Searching for Tao, 7573 Kilometres from Home

January 19, 2007 14:47 +0000 | Personal Life Why I'm Here

A blog is about you. Originally, these things were invented as a sort of personal reflection place, a diary of sorts. I never really intended my blog to be like that, but in a case like this, I'm not sure where else I work this stuff out.

Stress is getting in the way of my personal life. Normally, I'm a laid-back kind of person, but lately, with the TPSC, the new job and Melanie happening, I've found myself continuously exhausted.

It's important to note that the use of the word "exhausted" here is not meant to mean "sleepy". Rather, I'm burning out. The thought of going back through my email to answer the 12 or so people who are waiting on me literally makes me queezy. I can't focus on anything it seems and I think my personal life is deteriorating as a result.

I just need... rest.

November 28, 2006 15:46 +0000 | Personal Life 0

I have no idea what the article is saying, but Shawna is i-famous in Korea!

November 16, 2006 22:31 +0000 | Personal Life 10

She has a puppet she calls "Socky". He likes to eat towels and talks with his mouth full. He's made out of a sock.

I do believe that this is why I like her :-)

November 08, 2006 16:29 +0000 | Personal Life 4

You'd think that given the fact that I've no job to speak of, I'd be blogging more, but the opposite appears to be true. Interestingly enough, I've been keeping quite busy, and my father's visit is a good example of this.

I'd been waiting YEARS for my family to come visit. It's one thing to strike out on your own and set up your own life on the other side of the country, it's a whole other thing to have your family come nearly 4000km to see what you've made of yourself. I wanted to take my dad to see my favourite haunts, meet some of my friends and show him around my new home.

The centre of this trip (like all of my own vacations) was food. I took my dad to Pantheon for Greek food, Barberian's for steak (omigod it was fabulous) and the Korean Grill House for all-you-can-eat buffet. I must admit, all this was partially an effort to remind him and my family back home that I am not as narrow-minded about food as they might think.

My Dad came here with his long time friend Geoff, and it was good to see him again as well. The two of them only stop talking about how young and stupid they used to be when they want to change the subject to food. They talk like professional chefs I tell you, going on about their favourite recipes and why theirs should be the next one I try on Melanie... It was great.

It's interesting to note that we didn't hit any of the traditional tourist hotspots while they were in town. I have still yet to go up to the top of the CN tower and we didn't visit the Hockey Hall of Fame or the ROM. Instead, we walked through Chinatown, Kensington, The Annex and Queen West -- this was, after all a memory trip for my father in that he lived here himself something like 35 years ago. He wanted to see the streets that reminded him of that time and I was more than happy to see it all through his eyes.

It was a great visit, and I really appreciate him for coming all this way.

November 03, 2006 04:09 +0000 | Personal Life 6

My Dad surprised me the other night with a phone call: "I'll be there tomorrow at 6:30" he said -- I thought he was arriving on the sixth -- turns out that's when he's leaving. I really should just leave everything to my day planner as my memory clearly is useless.

Anyway, due to the familial visit, I won't be blogging much this week. Between now and next Thursday, I'm also looking forward to THREE interviews at different prospective employers -- things are going to be interesting over the next couple days. Interview #1 is tomorrow at 1:30. Wish me luck.

October 25, 2006 19:35 +0000 | Personal Life 3

Tanya Chapman, a dear friend of mine officially launched her first novel last night at Revival, a little venue on College Street. "King" has been in the works for years and I remember when she started working on it: That girl would not stop writing and rewriting. Tan is a force when she's determined.

After years of writing and more years of looking for a publisher, she finally found a buyer in Coah House Books, the people who brought us UTOpia last year. She's done an amazing job and I'm so proud of her. I have a copy here next to me... it's quite the thing to see the name of someone you care about printed across the face of a book.

Congratulations Tan. This is your victory. You earned it.

October 18, 2006 22:06 +0000 | Personal Life 5

My time is officially booked between November 2nd and 6th as that's when my dad and his best friend will be in town! I'll be showing them around the city and would appreciate any suggestions for sightseeing in November :-)

October 12, 2006 04:23 +0000 | Personal Life

It's rare that I have conversations like the one I had last night with my dear friend Tanya. She has a most refreshing way of looking at the world and a talent for conveying that point of view to those who will listen.

Needless to say, I'll be taking her advice. I'm not sure that this will help me the way it's helped her, but it can't hurt to try.

October 03, 2006 01:56 +0000 | Personal Life 0

I've put myself on a sort of detour for the next week. I've been spending a great deal of time with Melanie and the TPSC lately and I've noticed that certain components of the rest of my life have been falling by the wayside as a result. So, in an effort to make my 168hours of non-stop on-call hours more useful, I've decided to take a break from both of those things and try and patch up that which I've been missing lately.

Things like:

My friends and family who keep asking me to call (especially those back home)
Cleaning my apartment
Applying for a passport (yes, I still don't have one)
Mailing Michelle's birthday present (she's a Leo and we're in Libra now... oops)
The scads of email I've got waiting for me in my inbox, a considerable amount of which is related to the TPSC (very soon Stephen)
This blog
My Imager

Ok, so maybe I'm not completely giving up on TPSC stuff... but on-call means no meetings so I might as well use this time to get through all those emails.

Lets see if when I check in next week if any or all of these things are done... Wish me luck :-)

September 28, 2006 21:44 +0000 | Personal Life 0

Newmindspace has a bunch of cool stuff happening this weekend that I thought I'd share. For starters, their documentary is premiering tonight at the Bloor Cinema as a fundraiser for The Toronto Public Space Committee. I might even be in it if you watch the people in the background :-)

On top of that, this Friday night marks the return of the Great Urban Capture The Flag Event. Bring a flashlight, a cellphone and whatever else you like. I'm going and it'd be good to see how many others might show up.

This is also the weekend of Sheena's Birthday! So I'll be heading over there to say hello and celebrate at the Pennywhistle. As the last weekend before Primus puts me back on call for 168hours straight, I hope it goes well.