It took me awhile, but I finally saw the video for the new U2 song, Window in the Skies. It's actually a pretty amazing video and to save you the trouble of looking for it (as I know you were all eager to do), I've linked to the youtube video below.
My feet are actually starting to heal. I can't believe it. It's been so long that I almost forgot what normal feet look like. They still look awful at this point, but I can walk on them again after nearly two weeks of having to hobble and shuffle. The pills I'm taking are doing a number on my stomach, but at least I'm getting better.
Nicole sent along pictures of little Izzy just a short time ago. I can't get over how much she looks like Jamie. She's getting bigger and her hands look eager to roll dice and pick up video game controllers. Like my own future children, this kid is going to be spoiled.
Aaron's blog is lacking all sorts of personal details these days (I haven't linked to his crime blog yet, I don't believe), so I'll fill in the blanks. He's doing well at The Ontarion and has finished up for the holidays. That's he's not only surviving his tenure as EIC but thriving should come as no surprise. He is king of editing.
Jer is the court jester. Jer gets the endurance award, however, for that conference of his.
Chris is doing fine. He just won a million dollars. Actually, I don't know what Chris is doing at all. I've been a bad friend. But seeing as how he's got a new house and a new family I'm sure he's plenty busy. I got him a Christmas present back in October but it now occurs to me that he's probably too busy to pay his annual visit to my Dad's house on Boxing Day.
I've got most of my shopping done at this point. A few odds and ends and then I'm set. At least in theory. There's going to be something more that I buy at least.
Something for myself, perhaps. I bought Thor-buster Iron Man, the latest Iron Man figure from the Marvel Legends series. I'm trying to stop, but these things are like plastic crack and I know, despite asking for them, that I won't get any for Christmas.
I've been missing my friends, though. I haven't seen Paul in too long, Jer's visits are to pick up gaming hardware, and I rarely see Josh. So many others are lost in limbo... Nate, Pushee, Chris. Oh well. I've got the Wii to comfort me until I try to actually make plans. Nate and Pushee will likely enter the scene again come baseball season. Though I'm scared to death to try to go to a game with Nathan. I've never been arrested before and this is likely to happen when you go out with Nate.
My feet are eating themselves. Especially the left foot which is ravenous.
I'm assuming I picked up some kind of infection when I was in China. Within a week of my return, I developed blisters on one of my feet. I chalked it up to switching shoes when I got home, but these were angry, angry blisters that left my feet swollen.
It kept getting worse. Over the course of FOUR doctor visits, the last being just yesterday, my foot condition spread from a few blisters to the near inability to walk. My left foot has lost so much skin on the bottom that there are raw red patches. It's not pleasant. When wet, it smells rotten.
The good news about all this is that the last doctor finally gave me an oral antibiotic. He described it as potent and the pharmacist echoed this sentiment. That's good, because it's slowly spreading to my hands.
If I die, Catherine gets the Wii. That's just the way it is.
But seriously, four months and four doctor visits and only NOW are they taking it seriously? What is wrong with our medical system? I arranged a dermatologist appointment and was told I'd have to wait a MONTH. This is actually impressive because my doctor said the wait could be months.
I'm all for public healthcare and I think it's a great system. It's times like this, however, when a private model could be brought in sparingly to help address immediate concerns such as this. If you saw my foot, you would see that there is a serious problem that needs to be addressed immediately, not months from now. As much as I appreciate seeing the doctor for free, I'd find it much more valuable to pay a couple of bucks and be treated now.
As it is, I can barely walk. I have bandages and creams to look forward to in my stocking this year (assuming I've been a good boy).
Most of my Christmas shopping is done. There are a few odds and ends, but what would Christmas be if you weren't trying to get something at the last minute?
I suppose it's the price you pay for having a life. This blog was a constant source of amusement during my time at FMG and one might say that it kept me from going insane. Since then, I've been busy enjoying myself. Hence the lack of posts.
My time at FMG ended months ago and since then I've actually been enjoying myself more and more. In case you missed the subtle hints, I hated my job. The only two things I miss about it are hanging out with Nathan and the paycheck.
The past few weeks have largely been uneventful. After my practicum, I needed to decompress. Having the Wii helps in that area tremendously. It's an incredibly fun system that Catherine and I both play on a daily basis. I'm especially pleased that Catherine is using it so much, though she does tend to get carried away.
Earlier tonight we were playing Wii Sports. During one bout of the home run challenge in baseball, Catherine thought it'd be a good idea to let go of the remote. Well, the wrist strap broke, the remote went sailing through a glass candle holder (with a light candle inside) that resulted in wax being sprayed on the wall, the battery cover on the remote flying off, and the controller looking like it might be broken.
As luck would have it, Nintendo made these controllers to laugh. This particular controller has hit several people due to wild swings. Once I hit my mother so hard in the arm that I'm sure I left a massive bruise.
But that's the price you pay to play.
And it's good. For my 29th birthday (man, am I old) my father bought me Red Steel. Not much to look at at first, but the game picks up quickly.
Other than that, I'm back in school. What was make work-type of assignments before is now painfully make-work and I'm starting to get annoyed. Why do you need three people to make a 10 slide Powerpoint presentation using only pictures you can find on Google?
Actually, that's not really true. Catherine and I went out to celebrate with a lovely meal.
It's strange to be finished. In many ways, I really didn't want to go. The students were great and they thought I was great, too. The staff were amazing and by the end of it all, I had a class.
It's like building up momentum, hitting your stride, then hitting a brick wall.
At least I'll have the Wii to comfort me on Sunday. Before then, however, plans abound. There's no rest for the wicked. Maybe next week I'll get a moment or two to rest before I turn the dreaded 29 years old.
Soon I'll hit 30. That just can't be good.
Jer, finish up your trade show so you can come over, play games with mii, and then take home your lovely new Gamecube.
Good lord it's been a long time since I last posted. No real reason for the lack of updates, just that I've been preoccupied with school. It's a one month "internship" that has me teaching grade 9 english and grade 11 sociology full time.
The first week was brutal, but manageable. The second week I suddenly emerged into the light and all was well in the world.
According to my AT, I'm doing unbelievably well. He's already done my evaluation and it states that I should be hired now and that I'm "the best teacher candidate he's ever seen."
I'm still stunned.
It's not that I doubt my ability to teach, but getting high praise from someone who is well respected in the educational community makes it seem surreal. I have miles to go and years to cover before I'm anywhere near his league, Nicole's league, or the many great teachers I've had in the past.
What I will take from this is that it's a sign that I've made the right choice. Hopefully ;).
Otherwise, things are looking just fine. The Wii comes out in less than a week and I'm going to try to rope in Jer to have some launchday fun and games as afterwards he'll take home his spanking new Gamecube (seeing as I'll no longer have use for mine).
Then next week I turn 29. I'm getting old. Not Nathan old, mind you, or even Jer old, but old.
You know how I know? I always feel ready for a nap.
Sorry for the incredibly lame joke. It just seemed like the right time to make one. Time for a quick post to let you guys know how things are going.
I'm tired. Damn tired. I mean, I KNEW how much work being a teacher was, but actually doing it, even on this strange practicum, it's REALLY hard work. Totally mind blowing. I have a totally new level of respect for Nicole and Lindsey. Less respect for Jeromy, but that's just because I have to balance out those cosmic scales.
I'm teaching Grade 9 Applied English and Grade 11 Sociology. So far so good as my associate teacher thinks I'm ready to teach now, but that still hasn't stopped me from spazzing and stressing out. Catherine says I put too much pressure on myself and she's probably right.
I just need more sleep. Week 1 is done, Week 2 (now) is going to be easy, then I've just got two weeks more to go. To reward myself at the end of this whole thing, I'm going to get a Wii.
If there were an easier way to do things, most likely I'd still pick the hard way. It's just in my nature. It's also just my luck. On the bright side, when strange things happen to me it's almost always amusing to others.
Friday night was no exception. My unanswered call to Jeromy to spend some quality time together left me with nothing to do. Catherine had gone home to Brantford and I was procrastinating on doing my first lesson plan.
Instead, I wound up watching Deadwood, playing Megaman X4, and hanging out with Truffle.
Then I heard a very strange sound. I muted the television to listen for it and within seconds a "whoop" sound, very similar to an 80's-style video game lazer, came from my radiator.
Truffle freaked out and hid in a tube. I, on the other, got closer.
"Whoop!" Again, I had no idea what this sound was. I could hear a scratching, so I figured it was an animal of some sort. I called my dad who promptly suggested "racoon or squirrel." It was an emotional conversation.
I had two problems with this. One, after the mouse that invaded our apartment a year or two ago I swore never to put up with an uninvited guest again. That mouse was LOUD and it was tiny. I'm fairly certain that both squirrels and racoons are smaller.
The heating vent it was currently in was secure against the floor and wall. The problem was that the vent goes through the living room wall into the bedroom and the small pipe that connects them has an opening four times too big for it. The heater in the bedroom is secure against the wall, but NOT against the floor. In other words, that squirrel could soon be among us.
So I decided to fight back. I was going to plug that hole as best I could, then try and scare off my house guest. I was talking to my father on the phone at the time who found all of this amusing, because I had to move my bed out of the way in a very small room to access the pipe.
This failed because I broke the bed.
I was pulling on it and one of the support joints creaked then broke. Part of the bed collapsed. I was not pleased at this. The metal pin holding the two sections together was badly bent and I couldn't remove it. I also couldn't think because my dad was laughing at me.
I hung up on him.
Then I got a hammer and fixed that bitch. I straightened out the pin, set the frame in place, then called Catherine because I needed an alan key to tighten the joint and I didn't know where they were.
I quickly explained to her and David what the problem was, and once they stopped laughing, I was told where the key was.
I got the bed fixed, the hole plugged, and all was well. Although all the hammering, yelling, stuffing, and everything else in between scared off the squirrel anyway. I plan to tell people that this was my expected outcome all along.
I found this great program online as I was making up my lesson plan in short fiction next week. It's just a filler exercise should I need to make up a bit of time, but it's handy anyway.
My orientation days at the school went quite well. My associate teacher, Scott, is fantastic and assures me that I won't feel any stress at all. I accepted his statement and wondered where my intense stress headache was coming from.
"Don't be stressed," he said. Pfft. He doesn't know me very well.
Due to mounting pressure from the Dom, I gave in and got a Zipcar membership. For those of you who don't know, Zipcar is a service offered in many cities, including Toronto, that allows you to take one of their cars out for whatever you want.
You need to reserve the car, but included in your hourly fee of roughly $11 is gas and insurance. It's great for local trips because if you want anything longer or farther you're better off with a traditional rental.
At any rate, we got the membership several weeks ago, but only yesterday did we exercise our newfound power. Catherine finally got to driver her Mini Cooper.
She's obsessed with the make. There's a car lot around the corner where one is parked all the time and we booked it for a round-trip to Ikea yesterday. For three hours, we acted like Mini Cooper owners.
It's a pretty cool little car. The break is super sensitive, and the "go" as Catherine calls it needs a bit of coercing at first, but it's fun. As you can see, we had to take a few pictures.
We have no need for a car (usually) but having the option to drive one around is nice. Besides, how else we were going to get to drive one?
Tomorrow, the practicum starts. Or at least the orientation. I already have a bit of insider info and I'm approaching the whole process with a mixture of excitement and dread.
I've been in hiding. Well, no, not really. Just busy with busy work. Teacher's college, for the two or three of you who know, isn't really about tough work, tons of essays, and late nights. What it IS about is a lot of busy work. You're always busy with some little assignment or another.
This doesn't always mean the assignments make sense. My first week I was asked to bring in a poem to read to the class. The next week, I was asked to write a poem about myself. I tried going the angsty-teen route, but it didn't work.
The third week, we had to bring in newspapers to tear up and create found poetry. Then my prof sent me home to put my group's poem on paper. Well, one of them I did properly. The other one, well, see below. In my defense, it was mostly my idea.
I know that's not a defense. The REAL defense is that I'm friends with all of you people.
Or am I still? I wasn't able to go to Jer's housewarming which I'm sure was a lovely time. I still need to get my butt over there as soon as possible. I'm also going to invite Jer and Megan (as well as anyone else who is interested) to join Catherine and I for a candlelit tour of Casa Loma at Halloween. We did it last year and it was fantastic. Much better than the day time with a focus on the castle's ghosts.
Aaron at least is coming down this weekend. I need to write him about that as it seems that depending on when he gets here, I may not be able to spend as much time with him. On Saturday, Catherine's aunt from England is going to visit us. There's only so much of me to go around, but I feel a tremendous need to share all things geek with Aaron. Besides, out of everyone who reads this blog, I get the feeling he needs a break more than most.
Aaron, don't give up your blog. I read that thing. You're depriving me of minutes a day as I invest in your life. Think about ME before you make such decisions.
My back hurts and I'm hungry. Tired, too.
But Heroes is on tonight. You guys should be watching that show. It's quite interesting. Lost is looking interesting this year, as is Veronica Mars. But the winner of all the premieres is Battlestar Galactica. I promise I'm TiVoing all the new eps for those of you who aren't caught up. It's just SO damn good. Season 3 is kicking my ass already and they've only aired the first two episodes.
One of the biggest drawbacks to no longer having a job is that I no longer have a stable, powerful computer to do all of my work on. My computer at work was a sizeable beast of a Mac, but my PC laptop has had five years of hard living and it's starting to show.
The internet will crap out for no reason whatsoever. It's not the cable box, it's the computer. All of a sudden, it just won't recognize the internet. I have to reboot.
Then there's the harddrive. If it isn't having some catastrophic failure it's slowly eating itself. During a marathon session of photoshop crapping out on me and my deleting a ton of things off the drive to free up space, the new issue is that after having freed up more than 2 gigs of space it now seems to have all disappeared.
Nothing new was put on the drive, but I'm down to 400 mgs of free space.
My hard drive is eating itself.
The easiest thing to do, I suppose, would be to wipe the whole thing and start over again. However, seeing as I am not possessed of a great deal of funds nor do I have a copy of Word readily available, I'm not about to do this now that I'm actually dependent on my machine to help me produce works that will enable me to graduate.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the source of my frustration this week.
Catherine keeps telling me I need to relax. BAH to that, I say. BAH.
October And the trees are stripped bare Of all they wear What do I care October And kingdoms rise And kingdoms fall But you go on
Is anyone else astonished that it's October already? How does that happen? How is it possible that I've been in school for three weeks, not had that job for three weeks, and all the other crazy life changes that have been going on lately.
And why is no one else blogging?
I know Aaron has no life any more considering he's pulling the reigns at The Ontarion, but Jer has no excuse. Nor Josh. Nor Nicole. Heck, what does SHE have to do all day?
Ah, my fair, sweet internet. Why is it that sometimes I feel that only you really get me?
There's something so sweet, so powerful, about going out and hunting for that one, elusive figure and the evil denizens (store employees) who try to stand in your way but fail miserably.
I know I don't work there any more, but my last day at FMG was actually a pretty good one. I did some work, but more importantly, I did some work making a few fond memories thanks to my camera.
Stop it. Nothing dirty (this means you, Jer).
No, instead I took a few moments to chronicle the misadventures of my former co-workers and myself. I uploaded them all to youtube and now present them here for you to enjoy.
The first one is entitled 'The Search for Water.' It features Nathan and I being dicks to our co-worker, Martin, who's heavily Spanish-accented pronounciation of 'Baafffalo' ranks among our funniest moments. Nathan and I would steal his water constantly and hide it in obvious places around the office. This time, we got his search on video. Of course, the second I started taping, Martin had to ham it up.
The next video is pure Nathan and I. The question I pose to him is "Do you ever wish you were white?"
Next up I scare the crap out of a woman named Sandra. Her office space is quiet except for her little stereo and she always zones out. This was the fifth time I'd done this to her and I think she was getting a bit ticked off.
Lastly, Sheila. She does this sort of thing a lot. Nate and I have but to ask and she performed like a little monkey.
All of that being said, I don't miss my job and I don't think about it at all. It's a nice feeling. Back to school work now (what little I have).
Now that work is done (can I get a collective "hell yeah?") I should be dancing in the streets. School has started and at present my demanding schedule has given me Mondays and Wednesdays off, with classes ending by 12:30 on Tuesday and Friday.
That's a bit too much free time for me.
I don't miss work and I don't wish my OLD job on anybody, but I have to admit it certainly did fill out the day. Now I don't have Nathan to talk to, hit, or ignore, instead I have the brimming-over silence of my apartment broken only by the sounds of Truffle rattling on her cage bars.
I'm sure that once the semester starts rolling I'll have more little assignments to keep me busy. I already have been given, and completed, a couple of very minor things. So far, if this is a taste of things to come, I'm not going to be challenged very much.
At least not until the actual job starts.
In the meantime, I have the internet to play with, karate practices to go to on my own, and images such as Mr. Optimus Prime (seen above) to share with my audience of, oh, say 10 people.
But at least it's something to do. I'm starting to warm to the movie version of The Transformers even if the Decepticons have all gone horribly wrong. Optimus, at least, looks enough like the character I know and love for me not to run out and grab a pitchfork.
Other than that, I'm just sitting around in my shorts waiting for something to happen. I'm working a bit for Julian (the psychiatrist) again and am owed a bit of cash from a few sources. Hopefully the Dom (Catherine, so called 'the Dom' due to her status as the Dominant Bread-winner) will let me splurge on something fun every now and then. Even though we saved for this bit of schooling, I need to watch my purse strings.
I haven't written anything here in more than a week, despite the many things that I found I had to blog about. Partly I was busy, partly I was stressed. Mostly, I think, I'm just avoiding things.
This is a period of big changes and not just for me. Jer and Meg have a new home together, Nicole and Jamie are parents now to little Isabel, Aaron is the EIC of the Ontarion, my dad just retired, my brother is losing his job, David is getting set up in Guelph and much more.
It all seems to be coming down to the wire. Faster and swifter than I would have imagined after months of counting down the days, today is my final day at FMG. I thought I'd be a lot more happy and giddy after the various struggles I had, particularly early on in my career here.
But I'm actually sad. I cleaned out my desk, gave Nathan a present and have been wearing a foam piece of cheese that Nathan brought home for me after his trip to Wiconsin for a baseball game. No one here seems to find this terribly odd. I take that as a compliment.
Earlier this week, my co-workers took me out for lunch to Jack Astor's. More than a dozen people showed up and that doesn't include the six or seven who couldn't make it. Whether I wanted to realize it or not, I made a lot of friends here. The job had become unsatsifying creatively, but I can't deny that it changed me. Gave me more skills, both professionally and in terms of office politics, that I can see myself using in the future. This job was far from a waste of my time though the moment for change has finally come.
All my work is done. There's a company barbecue today and maybe Nate will even drive me out to Toys R Us.
I started teacher's college yesterday. It was just an orientation, but I like the fact that it overlapped by a day with my job. Out with one, in with another. I have Mondays and Wednesdays off until mid-October at school. After the 9-5, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself.
But it's time to find out. I waited long enough. I've been patient.
All good things (or in this case, so-so) must come to an end.
I feel like I should tell someone to make sure to feed and water Nathan. I'm going to miss him most of all. Five days a week sitting next to each other and he's become one of my best friends. He's a good man who helped me a lot and has been a good friend. I hope that I get to see him as often as possible. We'll go see the Blue Jays.
In the cheap seats. Nate'll hate that, which in turn, will amuse me.
And that's it.
I've conquered my past, The future is here at last. I stand at the entrance To a new world I can see.
I was so excited to see David in China as it had been more than 14 months since I saw him last. We had worked together at Rainbow Daycamp in addition to becoming more and more 'family' as a result of Catherine and I's ongoing relationship.
But he's such a ham.
If I wasn't rolling my eyes I was definitely laughing. You can't be around Dave and not enjoy yourself. He just has this quirky, manic energy and an infectious laugh. Also, he has no issues making fun of anyone or anything.
During our time in China, David was a constant source of amusement, often at odd times and doing things that you wouldn't expect a sane person to do. While we were on the Great Wall, I asked Catherine to shoot a small video of David and I walking along. David, however, decided to improvise.
There were many such bizarre incidents taking place in Yangshou, Guilin, Nanjing, Shanghai, Beijing, and then again once we were all together again here in Toronto. Sometimes you want to smack him, other times you ask him to pretend to be a dog while you videotape it.
You don't actually expect him to agree, but while we were touring a particularly steep section in the Summer Palace in Beijing, David decided to accomodate me. He even tried to get Catherine to participate, but she was having none of it.
Speaking of Catherine, she seems willing to permit David a score of odd behaviours that I would get reprimanded for should I ever dare to attempt them. David acts up, and it's hilarious.
In Nanjing, for instance, David spent a night bothering Catherine while she was writing postcards. He took each of her postcards and wrote insane things on them. The goal for her, he said, was to find a way to incorporate what he wrote on the back of the cards. We were all laughing, but I think if I had done it I'd have gotten beat up.
David wrote on one card "If there's a God in heaven..." and ended it with "you know my motto: an eye for an eye." David didn't find out until later that Catherine had set aside that particular card for her friend who was a bit religious.
Of course, that only made it funnier.
David brought a great deal of amusement to our trip which was good. He also cost a lot of money (inadvertantly) by making the wrong friends in Shanghai.
As a result, I now hate tea.
This installment of China Thursdays officially salutes David.
I'm borrowing slightly from Jer's blog, but this is such amazing news that it is beyond description. Jamie told me the news yesterday in the morning and I called him right away to get the details.
12:47pm - Isabel Quinn Wiens Shepherd is born via emergency C-section
"Once it was over and they were both good the scary gave way to the happiest moment of my life... nothing even comes close," Jamie wrote.
"We are home now and settling in. Nicole and Isabel are sleeping right now. We are both pretty beat as we didn't get much sleep in the 4 days we were at the hospital. Izzy and Izzy Q are both in high rotation right now... Baby Jimole, not so much... and Doc? huh? Grey's?... weak."
So that's it. The first amongst our core group from university has reproduced. Personally, I think Jamie and Nicole are going to be amazing parents and little Isabel will have no shortage of love and support from both her blood family and her extended family of aunts and uncles who show up for entire weekends and do nothing but play games.
Welcome to the world, Isabel. I promise that whenever I visit, I'll bring you a new toy.
Birds are softly chirping in the crisp, cool mountain air. Nothing can bother you here. No one knows this secret place. You are in total seclusion from that place called "the world."
The soothing sound of a gentle waterfall fills the air with a cascade of serenity. The water is clear. You can easily make out the face of the person whose head you're holding under the water.
It took me awhile, but I finally saw the video for the new U2 song, Window in the Skies. It's actually a pretty amazing video and to save you the trouble of looking for it (as I know you were all eager to do), I've linked to the youtube video below.
Something for myself, perhaps. I bought Thor-buster Iron Man, the latest Iron Man figure from the Marvel Legends series. I'm trying to stop, but these things are like plastic crack and I know, despite asking for them, that I won't get any for Christmas.
My feet are eating themselves. Especially the left foot which is ravenous.
I suppose it's the price you pay for having a life. This blog was a constant source of amusement during my time at FMG and one might say that it kept me from going insane. Since then, I've been busy enjoying myself. Hence the lack of posts.
...And all I got was this lousy blog post.
Iza-pumpkin!
If there were an easier way to do things, most likely I'd still pick the hard way. It's just in my nature. It's also just my luck. On the bright side, when strange things happen to me it's almost always amusing to others.
Due to mounting pressure from the Dom, I gave in and got a Zipcar membership. For those of you who don't know, Zipcar is a service offered in many cities, including Toronto, that allows you to take one of their cars out for whatever you want.
Hell, I am too.
One of the biggest drawbacks to no longer having a job is that I no longer have a stable, powerful computer to do all of my work on. My computer at work was a sizeable beast of a Mac, but my PC laptop has had five years of hard living and it's starting to show.
Ah, my fair, sweet internet. Why is it that sometimes I feel that only 
I know I don't work there any more, but my last day at FMG was actually a pretty good one. I did some work, but more importantly, I did some work making a few fond memories thanks to my camera.
Now that work is done (can I get a collective "hell yeah?") I should be dancing in the streets. School has started and at present my demanding schedule has given me Mondays and Wednesdays off, with classes ending by 12:30 on Tuesday and Friday. 
I haven't written anything here in more than a week, despite the many things that I found I had to blog about. Partly I was busy, partly I was stressed. Mostly, I think, I'm just avoiding things.
I feel like I should tell someone to make sure to feed and water Nathan. I'm going to miss him most of all. Five days a week sitting next to each other and he's become one of my best friends. He's a good man who helped me a lot and has been a good friend. I hope that I get to see him as often as possible. We'll go see the Blue Jays.
