Monday Brain

Greetings everyone. . .

It is the last week before March Break and I am busy studying for my last midterm and working on group project stuff. I don't suppose that it will be much of a week off, but at least it will give me a couple of days to catch up on all this mess of school stuff. I've been busy applying to jobs. I think I'd really like to be a stormwater engineer or something related. Urban planning and transportation are also pretty interesting too. I guess I'll find out at some point.

Continuations and enemy in the Bushes

Greetings,

I think I've run out of steam on talking about storm water management. I promise to update you if something neat comes my way. I did want to link to this story (STORY) in the star about the fate of several high level people who have spoken out against President Bush and his ill fated war on Iraq. It sounds like the days when having communist view could get you into all sorts of trouble. It seems that certain circles have made the assumption that only people connected with terrorism would speak out against the war. It is a good article with some eye opening facts.

In completely different news, I have learned that modelling is much harder work that it appears. I was helping Gabe work on his portfolio last night and was exhausted by the end just from smiling and having lights shone at me and flashed and trying to sit still. It was fun, and a pity for Gabe that he ended up having to use me as a subject, since I have a tendency towards blinking and having incredibly stupid expressions on my face (the harder I try to smile the worse I do) But it looks from the digital shots that a few worked out at least and he only needs one or two. I'm glad I'm in Engineering -

Thats all for now,

Jennith

Living a Greener Life

I am knee deep in searching for references and information on environmentally concious watershed management - this being necessary for 2 or 3 of my current school projects. There is a tonne of stuff on the web and I just wanted to post some links.

http://www.nrdc.org/cities/smartGrowth/default.asp

There is a link to a document on affordable green housing - which is short but makes some interesting points.

The long and the short of why urban development is bad for watersheds is simply that large areas of impervious surface change how stormwater acts. It prevents water from infiltrating into the ground - think about how this might effect ground water recharge and how often you need to water your lawn. Instead much of the rainfall runs off hard surfaces like roads and roofs -right into stormsewers and often right into recieving waters. The total volume of runoff is larger and the peak volume is higher. Imagine that you take 2 squares - one made of grass and one made of concrete - place them on a 10 degrees slope and pour a cup of water on upper part of each of them. In short order, most of a cup of water will spill off the bottom edge of the square, while much less water will come off the grass square and it'll take longer for the water to reach the bottom. Now imagine this on the scale of say - Mississauga - and a cats and dogs buckets of rainfall storm in the early spring and suddenly all the ice and sand and oil and dirt that has built up over the winter is swept into the storm sewer and then..... Lake Aquitane and Lake Wabakyne. I can't really pick on Mississauga, since I'm not sure where their storm water goes. The two lakes near my home are examples of wet ponds, a stormwater detention method that allows stormwater to settle out some of the nasty stuff it picks up, and also gives the city control over the speed that the water is released to natural recieving waters. Lake Wabakyne has a very typical shape (in fact the picture of a wet pond in the Ontario Stormwater Design Manual (here is the link for any hard core engineering types - chapter 4 has the nicest pictures http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/envision/gp/4329eindex.htm)

Okay I ran out of time while looking for Peel stuff.

I'll continue the second part of this blog later

Random Pictures of my Boyfriend

Greetings, I must again apologize for posting a December picture for a lack of anything more recent. I rather like it. . . But I'm sort of biased.

I should see if I can get any tonight, the wind is roaring and the temperature plummeting (from a rediculous high of 12 degrees). I should be working - but its hard to work on Friday night my mind feels like it is owed a bit of a chance to relax, even if it means stress later.

I figured this was a compromise between schoolwork and necessary things to do that weren't too much like real work and didn't involve vaccumming.

This time next week, Gabe and I will be just finishing up our dinners at the Beaverbrook hotel (Civil Banquet). So I guess a quiet night is good. I've gotten to the point where going out is more effort than it is workth most of the time, I've come to appreciate the nicities of a quiet night in with a mug of hot chocolate and all the internet news sites (namely the Toronto Star and CTV sites) where I spend far too much time, but at least have some knowledge (however distorted) of current events.

I finished my first subdivision plann - it was harder to do than I expected, but I could see myself getting to like it. School has been interesting this term, but I'm pretty focuesed on the end part, and I'm not savouring the autumn days of my undergraduate career as perhaps I should. Ah well, I promise to get some pictures tommorrow of something intersting - well, at least that is a semi promise. Until then, hang on to your umbrellas.

Jennith 

Flora and Fauna at nearly thirty

Ah, how quickly the years pass - especially if you spend them all (or almost all) as a student. So here we are 12 years after the flora and fauna video made by our grade 12 biology class.

For those of you who were not lucky enough to see the video. It was a class video - and Emma had a big role. Beyond that - it was the workings of a gr 12 enhanced (and under the stewardship of Mr. Doketis) biology class. Erin and I played a pair of telepathic eco-nuts - I think. Not to be confused with our grade 12 english presentation that included Jason Rowe with a green jello (aligator) pie and erin wearing a metal colonder on her head. Its funny I can't remember what we talked about. Ah well, I guess one's memory starts to go at some point. We are both still in school (although hopefully one of us (namely me) will escape soon.) Erin, I think, is in for a few more eons in the clutches of teachers, assignments and tests.

Thats all for now folks - I have a subdivision to design and report on, a shower to take, laundry to dry and we shall not even discuss the kitchen. Not to mention the other stuff that I should be doing, but can't find time for... ah well, sleep less - that is about all you can do.

Good night,

Jennith 

View from School

Evening everyone,

This is a quick pre-bed post before I go to sleep.


Eek, I'm zonked... and its cold in here even with the heat on...

Night

Jenn 

A Few Wintery Days

Well, it is still crazily warm for winter. . . Luckily for me, that weather has little bearing on my life while I"m in school, however you have to wonder how this winter is effecting wildlife, nature, and will effect farmers and others. Construction companies for examples have encountered weird problems like flooding in winter, while, I'm certain that this has been a distasterous year for forestry operators that depend on winter freezing to get into sensitive areas.

Myself, I miss snow and the chance to go skiing - as I may be moving back to the part of the country wheree winters like this are sort of par for the course - I was hoping that my last winter in New Brunswick would have plentiful snow. As it stands, it doesn't look like I'll be going downhill skiing this year.

We are supposed to get 40 mm of rain on the 5th of February (Happy Birthday Uncle Stevie) My memories of Febrary in Thunder Bay have a lot to do with -40 C, not 40 mm of rain. . . but maybe we'll get luck and get cold enough weather for snow.

I'm not up to writing my version of the rant on the "no right to freedom from responsibility" topic tonight, but I'll be nursing it.

I'm going to yawn and go to bed.

Talk to you all tommorrow

Jennith 

Us at our horkiest

Hey all,

A quick post on the way to sleep...

Another quiet night spent knitting and watching Due South. I'm working on a new set of mitts - this time using an actual pattern - I picked briar rose, midnight blue and fir green - so far, everything is stripes but hopefully I'll start working some trees in soon.

Heres a link to a cool sight we found in popular science.

http://www.domehome.com/index.html

Night,

Jennith