A new mission

The blog has never had a particular focus because I wanted to be able to write about whatever the hell I damn well please. And while I haven't consciously avoided discussing planning issues, there certainly is a lack of posts regarding my chosen profession. I've definitely become quite interested in various aspects (though you wouldn't know by how well THIS term was...) though I don't think I've found quite the right item yet to post. But soon.

In the meantime, I search far and wide in the blogosphere for planning-related blogs. While City Comforts has been my anchor, I certainly want more variety. I also don't believe as I did previously about environmental blogs, that there aren't any out there. They are. They just have to be found.

First shot's across the bow

I was walking to campus today and bumped into a friend who was packing up and moving out now that she'd finish her last exams of her undergraduate career. And for the first time, I felt a bit sad that I may not see these friends ever again. It was a strange feeling. I graduated last year and yet I didn't get the same sense of nostalgia and longing, probably because I knew I'd be back this year and I still knew several people who'd still be around.

But now that they're leaving, it's starting to dawn on me that the curtain call's coming and that I've a year before I leave my comfort zone that is Kingston and Queen's University. Next year's going to be a bit stranger, as more strange faces arrive without the familiar ones returning. Does it mean that I actually have to grow up now?

Whoever came up with this is a genius...

...and by genius, I mean brain-dead idiot who needs to be fired from his/her job.

Our local Mac's convenient store is now selling a new flavour of Froster (their name for a slushie). The froster: Bloody-Zit Froster.

That's right. Someone out there thought it was a good idea to remind me that I'm drinking some oily, scarred pimple-faced adolescent's blood and pus...

If this isn't a sign of humanity's (or maybe just marketing's?) slow decline, I don't know what is.

Quick Comments (there are such things)

- No one should be surprised that the Catholic Church elected a conservative Pope...really, it's the Catholic Church, people, the same folks who brought you ruler-carrying nuns...

- The Liberal Party ship is sinking hard and fast. The question remains, how much wreckage will be left after the election and will tomorrow night's national address be an air pocket of hope or a new gaping hole in the hull?

- After Dennis Miller's appearance on Jon Stewart tonight (April 20, 2005), I gotta ask: If I get him to defend his rep and talk about the environment long enough, will his head explode to shower us with Libertarian candy?

- What is the point of Cogeco Cable telling me I can sign up for their services online when all it will do is get a Cogeco phone drone to tell me that I HAVE TO visit their customer centre (which moved from 30 feet from my house to 3 kilometres?) to sign up. And this is the service rep TELLING ME THIS. I mean, seriously, why would they actually not use the service that they're providing to others to run their own business? And what is that saying about the product that they're providing me?

Quick Reflection (if there ever is such a thing)

Blogging has definitely become sporadic this term, but moreso in the last few weeks. It has felt much longer than the 20 days from my last post and the 25 days from an actual opinion on this blog. Many blogs have actually gone quiet as of late, particularly those in my 'peer review' section. Some have remained strong, others are all but abandoned, while still others have refused to go gentle into that good night.

Anyways, I just wanted to say that this has been a very disappointing four months. It held a lot of promise at the beginning of the year, but like the Paul Martin government (it's like shooting worms at a bait shop these days), it's failed to deliver.

It didn't help to have to end things with Amy, relationship and otherwise. But that apparently was just the beginning of a snowball that was apparently rolling down from the peak of Everest all the way to sea level. The school term's material just didn't generate the interest that it made itself out to be and the workload was defintely greater than expected. Not just the amount but the time required to finish anything was quite surprising. Instead of igniting our hidden passions for planning, it really created contempt in a lot of my classmates and me for our program, with most of us just wanting our term to end. Certainly, most of this deals with personal responsibility, but it seems my year spent a lot of time finishing tasks last-minute, and I don't know if our level of work ethic and intelligence isn't as high as last year or whether we're more apathetic and not as uber-keen as the upper-years. Or is that our failing as a year? Is it required of Masters' candiates to be uber-keeners?

In any case, I've definitely become more jaded and cynical (and thus, quite apathetic) in the last few months. Part personal responsibility and part bad luck/karma/whatever. I worked as hard as I could have but without the karma, nothing got me out of the hole. I've definitely worked harder than in previous terms and yet have little to show for it, academically or in my personal life. Either way, in a few days, I will get a chance to shut down for a day or two and just decompress. This is the first time I've actually been mentally burnt out and it'll be good to do some real reflection.

Hopefully, by then I'll have a job and be posting a bit more regularly. The prospects of no summer income for next year is not helping the stress level or time management side one bit. With the summer comes the start of my thesis research. While I want to be optimistic (the one time I was and looked what happened...) about the summer's progress I'm going to be cautious and hedge my bets, particularly since I'm still working out my methodology. In any case, I'm relying on me having hovered around the bottom long enough that I'll start finding an upward slope. Here's hoping.

On the issues side, there'll definitely be things to talk about, particularly the likelihood of using the title 'Foreign Affairs Minister Stockwell Day' in a conversation and the consequences of some sort of Conservative government on issues such as the Kyoto Accord, same-sex marriage and our newly unveiled (and quickly buried by Sponsorship Scandal news) foreign policy. There should be interesting posts in the summer on my thesis and just Canadian issues in general, so hope you stick around.

P.S. I would like to announce and extend my congratulations to my ex-housemate Katie for winning the Society for Conservation Biology Annual Charity Photo Contest. Hopefully sometime in the next week, I will get her permission to post her absolutely brilliant photo ont this blog.

Too dumb to pass up.

Discovered via Bacon and eh's, this is just one of those incidents where you wonder whether human intelligence is progressing at all...

POTTY-MOUTH MAN CAN'T FOOL SCIENCE
IAN ROBERTSON, TORONTO SUN- MARCH 30, 2005

An allegedly drunk driver with a taste for trickery failed to foil a police breathalyzer machine after stuffing his mouth full of feces. "I don't think alcohol alone would make you do something as disgusting as that," South Simcoe Police Insp. Tom McDonald said.

"I've never heard of anything like this before," the 28-year veteran said.

Arrested Sunday after his Ford pickup truck was pulled over on Hwy. 11 in Stroud, the 59-year-old driver was loaded into a cruiser and taken to a South Simcoe Police station for testing.

En route, Sgt. James Buchanan said, the prisoner vomited, urinated and defecated in the squad car.

At the station the man grabbed a handful of his own waste "and placed it in his mouth, attempting to trick the breathalyzer machine," he said.

It didn't work, Buchanan said.

The machine registered two readings of more than twice the legal blood alcohol limit. The man was charged with impaired driving and driving over the limit and was released on a promise to appear in a Bradford court on May 12.

I guess what they'll say about him's true...anything coming out of his mouth is shit.