Table Of Contents
I felt like I had not so much free time in March, despite not going any further than Edmonton (on one weekend). There were also weekend trips to Kingston and to Peterborough/Ottawa. I think it was teaching-related matters catching up to me otherwise. But that was pretty much the end of the Winter semester, save exams. I even only did two tiny sets of photos, which is by far the least that I’ve done since I’ve been keeping track.
COVID
The only thing I had to report from March was an interesting read on COVID and Africa. Population age structure and NPIs saved it? Even in Peru I was recently talking to a doctor who had been practicing in Peru in 2020 and she was mad at the COVID revisionists: she had been signing four or five death certificates per shift, way higher than normal.
There is also a nasal vaccine clinical trial recruiting at McMaster in Hamilton. I’d be super excited about participating, but they need you to come in every week for 5 weeks, and that’s too much driving for me.
Professional
Not much to report for March either. I guess no one really expects a lot of research progress while teaching 3 courses. Still, my students' projects are advancing well at least, and I’ll definitely have more time for them in the near future. There is a lot more news for the April update.
Counting the number of days worked, there was a personal best of 29, which is the most that I’ve recorded in this series. This is probably why so few pictures and why the report is so late.
Teaching
Nothing special here. SE 465 consistently has a bunch of admin work (tracking grades etc) to do as well as adding some new content. There was ECE 459 exam prep, which was fortunately shared. I actually finished the evening section of ECE 459 a week before the end of March, which was nice.
Grad students/mentees/collaborators
I seem to be consistently meeting my students on 8 days, so that was also the number for March. I had SIGPLAN-M meetings with all 4 of my mentees (including the 1 which is also a collaboration) and 1 one-off undergrad advising session.
Collegiality/Service
HKGCC reviews and the FAUW governance reform working group, as well as March Break Open House.
Also dropped by the Software Engineering Capstone Design Symposium. Gave a couple of groups a hard time.
Trips
A long weekend in Edmonton, as well as drives to Kingston, and Peterborough/Ottawa.
Kingston, February 28 – March 1
Not much to mention about this one. Carpooled from Toronto, stayed overnight, refereed at the RMC Open. Guac Mexi Grill in Kingston was OK before driving back to Toronto/Waterloo.
Peterborough/Ottawa, March 15 – 16
This weekend had two refereeing-related things. I was chief referee for a small crew at a small tournament: the Golden North Open in Peterborough, and then off to Ottawa to give a refereeing seminar. I again carpooled from Toronto for this trip.
Always fill up the gas tank some days before going on a trip! (Or get an EV I guess). I had failed to do that and then it was pretty exciting getting to Toronto on time. Fortunately I had enough gas to get to the carpool meeting point and also to get to the gas station on the Sunday.
This was my first time as chief referee, but the tournament was indeed pretty small. We were still rolling out the new rules but they seemed to go OK. There was just an issue with a fighter only having a blue gi and not a white one. No other problems, fortunaely.
The Ottawa refereeing seminar was well attended with over 40 participants. I brought my own TV so that we could show videos. It’s unwieldy but it worked. I just had to carry it through the RA Centre. I enjoyed the teamwork presenting the seminar along with Gerry.
On Sunday morning I failed to visit any souvenir shops in Ottawa. Sparks Street was totally deserted. I wanted to buy Canadian flag baggage tags. Which, it turns out, are quite easy to get in dollar stores, even in Waterloo.
We had good food in Ottawa, including ramen at Sansoutei, and an excellent croissant at Choux Atelier. There was a slow-to-prepare falafel sandwich (not bad, though) at Mr. Samoona. And a Whopper on the road back.
Edmonton, March 5 – 9
The longer trip in March was to Edmonton. The day before flying out, I picked up my fixed pants (had a tear) from Nadia’s Tailoring and packed. I also gave 3 lectures, which included a makeup lecture. Because there are makeup lectures, I could cancel Friday’s lecture. Then, I drove to Missisauga after class on Wednesday and stayed at an unlicensed-hotel-type of airbnb, with about 4 rooms and a driveway. I thought this would be a good idea given an 8:25 departure from YYZ. I arrived in Mississauga at 9pm and I did get some sleep, probably more than I would have gotten leaving from Waterloo in the morning. I do remember a noisy neighbour of some sort. Inside voice!
Actually visiting Edmonton, March 6
The problem with the driveway is that I ended up being boxed in by a car that arrived later. I exited via the lawn, but that took an extra 10 minutes. Then I had a 20 minute wait at Park4U. Mornings are busy at YYZ. And, the NEXUS line was slower than the usual line. But, I still made it to the gate by 7:38 with a brief visit to the Air Canada Café to pick up some snacks for the flight.
The 747 bus supposedly goes from YEG into town. The schedule is terrible and I was looking at a 90-minute wait. I split an Uber with some other guy who was also waiting for the bus. He had a bunch of driving to do on both ends; worse than getting from Waterloo to Montreal!
I’d planned a lunch with Daveography who I knew from way back. Unfortunately, the place I’d picked was having a maintenance issue, and another nearby place was closed for Ramadan. But we found seats at Caffè Sorrentino and had an old-man chat about how tech is much less exciting than it was 20 years ago.
I certainly wasn’t going to spend any more time at the West Edmonton Mall than I had to, so I had gotten an airbnb downtown. Fortunately I was able to check in early, and then I went to check out birds near Muttart, followed by a visit to Boulders near the airbnb, and good pho at Saigon Taste. Boulders had well-designed and reasonable bouldering problems even if the name is not so original. It’s close to MacEwen University and full of student-looking people; Grand River Rocks Kitchener has more parents as well as old people, I think. The GRR Waterloo location may have a different crowd.
Tournament, March 7–9
After a filling breakfast at Atlas Café (it’s nice to have ful), it was time to go to the mall. I wrote up yet another HKRGC grant review, took the bus to the mall, managed to check into the near-WEM airbnb early, and refereed kids and ne-waza (groundwork). Then there was a reception/seminar for referees.
When I had signed up to referee, there was a form which asked if we were available to referee the kids. I would really rather not, but I was available, so I checked the box.
There were then two more long days on Saturday and Sunday. We got to start later (like at 11am) on Saturday, so that the junior referees would get more experience with the categories they were eligible to referee. I took advantage of that time to finish the proposal review. I also had a bunch of judo-related emails to send. Anyway, they brought in some pizza for us on Saturday evening and I left the mall at 9:24.
Sunday was the final day and I was a bit frazzled at the end of it, forgetting my suit jacket in the mall. Due to a flight delay, I didn’t have to leave before the end of the tournament. They had arranged the senior advanced fights to be earlier than the senior novice flights, presumably so that the referees from afar wouldn’t miss the advanced categories.
Sometime during the day, or maybe on the plane, I sent more emails and did more SE465 admin. I also did travel planning while on this trip, booking a hotel for the upcoming trip to Ottawa.
I left the mall at 6pm and my flight left at 8pm (originally scheduled for 6:30). Unfortunately, that meant that the flight arrived at YYZ at 1:37am, and I got home at 3am. Fortunately, teaching on Mondays (and every day this term) started at 1pm, so I still got a decent amount of sleep.
Toronto
There was one more trip to Toronto on Saturday, March 22. After volunteering on campus at the March Break Open House, I took the Flixbus to Toronto to table for the OAC at the Banff Film Festival. Shopped at MEC, where I ran into another OAC person, and also bought Canadian flag bag tags. Had a “quesadilla” at Los Campos which was more like a taco than a quesadilla but tasty enough. Sent a picture of TIFF, where the screening was happening, to my friend and he was like “but you never watch movies” (true). Talked to a bunch of people about the OAC. Then I took the GO train/bus back to Waterloo, with a chicken Caesar wrap from a machine at the Bramalea station. Better than nothing, but I wish they still had the convenience store that they used to, even if that food was maybe worse than the wrap-from-a-machine.
Travel Planning
Did trip planning for three trips; in chronological order, the evening in Ottawa for the referee clinic; the trip to Estonia for a research collaboration (still need to make some plans there, but we got the flights at least); and logistics for Canadian judo nationals in Calgary. It took until April when I would make post-Nationals plans except for a ticket to Vancouver on Sunday night, which I booked earlier.
Movement statistics
Not much walking. Bunch of biking. Couple of driving trips.
Movement statistics:
- 🚶 Walking: 30km on 10 days
- 🚲 Biking: 197km on 22 days
- 🚗 Driving: 1719km on 7 days (Kingston; YYZ; Peterborough/Ottawa)
- 🚗 Taxi: 48km (YEG)
- 🚆 Train: 26km on 1 day (Toronto to Bramalea)
- 🚌 Bus: 254km on 3 days (Edmonton, Toronto)
- 🚆 LRT: 6.3km (Edmonton, Waterloo)
- ✈ Plane: 5380km on 2 days (YYZ-YEG)
Transit was 280km.
Walks
Just a walk by the river in Edmonton.
Pictures
Didn’t do many pictures, so I’m not writing a March photos post. I’ll roll it into April.
- Sets of pictures posted: 2 (February: 9)
- Total pictures posted: 54 (244)
- Total pictures in selection pool: 133 (244)
- Accept rate: 40% (35%)
Miscellaneous
Not much miscellany this month.
Acquisitions
- new suit for refereeing (including also grey pants), from Paul Puncher. Not cheap!
- got old pants back with one less tear in them
- lost my old refereeing jacket, which has subsequently been found
- MEC Flex Nordic soft shell on clearance, as well as Canadian flag bag tags; did not get the beige Patagonia midlayer
- went to the Repair Hub to fix my radio charger (I’d broken the cable, but resoldering it was easy; I couldn’t put the cable through the strain relief, though).
Sports
Managed to get to judo practice 6× (well, twice on one night: my termly visit to UW judo plus Asahi; missed one due to makeup lecture and one due to Edmonton). Climbing 5 times at GRR and once in Edmonton. Basically 1.5× a week for both activities.
Food
Brought to you from Ontario and Edmonton.
Ontario
- Guac Mexi Grill, Kingston: chain quick-service restaurant, was fine before hitting the road
- Sansoutei, Ottawa: another chain, for ramen (good)
- Choux Atelier, Ottawa: not a chain, looks Viet (like the choux that my mom and relatives made)
- Mr. Samoona, Ottawa: really slow service for the first order of the day, but probably worth it
- Los Compas Tacos, Toronto: well, they do have tacos in the name; I ordered a quesadilla but it was like a taco
- Crystal Palace, Waterloo: old classic but I hadn’t actually been there before; Cantonese chow mein was quite good; some of the other dishes weren’t quite as good as I might have expected.
- HaNoi Viet Eatery: another of the more pricey new Vietnamese places, this one right in uptown Waterloo; well-executed and probably worth the price; ran into Nevin here, who also has Viet ancestry.
- Izna Poke Plus: poke, not bad, not exceptional.
Edmonton
- Caffè Sorrentino: not my first, or second, choice, but OK for lunch sandwiches.
- Saigon Taste: not as high end as the new Viet places; I’d definitely go there again
- Atlas Café: deserves its high reviews on Google Maps.
Volunteering
This month a bunch of time for the Scouts and visiting different meetings with youth and talking to volunteers; quite a bit of time for judo, including giving a seminar in Ottawa and being chief referee for a tournament, as well as a whole weekend refereeing in Edmonton; some more work for the OAC including representing it at the Banff Mountain Film Festival.
Conclusion
Whew. That’s almost it for the term. Lots of travel coming up.