Convocation

First of all, I must congratulate my very best friend Matt on receiving his Masters of Arts in history. He's now the frontrunner out of all my friends in the academic prestige category.

I attended his convocation ceremony and several things struck me. When honorary degree recipients are asked to address the graduands, they should not use it as their personal platform to vent. David Schindler today (or yesterday afternoon, I guess) went on this nowhere rant about the evils of capitalism, George Bush, America, etc., etc. While I respect him immensely as an aquatic ecologist, I was most disappointed in failing to use this opportunity to inspire the graduands. Instead, he probably turned more people off on his cause against climate change, US foreign policy, etc than gain them.

Seeing my first year physics TA and my first year calculus teacher receive their PhDs once again reminded me about how long I have been in Kingston for my university career. As such, it always makes me introspective about what I've accomplished and what I've gained here (it also doesn't help that the news lately has been dreadfully dull such that I've to post about the trivial matters that is my life). While I've certainly grown in some respects, there are still areas where improvements can be made.

So there are now officially six months left in my tenure at Queen's. It'll be interesting to see what this place has left to offer me. At the very least, it'd be nice for me to be able to answer these three questions...

Urge to spend rising...rising...

Courtesy of Chromewaves, an unlikely source:

It appears that a 3-volume hardcover edition of the Complete Calvin and Hobbes set has just been released and boy would it be in my hands right now if not for my lack of funds. Alas, it shall be mine soon enough. If not now, or in 6 months, or in 6 years, it will be mine eventually. Much like other things like the LOTR DVD set, West Wing DVDs, etc.

What a beautiful set of books though.

No sleep for the blog-ed (...or How I stopped worrying about sleep to post about fake blog worth and Apple)

Two interesting sites via BoingBoing:

How much is your blog worth? gives you a dollar value for your blog based on research on an AOL purchase of a weblog company and uses external links via Technorati as a measure of worth. Definitely fun and obviously flawed when this site is supposedly worth $4,516.32 and something say, oh, I don't know, Inkless Wells, is worth $0.00?! Anyways, BoingBoing is worth $9,386,606.58...that's a whole lot of Boing...err...Bling.

iPod + Christianity = iBelieve?! I don't even know if this is a satirical product on the Apple Cult or whether this is a serious product. It seems serious enough, and it scares the bejeezus out of me just the same. Must everything be turned into a cross?

On a related note, what is up with Apple problems with the iPod Nano and the Video iPod. Did they not test the durability of the Nano? And is anyone really going to watch videos on such a small screen? I'm sure Apple's not slipping, but these don't seem to be top-notch products that Apple's been known for...

Convergence

It's a funny thing when events and ideas converge in your life and you watch it unfold but don't quite know what it means. Maybe funny's not the right word, more quirky perhaps.

In the last few weeks, I'd found myself in a slump over my school year, my thesis, my life in general pretty much; though, it's sometimes a useful thing to always return to the basic questions about what you should do with your life. By way of Bob Rae, asking these three questions of Rabbi Hillel I find to be a good starting point:

1) If I am not for myself, then who is for me?
2) If I am only for myself, what am I?
3) If not now, when?

I'm definitely not saying I've answered these questions, but they were definitely on my mind. Then, as our normative decision-making class switched to ethics, we were confronted with a simple basic question, "What does Planning profess?" Needless to say, our entire class were silenced by our lack of...insight.

Then, tonight in the class I TA, we'd invited a local planner for a Q & A on general and local planning issues. One of the students boldly asked, "What is the point of planning if you're so straitjacketed by upper levels of government and such? Defend your job." While some may find the question rude, and others find it pertinent, I found that I could not come up with a straightforward answer for myself (which makes my normative class very handy right now). The planner gave a general technical answer but definitely did not satisfy me philosophically.

So in the back of my head, I once again start on this journey of trying to figure out...why the hell I'm even here, let alone posting about this.

Castaways and Cutouts

When you're lost and adrift, the only thing you can rely on is your reason and instincts. But if your instincts fail you, your reason gives no answers, and your faith has been sitting on the front steps for years, where do you turn to? Where do you place your trust?

How then do you experience the world? What if the world you perceive is merely a simulacrum, populated by castaways with nothing else to do and cutouts who pop up at appropriate times? And if you lose yourself in this theme park, how then do you differentiate between what is real and what isn't?

Does anyone have an idea? Because I don't.

Jeez, and I thought I eat a lot...

Via Metafilter courtesy of BBC.

Whenever I'm down, nature always finds a way to bring me back up. Today, it has brought me this story.

This is a picture of the gruesome aftermath of a bitter fight in the Florida swamps between a the non-native burmese python and a Florida alligator. Apparently, the python tried to swallow the alligator whole but it is believed that the alligator had enough fight in it after being consumed to puncture and explode the python's stomach, leaving this delicious aftermath. There is no snake head because it's missing...go figure.

BBC Link

Illegitimus non Carborundum

It's been a little over a year now since Matt convinced me to start a blog and it seems like a reflection is always called upon when you reach that 1-year mark. And what has happened since that late summer evening?

• In two words, not much. Compared to my early posts, I don't think my writing style has improved any. I pay a lot more attention to certain things and have ended up spending more time trolling for interesting stories. I've found many good blogs with fascinating people, excellent analytical minds and sharp wits. For that, I am content.

• My posting will probably continue to be sporadic, if the last few weeks are of any indication. The upcoming months will be busy with projects and my thesis, if I ever get around to it. The 'net is wide and deep though, so I'm sure to find a good topic to discuss when I pry myself away from my work (HA!).

• Which is another thing I've noticed of late. I used to write more about personal events and happenings but that has seriously curtailed recently, for which I don't have much of an explanation. My guess is that my life's been pretty much uninteresting over the summer, except for my trip out to Calgary and Chris' wedding, which I seriously have to take the time to upload some pics (I promise I will, I promise...famous last words of a procrastinator though).

• But this may be an interesting year. The incoming year at Urban Planning's a very fun bunch of people and I've gotten to know a few of them quite well. So shouts out to Jen, Karen, Josh, Ryan, Bryan, Sarah, Tasha, Andrej and Emily...

• Meanwhile, the last couple days has been pretty hectic, getting various sections of reports done and staying up way later than I should to get it done. Surprisingly though, I haven't been groggy or overly tired, which is unusual. I'm still currently alert and more or less coherent. How is this possible? A LOT of random yelling and wild gesticulation to relieve the stress, methinks. But if I can parlay this into an ongoing thing then this may be the chance where when I'm whining about needing more hours in the day, that I'll be getting it. I could obviously increase my productivity by working more efficiently during the day, but who wants to be logical like that?

Well, that's the state of things right now. The forecast calls for possible dark clouds on the horizon in the upcoming weeks. But like all forecasts, nothing is certain. I have yet to figure out the repercussions, but hopefully they will pass without incident. There's also the ongoing scavenger hunt of life, where I'm still trying to find that first piece of the puzzle. It's right under my nose, I just know it.

Oh well, keep your head up, lest you walk into a bastard...