Trip report: refereeing in Abbotsford, Edmonton, and a quick trip to Toronto/Waterloo
10 Mar 2024
March has two Canadian circuit judo tournaments: Pacific International and Edmonton International. I also stopped by Waterloo for two days and took care of some business.
January: Nelson, Wellington, other Nelson, and Sydney
14 Feb 2024
I’m really not experiencing large blocks of unstructured time right now, particularly with all the reviewing I’m doing. But it is true that I don’t have any teaching to prepare, at least.
In any case, I haven’t had time to write the January report, or a report on all of 2023, having been in Sydney and then almost immediately onto the Travers-Sabine Circuit in early February. Well, February is only half over! Though at this rate I should start the March report.
Review: On Cold Iron by Dan Levert
11 Feb 2024
About the history of engineering: the Canadian Iron Ring Ceremony and the Quebec Bridge disaster.
December: taking all the courses
4 Jan 2024
Travel month with Wilderness First Responder and Avalanche Skills Training 2, and Christmas in Montreal.
November: almost entirely staying put in Wellington
7 Dec 2023
PLDI submission and trip to New Caledonia. Just the routine.
Review: The Last Front Line by Brendan O'Dwyer
14 Nov 2023
How the sausage is made: Brendan O’Dwyer writes about building the Paparoa Great Walk on NZ’s West Coast.
October: NSERC Discovery Grant writing, and refereeing in Canada
5 Nov 2023
Mostly working on a NSERC Discovery Grant application and travelling to referee in Winnipeg and Scarborough, with a stop in Waterloo.
Museum review: Canadian Human Rights Museum / Musée pour les droits de la personne, Winnipeg
3 Nov 2023
I found myself in Winnipeg for 3 days in 2023 (to referee at the Manitoba Open, which was great) and the museum is now open, so I went for a visit after lunch at the Forks. Human rights is an abstract concept, so I was interested to see how the museum would represent that in the form of exhibits.
Mount Hopeless attempt, August 25-27, 2023
12 Oct 2023
We carried mountaineering gear 50km on a long weekend and had a nice walk in the fluffy snow, but no summit.
Book review: Wellington's Railways: Colonial Steam to Matangi, by David Parsons
8 Oct 2023
David Parsons. Wellington’s Railways: Colonial Steam to Matangi. 2010.
This book is certainly not lacking in detail. It covers the early development of Wellington region rail (different parts of New Zealand, and I guess many other countries, were quite isolated 150 years ago) until 1920; refinements from 1920 to 1970; and the changes from 1970 to 2010. Wellington rail did manage to mostly hang on through the global Reagan-Thatcher neoliberal era. It has relatively recently gotten through to Waikanae and perhaps will reach Levin.
