That's not even a word!!!

Some people have a hard time choosing what they will be when they grow up. I didn't. And I'll tell you why.

Have you ever been faced with one of those jobs that you thought was going to take you a hundred years? You honestly started to wonder if, not only was it going to take you the rest of your life, but you were also going to need to inspire your children and grandchildren to continue your work because the task was so menacing.

I remember having this feeling when I saw the Periodic Table for the first time in science class. Was it some sort of cruel joke? I mean it was a collection of 1-3 letter words all jumbled up with pointless numbers and symbols. It wasn't as if anyone had even bothered to make the alphabetization, numbers and colours line up. Then I found out that the letters stood for a whole word. What a relief.

Well, briefly, until I found out that the words were just made up by a bunch of jokers who hate children. It started out okay: H, He, Li, Be, B, C, N, O, F, Ne. All logically connectible to words so far.

And then they did it. Just like some evilly designed plan. They began to make up words and mix-up the letters and the corresponding words. Sodium, Potassium, Iron, Lead. It's like they didn't even know English. And then it got weird. Radon, Xenon, Krypton? Come on, who let the comic-book guy talk?

Memorize it? Nervous laughter.

Like I said, I didn't have a hard time deciding what I would be when I grew up. It was simple...nothing in the sciences.

Granted, in history there is a learning curve with languages and concepts. But, I'm not too worried. It's like they say, Rome wasn't built in a day.

Although, I bet they had a good chunk done by lunch. But it was easier for them. They already knew Latin.

Name to a Face

Since I have moved back to Peterborough and started attending Trent I have noticed some differences between Trent and Redeemer. At Trent you do not get accused of being Dutch when you have blue eyes and blond hair...you are just a minority. At Trent if you ask for a Dookie you will either get a weird look or you will get a weird look and a cookie. At Trent if you are wearing orange people will assume that you are a local and hunting season has been extended.

I think that one of the most obvious differences that I have noticed between Redeemer University College and Trent University is really the population size. this might seem a bit strange to some people. I mean after all, Trent University is known for being one of the smaller schools in Ontario.

However, for those of you who have been to Redeemer, you will know that the amount of people who are on campus rarely tips the one thousand mark--and that's even on days that all of the sports teams are playing home games. As a result of this, I was fairly confident that I could mentally place everyone at Redeemer. Granted I might not know them personally, but i could usually contextualize them.

Example: "Do you know Tom Smith?"

"Oh, Tom...he was captain of the hockey team, lived on Garner and married Sarah."

(As unbelievable as that example is, it is also all true.)

or,

"Gavin Ewing...oh yeah...lives with so and so and he was the guy who accidentally tree-planted himself off of a cliff one day." Actually that is a really funny story. One day me and Dowes were planting with Gavin and, because it was a Saturday, we were making top ten lists to make the time go faster. Dowes and I both had our heads down planting and were listening to Gavin list his top ten most date-able girls at Redeemer (ask me in private and I have no scruples about spilling all for a small price). At around number three on the list Gav got distracted with planting and stopped talking. After a moment we called to Gavin to get his attention and there was no answer. After standing up we realized that we couldn't see him anywhere and went running in his direction. We came to an eight foot cliff and at the bottom of it, wedged with his back against a tree, feet pointing up the cliff, trees, shovel and helmet scattered for yards around him, was Gavin. He had actually walked off the edge of a cliff in his distraction over deciding who number three on his list would be.

Right. At Trent I cannot contextualize everyone that I see on a day to day basis. I don't know the people I see, nor can I place them into a group of people that I might know or categorize them by what they do or who their prof is. However this does not prevent me from recognizing some people from a distance. I see them several times a week and due to scheduling factors I usually see them in the same places. I do not talk to them or have any social contact for that matter. But they are familiar.

In 1972, Stanley Milgram coined the term familiar stranger(or stole it from a less publicized friend). He stated that a familiar stranger is a person we regularly encounter but have no interaction with. For instance the person who you jog past as they are mowing their lawn on a regular basis. (provided that you have kept your New Year's resolution to jog until their lawn needs mowing and that they have kept their New Year's resolution to mow their lawn) Or a person that you see on your daily commute to school or work. Or that person that is always in the grocery store at the same time as you.

One of my familiar strangers is a woman who walks past my office two or three times a day. Anyways I hope that she is a familiar stranger and not a stalker...

Seven Minutes to Midnight

Have you ever had one of those days when everything that you hear about makes you think that the world is in all likelihood only days or even hours from destruction?

Let me tell you about mine. The BBC is currently featuring a top story about the tens of thousands of people who are dead in Haiti following a massive earthquake. I am currently not a resident of Haiti (this does not mean that I do not hope to one day become a resident of a tropical island or, even better, own my own) but I do read the news. Hearing about so many people dying and so many more having their entire lives shattered is a little unsettling to say the least.

You can turn on the news or read a paper on any given day of the year to learn of someone or a whole group of someones who have just lost everything that they value: friends, family, material possessions and homes.

It isn't even the variety of things that people are forced to lose that makes my head spin. It's the variety of ways that it can happen. Nuclear disaster, war, earthquake, tornado, fire, flood, robbery, a bus ride in western Canada, murder or even that nice little lady at the mall who says that she needs to swipe your VISA twice because it didn't read the first time and suddenly you have more credit card debt than Nicholas Cage.

Back to my first statement. Some days you wake up and the list of war-torn, disease-stricken, weather-ravaged parts of the world is so long that it seems like the world is closing in around you; just waiting to tear your life apart. Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, attempted bombings in Toronto, murder everywhere, tsunamis in the South Pacific, nuclear disasters waiting to pounce in Iran, earthquake in Haiti, the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian dispute, poverty in too many places to list, most of Africa (several questionable governments, militant radicals, disease, famine, etc.) and the list could go on.

Billy Joel could rewrite his song and only have to reuse the lines "I can't take it anymore" and "What else do I have to say"(roughly quoted, I didn't look it up).

The bare thread by which the knife over our heads dangles is thin and makes it a little difficult to properly enjoy a meal. One minute people are living life and the next the walls around them are crumbling. I guess that is the thing about life. No one is guaranteed that they will live forever or avoid any unfortunate circumstances. We just get what we get and we have to do our best with it.

We obviously can't donate all of our OSAP to help those who are less fortunate. However, we should do what we are able to do in order to help. And we should be thankful for the good things that we are given.

tot ziens

P.S. 5 bonus points for the person who caught the reference in the title.

I think I can. I think I can. I think I can...

New Year's Resolutions are something that I have frowned upon in the past. Mostly because I think that if someone would like to make a life-altering change, they can do it any time that they want. They don't need to have someone kiss them at the end of a countdown to make it happen.

Laura is attempting to be better at everything this year. My competitive personality almost lured me into resolving to be better at everything than Laura is. Fortunately I thought better of it before I opened my big mouth and stuck myself with all of the cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping and everything else that would have quickly fallen into the category of previously shared tasks.

I think the New Year's resolution is a very logical next step after all of the Christmas cheer that turns Grinch's and Scrooges into amiable uncles and charitable patrons of goodwill to all. This about face that we see in the media suckers us into buying the idea that we can become better people if we just set our minds to it. So here are some tips for how to make good New Year's resolutions.

The very best way to make a New Year's resolution that will not cause a great deal of discomfort come January 3rd is to make it so vague that even you will not remember what it was intended to correct in a weeks time.

Allow me to illustrate. Every year I play in a hockey tournament with my dad, uncle Jim and brothers over the Christmas break. This year I discovered that several of my gears were missing mid breakaway. Embarrassing and hurtful all at the same time. Getting married greatly increased the quality of food that I have been eating and in turn the quantity also picked up. Let's face it, my own dry grilled cheese sandwich made from month old crusts, the dry end of the cheese block and the margarine that is primarily made up of past users' crumbs, made it pretty easy for me to say not to seconds. I mean, come on, that ketchup wasn't even red anymore.

Right, so as a result of my wonderful wife's great cooking I am somewhat less in shape than I used to be. Living with 7-9 other guys who loved road hockey, pickup hockey, basketball, baseball, soccer and other sports probably also kept me in better shape than Laura chasing me around with a rolling pin(just an empty wine bottle prior to her great Christmas haul) after I spilled coffee grounds on the counter for the fourth day in a row.

After the tournament I vowed to Laura that I would get into better shape this year...as soon as I finished my Swiss Chalet festive special with a half chicken substituted for the regular quarter chicken. I carefully used the word 'better' instead of saying, I am going to finish the Boston Marathon next year.

Avoid easily evaluated goals.

Another tip for New Year's resolutions is to keep them to yourself. That way no helpful soul feels the need to hold you accountable when there are only three pieces of pie left and you have only had two.

For those of you who are wondering, I have decided not to make any resolutions this year. I'll make some minor lifestyle changes. When I go to the gym, I will only resort to shooting hoops once every other week in place of bench-pressing or running. When I eat a great meal I will not lick out the pot, or eat the extra three helpings required to get the pot to the lick-able point. I will no longer console myself for a bad day at the gym by eating butter...just kidding, I don't eat butter, but you should try the salted stuff some time, it is delicious.

Anyhow I have to go now. Laura just took muffins out of the oven and I have to go make sure that she is keeping her resolution. Good thing I didn't tell her about mine.

tot ziens