Not again...

...there's a federal election coming. A side effect of having a minority government with no real opposition - they might as well call an election, with the best case scenario (for the government, not necessarily for Canada) being a majority victory, and the worst case scenario being another couple of years added on to the current term. It's not like anyone else is likely to win.

Sigh.

As I understand it, the parties can be described pretty much like this:

1) Conservative. Mostly blue. Used to be called Progressive Conservatives until they were slaughtered in a previous election, merged with the Reform Party (a bunch of ultra-conservatives from out west) and changed their name. Also, they weren't really fooling anyone with the "Progressive" tag anyway. Currently in power. Policy seems to be somewhat lacking. Led by a not-so-very-charismatic Prime Minister who is now best known for wearing a friendly, homey sweater vest in his TV commercial.

2) Liberal. A cheerful shade of red. Slightly less conservative than the Conservatives. Roundly slaughtered last time around by a combination of the Conservatives and the NDP (see below). Now led by some guy who a) is widely seen as an intellectual egghead, b) at the last leadership convention defeated another guy who is also widely seen as an intellectual egghead, and c) allegedly sounds like the Swedish Chef when he speaks English quickly. Absolutely no clear policy on anything, as far as I can tell.

3) New Democratic Party. Orange. Not new, not democratic. Occasionally described as pinko commies, by people just slightly less charitable than me. Led by a guy who is famous for living in community housing while in office as a highly-paid municipal politician. Platform based around a complex mix of carbon credits, expensive social programs, and national bankruptcy.

4) Bloc Quebecois. Kind of dark blue with white fleur-de-lis on it, or something. Nobody outside of La Belle Province cares, but that didn't stop them from getting enough seats in recent memory to form the official opposition. Led by some French-Canadian guy. Platform is based on separation from English Canada, determined defence of the French language and culture (France could probably learn something from this), and not a whole lot else.

5) Green Party. Green; somewhat fuzzy around the edges. Running in every single bloody riding in the country; unlikely to win any of them. Led by some person or other who talks a lot about the environment and rides around the country on a train, or a bicycle, or a hang-glider, or something.

And not to forget:

6) The usual grab-bag of independents, party dissenters, embezzling, criticizing and/or adultering ex-government ministers who've been booted out of caucus, street musicians, ex-hockey players (don't laugh, there are at least two in the Senate) and the like.

Now you know everything you need to. October 14th - go out and vote.*


*This public service announcement may not actually be very useful for anything. You've been warned.

On the road again

No, not another trip down Highway 401, solo in the car, nor to the sunny southern states. This isn't an epic road trip in the manner of Dawn, either - it's just the morning commute. I'm on the road again because we're into the school year, and Mrs. Ricardipus is back in classes.

So, with drop-off duties for the Junior Ricardipi messing up my morning train schedule, I've elected to drive all the way downtown to work, a couple of days each week. Which, although environmentally unfriendly, is actually kind of a pleasure. Good music on the stereo, and the opportunity to explore the city as I negotiate its twists and turns, looking for the best saw-off between speed, scenery and calm traffic. It's even almost cost-effective, since staff parking where I work is only marginally more expensive than the train ticket, and less expensive than the trip should I decide to use the subway in even one direction to or from the train station to the office. What about the cost of gas, you say? Let's just ignore that for now.

Naturally, such a drive affords opportunities for on-the-fly photography of local buildings:


Don't try this at full speed, folks.

The downside, of course, is that I am afforded every opportunity of being distracted by things parked at the side of the road, like this:


You know, I've never seen a 328 GTS before.

and this:


A bit less high-performance, but very pretty.

Not to mention the local Lotus and Aston Martin dealerships. It's surprising how easy it is to modify my route to pass by them.

Ah well, dangers abound everywhere. If I wasn't driving, I'd be walking to the station most days, and I'll confess I was late for a train because I had to stop and take photos of this pretty little Datsun:


A 260Z. Pretty in blue.

And the Ford GT, well that was a different story entirely - I made the train, but did have to run a bit.


Photoshoppery has occurred.

Sad case, me. But there you go. Driving to and from work, a couple of times a week, keeping my eyes peeled, shooting digital from the hip.

Gah! Another weekend.

Today:

Two swimming lessons (one for each of the Junior Ricardipi).
One ballet-jazz combo dance lesson for JR#2.
One birthday party (for JR#2).

I am, as they say, le tired. [WARNING: the video clip that links to is NSFW, contains minor language and stereotyping of various ethnic groups, and is funny as heck. Use at your own discretion.]

And I have five pages of a grant to write, by tomorrow evening. Not to mention fiddling around with my new Talk Like A Pirate Day present, which will doubtless chew up some additional time:



This hardly leaves any time for a social life (not that I have one anyway), taking pictures of buildings at ridiculous angles (as I do), or even blogging about recent interesting events, such as having coffee with Rikaitch's dad and his lovely wife on Friday (which I did).

Perhaps I'll tell you more about that visit when I have a bit more time than I do now, but let me tell you that Rik's dad is an interesting fellow, both he and his wife were very friendly, and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting them. I've no idea what they thought of me, but there you go. Chalk up another win for the internet, I guess. And I've a lunch date in mid-November, in Washington DC, with another three people I've only met online. Combine all of this with my ever-expanding (but possibly not terribly useful) LinkedIn network, as well as occasional visits to the Nature Network, and I'm beginning to feel like a true cyber-citizen of the twenty-first century, tooled up with digital paraphernalia, meeting internet connections, tapping away on the laptop at the kitchen table while eating leftover pizza and cake. What fun it is, being me.

Mothballs

And so, we've reached a strategic point: the point at which the large finished room in the basement is once again required for a birthday party. Which means some tidying, some paring down of the old toys and books scattered around it, and some moving out of things that are a) breakable, and b) rarely used.

Including, as it turns out, all of the electronic music equipment I've accumulated over the last 25 years or so, which I confess I've barely touched since we moved in, nine years ago - certainly not much since the basement was finished and it was all installed in that room. So goodbye, for now, to the following dearly loved bits and pieces of electronica, which are now stashed mainly in the workroom, possibly pending re-installation sometime in the future. But maybe just waiting for Ebay.

The synthesizers: a collection of digital, analogue, and hybrid beasts from the unexciting end of the professional musical instrument scale, circa the mid-1980s:



The rack of associated gear, including a few more synthesizer modules, a 12-channel mixer, and an extremely dodgy 1985-vintage sampler:



Various and assorted home-made distortion boxes:



The guitar amplifier, which would be more useful if I could play guitar with any level of skill:



And even the AKG dynamic microphone, with its built-like-a-tank construction and post-cold-war German industrial chic:



Sad times indeed, although as years go by I'm finding it increasingly difficult to be sentimental about all of this. I expect the birthday party, with crafts, games, and an overarching Princess-y theme, will be a great success. And if I need to satisfy my electronic music obsession sometime in the future, well, I've got a laptop and a digital audio interface that almost works, so I guess I'm set. The rest of the hardware, it seems, is doomed to storage for now.