Greg and Kat's blog

It’s Friday, and many of you have probably had a hard week. I personally haven’t: it has been my first actual week of being left alone to my study leave. Anyway…

The Discovery Channel has recently started airing a new promo commercial. Apparently, Discovery USA has been airing its version for six months or so, but Discovery Canada has just put together their version. I love the spot and think of it as video prozac.

Being unable to find it online, I had to take matters into my own hands and hope I don’t incur the wrath of Discovery’s laywers (for promoting their promotion… I think they might let it go). So, you can watch the 60 second Canadian version or the 30 second Canadian version.

If you watch that a couple of times and don’t feel like the weekend’s going to be all right, you just have a heart of stone.

Because I’m nothing if not obsessive, I will also include some links to other versions: the 1 minute US version, the 30 second US version, and a 3 minute live performance at some Discovery party or something.

All of this means I finally understand the xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel comic. The original ad has also earned a World of Games parody and a Wikipedia entry.

The song is based on the campfire song (that I had never heard before) “I Love the Mountains”. If you’d like a sample, CD Baby comes through with a sample of it from Let’s Go! by Susie Tallman.

On Saturday, me, Kat, Oli, Tina, and Oli’s brother Jon went canoeing. We rented canoes somewhere up the Pitt River where I’ve never been before and paddled up a little tributary.

Canoeing is something I grew up doing, and it’s something very personal for me. For someone who isn’t sentimental or nostalgic about anything, I’m deeply sentimental about canoes. They remind me of where I grew up, my father, and a lot of great times messing around on lakes. To give you an idea, here is a summary of days in my life:

The hulking fibreglass barges that you can rent really bear little resemblance to canoes as I remember them. As far as I’m concerned, canoes are made from cedar and canvas (even though kevlar or other exotic materials are tougher and lighter), have no keel, a very rounded bottom (left-to-right), some rocker (curve front-to-back), and tumblehome (sides curve in at the top).

All of those shape choices make for a canoe that will happily throw you into the water if not shown the respect it deserves, and needs a little skill to get it to go in a straight line. But, they are truly beautiful, and maneuver like a dream.

I have only really found one video that properly shows how beautiful and effortless solo paddling can be in a nice canoe. To give you an idea of the skill here, the bow jam (the stroke that guy does around 0:45) has two possible outcomes: (1) the canoe turns sharply away from the paddle side; or (2) you find yourself suddenly in the water, with the canoe drifting slowly away. These outcomes are equally likely on your first few attempts.

I hadn’t really realized the extent to which this style of paddling is descended from one guy: Omer Stringer. He taught my father (and hundreds of others) how to paddle, and my father taught me (and hundreds of other school kids and boy scouts). This style is apparently now known as “classic Canadian soloing” or “Omering“. It’s what the guy in the video above is doing, and it’s what I’m doing if you’ve ever seen me in a canoe.

At my parents’ place, there is a framed picture that my dad took of Omer doing a headstand in a canoe. He would have been into his 70s when the picture was taken. He was probably past doing the running-jump off the dock into a canoe by then.

Anyway, there wasn’t really any point to that. It’s just the only nostalgia I’ve got.

I am finally finished the marking of the CMPT 470 projects. It usually takes me a week (or maybe a little more) to get them done. This semester, the world conspired against me. They were in for a week before I even looked at them.

But in exchange for my lack of 470-mindshare, I live in a nicer place, we had a successful Shad Valley intern for two weeks, we have a new manager (in Amanda’s old position), two co-op students have been hired, and none of our staff quit. It has been a really rough couple of weeks. This quote from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has been on my mind a lot:

The possibility of physical and mental collapse is now very real. No sympathy for the Devil, keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride.

I bought the ticket, and I took the ride. I’m sure I’m a better person for it. But mostly, I’m ready for my sabbatical.

I finished the marking about 20 minutes ago, and if I’m to be honest, I’m already fairly drunk. Hold on… I can still do that “close your eyes, hold out your hand, and touch your nose” thing. It’s probably because the last drink hasn’t hit my bloodstream yet, though.

I have two things still to get rid of from the old place, and I want to be out by Friday, so if you want these and can pick them up, let me know.

My DVD/CD shelf has been on Craigslist for a while and the only responders have flaked out. I’m going to put it up for free soon, but dibs to all of you.

The TV/component stand that I mentioned earlier is still around. I need to get rid of it. I know I’ll get responses from Craigslist, but if anybody here wants it (and tells me soon), it’s yours.

We just got keys for the new place. It’s really awesome. Everything is new, nice, and well thought out. We took a whole pile of pictures to document where things are (since not knowing how much space there is somewhere, or what colour something is can be a real hassle).

My example of why it’s so awesome probably won’t be the same at Kat’s, but here’s when I almost lost the thread: I was looking around, and there are wall jacks everywhere that have RJ-45 jacks, which are the ones used for Ethernet:

This puzzled me: Ethernet is inherently double-ended. It needs to terminate somewhere, and these didn’t have an obvious endpoint.

I moved on to the rest of the tour, until we got to the hall closet, and the landlady showed us this thing that she didn’t exactly understand:

A full-blown RJ-45 patch panel! The place seems to have been wired with Telus TV in mind (which uses Ethernet and a set top box), but I’m pretty sure these are standard RJ-45/Cat5e/T568A cable runs. That means that an hub/router in the closet gives us 100Mb/s (or even 1Gb/s) data everywhere in the apartment.

Sure, the place has other features as well. You can see them in the pictures.

More stuff that we have to get rid of in the move. All prices are “or best offer”. As with other stuff, I’ll give y’all a day or two lead on Craigslist.

VCR: Sony SLV-N88.

Hi-fi, dead-easy programming with the little knob on the front. Works perfectly, as far as I know. $30

TV/component stand.

Nice stand for TV and two shelves of components below it. Won’t fit in the new place, so it’s gotta go. $20, must pick up.


Doesn’t include the electronics in the picture, natch.

CD drawers.

2 × 4 drawer CD jewel case drawers from Ikea. $10

White bookshelf.

68×29×8.5 inch bookshelf. $10, must pick up.


Doesn’t include the crap on the shelf in picture.

Beech bookshelf.

71×28×10.5 inch bookshelf from Ikea. $10, must pick up.


Doesn’t include the crap on the shelf in picture.

As should be obvious to anyone reading this blog, Kat and I are preparing to move to a shiny new place just down the road. There are really only two downsides to this move: (1) we have to move, (2) we are leaving our landlady.

I have blogged about our landlady before: she is a nice old lady from Hong Kong. This house is about her only tangible asset and our rent is a big chunk of her income. I feel bad leaving her to find somebody else. So, I don’t intend to…

Who needs a new place?

It’s a ground-floor suite. Two bedrooms, one bath, decent living room, kitchen, shared laundry. $900/mo + utilities. Maybe 1000 sq ft or so. Entrance through the garage, which isn’t great, but isn’t a big deal either. (It means a good spot to store a bike if nothing else.)

North Burnaby at Albert and Madison. I’m obviously a big fan of the neighbourhood, otherwise we’d be moving more than a block away. Close to a bunch of restaurants, Safeway, 135 stop (25 minutes to SFU Burnaby by bus), Brentwood Mall, bike/hiking paths, …

I took a bunch of pictures when I was moving in two years ago. We haven’t exactly trashed the place, so it will look about the same.

I’d make a killer deal on any furniture that we aren’t taking with us (my initial bargaining position: $0). That seems to include a buffet/island/chopping block thing in the kitchen, a TV stand, DVD shelf, and a loveseat. A few little shelves might stay too.

Remember my affection for the landlady: no loud parties, no trashing the place, no keeping her up at night. You’ll have me to deal with if you do.

Update: Move in mid-August, as soon as we’re out. I’ll pick up that first part-month rent.

Costco has always been my connection for garden burgers. They sold sleeves of about 25 of them, and there was always one in my freezer. There have been many times they kept me alive, particularly in the two lost years while Kat was in NC.

In my last three visits to three different Costcos, they haven’t had any. From this, I conclude that Costco has stopped selling garden burgers.

This is not acceptable, and could be a dealbreaker on my (already facultative) vegetarianism. Does anybody know where I can get a big box o’ veggie burgers, thus avoiding colon cancer and morbid obesity?

My life is in your hands. Please help.

There’s a bike race around my neighbourhood tonight if you’re bored. I was here for it last year: it’s quite cool to see if you have a few minutes.