Archive, September 2007

28 Sep 2007 Public transport - great in theory If you read my blog regularly at all, you'll have figured out that I take the bus to and from work. It's better for the environment and we can't afford two cars, not to mention the outrageous parking fees on campus. However, there's always a price to pay... I get to the bus stop every morning at as close to the same time as is humanly possible. Then I either have a 5-6 minute wait or I stand on the opposite corner and watch it go by. If I've missed it, then I have a 30 minute wait for the next bus, which is scheduled every 15 minutes at that time of day. (And my stop is a timing point!) And it doesn't end once you're on the bus. Calgary Transit drivers have to deal with all the other Calgary drivers, so I can forgive the odd evasive maneuver. However, they seem to have this overwhelming need to stay directly on the bumper of the car ahead, so there is a lot of jolting as we accelerate for a foot - and stop. Go, stop. Go, stop. Even better though, is the apparent phobia of bus stops that most Calgary Transit drivers suffer from. It doesn't matter how many people are waiting or how early you ring the bell, they will cruise almost passed the stop and then stand on the brake with both feet. The result is that every few blocks, the passengers are shook up like confetti and the poor souls waiting to get on have to scurry half a block, hoping that the bus won't leave without them. I did get on the earlier bus this morning, but only because fate had something worse in store. Someone on the bus had a very ripe banana. For those of you who don't know - I'm allergic to bananas and the smell makes me instantly naseated. I don't know what I looked like, but I spent the whole ride feeling green and concentrating on my breathing. I never thought something could be worse than getting stuck to the person with poor notions of personal hygiene, but I was wrong. thank god it's friday Ciao. 2:24 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

27 Sep 2007 Bored, but in a different venue Well, I slept badly last night. I kept having variations on this dream where assorted people were doing usually bad things with matter compilers. I'm sure that last bit came from having recently re-read Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age", which prominently features nanotechnology and machines that can build anything you can design from the molecular level up. Why my subconscious should suddenly be concerned with my role in the prevention of abuse of such doodads is a bit beyond me though. Frankly, I could have used the sleep and I woke up this morning feeling a bit like a cold was coming on. Unlike Stuart however, I am capable of remember to take my ColdFx dosages, so hopefully, I'll nip that in the bud. That was my state of mind though this morning, when I showed up for my Faculty of Medicine "Orientation". It was like all such devices: two weeks too late, ran an hour over time and they didn't book a big enough room. I did get a cookie though! Mmmmm... white chocolate and macadamia... So, all in all, it was a waste of 3 hours, but I did get a few pieces of useful information - namely: there is a shower and locker room here I can use and the person to contact to get the lowdown on grant accounts. I've also added one more example to my database of brain-washed, sycophantic, booster-ist (did I just coin a word?) union reps. Yuck. Tonight, I get to re-assemble my computer desk for Megan's use, in exchange for which, I don't have to cook dinner. Sounds good to me! Ciao. 8:00 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

25 Sep 2007 Let me check... yup, still bored! Ok, to be fair, I have to say that the weekend was pretty fun. Stuart spent the whole weekend at FallCon. This is basically a giant geek-fest, for those who enjoy board games and miniature games of all types. Our friend Terry came down and tried out our new sofa bed in order to partake and Mike was there as well, leaving Angie with the kids. Sheesh! I didn't play, but I did hang out for the auction, where everyone who has gaming stuff they don't want tries to make some cash. It was not the most smoothly run thing I've ever seen, but I did get some sort of perverse, "shake your head" amusement out of the auctioneers inability to correctly pronounce anything and to cheat themselves out of profit by calling the bidding closed before they'd driven out all but one buyer. Stuart said it was funny last year, but I think he meant in a more conventional "ha, ha" way. I also did some more shopping, started watching "Slings&Arrows" and basically tried to make the most of being on my own. Now, it's my second day back at work and the tedium continues. I got to leave early yesterday in order to go over to the University to get my health care stuff set up and it was like a field trip! Today's break from ennui was volunteering to be the Fire Warden for our floors. They don't do drills though, so that will only help when someone is feeling cold or drops something appallingly viral - although apparently they have a "thank you" lunch once a year. Wheeeee. The best part might be that I apparently get a lovely vest and flashlight, although I think a brass star badge would be cooler. :) Ciao! 3:47 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

21 Sep 2007 Bored, bored, bored Yes, I'm at work and I am going cross-eyed from boredom and net-surfing. I literally have absolutely nothing work related to do and it looks to continue until at least the end of the day. Yesterday was slightly better... I got to photocopy the contents of a one inch binder. Wheeeeee! I have read every column inch of the MSN gossip offerings, I've discovered strange and annoying discrepancies between several artists tour listings and ticketmaster's offerings, I've now read every issue of "Looking for Group", I've printed Google maps of all the places I might like to visit this weekend... at this point, I'm down to typing random words into the search engine, hoping it'll pull up something interesting. I bring a book to read at lunch - I wish my desk was just a wee bit more isolated, so I could read. Sigh. There's a dvd-rom on this thing - maybe I should bring a movie on Monday? Bah. Ciao. 3:51 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

19 Sep 2007 Bears and ballet It was an interesting morning. I caught a news piece on the radio saying that Calgary's bear sitings are now up to three this year. For those of you who've never been to Canada, yes, this is pretty rare. Calgary is a massive, developed urban sprawl and not the sort of place where one expects to see bears. However, the western edge of the city is about an hour's drive from the Rockie Mountains and what used to be a lovely buffer of wild and farm land is being increasingly developed. As the bears are getting ready for hibernation and finding all their spots gone, it's inevitable that they start roaming and some end up here. It makes me sad, because in the clash between humans and the rest of the world - well, the rest of the world never wins. Someone will do something idiotic that increases all of our healthcare costs and the bear will be killed. It sucks! In nicer news, I managed to pull off one the those totally cool things that are almost impossible to plan for. My mom was such a big help with the move and keeping me sane that I bought her a ticket to see Carmen - her favorite ballet. I felt kinda bad that I couldn't afford two tickets, but I figured it was better than nothing. The performance was last night and she called me this morning, still elated. Apparently the performance was darn close to perfect, so she enjoyed it immensely. And, in the serendipitous part, I manage to buy her the seat right next to her boss and her boss' husband. They all get along famously, so she had company and since they are supporters of the Ballet, they took her along for all the wine, hors d'oevres and desserts at the intermissions. Am I good or what? I think there was a third thing I was going to mention, but now I've forgotten it. I'd say getting old is a hardship, but my brainpan never worked that well to begin with! Oh well, Ciao! 7:38 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

18 Sep 2007 Crunchies As I walked to the bus stop this morning, I crunched my way through fallen leaves. Oh my god, I thought, it's only.... hmmm... the second half of September. Where did the summer go? I'm sure we had some. I remember specific events that took place in the heat: Calgary Folk Fest, the Elle family reunion, cleaning the old apartment. Somehow though, I don't feel like I had a summer. Part of it may be that I completely missed the Fringe this year. It's not summer without the Fringe, but what with the move and everything, I didn't even make it down to wander around the site! I didn't see Darrin Hagen's new show, I didn't see whatever Monster Theater was offering, I didn't have mini donuts or deep fried chocolate bars or buy jewellery or anything. Bah! The other thing is that I just don't feel like I relaxed much this summer. I did some totally fun stuff, but I also moved to another city and didn't get a chance to, for example, sit on my parent's deck with a book and a snack. Or sleep in much - even my weekends were pretty much full. I think this winter may be one of hibernation: books, dvds and minis every weekend. (Having said that, I'll probably be skating or hiking or doing something all the time. Sigh.) Anyway, back to fall. I'm sad to report that Calgary doesn't do any better than Edmonton in the colour department. The leaves turn yellow, fall off and turn brown. It kinda makes you wish for winter, to have some snow to cover the darn things up. In the meantime, I'll try and make the best of it by crunching as many as I can when I'm walking around. Ciao! 3:04 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

13 Sep 2007 MySpace slackin’ Ok, I freely admit that I haven't been keeping up at myspace. The first big knock was moving in with Stuart - only one computer and he's a bigger online geek than I am. If I wanted to kick him off, it was to do stuff more interesting than posting myself. Then the move came along and I didn't really have time to do anything extra. But now I find myself with lots of free time on my hands and nothing but a computer to help me kill it. The researchers I'm working for are a bit gunshy of admin assistants which is fair given their recent history of temps and folks who just didn't stay long. Not to mention that I get the feeling that, with a few exceptions, this job just won't be as busy as the last one. We'll see. Plus the IT department still hasn't given me a working account and I don't want to put too much effort into organizing my "borrowed" account which will just disappear soon. So, I've spent the morning cruising around in myspace and trying to get caught up. The biggest change is that one of the blogs I used to read regularly has been set to "private". I don't know if I want to be his "friend" unless I know what made him change the setting, but I can't read the blog explaining the change until I ask to be his friend. Sigh... I gotta think about that one. Well, I'm about typed out for now. More when I get bored again... Ciao! 2:57 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

11 Sep 2007 New and entertaining Well, I started my new job yesterday. I'm going to be running the administrative lives of four researchers and their gangs of staff and students (or I will be when I learn the ropes.) Fortunately, they all have grants due at the end of the week and I'm not really in a position yet to be helpful with that, so it looks like a slow week to get myself up to speed. Sort of. So yesterday was about meeting a whole lot of people and starting to figure out the building. Buildings. This is actually four or five buildings all butting together or linked in one or more ways, none of which make sense. My favourite thing is the actual building I'm in. For one thing, it's not actually finished - oh, the skin is done, but only three floors are inhabitable, the rest are literally bare concrete. So, the elevators usually don't work and the phones, computers, etc. tend to go down at intervals. One assumes that that will eventually end, but what won't change is the numerical insanity. The floors are labeled: G, GA, 1, 1A, 2, 2A, etc. Even better, the rooms on 1 are numbered: 1A01, 1A02, 1A03 and the rooms on 1A are numbered: 1AA01, 1AA02, 1AA03. What on god's green earth was this architect smoking? Oh well, at least that's static. I have something new to add to the "Calgary Sucks" list. The transit service here is the worst I have ever encountered; it makes Toronto look like it's run by Mussolini. I watched the "early" bus go by this morning from the other side of Bow Trail because it was about 4 minutes ahead of schedule. I figured I was fine though, because the next bus was due in 10 minutes. Nope, 33 minutes later, along it finally came. I was a bit late for work this morning... way to make an impression! Fortunately, it's not the kind of position where that's totally obvious to everyone or really makes an enormous difference, especially since I'm not doing much yet. In other news, Stuart and I made attempt two at buying a couch last night. We'd been out for the inevitable "post-move" visit to Ikea and saw something we'd passed over before. It's basically a mattress that folds in half to make a couch, so no arms, but it's deep, comfy and half the price of the last one. And with Ikea's lovely flat box policy, it definitely fit in the apartment. We got home passed bed time last night, so assembling it and some shelving for the laundry room will be tonight's project. Ciao! 2:03 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

07 Sep 2007 What the hell?!?!? So, after a modestly attended but still fun "fare-well" party, Stuart and I made the drive to Calgary on Monday. Hopefully for the last time in a little bit, at least. Which is supremely weird, because it means that I now live in Calgary. For those of you who are geographically challenged: http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=165+Stewart+Green+S.W.,+Calgary,+alberta&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=21.869981,58.447266&ie=UTF8&ll=52.295042,-111.445312&spn=20.787778,58.447266&z=5&om=1 I managed to arrange this week off, between the old and new jobs. I've spent most of it in the apartment, unpacking and generally engaging in full-on nesting mode. I can't paint or renovate or even spend much money, but still... Everytime I start in a new place, I'm filled with conviction to make it as organized as possible. Fortunately, time and experience actually do seem to be making me more successful as this. (Equally fortunately, Stuart is a pretty easy-going guy; he's happy to go along with anything that makes some kind of sense and even better, quite likely to follow through on it!) Thank god, because even paring our lives down to the minimum acceptable stuff, it's a lot of stuff. I left my books at my parents', but there's the camping gear, the mini stuff, the books you can't live without, the cds, the dvds, etc., etc. All in all, the apartment is turning out well. I could live with another 50cm of rod in the bedroom closet, but we'll make due. I wish I could say the same for my allergies: I seem to be seriously allergic to Calgary. I've broken down and started taking OTC antihistamines, but even they are just denting the symptoms. I've got my fingers crossed that this is just over-reaction because of the move - we'll see. I'm sure there's lots of other stuff I could tell you about, but the pile of dishes is starting to drive me crazy. Ciao!