Party Like its MMVI

The rollover to the new year is here again, complete with its year-in-reviews, and countdowns and lists and rundowns. I can't be the only one that gets tired of them all, but hey, it fills the programming slots so more people can be off for the holidays.

It seems this year though that everyone must have gone way overboard on the whole Christmas rush and tired themselves right out. Everyone out there seems to have no-plans for New Years and are just keepin it kind of mellow. For me that's nothing new; only one year in the past 22 have I not been at home doing a fondue for New Years. That one year away was spent on the morder of Arizona and Mexico in a hotel room ringing in the New Years of each of the north american time zones, and watching drunk locals drive over gas pumps at the neighbouring gas station.

Anyways, no-one seems to have huge plans this year. Maybe its cause the novelty of the new millenium has worn off now that we're half a decade in, and the world hasn't ended yet so no-one wants to brave the masses. Maybe its cause its on a Saturday night? Or maybe its cause everyone's all anxious about the U.S. vs. Canada world junior game tonight.

Whatever the case I'm not gonna break my mellow tradition, and more importantly pass up a fondue, just for the sake of doing something.

Cheers to waving 2005 goodbye!

Not a 2005 List Post

I'm not going to fall into the trap of making a list of things from 2005. Why not? Because I can...or can not? That and there's nothing to make a list about, except maybe....

Okay I lied; Here's my list, in no particular order, of things that I won't make a top 10 list about to close out 2005:

9 - Most annoying fads.
6 - Favourite blog posts (others' not my own).
10 - Worst songs to be played on a radio, let alone recorded.
1 - Most annoying music groups.
3 - Reasons why there is no 7 in this list.
4 - Reasons to hate the Yankees and their fans.
8 - Reasons to hate the Leafs and their fans.
2 - Favourite new tofu dishes.
5 - Faces that I should have burned into food and made a fortune with on eBay.

And so there you have it, eat it Letterman!

Mellow Christmas

As a kid, our family always opened gifts right after midnight mass. My brother and I were told to go get some sleep so that we would be awake for mass, and Santa would come while we were gone. This meant that I was laying there eyes wide open for a few hours until it was time to get my sunday best on.

Of course later I was quick to realize that the nap served only to let my parents wrap the last of the gifts and get them ready to put under the tree while I anxiously waited in the car to go to church and get the formalities out of the way. At church too, the kids would make eye contact, and there would be nothing but excitement in them, because they too would be going home shortly to open at least a few parcels. And the parents wound up from 'shhhing' their kids the whole evening, and knowing that their hours spent in the malls were soon going to come to some kind of fruition.

These days though, things are much more subdued. My grandmother typically comes over to enjoy some snacks and the company on Christmas Eve before systematically visiting with almost all of her other eleven sons and daughters over the week before New Years. The past few years though her health has been in decline. If at all, she and my mom go to mass early with my brother while I put any remaining surprises under the tree, get a fire going (while hoping that no squirrels have taken up residence in the chimney in the year since its last use) and throw some hors d'oeuvres in the oven.

Instead of the excitement of gifts these days, its the enjoyment of relaxation. I don't think anything could have been more relaxing than trying to get my fire of damp cherry wood lit while sipping some delicious Dutch beers that I got for my birthday, and eating potstickers. No surprises, no unnecessary excitement, just chilling out with the family and watching the groans as they open the gifts I put a little of my own personal touch to.

Merry Non-Denominational Holiday Season to everyone, hopefully you're finding your own slice of enjoyment.

Aftermath

Its Been a Long December

The years between 19 and 21 are the primes of our lives. Old enough to drive, drink, gamble, and vote, and young enough to enjoy it all. As much as I bitch about being old, today numerically and officially ends the prime of my life. Its all over. Nothing but uphill from here on out. But that doesn't mean I won't cling to the enjoying a drink or two for one last night.

One drink to the end of exams. One drink to growing old. And then finished for the evening.

What's that? You don't believe me? I wouldn't believe me either. Pictures to follow most likely.

Gotta Have Fun With These Things

The True Spirit of X-Mas

For me, as I mentioned in the last post, the holidays represent time to kick back and relax without responsibility to anyone for a couple weeks of the year. As a kid you go through the whole presents thing and not being able to sleep because you're amped up and ready to explode about what Santa's gonna leave under the tree.

With age however, I've grown to appreciate the actual holidays themselves as free time to kill however I see fit. Over at Sacrelicious they have a pretty good grasp of all things Christmas too! My roof is too steep for me to be gettin my ass up there, and its too high to be really legible from the street anyways, defeating the whole purpose. I do however love the pink flamingos, definitely adding that extra touch of class.

Three exams down, two to go tomorrow and Monday. I'm hoping beyond hopes that this snow storm we're getting doesn't keep up for too much longer and possibly end up postponing season past my birthday and far beyond what it should be.

"...and you run and you run to catch up with the sun..."

Two exams down, three on the not so distant horizon, and then (relative) freedom, and birthday relaxing and drinking, christmas eve relaxing and drinking, christmas day relaxing and drinking, boxing day relaxing and drinking, etc etc.

I'm not cursed, or blessed with a whole variety of family functions to attend over the holidays, which leaves me plenty of time to sit around and catch up on some reading and movies after a month of final assignments and exams on academic terms, or 60 hour work weeks on co-op terms.

My only true responsibility is to eat lots of devilled eggs, shrimp and heated frozen hors d'ouerves to make sure they don't go to waste. Its a challenge I am always prepared to bring my A-game to meet.

Unlike studying for the rest of my exams.

Or going out to do some field work in the next week or so.

But for now, I'll go use dead daytime shopping time to finish my Christmas hoarding and cut down a fresh tree, which is always more easily done in the light of day. I guess crooked, lopsided trees need love too though.

Kids, Consider Your Options Carefully

When I applied to university, I applied to one program at one school. It was what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to do it, and because I was in a decently run school board, I had the opportunity to do a term on campus at the university while still fulfilling highschool course requirements. Back in the day I was a bit of a keener, and a bit more motivated than these days.

At the time, the prof I did some work for chided me for not applying to other schools in the area, in particular Western, just to see what kind of money they might throw at me (like I said, I had a bit of a keener complex and had scholarship marks). Well, after seeing this (NSFW) link from Tony Pierce and in light of the Saturday night exam tomorrow night that I have yet to crack the notes for, I really should have given Western more consideration. Why? Well I sure haven't had that free range dorm craziness livin here, I wasn't given that much money here, and I don't want to crack the notes for tomorrow night's exams.

In my time not spent studying, I've been cruising the webosphere perhaps to an unhealthy extent. In the end the story doesn't change all that much with torture alleged and torture not so much denied as 're-classified' and changed up in the rhetoric around it. But in the past few days Canadians have been getting up in American politics' face, and I can't say I don't like it. Between Paul Martin getting the U.S. all fired up over their commitment, or lack thereof, to deflecting climate change, and former Canadian Supreme Court, now U.N. Human Rights official, Louise Arbour's questioning of their definitions of torture, we sure have had a good week of pissing them off. Not so much the passive little brother up north this week. I also read somewhere this week that the World Trade Organization ruled in favour of Canada in another chapter of the softwood lumber dispute. It wouldn't be accurate to say that its just Canada questioning them though, the whole world is finally making many formal turns against U.S. policy. Hopefully it incites the least bit of change.

And I'm still not quite ready to start that studying, so instead Stella will keep my company for the evening. Cheers!

Classes Down, Exams to Go

The last day of classes for the term was yesterday. Each term end is marked by a party at one of the local bars held by our undergrad club that usually sees us closing down the bar. This year term was no different, although I have to say, its not a very difficult task to close down the bar when they make last call at 12:30.

Needless to say I got good and ripped enough to make a bit of an ass of myself on many occasions, its a good thing that most of the people in that group have a good sense of humour.

I managed to borrow from experience this time, and not be a fool fallin into bed early, and sobered up respectably before crashing last night, and only mildly groggy on waking up.

My first exam is scheduled in the worst time slot I have ever seen. When I had to write an exam from 7 til 10pm on the night of my 19th birthday, when I should have been vigorously celebrating my first night of legal drinking, I was pissed, but I certainly can't expect a university to schedule around one person, shit happens.

But my first exam this term is from 7:30 til 10 on Saturday night; who the hell does that?! Sure its fair to say that a lot of people have to study their asses off and don't have much of a life during exams anyways, and I can't say that I've got a hugely exciting weekend tradition, but its still sacred time. I am blessed with being able to pick up and spit out most of the material I need for an exam in a fairly small amount of time, and use the free time to stay relaxed. Studying endlessly only stresses you out and makes you ineffective anyways. So when this comes along and seriously impedes on prime relaxing time, I get a bit upset. Screw you U of Woo.

On a brighter note, I just got an e-mail pop-up notice informing me that the Jays actually managed to sign another top free agent in A.J. Burnett. Of course he's been hugely hyped, and is being slightly overpaid, but I'm happier to see that extra money go to someone who will eat up far more innings than B.J. Ryan. I think I'm going to get on ordering some tickets for some games early this year, even if they lose, I haven't had some good Toronto street-meat in ages, and it warms the soul in ways that knock off street-meat just never will.

Hot Streak!

The much maligned Raptors of T-dot fame went into this weekend 1 and 15. After back to back nights against the Hawks and the Nets with Vince 'no-heart' Carter, they managed to triple their win total on the year, and so are officially on an undeniable hot streak. Tonight's game against Baby Vince wasn't televised (at least on the cable I subscribe to), but one need only look at a live Yahoo blurb about Vince going out injured and the third, and then coming back to play out the fourth quarter to revisit the memory of Vince Carter's whining up here. Had he still been in a Raptor jersey with that injury, you can be guaranteed he'd be on the bench with a towel on his shoulders for the rest of the game, and his mom talkin shit about the franchise.

Tonight however, I was ecstatic to see Chris Bosh take it to them, and not fade down the stretch for a 13 point victory. After the Eskimos avenging the Argo's semi-final loss in the Grey Cup, and the Jays signing top free-agent B.J. Ryan, and a primetime Leafs loss to the new-look Sharks, this has been a decidedly good week in Toronto sports. And as an aside, Joe Thornton is a classy guy. He was a nextdoor neighbour of my great aunt and uncle, and if I remember correctly showed up at the funeral when my great uncle lost his fight with leukemia. Hopefully he gets more respect out west than he was getting in Boston...although one can't expect much respect for hockey in any city that doesn't naturally experience ice.

Pegging Points

The greatest of my fears is that I'm gonna grow up to be an ornary old man, even moreso than now. I look around at the drivers on the roads, the walkers on the sidewalks and the mumblers in the checkout lines and realize that there are far more helpless, unhealthy old people than there are cool, vigorous ones, and I know I want no part of it.

That said, the retirees amongst us often get segregated from society to an extent, and disowned, and visited once monthly, like the tick of a long period metronome, by their children. The build a community with their fellow, hepto, septo, octo and nonogenarians, and play cards and bitch about their ungrateful kids, and occasionally discover aliens, and they find happiness in their golden years, trying to avoid any tarnish.

I respect the people for their will to cling to life and keep at it despite some of the inevitable health limitations that I are the base of my own fear, so when I see stupid shit like this from the CBC, I get a little irritated. Calling to task some seniors groups because they play a little cribbage for at most $100? Come on! If this was a car accident it would fall in the "damages less than $500" category and just be quietly dealt with by the insurance companies. Let the old people have some fun. And if that cribbage is keeping them from bogging up the aisles at the grocery store and in the mall parking lot on saturdays and sundays when they have the entire rest of the week to do so in peace, then all the better. A $100 prize under the table is far more acceptable to me than an un-requested multi-million dollar election that will at most change a few seats in parliament and still leave us with a likely Liberal minority.

Busy Busy

I've almost managed to get into the groove of polishing off all the end of term rush work before settling in for exams. I work bright and early, in relative terms of course tomorrow. I haven't seen 7:30 in the morning for a couple months, but it will be hear soon enough greeting me through the distorted buzz of the blown speaker on my alarm clock radio.

One story in particular came to my attention today that blows my mind, discussed in MBlog briefly today and outlined in more detail in the LA Times. Basically, its been revealed that the U.S. has been paying to have its own propaganda distributed in Iraqi newspapers. Once again, nothing should surprise anyone at this point, and yet, things like this always manage to sneak up on you and make you give your head another shake.

The Canucks just went up another goal on the Avs, and I have to be up in a little over 6 hours to be in shape for a day in the cold getting soaked with water loaded with nasty little manmade compounds, so this marks the end of this blurb.