Joel's Super-Turbo-Mach-Robo-Ultra-Blog

Its gotten to the point I can't go on. This will be my last post... ever. Goodbye everyone!

That is unless you look at my new blog at www.joelatwater.ca

Seriously, check out the new site. I promise it will have more interesting content!

(I figured I would sign out in true livejournal style)

A very simple but very tasty dinner:

1. Roast a butternut squash
   
   1. Cut in quarters lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds.
      
   2. Place on baking sheet and season with salt/pepper/random.
      
   3. Bake for 45min at 350F. You should be able to easily stick a fork in the meat.
      
   
   
2. Cut half the squash into chunks (2cm ish). Save the rest for something else. It makes a nice side dish on its own.
   
3. Boil some Penne and cook until al dente.
   
4. In a high-walled pan, fry the squash chunks and 3 cloves of coarsely minced garlic with about 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Cook over medium to high heat until outsides of the chunks of squash are crispy.
   
5. Add the pasta and and toss with a generous amount of parmesan or romano cheese.
   
6. Eat.
   

So I really need to follow the news better. I was reading some of the history behind the Omar Khadr trial. He's not being charged with terrorism, or killing civilians, or crimes against humanity. He is being charged with "throwing a grenade that killed U.S. Army Sergeant Christopher Speer in 2002".

In other words, he was a soldier that attacked an invading army... Well golly-gee... that's what soldiers are supposed to do! Khadr is an enemy combatant; he was captured, so he is a prisoner of war. As such, the US must offer him the protections of the Geneva Conventions.

- In WWII, the Nazi's committed crimes far, far more horrible than anything Al-Qaeda has but German soldiers were held as POWs.
- Afghanistan has ratified the Geneva conventions and signed the same day as Canada, the US and Britain.

A new creation of mine:
Strawberry and Goat Cheese Salad with Pecans and a Raspberry Vinaigrette
(All measurements are ±20mg)
Vinaigrette:
-Pour some rasberries into a bowl (Can be frozen. Microwave them if so)
-Add about 1/3 as much balsamic vinegar (to taste)
-Add a teaspoon-ish of lemon juice (is too sweet otherwise)
-Stir until smooth

Salad
-Some romaine lettuce
-A number of strawberries
-A bunch of whole pecans
-half a small package of goat cheese (with herbs is good)

-Toss the lettuce, strawberries and pecans with the vinaigrette. Don't add the goat cheese before tossing as it will get stained by the raspberries.
-Add the goat cheese now.
-Serve to friends.

Some of you may know, I'm rather particular about my writing implements. Maybe its my bad penmanship, but I need a good pen in order for my writing to not look horrible. I'm a huge fan of these. They write reasonably well and are pretty cheap.

Some time ago a friend gave me a Cross pen as a gift. I loved it; the ink was so smooth. Since its me though, I lost it and wasn't willing to spend the $50 on a new one and I went back to my Cool Rollers - until I saw this. Basically, you're hacking a Mont Blanc refil (cheap) into a Pilot G2 (cheap). I did it this morning and very, very pleased with the results.

Steadtler still totally has me for pencils and technical pens.

Disclaimer: What happened at Viginia Tech was horrible and people should be outraged. My point (following) is that we should ALSO be outraged at other aspects of violence in society; I'm not trying to diminish the impact of the VT massacre.

I have 2 points.

1)
In the United States:
The murder rate was 9.1 people / 100,000. (2000)
The gun murder rate was 3.6 people / 100,000. (2000)

The population is ~301 million.

Total Murders:
(9.1 / 100,000) * 301,000,000 = 27,400
(10,800 by guns)

Murders per day (average)
27,400 / 365 = 75.04
(29.69 by guns)

Yesterday 32 people were killed at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. It has captivated the world and people are shocked with the level of violence. I ask however, why is there not a similar level of outrage in the States at the 75 other people that were murdered yesterday (and today, and tomorrow, and the next day...)?

2)
On a number of web sites I have seen comments to the like of "If another student had been carrying a firearm as well, this wouldn't have happened" or "People would think twice going into a place if they thought others might be armed."

It boggles my mind how people think this possibly makes any sense at all. Cho Seung-Hui killed himself; he was looking to die - so the risk of him being killed by another student isn't exactly a deterrent. As a side effect you also get:
- Fire-fights going on in the hallways.
- Confusion when the tactical team comes in (they're going to shoot whoever is holding a gun.)
- Accidents because you have a bunch of people carrying around loaded guns.
- Escalation of arguments: What was a fist fight is now a gun fight; death instead of a shiner.

Even if putting weapons in the hands of the masses does reduce the number of violent acts (doubtful), it certainly increases the amount of carnage. Lets just say I would much prefer to be punched in the face a dozen times than shot in the face once.

Universities are supposed to be sanctuaries for learning and intellectual discussion; that makes yesterday's violence so very much worse - but let is not forget that the VT incident was one symptom of a systemic problem.

Made the hot chocolate again (see below).

Modifications:
- You don't actually need to chop the chocolate chips. They melt on their own.
- A hand mixer creates a much better emulsion.
- Grand Marnier is good.

J

PS: Some good ultimate pics up on flickr.

Stephane Dion is on facebook.
(Well, one of his assistants is on facebook.)

Still, kind of cool.

Today, I made the most wonderful hot chocolate! Not a quick and dirty method, but certainly worth the effort. (Also a decent excuse to post pretty pictures...)

You will need:
1/2 cup of semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips.
2-1/2 cups of milk (not skim)



Chop the chocolate so its relatively fine.



Warm the milk in a saucepan. Once warm, add the chocolate bits.



Stir. Keep stirring until its hot and nothing more will dissolve. Chocolate forms an emulsion in the milk - mine always had tiny bits of chocolate left over. Possible solutions include a using a whisk (I used a fork) or using high fat milk (I used 1%).

Serve. (I put a dollup of foamed milk and some chocolate shavings on top)

So I flipped on the TV while eating breakfast...

"Psychics: To trust or not to trust"

It then lead to a serious discussion...

Wow! What a party... I hope everybody enjoyed themselves...

Pictures are here. (Remember, there's multiple pages)

JA

This is how you develop mature attitudes towards sex in youth:

A court in Georgia denied the appeal a 17 year old who was sentenced to 10 years in prison because his 15 year old girlfriend gave him a blow-job.

'[The judge] was ‘‘very sympathetic to Wilson’s argument regarding the injustice of sentencing this promising young man with good grades and no criminal history to 10 years in prison without parole and a lifetime registration as a sexual offender because he engaged in consensual oral sex'

While many people (myself included) feel that 15 is too young for most to become sexually active, laws like this (the judge was bound by the legislation in this case) send a very clear message that sex is evil and bad. As a result, you get a society that's full of people that will not enjoy what should be a very enjoyable part of their lives. Not to mention that a person's life is now effectively destroyed because he was intimate with his partner...

I realised last night that I'm a religious zealot - except my religion isn't normally considered a religion and doesn't exactly have a god... or a name.

We live in a theocracy of my religion. The holy scripture includes the Charter of Rights, the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the Magna Carta... There are fundamental beliefs that aren't questioned and simply followed. I don't question why should women be equal or why people should have freedom of thought - just as the hard-core Christians don't question that if you don't follow the commandments, you go to hell. One could argue that these concepts are simply rules to allow a society to run well - the same could be said of the bible however - except that the enforcer of my scripture is the Supreme Court, not some mystical being. The parallels are shocking.

The state religion of Canada is the one I follow - it's not the one the neo-cons adhere to. Consider one more analogy: If a party that happened to have a lot of Muslim support won a minority government in Italy, I think they would still be smart enough to not try an pass laws (or even reopen debates) forcing everybody to attend Mosque.

-JA

Today my roomie made me a latté and bought me a very tasty cinnamon bun. This leads me to conclude one of the following...

a. He's a really nice guy.
b. He wants something.
c. He's hitting on me.

I'm leaning towards c...

I just got back from the new 007 movie and it was amazing. Even if you aren't a fan of the franchise, see the film. Gritty action, actual character development and possibly the most gorgeous Bond girl yet... A Bond movie that has actual emotional impact!

So all the duckies are in a line now...My photos can now be seen as a photostream!

Joel's Photo Stream

Note, you need a decent browser to view this as its an RSS feed. By decent, I mean anything but Internet Explorer.

Now up - Calgary, Halloween Party

Peter McKay made a slight goof. He had a bad break-up and lashed out at his ex. It happens... Nobody's perfect. This doesn't mean he hates women... If you say something dumb, you apologize and move on. Right?

But no... In another demonstration of how juvenile the Tories are, a stupid slip up has turned into a real issue. Peter McKay said flatly in the House of Commons that the remark didn't occur. Problem is it was recorded on top - I heard it the tape - he said it. I'll have to trust the half dozen opposition MPs that he motioned to Belinda's seat.

So now we have a Minister of Foreign Affairs who has lied to parliament. Our system works because the executive is accountable to parliament - Peter McKay demonstrated that he does not respect the House - As such, he needs to go. Its really too bad, he was one of the brighter lights...

I just realised how long its been since I posted. I've been up to a lot...

The new apartment is right in Kits at 8th and Collingwood - I have a hardware store (Coe Lumber) across the street! I'm living with James, which has its own adventures. Come visit. My cell is back in service. Its (778) 231... well, you know the rest...

Spent some time doing field work at Quesnel lake. See below. This is my office - well, my other office. My real office is pretty sweet too.

http://homepage.mac.com/joelatwater/CIMG0809.mov

I competed in Junkyard Wars Vancouver this month. We kicked a lot of what the kids sometimes refer to as booty. The challenge was to build a wave energy conversion device. A two day build gave us a device that produced 16kJ in 15 minutes. Our closest competition produced only 8. Video of the '12 Jug Tugger' below.

http://homepage.mac.com/joelatwater/junkyard.mov

The thesis progresses. I'm going to be running a lot of big pipes around the lab. When running, I'll be pumping over 500 L/s!

Cool consulting project for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Extreme time-lapse camera! 1 picture, every 30 minutes for 4 months. I like playing with toys...

I'm back and I like it.

So, I got the comment that I didn't ever update my blog with what I'm doing. Well, here is the REALLY quick rundown. Its still going to be a bit long because, well, I've been a lot of places... I'll go into more depth with all of you when I get back. Until then, I have too much travelling to do...

Salzburg, Austria - Cool, saw the Sound of Music stuff. Awesome fortress. It was nice to see mountains again.

Basel, Switzerland - Ugly industrial city. NOT what I invisioned Switzerland to be like. Didnt stay.

Milano, Italy - Some Italians are bastards - some Italian bastards run hotels. Difficult to navigate. The streets change names mid-block for no apparent reason.

Reggio Emilia, Italy - Stayed in a Monestery in this small town. Good pizza.

Rome, Italy & Vatican City - Cool aritecture, lots of art, active archeological sites... The colaseum is spectactular. The guards in the Sistine Chapel shush too much. It seems the italians havent figured out how to form an argument without shouting and threats.

Florenze, Italy - Waited in line for 90 minutes to see Michangelos David. Got ripped off with the ticket (Im sending an angry letter over that. Youth prices are for EU citizens only, my ass!) No photos were allowed of David - which I got arround by pretending to only speak German.

La Spazia, Italy - Swimming in the Metaterranian! Nuf said.

Kopenhavn, Denmark - People are either really friendly or incredibly rude. I think this has a lot to do with how much Snapps they've had. Expensive! Their claim to fame is Hans Christian Andersen and the Little Mermain Statue.

Malmö, Sweden - When I first got here, I thought I was still in Denmark. Go me. Saw an amazing sunset over Denmark from accross the water.

Stockholm, Sweden - Great city! Met some really cool people. The whole place has an awesome atmostphere. We climbed out a bathroom windon and had a party on the roof of the hostel. More expensive than Denmark.

Oslo, Norway - Beautiful location, friendly people. Gorgeous, friendly people. And when I say gorgeous, I mean it. Even more expensive, even than Stockholm. Scenery was fantastic. I love Brown Cheese.

Berlin, Germany - Thats where I am now. Seems okay. Big difference between the east and west sides. I couldn't understand anything at the Museum of Communication.

Still to Do in the next two weeks:
Zurich, Geneva, Lousanne, Paris, Juno Beech, Dieppe

I fly into Vancouver on the 26th.