Afterthought

So this morning, after my crazy weekend I woke up sick. I think it's the flu but I'm not really sure. Never the less, I didn't attend school today so I feel bad, but it's probably better then puking on my professors or the students I TA. Those around on Saturday night know how bad puke can get. :)
So I've spent the day popping tyenol and trying to get work done. I've been somewhat successful but I"m finding with the head pain it's hard to concentrate on one thing for too long so I haven't gotten much done. But at least I can say goodbye to my OGS application, and begin praying that I win one. If I win an OGS my life becomes substantially easier. Actually everything becomes substantially easier next year when all I have is my thesis and no courses to deal with. I'm just happy that despite my sickness I managed to complete my application.
This leads to me wonder how much of our body is partially controlled by our mind. I said as off hand comment on the weekend "I'm probably going to get sick after all this" and then I did. Was I foreshadowing my own fate? Being rational? Or did I somehow cause myself to get sick? People always talk about how powerful the human mind is... Why is then that I can't will myself to get better faster? Is there perhaps something humans are missing out on? If we only use 5% of our brain or 10% (I can't remember the actual number) if we could harness more could we cure ourselves. As we study more and more of the human brain perhaps we'll find that the cure to cancer or the common cold were up there all along. Or perhaps we'll just realize that the more we know, the less the world makes sense.
So what caused my sickness? I'm pretty sure the reason I'm sick is the lack of sleep, un-healthy eating and the copious amount of liquor consumed on the weekend... And I'll partially blame the rain. I think it was worth it. If all I have to suffer through is a few days of sickness, so be it.
Bring it on brain, and then once you think you've won... I'll drink some more liquor and mess you up again.



Cheers to Homecoming, good friends, the QP and everything else that makes being sick worthwhile!

Cha Gheill Part 2

Greetings Friends.

This posting is slightly later then planned as when I got home last night I a) missed the train home and had to take the 5am this morning and b) was too tired to care about my blog. That being said Homecoming was worth all the effort to get there. WHAT AN AMAZING WEEKEND.

So obviously, I was pretty wasted Friday and Saturday night, saw a bunch of people and did a bunch of things. But mostly was enjoying being back to the bars and events I'm familiar with. First off, Aberdeen was insane this year. The flipped a car, smashed bottles against fire trucks and generally caused insanity which may lead to it being shut down. Estimates say there was between 5000 to 7000 people on the Aberdeen Street party. The cops tear gassed it and all and it still kept going till almost 3am. Here's a pictre:


A recap:
Friday - Got there late, got wasted at the QP, passed out around 5am at Katrina's after eating copious amounts of beer nuts. A good start
Saturday - Visited some people at Dane's pancake keggar, went for lunch at Chez Piggy, hung out with Beth, met Colleen for coffee at Sleepless Goat, had dinner with friends at Brew Pub, hit up the Aberdeen Street party (or tried too), went to the QP for a beer, went to the Grad Club (it was the 30th anniversary and Sarah Harmer was playing) and passed out again at Katrina's (more beer nuts of course)
Sunday - Delicious lunch at Aqua Tera, relaxing afternoon, missed last train out of Toronto.
Monday - Got up at 5am to make train to get to London in time for class. Currently exhausted but happy.

So before I depart I implore those of you who didn't come back for Homecoming to come back next year... it was amazing and now for the top things this weekend:
1) I'm really looking forward to getting wasted.
2) That hovers around the border of distasteful.
3) Puke in c-word, etc....
4) Why would I give money to a bunch of pregnant babes?
5) Do you like Nirvana?

Cha Gheill Part 1

There are a lot of different ways to get from one place to another. With your body and the help of some equipment you can walk, run, skip, cycle, rollerblade, and even if the mood strikes you, roll to your destination. Further more, you can use bigger forms of transport such as a car.
Cars are a great way to get from Point A to Point B. They're fast, private and have the advantage of having the best audio traveling system available. Only in the car or perhaps a very large room with many speakers can you enjoy your music to the same extent. In a car it surrounds you. However, Cars have the negative aspect of being very costly and bad for the environment. And with the rising cost of fuel cars are becoming a less appealing option everyday.
There is the big long extended car called the Bus. The Bus is a decent way to travel providing you are on a route with many stops and frequent bus occurrences. Going to UWO campus is easy on the bus. However as Kevin, Lyndsey and I discovered on Wednesday night, the bus that goes downtown sucks. I think we waited a good 45 minutes for our bus to come despite the fact it was supposed to come every 1/2 hour. But generally for short distance a Bus is a good option. For long distances I would not recommend it. Although it tends to be the cheapest means of travel it is the least comfortable. Spending your time in the cramped seat of a hot bus with lots of other hot smelly people doesn't really make for a great trip.
And for long distances there is of course the airplane. The airplane is great for traveling really far. As unlike the above options it gets you far faster. Say you were going to Vancouver (one of my favourite places to go), it's the difference of 3 days versus 4 hours.
Now you're probably wondering what this large preamble is about. Well it brings to my favourite form of transportation for going long distances. The train. The train, despite it's slightly higher costs is a great way to travel, at least in Canada. The train is properly air conditioned, the seats, even in the lower classes are comfortable and not squished together and they tilt back. Everybody gets a reading light and a private fan. It just seems like the classy way to travel. It's a mix of business and pleasure. The train is one of the few forms of transport where you can get work done, or enjoy a casual read, and if all else fails, look out the window and watch the scenery pass you by. A large part of the train route between London and Toronto is still un-encumbered by people and so you spend a large portion of the trip whipping through fields and forests. The train also evokes a certain romantic sentiment. I don't know but I think the railway has a great human connection. So much of our lives since the dawn of industry have been intertwined with the train. As we move towards a global civilization, the train is a great artifact of the way in which Humans are able to conquer vast distances and connect people. And as a Canadian I feel like the railway is part of my blood. Which sounds stupid cause I know railways are everywhere. But when you sit on the tracks and you watch the forests whip by, it makes you feel a connection to people who have traveled those routes for years.
Which leads me to the last bit of this: The reason I've been traveling by the means above today (except for the airplane): I'm going to homecoming in Kingston this Weekend! YAY QUEEN'S!
Stay tuned on Sunday for my post-homecoming blog entry!
Same blog time, same blog channel.

Near Fantastica

I'm in a fantastic mood!
I'm not sure why but I guess the last few days have been really good and refreshing, and very promising. To recap what has been going on since my last blog:

Thursday: Did lots of work, spent day at school, explored neighborhood.
Friday: Did more work, spent day at school, learned all about how to apply to OGS/SSHRC (which I need so I can live a more decadent life style)
Saturday: Parents visited, picked up more groceries, saw movie with Jen and was actually out past midnight (first time in London)
Sunday: Woke up late, did hw all day (yay productivity), watched simpsons, ate dinner, watched family guy, watched american dad (simpsons isn't funny anymore, I should just give up on it), had a good conversation with someone via telephone.
Monday: Class, lots of work, delicious lunch, Blog.

So as you can see I do a lot of work. But doing work is good and I'm ahead of the game... I'm sure eventually I'll fall behind though. It's inevitable. Soon procrastination will get the better of me. Today I also started one of the major projects for this term, as part of my new method of not putting things off to the last minute.
On a side note, despite everything, I can't wait till April when I no longer have to go to class.

... Is it wrong to be looking forward to the end of the year already?

Procrastinating

Now at Day 3 of classes my vigor has been replaced by laziness. It's not that I don't feel like I did in my previous post, I still do. But all those sayings like 'old habits are hard to quit' and 'you can't teach an old dog new tricks' are proving to be entirely accurate. I don't have any class on Thursday, and because I don't have class on Thursday I can't help but procrastinate today. Instead of doing any work, I lazed around because I knew I had another day to do stuff. I sit here filling guilty because I know I could be much farther ahead and free up more time for myself on the weekend, but instead, I'm procrastinating. I made a really good dinner, I read a book, and now... I'm making a Blog entry.

All this distraction got me to thinking about procrastinating and the way we tend to rationalize certain activities as necessary, so we don't feel bad about doing them, instead of what we are supposed to be doing. The best example would be eating. Today, I made a dish I'd never made before from scratch. I made a delicious pasta dish, which with the exception of the noodles, was all hand done. It was delicious and very filling... but the whole time I couldn't sneak the suspicion that I was creating this marvelous dish to avoid the work I should be doing. But because 'I had to eat' that it was okay not to be doing my work.

When I think about....It kind of gives my dinner a dirty smear.

Revitalization....

So today marks the end of my first complete day as a Graduate student doing Graduate courses. It's a lot of work. A lot more then I expected. I knew there would be an increase in workload but there is so much more then that at the Graduate level. No more easy answer, no more teacher/student relationship. It's a blend now. The teacher no longer treats you as a student but rather a colleague with less experience here to profit from the wisdom of the generation that's been around the block a few times.
It's an interesting change. The increased workload is partially the amount of work expected and the quality expected at the Graduate level but a lot of it comes from the need to not disappoint or live up to your potential. To not get out of the experience of working with these veterans some valuable insights not just into your field but rather to how they have lived their lives. It's here at the Graduate level that I'm finally utilizing all those skills that seemed useless at the undergrad. I've come to realize that besides the base knowledge the most valuable thing you learn in undergrad is the ability to teach yourself, to discipline yourself. No longer are you given examples but rather you must seek the examples to educate yourself.
I feel, despite my tiredness (12 hour days are really really long), a renewed interest and a vigor to immerse myself in the world around me. Not just in music, or school but rather everything that the insight of knowledge brings to you. An increased appetite for things I don't know, and the confidence to boldly state what I do know. And mostly, after a 5 month hiatus I feel the need to create...

So far so good...

So I'm now through my first few days of being a graduate student and so far I haven't failed or been asked to leave. Despite the fact that I have no class I'm having quite the lot of work already. I've done a lot of bike riding (London seems to be a pretty bike friendly town), biking to and from campus as well as to the grocery store and mall. As well I've been busy reading and learning and meeting people. So just quickly to skim over what I've done so far:

Tuesday: Had orientation, met a whole bunch of cool people, had lunch at Grad Club, Stood in line-ups and got my student card, bus pass, etc, went to the wine and cheese (that had no wine). Met all my professors and discussed class times.
Wednesday: Had a meeting with Dr. Daniel regarding electronic music composition and was assigned a bunch of readings and listenings. Got distracted and burnt my sweet potato fries :(
Thursday: Had a meeting with Dr. Myska regarding my TA for his electronic music course. Meeting went long and spent 3 hours in the studio chatting and working on stuff. Started to get sort of organized and figure out when and how to do work.

However during these 3 days I've also been assigned various things by all my professors in passing. So I've been doing a lot of re-reading and hunting through scores and stuff. So far, I've liked the lack of structure but that will all change I'm sure when I start having classes on Monday. Monday is likely going to be my most hated day due to:
1) Have 3 classes on Monday, but only 1 on Tuesday and 1 on Wednesday
2) My first class on Monday is at 9:30am... all my other classes start after 1pm

So tomorrow I'll be heading to campus to try to clean up my office and do a bit of score reading in the library before it closes at 5pm ( it's still on summer hours till September 11th for some stupid reasons) and then that night, the Music Grad students are having a big potluck bbq so it'll give me a chance to try to re-learn all the names I've already forgotten of the people I met on Tuesday.

So that's Grad school here in London thus far...

As per Ming's request...

So Ming has inspired me to write a post regarding a dream I had that is sort of related to his blog.

So Ming was interested in this girl named Jacqueline and another person I know is dating a Jacqueline and I had this really weird dream where all 3 of us got together at Christmas and in the dream I was dating a girl named Jacqueline as well. Well we find out at Christmas that the Jacquelines are all related to each other and we were dating cousins. But the funny part was the Jacquelines didn't look related at all.

So Ming informed me to make this dream reality by:

BC-ing Ming says: (12:26:40 AM)
ok so here's the plan..I'll convince my Jacqueline to dump her bf and go out with me instead; you find a Jacqueline at Western, and we somehow make their relatives marry each other so they'll all be cousins, and we're set

So .... this blog entry was pointless but fun. I'd also like you to note that the plural of Jacquelines sounds really funny.

In Between Days

.... That's a great song.

Right now I guess I'm in between days as well. I've moved to London, and have half of my house set up and am sort of just waiting out the days before I have full internet service and school starts. Bell messed up (not surprising) and so I'm currently on dial up with 10 free hours to surf the web really really really slowly.

Otherwise things are well and I look forward to starting school on Thursday. Until then, and if you're bored you could always call me at my new numbers.

If I didn't email you them (my contact list is much smaller now on my new computer), email me and ill send it along

peace out.