Earthquake frenzy

I've always wanted to feel one. Since I've been in Ottawa (nearly 8 years) I've heard of several earthquakes in the area that could be felt, but I'd never been lucky enought to feel one. This evening, there was a magnitude 4.0 just a few kilometers away (38KM according to Google Earth).

Not much to speak of... a very low rumble, and vibration... kinda like a large truck going down the road... but the house creaked a bit, and the rumble seemed to carry on for about 10 seconds afterwards getting lower and dimmer all the time.

Tam thought a plane was about to fly into the house. Nova was a bit upset... and I believe he thought it was someone upstairs or at the door.

Included is an image from the Canadian National Seismograh Network that shows the quake I felt (aprox 8:40 EST = 1:40 UTC). I do wish NRCan would improve it's earthquake web service however... their servers were blocked shortly after the quake. I guess the 1/2 million geeks in the Ottawa area all wanted to know what they felt.

Fortunately, the USGS is on the ball: "A light earthquake occurred at 01:39:23 (UTC) on Saturday, February 25, 2006. The magnitude 4.0 event has been located in the ONTARIO-QUEBEC BORDER REGION, CANADA."

They also have some details including the depth (15 km), and distances from major areas (42 km from Ottawa center).

Update: NRCan has come in with some slightly different (and I assume more accurate) data: "An earthquake of magnitude 4.5 MN occured on 2006-02-25 at 01:39:22 Universal Time. The epicentre was located at latitude 45.66 North and longitude 75.23 West. 7 km N from Thurso, QC". This puts it slightly north of the USGS. There's some difference in the scales used in different areas (4.0 vs 4.5). Apparently MN and M are not the same thing, as quakes propogate differently in eastern North America so sometimes they adjust the numbers.

Congrats on Curling

Congratulations to our Canadian (ahem - Newfoundland) curling team on their well earned victory today at the olympics. I imagine it's the first ever Newfoundland olympic gold medal.

Jacques Cartier Park - Winterlude

We (Tam, Shirley and I) took a quick trip over to Jacques Cartier Park in Gatineau today to look at the snow sculptures. It was quite an afternoon. Photos of the snow sculptures are on the website.

Parking was difficult, but once achieved, it was all merriment in the winter wonderland created in the park. Lots of sculptures, slides, food and entertainment. The place was packed!

A very sunny, but quite cold (-10 or so) day. But when well dressed, and with a beaver tail and hot chocolate to warm us, we didn't mind too much.

In some ways the snow sculptures are even more interesting and beautiful than the ice sculptures... They're certainly easier to photograph. 

Winterlude and ice on the canal

Winterlude and some colder weather have finally brought some skaters to the canal. Between -10 and -15 these past few days. It's a little chillier than I usually like it, but it's nice for a couple of weeks in order to keep the ice and snow sculptures fresh. 

Dual Monitors

I've setup my old Viewsonic (CRT) display as a secondary monitor. Kinda nifty. In my profile I have it displaying some network/system stats, monitoring some websites, and displaying a continually updated RSS feed. I can also have it display media center when I want to work and watch TV/Videos at the same time.

Better than having it underfoot as it has been for the past 9 months. 

New photos available

Have recently uploaded some new photos to the website:

Downtown Ottawa - Parliment, war memorial, and down around town.
The Habs vs Sens game of January 26 that my father and I attended.
The Canadian War Museum... again, a visit with my dad this past week.

Enjoy.

The big game

Spent the evening with my father at the newly renamed "Scotiabank Place" (formerly the Corel Center) to watch the Sens and Habs. A good time was had by all, dispite the dissapointing shutout (3-0 for Ottawa).

As you can see in the panarama above, we arrived early so as to take advantage of the opportunity to explore the area, get a bite to eat (sausage dog), and to take it all in.

It always amazes me how big and small the building appears. The ice surface appears so close and much smaller than you imagine from television, juxtaposed with the immense size of the building and seating. Attendance was approximately 20,000 last night (easily 5X the population of my home town of Botwood, Newfoundland).

And then there's the spectacle of it all. Unlike television, it's truly a show when you're there in person. Not a moment is without the roar of the crowd, the booming music, the lights, events or action of some kind. It's truly entertainment of the finest kind. Not to mention the game itself. It's the sort of thing that anybody can enjoy, hockey fan or not. It's an experience.

Dad's dream of seeing a professional game of hockey was realized in fine fashion.

Brass Monkey

The next time someone tell's you it's cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey, you point them here. This is a brass monkey. Notice how it's holding the balls. If it were to be cold enough, the brass monkey would contract, and the cannon balls would fall off and go rolling around.

I think this monkey is actually made of iron... but you get the idea.

All of this is supposedly bunk of course... but the only other image I can think of when I hear that phrase is just too totally unreasonable to consider. 

The Fruit Machine

Here's an interesting piece of equipment my father and I discovered during a recent trip to the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. According to the attached plaque: "Security officials used this device, the electropsychometer (or E-meter), in the 1950s and 1960s to help ascertain people's sexual orientation, assuming that homosexuality made individuals more susceptible to blackmail by enemy agents. Data from the so-called 'fruit machine' cost more than 100 civil servants their jobs..."

The new re-vamped war museum is quite excellent by the way. Quite a step up from its earlier, very cramped, home on Sussex drive. 

New Bedroom

The new bedroom furniture has arrived (after several days of waiting due to the recent snowstorm). It fits well (whew!) and looks quite nice. The repurposed lamps seem to fit well also.

The general consensus is that the curtains will have to go, and that we'll have to come up with a new television solution (Dad and Tammy are voting for a large flat screen. We'll see)... but other than that, all seems well.