12:26 PM

Save your money...

Don't buy Dayquil or Nyquil. Neither of them work to stop your cold/flu symptoms. At least not that I've found anyway.

9:51 PM

Dance-a-ful weekend

Wow. This weekend was really busy! I had a hip-hop workshop, had my first ever belly dance lesson, and survived the run-through of PushPull's show as it stands so far. The belly dance lesson came via a bridal "showette" (i.e. racier than a shower, tamer than a bachelorette), and it was a lot of fun! The amount of isolations you have to master for that is NUTS! It was tons of fun though.

In addition to that, I went for karaoke with some Skule Nite cast members after running into Mason and Dan at random on Yonge street. It was lots of fun, and it really made me miss seeing the cast on a regular basis.

Okay...need to go...cat on my lap is whining and wanting attention....

11:18 PM

Birthday meaning?

Yes, Karen is a sucker for silly little quizzes...

Your Birthdate: August 31

You're a pretty traditional person. If it's lasted, it's probably good.
You seek stability - both in your career and your romantic relationship.
In return, you're very loyal and predictable. Which is usually a good thing.
Without a partner, you feel lost. Being with someone is very important to you.

Your strength: Your dependability

Your weakness: You hate being alone

Your power color: Midnight blue

Your power symbol: Shell

Your power month: April

7:06 PM

'Springing Forward' in the winter

Most people reading this blog will most likely be moving their clocks ahead one hour this weekend. This change is coming 3 weeks early, and will be ending one week late. I was chatting with my good friend Barry about this a few weeks ago, and we were wondering just where exactly all the purported energy savings were going to come from. Being the resourceful guy that he is, Barry went and looked it up!

Turns out, the savings are supposed to come in the form of a 1% reduction in lighting use. But even this theorized savings has come under criticism. For example, this article regarding a study of energy use with and without DST claims that there are no real savings because any savings that might be realized due to using less lighting in the afternoon is offset by the need to use more lighting in the morning to function in a darkened household. There are also some in the mental health profession who are concerned that those suffering from seasonal mood disorder will be adversely affected by this change as we are now forcing ourselves to wake up in darkness, upsetting one's biological clock.

But whatever the experts might say about the benefits/harms, I personally think that the most interesting part is the fact that the Canadian government adopted this change so that we can stay in synch with the US, and not be an hour off for 4 weeks of the year. I haven't quite decided yet it that fact bothers me or not. After all, I do appreciate the fact that the US and Canada do a lot of business with each other. But does one hour really make a huge difference when I already have to look up time differences whenever I make a business call to the states anyway?

I dunno...I guess I was hoping that Canada would come up with a better reason, and the proof to back it up, other than "Well, they're doing it."