Author: Jeff Milner

Categories
life

Uncle Vanya, The Swimmeet, and Jack Skellington

Friday night Anna and I went to Uncle Vanya. It is a play at the University; required watching for Drama 1000 students like myself. I would like to say it was great, however, to be honest I struggled to even stay awake. I was supposed to attend a pot-luck swim party that evening so I really missed out.

The swim meet was good. I swam my 100 free in just under a minute. Nicola, a girl from my Drama class, told me she was going to come and watch me swim. I didn’t think she would really come so I didn’t think much of it. To my surprise, come Saturday morning, there she was. It started to dawn on me that this girl had a crush on me. It also started to dawn on me that I hadn’t really explained that I had a girlfriend sitting just down the stands also there to watch me swim.

I had to go stretch. I shared out the times that I would be swimming and they said they would come back later. I wasn’t sure they really would return.

I swam the 50 free in 25.35. I didn’t beat my personal best time (pb25.13) but nevertheless it does qualify me for Canada West and the rest of the swimmers were quite surprised. I guess they never realized I have a pretty fast 50. Anyway in my disappointed state I talked to Anna for a moment and then cut her off when I started talking to Andy. I felt pretty disappointed and just hit the showers. Apparently Nicola was up on the stands again. I never even realized she was there. She saw me talking with Anna and approached her. I assume she began to realize who Anna was. Nicola asked her how she knew me.

I had told Anna about Nicola, how I suspected she might have a bit of a crush on me. Anna is the type of girl that is so worried about others that she momentarily contemplated not telling her.

“I’m his girlfriend,” she replied.

And that settled it. Anna and Nicola made small talk or whatever afterwards. Nicola was curious about how I did so Anna explained that my time was good but that I was disappointed with it. That is pretty much how it went and now I can’t help but feel a bit guilty. I don’t know though – what else could have I done? Telling her up front that I had a girlfriend would have been somewhat presumptuous of me. I guess things just sorted themselves out as they usually do.

This morning I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas. I’ve wanted to see it for quite awhile and I really enjoyed it. Mostly I appreciated the tremendous amount of time and effort that went into such a creation. It is truly a masterpiece.

Categories
meta

My First Post

My first post on the new blog. I intend this to be a place where I can post and not have to worry about editorial censorship.

Update: I’m bringing some of my older posts from the last blog here. It’s a lot bigger job than I had imagined; hence the reason it is taking so long to do it.

Categories
article Statistics

Maybe if People Played More Board Games

57% of Ontario residents do not feel strongly that they have enough fun in their lives. A poll by Cranium/Ipsos-Reid also found that residents in Quebec (49%) are the most fun-filled people in Canada, especially compared to Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where just 24% of residents feel strongly that they have enough fun in their lives. Alberta came in second last with 68% of people reporting they don’t feel strongly that they have enough fun in their lives. It seems logical enough though, what with all those French circuses in Quebec—why wouldn’t they be happy?

Continuing with my statistically ample post, and on a slightly darker note, only 26 people are known to have survived the 220 foot drop from the Golden Gate Bridge. The number of jumpers has reached over 1000. I recommend this insightful New Yorker article about jumpers of the Bay Area’s famous bridge. (It’s a long one, but a good one).

Categories
life Music

Go Deaf for Def Leppard Update

At the crack of dawn this morning Anna-Maria and I headed off to Rock 106 to try and win some concert tickets. When I got there, there was only one other contestant. Things were looking up, but then they got on the radio and asked more people to come down and be in on the contest. Well a few more people started to show up and after a slight mishap with dead batteries in the decibel reader they got things underway.

First off, I should explain the basis behind this contest. The idea was that whoever sang the loudest Def Leppard line would win tickets to the Def Leppard concert on Monday. They talked Anna into also participating and she sang at an amazing 101.2 decibels (or was it 102.1?) She sang Pour a Little Sugar on Me — which she said she didn’t even know and nobody else sang louder than Anna-Maria, in fact nobody else even broke 100 decibels, except for me. I yelled a spectacular 106.6 decibels of Let’s Get Rocked and then after the contest was over did an encore performance and sang at 108.1!

We won the tickets and now all that’s between me and a sweet free Def Leppard concert is getting out of my evening class on Monday night. We are pumped.

Categories
Miscellaneous

You Can’t Keep the Mountain, But How About an Airport?

Former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was honoured today at a ceremony to rename Montreal-Dorval International Airport to Trudeau Airport.

“The world remembers Pierre Elliott Trudeau,” Alexandre (Sacha) Trudeau told several dozen family members, friends and other invited guests.

Of course, you know what they remember? “For us, Trudeau is a dictator,” said one unhappy Quebecois who wishes they would just leave the airport’s name alone.

Categories
animation copyright Music

Girl 12, Settles Lawsuit

Recently, the RIAA laid charges on a 12 year old girl from New York State for copyright violations by downloading music over the Internet.

It has now been announced (CNN story) that the RIAA has rushed to settle with the young Brianna LaHara, after serving her with a lawsuit on Monday. It looks like her single mother will be paying a $2,000 fine to the RIAA for her daughter’s song-swapping, which they had thought was legal. They purchased the software that allowed them to swap files with other users.

Quoting Brianna: “I am sorry for what I have done. I love music and don’t want to hurt the artists I love.” What a relief this must be for the huge bands like Metallica.

You might think that the RIAA was being excessive but see, downloading files is just a gateway crime… by the time this girl is 17, she’ll be sharing video games, and maybe by the time she’s in her early 20’s she’ll be giving away illegal copies of Microsoft Office! Thank goodness for American justice.

Categories
life

2003/2004 Swim Season: How to Deal with Muscle Cramps

I just finished the first swim practice of this season. I am exhausted. I could feel my legs ready to cramp up at any second; my right leg did cramp up just as I was getting out of the pool at the end of practice. If you have never had a leg cramp let me tell you, it is a very painful experience.

The other swimmers tell me that the best thing to do to prevent leg cramps is to eat foods with lots of potassium, like bananas. The best thing to do when you already have a cramp is to fully extend your leg – although at the time that may seem like the last thing you want to do.

The cramp I had this morning was such a painful big cramp that I could actually see the muscles bulging out where the cramp was. Tonight I will consume a whole tree’s worth of bananas.

My coach says the whole banana as a cure for muscle cramps is a placebo.

Categories
life Music

Go Deaf for Def Leppard – Rock 106 Radio Contest

I forgot to mention that this morning on the radio I heard them talking about free tickets for Def Leppard for the next 10 callers. Well I whipped out the cell phone and then Fraser and Rosie (the breakfast boys) explained to me that I didn’t win yet but that I had to come down to the studio on Friday morning and sing a short clip from Def Leppard. Whoever sings the loudest will win the tickets. Somewhat hesitantly I told them I would be there.

Update: Apparently I have quite the ability to raise my voice — see how the contest turned out.

Categories
Miscellaneous

Potential Make-Up Artist for Hire

I told Anna that I might advertise her skills as a make-up artist for this Halloween. She would have a blast doing it and whoever had their fancy custom made mask/make-up would really love it too. It’s a win/win situation. They could slap on some old age makeup or try out some elf ears. I’m sure Anna could come up with a lot of other cool ideas too. Maybe Mom or Dad would like her help to dress up this year. I’m guessing Mom really would like something fancy to show off for her Kindergarten. Hopefully she (Anna) is not off working someplace when Halloween rolls around.

Categories
Miscellaneous

The Fridge, The Roommate, and Me

It’s finally come to this – I need a second fridge. Not just for space but for sanitation reasons as well. One of my roommates had one of those giant cans of tomato sauce in the fridge. You know the kind I mean, they must hold about 5 litres of sauce. Well instead of sealing it away in any kind of airtight container he just cut the lid half way off, folded it up to use it and then folded it back down to, you know, keep the mold out. Well needless to say he had a fine culture growing rapidly in a mostly full 5 litre can of tomato sauce. He seemed hesitant to throw it out.

He did eventually throw it out and we cleaned the fridge up pretty good. However, the situation still requires a second fridge for all of our food. Anna’s mother so kindly gave her a huge amount of groceries and we don’t want any of it to go bad so we need more fridge space. Luckily everything fit so far. We really do appreciate the groceries. So if anyone has a fridge for sale or for “giving away” please let us know.