15 years ago on Dec 6, 1989 14 women were killed and another 13 injured by a gunman in a terrible incident at École Polytechnique in Montreal.
On Dec 7 1989, schools and universities across the country were unusually quiet and muted as word of the tragedy spread.
I remember the day very well. I was in my third year and had been busy studying the previous night so I didn’t watch any news that night or the next morning. Got onto campus and noticed everything was strangely quiet. There wasn’t the hustle and bustle or the regular chatting you hear on a normal day. And just about every woman I knew (even my friends) gave me a nasty cold stare or looked kind of sad. Still had no idea what had happened but there were a lot of sad, bitter and angry women around and I wasn’t about to do or say anything else to set them off.
It wasn’t until I made my way to the Physics Common Room later that morning after classes that I learned about the events at École Polytechnique. And then it all became clear. It was a sad time everywhere. Some guys joined in the sadness and remembrances, some stayed clear for their own safety, and others like me weren’t quite sure what to do. I wanted to be supportive of my friends, but didn’t want to get pounced on just for being a guy. And for several weeks afterwards, it seemed like just about every guy on campus was stepping on eggshells.
Eventually everything got back to normal, but nobody ever forgot what happened that day.
You can make people line up for anything
The parkade I’m assigned to at work has 3 entrances, but only two lanes leading up to them.
The left lane goes to the middle entrance, and the right lane goes to the right entrance leaving the left entrance laneless. Invariably at the busy times there are cars lined up in the two lanes in front of two of the entrances, but for some reason nobody ever uses the third entrance to the left. Every now and then someone (like me) will turn off and use it, but for the most part that third entrance goes unused. It’s very odd. People here are always in such a rush once they get into their cars, but sit patiently in front of the parkade entrance waiting their turn and ignoring that third entrance.
Now there’s a bunch of construction going on for the new hospital next to the parkade, and one of the lanes is blocked off leaving just the lane going to the middle entrance.
Do you know what they do now?
They all line up in front of the middle entrance and leave the two side entrances unused.
I don’t know if I should yell or laugh at them for their stupidity.
Roomba in infrared
Just for kicks and giggles, I dug out my Sony video camera and used it to take some video of Roomba. It’s one of those Sony cameras that does the ‘Nightshot’ thing letting you see in low-light conditions by illuminating the area with an IR emitting diode. It also lets you see the IR lights that Roomba and its various components use. The pictures are posted over in the gallery.
This is a picture of Roomba in infrared. You can clearly see the 4 floor-directed IR lights.
This is Roomba’s base station. The IR signal it broadcasts out the top is what Roomba uses to find it’s way home. It comes on automatically when Roomba is turned on or is removed from the base station.
This is the light pattern broadcast by Roomba’s Virtual Wall. It’s actually a circular beam. It just looks like that because I have it pointed obliquely at the wall. The VW has 3 range settings which simply controls the intensity of the IR beam that is broadcast.
I just thought it would be a fun geeky thing to do.
To the woman that almost ran into me on I-26
Hey lady, yakking on your cell phone cruising down the highway is bad enough. Next time you might also want to make sure there isn’t anyone next to you when you decide to change lanes.
It’s a good thing at least one person was paying attention to what’s going on around them.
Glowing holiday fun
I have my little Christmas tree glowing happily away on my desk at work now. With just under 4 weeks to go till Christmas, I figure it’s probably time to start getting into the spirit of the season. I’m thinking one of these might also look cute sitting next to my tree. I still think $12.99 is a little pricey though.