Well I seem to be making a habit of only posting when I am on the road for some reason. Probably because it’s a good way to wind down in my hotel room after a day of work and another way to get some use out of the $12.95 per day the Hilton is charging me for Internet usage (after doing work of course!).
My brother and his other half came up on Friday and we shot a round of golf on the Victoria course here in Edmonton. It was his first full “proper” 18 holes. He made the observation that it is a frustrating game, lol. It was all good. Wish I got a chance to play more then maybe it would not be so frustrating for me! I still have not worked out the appeal of the game. I think it’s that one good hole that keeps you going…
We went to the Body Worlds exhibition at the Edmonton Science Centre on Saturday. I walked out of it with mixed feelings. OK, the exhibitions are of real bodies (bits and whole) in various poses with all sorts of eductational tidbits about. There were also posters explaining the historical roots of anatomy and dissection and what the beliefs were over time as well as what was discovered (it was only relatively, historically speaking, recently that public dissections were no longer carried out!). I was impressed with the drawings of the early pioneers in this field as they were not far off from what I was seeing with my own eyes. Some of the poses were kind of comical but they were all sad in some way as these were once living breathing people with their own feelings, etc. It seems odd to see them now as part of a travelling exhibition. I found it hard to decide whether the display was for educational purposes, art or if he was just having a laugh. The gift shop at the end of it was certainly strange too. They had a room with the remains of babies in various stages of development as well as that of a fully (opened up) 8 month pregnant woman and just outside the door they are making a fast buck off of it. I wasnt’ really sure how to feel about that. With what they are charging somebody is making a pretty good living off it.
The creator of the Body Worlds exhibition (and inventor of the process used for preservation) was certainly good at self promotion too. His name was plastered (no pun intended) everywhere in the exhibition about what a great and clever guy he is. There were also forms you could fill out if you wanted to donate your body to the exhibition. I overheard someone say that there was a “waiting list” of over 8,000 people. I am not sure I would want to participate in something like that. Still not sure what to make of it. Anyone else seen this and have any thoughts?
I have a work trip to Boston for the next few days. Got up stupidly early (3am) and spent the first 3 hours (of the first leg of my flight) debugging code on the plane when I realized there was something screwy going on with my demo app. Fixed!
Had a short connection time to make my next flight and found myself being thwarted by American customs and the huge queue I found myself on the back of. I did take some consolation in noting that all of the carts that people had their luggage in had ads for holidays to Cuba. Oh the irony.
Finally got through customs and found out the flight was delayed as the pilots were delayed. I sat down in the lounge relieved that I was going to make my flight and started to people watch. After a few minutes I noticed that there looked like there was a pilot in the queue at Tim Hortons. I saw him wait for about 20 minutes until he loaded up on coffee and donuts. And… yep you guessed it… that was out pilot. Glad to see our flight was a high priority. Would not want him to miss out on his sugar fix.
Ah well. At least the night ended up nicely with a brilliant Indian dinner and a bottle of Argentinian red wine. Great way to round off what was a long day.
Clues For Sale 