Archive for October, 2003

Four days into “Ramadan”

October 30th, 2003

Ramadan is enclosed in quotation marks because I am not a muslim. I am, however, observing Ramadan this year. This is day four.

Observations so far:

  • I've had headaches each day around 15:30.
  • I am very hungry by sunset.
  • Lunch time is weird; everyone else eats and I just read something or talk. I feel like an outsider.
  • Fasting is not easy.

1 comment »

Posted in Autobiography

First impressions of Panther

October 25th, 2003

So I picked up a copy of OS X (10.3), aka Panther, from First Avenue Information Systems. I was the first person to purchase Panther from them. w00p.

The five best changes from 10.2 to 10.3:

  1. New Help Viewer: the previous version of Help Viewer was lame and slow. This version is cool (it uses the Safari rendering engine) and fast.
  2. Exposé: One touch reorganization of my windows is really handy. Plus show desktop is only one button now.
  3. Mail: Mail.app seems to be faster and its new threading feature is pretty cool.
  4. Terminal: Terminal.app has some new features, such as storing connection parameters to servers, and switching between multiple terminal windows, that will be very useful.
  5. Finder: The new Finder is cool. I'm not sure how much better it is, but it looks cooler.

3 comments »

Posted in Mac

Christmas list 2003

October 23rd, 2003

To provide gift-buyers with lots of opportunity to buy Christmas presents for me, here is my Christmas list for 2003:

  1. Mizuno MP30 irons
  2. Canon PowerShot G5 digital camera
  3. Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis
  4. Billy bookcases (the dark grey ones)
  5. Large cat scratch tree
  6. Keynote
  7. 10 GB iPod
  8. iSight
  9. Harmon Kardon Soundsticks (computer speakers)
  10. Blue jeans (34 waist, 30 inseam, non-tapered leg)
  11. Stain-resistant Denver Hayes pants (green, white, light brown, grey)
  12. Light dress shirts (16" neck)
  13. A muted dark blue tie

1 comment »

Posted in Autobiography

Althusser’s “Ideology” relies on oral examples

October 23rd, 2003

Today in English 470A, Contemporary Crtitical Theory, we talked about Louis Althusser's essay, "Ideology." Murray McArthur outlined the main ideas set out in essay and handled questions raised by my fellow students.

Caveat: Our anthology only includes part of the essay, so the following is not necessarily true.

» Read more: Althusser’s “Ideology” relies on oral examples

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Posted in Academic, University of Waterloo

Wikipedia is very cool

October 18th, 2003

While searching for information about some of the characters in The Matrix: Reloaded, I came across Wikipedia for the second time. I had looked around on the site months ago but I did not explore it in detail. After spending some time reading some of the Wikipedia articles, I have no problem declaring that it is one of the coolest things on the Internet.

You may be interested in the following Wikipedia articles:

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Posted in Web

Goyer avoids ORE

October 17th, 2003

Prolific blogger and UW student Matt Goyer must not read my blog. If he did, he would know that it only took the Office of Research Ethics ten days to clear my basic application, not four months.

1 comment »

Posted in Academic, University of Waterloo, Web

Arnold’s knowledge of Canada impresses

October 13th, 2003

"After a few more minutes, Schwarzenegger hung up when the DJ mentioned his minister of defence, Don Cherry."

3 comments »

Posted in Politics, Web

Full ethics approval for my work report research

October 9th, 2003

I submitted my surveys and associated material to the Office of Research Ethics on 30 September 2003. On 2 October, the Manager of Research Ethics, Susanne Santi, e-mailed to let me know that I've received provisional ethics clearance. In her e-mail, she outlined what I needed to change to receive full ethics clearance. She also asked some questions about my materials. I revised my materials and resubmitted on 6 October. Today Susanne Santi e-mailed me to let me know that I've received full ethics clearance for my research.

» Read more: Full ethics approval for my work report research

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Posted in Academic

Vote

October 2nd, 2003

I cast my ballot at 9:15 this morning. Soon, I'm off to help Wayne Wettlaufer's campaign get out the vote. If you're an eligible voter in the Ontario provincial election, make sure you vote. We can't have PEI showing us up in voter turnout.

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Posted in Politics