I bought a new mouse today! It's a Logitech MX400 laser mouse. Hard to believe that I've been using the trackpad on my notebook for almost 13 months. It's not cordless, and it's not a notebook-sized mouse, but it works great!

According to StatsCan, Canada now has a(n estimated) population of 33 million people!

The population increases by 900 every day, taking into account births, deaths, immigration and emigration. Does not take into account any illegal immigrants.

110 km away from my favourite store.

If there's anything that sucks about being on a Mac, it's their web browsers.

Either you have:
- Safari, stops responding when you refresh a page randomly (particularly with multiple tabs open); also has a useless bookmarking system
- Firefox, which only sucks up more memory and system resources over time, and eventually stops responding when trying to do trivial things like close a tab; or
- Camino, which doesn't like Gmail very much, cannot handle Windows Media files properly with the Flip4Mac plugin and stops responding on occasion when you're ready to Quit.

I hate them all!

I found out that you can't 'undelete' files from MacOS X once you have emptied the trash. You're totally out of luck if you secure empty trash. Take it from me, I spent five hours last night recreating a presentation in Keynote after deleting it accidentally, thinking it was an older version of the file.

This article was pretty humourous. And, on top of that, the guy didn't actually do anything illegal; he just wanted to scare some of his fellow campers. Great way to spend a summer vacation.

Also in the news, the media has been obsessed with iPhone monthly bill statements as thick as novels. That's why I opt for electronic statements, when possible.

I discovered a (sponsored) web page -- written by a Queen's student/alumnus -- that describes life at the university and Kingston for the incoming student, titled: "Queen's University Guide". Pretty valuable tips.

I went to campus for the first time since I arrived. It was a 4 km walk to the Faculty of Education building to meet my program advisor and the manager for graduate studies. After that I saw the Kingston Penitentiary, which is on the shore of Lake Ontario on my way back to the registrar's office on the main campus. They have torn up University Avenue and a part of Union Street, which are important traffic routes through the campus. Even those on foot are inconvenienced, and they have created breaks in the construction zone to allow pedestrians to get around. I do not know if they're going to have it all ready in time for the Fall Term.

I drink a lot of milk, even if I'm partially lactose intolerant. It is fortified with vitamins and a good source of protein, and I don't mind the taste. Anyhow, coming from the U.S., where I could usually get a gallon (3.78 L) of skim milk for less than $3, it shocked me when I went to Montreal and found out that a 1 L carton cost 1.38, and a 4 L bag cost 4.63. Well, that wasn't so bad, thank goodness for price laws established by the Quebec government ... then I came to Kingston, where prices range from 2.03 to 2.74 for a 1 L carton. And these are grocery store prices! Unbelievable!

The most economical solution is to buy the 4 L bag (3 bags of 1.33 L each) for about $4 and a plastic container to store it in. I realize that in western Canada and in the U.S., we are pretty fortunate to have 4 L (or 1 gallon) of milk sold in convenient plastic jugs (although it isn't as environmentally-friendly).

I was walking down Princess St. in Kingston yesterday. Some woman comes up to me in the opposing direction and says, "Jesus loves you, Sir." I darted to the side to avoid starting a conversation or from making contact with her. Then, I crossed the street to make sure.

Along with the panhandlers asking for change and cars just zipping by, this is just like Ste-Catherine Street in Montreal, without the French.

For the past couple of days there has been a lively discussion on the CBC web site regarding the 1-cent piece.

One of the more humourous comments comes from Mark I., from Toronto. He writes, "A gas attendent [sic] asked me if I had a penny. I gave her a quarter and told her to let the next 24 people go".

I have previously written about the awkwardness of the 25-cent piece in Canada and the U.S. (Where is the corresponding $25 banknote?)

All I'm going to say is that if you're going to get rid of the 1-cent piece, you may as well get rid of the 5-cent and 25-cent pieces as well, bring back the 50-cent piece into circulation, and start rounding everything to the nearest decimal place.

It would be nice if we could also bring back the $2 note, too.

I have arrived in Kingston. I left Montreal at 9:41 a.m. on VIA 57, which departed from Track 13 at Central Station, carrying well over 70 kg of baggage with me
* along 675 m of sidewalks in east Montreal to Cadillac station from my temporary home
* descending 12.2 m of stairs to the platform
* transfer at Berri-UQAM station (ascending 5.9 m)
* up 22.6 m of stairs at Bonaventure station to surface level
* about 100 m of walkways to the baggage terminal at the station

The advantage over last time is that checked baggage service was offered on this train, so boarding and deboarding was quicker. I did take a taxi when I arrived in Kingston, though. The driver's credit card machine wasn't working, and he told me he didn't need a tip because it was Saturday. So I paid in cash.

I talked with a woman in line while waiting to board in Montreal, who is from Brockville. It turns out her son is the guy who kicks his friend in the Nissan TV commercials that have been playing in Canada and the U.S. recently. He is a "fight director" for theatrical plays, one of six in the country. He is paid pretty well, and works in Toronto. And her daughter is a UofA drama graduate who is moving to Vancouver. Interesting stuff.

Well, 51 days after I applied for a room in residence, I finally got offered a room on the consecutive education floor at Jean Royce Hall Residence. If this had happened 50 days ago, I probably would have accepted it immediately. But I have had time since to do some calculations.

The residence fee is $5,149 for eight months (September - April), plus the ResNet fee ($155) and Residence Student Government fee ($80). Total cost per month: $673.

I think I will probably pass on the offer, thank you very much.