iMatt :: The Blog of Matt Clare

I’ve often said bad things about my adopted home in St. Catharines, but clearly the individuals roaming the streets around me are not stupid.

Take for example the person who slashed the line from my propane tank to my BBQ while I was on vacation.  This person clearly knew about the safety features designed into gas fittings.  The evidence suggests that they were using my propane tank to shoot fire and the regular end that screws into the BBQ will only allow gas to flow when attached to the proper fitting.  By slashing it they were able to achieve their task – of course providing that their goal was only to shoot fire and not actually burn my house down.

Our trip to Montreal for the F1 race gets better every year. This year featured lots of in-town events and we for the first time did things right: stayed in a friend’s apartment and sprung for grandstand seating at turn 6 and 7.

The race was going very well for the first 1/2. Kimi had launched from 3rd to 2nd but couldn’t make ground do to a deteriorating RR wheel that would not come off during a pit.

Jacques was doing well, as one of the last of the late pit’ers he stayed out on track and made it up to 7th before Ralph Schumacher pulled aside to let him by (he had a very slow acceleration out of turn 6 the lap before) and Jacques went to go around him in turn 7 and hit all the dirt off the racing line… and then hit the wall. He should have waited until the hairpin, 30 seconds or 1/4 of the track later, as he was not going to gain any more positions in 11 laps.

Kimi also made his own mistake on the second to last lap, in response to distant pressure from Michael Schumacher, he went wide in the hairpin and re-joined in third.

Hard luck for our drivers but a good weekend for us.

I got to start the whole weekend with the following trip: Edmonton >-flight-> Calgary >-flight-> Montreal >-bus-> to downtown Montreal >-Metro-> to Jean-Talon exchange >-walk-> one stop on Jean-Talon line to the apartment we were staying in. From a cool 16-hour day in conservative Alberta to a hot and humid Montreal street in the middle of the night to meet the boys.
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I just got back from the F1 Race in montreal. It was a great weekend but not the greatest result on the track. The important thing is we had fun.

Flickr pictures

• F1 pictures only: flickr.com/photos/mattclare/tags/f1/
• F1 all weekend: flickr.com/photos/mattclare/sets/72157594177684544/

Before the race they showed the music video for Jacques’ new single, Accepterais-tu. My friend Matty Phillips, who can play dozens of instruments and toured with Cuff The Duke for a bit, and I reviewed it. Here it is, bad audio and all.

My presentation was this morning, right after the keynote address by the president and VP from Blackboard, Michael Chasen and Karen Gage. Depending on how you look at it, pretty good billing. Michael from Bb had some interesting things to say and he talked about Web 2.0 and suggested that we’re about to see e-Learning 2.0.

If you don’t already know, my presentation talks about bringing Web 2.0 to higher-ed and our experience with Podcasts and Wikis.
I think things went well because someone told me afterwards that “Michael from Bb mentioned a few things and then you went on and explained what the hell he was talking about.” Plus I’m now flying through business cards every time we break for coffee.

There as also been some very interesting presentations today and I think I’ve got another collection of valuable little tips to bring back to Brock.

Here’s my presentation: www.brocku.ca/~mclare/webct06/

I feel a little responsible because I had jumped on the Oilers bandwagon (fuel truck) and cheered as hard as the rest of this town has, but I couldn’t pledge my full elegance: I think my Toronto Maple Leafs boxers might have jinxed things.

The town is crestfallen but they still support their team. Whyte avenue appeared to be (when I left) under control and most Oilers fans took solace in doing better than Calgary. In the washroom someone said “Well, last year Calgary had their chance, this year we had our go.” My response was “If only Red Dear had a team.” He saw the logic but didn’t think it was a good solution.

OK, now on to this conference and actually learning something.

I watched game six of the stanley cup from a bar on Whyte Avenue in Edmonton. It was an amazing experience, what a group a fans. It started with everyone singing both nation anthems.

The bar went crazy with every goal and went mad at the horn.

Then everyone streamed onto Whyte Avenue. Some fans were not on their best behaviour.

Most fans were elated and wanted to share their joy with everyone else.

The partying on the street went well past 11:00PM Mountain – 1:00AM Eastern, when I decided to walk back to the University of Alberta to get some sleep.

This place is cup crazy!

I had a little trouble getting a car, but I’ve now got a Pontiac G6 – I’ll probably have a few things to say about it by the end of the week.

It’s raining now so tonight I’ll probably just get settled in and get something to eat – and get used to the 2 hours diffrence from Toronto and the 11:30 sunsets.

Some pics should be in Flickr –>  soon.

OILERS WIN!  Short handed goal by Pasani in OT!!
I’m going to Edmonton baby!  Saturday the cup will be closer to the Rexall Place than it has been all year and so will I!

That’s what that is!

I see about five of these a year, most often in sinks and tubs and when the seasons change. In April I met one on my bedside table! I’ve been wondering what type of insect it was ever since then.

When I do meet one of these ugly insects I tend to kill them by crushing them in a tissue and fist, I should take a picture of one (thanks to myriorama on Flickr for this picture) but they’re quite quick and I don’t bring a camera with me to the washroom (often).

According to the Wikipedia article on house centipedes the reason these bugs are so quick is that they are house insect predators. They feed on spiders, termites, cockroaches, silverfish and other inside pests. They kill their prey by injecting venom through their fangs and then feasting on the dead prey!

I’ve been bitten by one: The outcome was I dropped it, but that sturdy tissue kept the centipede trapped. I have yet to die and he hasn’t feasted on anything in a long time.

Here’s my travel plans for Edmonton, the F1 race and Chicago:

Edmonton:
Toronto Fri Jun 16 12:45 > Edmonton
Edmonton Thurs Jun 22 16:00 > Montreal Thu Jun 22 23:39
Montreal afternoon of Jun 25 > Markham
Markham Mon Jun 26 > St. Catharines

Chicago
Toronto Sun Jul 9 12:00 > Chicago
Chicago Fri 14 15:30 > Toronto Fri 14 18:00