wander

Dear Friendslist,

If anybody out there is going to be in Toronto on July 4th, 5th, or 7th, and is interested in hearing some very good classical and romantic chamber music, let me know. I'm partly responsible for producing the following festival:

http://www.mgam.com/festival.html

and I have a limited number of free (yes, FREE!) tickets to give away for each night.

-Andrew

But for this, I make an exception.

Featured article on Wikipedia today:

Spoo!

From the Wikipedia article on vitamin C. Doesn't this seem less like a scientific statement and more like a throwaway line from a Douglas Adams book?

"To the best of scientific knowledge, all animals and plants synthesize their own vitamin C, except for humans and a small number of other animals, including, apes, guinea pigs, the red-vented bulbul, a fruit-eating bat and a species of trout."

I found the following on Wikipedia.

"The swede is native to Sweden, and was introduced into Scotland. From there, it spread to the rest of Britain and to North America. In continental Europe, it acquired a bad name when it became a food of last resort during World War I. In the German "Steckrübenwinter" of 1916/17, large parts of the population were kept alive on a diet consisting of little else than swedes. After the war, most people were so tired of eating swedes that they have remained unpopular to this day..."

Do only I find that funny?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutabaga

Just... awesome. Anybody out there who appreciates Lovecraft - or pumpkins - absolutely must listen to this.

http://www.escapepod.info/2005/10/27/ep025-the-great-old-pumpkin/

Not incidentally: this publication, Escape Pod, is well worth a deeper perusal to anyone interested in free, short, high-quality audio presentations of genre fiction - science fiction, fantasy, horror. Check it out; it's easily one of my favourite podcasts.

http://www.escapepod.org

Happy Hallowe'en!

[Edited because I'm still not sure exactly how linking to a URL from an LJ works. Evidently, it's simpler than I thought it was.]

Dude, schizmatic and I just got a carrel in Robarts, and it is sweet. This makes me a feel a little more like a real graduate student... a little more. Unfortunately, however, this carrel appears to be in one of the very few parts of Robarts not enabled for wi-fi. Then again, as schizmatic said, this may be a blessing in disguise....

On the upside, the carrel is on the 12th floor, with easy access to most of my academic materials; and, better still, it has a (clean, if somewhat arrow-slit-ish in aesthetic) window, with a commanding view of the campus and what can perhaps be called 'eastern exposure'.

Anyhow, I'm disproportionately happy.

I haven't made an entry in, well, ages. I've never really made a proper lj entry, in fact, if you ask me. And why break such a streak? I was, however, inspired by rfmcdpei's recent meme posting. And look what I got! (Well, it made Lore happy, anyhow....)

What Science Fiction/Fantasy Character Are You?

Okay, I guess eventually I should start actually writing entries. But for now, here's this:

http://www.earthday.net/footprint/quiz.asp

How many planets do you need?

-AC

Here's a link to my brother Matthew's photoblog. It's pretty cool, so check it out.

http://www.thenarrative.net/

-AC

Er...not that I'm a monarchist, or anything. But I have always thought that the Dominion of Canada has a nice ring to it.

Well, I finally gave in. Having noted that it seems nearly impossible to be a CMS student without maintaining an LJ, and having tired of cognitive dissonance, here I am. But no, no. Don't think that I'm giving in. Not really. I'm here in a spirit of determined optimism. This is gonna be great....

-Andrew