Friday, June 30, 2006
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Meet Molly and Arooo

Aroo is the puppy dog with the loveable face.
Cheers,
Jennith

Water: A National Tresure

But to grasp its value, you need not go any farther than this planet at this date and time to see that in places - water (especially clean water) is scarce indeed, and that its scarcity results in hardship.
In Canada, and particularly in the lake riddle Canadian shield making up much of northern Ontario - clean water courses and natural areas abound. Michael Valentine Smith, the "stranger in a strange land" would have been shocked to see Kilarny Lake in its glory when he first arrived on Earth - to him a glass of water was an extravagance. However, the booming population of the GTA is most certainly putting pressure on all of the watersheds in its vicinity. The Toronto Star today reported on the precarious state of Lake Simcoe. While past articles have discussed fears that the Oak Ridges Morraine Act will be undermined by municipalities seeking to appease developers in their bounderies. Its a difficult dilemma. Land that can't be developed loses value - yet, the future value of protecting the integrity of our environment is nearly impossible to measure. I don't blame the developers for trying, but I hope that before any decisions are made, people consider the long term consequences seriously.
Jenn

Monday, June 26, 2006
NAMES: The answers to the picture below
Fred Gno, David Price, David Swain, David Baine, Josh Hunter, Chris Sousa, Kyle Novak, James Harison, Chris Cole
Jonathon Whitaker, Vivek Balasubramanyam, Michal Readman, Bradley Stirton,Chris Bardon, Issaac Smith, Ryan Donelly, Peter Morely, Ms. Johnston
Angela Sethi, Jenn Peart, ?????, Erin Sandilands, Supriya, Sunita Sayeram, Laura Snell and Denisse ?Williams.
Pretty good for an old fogie.
Jonathon Whitaker, Vivek Balasubramanyam, Michal Readman, Bradley Stirton,Chris Bardon, Issaac Smith, Ryan Donelly, Peter Morely, Ms. Johnston
Angela Sethi, Jenn Peart, ?????, Erin Sandilands, Supriya, Sunita Sayeram, Laura Snell and Denisse ?Williams.
Pretty good for an old fogie.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
School Days: Grade 8b Class Picture

Having lost touch with all but 3 people in this picture, I'm afraid I don't have much to say. 2 became engineers (both at Waterloo) and the third is in med school. Another one I think recently graduated from law school - so the folk rumours go and one is alive and not too far away and another was alive and living out west last I ran into his sister.
So, here I am rambling again.
I'd better email all the people I owe emails and stuff and try and be friendly or something.
Cheers,
Jennith

Saturday, June 24, 2006
Encore 'Ol Acer Keys

After a bike ride that ended when Gabe's tire blew up, we walked to Canadian Tire where we, after much kerfuffal got all the pieces we needed. We were rescued from further walking in the hot sun by my dad. My mom and I went to the Graden Centre and bought some flowers for the clay pot on the deck, bogonias for the front, and a super on sale basket for the porch. We also bought some soil. I even found a pair of awesome gardening gloves that fit my hands and were breathable enough for me to wear all day. We edged a bunch of beds and mixed some fancy dirt into some of them. There is still lots of gardening to do though.
Tomorrow we are doing a belated fathers day at my grandparents. It'll be good to see them and my Uncle Stevie again after a few weeks. Its been a weird few days of hearing from people I haven't heard from in a while from school and from years ago when I was practice teaching in Nunavut. Who knows. I feel really bad that I have been completely antisocial and haven't seen or talked to any of my friends in weeks. I really should give Erin a call. Oh, my other goal for tommorrow is to clean up the corner of my room that is my office, because right now there is still junk and half unpacked boxes of junk everywhere.
Its time for bed... look for some exciting pictures later this week.
Jennith

Friday, June 23, 2006
A Butterfly for your Thoughts

I feel fluttery and all over the place these days. Can't make up my mind or stop worrying it.
I know I'm slacking off on writing these days I've beem pretty busy with school and thinking.
So, off to bed for now and eventually I'll get some more pictures up.
Jenn

Wednesday, June 21, 2006
In Perfect Focus
. . .
and Gabe says "That's old!" - Still the sunset reflected in his glasses is cool. Another picture taken somewhere near sussex and long enough ago that Gabe has short hair. Looks cute doesn't he.
So many thoughts and neither the energy or the wisdom to get it all down coherently. I've been generally neglecting my blogging duties lately, owing to an attempt to cram as much info as I can into my brain about rivers and flows and cars.
I can't even stand to think about cars right now, it makes my blood pressure go up.
Sigh. No Stanley cup for Canada this year - it was fun watching the game though.
Okay, more thoughts that by the time you get here you will have already read.
Jenn

So many thoughts and neither the energy or the wisdom to get it all down coherently. I've been generally neglecting my blogging duties lately, owing to an attempt to cram as much info as I can into my brain about rivers and flows and cars.
I can't even stand to think about cars right now, it makes my blood pressure go up.
Sigh. No Stanley cup for Canada this year - it was fun watching the game though.
Okay, more thoughts that by the time you get here you will have already read.
Jenn

Saturday, June 17, 2006
I smile and wave

As a rant topic - - - Yeah for the Oilers!!! Even if all the so called Canadian's around here are so wound up with World Cup soccer they can't be botehr with the most exciting hockey Canada's seen in at least a year. We might win!!!!
Okay... I'd better go to bed.. much stuff to do tomorrow.
Jennith

Friday, June 16, 2006
Apocalypse Planning

That said, I'm not expecting the apocalyse is going to happen. In fact, I rather hope it doesn't, since I'm neither well prepared or in favour of the odds of my surviving should such an unpleasant event occur. That said, every once and a while I give learning a skill bonus points for being useful in the event of a nasty global disaster. . . such as fixing a roof or raising chickens or having friends who know a bit about medicine or engineering.
The subject of the apocaplyse (and whether thinking about it is devient) came up over an empty threat to not own a television or have cable. I figure I've survived happily without for 10 years on acount of having more interesting things to do with my money (i.e. buy food) and time (i.e. plow through scads of homework). The advantage of not having a television is that the temptation to veg is removed and you are much more likely to do something more fulfilling and constructive (i.e. knit mittens - although much of my knitting occured while watching episodes of Due South, so this isn't a great example.).
So, honestly, I don't have any great plans for the apocalypse. Its hard to plan for when you not only don't have a clue if or when it'll happen, nevermind the circumstances surrounding it. I think the government must have some musty plans left over from the cold war years on how it would handle a nuclear catastrophe (or you could read one of the zillions of after the bomb science fiction books (Z is for zachariah being a children's book, Farnham's Freehold (Heinlein), The Chrysalids, The Stand(King)) Its a terribly popular science fiction theme, especially in the 60's and 70's.
So, here is some advice gleaned from an Australlian Survivalist Website "A good library full of practical information is a necessity for anyone who hopes to survive a worldwide cataclysmic event." Phew... I'm ready. . . hope that all those sci-fi and fantasy books are as useful than the engineering and biology text books. Ohh, the rest of this site is too wacky[TEOTWAWKI - being an acronym for "the end of the world as we know it"], not to find entertaining. . . it includes a poll of I'm-not-sure-who on what they think the most likely cause of the apocalypse will be. . . and the winner is . . . Natural Pandemic followed by natural disaster, economic collapse, world war III, weapons of mass destruction and finally asteroid crash.
Still, as much as the site makes me uncomfortable in the sort of way that makes you make fun of it - I still believe there is merit in making some plans for surviving disasters whether it be on a small personal scale, something the size of hurricane katrina or being world wide. The people who plan a little are more likely to be the ones still around after the dust has settled and the rest of us may not be around to call them paranoid, hippies or scientoligists as the case applies.
I figure I have some reasonable wilderness skills - walking long distances, purifying water, pitching shelters, first aid, plant identification and fire building. And perhaps a few useful engineering skills, although I'm lacking in practical carpentry, husbandry or serious medical skills. Prehaps I should get more involved with the SCA. :D They're great people learning useful skills.
Anywho,
I'm rambling and should get some sleep. I'm not making much sense. Good night.
Jennith

Thursday, June 15, 2006
Post Picnic Enclave

That aside - I had a wonderful reunion with a bunch of old highschool friends and if some topics left me with little to add owing to my ignorance, there is much to be said for listening and learning in all social circles. Besides, to my relief they haven't changed all that much - still prone to goofy antics, british humour (aka monty python) and properly geeky things. So, if I can stop reading about plant communities in the headwaters of the Thames river long enough to have an intermittent social life - it'll be good to be home.
Cheers,
Jennith

Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Thoughts for June 2006
I thought it would be a reasonable follow-up to my blog about the terrorist arrests to provide this link to Walkom's Star article. While my view isn't exactly the same has his - I felt he raised some points about popular opinion being shaped by alarmist political and journalistic behavior.
Link
This second link to a Toronto Star article discusses the interaction between Muslim spokespeople and the media and who speaks for who. The article highlights the fact that the "terrorists" don't really represent the views of the vast majority of Muslims and diversity of interpretation of the religion by immigrants and Canadian-born Muslims. Here is the link to "and who speaks for the Muslims?"
On the four sisters at the Lakeview generating station. . .
I think it would be neat if they erected a wind generator or a large solar power complex as part of a new marine landmark (or perhaps a new candu reactor) to commemorate the shift to cleaner energy sources in Ontario.
River Ecology Thoughts:
Hygropetric or Madicolous Habitats: neat names for a habitat where there is a continuous thin sheet of water trickling or seeping over a bare-rock (Hygropetric) or rock-muck-moss(Madicolous) surfaces.
Thoughts on the best decade to date...
I really liked the nineties. There are lots of things to be proud of as a species that happened.... the growth of the internet, environmentalism being cool, grunge, folk, alternative and celtic music (well a matter of taste), way better TV than now (Ninja turtles, Simpsons, Reboot, Due South).
This new decade (I don't think I need to comment on the 70's and 80's - there are lots of comments out there) hasn't been that exciting. Music and television content are embaressing (Reality TV - need I say more), attire that is uncomfortable, unflattering and shows no regard for the dangers of skin cancer, little kids with cellphones, ipods and dressed for the bar, epidemic childhood obesity, a war in the middle east (although the nineties had their share of conflicts - they didn't seem to have the prominence of the current one), The US being run by George (ex-addict with likely brain damage) Bush, the fumbling of the Kyoto accord (and I'm not stating whether I'm for or against it - just that either the scientists got it wrong and the politicians are doing the right thing and the environmental movement is set back or the scientists got it right, the politicians are doing their own thing for their own gain and we're screwed. Either way it isn't anything to feel good about)
So, there is a rant!!!! Maybe I'm just becomming an old fogey longing for the good old days before i gave in to drinking coffee.
Things I miss about Fredericton:
1. The tap water - Brita filtered Mississauga municipal water is okay, but Fredericton's water was awesome.
2. The walking bridge
3. Pool at the 20/Twenty ($2/hour - although I don't think it is anymore)
4. Watching the sun set from my balcony.
5. Eating breakfast on the balcony.
6. Downtown Fredericton and the local character created by old buildings (also on Campus)
7. The windows seats in the Old Head Hall
8. Odell park
9. The bike trails to Marysville
10. Heather's parties
Things I like about Guelph University.
1. People are generally friendly and dressed casually
2. Coffee and a muffin for $1.99
3. Lots and lots of computer terminals in the libraries and quiet spaces to work.
4. Lots and lots and lots of books about hydrology
5. Eclectic and surprising monuments and bits of arts.
6. My sister in law and Kirsten
7. Really cool stormwater management stuff in the city.
8. A real rock climbing wall
9. Actual engineering jackets
10. Pictures of my brother all over the engineering building
okay.. brain is refreshed.
Over and out for now,
Jennith
Link
This second link to a Toronto Star article discusses the interaction between Muslim spokespeople and the media and who speaks for who. The article highlights the fact that the "terrorists" don't really represent the views of the vast majority of Muslims and diversity of interpretation of the religion by immigrants and Canadian-born Muslims. Here is the link to "and who speaks for the Muslims?"
On the four sisters at the Lakeview generating station. . .
I think it would be neat if they erected a wind generator or a large solar power complex as part of a new marine landmark (or perhaps a new candu reactor) to commemorate the shift to cleaner energy sources in Ontario.
River Ecology Thoughts:
Hygropetric or Madicolous Habitats: neat names for a habitat where there is a continuous thin sheet of water trickling or seeping over a bare-rock (Hygropetric) or rock-muck-moss(Madicolous) surfaces.
Thoughts on the best decade to date...
I really liked the nineties. There are lots of things to be proud of as a species that happened.... the growth of the internet, environmentalism being cool, grunge, folk, alternative and celtic music (well a matter of taste), way better TV than now (Ninja turtles, Simpsons, Reboot, Due South).
This new decade (I don't think I need to comment on the 70's and 80's - there are lots of comments out there) hasn't been that exciting. Music and television content are embaressing (Reality TV - need I say more), attire that is uncomfortable, unflattering and shows no regard for the dangers of skin cancer, little kids with cellphones, ipods and dressed for the bar, epidemic childhood obesity, a war in the middle east (although the nineties had their share of conflicts - they didn't seem to have the prominence of the current one), The US being run by George (ex-addict with likely brain damage) Bush, the fumbling of the Kyoto accord (and I'm not stating whether I'm for or against it - just that either the scientists got it wrong and the politicians are doing the right thing and the environmental movement is set back or the scientists got it right, the politicians are doing their own thing for their own gain and we're screwed. Either way it isn't anything to feel good about)
So, there is a rant!!!! Maybe I'm just becomming an old fogey longing for the good old days before i gave in to drinking coffee.
Things I miss about Fredericton:
1. The tap water - Brita filtered Mississauga municipal water is okay, but Fredericton's water was awesome.
2. The walking bridge
3. Pool at the 20/Twenty ($2/hour - although I don't think it is anymore)
4. Watching the sun set from my balcony.
5. Eating breakfast on the balcony.
6. Downtown Fredericton and the local character created by old buildings (also on Campus)
7. The windows seats in the Old Head Hall
8. Odell park
9. The bike trails to Marysville
10. Heather's parties
Things I like about Guelph University.
1. People are generally friendly and dressed casually
2. Coffee and a muffin for $1.99
3. Lots and lots of computer terminals in the libraries and quiet spaces to work.
4. Lots and lots and lots of books about hydrology
5. Eclectic and surprising monuments and bits of arts.
6. My sister in law and Kirsten
7. Really cool stormwater management stuff in the city.
8. A real rock climbing wall
9. Actual engineering jackets
10. Pictures of my brother all over the engineering building
okay.. brain is refreshed.
Over and out for now,
Jennith
Monday, June 12, 2006
Neat Columbine

On the exciting side, we got to watch my step dad gently beat my mom with a limp head of romaine lettuce amid a sea of bad puns. Wish I had a picture but my camera was elsewhere.
Saturday was James' b-day and I went to Centre Island and a party in TO. I think I rattled on about that and posted a few pictures. Excitement = $5 filing cabinet at a garage sale.
Today was a work day. We cleaned up the year, trimmed back some hedges raked up some leaves and planted some haustas. Geoff and Erin came over and we taught Gabe how to play Settlers of Catan. Yeah.
Tommorrow... back to learning.
Jennith

Sunday, June 11, 2006
Taller towers

On a related story, I was reading that they plan to demolish the 4 sisters (the smoke stacks of lakeview generating station) are being demolished tommorrow on breakfast television. (Okay- they are getting demolished because the generating station is closed, but Breakfast Television is covering the demolition live. I guess some boaters are sad because it is a prominent landmark and helps people who are lost, turned around or travelling a long distance.
Cheers,
Jennith

Maritime Momments on the Great Lakes

Gabe finally got to meet some more of my highschool friends. I think he was relieved that they weren't too normal and all read lots of books.
It was a nice break from being cooped up with tonnes of reading - I'm starting to wish I had a bit of calculus practice to break up the reading. However, it is intersting stuff and I know way more about rivers than I did a week or so ago.
I'll post a few more pictures and then maybe a few from the archives.
Jenn

Friday, June 09, 2006
Thoughts

Its been a good day, in spite of working most of the day. You'll note that they frequency and quality of this book are both likely to decrease now that I am working. My mom gave me this book that starts off with the line "Do princess's where hiking boots?". :D It was great. I won't spoil it, but I highly recomend it.
I have curtailled my newspaper reading. I'm surprised at my lack of desire to follow the terrorist arrests closely. Generally, I follow local stories closely. I think partly that it is my own mixed feelings about it. I certainly am not happy to hear that people born and raised here were turned against their own country, yet I have too many friends of Muslim background to want to join the feeding frenzy on yet more bad publicity for their community. What I have skimmed in the papers, shows that different writers have handled the story differently - but its not a straight forward issue (in contrast to the ecoli disaster in Kashechewan) so you are getting more variety of opinions. Some of the articles are well thought out, and some are a touch nasty and most are simply calculated to get the best readership and not especially brilliant journalism. I don't mind hearing updates on the case, but I'd like to see a bit more variety in the news. I'm glad the police were on the ball - kudos to them. But if you beat the issue long enough, its only going to show up the dirty underside of all of our hearts as we let 17 young men and youths represent the entire Canadian Muslim communtiy.
Gabe baked a wonderful cake, but we were too full to eat it tonight... but its cake for breakfast for sure!! I have lots of thoughts, but I can't seem to get them all down. It could be the lateness of the hour. Thanks to everyone for making today special. Life is a crazy place. I guess you can only live it as it comes. I'll think some more tomorrow.
Jenn

Thursday, June 08, 2006
Bleckflies!

Glasses were bigger back then! Having recently been diagnosed with an eye-turn (an overly active focusing tendency) and told to wear some weaker glasses when reading at the computer - I have had the joy of revisiting some of my own larger glasses. None of which are particularly flattering. However, I have noticed a difference in the ability of stay watching the computer screen. He he... but I'll be getting another pair of glasses eventually - so I won't have to look like an owl forever.
Lots of other thoughts I wish I had time to share, but my lunch hour is done and I'll have to get back to reading massive pdf files whole. I really wish that they would cease publishing pdf of papers with 2 or more columns - its next to impossible to read.
Anywho - later.
Jennith

Oh World - you're too good for anyone to realize!

Cheers,
Jenn

Wednesday, June 07, 2006
The Best of Engineering Pub Crawl T-Shirts

I must say that I liked Top Gun the best (and I think that was Gabe's least favourite.) He did like the wild water canyon though. Even the weird 3 D Hanabarbara video was kind of cool.
Their prices have gone up insanely since I was a kid. You can't buy anything for a remotely reasonable price, and while we were a captive audience, you left feeling a bit ripped off.
Our T-Shirts resulted in numerous comments. For the record, they are engineering pub crawl t-shirts from UNB espouses our love for integration or the integral of e raised to the power of x, which happens to be e raised to the power of x for all of those of you who have let your calculus get rusty. I think9 or 10 people, mostly staff came and asked us about it.
In our defense, we got dressed and then much later decided to go after all. So we weren't planning to go before we wore the same t-shirt. I just grabbed the wrong sized one out of the cupboard and still had it in hand when I found my own and so I offered it to Gabe. It made the day and the picture memorable though.
Cheers,
Jenn

Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Monday, June 05, 2006
Backwards Baseball Hats and the Morning Parking Lot

One of the things I miss the most from the Woodlands is the chocolate chip muffins that you could buy hot in the morning from the back of the kitchen. Yum.
I love this warmth in this picture. Two of the nicest smiles in the whole pile. :D
Cheers,
Jennith

Funny and Funny in Grade 9

I thought everyone would smile to see Gareth and Alex and remember their hijinx. I haven't heard much about them recently. Alex is a genius and Gareth I heard joined the army.
It's neat that so many people are reading my blog. I suppose I'd better start trying to use full sentences and proper spelling.
I cut out halfway through the last blog where I was just about to describe the different between perserverance and perseveration. I was interupted by the surprise arrival of my very own angel (aka gabriel) 2 days earlier than I'd expected. So, its not surprising that I didn't finish the blog. I was accused of perseveration because I want to replace my current glasses with an identical pair because I like them and I don't like the weird new ones that count as fashion these days. (my current ones are a simple pair of black wireframe glasses. Perseveration is: " The tendency to continue or repeat an act or activity after the cessation of the original stimulus." dictionary.com... Sigh... now I guess I'll have to pick different glasses just to prove my mom wrong.
So now everything is much messier, but its nice having Gabe here. He was missed.
I'll keep the pictures coming.
Jennith

Sunday, June 04, 2006
Peace, Protractors and Perseveration

Other thoughts. . . I'm almost done sorting through my room, relocating things I don't need and repacking them. I even found the protractor I was looking for this morning on my desk under a stack of photos. (I suppose that none of you are suprised that I have photos everywhere still. Actually, I've packed most of the sorted photos back into a rubbermaid container. I just have a few stack on my desk that I'm steadily feeding through my scanner. At least I'm getting my money's worth out of it.
As for the perseveration (not to be confused with perservation) - I'll have to finish this later

Saturday, June 03, 2006
"This is me in Grade 9" BNL

So, this is me in grade 9. . . If I was a bit self crueler - I might include a shot of my self portrait which I painted from it. Actually the picture isn't that different expect we were suposed to do it in an unrealistic palate - so my eyes are red and my skin is yellow.
I really always hated these glasses. They never fit right and they never sat straight and they're huge!!!
Wow... do I look like a 90's geek with big plastic earings and bangs that I probably adjusted myself (I finally realized that I shoud stop trying to cut my own hair.)
The Orange shirt I'm wearing eventually became my tree planting shirt. It has faded to a pale orange and is stained and torn (I later retired it to my work shirt - so it has lots of paint and oil stains). I think I still have that Northern Reflections windbreaker somewhere too. I should take a look for it. Its a cool colour.
Cheers,
Jennith

Chitaqua Girl

This play was proof that even if things look really shaky in the dress rehearsal - you can still pull it off on opening night.
I still wish that we'd done chaos and desire - risky as it was.
This would be highschool grade 11 Searsfest. I actually think the set is quite striking.
Anywho, a nother piece of Woodlands history - brought to you by the JPC
ttyl,
Jennith

Friday, June 02, 2006
I think I'm a clone now!!

We figured out some reasonable bus routes to Humber as a side effect of wondering why GO transit had cut busses on the route that I took to get to my gramma's. So all in all its been a productive event. I myself still have lots of paper to go through and throw out still.
On Thursday, I went up to Guelph to tag along with my supervisor and one of her students on a tour de stormwater facilities in Guelph. I naturally forgot my camera and will have to go back and get some pictures next week for Dr. Wilson. Guelph has some really impressive stuff going on in that department, sadly most of their ponds are fenced, unlike the ones here that have been made into outdoor park areas. There is also a surprising number of forest trails there. I don't know what the snow is like, but the skiing looks promising trail-wise. I met another permastudent who also has a biology-engineering background. There are a few of us - Katy H. too.
So, tommorrow, I'll sleep in - I've been out of the house before 7 three of the last five days. Then, I'll just keep working through the list on my board. Window shop for glasses, cars and chest waders if I get to it. Well, the Corrolla is still in the lead. Thanks to all the people who've taken the time to comment. I really enjoy reading them and its nice knowing how many people read my blog.
Cheers,
Jennith

Thursday, June 01, 2006
Going Back To the Beginning

Jenn

Many Braids

This photos is proof that you can do stuff with an SLR that you can't do with an digital camera. The picture was also taken on an Outers' trip to Tobamory.
Cheers,
Jenn
