Musings of the Museless

House’s recent recap of his resolutions made me go back to my own… and I realize I’m not gettin’ very far. Here’s my update…

• I’ve been on and off the “healthy living” bandwagon since the start of the year, and as such I won’t be making my 15lb. loss mark before heading to see Geoff in Northern California. But despite work and IEEE travel between now and then, I will get back on it and stick with it. I’ve got a bridesmaid dress to look good for in August, and other things to get in shape for…
• *sigh* I’ve been doing decently with keeping my extra-curricular activities organized, though I haven’t kept it all to one night (I had designated Monday night as such). But I need to do more to get on top of some of the bigger commitments, ie IEEE Canada. Please, someone, nag me (not you House… I’m saving you for something else)… Randy?
• Academics… huh? What’s dat? Ya, I’ve done little/nothing in the past three months in this area. I’ve wanted to, but I haven’t put the energy into it. And to be honest, I’m not gonna until at least after vacation…. but barring any extra work that comes up, I expect to be done my draft by the end of the year, and plan to use some of my four weeks annual leave to make that happen.

In other news, I spent the St. Patrick’s Day weekend in Boston at an IEEE meeting.  The meetings went well, socializing was fun (though I did not drink any green beer… instead I had a seafood hangover).  The trip home was a bit of a pain – delayed out of Boston meant landing in Montreal when the plane to St. John’s was supposedly taking off, rushed through customs and was told by the ticket lady (who wrangled us boarding passes after our flight had been “closed”) to run run run all the way to the gate.  Little old out of shape Lori (see first bullet point) is in extreme debt to Rob, who ran ahead to let them know we were coming… only to find that the plane had just gotten to the gate.  Argh.  So we made the flight with plenty of time, though my luggage didn’t, it came the next day.  Pics (of Boston, not of my luggage) to be posted soon.

It’s been busy lately. The “start of fall” (which, yes, technically isn’t until September 23 this year, but forever in my mind fall always starts once Labour Day has passed and school starts) always awakens a flurry of activity as we shake of the lazy hazy summer days.

Last weekend found me in Toronto hosting an IEEE workshop, this time for GOLD. In my opinion and despite my best procrastination efforts, it went well, and I think most would agree. I must definitely admit that I need some help in keeping track of time and keeping conversations on track. And to learn that 5:00am is not the best time to do slides. But… whatever. No one got hurt. The work’s not over, not by a long shot. But the pressure is less.

Work is interesting, though I sometimes feel isolated at my desk, programming and writing. I like the company, like most of the people most of the time (there are always times when the best people get on your nerves, and there are some people who will always clash), and like the projects.

I leave it here for now. Be good!

(Note: Despite it being Monday, I’m in a generally good mood… so don’t take this post as some sort of depressive negativity overwhelmed rant…)

I, like a lot of other people, wish I had more free time. But, at the very least until I finsh my thesis (let’s not go there, shall we?) and get past September’s IEEE GOLD Congress, and knock off a few more “To-Dos” from my list, I probably won’t. But when I do get the time, there a number of things I’d like to do. I know a lot of them, reasonably won’t happen until I retire or something, unless I end up in a body-cast for some reason… but feel free to suggest other things!

- Learn to run without feeling like an idiot
- Watch all episodes, marathon-style, of “Scrubs”, “Farscape”, and “Sex and the City”
- Re-read “The Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter” books
- Read the books that I’ve bought but haven’t read yet
- Take the dogs on a long car ride followed by a good hike
- Camp more
- Learn to golf (or at least hit a golf bal somewhat consistently in a predicted direction farther than five feet)
- Learn to use the fancy-pants camera we have, more than just the pre-defined settings
- Walk around St. John’s and Mount Pearl and actually take pictures without feeling like an idiot or a tourist
- Take a conversational French course
- Drive to Gros Morne National Park and spend a week without contact
- Visit family I haven’t seen in a while
- Work on my family tree

You’ll be thrilled to know that things at the IEEE meeting I was not attending turned out marvellously. Sometimes other people simply rock! And sometimes things work out.

Anyhoo, let’s go back to the Sydney airport, just after I bought my Swatch. We toddled on over to our gate, but it was blocked off. Odd. Just to the left of the gate, a security guard stood, looking out the window. And that’s when we noticed what was happening outside. An Australian soldier in Iraq was killed, and the morgue originally returned the wrong body to Australia, mixing him up with the body of a Kuwaiti worker. What we were witnessing was the actual return of the Private Jake Kovco, 25, to his unit in Sydney. After autopsy (the circumstances surrounding his death – he died from his own gun – are a little mysterious), his body was to be returned to his hometown near Melbourne. It was very somber to witness the procession, led by a religous official, casket carried by members of the unit while the rest stood at attention in two rows on either side. To see the soldier’s mother being led to a car (Pvt. Kovco also had a wife and two young children, but they may have been hidden from our view) was heart-breaking. We hear of deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, and sometimes the names and numbers and causes blur together in our world of insta-news. But this was perfectly clear. And cause for reflection, on life and death and war.

I think I’m going to leave this at here for now. Im uploading pics as I type… they should be there soon.

Sooo… somewhere between last week and now I miraculously returned hme and resumed life, which is a little crazy as I scramble to prepare for an IEEE meeting I’m not actually attending. Why, oh why do I choose to do things? Why couldn’t I spend Friday night drinking or bowling like a normal mid-twenties-year-old ?

Let me fill you in on the rest of our trip. Our second-to-last full day in Sydney we went to Taronga Zoo. I’m a big zoo fan, and this was a good zoo to be sure. The easiest way to get there is to take a ferry from Circular Quay – that brings you to the “back door” of the Zoo. To get to the “front door” you take a gondola over the entire zoo. Quite the view.

A highlight of the zoo was the Seal show… they have several trained seals who “perform” while the narrator explains quite a deal aabout the seals and their training. Another highlight was the dingo… however, it was not eating any babies while we were there.

After the zoo we hit the Hard Rock Cafe again in an attempt to get a shot glass… no joy with the shotglass :( but some with the giant sundae we shared. :) Then we headed back to the hostel to finish off our wine and pre-pack some stuff.

Our original plan for our last day in Sydney was to head to the Blue Mountains, but we really wanted to just hang out in Sydney and thus, that’s what we did. We went back to Paddy’s Market to pick up some souvenirs and then we took the subway to Sydney Olympic Park, home of the 2000 Summer Olympics. A beautiful spot, with nice walking trails, public art, large open spaces and tons of pregnant women and children. The reason for the women and children was a Pregnancy and Children Expo being held out there (and surprisingly, not because of the Korn concert that was held the night before). But we spent several hours walking around, checking out the different sport facilities and attractions. One of the most popular attraction we saw was McDonald’s… it was packed! And, well, we were hungry. :S And that was basically it for our last full day in Sydney.

The next day, our travel day, started quite early as we had previously booked a 6am shuttle to the airport, with the transportation branch of the Russian Mafia. We first encountered these fine folks when we were trying to catch another shuttle after arriving from Cairns. We were assured that the one we were looking for and the unmarked shuttle van they weretrying to get us to buy tickets for were ultimately the same thing. Okay, whatever, the price was the same and they were there NOW, so we bought return tickets to save a few bucks when returning home in a few days. I was told to call 24 hrs in advance to book the return trip.

The first hint that the companies weren’t the same was when I tried calling the numbers on my return ticket. There were three – two printed on the ticket and one the seller hastily wrote when he passed the tickets. When I first called the written number, there was no answer… no problem, I tried the first printed number… no answer. Okay, it’s early. Maybe they aren’t in yet, even though a lot of people do head to the airport in the morning. I tried the third number, and got a “This number has been disconnected” message. Oh dear. Had we been duped?

Nope. Called back the written number a few hours later and got a man with a heavy Russian accent. I book us in for 6am on Saturday. Fast forward to then… and no shuttle. Another shuttle stopped to see if we wanted to come with them, and when I showed him our ticket he kind of laughed a little. Oh dear.

At 6:15am, our shuttle arrived – on the other side of the street, and the driver jumped out telling us to “Hurry up! Hurry Up!”. Never mind the fact there is traffic coming, we’re expected to run across the road, luggage and all. The shuttle driver throws our bags in the back (I rescue my carry-on and its breakable glass from his clutches), we hop in, and away we go to pick up a few more fares. This guy’s driving style is kind of kamakazi… if the next lane is going faster and there’s almost the space for the van, he squeezes in. U-turns are a given, backing up is done without much forethought or without looking. And in the front seat is his 6-month-old puppy, Igor, along for the ride and being a bit of a distraction (which is not what this driver needs!).

But, thank God, we arrive at the airport at about 7am, alive and with all pieces intact. We waited in line a bit for it to open… our flight wasn’t until 10am, but we wanted to get exit row seats.. and luckily (there were maybe 20 people in line in front of us, but I suspect most of them were from the same tour group) we did! And I picked up a Swatch at the duty free store!

This is getting LOOONG, I’m breaking it into a two-parter… see later for more@