This and that

Derrrrrrrrrrrroule et gagnez

2007-03-01T08:45:00.000-08:00

That time of year again! And I'm 0/3 already.

Scrabble

2006-08-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

Another game of scrabble well played.

Brigus Blueberry Festival

2006-08-14T05:37:00.000-07:00

Eren, Terry, and myself (under the name Guilty Pleasures) played at the Brigus Blueberry Festival on Sunday. I was quite impressed with the event, being much bigger than I had anticipated. It's my favorite summer festival I've been to. Having it amongst the streets and houses of the town makes it different than the usual big-open-field setting that most festivals use.

Check out some pictures on my webalbum page.

Setlist:

Johnny Cash - Long Black Veil
Peter Street
The Beatles - Ticket to Ride
The Eagles - Hotel California
Come Out Ye Black and Tans
Celtic Connection - 16 For A While

Calgary: To and Fro

2006-07-24T15:04:00.000-07:00

So I flew to Calgary on the 15th and drove back with my brother. The final leg in his move back to Newfoundland was to drive his van back, which we did with maximum velocity. Got back by Thursday after a bit of a debacle with the ferry schedule.

That makes 3 major journeys so far this summer. I don't have any other trips planned so far, but who knows what might happen.

Montreal

2006-06-30T13:14:00.000-07:00

Here I sit in Via Rail's Montreal station. Lots of hustle, not so much bustle. Cooling my heels now while I wait for the train to Ottawa at 6.

For the non-cognoscenti, I flew to Montreal on Wednesday evening to put off a training course for NavSim's Pilotage clientele in the Montreal area. The attendance was good and the course was a success. After spending a few days in the midst of Canada's French heart-land, I now know the miserable condition of my French. At least I have something to work on.

As I was already in Montreal, I booked a trip on Via-rail to Ottawa, where I'm gonig to be meeting up with some friends to spend Canada Day in the Capital. It promises to be good time, if I can find the train that is...

Construction

2006-06-24T07:25:00.000-07:00

I currently have two brothers building houses next to each other in our home-town of Mobile, NL. Check out some progress pictures here and here.

Cape Breton '06

2006-06-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

I recently spent a weekend in Cape Breton with my girlfriend Donna. Awesome place and people. We went barn dancing, drove around the Cabot Trail, went lobster fishing, had a lobster pig-out, and checked out some very nice beaches. Check out some of the pictures at the link below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jeremy.walsh/CapeBreton06

Glory Days

2006-03-17T05:30:00.000-08:00

For the first time, I am actually beating the odds for Roll up the Rim. I am now the proud bearer of a free coffee. My only hope is that the free coffee nets me one of the cars or tvs.

Decisions

2006-03-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

As you may have noticed, I recently picked up a free donut from Tims. How should I use it? Let me know here and I'll post a picture of the donut when I finally get it.

Roll Up The Rim To (Maybe) Win

2006-02-27T10:22:00.000-08:00

I've never won anything on Roll up the Rim despite being a crack-addict Tim's drinker. Here's my story for RUTR2W for 2006.

Additional Info:
After some sleuthing, I found this[www.timhortons.com].

According to this sheet, more prizes are available for large cups than the extra large cups that I usually buy. I'm not sure if I'm going to switch yet.

Also according to this sheet, the approximate odds of winning a prize are 1 in 9 (neglecting everything but the food prizes, which by far represent the majority of potential prizes).

Results:
09:00 27/02/2006: Please Play Again
13:00 27/02/2006: Please Play Again
22:30 27/02/2006: Please Play Again
10:10 28/02/2006: Please Play Again
21:00 28/02/2006: Please Play Again
11:30 01/03/2006: Please Play Again
11:30 02/03/2006: Please Play Again
23:00 02/03/2006: Please Play Again
09:00 03/03/2006: Please Play Again
10:00 04/03/2006: Please Play Again
11:00 05/03/2006: Please Play Again
20:00 05/03/2006: Please Play Again
09:00 06/03/2006: Please Play Again
14:00 06/03/2006: Please Play Again
09:00 07/03/2006: WIN/GAGNEZ UN BEIGNE/DONUT!
13:00 07/03/2006: Please Play Again
09:00 08/03/2006: Please Play Again
09:00 09/03/2006: Please Play Again
22:00 09/03/2006: Please Play Again
09:00 10/03/2006: Please Play Again
13:00 10/03/2006: Please Play Again
09:00 13/03/2006: WIN/GAGNES UN CAFÉ/COFFEE!
13:00 13/03/2006: Please Play Again
09:00 14/03/2006: Please Play Again
09:00 15/03/2006: Please Play Again
21:00 16/03/2006: WIN/GAGNES UN CAFÉ/COFFEE!

Expected number of prizes thus far:
26*(1/9) = 2.8889

Actual number of prizes thus far:
3

Prize "balance":

Actual - expected = 3 - 2.8889 = -.11111...

Trip to Turkey Part I

2006-01-12T13:31:00.000-08:00

Eren in Urla

Eren's car

From left, me, Eren, Göktuğ (on floor), and Halık

Eren and Halık sharing the peace pipe

Halık's laughing Buda

A shot of the south side of İzmir from the north side

Eren's front yart in Urla

View behind the house

Urla through the trees on the balcony

Unrestrained view of Urla

Kemal Attatürk casting the Greeks into the sea in İzmir

Selçuk from upon high...

...and the castle from closer up

The amphitheatre at ancient Ephesus, near Selcuk

Eren sitting way up at the top

View from the tunnel

An archway

Some Greek writing on a sign-stone

The b'ys in the amphitheatre

A smaller amphitheatre at the other end of town

The library at Ephesus, which contains a secret passage to the brothel across the street

The detailed marble work is amazing and extremely well preserved after thousands of years

The signs over the archways say something about Caesar Agustus

Information about the shrine of Mary, also near Selçuk

Huge statue on the road to the shrine

Taking a nap on a burial slab at the tomb of the Seven Sleepers

Left to right, Eren, myself, Yılmaz, and Belma (Eren's parents)

Smoking the nargile on Eren's boat

Your turn

The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, a Christian church from circa 500 AD, converted to a mosque by Muslim conquerers

Inside the Hagia Sophia

The Muslims left much of the original Christian artwork untouched outside the main chambre of the mosque.

Looking down onto the first floor

The Blue Mosque, on of the great mosques of the world...

So named for its intricately deccorated interior (hard to capture with my camera)

Fish market in Istanbul

...where you can buy lots of different fish...

...including some odd looking specimens...

...like these sardine-sized guys with jelly eyes

The Cistern of the Chapel, constructed circa 500 BC...

...contains a forest of columns in a deep underground chamer...

...including these two Medussa head columns

More to come, stay tuned!!

Gear

2005-11-08T18:36:00.000-08:00

Me and the Turk picked up some new sound gear in the past few days. Got a Peavey mixer board with phantom power in order to run our Audio Technica AT2020 condensor microphone. We haven't had a whole lot of time to play with it but it sounds pretty sweet so far.

Pic when I get one.

In related news I also swung by Travel Cuts and picked up my tickets for Turkey today. For the record I'm flying to Izmir, Turkey on the 17th of December, and coming back on the 6th in the New Year. It's looking like it's going to be pretty sweet!

Hallowe'en at Alice Drive

2005-10-30T14:49:00.000-08:00

All the peeps from Alice Drive had a Hallowe'en Extravaganza last night so I thought I'd toss up some pictures.

Donna from above

Left to Right: Donna, Missy, Eren, Mark, and Patrica

Me trying to look angry

Eren in pain

Google Reader

2005-10-30T14:06:00.000-08:00

After reading Naeim's blog post about Google Reader, I thought I'd give it a try. I added Slashdot, Ars Technica, BBC news, and a few classmate's blogs to it and let 'er rip. It's a very clean interface and I'm getting hooked to it. Try it out.

Time

2005-09-16T09:13:00.000-07:00

I don't update my blog because I don't have time[wikipedia.org].

Mobile to Witless Bay on the ECT

2005-07-31T14:49:00.000-07:00

As of late I've been thinking about spending some of my abundance of free time hiking on the East Coast Trails. As I found myself with little to do this fine afternoon I grabbed my camera and hit the trail between Mobile and Witless Bay.

Map made with NavSim's MapCruiser

Despite living in the area for my whole life and taking the trail to Tors Cove many times, this was my first trip from Mobile to Witless Bay.

The trail itself was fairly navigable and all the walkways and stairs in good repair. The view from the north-side of the harbor was very good. You could look to the south and see Tors Cove and all the way down to Burnt Cove. Once I was around the point, I could see Witless Bay and all the way up to the mouth of Bay Bulls harbor and the light house. Add the islands of the bird sanctuary, heavy tour-boat traffic, and the occasional whale spout and you can start to get the picture.

Looking in towards Mobile

When I got out on the point in Mobile, I worked my way down the steep banks to the rocks on the point. There are a lot of tall cliffs overlooking the water out in this area.

Mobile Point

As I was hopping some boulders I noticed a sea otter stretched out on the rocks, basking in the sun. Luckily I had my camera out and was able to snap a picture of him. I tried to work around to a tall boulder overlooking where he was sleeping to get a better snap, but he must have heard me. Let me tell ya, he was not impressed with my presence. He faced me and did some hissing and puffed up a bit, and then escaped down into a crack in the rock and back to the water.

Sleeping sea otter

All in all it was a pretty good trip. I'm planning on making a 2 or 3 day trip south on the trail some time this summer. It's hard to guess how far this will get me because a lot of the coves and harbors up that way are very deep (ever seen Aquaforte?) and make the trip much longer than it may appear.

Highspeed

2005-06-21T17:28:00.000-07:00

I got highspeed fools.

Da Civic

2005-06-06T17:47:00.000-07:00

Bought a new car!!!

Yar! Da Civic b'y!

I went car shopping at the end of last week and picked this out after driving a few cars (Saturn Ion, Toyota Carolla). It's a pretty bad-ass ride. I'm glad my first car is one that I really like.

I decided to buy a new car after taking a job at Navsim Technology. I started today and it's good to have something concrete nailed down after coasting pretty much since the 25th of April. I feel good about the people I'm working with and the stuff I'll be doing, so that's pretty much all I could ask for.
.

Philinium

2005-04-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a few days since the Iron Ring ceremony. First off was the awesome party at Phil's place in Topsail. Many thanks to Phil and his family for putting that off. Everyone had an awsome time, from the food to the bonfire. Here's a few pics:

Here's a few people hanging out in the kitchen, with Gammon going postal on the left.

Me and K taking it easy in the living room.

There are way too many photos to post of the entire night. Rob was working on putting them on the ECE page earlier, so check out the link on the right.

Iron Ring

2005-04-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated in a long time. Since the last update, I've weathered innumerable storms in school and out of school. Term projects are over, exams are over, and it's time to get a ring tonight. Hopefully I won't have to give it back on Monday ;)

I guess I'll update this more often in the future as I hope to have more interesting things to write about now that I'm ready to begin having a life. I think Drop Trou' is going to get active again some time soon too. Stay tuned.

Live @ The Breezeway

2005-02-26T11:36:00.001-08:00

Last night marked the return of Mike and The Turk to the Breezeway stage, featuring yours truly on the bass guitar. We played for about 2 and a half hours, all cover songs. We gave 'em a healthy dose of Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam, U2, plus some other similarly themed stuff. The boys played with their usual awesome style, and I even managed to sneak in a Wooten-style bass solo at the start of #41 by Dave.

The crowd was pretty into it and shouted requests that we were happy to oblige. There was a particularly good turnout from the Term 8 computer/electrical engineering class, who had a great time. Steve and Reido had the best time I think, judging by the level of intoxication and yelling that took place.

Pic of Eren, Mike, and myself playing at the Breezeway at the start of their Friday gigs last fall (couldn't find one from the show).

Engineering Pub Crawl

2005-02-04T07:51:00.000-08:00

Hey there. I'm starting this up because I'm supposed to be working on my Term 8 project and I really don't want to. Just giving this a try and seeing what it's all about.

From left, me, Phil, Vanessa, Rob, and Scott at the Term 8 Pub Crawl. We might not look it but we've all been drinking.