Daily Archives: December 4, 2007

the tide is high.

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9

Ah, yes. It’s that time of year again.

Remember?

The water is growing in turbidity rather quickly. NTUs of less than 1 are the goal, at least.

Our reservoir has 37 NTU. Ack.

That’s not so much okay.

As soon as we noticed the brown water coming out of the tap, we made sure to stop by the market and pick up a couple of cases of water tonight. We didn’t want to be left without drinking water — or with nasty brown boiled water outside of campsite livin’ — if we could help it.

After all, the last time Vancouver went into a tizzy like this, we saw more than a few dust-ups over the Precious Bottles of Health as stores ran out of stock.

(I’ve got a mean right hook… but you know, the manicure.)

We also went to Whole Foods, because the market didn’t sell my favourite bottled water, Fiji.

(I know… I’m embarassed by that sentence, too.)

While I was buying Fiji, I decided to buy a few other kinds, too, to see if there wasn’t a flavour (WHAT? THEY HAVE FLAVOUR) I liked better. And that’s when we decided to have a taste test.

I know.

I know.

Total geeks.

But we did a blind taste test. And that’s scientific.

The cases of water we got were Dasani, so that was the first on the list.

The kinds I bought were Ty Nant, Penta, Volvic, and Fiji.

Here are our notes and our taste guesses:

Turns out:

Dasani sucks.

Volvic sucks.

Fiji is my favourite, Penta is Cat’s favourite.

But anything is better than brown water.

A haiku to finish:

turbidity is
a quick trip to tummy pain
light a match, okay?

the answer is: only on mondays, and with your left hand.

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12

This morning, I was on Battle of the Sexes on 95Crave (95.3 FM) in Vancouver. Before I’D EVEN HAD MY COFFEE.

I co-hosted with radio ninja Buzz Bishop (also available at Cyberbuzz.) Buzz lets me jabber on the radio now and then — partly because he’s a nice guy, and partly because he enjoys listening to me sound like a complete ass “in front” of thousands of listeners.

(You can hear more of our antics by clicking on the “radio radio” category down there to your right.)

The point of the game is for both hosts — a male and a female (usually Nat and Drew, the usual morning drive folks) — to choose three questions to stump the opposite sex.

In fact, on Nat and Drew’s page, it says something about Battle of the Sexes deciding which gender is “smartest.”

But I definitely don’t think that’s what Battle of the Sexes is all about. Doing well at trivia contests is much more about exposure to culture (and memory) and a certain kind of upbringing/nurture than actual intelligence.

I mean, I know a lot of trivia, but that doesn’t make me brighter than anyone else… I just tend to fixate on random details, rather than large, useful concepts.

(Just ask my PoliSci profs.)

I asked the following questions this morning of my “stumpee” (poor guy probably wouldn’t like THAT title too much…) Chris:

1. When a woman gets “threaded”, does that involve:

    a) Getting something sewn for her wardrobe
    b) A sort of hairstyle
    c) Getting hair removed

Chris, to his credit, got it right (c). I was impressed! And that’s all he needed to do, apparently, because his female counterpart, Janelle, batted .000 on Buzz’s questions. The only other question I got to ask was about Mr Big’s real name on Sex and the City (he didn’t know: John.)

(I knew all of Buzz’s answers, by the way.)

We had an ongoing competition like this at camp, and I used to be called in as a ringer to help the junior girl staffers, since the boys couldn’t knock me out with their questions.

I think I was successful in part I have a brain for randomology… but I was also raised by parents with diverse interests.

My dad loves sports — which is apparently “guy knowledge” — but he also loves fashion (A topic that eludes a lot of men. A LOT OF MEN. GET LONGER PANTS NOW.)

My mom can knit or sew circles around most people (do you need a knitted circle? let me know), but she can also wield a power tool with extreme proficiency (back off, boys… she’s taken.)

I don’t think either of them fits any kind of gender stereotype very well, even if my dad DOES love his car to be obsessively clean and my mom DOES bake a mean pie.

Ew… even TYPING those stereotypical roles made me cringe.

That’s why this whole thing has me thinking: Is there really such a thing as “gender-specific” knowledge? Or does it just have to do with how you grew up? How “cross-gender literate” is any of us, overall?

So here are my questions for you:

    1. Do you think your knowledge base is gender-specific?

    2. Do you ever refer to certain information as “girl stuff” or “guy stuff”?

    3. What is the most stereotypical “gender topic” you know well?

    4. What subject area do you know a lot about that might surprise people, given your gender?

    4. Were you raised with ironclad gender roles? Or were the people in your life “generalists” of a sort?

    5. Got a “boy question” to stump me? I promise not to Google.

    (And try to make it something that most guys would know, not just something you happen to know at the same time as you happen to be a guy… like the serial number on a small part in a Nissan RB engine, or your middle name. Yeesh. Unless you’re like… Richard Dean Anderson.)