One step Closer...

Yesterday I got one step closer to accomplishing a lifetime goal of learning to play the bagpipes. My Dad and I each ordered practice chanters. I know it looks like a glorified recorder but it is the part of the bagpipe that makes the sound and all beginner pipers need one. Apparently the benefit of the practice chanter is that you can make the sound stop quickly unlike with the pipes where the air is controlled by your elbow/armpit. So beginner pipers practice on a chanter- for the sanity of all. My chanter won't come in for a few more days but I am extremely excited!!!!!

Introducing my new "Little Buddy"

I found this little guy today in our pool filter. He/She had probably spent the night in the filter basket, which must have been a long and tiring night for such a little guy. Since I absolutely love turtles I set out to save this little guy. I took him down to our pond to release but he/she didn't seem interested in diving in and living the normal turtle life. I left he/she on the bank of the pond for a few hours but still no interest in hopping in the water. Since thunderclouds were threatening I decided to take little buddy back up to the house and make a little home for him/her for the night in an old fish aquarium. Little buddy has been happily crawling around in his/her new temporary home. If he/she is still looking perky tomorrow I will make another attempt at a release.

Brain atrophies from lack of communication

I used to think that when I grew up I wanted to be a hermit. I would live in a cabin in the woods and have a large vegetable garden and only come into town on occasion to pick up staples- like flour or chocolate. However after 3 weeks of living alone I can conclusively say that this dream is shattered. I need people! I may occasionally display anti-social tendencies and I am not saying I need large crowds. I just need people.

My brain seems to waste away for want of conversation and right now I would really relish a good debate. In some ways writing blog posts is a kind of therapy. (Hence the second post for today.) I can fool myself into thinking I am having a conversation. Also writing down my thoughts helps me to organize them into somewhat coherent ideas. So thank you for this dose of medicine, hopefully it will tide me over until my next dose of human contact.

Hello is Holly there?

In our increasingly mobile culture people move, get new phones and change their numbers quite regularly. I myself have had 3 numbers in the past 2 years. Normally when I change my number I make a point to update anyone who may need to contact me by giving them my new number. Sure there are a few people who probably don't get the message, but I likely don't talk to them any more because I have moved.

When I get a new cell number some part of my brain would like to think that it is an entirely new number and that I am the first one to have it. This little illusion has been thoroughly shattered by Holly. Holly is the person who had my cell number last. How do I know this? Because I get calls for her with surprising regularity. Several times it has been a British-sounding female looking for Holly. This wasn't too bad since she tended to call during day-time hours. I also got several text messages from some friends of Holly wondering if she wanted to hang out. But more annoyingly it has been several males calling late at night. One night around 1am I was jolted awake by the sound of my phone. I answered thinking it might have been my sister who was staying at a friends place, perhaps she was in trouble and needed assistance? No- it was someone looking for Holly. Most recently a very inebriated acquaintance of Holly's called late at night. Yes, as if a drunk- dial isn't enough, it was a wrong number drunk dial.  Next time I need to tell Holly's "friends" that "This has been my number for over a year so Clearly Holly doesn't care enough about you to keep you updated!"

Hold Please- UGH!!

I have spent alot of time on hold lately- Service Canada and Telus. Being on hold though is both annoying and frustrating- you are forced to sit there and do nothing while you wait. You don't want to set the phone down and do something else because at any moment your call may finally be answered and you can get on with your buisness. At the same time companies provide you with that cheap and horrendous elevator/hold music to occupy yourself. With Service Canada you get poor quality classical-esque music and a voice that interrupts every 5 minutes ensuring you that you have been placed in a "priority sequence" and "your call will be answered by the next available operator."  With Telus I got a mix of cheesy 80's music and Rick Rolled- oh yeah you know- that annoying song - 'Never gonna give you up' by Rick Astley. I laughed through the whole thing.

Lately I have also been feeling that my life is on hold as I am sitting and waiting for news on the status of my job. I have no idea when or if I will be able to return to my job with the Ministry of Natural Resources. On one hand I have a lot of free time and should be able to enjoy it. The last time I had this much free time was summer vacation after Gr. 8 or 9. However on the other hand I can't commit to anything or plan anything for sure since I have no idea when or if I can finally return to work. I don't want to commit to vacation plans or volunteering or anything only to have to turn around and cancel or to find out that because of them I missed out on a career possibility. So I am stuck with my life seemingly on "hold" and streamed television shows as my cheesy hold music.

Last night I was thinking about this and I realized how pathetic it is that my job has so much of a sway over my life. I mean it is reasonable to expect a certain level of disruption and frustration, but it has spilled out to affect my whole life. My entire routine is affected- I sleep in because I don't have to get up for work. I am not paying attention to time so I miss meals and stay up late. It is not a healthy lifestyle. And although I am not any less sociable than usual, because of my abundance of free time I feel incredibly lonely. It is kinda scary how much influence my career has over my life. I am not sure that I like it.  Not that I have any solutions yet just thinking about that right now.

The results of my telephone on-hold situations were my unemployment cheque and a cheaper cellphone plan.* Hopefully something constructive can come of my life-on-hold situation.

* if you want to know: a great way to get a cheaper deal from your cell provider is to tell them you are switching to a different carrier because they are too expensive, suddenly they become very helpful and offer you all kinds of deals - Hurray for more stuff for less money!

Never Use While Sleeping

Some of you may know that I used to live with my sister and she recently moved out and moved half way across the country. Thus leaving me bereft of her presence and several other things I borrowed from her on a regular basis. Such as her hair straightener. And so in an attempt to move on with my life- and because I found a cheap one at Wal-Mart- yesterday I bought a hair straightener. And when I got into the evil plastic package with the assistance of my pocket-knife and some blood sweat and tears this is what I found:

Yep! A pamphlet which handily describes in 4 different languages how to operate the device without killing or burning yourself. Complete with a labelled diagram of the exterior parts, numerous reminders that electricity and water don't mix, and if you look closely Warning number 9 states: "Never use While Sleeping." Most of these warnings are there because some disaster happened, someone got sued and now the company wishes to protect themselves from further litigation... so now I am really curious what the story is behind #9.

What's on Your Plate? or should I say table?

For those of you who had the pleasure of growing up with me you know that my family lives in our kitchen/dining room and the kitchen table is not only the center of our meals but also the place where we do pretty much everything from financial planning to folding the laundry, from homework to entertainment from sewing to surgery. Everything that is "on our plate" at the time usually ends up on the kitchen table. In our family the table usually has to be cleared of both before and after a meal.

And so I have taken this practice with me as I moved into my own apartment and now have my own kitchen table. As you can see right now my life is occupied with an art project that I am working on for my sister- you can see the rough sketch in my notebook. My table is quite full and so I have abandoned the practice at eating at it and opted for the living room floor for meals.

But I am enjoying my foray into the creative world immensely. Back in high school I really enjoyed art and drama and had dreams of taking a double major in fine arts and history when I reached university. However what stopped me from pursuing this academic path was also my love of science and chemistry. I came to the realization that it is possible to enjoy the arts as hobbies but if you tried to enjoy chemistry or biology (think dissections) as hobbies you are likely to get arrested. And so I decided to pursue science as my career and keep my artistic pursuits as hobbies. However life has a tendency to get busy and I haven't had as many opportunities to express my artistic side as I would have liked. Until now- I am between contracts with my job and now free to pursue my artistic talents. So it is time to dust off my paintbrushes, notebooks and pens and let the creative juices flow. If anyone asks what I am doing with my time off you can tell them I am literally watching paint dry.

Post the First- Finally

So... I created this blog awhile ago and haven't posted yet until now. I am not really sure why... it is not for a lack of ideas, I have had many great ideas running through my brain and thought I should blog about them but just never have. I think perhaps I was stuck on the thought of who my audience was: since I don't know who will read this it is hard to know how and what to write. Some of my ideas have been of an academic nature, and others of a more personal or artistic/thoughtful/philosophical nature. In some ways I wanted to start a blog for all my academic/philosophical musings and rants but my family and friends aren't overly interested in that sort of musings and I doubt I can gain a large online audience. On the other hand I have other musings of a more personal/journalistic nature that I was initially uncomfortable revealing to such a general and mostly faceless audience.

But I have come to terms with these things now and decided I will just write my posts about whatever topic I feel moved to. Because this is my blog and my thoughts and so just like me you will get a grab bag of academic/philosophical musings and personal reflections and updates. I guess the advantage is with you dear reader because unlike in face-to-face conversation with me this blog gives you the opportunity to choose what you want to hear/read.

And so here it is- Post the First....Finally

Enjoy!