Last Week of School

I’ve only got one more week of school before the summer. I hate to talk about how posting has been rare lately, but I have been feeling guilty about it — hopefully I’ll get back to regular blogging when I finish up my final projects.

This summer looks to be very exciting for me, I’m headed back to Quebec in July to learn more French.

And I’m Back…

I had a great birthday weekend but things really went downhill yesterday. I always think it’s pretty silly when people get thrown off by the time change, however, it turns out I’m now one of those people. My iTouch had the correct time on it, but the alarm clock beside my bed was an hour slow. When I figured things out I had less than a half hour to get ready for school and make it to class. Lately I’ve been doing my part for the environment (not to mention saving money on gas) by taking the bus to the University, but since I was late, I had to drive. Since I don’t drive regularly, I parked on the street, and since I was late, there were no close parking spaces — oh except that one with the “no parking” sign. What are the chances they’d give me a ticket? It turns out, the chances are pretty good.

A ticket for parking without a pass at the University works out to about $8. That’s less than some people pay for parking at regular price. A ticket for parking beside a no parking sign? Sixty @#^^ing dollars! (With a reduction of $19 if paid within a week). Argh.

It also turns out that I forgot to renew the jeffmilner.com domain name when I paid to renew the hosting plan. The stress caused by the fact that I might not be able to get my web site back easily made me pretty mad and I found myself racing home from reffing water polo with the pedal to the metal. Knowing full well that if I wasn’t careful I’d end up with a speeding ticket too, I calmed down and slowed down. No sooner than I slowed down to the speed limit, someone’s cat darted out in front of my vehicle and if I hadn’t taken a moment to simmer down, I would’ve taken that cat’s nine lives with nothing more than a bump.

I thought, this might make for an interesting story to post on my blog. Oh… right.

Luckily, LUCKILY, I was able to renew it when I got home last night and once again all is well in my universe — oh except for that nasty parking ticket. What was I thinking?

Year in Review 2009

With another year coming to a close, I decided to take a look back and recall some of my highlights for the year.

Happy New Year!

A Glimpse

BEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBE…The whining screech of the fire alarm wakes me abruptly.

I glance at the alarm clock beside my bed. 6:10am seems a bit early to get up on a Saturday morning but I decide that I’d better check just in case nobody’s around — nobody is.

There isn’t a lot of smoke, in fact, in my groggy state I can’t figure out the source of the alarm. Then a moment later I flip on the oven light.

It turns out somebody’s cooking one of those Delissio frozen pizzas. I hope they like a crispy crust… with black toppings. Yum.

Google Wave

I just received an invitation to join Google Wave. I have yet to have an actual conversation in it yet, but I’ve been supplying nominations for a few of my friends to get invitations. It’s sort of like being the first person with a telephone—it’s not very useful until the people you want to talk to, get one too.

Previously

Homemade Jib

I finished the homemade jib I started working on last Saturday this afternoon. Here it is:

My New Jib

Here is some of the first footage.

I realize I need to work on the steadiness of my hand, but so far I’m quite happy with how easy it was to get a more professional looking shot. The whole contraption cost me about $45 CAN and a few hours of work — not bad!

I used the plans I found here.

Missed Connection

Feeling tired after a long day at school, I walk toward the setting sun. I must run to catch the pedestrian light and I jump to safety just as the countdown reaches zero.

I walk another block to my forlorn vehicle. Everyone else picked up their cars hours ago. I feel anxious to get home. I roll down my window to let some of the hot air out of the Jeep and I’m on my way.

I glance at the oncoming traffic and see my opening. I quickly make my right hand turn, rushing out to catch another green light just down the block.

That’s when I notice you. Your blonde hair is glistening in the setting sun. My gaze immediately settles on your bright blue eyes. You are riding toward the setting sun. You are beautiful, but you look like you’re about to die.

My wheels scream as I slam on the brakes. Your jaw drops and you stare at me like I’ve done something wrong. I wonder what that could possibly be.

“Why are you riding your bike on the wrong side of the road?” I yell out the window.

You don’t respond. Instead, you quickly peddle away. I wonder if you’ll opt for the safety of the sidewalk, but no, you are incorrigible that way. I watch my rear view mirror as you continue to slip past oncoming traffic and out of my life. You are someone else’s problem now.

A Glimpse

The man behind the counter explains that he’s going to run to the back to get some more chicken for the small sandwich. I shrug and smile but I’m in a bit of a hurry. I will need to eat and walk if I don’t want to be late. I’m not even sure of the room number.

I watch as people of all shapes and sizes collect their various orders of coffee and tea. The petite blond, the tall brunette, then a skinny guy with braces, they are each in their own world. They take their turn, grabbing beverages while I wait. My fascination with people watching begins to lose its appeal; my mouth waters as I stare at the incomplete toasted chicken sandwich.

Finally, the man with the chicken returns. He throws some bacon on for good measure and it’s complete! I decline a bag. I’m anxious to rip into that sandwich that I’d been thinking about since I left the house.

I unwrap the paper, ready to dig in when suddenly, in a moment of gross miscalculation, half the sandwich falls—it’s much smaller than anticipated and the prospect of recovering it vanishes before the thought is fully formed.

I stand dejected amongst a crowd of disconnected people, bacon, tomato, and chicken strewn out before me.

I will have plenty of time to find my class.

Back to School

I’m back at the university today for my first day back at school. I am considering joining the swim team and applying for a position as the Fine Arts Rep for the Students Union. I’m about to go to the welcome lunch with my friend Kelly Sushinsky.

I spent the afternoon attending my Painting 1 class, which was brief due to the fact that we don’t have any supplies yet. Afterward I slipped into the Swim Team’s orientation meeting and decided that maybe joining the swim team again is too large a time/money commitment.

Arm Wrestle

Over the weekend I went to my good friend Duane’s stag in Banff. We were lounging around in a bar sometime after midnight. My friend Niall was sitting beside me in a little love seat, in front of us sat a coffee table and on the other side two ladies were chatting with us. Out of the blue, one of them challenged Niall.

She declared, “I’ll betcha $20 that my friend here can beat you at an arm wrestle.”

I looked at Niall and then back at the girl—she was very tiny. I thought wow, this girl must be tremendously strong or have some kind of trick, because there’s no way she’s going to beat Niall, she’s just too small. He’s not a particularly big guy, but big enough. He’s about my height and weight, which lead me to ponder what this girl was thinking.

We moved some empties out of the way, they set up, a small crowd had gathered. It was over almost as quickly as it started.

Niall kind of shrugged and picked up his cash. I suggested to him that maybe they figured he would buy them some drinks and therefore they wouldn’t really be out any cash. Niall’s response was priceless.

“Fuck that. They can buy their own drinks.”