I had a super fun weekend with a handful of different people, all of which involved either good conversation, good dancing or both! Kevin and I hung out and chatted for the first time since... oh probably since the ol' EE club days. Brian invited me to a wedding since his girlfriend couldn't make it so I got to attend Dave and Shelly's ceremony and reception. Beautiful... although I have yet to look at the pictures. I woke up Sunday morning to a new level of pain - the kind you immediately dismiss from your memory, only recalling the event as "a most painful experience." That kind of pain doesn't need to be remembered.
Along with my hangover, I felt incredibly sick. Without warning, my throat turned into a source of constant discomfort at best, but when I swallowed could make me wince. The swollen glands at my neck prevented me from turning my head much, which was also something I didn't feel much like doing, as the throbbing pain was coming from more than just the previous night's imbibing. To accompany these wonderfully agonizing sensations, I had the pleasure of feeling the joint ache that usually results from not wearing my orthotics (arch supports) the previous day from my feet to my lower back. Needless to say, I spent Sunday, and the next day, in bed.
When I get sick, I don't like to eat. I don't really feel like cooking up a gourmet meal. In fact, I wouldn't want to eat one. Everything tastes either bland or terrible, and it's hard to choke down into a stomach that doesn't feel like working and tells me I'm not hungry. But I ate something yesterday and it did help with the dizziness, so I guess the doctors have a point. This time.
Now I'm stuck in what I'm cleverly calling "sick-limbo." It's that point where you don't really feel well enough to go to work, but you're not sick enough to stay in bed all day and you just get restless staying at home (and then maybe guilty). I compromised and stayed home for a half day. Maybe that just makes me look lazy? Well, I'm sure that if I had come in this morning, I certainly wouldn't want to be sitting in this chair any longer than half a day. This puts a damper on my plans to go to Calgary for a night of fun (to see the last show closest to me that a band I like will ever play... I certainly think it's worth it, but I'm crazy...). Oh Limbo, please release me soon!! I suppose I could always stuff down all the Dayquil (then Nyquil) I can stand and let my body pay the price later. Isn't there a saying that goes "It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission"?
If I were a believer in signs, or if I were looking for proof of the existence of God, I would have a hard time ignoring the small moving experience I had yesterday morning. While listening to music on the train, the song lyrics were 'oh lord, can you save us? oh lord, sing hallelujah' as I emerged from the tunnel onto the bridge that spans the North Saskatchewan River. The sun was above the horizon, sending rays of sunlight filtering through the morning clouds in an awesome display of beauty. The colours in the clouds ranged through shades of orange and pink, with white and grey accents. I was glad to witness the picturesque scene, as though nature had put it forth just for me to behold. It was as though the Lord answered the questions resonating in my ears (which was, incidentally, by a band called Thursday).
I like to think of myself as a student of life, and as such, I am often assuming a teaching role which can also lead to a valuable experience I would normally never had.
My recent flirtations in the kitchen have caught the attention of some friends of mine, so last night I taught Keith how to make Miso Soup. As far as I could tell, he was thrilled to be learning. The next thing he'll have to do is find all the ingredients on his own! But at least he now has step by step instructions in the form of a multimedia guide to show remind him the next time he makes it.
I saw Lord of the Rings: Return of the King in theaters with a group of Engineers my age (a wonderful audience) the Wednesday morning that it was released. It was the greatest movie I'd seen, it was epic, it had me on the edge of my seat watching intensely for over two hours. It prompted me to read the trilogy, which took less than a month. I've watched the extended versions of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, I've watched all the video on each of those DVD releases at least once, some of it twice. I've listened to the soundtracks (RotK was by far the best). And ever since watching the third movie I've been dying to see the extended version.
It was an ache that I'd never experienced at that level. Watching the theatrical release again, and then a third time in the IMAX didn't appease my desire. It's been eight months, six days, and three hours since I've seen the Return of the King for the first time, and the desire is still almost as strong. Every now and then, something will remind me of the wonderful magical realm that Peter Jackson (and company) brought to the screen for me to experience. When I'm reminded of it, I think again only of how badly I want to see the extended version. I just know it's going to be fabulous. The extra features are going to be great. I can't wait! I don't want to wait any longer!
But I just found out that instead of the original mid-November release date, the extended edition has been delayed until December. Well, it had better be worth it. In the mean time, I'll have to satisfy myself with reading articles about what will be included on the release. Reading that, and watching the interviews with the cast, I'll freely admit that Dominic Monaghan is a very funny man and a new hero of mine. It seems like he like pulling pranks as much as I do! Hee hee!
Rant/Vent - because there's no one here to rant to Right NOW
Wind. Can't stand it. Never could. Now I know exactly what it is that gets me about it. It slows me down. I love going fast but it makes that impossible. Today: WSW11km/h. Not much, you might think. But try going against it on rollerblades. Rollerblades aren't as fun when you have to *work* the whole time. There wasn't even any fun coasting. Just effort. Push push push. I didn't mind the work out, but DAMN I hated that it wasn't fun. Stupid wind.
It's amazing how little you remember when you don't use what you know. Although I knew it to be true, I hadn't experienced it to any significant extent until the night before last.
In a fit of studying not seen in my life since I was a full time student (which will be sixteen months next week), I spent almost 4 hours at my books. The information that had been collecting dust on a shelf in my brain is slowly beginning to be dusted off, and the creaking mechanisms of my mind are beginning to generate more than just smoke/steam. It wasn't the most efficient studying I've done, but I was trying to remember analysis techniques and math which were new concepts to me six years ago. I'm impressed with how much can be forgotten in six years. It's a great reminder of how much information I've stuffed into this little head of mine in that short time.
Why, you might ask, would I put myself voluntarily through that kind of studying on a Sunday evening in the middle of August, when the school year (to which I will not be returning) is still a step away? In fact, it's not school related at all. At the end of October, I will be writing the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam for accreditation in the U.S. as an Engineer in Training. This means that I'll have to remember everything I ever took in four years of engineering, and regurgitate it for eight hours in two 4-hour exams on October 30th. Fun.
The people that I've told I'm doing this ask, "Do you want to go to the States?" I can't say that I do, but I can't say that I don't either. I would like to do this exam for a couple of reasons: (a) I can still remember *some* things that I did in school. The longer I wait, though, the more I forget (as I was sorely reminded the other night). (b) It only costs $125 (plus the review material that we're ordering, all in USD of course). (c) I hope it will give me an advantage when I'm applying for jobs. (d) It gives me something to work toward, a goal that I know I can achieve. This one is probably the most important to me since it's been a while since I've had something to work towards (other than saving up money for my next trip). It's like something to do in the meantime, it's fairly inexpensive and as I remember everything I learned, it's like a confidence booster. "Yes, I remember how to do partial fractions... Finding the resonant frequency? No problem!" Maybe I can even get a job tutoring all this material I'm awakening from the depths of my slumbering brain.
Sigh. I now face of whether or not to get involved in other activities, such as a Japanese class, or a sport's class. I also would love to learn some kind of dance like Salsa or Tango (I'm told it's hard, but damn it's classy). And if I decide that there is enough time in the week to do another activity, which one should it be? I guess the final option would be not to decide anything, effectively deciding that I shouldn't do anything. As simple a solution that may be, I'm definitely not a fan of doing nothing (in fact, sometimes I find it impossible).
Anyone who knows me well enough should realise that I'm the type who likes to break rules. Today, I'm going to cross the line, and write about the dismally cold weather with which we've been cursed for the past two days (apparently, it's a rule of thumb that you shouldn't write about anything that strangers might discuss during an elevator ride). While I knew that it was supposed to be cold and rainy this weekend, I've forgotten how much I dislike it. Why am I planning to stay in the country for another winter? What kind of masochist am I?
Right now, it feels like 7 o'clock on a November morning. It's so dark out that I can see into the offices on the other side of the block, street lights are on and I need my desk lamp to do paper work. Vehicles need headlights to go anywhere. Nothing is as sharp a reminder of the winter which is fast befalling us as this unwholesome dark. This morning, I feel as though I am in Tolkein's world where dark forebodes evil, and I can truly relate to the Hobbits traveling into an ever-darkening sky. And it doesn't appear to be getting any brighter.
Luckily, the forecast calls for sun and warmer temperatures by the end of the week. Hopefully it won't rain this afternoon and I can still rollerblade home, although with a high of 9 degrees today, I doubt I'll be wearing shorts!
As a writer, I'm often enthralled with the way we use language and how it affects the way we communicate. Just today, for example, I noticed the different meanings between saying "I forgot" and "I can't remember." While the first is a general statement about lacking memory (either before or after the fact), the latter implies something more specific. In today's example, "I can't remember" doesn't make sense as a response to "why didn't you eat breakfast this morning?" The two phrases mean the same thing - that a memory is obscured - but they convey different ideas...
As was pointed out in a novel I read recently (Calculating God by Robert J Sawyer), despite the languange difference, humans tend to use universal symbols. Love is associated with the heart; a human skull is associated with death. And almost every colour is associated with some kind of imagery: black is evil or menacing, white is pure and good, blue is for sadness, grey is for gloom. Just type any colour into a thesaurus and take a look at the results. Black alone has 124 entries at thesaurus.com; blue has 163. Although manyof these entries simply contain the word (instead of actually being a synonym) - such as the entry "cinema" comes up for silver, where the synonym is silver-screen - the connotative aspects abound.
And yet, blue isn't simply blue... it's azure, beryl, cerulean, cobalt, indigo, navy, royal, sapphire, teal, turquoise, and ultramarine. It's also dejected, depressed, despondent, dismal, dispirited, downcast, glum, melancholy, moody, sad, unhappy... not to mention that it can also be vulgar, indecent, lewd, naughty, and obscene. But blue is my favorite colour, and when I describe the blue of the sky just at dusk, I don't intend to convey any of the meanings listed above.
With so many implications and the constant suggestion of deeper meaning, it's no wonder communicating can become so difficult. Without just the right word choice, what you hear may not be what I'm intending to say at all.
Whoa! I'm actually using this blog as a place to post some neat links! I love reading about the writers I admire. I've recently read two Robert J. Sawyer books that I've thoroughly enjoyed, not in the least due to the creative ideas he has of the future. The Canadian content is neat too, and I kept remembering excerpts about Toronto as I wandered around there last weekend.
As lawyer James Boyle points out, "the best social theorists of the information age are still science fiction writers and, in particular, cyberpunks." I love to borrow the term social theorist to describe what I'd love to be doing with my life. Sawyer has a whole section of his website devoted to "futurism" Check it out.
http://www.sfwriter.com/fuindex.htm
Another social theorist/futurist is the talented Cory Doctorow, who writes for BoingBoing.net and has now published twonovels and a collection of short stories, all of which are available in their entirety online under a creative commons licence. I hope to see more content of this nature online in the near future.
Aaahh, what a weekend. I absolutely love traveling! Every time I go on a trip, I'm reminded of how much I love travelling. it makes me want to quit my job and become a travel bum...
Sleeping in the airport wasn't so bad - I just popped in my earplugs and zonked out. Jesse, on the other hand, refused them and told me that he woke up every 15 mintues for the 3-4 hours we spent on the bench. Silly guy...
CN Tower was a bit of a disapointment, and the tourist-trap aspect of it really turned me off. I loved our hostel - the Canadiana Backpackers Inn. 10% off if you're an HI member, and an excellent location close to the CN tower (the view from the front door), 2 blocks from Much Music, and a short stroll to Chinatown, the liquor store, UofT campus and Kensington Market. Very quaint and a lovely area to rollerblade around.
The nightlife was surprisingly quiet during the week, even though we were litterally surrounded by clubs. The pubs stayed open past midnight, and thus, that was where we ended up spending our Thurdsay night. Met some other people from out of town, and had an all around good time. Friday night was another story, however, as hoards of people thronged through the streets of the Entertainment District. Once again, we found a pub that was to our liking and had a good time, this time partying with our roommates from the hostel. Also saw Melissa Stylianou Trio at the Rex - thanks for the tip, Kris.
My first impression of Toronto was that it was purely urban sprawl, but after spending some time getting to know the area, it grew on me, and I could see myself going back if the opportunity presented itself. Go see what we saw.
So Jesse got out before me! Sometimes I get the feeling that I'll be stuck here in Edmonton for far too long. I'm ready to go but something keeps popping up to make me stay. Well, his new job, combined with a few birthdays this weekend made for a lot of fun.
Saturday was Cory's birthday, which was celebrated with a WEM pubcrawl! A lot of people who used to live in Lister - people I haven't seen for ages. Check out the gallery, just to see the silly hats.
Sunday was Jesse's birthday, which he celebrated Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I managed to make it out to Saturday night dancing, and even though it looks like he's too drunk to remember, he was much more concious-looking at the time.
Lucky me! I get to spend the next three and a half days with Jesse! We're heading to Toronto tomorrow and although I'm flying back Sunday morning, he'll be flying to Seattle to settle in there, and start work the next morning. Good luck, Jesse!
