08 December 2013
The Name Debate
08/12/13 05:56
We have an odd habit. OK, those of you that know us would be the first to admit that we have a lot of odd habits. This particular one though, is that we tend to name our cars, at least the ones we really like. My yellow Mustang in college was Daisy. Marsha had a pickup truck named Ernie. I had motorcycles named Yami and Helen Alloy. My Mini was called The Tardis because everyone was surprised how much room there was inside it. On the other hand I realized that none of our Hondas had names. Not sure why, they were good serviceable cars, we liked them, they just didn’t have any personality.
Now, when we got the new Prius, it went to Marsha and I got the old one. This presented a problem. Marsha had named the old Prius already. It was like Tina Joule Gengertresses, or something like that. (EDIT: It’s T'najama Joule. Marsha) I don’t exactly remember exactly what. It might have been Airyanne Salsadress Fancyknickers, or something. (EDIT: Oh for crying out loud, it’s just T'najama Joule, really it’s not that hard. Marsha). The thing is, that I wasn’t prepared to drive a car with a girly name like that. As it’s an electric hybrid car I suggested Ultrecht, the Lightning Thief. Marsha countered with Queen Fairydust Joydancer. At that, I suggested Ragnar the Mileslayer. Marsha replied with Princess Estroginia Glitterlace. As you can see we’re at an impasse. Oh and her new car? It’s named Bert, just Bert, well, Bertram on formal occasions. I figure that we have twin cars so she named hers after a Minnesota Twin. It did give me an idea though. How about Rick Studwell from one of my favourite shows? Or maybe I’ll just go with something more direct like Manly Mannex Mancini the Maniacal Mandarin Manicotti Manufacturer of Manhattan Manitoba.
Or not.
At work we had some news. More precisely we had reporters nosing around for a news story. Not sure what set them off, we’re working with a couple of projects with BC and Vancouver but we never talk about what we sell. Maybe someone with the agencies leaked the story. Not that it’s top secret or anything, it’s just that when we sell a robot to someone we let them talk about it. We build the robots, not advertise the robots. So when the Nanaimo Daily News called about what we were doing with the Port Mann bridge we were surprised. The reporter came by and chatted with Colin, the company President, and we got a nice article out of it.
http://www.nanaimodailynews.com/business/nanaimo-robots-help-inspect-hard-to-reach-places-on-vancouver-s-port-mann-bridge-1.724185
Then the next day CHEK TV News came by and interviewed Colin and took some nice footage of some of our robots
http://www.cheknews.ca/index.php?bckey=AQ~~,AAAA4mHNTzE~,ejlzBnGUUKY1gXVPwEwEepl35Y795rND&bclid=975107450001&bctid=2894187285001
In addition to Colin you’ll see two people, one with a striped shirt and another with safety glasses on his forehead. They are the other people I work with in the Quality Control department. I’m not in the video though. I made a point of not getting in front of the camera. No big thing, it’s just that they are the more experienced people working with these robots so I stayed out of the shots to avoid doing something stupid.
It has turned cold here. Seriously cold. Deep, dark bitter, utterly amazingly cold. One morning it hit -3C. OK that’s like 26F so I don’t expect to get any sympathy from our friends in Minnesota, or Kansas City, or Albuquerque or Carson City, or just about anywhere else in North America. It was so cold that they almost had to cancel a launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base because they weren’t sure the rocket would work right. Alberta, where all this started, had a huge snow storm and they even had to cancel school.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/southern-alberta-digging-out-from-massive-winter-storm-1.1571713
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/12/03/alberta-snow-drifts-blizzard-snowstorm_n_4378932.html
But for us it’s been brutal. We got a whole centimetre of snow and most of the puddles froze, at night at least. By our standards it’s way outside what we’re used to. Some days I’ve even had to put on an extra flannel shirt under my winter coat, (which admittedly is also just a flannel shirt). We’ve started carrying hats and gloves in the cars. We haven’t used them but we have them. There are some mornings the heat in the car doesn’t start putting out warm air until the end of the block.
It’s been brutal.
The cold was part of the reason for something that happened this morning.
Early on Sunday mornings the CBC runs The Documentary Hour from RTE, Ireland’s National Broadcaster. I have to admit that it’s often my cue to get up. Not that the documentaries are bad or uninteresting. The reason is, well, let me describe this morning.
They came on and announced a short documentary about Bargemen, the people that run barges along rivers and canals in Ireland. The documentary was originally made in 1976 and showed a slice of Irish life now long gone. We thought this sounded interesting, plus the bed was warm and comfortable, so we stayed put and listened. The documentary started and we soon realized that we could not make out a word they were saying. Interspersed between sound effects of life on the river was the main narrator saying things like “Oh, the argle gargle blarney wussy bargee waffle made some tea. And den moot waffle mar glee warble bloogl flan potatoes He He He He. Bud oi’ cars me flannel moot…” and this went on for fifteen minutes only interspersed with another voice chiming in with “Aye” on occasion. They could have been talking about building a moon rocket for all we knew. By the end of it Marsha and I were literally laughing out loud. It was like a Monty Python Irish. I kept thinking about the Navajo Code Talkers in WWII. The British could have just used rural Irish radiomen and gotten the same result.
I suspect that next Sunday I’ll go back to getting up when The Documentary Hour starts. Unless the bed is warm and comfortable that is.
Doug & Marsha
PIX: Our Christmas Card. As we did last year, we're e-mailing our card. FWIW Marsha isn't in most of the pictures as she normally had the camera, (and she doesn't like getting her picture taken).
Now, when we got the new Prius, it went to Marsha and I got the old one. This presented a problem. Marsha had named the old Prius already. It was like Tina Joule Gengertresses, or something like that. (EDIT: It’s T'najama Joule. Marsha) I don’t exactly remember exactly what. It might have been Airyanne Salsadress Fancyknickers, or something. (EDIT: Oh for crying out loud, it’s just T'najama Joule, really it’s not that hard. Marsha). The thing is, that I wasn’t prepared to drive a car with a girly name like that. As it’s an electric hybrid car I suggested Ultrecht, the Lightning Thief. Marsha countered with Queen Fairydust Joydancer. At that, I suggested Ragnar the Mileslayer. Marsha replied with Princess Estroginia Glitterlace. As you can see we’re at an impasse. Oh and her new car? It’s named Bert, just Bert, well, Bertram on formal occasions. I figure that we have twin cars so she named hers after a Minnesota Twin. It did give me an idea though. How about Rick Studwell from one of my favourite shows? Or maybe I’ll just go with something more direct like Manly Mannex Mancini the Maniacal Mandarin Manicotti Manufacturer of Manhattan Manitoba.
Or not.
At work we had some news. More precisely we had reporters nosing around for a news story. Not sure what set them off, we’re working with a couple of projects with BC and Vancouver but we never talk about what we sell. Maybe someone with the agencies leaked the story. Not that it’s top secret or anything, it’s just that when we sell a robot to someone we let them talk about it. We build the robots, not advertise the robots. So when the Nanaimo Daily News called about what we were doing with the Port Mann bridge we were surprised. The reporter came by and chatted with Colin, the company President, and we got a nice article out of it.
http://www.nanaimodailynews.com/business/nanaimo-robots-help-inspect-hard-to-reach-places-on-vancouver-s-port-mann-bridge-1.724185
Then the next day CHEK TV News came by and interviewed Colin and took some nice footage of some of our robots
http://www.cheknews.ca/index.php?bckey=AQ~~,AAAA4mHNTzE~,ejlzBnGUUKY1gXVPwEwEepl35Y795rND&bclid=975107450001&bctid=2894187285001
In addition to Colin you’ll see two people, one with a striped shirt and another with safety glasses on his forehead. They are the other people I work with in the Quality Control department. I’m not in the video though. I made a point of not getting in front of the camera. No big thing, it’s just that they are the more experienced people working with these robots so I stayed out of the shots to avoid doing something stupid.
It has turned cold here. Seriously cold. Deep, dark bitter, utterly amazingly cold. One morning it hit -3C. OK that’s like 26F so I don’t expect to get any sympathy from our friends in Minnesota, or Kansas City, or Albuquerque or Carson City, or just about anywhere else in North America. It was so cold that they almost had to cancel a launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base because they weren’t sure the rocket would work right. Alberta, where all this started, had a huge snow storm and they even had to cancel school.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/southern-alberta-digging-out-from-massive-winter-storm-1.1571713
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/12/03/alberta-snow-drifts-blizzard-snowstorm_n_4378932.html
But for us it’s been brutal. We got a whole centimetre of snow and most of the puddles froze, at night at least. By our standards it’s way outside what we’re used to. Some days I’ve even had to put on an extra flannel shirt under my winter coat, (which admittedly is also just a flannel shirt). We’ve started carrying hats and gloves in the cars. We haven’t used them but we have them. There are some mornings the heat in the car doesn’t start putting out warm air until the end of the block.
It’s been brutal.
The cold was part of the reason for something that happened this morning.
Early on Sunday mornings the CBC runs The Documentary Hour from RTE, Ireland’s National Broadcaster. I have to admit that it’s often my cue to get up. Not that the documentaries are bad or uninteresting. The reason is, well, let me describe this morning.
They came on and announced a short documentary about Bargemen, the people that run barges along rivers and canals in Ireland. The documentary was originally made in 1976 and showed a slice of Irish life now long gone. We thought this sounded interesting, plus the bed was warm and comfortable, so we stayed put and listened. The documentary started and we soon realized that we could not make out a word they were saying. Interspersed between sound effects of life on the river was the main narrator saying things like “Oh, the argle gargle blarney wussy bargee waffle made some tea. And den moot waffle mar glee warble bloogl flan potatoes He He He He. Bud oi’ cars me flannel moot…” and this went on for fifteen minutes only interspersed with another voice chiming in with “Aye” on occasion. They could have been talking about building a moon rocket for all we knew. By the end of it Marsha and I were literally laughing out loud. It was like a Monty Python Irish. I kept thinking about the Navajo Code Talkers in WWII. The British could have just used rural Irish radiomen and gotten the same result.
I suspect that next Sunday I’ll go back to getting up when The Documentary Hour starts. Unless the bed is warm and comfortable that is.
Doug & Marsha
PIX: Our Christmas Card. As we did last year, we're e-mailing our card. FWIW Marsha isn't in most of the pictures as she normally had the camera, (and she doesn't like getting her picture taken).