Happy New Year!

Jorghnassen and I wish you all a Happy New Year from Chicoutimi!

We're going to be heading down towards Waterloo starting tomorrow morning. (One guess who will be driving the Rav4 for most of the way.)

An Awesome Christmas Present!

I am taking my annual post-Christmas visit with Jorgh in Chicoutimi until the new year. Jorghnassen's father took Jorgh and I to the local SAAQ this morning, where he officially signed over his 1997 Rav4 to Jorghnassen. So now it is my our car and we are ready to go!

Yay! Thank you!

Merry Christmas!

I wish you all very happy holidays this season, and hope you are spending time with your loved ones and enjoying your time together, despite the less-than-white weather on the east side of the country and pretty awful dumps the west was blessed with.

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And without furthur ado, here is the year-end round-up. I will probably forget to do this later this week from the miscellany of things to worry about - like getting a car and figuring out what I'll be doing in Chicoutimi after Christmas.

The many things (or lack of things) that happened this year are more or less well documented on my blog. Thus, dear readers (new and old and in-between) can peruse the archives and get the gist of each moment from A to Z - agony to zen.

January
Had weird dreams, and was also introduced to supply teaching at the adult education center. Posted some interesting art, along with a first foray in vectorizing. Douchebaggery continues.

February
Started to regularly supply teach at a school where it felt like total chaos. Most likely not my fault.

March
Stopped supply teaching at the school because it was total chaos. Not really my fault. Also: whining about taxes again.

April
Uploaded some cover songs/music on Tindeck produced by myself on violin and a shitty microphone on a headset. Surprised the bejeezus out of Norm. Somehow a minor internet celebrity stumbles upon this blog. And my brother starts becoming more of a real life celebrity.

May
Start of gardening season because the snow didn't melt until then. More douchebaggery occurs.

June
Actual training for Run for the Cure began, when I could have started earlier. The school year wound down with a good note, with the first foray into supply teaching French for elementary school, involving a violin...?

July
Wrote some short stories, attempting some creativity. Went to Boston! And Waterloo. But Boston! Sorry... Bwawston.

August
Focused on running some more, and attending the third wedding of the summer. Some more vector photoshopping!

September
Sketch that turned into a t-shirt (idea). Ran a bunch more. There was some sort of birthday in there somewhere.

October
Ran the race! Revisited Waterloo with Jorghnassen to help him move in. Hives. :(

November
Went to Montreal for the teacher's convention, and ended up staying two weeks due to being sick and losing my voice. :(:(

December
Spent some time in Montreal to help Jorghnassen become a doctor. ;) On a whim, I answered an ad for a teacher needed in Waterloo, and surprisingly enough I got the job. Now agonizing over getting a used car.

And to end on a cute note, here is a flash game about a bunny. Snow included!

A Can of Worms? Open?

To my relief, I secured a part-time job teaching math at a private high school outside of Waterloo, with Jorghnassen's help, starting in early January. The details of the job are still lacking, but the major detail in my quest for sanity has been more or less fulfilled. On the other hand, it caused a much bigger "deal" than it fixed: zero public transit and a 20 km commute.

I had thought of every single possible way I could get there on a regular basis.

Carpooling would be the most obvious one (and most feasible) if only I had asked the principal when he offered me the job; but I was only given his cell number and it apparently costs a crapton for him to use it for incoming calls... thus I am still rather reluctant on calling him through that number again. (And I know what you are going to say, so don't say it and stop saying it!)

Someone suggested getting a bike; cheap and ideal, but I loathe to find out what kind of physical shape I am in right now. Last summer, it took me 2 hours to travel 20+ km uphill, and 1 hour to roll it downhill.

Car sharing is great, but would run up quite a bill for daily commuting, compared to the final option:

Buying a car.

(The absolutely, unquestionably retarded option my mum demanded from me, despite it not being her decision, was that I take a cab every single day until I "matured" enough to know enough about cars to get one, which would take at least a year, and even then she told me I was "too stupid" to own a car. I won't even begin on ranting on the stupidity of this.)

I thought of buying a scooter or car as the absolute last option (barring the above), as I know probably less about scooters and cars than anyone I know, and I have the most overbearing, insane family of anyone I know. Fortunately, as I am the most inept of all my acquaintances, I have the option of asking advice from everyone else. And here are a few nuggets!

Rachel's brother, Pat, who had accompanied us to Bwawston, works with and studies in cars, and has a classmate who could probably locate a suitable used auto. He also offered to service it in his school. This would be in Montreal.

Ian has prevoiusly advised me to buy in Ontario, as the transfer between provinces would cost more than it was worth, but as I was uncertain whether I had time to do that before the job started, I opted for the former.

Shhh! told me that car dealerships would take care of everything in a pretty timely manner, and that it was well worth it for him.

Davy said to look into cheap enough cars within $3000 (if I could only think the costs would end at $3000 :( ).

And alas, I know naught about scooters except deep-voiced Eugene has one that he commutes with in Ottawa to the bus station. Though scooters seem quite cute. :)

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To excuse my absence, I have been helping Jorghnassen fix up his presentation for his Ph.D. defense last Monday. Which he then passed with flying colours!

Photo

Hmm... something's a little off here...!

New Blogger Features :)

You might have noticed a few slight changes in the last little while. Firstly, I finally decided to fix the titles of each post, but I have to do them manually (ugh) because I was too clumsy to figure out where the "Title Field" button was. Secondly, I have the new option (courtesy of Blogger Beta) to put labels on each post, so now I am going to go back and do them at the same time. So don't be alarmed when you see your name for some reason in the labels even if I didn't mention you explicitly, because I am probably 1) making notes to myself and 2) wrong - where option 2 is more likely than 1. Thirdly, I put a site meter link at the very bottom of the page, like Jorgh's, so that everyone can see which person with a mysterious IP address is visiting our blogs.

Hopefully all these changes can lead you to a more pleasant and enjoyable blog-reading experience as you laugh at all the related things I've done, such as getting sick and/or paranoid.

P.S. Sorry for killing your news readers. :(
P.P.S. I think I might not have understood the concept of labels, because I think I have too many. :(:(

Return of the Christmas Tree!

Incidentally, the digital camera ceased functioning correctly this year, probably due to the contact points with the batteries, so I didn't get to take instant photos of the tree-making process this year. :(

To make up for it, below are the previous 3 years' Christmas Tree(s). They are all pointing to the left.



Why, you may ask, through the passage of time do all these trees look the same? It is because we have had this artificial tree for more than 20 years, and the ornaments for at least 15. On top of putting the tree together year after year over the last 20 years, I have had to do it by myself in the last three or four years, and I still haven't figured out which colour code on the tip of the bristle goes at which level of the tree. And every year, the tree seems to look worse.

From loss of its plastic needles to the vacuum cleaner, to the decrease of its perpendicularity from the demands of gravity, the plastic tree has its quirks.

Nevermind that the holes along the "trunk" of the tree have been deteriorating over time, to the point where it can barely hold up the stems of the bristles. Nor that the original plastic base that came with the tree broke into smithereens ages ago and we took to using a metal base meant for an actual tree to sit in, with parts that are meant to be drilled into the actual tree stump to hold it into place, thus destroying the "trunk" even further. Nor that the parts all get twisted and stuffed into a box at the end of every season, and come out looking even more flattened the next holiday. And dressing up the tree in rather (real) old-skool child-made ornaments pretty much guarantees the perpetual pathetic antiquated look.

This is an ode, to you, tree. Some people hold their real trees more dearly than an artificial one; but you, reliable friend, have never caught on fire and for that I truly appreciate you.