Sub-marine soccer

Had last scuba diving class. Did the final exam, then had the option of going in the water or not. Most people left right away so I wasn't sure it was worthwhile. Didn't feel much need or interest in practicing things I learned, and while floating around at the bottom of a pool is kindof neat, it's not that much fun. But I went in anyways. Turns out, it can be fun! They had a couple toys, including a ball. So we took off our fins and kicked it around a bunch. It was cool in my mind cause you could pretend you're in the matrix or crouching tiger or something, and jump up off the floor or run up a wall, go completely sideways or beyond. Don't think I'd ever kicked something above my head before without finding myself lying on the floor in pain.

Tai Chi New Years

Was the chinese new years banquet at the tai chi club on sat evening, so, for the third or fourth time, I helped out. I considered just getting a ticket and enjoying the evening while other people worked, but figured I didn't really have anyone to sit with anyways and it's always nice to help out. Though a couple of the more fun people from previous years weren't around.

I signed up to help serve. Of course, it's one of the 'cool' jobs. Don't do much while waiting, then take food to people, get to see people and see other stuff going on, chat with people and wander around a bit. But then, I saw there was only Ramona tackling the dishes in the kitchen. I hate dishes. Probably most people do. Everyone just volunteers for the more fun easy jobs (that's what I did!). Oh well, I took off my nice shirt and stuff and headed over to the sink, and spent pretty much the whole rest of the evening between there and the dish cupboards. Jane also got a second dishwashing station goin on which helped out immensely.

Over 200 people eating 10 courses sure produces a lot of dishes. Even with some additional people helping out after all the food was done, we were there till about 1:30. (can't help but feel a little sad the only way I get to hang out with people till 1:30 is by washing dishes.) Went home and headed to bed. When you wash dishes for 5 or 6 hours, guess what you end up dreaming about? More dishes! The next day, your hands still feel like they've been washing dishes! Next time: wear gloves.

So overall, less people to chat to, doing a more unpleasant job, in general less people helping out, think this was the least fun one so far. Less cooks (only 2) meant things went a bit slow, some people had left before the final dishes even arrived. Previous years even got a 'team' feeling of accomplishing something together, didn't feel it this year.

Stupid rule

I'm kindof pissed off, that driven to quit challenge is actually only open to people in Ontario.

It's not even like ontario has the highest smoking rate or anything.
http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/82-621-XIE/2006002/smoking.htm

Driven to quit

Heard about this on TV. http://driventoquit.ca/english/home/ Decided to email the few smokers at work about it. Who knows, maybe it will have some effect. No harm at least (unless they're getting too annoyed at me bugging them (especially my own manager)).

Graham thought I was going to bug him about health issues. "I think I'm quite familiar with the health issues by now!" I said, "You must have seen the droopy cigarette?!" He said "Yeah! And not just on the cigarette box!!" Was laughing soo hard.

In a way though, smokers have this chance to win, while those of us who were smart enough not to start smoking can't win. But actually, if this is effective, and gets a bunch of people to quit smoking, then the reduction in public health care costs perhaps offsets the original cost of the prizes?

Crap I forgot to remind them that with the money they saved from cigarettes, they could buy hundreds more chances to win in the form of lotto tickets! So it's an even better deal!

Kindof sad that financial incentives are more powerful than simply the 'not harming yourself and others' argument. But, go with whatever works.

JET interview

It didn't seem to go as good as last year. But at least it didn't go as badly as last year.

Yeah that might not make too much sense. What I mean to say is that my answers generally weren't quite as good as they were last year. But there were fewer instances where I seemed stumped and struggling.

Seemed to be a lot more "what would you do in this situation" questions than last year. What if people tried to make you drink. What if people made you sing. Or eat some freaky food. Or make a lesson plan is 5 mins before class. Or deal with misbehaving kids. My answers were somewhat lame but not bad, mostly "go with the flow" types of answers.

Of course, as soon as the question is done and you've moved on, you suddenly think of great responses that you didn't get to make. Like when they talked about me being pretty tech-oriented, how would I do in a small middle-of-nowhere type town with infrequent dial up internet... Somehow I didn't even mention Ghana in my response!

And there were lots of other cool things I planned to say sometime in the interview that never came up.

They made me sing a song. My mind blanked, and although I know hundreds of songs, I couldn't think of any good. One came into my mind and though it was lame, it blocked me from thinking of any others. So I sang a few slow boring lines of "four strong winds". A song probably noone in japan would recognize. I even forgot some of the words. Yeah that was bad. At least it was Canadian. But I should have chosen a fun Beatles song or something.

Some direct technical questions too. "What does JET stand for?" surprised me, but apparently some people get it wrong. Asked what the most recent Japanese news headline I knew was. I had tried to look at this, but didn't have anything big and important, so I talked about Abe and N. Korea. And about chrysanthemum throne inheritance a while back. Asked me to say a few words in japanese, since I had taken a course before.

Some usual questions about how you would represent Canada (what two items would you bring?)

Less stuff related to my application letter / forms.

I was more relaxed and friendly I think this time. I've been going along with lower expectations than before, lets see how it turns out.

Creative writing

"I win," she said.

He knew exactly what she meant, but he also knew it could mean so much more than that. He knew he'd been getting weaker lately, and this was the final blow. He surrendered, she won.

Soon after though, he actually began to think that in a way, maybe they both won. There is such a thing as a win-win situation, right?

But he was wrong. He lost. He heard a sneering voice say, "Of course you lose. What did you expect? You're a loser. That's what losers do: lose. Notice the connection?" He didn't even think to question the voice that sounded so remarkably like his own. He knew it was right.

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He had ditched his plans to go to the gym. Just didn't feel like it, and that place that had been flowing with joy mere days earlier would seem colder and emptier than it ever had before.

Soon he reached the restaurant that would always remain special to him. Within moments he was seated and had ordered his favorite dish, though he knew this time it would likely taste like dust. As he waited, he saw another young man arrive and request a table for one. He suddenly had an odd idea. Or was it a creepy idea? The man passed by before he decided what action to take. He approached the man, noted that he was by himself, and asked if he wanted company. The man responded that he wasn't staying long, but wouldn't mind. He grabbed his stuff and joined his new 'friend', who had introduced himself as "Dennis."

Dinner passes pleasantly as they made idle chit chat about a variety of topics. True to his word, Dennis had quickly finished and was on his way. They exchanged thanks for the company, and as quickly as they had met, they had parted. As he finished his meal, he idly wondered how 'weird' the whole situation had been, and what Dennis thought of things, before he himself was on his way.

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The two year old was bawling. Just as he had been a couple hours earlier. But the kid had been stupid. Pulling stuff out of a box and tossing it on the floor, then standing on a plastic thing while reaching for the window blinds. The plastic thing slid on the tile floor and the kid had fallen and hurt himself. Yup, pretty dumb. He realised it wasn't so different from his own situation afterall. But at least the kid was only two years old.

Cory birthday party

It was my cousin Cory's birthday yesterday. Went to 1410 Bier Haus. Everyone seemed to enjoy the huge selection of beers and other alcohol stuff they had (well of course not quite everyone). I generally don't fit in too well with that group, but at least Dean was around this time who I really enjoy chatting to. He joined Cory to came to our place at christmas several years ago when his family was out of town. He was recently in Costa Rica, so we chatted about that a bit. I noticed there were 5 people wearing glasses there, and they were all thick plastic rimmed ones which I thought was pretty unusual. Someone joked about us being the geeky ones, but in fact most people there would be considered geeks, and some of them pretty proud of it.

I found it pretty ironic that now I can go to the bar to escape the stink of cigarettes for a while, rather than the opposite. Yeah I need to get the hell outta here, regardless of what my mid-long term plans end up being.

Dance like Michael Jackson

Just discovered that I'm not flexible enough to dance like Michael Jackson. Yeah... that's probably the only reason...

Ducks

Ducks are still among my favorite animal. Not cause they're particularly majestic, or that cool, but they're just so incredibly cute! The sounds they make, the way they wiggle their tails, teh way they pivot 90 degrees to go face down under water, etc. Yah so cute. Also, I've always thought it's cool to be able to walk, swim, and fly.

It was so nice out yesterday, I went for a walk. Ended up going around prince's island. At the east end, there's a pond, and there must have been at least 200 duckies there! (and a crapload of geese, but I don't like them much). I stood there for ages watching them until it started getting too cold. I wanted to take a picture or two, but didn't have my camera. I saw someone else taking pictures, so I gave him my email address and asked him to send some, I wonder if he will.

Scuba

Realised I still never posted about scuba. I guess that's cause I'm not really all that excited about it. But it is nice to be taking a class, have something regularly scheduled and stuff, since I didn't do/join anything at the beginning of year. Though it's a little annoying sometimes to have to rush home from work mon/wed evenings when sometimes I really want to stay nearby for a while.

So, what can I say about it? 6 people in the class, which makes it convenient to split into twos. Two young-ish women, two young-ish men, two older men. Instructor's pretty good, a little funny but quite serious when he needs to be. Ummm.. books and some people say "you never forget your first time breathing under water" but I do... I did this in junior high sometime (not a full course or anything, but wearing some scuba gear and going under water) but don't remember any special feelings from then. Didn't have any this time.

Not sure what equipment I'll buy yet. I guess a mask & snorkel are nice to have, especially you can make sure they fit well instead of worrying about rentals. You can get prescription lenses in your mask, but that adds like $100. I'm not sure I want to spend that much on equipment yet. I might go without (things are already magnified underwater so it's not as bad) or I might try getting some single use contact lenses. I'm pretty anti-contact lenses though (mainly just really don't like things going in my eye! I already have huge trouble putting in eye drops) so I'm not that excited about that prospect. Might get fins (flippers) but probably not. Wetsuit maybe, after having to try a couple on each time to find one that fits pretty good, but still not very good, I can see the advantages of having one that fits you well. Of course, then you have to make sure you don't drop some fat or bulk up some muscle, both of which I'd like to do at least a little. Oh other thing with wetsuits, instructor said "there are two types of divers, those who admit to peeing in their wetsuits, and those who lie about it." I can sortof imagine wetsuit coming in handy other times, but maybe not... I once (once only) did (tried) some wake boarding with some cousins who had a boat (I borrowed someone's dry suit).

I'm glad I chose the mon/wed evenings instead of the weekend course. Not like I've had anything better to do on weekends, but the weekday course actually gives you an extra 4 hours, and it's not so rushed as a weekend course would be.

Course would probably be a bit more fun if I had friends there. Maybe with more advance notice I could have got Arnold or someone else from dragonboat to join, oh well.

I want my ring back

Monday I lost my iron ring :( :( :( I don't know where it could be. I'm sure I had it sometime at work, but it was gone by the time I was heading off to scuba lessons. I have a couple ideas, but they're really far stretches, but that's all I have. (I slipped and fell on the way home... but I doubt it would suddenly come off from that... and the heel of my hand hurt so i was looking at it, wouldn't I have noticed at that point if something was amiss? Maybe not.) I've searched over and over the last few days. Searched all the likely places, and many unlikely places that don't make any sense but you gotta search there anyways! Don't know how it could have disappeared. I really hope it shows up though. Been wearing it over 4 1/2 years now, except for holidays where I was afraid to lose it, and for short times when I let someone special hold on to it for me. Doesn't cost much to buy a new one, but it's just not the same.

It's really bugging me, but no, I don't think I'm gonna start calling it "my precioussssss."