July 2008 Archives

Here are some thoughts I have on the recent fail grade of Bombardier's bid for the new streetcars.

Despite this being a huge deal, I haven't found anything since the early release of info saying that the streetcars would derail on corners because bombardier modeled the drivers slowing down more than the TTC did. [Surprisingly enough I can see how this would be a problem - I was convinced a westbound 505 streetcar on Dundas was going to derail today as it shot around the bend just east of McCaul. Why this is considered safe is beyond me.]

There were also rumors that the TTC required a streetcar be able to push another disabled car up and out of the portal on Queen's Quay at Bay. The idea is that if a streetcar dies in the tunnel, they need to be able to get it out. Both of these are separate issues that seem to be easily addressed.

There's no question that the TTC needs new streetcars. The ones that they have are old and dying, and even then they don't have enough to meet service demand, never mind growth.

It'd be nice to see all of the TTC's problems addressed, but there are a few things that need to be considered. The easier one is the broken down streetcar problem. As I've seen mentioned before, a simple cost-benefit analysis needs to be done: how much more expensive is a streetcar that can push another disabled streetcar out of the way, and how much is that going to cost at an aggregate level. There's a certain point where ordering a towing/pushing vehicle may be in order.

In terms of derailing, if it is a simple matter of speed - slow the cars down. There are not that many sharp turns on service track, except for maybe where the 504 and 505 turn on Broadview, and the 506 turns (twice) on Parliament and again at the terminals. [Don't hold me to that though.] A lot of people have started recommending serious track reconstruction, or limiting the new streetcars to certain routes. That does no good because the current CLRVs and ALRVs are on their way out anyway. So we would just end up with no streetcars on a lot of routes. I can't imagine where else the streetcars would run into problems though, and I'm not helped by the fact that the TTC still hasn't released what went wrong.

Someone needs to get their shit together so we can move past this.

If just one thing goes as planned tonight, I will be happy. No, not happy. Not even satisfied. But I will go to sleep with the knowledge that the universe doesn't TOTALLY hate me.

In the August White Dwarf, they've restarted something called "A Tale of Four Gamers" in which they follow for different gamers as they build and paint armies, scoring them based on certain criteria. Given that I have a crazy schedule I'm going to try and follow roughly a month behind them.

Brendan is coming down this week, so I'll probably paint some models with him. I was lucky because some of my models were already put together by Ryan, and Brendan and I (but mainly Brendan) put the rest of my models together. So I might even be able to jump a bit ahead of them, which will be good come mid-August when finals happen, and then when class gets heavy again around the end of September.

Apparently, they've decided to cash in on the new musical franchise business going on.

Aim is to pick up the Baltimore saga of the Turnblad family after the resolution of the first film, which was set in 1962.

It really is our generations Grease. And I'll just remind you that Grease 2 sucked to point you on the thought path I'm walking down.

I am slowly increasing the probability I barely pass this midterm tonight. My facebook status accurately portrays how I feel:

Mike cannot brain today, he has the dumb.

I'm far too caffeinated to make any sense. I'm trying to figure out money demand. I had a serious question to ask the world, brought to the front of my mind by the red bull I'm drinking. But then the red bull brought four other thoughts forward before I could open this page up. I've now forgotten that thought.

I'm getting really frustrated with school, and both of my profs. I'm sick and tired of hearing things like "If you can do this problem, you'll be fine" or "It's really simple". Yeah I get it. You've been doing this for years, and it's second nature to you. But unlike everyone else, I don't have hours and hours to dedicate to this. I'm already dedicating a huge amount of time and not getting it. So instead of being shocked that something doesn't make sense to me, take the time to actually explain it. Don't just say "it's a proportion, so n equals this". Why the fuck does n equal that? Because you said so?

A friend and I were having a rather amusing discussion about the nonsense surrounding The Order of Canada right now, and he had this to say:

Dear Catholic Church,
Stop fucking little boys and we'll stop killing babies... btw, you first.

ARGH. STATS. ARGH. I feel like that episode of Undergrads, Screw Week, where everyone loses it and screams.

Facebook has a new look. I haven't played around with much of the features, but in terms of use it looks like it's improved a lot. I'm impartial about the new home page, but I love the new profile page. I'll post a picture later.

Beaker was my favourite Muppet growing up. Ode to Joy is still one of my favourite classical songs (although a huge guilty pleasure).

I'm planning on getting new hard drives next week. This, is amazing. I've been using the same hard drives since I got my own computer in grade 10. In 2001. Yeah, not exactly a good thing. They make a really unpleasant whine now that gives me a terrible, terrible headache.

I went home for Thursday night. For this whole summer, I've only gotten one day off a week and it's Friday. So, when I don't have studying to do, or a party to go to, I'll go home and party there. I also had a bunch of errands I needed to run (like seeing Rob's girlfriend who was up from I don't know where in some polygon shaped state. Rob's dealing with all kinds of weird and crazy Unforgotten Realms related drama. Ice cream makes it better. Especially when I pay because he forgets his wallet.

I'm really starting to freak out about my midterms next week. I've been having dreams about them for a week now. Unpleasant, stressful dreams. People keep harassing me to go out with them to. I don't mean for that to make me sound more popular than I am, but seriously. I'm pretty vocal when it comes to complaining and then freaking out about my midterms. It's an established thing I do. So why bother me when you know the answer is going to be no? I'm supposed to make an appearance at some hotel party tonight, because that's the kind of bitch I am. When I arrive, and therefore how long I stay for depends on (1) how much studying I get done after I eat my chicken kiev, and (2) how well these Tylenol extra strength work.

I had a terrible, terrible day at work. It's turning into a running theme. People work on the weekend, but they go out on Friday and get plastered, wake up hungover, and call in sick. So instead of six people for our weekend rush, we have four. And that four? It feels like three sometimes. Or two, depending on who's taking a break. When I came back from my fifteen, my shift told me it felt like half an hour. His half felt like an hour. I'm pretty sure he didn't take all of it.

I've been spending a lot of time working on my Tau army. I have so many units now, I almost don't know what to do with them. I bought some paint, hopefully painting them will turn out well. But that will be the subject of another post.

I was followed a link to a Huffington Post article titled "Dubai Detains Foreigners Accused Of Being Gay" with the immediate thought that I really, really can't travel to Dubai. It wasn't long before I had my system trying to shut down the browser because of spyware that it considered to be extremely serious business. I mean, I can barely stand The Huffington Post because of how it articulates its position, but this is just funny.

I was reading an article on The Economist's website about how pirates are making the waters off of East Africa the most dangerous in the world.

I mean, it's well known that Somalia has been in a constant state of "fucked up" since the civil war, and I'm no expert on Somalia but the idea of a country run by warlords and pirates complaining that the world doesn't care enough about them bothers me.

In June a unanimously-backed UN Security Council resolution tabled by France and the United States made it legal for foreign navies to chase pirates into Somali waters and, if need be, sink them. But many Somalis are loth to co-operate. Their feeble government lacks the clout to tackle pirates in such places as Haradheere, in central Somalia, where many hail from. Somalis ask why the UN is so worried about the fate of foreigners at sea, while it does so little to help Somalis on land.

I had to stop there, take a break and finish it after a few minutes. I'm sorry. A place run by pirates doesn't get my sympathy, barely gets my empathy, and would have to fight really hard to get my support. Especially if the problem is that big, and there's nothing being doing about it. How could it?

Today I made the mistake of starting to build some Firewarriors. My fingers now have super glue all over them. I forgot how frustrating this can be. With Brendan's help, I finished maybe 5 warriors. Some of them aren't even fully finished. They need shoulder pads, helmet antenna, etc. I have some pictures I'm going to upload later.

Canadian singer Feist is set to appear on the 39th season premiere of Sesame Street on August 11th.

Years ago, when I was developing the TV Show theme for this blog I wanted to do a flash intro with a theme song (rights be damned). I had decdided on Natasha Beddingfield's Unwritten. Well, yesterday my friend put on The Hills on MTV, of all possible terrible programming we could have watched. Guess what? They use Unwritten as their intro song. Dag, yo.

So, I've done something incredibly dorky. I'm getting back into Warhammer 40k. The last time I blogged about Warhammer 40k that I can think of, was way back in 2003 when I bought the Tau Boxed Army Set. I never actually played it. It's not even put together. My friend Ryan had painted a few of the models, and put together a few more. I now need to finish putting the rest of that boxed set together. I don't even know what's in it. This is what I've found so far:

• Three Crisis Suits (one with its feet broken off, I need to pin them on)
• Two Ethreals
• 12 built and painted Fire Warriors (with what looks like bits for 12 more)
• 12 built and painted Kroot (with what looks like bits for 12 more)
• 3 XV15 Stealth Suits (old school!)
• 3 (?) Pathfinders and two blister packs of Pathfinder with Rail Guns
• Various Gun Drones (some not assembled)
• One Devilfish Troop Transport
• Two Hammerhead Gunships (I bought an extra)
• One Broadside XV88 (feet also broken, sadface)

On top of that, I have the Tau Rapid Insertion Force boxed set from Armageddon's release. Had I known they were going to disappear I would have bought a second one, and one of the tank sets too. I also bought the Tau Battleforce and a Fire Warrior Squad boxed set the other day. All in all a big army.

The one thing I'm trying to figure out is how I'm going to paint them. I wanted to do a white and black, clone warrior from star wars inspired theme, with different colours for different ranks. While there's nothing in the tau background stories about that, there IS something about each sept having a separate sept colour that show up in markings on units. So I need to ponder this and see how I can make it all pan out. Expect a lot more about this, and some pictures.

I've tentatively successfully enrolled in all of my courses for the next academic year. The one hitch being I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be taking a second first year calculus, MAT137Y, or if I can just proceed into a second year calculus, MAT235Y, despite not having the proper prereqs and the fact that 137 is now a program requirement for me.

Here's what I got:

Fall 2008
Monday:
10a-11a. CSC236H1 F
12p-01p. CSC207H1 F
02p-03p. MAT235Y1 Y*

Tuesday:
01p-03p. MAT223H1 F
06p-07p. CSC258H1 F
07p-09p. CSC258H1 F

Wednesday:
10a-11a. CSC236H1 F
12p-01p. CSC207H1 F
02p-03p. MAT235Y1 Y*

Thursday
12p-01p. MAT223H1 F
06p-09p. CSC258H1 F

Friday:
10a-11a. CSC236H1 F
12p-01p. CSC207H1 F
01p-02p. MAT223H1 F
02p-03p. MAT235Y1 Y*

Winter 2009
Monday:
01p-02p. CSC324H1 S
02p-03p. MAT235Y1 Y*
03p-04p. CSC263H1 S
06p-07p. CSC336H1 S
07p-09p. CSC336H1 S

Wednesday:
01p-02p. CSC324H1 S
02p-03p. MAT235Y1 Y*
03p-04p. CSC263H1 S
06p-09p. APM236H1 S

Friday:
01p-02p. CSC324H1 S
02p-03p. MAT235Y1 Y*
03p-04p. CSC263H1 S

As a refresher on programming before I take a full year of computer science courses next year, I've decided I want to try coding a small blogroll for my blog in PHP. I used a Perl plug-in a while back and didn't like the output. It was pre-formatted so that people had to link to the developer's site. I wouldn't have a problem with that, but given the limitations of MT's template system it ended up being much more trouble that it was worth.

I don't plan on having a front-end for this. It will all be in a MT4 template module. Since I have no problem copying and pasting code, that will probably work best with an array. I'm going to start with several small arrays for different categories of links I have, i.e. blogs by people I know, urban focused blogs, economic focused blogs, etc. That way I will have a quick and easy output to shorten the list of blogs at the bottom of the page, and can have each category select a blog randomly. That will give me something to put up while I work on a ranking system for weights on a larger array with all of my links.

Retired Bus Driver Of Durham is a blog I read on occasion, written by a retired transit worker living in Durham. It's not updated vary often, and some of what he says, like Canadian content requirements, I disagree with on economic grounds.

Today when I checked, there was a post titled Go wrongfully takes passengers from DRT. Normally I would post a quick paragraph from the article that I want to disagree with but he doesn't actually argue why this is the case. Even the previous post he links to in this new post, Parking lot plan drives councillor mad, doesn't say much on the subject.

Now, it's hard to poke holes in an argument that isn't really there is both hard and terrible, but I'm going to try it. I surmise from readings done elsewhere, like Steve Munro's blog that the problem is that GO Transit, in adding more parking, will take people off the buses because they can now drive and park their cars instead. Steve's arguments are more focused on GO's need to stop focusing on peak-period travel, and the local transit services need to grow to support regular service.

Now, there are some potential problems I see in this argument, and to get to them requires some background information. First, being a semi-regular user of GO Transit's Lakeshore West line to get to my parents when I have appointments, need money, or need to get out of the city, I've seen the state of the stations. I've also taken the train out East on a few occasions over the last two years so I've seen those stations too. I'm also well aware of the abysmal state of public transit in the suburbs. So I see the amount of work GO Transit is doing to turn itself (at least on the Lakeshore lines) into a legitimate service. People tend to ignore things like additional track and platform construction, and the new engines that pull more train cars. So GO seems to be doing its part to get people riding its service.

Second, I would like to assume, although this assumption is weak, that GO transits funding is separate from the suburban services, despite Metrolinx (I still shudder when I read that). If GO deems that a parking garage is what they want to do with their money to maximize the utility from their budget, then that's GO's decision.

When I say the suburban transit is abysmal, I mean it. I don't bother taking Oakville Transit because (if it's even there when my train gets in) it takes me longer to get from the GO Station to my parents' house than the train ride does. Granted that is usually it's ZONE service, not regular bus service, but my memories of late, semi-regular service are more than enough to keep me away from their buses whenever possible. I can't even imagine what Durham Region Transit is like. I've never ridden on it, but the stories I've heard make Oakville Transit seem like a paradise. The suburban services seriously need to improve their routes. Oakville Transit should consider just scrapping their system and starting from scratch with a number of important focus points (GO stations, shopping centres, high schools and Sheridan buildings).

So, to say that GO is taking customers from DRT bothers me. It gets under my skin. If DRT can't run a service that attracts passengers to it, that is DRT's problem. Not GO's problem. DRT should consider improving its service if it wants to get more people riding, not complaining about GO trying to better service its customers.

This morning I took a trip to the friendly, neighbourhood cosmetic surgeon in Oakville. No, I was not there for anything serious. What I did get was a huge dose of stereotypes.

It ran the full gamut of Oakville ridiculousness. A Latina woman getting frustrated she had to wait so long despite free cappuccino and biscotti. A baby boomer aged Russian woman and her 30 something daughter. And of course we had to top of the Oakville social pyramid: a mother and late teenage daughter, matching attempts to make their black hair platinum blonde, fake tanned to a lovely orange colour, rocking obnoxious juicy belts and standard LV print bags and purses.

Of course, excluding all the damage they've done to their skin and hair the mother could use some serious cosmetic work. She looks like she either hasn't tried at all or tried way too hard - as if trying more is going to help. She talks about procedures like she's an info sheet. Clearly she's been here a lot. Of course I doubt she understands the actual science behind any of this, but hey, who am I to judge (any more than I already have)? [For the record, she's actually a lovely woman. I enjoyed the brief conversation I had with her as we waited. Eavesdropping when the "nurse" came over let me know they're both looking at the same procedure. Something about feet maybe?]

Now, this poor woman's daughter looks like she's seriously hating her life. I don't see any reason for her to be here. While she does have her mother's tanned skin and platinum-over-black hair she's actually pretty good looking. She hasn't had the same damage done to her skin. She has the same brilliant eyes her mother has. I can't imagine why she's so uncomfortable. [Actually maybe I can. I don't feel bad about judging them and wondering why they were here - I know the mother ripped me apart physically as I walked away. And I would expect nothing less.]

After 45 minutes of waiting in a common waiting room, I'm shuffled into exam room VII. I was originally going to get frustrated with the additional waiting, but I managed to entertain myself with spacing posts (this girl got ripped apart in the comments) and wondering how noticeable the smell of smoke is on my clothes. I don't even smoke, but riding around in my brother's car means the smell transfers to me. I don't understand the science behind that, but I doubt I would ever be bothered enough to really try.

The rest of it went like this: 2 minutes with the doctor in exam room VII, then 5 minutes in consult II before another bill and a follow up appointment.

The Canadian Press is reporting that Ontario is placing recycling fees on electronics to help establish a recycling system for electronics, much like in provinces such as Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. And, like always, people are complaining.

Although the fees will be charged to manufacturers, there's no indication whether companies will absorb the fee as a cost of doing business or pass it on to consumers.

Eleanor Friedland of the Consumers Council of Canada said she fully expects the majority of companies will add the fee to the final cost of their products.

"I think the cost will be definitely forwarded on to the consumer," she said. "All additional costs eventually get passed on to the consumers."

Ont. joining Alta., B.C., N.S. and Sask. in putting recycling fee on electronics - The Canadian Press

Pardon my French, but ah-duuuh. This woman must not have taken even a first year economics class. The fee, which is a tax, will be passed along to between firm and consumer. Isn't that how it works? Now, as for the whole fee being passed along to the consumer, the only case I can think of off the top of my head (and that's not many considering how fried my brain is right now) is the case where the consumer has a completely inelastic demand curve. Demand for something like televisions sets, or especially cellphones, might be pretty inelastic relative to other goods, but they're not food, or gas. So it will be interesting to see how this happens.

Of course, given the market power of most firms consumers might end up paying for the whole fee anyway. In the end, it's my position that they should be paying for it anyway. So you won't hear me complaining.

As I mentioned earlier, I was ill. I went to Health Services last week to find out that I had some sort of extreme viral illness. I wound up with flu like symptoms. They started two weeks ago and go really bad because I was outside in the sun dehydrating myself. So I was handed a doctor's note saying I couldn't work, and went back to Oakville to be taken care of by my family. Unfortunately for me, Friday night was my sister's Super Sweet Sixteen birthday party, so not much taking care of happened. I did get some cool pictures and experienced what a huge birthday party would have actually been like.

I'd like to expand and half retract what I said here about Bombardier's streetcar. What I was aware of, but had managed to ignore/forget at the time of posting this was that the car's displayed were of the Flexity Swift model, which I think is hideous. To meet the 100% low-floor requirement, Bombardier has switched to the Flexity Outlook. Both the Eurotram and Cityrunner (presumably the model variant we would get) are really nice. They even have a website, The Streetcar Redefined promoting it. I owe everyone an apology for tying the image of the CLRVs and UTDC's history to Bombardier. The trams they have for European use seem to be really nice.

Finally, I'm not an Economics Specialist anymore. I'm in the Computer Science and Economics Joint Specialist program. Which is good and bad. I'm not a BSc candidate, not a BA candidate. I get more options for work after. Unfortunately, I have to take programming classes. Luckily not TOO many. The other downside is I might have to take another first year calculus. One that I need as a prereq for second year calculus that I was going to take this year. So I'm not sure what to do. My start time for course selection is next Monday. I think I'm going to enroll in both and hope I can just take the second year one. It's good to be back though.

My body temperature is completely out of whack. I'm either sweating when my room is super air conditioned, or wearing a sweater out in the sun.

My skin felt like it was burning yesterday and the day before. Today isn't so bad.

On and off I get throbbing headaches. Sometimes these are accompanied by the spins. They were so bad earlier I didn't know where I was (I was in my bed) and I couldn't up to figure it out for an hour. I went back to sleep (it was 3pm).

Sometimes, it makes me feel like I'm going to vomit everywhere.

Bombardier became a shoe-in for the $3-billion contract after its main rival, Germany's Siemens AG, pulled out of bidding at nearly the last minute.

680 News: Bombardier most likely to receive streetcar replacement contract

Well fuck. Toronto, get ready for ugly, uncomfortable, "utilitarian" LRVs on the Transit City LRT lines that were supposed to show the GTAH that transit doesn't have to suck.

141 years old, and we're still living the stereotype. Keep on keepin' on Canada.

My life has been a little crazy recently. I think I have some sort of mild sun stroke, or physical exhaustion. I went to bed with the spins last night. I was completely sober. Probably too much partying on the weekend during Pride. There's a bunch of albums that I've put up. They should be on Flickr soon enough too.

Last Wednesday, we had a "Joey is leaving soon" BBQ on the patio, which was pretty sweet. There are also pictures from that.

Monday I had Steve's Prom, which I tried not to puke through. I've been feeling really under the weather for the last two weeks, which wasn't helped by the partying on the weekend. Nor will it help my performance on tomorrow's statistics term test. Sigh.

Sunday I had movie night with Christine and Chris in Oakville. We watched Jumanji and got ridiculous. There are no pictures, because we didn't know what we were doing.

Saturday I was at Abby's for her grad formal. That was also ridiculous. There are so pictures from that, many of them showcasing Abby hammered.

Friday Paul was in town from Halifax. I was at Wonderland in the morning, and then went straight to Oakville to grab a car, drive back downtown to get Ali and head to the Green Room. There aren't many pictures, and the one REALLY good picture of Paul was accidentally deleted.

Looking back on me week, I now understand why I am so exhausted. Sigh. Maybe there's a lesson to be learned here, buried under drinking and sun stroke. Not that I'll remember it in a week.

I also didn't finish updating the CSS for the new layout, so some stuff is buggy. My bad, yo.

Which brings me to another point. The auto-focus on my lens is broken. That sucks. I'm sending it back to Canon tomorrow to get it fixed. Thank goodness for warranties.