Blog

On Being a Bad Friend

July 31, 2007 04:08 +0000  |  Friends Self Reflection

I need to take a moment to take stock of the friends I've hurt or alienated in the past few months:

  • Pavel: He calls all the time, and I never call him back.
  • Colin: I call to talk about computer stuff 'cause I need his help, but we never see each other outside of that.
  • Chris Rhodes: Forgot to call him on his birthday... again
  • Emily Jane: I book a trip to South Korea and don't bother to tell her.
  • Melanie: I put a countdown on my blog marking the days 'till I move to Vancouver, not bothering to consider her feelings.
  • Annie: Forgot to talk to her about how I can't make it to her wedding, instead she has to find out about it here.

There are most likely others, but as we've already seen, I'm not very good at remembering much of anything, especially these days.

I won't try to justify any of this -- I can't and I shouldn't try. I'm trying to do too many things, to be too many things to too many people and I'm failing miserably. I'm so sorry that you all are bearing the brunt of it. I will endeavour to do better, and I will make it up to all of you.

50% Less (or More?) Wisdom

July 03, 2007 17:54 +0000  |  Friends Melanie 'Round-the-World 2

This past Saturday I experienced the joys of having my wisdom teeth removed. The NO2 freaked me out, so the process was predominantly gas-free, which didn't really bother me since the local anaesthetic was more than enough to get me through the process.

Melanie has since been taking care of me at her place and I've been floating between fever, jaw pain, and cold sweats since then. As I was just telling Suzan, I'm pretty much ok so long as I don't move or talk.. which is why I'm not at work yet.

I've been using this time to do some of the stuff I've been putting off, like re-coding this site and finding the various professionals I need in town to get my trip ready. Starting with an accountant and another photographer for my passport photos. I'll probably see if I can get that stuff out of the way on my way to work on Thursday or Wednesday.

That is all for now. Big thanks goes to Melanie for her usual super-awesomeness in taking care of me (I can be a really bitchy sick person) and to all of my friends who have been sending me "get well" messages here and there. Here's hoping I recover quickly.

My Last Birthday Party in Toronto

June 25, 2007 04:49 +0000  |  Friends Moving 3

I had a lovely night tonight out with a good cross-section of my friends here in The Big Smoke. People I know from the real world, or meatspace activities like TEV or The TPSC were there, as well as a bunch of the people I've met online. And most importantly, they all got along (and even mingled!) very well. It's a nice social experiment I like to do every year and I'm all warm and fuzzy-like on the results of this evening. Thank you to everyone who could come out.

As the title says, this will be my last June 25th in this city -- unless for some reason I decide to do a birthday on a Toronto vacation in the future. I'm not sure how I feel about it all really. It's a hell of a thing to partition your social life on opposite sides of a country this size... There's not one way you can put it all together in the end. Somehow, regardless of what you do, you'll be away from people you care about... forever. I just hope lots of them come to visit (or move!) out West.

Dan & Stephen's Bike Trip of Fun and Pain

April 22, 2007 14:50 +0000  |  Cycling Friends Toronto 1

A map of our travels
A Google-map of our adventure. [High-res version] [Google link]

Toronto's weather these past few days has been amazing. With clear blue skies and 15°-25°C weather, the city was screaming for bike riders. Everywhere you looked, people were dusting off their old two-wheelers and partaking on a relaxing roll through the city... but not us. No, I called Stephen Saturday morning and said: "Lets ride to High Park!" and so I hopped on Syria and rode West to Spadina & Bloor, picked up Stephen and started our killer journey.

Now it should be mentioned that this sounds like a really big deal, but an experienced cyclist would probably fall over laughing at the way I'm describing this trip. I make no claims that this is an exceptional journey for everyone, but for an out of shape programmer, this was tough run. We rode out to High Park, back along Roncesvalles, down Dundas West until we ran out of working road (they're doing construction), to Spadina, down to Queen (NOT fun), down Queen to Church, up through the villiage to Wellesley, where we parted ways and I went to Pape & Bloor for Lukie's birthday party.

Along the way, we stopped for some tasty ethnic food in the Polish sector (Roncesvalles & Queen) and had some ill-conceived icecream in the villiage. Total trip distance: 26km. Total time spent: 6hours. ...and I hurt. I'm sitting on Stephen's couch right now blogging this and my feet STILL hurt. This must be how people who go to the gym feel :-)