(no subject)

[lederhosen]

According to my work email today, the ACT Legislative Assembly has declared a public holiday for 'Families And Community Day', to be held on... why, gosh, it happens to be the first Tuesday in November. I think this may be the most feeble excuse for a holiday yet.

Still hammering away at that SAS/IML optimisation problem. However, I have written my own quick-and-dirty solution which works, and - although I haven't proven it - should probably give virtually identical results to the fancy nonlinear solver, if I ever manage to get that working.

Exercise since last: 3km, total 763km/458mi: RIVENDELL. Now, the next bit on the website is Rivendell to Lothlorien, but looking at the site, it seems to me that they've missed one of the most important and exciting parts of the whole story, so I'm going to do that bit first.

And, thanks to scascot, I have an eyeball in a jar on my info page. My friends know me too well :-)

Comments

[saluqi.livejournal.com]

Coming from Melbourne where it's always been a holiday, I found that the first Tuesday in November in other states is second only to Christmas Eve when it comes to incredibly low productivity.

People spend the morning on sweeps and placing bets at the TAB, and the afternoon drinking cheap sparkling wine out of plastic cups and eating cold chicken. It's dismal, and I prefer the opportunity to spend time with my family than with my coworkers (although I'm suspecting purveyors of BBQ chooks and Omni are cursing right now).

I agree that "families and community day" is wildly disingenuous. I'd be inclined to call it "get drunk and flush your cash" day, but this year I'm not even sure there'll be a race. EI is steadily moving towards the Vic border.

[panacea1.livejournal.com]

It is a testament to my provincialism that I first wondered, "Why on earth would Australians want to take (US Federal) Election Day as a holiday? It's an off (non-presidential election) year."

:-)

[mr-figgy.livejournal.com]

Something similar happened here, actually. The guy who just won the Ontario Provincial Election had promised to add in an extra holiday at a stretch of year where the average working person in Canada doesn't seem to have any, some time in February. Since he was slagged and humiliated all campaign for breaking promises (yet won a huge majority anyway), he immediately declared that holiday, it being the easiest promise to keep.

I think it's called Family Day.

Coincidentally, Dalton McGuinty is the premier on behalf of Ontario's Liberal Party. I say coincidentally because they seem somewhat different than yours...