11:37 p.m. - 2003-08-27
Research
Link to the Masses for the Music Entry
With apologies. I "Write On" everyday.
The rest of ya'll "Rock On"!
Teddy bear's picnic this morning. Two bears, each on their own, decided to visit the city today; north and south. Looking for food more like, to fatten up for the winter. Police and Fish and Wildlife officials managed to keep them in check. Me I visited a lot of different websites - just thinking with the mouse. There is a rather unique news site fark, that appears, by the ads, to be run by and aimed at people in college/university. Suggested by one of my sons' friends. It features links, supplied by it's patrons, to stories from their local area that are "human interest/Darwin award/bizarre" or political satire. Most of the links are verifiable because one arrives at an accredited newspaper or journal when a choice is made. For those who like to check for urban legends lurking in the stories there is snopes as a reference site. Some of the material is definitely adult in nature, but you just don't follow those links if you don't want to know.
On a more academic turn I visited the Merriam-Webster site. I was actually searching to see if the slang I've been using to refer to my hip injury - gibbled - was recorded there. Not. It must be a local creation. Near as I can tell it is derived from the term gibbous. In my old reliable brought-from-the-old-country (England) on the boat dictionary gibbous is defined as:
Lat = hump: 1. irregularly rounded: protuberant: swollen or
2. astronomically: in the second quarter, having the bright portion convex on both margins; said of the moon.
Well 1. describes the injury and 2. describes the location and bruising - who needs tattoos when you can have your very own bruise in the shape of Australia? How did they know? Anyway, I spent sometime time reading their presentation of slang terms from the 20's to the present. I think a few were sanitized for public consumption.
Next up I have been following and/or participating in several of the forums sponsored at Universe_Today. I wanted a little more information about the work of a scientist I have referenced in one of my posts to ensure I didn't misrepresent him. His website David_Peat was fascinating. A well known writer and professor who has combined a love of the principles of art and music with quantum physics. He has also tried to explain how other cultures have long known some of our most recent "discoveries" in the realm of physics by examining their oral histories. He is the scientist who formulated chaos theory which is now applied to the stock markets, economics and business; a bit of a renaissance man I guess.
Got a call from one of the other Returning Officers today. First part of our conversation was personal - we've known each other for a long time. She has two cats that she and her hubby dote on - they are adorable. One was in a rather nasty fight last night, so I got the low down on the injuries and what the vet did. Hopefully I won't have to deal with that, but it's useful to hear what to do before an emergency arises. Talked a bit about our kittens and each of us about our families.
Next topic was about being reappointed as a Returning Officer - one of the other ROs had asked her how to do that. She said she wasn't sure, so she wanted to know if I knew. Not really. Last time I just put in an application after being told about it by a friend and seeing it advertised in the newspaper. I told her I had been told that there needed to be some sort of political sponsorship too, but that I hadn't asked anyone because I really didn't think I knew anyone at that level. She's very politically connected, so out of the blue she said, yes, one person here had advocated for me for that position. Left me buffaloed. The gentleman in question was someone I had helped on his campaign for election to the Federal government. I had opted to do that, because I had heard really good things about him through the volunteer networks I belonged to, so I knew he was trying to meet the same goals that I was working on in education, family, community and international areas. I met him one morning for coffee and decided that he would be someone I'd like to think was representing our community in Ottawa. I didn't know what level of influence he had because that kind of thing doesn't really matter to me; it never came up. In a democracy everyone has the right to speak their piece. My friend told me that a couple of people had advocated for her for her appointment. That being the case, I'm not certain why she was asking me, but it never hurts to gather as much information as possible if one really wants the job. Don't know what to think now.
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