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The Cup

So we’re standing at the video store on Sunday, after a long day in the sun from building Frank’s garden (OMG gardening is hard work).  We were all clueless as to which film to get, and it came down to two choices: The Transporter 2 or The Cup.

The choice was made in the civilized method of paper/rock/scissors.  I won and so we rented The Cup.  I had heard about it in a review a few years back, and it was given a big thumbs up.  On the jacket were award patches from the Cannes film festival, and even the synopsis on the back warned me that we were in store for an art-house-esque movie night.

The movie is set in India, in a monastery full of young novice monks, all of whom are religiously addicted to soccer.  The austere life of the monks get interrupted as the World Cup finals approach and the young monks try to flesh out a way to watch the game without getting chastised by their guru.  The plot slowly unfolds and there’s a ton of character development along the way, as well as insights into life in a Tibetan monastery where the children “monks” are really no different than normal children.  The humour isn’t flashy, but it’s damned witty.  The plot is slow and there isn’t much going on, but it paints a very realistic portrait of the children.

I could see Frank getting fairly bored with the flick halfway through, and I myself had some trying times keeping up with it.  I’ve always had a taste for art-house flicks, but it’s been awhile since I’ve seen a movie that required a bit of sitting and thinking.

I think what happened is that I let myself go and gave into the ADD inducing information age that we live in today.  There’s way too much information readily available, and only so little time to consume it.  So we end up getting fed bite sized morsels of fluff and sound/video-bites to keep us momentarily entertained, before moving onto the next morsel.  Instead of building a coherent and thoughtful story we’re given a candy necklace to chew on one nutrition-less chunk of sugar at a time.  Sure it tastes great, but it’s never filling and you end up rotting your teeth.  After awhile you kind of just get used to eating sugar, and forget how great a full course meal is.

Anyways, I shut off the movie midway through to spare Frank the torture and watched the rest on my computer.  I was a bit restless, but I knew having the patience to sit through the thing would be rewarding.  Don’t get me wrong, the movie’s pacing was fine… it was just the subject matter that was different.  The movie doesn’t give little quips of slapstick humour or “action-packed” scenes, but instead paints a human portrait of life.  I’m glad I sat through it though, as I felt nourished and full after my “meal”.

I think I’m gonna have to go renew my membership at the Bytowne for some more art-house flicks.

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The DaVinci Code

I saw The Davinci Code last Monday night, and I can’t say that I thought that it was good.  If anything, it’s a so-so movie for me.  I haven’t read the book myself, but it seemed like it didn’t belong in movie format.  There was maybe a bit too much to digest too quickly, and that made the plot seemed to be very mechanical and rocky.  It wasn’t a bad movie either, and I was mildly entertained throughout.

However, the gem of the movie was the scenes that showed “history” such as how the Bible was written, and all the little conspiracy theories surrounding the church through the ages.

Yesterday I chatted with a friend back home about the movie, as she’s a devout Catholic.  Interestingly enough, the movie really challenged her beliefs.  She mentioned that before she used to take in whatever her church told her, and that the Bible was unshakably the “truth”.  That was that.  But after seeing the movie it provoked her to question the validity of the Bible, if there were many parts missing, or if some parts were simply added.  It serves as a good reminder that the Bible, like any book, is written by man.

That in itself is enough to go see the movie.  I’m glad that the movie did come out, and I find it predictable that many churches would denounce it.  I’ve heard that many churches have warned their goers about the movie, and to avoid it if necessary.  How can we search for the truth if we only look for it in one direction?

In my mind there’s a clear separation between religion and spirituality.  Religion to me is an attempt to formally organize spirituality, and in doing so it often misses its mark.  It ends up being a method to control the masses and become too political, and too strung up on its own power.  The “truth” stops being something one discovers for oneself, and becomes a string of dry words, pre-packaged in a book for mass consumption.  Spirituality on the other hand is the search for the truth, and discovering how we belong to our “reality”.  I think it’s something we have to pursue and find for ourselves, and that there’s no quick and easy answer.  We can’t hit up the church/temple/synagogue/Quickie Mart for easily digestible goodies.  If conscience cleaner was cheap they’d be selling like hotcakes at the supermarket.

So basically all I’m getting at is that The DaVinci Code is a good thing for many of us, as a lot of us are too lost in the blindness that is “faith”.  Whatever happened to some good introspective critical thinking?

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Friday Night Suburbia

Ash ended up getting sick and so she wasn’t able to make it out last night.  Seems like she’s going through some trying times right now, so it’s understandable.  Though I do miss her having not seen her in over a week.  I did have fun anyways with Frank and Mel.

We went to the Agave Grill for some tasty Mexican.  I started things right with a nice tall beer.  Hanging out with Frank and his friends has really kept my liver fairly clean, so it’s nice to have one.  Dinner was followed by a trip to the Midway Family Fun Center for some mini-putt and skeeball.  Yes, skeeball!  I know it sounds lame, but I honestly had a good time there.  We won a bunch of tickets from all the games which bought us 25 or so Fizz candies.  I was relishing in my inner-child.

We headed back to Barrhaven where I got to down some of the Hennessy I bought at duty free a few weeks back while playing Settlers of Catan.  Even Mel downed a few glasses of wine, and all was good.  A trip was made to the nearby strip mall for some deep fried wontons (the convenience store was closed so no cigar… literally, I was craving a cigar).  And that was my Friday night out here in suburbia.

Honestly though, I enjoyed the low key night.

–

Barrhaven, like any North American suburb, is like every other suburb out there.  The houses are neatly lined along the street, and some are very cookie-cutter.  Everyone drives to get anywhere (some streets don’t even have sidewalks) and there’s a pervading pseudo-neighborly friendliness about the place.  I guess I never really thought much when I agreed to live with Frank, or that I would live in a suburb.  It’s turning out to be nice.  I actually enjoy it’s calm and lethargic atmosphere, and this hurts on the inside because it represents the very thing I despised for so long.

Of course I’m not gonna go turn granola on everyone now, I definitely don’t see myself living in the ‘burbs in the future.  But I can understand the appeal of it.  Like I mentioned, it has a pseudo-neighborly feel to it, and eventually the falseness of it all would drive me crazy.  In some ways it feels like I’m living in Disneyland to some extent.  Things can’t always be comfortable and peachy, but I know I won’t mind revelling in it for the next 3 months :-p.

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Steakalicious

So I barely got up this morning in time to bike out. Actually, I woke up with the strong temptation to just take the bus… but I hopped on my bike and had a really smooth ride into work. I found a brand new route that cuts down 2 kms from my trip, and I had a bit more power in my legs so I averaged a better speed. Not only that, but my new route let’s me avoid cycling on the narrow streets of Ottawa completely so I’m happy. Though the old men still whizzed by me, I made it into work in almost exactly an hour (trust me, the old folk know how to cycle).

Not only did I make it in by bike, I managed to pack a lunch and snacks today. I’ve been pretty bad for eating out during lunch, so this is huge for me. And, I brought enough snacks to ensure that I wouldn’t go through the pain of yesterday afternoon when I had no sugar in my blood while making the long bike home.

Though in all my preparation I ended up getting a ride from Renata back to Barrhaven. She invited me, Frank, and Mel over for supper as she was leaving on holidays and she wanted us to clear out her steaks. We had to get their early so biking was out of the option… but I wanted to, honest. Anyways, we had a protein feast with absolutely delicious slabs of steak, BBQ’ed drumsticks, and fresh out of the oven peanut butter cookies. It was tasty.

I think that has really ushered in the summer for me, having some nice steaks on the barbie. It’s officially summer for me now :-p

Ash and I are doing a double date thing tomorrow with another couple, and that might involve more steak goodness. I need the protein for all this cycling… right?

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My Crotch Hurts

So I biked into work today.

My morning ride took me about 70 minutes to clear 23 km’s.  I’m guessing that’s pretty slow, as almost everyone on their bikes were whizzing by me except for this one cyclist who looked like he just stepped out of an opium den.  At least I beat him.  But aside from that, I’m fairly happy that I made it in, it wasn’t as brutal as I thought it would be.  My legs weren’t sore, I wasn’t gasping for breath, and I wasn’t drenched in sweat (thank you Merino wool).

In fact, I felt really good and alert the whole day.  I was even productive.

However, the bike ride home destroyed me.  Biking on a completely empty stomach was a terrible idea.  I think all I needed was some form of sugar in my bloodstream to keep me going.  With my empty and hungry stomach, I seemed to have no will to get home.  It took me 1 hour and 40 minutes to get home… and all I could think of was stuffing my face (there was a 20 minute MEC stop on the way back, I’ve got a new water bladder!).  Not only that, but my ass/crotch-area is not accustomed to sitting on a bike seat for prolonged periods of time.

Tomorrow will be day 2 of many this summer of me on my bike… this time around I’m hoping I can find a better route.  Ottawa streets are pretty crappy and narrow.

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GeoPod

So my work in Geography at StatsCan lately feels a lot like it was taken a page out of Jpod, the new Douglas Coupland book I’m reading currently.  I’ve been trying to utilize my time as much as possible, but given that I still have no Unix access for my only project (which requires Unix) I can’t really do much.  It doesn’t help that my supervisor and network admin lady both took the day off.

Things I’ve done to keep myself occupied recently in my cubicle:

• Finishing Sudoku puzzles out of my big book of sudoku puzzles.
• Reading the Metro.
• Reading some eBooks, namely the Wireless Networks for Dummies and PHP for Dummies.  No, I don’t like the “Dummies” style of books but they were the only eBooks I could find on my harddrive.
• Tea breaks.
• A trip to CarlingWood mall during lunch time to try and buy a belt.  I bought a delicious toasted Subway sub instead.  I was in awe that they actually toasted your subs now… but apparently they’ve been doing this for quite some time now, whoops.
• Hucking the rubber basketball into Manish’s (my cubicle neighbor) cubicle, and giggling quietly that he doesn’t realize that I peer over the cubicle wall for each perfect shot.  Yes Manish, my aim is that good that it hits you on the head everytime.
• Posting on the StatCan online bulletin board that I’m looking for fellow PC Gamers in an attempt to organize a LAN party in Ottawa.  We had one at Wei’s place on Sunday with a grand total of 3 in attendance.  We are a sad lot.
• Surfing the StatCan online bulletin board.

That about did it for today.  I have no internet access… otherwise killing time would’ve been much easier to do.  Although my list of “things to keep myself occupied in the cubicle” would be huge unabridged.

–

I woke up to my alarm at 6 AM this morning, stuck my head out from under the blinds, and saw a dark and grey sky.  Biking to work?  Not today thanks.  Unfortunately it didn’t rain as I thought it would… those forecasters really are onto something.  I’m hoping that I won’t be rationalizing skipping out on bike rides to work anymore.

I did get a chance to take the bike out yesterday and I realized a few things:

• My legs are made of jello.
• 20 km’s of biking is freaking far!
• This summer will be a challenge.

I’ll be on my bike bright and early tomorrow for a second attempt to get to work.  Promise!

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The Big 23

So my birthday was last Friday, and there wasn’t a big hooplah this time around. I also didn’t feel the need for a big hooplah either, so May 19 came and went just like any other day. At least Frank and Mel did a little something for me by spamming my room with birthday baloons and streamers (awwww… thanks guys!). I was quite confuzzled and surprised when I opened my bedroom door coming back from work.

So I think 22 was a good year for me, there was a lot that happened.

I met Ashleigh this year and we fell for each other pretty quickly. Unfortunately I had to move back to Edmonton shortly after and things haven’t quite been the same ever since. Now that I’m back I guess there’s a lot to “patch up” since we broke up during reading week. Regardless, having met her has changed the way I think and who I am quite a bit. Maybe her sarcastic wit has fermented into a little maturity in me.

It’s also the year where I think at some point I decided to take life a lot more seriously than I have in the past few years. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not, but life no longer passes as day-to-day and I see things in goals/projects more often. This gave me a drive to do things I’ve always wanted to do, and to put more effort into things that I’ve often neglected like school. Coming back from internship I focused a lot more on school, and it paid off well. The last term has been my strongest academic performance in all of my 4 years of university.

It’s also the year when a dear friend of mine passed away in a tragic car accident. I know I’ve mentioned here how amazing of a person she was, but words can’t really express it and you would have to have met her to understand it. In a lot of ways, Chelsy’s passing away has had a positive effect on my outlook. I think I’ve had a greater appreciation for each day, and to avoid taking time for granted. So I’ve been a lot more positive and light-hearted because I now understand to live otherwise is just a waste of life. Not only that, but reflecting on the short time that I knew her gives some sort of inspiration.

Being away from home and then coming back has given me new perspective as well. The idea that moving out of the home is a “coming of age” period is something that I can reaffirm. Not only that, but I guess I’ve “come of age” but moving out of an age group bracket. The whole 18-22 age group is now gone, and I think I have moved on out of it. Yes, this means I can’t party ’til 5 in the morning anymore and I start yawning at 11 at night. I definitely still could if I wanted to, but I don’t know if I’d want to anymore and that’s changed.

So there we have it, my attempt at a grab all for the last year of my life. I hope my 23rd year is just as interesting as my 22nd.

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Bikes and Stuff

So I’ve been on a spending spree lately. I’m not sure if I can afford all this “stuff” that I’ve just bought, but oh well. Work this Summer should cover everything… right?

I just bought my bike today, it came up to be a fair chunk of cash but it looks to be a sweet bike. It’s a hybrid, and I got it equipped with lights, fenders, and a computer even! Now the question stands of whether or not I’ll actually use it much this summer.

As you may have noticed, there’s a tiny coachella link on the top of my webpage. I figure that lately I haven’t had the time or energy to finish off my blog report, so I’m thinking it’d probably be much easier if I post it in installments. Eventually it’ll get done soon hopefully.

But there’s not much that can be written about it tonight, as I’m way too tired. Why? I had a “date” with Ash last night and we ended up arguing for most of the night. Little sleep was had, and my sleep talking kept her up for most of the night. I’ve learned that when women suffer, they must make men suffer with them.

I think we both slept terribly (sorry, I feel it’s more my fault somehow).

I’m not quite sure where she and I stand now that I’m back, and by no means has it been all roses. I find it so strange that sometimes we treat those who are “close” to us worse than complete strangers. Somehow being familiar with someone makes us feel as though we have a right to vent our “crap” on others, “crap” that we wouldn’t dare throw at our friends.

I’m not accusing or bad-mouthing her specifically, but I make this observation in myself as well and I’ve done it and have received it from other people in my past.  It feels as though we’re doing this to each other, when oddly enough after not seeing each other for a period of time we’d think that we could avoid this.  It’s honestly really stupid though that this does happen, and I try so hard to fight it because it’s not nice. I would want to treat someone close to me better than some random stranger, and I would rather be treated similarly too.

I mean, if the purpose of spending time with someone who’s “close” is to enjoy life with them… but in the end we take those people for granted, then what’s the point at all.

So all I’m saying is, taking people for granted really sucks. So anyways, that’s the end of my tangent and my post. I’ve really got to stop this blur of life that’s happening lately, and when that happens maybe my blog posts won’t be such a mind-blur as well.

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Ephemeral Summer

So things have been a little turbulent for me lately.  Not necessarily in a bad sense, but turbulent in that things are changing in my life pretty quickly.

I got home from my Californian road trip last Wednesday on the 10th, and it felt about right to end the trip.  Everyone seemed tired and had their fill, and personally the best part of the trip (Coachella and the Red Woods) had passed so there wasn’t really much that interested me in the later end of it.  It was nice to be home again, and not to be constantly on the road without hearing or seeing much of my other friends.

I got to watch game 3 of the Oiler’s-Shark’s series with Mylore and Paolo, it was a riot.  Paolo and I also went to the blue mile (Whyte Ave) after game 4 to see the rowdy chaos of drunk Oiler fans.  I’ve never seen so many people congregate in one spot in Edmonton before, and everyone had this mob hooligan mentality.  It was entertaining.  “Let’s go Oilers!  F*ck you CheeChoo” is all I could hear the crowd chant all night long.  I love being in large hordes of people who are all random and pumped.

My 2 weeks of fun had ended though.  My family seems to be more strung thin than it has in a while.  Stress and tempers have been flaring, and it seems to be like this whenever I’m not around.  I usually do a good job of neutralizing and attempting to keep people sane, but now that Dad is working full time and taking night courses he’s been high strung.  To make matters worse, my mom seems to poke at him a lot and my brother isn’t very understanding of why things are the way they are in the house and can only think of himself.

The tension could be felt simply by being in the house, even when everyone is quiet in their own rooms.  No family is ever perfect (at least I’d like to think so) but it seems that mine has a strong dose of dysfunction in it.

I spent the last night in the house drinking the Hennessy cognac I bought at duty free with my brother, having a “heart to heart” about the going ons in our family.  This ended up with me sleeping a grand 2 drunken hours before hopping on my 6:30 AM flight to Ottawa.  It was quite draining to say the least.

I arrived yesterday with Melanie and Frank picking me up from the airport (awww… thanks guys!).  Ottawa is all rainy and grey, quite the contrast from California.  The drive into Barhaven was long, and yes, it is very FAR from Stats Can and downtown.  And when I say far, I’m saying that she drove for a bit on the highway to get there.  This still hasn’t deterred me from thoughts of cycling to and from work everyday.

Frank’s house is really nice; it’s spacious and furnished.  So packing my things to move far away to work temporarily won’t be as painful as my internship.  Barhaven also seems like a really nice suburb, but really any suburb is like that.  I think this is good for me too, since it’ll give me a chance to mellow out this summer and work on projects that need my attention.

I did get a chance to go see Ashleigh last night too.  Honestly, it felt really good to see her again.  Even though we broke up during reading week two months ago, I still have strong feelings for her.  Things aren’t like “how we left them”.  She seemed kind of off, and I can understand after all that we’ve been through.  I just wish we could experience that “closeness” that a couple first experiences before things get muddied up.  There’s no real unfolding over the summer, as I’ll be gone again… but I hope that we can enjoy time with each other while we have it.  Everything is always fleeting, and we only live by staying in the moment.

Anyways, my first day of work at Statistics Canada started with me heading into my office to find a few things missing.  Namely, my supervisor wasn’t there, there wasn’t a computer in my office, and my contract wasn’t ready for me to sign.  This meant that I had no real way of being productive all day, and that most of the day was wasted reading any newspaper I could find and playing Soduku.  Mmmm… stats can.  I also got a chance to head down to the nearby computer store to pickup a brand new monitor.

Yes, that’s right, I’m now part of the LCD crowd.  I know, I’m a late bloomer.  I bought a big 19″ ViewSonic.  It cost me quite a bit, and I could’ve gotten a 19″ LCD for much cheaper, but I might as well shoot for quality if I get one at all.  I also have internet setup here at Frank’s place, yay!

So here I am, typing this brain scattered post and procrastinating from blogging about my Cali road trip.  Hopefully things will settle down a bit and I can get back to working on some projects that I have in mind.

–

I found out today that Douglas Copeland (one of my favorite authors) has published a new book called “JPod” that’s supposedly one of his best works.  I’m uber excited to pick up a copy.

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Hugs, Bikes, and Sun - Best Way to Start Summer

Whoops, I just discovered this half finished blog post sitting in my wordpress. I guess I never got a chance to complete it before going on my road trip. Here’s my half-assed attempt at trying to remember the “moment” and finish it. This was written about 2 or 3 days before my trip:

Today I had a chance to visit with a ton of people I haven’t seen in so long, and the process involved a ton of warm friendly hugs, lots of biking, and gorgeous sunny weather. It helped me realize that I keep collecting acquitances and friendships with all sorts of beautiful people, and that their positive outlooks on life are ones that I should keep around more often to help me keep things in perspective.

The day started with one of my closest friends, Lee Bly, swinging by to start a day long bike trip around the city to run errands and visit friends. It felt rejuvenating to see that crazy mofo again (my crazy half), and to hear his pro-activism thoughts. I haven’t seen him in almost 2 years, and it made me feel complete somehow to see him again.

We biked to the the Mountain Equipment Co-op in town and I ran into Kathryn, the former president of the outdoors club. She’s such a free-spirit, and she’s incredibly fun and positive at the same time. At times I envy her character so much as she’s always “up” and about travelling around the world, doing cool stuff, and at the same time being a pro-star academic. I remember her being offered a full blown scholarship to Harvard and receiving all sorts of awards, and you’d never think of it on meeting her. My first impression of her was that she was an outgoing, travel-holic, stoner who had an infectious laugh. I’m jealous that such people exist.

We headed over to the University for me to clear out my locker, and I got to chit chat and have a few laughs with another friend Ashley who is also a travel-holic. I haven’t had much of a chance to see her all term, as we were both in the process of re-adjusting to the student life again. She studied abroad in New Zealand and then spent half a year as a wandering explorer in Australia. I think she travels the way I do: avoiding the big cities in Western countries and checking out the true landscape. It was great to see her again to help me kick start my summer, she’s always in high spirits.

Our next destination was Whyte Ave to find the mystery recycled bike part shop. It was a pretty extreme trip to try and keep up with Lee on Whyte through rush hour traffic. Zipping inbetween 2 lanes of moving cars can really get the heart going. Luckily we ended our day of visits and errands at Steeps, this laid back tea lounge on whyte. I’ve never been before, but I think I’ll have to return many-a-time. They offer up hundreds of selections of tea and it’s a pretty chilled out atmosphere, especially since I got to say goodbye to my good friend Sanda for the Summer. Whenever I’m in need of hip and artsy flare she’s my greatest source.

After living like a “hermit” for almost the whole term, it felt like I was released back into the web of society to see all these familiar faces again. I think perhaps I spent too much time focused on school and not being more social this term, as I have this silly notion that being social and doing well in school are mutual exclusive. But why not?

So, that’s all I can remember of this fun-filled day more than 2 weeks ago. I do remember ending the day with a sore tush from having biked for so long all day, and being absolutely gassed when coming home. This Summer of biking to work in Ottawa will be quite something.

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