Too much turkey...

...is when while driving home (alone) from yet another feast at a friend's place your farts smell like yesterday's lunch and dinner!

At least noone else had to suffer!

Toronto by night.

Having been to several late night parties recently and having walked home in the wee hours of the morning through the streets of downtown Toronto, I realized I really enjoy the city at night. There's just something about how quiet it is and how the streets that are usually full of cars and bustle are so quiet and peaceful. It is a totally different perspective on the city.

You also see some pretty weird things on the streets at night. Several years ago I was riding my bike home from a party at around 3:30 in the morning, it was about -10 degrees C. There were people playing the congas and singing at that time on the sidewalk of one of the main streets of Toronto!

I think I might take my camera and photograph the city at night, just the regular streets, and the nightlife.

Christmas! And I'm surrounded by friends...

Christmas day has come and gone, and I have time now to write a bit and reflect on the last few weeks and days of this holiday season. As some of you may know, my parents went to France for Christmas to be with my grandmother who lives there, and I decided to stay home (I looked into the tickets too late and it was too expensive...and anyway, I didn't feel like going, Paris is depressing in the winter time.)

Anyway, it was a pretty strange idea thinking that I would be spending Christmas at home alone...However, I didn't realize that my sister and her husband would be at home also, since I thought they were going to be at the in-laws place. As well, a friend of mine whom I will call Climbing Elitist (CE), invited me to his place for Christmas Eve dinner with his family (they even made me a stocking with gifts in it, which was totally unexpected but incredibly nice. I got a Leffe beer and an actual Leffe glass to go with it. I enjoyed them ice cold earlier today!), and another friend called Naked Man (NM...this nickname may sound weird, but it's because he climbs ONLY without his shirt on and has gained that name among the ladies at the gym) invited me for Christmas Dinner. Finally, I've also been invited to another friend's place for Boxing Day dinner!

In the last few weeks I realized I've really got a lot to be thankful for: a good family and home, friends that are as close as family, a nice fun social life, great hobbies and time to participate in them, relaxing work that gives me a lot of (or maybe too much) freedom, and a new girl in my life that I really like. From being fairly miserable in November things have gotten much better.

A while back I posted about the expression 'Everything happens for a reason' and I'm having to rethink my view a little bit after some discussion with a good friend. It is a bit confusing! After bad things happen to people, often you meet people and do things that you otherwise would not have. For example, if my ex had not broken up with me I would not have gotten into blogging and met the friend above, or gone swing dancing and met the new girl I'm 'seeing' (don't think I can call her a gf yet...when does that even happen? that's a topic for another time). It is hard for me to admit after that post that things happen for a reason, and I still think that "when bad/sad things happen to people, they do what they can to improve the situation," which is what I said to my friend. In my case, my ex broke up with me and I was miserable for a month, and so I got back into things that I enjoyed a lot. Eventually good things happened! So I still stand by my conclusion that things don't really happen for some pre-destined reason, but rather that because things happen we do stuff to improve our lives and sometimes it works.

Having said this, I wonder if I can say that if I were still involved with someone long distance would I be as happy as I am now. And if things really work out with ___ in the long term, maybe then I will change my mind about the whole thing.

Anyway, from looking like a boring Christmas at home, it turned into a very nice one surrounded by friends and family.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

GS

Night out and random observations

So last night was a fun night, dinner at Alleycatz with ___ (really really good food, if a bit pricey) followed by a swing dancing lesson, and then some swing dancing, and we talked to a lot of the swing people which was fun. After that we headed down to a Salsa club called Babaluu...wow...that place was jam packed like a can of sardines. The atmosphere was completely different than that in the Swing bar...so much more like a club. But it was interesting to see how many people have learned how to Salsa!! What a surprise. Couples dancing is alive and well in Toronto. The other difference between swing and salsa is that swing is much more often done to live music, which is very nice. The salsa music was far too loud and with too much bass, making it impossible to converse easily with those around you, even if the stereo system sounded really good. Also, they charged me friggin 3.50$ for a bottle of water! WTF! Swing places give me free water.

I also had a very strange dream this morning, when I was halfway between sleeping and waking up. I have a nice scarf that I really like that I got from the mountain biking team that I ride on at the U of T, and I dreamed that for some odd reason I had a moment of insanity in which I decided to return it to Old Navy, of all places! Why on earth I thought I got it there I don't know. Anyway, once I recovered from my temporary illness, I went back to Old Navy only to find that many others had returned scarves, all only slightly different than mine, but also all were dirty and well-used. In my dream Old Navy put used and dirty items that have been returned right back onto the shelves as-is! Gross! Anyway, I was becoming very frustrated and agitated at not being able to find my own personal scarf among those returned, and then I woke up. Weird eh? What could such a dream possibly mean? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the night I got together with ___ I nearly lost it?

For once I remembered a dream, too bad it wasn't particularly nice!

Spinning

Tonight I lead my first real spin class. I've been leading weekend classes, but those are just long boring ones where i just make the CD and tell people when to go hard and when to rest. Tonight I actually have to have a workout made! I think the music I chose is pretty good, and I hope the workout I made is fun. Here's the music I chose for it:

Foo Fighters - February Stars	4:49	Warmup
Big Sugar - Turn the Lights On	3:54	Warmup
might bosstones - impression	3:16	Light hill
No Doubt - Just a girl	3:32	2-Beat jumps
Tragicaly hip - Fire in the hole	3:16	4-beat Jumps
Beck - Devils Haircut	3:14	running
Eurythmics	4:54	high cadence recovery
Ghostbusters	2:41	high cadence intense
Our Lade Peace - Starseed	4:18	2-minute recovery 2-beat jumps
Michael Jackson - Thriller	5:57	long slow climb
Madonna-Isaac	5:51	recovery song
Metric - Combat Baby	3:32	Running
Cake - Going the Distance	3:00	Higher cadence recovery
Daft Punk - One More Time	3:55	Pedal Stroke work
Mass Romantic	4:04	Higher cadence pedal work
Metric - IOU	4:22	Rest
No Doubt - Hella Good	4:04	Climb
Franz Ferdinand - I'm Your Villain	4:03	DOWNHILL!
The Clash - I'm Not Down	3:07	steady
Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get enough	3:44	Climb
Catherine Wheel - Sparks are gonna fly	4:17	steady hard
Live - My life is a stereo	4:04	cool down
The Tragically Hip	3:32	Cool down

Now if only some people show up for the class and I'm not spinning on my own!

Life goes on

So I said I would write something today.

I went dancing with ___, the girl that I mentioned in previous posts, Thursday night, and it was quite fun as usual. However, while there some interesting things happened. First of all a couple of drunk people came over and tried to have us teach them how to Swing dance...If you've ever tried teaching a drunk woman who won't stop clutching you and falls over when you try and swing her, you'd know that it's pretty scary! Then she told me that my 'girlfriend' had taught her much better than I had, and said the inverse to ___ about me. Later on that night as we were chatting with some of the other real swing dancers, one guy asked us if we were together and we looked at each other and said 'umm...I dunno? Maybe? no?'

So as we were saying goodbye for the night outside her apartment building, I brought up this subject (finally!)... then we went for hot chocolate and had a really nice talk....and I walked her back to her door holding her hand ;-)

I have a...

PERMA-GRIN!

write more tomorrow
must sleep

Sigh of Relief

Finally! I have finally solved a stupid problem I was having with my work, and it was completely idiotic. It was a problem with input and output files getting confused with each other! ARGH. Now I have something that resembles a proper answer (even though the answer I get is still crap, but that's nothing to do with me, more the author of the work I'm basing this on).

Now I can rest in peace tonight. There's nothing worse than having computer code going through your head as you try to go to sleep.

I am a....

...clean-on-the-first-try-gym-toprope-5.10b climber.

I would like to say more simply that I can on-sight 5.10bs, however a friend of mine (who is somewhat of a climbing elitist!) maintains that a clean-on-the-first-try gym toproped climb cannot be called an onsight! Bastard. Apparently the term 'onsight' is reserved for outdoor lead climbs, or at least lead climbs! I guess I will just have to DO that one of these days!

In case you're interested, here's where I climb.
I think it's the best climbing gym in Toronto. Fun people, fun climbs that are changed quite frequently, very close to home, and the cheapest one too. I think i already talked about this before. GAH! I'm repeating myself already! boooooo.

nite all

neeeeed to post

my tummy hurts. Probably not as much as the poor guy spoken of in this blog though!

Anyway, missed half my spin class because of sore stomach. crap. (interesting choice of expletive there. :-P )

Last niiiiight...

(Another song quote! that is the name of a white stripes song I think)
update Dec. 13: I don't think it's White Stripes...dammit. I can't remember. But it's a good song!!

So I had a pretty fun night last night...we got there at about 8 pm and didn't leave until 4:45! I don't think I've stayed out that late since...well since my winter season I did in the French alps when the bar was in the same building as my apartment! It was a blast...great food, interesting people, a nice girl to dance and talk with (who started teaching me Salsa! woohoo!), just enough drinks to keep me happy but not stupid. A good time overall. It was a bit of an Asian overload (there were 6 non-asians out of 39 people!) about which there was quite a bit of joking (especially since there was another white guy with my name in the bunch), but that doesn't bother me (considering my ex was Chinese and the new nice girl is too).

I hope that I made a good impression on her friends. I think I got along pretty well with them all. Friends are important. If I didn't get along with them, first it would be very surprising, and second, it wouldn't be good!

that's it for now
GSM

Tonight Tonight...

...It's a long long night.

That is the quote I was thinking of, it is actually a song by Manu Chao.

Funny how things you can't remember when you think of it, randomly appear in your head when you least expect it.

Tonight's the night...

(hm is that title a quote from something? West Side Story maybe? not sure...)

Tonight is the party to which I've been invited by a very cute girl that I quite like. I will be meeting ALL her friends! EEK! Ah well, I'm not stressing out really. I will look good (with my new outfit), I will be myself, and I will have fun (with the help of a bit of liquid courage hehe). We were supposed to go for dinner and then a dance lesson beforehand, but the lesson turned out to be too late, so we're just going straight to the party (since dinner is served there anyway).

I'm off to have a nap since I had a 2 hour spin class again and don't want to fall asleep at the party!

Wish me luck (with both sleeping and the party)!

GSM

A trip to the dentist's

I went to the dentist's today (again) but this time it was for the actual cleaning part (last time, for some reason which I suspect is because they wanted me to come back again soon and pay more money, it was only a silly checkup to tell me how my teeth were. They didn't bother doing any cleaning at that time) You may not know that I had not been to the dentist's for a clean in about 4 years, which I know is not reccomended, and now I know why! If you wait that long it is an incredibly bloody and painful ordeal.

It starts out with an awful sharp little vibrating waterpick. It gouges under your gums and pours water everywhere making you think that you salivate an incredible amount because you didn't at first realize it was a waterpick. Then once your gums are nice and irritated, they start picking at them with a vicious spike to scrape off lots of plaque. Once you've rinsed out all the blood from the battle, then the polisher coats your mouth in a nasty tasting sandy goop, which fortunately they allow you to rinse out fairly quickly. Then comes the fluoride, which I don't think is TOO bad, and at least you see the light at the end of the dentist's tunnel, which is....a free toothbrush and dental floss and some sensodyne!

I really should consider myself lucky in that I don't have any cavities or major problems. And my wisdom teeth all grew in nicely....I've got a full set of 32 teeth (and I've never had braces!). But anyway, I will definitely go back faster next time...remind me at around next Christmas to go to the dentist's. I don't want my teeth to hurt like this again!

New Pants!

A bit of new information on my life! I have been invited to a Christmas Party this weekend by a nice girl that I met Swing dancing :-). This is exciting! The only problem is that the evite says it is semi-formal (which is a bit odd considering it's a Kris Kringle and a Pot Luck.) For any normal person this would not be a problem. However I am not normal, since I don't own any pants other than jeans! So since I do want to look good (you have to be able to dress up occasionally) I decided it was high time that I got a nice set of clothes for such occasions.

After looking in a few stores at Eaton's centre, I realized I needed real professional help. I have no idea what looks good, and what I'm looking for. So I went to my local fine clothing store in Kensington called Tom's Place, where the selection is HUGE, prices are ok, and the guys working there are real pros and know how to dress you...I discovered that contrary to how some people feel, shopping hurts...my suit was SO expensive! ouch. But now I'm the proud new owner of a Calvin Klein jacket and a nice shirt, tie, and pants to go with it.

Now the only thing I need to worry about is being overdressed!! I went and bought this, but I'm not sure how dressy I am supposed to be for the party! If it's too much, I will take off the tie.

Why move to Vancouver?

To begin, read the little blurb about this blog on the right there....

Done? Now I'll elaborate. From the title of this blog you know that I'm a mountain biker. You may also notice from past posts that I quite enjoy rock climbing. As it turns out, I'm also into downhill skiing, road biking, and I'd also eventually like to continue scuba diving a bit. Now, can any of these things be done near Toronto? The answer is yes, but it is all horribly unsatisfying, as the mountains are small (i.e. there are none), the cliffs are short, there is no ocean, the snow is icy and hard...and the weather is too cold most of the year!

Now, imagine Vancouver. It is on the west coast of Canada, protected from the Pacific by Vancouver Island on the west, and surrounded by gigantic mountains on the east. The scenery there is amazing. In the summer it is warm and dry, while in the winter it is cool (not cold) and wet. The city itself is very diverse and multicultural, which I love, smaller than Toronto, but still very metropolitain (or so I've heard), with no lack of things to do and places to go to. And imagine the sushi you could get there!! FRESH FISH!! The attitude of people in Vancouver also suits me well...they have a reputation for being laid back and informal, very relaxed. I've spoken to people from out there who say that the pace of life is much more natural and relaxed than it is in Toronto, which is nice.

So if I were to live in Vancouver, I would be surrounded by all these things that I love, all the time!! Having worked on a ski resort for an entire winter in the French Alps (read 2000 m vertical drop on a regular basis), the thought of being able to drive 2 hours to a world class skiing facility is awesome. I can still ride my bike up impossible passes in the winter time, as long as it's kinda warm, climbing for an hour or two to enjoy the ride back down. And in the summer, the mountains become my mountain biking playground. The North Shore is legendary to mountain bikers, and there is lots of cross-country riding to be done as well. Also, let us not forget rock climbing in real mountains!

Also, after a bit of research, I found out that certain professors at the University of British Columbia (UBC) are actually studying exactly what I am studying now. So ideally, I would finish my masters, go work in Van for a bit, and then start a PhD at UBC. This plan is incredibly tempting, if only I can carry it out.

It also made me realize that had I followed my ex to NYC I would have been very unhappy. None of the things I love now are near NYC, just like here. I guess she made the right choice.

Toronto the disaster-free zone

Another great thing about Toronto is that there are next to no natural disasters here. Earthquakes? Minimal, and none in store for the next few hundred thousand years. Hurricanes? Highly unlikely. We usually get leftovers from Florida! :-P. Volcanoes? hahaha, it makes me laugh to think of one here. Never! We're in the middle of a tectonic plate (and although sometimes earthquakes can happen in the middle of one, e.g. Hawaii, it doesn't happen here.) Tornadoes? They don't make it down this far from Orangeville, heehee...suckers. Ice Storms? well I guess that could happen here, but we've been lucky with that so far. Godzilla? It's far too cold for him here, he's a reptile and needs sunshine!

Having said this, I think I'm going to move to Vancouver. There is a similar lack of natural disasters there (although a big earthquake is due I've heard). But me moving there is a whole nother post.

A photo

Since i'm bored I started looking for some photos to post. Here's a nice one.

I am bored...

... and to make things worse it is snowing. BOOOO! So here's a poem of sorts:
----------------

Waiting...waiting for a call.

Waiting...as the snow begins to fall.

Waiting...time does not advance.

Waiting...waiting for a chance.

----------------
Hm, what an unusual entry for me. Weird. I suppose I could actually do some work. Whoa! work in the evening! Aiya, what is this world coming to.

life is ordinary

nothing interesting or remotely amusing has happened to me these last few days, after my birthday on monday. I've been helping my sister move out of her place quite a bit, and I did some climbing yesterday as usual (5.11c and 5.11d in one day!! that was pretty good. And my first flashed 5.10c). I started working from home now, which is good. I seem to be able to focus WAY better here than at the lab.

Why am I even writing this? What a silly post this is. What a waste of electrons. I will waste no more electrons today.