Life's just so complicated

Thanks to mysterious Kari, friend of the mysterious Chelsea, friend of Andrew "Batman" Limmert, I have found my Avril Lavigne song.


Which Avril Lavigne Song Are You?

I have to say that Ms. Lavigne is much cooler than she has any right to be, being a wannabe Shania clone (her first big break was actually to open for Shania) who was repackaged as a kid punk girl.

And just in terms of this circular world we live in, remember my little story about how Christy stumbled into Hilary Myron at a wedding. Well, that story was stumbled into by Hilary Myron herself! (And Hilary, if you read this, I am meaning to write you back, I'm just not very good at this email thing.) She knows Madhava, who knows the other Mike with the blog design I stole, who knows Andrew, who knows me. A mere four degrees of separation! Kevin Bacon can kiss my ass!

If Music be the food of love...
My proud, nerdy moment this weekend was being able to quote Shakespeare (albeit a lame, cliched line) in a suitable context. I may never recover.

Other than that minor deviance into literature, however, this weekend was all about music. Friday was the Flashing Lights playing to a packed and enthusiastic crowd at Lee's Palace. The Scottish girls with us were really impressed, thinking that they had just witnessed some major Canadian band. They went to get autographs after the show and were also impressed that he was loading his own gear into the van ("He's sooo down to earth", they said, not suspecting other reasons why someone would carry their own equipment.) They were good mind you, really good, and Matt Murphy is a total rock star, but I think that age and the bar scene is starting to get to Mr. Murphy. My own high point with Flashing Lights has got to be when I saw their very first show when they played King's frosh week in 1997. The Superfriends had just recently split up and the Flashing Lights were just a fun side project at the time. They played on the floor in the campus bar to a raucous, drunk, dancing, and happy crowd--the drummer was dressed in a gorilla suit and kept breaking his drumsticks. They were so new that they didn't have any of their own songs yet and played covers of stuff they liked...mostly mid-sixties era Kinks, Yardbirds, etc. They did play "The Flashing Lights" though (that's a cover too, in case you missed that one.) I remember standing around with the Matt Murphy and the band after the show...he bummed a cigarette off me...and I grabbed the set list in case they ever did become rock stars. Great show.

High Tech Classes

Just want to point out the change in going from either undergrad to grad, two years ago to now, or poor backward university to a rich centralized one.

First, the chairs have become much more comfortable. All the rooms I've been in, even the big ones, have these swanky full backed chairs with about hundred adjustment levers. It's wonderful and certainly adds to the educational experience when your ass doesn't hurt.

Second, I just came back from my first videoconferenced class. Groups from Waterloo, UBC, Regina, McGill and us all joined by the magic of the internet. I really enjoyed the "Smartboard"tm which is a touch sensitive projector/ whiteboard/computer interface type thing. I've seen one before, but never one used so effectively by people across the country at one time. At the beginning of the class a bunch of us were talking about how outdated blackboards are, and that in ten years people will be amazed that we actually used chalk!

Will the wonders of technology never cease.

Returning to the fold

Boy, I'm been neglecting my blog so much that I even neglected to publish my the last entry from last week. I hope that I can update somewhat regularly, especially when I get internet access at home next week. (I discovered that I really can't live without being constantly connected...damn technology running my life). Congrats to Sara too for starting her blog and her well-intentioned threat to write once a week--makes sense, I say.

So the big T.O. is turning out to be the place to be. I still haven't had my sushi fix yet, but maybe that can be fixed today. It's so nice having such a variety of things to do, even if I never actually do very many of them: the Film festival for instance, or the Doves concert that I meant to go to, or that raw fish I haven't eaten. I did get to babysit for my uncle while he went to a post film gala party with Kevin Kline. I also got to see a great concert at the Horseshoe, Fred Eaglesmith, who you should definitely check out if you get a chance to. He was truly fanastic. And of course, the necessary trip to the Green Room with Matt, Fiona, and Christy. Thursday, I'm looking forward to going to the Global Pop Conspiracy which is run by Kevin Siu, Leslie's brother, Shift publisher, and coolest guy according to Christy. Check out GPC's radio channel, it's a good mix.

Grad school too seems so far like my perfect life. Read a lot, go to class and talk about it, do a little homework to feel useful. My program, epidemiology, is pretty small and badly gender balanced: 12 girls and two guys. But very friendly at the same time. I'm also beginning to work out what I'll be doing with my thesis. I've narrowed it down to two topics: one boring but very straightforward, another interesting but very risky. My supervisor, however, just told me that she's taking maternity leave at the beginning of January, but expects to keep working on the side all the way through. I'm a little suspicious.

I like the way they expect you to pick classes here too. You just go to the classes that sound interesting, then decide which one to take by the end of the month. Very relaxed and appealing to people like me who are interested in everything.

So I just thought I should check in, while I have a calm moment and give my promise to update more regularly.