On the road again

So.

Over the holidays S and I were involved in a collision.

Everyone was fine, even if there were a couple of scary moments (oh look, that car is getting AWFULLY close to my side window, and it seems to be coming ever so quickly).

Unfortunately, after the accident, our car was a write off. I’ve been driving my parents Win(d)star around for the past three weeks and I won’t cry at all to see the back of that particular whale. The slightest gust of wind is enough to push this thing all over the road, which can be a little scary when highway driving, white knuckles all the way.

So after some fruitless and highly frustrating outings we’ve finally closed the deal on our replacement vehicle.

It’s the exact same model.
It’s the exact same colour.
It’s the exact same year.

Only it has 40,000 less km on it, as well as a remote starter.

Upgrade?

Fit and (just) bearing it.

So.

Every day this week I’ve gotten up before work and put in about half an hour on the Wii Fit. If you know me at all, (and you don’t…thanks a lot of caring….jerks), then you know that when it comes to getting up early in the morning, voluntarily, during the work week, you’ll find that to be an extremely improbably event. Unless, you know, you were handing out free bacon or something.

You aren’t handing out free bacon are you?

You’re much more likely to win the lottery, or become the first person in the history of the planet to teleport to the moon, rather than see my ass role out of bed without hitting the snooze button on the alarm less than three times.

I likes my sleep I does.

Fun fact. If my wife doesn’t turn off her alarm fast enough in the morning she’ll find that I’ll reach over top of her half awake self and do it for her. Which will allow her to fall quickly back to sleep. And nothing bad ever happens.

Anyway. Back to the story. Me. Up early. Wii Fit.

Surprisingly I’m enjoying it. I’ve written off the aerobics and games as nothing more than amusing light and noise, but the yoga and strength exercises seem to have some value. I also like charting my mostly insignificant weight loss. Perhaps I’ve become inspired because the Wii has chosen to calculate my Mii character as overweight and plumps up my avatar accordingly. It’s not fun to watch that chunky little version of myself toddle across the screen, presumably chasing after some mythical Wii Doughnuts.

Whatever the reason, this new fitness regimen has part of my morning routine. Finally I can exercise in the privacy of my own house, without having to shamefully hide my body away from the judgemental eyes of the casual gym-goer. Now that’s Wii-tastic

2001: A Strike Odyssey

I feel sorry for the York students currently suffering through (yet another) TA and contract faculty strike.

I went through the same roller coaster back in 2001 and the experience was not a pleasant. It’s extremely unfortunate that in a contract dispute between the TAs and the administration only the students will suffer. When this whole mess is done the TAs will keep on teaching and the school will keep on running, but the students will have lost two months, and counting, and they’ll still need to wrap up their school year.

Chances are the administration will extend the school year by another month, at least that’s what they did when it happened to us. But that’s the only favour they’re like to do anybody.

1. Students will still have to be out of their apartments and residence rooms at the same time. The administration will extend the school year, but they won’t extend your room lease, meaning those unfortunate enough to live on campus will have to couch surf for that month.

2. Students will lose a month of summer employment. Either they start job hunting late, when all the good jobs are gone, or they’ll have to do double duty, going to school and working a summer job. There’s a difference between a PT job you do during the year, and a summer job, which often comes with FT houts.

3. All the students projects will be due immediately. Yes they may extend the school year by a month, but, um, duh, they’ve still been our for OVER TWO MONTHS. So students will have the same amount of school work to do, but a month less in which to get it done. And if you’ve read point number two, some students will now have jobs. Hurrah! Yes, some profs will drop an assignment here or there. But trust me, if my experiences at York are indicative of what may happen, the majority of profs will insist that ALL the work still be completed, on time, because that’s how things work ‘in the real world.’

For the students at York this strike is like being caught in a divorce between two angry parents. Only the children will be hurt.

Hey! Look at me!

No. Seriously. Look at me.

It’s long been a source of bemusement for me that the day I got my new laptop I was going to leave the dating world forever and finally get serious about this writing stuff. All I had to do was get this ONE DATE out of the way and I could finally clear my schedule of any and all distractions.

How was I supposed to know that the woman on that one date would end up being my wife?

That was three and half years ago and while I’ve dabbled at writing since then I’ve only done enough to take the edge off the disease. I’ve never given myself over to the lifestyle change necessary to produce a completed work.

Well, all that is changing.

I’ve bought a new laptop, again.

For the past few months I’ve been winding down my external commitments, putting firm boundaries on how much time extra time I spend at work and brainstorming like made on some of the insanity that’s been bubbling around in my head.

Hence, no new entries here. What could I say? I’m tired of reading and analyzing the works of others as my sole contribution to the artistic world. I want to start participating in an actual dialogue.

So I am.

This is not a New Year's resolution or a spur of the moment whim. I've been working at shaping my schedule around this moment since the wedding. This is about doing.