New Disclaimer

I added a disclaimer. I doubt it'll stand up in court or anything but it's better to have it than not. I assume the Creative Commons would also offer some help. It's not that I believe someone is going to steal me work.

Honestly, I saw it someone else's blog and decided I'd add it to mine.

So you've all been warned.

In Sickness and Health

So I'm a month into this nagging sickness. I got over one cold then caught the flu. This is the first time in years I've been like this, sick for an extended period of time. I thought I was taking care of myself but maybe I'm not. Anyway, enough of this negative talk. On to a positive - my caffeine consumption is way down.

The American Netflix library is by far and away better than the Canadian Netflix library. I know that's what my last post was about but it really needs to be stated again. 

Everyone should read Young Avengers #1 (Marvel) by Kieron Gillen (writer) and Jamie McKelvie (artist), the creators of the Phonogram series. If you want to get a feel for the series without purchasing it, read Gillen's character profiles, including soundtracks. I haven't read any of the previous Young Avengers series and knew very little about the characters but it didn't matter. Everything is set up quickly. And the art - oh man, it's so good. McKelvie makes all the characters look modern, which is unusual in mainstream superhero comics. The haircuts are from this decade, and the fashion choices look like they've come out of a hipster lookbook. So basically what eighteen year-olds look like. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the Brian Lee O'Malley variant cover (seen above without colouring). 

Also, read Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's review of HBO's Girls and his rebuttal to his critics. I've always been impressed by Abdul-Jabbar, especially his connection to Bruce Lee in the 70s (his fight scene in Game of Death is awesome). Lee was one of my cinema idols when I was a kid, so anyone associated with him was ok in my books, but I didn't know anything about Kareem's basketball accomplishments.  

2012 - Personal Look Back

So, it's the almost 2013. What did 2012 bring me? In terms of major life events, it was a quiet year; no new job, people, or living arrangements. What it did bring was a renewed effort to live better. Over the course of the year I had several minor injuries. These injuries made it very obvious that change in lifestyle was necessary. Nothing dramatic, just a change starting with becoming more active. I've spent the last couple of years trying to get my professional life together, which meant I had little energy to contribute to outside pursuits. Hobbies that involved time commitments were set aside to focus on getting my shit together. One of these hobbies, outdoor activities, has really caught my attention again. So I'm glad about that and I know these changes will help in the future.

I don't make predictions or resolution for the new year. I do have on going projects I'd like to get off the ground next year but otherwise here's hoping for a happy new year!

Healthy Body, Sick Mind

I'll freely admit I don't have the most active lifestyle. Recently this has caught up with me in the forms of minor chronic aches and pains. So my resolve has been to slowly change habits. This has been a successful plan of action.

Being more aware, however, has also had the adverse effect of creating phantom issues. "Fix" one thing and it seems something else goes wrong.

So now I have to avoid worry because that isn't productive.

Bright New Day

So the countdown to construction is on! On Thursday I start what will probably amount to a very frustrating project of building shelves to store my comic books. This project is by far the largest building project on my own. I don't pretend to be handy but I do know how to use a hammer. My last attempt to build shelves turned into a rather large table with four extra legs for support. I believe there's a picture of it somewhere on this blog.

Anyway, this is how I'm spending my vacation. That and seeing my grandmother, friends, and going to a late Christmas party.

Money rules the world

I've been trying to find a system in which helps me with my finances. See, I'm okay with money. I don't overspend but I also don't save extraordinary amounts of money either. My current system involves three different bank accounts with three different banking institutions. I've been using it for about a month now and it seems to be working 'cause I've actually saved some money. A very small amount, but it's a start. This is my new theory of personal savings based entirely not trusting myself with large sums of money.

EDIT (30/03/09): I forgot to post this earlier in the week for some reason that now escapes me. Enjoy.

Love Is Dead

So that might be a little of an overstatement. But it's catchy, right?

Anyway, I've been thinking about going totally public with my blog. What do I mean exactly? Well, basically I'm thinking attaching my real name to the blog and attaching it to my facebook page. Why, at this point in time, would I do this? I don't know. There's nothing on this blog that I'm ashamed of (at least what I can remember). My past is what it is. The question now is whether or not I want future employers to be able to read everything about my life, including mistakes that were made.

On a completely different note, I'm about fifty posts away from reaching my one thousandth post. 2009 is the year... If I had been posting once a day this should have taken just under three years. Instead, took over eight. Good job, ryan, good job.

I'm tired and want to go home

I'm slowly digitizing all of my CDs.

I had previously started this process several times but each time something happened so I had to stop. The first time my external hard drive crashed. The second time I lacked the space on my portable hard drive (couldn't leave the music on my laptop because it lacked the necessary space). Now that I have both an external and portable hard drive I finally have the space to finish the job.

Before I started two days ago roughly one third of my collection wasn't digitized and wasn't sure what was and what wasn't. I've had to sort through every CD, check iTunes, and finally burning it. The external CD-ROM wasn't working fast enough so I took advantage of my home network. I burned the CDs on the desktop then transferred them to my laptop. This one of the hacks I learned using the lifehacker book.

This process has allowed my more time to read my book. I still don't totally buy what the author is selling but it is certainly interesting. I don't know if that came through in my previous posts. I had never thought about what Anderson is discussing. The theories and examples he cites are things I'm doing everyday. I'm just not convinced how this theory of the long tail can be used as a model or an idea to create a sustainable business model. I feel this is due to my lack of business knowledge (I don't even know how to file my taxes).

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So, I'll admit that this was an attempt to write paragraphs that flow well. As always, I'm working on my writing. My focus is on my style because I've never spent enough time working on it. The content has always come easily. I'm always coming up with good ideas. It's the execution that causes me trouble. Simple things like verb-subject agreement through the paragraph has been difficult for me. I know there are mistakes but I'm slowly working through them. I'm slowly attempting to edit my work.

As a teenager, I was afraid to read my work because there were so many mistakes. Now it doesn't matter. It's just for fun. It's so I feel like I'm doing something productive. I just want a record 'cause I don't trust my memory. Even if all the details aren't available here on the blog, I'll remember.

Okay, that's enough for now. Here's another song for the lonely hearted: Sweet Jane - Cowboy Junkies

Man at Work

Ever go to work and wonder why you showed up? Yesterday was like that. There's was very little to do and time seemed to drag on.

I usually don't talk about my current employment situation because A) it's a little boring and B) I avoid thinking about it when I'm not there. It's not that it's a bad job it's just... well it doesn't pay well and isn't all the challenging. My co-workers are good people. They're mostly young people still in university or recent graduates. For them, like myself, this job is a way of paying the bills. Most of them are looking for other jobs but given the current climate there's some safety in knowing that the flagship store is the least likely shutdown first.

Since my job isn't very difficult and spend time working in the business section, I've tried employing some of the strategies on how to be a good worker. It hasn't worked as effectively as I wanted because well... I can't bring myself to care enough. I have, however, avoided some of the traps of gossip.

Dolly Parton [with a bunch other people] - Romeo

Terrible Lies

My last post was, among other things, about my lack of experience with technology. I think I have to explain myself as I have spent the last three days playing my new (purchase used) xbox 360, neglecting everything else in my life. I can't follow every trend because I don't have the money, so I have to really do some research and get the most for my money.

Also, all my friends have xboxes.

the library is a beautiful place

Today I went to the Toronto Reference Library. It is a massive building that houses thousands of books; books that tell fantastical stories and give us access to priceless information. From time to time, I like to spend an afternoon or morning just to be there. In university, I went to this library when I need a break from the intense environment that was the university libraries. I like the idea of public library; a place where anyone can enter and learn about whatever topic they want. It seems so idealistic and sometimes I like feeling like that. I don’t find the reality that far off. Yes, these public institutions often find themselves underfund and many of the books are outdated, but they exist. There are books on the shelf and there is no boundary stopping you from reading them*. Again, I know my view of this is slightly unrealistic, but sometimes I like to bask in my naïveté.

After taking a moment to remind myself of my love for library, I went searching for the books I wanted. I found the “how to write” section easily (okay, it took me ten minutes to find it because the aisle wasn’t labeled properly. I still maintain my love for the library). Ever since I found myself unemployed a month ago, I started thinking about things I could do with my life aside from what I’ve gone to school for. One of the things was writing. I don’t know what I was going to write about yet. I read one book that said you should write what you know. What do I know? I was certain I didn’t know how to write.

Not knowing how to write concerned me greatly. I have completed somewhere between five to seven years of post-secondary education. I was successful in school and taught grammar. I have two degrees and still I wonder if I know how to write properly. Yes, while in grade school I was diagnosis with a learning disability, but all that means is I have to watch my sentence construction. That doesn’t affect how I organize my thoughts in a manner that logic. No, I just didn’t care. I couldn’t take the time to truly learn how to write a proper essay so I’ve decided to do something about this.

My decision is this – every week I’m going to write an entry that is at least 500 words on a topic that peaks my interest. My goal is not ramble but instead write a concise piece. It could be anything from a review of a new album, book, or television show to an anecdote from my day. So, aside from the length and weekly commitment, absolutely nothing changes on the blog.

I may have written something like this before. My goal is to do this for two months before I assess whether to continue or not.


*There are obvious barriers for people with disabilities and I hope my generalization does not make light of their lives.

Trains

Yesterday, for the first time in as long as I can remember, I got on the wrong subway train. It was embarrassing and thankfully no one noticed.

Stop dead in your tracks

Today I received my vacation pay and I applied to get on the dole.

It's been an interesting day.

Things I Learned Today

There's an Emo, Ontario and there are four doctors practicing there who are accepting new patients. This is what I'm learning at my job.

OCD much?

I've had some time on my hands the last couple of days (I've been a little under the weather). So what do I do with this extra time? I go back to 2005 and label all my old posts. I went back as far as when I started titling my posts. Seemed like a good place to stop. No real reason except that I thought it was a good idea. I sadly found that most of my labels didn't exactly fit the content appropriately but I made due.

They tried to make me go to rehab

Over the last couple of days, I have spent an inordinate amount of time talking about Canada and being Canadian. This is partly due to my presence in America but I'd like to go on record saying that it's mostly my doing 'cause I like to talk about this shit. Seriously, even I find it a bit annoying after a while.

The differences between and Canada and the United State can't easily be summed up, even if beer commercials, politicians and Michael Moore try to do exactly that. It's a lot of little things that if you weren't really paying attention you'd hardly notice. Mostly it's small group of Canadians trying very hard to avoid being engulfed by American cultural machine. When I lived in Windsor, which is just across the river from Detroit, many of the people who grew up in Windsor said they felt more American than Canadian because all their news and sports teams resided on the other side of the border. It's difficult to assess what is Canadian and what isn't. Knowledge of history and politics makes someone a citizen of their country but not fully socialized member of the cultural group.

So what's the differences I've noticed? Well, aside from a fundamental knowledge of how the different bureaucratic institutions work, there's really nothing. I don't think anyone wants to know in detail how Canadians elect their government anymore than how Americans do it [ASIDE: although, from watching and reading a lot about the presidential primaries, I have to say it seems that the Canadian system is a little easier to follow].

So, I apologize to all the people who have had to listen to me go on about Canada over the last couple of days. If you want to know the honest truth, as an out of work teacher this is the only time I get to truly inform people about something new to them. If I had a job I'd probably want to be talking about about Phoenix's acquisition of Shaq last week or something else... like beer... or cola... or blogs. Who knows?

Cross Town Traffic - 7 years of it

Above picture from spacing.ca

I hate traffic. It hasn't bugged me until recently. This is probably due to the fact I never had to drive regularly during rush hour. In the last two months, I have done just that and I don't understand how people do it. Sitting in your car going nowhere getting frustrated has the minutes pass by; Just doesn't sound like a fun time to me. UFC takes the train in from Hamilton (a city just west of Toronto also known as The Hammer) and spends that time reading or sleeping. When I go to work down at the university, I take the subway and read. It's so much nicer. Don't have to think about anything except missing my stop.

I know I sound like bad ad for public transportation but with everyone talking about going green, it only makes sense to these little things. Another plus is that you get to act all high and mighty if you so choose. I just do it to avoid the headache of traffic and I don't understand why more people don't.

Now all I need is an MP3 player to listen to during the ride.

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Now, I know this doesn't sound like a post that truly celebrates the last seven years but I couldn't think of anything that sums up my feelings about blogging for all these years. Post a song, mentioning the anniversary... that's about all I've got in me in terms of celebration. So I'll leave it at that and I'll thank all the random people looking for Rick Mercer's blog for reading.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to

Last night I got home from a double birthday party at 5am. At least that's when I was told I got home. Took the late night bus followed by a very informative taxicab ride. It seems that people are willing to take a taxi from Toronto to Montreal, with the meter running, for a total cost of 820 dollars.

I have also sworn off karaoke for the foreseeable future.

I am also going to avoid sleeping in a chair again. That might be out of my hands but I'm going to do everything in my power to get it done.

I've started going crazy

I'm now in the process of going back through my archives and tagging all my old posts. I'm thinking of going as far back as 2005 but I'll probably just label posts starting with the stuff in 2007. I don't know how I actually feel about labelling my posts but I'll do it for now. Gives me something to do instead of schoolwork.

The day the music died

James Brown is dead on Christmas Day. Wasn't going to post but figured this was worth it. At some point in everyone's musical career, however small, they played (or attempted to) a bar of some James Brown song. Pop music wouldn't be the same without this master. It was just so good.

On a more positive note, I just realized (thanks to facebook) that I went to high school, and was friends with, a guy named David Brent.