Searching for Tao

Those of you who have seen me in person over the last week are probably not surprised by this picture, but I thought that I'd post it here both for posterity and for those of you who read this blog and are not on Facebook where I posted this initially.

My reasoning behind all of this was actually pretty simple: I'd not done it before and I wanted to know what it was like. I then coupled this reasoning with the understanding that blue hair is an impediment to be taken seriously in the political arena, so if I was ever going to do this, the closer to "when I was young and stupid" the better.

My grandparents laughed considerably.

For the most part, it's the strangest feeling. I walk down the street and I get odd looks from strangers (especially children) and for a moment, I forget why -- it's not like I can see my hair all the time. I also surprise myself when passing a mirror.

The strangest part of all of this though is that strangers actually seem more comfortable around me. Sitting on the bus with a seat free next to me, I've found that young, attractive women seem to sit next to me more often now. What's the deal ladies? You dig the blue-types?

Sadly, the colour is far from permanent. Over the past week it's slowly faded from a brilliant blue to a teal, and eventually I'm sure it will be a nasty green. I'm not sure what I'll do then. Probably dye it again with something more subtle like a deep red and then just shave it off before the Ashley's wedding in December... I dunno. Suggestions from the hair dye experienced are welcome :-)

Randee Hermus, a girl I went to high school with but with whom I never spent much time is on TV playing for team Canada against China. Actually, I guess I'm watching a re-run since it's unlikely that anyone in China is playing football at this hour. I'm not going to look for the score though -- I wanna see us play :-)

Anyway, I just thought I'd post about how cool it is that a girl from small-shitty-town-Langley, who went to uber-Christian, under-funded LSS is on TV playing for my country. From what I've seen so far, she's done us proud.

Some of you may have noticed a distinct lack of updates both here and in my email. I've taken to marking things as unread and letting them sit while I look for time to sit down and write out a proper response to each one.

The obvious problem with this however, is the more messages to which you do this, the more time you need to sit down and get them all out the door... Well, now that I'm up here in Kelowna for a few days, I'm finding that I suddenly have the time and I'm working my way through.

I'd like to take a moment though to issue a request: Please stop sending me Facebook messages. Val is right, it's an obvious attempt to privatise email and in the end, it's just another place to check. Email works, lets all use it k?

I have a big post about a neat idea I have that I want to make in the near future... I may even make it this weekend. Ooh, and quick note: I'm learning Python. It's fun.

Given the recent rash of self-reflective posts I've had in here, one might jump to the conclusion that the title of this post is figurative. Such a jump however would be wrong: I burned myself tonight... cooking chicken.

It hurts a lot -- more than it should really. I've had it on and off ice and cold water for over 2 hours now and when i take it off the ice it screams at me...

It's 2am and I'm supposed to sleep soon. Not sure how that's gonna happen though.

Stupid chicken. I need new oven mitts.

I just thought that I'd make a public note about painkillers. They're good. I like them... a lot. More importantly though, not having any when you need them is not good. It hurts... a lot.

That is all.

Melanie and I went to a showing of We Will Rock You tonight, a broadway show about a future where rock and roll is dead and all that remains are "Boy Bands, and Girl Bands, Boy and Girl Bands, and bands with a couple of boys in them that look like girls anyway".

Part Broadway show, part rock concert, it's story of how one dreamer and a collection of rebel faithful return the spirit of Rock to the people. With nearly every musical number a Queen cover, it was fucking awesome.

Riddled with lyrical references to rock songs over the decades and an absolutely brilliant rendition of "Who Wants to Live Forever?", the show was a beautiful tribute to the lives of Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Elvis Presley, and of course: Freddie.

I very much recommend.

Bill is one of my personal favourite bloggers to read. He's a former coworker from back in my Moshpit days and his style is high-larious. His post today specifically though is exactly the kind of thing I needed to read just now. Thanks Bill :-)

Mel will love this. Apparently, I am...

Mr. Bennet

(You scored 58 Idealism, 41 Nonconformity, 58 Nerdiness)

Congratulations, you're Mr. Bennet! You are one mysterious person with mysterious motives. Despite all the mystery, it's clear that you believe what you do is for the greater good, and you are obviously a well-educated person in your field.

Your best quality: Dedication to your work/organization/etc.

Your worst quality: Keeping too many secrets

The Heroes Personality Test

I'm sick... still.

It started yesterday when I woke up with a raw throat. I emailed-in sick and then just sat there doing nothing all day... somehow, when you do nothing to aggravate the flu, it always gets worse. By the time the evening came around, I was due downtown to sit in on Melanie's birthday dinner and was feeling alright. I got bundled up (12 articles of clothing) and made my trek downtown, but half way through dinner, I was falling apart, concentrating on breathing, trying not to pass out... it was a difficult experience.

And so after limping back to Melanie's house, I passed out from exhaustion at 9pm, shiverring and overheating, I've had a miserable last 24hours.

I'm a little better this morning after taking two Advil (pressure in the brain is less intense, so I can walk again), but I'm staying in and doing nothing today for fear of this bug kicking my ass again. I'm supposed to go see Rick Mercer tomorrow after all.

After the big meeting, I went to see Partition with Stephen & Irena to relax a bit. Never before have I seen a movie that so beautifully (and clearly) shows how irrational animals will always trump rational human beings.

It's very much worth seeing, just be prepared to be disgusted by your own species.