One more lesson learned from the recent balloon chasing is that finding a large pink foam cube in the middle of a field isn’t as easy as it sounds, even if you’re within a couple of dozen metres of it.  This might be mitigated by installing a noise maker in the payload package might make them easier to find. If they had something like a piezo electric beeper, or the siren from a smoke detector, in them that sounded for 5 seconds every minute it would give you something to home in on when the payload is on the ground/in a tree/floating downstream/whatever.

Weight being a concern when you’re launching things to the edge of space, such a noise maker would have to be very miserly in terms of its power requirements so that the existing power supply could be used rather than requiring a bigger – and thus heavier – one.

Last weekend, I headed out with Darin (VE3OIJ) to help chase a pair of weather balloons that were being launched from Perth by the Lanark Space Agency (LASA). One of the balloons, VE3LCA-11, had a payload with a GPS, camera, temperature sensor and an APRS beacon. It’s goal was to take pictures over the course of its flight for the Grades 5 and 6 students from St. John’s School it was being launched for.

The launch was well-attended by students, parents, visitors to the farmers’ market and many of the chase teams. After the obligatory group photo with the students and the balloon, they did a count down and released the balloon and its payload. It disappeared into the clouds about 4500’ AGL, so we watched its progress on the display they had set up for people to watch.

Meanwhile, the second balloon, VE3REX-11 (aka LASA 4), was prepped for launch. It’s goal was to set an altitude record for amateur weather balloons. It’s payload consisted solely of a small GPS and an APRS beacon, which weighed less than the first balloon. It was launched off in due order, so we headed off, stopping only to buy some homemade cookies from the farmers’ market.

We decided to chase VE3LCA-11 since its payload needed to be retrieved more than VE3REX-11’s.

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Back in October, I wrote about the cars I’ve owned over the years. At the time, the list consisted of a 1987 Eurosport, a 1991 Pontiac Firefly and a 2002 GM Tracker. Well, it’s time to update the list.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the tailpipe on the Tracker was a bit loose, so I visited Active Green + Ross on Bank Street who worked up an interim solution for me for free. That was meant to tide things over until I had a more permanent repair made. Replacing everything from just behind the catalytic converter to the tailpipe would probably have cost a couple of hundred dollars. The Tracker was also due for a brake job and an alignment (several hundred more dollars). And I’d been thinking that the battery was probably due for replacement after seven years of service.

That’s about when I stopped adding up things and started looking at new vehicles.

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I went geocaching yesterday afternoon for the first time in a couple of months and I hit a neat milestone with the last cache I found. GAG9 – One for the birds (GCYJ1E) by model12 & Aldy marked the 450th geocache I’ve found. It also marked the 350th geocache I’ve found in the province of Ontario.

The geocaching gods were taunting me as I homed in on it, because when I was just a few metres away from the cache my GPS receiver suddenly indicated the cache was 160m away, +/- 186m and continued to jump around. I thought that perhaps I’d lost a clear view of the sky, but the satellite screen seemed to indicate it had locked on to 6 or 8 satellites with strong signals. When I moved a bit farther away, the GPSr settled down and I found the cache quickly.

It was nice getting out caching again.  Life has been so busy, or the weather has been so sucky, that I just haven’t had time to seek any geocaches. However, things are less busy (I think) and the weather is more conducive to being outside that I’ll probably start caching a little more regularly.

By now you’re probably aware of the Swine flu outbreak that’s wreaking havoc everywhere. People are cancelling vacations, athletes are competing in front of empty stadia and some people are even dying because of it. Consequently, governments are starting to come up with protocols to be followed when someone is suspected of having it. The most extreme protocol is almost certainly the one announced by Secretary Napolitano of the US Department of Homeland Security in a briefing she gave yesterday. I’ve extracted the relevant paragraph here, with emphasis as required:

We’re also actively monitoring travelers at our land, sea, and air ports. We’re watching them for signs of illness, and we have appropriate protocols in place to deal with those who are sick. Precautions are being taken to protect travelers and border personnel. Anyone exhibiting symptoms is being referred to an isolation room where they can be evaluated by a public health official before proceeding to their destruction.

Ouch!

(To be fair to Secretary Napolitano, I do note that since I started to write this entry they’ve corrected the release so that it reads “… before proceeding to their destination.”)

Recently, I had to order some small trophies for my curling league and have some engraving done. I went to Globe Trophy & Engraving, the same place I went to last year, and talked to the salesperson. They pulled up my order from last year and said they would order the same items and they promised they would have them ready for pickup at noon on the 23rd, which meant I would have them in time for the awards banquet that evening. I thanked them and said I would email them the details for the engraving in a few days once I’d finished crunching the numbers. I also wanted to order some curling pins, but they didn’t have anything in their catalogue that was appropriate, so I decided to call around.

Happy that I’d placed the order for the trophies, I headed off and scouted out a supplier for the pins, SGA Signs and Trophies. I talked to them on the phone and they said they would order the pins, engrave the year on them and have them ready for pickup in a couple of days.

A couple of days passed and I picked up the pins on-schedule.

“Excellent!” thought I. “I love it when a plan comes together.”

And then I went to pick up the trophies from Globe, which is when the plan unravelled.

I walked in and said I was there to pick up my trophies. The guy looked slightly confused, but maybe that’s his normal expression. He went into the back for a while and then someone else came out and said he’d check up on the first guy. After a wait, the salesperson I dealt with originally came out with three trophy cups, which is when I got a really bad feeling.

“We can’t find your order. Are you sure you ordered them?” she said.

“Uh, yes. I’m positive. I was here and you and I talked. You said you’d order them and that they would absolutely, positively be ready for pick up on the 23rd, which is today.”

“I’ve checked the system, and I can’t find any record of an order. I do remember talking to you, though.”

“How can you not have ordered them? That’s the basis of your whole business! You order things for customers, engrave them and the customer picks them up. Now I’m left without the trophies and it’s the day of the banquet. I’m not happy about this.”

“Well, we can engrave these cups and order the trophies you wanted. Then you can pick them up next week and pay for them then.”

“And how much is that going to cost me?”

“Well…” <flipping through catalogue and pointing to the price> “…this much plus engraving.”

“On top of the cups?”

“Yes.”

It was at this point I pulled out my cellphone and called SGA Signs and Trophies and explained the situation to them.

“No problem, sir. We can help you out. If you can drop by, we’ll have them ready in a couple of hours.”

And so I left, pausing to tell them I was heading to their competition who could fulfill my order.

Upon arrival at SGA Signs and Trophies, I looked through the available trophies, selected three and give them the engraving. They said they’d be ready in a couple of hours. Excellent!

When I returned a couple of hours later, the trophies were ready. In fact, they noticed the trophy I selected for skip of the year was missing a bit so they prepared an alternative trophy, complete with the name plate. The trophy they suggested was better than the original one, so I went with it.

So, I have nothing but good things to say about SGA Signs and Trophies. If you’re looking for trophies for a sports league or you want to have something engraved or any of the other services such as having paint stencils or signs made, visit SGA Signs and Trophies. Ask for Imad and tell him Gordon sent you. 🙂

Like many civil servants, I’m in a position that has a requirement to be bilingual. When I started this job in the fall of 2007, I had to sign an agreement to attain a BBB bilingual rating within two years.

Government bilingualism ratings consist of three letters from A to E (there’s also an X), one each for reading, writing and speaking. The levels for each component can be summed up thus:

• A is a basic ability to read/write/speak the second language.
• B means you can handle most situations and concepts.  This is usually the minimum requirement for reading, writing or speaking in a bilingual position. A lot of positions have a BBB requirement.
• C means you have an advanced ability, just shy of someone who’s first language is your second language. More senior positions often have a CBC or CCC requirement.
• E means you read, right or speak the second language so well that you’ll never have to be tested on that element again.
• X is a much-feared assessment because it means you don’t have even a functional ability. Avoid the X!

I’ve had a CBA rating for a couple of years, so I’ve been taking part-time French courses to practice speaking French.  It seems those courses have paid off because I obtained a B on the speaking component of a test I took last week. This means I have a CBB, which means I meet the requirements of my position. (In fact, the C was 2 points shy of an E.)

I’m really happy about this because I was scheduled to go on full-time French training for at least 18 weeks starting in May. Instead, I can continue working on my projects at work and can even take some time off this summer.

Yay me!