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June 27 The plot thickens...I occasionally google my last name. Not so I can see references to myself, mind you: Those are pretty static, and all point to the same academic thingies. Rather, I do it to see where else the McNorgan name shows up. Our name is rather uncommon. To the best of my knowledge, all the McNorgans are closely related, having my great grandfather Paul as a common ancestor. No McNorgans are listed in Ireland, so I had speculated that the name appeared upon Paul Mc_____'s landing in North America. I just now did a google of the last name, and found a reference to a tombstone in Tasmania for a Lord Charles McNorgan.
I wonder if there is an estate to which I can retire. I must fetch my smoking jacket!
Update: LORD was his last name. His name was Charles McNorgan Lord. McNorgan was his grandmother's maiden name, and she hailed from Scotland (b. 1831, d. 1910). Okay, so am I of Scottish or Irish ancestry?! JUST SOMEONE POINT ME TOWARD MY ANCESTRAL CASTLE! Once more with feelingBetween the triangle, the gang-signs and the the fist-to-fist greeting, the psychology grad students at UWO have a number of funny mannerisms. They also speak a peculiar dialect of English. The latest thing that I noticed is that many sentences begin with the phrase "I feel...", as in "I feel we are playing well, but are maybe a little disorganized on the field."
I find this interesting. Is this a learned skill? Perhaps a little trick that some have picked up in their coursework and have propogated? Where did this start? The interesting about "I feel" is that it is somewhat unassailable. By saying "I think X" or "I believe X", well, that opens you up to counter-argument. When someone feels something, however, there's not a hell of alot anyone can do about that. Feelings are not generally open to debate. So by stating your opinion as a feeling rather than a belief, perhaps that decreases argument. Interesting, non?
Jean Ghomeshi, formerly of Moxy Fruvous, is employed by CBC. I listen to Radio 1 alot. And it seems to me that during the summer season, I have been hearing alot of Jean. How many programs does he host? You know, I once talked to him on the phone. His home phone number was listed at the contact number on the liner of the Moxy Fruvous demo tape. When I was on student council, we wanted to see if they would be willing to have some involvement in Londonpalooza, which was an AIDS charity highschool battle of the bands. He was quite perplexed -- nay, irritated -- that he was getting a phone call at home from some punk highschool student.
And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming. June 20 End of my carefree daysAs of today, Pokey can most definitely crawl. He doesn't yet go tearing off behind your back when you turn around, but if you put him down in one place, if he sees something of interest somewhere else, he will now get there. That's all I have to report, really. We have a soccer game in less than an hour, and I'm waiting for Rebecca to come home to pick up me and our gear. I sort of feel a little strange -- a kind of unwell -- and have felt this way for most of the afternoon. I didn't skip any meals, and in fact I think I ate fairly well. I did have a cup of tea just before noon, and a coffee (because we're running out of teabags) maybe 2 hours ago, but I was already feeling odd before I even had the coffee, so I don't think I can attribute it to caffeine jitters. I didn't exert myself (yet) today either, as all I have done today is select stimuli for Experiment 4 for my dissertation project. June 16 Moving dayI move my friends. It's one of my hobbies. John is probably my favourite person to move. Except his TV cabinet. I think it almost killed me once. I moved Alan out of his apartment in Montreal this morning. It worked out okay. No near death experiences. Just a long truck ride home. I will at least report that the UHaul truck had comfy seats. Shall I shame Kevin and Auger for not being able to make it to unload the truck? Is it fair to do so? They did have plans, after all, that were possibly made before Al's moving date was set. I'll let everyone else weigh in on that, mostly because I just want to cause some trouble. Montreal was nice. Hot, but nice. Montreal is one of the cities that I miss when I leave it. It's really quite interesting. I don't know why I didn't get into the french this time around. Usually I bother to speak in french, to the best of my ability, whenever I can. Not this time. I do have one theory though: I'm convinced that my hearing is going. I've been noticing in the last year or so that I always ask people to repeat themselves. It's bad enough in one's native language, I think not being able to hear properly may make comprehension that much more difficult. Trainspotting (June 13)I'm blogging from the train right now. We're on route to Montreal to visit with Magda and help Alan move back to London. While there, we're going to hook up with Vivian. Note that I'm not actually online. That's because VIA charges an exhorbitant amount of money to use their WiFi. It makes more sense to just write this in Notepad and post it later on. Y'all are probably just eating your breakfast right now anyways, because it's 7:40 am, and we've already been on the train for over an hour. At least they now seem to have more electrical outlets to power one's computer. The last time I took the train, they only had outlets at the front of the car.
I just watched Pokey eat some napkin. Does that make me a bad parent? He's looking between the seats at the ladies behind us. He's such a pick up artist. Travelling with a baby is a collosal feat. The amount of equipment you must bring with you is inversely proportional to the size of the baby. I have a minimal amount of luggage. I'm a minimalist that way. Update: the train from Toronto to Montreal only appears to have two outlets at the end of the car. I wish they would update their damn trains, because we're certainly paying enough! How are they going to gouge anyone for wireless access if they can't power their laptops? June 10 PDAMiraculously, I did not stroke out yesterday. If I did, it would be a good thing that I recently bought a ticket for the Heart & Stroke Foundation lottery, because then it would be like I would be funding my own cure. I had put stuffed peppers in the oven, and figured I could just step out for a couple things while they cooked. That was just the first in what ended up being a number of bad decisions. If your goal is to just get in and out ASAP, then your best bet, in my opinion is Sobeys. The Sobeys at Fanshawe Park Rd & Adelaide is relatively close to where I live, and I don't think I have ever had to wait behind more than one person in line. Normally, I would have considered going there, or else to the A&P. However, Kipp's Lane is currently having some extensive construction going on. It's completely dug up, and frankly, reminds me of the streets of Baghdad. Actually, I might prefer driving through Baghdad to driving down Kipp's Lane. So I headed in the direction of the Superstore on Oxford. Holy crap was it busy. I quickly got everything I needed, but when it came time to check out, every cashier had a huge line. So I went to the self-checkout. You know, I don't think that the self checkout saves anyone any time at all except under very particular circumstances. It turns out the longest line was the one to stand in, because I first stood in a line with some people in a standoff with Mr Noodles: Mr Noodles refused to be scanned, and the couple purchasing Mr Noodles refused to relent in their attempts to scan him. I then decided to switch over to the faster moving line that unfortunately contained an older woman whose movements could be best characterized as excessively deliberate. It was then that it occurred to me that I really should have told Rebecca that the stuffed peppers should be taken out after 40 minutes, because it seemed to me that I was going to be spending at least that long waiting for this woman to scan her goddam tomatoes.
After dinner, Auger and Allison came over for a games night. Kevin came over as well, albeit a bit late, which I suppose I can fault him for since this games night was his proposal in the first place. Everyone brought food, and Rebecca made some snacks as well. So we really have alot of junk food to go through. Most of it is pretty high in sugar, so if you have an extra pancreas, please take it away. Also, Auger and Allison are really keen on each other. June 06 Dear Darwin: Please work fasterThis will be the second time I've written this. The first time, my stupid computer froze up. Its days are numbered, I swear. So the first time I wrote this, I was remarking on that jerkwad Andrew Speaker who flew to Greece to get married against medical advice because he had tuberculosis. If you haven't heard about this guy, CBC has the story here. While in Europe, he was informed that his TB was worse than they originally thought because it was drug resistant. The US authorities then put him on a no-fly list, and was (redundantly) urged not to fly home. He circumvented this by 1) finding a doctor who was willing to go on record as saying he was okay to fly, and 2) hopping a plane to Canada, and then driving over the border. He subsequently apologized for any grief and inconvenience he may have caused by potentially exposing a number of people to an unsavory disease. He claims he didn't mean to hurt anyone. A couple points. First, I think it's more accurate to say that he hoped he didn't hurt anyone. He meant to do exactly what he did. That's why he got a doctor on record as saying he was good to fly - presumably this recording would be used in his defense if someone came down with TB. Frankly, I hope he gets sued back into the stone age. If you find yourself doing things in an attempt to cover your ass in case you get sued, little warning bells should go off telling you that you're probably doing something that you shouldn't be. Secondly, this guy was playing the same game that little kids play when they want something they can't have. When mommy tells them, no, they can't go swim at Jimmy's (because of an ear infection) they wait till dad gets home, and ask him before he finds out about the doctor's appointment. Mr. Speaker is told by the CDC that he is not fit to fly. What does he do? He asks around until he finds someone who will vouch for him. Type II error is cumulative, folks. As enough doctors, and you're bound to find someone who gives you the diagnosis you're looking for. I hope Darwin steps in before he can breed. |
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