Category: life

Categories
life

Year in Review 2010

Another year has come and gone. This year has been a good one. Some highlights for me include:

  • Some great parties.
  • Caught the Olympic spirit as the torch came to Lethbridge.
  • Falling into a couple of different (somewhat dramatic) relationships; sometimes in less than ideal circumstances.
  • Created some cool electronics
  • Finishing off another Major at University, providing me with the credentials to apply to the U of L’s Faculty of Education.
  • Travelling to Trois-Rivières, Quebec to learn French for the summer — there was a terrorist bombing my first week there!
  • Getting accepted into the Education Faculty and completing a teaching practicum in Hays, AB!
  • My brother and his wife had a baby — my first niece, Natalie Jane.

It was a good year but I’m hoping that in 2011 I’ll have more opportunities to travel the world. I don’t think I even left Canada this year! At least I went back to Quebec and that’s almost like visiting another country.

Happy New Year!
2011 (all rights reserved)

Categories
life

Thank-you Stranger

To the man or woman that found and returned my iPod touch today, I hope someone else returns the favor because You are a wonderful person.

I think it happened when I decided to jump up the stairs six at a time. I was feeling in a particularly good mood this morning and (if you can believe it) was even on time for my last class on “Evaluation”. The instructor continued making the day great by telling the class how much she enjoyed teaching us this semester and that she would miss being our teacher. I assumed I must have left my iPod in the car because I was certain I brought it with me this morning. I refused to think about the chance that it may have fallen out of my pocket because I was afraid of what that might mean.

I called security and found out that a modern day hero turned it in. THANK-YOU!

When I got home this afternoon I flipped my room upside down looking for some paperwork that I forgot to deal with before. It’s a form for my student loan that needs to be taken to the post office before they will “release” the loan to the school. Pretty dicey that I’ve taken this long since the semester is almost over. Oh well, I’m pretty sure things will work out just fine.

I’m glad I live in a place where University is just a student loan away and that people turn things in when they find them. Life is good.

Categories
education life

From Extinct to Just Feeling Like I’m Dying

I’m slowly finishing off each of the classes for my PS1 semester. We had a terrific class this morning in my Communications and Technology class. Our sessional instructor hooked us up with a video conference “experience” with the Tyrrell Museum.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, in fact, I was pretty sure I was going to study for my psychology test during it, hence I sat in the back, but it didn’t take long to realize this was something I would really enjoy.

Some students in the hallway outside were making a huge racket. I felt a bit odd going out to tell them to be quiet, because, while it seems like you’re just watching a talking head when the man on the screen is giving his lesson, it’s pretty jarring when he asks what’s going on with you walking out of the room.

As the video conference continued we learned about some of the different types of activities and lessons that take place during a typical video-conference with the museum and an individual classroom. We had a short virtual tour of the museum and learned about different dinosaur facts. I loved that I was able to answer a lot of the questions — I guess I remembered a lot of what I learned about dinosaurs from when I was a kid. Here’s one for you:

Q. What the name of the dinosaur in this picture I took a few years ago?

albertosaurus
(Hint: It’s Alberta’s most famous dinosaur)

A. The Albertosaurus.

The Tyrell Museum is not the only place that offers video conferencing presentations, in fact, there is a huge list at the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration. I’m going to remember this for when I’ve got a class of my own.

Because we went in early for the video conference, we also got to leave an hour or so earlier than normal. I took the opportunity to go for a swim at the pool and did the usual 1km workout. I have to say that skipping out on it so much lately makes it hard to get back in the water. As I floated at the edge, I decided to put in 2 more lengths and really go all out — to see if I’ve still got it.

28 seconds for a 50 meter free, I guess you can say I’ve still got it, but I think I left “it” in the water because when I got out, I felt sick! Oh my, I had pushed myself too hard. I left myself with no choice but to sit it out for the next 15 or so minutes and even had the lifeguard a bit worried about me because my face was completely white and I must have looked like I was just about dead. I certainly felt that way.

If school doesn’t kill me, maybe the pool will.

Categories
education life

Jeff Milner Autobiography

A very short summary of my life:

Jeff Milner’s 2 minute autobiography.

(Made for one of my education classes).

Autobiographical writing and representation
By Jeff Milner
Due September 29, 2010
Images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffmilner/sets/72157624935640311/show/
(to be played simultaneously with the audio)

Transcript of the audio:

I began my school life in the autumn of my sixth year. Over the next 12 years as I finished elementary, jr. and sr. high I felt that I would never complete school. I spent winter evenings playing basketball at the gym and my summers in the pool. I developed a passion for travel. My family would often take road trips to the United States. At age 15 I took part in an international art camp in Japan.

I learned the value (and grind) of manual labor working on a huge vegetable farm packing corn and carrots. In the eleventh grade I decided not to rejoin the basketball team and instead took a job with a local computer shop fixing PCs and eliminating lemons by checking new computers before they left the store. It wasn’t glamorous work, but it sure beat packing corn.

At 19, I moved to Salt Lake City volunteering a year of service to my church. This remains one of the most memorable years of my life.

After returning, I got a job working for the City of Medicine Hat in their GIS department. Using an air photo covering the city limit I traced the outline of every building within the municipal boundary. It was during this time that I began to kayak.

The job only lasted for about a year and then I began work as a pre-press assistant at the Medicine Hat News. Working nights didn’t suit me, so I found a new job working for a local engineering company that did defense research at the nearby army base. My job was to bury electronic landmines for research purposes.

Moving from job to job and living at home, while building an interesting set of skills and experiences, did not give me the same satisfaction as the more stable and independent life I would find when I moved to Lethbridge to start university in 2002. I found a great source of friendship on the university swim team.

I completed a degree in New Media 4 years later with a work experience placement in Malaysia helping create channel identity clips for Southeast Asia’s music channel, Channel V. Although it was a wonderful opportunity I didn’t take full advantage of my time there because I was distracted with heartache due to the break-up with my university sweet-heart.

After convocation I went into web design and photography full tilt. My skills in kayaking improved and I also took a couple of teaching jobs in the summer at the University. I alternated between teaching the Movie Making, animation, and swim camps. I found a love for teaching there that in part inspired me to return to school and get a second degree in formal education. Sometimes I still feel like I will never finish school but now I look at the journey itself as my destination and it doesn’t bother me that I’m still not done. I’ll always keep growing.

Reflection on the process of creation:
I wanted to fit in as much as possible in just two minutes. This restraint left me with the arduous chore of deciding what to include and what to cut. I’m not sure I made the best choices as many very interesting things about myself didn’t make it. (I do have about 10 years more than most of the students, so perhaps if I had an extra minute I could have fit it all in there).

Some of the images fit perfectly with the story, while at times other images that I wish I had, just don’t exist.

The music that goes with the story ads a level of interest that I personally really like. Creating a podcast is something that I’ve been interested in for a long time and I’m glad this assignment pushed me into creating one.

Categories
life Music

J’taime comme un fou – lipdub

During my “Music of Quebec” workshop at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres in the Explore program, together with almost 100 students, we created this “lipdub” music video. Students from the Summer 2010 session of the workshop participated in the video singing along to the song “J’taime comme un fou” [I love you like a fool] by Robert Charlebois.

Categories
education life Politics travel

Bomb Blast in Trois-Rivières

Yesterday at 3am, a bomb went off at the Canadian Forces Recruiting Centre in Centre Ville, Trois-Rivières. Nobody was hurt. Catch the CBC’s coverage here.

I am in Trois-Rivières this month studying French.

CSI: Trois-Rivières

Categories
life nature travel

Trans Canada Highway Shut Down

On Friday I took a little trip to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. When we noticed the sign warning us of a police barricade ahead, we thought we might have to wait for an accident to be cleared.

It turns out that due to all the rain, the highway was “washed out”. It ended up not really affecting our trip, we just turned north sooner than we had planned, but I understand the flood waters have been very terrible for the people in Maple Creek and Irvine (among other places).

Here’s some footage of the “wash out” on the highway. I had no idea.

(Thx, Kim)

Categories
life Sport

Three River Rendezvous 2010

Over the long weekend my friend Andy and I went to the Castle River Rodeo Grounds to take part in the biggest whitewater festival in Canada, the Three River Rendezvous. My decision to go wavered when I read that the weather forecast predicted cool temperatures, variable cloudiness, and sprinkled showers. Luckily we pressed on and, as it turns out, the weather wasn’t actually that bad, and for most of the time, it was actually sunny — I even got a little burned on my face.

Unfortunately, tragedy struck on Sunday night. After we had returned from our trip running the Five-Alive feature on Carbondale River a couple of times, Chuck Lee, the organiser of the event broke the news that one of the participants had been taken to the hospital in an ambulance. He explained that a group of kayakers were going over Lundbreck Falls and that on this particular run the boater was held under the falls for several minutes. He was revived once or twice but that’s all he let us know at the time. He emphasized again the need to always be vigilant and to remember that these kinds of things don’t just happen in other places, they can happen here too. We held a moment of silence in respect for the victim.

It was a sobering thought because I had never heard of anyone getting caught in the flow of water under the falls, and to think I, myself, have braved the 12 meter drop and walked away without so much as a scratch.

Kayaking Lundbreck Falls

Jeff Milner going over Lundbreck Falls in June 2008.

I found out later that night who was involved in the accident. I had hoped that it would be someone that I didn’t know but that’s not how it turned out. His name is Jaron and I had bumped into him just the morning before at the put-in for the Upper Castle run. I have paddled with him and his twin brother Dave a couple of times over the last two years.

I looked up some old paddling footage and found some with him in it:

Kayaking The Castle River May Long Weekend

He’s the one in the yellow and orange boat, yellow jacket, and blue helmet. His twin brother is also in the video.

I didn’t know him that well, but it was obvious that he had a passion for kayaking. Both he and Dave are the kind of enthusiastic friendly people that you want to spend a sunny day with floating down the river and enjoying nature. I remember talking to Dave for a long time about his decision to become a teacher and although I have many other influences for my decision to go back to school, it was that conversation that tipped me over the edge.

Kayaking isn’t always considered an extreme sport where you expect to hear about someone dying but every year there are a few news stories where someone drowns in a river. Almost always they are inexperienced or not wearing PFDs, or there is alcohol involved somehow so Jaron’s death comes as a great shock to the paddling community.

Categories
life

House Warming

I’ve been down in the dumps for the past week thinking about how things didn’t pan out so well with Kim and me during her last week here before field season. I talked to her on the phone the other day and that seemed to help but I didn’t really ask her the question I really wanted to, and that is, why did she do it?

Moving on, or at least trying to, I’m going over to Susan’s place this evening for a house warming party. I feel like I should be taking something over there, but I’ve got no ideas. I’m half afraid to drive anywhere after getting those tickets yesterday.

Categories
life

The Hot Tub Time Machine Party

We had a fun party at the Manor on the weekend. (Here are the flickr photos, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13). I brought my new friend, Kim, along to meet all the gang. She got rather drunk — I was even trying to follow a friend’s advice (ie. that couples should try and stay at the same level of inebriation) but alas, she did a shot or two that I didn’t get in on and next thing I knew she had lost her impulse control and began a journey to flirt with anyone that would respond. I took it in stride — I’m actually not that worried about it — it’s already a complicated situation, but it was embarrassing because it was in front of, and sometimes with, my friends. Shannon upon leaving the house happened to find me putting on my shoes (we are shoes off in houses in Canada) and told me in no uncertain terms, “Dump that woman!”. Yup.

Still I had a great time, despite the embarrassment, and aside from getting my sleep schedule back on time things are great. I didn’t even have much of a hangover — either I’ve learned how to handle my liquor or maybe it was not having those two shots on the booze luge that saved me.

Yesterday I slept in and though I’m trying to get back to my routine, I’m still tempted to take little cat naps throughout the day. I played around on the google reader for most of the morning, then in the afternoon I watched a couple of episodes of 30 Rock. I made myself a pizza for lunch and then later watched the hockey game with Eric. He shared an amazing pasta dish with me that he brought home from the restaurant. I really like that. He asked (as he often does) if I wanted to go out back and ‘smoke’, but as usual I turned him down. Montreal won the hockey game and tied the series 3 to 3.

After the game I headed over to the University for a swim and it was quite refreshing. I finished my main workout in 17 minutes which is actually 20 seconds slow for my usual target time 16:40 (50m every 50 seconds). It’s still not a bad pace time at all. I stuck around a bit longer doing a few more laps, helped pull ropes for the lifeguard on duty. She’s a cute little blond girl but I would have offered to help any of the lifeguards, since it’s much easier to swim ropes across than it is to take all the trouble of walking each one around individually and I was just there swimming anyway so what did I care?

I steamed it up afterward; I really love the steam room and then on my way out I chatted up some girl that I recognized from water polo. It didn’t take long for my Mormon radar, my Mordar, (if you will) to go off. I told her that I grew up Mormon but that I know longer am and she asked what they all ask, why did you stop? So I gave her my typical and very brief answer that I could no longer suspend my disbelief. She asked what I believe now and I told her science. She laughed and said something like, well that’s not a bad thing to believe in.

I jumped into my jeep and discovered the engine light is on. A quick browse in the owner’s manual let me know that it’s ok to drive but that I should take it in to get checked out. I’m guessing this is related to the issue it was having the other night where the engine didn’t quite sound right.

And that brings me up to now. I can’t say I’m keen on not seeing Kim anymore so I’m not really looking for confirmation that that is what I should do but I really like her and she’s moving away for the summer in about 10 days, so I’m just going to hang with her until she leaves.

As for today, I took the bus over to the university to work out what I need to do to apply to the Education Faculty and to go for another swim. A couple of my female friends complimented me on my “rock hard stomach” at the party (and one of them told me that all the ladies were admiring me) so those compliments have given me an extra boost to want to work out even more. Ah, it’s nice to be in my prime. Life is great.