Manhole Covers

Well, perhaps manhole is not right word these days, but that's the term I grew up with.  Anyway, on my walk today I noticed how different manhole covers have different looks.  And for want of something more interesting to share with you, I thought I'd give you a glimpse of an underappreciated aspect of Ottawa -- its manhole cover designs.

Here goes.  You can guess what each one is for, so I will just let the pictures speak for themselves!

See what your city/town does on its manhole covers.  They tell quite an interesting tale, I think.

Till next time!

There's Nothing New in the World

Yesterday one of the major internet/wireless providers in Canada had a massive outage that lasted most of the day.  Tens of millions went without cell/internet service, and multiple companies, including some banks and government agencies, came to a halt.  This even got reported on BBC and NPR, so I guess it's a really big thing.

But in the overall scheme of things, it's just another one of those "shit happens" things in life, ain't it?

As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet:

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

Indeed, if you consider the context, the shit that happened everyday was so much worse 400 years ago in Shakespeare's time.   Yet people lived and moved on.  They probably had different expressions for it, but essentially it comes back to "shit happens," no?

And face it, this type of thing is all around us.  One minute you are doing your thing, and next thing Russian bombs and missiles fall on you just to satisfy fucking Putin's fantasy of rebuilding the Russian Empire.

One moment you are chilling on the beach, and next thing a tsunami brings to an end everything you know and love.

Or, closer to home, one day you were living a regular day, and next thing you know the killjoy that is Covid stopped the music.

When the internet/cell outage happened, I recalled that scene in Stephen King's The Mist, when power was out and no technology worked and people had no idea what to do anymore.  Those who live by the sword, I guess, die by the sword.  Last night we went out to dinner.  The restaurant's payment system was down due to the wireless debacle.  They found this old credit card machine.  You remember the old days when they mechanically slide this gadget across your credit card and give you a carbon copy?  Like in the 70s and 80s.  Haha.  What a blast from the past!  But they couldn't figure out how to use it!  So they had to manually copy down all the credit card information from each customer, and actually write out the amount etc.  Oh what fun.  Especially when people tried to figure out how much to tip, or when they wanted to split the bill!  There is a reason why we learn arithmetic.  Fucking A.

And of course so much for a cashless society.  Stopped at a gas station, and they had a sign up, CASH ONLY.  A lot of people don't even carry $5 cash on them.  And, haha, bank machines didn't work either!

Instead, why not take it as a chance to live without the fucking cell for a day.  Detox from the shit.  We don't really to be surgically attached to the phone all day long, no?

Interesting, this attachment to and fascination with new technology is nothing else, notwithstanding each generation's fervent belief that THEIR technological advancement is the only marvel.   Some 600 years ago, noted Samuel Pepys in his famous diary, when watches first came to being, he could not stop checking his watch ALL DAY LONG.  Prior to that, of course, people didn't really care what time it was.  But once the watch was invented, telling time became a "necessity."  But is it really?  Is the cell really a necessity?  You be the judge.

Or, if it's this bad, killing oneself may help, though as Shakespeare also wrote,

But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

Yeah, things could be worse where you're headed.

All this is nothing new.  Step back and chill.  Life, as bad it is, goes on with or without you being happy.  So, to be or not to be?  Your choice.  Maybe better to just CARRY ON and DRINK SOME TEA.

SUMMER READING

I don't think I'm getting OLD, but some of my earliest memories is the mid-life crisis...

 

Finally I have kind of settled into a summer routine.  Since I'm not taking courses in the summer, I'm doing my usual edX online courses (which I audit) for fun.  And, again, decide to start a summer reading plan.  Now, I KNOW for sure I won't get to complete the list this summer, but it doesn't hurt to have an ambitious plan nonetheless.  Are you interested to know what the list is?

Here we go:

Re-read 1984.  (done)

The Swerve: how the world became modern, by Stephen Greenblatt.  (done)

The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, by Stephen Greenblatt.  (done)

Marvelous Possessions, by Stephen Greenblatt.  (just starting)

(btw, do you get a sense that I am big Greenblatt fan?)

Around the World in 80 Books, by David Damrosch.

Lectures on Shakespeare, by W. H. Auden.

The Age of Anxiety, by W. H. Auden.

Dishonesty is the Second Best Policy, by David Mitchell.

Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Let's see how many I get done by summer's end.  Not even half, that would be my guess...

And what about you, dear reader.  What are you up to this summer?  Wanna share your plans?

Decision Made

For a while now I've been agonizing over the question of whether to stay in the MA program or to switch to the law program.  Well, I've now filed the paperwork to officially withdraw from the MA, so in the fall I will be enrolled in the law program.

What finally decided the issue?

As I've told you before, there's a paucity of course offerings in the summer (and I am technically required to stay enrolled in every semester).  So I registered for a course on Social Change.  Unfortunately it's taught by a prof I had as an undergrad, and I found him wanting.  It doesn't seem appropriate that I take another class with him.  After all, I am doing this for fun, and that guy is quite unacceptable.

But I still waited, hoping perhaps that the course offerings for next school year would be better.  The courses came out a couple of days ago, and they are the same offerings as this past year, taught by the same people.  So the good ones I already took, and the others were ones I didn't like or ones I dropped.  There's no point staying, is there?

I filed the paperwork this morning.

To clarify, I am not enrolling in law school.  No point in that either, since I am really interested in the technicalities of law.  This certificate in law program is a part time program, so I can just take one class at a time.  And the courses include a great many that are from a socio-historical perspective.  Just the sort of thing I get a kick out of.  Imagine a social science approach to legal matters.  As an added bonus, I can also enrol in other undergrad classes as long as I have the pre-reqs.  These non-law classes won't count towards the certificate, but that's ok.  And oh yes, the certificate is counted as an undergrad program.  Even the JD program is not considered a graduate program in Canada.  Only JDs who choose to teach consider themselves as having graduate degrees.  Wrongly so, but that's another story.  Sorry, Captain!

By the same token, MDs are not considered graduate degrees in Canada either.  So there.

So thanks for bearing with me as I agonized over the decision.  Now onwards to a different chapter.  Guess I should change the title of this blog back to Chunski's Undergraduate Adventures!

I should say, quite without any kind of humility, that I did manage to squeeze three A+ in the three MA courses that I did take. Haha.  For whatever that's worth.

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Bought a proper dutch oven the other day.  Finally gave in.  Pretty cool though.  Made a beef short rib dish with it, and then baked a loaf of bread as well.  Very versatile.  And so nice-looking.  Got a sky-blue one.  Just to brighten things up as we now head into summer.

If you enjoy cooking, and don't own one, I highly recommend it.  Get a real one though, not those lookalike things.  I got a Staub.  Very nice.  Built like a tank.  Not a Russian tank, hopefully.

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Till next time!

Goose and Gander

Apparently Ukraine sent a couple of helicopters and bombed an oil depot inside Russia.  Now Russia is accusing Ukraine of this, and warns that this may impact negotiations with Ukraine.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander, no?  

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I didn't follow the Oscars, but even I know about the slap that Will Smith administered on Chris Rock.

I'm actually surprised it's only a slap.  Which begs the question, what would I have done under the circumstances, had I been in Smith's shoes.  What would YOU have done, dear reader?

Toxic masculinity and all that.  I get that.  It's easy to say how wrong it is to physically attack another person.  I don't disagree.  But are there no circumstances under which that may be at least understandable?

So the question remains, what would I have done?  No, I won't call myself a peace loving man who is a pacifist and all that.  I do believe sometimes brute force is needed.  But what "times"?  When someone makes a joke in public about your wife's health condition, is that reason enough?  Or does that someone has to come over and do something physical first?

So let's alter the question a bit.  What if Rock had gone over and say, "brushed" the wife's head.  Does that justify action by Smith?

Or to go further, what if Rock had gone over and pretended to be shaving her head?  What then?

I guess my question is, where does one draw the line?  In fact, I'm sure that even if Rock had physically gone over and did something physical, and Smith slapped him, there will still be outcry over Smith's reaction.  Such is the PC world in which we live.

Am I on Smith's side?  I don't know.  But I do know that if I were to act, I would not have just slapped him.

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Some Schools Build Gyms

Spring is here.  I hope it stays a while and not let winter creep back in any time soon.  For my walk today, I decided to take a detour and go to the site of uOttawa's second campus, also where the football field is.  It's called Lees Campus, since it's located a few miles away from the main campus and is located on Lees Avenue.  Part of it is now a big construction site.

Well, some schools build gyms.  Others build academic buildings.  Here is the future home of uOttawa's Faculty of Health Sciences.  It's going to be a LEED Platinum building, so should be quite neat and sustainable as well.  Will it get done before I am done with school here?  Probably, at the rate I am going, haha.

I will post more updates as to progress as I go by over time.

So, Social Science has a new building.  Business has one, which is also where History is.  Engineering has one.  STEMS has its own.  Law has its own building, which is not new but not too old.  Medical school has its own at the Ottawa Hospital.  Which makes me wonder when they will get around to constructing a new one for Arts!  As a graduate of the Faculty of Arts, I would like that very much.  Currently Faculty of Arts is housed is several buildings, all old, apart from History.  It's time we had a glorious new home!!!  I'll even contribute $50 to it!  Hey, I am a poor retiree!

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Waiting to find out what courses are offered in the summer/spring term.  I will have to decide before April 1 whether to continue in the MA or switch to the certificate in law.  Decisions, decisions.

Well, these are minor problems, eh?  I remember a while back, when I was still teaching, and students were complaining about stuff, I used to say, "be thankful you're not in Syria."

Now, be thankful I'm not in Ukraine.  I passed by the Russian Embassy yesterday evening, and even at that late hours there were protestors outside waving the Ukrainian flag and lambasting Putin.  What the fuck is the matter with that asshole.  Doesn't the world have enough misery already, what with Covid and shit like that.  

Back in the 40s and 50s, the US should have listened to MacArthur and Patton.  Alas...

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I'll leave you with this which I heard today.

I used to date an optician.

When I told her I couldn't see her anymore, she moved closer and said, "Is this better?"

Stay healthy.

Maybe a bit esoteric

As one does in school, one reads a lot of academic papers, and particularly in a graduate program.  It's actually very hard for me, because I can't resist engaging with the articles as if I were a reviewer.  So much of what I read I find frustrating, and I often wonder how journal reviewers and editors let some of these papers get published.

Personally I think making higher education more accessible is full of good intentions.  But the execution is not well-thought out.  When the global North decided to widen access to higher education, it created wider demand for faculty.  Where would they come from?  Consequently many more PhDs were minted, many by schools that have no business granting doctorates.  But as you may guess, some of these accreditation bodies are a joke.  All they care is that the Ts are crossed and the Is are dotted.  And long-winded essays are written in some obtuse fashion so as to prove the school's worth.

Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, many so-called PhDs give fellow doctorate holders a bad name.  I mean, seriously, if one can get a PhD in three years, and one is nowhere near a genius, well....  If dear reader, you are one of those, let's just assume you are a genius.

Take research.  I am simply amazed that even in the 21st century, so many published articles still report only alphas on their instruments.  We have known since the 70s that demonstrating reliability isn't enough.  If a measure is not valid, it's bullshit.  And a measure can be reliable but not valid.  A study that only reports reliability means absolutely zilch.  I would have thought that today editors and reviewers would have totally DEMANDED validity data.  But oh no.  WTF.

And I was reading this article, and they reported all this statistics etc.  Only then I notice that despite all that so-called statistical significance and elaborate math, the R-squared reported was, get this, 0.07.  No shit.  Their fucking elaborate model is able to explain 7% of the variance.  A monkey throwing darts can do better.  And it's published.  And morons reading these things will just take note of the idea that A and B contribute to C, and so on, and miss the fact the model does fuck all.

In another article, the researchers report on a pretty massive quantitative study involving more than 500 subjects.  These subjects were videotaped and different observers watched the tape and coded the behaviours.  The article reports inter-rater reliability (i.e. whether different observers report the same thing) at 15-20%!  Fuck!  Two monkey throwing darts would give you 50% agreement!  And it gets published.

What the fuck were the reviewers doing?

Now for something that I simply HATE.  Why do people not use the Oxford comma anymore?  In what fucking way is it better to say blue, green, red and white, than to say, blue, green, red, and white?  Why do we need to give the possible confusion that "red and white" is one item?

It's just me.

I guess aspiring academic writers are glad that I am no longer reviewing papers.