come on down - superman your the next contestant...

Apparently since Jen is off on adventures in Europe (currently Poland) and Sharon is soon to embark on a journey to Cuba - I have felt the need to "over-blog". Although I'm sure both Jen and Sharon will state that there is no such thing - and that I should probably blog more often (as long as I abide by the "rules") to let them know what I'm up too in my far away land of Windsor.
Today I'd like to share a brief thought about game shows.
I don't mean the game shows like deal or no deal that are pure luck but seem to provide a level of entertainment for home and audience viewers alike - but rather games of a higher intellect - for example jeopardy. I love jeopardy - such a great game - and hosted by a Canadian - very cool. I enjoy testing my attainment of knowledge - and every episode not only learn a little bit more = but also expand my realization that in the world of knowledge I know very little. Which actually brings me to the reason as to why I decided to tell you about game shows. Last night I was watching 1 vs 100 hosted by the dad from Full House - another great television show that usually airs re-runs at 5pm - if I happened to have cable.... but it does test some level of your knowledge - but typically more pop culture and trival type things - than from a realm of higher academics. Last night there was a question.
Which came first
a) chicken mcnuggets
b) egg mcmuffin
c) both at the same time
I first laughed at the thought that they were asking a McDonalds question - a so-called restaurant I try to avoid and am usually successful at - unless I am craving a mcflurry.
Nonetheless - I didn't know the answer. I assumed chicken mcnuggets. McDonalds was about burgers and lunch/dinner meals before it expanded horizons to included breakfast items such as option b). I have also eaten the chicken mcnuggets whereas I have not had an egg mcmuffin - nor do I plan on starting. Well it just so happens that b) was the correct answer. McDonalds introduced the world to egg mcmuffins in 1973 and chicken mcnuggets in 1983. It was at that moment in time I realized that I was older than chicken mcnuggets. That my friend is how you know you are getting old - when you cannot say that you lived in a time when chicken mcnuggets always existed - its like saying you walked the earth before cars were invented. My life is over - just kidding - but it was still a scary thought.
Random side note of todays post - Who wants to be a superhero - is a television show hosted by Mr. Lee.... although its cheesy - I still have found myself almost through episode one in a matter of a day --- and I wonder why my thesis isn't getting done... hmmmmm

Superman has a memory like an elephant.

I remember! (big surprise eh Sharon) what I was going to vent about.... I was so upset about it that I temporarily blanked in from my memory!
I was upset because while on my visit to Whitby to have some good times with some good people (and of course free food and booze) I saw a horrible sight. It was horrible. Well - ok - to some people it may not be horrible - but to me it was. Its like when you're a kid and you get so excited about Christmas - because lets face it - its a holiday about getting presents (oh yeah and celebrating the birth of some baby named Jesus we claimed roamed the earth over 2000 years ago that came to save our souls for eternal damnation ..... I suppose that is important too!)...but back to the presents - you get so excited as a child to wake up early in the morning (although all night you tried to stay awake at the hopes you might actually get to meet the man himself - Santa Claus - that maybe he'd take you on a ride in his sleigh - or at least let you feed Rudolph the cookies you had your mom the night before specially make for him!)...but upon waking in the morning you are bursting with excitement to wake everyone else up in the house - to see what he brought you - what the lovely man in the red suit with a bowl full of jelly-like stomach and a cheery laugh of "ho ho ho" - oh what oh what did the man bring you ---- and then you see that the entire christmas tree has been burnt to a crisp and the only present that was saved from the horrible fire was that sweater your great aunt agnus knitted with a picture of a kitty kat on the front - of course made with flame retardant string materials.... that would be a horrible sight. Its never happened to me, nor do I have a great aunt agnus - actually... I do... my mom's step dad who was my grandpa as her real dad died in her twenties - so he's the only grandpa I knew - he has a sister named agnus - and she actually lives here in the Windsor area - but back to the anger of such a christmas morning - that would suck if it happened to you - and that is what I imagine my feelings of the horrible sight saw on sunday could relate too....just to paint a picture of sorts.
Before moving to where my mom currently dwells I grew up in Whitby. I loved living there. I was devastated when I was told we were moving (didn't help that it was two weeks after the house was sold that I was even told we were considering selling... nor did it help that everyone else alreday knew and they drew straws to see who would have to tell me - knowing that I may just be the devil's child and don't really belong to the people who claim to be my birth parents)... anyway - we sold the house to a family friend. I told him that if he ever was going to sell he had to let me put in an offer first. I wanted my house back. I loved that house - for more reasons than I care to try and devulge via a blog - but that structure meant a lot to me... yah yah yah - home is where the heart is - or the family... I get that - the actually house meant something to me which I don't expect you to understand without my explanation and reasons - but tough luck - go with it!
Well upon seeing "my" house again - which I hadn't seen in about a year - I almost threw up. The garage was collapsing - the rough of the house needed to be completely replaced - and the fencing - the fencing I use to sit upon and ponder lifes many mysteries - or jump over to retrieve a runaway ball - or crawl under in the attempt to run away from a bigger and older brother....was no longer serving much purpose as a fence - but rather a fire hazard. The pine tree in the back yard from which I once gathered many a pinecones was brown leaved - WATER THE TREE!... too late... its dead. The windows were cracked and torn - the front lanscape - nor longer lucious with plants and flowers - but rather neglected and ignored... the tree in the front yard, a red mapple, one my father planted himself - long forgotten and needing love...wishing for a young girl or boy to play under its shade it will so willingly provide - but instead is left to whimper.
Who lets a house go from a nice warm inviting loving home to something not even worth much more than a first glance. I can't believe I'm saying this - but I don't want my house back - well I do - but its not possible - my house is gone - and ruins are left in its place. A house that has stood for many years - is now wilting away trying to find the energy to stand tall - but its back is broken - crippling it slowly to the ground until it possibly one day may be no more.
Its pathetic. Its disgusting. I'm hurt - and there isn't a thing I can do about it.
Random side note - I recently went under a general A. I haven't been put under in like 20 years - so it was nice to see I didn't have to breath in some gas from a really bad smelling face mask - but rather got something injected via an IV tube - sounds weird - oh well.... but the funny part is the instructions that come with it --- don't drive for 24 hours, don't drink alcohol for 24 hours, don't take public transportation without adult supervision for 24 hours etc... makes sense - but the one that makes me laugh - don't make any financial decisions for 48 hours! hahahah - just thought I'd share that! hehehehe.

Up up and Away

I was going to start his post off with a rant. But I don't really recall what that rant was directed at - but I still will share one with you none the less - I just cannot promise it was the original one intended.
Hand Sanitizer. Disinfective Creams/Soaps/Sprays.
DRIVE ME UP THE WALL.
First of all - those wipes you can use in the kitchen that kill 99% of bacteria and germs - thats not a good thing. The so called 1% that is left behind - has all this room to grow, spread, and change - all of which are not killed by the wipes - SINCE THEY DIDN'T GET KILLED IN THE FIRST PLACE. It is better to throw your kid in a pile of mudd to play than make sure they are completely disinfected.... the mudd at least helps them increase their immune system so they themselves can fight off antibodies - rather than weakening their immune system.
Next point - Church.
Ever since SARS everyone is freaking out about the sharing of germs - so now the people that give out the eucharist (little piece of white bread for those who don't go to church) are required to clean their hands with hand sanitizer. I don't mean just one droplet - no no - these people are pouring the crap on their hands. So now their hands are so called clean of germs - BUT they are touching "food" that is about to go inside people's mouths for digestion - AWESOME - the transfer of posion from bottle to hand to mouth. The hand sanitizer is called HAND sanitizer for a reason.
I coudl go on - but I'll save you the details.
It was nice to go to churhc in Whitby though - I hadn't been to that parrish in a long time - so it was nice to see people I haven't seen in a while - even nicer when they still remembered who I was. The part I thought was funny though - was all the people, who are my age - who have kids of their own now - and not married. Just another point to tell my mother when in my attempt to tell her I'm doing a PhD and I'm a good kid (not that that other kids aren't - but with my mom - it will probably work to me advantage - which probably makes me somewhat evil - oh well - different strokes for different folks).
This weekend was nice. I got to travel to Toronto - ok the travel wasn't nice because it took me about 6 hours to get from Windsor to Toronto due to traffic - that sucked - but I made it. I met Jen at the Yorkdale mall (often confused in the past as the Scar. Town Center), where we had a coffee with Mark and Mark's "old" English teacher from high school who was a complete delight!
Then we headed to Whitby - we spent some time with Jen's parents and watched Will Smith (and son) in The Pursuit of Happyness (yes I know happiness is really with an "i"). Jen then finished up a course requirement for her Unite for Sight adventure and we headed to bed. In the morning, Jen, her mom and nana went to the spa, while Jen's dad and I did a bunch of things to get ready for the party... even picked up the surprise - all the way from Montreal - MEGAN.
The going away party was a lot of fun. New friends, old friends (yeah to high school people I hadn't seen in a while) and family! Oh yeah - even some of Jen's neighbours. After the party dwindled we spent the night drinking and playing cards.... and counting eye glasses - 300 pairs....for Jen to take with her. The next morning - I went to church, Megan left for Montreal - then the rest gathered for breakfast at Dines before continuing on with more packing adventures. The time of departure from the Rycroft housedhold - 1pm sharp. Time Jen finished packing....oh 12:50pm. oh wait - thats not true. After leaving the house, and being asked if she had her e-tickets - truth of the matter was that she didn't - so they turned around and went back to the house - and attempted departure number two. Maggie and I in one car played a nice game of cat and mouse with the other car (John, Mary, Mark and Jen) before the other car had to turn off to go to the airport! Maggie and I went to her place for a bit - which is a great little apartment if I do say so myself - and Jen and Mark have safely made it to Scotland! WOO WOO

Need a Clark Kent who isn't married...

Monday morning I drove to the airport in Windsor. Well thats not true. I drove in the direction of the airport in Windsor - was a few blocks away from my destination locale and realized I didn't actually recall how to get there. I quickly called my mother to pull out the map and ask her to direct me to where I needed to go. She didn't answer the phone. Maybe its just up the street a little further I thought to myself - nah thats silly - you've passed the road you needed to turn - so I entered a gas station. Awesome teenagers....shouldn't they be at school? Maybe they are older than they appear - oh well - lets ask where the airport is. I ask. I felt like a tool. Not a wrench, or a screwdriver - more like a cold metal hammer.... They started to try and explain where it was - but they were both giving different directions - so they pulled out the very conveniently placed map of Windsor - it became clear to me at that moment that many other hammers came in to ask for directions as well. We figured it out. I just drove past a turn - no big deal. I drove back the three blocks I had overdriven turned right and there was the airport before me. In Toronto that wouldn't happen because you can see the structure from a distance - you could pretty much stand in front of the Windsor airport and not realize that it was an airport... its that tiny.
I met up with Fearon (like Erin with a "F"). She had flown in from Fredricton New Brunswick. I had met Fearon just over a year ago when we were doing data collection in Barrie, and then at a conference in Barrie - and now she was in Windsor for a conference hosted in well Windsor. It was a three day conference about the automotive sector - moreso related to engineering. Its interesting to see the technologies and such that we are developing to try and improve automotives. Its also interesting to learn how many of these new technologies I'm against. But I'll save that for an in person conversation if you don't mind - but still care to know.
Dinner the first night Fearon and I sat down at a table and we were joined by a Chemistry professor from Mac. He was very entertaining and made dinner quite delightful. After dinner he was going to make a point to view the posters both Fearon and I (plus our respective group members) had created for the conference. (Its a competition and the winning group gets approximately $5000! - we didn't win :( ). Well he kept his promise. He viewed our posters - found us and asked us questions about the poster (the poster defense wasn't even suppose to occur the first night! hahaha). A PhD student from Waterloo ended up having to save me from the grilling session I was going through... not because I couldn't hold my own nor that I was answering the question incorrectly - just that it was going on forever and it really wasn't fair to me. I understood that he just wanted to understand the information presented on the poster - but it was clear that he was not a biomechanist - and did not understand what we do - nor gave me an adequate amount of time to answer his question before he moved on to his next point in trying to prove my research improper. The scary thing was that I pretty much understood his poster - but thats the chemistry background I suppose playing its part.
Anyway - the more entertaining part of the conference is when you run into someone from high school - someone you didn't keep in contact with - someone you may have asked to go to prom with you and he rejected. Yop that was fun. Actually it was fine - but it was definitely interesting. I had seen him at an engineering conference last year but didn't really talk - whereas this year we did - both at the conference and at the bars afterwards. One of his colleagues is finishing up his masters of engineering and is hopefully to actually start training for the oylmpics in 6 years I think to be on the rowing team! He started rowing not too long ago and has fallen in love with it and hopes he can make this dream come true -- it was an interesting conversation.
More disappointing news that happened within the three days of the conference is that we got news that grant we had applied for that was the reason as to why I came to windsor in the first place (that got denied last year and the year before)... which would fund my masters and phd research got denied yet again. So tomorrow I have to have meetings with my advisors to see what I'm going to do now - I hope that my masters thesis can still go on as planned because I'm not wanting to start from scratch this late in the game - I don't want to be the forever masters student! hahaha... plus after the poster grilling I went through I think that should fulfill my research defence requirements and I should be handed the degree right now!
Anyway - I'll leave my adventures at that.
Oh wait - there was a guy at the conference who looked a lot like Clark Kent - the suit, the hair, the glasses - it was entertaining me for a while - but it was sad in the end because he was married.

Fun with words...

Noun: alarm
Verb: sleep in
Noun: school
Noun: phone call
Verb: watch
Noun: movie
Verb (past): studied
Verb (past): drove
Verb (past): picked
Verb (ending in ing): walking
Person: Mother Nature
Verb: rain
Noun (plural): trees
Noun (plural): streets
Verb: hurt
Verb (ending in ing): traveling
Adjective: famous
Verb: refuel
Noun: plane
Adjective: eccentric
Place: Windsor
Verb (past): decided
Adjective: dangerous
Adjective: surprise
Noun (plural): streets
Noun: water
Noun: casino
Verb (ending in ing): viewing
Noun: event
Verb: listen
Adjective: famous
Adjective: random
Person: Michael Jackson


Today when my noun went off, I decided that I would verb. That meant I would delay going to noun. However I received a noun from my classmate Kat, and she asked if I would verb a noun with her while we verb(past). I agreed. I verb(past) to school and verb(past) Kat up. As we were verb(ing) to my car person decided to make it verb. We were completely soaked. It was actually kind of funny.

However the fun to be had was still ahead. The storm had caused noun(plural) to fall down upon many of the noun(plural). I don’t think anyone was verb, which is good. However it did change a lot of people’s plans. Especially for those who were verb(ing) a far distance. Most notably a certain adjective individual who was only in the area to verb his noun. He is an adjective individual who has never been to place before and verb(past) he was going to make the most of it while his plane was grounded for the night due to adjective weather reports. He decided that he was going to throw a adjective performance! A surprise musical concert! On the noun(plural), by the noun, and just outside of the noun, a once in a life time concert was performed as the rain lightly sprinkled down upon us who were verb(ing) the noun. It was so much fun. Not typically an artist I would verb to, nor do I understand why he was in the area, but adjective people are allowed to be adjective at times too I suppose. Nonetheless I enjoyed myself thoroughly. Who was the surprise concert put on by?.....person.

Ok – so the last paragraph was made up – well – at least I don’t think Michael Jackson was in Windsor with a grounded plane and put on a surprise music concert in the downtown area – but the first paragraph was true!!

Fortress of Solitude

You told me this weekend that I am no longer allowed to make my blog the obits section - so I regret to inform you that I cannot type certain information regarding the last day - and I do this just to make you happy.
Instead I'll talk about things that you (Jen and Sharon) were present for.
The Crystal at the ROM.
It twas a very interesting outing. It was an outing that was to end with the exploration of a new world - one within the realms of the world we already exist - one that was built by man. So I suppose I should not have been too surprised by the fact it was not a fortress of solitude as it was not created by beings from another planet that has long since been destroyed. Although when one mentions a building to me that is built to ressemble crystals the Cal-El's fortress of solitude is what floats amongst the images in my mind. Although walking admist a fortress of solitude would provide me with great entertainment, the structure referred to as the Crsytal, the new addition to the ROM, was also quite entertaing. I do believe that this should be the location of a Canada's Next Top Model Photo Shoot.... Jen and Mark were able to take some quite outstanding photos in my mind using the different angles and structures within our midst. Although the night was focused on exploring the structure absent of any right angles - and it was fascinating - I do not think that was my favourite moment of the evening. There were other incidents such as playing with candle wax, walking along multiple dimly lit streets with homes that possessed much character and mystery, a flashing light that beat to the tune of one's own rhythm (heart beat), a geography lesson of north versus south Australia, the pruchase of the most expensive drinks I've ever been in the presence of at a bar, a shirtless man in the most tight and pink pants I have ever seen, a television star dining with us - or maybe a table beside where we were sitting, but to go along with that television star we did have some interesting mini-dramas not starring this said television star, and many more stories from the time we left the house to the time we returned (at our own times). My favourite moments though were the journey to the first meeting location. This journey involved a story amongst itself! There were buses, broken subways, crammed buses, interesting street cars, bum dances, window poundings, longing goodbyes, a strange walk of a stranger trying to belong, an almost missed stop, but also, and most importantly, the creation of a new friendship amongst people who would otherwise not know each other. It just goes to show - you should sometimes talk to strangers in Toronto - sure I don't advise this all the time - be somewhat selective - not discriminatory - just selective - you never know who you could meet or what stories you'll have to tell - people are interesting - people can be fun - TTC Brian was.....