Lunar Bovine - Jason Cobill's Weblog

99 Days Left!

jcobill — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:47:22 +0000

There are only 99 days left according to my original orthodontic treatment schedule - only that many days before I can munch on handfuls of popcorn, squish sweedish berries, or nibble the good stuff off of apple cores! Three months until I can floss without having a team of engineers planning out threading trajectories.

The move has kindof thrown me off my orthodontic schedule, but not by much - and I think we were ahead a fair bit before, so if this guy’s on track it may even be sooner. Here’s hoping anyhow!

The experience of having braces hasn’t be really horrible - the last few months in particular have just flown by with my braces rarely making an issue of themselves. Three more months of smooth sailing, I hope! I have an appointment on Tuesday, so I hope it goes well!

Antiviral

jcobill — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:29:42 +0000

I got my flu shot this morning! There was some “flu-proof club” fistbumping in the office earlier, but our zeal for secret handshakes diminished a bit as some of our arms got sore.

I didn’t get a cool band-aid, probably because I was off like a “shot” (haha!) as soon as the business end of my nurse visit was over. I’m not a big fan of needles and didn’t want to risk getting all woozy in front of my co-workers.

I’ve read articles about how having only a part of the population immunized protects the whole - a really fascinating concept. “Population immunity” really only requires a small percentage of the population to have immunity in order to protect the rest - it’s really neat.

More Funky Fog

jcobill — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 01:32:25 +0000

Woke up to some more rolling fog, this time hugging the ground just enough that it picked up a little colour, and every so often a building over on Richmond would peek through. Really neat!

I think I’m going to set up my camera to do some time-lapse sequences overnight and see if I can catch tomorrow’s fog rolling in.

Scenery Bill Overdue

jcobill — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 03:53:59 +0000

Somebody forgot to pay the scenery bill this month, and when we woke up, we were cut off. I brushed my teeth this morning while admiring the pea-soup fog, with nothing visible out our windows but our balcony rail. I wondered to myself if I’d died over the course of the evening, but I reasoned that heaven probably wouldn’t have jackhammers going in the parking lot.

If you click this image, you’ll get an even bigger image of nothing. How strange!

Minor Updates

jcobill — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:49:19 +0000

So I had a rhythm going of a few posts a week before I left Winnipeg, and I’ve been really quiet lately, leaving a lot of people wondering if I’ve been abducted by aliens or something. I’m still around, I just haven’t had a lot of time between settling in to have zany adventures. A bunch of semi-boring tidbits probably add up to a half-decent update, so here’s goes:

We have furniture! Pretty much everything’s here now, except a ficus I need to pick up at an aunt’s house. We’ve very generously been invited out a bunch of times, and we can almost return the favour now, once we manage to clear the last few stubborn boxes out of the dining room.
I’m a master of Ikea shelving assembly and pretty handy with curtain fixtures, hanging picture frames, swapping fuses, gerryrigging antennas, and in a pinch I’ve taken apart and reassembled our door’s deadbolt. My toolboxes found a home in our living room for a while, because I was constantly digging around for screwdriver nibs. I’ve needed a mallet a few times but don’t have one. I should add one to my Christmas list, because my fist works as a stand-in but it hurts afterwards.
The weather’s turned nicer! I should be taking my bike in, but I’ve been waking up late (since I had my cold I’ve been kindof wiped out) and I have a very tempting bus pass… I need to get in a good “bike to work!” mental space while the mornings are warm.
I’m putting together some music CDs for friends’ birthdays, which all seem concentrated around the same weekend in November. I discovered I don’t have many blank CDs kicking around, so I have an excuse to go computer shopping!
Natasha’s got great decorating taste - I like her style.
I have to get my license switched over to Ontario before the end of the month. Apparently insurance is cheaper here than Manitoba? Crazy!

Wooot!

Happy Halloween!

jcobill — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 17:23:03 +0000

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween last night! We ended up over at Greg and Madeleine’s to hang out with the little ones while they got ready for trick or treating. There were lots of little Jedis and Princesses at the door this year, a very impressive set of superheroes and a gaggle of witches, but ninjas and pirates were under-represented. Poor Jack Sparrow, with such a fickle fanbase.

This one kid had an awesome costume - blue pyjamas, red Superman cape, and a Zorro mask. SUPERZORRO!

We had a pumpkin carving contest at work over our lunch-hour. My team made the JackOLantern on the left and I got to bring it along to the house, while Madeleine’s sister Liz made and brought the beautiful owl carving on the right. Lots of parents were stopping to take pictures of Liz’s handiwork while the kids were begging for munchies.

Jack O’Lantern and Liz’s Owl

Snowy October

jcobill — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 01:47:25 +0000

Okay, you smug Winnipegers, I got your teasing e-mails, and I’ll cry uncle. Here’s the tropical climate I moved to, the morning of October 29th. Cold, driving snow that stuck for two days. Curse you, weather gods! On the plus side, it was good and wet snowman material!

Tomorrow we’re supposed to get 12°C, so wish us luck - maybe all of the snow will melt away and we can forget all about this.

Pink Lake Hike

jcobill — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:53:36 +0000

Natasha and I decided to take a break from setting up house (yes, a month later we’re still unpacking stuff) to go enjoy the gorgeous day on Sunday with a trip up to the Gatineau Hills for a hike around Pink Lake. It was good timing - there was really great colour on the trees, but they were well on their way to shedding all their leaves. The next few weekends may be the last for this year’s best fall colours.

Hiking around Pink Lake

The path is pretty family-friendly, so I would hardly call it a challenging hike, but we were a little winded from all the hills. I’m really looking forward to spending more time in the Gatineaus. It’s getting a bit late in the season, but I’d like to resolve to hike the entire park next year, trail by trail.

This weekend brought me back to gym class - back in college our school facility didn’t have a gymnasium, so the elective ‘health studies’ class I took was a hiking course, which put us into the hills each weekend for a semester. I’ve missed having the terrain around!

Chan’s Megastick

jcobill — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 04:56:31 +0000

So, how cool must “Chan’s Megastick” feel when it hobnobs with the other insects and discusses taxonomy?

“Hi, I’m Gary, a dung beetle. What are you?”
“Chaaaaaaaaaaaan’s MEGA-STIIIICK!”

And every time he says it, I bet the screen fills with a flashing scrolling anime background, and he transforms into a fierce robotic stickbug warrior.

MEGA-STIIIIIIIIICK!!!!