saturday night:
pg wasn't the only one levelling up on saturday night: in spite of my difficulties looking right i made some strides with my goofy style. i didn't totally suck, at least, which to my mind feels like an achievement.
we had a quick bite (salad) at mcdonald's - we should've had something more substantial back at the slopes but we mistakenly thought we'd find other options - then headed back to the motel through the gentle snow. it was another long after a physically tough day, but i was strangely glad for the exercise and the morning's sore back was stiff but most definitely better. the hot bath was followed by perfect sleep.
sunday:
tool's parabol was in my head when i woke up, the words fitting perfectly with lying pre-alarm with pg and just enjoying the immediate, specific, eternal moment that didn't care how much my neck and back hurt.
in retrospect we probably should have taken a taxi to the mountain, but our hike through a real blizzard was as enjoyable as it was tough. we stopped at mcdonald's to warm up and have tea and muffins, and i laughed when we realized that the storm ended just as we'd found shelter.
my arms were tired.
our final stretch to the slopes was covered by an incredible sight: the sky was half sunny blue and half threatening cloud, swirled together in the shape of a giant yin yang. it was magically mystical ^_^
i thought we needed breakfast before gearing up, but the vegetarian portions were all lunch-sized which was just a little much. i think that was the point when i really started worrying about how snowboarding fits into our budget...
we started off by doing all the wrong runs - the greens weren't where i expected them to be (bad signage! bad!) and a cold wind was blowing. it would get progressively worse as the day wore on, and while both of us made headway and the joy of it being such a beautiful day was not at all diminished, constantly dealing with either moguls or ice eventually wore us out and we called it quits about an hour earlier than we needed to.
that did, however, afford us a perfect beer and dinner in the clubhouse. it was warm and cosy, with a dj spinning delightful electro and everything was just groovy.
we did a fast walk to the stop, grabbing mcdonald's tea before the wait, and the ride back was uneventful.
"beggar lane" between montreal's bus depot and the metro isn't a good place to eat an apple.
i researched possible ways of handling our trip to niagara, and gave up and went to bed after discovering that buses are better (and far cheaper) than trains.
monday:
monday morning's dreams were chained and interestingly weird. the only one i recall involved pressing charges against spot's mom for assault after telling her the truth about her failed responsibilities as a parent.
news for the day: k-twang's engaged! congratulations :)
my back was definitely feeling better.
my skinny smart trousers are... well... skinny. i agree that they make me look all grown-up, which is possibly why i just can't bring myself to like them.
in the office, in spite of my not-yet-employed status, i have become the go-to guy for emergencies. also, for pretty much everything technical and in all levels of technical. this is flattering, but it also means that i'm constantly being side-tracked by others' urgent issues, which is exhausting.
i've re-engineered javadoc comments to work in all the different languages that are used by the company, and this has opened up exciting new possibilities! they're only in theory until i get around to writing the parser, but it's useful enough and generic enough that i should probably aim for a public release once it's done.
i walked into the bathroom twice on monday; i remember this because both times it smelled horrible. what does a person eat to leave a smell so bad that it lasts over three hours?!?!
i spent the afternoon hopelessly confused by a partner company's head-breaking coding flaws and being upset over their comments that are not only written in french, but use non-standard accented letters and so cannot be opened properly in most editors. WTF?!
it was a long day with not much achieved. the biggest issue revolved around the suggestion of renting a car for the weekend: to drive or not to drive? pg made the best case, as she doesn't feel comfortable winter-driving in quebec and i can't be relied on for long distances because of my neck.
the other thing on my mind was my hard-lining the new guy; he's a nice guy but i just can't gauge his abilities. half the time i think he's doing fine and the other half i'm almost certain that he's totally lost. i don't want to push him but i kinda need to push him :(
i went straight to my aunt's for a pg-less dinner - pg apparently wasn't feeling well and we suspect that the cold and the weekend's exertion may have had something to do with it.
the food was delicious as always. we ate far too much. yang had invited a couple of friends over and everyone was in higher, louder spirits than usual. my copy of
i draw comics was waiting for me! finally!
i got a ride to the metro: it was so bitterly cold outside, and so toasty-warm in the metro.
tuesday:
in the morning i sorted out our reservations for the weekend, the buses and the hotel. the only really irritating part of the process was clicking the back button to check something and unwittingly discarding my shopping cart of four bus tickets; not only was it a mission to redo all the tickets, but one of them had gone up in price since the original booking and i had to toss in another $30 :(
new shoe blues: were my serious salomons not designed for dancing? i have the exact same problem with my caterpillars, the top of my left foot pushes painfully against the boot with every step. it has occurred to me that the issue might be with my foot rather than my boots.
2.5 phone hours can take their toll on the ears - a number of discussions on skype that devolved into rambling, each following immediately after the other. i'm sure i've mentioned not liking phones before, and skype's not different.
there was one special moment, though, while my hopefully future boss spoke and what i heard were angels singing (i told him this): there's an idea i've been toying with that's really exciting, and it seems like he's had the same idea and will be happy to let me implement it on his infrastructure ^_^
someone asked me to evaluate wordpress, and i'm now embarrassed to admit that i googled reviews and comparisons instead of just downloading and installing it. now that i've seen it in action and understand its plugin system, i'm well impressed.
i was tough on the new guy on tuesday, but i think he's beginning to pick up the slack. i remain cautiously optimistic.
the walk to buy lunch was particularly icy - the sidewalks have been quite dangerous this week. there've been a few almost-incidents where my mind has wondered and i've barely managed to catch myself. also, tuesday was the day the temperature really dropped and it would only improve on friday.
in the office, in the late afternoon, i was overcome by a sudden urge for a vegan-friendly over-sized cookie from the machine. i had bills only, and the machine doesn't do bills, so i explained the need to make change to aota. she laughed at "the cookie monster" and dragged him around from cubicle to cubicle to beg for dimes. we all had a laugh and i eventually got my cookie, but pg was horrified when she heard the story. the next day aota caught up with me while i was eating lunch and handed me cookie money: i was a little concerned until i remembered that i'd bought a loaf of bread for her the day before :P
i spent the afternoon playing with mac scripts (which kind of worked) and lost track of the time. we had a belaying course to get to and i rushed out - then rushed back in again to switch shoes - then rushed home to change and head to allez up with pg.
it was freakin' COLD, man.
pg went from irritable to enthusiastic as the course progressed, it was surprisingly tough to get a handle on the knot but everything else was clear enough. the instructor did scare us all a little by testing us all the time, and assuring us that this would be the mode of the actual accreditation exam.
a couple of climbs and some awesome bouldering later, we were both quite pleased with ourselves.
note 1: rad soldiers' turn time limit sucks. it would be fine if playing a turn wasn't such a chore - there's such a wait for the game to load and then at least three clicks and waits to get into each game, so if i want to play a turn i need to make sure i have the time and patience to do so. the play itself may be fun and the points system is totally sensible, but overall the experience is a drag.
note 2: google maps, do you really think that waiting twenty minutes in the freezing cold (around -20 before the wind-chill) is a better option than walking two blocks to wait two???
note 3: israel's election results demand that i retract all of my previous statements regarding the state of its government. the democracy is alive and well, if the people don't want fairness and responsible governance they have every right to not have those things. pg and i have voted with our feet, and i'm more inclined than ever to be confident in my decision to leave.
note 4: aota has been contacted by the federal government regarding a minor concern over my papers. this is AMAZING news, because it means that they're finally processing them and that we're really getting somewhere!
wednesday:
-27 before wind-chill. apparently -40 after. at that temperature it's hard to really feel the difference, except psychologically from concerns over freezing eyeballs (we've heard stories).
i should have said no to extending an already long skype call to include "one more thing". i was already past my limit, and during the next fifteen minutes i think i lost time (i might just have been distracted) twice and was embarrassed to be asked my opinion when i hadn't a clue what we'd been talking about :$
exhaustion, sore eyes and a headache followed. i enjoyed some success with the mac and linux scripts, then left early to do the test. earlier i'd spoken to my aunt and she'd suggested that being outside wasn't a good idea; in the short bursts between the office, the metro and our apartment it didn't seem much worse than usual, but we took her advice anyway and i crashed on arrival. after dinner i did some research into customizable transactional website solutions and went to bed early.
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