Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween for you folks down South, but with our weekly party happening on Friday we all celebrated last night. I honestly don't know why, but here's another horribly embarrassing picture of me for the whole world to see.

I've got to be fairly diplomatic and political talking about my costume. There are people out there that know why I dressed as I did, but I'm not going to go into specifics about the character on such a public forum. It was a great idea provided to me by my Toronto-based boss Andrew while he was up here in mid-September. The sweatpants were provided by Byron, glasses from Kevin, wig from Mom. I had to buy the t-shirt, as I needed some extra room for my 'padding' :)

I almost defended my Best Costume title from the Medieval Times night, and while I was a definite fan favourite Byron beat me out with a stunning, working Transformers outfit. He looked like a robot standing up, but he could crouch down and turn into a tank. It was truly amazing...and HUGE. He only had about 1/2" clearance in the doorway (sides AND top) getting into the bar! He had my vote all the way, and the EC GAW lab guys swept 1st and 2nd place, so we're happy.

I did my best to catch up on my sleep last night too. I was woken up briefly at 8ish when there was an announcement telling us that we were now in Storm Condition 1 due to a combination of wind and visibility. We're currently at -22°C with 15m/s (55km/h) winds. That works out to -55°C windchill and a complete whiteout with the loose snow we've had on the ground from the past few weeks of calm weather. I slept in until 1pm knowing that I couldn't go outside anyways....at least that's how I justified it to myself as I rolled over :)

Finally, being in the choir finally has an upside! I convinced the CO to get us all Alert t-shirts that I could embroider with my Latin "We Are Better Than Nothing" slogan, so that was great. But, as I was talking to Carl (Tradie, in charge of the store) I noticed that he had a really nice Alert Rugby shirt on. So, I talked to the CO and now we all get $80 shirts instead. Screw the silly phrase...these shirts are nice! :D

Have a great time trick-or-treating tonight knowing that I can't even step foot outside! Miss you all,
Graham

What's this?

There's free shipping to Canadian Forces posting locations from now until Christmas? Alert is one such location?

Not that I'm expecting parcels or anything...I'm just saying is all :)

I don't have the official memo yet, but your local post office should know about it. Anything going to a Belleville Stn Forces PO box should be free of charge until Christmas. I hate that I sometimes have to get things sent up and you guys always foot the bill...so consider this my gift to you.....although I'm not really sure how that works :P

Haven't posted in a while, mainly because things have been pretty routine. On the work front, Byron and I have settled into a smooth schedule. In terms of "extracurriculars", the torch is coming up pretty soon, and so we're having some activities this weekend. I was made team captain of Team Sumi (one of the 5 Olympic mascots), so I'm basically the fall guy for when our team fails miserably :) The sport challenges are fine, but the snow sculptures that we're making leave a lot to be desired. Our team is going for more of a 'participation' look, rather than trying to be any real challenger. I'll post up the pictures once we get it finalized. Also, in addition to being conscripted into the choir (which, in my personal opinion, STILL sounds atrocious) Byron is making the stage for it and other presentations to be made. Since Byron's making it, so am I :) So, if you see a stage on the news, it will be partly (a small, small part) my handiwork.

I realized that I haven't put up any animal pictures yet, so I'll throw in a wolf to keep you interested. This is maybe the most sheepish looking wolf I've seen...especially with the snow on his nose :) They're staying away from Station a lot more this term, and this was a few weeks ago while it was still (obviously) light out. We're down to a faint glow at noon. By the weekend we'll likely have no light at all.

Miss you all, Happy Halloween!
Graham

Crisis Averted

UPDATE: A wig has been procured, and it should get here in time for Halloween. Thanks to everyone that tried to track one down for me!!

Well, as I'm putting up a new post I might as well throw in some stories and a few pictures. For the sun setting officially on Tuesday, we had a HUGE bonfire out of all the crates and pallets that came up during Boxtop. This was a BIG fire. The only problem for the evening was that the people in charge of starting the fire were the firefighters :) They were a bit timid, but eventually we got it going and it went like the blazes. You might not be able to tell from that first picture, but the fire itself is likely 40 feet in the air.

I also took some pictures without the Visible light filter on, making for some interesting results. As Byron mentioned, this one looks like the people watching the fire are witnessing a nuclear blast!

Finally I took a full spectrum shot and took only the green channel to make a pretty nice looking shot.It's only twilight-y for an hour around noon now. Soon it'll be dark until Christmas for me.

Talk to you all soon,

Graham

Doh, Ray, Mi, etc.

As I'm sure most of you know, I was a singing virtuoso in my younger years. I think I hit my prime in Grade One with my stunning rendition of "Bah, Bah Black Sheep in E minor" at the school talent show. So, it should come as no surprise to you all that I have joined the Alert Choir............yeah, right.

Let's just say, since Byron went to the Olympic Torch Relay planning meeting and was volun-told that he would be in the choir, he thought that it would only be fair to volunteer me as well. We've had one practice last night, and all I can say is that the Commanding Officer of CFS Alert himself said, "You guys are better than nothing." I'm thinking of translating it into Latin (Nos Es Melior Quam Nusquam) and getting it put on T-shirts for the choir to wear :) In all seriousness though, we have to sing a song that is the official torch relay song to be sung at every stop the torch makes. We aren't that bad, in as much as no large-ish group of singers can sound truly horrible. If we can manage to learn the french portion next week, I give us at LEAST a 50/50 chance of not making fools of ourselves come showtime.

Well, my picture for the photo contest didn't win any prizes, but I'll put it up here to show you all anyways. Click it to view it at a larger size. I really liked it, but I guess the judges didn't :) There were dozens of amazing entries, many of which put mine to shame...there are some phenomenal photographers up here. The landscape really lends itself well to pictures too....at least when the sun's up!

In other news, I am putting out an All Points Bulletin for a grey wig that looks something like the picture below (~2-3" long, straight), or at least longer and can be cut down to the right style. This is URGENT and would need to be sent up early next week at the latest. So, if you have one that you want to donate, or can obtain one, please e-mail, comment or send a carrier pigeon (in a little parka), but let me know and I'll get you mailing details. This costume could win me top prize hands down if it all comes together!

Happy Oktoberfest everyone!
Graham

Happy Thanksgiving!

You should all be thankful for the fact that (according to Environment Canada) it's 6°C down in Ontario. I find it fairly humourous that you guys have a "frost warning" in effect :)

I was doing some outdoor work on my Thesis for an hour today (I promise, I'll talk about it eventually) and at -17°C it was chilly work. As well, due to local topography I think that we've seen the last of the sun for a good six months. It's still relatively bright (see the picture below taken today at 1pm), but the actual orb won't crest those hills until the first week of March, 2010. The last of the direct sunlight is still falling on the American Mountain chain to the North-West of us and, as Craig commented today, it looks like the Paramount Pictures logo.

As we were driving around to get back to Station, we saw loads and loads of tracks from foxes, wolves and lemmings. The funniest was a lemming track that disappeared for a good 4 feet, then reappeared a little way away. As I drove past, I thought that the lemming had jumped this distance. I was fairly impressed! I got out to take a picture of it and I realized what had happened. Even the tiny weight of the lemming had been too much for the fluffy new layer of fallen snow and so he'd just fallen through, submarined along for a bit, then popped up again :) Apparently they kind of look like a dachshund when they run, as they're long and skinny with very short legs that appear to be moving WAY too fast for the actual speed of travel :)

 

I'm thinking of you all eating a nice turkey dinner with family and friends tonight. We get our big meal with all the fixin's tomorrow, INCLUDING one (1) glass of wine :P It's a big joke on station, but hey, it's better than nothing! Tuesday is then the Sunset celebration (with a BBQ) and then Friday is Oktoberfest.

I know I can't believe it, but I left exactly one month ago today. Time is flying by!!

Graham

Going, going....

Partly to inform you, partly to bump that costume picture off the top of my blog, I'll let you see what it looks like here at noon, sun-wise.

This was taken on Monday at solar noon (when the sun is the highest in the sky...not 12:00), as that was the last clear day that we've had. Today was -14°C with a 55km/h wind. The windchill was hovering right around -40°C!! Guess what day it was in the lab schedule too....that's right, flasking. So, I was outside for a solid 30 minutes straight.

The sun is dropping by a sun's width every day, and by early next week it'll be gone for good. The days will still have some light to them (as you get for 20 or 30 minutes after a sunset) but by early November it will be midnight dark almost all the time :) I think I'm a little crazy in that I'm actually looking forward to that. My favourite times up here last term were in the dark, and I can't wait!

After the lull in plane arrivals, we've had two in the past two days, bringing 34 new (or returning) people to station, changing out more than half of the population! It'll be a few days until I have people's names down, that's for sure.

When I took the above picture, I also turned 180° and snapped one on the Northern horizon which displayed a great near-full moon. I'll admit that these aren't the greatest shots, but a good camera doesn't make a good photographer :) There's actually a photo contest on up here right now with several categories. I've got one image that I'm going to submit, and if it does any good I'll post it up.

With the Toronto Boss gone, life is settled down to the standard routine. It's a nice and relaxed pace that will hopefully let the days fly by until December 23rd, my newly tentative, pencilled in, probable, potential end date :P After last time, I'm not making ANY plans for a good week after that, but if all goes to plan (from plane schedules, to mechanical failure, to meteorological events to the pilots just not wanting to fly that close to Christmas, etc) then I could be home as soon as early, early morning on the 24th (if it's a charter). Don't worry...I'll be home before you all know it!!

Miss you all,

Graham

The Dark Knight

I guess that title has multiple meanings, what with the impending final sunset coming up in the next two weeks, but I'm thinking of it more in terms of my costume from last night. That's right...costume.

Friday was both my first night back bartending, as well as themed Medieval Night. Byron and I decided to dress up as knights, using beer cans to make the armour. I made mine out of Guinness cans, Byron made his out of the backside of the cans (so we were dark and white knights). I also added a helmet, lance and shield to my ensemble. The whole outfit was razor sharp, and took about 12 hours to make, including can filleting and taping, but not including the "collection" of cans :P No, I didn't drink them all, but we did make an attempt to do our part :) I can't believe that I'm posting this, but here is my suit, sans lance, which I made later that day.

We also decided to add something to the festivities while bartending. The current bar game is trying to throw a quarter across the bar to a small shot glass taped near the ceiling (wins you a free drink). I wanted to do something using the little plastic balls that you get inside of cans of Guinness (of which we were now in great supply). We were contemplating a catapult of some sort, to keep with the Medieval theme. Instead, Byron came up with the idea to make a Plinko style board. So, we got a sheet of plywood and got to work. We made a 20 x 20 grid of offset nails that is maybe the coolest thing I've ever created :) It took less time then I thought it would, with 2 hours dedicated to laying out the grid and only 30 minutes of teamwork to put in all 440 nails. We charged $0.50 to put a cup under one opening, up to 4 cups, and then you chose where to drop the ball from. Sure, "Ye Olde GAW-thic Plinko" isn't REALLY Medieval (we work in the GAW lab...get it?) but it was a hit.

Finally, the last event of the night was the costume judging. Now, it might not come across in the picture, but while we spent 12 hours on our costumes they looked like we spent about 15 minutes :) They were pretty ratty. So, little did I expect what happened....I managed to win King of Alert! I definitely took the costume off the second after the judging though. It's hard to serve and use a till when you can't touch your arms in front of your body. It also cut up the insides of my arms on the beer shrapnel. I DID wear the tin foil crown all night :)

It's been stormy since I got here, and no planes have been able to come in due to both mechanical and meteorological problems. We should get 2 in this week, although there are rumours starting to swirl even now that they might be delayed. Not that we're running out of food or anything...but some some things like milk are getting scant!

Talk to you all again soon,
Graham