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.
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?
When I read Douglas Adams’ The Salmon of Doubt, I really liked his take on the phrase “it turns out” and have attempted to incorporate it into my lexicon.
“Incidentally, am I alone in finding the expression “it turns out” to be incredibly useful? It allows you to make swift, succinct, and authoritative connections between otherwise randomly unconnected statements without the trouble of explaining what your source or authority actually is. It’s great. It’s hugely better than its predecessors “I read somewhere that…” or the craven “they say that…” because it suggests not only that whatever flimsy bit of urban mythology you are passing on is actually based on brand new, ground breaking research, but that it’s research in which you yourself were intimately involved. But again, with no actual authority anywhere in sight.”
Here’s a great little blog post from jsomers.net on the usefulness of the sneaky phrase, “it turns out“.
OK Go’s new video, “This Too Will Pass” is centred around a rube goldberg machine and even if you’ve watched the entire 30 minute movie, “The Way Things Go” (wikipedia) and feel like you’re rube goldberged out, this is still totally worth watching.
OK Go – This Too Shall Pass – YouTube
I’m very pleased that Canada won the gold medal hockey game this afternoon against the USA. Our countries may be the best of friends in real life, but at the same time, I love our rivalry in sports — especially when Canada comes out on top.
I love this:
Tom Brokaw Explains Canada to Americans – YouTube
P.S. Parliament has been prorogued during the Olympics so Harper’s little flag waving speech was actually given at the British Columbia legislature.
If the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, what is the road to heaven paved with?
The University of Lethbridge is putting on the musical “Hair” (wikipedia entry). It runs from Tuesday, February 9th to Saturday the 15th. If you haven’t already, get your tickets fast because they’re almost sold out.
Hair tells the story of the “tribe”, a group of politically active, long-haired hippies of the “Age of Aquarius” living a bohemian life in New York City and fighting against conscription into the Vietnam War. Claude, his good friend Berger, their roommate Sheila and their friends struggle to balance their young lives, loves and the sexual revolution with their rebellion against the war and their conservative parents and society. Ultimately, Claude must decide whether to resist the draft as his friends have done, or to compromise his pacifistic principles and risk his life by serving in Vietnam.
Here’s the very local news coverage of the production: Hair at the University of Lethbridge.
I know a few of the actors and will be there opening night. It should be a lot of fun.
My friend Dave has been entertaining his Facebook contacts with a NCAA style elimination tournament of the most essential food in the vegetable kingdom. Upstart Kitchen has put together a great blog post about the tournament.
Season 6 of Lost premieres tonight. Enjoy this fan made primer, Flight 815 Crash in Real Time.
LOST: Flight 815 Crash in Real Time | YouTube
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