Boy, do I feel safe...

Noticed this in the news recently.

"(CNN) -- A water leak at the Fermi II nuclear power plant outside Monroe, Michigan, forced a shutdown of the facility Monday, but no radioactivity was reported to have escaped and no evacuations have been ordered, authorities said."

I noticed this plant from I-75 when I was driving back and forth to Lexington. (A drive I oddly find myself missing). That thing is close. About 50km away, according to a map actually..

I'll have to look up what kind of fallout I can expect next time...

(Edit: It leaked again when they tried to restart it... That thing makes me nervous.)

More snow

Like a lot of places in this part of the continent, Windsor is currently bracing for a pretty heavy snow dump. For me this is inconvenient, since I had planned on going out of town for a good chunk of the day tomorrow and would rather not be driving on snow and ice covered highways. (Even with the new Hummer-like abilities my car now has with snow tires).

But, before I complain too much about this, I should also take a minute to remember the fond memories of snow I have. Most from growing up in Orillia, which gets just a lot more snow than we do here.

Those of you playing the home game will remember that for a few years when I was in high school, I was a ski instructor. I trust I don't have to go into too much detail about how nice a good dump of snow was there. This was especially true early or late in the season, since it meant either an earlier start or later finish to the season.

Also, all throughout grade school in Orillia a major dump of snow brought with it the possibility of a snow day. A great little unscheduled vacation. One of those in particular stands out for me.

DevilBoy's dad was the principal of my high school for most of the years I spent there. This both had perks (access to the school, even when it was closed) and drawbacks (at least one teacher hated me because of my friendship with the princepal's son).

Anyway, this day didn't start off as a snow day, merely a day where it was snowing rather heavily. Not enough had fallen by the time it was time to leave for school, so, everyone had to show up. But the talk in the halls was all about the storm and how the school would certainly have to be closed any minute now. At any time we expected the closure to be broadcast over the school's intercom system.

In home room, we stood for the national anthem and then the principal (DevilBoy's dad) came on the intercom and read the morning's announcements is his distinct British accent. He concluded with "There will be no snow day today! Simcoe County Board of Education policy does not allow snow days!"

The school day progressed, and DevilBoy's dad made announcements of that type a couple more times. The storm ignored him, and the Simcoe County Board of Education policy and continued to pile higher and higher and the roads got worse and worse. A large number of students were bused into my high school (not me), so this was a matter of some importance.

After lunch DevilBoy's dad came on the PA system one last time...

"I realize that I said before that there wouldn't be a snow day. This was not entirely correct..."

Just a funny link

Apologies for the lack of updates. I've been dealing with some insomnia of late (note the time this was posted) and haven't felt especially creative...

More updates will be forthcoming later. In the meantime, check out this link. I found it pretty amusing.

Student Funding

If you'd like to experience bureaucracy at it's finest, apply for a student loan in Ontario. The program is called the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP).

Applying for OSAP is a kind of involved process...

Step 1: Log into the website linked above and fill out a lengthy form. An estimate on possible OSAP funding will be provided. Ignore this number, it doesn't really mean anything.

Step 2: After receiving an email, go back and look at new numbers. These are the real numbers. Their origin is a mystery.

Step 3: Print out pages from the website. Sign them and take them to the financial aid office. You do not receive any money at this point.

Step 4: After about a month, receive an email from student aid. Go back to the office, this time you need to see someone, so stand in line and wait. Get to the front of the line, present drivers license and social insurance card. Receive new papers, but no money.

Step 5: Take the new papers to the university cashier's office. Stand in a new line. Present student card and social insurance card. The university will mark on the papers how much they will be taking off the top for tuition, then stamp them. You must sign the new papers again at this point. Receive no money.

Step 6: Take stamped and signed new papers to the post office. Wait in line. Present student card, social insurance card and a void cheque. More stamping. More signing. Receive more new papers. Sign them roughly 8732 times. Leave the originals at the post office. Return home with copies of the papers and no money.

Step 7: Wait about a week or so. The money (the part the university didn't want) magically appears in your bank account. Yay! Money!

Step 8: Repeat every semester until you leave school one way or another.

I just did it for the fifth time, and it's still as much fun as ever.

There are a few possible variations in this process depending on a few factors. For instance, sometimes there are loans people in the student center and you can go stand in their line instead of the one at the post office.

I have no idea what the student loan process is like in other jurisdictions... Hypothetically it could be worse, but I don't want to think about that.

Nevermind about the hiatus

I've decided that my planned hiatus may have been an over reaction.

What happened, basically, is this:

SouthernKitten and I split up the other day. I took it pretty hard. Blogging no longer felt like something I really wanted to do. Also, I was concerned that if I did, you'd just be reading CanadaDave whine on the internet. You don't want to read it, I don't want it in my blog. Hence the hiatus plan.

Over the past couple of days, however, I've found a little more perspective. The Earth continues to spin, my classes have restarted and life goes on.

Additionally, I understand Jennifer Anniston has also recently become available. Convenient,eh?

Hiatus

For personal reasons I'll be taking an indefinate hiatus from blogging. I might come back at a later time. I don't know at this point.

Assorted Miscellany

I have a few short thoughts on a few different subjects today.

The Indian ocean tsunami has been in the news a lot lately, in fact it's been leading the news every day since it happened. To that extensive coverage, I can't really add very much. The number of casualties is beyond comprehension. The closest I can come is the population sign on the way into this city which reads 209,000. The vast majority of this town would be gone.

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In this country, after negotiations on offshore oil revenues broke down, premier Danny Williams of Newfoundland ordered Canadian flags taken off all provincial buildings.

In Canada the provinces can be divided into two financial categories, traditionally know as the "Have" (like Ontario and Alberta) and "Have not" (like, say, Newfoundland). "Have not" provinces receive federal equalization payments funded by the federal government and the "Have" provinces. So premier Williams stripped the Canadian flag from buildings funded by the rest of the country, something I personally find appalling.

Additionally, the negotiations basically broke down because the offshore oil revenue has the potential to take Newfoundland from the ranks of the "Have nots", but Newfoundland does not wish to give up their federal equalization payments. I can understand why they'd like to continue receiving them and, in fairness, Newfoundland has been robbed in natural resource deals before, but I'm not sure why we in the rest of the country should continuing subsidizing Newfoundland once they have the means to stand on their own.

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On a completely personal level, my car now has snow tires and the difference between them and the all seasons I've used in the past is just phenomenal. With all season tires I'd routinely get stuck three or four times doing something as mundane as going to the store. With snow tires I have yet to actually get stuck. Now, I'm not about to take my car off-roading, but really, it's a huge difference. My car no longer sucks in the winter!