden Gate bridge (which were inclued in the pictures that we lost). This was one of the highlights of the trip for Lisa (see Napa baby!!), and I'd have to agree-minus the drive back home in which we got caught in traffic on the I-80 as we tried to get to and then over the Bay Bridge. The wine tastings were quite nice, as both of us are trying to learn this new hobby and figure out what everyone is talking about when they actually are tasting these finer wines. Being able to try some vintages that were exclusive to the individual wineries and only available on the premises was kind of cool as well.

Now, I was in California at a conference and I did actually attend some of it - I promise (see the following entries: Discussing AERA, To Conference Or Not To Conference, How Do We Evaluate Virtual School Teachers?, Social Presence in Virtual Schooling, Rural Ed SIG Business Meeting, and Final Thoughts on AERA). So I didn't just do the tourist stuff - although I will be honest and say that it was what I will remember the most about the trip.

Sea Lions
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

I have to be honest though and say one of the coolest things that I saw while we were in San Francisco was the sea lions at Pier 39. They were so playful (well the ones that didn't appear to be asleep) and vocal. I could have literally spent hours watching them.

I forgot to mention, the pictures above are of the two of us in the Japanese Tea Garden, located near the center of Golden Gate Park, in the western portion of San Francisco. It took us a twenty to twenty-five minutes bus ride and then a half hour walk to get there, but I do think it was worth it. Plus it was easier on Lisa and getting to the piers (as there were very few hills in the western part of San Francisco - at least in the park anyway).
Tags: AERA 2006, San Francisco, California, Flickr

Lord Stanley's Cup

2006-04-23T16:55:00.000-04:00

Okay, I know the next entry in this blog should have been about my recent trip to San Francisco and pictures are coming, I promise. In the meantime, another topic I am behind on is my Stanley Cup playoff predictions.

I have to be honest and say that living here in Georgia, I am missing my hockey. This year we got a game or two a week on the Outdoor Life Network (and ironically the one game a year that is actually played outdoors was not one of them) and then Turner South plays some Thrasher games (usually once a week or so).

But now, between NBC and OLN I have hockey overload. Four games in the past two days. It is the season.

Anyway, inspired by Michael Bérubé's "Web" "Log" entry on Cup crazy, part one and with the advantage of all of the first games being played, let me wade into this for a minute (although I won't be as detailed as the entry referenced, largely because I haven't had enough hockey available to me this year to have such insight as Michael Bérubé provides).

In the West:

(1) Detroit v. (8) Edmonton - Detroit in 6
(2) Dallas v. (7) Colorado - Colorado in 6
(3) Calgary v. (6) Anaheim - Calgary in 5
(4) Nashville v. (5) San Jose - Nashville in 7

In the East:

(1) Ottawa v. (8) Tampa Bay - Ottawa in 5
(2) Carolina v. (7) Montreal - Montreal in 6
(3) New Jersey v. (6) New York - New Jersey in 5
(4) Buffalo v. (5) Philadelphia - Philadelphia in 7

I'll have more to say about the playoffs as they continue - particularly with more access down here and spending 27 April to 29 May in Canada. Until then, we'll see how these picks do.

Tags: hockey, Montreal Canadiens, NHL

My Blog Owns Me

2006-04-04T17:40:00.000-04:00

I got this from Playing School, Irreverently in her entry about a fifth. eh. ok. And since I have more than one blog and all of them factored into the responses for this quiz, I figured it should be posted to all of them.

25 %

My weblog owns 25 % of me.
Does your weblog own you?

Blogger Photos and Flickr

2006-03-31T19:52:00.000-05:00

Well, I realize that it hs taken me long enough to do this, but the last three entries were supposed to have pictures in them. I tried to insert the pictures using the image uploader that is built into Blogger, but that didn't work too well so I am going to re-save all of the entries again (well, it is only these last three) after uploading the images that I wanted to use to Flickr and doing it the old fashion way.

Not sure if the problems with the image uploader in Blogger were an isolated thing or not, but it has convinced me to continue to use Flickr nonetheless.

Tags: Flickr, Blogger, blog, blogging, blogs

The Beach

2006-03-16T16:23:00.000-05:00

The Beach
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

Well, today is our second last day at the beach. We (Lisa and I) have been down here in St. Augustine for the week with my parents, who are down visiting for two weeks (a half week on either side of our week in Florida). It has been nice and relaxing, spending time our lying down and reading at the beach or pool, walking up and down the beach with Lisa or the old man, swimming in the pool, and just generally touristing.

We spent yesterday in St. Augustine itself, we went and climbed the lighthouse, walked around the old Spanish fort and the downtown, saw the oldest wooden schoolhouse in the United States, and again just generally relaxed.

Lighthouse
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

A week without Internet access has been interesting as well. I am finding that I am disconnected with things, like I can't check my e-mail every ten-fiften minutes (which I'm sure is hindering my dissertation student journal collection), chat on IM, check the hockey scores or the news back home in Newfoundland - I feel so uninformed. But it has bee a great way to really relax too, as I haven't had to get things done. I haven't had to respond to e-mail or send out things, spend hours of my day just reading things online.

I say it has been nice and relaxing now, but I'm sure that when I return to the 500-700 messages in my inbox (as I get 75-100 daily) I will be singing a different tune. But for now, it is good.

In any regard, the plan for Saturday is an early departure for the six plus hour drive home. I think we'll also try and stop at some of the Atlantic islands in southern Georgia - just to see them and such, maybe scout them out for a future visit (a possible anniversary trip at the end of June - although we are aso talking about Miami and the Keys, along with a return to Gatlinburg, or a possible trip to Phoenix or Las Vegas).

Tags: spring break, St. Augustine, Florida, Flickr

The Habs, Or More Appropriately the Hab Nots

2006-03-16T09:47:00.000-05:00

Montreal Canadiens logo
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

So, I've had the opportunity to see like three hockey games since I have been on vacation. I've seen them on television, as opposed to in the rink, but I've seen them nonetheless. The coverage of the Tampa Bay Lighting seems to be much better than that of the Atlanta Thrashers. Granted, if Atlanta were the defending Stanley Cup Champions, I imagine interest and fan based for them would be much greater, which would result in more coverage.

Anyway, as many of you know I'm a Montreal Canadiens fan. The first game I watched this week, I got some of the highlights of Montreal (also called the Habs) beating the New York Rangers and moving into seventh place in the Eastern Conference ahead of Tampa Bay by one point. Two nights later they played Tampa in Montreal.

What a horrible game - at least for a Habs fan! I mean I have coached atom teams and female teams that could have played a better game. Talk about flat, with no jump in their step, no hunger for the puck! And some of the players, how the brass for the Habs can even believe that Kovalev is worth the millions that they are paying him, I have no idea. Yes he does score some goals, usually in spurts (and when he isn't out hurt)- but he is the biggest floater on the ice, can't play defense at all and turns the puck over to the other team one out of every three times he touches the puck (usually when he is the last man back or right at his own blue line).

With the trading deadline passed, we are stuck with him for the remainder of the season. I don't see why the Habs didn't use his goal scoring ability, and the fact that he finally isn't injured, and ty and go out and get a solid defensemen or a moe consistent goal scorer. But the Habs lost to Tampa Bay and that means that they slide back into the last playoff spot in the East, one point behind Tampa Bay again.

Tags: hockey, Montreal Canadiens, Flickr

Oh Canada

2006-03-13T16:36:00.000-05:00

World Baseball Classic logo
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

Well, while neither the Canadians or the Americans could do much with the ice hockey during the Olympics, it does appear that Canada can best the Americans in their own arena. Last week during the World Baseball Classic, Canada took an 8 to nothing lead into the top of the fifth inning.

Unfortunately I had to stop watching at that point, as I had to drive into Atlanta to pick up my parents for their two week visit. In any regard, Canada did hold out and take the Americans 8 to 6. Imagine, a bunch of "has been"s and "never will be"s from Canada beating the Americans at their own national past time... I guess this is payback for the Canadian loss to the United States in the World Junior Hockey Championships three or four years ago (a tournament that Canada has really dominated over the years - including being on a three year winning streak coming into this December).

The best thing of the whole event was the Canadian pitcher that completed the first four innings (and I'm not sure how long he lasted after that). This kid had been playing single A ball last year and his pro club (i.e., Baltimore) had slated him to pitch in AA this year, yet for four innings he was able to take the best hitters from the United States and keep them to three hits and only one base on balls. Talk about the game of a lifetime for this kid.

Granted, because of an American victory later in the tournament, the Canadians didn't get out of pool play, so no crossover action for them. But, as I said before, beating the United States at their own national past time, that's something worth tipping your hats to them for.

Tags: World Baseball Classic, Team Canada, Flickr

Blogging on Vacation

2006-03-12T22:07:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm a week without Internet access. Which is kind of frustrating, as there are a number of wireless networks in range, but they are either not strong enough for me to stay connected to the web for more than a few seconds at a time or are password protected.

So, I have taken to blogging in Notepad - which I will post when I return with the date and time signature indicating when it was originally written. This will probably mean that I post numerous entries at the same time, but that's okay as well.

Hopefully San Francisco has been access when we travel in April for AERA.

Tags: blog, blogging, blogs

Going On Break

2006-03-10T11:16:00.000-05:00

Please note that I will not have Internet access for the next seven days, starting tomorrow. So there will be no updates to this space for at least seven days after today.

Tags: blog, blogging, blogs

How Would You Describe Me?

2006-03-10T08:58:00.000-05:00

I got this one from my wife (see Tell me about myself!!! at Lisa's Blog)

All you have to do is follow the link below and click five or six (and ONLY five or six) of the words that you feel best describes me:

http://kevan.org/johari?name=MichaelKBarbour

Let's see what we come up with....

Are You A Mink?

2006-03-08T07:27:00.000-05:00

So, I'm watching the last ten minutes of American Idol last night. I don't normally watch the show, with the exception of the first few episodes because I love to watch the train wrecks that audition. But my wife watches the show and I had finished up my work for the evening and went out to join her.

If you want a run down of what actually happened in the show, you should check out Ann Althouse's review of "American Idol" -- the last 8 women. But anyway, the last singer was this cute little thing Kellie Pickler - from her little video montage she appears to be this sweet little country girl who loves her dog and comes across as your typical playful, yet dumb blonde. Well, at the end of her performance, Simon tells her "Kellie, you're what's known as a naughty little minx," and later "I kind of prefer you to last year's winner." She confusingly asks Simon, or anyone else who would answer, "What's a minx?" But it gets better, as Seacrest is given Kellie her send off and reminding us of the telephone number for her, as serious as a judge, she yells into the mic "I'm a mink!" Seacrest did correct her, after laughing first, which I think was the reaction of anyone watching it.

Outside of the train wrecks at the beginning of each season, my truly favourite Idol moment... "I'm a mink!"

Tags: minx, Kellie Pickler, Amerian Idol

Countries I Have Visited

2006-03-07T08:48:00.000-05:00

Another one, thanks to Bitch. Ph.D. (see Where I'm from)...

Create your own visited countries map or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Not quite as many or as colourful as my US map (54% of the states as compared to 2% of the countries). Too bad they don't have one for Canada and its provinces.

Tags: travel, maps, countries

States that I Have Visited

2006-03-05T08:41:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Bitch. Ph.D. for this one (see Where I'm from)...

Create your own visited states map or check out these Google Hacks.

Tags: travel, maps, states, United States

Statistics for February

2006-02-28T21:33:00.000-05:00

Wow! I actually have a readership. A small one, but one nonetheless.

This past month there were 19 unique visitors to this blog - 18 first timers and 1 repeat offender (thanks Lisa!).

It appears that most came on 19 February, I guess to see my entry Still No Love From Hard Rock.

Anyway, thes 19 people came from the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Croatia, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Australia, Israel, and Singapore.

Until next month...

Tags: blog, blogging, blogs

Still No Love From Hard Rock

2006-02-19T12:39:00.000-05:00

As a follow-up to my last entry (see Love All, Serve All... But Not All Of The Time), I have heard back from the electronic complaint that I left throughout the Hard Rock Cafe website. In fact I heard back twice, once from the website people to tell me that they had forwarded my message to the general manager of the Gatlinburg location and then from the Assistant General Manager for the Gatlinburg location.

It is interesting, and while I appreciate the fact that I did get a response, I have to be honest and say that I am still left unsatisfied with the complete interaction. Some of the key, but hollow lines that were included in his e-mail included "...I can honestly tell you that the standard is the same weather busy or not." and "The Gatlinburg Cafe works and strives to maintain a very high level of customer service and we take much pride in doing so, that is why it is very disappointing that you had this experience."

I guess the most disappointing thing about the entire experience was the resolution that this AGM of the Hard Rock Cafe decided was necessary:

The management team discussed this lapsed in service and we will use your experience as a focus point to "Coach" not only our Host but to re-focus our Team Members to understand that there commutations may be miss-understood.

Basically, other than an apology and a personal invitation to come back and visit them sometime, they are going to use my experience as a coaching situation for their staff. Quite disappointing, because if all they are looking for are coaching situations, I can sit down and write a dozen or more for them. I guess I was looking for a reason to come back, for example every time we go there to eat we get a chance to fill out a survey that gives us a coupon for $5 on next purchase here. Now $5 on a meal for two that is typically $30-$50 isn't a lot, but it keeps us coming back - or at least has in the past. I'm not so sure about the future now.

I suppose another disappointing thing about the whole situation was that in my response to him, I informed him that at one point, when the song YMCA came on all three individuals that had been manning host/hostess stations left their posts to join in with the dance. This meant that no one was left to watch the front of the restaurant for these three to four minutes. While I doubt the paper with our names was lost at this point (which is what caused our lengthy wait in the first place), as we had been waiting for over forty minutes by the time the song came on, there were three other parties that came into the restaurant while there was no one to greet them. Even though this was sent well over a week ago, I have not received a response at all.

Finally, and I guess this deals with customer service as well... You have an upset, fairly regular customer that you have to contact to address an complaint that he has made. One would think that it would be common courtesy to at least spell check the e-mail first. I mean you would do it if it was a letter being sent out on official letterhead, so why not when it is sent out through an official "@hardrock.com" domain. I doubt that I would find words like "weather" (instead of "whether"), "miss-understood" and "demo strait" aren't things I would expect to find in the writing from my secondary students (when I was teaching in a high school) or my undergraduates now, let alone from an Assistant General Manager sending out an official response to a customer complaint.

Tags: Hard Rock Cafe

Love All, Serve All... But Not All Of The Time

2006-02-11T17:57:00.000-05:00

Well, Lisa and I are here in Gatlinburg for the weekend. My birthday is on Sunday and Valentine's Day is on Tuesday, so we thought we'd head up to the Smoky Mountains for the weekend. Plus Gatlinburg is one of the few places that has a Hard Rock Cafe in the southeast that we didn't have a souvenir glass from yet. Prior to this trip, we had twenty-one of these in our collection.

Anyway, so we decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe this afternoon for lunch. We arrived at 1:30pm and checked in. It was going to be a 30 minute wait for either the first available or a non-smoking table, so we opted for a non-smoking. FIFTY-FIVE minutes later, after at least three couple who had arrived after us had been seated, we noticed a man go up to the front and ask about howmuch longer it would be. When the girl who was working there - who was also the one who checked us in and supposedly wrote down our name - checked her list, she ended up seating him, his wife and their child right away.

So, Lisa gets up and inquires about how much longer it will be for us. From the girl who wrote down our name when we first arrived FIFTY-FIVE minutes earlier, she looks down to her list and we aren't on it at all - which apparently was what happened to the man, his wife and their child before us. So, she seats us right away - in a smoking section right in the line of traffic in and out of the restaurant.

After we sat down, a quick conversation determined that this was just not acceptable and we decided to leave as our server was arriving at our table. We informed her that we had waited 55 minutes after being informed that it would only be thirty minutes, only to be seated at a smoking table when we requested a non-smoking table. This server, who I supposed did now have a full appreciation of everything that had happened to us commented, "Well, maybe you can come back and visit us when we are less busy." So, the customer at the Hard Rock Cafe in Gatlinburg should only expect good service when they aren't busy, and when they are busy what? Anything goes? I'm sorry, this was just not acceptable.

As a side note to this story, after we left the Hard Rock Cafe and went to this place called Legends By Max. The service was great, the food was good, and the atmosphere was lovely.

Addendum - My best line of the trip thus far, as we are leaving Legends By Max I look up at the television in the corner and see a hockey game on. I mention this fact to Lisa, as there was only basketball on the televisions that we could see, and she asks who is playing. After first responding that it was some Olympic game, 90 seconds to two minutes laters, I comment "It is either women's hockey or two European teams, because no one is hitting anyone!"

Tags: Hard Rock Cafe, Legends By Max

Statistics for January

2006-02-01T07:39:00.000-05:00

Well, I haven'treally given you much to read here in the way of content, but there were still 26 unique visitors to this blog over the past month, 25 first time people who stumbled upon me using Blogger's "Next Blog" feature and 1 commited reader. Thi works out to about 1 visitor per day.

Once here, most left in less than five seconds -pretty much all of the "Next Bloggers" I'd imagine - but nine people did stay for 30 seconds to 5 minutes and five people got up and left their computers after finding this blog (cause they were here for more than an hour).

We had people from the United States, Canada, Malaysia, Switzerland, Croatia, the United Kingdom, and Indonesia drop by for a visit. While here, they looked at the following entries the most:

That's all for this month, until next time.

Tags: blog, blogging, blogs

A forward from my Wife

2006-01-18T21:43:00.000-05:00

My wife sent me this and I thought it was pretty funny...

Top 10 Thoughts on the past year.....

Number 10 - Life is sexually transmitted.

Number 9 - Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

Number 8 - Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich.

Number 7 - Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.

Number 6 - Some people are like a Slinky.....not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you shove them down the stairs.

Number 5 - Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

Number 4 - All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

Number 3 - Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut saves you thirty cents?

Number 2 - In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.

AND THE NUMBER 1 THOUGHT FROM 2005:

We know exactly where one cow with mad cow disease is located among the millions and millions of cows in America but we haven't got a clue as to where thousands of illegal immigrants and terrorists are located. Maybe we should put the Department of Agriculture in charge of immigration and Homeland Security.

I couldn't resist...

2006-01-15T17:24:00.000-05:00

When's the last time you heard a blond joke? More importantly, when's the last time you heard a hillarious blonde joke?

What is My Worldview

2006-01-10T08:37:00.000-05:00

Not sure if I have done this one before or not...

You scored as Postmodernist. Postmodernism is the belief in complete open interpretation. You see the universe as a collection of information with varying ways of putting it together. There is no absolute truth for you; even the most hardened facts are open to interpretation. Meaning relies on context and even the language you use to describe things should be subject to analysis.

Existentialist

75%

Postmodernist

75%

Romanticist

69%

Idealist

69%

Materialist

63%

Cultural Creative

56%

Modernist

56%

Fundamentalist

38%

What is Your World View? (updated)
created with QuizFarm.com

A Sad Obit...

2006-01-06T13:39:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine e-mailed this to me (thanks Peter) and I thought it was good enough to post here...

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Mr. Common Sense.

Mr. Sense had been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such value lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm and that life isn't always fair.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not kids, are in charge).

His health began to rapidly deteriorate when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place i.e. Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Mr. Sense declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer aspirin to a student; but, could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Finally, Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense finally gave up the ghost after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot, spilled a bit in her lap and was awarded a huge financial settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust, his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by two stepbrothers; My Rights and Ima Whiner.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

If you still remember him, pass this on; if not, join the majority and do nothing.

Which Classic Leading Man Am I?

2006-01-04T08:32:00.000-05:00

Cary Grant
You scored 16% Tough, 9% Roguish, 33% Friendly, and 42% Charming!

You are the epitome of charm and style, the smooth operator who steals the show with your sophisticated wit, quiet confidence and flirty sense of humor. You are able to catch any woman you want just by flashing that disarming smile, even if you're flashing it at a kindly aunt or engaging child at the time. When you walk into a room, women are instantly intrigued and even the men are impressed, but you're too nice a guy to steal anyone else's girl...unless the guy deserves it. You're stylish, yes, but you can also be a little bit nutty. However, you're primarily seen as dashing, suave and romantic. Your co-stars include Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, and Grace Kelly, stylish women with a sense of fun.

Find out what kind of classic dame you'd make by taking the Classic Dames Test.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 19% on Tough

You scored higher than 22% on Roguish

You scored higher than 60% on Friendly

You scored higher than 81% on Charming

Link: The Classic Leading Man Test written by gidgetgoes on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Statistics for December

2006-01-01T12:12:00.000-05:00

This past month there have been 45 hits to this blog from 36 different people (30 first timers and 6 repeat offenders), for an average of one per day.

Oddly enough, the most popular page is still an entry from August:

What does your name mean?

Followed by:

The majority of visitors came from the United States, followed by Canada, and then the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Switzerland, Croatia, Taiwan, and Indonesia. I did have visitors from all but one of the places I have lived - with visitors from Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, Quebec, and Georgia; but not British Columbia.

The most referred sites, were oddly enough my own - i.e., my personal website, my Blogger profile, and my other blogs; followed by search engines - like MSN, Google, Sympatico/MSN, Yahoo!, and Technorati.

Speaking of my personal website, that had 131 page load from 66 visitors (43 first time people and 23 returning visitors), which I found interesting.

Anyway, until next month...

Thursday Thirteens!

2005-12-29T18:27:00.000-05:00

Seeing how it is the Thursday before New Year's and I stumbled upon this today at The Median Sib.

Thirteen Things for My New Year's Resolutions

Spend more time with my cat.
Write more frequently - particularly when I have nothing to write about.
Lose weight.
Transcribe as sessions becom available.
Exercise more.
Get my ass in gear and finish my filing.
Go back and start naming all of those picture files that Lisa and I have taken over the years.
Finish my dissertation.
Devote some time to completing those iMovies that Lisa and I have taken, as well as the ones I promised my old man.
Cook more often - and try making some different things.
Watch the remaining seasons of West Wing that I've gotten over the past two Christmas seasons.
Figure out how to get my computer accessories working more consistently.
To maintain a regular pace of blogging - although probably not with this holiday frequency.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

The Median Sib

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Which video game character am I?

2005-12-28T23:03:00.000-05:00

I saw this quiz over at iterating toward openness in an entry entitled Which Pre-85 Video Game Character Am I?. I figured since I have an interest in gaming from an educational standpoint (see Back to Gaming Again, Back to gaming, Are computer games a boon or our ruin?, and Gaming in education on my Breaking into the Academy blog), I figured that I at least owed it to myself to figure out which pre-1985 character I was.

I am a Gauntlet Adventurer.

I strive to improve my living conditions by hoarding gold, food, and sometimes keys and potions. I love adventure, fighting, and particularly winning - especially when there's a prize at stake. I occasionally get lost inside buildings and can't find the exit. I need food badly. What Video Game Character Are You?

Personally, I'm not sure who this is, but the sounds of his character seem okay.

Tags: game, games, gaming, high school, higher education, education

Service... And lack thereof...

2005-12-27T04:28:00.000-05:00

Okay, over the past week I have been fortunate enough to experience some great service and unfortunate enough to experience some not so great service....

Starting with the great service, and this was truly great... Back in mid-October I submitted my dissertation IRB to the ethics review people over in the Human Subjects Office here at UGA. Their office has been understaffed for most of the past year or more, which has resulted in the 4-6 week turn around time taking much longer (six and a half months for two of my IRBs from the Spring in fact). As I was hoping to begin my dissertation data collection, I submitted it two months prior to my prospectus defence date, figuring that with previous approval I could simply submit an amendment with the changes made by my committee.

A little over two weeks ago, I met with one of the staffers in the office - to ask a couple of unrelated questions and to unofficially see how my review was coming. In the time that I had submitted it to this visit, another person left their office and my IRB had been left unattended for much of the past six weeks. Anyway, this staffer committed to me that she would have my IRB examined prior to the Christmas break and that she would even wait until after my prospectus meeting (which was occurring three days later) to account for any changes to the study before reviewing it.

Friday, the day before Christmas break, when many of the employees at UGA had started their holidays and many of the rest were looking forward to easy and slower than normal days, this staffer calls me up to let me know that she is in the process of reviewing my IRB. Three to four hours later, I receive the message with the requested changes, so I make those within the hour and send them back to her, waiting for approval when she returns in January. On a day which for most is a fairly relaxed day, this staffer worked extra hard to maintain her commitment to me that she would have my IRB reviewed before the Christmas holidays. That's what I call service. I was so impressed, I felt the need to bring her efforts tothe attention of the Vice-Prsident for Research and Associate Provost, who is the head over her departmental structure. He even wrote me back to say he was happy to hear of such dedication in the people working in his unit.

Now, on the other side of that coin, you may recall that in my entry Trump on Elton I alluded to trouble with my car. You may have read on Lisa's blog that she was involved in a collision of sorts (see Where do I begin?) and we left the car at a body shop when we went to Toronto (two Wednesday's ago). While they weren't supposed to be able to take it in until Monday and normally it would have been finished on Thursday, this guy at Patton Brothers convinced me that if they just had it with no pressure of a deadline, they would be able to get it in and do an hour here and an hour there prior to Monday - basically while they were waiting for parts for other vehicles or waiting for other vehicles to dry and such. By doing this, he expected that my car would be ready for Wednesday when I returned to Athens, Georgia.

So, Tuesday night I'm playing on their website and they have their pretty cool feature that lets you look at pictures of your vehicle as it is being repairs. As I didn't have our service number, I clicked on all 30+ of them and didn't see our vehicle there are all. So, I figured they must be finished - as the numbers were sequential but some were missing. Wednesday rolls around and we are in the airport in Toronto after Lisa renewed her visa and I call up Patton Brothers only to find out that the vehicle won't be ready. I call around to Enterprise, as my insurance deals directly with them and I have loss of use coverage, only to find that they close at six and I won't leave the airport until 5:30pm (and if I use the airport one there is a fee to return it somewhere other than the airport which my insurance doesn't cover).

Out of the goodness of his heart, my buddy who picked us up from the airport let's us use his second vehicle for the next twenty-four hours, as I had been lead to believe that Patton Brothers would still be able to make their original Thursday deadline (as it was supposed to be a four day job). Late Thursday, I get another call from Patton Brothers telling me that it won't be ready today and ay not be ready on Friday (and they close early on Friday for Christmas). The call came so late that I was again too close to the 6:00pm closing time of Enterprise. So, my Christmas angel (otherwise known as my buddy Mark) lets us keep his vehicle another day. Around 9:00am on Friday I get a call telling me that my car will be ready by about 10:30am and I can come by and pick it up anytime after that.

Now they open at 8:00am and I got the call on Thursday about 30-45 minutes before they close. So, in about two hours of working on my car it went from not sure if I'll even get it back before Christmas to it'll be ready in an hour. The funny thing was that Patton Brothers came highly recommended to us by both my insurance company (who had four companies that they recommended) and by Lisa's co-workers. Needless to say that after being jerked around for three days, if we are ever in need of autobody services again or are in a position to recommend a company to others, Patton Brothers will not be on our list.

Merry Christmas

2005-12-25T21:21:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas to everyone out there in the blogsphere... Over the past couple of days I have been reflecting on Christmas traditions - possibly sparked by my wife's post entitled Merry Christmas! on her blog (see Lisa's Blog). Lisa and I have been married for three Christmas' now (and together for many more than that) and I think that we have broght some traditions from each of our own familes and established some of our own.

Since I was a little child, I have always had a tree of my own. When we lived in Buchans (i.e., up to the age of ten) there were small three foot artificial trees in my sister's and my room. When we moved to Corner Brook, I had that small tree put up in the basement (where I eventually moved my room), even in university and in my own place while I was teaching in Bonavista, I always had these small Christmas trees. The reason I bring them up is because they were always decorated with home-made and sentimental (i.e., gift or souvenir) ornaments. The tree that Lisa and I have put up for the past three years is now decorated with home-made and sentimental ornaments. My mother would always play Elvis' Christmas record (yes, record) at Christmas and our first Christmas away from home, we had to go and buy the Elvis Christmas CD to make it seem more like the holidays.

Lisa has always opened up her stocking in bed on Christmas morning before we go o open the gifts under the tree, so now we open our stockings in bed each Christmas morning. Lisa's family always has fish on Christmas Eve and has their Christmas meal at dinner time (as opposed to supper), so this is what we have done for the past three years.

Having said that, we also have some traditions that we have created as well. With just the two of us, we both come up with creative and funny names to put in the "From" field on the tags for the Christmas gifts that we have bought each other, so that not everything under the tree is from each other. For example, this year I got Season 5 of The West Wing from the Governor and a book about football stadiums from across the United States from the university's athletic director. Lisa got a UGA SEC Championship T-shirt from the UGA mascot Hairy Dawg and a Sugar Bowl T-shirt from UGA VI. We also watch It's a Wonderful Life every year at Christmas time.

It is interesting, to see how we have taken te traditions from both of our families, combine those and even come up with some new ones of our own, as a way to make Christmas uniquely our's.

In any regard, a Merry Christmas to everyone...

Trump on Elton

2005-12-22T18:59:00.000-05:00

Well, for those of you that know me already know that Elton John is my favourite performer of all time - so much so that our (Lisa and I) wedding song was Elton's "Your Song." Lisa and I have seen him twice in Atlanta since we have moved down to Georgia two and a half years ago.

Anyway, it appears that Elton has entered into a civil union with his long-time partner (who is a Canadian if I'm not mistaken). The event is such big news that even "the Donald" felt the need to share his well wishes (see Elton John's Wedding) through his blog at The Trump Blog.

Speaking of the Donald, we watched the final episode of his Apprentice while we were in Toronto (BTW, we're back in Athens again now). I was a little disappointed that the guy didn't have the courage, after he was selected the clear winner, to also share some of his glory with the lady who spent over half the show with a set of crutches. Winning apparently went to his head rather quickly (personally I was cheering for the woman anyway).

So, we are back in Athens - still waiting for our car to be fixed up (a topic I'm sure to say more about tomorrow). Until then...

Snow that Fell in Toronto During Our Visit

2005-12-18T09:54:00.001-05:00

Snow that Fell in Toronto During Our Visit
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

Okay, so Lisa and I are current vacationing in Toronto - I guess you could call it a vacation, as we came back to Canada to renew Lisa's visa and are staying with and visiting friends and family.

Having said that, I spent most of Thursday looking at and evaluating rationales for students who have applied for the Social Studies Education program. Then I spent most of Friday meeting with a group involved with a mathematics tutoring organization that a friend of mine is currently the Executive Director for, to see how I could help them with their current evaluation, their grant writing strategies, and their publication potential. I am back with them again on Tuesday afternoon to see this mathematics curriculum and tutoring in action. I may have more to say about that after Tuesday on my academic blog (i.e., Breaking into the Academy).

Snow that Fell in Toronto During Our Visit
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

I have also taken a bunch of other writing with me and I'm not sure how much of what of it I will get to... I guess that will determine how much of a vacation this will be.

In terms of actual vacationing, yesterday, today and tomorrow look like the best opportunities. I spent yesterday (and the previous evening for that matter) visiting with two of my cousins in the area and their children (both about two years old - their children that is).

Today Lisa and I are going down to the Art Gallery of Ontario to see the new Catherine the Great exhibit that is currently there, and probably some of the Group of Seven work as well. Then tomorrow we are going to spend a leisurely day in the downtown before meeting my best friend for supper. So, hopefully this will let me relax a bit.

I should note that the second day that we were here, we had about 20cms of snow fall in a 24 hour period (that's 8 inches for you American readers). Here are a couple of pictures that others took of this newly fallen snow (I hope to get some pictures of it today - and if I do I will post those as well). If you click on each of these two pictures, you'll see where I found them and you can link back to the original photographer's area in Flickr.

Tags: blog, blogging, blogs, photos, Flickr, snow, Toronto

Statistics for November

2005-12-01T23:33:00.000-05:00

Well, another month has come and gone... Got my prospectus submitted, getting ready for a week long trip to Toronto, finishing up my own course and the courses that I am teaching, and not having a lot of time to keep all of my blogs going.

This past month I had 24 unique visitors, breaking it down to 23 first time visitors and 1 return visitor (thanks Lisa). That works out to roughly one person a day (a little bit less than that actually - but I suppose you can't get an average of less than one when you are talking about people).

Popular pages this past month included:

Notice how they are all entries containing those dumb little quizzes, seems no one reads the actual posts about things that I make... :)

Which superhero am I?

2005-11-29T09:16:00.000-05:00

You scored as Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones is an archaeologist/adventurer with an unquenchable love for danger and excitement. He travels the globe in search of historical relics. He loves travel, excitement, and a good archaeological discovery. He hates Nazis and snakes, perhaps to the same degree. He always brings along his trusty whip and fedora. He's tough, cool, and dedicated. He relies on both brains and brawn to get him out of trouble and into it.

James Bond, Agent 007

54%

Batman, the Dark Knight

54%

Indiana Jones

54%

Lara Croft

54%

Maximus

50%

El Zorro

50%

William Wallace

50%

Neo, the "One"

50%

Captain Jack Sparrow

46%

The Amazing Spider-Man

42%

The Terminator

38%

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

Interesting, how I was also tied with Lara Croft and Bond, James Bond...

Which Character Are you?

2005-11-16T07:07:00.000-05:00

Yoda

A venerated sage with vast power and knowledge, you gently guide forces around you while serving as a champion of the light.

Judge me by my size, do you? And well you should not - for my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life greets it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us, and binds us. Luminescent beings are we, not this crude matter! You must feel the Force around you, everywhere.

Yoda is a is a character in the Star Wars universe. More Yoda information is available at the Star Wars Databank.

Statistics for September

2005-10-31T21:59:00.000-05:00

Given that my blog is worh $0, I'm surprised to find that anyone is here. But my statistics counter tells me that I have had 21 unique visitors this past month, 18 who stumbled upon me for the first time and 3 that actually chose to come back.

It appears that they have come from all over, including the United States, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, South Africa, Australia, Taiwan, Switzerland, Germany, Malaysia, and Poland.

Oddly enough, this is what they came to see:

That's all for another month...

Isn't this freaky?

2005-10-30T08:36:00.000-05:00

Natasha
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

As some of you know, I have a cat (see Under the (not so) watchful eye of Natasha). I got her as a stray from the Ottawa-Carleton Humane Society before lI got out of politics and left Ottawa... So that would have been almost nine years ago now.

She is predominantly a Russian Grey, but when you look at her tail (and even her hind quarters), you can see a little tabby in her.

Now, compare my little darling to this one. Freaky, eh?

Four Cities in Nine Days

2005-10-27T07:30:00.000-04:00

Well, nine days ago I left Athens to drive the eight hours to attend the Association for Educational Communications and Technology conference down in Orlando (see my posts at Breaking into the Academy and The Overlay for more details on that one. This conference was the annual meeting of the main professional association for people in instructional technology. I returned home (Athens - number two) from Orlando on Saturday evening.

I woke up at 3:00am on Monday to fly out to Denver for the Virtual School Symposium (see Virtual High School Meanderings for more details). After the two and a half hour flight, and $50 cab ride from the airport to the downtown, I arrived at the conference and began my whirlwind tour of Denver. I say whirlwind tour because I was only actually in Denver for a total of 37 hours. Tuesday at 7:00pm I left Denver and arrived back in Athens at 1:30am Wednesday morning.

I woke up later that morning and got ready to depart for location number four. Around 1:00pm we left to drive up to the north Georgia mountains, destination Amicalola Falls, where I'm in a lodge without Internet access for the next two days. I wonder the wisdom of bringing a bunch of graduate students, identified as leaders in their areas (i.e., busy people), to a place where there is no Internet access so that these busy people can fall further behind. I don't know, maybe I'm the oddball in this group, but being away (even if it is during a recognied break at the university) takes time. It takes time before you leave and it takes time when you return. Having Internet access while you are away does decrease the amount of time that you will need on the other end.

Anyway, off to begin my day...

Talk about a slap in the face

2005-10-23T10:21:00.000-04:00

My blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

Statistics for September

2005-10-01T23:49:00.000-04:00

I can't remember if this is a regular thing that I do on this blog, but since I do it on other blogs, I'll add it here too. Some random statistics for the month of September:

there were 65 unique visitors, including 57 new comers and 8 old timers for an average of 2 per day
these visitors (or the last 100 visitors - which actually stretches back in August sometime) came from
the United States, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Switzerland, Germany, Malaysia, and Poland
most came to the main blog page and stopped
almost just as many checked out the What does your name mean entry
other entries that received some traffic included Will ya look at that, This is my brain's pattern, What type of personality do you have?, Nerd or geek? Me, and Another reason that its great to be a Canadian
most people found this blog by searching for some version of "what does your name mean" or using the "Next Blog" feature in blogger

See you all again at the end of next month for some more fun, interesting and random statistics...

Getting Back to My Roots...

2005-09-30T14:35:00.000-04:00

You are a
Social Liberal
(60% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(20% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Democrat

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

Will ya look at that....

2005-09-22T07:23:00.000-04:00

In 1975 (the year you were born)

Gerald Ford is president of the US

Evacuation of US civilians from Saigon as Communist forces complete takeover of South Vietnam

FBI agents capture Patty Hearst, who is indicted and convicted of bank robbery

Teamster Jimmy Hoffa disappears without a trace

Marines rescue the crew of the American ship the Mayaguez near Vietnam

First Lady Betty Ford says in an interview that she thinks her children have tried marijuana

Natalie Imbruglia, Drew Barrymore, David Beckham, Enrique Iglesias, Angelina Jolie, and Tiger Woods are born

Cincinnati Reds win the World Series

Pittsburgh Steelers win Superbowl IX

Philadelphia Flyers win the Stanley Cup

Production begins on Star Wars

Jaws and The Rocky Horror Picture Show are the top grossing films

Soul Train premieres on television in the United States

"The Way We Were" (performed by Barbara Streisand) wins the Grammy for best song

Saturday Night Live and Wheel of Fortune premiere

What Happened the Year You Were Born?

More cool things for your blog at
Blogthings

Fighting a losing battle

2005-09-18T10:16:00.000-04:00

Okay, I saw this entry come through my Bloglines the other day: The Bird Feeder and the Tragedy of the Commons. And I knew exactly what Dave Pollard is going through, as I am fighting my own losing battle with the squirrels.

New Bird Feeder
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

Okay, so I live in an apartment that has a small wooden patio or balcony. Out there, I have set-up five different bird feeders (including the hummingbird feeder). As you can see, it started as a fairly simple set-up that the birds seem to enjoy.

Brown Headed Nuthatches
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

Not only did the birds enjoy it, but Lisa and I really enjoyed sitting there and watching the birds (particularly when new ones would show up). The hummingbirds seem to be Lisa's favourite, while I kind of like these brown headed nuthatches (as they always seem so busy and in such a rush).

Squirrel
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

My problem is these guys. It didn't take too long before the squirrels started to show up. So, I went out on the web to see what I could find to help me with this problem. It isn't that I don't want to feed the squirrels, its just that they scare away the birds and eat all of their seed.

Hummingbird
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

In my efforts to try and solve this problem I have added the "Squirrel Away" to the seed, which works for a little while, but not too long. I have changed how I built the feeders to try and make getting to the seed more difficult for the squirrels, which again worked for a bit, but they've since figured me out. I've also installed a feeder for squirrels and left squirrel food out there, which they will eat when there is more than one of them there or when all the seed it gone. I have been looking for one of those squirrel baffles, but have had no luck in locating a store that sells them.

I won't say that I have given up completed, because that would mean these rodents with cute, fluffy tails have won. But they have been doing quite well on the battlefield thus far against me... as the score is squirrels 3, Michael 0.

This is my brain's pattern

2005-09-15T07:17:00.000-04:00

Your Brain's Pattern

Structured and organized, you have a knack for thinking clearly.
You are very logical - and you don't let your thoughts get polluted with emotions.
And while your thoughts are pretty serious, they're anything from boring.
It's minds like yours that have built the great cities of the world!

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

Death by Caffeine

2005-09-08T10:24:00.000-04:00

Poision Mug
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

How much of your favorite caffeinated drink would it take to kill you? Take this quick test and find out:

After 247.97 cups of Brewed Imported Tea, you'd be pushing up daisies.

See how much of your own caffeinated poision you would need - http://www.energyfiend.com/death-by-caffeine/.

Something else a little out of character for me

2005-08-26T14:52:00.000-04:00

For those of you that know me, these quizzes that I've posted over the past week or so are a little out of character for me. Well, in keeping those who know me off balance (and now that I've finished my comps), let's try this on for size...

1. First name: Michael
2. Were you named after anyone? Not to the best of my knowledge
3. Do you wish on stars? Not in a long time
4. When did you last cry? I honestly can't remember
5. Do you like your handwriting? Yes, tiny little thing that it is
6. What is your favorite lunch meat? Chicken
7. What is your most embarrassing CD? Probably a New Kids on the Block one I got when I was a teenager
8. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you? Definitely
9. Do you have a journal? Unless you count blogs
10. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Not as much as I used to
11. What are your nicknames? Newfie and professor (hockey school as a kid and teenager), Joey/little Joey (high school), Newfie and Clavin (my undergrad days), canuck (only CVB), Barbs & Barbershop (UGA hockey)
12. Would you bungee jump? Never
13. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Not often
14. Do you think that you are strong? Somewhat
15. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Vanilla
16. Shoe Size? 8 - I think, I'd have to check
17. Red or pink? Red
18. What is your least favorite thing about yourself? Size
19. Who do you miss most? Grandparents - all four of them
20. Do you want everyone you send this to, to send it back? I didn't send it, I'm blogging it
21. What color pants and shoes are you wearing? Red athletic shorts, no shoes
22. What are you listening to right now? Laptop fan
23. Last thing you ate? Sandwich
24. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Red
25. What is the weather like right now? RDF
26. Last person you talked to on the phone? Lisa
27. The first thing you notice about the opposite sex? I plead the fifth
28. Do you like the person who sent this to you? See #20
29. Favorite Drink? Sweet tea
30. Favorite Sport? Hockey
31. Hair Color? Brown/black
32. Eye Color? Brown
33. Do you wear contacts? No, glasses
34. Favorite Food? Fish
35. Last Movie You Watched? Along Came Polly
36. Favorite Day Of The Year? Remembrance Day (Veteran's Day for you Americans)
37. Scary Movies Or Happy Endings? Neither, stupid comedy
38. Summer Or Winter? Winter
39. Hugs OR Kisses? Hugs
40. What Is Your Favorite Dessert? Vanilla ice cream
41. Who Is Most Likely To Respond? See #20
42. Who Is Least Likely To Respond? See #20
43. What Books Are You Reading? Not sure, but it must be a textbook
44. What's On Your Mouse Pad? NET*Working 2002
45. What Did You Watch Last night on TV? Not sure
46. Favorite Smells? Vanilla and strawberry
47. Favorite Sounds? My cat purring
48. Rolling Stones or Beatles? Stones
49. What's the furthest you've been from home? Not sure, either Vancouver, Georgia or France
50. Do you have a special talent? Not that I've discovered
51. What is your ring tone? I don't own a cell phone

One more in honour of my wife

2005-08-22T19:07:00.000-04:00

Imagine, my wife was 40% (which surprised me a little, as I would have guessed more)...

You Are 10% Weird

You're totally, completely normal.
And that's pretty darn weird!

How Weird Are You?

And the last one

2005-08-19T09:22:00.000-04:00

To complete my week of quizzes to simply fill space in my blog while I finalize my comprehensive examinations and get the first week of the Fall semester over with... What is my ideal career?

Given that I've been a professional political organizer, a manager in a multinational corporation, a teacher, and now I'm studying to become a professor, this is really a left turn for me...

Your Career Type: Investigative

You are precise, scientific, and intellectual.
Your talents lie in understanding and solving math and science problems.

You would make an excellent:

Architect - Biologist - Chemist
Dentist - Electrical Technician - Mathematician
Medical Technician - Meteorologist - Pharmacist
Physician - Surveyor - Veterinarian

The worst career options for your are enterprising careers, like lawyer or real estate agent.

What's Your Ideal Career?

Go figure? Wonder if Lisa would put up with another four-five years of school for me to make this a reality? ;)

A nerd or geek, me?

2005-08-17T09:11:00.000-04:00

According to the nerd test, I'm:

38% scored higher (more nerdy), and
62% scored lower (less nerdy).

What does this mean? Your nerdiness is:

Low Ranking Nerd. Definitely a nerd but low on the totem pole of nerds.

In terms of being a geek...

And another one where I don't know why it decides to add this long space!

Your Geek Profile:

Academic Geekiness: Highest

Internet Geekiness: High

Gamer Geekiness: Low

Music Geekiness: Low

SciFi Geekiness: Low

Fashion Geekiness: None

Geekiness in Love: None

General Geekiness: None

Movie Geekiness: None

How Geeky Are You?

Kind of interesting

2005-08-15T09:06:00.000-04:00

This is kind of funny, as normally I'm a meat lover's kind of guy but my wife doesn't really like meat lover's, so this is what we end up getting anyway.

Pepperoni Pizza

Robust and dominant.
When you go for something, you go full force.
You tend to take control of situations easily.
And in return, you get a ton of respect.

What's Your Pizza Personality?

What does your name mean?

2005-08-13T18:31:00.000-04:00

And another couple...

BTW, I have no idea why you have to scroll this far down, I've played with the code and everything and its a mystery to me.

MICHAEL
M	is for	Magical
I	is for	Influential
C	is for	Charming
H	is for	Hip
A	is for	Active
E	is for	Enjoyable
L	is for	Luscious

What Does Your Name Mean?

Who would have thunk it?

2005-08-11T09:03:00.000-04:00

Your Summer Ride is a Jeep

For you, summer is all about having no responsibilities.
You prefer to hang with old friends - and make some new ones.

What's Your Summer Ride?

What type of personality do you have?

2005-08-09T00:30:00.000-04:00

In keeping with the stupid little testing theme...

You are elegant, withdrawn, and brilliant.
Your mind is a weapon, able to solve any puzzle.
You are also great at poking holes in arguments and common beliefs.

For you, comfort and calm are very important.
You tend to thrive on your own and shrug off most affection.
You prefer to protect your emotions and stay strong.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

What kind of blogger are you?

2005-08-06T18:27:00.000-04:00

You Are a Pundit Blogger!

Your blog is smart, insightful, and always a quality read.
Truly appreciated by many, surpassed by only a few.

What kind of blogger are you?

Blog Statistics Since June 16, 2005

2005-08-01T09:18:00.000-04:00

I just realized that I didn't do this at the end of June, so these statistics are for the past six-seven weeks - basically since I created Rock Ruminations.

Anyway, during that time I've had 14 unique visitors - 7 of wich have been first timers and 7 of which have returned more than once.

Everyone who's stopped by has been from Canada or the United States.

People have found out about me from my personal homepage, the Technorati search engine, and Flickr.

The most popular entries since I've started this blog have been:

See you at the end of August with another update on my statistics....

Under the (not so) watchful eye of Natasha

2005-07-29T12:07:00.000-04:00

I saw this entry, I think someone is bored, over at New Kid on the Hallway and it reminded me ot some pictures that Lisa took of my own cat, Natasha.

Under the watchful eye of Natasha - 2
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

As I do some work in the living room, Natasha is keeping a close eye on what I'm up to.

Under the watchful eye of Natasha - 3
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

It appears that Natasha is not only keeping a close eye on me as I work, but also keeping an eye out for those who may interupt my work.

Under the not so watchful eye of Natasha
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

Apparently watching me work must be a difficult job, as it seems to wear Natasha out.
Tags: cat, Flickr

I'm "Henry the Explorer"

2005-07-25T00:51:00.000-04:00

Got this from my boss, she thought that I might like to use it with my pre-service technology integration class, given that they are all Early Childhood Education majors and we focus upon the Georgia children's books award winners.

Apparently...

I am...
HENRY THE EXPLORER by MARK TAYLOR.

When I get fed up
with my life, I run away for just a little while. You know, I do that in
life, too - whenever things get tough, I get a change of perspective.

Find
out what Children's Book You Are!

Tags: University of Georgia, education

Another reason that its great to be a Canadian

2005-07-22T07:23:00.000-04:00

I saw an entry last week over at joannejacobs.com that was titled "Literate Canadians." Apparently, Toyota decided to build its new auto plant in Canada because "well-educated Canadians mean lower training costs."

The article cites the fact that "Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment. "

It seems that the U.S. states had offered much higher subsidies to Toyota to build in America, but they still chose Ontario because of the education issue.

My home and native land...

Tags: education, Canada

Gotta love those canucks...

2005-07-18T20:45:00.000-04:00

I saw this over at What is The Message?...

"Best Line in the Karl Rove Scandal

...comes from today's Globe and Mail: "For Bush to get rid of Rove would be like Charlie McCarthy firing Edgar Bergen."

Tags: Marshall McLuhan, Globe and Mail, Canada

Man I need to go home

2005-07-15T07:13:00.000-04:00

My wife sent me this "quiz on how well do you know Canada" (see http://www.theglobeandmail.com/special/canquiz2005). Apparently some American from her work sent it to her and reported that he "scored 12 out of 20 for this Georgia boy, not bad for guessing at about 2/3." I believe that when my wife took it the first time, she scored 15 or 16 out of twenty.

Well, I was killing some time this morning, waiting for a telephone call, so I decided to take it.

"You have scored 12 out of 20 - Good work! You did a good job of knowing the thoughts of your fellow Canadians!"

Damn, I've been in the US for too long!

For the record, the questions I got wrong were:

Which province is most likely to support the decriminalization of marijuana?
What aspect of everyday life is the leading cause of stress among Canadians?
Where does Canada rate in the world in terms of Internet use?
What would a typical Canadian do is he/she won the lottery?
Which health concern is top worry of most Canadians?
Which food do 91% of Canadian agree if healthy?
Where in Canada are you most likely to get your heart broken?
Who do Canadians think was the best Prime Minister during the 20th century?

Now, if you are planning to take the quiz yourself, stop reading here and go and do it. This is your SPOILERS coming notice...

Okay, for the first question I think I was robbed... I still think those tree-huggers in British Columbia are the answer, but the quiz says Quebec.

For the second question, I based it on my own experience and selected work, when the real answer is apparently finances.

In the third question they need to be more clear, the response is that Canada is number one (I selected five), but that must be a per capita thing and I was thinking straight numbers.

I answered the fourth questions as if it were me and said travel. Apparently the majority of Canadians would share it with family and friends. I think that's just the political correct answer though myself.

The fifth question was actually a little difficult... The response choices included diabete, high blood pressure, cancer and one other one. The first three are all plausible choices and I went with high blood pressure, the actual response was cancer.

The sixth question shows my television viewing habits and the fact that those "eat beef" advertisements that they have on television have clearly worked on me. I selected steak, the answer was yoghurt.

This was a funny one and the actual possible responses were surprising: Yukon, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. I knew that it wasn't Newfoundland (we're lovers, not heartbreakers) and I figured that Yukon was so cold that you took what you could get. Leaving Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island, I figured that PEI was the more logical choice. The actual answer was Saskatchewan... Go figure...

For the final question, I just think that Canadians got this one wrong. The response the quiz was looking for was Pierre Elliot Trudeau. The correct response, however, should have Lester B. Pearson.

Anyway, a bit of fun for the early morning and something else to drone on about in my blog for an entry.

Tags: quiz, Globe and Mail, Canada

Postcards from Athens

2005-07-12T07:18:00.000-04:00

Sanford Stadium
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

I came across this entry over at The Blogging Baby that was titled Teaching a child geography, one postcard at a time. Apparently the idea for the entry came from an entry that they found on RedHairedGirl.com (which for the life of me I cant find). Anyway, the basis of the entry was that postcards can be a good way to teach people about geography.

I recall a former principal I had when I was still a high school teacher, who when he would travel anywhere would buy a postcard that pictured the hotel that he was staying at and send it back to his kids (he had five of them). When I asked him about it, he had said that it was his hope that when they gew up that they wouldn't remember the fact that he was gone a lot, but they would remember the fact that he always thought of them when he was gone.

UGA
Originally uploaded by mkb_nf.

In keeping with that spirit, since we have moved to Athens and I have started attended the University of Georgia, I have always sent postcards to both sets of my grandparents when Lisa and I have travelled outside of Athens. Just as a way to let them know that I'm thinking of them (as I am quite close with them).

So, here's a couple of postcards of Athens for everyone to enjoy: Sanford Stadium - the home field of the University of Georgia Bulldogs football team, and UGA VI - English bulldog and proud mascot of the University of Georgia.
Tags: postcards, photos, Flickr, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

MIT Weblog Survey

2005-07-05T20:00:00.000-04:00

If you haven't taken it yet, take the six-eight minutes to do so...

Tags: blog, blogging, blogs, higher education, education