Searching for Tao, 7573 Kilometres from Home

September 22, 2008 18:49 +0000 | Chrystal Melanie Personal Life Vancouver War 0

A lot of interesting things have been happening lately that I've yet to document properly here. My apologies to those involved for falling behind, but as you'll see, I've been rather busy.

For starters, Melanie has finally moved to Vancouver. After months of preparation, fear and goodbyes, Mel packed her bags (and her two cats) and hopped on a plane to YVR. In the space of less than a week, she had 4 interviews for two jobs and it's very possible that she'll be offered one of said jobs today or tomorrow. The cats were comfortable in my place almost immediately, and I'm already beginning to notice the effects of Mayday's fur all over the place. (She's such a princess).

It's been a bit of a shock to Melanie so far. I don't think that it's completely sunk in that she's a Vancouverite now. I suggested that she "take the day off" today and wander through Stanley Park while the weather is still pretty. I hope she takes my advice.

Chrystal has also broken some rather big news: she's moving to Kandahar. You know, that place from where we keep shipping people home feet first? Of course she won't be serving in the military, rather she'll be working in the diplomatic office, on a military base, surrounded by big people with guns. This is a really exciting career move for her and she's been wanting something like this for a very long time. I can't say that I'm glad she's going, but I suppose I have to be happy that she's doing what she wants with her life.

Just come back alive ok?

July 30, 2008 04:07 +0000 | Charity Melanie 3

As one of her last deeds in Toronto before her exodus, Melanie will be participating in a walk to raise money for the fight ovarian cancer. If you'd like to help her out with the pledging, please visit her pledge page and donate whatever you can. Yes, donations are tax-deductable ;-)

Here's a copy of the official email:

You have been invited to pledge Melanie Cassidy in the Winners Walk of Hope. Join thousands of people across Canada supporting the Winners Walk of Hope, a remarkable event designed to create a sense of community for women living with ovarian cancer and their family and friends. All funds raised through this event support Ovarian Cancer Canada's mission to: support women and their families touched by ovarian cancer, educate well women and healthcare professionals and to fund ovarian cancer research. It's a day filled with hope and support, creating a greater awareness around ovarian cancer. To date, the Winners Walk of Hope has raised over $3million. For more information on Ovarian Cancer Canada's many programs, please visit www.ovariancanada.org.

Secure online donations can be made with your credit card and an official charitable tax receipt will be sent to you by email within five minutes! You can make an online donation now:

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=1888690

For more information about the Winners Walk of Hope, or to join us on Sunday September 7, 2008 at 9am, please visit www.winnerswalkofhope.ca

Thank you for your generous support!

July 03, 2008 20:44 +0000 | Melanie Self Reflection 1

Melanie and I are no longer together. I don't want to talk about it any more than she does, so please, lets just all leave it at that? She's still moving here in January and if it all seems right, we might get back together then -- I just have to understand some things about myself before that can happen.

June 23, 2008 02:03 +0000 | Melanie Personal Life Vancouver 4

At last, it would seem that I have a valid excuse for not writing here for so long: Melanie has been in town for just over a week.

The logic behind the whole situation of course was this: if she really was to move all the way to Vancouver, it makes sense that she might want to see what it's like before committing to the decision. She really couldn't have picked a better time. While it's sweltering and smoggy in Toronto, It's been a moderate 19°C here, low wind, and just a little rain.

As if the weather alone wasn't enough to convince her to move, I sold her on the thing BC's been flaunting for decades: the scenery. We rented a car and drove up to Kelowna through the rocky mountains. We took the scenic route, passing through dense forests and speeding through clouds. We saw waterfalls, lakes, rapids, and a few million tonnes of solid granite sticking out of the ground. Yeah, BC's pretty awesome... and I mean that in the literal sense: "worthy of awe".

I introduced Melanie to as many cool parts of Vancouver as I could, including my parents (in Kelowna), my grandparents and a number of my friends who made it out to my birthday shindig yesterday. We hit the Art Gallery, English Bay, The Marble Slab (w00t!) and even Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden in Chinatown that's always closed when I want to visit :-(. My brother got us free gondola tickets (thanks Butthead!) to Grouse Mountain (no Grouse Grind for us... next time.) and Melanie was super-brave and crossed the Capilano Suspension Bridge. We even got a tour of UBC by her Aunt and Uncle who work there.

We didn't get to everything of course. I would have liked to have found time to visit the VPL, Science World, and Granville Island, but I'm sure she'll lots of have time see that stuff when she moves here. That's right, the sales pitch worked. Melanie's moving to Vancouver. The plan is to be in town for January 2009 after a 1month trip to Melbourne, Australia to see her friend Amber (who is almost as awesome as BC).

Also for those of you wondering about the status of our relationship, you're probably not a Facebook addict yet (good for you!) Basically, we're together, though the logistics of two people being "together" with nearly 4000km between them is a bit daunting. I'll just go with what she said in her blog post: FUCK YOU DISTANCE! :-P

So yeah. It's been a long, busy week and now that my "vacation" is over, I have about 16hours before I'm back at work. Sometime... sometime soon I hope, I'll take a break ;-)

February 15, 2008 18:55 +0000 | Friends Melanie 4

I meant to post about this earlier, but the last few days have been kinda crazy. I just wanted to mention something kinda cool that happened the other day.

Our story begins roughly a week ago, as I was talking to Melanie on my phone about the package I'd just sent her for her birthday. I was complaining about how I seem to have misplaced most of the pens I'd acquired in Toronto and was left with only a crappy one which I was forced to use to address the package.

What I didn't know was that the following morning, she went to work, stole a bunch of those free swag pens from the office that you get at conventions and stuffed them into an envelope and mailed them my way. I received the package a couple days ago. In it, a bunch of really cool pens (including one that contains a series of mini adhesive flags!) and a note:

Now write me a letter

Melanie is awesome.

August 16, 2007 14:09 +0000 | Melanie 8

Melanie sent me this email last night while I was out having dinner with Stephen. I didn't get it 'till just now:

DanIEL!!
...DanIEL!!
Daniel was a boy...
Well, he was a DRAGON boy!
Well....okay, he was my boy.
But he was DANIEL!
Eatinatin at the rest'RANT!
Ridinatin on the subWAY!
Kissinatin...the girlfriend.
And Mel says DON'T DO THAT!
BUT HE DOES IT ANYWAY!

...and Daniel takes a SIESTA!

ps: you have the sexiest face ever.

For the internet-savvy, you may have noticed the reference to Falcor the Urinator. Melanie rocks so hard.

July 22, 2007 16:14 +0000 | Blogger Geek Stuff Imager Melanie Money Moving Riptown 'Round-the-World The Toronto Public Space Committee Travel 2

I've not been posting a lot lately, mostly because I'm just stupid-busy. I'd forgotten what an incredible hassle it was to move my life 4349.9 kilometres away in the first place and doing it again is generally un-fun.

For starters, the cost of moving is ridiculous. Most moving companies will only accept a minimum of 1000lbs (they charge by weight, not time), and since I live in a bachelor, that's typically an aweful lot of extra space. On top of that, I have to pay for storage (since I'll be in Europe for a couple months before getting to Vancouver) and insurance, and movers. My latest quote was $2429.54!

Clearly, I have to keep looking, but time is running short.

Once I have a mover, I need a moving day, and since I'm not likely to leave Toronto 'till September 11th (yes, you read right, it is the cheapest day to fly), I could be living at Melanie's out of a suitcase for nearly a month.

Then there's the flight itself, I've been working with a travel agent and the routing is insane. I want to visit these places:

Stockholm
Berlin
Amsterdam
Geneva
Prague
Rome/Vatican City
Seoul

So one would imagine that the cheapest (and most efficient) option would be:

Toronto » Stockholm
Rome » Seoul
Seoul » Vancouver

But sadly, because of the way the airlines work, not only do I have to use Frankfurt as my entrance & exit for Europe, and route my Seoul trip through Singapore, but in order to get home, I have to fly back through Europe!

Toronto » Frankfurt
Frankfurt » Singapore
Singapore » Seoul
Seoul » Singapore
Singapore » Frankfurt
Frankfurt » Vancouver

This trip is about $3500. I can't be the only one that thinks this is insane. Obviously, I can get a direct Seoul » Vancouver flight, but that costs roughly $600 more and a RoundTheWorld pass is nearly $5000.

I may still take the more direct route, if only because it means I'm not in transit for 26hours on my last leg, not to mention the environmental implications of adding so many more kilometres to my trip. I'll also be buying carbon credits, but somehow, that doesn't make me feel any better about it all.

I'm also leaving my life in Toronto, of which Melanie is a big part. She's going through a rough spot in her life lately, and sometimes I feel like I'm not helping enough because of all of these other complications, not to mention the fact that I'm likely to make it worse when I leave. Even though we both knew this was coming the day we met, it doesn't make things any easier.

I have responsibilities as coordinator for the Camaras in Public Spaces campaign of the TPSC. I have yet to find a suitable replacement. We have a big event coming up for August, but someone will have to be here in October to field questions from the press when the pilot project is over and the one I had in mind to replace me doesn't appear interested. Stephen has expressed interest, but he's always got so much on his plate, I wanted to bring in some fresh blood to run the show, but I'm not sure who that would be at the moment.

Then there's my job. I don't have one lined up in Vancouver just yet, though my current boss has been kind enough to look into available positions with Riptown's Vancouver office. Whether there's a spot for me there or not, I'm not too worried about finding work in what I understand to be a competitive market, but that spectre of joblessness is still pretty scary.

Lastly, I've started re-coding my site using the new techniques I've been learning at my current job. The new site (still in development) will use a true MVC system and include nifty stuff like Ajax and JQuery as well as a Modified Preorder Tree Traversal algorithm for storing the hierarchical sorting structures in my Imager. This is mostly in preparation for when I'm in Europe and want to remote-blog and upload images -- I want the site to be better equipped.

So that's all for now. Wish me luck I suppose. If my heart & brain don't implode from the pressure, those of you reading this from Vancouver should see me in a few months.

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.

May 06, 2007 18:58 +0000 | Melanie Toronto 8

So, as mentioned in my previous post, I'm here at High Park enjoying the cherry blossoms. It's not as party-ish as I remember it from last year, but in all fairness, it's considerably earlier in the day than my visit back then.

I had an interesting revelation this afternoon. At this time last year, I was still working at Rydium. I was enjoying my brand new laptop so much so that I was taking it everywhere, just so I could blog about stuff.... As far as my laptop goes, not much has changed, but my personal life is considerably different.

My relationship with Melanie has been amazing so far. She keeps asking me to blog about how awesome she is, and I guess now is about as good a time as any. Melanie is pretty damn fabulous. It's a strange thing to spend a year with someone like her. You're still two very different people, but you both work very hard at trying to understand the other person better. I know that when she's upset, the best way to cheer her up is popcorn and diet fountain Coke with two straws, and she knows that I strongly believe that the Moulin Rouge soundtrack improves on any situation... even when you're laying quietly under the trees.

I guess that it's an inevitability of being with someone for this long: you start to get them, despite the giant walls we build around ourselves... It's a wonderful experience and one I'm happy to share with her.

Happy (belated) Beltane everyone.

December 31, 2006 23:16 +0000 | Melanie Primus Riptown Rydium The Toronto Public Space Committee Toronto Why I'm Here 2

Note that some of these links lead to private posts.

2006 was a big year for the planet. Americans woke up and realised that their leader was insane (well enough of them to kill the Republican dominance in the House and Senate), Europe and China gained momentum on the world stage and the "War on Terrorism" did little more than make more terrorists.

Canada ousted one leading party and invited in a new one that promised to be much the same and our reputation as an environmental leader is now in the toilet. The air is dirtier, the water murkier and we're all trapped in this handbasket of our own weaving.

But contrary to what some might think upon first reading this blog, this site is not about the world, it's just about me and what I'm doing in it. ...and on my own front, a lot of good things happened this year.

On the personal front, some wonderful ladies made their way into my life. Most notably of course would be Melanie who I've been with for over 6months now. We've had our ups and downs, but I'm quite happy with her and I'm glad she's here for the New Year.

I also made a good many new friends through my activist work, not the least of which is Stephen, who I've come to hang out with outside of my responsibilities to the TPSC.

On the professional level, I hopped around a lot this year. February saw me start my career in network administration at Rydium. I loved working there, but couldn't stay for my own moral reasons so I moved onto Primus who treated me so poorly that I chose to leave after only 3months, where after a couple months of job hunting, I found Bodog, a place in which I'm currently quite content with my working arrangements.

I'm proud to say though that the biggest changes for me this year rest in the Why I'm Here section. I joined the Toronto Public Space Committee, a "within the lines of legality" political action group devoted to making this city a place for people not cars or corporations. It's been a great place to get into politics from the bottom up. I've come to learn how City Hall works, talked with councillors directly, given deputations (albeit badly) and most importantly come to understand what needs to be done, and where the power to make those changes rests.

I've worked on campaigns opposing the selling off of street furniture to companies like CBS, helped write the philosophy document for the group, wrote the code for the TPSC website that made headlines during the municipal election and now I'm heading up a very high-profile campaign to fight police cameras on the streets of the city. It's exciting work and its exactly why I came here.

So while we're all still trapped in this handbasket heading straight to hell, I suppose I can still be an optimist. I'm doing what I can to get us out of there, and I suppose that's all I can really hope for. I'm looking forward to 2007.