[[Mom]], [[Dad]], [[Oliver]] and I visited a stored called XS Cargo this afternoon. It’s in the style of Winners, in that it sells the merchandise that other stores couldn’t sell, and so it has a constantly changing collection of products. Unlike Winners, however, they sell TVs, DVD players, hardware, tools, telephones. And electric shavers.

At detailed here earlier, I’ve decided to launch an experimental switch to a “rotary” shaver after using the Braun “bar” style shavers for many years. To this end I purchased a three-head Remington Microflex 3x for $29.99 at XS Cargo. It’s plugged in to charge now, and I’ll use it for the first time tomorrow morning.

The manual warns that I need to “allow three weeks to develop and effective shaving style” and for my “beard to adjust to the new shaver.” They also caution:

Wait at least 15 minutes after getting up before shaving to ensure the face is free of puffiness that may be present from sleeping.

Who knew? Perhaps I’ve been puffy for all these years and [[Catherine]] simply hasn’t said anything. As the 15 minute period after waking is about the only period during the day that I’m in front of a mirror, maybe I’ve got a distortedly puffy self-image.

Obviously this new shaver is going to change my life completely. Stay tuned.

[[Olle]] reminded me that I’d neglected to mention that I’m in the midst of a very short pre-Christmas jaunt to Ontario with [[Oliver]]. I was suddenly struck with a bout of holiday homesickness last week (“home” in the “where Mom and Dad live” sense — “home” proper has tipped to PEI now), so I booked a couple of WestJet seats and here we are.

I noted an important shift in the WestJet passenger base on the flight down: people are now flying WestJet simply because it’s a better airline and price is no longer the most important aspect in the choice over Air Canada.

Why would I fly an airline that treats Charlottetown as an impediment, is staffed by grumpy employees, and flys grotty old planes when, instead, I can fly an airline that sees Charlottetown as an opportunity, has the best staff of any airline I’ve every flown, and flies new planes with televisions at every seat?

The WestJet attitude towards kids was particularly worthy of mention: the last time we flew Air Canada with [[Oliver]] we overheard the flight attendants complaining to each other about the bothersome number of kids aboard; yesterday the WestJet flight attendants made sure all the kids had headphones for the TVs ahead of the adults, provided juiceboxes before take-off to help with the change in air pressure, handed out crayons and colouring paper, came by every once in a while to make sure everything was okay, and actually treated the kids like real people and not unwanted excess cargo.

We’re actually looking forward to the trip back. When’s the last time you could say that about Air Canada?

Our public school education included French classes starting with grade 6, and these classes continued for the six years through to grade 12.

A cornerstone of the teaching materials in Ontario French education during the 1970s and 1980s was a series of videos featuring a lovable character named “Sol.” Sol was a clown, and his whacky franco-antics hit us not only in school, but also on TV Ontario, the educational television channel.

I remember “Sol, le Disc Jockey” and innumerable other skits designed to get us to understand one aspect of the language or another. And the skit I remember most of all was the one where we learned the words for breathing in and out: “Inspirer…,” Sol would intone, followed by a big breath in. Then “expirer…,” followed by a big breath out.

Brother [[Steve]] pass along the news that Marc Favreau, Sol’s alter-ego, has died at age 76.

Here’s to you, Sol; my breaths in and out today are in your memory.

This excellent demonstration of how magazine cover photos are retouched (pointer from Loic Le Meur) should be immediately placed on the reading list of every high school student. Indeed everyone could use a dose.

The sad and sorry thing is that as I toggled back and forth between the “before” and “after” shots of eyes, lips, breasts, waist, etc. I found myself silently agreeing “yah, that looks better.”

Thanks to all of those who have been geotagging the city over at RealCharlottetown.com. There are now 262 places on the map, 131 of which have been added by other people. Meaning, I think, that the project has cut its apron strings.

My friend [[Rob Paterson]] has written a manifesto, Going Home, that’s part of a collection of manifestos called Change This.

I’m happy to report that, unlike many “this blogging thing is going to change everything” treatises, Rob has crafted a well-worded piece of speculative fiction, the meat of which follows this set-up:

Let’s find out. Let’s jump forward in time to the near future. Let’s pick 2009 and drop in on how some of the pioneers in 2005 have done. Let’s go to where I live, Prince Edward Island, my adopted home. Let’s have a look at what might happen to many aspects of our society as the freedom of blogging works its way though our institutions and our current habits.

Rob spins a good tale, doubly so for me as I made the mistake of reading the piece from back to front, so I didn’t actually realize that his “scenario planning” exercise wasn’t actually a description of real events (I wondered, of course, why I’d been out of the loop on so many interesting projects — surely if “Robert Scoble is the Visiting Guru this year and will be on PEI this summer offering workshops in voice and culture,” I would have heard of it?).

I must admit to an innate bias against some of Rob’s more florid statements — “Once again we begin to experience the ecstasy of communion with our spiritual brothers and sisters.” is a good example. But then I recall Johnnie Moore’s comment earlier in the year:

Getting into unknown territory, fumbling for the right words, stumbling out phrases that seem naive or gauche or - god forbid - spiritual or touchy-feely… that’s probably the price we need to pay for getting out of the standard model of meeting our fellow man.

And so I’m willing to storm through my discomfort with the “newageiness” of it all, and glean some truly useful insight. I encourage you to do the same.

My nomination for “Spam of the Year” comes from Walk-Andalucia.com:

I provide a link only from a sense of shared shame — who among us hasn’t sent out thousands of email with the wrong content to the wrong people?

Introducing blog.thebus.ca: a low-volume place for me to note updates to the Interactive Charlottetown Transit Map.

Oliver has a pair of these amazing glasses. If you look at Christmas lights (or, indeed, any bright light), each light appears surrounded by a shimmering circle of “NOEL.” The manufacturer says:

Multi-starbursts of three dimensional rainbows will burst into colour in front of your eyes!

And they do! It’s one of those amazing things that neither words nor photos can do justice. I just knew there was a good reason for not skipping the holography section of my last year in high school.

Beginning tomorrow morning, Dec. 14th, 2005, Charlottetown’s public transit system will run with a revised set of routes, stops and schedules. The Interactive Charlottetown Transit Map has been updated to reflect these changes. Here’s a summary of what’s new and what’s not:

• The system of four routes has been retained, and the general territory of each of these routes remains the same.
• There are now “transfer points” at the Confederation Centre of the Arts, the Atlantic Superstore and the Charlottetown Mall. All four routes begin at the Confederation Centre and end at the Charlottetown Mall, and three of the four routes stop at the Superstore midway through their route.
• There are many changes to the specific streets covered on each route, the stops along the way, and the schedule of stops.
• There’s a new stop on Route #3 at the Farmer’s Market and the Belvedere entrance to UPEI. This means I can leave downtown on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. and be at the Market at 10:12 a.m., catching a return bus at 11:21 a.m. and getting back downtown at 11:46 a.m.
• Stops in the “outlying areas” — places like Mel’s PetroCan in East Royalty and Stockman Dr. in Winsloe — have been cut back significantly.
• The “return run” into the Confederation Centre through downtown has been re-routed for most routes, with new runs down Rochford to Water St. for Routes #1, #2 and #3, and a new run down Weymouth St. and along Water St. for Route #4.

• A new “UPEI Express Run” on Route #1 that leaves the Confederation Centre at 8:00 a.m.
• A new “Early Morning Express Run” on Route #1 that leaves the Charlottetown Mall at 7:30 a.m. and arrives downtown at 8:00 a.m.
• A new “Late Afternoon Express Run” on Route #1 that leaves the Confederation Centre at 4:05 p.m. and arrives at the Charlottetown Mall at 4:40 p.m.

I’ve made some updates to the Interactive Transit Map too, besides simply updating the routes, stops and schedule:

• The “map” part of the map is now resizable — as you expand and shrink your browser window, the map will expand and shrink to suit. This should make the application much more usable in different browser environments, and is a technique that the application inherits from RealCharlottetown.com.
• At stops — like the new transfer points — where two or more routes have a stop at the same geographic location, the pop-up schedule box now lists all routes stopping there. This solves the old problem that occurred when one stop’s marker overlaid anothers’.
• Transfer points are marked with a larger red marker. I may update this marker to make its function a little clearer (perhaps adding a “T”?) later.
• Google AdSense ad over in the corner as gone. I was getting a lot of ads for bus repair and bus shelters that didn’t seem particularly relevant; not surprising given the lack of text on the page.

I’ve got a couple more tricks up my sleeve that I’ll roll out over the next couple of days. In the meantime, the source code and SQL data files have been updated to sync with the live version. If you’ve got a hankering to help out, you could proof the data on the site against the printed schedules — I’ve gone over everything twice, but other eyes would be useful!