25 Random Things...

My roommate filled out one of these and I figured that I'd give it a try too. Here's what I came up with:

1. I love daffodils! I'm generally not much of one for flowers but there are a few that appeal to me. Irises and lilies are fun, but there's just something about daffodils. They always make me happy.

2. I can recite pi to 60 digits. I memorized the first 70-odd digits when I was in elementary school, mostly 'cause I was bored, and it just stuck with me.

3. I spent copious amounts of time playing with Tonka trucks as a kid. Way better than Barbie dolls, believe you me!

4. My singing could make small children cry. I couldn't hold a tune to save my life.

5. I love road trips but I hate driving. I'd rather be the passenger any day.

6. I've traveled a fair bit but I still get terrible wanderlust a lot of the time. I don't like to stay in one place for too long. I get restless.
If I ever get the time and the money, there's a whole list of trips I'd like to take, places I'd like to visit. India, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa, Australia, Romania, Argentina, Brazil... I could go on. I discovered something called OzBus a couple years ago. A twelve week road trip from London, England to Sydney, Australia. You pass through 20 countries along the way. It sounds absolutely amazing!

7. I love to bake. Bread, muffins, pies, danishes; not too crazy about cakes though. I think it's the icing. I don't like decorating them. Strangely enough I don't mind doing fancy shapes and decorations for other pastries, there's just something about cakes.

8. I'm a voracious reader. "When I get a little money, I buy books; if any is left, I buy food and clothes." -Erasmus. That just about sums it up for me. I love books. I love owning well-made books. I have some lovely hardbacks variously bound in silk, leather, or cloth. Depending on the book, I also like second-hand copies. They have more character.

9. I'd take a camping trip over a five star resort any day. I feel uncomfortable with people waiting on me like that. I'd much rather feel self-sufficient. Besides, when you're in one of those fancy resorts you're so far removed from everything. I want to experience the place I'm visiting. I want to feel it, see it, smell it; not be hidden away in some plush, padded room somewhere.

10. I generally like coffee-flavoured things but I hate coffee. I'm much more of a tea person. However, I do like iced cappuccinos, mochas, coffee-flavoured truffles and chocolates and the like. Honestly though... there's nothing like a good, hot cup of red tea. Just a spoonful of sugar, give it a stir, and enjoy.

11. I usually do alright in the cold (as long as it's not too windy) but I can't stand the heat. Once it gets past about 25 C, I just shut down. Especially if it's humid as well.

12. The oldest landmark I've seen is Stonehenge. I went to England with my family a few years ago. We stayed with my aunt, rented a car, and took a tour of the UK. We saw some pretty amazing stuff. Visited a few castles, saw the white cliffs of Dover, went to Oxford, walked through Sherwood forest, spent a very chilly afternoon at Hadrian's wall. I'm pretty sure, out of all of those, Stonehenge is the oldest and the most famous. It was really an amazing thing to see.

13. The coolest thing I've seen is probably a shuttle launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
See below for more details on that one.

14. Words like "irregardless" tend to annoy me. It's redundant. "Regardless" is already negative, you don't need to negate it again by tacking a useless "ir-" onto the front.

15. I like to collect quotes. I've found a few new ones recently that really appeal to me. They should be listed below somewhere.

16. I love myths and legends. I collect mythologies, fairy tales, fables, etc.

17. I have a soft spot for guys with accents. My favourites are probably Scottish and Australian. I absolutely melt for them! Latino accents are pretty good as well. British can be alright. I'm rather partial to Liverpool accents. And I have to admit Donegal accents can be rather pleasing as well.

18. I'm fascinated by languages. I always like to look up the etymology of words. I'd love to be a polyglot. I can speak a little French and Spanish, and I can understand Portuguese, but English is the only language I speak fluently (so far). I'll keep working at it though. Not that I've had much time to dedicate to language study or practice lately, but I'll get back to it. Eventually.

19. I'm a computer science major who loves all things old-fashioned. Horse-drawn carriages, dip pens, ink pots, pocket watches, wax seals, turntables, rotary phones. I know they're not all even remotely from the same era, but they're all things I'd like to see more of. They're interesting. Fun. They have character.

20. I hate socks! Generally the first thing I do when I get home is rip off my shoes and socks. I'd go barefoot all the time if I could. Unfortunately that's not always an option.

21. Cats and cows are my favourite animals. There are very few animals that I don't like, but they're probably at the top of my list. After that I'd probably go for a snake or a lizard or something. Iguanas and bearded dragons are pretty cool...

22. I can't eat in the dark. It's just one of my weird little quirks. My food needs to be well lit. I can just about handle eating popcorn in a darkened movie theatre, but anything beyond that... well, you better have the spotlights turned on.

23. I love board games. Of course, all the classics are great: trivia games, scrabble, monopoly, risk; but some of the more obscure ones are just fantastic!

24. I like trying obscure or bizarre foods. I've had fried rattlesnake, ostrich sausage, buffalo burgers, venison stew, rabbit souvlaki, sea cucumber sushi, pickled squid salad, custard apples... some of them are stranger than others, I know, but I thought that they were all fairly interesting.

25. I've always wanted to try hang gliding. I know I'll be slightly terrified once I get up there, but I still want to do it. I think they usually send you up with someone else, an instructor, the first time anyway, so that might not be so bad. The idea of flying like that just thrills me, even if it does scare me a bit at the same time. What an amazing experience!

Well, this has been fun... If a little more lengthy than anticipated. Hope I didn't babble too much.

Coolest Thing I've Seen

I'm fortunate enough to have gotten the chance to see and do a lot of cool things so far in life. I've been to a lot of places and done a lot of fairly awesome stuff. That makes picking the single "coolest" event a bit of a challenge. I had to think about this one for a while.

In the States we had: the Grand Canyon, the Everglades, the Very Large Array, eating rattlesnake in Texas.
At home in Canada I remember: Niagara Falls and playing in tide pools in Nova Scotia.
Ireland was: catching hermit crabs on the beach, the Giant's Causeway, eating lunch at the Brazen Head (est. 1198).
England had: Stonehenge, Hadrian's Wall, Dover Castle, Nunny Castle, Sherwood Forest.
From Central America I remember: Xunantunich, Chechem Ha, Tikal, the Panama Canal.
Europe was brilliant, with: La Ramblas, the Alps, the Pyrinees, a fantastic clock in Liechtenstein, Versailles, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, and Gaudi's cathedral.

Like I said, I'm lucky. I've seen a lot of phenomenal things.
What finally stood out in my mind though was my trip to Florida. My parents not only took my brother and me to the Kennedy Space Center, we got to see a launch the next day!

I don't think it's possible to adequately describe the sensation of watching a shuttle take off. It's something you just have to see (and hear).
It was a nighttime launch. I was only 10 or 11 at the time and I remember being cranky at having to wake up at two in the morning. It was so worth it though!

I remember the night being pitch black, and quiet. The launchpad was lit and we could see the shuttle sitting there. Anticipation.
Then steam, thick and dark, begins billowing from the bottom of the shuttle. It gathers and climbs, obscuring the shuttle bit by bit. Then, just as the tip of the vessel disappears behind its veil... The world explodes!

Light! Sound!

The sky lit up as if the sun had suddenly burst from the ground. For a few moments we could see everything around us. A minute of perfect daylight in the middle of the night.

And the noise!
No cymbal crash, rock concert, thunderstorm can hold a candle to the earth-shattering uproar of that shuttle making its great escape.
That rumbling, roaring ruckus reached out and rolled across the distance between us. Filled the air. Filled our ears, our heads. It grabbed the ground and shook us. Rippled through our bodies. After the first second or two, you are no longer hearing the launch; you're being engulfed by it.

And then, after being blinded, deafened, and awed, it begins to recede. The light shrinks back towards its source. The sound fades away. And you're left in a seeming vacuum. Tingling and watching the fireball rise.

As that brilliant bead of light shrinks to a speck you see a hint of a burst, a tiny bit of extra light, as the rockets detach. Watch for another moment and it vanishes. Beyond reach, beyond sight, beyond perception.
And you're left alone with the stars.

"Defend your vice"? Uh... which one?

Sloth at Baru by roblisameehan

There are a few that immediately come to mind.
Let's see... sloth, lust, and gluttony to name a few.

Now, as far as defense goes...

Well, sloth isn't a perpetual state. I can work quite hard if there's some incentive or motivation. It's just that, quite often, it doesn't seem like there is. I dunno, I get into funks where I can't seem to get up the gumption to do anything at all. I've been in one of those for about a month now.

Gluttony? That one I'm working on. I've been bad the past couple of weeks, but I'll get back on track again. I'll get it under control.

I'm not sure if lust is quite the right word for my last vice. It's not as if I don't have any emotional connection or deeper attraction to the people I sleep with. I usually do. I'm not just in it for the sex. But I definitely do have a bit of a preoccupation with fornication.

If real life had savepoints...

Man oh man, the things I'd redo!

Undo button by dps

Well, the first thing that pops to mind is my attempt to run away from home. That was stupid! Not only was it foolhardy, but it cost me a lot of money and hurt everyone around me. I would give just about anything to be able to erase that particular disaster from my past.

Relationships in first year. I pulled some stupid sh*t in first year. Most of it had to do with boys. Unfortunately some of it ended up hurting them. I wish that I could take it back. It wasn't fair to them. I was just acting the bollocks. No excuse.

Moving out of residence. Residence has it's problems. It can be noisy and distracting. People are always having parties and pulling fire alarms ('cause they're drunken morons!) but it's still probably the best option for living arrangements when you're in school. You don't have to worry about furniture or landlords or transportation. It's simple. It's easy.
But I was so anxious to get out on my own!
I don't even remember why anymore. It seemed so important at the time. Now it just seems silly.
Things might have turned out so much differently if I had just stayed on campus for one more semester...

Ireland.
It would take a small book to properly describe all the things I did wrong on this one.
In short: I panicked, ran off to Ireland, lied to my parents about why I was going and what I was doing. Things started going wrong. My parents tried to step in and help and ended up in the middle of a big mess because I had misled them about the situation. I got engaged. That was a mess and a half! Don't get me wrong, my fiance was a wonderful, loving, sweet, caring guy. It wasn't for lack of love that things fell apart. Things were just poorly handled, all 'round. And the whole thing stressed my parents out terribly and I wish I could go back and spare them that.

A space of my own

Room and board has it's perks, but the convenience is no substitute for the satisfaction and comfort of having a place of your own.

Not that I have anything against my roommate, or the family I'm boarding with. I'd just like to have my own place. I'm tired of everything I have being someone else's. I want to pick out my own furniture, have my own cookware, do my own grocery shopping, make my own food! Now, the cleaning? That I don't mind someone else doing. But everything else could stand to change.

Don't say 'irregardless' around me

In general, just try to avoid bad grammar and redundancies (oxymorons are okay). I know my grammar isn't perfect, but I do make an effort and I appreciate when other folks do the same. This mostly applies to writing, of course. The spoken word is supposed to be much more free form than what we write down. That being said, there are a few words that just plain annoy me, irregardless of circumstance.

irregardless
It's completely redundant. Regardless already means "without regard to", there is absolutely no need to preface that with a negating "ir-". This word should not even exist! The only time you should be able to get away with using it is if it's part of some sort of humour.

prebiotic
This one really drives me nuts! I mean "probiotic" was bad enough. Someone decided to coin the term and then everyone latched onto it. Now every second thing you see in the supermarket is "probiotic this" and "probiotic that". The problem with probiotics becoming so popular though is that now your calcium-enriched-trans-fat-free-low-sugar-probiotic yogurt no longer stands out. You need a new hook. So, what do they come up with? "Prebiotic"! This word is such a gimmick! They've started tossing it into ads and slipping it into commercials. Not that they explain what the term means mind you. "Probiotic" is already popular enough, people are gonna jump on the bandwagon without even knowing or caring what the word means. This word is yet more proof that human beings seem to have lost the ability to think for themselves. Empty-headed sheep!

orientated
I've always said oriented. I'm not sure which version is technically correct, but "orientated" always makes me do a little inward cringe when I hear it.

dreamed
I know it's considered a perfectly acceptable alternative to "dreamt". Actually, it looks like it may have overtaken its older counterpart; this spell checker doesn't even recognize "dreamt" as a word. Anyway, I still prefer the older form. "Dreamed" was only introduced in order to get this verb to match up with all the other ones that take an "-ed" to form the past tense. Just like "swollen" and "swelled". In this case, it's not so much that "dreamed" annoys me as that I prefer the alternative.

Audiences

I wonder if anyone ever reads this. I wonder if they ever have.
I tend to think not. There are so many blogs out there and there's nothing in particular to draw an audience here. I don't write to an audience. I'm not expecting a crowd. I use this page the same way I'd use a journal. I just write what's on my mind. No particular direction or theme. I'm not going for popularity. I'm not looking for numbers. But I do wonder sometimes... if anyone ever has wandered onto this page, listened to what I had to say.

I'm generally glad that I don't have an audience. It means I don't have to worry about pleasing anyone. There's no pressure on me as to what or how often I write. I'm completely free. That being said, I somehow enjoy the possibility of readers. I don't know what I'd do if I ever found out that there were people following this blog. I'm not sure how I'd feel about that. But I do like the idea that this is "out there" and that someone could be reading it.