Without a doubt my favourite hotels are Westins.  I’ve stayed in a lot of hotels over the last few years and most of them have been decent hotels that I would stay at again.  But, there’s something about Westin hotels that set them apart from the rest.  Besides being part of the Starwood Preferred Guest program, which has been voted best in the industry on more than one occasion by travellers, the overall quality of the hotels is always very high, the facilities are top-notch and the staff always make you feel welcome and will bend over backwards to help make your stay as enjoyable as possible.

Case in point: I’m going to the upcoming SAS Global Forum in San Antonio, Texas in a couple of days’ time, so I’m staying at The Westin Riverwalk.  The conference is a popular one so I made my reservation through the Westin’s online booking system months ago.  Tuesday evening my phone rang and it was one of the managers at the hotel.  He was calling to confirm my reservation and see if I had any special requests.  I was interested in the weather and he told me that it’s going to be something like 90°F the day I fly in.  (This naturally lead to a discussion about the weather here.  I asked him how much snow he thought we had and he said "less than a foot?" and was staggered when I said we have had the better part of 14 feet, so far.  To be fair, I think most people in Ottawa are a bit staggered when they think about that amount of snow.) 

So, although they tend to be a little more expensive that most hotels (but not always — Edmonton’s a good example of this), they’re worth checking out next time you’re travelling.  You won’t be disappointed.

Last year on March 31st, the city of Sidney, Australia turned off its lights for an hour. According to their website, this reduced Sidney’s energy consumption by 10.2% for an hour, or the equivalent of 48 000 cars being taken off the roads for one year.

This year, on March 29th, there’s a big campaign to get cities, companies and individuals to commit to turning off the lights for an hour at 8pm local time. The list of cities includes Ottawa, Toronto, Tel Aviv, and San Francisco to name a few. I couldn’t find Las Vegas, a city with millions of lights on the list. Hopefully they’ll be able to convince them to sign up because that’s one city in particular that could make a big difference if they turned off their signs for an hour.

I took a few pictures of the storm from my apartment last night and put them in my gallery. The storm appears to be over, but I’ll take a few pictures when I’m out and about today.

A lot of people I talked to earlier this week didn’t realize that we set the clocks forward this weekend.  We’re setting our clocks forward in March, rather than April, because Canada opted to follow the dates imposed by the US Energy Policy Act of 2005 as a matter of convenience.  The goal of the change in the US is to effect a 1% reduction in energy consumption, but everything I’ve read on the history of daylight saving time suggests there haven’t been any appreciable energy savings because of daylight saving time.  Ever.

In fact, a report by the Center for the Study of Energy Markets looked at an attempt in Australia to reduce energy consumption in other parts of their country to help offset the consumption by the Olympic Games in 2000.  Their research found that the demand for energy in Australia was not reduced by the extended daylight saving time.  It also suggests that the 1% reduction in electricity consumption the 1 month extension the US adopted will fail to be realized.

If you’re a *NIX system administrator and you haven’t patched your system to respect the new dates that came into effect last year, you might want to check out my blog entry on what you need to do to update your system.

It appears there’s yet more snow on the way to address the extreme shortage of snow in Ottawa:

TAF CYOW 071138Z 071212 11005KT P6SM BKN040 OVC060
FM2000Z 35005KT P6SM -SN OVC050 TEMPO 2022 3SM -SN BKN020 OVC050
FM2200Z 01005KT 4SM -SN OVC025 TEMPO 2202 2SM -SN OVC012
FM0200Z 35010G20KT 3/4SM -SN BLSN VV008 TEMPO 0210 2SM -SN OVC010
PROB30 0510 1/2SM SN BLSN VV004
FM1000Z 35012G25KT 5SM -SN OVC030 TEMPO 1012 3SM -SN OVC015
RMK NXT FCST BY 15Z=

Currently, there’s a winter storm watch in effect, that I expect will be upgraded to a winter storm warning later today:

Ottawa North – Kanata – Orléans
5:02 AM EST Friday 7 March 2008
Winter storm watch for
Ottawa North – Kanata – Orléans continued
..Winter storm expected to give heavy snow Saturday..
This is an alert to the potential development of dangerous winter weather conditions in these regions. Monitor weather conditions..Listen for updated statements.

Storm totals may be 20 to 30 centimetres along and east of a line from Long Point to the Golden Horseshoe then to Petawawa. There is potential for 30 to 50 centimetres of snow over the Niagara Peninsula and parts of eastern Ontario. Areas west of the Long Point to Petawawa line should see between 10 to 20 centimetres with lesser amounts near Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. Behind this system strong northerly winds to 70 km/h are possible. On Saturday strong winds combined with fresh snow will cause blowing snow to lower visibilities and create dangerous driving conditions. Whiteout conditions are possible so travellers should be prepared to alter their plans accordingly.

At least I don’t have a driveway to shovel, but it’s going to be miserable driving tomorrow.

E. Gary Gygax, one of the co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons, the fantasy role-playing game that basically started that gaming genre, died Tuesday morning at the age of 69. (articles in The Guardian and The Globe and Mail)

He and Dave Arneson created the game in 1974 and introduced its players to monsters that they fought by rolling various polyhedral dice using various types of characters.

Since then, the game has evolved quite a bit, but it still bears a strong resemblance to the original game.  One of the biggest changes has to be to the mechanics governing the rolls the players make.  No longer does one need an advanced degree in mathematics to determine whether one has scored a hit during a round of combat.  Monsters have come and gone over the years, but you can still come across crits that were in the very first Monster Manual.

My first exposure to D&D was probably 25 or so years ago in the form of a Basic Dungeon & Dragons set, then an Advanced D&D set and the Expert D&D rules.  The box came with a set of brownish polyhedral dice and a black crayon to colour the numbers in so they were easier to read.  I still have the dice and I think the original books are still at my parents’ place.  I still have some of the first edition books, including original copies of the Monster Manual and Fiend Folio books, in addition to a Player’s Handbook and a Dungeon Master’s Guide.  Though I didn’t play for several years, I’ve been playing with a group of friends about once a week for the last decade or so.

Though Gygax hasn’t been that involved in the game the last couple of years, he’s still considered by most to be one of the most influential people in the role-playing game world.  He even had a cameo in an episode of Futurama.

A webcomic I follow, The Order Of The Stick, has a strip dedicated to E. Gary Gygax, and I’m sure the other D&D and RPG-themed webcomics will have similar tributes to him.

Thank you, Gary.

If I were Norse, I’d blame the weather forecast on Loki because I don’t think Freyr was quite as much of a troublemaker, even though he was in charge of the weather. But, I’m not, so I won’t tempt incurring Loki’s wrath on top of this weather.

TAF CYOW 042338Z 050024 03012KT P6SM FEW040 BKN120
FM0300Z 06010G20KT 6SM -SN SCT020 OVC060 TEMPO 0305 2SM -SN
OVC020
FM0500Z 07012G22KT 11/2SM -SN VV012 TEMPO 0506 3/4SM -SN VV008
FM0600Z 07015G30KT 3/4SM -SN BLSN VV007 TEMPO 0608 1/4SM +SN BLSN VV003
FM0800Z 07015G25KT 1/4SM +SN BLSN VV002
FM1100Z 06020G30KT 11/2SM -PL BR VV010 TEMPO 1114 3/4SM -PLSN
BLSN VV007 PROB40 1114 1SM -FZRA BR
FM1400Z 06015G25KT 3/4SM -SN BLSN VV007 TEMPO 1417 1/4SM +SN BLSN VV003
FM1700Z 34015G25KT 2SM -SN OVC015 TEMPO 1719 5SM -SN PROB30 1719 1SM -FZDZ BR
FM1900Z 28010G20KT 6SM -SN OVC020
FM2200Z 27010G20KT P6SM BKN030 OVC060
RMK NXT FCST BY 03Z=

Wind. Snow. Ice pellets. Snow pellets. Freezing rain (maybe). Freezing drizzle (maybe). More snow. Lots of wind.

Basically, the next 24 hours or so are going to suck.