Trapiche Chardonnay

This is a rather interesting wine. It contains all the elements usually found in chardonnay, but in different proportions. I can't really explain it beyond that, but it's quite refreshing.

Quick poll

Which place name is better:  Moose Factory or Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump?

Brain development and sense of consequences

This article (well worth the trip to bugmenot if you don't have a Toronto Star login) is really interesting. It postulates that adolescents have less of a sense of consequences because their brains are not yet fully physically developed. It gives some fascinating examples of trains of thought arising from not-yet-fully-developed children's brains, such as:

Ask a 4-year-old if he has a brother, and he'll tell you yes. Ask what his name is, and the child may answer "Jim." Then ask, "Does Jim have a brother?" The answer might be no.

The only problem about this theory of sense of consequences is that it does not correlate at all to my personal experience. The last time I remember my sense of consequences being different from what it is now was around the age of 3, when I honestly did not understand that if I made a big complicated mess my parents would have to clean it up. But, with the exception of things that require factual or experiential knowledge (for example, turning off a Linux computer without shutting down properly could fuck up the kernel, or mixing bleach and ammonia makes poisonous fumes), my sense of consequences has been about the same since age 9.

I wonder if this means my brain developed early, or if it means I'm still walking around with a child's brain. That would be interesting, if I were using a child's brain to do my (rather intellectual and cerebral) job.

The magical stalking sanding ghost

Someone either upstairs or next door or in the hall is sanding or doing something that makes a lot of scrapey and frictiony noises. The weird thing is that no matter where I am in my apartment, this noise sounds like it's coming from the nearest wall or ceiling. As I lay in bed, it sounded like it was coming from the ceiling directly above me. Then as I sat in the toilet, it sounded like it was coming from the wall of the apartment next door. Then as I wandered into the kitchen it sounded like it was coming from the hall. Now I'm in the living room, and it sounds like it's coming from a different part of the ceiling.

People who live on less than a dollar a day

The number of people who live on less than a dollar a day is often bandied about when describing global poverty.

But what does this number actually mean?

Does it mean the amount of necessities of life that I could purchase if I walked down to the corner store with a (presumably US) dollar?

Or does it mean the amount of necessities of life that I could purchase if I wandered into the marketplace of a poor village in a Third World country with a (presumably US) dollar?

I realize it's probably the GDP of the country divided by the number of people, but which of these two scenarios is it probably closer to?

U Really Got a Hold on Me

Yes! I knew this Sesame Street sketch existed! No one else remembered it, but I distinctly remember the first time I heard the Beatles song "You Really Got a Hold on Me" I was highly impressed that they did Sesame Street covers.

But I don't want Harry Potter to grow up!

One of the things that makes the Harry Potter characters most endearing to me is that they have the full awkwardness, ignorance and confusion of their ages. Even though they're brave and magically powerful, they aren't emotionally precocious. Being safely out of that awkward stage myself, I can sit back at arms-length and fully appreciate where they are. I even like CAPS-LOCK!Harry, because I find that emotionally realistic.

One of the things that really annoys me in fanfic is when people suddenly make Harry become calm and rational and reasonable about everything. Yes, it might be easier to write and more pleasant to read and it might enable certain plot directions that the author might want to explore, but that isn't where he is right now - and he certainly isn't going to achieve that over one summer!

But this interview worries me. They seem to be hinting that Harry is going to grow up emotionally, and that doesn't seem a realistic thing to happen at this point. It is quite necessary for the plot - and the fact that 17 is the age of majority for wizards suggests that he needs to be an adult in book 7. But I don't want Sweet Valley High-style adult teenagers in my Harry Potter, I like them being children!

Hopefully J.K. Rowling will, à la limite, have Harry at the end of his sixth year reach the place where those fanfic authors have him at the end of the summer. I'm in no hurry to have my Harry grow up.

Knowledge base

Things I have learned recently:

- LCD monitors work best at the optimum refresh rate. They do not work best at a higher refresh rate. Yes, it is counterintuitive to take the refresh rate down to 60, but it helps.

- If you are using InterActual DVD player and you can't access the DVD-ROM specific material on the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban DVD, click on the Extra Credit link on the bottom.

- In Sims 2, if you want to do the move_objects on and then delete a character thing, don't panic when the character's icon disappears. Simply exit to the neighbourhood (saving your game on the way) and re-enter the house. The character will reappear with their mood levels all up.

- If you have WebWasher, ZoneAlarm, Norton Internet Security and Windows XP firewall and pop-up blocker, the easiest thing to do is disable the pop-up blocking/ad blocking/privacy capacities of all the software except WebWasher, then edit the WebWasher filterlist as needed to allow access to sites you want to access and block things you want to be blocked. It's also easier to disable the Windows XP firewall and let ZoneAlarm take care of that with Norton as a backup. Anything more (or different combinations) gets far too overprotective.

- You can't stash .exe files in your gmail account. Zipping them doesn't trick the gmail filter.

- If your OS is Windows XP and your ISP is Sympatico, there may be two little network connection icons in your tray. Do not try to close one of these network connections, bad things will happen! (When I did this it inadvertently deleted my network card). You can convince the non-sympatico icon to not show itself, but don't try actually closing it.

- In Windows XP, if you set your taskbar to auto-hide and then maximize a Trillian window, the Trillian window will cover up the taskbar and you have to annoyingly switch to another window or resize Trillian before you can access the taskbar. Instead of maximizing Trillian with the icon in the top right of the window, just drag the window edges until you reach the required size.

- Furniture on casters that is frequently rolled around can damage the finish of hardwood floors.

- Hiking up your pants by casually sticking your hands in your pockets and then casually shrugging your shoulders is not a good idea, because it puts pressure on seams that the designers never intended.

- If your bra straps have metal buckles and adjusty-things, and you have a zit right under where one of the metal pieces needs to be, wear a different bra. Even if it ruins your line. The resulting skin irritation is extremely aggravating.

- If your vegetarian meal comes with an item that wasn't part of the meal description on the menu, find out what that item is before eating it.

Masi Tupungato Passo Doble

This is a blend of two grapes with which I'm not too familiar: Malbec and Corvina. I couldn't tell you which grape is doing what, but the end result is far too tannic for me. It might work with some really hardcore meat, but this simply is not a good wine for me. It doesn't even give me the vague healthful feeling I generally get when sipping on a red wine.

Manipulative commercials

There's this commercial that shows this adorable little baby crying inconsolably. She's just crying and crying and crying for long enough to make anyone who is capable of doing so lactate, and anyone else look around to make sure the baby is okay.

Then the caption comes on saying that X people die of drunk driving. The more crying. Then they say "Emily's mother was one of them."

I don't like this commercial because it is far too manipulative. First of all, it upsets me, as is intended. But I don't like my television set upsetting me unexpectedly - especially in the morning, if I have my TV on while getting ready. Selfish as it sounds, the last thing I need is to tear up when I'm running late and have just put on my mascara.

Then I get indignant about being upset as a warning against something I would never do and never allow others to do. I do own a breathalyzer and carry taxi money for a reason!

Then I realize that it's upsetting me for no reason. The baby is crying and inconsolable, but that's not because her mother died because of drunk driving. She's crying because no one has come to get her! Even when a baby's mother dies, of whatever reason, someone is still put in charge of the baby. The problem in this scenario is that whoever is in charge of the baby either hasn't reached her yet, or is of the "let her cry it out" school of parenting. Which is a problem, but has nothing to do with drunk driving. So then I get embarrassed about allowing myself to be manipulated like this.

And the overall problem with this commercial is that the kind of people who are selfish and/or stupid enough to drive drunk probably wouldn't care that the poor widdle baby is crying, they'd probably be more the type to say "Someone shut that damn kid up!" So the target audience completely disregards the commecial, while innocent bystanders have to redo their mascara and are late for work. Not a good plan.

I don't know if the aim of this commercial is to get me to not drive drunk and not allow others to do so, or to get me to give money to MADD (or whatever organization). But I'm already not going to drive drunk - it's not like I have the opportunity anyway - and it's making me less like to give money to the organization because I don't like being manipulated this way.

I am SUCH a Hufflepuff!

Another reason why parents aren't like the rest of us

In the elevator of my building, there was a woman and her toddler daughter. The little girl says to her mother: "Mamamama bayayayaya!"

The mother understood her! She looked down at the little girl as though she had said something perfectly rational, and reassured her that they could pick it up tomorrow, it would still be there.

I was so tempted to ask the mother what the little girl had just said, but that would be a bit of an intrusion.

Parliamentary procedures

MP Steven Fletcher, as we all know, is quadriplegic. And in today's Globe and Mail, there's a photo of MP Andy Scott in a wheelchair for some reason.

So how do these gentlemen rise to be counted when voting?

"This wine may contain traces of fish products"

I bought a lovely-sounding New Zealand wine called Sacred Hill Whitecliff Sauvignon Blanc. I brought it home and was putting it away, when I noticed in small letters on the back label: "This wine may contain traces of fish products"

WTF? How do fish products get into wine?

I sent the winery a polite and curious email. Hopefully they'll respond. I'm going to have to take the wine back, but I'm more curious than anything else.

Things They Should Invent: Nicotine-only cigarettes

Is it really strictly necessary to have tar and arsenic etc. in cigarettes? Why can't they just make them pure nicotine, without as many cancer-causing chemicals?

The humidity has broken!

The post-apocalyptic dystopian heat wave is over!!!! WOOO!

Fido voice-recognition sucks!

Fido switched to a voice-recognition menu rather than a push-button menu for upgrading accounts. But their voice recognition SUCKS! It doesn't recognize my voice at all! It doesn't recognize me saying the word "Yes". And I have a Standard Canadian accent (Fido is a Canadian company) and English is my first language! What really sucks is that you can't even push the buttons for the push-button system, so I'm stuck waiting for an agent! BOO FIDO! Bring back the press one press two system!

Edited to make this post actually useful: If Fido voice recognition doesn't work for you, try the following:

1. Call from a landline instead of your cell.
2. If you're a woman, get a man to do it. (In general, voice-recognition software tends to like men better). If you don't have a man handy, pretend to be a man.
3. If you can manage to speak to an agent, tell them, in your best Standard Canadian accent, that the voice recognition doesn't understand you.
4. Go to www.fido.ca, click on the "Contact us" link, and send them a message telling them that the voice recognition doesn't understand you.

I don't know what they'll tell you to help you because they haven't emailed me back, but perhaps a critical mass of people who can't use the voice recognition will help change their minds.

Hope Estate Chardonnay

I don't much like this wine, because it has the element that is common to
cantaloupe and pink lemonade, and I don't like this particular element. It
might be a perfectly good wine, I have no idea. I just can't enjoy it for
the same reason I can't enjoy a fruit salad that' s heavy on the cantaloupe.

Note to self

- Disabling Norton Internet Security and allowing supplementary modification of the address bar works. The question is which of these is the key element?

- The emails you need are in your gmail so you don't have to worry about transferring them.