Last few days

Friday I went to dragonboat. Though this time it was a very short paddle, just out to get the boat and bring it back to dock one last time. Still I made sure I was there for the last little bit of dragonboating for the year. Also a chance to hang out with people a bit more since I tend to end up not seeing anyone with the season over. Heh, we ended up standing around a lot waiting for Arnold to show up with a key to the container, or a key to the canoe, or a key to the dragonboat... another somewhat typical dragonboat experience. Afterwards, went to denny's for dinner... it's been so long since I've been there! Used to be one of the places to go late at night after dance. That or Banana Jaks, haven't been there forever either. Mmmmm condensed milk toast and fruity drinks :)

Saturday morning was dim sum. I've still only ever gone to dim sum with temple people or with Geoff and Evelyn (and even then only a couple times each). But I still got to clean up any food left at the end that noone else wanted... I'd generally rather eat stuff despite being completely full than waste it.

Sunday evening went to Diwali Cultural Show with Evelyn. Both were glad we went, it was mostly good. Some parts weren't though (the lengthy speeches part of the evening). But otherwise we enjoyed watching the Indian dances, both traditional and modern. The little kids are quite cute, though I prefer the older people (meaning late teens and 20s) who are more skilled. It made me reminise back to when I first went to a Diwali cultural show with some high school friends almost a decade ago. Back in high school my group of friends was a good mix of browns, chinese, and a few caucasians. But I'm not really in touch with any of them anymore. Everyone scattered across canada for university and we drifted apart. It's too bad, it was a good group of people. And I was a good guy back then too. Oh well that was then, this is now, and all that's left is what is to come.

Unrelated (honest!), how funny do you think it would be to have one of these. Now if only I can find a bobble-head version :)

Danny McGee was up his 59th tree

Have you seen the raisin bran commercial recently? More importantly, do you remember having seen it over 15 years ago? Not sure exactly when, but I'm sure it's an 80's commercial. I'm not sure why I was so excited to see it, but I was.

Speaking of food, I think it's time for a bit of a diet. Not like a regimented strict diet, just a concious effort to eat better. Some people don't think I need it. Just the other day Sandi was telling me I have a totally sexy bod (I'm paraphrasing of course). But the reason for that is because I don't think Sandi has actually seen me with my shirt off. Evolution has naturally promoted the concealment of fatness. You see, back in the olden days, people discovered that it was much easier to hunt a fat guy than a sabre-tooth tiger. The fat population quickly declined, except for those few who had the intuition to cover themselves with mammoth hides. Unfortunately, in modern times, without the sabre-tooth tigers and mammoths to promote homo-sapien's favourable traits, we are deevolving. The worst cases of this deevolution involve speedos.

(Actually I do believe we are weakening our species through the preservation and promotion of weak traits; moreover, it appears to be in our very nature to do so. It's strange to think that evolution could have promoted an anti-evolutionistic trait. In the few minutes since writing this I have already thought of dozens of comments, arguments and couter-arguments around that thought, but I'm just going to leave it at that.)

In any case, I do need to focus on reducing things like potato chips, and increasing stuff like vegetables. Focus on preparing "real" meals instead of instant things. The main problem there is that when I realise I want to eat, I want to eat NOW, not 45 minutes from now. Maybe I can get better at realising "I think I will be hungry in an hour" and act accordingly.

Possibility

Got an email from Denmark this morning suggesting a phone interview. Pretty exciting, though it is still far from having a job.

It's kindof scary too actually, this has suddenly made things more real, that there actually is a possibility that very shortly I will be gone from Calgary and my current way of life indefinitely.

Oh, don't know yet if this job would actually require me to be in Esbjerg, or if like another job suggested previously, simply living somewhere within Europe.

A general update

For jobs, haven't heard back from anyone. I continued some away-from-here applications including norway, denmark, and nova scotia. I "followed up" with Singapore and Netherlands so many times without receiving any actual answer (even a "no we don't want you" would've been worth something) I guess I won't bother with them anymore. Dr. Cannon got me in contact with some company based in Houston, but I'm not sure I actually want that job, even if I don't have to move there. Intermap's radar operator job will hopefully be on the table soon, though who knows if that'll come through. My current contract ends in 6 weeks, not sure if intermap will want to extend, not sure if I will want to extend.

The summer is pretty much over now, and with it many activities ended. I stopped doing my "soldiers of fitness" group exercise thing at the end of august. Dragonboat ended some weeks ago with the Kelowna race and later the wrap-up dinner. And hiking looks like it is over for the season, only did one in the last 6 weekends.

So fall activities have started. I'm in a continuing ed french course again. But it's much less fun than last time. The class itself, as well as the students. I didn't sign up for Japanese again since the price increased and I would miss at least 1 of the 10 classes. I took a wilderness first aid course last week tues/thurs/sat/sun. I signed up for a swimming course to refresh my memory of some things and improve, but the university just cancelled it on me, and the other courses about the same time are full so I'm quite annoyed about that.

My hair has returned almost to the "going to africa" length.

My lungs have returned almost to the "blackened crap" state. (though direct observations are unavailable)

Think that's about all for now.

Monday TV excitement!

You know how several channels show a burning log on TV at Christmas time? Guess what'll be on Shaw TV (channel 10 in Calgary I think) on this Thanksgiving Monday...

In case you don't have anything better to do, you can watch a turkey cooking on TV!!

Peter Bissonnette, President, Shaw Communications:
"Turkey TV is a breakthrough in holiday programming and highlights Shaw's continued efforts to provide its customers only the finest in holiday television."

If you want, you could try to stick your TV in the oven for a more authentic view.

Don't worry, if you don't have cable, I bet you'll be able to find TurkeyTV.torrent somewhere.