Persistent Illumination

My blog used to be beautiful, but then one day it just died. I tried to get help to fix it, but Google wouldn't help. I am using this basic template in the meanwhile, while I wait to have the time to improve it...

Nothing in the message below came close to helping me resolve my problem.

"Hi there,

This is an automated update from Blogger Support. We are currently focusing all of our efforts on Blogger in beta, and are unable to provide personal responses to other issues.

Many template issues can be resolved simply by resetting to a default template. To do this, first copy your current template code to a text file to make a backup, then click the "pick new" link on the Template tab.

You are welcome to then modify the default template however you like, but please be aware that Blogger Support cannot provide assistance with custom HTML, CSS or JavaScript. If you need more detailed assistance, we do have some other resources to help you out.

In the Blogger Help Group, experienced users can answer your questions, or you may find that your question has already been asked and answered in the archives. We also have a Blogger employee monitoring the group to provide assistance. You can visit the help group here:

http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help

Note that widespread operational problems, if they occur, will be addressed on our Status page to keep you updated:

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If you're interested in learning more about Blogger in beta, please see Blogger Help:
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Thanks for your understanding, and thanks for using Blogger.

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I am doing yoga twice a day now. That is all.

Friday night's premiere of Snakes on a Plane was nothing short of fantastic. The crowds, the stars, the opening credits rolling across the Hawaiian backdrop: "Alliance Atlantis presents ... Samuel L Jackson in ... Snakes ... On a Plane." It was truly the gala event of a lifetime, I can now die happy. The movie itself far exceeded all my expectations of campy-ness: there were parts in the film where you found yourself saying "Oh, no, they're not going to go there...." but yes, they (the filmmakers) went there. Truly, truly shooting for the lowest common denominator. It was awesome.

The crowd itself was the true spectacle, however - I've never been to the Rocky Horror Picture Show but I understand the experience is somewhat similar. The audience was not quiet, interjecting many snake-themed comments throughout both movie and previews, not to mention lots and lots of hissssssssing. Many adorned SoaP clothing, and many brought large rubber snakes to twirl around in the air at select points throughout the film. And of course when Sam Jackson finally delivers the famous line - "I have HAD IT with these MOTHERF*ING SNAKES on this MOTHERF*ING PLANE" - the crowd went wild with applause. (Parents - it was definitely not a kids' movie, in case you haven't figured that out yet.)

Saturday I helped Michelle S move to London, which included meeting and a home-cooked meal with her sister. Good times.

Sunday was the final Ultimate Frisbee game of the season for the team I "subbed" for, my third day of playing Ultimate ever. We lost, man I'm a terrible Ultimate player. However, the team had won some sort of raffle that entitled us to $250.00 in free food and booze, which we enjoyed after the game.

Now that the fall is taken care of, I can get on with life: expand beyond the horizons that university will offer me, and otherwise let this blog live up to its name again.

Starting with Bloor-Yorkville. For those who have never been to this trendy little area, it is an excellent hub of social activity tucked away just behind Bloor Street's numerous shops, just west of Yonge. Throughout the area, narrow alleyways are lined with restaurants, shops and boutiques; a 'park' and fountains allow the nightlife to temporarily settle in small pools as it eventually winds on its merry way; hanging flower baskets and soft lighting adorn the narrow streets. I went out for a walk with a new friend there, we got some sushi in a very crowded but otherwise excellent sushi place. Food was good and prices reasonable (though I understand that some eateries in the area are a bit pricier), all in all a great time.

I'd definitely say, if you're stuck in Toronto and want to either a) go on a date or b) just go somewhere with a refined nightlife, Bloor-Yorkville is the place to be.

Living: ground floor unit of a beautiful, brand-new building halfway between work and school. I'll be sharing a 2-bedroom with Jeff Henry, no more student ghetto for either of us. The kitchen is gorgeous, so out will finally come my Williams Sonoma cookware. Walk-out patio, A/C included, two months free cable and internet, covered parking, friends in the building - I'm set.

Work: still Geoware, but part-time. 19 hrs/week: 10 in the office, 9 remotely. I've always wanted to work remotely, now's my chance. All I need is a BlackBerry...

School: Three grad courses, two first-year math courses. It will be my busiest semester, course-wise (future semesters will be down to two or three courses). Plus getting started on my thesis, which means switching to the MASc stream.

TAships: Head TA for ECON 220: Principles of Entrepreneurship - no tutorials but I will be supervising two Econ grad student TAs and two MBET grad student TAs. Plus we're looking at bringing the course into the 21st century, so podcasting and Eportfolios will likely be implemented - I'll get to take the lead on some of that, supposedly.

Also I'll be a TA for MSCI 211: Organizational Behaviour. Mostly I'm proud of this because I beat out senior grad students for one of the two TAships. It pays more (nearly double) than the Econ TAship, and I do have tutorials.

Entrepreneurial project: publication for UW, once per term, coordinating with the groups that form what they call the e-Council. I'll be both editorial and advertising lead at first, which will be fun (read: challenging).

All evenings: all mine!
Friday afternoons and weekends: still mine!

Will take bets (monetary included) against my going crazy by the end of the term.

Hump day already? Where does the time go...

Having the house to myself doesn't just mean alone time, it means introspection time. Andrew time. And time to turn my music up reaalllllly loud, dance like nobody's watching, do some yoga, read until 3am, whichever.

Bagged off work yesterday (does anyone still use that saying?) to attend the Power of Ideas conference at UW. Sponsored by IST, LT3, OPD and various other acronyms, it attracted a variety of different presenters and attendees, but with a heavy focus on accessibility.

I attended because I was interested in podcasting (for lectures), e-Portfolios and other academic enhancements. Got some very good information in this vein, not to mention a great intro by a systems design prof. Man, do I wish I had gone into systems design. Maybe I'll sneak into some courses as part of my undergrad.

Many of the usual suspects were there: OPD staff, Student Life staff, the head of Counselling Services, even Ann Simpson of the SLC. Had a really nice chat with a psych PhD student (behavioural neuroscience) during our (free, excellent) lunch.

Otherwise, I'm relishing the time spent reading, quite avidly. Books on quantum computing, business, even some oldies-but-goodies (Ayn Rand) are stacked on my table at home, next to my (internetless) computer and drained wineglass...

I may miss my peace and quiet when I move out in two weeks, but then again, I'm (for the second time in my life) moving to a brand-new place and this time know that I'll be sharing it with a great housemate. In fact, maybe Jeff won't barely ever be there, workaholic that he is, so it will practically be like living on my own... hehehe.

Put it into cruise control and here's what happened:

Dinner at the Jane Bond on Friday night, a bit pricey, nothing too great. That cute girl, she's on the cover of one of the local publications this week with her band. Andrew has stopped holding his breath. Otherwise, went home and went to bed.

Saturday I looked at places to live, wow there are some absolutely horrific places in Waterloo. Really, really scary. Turned in application to one place though, it's gorgeous but the super wasn't there so I just had to leave everything for him. Brand new building, halfway to work and school, never been lived in. Only two units left, and the company encouraged me to pursue it quickly.

Took a bit of a trip out to inaugural the Waterloo Art Festival, which in its second year should be renamed the Waterloo Children's Arts Festival. Not that the art was childlike or child-focused, though most of the performances tended to be geared towards the young'uns. I would say that a solid 50-60% of the attendees during the day on Saturday were below the age of 16, though.

As for the art itself, a great variety with some really eye-catching pieces. Claire, who told me about the event in the first place, was sitting with her husband at his booth. Some interesting still-life pieces he had, one of them memorable of Van Eyck's "Arnolfini Marriage." The piece is memorable for its detail, including a small mirror in the background that reflects accurately the scene portrayed - including the artist himself.

For a complete listing of performers and artists, click here.

Also dropped by the CCGG and saw some cool stuff.

Later biked down the Iron Horse Trail to Chicopee, about an hour each way all told. Got a tour of the facilities from Kayleigh, and we chatted for quite a bit as well.

Even later caught up with Michelle Sabourin, took a trip to Sobeys and then cooked up some dinner, followed by watching Magnolia, which oh my goodness was NOT an appropriate movie to watch all things considered. Pretty dark - and long too. I was not to bed until after 3am.

Sunday was a lot of chilling and resting, followed by cleaning up after Meredith who - despite otherwise being a good housemate - left a huge mess behind. Gar. And later I went to play Ultimate (a good game, we just lost) and joined Michelle, Mark and Julia for Cranium and Taboo.

Today, all is good. Got into the place, they're just doing the background checks. Now Jeff and I have to figure out where to get furniture from.

A rough paraphrasing of an analogy I once heard, referring to the experiences of those who walk a path of enlightenment.

First, mountains and rivers are mountains and rivers.
Then, they are no longer mountains and rivers.
But in the end, mountains and rivers are mountains and rivers again.

I'm currently in phase two, you could say, except the path I'm walking isn't currently towards enlightenment.

Courtesy of an impromptu Thursday night offer, I was whisked away to Adrian's (friend of Phil's) place out near Orangeville for the long weekend. The property was awesome: sizeable acreage of labrynthian forests, backing onto a river and absolutely gorgeous waterfall hidden in the back of the property, not to mention the pool and hot tub that the house was equipped with. I'm trying to get some pics to put up. I was up most of the weekend, save a short trip back to Waterloo on Saturday night.

It was all Phil's friends - from as far away as Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver and Australia - about a dozen of us rotating throughout the weekend. Mostly we just relaxed, swam and played. Took a few trips to the waterfall, read by the pool, swam three times a day, and watched quite a few eposides of the "Firefly" TV series, which I had never seen before. The friends took turns cooking meals, it was a great time with minimal work.

Otherwise, things for the fall are starting to get finalized. Despite not having a place to live quiiite yet, it looks like this:

- I'll pull in 19 hours a week from Geoware, 10 spent on-site from Mon-Thur afternoons and 9 hrs of work done remotely
- 17 hours per week of classes and tutorials, with plenty of time between classes (1 1/2 hrs per day Tue - Fri for lunch, for example) to study and do schoolwork
- another 10 hours per week spent on TA activities - marking, organizing, sitting in classes, perhaps running tutorials

So far, that's an awesome (although full) schedule for me. 46 hours per week of scheduled work, with weekends and Friday afternoons off. Weeknights are mine to do (or teach) yoga as I'd like, weekends are free for getaways... sure I'll have to do some homework in there (and there's this thing called a thesis), but otherwise I'm loving this.

The budget works out as well, too - I'll have enough income to be able to pay for grad school and living expenses, as well as some left over for the budgeted extra expenses of having a girlfriend. (It's just the responsible thing to do, after all.) I should even be able to have some savings by the end of it, and that's without taking the co-op option!

It blows my mind to think that my little brother took this picture a few weeks ago. Just completely crazy.

Phil and Katherine showed up late last night, they are in Ontario this week for a wedding. Phil looks like Pat Morita now. But he was also wearing an old-school UW shirt, like from the '80s. We stopped out at the Heuther quickly. Man am I tired.