Life and How to Live It

Ready to build the deck

2009-06-19T08:12:00.008-04:00

This week I had a lot of preparation going on to build the deck. On Tuesday, I had holes dug and concrete piers placed in the ground. I called Chubbs Post Hole and they came and dug six holes for 10" sonotubes. Their rates were reasonable, and I figured that saving my back was worth $50 per hole.

The building inspector came at 9:30 to make sure that the holes looked good; had I known that he was trying to be there right at 9:30 I would have had the post hole guys hang around so they didn't have to come back in the afternoon to pour concrete and set the brackets.

I finished putting up the flashing and siding trim on Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday, a truckload of stones arrived from Helmutz Landscaping. I had ordered some clear stone to put on the ground under my deck to at least attempt to keep the weeds at bay for a while. I ordered a cubic yard of the stuff, and they dumped it on my driveway. I spent Wednesday evening lugging it to the backyard in my new wheelbarrow.

I think the end result looks pretty good.

On Thursday, I finished with my furnace exhaust pipe. I had to extend it up to be 12" above the level of the deck to keep the snow out, so I bought a couple of joints and cut a vertical section. Last night I cut the pipe closer to the house and cemented it all in place. Now I'm ready to start cutting wood and putting it together.

Deck progressd

2009-06-13T23:47:00.007-04:00

Just posting a brief update and a couple of photos on my deck progress. Today I attached the ledger board to the house with 1/2"x4" lag bolts. The deck is going to be 1" below the door sill, which is a bit higher than I originally expected. I discovered that the rim joist in the house is higher than I was anticipating, so I moved it up. There were a few fortuitous outcomes of this.

First, of course, it is less of a step down, which is kind of nice. I have played with several different heights, and it seems that everything from 1/2" to 7" is a recommended height, but this one seems pretty good. Our patio door is a sliding door anyway, so snow is not going to impede the door very much.

Secondly, because I chose 1", it was a nice coincidence that the guard on my circular saw is 1" from the blade to the edge, so I could cut the siding without issue. I cut most of the siding using my circular saw with a plywood blade. Apparently you are supposed to put the blade in backwards for a cleaner cut; it probably also works better if you have a steadier hand than I.

I also had a piece of siding trim which could fit under the door and leave 1" room for the deck boards. I had bought undersill trim to go there, but it is actually more than 1" thick, so it wouldn't fit, but the builder had used some kind of strip to basically push the siding out under the door. I figured that I didn't really need that anymore, and when I took it off I realized that I could flip it upside down and it was a perfect fit. It even looks decent, even though it is a slightly different colour than the other trim (I bought white, but our siding is actually a sand colour or something).

Finally, instead of building a two piece ledger around the fan vent from the basement, I was able to cut a hole in the ledger to fit the vent. The best part of this was that the top edge of the vent is actually flush with the top edge of the ledger. I didn't even plan that when I was cutting the hole.

The only thing that went wrong today was when I got out the caulking gun. I guess I don't do much caulking, because I didn't realize that there is a seal in the end of the tube. I didn't read the directions, but I figured I would just cut the end off and squeeze. So, since I didn't break the seal inside, goop came out the wrong end when I squeezed harder since nothing was coming out. It seems that all of the silicone has come off my hands by now.

After I installed the ledger, I used it as a starting point to measure out the locations of the post holes. I have scheduled excavation for Tuesday morning, so I really wanted to get this done before then. Other than that, I am going to put in some trim and flashing around the ledger, but I can't really do much else until I have concrete in the ground. That feels good.

DeckQuest: The Next Generation

2009-05-29T20:48:00.005-04:00

Alright, I did it. This week I finalized my deck plans, after heavy revisions from last week's failure. It's still 14'x16'. It's raised up a bit, so there are four steps instead of three. But it should work. I was at city hall on Wednesday for the Transportation and Trails Advisory Committee, so that was a perfect time for me to drop off my building permit application. I just have to wait for that to be approved, and I can get to actually cutting stuff and putting something together.

Here are some drawings. Yes, I drew them myself, so please be gentle.

In the top view, you can see how far it protrudes from the house. We have chosen to use diagonally layed deck boards, because I think they look nicer. Also, the part of the deck where the steps are is actually set a foot back. That might be a bit of a trick to do, especially where the stair rail turns a sharp corner, but I think it will work out in the end.

In the side view, you can see the choice of lumber for various parts. You can also see that the rails will go over the posts, except for the corners, where I will put some kind of decorative top. I'm not sure exactly what it looks like to have a 2x6 top rail running into a 4x4 post, so I hope it is good. Otherwise, I might change it to a mitered corner. I was also wondering how feasible it is to have a mitered corner with the post sticking up in the middle of it. That's probably pretty tricky to do, and it also means that I'm working with wood about an inch thick in parts. So probably not worth it.

I know it will probably look fine, but there are bound to be things in here that I will notice and think about more than I should. I can't wait to get building!

DeckQuest Part XXVII

2009-05-20T09:44:00.004-04:00

Denise and I moved into our house over five years ago, and we've been saying since we moved in that we wanted to build a deck. Of course, time is a factor, and our family has grown from two to five, which doesn't help. Nevertheless, I set out this spring with plans to actually build it this year, hopefully before the heart of summer.

Last month, after the Transportation and Trails Committee meeting, I went down to Building Standards and asked for some information about building a deck. They gave me a nice little booklet of information (it really is quite useful!) and a building permit application. I also have a book on decks that I received from my parents several years ago.

For those who have seen my backyard, you know that the patio is pathetic. It's pretty small, has grass growing between the stones, and before this year the steps from the back door were rickety. This spring, the steps finally rotted enough to fall away from the house completely, so there is a 2-3 foot step down from the back door to the patio. Basically useless. So there is some urgency to either (a) build the deck (wife approved solution), or (b) build new steps down to the existing patio (wife unapproved solution). Naturally, (a) is the goal.

When we first were looking at how to build a deck, the first thought was to build below the siding, where the concrete ends. It seemed like a good idea, but it means we still need steps down from the door, and the low profile is an issue in the corner near the house since the ground rises quite a bit at one point. So it's got to be higher than that. Besides, there isn't really much difference between such a low deck and just rebuilding the patio. The view would be nicer from higher up. So that leaves us with building it up by the door or building somewhere in between. I consulted my deck book.

Seeing how the deck is going to be off the ground, and given my general unease about cutting siding and otherwise damaging altering the house, I thought a freestanding deck would be perfect. The book recommended excavating at least three feet from the foundation due to the general consistency of backfill (i.e. crap), which seemed like sound advice. The deck plan had a cantilever of three feet which seemed like enough. Because of obstacles, I also thought that building about six inches below door level would be preferable as well, and a box step down from there. The dimensions worked out to 14'x14' or 16'x14', and the latter won out because the tradeoff seemed to favour a bit more deck space and a bit less yard. Anyway, it was all coming together in my head and it was time to go to paper.

To recap, I had a deck in mind which was freestanding, six inches below door level, 14'x16', with a couple of steps down. The beams would be cantilevered three feet on either end. Because it would be over two feet above grade in spots, a railing was also in order. Perfect. I went to put the plans on paper, figure out where to dig holes, the dimensions of my wood, and everything else.

Then I noticed something.

That pamphlet of information from the city had maximum and minimum requirements for several dimensions. I didn't notice them originally, because I didn't know how to read the plans. However, after having worked through my own, I was able to recognize it. The maximum cantilever is two feet. That's one foot less than my plan calls for. So now I have a problem. In order to have a cantilever of two feet, I would need to dig holes centered two feet from the house. I thought that maybe I was reading it wrong, or maybe it didn't apply to me, or maybe that if I just used other materials, or maybe ... I wrote an e-mail to the city and got back the reply that I wasn't hoping for:

We permit a maximum of 2 feet of cantilever as prescribed by the Ontario Building Code. In past cases where we have permitted greater cantilevers, the decks were often very bouncy, and the people were not happy with them.

Furthermore:

As you have mentioned, we do not like to see post holes dug near the existing foundation. Often the soil at the foundation wall consists mostly of backfilled or un compacted material, and often slippage occurs, so placing the post holes near the house is often more trouble than its worth.

And, the coup de grace:

We always recommend bolting a ledger board to the house frame, and using joist hangers from there.

Crap. So now I'm back to the drawing board. Since I need to attach the ledger board to a floor joist, it probably means raising the deck up those six inches or so, which means I'm going to need an extra step, and I'm also going to have to build around more obstacles, and ...

I just wish I had been able to read the sample plan before I drew up my own. Well, that's why you invest time in planning before you start to build.

Apple to buy Twitter?

2009-05-05T11:12:00.003-04:00

The intertubes are atwitter this morning about rumours of Apple buying Twitter. I don't get it. Why is Apple interested in the flavour-of-the-month social network? What could ownership of the platform give Apple? Could it be integrated with .Mac? There are so many questions, but not many answers.

Annoying technology and people who should know better

2008-12-12T00:31:00.002-05:00

So last week, my loving wife decided that she would like to get her mother (my dear mother-in-law, and fond grandmother to our children) a digital photo frame as a Christmas gift. This decision was influenced in no small part by the flyer from Staples which had arrived at our doorstep in which these frames were on sale. The one we picked out is the Kodak P520, which seems to be a nice little device, a good size, and great for grandmothers. We thought we would load a bunch of pictures on a card or something and give it as a gift.

My first thought was to go and get a USB drive, since it supports USB as well as all those media formats (SD is my personal favourite, but I digress). They also had several of those on sale at Staples, so I picked up a Sandisk 2GB number for just under ten bucks. It turns out that although it appears innocuous enough, the thing flashes bright orange when it is being accessed, which for a digital photo frame on a slideshow mode is ALL THE TIME. So that is not going to work at all. I mean, who really wants that level of annoyance from their photo frame. In the meantime, I had thought that the really smart thing to do would be to include an SD card with it, and then when we wanted to take more photos to dear grandmama, we could put them on a USB stick and transfer them in the frame. You see, the photo frame includes this nice feature which allows you to transfer between different media devices, and it has two card reader slots and a USB slot. Lots of choice.

So today I went to Canada Computers to pick up an SD card. I got a 2GB card for just over eight bucks. I was impressed. I took it home and showed it with a smile to my dear wife. She was anxious to go and pick out some photos from our collection. She managed to pare down her selection to a mere four hundred or so photos. No problem, right? The first problem I ran into was when I tried to copy all those photos onto a USB drive (actually, I'm using the bright orange one that I intend to return shortly... don't tell Staples). I couldn't quite figure out what was going on, but as it turns out, it will foreshadow what was to happen next. I got a bunch of pictures on the drive and put it in the camera and copied them to the SD card without any trouble. Then I got another batch and tried to do the same. Part way through, I got this informative message: "Create file failed." That's it. The troubleshooting section of the manual reads

Screen message	Try one or more of the following
Create file failed.	The device (memory card, USB drive, camera, etc.) you are trying to copy to is protected. See your device documentation to remove write protection. Insert or connect a different device.

Great. What in the world does that mean? I got some more files and tried again and it didn't help. Google finally found the answer for me. See, the SD card standard uses FAT16 to store the files. Why such an ancient standard? It beats me, but it probably made sense back when 32MB cards were spacious. But when you use FAT16, you can only have 512 files in the root of the volume, and less if you have long filenames (which, of course, I do).

But wait... how do digital cameras work then? Simple: they create a folder structure and put the files somewhere other than the volume root. The digital photo frame just dumps the files into the root of the SD card and assumes that all will be well. This is inconceivable to me. Kodak has been making digital cameras since the mid-1990s and they can't figure out this one little detail? Did they hand this job to the co-op (no offence intended to any co-op students)? Did they forget that people use FAT16 for this? It's as if the file transfer feature was a last-minute addition that wasn't really thought all the way through. It's a shame too, because it was a pretty good idea. Now I need to find myself an SD card reader so I can put the files on there myself.

Newman breasfeeding clinic needs your help

2008-09-19T10:16:00.004-04:00

I received a message yesterday from a Dear Friend, informing me about a very respected Toronto breastfeeding clinic which may have to close down due to lack of funding. Those who know me well will know that I and my wife support breastfeeding, our two boys were both breastfed, and our upcoming third will be as well.

I was surprised to learn that Dr. Jack Newman's clinic is in danger of closing, with funding running out at the end of this month. Dr. Newman is "considered a world leader in breastfeeding education and support", and his clinic is in invaluable resource for parents and their little ones. The clinic has been supported by "private family foundations", but this funding has stopped and there is no more money.

I know that there aren't very many people that read this blog directly, but I have no idea how many people read it after it gets cross-posted to Facebook. Please consider visiting the Canadian Breastfeeding Foundation website and making a donation designated to the Newman Breastfeeding Clinic and Institute to help save this clinic. It's really easy to do; I just sent some money there myself and it took about a minute.

Holy crap, this is Genius!

2008-09-15T12:12:00.005-04:00

You may or may not know this, but I'm a big fan of iTunes. I've been using it for years, and I have a decent library of music. Actually, I've received compliments from people who listen to my shared music, but I digress. Yes, I'm kind of tied to iTunes because I have an iPod, but that was a feature for me since I was already using iTunes. Yes, I'm also kind of tied to iTunes due to the music that I've downloaded with--ahem--DRM on it, but iTunes Plus is making that less of an annoyance.

So I've got all this music in iTunes, but I only listen to a small part of it because I can't be bothered to create playlists that fit together, and I've got all sorts of bits of music around, but I end up listening to albums which have already been put together for me. Last week, Apple released a new version of iTunes, which adds this Genius feature. As far as I have seen, there are two facets to it. First of all, it allows you to pick almost any song in your library and click on a button to create a playlist beginning with that song. The second feature is recommending related music from the iTunes Store based on aggregate information from millions of people.

These two features are very powerful. The playlist feature lets me let iTunes pick stuff from my library that sounds good together. This is based on the opinions of millions of people. Yes, there are some concerns here because I need to share my information with Apple. There is also the potential pitfall of becoming part of the mass market herd. I'm not too concerned about sharing this information because it's not going to be identified with me and it will end up being aggregated into a big glob of data anyway. The herding tendency is a bit of a concern, but I don't see iTunes just recommending mass market music to me, so it's not there yet. The ability to purchase related music from the iTunes store is obviously the hook for Apple. It's targeted advertising, and it is very powerful. If I can be rocking out to something in my library and see links to related music with little "buy" buttons beside them, then Apple will win an even bigger share of the music market than they already have. Still, it's nice to be able to find those related songs, based on what so many other people have said.

Apple, I must admit that this is genius. I can listen to the playlist for hours without getting bored. And some of the relationships are uncanny. More than once I've been listening to something and thinking... you know what would sound nice right after this? And then it plays just the song I was thinking of. A couple of days ago it got into this 1990s set and it brought back a lot of good memories from ten years ago. I have to respect the people that thought this up an implemented it because it really is brilliant.

After writing this, I did a bit of googling, and it seems that a lot of people don't like Genius at all. I guess it doesn't work for everyone. For me, the only problem that I have is that Dave Matthews pops up an ruins a good set every now and then. I find that he requires a special mood that I'm not in most of the time.

The pointless Canadian election

2008-09-07T14:35:00.003-04:00

As expected, Stephen Harper today strong-armed Governor General Michaëlle Jean into dissolving Parliament, setting the stage for an election. It seems that the Conservatives grow tired of the current "dysfunctional" Parliament and want to call an election before the Liberals can force one. Never mind the fact that Dion and the Liberals have had many opportunities to do so and have declined because the timing wasn't right.

I'll leave the legality of the election up to the lawyers out there, but at the very least, this election call seems to violate the spirit of the Canada Elections Act. You know, the one that Harper promised to amend so that we have fixed election dates so that the governing party can't just call elections whenever they are ahead in the opinion polls? Yeah, the one that everyone has already been talking about.

Anyway, I can look past that if calling an election would be better for government. If Parliament were truly "dysfunctional" (which seems to be decided by meeting with members of opposing parties and asking them if they will kowtow to you for another session), and calling an election would improve the situation, then I could understand it. And then I read this: "We believe it is going to be a tough election. We believe it will be a tight election. And, yes, we believe in all likelihood it will be a minority." Who said that? Why, it was Stephen Harper¹. So if the current Conservative minority Parliament is dysfunctional, then he must certainly expect a new Conservative minority Parliament to be dysfunctional. On the other hand, if they do win a minority Parliament, then there would be no need to call another election for another four years instead of next year. And that definitely smells of calling an opportunistic election. If the economy is going to go south in the next year, nobody is going to want to call an election, and if the Conservatives win even a minority Parliament, they won't have to.

This whole election is just a waste of time and money. It's not going to change the makeup of Parliament, but it will push back the election requirements, and it will allow them to call an election before the political backlash of a poor economy. I think the only wild card here for the Conservatives is the potential ill will for taking advantage of the Canadian voters. Come on, we're smarter than that. Aren't we?

On giving blood

2008-08-26T12:48:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, I did something new. I like to do good things for other people, but I had never given my blood before. Now I have. I've always said that I should give blood, but I've always been too afraid to. Yes, I knew that it really wouldn't hurt much, and that there aren't any risks associated with blood donation. That doesn't matter. In my mind, it was a very terrifying thing to do. Last week, I faced my fear and booked an appointment, and yesterday I went in at 5:15 pm.

The entire process went very smoothly. When I arrived, there was a nice woman at the reception desk who took my identification and handed me a folder with some important reading information. I then went to see another woman at a desk, who took a bit of blood from my fingertip (the machine sounded and felt a bit like an electric stapler; the sting only lasted for a couple of seconds) and told me that my hemoglobin levels were good. I don't know if they determined my blood type at that point; I never did actually find it out, but I assume that when I receive my donor card it will tell me. I was handed a questionnaire to partially fill out and then I would proceed to the next room (the "refreshment area").

I sat in the refreshment area for about ten minutes. I had my iPod with me, so I was listening to some music. Next time I'll remember to bring a book.

Finally, it was my turn to proceed to the next room. The nurse inspected my arms for signs of intravenous drug use. I had my blood pressure taken. My pressure was quite high yesterday, probably due to the anxiety I was experiencing. It was much higher than I remember it being a year ago when I was examined for my new life insurance policy. The pressure was still in the tolerable range for donation, so we proceeded. She asked me the other half of the questions from the questionnaire. These ones are quite a bit more personal than the other ones, and relate to drug use, sexuality, and generally high-risk behaviours. Finally, after all of that, the nurse leaves the room and leaves you with a slip of paper with two stickers on it. The paper basically asks you a question. After completing all of the questions on the questionnaire, you are asked if you're really really sure that you want to donate your blood, and if you would give your blood to someone that you care about. You are to affix one of the two stickers to the form: "Yes" or "No". The stickers themselves are actually bar codes so that no one will know what your answer is. You can continue to give blood and not lose face in front of anyone. Why you would go there in the first place is beyond me, but I can see why you might say "No". I put the "Yes" sticker on and threw out the slip of paper.

The next thing was to go to the room where they take your blood. I had to wait a few minutes for a free chair. I should stress that you have the option at any point in the process to not proceed. I wasn't having any second thoughts, but I sure was anxious. I sat down and tried to relax by watching the TV, and it did help. The nurse cleaned my arm and put iodine on it. She taped the lead onto my arm, and then I looked away as she stuck the needle in. It hurt a bit more than I was expecting, but it was far from the worst thing I have ever felt. I just tried to keep my arm still. The pain was pretty much constant the whole time. It wasn't a sharp pain, just a sort of dull throbbing. I sat for a few minutes watching the TV, and then I put my music back on and tried playing a game on my BlackBerry.

That was when I realized that I wasn't feeling quite right. At first, I just thought it was in my mind. Then I knew that it wasn't. The feeling I had was kind of like motion sickness. I felt a cold sweat, and a little bit of nausea. I saw one of the nurses come out of another room, and then there were three around me, putting cold cloths on my forehead, arms, and neck. I must have looked really pale. They reclined the chair and asked me if I felt nauseous. When I said that I did feel a little nauseous, they asked me to turn on my side, and they put a pail beside me. I didn't feel that sick, but I was glad for the attention they gave me. I felt a little bit embarrassed because nobody else was in my situation, but I don't know if anyone else there was a first time donor either. In any case, I felt fine a few minutes later, and they sat me up and gave me some orange juice. I kept the cloths on because they felt nice. The reaction I had was probably just a combination of it being my first time, and I probably didn't eat enough before I went in. Next time I will try to have more of a meal than the snack I had yesterday.

After about ten minutes, they let me leave the chair, and I returned to the refreshment area to have a drink and a snack. I had a Sprite, some Bits & Bites, and a couple of cookies while I read the newspaper. I left about ten or fifteen minutes later, with a bit less blood, but a good feeling inside. I spent almost an hour and a half there, but that's because it was my first time. It was definitely worth it, and I have another appointment scheduled for October.

I encourage any Canadian thinking about donating blood to give Canadian Blood Services a call. They're really friendly people, and it will make you feel good about yourself.

The Pool is on Fire

2008-08-06T00:26:00.003-04:00

Last week, the day before we were planning to go on vacation, I ended up burning the kids' pool. We have had a plastic kiddie pool in our backyard. When I was mowing the lawn, I moved it and leaned it behind the barbecue. Later that day, while roasting some sausages, I inadvertantly set fire to the pool while I wasn't watching it. Ten minutes later, there are flames in the yard and the pool is being reduced to a small hunk of plastic and some melted goo on the lawn. My first instinct was to grab the fire extinguisher from our kitchen, and it did a commendable job, even though the fire would have probably put itself out on the wet grass.

My beef has to do with the fire extinguisher itself. Now, I bought this one four or five years ago when we bought our house. It held its charge just fine, but the part the bothers me is that it is sold as being rechargeable. In fact, there are directions on it for recharging it (if you happen to have a source of dry chemical and a pressurizing adapter). However, I contacted a local company about recharging them and they said they don't work with the ones with plastic valves because they have a history of losing pressure. The interwebs seem to agree with this assessment. So I ended up with a disposable fire extinguisher which claims to be rechargeable. The next one I buy is going to have a metal valve so I don't end up with a piece of garbage after a single use.

Curt Schilling = Superman?

2008-06-24T11:02:00.004-04:00

I caught this gem from ESPN this morning. Curt Schilling had shoulder surgery yesterday to repair his right biceps tendon and labrum. He hasn't thrown yet this year, and this surgery will insure that he doesn't pitch for the rest of the season. What astonishes me is that he wants to pitch again next season. In case you don't know, he will be 42 years old next year. I don't know about you, but if I had season-ending shoulder surgery at that age, I'd strongly consider hanging up my cleats. If he does pitch again next year, it just might be possible that Curt Schilling is Superman.

Mixed Feelings on Carbon Tax

2008-06-19T14:57:00.004-04:00

As expected, Stephane Dion today unveiled some of the details for the Liberal Party plan to implement a carbon tax, which they are referring to as a Green Shift. I'm a fan of the carbon tax idea, I just wish it was implemented by someone less pussy-footed than Mr. Dion. Predictably, the Conservative Party is launching an ad campaign against the idea, to the dismay of tree huggers everywhere.

So what is a carbon tax anyway? According to Wikipedia, "A carbon tax is a tax on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. It is an example of a pollution tax, which some economists favor because they tax a 'bad' rather than a 'good' (such as income)." This sounds like a good idea if we want to clean up the environment, even if the Kyoto Protocol is dead in the water. The idea is to tax polluters based on the amount of carbon dioxide they are responsible for, starting at $10/t of CO2, rising to $40/t in the fourth year. This is a good thing: people will have to pay more for products that have higher pollution side effects, and they will choose to buy things which are less taxed, and thus cheaper.

The Conservatives are referring to the tax as a "Tax on Everything" and, truth be told, it pretty much is. I mean, our entire economy is based on burning coal, oil, gas, and burning those things puts carbon dioxide into the air. So this is basically a new tax on everything. Some things will be taxed more heavily than others, depending on the way they are produced and distributed. That's the whole idea of a carbon tax: encourage companies to pollute less by taxing them proportional to their pollution.

So Mr. Dion is proposing a new carbon tax, which will increase the cost of most of the things we buy. Stephen Harper is decrying it as just another tax grab, which is what it appears to be. The Liberal response is that the tax will be "revenue neutral", and they back that up with plans to reduce income taxes:

* Reduce the corporate tax rate by 1%
* Reduce the small business income tax by 1%
* Reduce the lowest personal income tax bracket rate by 1.5%
* Reduce the second- and third-lowest personal income tax bracket rates by 1%
* Introduce some other new tax credits and supplements

Fantastic. So we can shift taxes from income (a "good") to pollution (a "bad"). There's just one problem. Mr. Dion just can't sell it. The man lacks any sort of conviction, so all Mr. Harper has to do is sneer and say that the Liberals are just creating a new tax to fund their program spending promises and the people will believe it. Even I believe it, and I'm personally a fan of carbon taxes (see paragraph 1). I would be more apt to believe Jack Layton than Mr. Dion in this case, and that is frightening. In the end, this is a political issue, and Mr. Dion is a poor political leader.

Just one more thing. Mr. Dion doesn't seem to be completely forthcoming. In response to allegations that the carbon tax would increase the price at the gas pump, he was quoted as saying: "This price is a world price and these [oil] companies are making a lot of profit, so we don’t expect an increase at the pump." Sorry, Mr. Dion, but that's just not the way it works. Sure, the oil companies are making billions in profits, but in case you haven't noticed, the companies that distribute it at the pump are already being squeezed out of business. Increasing their costs is going to result in either (a) increased costs for consumers, or (b) more distributors going out of business, or (c) a combination of the two. My money is on (c). In my opinion this is the way it should be, but I wish that Mr. Dion would stop pretending that it will be otherwise.

Did I Miss Something?

2008-04-14T21:16:00.003-04:00

Did I miss something, or when did we, the television viewers of the world, decide that it was okay for the networks to cover a quarter of the screen with advertising during the programs that we are trying to watch. I mean, I understand that advertising is a big part of television. Some go as far to say that the the customers of television are the advertisers and the product is the viewer, and I can go along with that.

All that aside, enough is enough! I already pay way too much to get my sports, Simpsons, and Jeopardy! On top of that, over a quarter of the time that I spend watching programs is filled with commercial advertising. On top of that, we deal with product placements and the like, some subtle and some not so subtle. Now I find that more and more time is spent watching advertising over top of the programming. This is stuff that actually covers up the thing I am trying to watch. I don't get it. Even worse is the fact that these are almost always of the form "On Now ... " and "Later ..." things that aren't even paid for by advertisers. Now why would I want to stay around to see what's on later if it's going to be covered by more advertising? Isn't this defeating the purpose? Maybe no one really cares. We've become so trained to look around advertising that we are unfazed when it is there in our faces.

I want my TV back!

Crazy Spam

2008-04-10T17:28:00.004-04:00

Is it just me, or is spam going crazy these days? I am using Google to manage my mail, so I don't really have much concern about spam. Their filters are very good at catching most spams, without too many false positives; and they give me tons of storage space so I don't need to worry about deleting it.

My spam is automatically deleted after 30 days. When I first set up my mail account last year, I would get somewhere around 2000-2500 messages in that period of time before they started getting deleted. Recently, I have noticed that the numbers have been climbing higher and higher. I now have 8010 messages in my spam box, and I have no idea why.

Carbon footprints

2008-03-25T12:44:00.003-04:00

I was browsing the New York Times today, and I came across this interesting column: "Are We Ready to Track Carbon Footprints?". The idea is that people need an appropriate nudge in the right direction in order to reduce their carbon footprint. People are notoriously poor at planning for abstract events somewhere in the future, especially when we don't even understand the situation. Something like climate change is something that is difficult to see, understand, or deal with. I particularly liked this commentary in the middle:

A study in California showed that when the monthly electric bill listed the average consumption in the neighborhood, the people in above-average households significantly decreased their consumption.

Meanwhile, the people with the below-average bills reacted by significantly increasing their consumption — not exactly the goal of the project.

That reaction was avoided when the bill featured a little drawing along with the numbers: a smiling face on a below-average bill or a frowning face on an above-average bill. After that simple nudge, the heavy users made even bigger cuts in consumption, while the light users remained frugal.

What we need is a way to deliver the message to people when they are consuming more than their fair share, as well as a way to give people a pat on the back when they are doing something good for the Earth.

Take our house. Although I know how much electricity we use at our house, and I have a vague idea of what the average is for the entire city, I have no idea how that compares to other households in our demographic, and I also don't know whether we are doing a good or bad job with our energy usage. I feel that we've done a lot to reduce our energy consumption, but it has been mostly low-hanging fruit. I'm always looking for ways to do more, but there are limits to the level of inconvenience I am willing to live with. I might be more encouraged if the system had more feedback built in.

I'm ready for spring already

2008-03-22T10:00:00.002-04:00

Nathan and William shovelling snow together
Originally uploaded by Tim Coleman

William and Nathan were outside playing in the snow the other day, and I think that it's about time that we have some spring already. Except for the brief warm spell in January, it's been a pretty long winter here. The snow is slowly melting, but there are more cold temperatures in the forecast, and snow coming again this week.

Enough is enough! It's time for some nice weather. My bike should be tuned up this week, and I want to go for a ride.

Where has the time gone?

2008-03-17T10:41:00.001-04:00

Yay! Can I eat it now?
Originally uploaded by Tim Coleman

It's amazing to think that Nathan is already two years old. Two years! Where has the time gone? I miss the baby boy that we had, and now he's a full-fledged toddler (although he talks like a preschooler). I still can't get over the fact that William is three (almost four!), and now Nathan is on his way to that age as well.

Time marches on, and we just have to remember to enjoy all of these moments because we only get to go through them once.

To the Woman I Met at the Mall on Friday

2008-02-25T10:39:00.001-05:00

You don't know who I am, and we will probably never meet again, but I hope that you are able to get the help that you need. I met you on Friday afternoon at the entrance to Conestoga Mall near the bus terminal. I had just gotten off a bus to do some shopping. You were obviously in distress as you reached out to take my arm and asked me for help. You were staggering and stumbling and I tried to do the best I could to support you.

Outwardly, you seemed to be a kind, older woman, and at first I feared that you were having some sort of physical attack. As we walked down the main hallway, I realized that you had been drinking a lot. That is not the kind of thing I expected to find 5 o'clock on a Friday afternoon at a busy shopping centre. As we walked, your talking was mostly incoherent, but it seemed that you were going through some sort of crisis; I surmised that you had been drinking as a means of coping, but I can't really pass judgement. We arrived at Guest Services safely, and Security was able to help you to contact a family member.

Even though I'm sure you'll never read this, I hope that you were able to make it home alright on that day, and I hope that you are able to deal with whatever problems you are going through. I'm glad that I was able to help you in some way that day.

Regional Transportation Master Plan

2008-02-21T12:29:00.004-05:00

Last night I attended a workshop related to the Waterloo Regional Transportation Master Plan (RTMP). For those who don't know, the Region of Waterloo is trying to come up with a plan for what to do about transportation for the next couple of decades as part of something called Moving Forward 2031.

I must say that I am very impressed. We have come a long way since the last plan in 1999. Transportation is now seen in a very holistic way. It's more than just cars; transportation is about cars, bikes, pedestrians, transit, trucks, and so much more. Roads aren't just ways to get cars between home, work, and Wal-Mart. There are so many opportunities for roads to build communities, and they do a great deal to affect our outlook on life.

The main point of the workshop was to get input from residents on a number of questions related to transportation. There was a lot of interest in making it easier and nicer for people to walk, take the bus, ride their bikes, in addition to driving their cars. Of course, the topic of big-box stores came up, but I think that comes up in just about any public forum. I realized last night that what we really need is more integration of different types of development; it's very difficult to do anything here without a car, and I have limited shopping opportunities between my home pod and my work pod. The other thing I got out of the workshop was the understanding that there are a lot of other people out there that feel the way that I do.

Cars have come first for a long time in this area, and they will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, but pedestrians, bikes, and buses don't need to be second citizens. The transportation planning that is going on is really trying to address these concerns, and I am very excited about what we are doing here in Waterloo. And that's a very good feeling.

I encourage those who live in the region to attend one of the other two workshops taking place. Last night's was in Waterloo, but there are two more, one in Kitchener and the other in Cambridge (Events Schedule).

Thursday, February 21, 2008
Regional Administrative Headquarters
150 Frederick St., Kitchener

Thursday, February 28, 2008
United Kingdom Club
35 International Village Dr., Cambridge

Apparently I can blog via e-mail

2008-01-31T21:30:00.001-05:00

So, uh, as if I didn't have enough goofy things I could do with my BlackBerry, I can also blog on the go. If I had a cameraphone I would be set.

http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/01/11/001265/

Sent from my BlackBerry.

One of these things is not like the others

2008-01-29T09:09:00.001-05:00

I checked my gmail this morning when I got into work. Lo and behold, I had a message from Amazon.ca telling me about the wonderful purchases that their computers had decided, in their wisdom, that I would be interested in. I usually delete these messages without really looking at them, but something about this morning's caught my eye.

What purchases have I made that would indicate that I would possibly be interested in buying Britney Spears' new album? Furthermore, how does that even fit into this list? Let's take a look at the others:

Meddle: I do actually own a couple of Pink Floyd albums, so I can see where they're going with this.

An album from The Killers. While I don't actually own anything from them, I believe I have an album or two on my wish list.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. I actually own this one, so it's time to let Amazon know that.

Drastic Fantastic. I haven't decided, but I think I like KT Tunstall.

In Rainbows. I downloaded this one back in October, and I have been happy with it. Definitely worth the three or four pounds I paid for it.

Jane Eyre. I think I have this book as well, but it might be lost in the bookshelves (or boxes) at home.

Cexcells by Blaqk Audio. I haven't heard of this, but it sounds interesting. Maybe I'll go preview (pre-hear?) it on iTunes. Whoa! It sounds like Depeche Mode ... if they sucked. I think I'll pass.

The point is, with the exception of the last item, these are things that I either own or would be interested in owning. And the last one does make some sense; I think that recommendations are best if they broaden your horizons to something new and interesting, that you may not have heard before. Unless you've been under a rock for the last year, Blackout does not meet those criteria. In fact, I have absolutely no idea why Amazon would even think that I would be interested in purchasing this digitized piece of garbage. I'm even less interested in purchasing her latest album.

I guess that everyone makes mistakes sometimes. Even computers.

William has a real bed now

2008-01-24T15:16:00.001-05:00

Here is the final product
Originally uploaded by The Coleman Family

Yesterday was a big occasion for William. We finally got a "real" bed for him. Since he moved out of his crib, almost two years ago, he has been sleeping on a single mattress on the floor. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it just seems better to have a real bed frame.

We ordered a bunk bed set for the boys last week, and it came in yesterday. William was very excited, and I must admit I was as well. I was a bit wary of a box that was Made in Vietnam, but the bed looks just fine, and it seems quite sturdy.

The thing that struck me the most was memories of my own childhood. I had a very similar bed when I was a boy, and in fact I had it until I finally got my own place. It was a bunk bed too, and me and my brother shared it for a while. It was the same colour, and was also made of wood, although it had metal slats where William's has wooden ones. I miss being a kid, but at least I can experience it vicariously through the boys.

Yes, I got a Mac. Deal with it.

2008-01-21T14:04:00.001-05:00

Those of you who are not in my immediate family may not be aware that, yes, I have gotten a Mac. I may now continue my quest into fanboyism.

It's been almost a month since I got the Mac and retired my Linux PC at home. Guess what? It's awesome. Admittedly, any 2007/2008 vintage PC would blow the doors off the eight year old wonder which was our home computer. But few of them would be as aesthetically pleasing. Also, few of them would come with the sort of software that Mac users take for granted.

I admit it, I love the Mac. For those who care, it's a 20" aluminum iMac with the 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo. I upgraded it to 2 GB of RAM (it's tempting to get more with prices the way they are right now). It's fast, it's small, the display is beautiful, and it makes me more productive.

A lot of the stuff I use the home computer for is related to photos, a bit of document authoring/editing, and games now and then. iPhoto is an excellent way to manage my photo collection. I managed to import all of my photos from the old computer and burn them to DVD the first day I had the computer. I haven't managed to do that on the Linux machine in about six years. Previously, I had a website on the home computer with our photo galleries. I'm in the process of transferring photos to Flickr. I can't be bothered maintaining a web site, especially when Flickr is there 24/7. I purchased a pro account on Flickr for $25, and I'm going to purchase the FlickrExport tool from ConnectedFlow when I get the money together.

I'm playing around with iWork '08, and I think it's going to be great for documents. The templates that come with it are fantastic, and it's very quick and easy to work with. Again, I'll need to scrape together $79 to register it, but it's still far less expensive than Microsoft Office.

Did I mention the power consumption? I haven't hooked up my meter to it yet, but I know it's going to use a lot less power than the Linux PC that it replaces. That machine used about 150 W of power, 24 hours a day. Since I'm not going to be hosting the web site anymore, and since the iMac has a functional sleep mode, that will be a lot less. Sleep takes about 3 W, but even when the machine is running it takes less than 100 W. The old PC used about $10/month of electricity. I'm looking forward to seeing a nice reduction in my energy bills.

Finally, I'm not much of a gamer, but I have been enjoying Civilization 4. A lot.

Receiver has lost satellite signal

2007-11-18T15:26:00.000-05:00

My only reason for hating Star Choice has to do with this error message which appears on my satellite receiver: "Receiver has lost satellite signal. Signal re-acquisition is in progress. Please wait." The problem is that this error message appears randomly, a couple of times a week. It does not go away, no matter how long I wait. Also, tantalizingly, there is no actual problem with signal reception because I can still see action (in today's case, the basketball game) behind the error message, and I can still hear the audio.

What is most annoying is not this error message. It's obviously a hardware failure of some sort, and Star Choice doesn't build the hardware that they sell. What annoys me is that I have contacted Star Choice twice, and Denise has once. Their solution is to reset the receiver. Guess what? I already know that resetting the receiver will make the problem go away. Until two days later when the same failure happens again. And guess what else. I don't like sitting on hold for half an hour with Star Choice each time this happens while I wait for someone to tell me to reset the receiver. Today, I decided that it was the last chance and I was going to have to get a replacement before the warranty ran out. Now I have a 60 minute wait on the phone (I'm not actually going to stay on the phone that long). Come on, guys. Just replace the thing already and make me happy with Star Choice again. As it is, I'm only staying with you because the other guys are worse.