A little critisim...

When I checked my e-mail this morning I found a message from my brother, a somewhat pointed criticism about my latest blog post. It seems that I may have slipped into a bit of a rut in criticizing Americans in a somewhat condescending manner. Though I will admit to being guilty of that from time to time in the blog, that was not my intention in the post about tattoos. However seeing as I have been critical in the past a misinterpretation of my intent, which was to be a simple commentary with a loose assumption based upon the melting pot versus mosaic natures of the US and Canada.

That being said I am curious to know if others feel that I have been too harsh on Americans? I value my brother's opinion; he's quite bright and is not one to hold back if I piss him off. Though I guess we are both that way (I'm not saying that I'm bright, I'm saying I'll let him know if he ticks me off) , which is why it's probably better that we not share an apartment again. But has this blog become a mean criticism rather than...well I don't know what it was supposed to be, but I don't want it to come across as something negative.

So I guess on that note I will try to be more positive about being around Americans and not pick on the things that irk me. But I have the feeling that it's going to be hard to avoid, after all this is the weekend where Americans "celebrate the independence of [their] nation by blowing up a small part of it". So you are all now warned, this place may get rather boring real quick, as my life really isn't that interesting without the complaining...god this is going to suck...hey there's something to complain about, woohoo!

Happy Canada Day everyone (in case I don't post tomorrow).

Tattoos

One of the things that I've noticed over the last while, probably due to the warmer weather and skimpier clothing, is the high percentage of people who are tattooed. Maybe I just never saw it in Canada, but it seems that just about every other person has a tattoo down here.

Now I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with tattoos, if there is something that you like enough to permanently mark yourself with, that's cool with me. Though personally there isn't anything that I feel that strongly about, and I have enough scars from cycling accidents to claim as my own unique body modification art. But here it seems that everyone has them, and I mean everyone from the counter culture people (though if everyone has them is it counter culture?) to the wannabe cool inorganic chemists.

Depending on the person of course the tattoos vary, from tasteful (i.e. subtle ankle tattoo) to those that you wonder what they were on when they got it done (i.e. life size boa constrictor coming from the back over the shoulder and facing down the girl's cleavage).

What I wonder though is why do so many people feel the need to get tattoos? It crosses far too many social/cultural/racial divides to be attributed to any of those factors, it must be something larger, maybe it is being American. I'm beginning to believe that the reason for the tattoos is an attempt to feel like an individual in a country that is considered to be a melting pot, whatever goes in it becomes the same as all the rest. This is something that can be seen even in the way Americans think, it's often in absolutes (i.e. Support the war in Iraq or you are un-patriotic.). So if everyone becomes the same a logical course of action to differentiate yourself is to change what you can, your appearance being one of the easiest and most distinctive forms of change you can find. Thus you have business people, scientists, punks, artists, everyone with tattoos, because in the end the human mind seems rather limited in its ability to be uniquely creative (just listen to modern pop music, see how many remakes you hear from the 80's in an hour or two).

In the end though are these people actually achieving the individuality that they desire? In the end to me it would seem that they are not. Though they now have different coloured skin they still think the same, and act the same, evidenced by the tattoos. But perhaps I'm off the mark, perhaps the tattoos mean something different? But I wonder about it, for the way I see it now it's almost a badge, part of being American includes your very own "unique" tattoo.

At the very least though it does add another aspect to people watching.

Hazardous Weather Outlook...

Ok so I don't know how much time I have left to write this bolg entry...it may even be my last...my region is currently in a "HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK"...I love you all, it's time to confess all my sins as I think this is the end....

Wait a minute, I'm Canadian, I don't panic because there is wind. I'm just getting sick of some of the stupidity in dealing with the weather in this country. If you take the time to check out the NOAA web site you will get the weather across the US, including a rainbow of warning colours, ranging from beige to turquoise (which is being used for a "red flag warning"?).

I really think Americans would be afraid of their own shadows...at the moment (about 7:00 pm my time) I would estimate that 80% of the US is under some kind of weather warning. Below is a list of some of my favorites, if anyone can explain/differentiate some of them I would love to hear from you:

• Flood Warning
• Flash Flood Watch
• Flood Advisory
• Flood Watch
• Flood Statement
• Short Term Forecast (what the hell kind of warning is that?)
• Hazardous Weather Outlook
• Tornado Watch
• Tornado Warning
• Severe Thunderstorm Warning
• Severe Weather Statement
• Severe Thunderstorm Watch
• Special Weather Statement
• Red Flag Warning (does this mean to take in red flags, or red flags are falling from the sky?)
• Wind Advisory
• Health Advisory
• Urban and Small Stream Flood (the ditches will be full of water, so what?)
• Flash Flood Warning (no this isn't a duplicate, the last one was a 'Watch', I can't tell a difference can you tell a difference?)

On top of all that there are interesting radar images with colour coded...colours...seriously they give no scale or even title to identify what the colours represent. For all I know the colours represent the density of dogs with puffy tails.

So that being said you'll have to forgive me if I don't run for shelter next time I hear a weather warning of some kind. Sure I may actually get sucked up by a tornado, but you will have my permission to sue the hell out of NOAA for having cried wolf so many times...knowing this country that might even work, so I'll do what I can...just remember sue them for the lovely act of "wrongful death"... does that imply that there must be a "rightful death" or maybe that would be righteous...

Later, miss you all.

Canada Day in Edmonton

This is a quick plug for a great event that will take place Canada Day and which many of you may be interested in attending. The event is the Canada Day Criterium, a very exciting and fast bike race that will take place on the Legislature grounds, encircling the rest of the Canada Day festivities in the area.

Details for the race can be found on the Edmonton Road and Tarck Club webpage if you've never seen a bike race before this is one of the most interesting races to see, with racers achieving speeds in excess of 70 km/h (the slowest speeds will be at the top of the hill at a mere 30 km/h) and completing laps every couple of minutes, it's far from being a dull race. Plus if you are interested in helping out by volunteering for the event, which is always needed, feel free to contact Peter Toth at cdc@ertc.org

Of note this is considered to be the best race circuit in Canada and it will be the same course used for the World Masters Games race later this summer (Peter also needs volunteers for that event if you are interested). So if you don't have any plans for Canada Day think of heading down to the Legislature around 12:30 to catch some great racing.

Hot weather

For those of you who haven't been watching the weather down my way, which I assume is all of you, it's been damn hot! The lowest expected temperature for the next few days is to be 18 C, that will be tonight, probably during one of the predicted thunderstorms. The daytime highs are about 30 C constantly now, which is just unpleasant with the humidity here (at least for someone who became accustomed to droughts in Alberta).

On a funny note today a few of us in the lab tried a little educational game on the National Geographic web page. The geography challenge was particularly aimed at identifying the states in the US. Well under the time limit I did rather well, I felt, getting 33 or the 50 states (though I may have run out of time before I ran out of states). I was only beaten by one member of the lab (3 others tried the game), she got 34 or 35 states. Of the two members that I beat one is from Honduras, the other is American (I beat her only by 1 or 2). So just for kicks I had them try the Canadian one...it's so sad...apparently Alberta may actually be in the east (specifically Quebec), Quebec is the new name for Ontario, god only knows what happened to the Atlantic provinces. Actually when I had one girl try to name them, she's live along the US border most of her life, she almost called the province of Ontario; Montreal. They kind of laughed about the lack of knowledge and didn't really care, saying that it wasn't all that important. But how important is it that I know where Idaho is? Yet I do. Considering that I have never had a formal education on US geography I did really well just from common knowledge that I had acquired over the years. But I guess being as self-centered/isolationist as the US can be they really have no clue what's out there. And remember here these are graduate students, this isn't a schmuck on the street.

Even scarier was when we did world countries. There they even miss-fired on IRAQ!!! Ok they came close, I think they hit Iran...does that count as a pre-emptive strike? But it wasn't a case of missing the click, it was a serious case of doubt and guess that got them to Iran. I don't really know what to say there, maybe I'm expecting too much from people, maybe even the Canadians can't find Iraq (try the game and let me know) but it worries me greatly that the educated people, those that I find intelligent to talk to, still have issues with this. Admittedly this was far from being a scientific test, but who knows...

Minneapolis Drivers

Why is it that when you mention how good things are they suddenly turn bad? I'm really starting to think that Murphy was onto something. Well tonight when I was out riding with one of the members of the university bike team he mentioned how good the drivers in Minneapolis were (in comparison to the rest of the US, now I'm scared) and how they were good around cyclists.

At this point I had to agree with him, as I had only had one insult yelled at me and one close call with a car. Albeit that incident with the car occurred on the way to ride, when the car tried to do a left turn and somehow didn't see me (I'm 6'2" and decked out in my "fire red" team kit, how on earth can you not see me?). Well on the way home things just got better. The first incident was stunning, a kid, literally he must have been 15, pulled out through a merge in front of me. It wasn't supper close, but enough to get me ticked, so as I went past after a quick change of lanes I yelled at him and raised my arm. His response to this was to flip me the bird! What the hell? Did I get in his way with a ton of plastic and metal? Maybe this is just part of the American way: "So what if I'm wrong, I'll just tell you to piss off and not apologize." (that is the lesson that George W. has sent right? By the way, what ever happened to those WMDs?).

Finally I was almost run into a second time by a car turning left. Seriously, what is the problem with people seeing me? Actually that was the same corner where the guy on the motorcycle almost got me. I guess I'm just moving too fast, because I certainly couldn't be much bigger or brighter in colour.

Ah well, it's all part of the fun. What would riding in a city be without having to dodge a few stupid drivers every time you roll out your door?

Timing

Over the past days I've been contemplating how much life and how things occur therein revolve around a lot of coincidental timing issues.

Obviously the most recent issue with timing has been with Kelly, though this goes beyond the fact that we meet just as she was leaving for San Diego. The way we meet was so coincidental on timing it's (apparently) like the movie "Sliding Doors", which apparently isn't really a happy ending, huh... But the number of incidents that coincided are just surprising:

-she almost didn't catch her flight out from San Diego to Minneapolis (was literally the last one on)
-I turned around on my trip to the mall and decided to take a train back
-she didn't bother to rush to make the train that got to the station before mine did
-actually she got on the same train and sat at the other end, we crossed along the platform as we went for different exits, though she went the wrong way and crossed the street afterwards, to where I was still waiting for my bus

Thinking of this I wonder how many other times in my life I have meet people, or not meet people because of timing? Be it red lights, elevator doors or what have you. Of course I have also been keenly aware of timing within relationships for quite a while. The number of relationships that didn't work out because of one person or the other leaving, or not being ready/single or other similar reasons at the time are too frequent to list.

So is that what will ultimately determine that one relationship that lasts, will it be simply due to timing? On some levels that's a lot more comforting an idea than that there is one perfect "true" love out there for each of us. I think I would prefer to think of it as many potentially perfect loves; it's just a matter of combining the right person with the right timing.

I guess that leaves me biding my time for the right time and person to come along, until then I suppose I will just have to settle for the right person ;)

Weekend Update

So after a weekend away from the blog I have some new material to put up, which is good because I wouldn't want to get boring to my audience (though let's face it, my life isn't going to make it to the movies).

This weekend was really nice, if you don't mind high heat and pretty good humidity. When I lived in Edmonton I found that I missed the humidity, I think I was just delusional due to dehydration. The humidity here is a bit of a pain, particularly when it gets up around 30 C. I guess the last time I experienced consistent temperatures like this I was living in Montreal, and I had my blood properly diluted with alcohol to keep me cool, or just oblivious, either way it worked. Now however I don't have alcohol to help me escape the heat, though ice cream is a good replacement.

Despite the heat I did get out for a couple of bike rides this weekend. Though it is a bit sad that even though I am trying to ride with a club I still only ended up riding with one other person on each day. I'm really going to have to whip these kids into line and get them training properly. But the Saturday ride was nice, but real fast. The guy I was riding with is only in his first year of riding, he used to be a swimmer/diver (I think) well either he's really fit or I'm way out of shape (probably a little from column A and a little from column B) but we were just motoring on the way out of town, averaging about 35 km/h with not a very strong tailwind. On the way back though the heat, crapy diet of the past few days, or the late night (~4.5 hours of sleep) started to catch up to me and I was feeling really beaten down. It's funny for me to feel that way on a three hour ride. I remember riding with ERTC when I was fit and frequently leading the ride back into town, into the wind, now I was the one sucking the wheel and needing to draft. Oh well, there's more motivation to ride and train more.

Sunday I was out on the mountain bike again, I'm really enjoying riding it this year. It seems that after a couple of years trying to keep up with Paul and either Kristi or Christina have made me a better mountain biker. As it is I have yet to actually crash the bike, which usually happened about once a ride back in Edmonton. Though maybe it's the lack of significant challenges to the trails, seriously I think I've had to ride over only 10 roots, and they were all perpendicular to the trail, and dry. For those that don't ride off road much, many of the trails in Edmonton have vast amounts of roots from the trees crossing the trail. Roots become challenging to ride under a couple of conditions; when they are not perpendicular to the trail, and when they are wet. It always seemed that both scenarios were the case when I rode in Edmonton. So it certainly seems that my riding skills have improved after the challenges that I faced when I started to ride off road again. I was out on Sunday with one of the girls in the club, she's apparently one of the best mountain bikers in the area, and it shows, she rode so much more smoothly than I did. Plus I recall her saying she was going to take it relatively easy on the ride, yet I recall gasping for air most of the time, while she was kind enough to keep talking to me as my answers consisted of as few syllables as possible.

Either way it was a fun weekend, though I did manage to pull/twist something at the front of my ankle near the end of the mtb ride. It's probably going to be sore for a few days, but I still haven't been bleeding from a mtb ride, so I don't really mind.

To blog or to e-mail...that is the question

I've realized recently that I have even less desire to write e-mails now that I have the blog up and running smoothly. This has however raised a bit of a conflict within me, should I be writing more e-mails, or should I just stay with the blog?

Admittedly e-mails are nice, everyone likes to get a message in their inbox (wow that almost sounds dirty) . Yet as I am posting to the blog just about every day, what more is there for me to say? Admittedly if you aren't reading this blog you'll find that whatever I have to say is new, but I can only write out the same things so many times (usually once). That's not to say that I won't write to people, though I am rather far behind on writing to a few people (Ebbing, Glen and Ted pop to mind right away, sorry guys). But if you are reading this you know what's going on so there isn't all that much to say.

I guess the real advantage to e-mail though is that I can still put in that personal touch. Thinking of it now the blog is probably even more impersonal than a mass e-mail, though I can't say that it has the same bland feeling (no offense meant to those who mass e-mail, I just hate writing them, but I enjoy reading them).

So I guess this post has been more of a confession/apology, for not having been more prompt at returning e-mails. But in the meantime keep an eye on the blog and the best way to get me to write to you is to quilt me into it.

By the way if anyone is interested here are a couple of blogs that I have found that are rather interesting to read:

Waiter Rant pretty obvious what it is by the title

Clublife this is the personal blog of a bouncer at some New York clubs, very interesting perspective

The Difference a Day Makes

That and a bunch of e-mails from good friends ;)

I'm always surprised by how quickly I can gain perspective at times (and in retrospect lose perspective). Obviously the last couple of days I had let myself get a bit bogged down in this whole thing with Kelly. Yet today it seems that the whole weight of the situation has vanished.

I guess the biggest thing is that I realized that I had put far too much emphasis on the potential of a relationship. Admittedly we hit things off well, but the reality is that I've only seen her on less than a dozen occasions. So as one wise friend pointed out, I really don't necessarily know here all that well. I think on some levels I've been wanting to be in a relationship for some time, yet not being entirely honest about it with myself, thus not realizing how much I was trying to make this something that it was not. How's that for proof that you can get a Ph.D. and still be an idiot? ;)

So today everything seems good, I have a much broader perspective of life once again and I'm open to whatever comes my way in life. Best of all though I have a smile on my face and the cloud over my head is gone. If Kelly ever comes back we can see about things, but trying to build a relationship over this kind of distance is just stupid (I swear that I knew that at some point in time). If she doesn't come back...well I still have her car, and her apartment if anyone wants to come down for a visit ;)

Thanks so much everyone, I'm glad to have you as friends.

And it just keeps getting better...

So one would think that after all the fun I had yesterday that my day couldn't really get much worse, well you are all free to believe that if you wish, but guess what? Admittedly I'm not sure at the moment if this is bad news or not, but I don't see things turning out to be good in all likelihood.

Last night I got a call from Kelly, nothing unusual about that, as we do speak almost every night. Well it turns out that the district command wants her to be a permanent member of the Coast Guard, not just a reservist. And it seems that she is rather tempted by the thought. It's not a done deal yet, she is still waiting to hear about a promotion/position here are the university, but she isn't even sure that she wants it. So if she does take the Coast Guard offer it seems that she would have to do 3 years of contract-like positions, essentially moving each year, before she could get a permanent position.

Like I said she's not certain that she wants to take the position, but from talking to her I get the distinct feeling that she will. Which essentially scraps any possibilities that I can see to evolve any relationship with her. After all this is Minneapolis, there is no coast to guard here. I have to admit that I haven't brought up any of that in talking with her. I guess I simply want her to do what is best for herself, after all changing one's life for someone you spent a couple of weeks with would be rather stupid. So if that means that we miss out on what could be, I guess that's our luck, as I said before, we seem to have horrid luck with our timing.

On the plus side of things today can only really get better, one would hope, since it seems that yesterday hits a new all-time low for how shitty a day can get. Well I hope that it can't get any lower, though if it does you'll all hear about it.

So Angry...

Those of you who read this who know me know that I'm not someone who gets angry. Yet it seems that the longer that I live here the angrier I become. Today is a great example of those things that help send me into a seething rage.

First off I'm still dealing with UPS to get compensated for the stuff that they broke. Well it seems that the system in place is such that: I speak to someone at UPS (I assume); who then speaks to their Claims Dept; the Claims Dept. then contacts the shipper; who will likely contact me for information on what was damaged. From there I'm not too sure how it works, but I'm willing to guess that it's not a simple process to get my money. After all it has taken 2 weeks just to get the shipper notified of the damages! Any bets that a two year old could find a more direct way of dealing with this whole issue?

Now the best part of the day only just happened, when I figured I should check on my bank account on-line. Not that it's a particularly useful way of seeing what's going on with my account, as the most recent information is at best 2 days old. Well it seems that I've overdrawn my account by the amount of my rent! Now some of this is my fault, but a lot of this is just damn stupid. I did bounce my rent cheque, it was my mistake, made in part because the banker said that it would take a week or two to correct the balance error from depositing Canadian funds. It turns out that it took about a day. So the virtual money that I had to play with disappeared and the rent cheque bounced. So figuring that it would be best to pay the rent right away I decided to pay them with convenient cheque card! Well low and behold when I checked on my account today I found that the bounced check had now passed! And the account was also overdrawn to the amount of the rent, put on the cheque card!

The stupidity of all this arises with the fact that I payed the rent on the cheque card Saturday, yet the funds have yet to be taken from my account, they are simply pending, something that doesn't happen with a debit card. However I couldn't see this on-line, as I was only able to tell that the funds were taken from my account. With the two day delay I could not tell that it was actually due to the cheque clearing on the second try. So since it is a cheque card transaction which is pending, and over-drawing my account, the bank can't do anything about it, isn't that convenient, it's a VISA card, not an actual bank card. So I need to contact the rental office tomorrow (I tried today but the proper person was not there, surprise surprise) and get them to cancel the transaction. Though knowing my luck it will be too late tomorrow and I will be over-drawn, probably penalized and since it's going through VISA I'll get a shitty credit rating, screwing all chances of getting a US credit card, which is about impossible to get anyway.

So is it any wonder that at the moment I would love to smash the shit out of something? I really hate feeling like this, I don't enjoy being angry, but I just can't help it now, there is so much incompetence in the systems that I have to deal with that it absolutely pisses me off.

More Bumper Stickers

I know that I've commented on bumper stickers before, but I saw a really good set on Saturday that I think needs to be shared.

The first one I noticed read: "Criminals prefer unarmed victims". Fair enough I buy that concept. But is that the best argument the gun-nuts can come up with? I mean seriously, when was the last time the following scenario played itself out:

Robber- "Excuse me sir do you have a gun on your person?"
Victim- "Why no I do not."
Robber- "Excellent, may I please have you wallet now. And thank you for not carrying a gun."

Serious unless you've got an AK-47 strapped across your back a criminal will not know you have a gun. So what good is having a gun? I guess the argument goes that if the criminal has a gun and you have a gun you can defend yourself. But are you that fast on the draw and that good a shot that you can beat a criminal in a gunfight when he probably has a gun pulled on you already? Hell this isn't the old west and you aren't John Wayne. By carrying a gun the chances of shots being fired and consequently people getting injured/killed goes way up. On top of that if you are caught by surprise and don't get to use your gun said criminal may in fact end up with more guns than he started with! Is this what we want? I really think a bit of gun control is a good idea, obviously the US does not as they allowed the rules prohibiting the sale of automatic weapons to expire.

Now some of you may recall that the above is my rant on only one of the bumper stickers. The other sticker that was in prominent view read "I support Bush and our Troops." This one is kind of funny because it seems that during the last election down here, it was made out to be that the Bush supporters were for the troops, whereas the Kerry supporters were against the troops. Obviously this is horrid logic, it's absolutism, which is rarely every right (I won't say never right because that would be rather ignorant of me). More accurately though how exactly is Bush supporting the troops? I would see supporting them as putting them in the least possible danger, not keeping them in the closest thing to Vietnam since the Russians moved into Chechnya. Wouldn't bringing them home alive to be safe and with their families be a more effective form of support. That bumper sticker really should read "I support Bush's efforts to help his oil buddies, damn the cost." Ok maybe that's a bit much, but you really do have to wonder about the motivations to invade Iraq. After all, they still haven't found bin Ladin yet have they?

Oh and just in case you were wondering what kind of vehicle this person was driving, ok it was probably a white man but I didn't check, it was an SUV. But it gets better, SUVs are big right, they are supposed to be able to do more than the family car and be a bit like a pick-up truck right? Well this yahoo was towing a boat trailer, so that he could have his bar-b-que on it, rather than in the back of the SUV. I suppose he didn't want to risk getting the upholstery dirty. Sometimes I just have to hang my head and wonder if people will ever figure out the right way to do things.

Sometimes it feels as though certain superstitions are true.

Not that I'm the superstitious type, I'm really not. But there has been one aspect of my life that has always seemed to find some form of detriment under certain conditions. In particular it seems that any relationship in which I think that there is good potential some difficulty (if not fall through completely) will arise if I mention the fact of the relationship to others. Now I know that this isn't true, I know I'm not cursed, but sometimes it almost feels that way.

For those who cannot read blatant foreshadowing I think I've encountered a bit of a bump in the road at the moment. It seems that Kelly has been requested for a project by the Coast Guard that would keep her in San Diego until the end of September. I found this out Sunday morning, and it's taken some time to digest properly. She's very enthusiastic about the idea and wants to do it, which I support fully, at least in the rational/intellectual part of my mind. The more selfish/emotional portion of my mind however, would rather her be back here.

In the end I don't really mind, the situation is just a bit hard to deal with at first. The real challenge I find is to remember that she likes me, and that changes in her orders and the like are not her doing and are not related to our relationship. It has just been a bit odd as it seems that her orders change every week, first she was back at the beginning of September, then it was beginning of August, now October. So I guess if I have learned anything in the past few weeks it's that I shouldn't sweet the changes, one way or another she'll be back. If not, I still have her car...

Wow I guess this blog really is taking on the title properly now ("This is me"). I know that this is a bit more revealing than I am in person, but maybe that's not such a bad thing. Anyway feel free to post comments as you see fit. If you would prefer my commenting on life here in Minneapolis don't worry I will keep that up. I've just felt a bit more introspective lately.

What to post...

It's funny how this blog works at times. There are instances when I feel that there are things that I want to post and then there are other times (like now) where I feel that I should post something but I'm not sure what that should be.

I suppose that there are a number of things I could discuss. There was the bike race, a downtown crit that I volunteered in last night. I helped set-up, was a course marshal and tore the course down, only about 8 hours of work. I did have a great view of the race, being right at a corner with the Shimano neutral support and the scene of several crashes. Including one where Gord Fraser's front tubular popped while he was pulling his team back after a crash earlier in the lap. That was loud and scary as he went sliding across the road. But he seemed ok, no tears in the shorts or blood visible, though he was visibly upset (threw his helmet after he went down) as he finished the race well back of the lead group. So I guess I did want to mention something about that in the end.

I suppose that since this a blog about me it would be appropriate to share something of a more personal nature. As most of you know I'm not one to delve into much detail of my dating life, but I figured that this one has enough humour (for the twisted, like myself) in it to qualify as a good post on the blog.

So it all started over a month ago, in fact it was exactly a week after I got here that I met Kelly while waiting for a bus. We started to chat and hit it off really well and went out a number of times in the following couple of weeks. Part of why we saw each other frequently is that she is a reservist in the coast guard and was going back to San Diego on orders at the end of May (her real world job is at the university in the department of health and safety). Obviously we hit things off well enough that though her orders were for her to be gone until the end of August she wanted to leave me her car for the summer, to keep an eye on it and drive it as I like while she was gone (it's a VW Jetta). So she's been gone for over 3 weeks now and we have kept in touch, talking almost daily (my cell phone plan lets me call anywhere in the US as a local call, and here I was thinking that would be a useless feature). We even had the chance to see each other last weekend, it was her 10 year high school reunion (in Ohio) and she was making a connection back to San Diego through Minneapolis. Though due to flight delays the lay-over went from over an hour to about 20 minutes, but it was still better than nothing. And her orders have now changed such that she will be returning here on the 1st of August, just in time for me to take off for a wedding in Edmonton (we seem to have issues with timing). Oh and just to add a bit more humour to the whole situation, Kelly is in the process of divorcing her husband, an officer in the navy, stationed in Minneapolis. Things always have to be interesting with me for some reason. But I really like her, and the feeling is mutual, so hopefully things can last through to August and I suppose we will see where things go from there.

So I guess that's the big news from me, obviously I've been sitting on that one for some time. But I'm not normally one to talk about those aspects of my life, but I wanted to share this one. I have no clue where this is going, so don't start jumping to conclusions, I know how some of you have been discussing my potential as marriage material, but trust me, I'm not there yet.

Volunteering for a Bike Race

Well, yesterday was the first of three days that I have signed up to help with the Nature Valley Grand Prix, a 5 day bicycle stage race taking place around the Twin Cities. It was the prologue TT, only about 7.5 km on a rather flat road. Anyway I volunteered in part to be active in the cycling community here, and in penance for all those whom I coaxed into volunteering at races for me.

I learned something from the whole event, between marshaling a course in the cold and rain or marshalling one on a day that turns sunny and hot, I preferred the cold rainy one. Unfortunately at this event I arrived to find things in a bit of shambles and needed to help with the venue set-up. As a result when I was finally needed out on the road I was in a bit of a rush and forgot to use some sun screen. And as luck would have it the morning that started off rainy and heavily clouded turned into a wonderfully sunny day. So I burned, big time. Worst off have to be the tops of my feet, I was wearing sandals (one would think I would have learned from Aaron), and I will be wearing the same sandals for a number of days, at least until the skin stops glowing red.

So that's my stupidity for the day, I just though that you might like to hear that I suffered a bit while being a course marshal. After all I know that most of you who helped out with my races did so in some pretty shitty weather, and I have always been thankful for the help you provided.

Listening and learning from Americans

This just sucks, I had a nice post ready to go and I managed to lose it, damn. Oh well I guess I will try this over again, though it's going to be a bit shorter since I'm tired of writing this already.

So in the listening to Americans I came across this jem the other day at lunch:

"How would you know if 15 C was warm or cold?" This was a comment made in relation to my mentioning that I was still unfamiliar with how warm the Fahrenheit scale was in comparison to the Celsius scale to which I am accustomed. Obviously this person forgets that both scales are relative in terms or warmth/cold and one has to learn them as they go. He wasn't born knowing that 30 F was cold and 85 F is hot.

Then again I haven't been to impressed by this guy so far anyway. Earlier on in the conversation he asked me to repeat how far I had biked three times before I realized that he was condescendingly telling me to convert it to miles for him. Though what should one expect from a Chemistry PhD student? An ability to adapt to others (using a nearly universal measurement system), or perhaps even the ability to be polite among supposed peers. Nah, that's too much to ask for, the best one can hope for is pig-headedness.

And a few things that I forgot in my list of things I've learned:

1. The best post Sept. 11th investment (other than Halliburton) would have been any company that makes American flags - these things are everywhere, there is a bridge in St Paul which has one every 50 ft on both sides of the superstructure
2. Americans, particularly those in the service industry, cannot (or maybe will not) pronounce foreign words properly - the most typical examples are espresso (eXpresso) and croissant (cross-ANT), surprisingly enough they can pronounce Cappuccino?
3. Weather in the Midwest apparently must containing a warning for either thunderstorms or tornados - I literally doubt that a day has gone by that I have not heard a warning for either one, and I've only seen about 3 thunderstorms and heard of one tornado touching down

And to keep people updated on my life a bit more, last night I was out mountain biking for the first time this season. I went out with a number of the riders from the University team to a place called Lebanon hills. It's really nice singletrack trails that are super smooth and really fast. There were almost no roots across the trails (something not seen in Edmonton) and most of the bigger obstacles were man-made (log piles for the most part). But the riding was great, it was neat to ride with a few people on single speeds with no suspension, they were so quiet. I may have to get the cyclocross bike out there sometime, it would be supper fast and fun.

So that's it for now from Minneapolis. I hope everyone is doing well. For all of you who have e-mailed me and I have yet to respond, I apologize and I will try to catch up on that by the end of the week. I miss you all.

More and more things I've learned

So it has been a while since I posted about the things I have learned down here. Perhaps I'm learning less and less, but I think I'm just becoming more and more sensitized to the folly that I see and just forget to post it. But here are a few more items that I have learned:

1. People will run outside when they hear gun shots - now to me this is just plain stupid, and at least the person who told me that they did this admitted as much, but just the same, he did run outside, personally I'd hug the floor.
2. Did you know that morbidly obese is not the last ranking on that scale? - you would think that the only thing after mobidly obese would be dead, but no, there is "super morbidly obese" and "super super morbidly obese". You know to me these terms are too nice, it should be something like "fucking morbidly obese" and "fucking disgustingly morbidly obese" these people don't need to be coddled, they need to get their shit together if they want to live.
3. People in general seem to have little respect for others - I've seen people all over just spit without care, it seems like just about anyone will spit in the street at any time, even people who are well dressed and look like professionals. Walk home one night some guy sitting at the corner almost spat on me, it's just bloody gross and rude.
4. Americans don't understand the concept of walking somewhere - most of those I know are shocked when I say that I will walk back from downtown to my place (~20 minutes) or even walks as short as about 10 blocks, maybe I can understand point number 2 a bit better now that I think of it.
5. People from the mid-west (where I am now) seem to be rather sheltered - one of the girls in the lab is from here, does not want to move away when she's done, and Saturday night was the first time she tried hummus in her life. That was actually the first time she had heard of it, as well as a brie cheese (I think). And I thought people in Alberta were sheltered.
6. You will see all kinds of people/things on the bus if you pay attention - this morning I saw what I'm certain was a ankle bracelet (the police kind not jewelry) as well as someone who may qualify for "super morbidly obese" there are all kinds of interesting people to see, to top it all off, nobody wants to sit next to anyone else, unless they're a little 'touched'.
7. People either have an intense fear of being run over in traffic, or none at all - the people I work with are deathly afraid of being run over, the people around my place will walk out in front of a moving bus without a care in the world. Admittedly the people around my place may fall more into the 'touched' category, even if it is only due to chemicals, but I'm certain that I'm going to see someone get hit one of these days.
8. And apparently the appropriate response for almost being cut off in traffic is to take your eyes off the road, lay on the horn, almost try to jump out the passenger window while yelling like an insane fool and shaking your fist, all while still driving at full speed - I honestly saw all this while waiting for a bus, I was sure the guy was going to have a heart attack he was so agitated

So that's about it for now, as always life is entertaining and interesting. I have to admit though, even through all this I'm enjoying myself. Saturday night while walking home I came across an art fair that was wrapping up for the night a few blocks from my place. A DJ was playing some old school hip hop (OPP I think) to a small audience of kids and adults while most of the nearby front steps had people just hanging out listening to the tunes. It brought a smile to my face and a little bounce to my step, it was really cool to see/hear on a hot summer night.

Listening to Americans

For all the Canadian readers of this blog I'm certain that you all remember talking to Americans, a brilliant bit of comedy done by Rick Mercer as part of "This Hours has 22 Minutes". Well it turns out that sometimes you don't even have to talk to them, just listening to them can be comedy enough.

Yesterday somehow I got on the topic of Canadian currency with a couple of my colleagues, one American (I believe that she's from the mid-west) and the other guy is Honduran, but has lived her for a number of years. Well it got to the point of explaining the dollar coins, and why the toonie does not have loons on it but rather polar bears. At this point the girl piped up "But you don't even have polar bears in Canada." (then again why would be tucked way down there? - a little Simpson's quote for the fun of it). Unfortunately I was a bit too shocked by this statement to respond very diplomatically, I believe that my exact words were "For christ-sake, we own the North Pole." Though I was almost laughing as I said it, so hopefully it didn't come across as being mean.

Who knows, perhaps years of tricking Americans into believing things that aren't true they have finally become skeptical of us...or more likely they just don't know.