Johari Windows

Greetings,

I've been lax in keeping up with this Blog, but today I've been inspired to write again.

The Johari window is a set of adjectives that you pick 6 of about a friend. The program then gives you stats about how people reponded to you. The whole idea is really cool and quite a few people I've sent it to have responded and started their own pages.

http://kevan.org/johari?name=Jennith+Peart

This is the link that will get you to my page if you haven't been there already. If you set up your own page, please send me a copy of the link, because I think this is great.

Cheers,

Jennith

P.S. the pictuer was taken on the UNB campus facing Joy Kid residence on a cold but snowless february day 

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 

View from the Gates of of Frogmore Estates

 

Fredericton Court House Taken from Gillan Hall Stairs

 

The Church Spire

 

Winter Dawn

Albert St. the day after the election - 8:30 am

Canada Today

I wish to add to my first post, expanding my response to the election.

The first thing I would like to do is to refer you to the coast of Araska, where my brother has done and outstanding job of responding to the election. (Please see the links in the margin) Having spent several hours this morning reading the news online, encountering the same voices comments posted on the Toronto Star web page, it was neat to see Geoff's responses to them (as I largely agreed). I would like to note that surprisingly the Globe and Mail readers responses to some of the stories about the election were far more pro-liberal, longer and more thoughtful.

Over the past few months my opinion of the media has taken a turn for the worse. During the Kashechewan evacution, I saw first hand, how the media skews the story and reports incorrect information. I was able to observe this, partly because I had more background knowledge than the average reader, and partly because I read every story I could get my hands on and noted glaring contridictions in technical facts published. I was also disappointed at the media's failure to tackle the story at any depth or include research. There has been a lot of evolution in the relationship between the federal government and the First Nation's People, and the media did not give much credit for the progress that has been made. The emphassis on pointing fingers and attacking the government in power, may have helped Kashechewan directly and put Native issues into the consciousness, but overall I think the shallowness of it hurt the First Nation's cause by focusing on their weaknesses rather than their strengths.

I was also unimpressed at the media coverage of the election in gereral. Perhaps I have unfair expectations for journalists, but I think they should put more effort into telling both sides of the story in a researched context. I know that there is a bottom line, but news should be more than sensationalist entertainment - it should be a reliable source of information.

In terms of the election coverage, I think that the media tended to shift the focus towards sensational aspects of the campaign. I would have liked to have seen more articles comparing the parties stances on different issues. I wonder if the media's tendancy to cover sensational stories, changes how politicians campaign?

At any rate, I seemed to have slid away from discussing the election. The truth is that the results are neither good or bad, just the sum total of Canada's voting. I think that it is a result that I reassures me about my fellow Canadians. We aren't becoming an uncaring, right wing country, nor a stagnant one. Even though the Conservative's won, they had to stick to the middle road to win a "shaky minority". No one won big, no one lost big . . . and the story should have a most interesting plot line.

My title to the previous post relates to the fact that I don't like how Harper played the game. I felt he was too busy trying to topple Martin to do his job as a politician. I think think this is sort of devine Karma that he will have to "put himself in Martin's shoes" and see what it feels like to be the leader of a minority. I think it will be a good growing experience for him.

Cheers,

Jennith

Stephen Harper may have won, but he's in for a taste of his own medicine

Well, the election results are interesting. I think that Stephen Harper is going to to find out that running a weak minority government makes it hard to keep your promises. While I doubt the folks in oposition will be quite as bent on toppling the government and sabatoging any efforts to go forward, I think he'll find he's on a short leash. The other 3 parties have more social views than Harper and should be able to keep him from dismantling our social programs wholesale.

I think that its going to be an interesting few months.

Jennith

He Got Me!!!

Election day is here . . . and I finally voted which means I did eventually make a choice which I don't plan to reveal here. Not that I did anything shocking, but its information I don't necessarily want public.

About the picture, taken in December at the McMichael Art Gallary, one of my favorite places, I'm not in quite as much pain as I appear to be. The photo credit should go to Gabriel Jacques, btw.

So, I'm preparing for an evening of watching the election coverage on live feed CBC.ca and having a beer. . . maybe digging into the hard liquor if the result call for that kind of amnesia.

I think our riding should go liberal. The incumbant was a fairly high ranking cabinet minister. I think the NDP guy had the most lawn signs up though. My parents home riding is predicted to go conservative, but it is a pretty tight race. I have no idea how the results will come out, predictions are great, but I still think there is a lot of play in the results. People don't have as clear an idea of the results, and I think that will make them vote differently and change at the last minute.

So, I guess the results are out of my hands, but I'm itching to see what they turn out to be in the end. I should, in the mean time, tackle some school.

Cheers,

Jennith

Friday Night's Alright

Greetings.

It is a miracle I'm still awake, given how little sleep I've had in the last day. I meant to include the Briggs and Little website in my last post, so here it is:

http://www.briggsandlittle.com/wool/default.htm

Tommorrow is market day. I get to go to the market and have a yummy smoothy and pick up our Briggs and Little wool order. I haven't been since before christmas. Its a nice atmosphere and you always run into people you know. Oh, and it smells good!!!

http://www.boycefarmersmarket.com/

I seem to be too tired to write much usualful, having exhausted my considerable political angst having a lovely chat with my brother. I am still undecided, but I can figure it out by Monday.

Back full tilt to school work tomorrow.

Cheers,

Jennith

Goodness me!!! Is that a casarole made of leftovers?

Allright - I suppose putting pictures of Shepard's pie as filler on my blog is a bit desparate... but it did taste pretty good considering that I did damaging things to the potatoes on 2 seperate occasions :D

CHeers

JEnn

A Woolen Rainbow

Here are Gabe's Briggs and Little Wool samples. Knitting knight was quiet. I finished my second "pair" of mittens, but may have to knit at least one more mitten before they actually make a pair as they are vastly differing in size and shape. Sigh . . .

Another thing I learned this week is that an elipse has spaces between the periods! Oh, and in other grammar news - i also learned about restrictive and non-restrictive clauses.

I have started reading delivered from distraction. I'm not sure I love the book. So far, it seems to be building a case that people with ADD are better than others. While I realize that his intent is to bolster the self esteem of people who suffer greatly and keep an optomistic tone, I find that I have trouble taking it as seriously as I might. I haven't gotten to the more technical bits though.

I have tonnes to do and a headache, so I'd best get to work... sorry i mean . . .

Cheers,

Jennith 

And the band plays on

Greetings,

I find that I haven't taken the time to post anything on either of my blog's lately, owing partly to my instense efforts not to get behind this term and partly due to the fact that as a result I haven't taken or painted any pictures.

Well, actually I did paint some pictures, but they really didn't turn out that good and I'm getting close to finishing my second pair of mittens, but otherwise I've been imersing myself in first year economics for engineers.

Economics, at the level that I'm studying, have a seductive logic. It is certaintly a different way of looking at government policies and there effects and side effects. It is interesting as this study also coincides with a rabid election campaign. This imersion has not swayed me to Harper's side or any side for that matter. I'm still rather undecided about who to vote for and what to do. I am planning on voting and I am spending time researching my options.

My boyfriend and I have a friendly disagreement on the subject of strategic voting. I suppose there are many strategies. The one that come to mind for me is voting for the party with the greatest chance to win against the party you can't stand. Having had the misfortune of being a teacher under Mike Harris's regieme, I had no choice but to vote against him because his policies made me crazy. Unlike many people, I don't have a specific party loyalty. Considering how similar the platforms of the 3 federal parties are (I would say they all fall withing the liberal range of things ) it really comes down to capabitily of the politicians in the party.

Another strategdy I've heard of is in BC where they vote for whoever did poorest in Ontario. Being from Ontario, I don't really see us as a national threat, as we've never threatened to seperate, but then I probably count as biased.

Back to individual competency and honesty of politicians, I think this is hard to gauge. It appears that all three parties have had their share of corruption and scandal (Even the NDP in BC, whose record outdoes the liberals at present.) I don't have a lot of background knowledge on how politicians are selected or the kind of contract they have with the people of Canada. Oddly, this was never discussed in my years of public school. What qualifications do you need to be a representitive or a cabinet minister? Not a lot of formal ones if you consider Mike Harris. How do you screen for people who might jeapordize the party's repuation? How are candidates educated about the ethics around political issues? I think one problem is that local representives have so little impact on the outcome. A few rare and hard working idividuals can sway the support of their riding in spite of the leaders platform, but by in large we vote for the leaders and the party platform and few of us know anything about our local representive. So perhaps the voter is as much at fault for the failure of the political process.

Many voters certaintaintly don't take the time or effort to research the Party leader or their policies, nevermind follow national debates, news or pay any mind to the abilities, qualitifications or merit of their local politicians. Even though their local representitives are the ones who will be bringing the issues of your community to Ottawa. A lot of people simply decide when they are young that they are affiliated with this party or that and thus there is no point in worrying about he details.

An election campaign is a job interview, we are hiring (as a collective hiring committee) the men and women who will be running our country and making policy decisions. They will be instrumental in developing our representation on an international stage. So, what should your voting strategy be? (Even voting for the party you believe in regardless of their chance of winning is a strategy, one that has important benefits for that party in terms of status even if they lose.) I want to hire a competent leader backed by a competent team. I want my local representive to be someone committed to bringing my communities issues to Ottawa in an effective way. I want to hire someone that I trust to share my values of country that looks after its people and its environment. How shall I cast my vote most effectively?

At any rate, there are 6 days until election day for me to figure it all out. I encourage everyone to vote thoughtfully.

Cheers,

Jennith