"I love you too but I told you to wait in the trunk"

 

Small things 22 April

• 
  
  I turned on a classroom computer at work only to discover that someone had tried entering a password and failed. The next morning, it happened again, but they only entered 4 characters before giving up. I checked the security logs and it happened at the exact same time as the Covid cleaner comes through and cleans the door and wall touch surfaces. That's right, he had been wiping the computer keyboards too.
• Being a parent of a toddler is hard. You spend 90% of your time stopping them from accidentally killing themselves, and 10% calming them down because they don't understand why you've stopped them from accidentally killing themselves.
• Veterinarian: "About your cat Mr. Schrodinger. I have good news and bad news..."
• Whenever we're having grilled cheese sandwiches, I ask if I can cut the cheese. But not because I want to slice the cheddar.
• Don't let anyone treat you like luncheon meat. You are charcuterie.
• I'm investing in stocks now. Chicken. Beef. Vegetable. I'll be a bouillonaire.
• Why do dryers have a 'less dry' setting?

Dogs don't get human exercise

 

Published on Kobo too

For any Kobo subscribers, my eBook 'The fox, the wolf and the zoo' is now published to Kobo as well.

1st world shopping problems

 

Lame reasons to justify leaving work early

• 
  
  Have to get to the 'while supplies last' sale.
• The vibes are off.
• I'm falling asleep from boredom.
• My gambling addiction is acting up again.
• Manicures are half price before 4pm.
• My car is lonely and needs a good, long, hard drive.
• Two words. World Cup.
• I've booked a fashion shoot for my cat.
• It stopped raining and now the sun is out.
• I hear my mom calling me.
• My body just stopped producing whatever the equivalent of insulin is for work and my blood-work levels are through the roof.
• My 48 hour deodorant just gave out.
• I ate a huge bowl of baked beans for supper yesterday. Need I say more?
• I need quiet time to absorb what it says in my annual assessment.
• I want to get the car indoors before the hail storm arrives.
• I'm feeling harassed.
• My workstation is locked and I forgot my password.
• Need an early start on Christmas shopping.
• Everyone's perfume is giving me a headache.
• The office has bad Feng Shui.

Finally, Formula 1 using closed captioning

 

Things I learned lately 22 April

• There are over 700 cannabis retailers in Alberta.
• There are 403 Tim Hortons locations in Alberta. There are 3,530 Tim Hortons in Canada.
• There are 1,345 Shell gas stations in Canada, 402 of them are in Quebec (the highest ratio).
• By comparison, there are 1,139 Shell stations in the UK.
• There are 1,369 McDonalds in Canada. The most northerly outlet is in Yellowknife.
• There are 2,947 Subway locations in Canada. 37% of them are in Ontario.
• There are 123 St-Hubert chicken restaurants in Canada and they even exist outside of Quebec. New Brunswick and Ontario also have a few.
• There are 195 Swiss Chalet locations in Canada. There are none in Labrador, Yukon, NWT or Nunavut. The majority are in Ontario and Alberta.
• There are no Apple stores in Montana, the Dakotas, West Virginia, or Vermont. California gas 19% of all the Apple stores in the US.
• There are no Whole Foods stores in Montana, the Dakotas, West Virginia, or Vermont. Coincidence? Or Alaska.
• There are 7,860 Dollar Tree stores in the US, 660 alone in Texas.
• There are 15,374 Starbucks outlets in the US. California has 19% of them (3,006).
• 42% of the 1,345 Starbucks locations in Canada are in Ontario.
• There are 1,330 Tesla supercharger locations in the US.
• 69% of the 293 Harvey's locations are in Ontario. There are none in southern BC.

A story in two acts

 

Small things 15 April

• Maybe you should listen to your intuition.
• The world wasn't better when you were young. You were just more focused on the good things.
• Thank goodness that spiders don't have wings.
• Why when we pick up tongs we have to click them together first?
• Memories can ruin really good songs.
• Do you ever think about the fact that the name Mercedes has 3 of the letter 'e' in it and they each have a different sound?
• There are millions of loaves of banana bread that have been made for the simple reason that bananas eventually get too ripe to snack on.
• You know you're doing alright financially when the gas gauge in your vehicle reads 'full'.
• As a dog owner, you're being cruel if you eat a peanut butter cup in front of them. They want the peanut butter, but you can't give it to them because of the chocolate.

4 international inspired chip flavours

 

You and me

I've already shared one of Marc's performances previously, but I never took the time to check out any more of his work.

Marc is one of thousands of new artists who has mastered the art of improvisational one-person looping layered music performances.

This is one of his better ones as it shows the technique of the build-up. Technology made this possible. You couldn't have done this at home in your robe 30 years ago.

Ukrainian postage stamp

 

Things I learned lately 15 April

• Alexander Abian, a mathematician who taught at Iowa State, gained notoriety for his claim that blowing up the Moon would solve virtually every problem of human existence. He claimed in 1991 that a Moonless Earth wouldn't wobble, eliminating both the seasons and its associated events like heat waves, snowstorms and hurricanes. The proposed nuclear destruction of the Moon has been rejected by astronomers, including NASA, on several grounds. The nuclear arsenal of mankind would fail to do more than crack the Moon's crust; if successful, the heating of Earth's atmosphere by a hail of falling lunar debris would be destructive to all life; and an increase, not decrease, in the Earth's wobble without a stabilizing Moon, leading to an Earth axial tilt of 45 degrees and more drastic seasons would occur.
• Pearl Milling Company is just the original Aunt Jemima re-branded. It's the same stuff.
• Over 30% of Montreal residents don't have a regular doctor. That compares to about 19% in Calgary and only 9% in Toronto.
• There's a 46 year old guy, Vaughn Smith who is a carpet cleaner in the Washington area. He can speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian and Romanian fluently. But he also speaks Croatian, Finnish, Italian, Latvian, Nahatl and Serbian conversationally. He has intermediate abilities in ASL, Cataalan, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish Gaelic, Norwegian and polish. He has basic understanding of Amharic, Arabic, Estonian, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Japanese, Lakota, Lithuanian, Mandarin, Navajo, Salish, Sinhalese, Swedish, Ukranian, and Welsh. And lastly, he has some familiarity with Mongolian, Vietnamese, Tzotzil and Zapotec.
• Canadians used 46 billion litres of gasoline in 2018, about 8 billion of which was imported.
• Based on bones found on Seymour Island, penguins who lived 37 to 40 million years ago were 6 feet tall and weighed 250 pounds.
• Bobcats are the most common wild cat in North America.
• Valles Marineris (on Mars) is eight times longer and four times deeper than the Grand Canyon.

Put your hands together for.... 'Fluffy'

 

Small things 8 April

• Best April Fool's joke: Put a note on someone's car 'sorry for the damage'. They'll spend forever looking for it, but there's nothing to find that wasn't already there.
• Encanto is the new Frozen. Hope y'all like hearing them songs over and over and over.... LOL
• My friend is like, "You should eat your burgers as lettuce wraps and ditch the bun. I'm like, "I don't even put lettuce on my burger when there IS a bun."
• Go scream in the woods. It's fun. It's free. Also, the trees like to gossip about you after you're gone.
• "Where the hell are all these moths coming from?" ~Thomas Edison
• The phrase "With all due respect" is such a vague statement. It doesn't specify the amount of respect that is due. It could be none. Ha!
• No. Do not change information that could be printed in plain English on a store sign and turn it into QR code. No. I will not scan it. Nope.
• Do you correct autocorrect more than it corrects you?
• The number of people older than you only goes down.
• Dating is wondering why someone is single, then figuring it out. Marriage is being cool with it.

Dad's cat

 

The green house in the hood

Since I am very interested in efficient home building techniques, as addressed in episode 8 of the Talkbots podcast and numerous blog posts in my White Noise blog, I took notice of a new house going up in my neighbourhood that appeared to be built using other than typical wood framing construction. I noted the owner/builder's contact info and checked to see if I could get a glimpse into how they were building their new house. Much to my delight, they said yes, and I met with Gerry onsite, on a snowy, windy Sunday morning in March 2022.

The house was still under construction with kitchen cabinetry, countertops and fixtures still in the process of being installed. Even though there was no furnace running and only a very small space heater operating on the main floor, the interior temperature was a pleasant 13C and would likely rise more with each passing minute. The house felt so warm and cozy that I had to take my coat off. I proceeded to ask Gerry all about the decision process and the materials and techniques used in building the house.

Although he sent for the Passivhaus design documents, he didn't quite build the house to Passivhaus standards, but they did build with a very efficient 8 inch thick exterior wall made using SIP (structural insulated panels). SIP panels are a sandwich of outer layers of magnesium oxide board with a core of thick polystyrene foam, like Styrofoam, but in this case the foam is infused with graphite to increase insulating qualities. The windows were German made wood framed triple pane windows that are built for Passivhaus construction, and the patio doors were a massive lift & slide design, which makes for a much more durable and efficient air seal when closed.

He chose to use thermal solar panels on the roof to preheat city water, making it much easier for the electric tankless water heater to get the water to the temperature needed for showers and baths, and was also using this hot water to heat the basement and main floors with hydronic radiant heating. There were also separate electric solar panels on the roof to supplement his electricity needs including an agreement with the utility company to sell excess power back to the grid. No furnace required. Because the house is so airtight, it is equipped with an efficient ERV unit (energy recovery ventilator), which exchanges stale indoor air with fresh air from outside on a constant basis. The ERV has an 85% efficiency rating, which means that 85% of the heat in the exhausted air is being recovered to pre-heat the incoming fresh air. The system also includes an air pre-heater, to assist with warming the incoming air on colder days. The constant air movement from the ERV helps distribute the heat all around the house and even takes heat that is collecting at the top of the regular and high vaulted ceilings to redistribute into the house-wide system.

The thermal solar panels are potentially capable of generating so much heat, especially in the summer, that he is considering the possibility of building an underground seasonal heat storage system, which would capture excess heat all summer long and then slowly release it back into the system in winter.

Building a house like this definitely comes with challenges, as there are a limited number of developers and builders who can do it, many of whom are only focused on their particular methods and materials. You can't ask a typical developer to install a different brand or style of window or flooring material from what they normally use, or tell the builder that you want Passivhaus grade doors made in Germany, and specific custom windows and walls. It's almost impossible to direct a builder to make the exact kind of efficient house you may have in your mind or plan. So Gerry had to apply to be registered as an owner/builder, which the government has to approve on a case by case basis. Needless to say, you can only do this if the house is for you, not something you'll sell once it's finished.

Gerry said that a huge challenge was dealing with HVAC companies. They use a standard rule-of-thumb formula to determine the size of the furnace you’ll need. Based on the energy calculations Gerry came up with considering the increased insulation and the tight envelope, his resulting equipment size and capacity did not even come close to what the HVAC companies were recommending. When Gerry disputed their conclusions, they said they can’t just give him whatever size he wants, he has to pay for a professional analysis. Gerry feels that HVAC companies want to sell you the biggest and best unit they can. In the end, because he chose an in-floor heating solution, the house didn’t need a furnace after all.

Gerry’s entire house SIP envelope was built in a factory, then delivered and installed quickly onsite. Ideal factory work conditions, a stable workforce, computer guided laser cutting of pieces, all improve the tightness of the envelope due to increased accuracy and as perfect a fit as you can get. This saves a ton of time for any worker that has to interface with the walls, such as drywallers, cabinet makers, etc. Because unlike your average home, in this case, the factory built walls create perfect square corners and all lines are perfectly straight. Plus you save money on site because the people putting the envelope together don’t have to be there as long.

Based on my conversation with Gerry, there are a lot of choices in both construction techniques and materials that even the average Canadian efficient home builder might not be familiar with. So he had to do a lot of research. He made decisions based on value add and reliability, he didn't choose things on a whim and was not reckless with the spending. But he made selections that many wouldn't even know were a thing or they had obsolete information based on data that might have been valid decades ago, but not now. For example, the German made windows he chose are Sitka spruce wood frames, which most folks would think is a horrible idea for a place like Canada. But these particular wood frames were designed for cold climates, with special exterior coatings that make them very hardy and good insulators too. Very few builders would think to offer these modern wood frame windows as a choice to their customers, even though they exist and are far superior to their predecessors.

This house is environmentally friendly, as it doesn’t burn any natural gas as it doesn’t have a furnace or fireplace. Even the hot water is heated by solar or grid power. There are no exhaust fans, as the ERV unit does a great job of exchanging all indoor air with pre-conditioned (and filtered) fresh air many times per day. Because it doesn’t use OSB, there is no off-gassing from the glues. The materials used make for a clean, comfortable, efficient, and sustainable home.

The audio file of our talk can be found here.

Quantum doggo

This dog is in quantum superposition. 

It is standing, sitting and lying at the same time.

Angela performed live

The theme from the sitcom 'Taxi' like you've never heard it before.

Sublime.

Yes, that's the Bob James, the guy who wrote the tune.

MAGA hat guy

 

Things I learned lately 8 April

• In the Iliad, Helen of Troy is described as being so beautiful she had a "face that launched a thousand ships". In a nod to that, there is a humorous unit of measurement named after her. One helen is the beauty it takes to trigger the launch of a thousand ships and, if you're looking to measure the beauty of someone more modest in appearance, you can even measure using millihelens—increments of beauty equivalent to one ship launch.
• Japan has overnight luxury sleeper buses called Dream Sleepers. You take your shoes off before boarding. Each seat is a private room and there are only 11 on the whole bus. Each seat is a fully reclining 'zero gravity' seat. 
• When The Band finally got around to taking the stage to perform their material, Robbie Robertson had developed stage fright because of his experiences touring with Bob Dylan and being booed every night. He needed a hypnotist to calm him down.
• After General George S Patton toured the liberated Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany, he ordered the mayor of Weimar to bring 1,000 civilians to Buchenwald from the middle and upper classes. The Germans had to walk 25 kilometres roundtrip under armed American guard and were shown the crematorium and other evidence of Nazi atrocities. The Americans wanted to ensure that the German people would take responsibility for Nazi crimes, instead of dismissing them. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower also invited two groups of Americans to tour the camp in mid-April 1945; journalists and editors from some of the principal U.S. publications, and then a dozen members of the Congress from both the House and the Senate.
• Octopus have copper-based blood instead of iron-based, which makes it blue.
• Gary Oldman is 13 days younger than Gary Numan.

Awww someone wants to get his nose booped

 

Small things 2 April

• 
  
  Teachers in the 1980s: "You're not always going to have a calculator in your pocket."
• We had streaming video when I was young. Wireless too. But someone named TV Guide got to pick what we could watch, and they ran out of content at midnight. 
• Back in the day, we used to have to find a pay phone to take selfies...
• The YMCA dance would be a challenge to do in Chinese
• Is a hot dog a sandwich?
• Is cereal a soup?
• Nappetizer: the little nap you take on the couch before going to bed.
• Contractions function almost identically to the full two-word phrase, but are only appropriate in some places in a sentence. It's one of the weird quirks of this language we've.
• Irony: When a boss asks you to stop telling people you get your clothes at thrift stores, because it sounds like you don't get paid enough. And you also don't get paid enough.
• Wealth is getting whatever you want at the grocery store.
• You can stress any word in the sentence "I never said she stole my money" to change its meaning.

They sold quack

 

How do we end this abuse?

When the Alberta College of Pharmacists proposed to make Pharmacy Technicians a regulated trade, the Alberta government (Conservative) went along with it. Other provinces did it, and so should we. There's always a but. No grandfathering was allowed. Which means that it doesn't matter how long you've been doing the job, you have to requalify if you want to keep it. You have to pass a theory and practical role-playing exam. Many struggled to pass, even if they went back to school to brush up. School costs were out of pocket. The brush up courses themselves were of limited value, with no consistency or standardization. The role playing exam was not kind to timid people or those where English is not their first language. Many people failed. They can no longer practise as a licensed technician, which results in a drastic pay cut. In addition to having to requalify, which many techs chose not to do, finding the expectation insulting, requalified techs now had to pay annual professional dues and get liability insurance, again, out of pocket. These newly requalified techs were also given more responsibilities that used to belong to pharmacists, who spend much more time in school to learn their skills and knowledge. For example, pre-regulation, a tech could not check their own work, only a pharmacist could. Post-regulation, any tech can check another tech's work, which is risky at best, dangerous at worst.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because while all of this requalification, new expenses and training costs were happening, the techs asked for more money to do their jobs. AHS promised that they would eventually be remunerated once all techs had gone through the requalification process. That never happened. In every contract negotiation since, they got, at best, 1%. Let that sink in.

These same techs, who work harder, have more responsibility, pay dues and insurance, and paid for schooling, when their last contract expired, AHS said they should wait until the pandemic was over before entering into negotiations, which start now. And what was AHS's opening offer to the techs? A 10.93% roll-back in wages. Now put yourself in their shoes. Would you not be beyond insulted by that proposal? After all the hard work health care providers did during the pandemic, this is how they are thanked? Imagine you just bought a house. Or had a child. An almost 11% roll-back in pay would be devastating. Now some will argue that I'm raising a premature alarm bell. As negotiations progress, the unions will counter-offer, etc. But I'm willing to bet right here, right now, that when it's all over, the techs will get nothing. Because their union always capitulates. The nurses and the doctors have a very strong union and as a result, they get much better results.

Just an added point, the news made mention that one way AHS would save money is by cancelling free parking at hospitals. For what it's worth, techs do not get free parking. Doctors get free parking. It's one of their perks. I will also bet that this measure will not pass, as doctors fought very hard to get that perk.

(pictured is a pharmacy tech working in a biohazard hood mixing chemotherapy medication)

Cat plotting

Owner got dog a matching chair to sit in. 

Cat is like, "I will end each and every one of you."

Things I learned lately 2 April

• The town of Raymond Alberta hasn't allowed the sale of alcohol since its formation in 1903. When Alberta ended prohibition in 1924, Raymond kept it in place. That may change soon as their council will debate allowing restaurants to be licensed. It's not the only town that prohibits alcohol. Cardston, Magrath and Stirling were abstainers too, but only Stirling is insisting it won't change so far. In case you're wondering, yes, these towns were in many cases founded by Mormons. Not every place in Raymond will be able to serve alcohol because there are restrictive covenants in place from 1894.
• Don't ever buy cheap carbon zinc batteries. They barely last one third as long as superior alkaline batteries.
• There are 32,000 km of bike paths / lanes in the Netherlands. That's with a land area of 33,500 square km. For scale, that's approximately the same as the land between Toronto and Windsor, from Lake Ontario to Owen Sound.
• There are no crows in South America, but there are on every other continent, except Antarctica.
• Niagara Falls, NY has lost more than half of its population since 1960.
• The best selling vehicle in Japan is the Honda N-Box. Look it up on Google. It's a box alright.
• Germany is testing an electric cargo truck solution that uses powered lines over the right lane of a highway that the truck connects to for power in the same way a tram or train does with a catenary on each truck.
• In Germany, when there is a traffic jam causing vehicles to stop, everyone has to pull over, left and right, to make a free lane in the middle for emergency vehicles. It's the law.