Brian

So about that Spice Fruitcake I made this evening...

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 04:32:55 GMT

I bought some dried fruits a little while ago with an eye towards making some Barmbrack in the next couple of days as well as some Moroccan style chicken stew. So far I'm batting 0/2 on my expected results.... not that I haven't eaten well just the results have not been what I was aiming for in specific ways.

I generally look at recipes and thinking about what it is that I like about them and what I dislike, then do something some where in the neighbourhood of them. This tends to serve me fairly well when cooking and really not so well when baking. So as I was doing the prep work for the stew I realized that a lot of the recipes call for chick peas, not my all time favorite (with the exception of Humus) so I thought I would just switch it out maybe. As it turns out for the recipe to bare some resemblance to what I want I need to follow it... the stew was good but did not seem terribly any style except tomato and chicken. I think that could have been solved by more spices and more stewing time but I was hungry and it had enough flavour as it was :)

So tonight I looked up a bunch of different recipes as to what people thought that Barmbrack should be... they ranged from everything from honeyed orange peel to triple strength yeastie beastie stuff. I picked a middle ground and didn't add the yeast, which may have been a mistake... but as before it tastes good and the dried apricots and cranberries give it a lot of sweet and texture. So I guess I'm happy enough, but next time I think its time for some yeast and make some real bread-like stuff!

Writer's Block: Really, Truly

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:13:06 GMT

Do you believe in true love? What about love at first sight?

View 500 Answers

I believe in true love and love that feels true at that moment. As for love at first sight, harder to say because what is the love part that initial reaction that makes you want them in your life or the getting to know them and love each and every little part of them? So I would say that love at first sight is a little more problematic.

In Toronto...

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 22:38:32 GMT

So here I am in Toronto at John's house... and its still a little bit strange doing the Christmas thing after converting but guess if its just a food thing I'm doing alright. Not like I'm full on Christing or something :P

Anyways, if anybody who is in and around Toronto wants to say hello let me know I'm out of here on the 29th so not that much time left but thought better late than never. Jello out there to all of you who actually still have me friended... I know, I'm the worst LJ'er evah! :D

An interesting idea...

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:47:17 GMT

I really get kind of dubious when anybody claims that they know anything about the brain... but here is an interesting article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7613621.stm

I think that fMRI is probably one of the most interesting ways of trying to pin down functions within the brain, but its still seems so early and baseline at times. I really hope that people don't ever feel like they need to perform an exorcism on the "Ghost in the Machine" as DeCartes put it. I like the idea that there are some things we just don't understand about why we work like we work is a good thing. Then again, being able to effectively aid people who's brain chemistry is out of whack or who have suffered brain damage seems like a pretty damn useful thing too.

About Being Jewish

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 17:44:15 GMT

So its been a while since I posted anything really of substance here, in the last little while I have finally completed my conversion to Judaism after 16 months of study, learning, reading, arguing and striving. (And one minor operation that was uncomfortable)

The Beit Din (or Judgement panel) was a little on the harsh side, well one specific Rabbi. So that was not the most fun I've ever had, but they passed me and I was allowed to head off to Ottawa to dunk myself into a Mikvah (ritual bath) and became officially and forever Jewish. Why did I have to travel to Ottawa in order to complete my conversion? That's a mighty good question, let me tell you a story...

In order to fully convert according to the rules of Conservative Judaism a convert must first demonstrate their commitment, knowledge and ability convince 3 Rabbis that they have to be Jewish, no problem there mostly involves lots of talking with Rabbis and that's kind of fun. Secondly they must renounce any other faith or previous vows that they may have made, no issue there really since I had a distinct lack of religion previously. Lastly, they must visit a Mikvah, which is a ritual bath that has 49 lugim (lots) of water in it at least half of which is from a fresh water source such as rain water or a river. Then they must recite a blessing and then they are fully converted.

This last step is where the story begins really, just thought the other parts were important to note because... well because they were important to me. Anyways, so back in the 1950's the community of Cote St. Luc got together a bunch of money from the community at large and built a Mikvah. The donors who gave money were from three different branches of Judaism (Reform, Conservative and Orthodox) and from the 1950's until last year everyone no matter which denomination you were could use the Mikvah for any purpose including conversion. Over the last year or so the Orthodox groups have left the Mikvah that was built with community money because they were finding the people running it very difficult to deal with. Apparently scheduling and dependablity were the biggest problems. So the Orthodox groups stopped using the community Mikvah and moved to one of the 15 other Mikvaot in Montreal. At this point the community Mikvah decided if they were not doing Orthodox conversions they would not do any conversions at all. Which is really only an issue for the Conservative movement since for Reform you are not required to use a Mikvah for conversion. Anyways, the Rabbis that run the Conservative conversion course that I was part of sought to solve this problem by appealing to the Rabbinical council of Montreal. Since it is made up of the heads of all things religious and Jewish in Montreal it would seem that they might have some authority here. After arguing with them and citing Midrashic reasoning and arguments for allowing us to use the Mikvah they won the approval from the council, to which the people running the Mikvah responded with the witting rejoinder of ... nothing, they just stood up and walked out of the room.

Since then we have been trying to find a way to use one of the Mikvaot (plural of Mikvah) in Montreal but with no success and so the next closest Mikvah that would accept us was in Ottawa. Which was a very nice welcome to Judaism from the local community Mikvah, just makes you feel warm all over to be told that you aren't good enough to use their facilities. Anyways, it was a very nice experience going to Ottawa with the people I had studied with for so long and so in some ways it was possibly a good thing but it just kind of pissed me off a bit too. There are all sorts of reasons why this could have happened but I don't think any of them excuse or explain it well enough for me.

Whiny freaking... grrr...

Tue, 29 May 2007 14:53:48 GMT

So I was reading an article on CBC.com about spending during the 1995 referendum here in Quebec and it was talking about a report that claimed the Federalist/Non side spent 539k more than it was supposed to. (article: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2007/05/29/referendum-report-070529.html )Which is all kinds of silly, since both sides spent WAY more than they were supposed to to the tune of 11 million when the cap was supposed to be 5 million. Technically since it was before the polling period it was as illegal as all that... but really just semantics here.

So more or less what the Separatists are whining about is the fact that the Federal (which represents the entire country) government is richer and more capable of bringing that money to a pissing contest than the PQ (which doesn't even represent all of Quebec). And they are talking about how this report could be used to bring down the provincial Liberals... who were not involved in the supposed scandal. Such stupid saber rattling, mud-slinging polictical bullshit.

I don't know quite what to say...

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:48:17 GMT

I was reading the BBC website this morning and I came across this article about a little Jewish girl who narrowly escaped being taken by the French police during the Second World War when her neighbour intervened and claimed she was her child. Her parents both died at the hands of the Nazis, they died simply for being born and I just can't accept that things like that actually happened. She was passed from family to family in France during the war, some of them beat her, some of them left her shoeless to herd goats... and this abusive crap was so much better than what happened to everyone else to be noteworthy. Anyways, here is the link to the article if you want to read: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6597147.stm

I just don't know what else to say...

Just saw The 300

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 01:27:43 GMT

Damn fine movie... and somehow I just did not want it to end though. I wanted to see the whole war and more detail and I really want to ignore the historical inaccuracy ... and did I mention Spartans are just freaking cool?

One of my favorite lines was from the Spartans in real world history goes something like, Philip of Macedon threatened them with, "If I enter Laconia, I will raze Sparta to the ground," the Spartans' reply was, "If." ... and going back to the movie for a second, they used the line, come back with your shield or on it. Which is another favorite of days of yore :P

And for those of you keeping track of my kibbles and bits, they are doing just fine. Thanks for asking.

So guess who just called me...

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:09:14 GMT

Last thursday I went into the hospital to see about getting paper work done for the appointment I had to get circumsized on friday, so as to avoid having to fill crap out before going to get chopped. As it turns out they had no record of me and could not even tell me what was going on at the main office of patient affairs and then kept me running around from about 1:45 till about 5pm so I could not get a hold of the urology department that day. So I called and left a message with my doctor's office on thursday about it and just decided to show up on friday since I knew that the doctor would be in the day surgery on friday in any case... see earlier entry about that crap...

So today at about 11:30 I get a call from the hospital asking what it was that I was calling about. Somehow this does not inspire loads of confidence in their clerical staff. Spoke briefly to the lady who is filling in for my doctor's old secretary and apparently the previous lady left without much notice or really all that much assistance on what was going on. So the better part of a week later I hear back from them well after I've already had my kibbles and bits pruned.

On a side note, less than happy things happened on sunday had some bleeding while wrapped in a towel and the looking down at the floor with my blood on it freaked me right out. Since then no real bleeding to speak of and I think a large part of why it bled was because I spent too much time sitting at the computer in one go. Anyways, less than amused about the timing on them getting back to me... I know its only a minor surgery but come on, its an important area to me!

So I got circumsized on friday...

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 17:56:17 GMT

The whole conversion to Judaism thing has been very interesting and given me a lot to think about... now its given me a minor surgery. The actual appointment that I was supposed to have with the doctor at the hospital was way back in December but since I was flying out the day after I did not really want to do that and did not want to be miles from the doctor, my girl and anybody Jewish. There was also the fact I was going to visit my family and you don't really want to be laid up with a sewn up penis for something like that.

So anyways, next part of the story... I changed the date of the surgery to march 16th at 12:30. So on the 15th I went into the hospital to make sure that all of the paper work was done and worked out so that I would be able to show up and not be bothered with filling crap out. It was around about then that I found that the hospital had no idea who I was or that I had an appointment tomorrow for surgery. So I called everyone I could think of, but the doctor's office closed at noon that day and urogology was closed by the time I had exhausted all 3 of the offices that might have known about this crap... skipping ahead to the next day, I show up at 11am to see what if anything has changed and start trying to track down the doctor. End up finding him and he helps to straighten the whole thing out, but still takes another hour and a half of running from office to office filling out paper work and being stressed. Turns out the doctor's secretary had left his employ for some reason and the new one had no idea that I was supposed to have an appointment that day. Which would not have been as much of an issue if it had not been for the 3 rabbis who were showing up at 12:15 or so. So I finally get into the surgery area at about 1pm, and get done with all of the cutting and sewing and bleeding part by about 2:30 or so not as sure on that time since I was a little out of it. Towards the end I was getting feeling back in my bits since it was only a local... and so the sewing me back up stung just a smidgen. Then I still had some clerical crap to handle with the doctor's fee so up I went to pay and make the appointment with them which took like half an hour while one of the spectacularly nice rabbis waited to give us a ride to our car.

Since then I have mostly been lying down and resting...

Lamest update ever...

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 03:58:24 GMT

Just thought I would wish everyone a happy belated pi day before the clock ticks out the last few seconds and all :)

Stealing a line from the choucroute playbook

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:58:23 GMT

So I have an essay assignment and I thought I'd post a little something here and try to come up with an idea or two in that way. So basically the assignment is supposed to come to a conclusion about what I think the violence that is being portrayed in a few poems is operating as. The poet is Seamus Heaney and the violence is in Northern Ireland... which if you've never heard of Seamus Heaney the short version is people split over whether he's reflecting real life as he sees it or his ritualized treatment of the violence is elevating it to some other place.

So I guess I'll post the two poems that I was thinking of using, the first one is from his first collection of poems. The second is from the collection that got him into trouble with people leveling the accusations of him trying to imbue senseless violence with some sort of reason. Anyways, the poems are kind of long so they are under a cut ... that's about it and I guess we see what you guys think if that's alright? :P

Death of a Naturalist

All year the flax-dam festered in the heart
Of the townland; green and heavy headed
Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods.
Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun.
Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles
Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.
There were dragon-flies, spotted butterflies,
But best of all was the warm thick slobber
Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water
In the shade of the banks. Here, every spring
I would fill jampotfuls of jellied
Specks to range on window-sills at home,
On shelves at school, and wait and watch until
The fattening dots burst into nimble-
Swimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us how
The daddy frog was called a bullfrog
And how he croaked and how the mammy frog
Laid hundreds of little eggs and this was
Frogspawn. You could tell the weather by frogs too
For they were yellow in the sun and brown
In rain.

Then one hot day when fields were rank
With cowdung in the grass and angry frogs
Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges
To a coarse croaking that I had not heard
Before. The air was thick with a bass chorus.
Right down the damn gross-bellied frogs were cocked
On sods; their loose necks pulsed like sails. Some
hopped:
The slap and plop were obscene threats. Some sat
Poised like mud grenades, their blunt head farting.
I sickened, turned and ran. The great slime kings
Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew
That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.

--Second poem
Punishment

I can feel the tug
of the halter at the nape
of her neck, the wind
on her naked front.

It blows her nipples
to amber beads,
it shakes the frail rigging
of her ribs.

I can see her drowned
body in the bog,
the weighing stone,
the floating rods and boughs.

Under which at first
she was a barked sapling
that is dug up
oak-bone, brain-firkin:

her shaved head
like a stubble of black corn,
her blindfold a soiled bandage,
her noose a ring

to store
the memories of love
Little adulteress,
before they punished you

you were flaxen-haired,
undernourished, and your
tar-black face was beautiful.
My poor scapegoat,

I almost love you
but would have cast, I know,
the stones of silence.
I am the artful voyeur

of your brain's exposed
and darkened combs,
your muscles' webbing
and all your numbered bones:

I who have stood dumb
when your betraying sisters,
cauled in tar,
wept by the railings,

who would convince
in civilized outrage
yet understand the exact
and tribal, intimate revenge

There are a few things that I think are important to point out Irish women who dated British soldiers during the time of the Troubles were often found with tar and feathers on them tied in a public place... so, that's likely important. Also, the women that were found in bogs choked and their heads bashed in were not in fact criminals who were found guilty of a crime but were semi-willing sacrifices to Woden, and so his reading into it not entirely historically accurate.

Last night was much goodness

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 14:57:33 GMT

So a few people showed up, I met a few new people and we laughed at my stupidity (and other things) and then it was 1 am and people were scrambling to make the bus to make the metro. I was sad to see people go but at the same time glad to see my bed... so tired but 100% have to do that again :)

Maybe more later but I was just getting up and thought I needed to post about how awesome my friends are.

Holiday Season

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 04:56:53 GMT

So this was my first Christmas being Jewish... and I gotta say it made the whole process a whole lot less stressful. Not that I have really cared about what a German pseudo-religious cultural character thought about whether I had been naughty or nice in recent years anyways. Though since I went down to see my Mom and all the family down east it meant I got all the food without much else by way of ceremony :P

Well I guess the first thing to do is tell you about the flight out eh? Boarding at Montreal we actually had to walk out onto the tarmac and walk up some stairs onto the plane it was really kind of amusing if a little cold. At the gate beside where we were boarding was Creebec air which was flying up to Iqualit (however you spell that) and all points way up north... so that gives you some idea which part of the airport I was in. It was about 40 minutes late at the airport in Nova Scotia because the ground crew was not actually around when we got on the ground really. Adding insult to lateness the plane was so tiny, just itty bitty and so when they were letting us off the ramp took like 15 minutes to readjust. Was so small it required me to damn near crouch while standing up from my seat, about maybe 50 people fit on the damn plane.... The lady sitting next to me was nice enough if a bit of a neo-conservative crazy who thought that Mike Harris had done a lot of good for the economy of Ontario. Which I guess is one way of looking at gutting social services and medical care to give tax breaks to corporation.

Ok, back to the airport story...I had forgotten to take my Dad's old scouting knife out of my bag while trying to go through security at the airport... did I mention the awkward? Mailed it to myself I didn't put an apartment number on it in my rush to get it mailed and all. It came through just fine though. The security guard said he was just glad that he didn't find it on my person because that gets a lot more awkward :D

Spent some really good time with my Mom... I missed her a lot. And I miss her a lot again but feel like I actually got to see her. Though there was a big 24-36 hour period there where I was just sick sick sick... some sort of flu thing that gave me some serious stomach cramps and fever. Eventually the fever broke but still felt weak for a few days after.

So you want to hear what my family gave me for Christmas? A challah board for shabbat dinners with a Hebrew blessing on it, a hanukiah and a draydel along with a few shirts and some food :)

And now its time to see if I can figure out what I am doing for schooling this coming term because its just all kinds of screwed up but more on that later. I Guess that will about do it for now just thought I would share a bit

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 12:07:40 GMT

Its amazing how you can listen to bands that were putting out music in the 1960's or 70's and their songs... they all sound... different. There is not this endless repeating of the exact same song with slight variation. Now this is not to say that bands today are less inventive, don't take me wrong just saying its frustrating that what gets put out is so damn similar and bands get packed away into being "That kind" of band or whatever... I know gross over-simplification but just downloaded a greatest hits by Journey because I heard Wheel in the Sky and kind of liked it and I just really have not found a lot else to like yet ... so maybe there is something to all of this photocopying... I dunno.

Can't sleep for some reason so here I sit typing away about whatever I've got rattling around in my head. Saw a picture claiming to be a breast infected with parasites and somehow the photoshop effects on it really disturbed me... even though I knew pretty much from the start that it was a fake or at least I hoped took me all of 20 seconds to find a mythbuster type web site about it... when I finally worked up the nerve to look up more info.There is just something unsettling about things going wrong with that particular body part. I don't know why but there just is.

Speaking of something kind of unsettling... I know the date of my circumcision finally Dec 15th. Wish there was a way around it but there isn't so I guess its time to be a man about it and try to act all adult... so not looking forward to it though.

Because somebody asked me to...

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 02:48:10 GMT

Nemesis

33% Extroversion, 100% Intuition, 72% Emotiveness, 47% Perceptiveness

You are a normally quiet person with very strong convictions and a marked activist streak. You have a clearly defined sense of right and wrong, and you like seeing people punished for their transgressions. You are Nemesis, goddess of punishment. You are a champion for the defenseless, you love poetic justice and, if karmic retribution doesn't have its say, then you'll have yours. You are astute, rarely fooled, and idealistic.

Your defining characteristic is your internal and inflexible system of morals. Because of your highly intuitive nature, you possess the theoretical nature required to define those morals, but you sometimes lack the ability to verbalize and expound on them, especially on the more nuanced parts of your worldview. Regardless, you have strong instincts which often prove to be correct, and rather than preaching, you act on them. You don't compromise -- ever.

You can sometimes be a person of great internal stress. You don't have double standards, and so you expect the same of yourself as you expect of others. You might find, sometimes, that you have just as hard of a time in living up to those expectations as the people around you. As a result, you are rarely at peace with yourself, but you're also likely to think of this in a positive light -- you're always forcing yourself to improve, and you avoid making mistakes.

You tend to be a private person, and don't like to talk much about those staunch morals of yours until, that is, they become violated. Once that happens, everyone is going to know exactly where you stand. You have a distaste of nihilism and intellectual relativism that will make you naturally compatible with scientists and certain kinds of philosophers, even if they don't share your activist streak.

Famous People like you: Goethe, Voltaire, Susan B. Anthony, Robert Burns

Similar Personality Types: Prometheus, The Oracle, Hermes, Orpheus

Avoid: Icarus, Dionysus, Agamemnon, Atlas

You may or may not be able to get along with an Odysseus -- it will depend on his/her upbringing.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on Extroversion
You scored higher than 99% on Intuition
You scored higher than 99% on Emotiveness
You scored higher than 99% on Perceptiveness

Link: The Greek Mythology Personality Test written by Aleph_Nine on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Random with a bit of interesting...

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 14:56:40 GMT

Was just looking through random images from LJ when I found this link: http://www.mapsofwar.com/ind/imperial-history.html a very visual representation of just how incredibly odd the history of the middle east is. Its a little overly simplistic but for 90 seconds of actual footage I was damn impressed.

The idea that western democratic style government is going to work there because George Dubbya says so ignores the deep seat issues of the area. Pretty nearly ever nation state that was set up by the colonial powers when they no longer had the money or interest in maintaining their position has some variety of issue. For instance, if you look at the way that most European nation states were made Iraq should probably be 3 different states for each of its dominant religious/cultural groups. Not that I am saying that the European style of nation building with all the fighting, biting and bloodshed is a model worth following but just thought I would share while I thought of it.

Is it just me?

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 14:21:20 GMT

I just don't get how the Muslim groups see the world apparently because from my perspective the extremists just keep proving the worst things said about them as true.

I was just reading something about the Muslim response to what the Pope said about their faith being full of violent zealots who spread their message through fear and hatred.

So lets see, there have been fire bombings, shootings and death threats against the Pontiff. Great way to win that popular support in the west. I really wish there was a no-nutjob-allowed clause in Religion at least let them wave a different banner while hacking and killing their way through this world.

Grumble

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 14:00:40 GMT

So I worked till midnight last night... and thus got home at about 1:15. Then puttered around the place till almost 2:30 and this morning the phone rings at 9:30. Apparently Central cleaners, formerly of Eatons home services wants to know if I would be interested in window cleanings or carpet shampooes.

Now I had to get up anyways to head off to work for 10 this morning anyways but for shits sake, the like 7 out of 10 times when people call me in the morning they aren't looking for me. I think I might just stop answering the phone in the AM and let the answering machine get it cause that is just a pissy way to wake up!

I had an odd dream

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 14:36:28 GMT

This morning I was dreaming about being back in grade 7 or 8 and having pool class in gym. To say that I disliked this period would be a serious understatement. That wasn't quite the thrust of the dream though it was more about how the group of people who were in the class would pick on anyone who was not 'popular' or 'cool' or whatever. They picked on me and I took it because they were just dumb kids who didn't know any better and for some reason being damn near 6 feet tall in middle school protected me without there needing to be confrontation and that carried over into the dream.

So there was this one person in the class that everyone picked on, nobody liked him even the girls were merciless and would tease him in pool class. There was one kid in the dream (that I cannot specifically name) that picked on this weak kid a hell of a lot with his friends. At a certain point the weak kid got up and left the pool to sit on the sidelines and avoid the horrors of the situation and they kept throwing the water polo ball at him. So somehow I got it into my head that I should do something about this and so one time when the ball was on the pool deck I got out of the water, grabbed the ball and threw it as hard as I could into the face of one of the minions of the mean kid who was laughing at my funny fat body when I got out of the pool. Then while he was stunned I jumped directly onto his head and face pushing him under the water and apparently doing quite a bit of damage. I held that puke under the water for a few minutes until the teacher pulled me off him. Then there is the flash of emergency crews and EMS workers.

At this point everyone in the class wants to lynch me for being such an asshole and telling me that I was some sort of freak for beating the hell out of the laughing kid for no good reason. Really I would have much rathered beat up the instigator/original mean kid but for some reason I was either afraid to or he wasn't close to the pool edge. I don't know anyways, in the dream I apparently crippled the kid I jumped on. The police officers who are around start telling people how to pull the blades out of razors and one of them offers one of the would-be-lynchers a hammer. One of the girls flings a razor blade at me and it sticks into my right bicep a tiny little bit and she shouts out, "Eva Longoria, that is the name of the girl he wanted to grow up and marry you prick, Eva Longoria!". So I jump into the pool again and they just start coming after me, I'm being held underwater struggling... I keep getting up for breath and they keep escaping before I can seriously hurt them and that's when I woke up. Wrapped and twisted in my bed sheets.

I don't know what to say about this except it was kind of disturbing to be back in awkward-ville population Me.

Sat, 17 Jun 2006 02:12:36 GMT

Just finished The Unbearable Lightness of Being a few minutes ago... just a truly great book. I love humanity sometimes, beauty and thought, philosophy and personal history, a love story and a Czech epic. That is about all I have to say about that.

If you've never read it, give it a try and if you have read it... then re-read it.

mmmm... pier pressure... err I mean peer pressure...

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 15:48:21 GMT

Leave your name, and ..
1. I'll respond with something random about you
2. I'll challenge you to try something
3. I'll pick a colour that I associate with you
4. I'll tell you something I like about you
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of
7. I'll ask you something I've always wanted to ask you
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on yours

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 15:25:16 GMT

I was reading an article on CBC's website about Montreal Muslims condemning the group that was arrested in Toronto... they then went on to say that it was unfair to call or characterize all Muslims as criminals. Isn't that what the police, the mayor, the PM and pretty nearly every reputable media outlet has been trying to avoid?

I don't mean any disrespect here, but one of the major complaints cited in the article is an attack that happened outside of a metro station here... the two men involved were not yet citizens of Canada. So isn't it a little bit unfair to characterize Canada as being anti-muslim? They also call for prominent members of the Muslim community to be given positions in the Canadian security services while at the same time saying they do not want to be seen as informers on their community... well then why should they be given such positions? I dunno, just something about the language they use sometimes baffles me a little.

Here is the article if you are interested: http://www.cbc.ca/montreal/story/qc-mtl-muslim20060607.html

And I am now gainfully employed

Thu, 04 May 2006 15:56:29 GMT

So the testing consisted mainly of checking for a pulse and a few touchy feely questions to see if I could fake being interested.

Remember that typing test I was worried about? It consisted of them throwing you in a room with a computer and letting you repeat it as many times as necessary until they got a score over 50. My computer either did not like how I was typing one bit or it was glitching because it kept repeating a phrase and not letting me move on from there which was stressful... after I figured out how to move past the spot everything worked out. Scored 68 WPM though the person dicating was speaking ... in very easily transcribed.... chunks of speech, and she described each bit of notation for example she would have said "chunks of speech comma and she" So overall not that bad an experience.

Next up I start training on the 15th and that runs 3 weeks from 4-11pm (which I thought was an odd time for training) more on that later when I actually start it I guess. It is kind of nice that I get paid for the training hours... however it does kind of interfere with the Judaism class a little bit :( And I entirely forgot about that until my girl reminded my forgetful self. Feeling a little sleepy now... so off to find some lunch I think.

So its nearly 8...

Thu, 04 May 2006 11:59:09 GMT

I woke up at about 5 this morning and barely remember being asleep again but then I looked at the clock and it said 6... so either I blinked a lot or there was some more sleep had. But I was pretty much wide awake at 6 and so I got out of bed and shuffled around the apartment since I have to head out to a typing test and potential job interview. Funny story about that, a friend of a friend gave them my CV yesterday and by the middle of the afternoon they had alerady called me to set up this appointment. Does that seem a little fast to anyone else? And did I mention the stupid nervous?

Its really quite foggy outside just now and not really all that warm, feels more like fall than like spring right now. It could very well have been like this every morning at around about 8 and I wouldn't have known it. There is something odd about the world continuing to spin even when you aren't looking, isn't there? Being as this is the only perspective I have, the idea that it isn't a perspective that is inherently privileged comes as a bit of a shock once in a while. Anyways, just thought I would sit down and write something and so here you go :)

Now I'm off to see about typing at something in excess of 50 words per minute on this test thingie.