Monthly Archive: April 2010

Luggage hunting

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Fri. April 30, 2010

I guess it’s obvious that I don’t travel all that much–after all I don’t have my own luggage. Actually, no, the lack of travel isn’t exactly true. After all, I’ve had trips to Japan, Phoenix, and New York. In terms of luggage I’ve always borrowed from my parents. No big deal, right? Well, now I’m stuck having to travel and I don’t have anything to carry any stuff with me. So, tomorrow I’m going shopping for a carry-on. At this point I’m kind of partial to Heys Luggage, if only because they advertise all over the place. Yeah, I don’t know what other options are available. Have you seen the one emblazoned with the Canadian flag? Fancy stuff. I kind of covet it, but am I willing to carry something that flashy? What kind of impression do I want to make when I’m visiting the client. Hmm…

Anyway, I’m going to venture downtown tomorrow to check out my options. Hopefully I’ll be able to find something that’s cool and fits my personality without being all ostentatious. I’m determined to make a good impression.

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WFH

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Thu. April 29, 2010

I know there are a lot of people that relish the thought of being able to work from home, but personally it’s something that I wouldn’t be able to stand for an extended period. It’s something that I can do now and then, but if I was asked to do it regularly I’d probably go insane. I can’t be the only one that feels this way, right?

First of all, I like having a separation of my domestic realm and my professional realm. A bit of overlap is inevitable, but for the most part I don’t want the two worlds to be too close together. Once there’s overlap, if I were to continually work at home I’m afraid that my sense of sanctuary will become filled with stress. Where’s the good in that? Those few days when I work at home, I find that I end up not leaving the place all day. It’s easy to get a bit of cabin fever as a result. For that matter, in terms of work, being at home means that there are a lot of potential distractions. Conversely, if I end up getting a bit absorbed in something related to my home, work itself becomes the distraction. If I don’t leave this place, it means that I don’t have any proper face-to-face social interaction. It can get boring here without someone to talk to.

Having a workplace to commute to is great for a couple of reasons. It allows me to see a different part of the city that I wouldn’t travel to otherwise. It forces me to get outside and get some fresh air. It means I can connect with the city and tap into the urban conscience. Travelling increases the chances I’ll get a bit more exercise than I normally would. Being in the city allows me to see people. Yeah, I have introverted tendencies, but there’s something about a crowd of city-dwellers that’s somewhat comforting.

So, anyway, leading up to Mother’s Day we’re monitoring the site again during some odd hours. Due to the late shift, we’re being allowed to work from home. This is why I’ve been lounging around at home today, and I’ll be doing the same thing tomorrow. It really isn’t so bad, but I can’t do it for an extended period. Truthfully, I’m looking forward to going back to a normal schedule after the holiday. Thing is, the period between now and then is going to be rather crazy. More on that later, I guess…

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Islands

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Wed. April 28, 2010

I posted this video on my Twitter feed after seeing it on AUX. Low key and hypnotic.

The xx – Islands


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PElhV8z7I60

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For my sanity

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Tue. April 27, 2010

I’ve written about this a lot, and I’m still a firm believer that everyone needs to acknowledge and embrace both their light aspects and dark aspects. No one is ever wholly light or wholly dark: everyone lies somewhere in between. I think that in order to find a sense of balance and wholeness, both are required. So, how have I been doing with that? Well…if I’m being honest, I don’t think I’ve been doing all that well. See, I fear that I’ve been spending far too much time focusing on my negative traits. I’ve been dwelling so much on all of that such that it’s sort of become an altered reality for me. I began believing that that’s all I was and that there were certain parts of me that were irredeemable. Indeed, that can be a very dark place to be in. Spending time thinking about such things is necessary, but I got to a point where I was twisting everything–even my positive aspects–into something negative.

I think I would have remained there with a cloud hanging over my head up if it wasn’t for the concern expressed by both family and friends. On some level, I feel bad that I wasn’t able to get myself back on track on my own, but I’m also blessed that I’ve got people around me that do care one way or another. They told me that I had far too much negativity going on. They were able to recognize how much of an energy drain it all was. When multiple people told me, it’s kind of like the veil over my eyes was lifted.

So, what am I doing to remedy my situation? Well, first of all I really need to start looking at all of the positive things I’ve got going for myself. I don’t need to worry about having a negative balance because I seem to have such an easy time leaning in that direction. I need to start seeing all of the good things around me and feed off of everyone else’s positive energy. I realize that all of this sounds very new-age but seriously, from a physical perspective, I don’t think I could have stood harbouring all of the sadness and anger-related chemicals going through my body for that much longer without having a horrible meltdown. Balance is key, isn’t it? So, I need to bring the needle back to centre. It’s going to be a bit of an effort. I mean, I don’t want to be that guy with the rose-coloured glasses that sees the good in every single thing, but I need to make the effort for my sanity.

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Getting on a shuttle bus

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Mon. April 26, 2010

So, after our improv class a bunch of us headed to the bar down the street to just de-stress. The class today was pretty hardcore with a large amount of truly laugh out loud moments. I swear, there were moments when I felt like I was going to burst because I was just laughing so hard. Anyway, as we were having our drinks we made note of the large amount of emergency vehicles with sirens and flashing lights passing by the bar. One of us made a comment about something happening close by. After a bit of silence we just went back to our conversations. It wasn’t until well after that I finally saw what all the fuss was about.

From the bar I went to the subway station to head home. As I turned the corner toward the station I saw the long lineup of those emergency vehicles that went by the bar earlier. As I came closer I saw a bunch of police officers standing at the entrance. A couple of other people were looking to get in, but the one police officer seemed to just motion to us to just go around the side. OK, well usually that’s a fine, but I guess we didn’t have a choice. I walked to the bus area, and none of the automatic doors were functioning. I went to the next door to look in and a whole bunch of construction workers and police officers were milling about inside, heading down to track level. I figured that the place was down for investigation so I decided to walk to the next station to the east. About a kilometre later I arrived at an empty station. I walked in, took out my pass, and just before I swiped it the collector in the booth tapped the glass telling me that there was no subway service. Damn! The ruckus at Broadview caused a big chunk of the line to not have anything going. The collector was at least nice enough to tell me that there were shuttle buses running to take us from station to station.

So, I went back to the street and and started waiting for the bus. After a few minutes of waiting, I decided to just walk farther east before taking a but. As I walked, a few shuttle buses passed by crammed with people trying to get home. It really was that kind of night. I did manage to get on a bus, and when I finally got to a point where we could go back underground, the whole bus load of people sort of rushed to the eastbound platform. The informational sign above stated that full service had resumed. Damn! So, if I had just been patient, I could have skipped the walking and the cramped bus. Then again, who could say when the problems would clear up? No matter. Anyway, kudos to transit for getting shuttle buses up and running in a fast manner, but…yeah…

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The body can handle it

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Sun. April 25, 2010

In terms of running, it’s normal for people to have on and off days. Hopefully, off days are kept to a minimum, right? That’s not to say that the days when I’m not feeling so great are useless. I mean, there’s usually a good lesson of some sort to be learned from a rough outing. Conversely, good runs are entirely useful for providing a great confidence boost. Oh, but all of that is obvious, isn’t it?

I remember a couple of weeks ago, I had a particularly rough run that eventually lead to a really nasty migraine. Ultimately, that’s what tends to happen to me when I don’t do the proper preparations before hand. On those runs I really question whether I have it in me to go farther and start encroaching on the larger distances. I mean, I suppose I have the ability, but the confidence is truly lacking. Well, last Sunday as well as this Sunday I was really aiming to not have a bad run. I did all of the necessary precautions and, yes, those runs were certainly much more comfortable–even to the point where doing extra kilometres wasn’t that big of a deal. Just like last week, close to the end of the scheduled 18 kilometres I decided to add two more to round thing out. Both times, I felt quite awesome. After both of these runs I was feeling so good that I still made it over to my plyometrics class just because I was able. Despite doing both, I’ve come out of the plyo class feeling quite relaxed. Ultimately, what this tells me is that my body and mind both seem to be getting used to all the work I’ve been handing over. Apparently my musculoskeletal system can handle the strain. That’s good news. I mean, aside from a day when my body is truly tired, if I ever feel like I’m just incapable because my body just can’t handle things I know that it’s more of a mental thing than anything else. That’s kind of a comforting thing: it means that the training is paying off. Guess all of that time put in has been useful after all.

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My boundaries vs. the world

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Sat. April 24, 2010

Earlier today I met a friend for lunch. I hadn’t seen her in months so it was a good time to catch up over dim sum. As cart after cart of tasty food rolled by we summarized the things that have happened in our lives in the short span. You know, it’s sort of humbling to hear other people’s problems because doing so puts my issues into perspective. My issues are hardly ever that bad. That’s not to say that I should just brush them aside, because even if they’re not so dire in the grand scheme of things the problems are still my own–they’re important to me. I think that as long as I realize that there’s a difference between my boundaries and the world at large then there’s less chance of me getting my head stuck in the clouds. Makes sense to me.

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Cheers to the IT worker

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Fri. April 23, 2010

So I’ve been in office for about 12 hours. It’s definitely not how I wanted to spend Friday night, but I suppose it couldn’t have been avoided. This is all a factor of being in IT, isn’t it? Sometimes it requires people to put in odd hours outside of peak traffic periods just to get a little bit of maintenance done. In the end, it makes everything look like it runs smoothly to the average Joe; they shouldn’t really notice the work that goes into it.

So yes, cheers to the IT worker. Unsung heroes, yes?

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