it's been awhile since I begged for anything but now I want more I don't listen to the radio much, so I'm not really up on "current" music most days. I tend to check various music charts and best-seller lists for an idea of what's new and popular. Not that I'm interested in following the crowd to buy Britney Spears albums, but you do discover some good artists on these charts that you may not have heard of before.

Recently I discovered a new group that I'm a little surprised by. They're called "The Wreckers" - and consist of Michelle Branch, who I knew as a solo artist before, and another lady I'm not familiar with, Jessica Harp. I wasn't a huge Michelle Branch fan - she sounded very generic-pop to me. So I was pleasantly surprised to hear this music. It's still mellow and probably far from revolutionary in its sound, but I'm really enjoying the instrumentation and the harmony of the two girls' voices. It's not over-mixed generic pop at all.

So their album is called "Stand Still, Look Pretty". I recommend it.  | ¶ 8:46 p.m.

  the radio’s playing old country songs
Devin: The Stampede flags are popping up everywhere
Chief: almost time to get our costumes out
Devin: Our? froo and I were looking at hats and she said that she'd heard that I didn't look good in a cowboy hat

What do you think, should Devin buy a cowboy hat?  | ¶ 1:17 p.m.

  am I better off this way Every day I check my stocks repeatedly. I don't have a great track record in the stock market - I've lost money on Axia, Nortel, and technically even on MetroNet. I shouldn't complain, actually, because the capital losses incurred on the MetroNet shares on my market transactions didn't take into account the great discount I got because the shares were purchased through a stock option exercise. Yeah, MetroNet was good to me.

One positive thing that I can say about working at my current company is that I have benefitted from the employee share purchase plan. The company will give you a tax-free loan to purchase shares, even matches 10% of your purchase amount, and proceeds to deduct the loan payments off your paycheque for the next year. You can enroll every quarter, so long as your loans don't exceed a certain percentage of your salary. I enrolled immediately upon joining the company in the fall, and again in the first quarter of 2006. I own 113 shares (sorta). So by the time I leave, I will mostly have those loans paid off (might lose some of my last paycheque finishing the payments), and I will have a nice 2500-ish dollar investment to help me next year when I'm running low on student funds.

And the update on my Carleton plan is this: last week I applied for a student loan. Now I wait.  | ¶ 12:38 p.m.

  I wonder what would it be like with you around On Saturday Devin and I went to the library. I should really visit the library more often because it's really a great place. Lots of shiny new books to read, and videos to rent. I grabbed one fiction, one non-fiction, one documentary, and one exercise video, a pilates one.

Yesterday I tried the pilates video. I was expecting it to be a bit challenging because it said it was for people "who have already mastered the basics". I suppose I have done a fair amount of pilates, but I don't do it often enough these days to feel like an expert. So the workout was reassuring - I haven't lost all the progress I'd made in the past. Yay, me.

Since I'm such a keen exerciser these days, I also did yoga yesterday morning. I've been recording Namaste Yoga from Access, and I quite enjoy the routines and guidance of Kate Potter, who apparently teaches in Vancouver. She has a nice soothing voice, and the difficulty level of these routines is just about right for me. I'm thinking about ordering the DVDs.

Speaking about yoga, I read something funny yesterday on a blog called Fussy.

A lot of people will tell you that the more yoga you do the less patience you'll have for the bullshit in your life. I actually heard a guy say, "I was doing so much yoga that I wanted to quit my job, so I had to quit doing yoga instead." People get divorced over yoga; I read about a new mother on a message board who was leaving her husband because he wouldn't take care of the baby so she could go to yoga class.

Interesting. I personally haven't heard of this phenomenon, but I like it. I think I'll use it when I quit my job. "I'm sorry, Bob, it's because of the yoga."  | ¶ 1:20 p.m.

  I need your grace to remind me to find my own I saw a piece on the CBC Sunday evening news tonight about Al Gore's new documentary "An Inconvenient Truth". I was already planning to see it on June 16th when it plays in Calgary at the Globe Theatre (come on, Calgarians!), but it's nice to see some media coverage of it. You can see the entire city listing here, so see if it's playing near you. The show had a predictable clip of somebody asking Shrub if he plans to see the movie. "Umm, I doubt it", he says. As in, I can't be bothered to be educated... Yeah, well, that much was already obvious, I suppose.

If you haven't heard about Gore's movie, it's generating a lot of buzz these days. Climate crisis and all that. It's something he's passionate about, so apparently his presentation contains very timely research and is delivered very effectively and entertainingly. Of course he's also generating criticism from those who don't want to hear the inconvenient truth:

"Gore believed in global warming almost as much as Hitler believed there was something wrong with the Jews."

Somehow Hitler keeps popping into the discussion. Gore draws a parallel between fighting global warming and fighting the Nazis. Novelist Michael Crichton, in State of Fear , ends with an appendix comparing the theory of global warming to the theory of eugenics -- the belief, prominently promoted by Nazis, that the gene pool of the human species was degenerating due to higher reproductive rates of "inferior" people. Both, he contends, are examples of junk science, supported by intellectual elites who will later conveniently forget they signed on to such craziness..

I find it rather curious that there are always people willing to deny scientific evidence of various phenomena. I mean, is it so hard to believe that industry and certain business practices are maybe, just maybe, having an impact? Sounds plausible to me.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing this movie. I usually have a hard time getting very excited about climate change, but I'm all for getting myself educated.  | ¶ 12:52 a.m.

  and I'm gonna try to treat you like a queen My cat and I have something in common: we refuse to learn. I can't seem to remember that I cannot shoot movies at a vertical angle the same way that I can take photos. And Salsa will probably never learn to really scavenge and feed herself. froo's ex-cat Nacho (who is in cat heaven now) was funny that way - if the bag of cat food was left sitting on the floor, he would have a hole torn in it and the bag flipped over and spilling out in no time. Salsa will starve before she learns to do that. I've started forcing her to stand up and reach into her bucket and feed herself, and this is a (sideways) video of that tentative process. Hopefully this is the last sideways movie I shoot.

  | ¶ 12:15 a.m.

  say say say what you want The president of your fan club does not wear pink.  | ¶ 12:41 p.m.

  I never want to play the same old part
I was busy on Saturday. I woke up with the sun - it rises around 5:30 these days - and felt wide awake, so I got up. I was enjoying the quiet-ness for a while then decided to drop in at the compound to see what was going on over there. Well, it was race day, so I tagged along with the family.

Keri is doing a series of runs this summer called 5 Peaks - they're a bunch of races between 8 and 15 kilometres through cross-country terrain. The first one was at Canada Olympic Park - where they have the ski jumps, a ski hill and bike trails. Very hilly.

5 Peaks is also doing a neat thing and having a kids' race before the longer races, so both Kyle and Caia got to participate too. What a great thing to expose them to, I thought. That's them with their medals over there.

While Keri did his race, Gina and I took the kids over to Club McDo for snacks. Keri did really well - 10th in his age-and-gender-group (male 30-39, if you don't know). See? It was a good day for a run - cloudy and not too hot. I took a bunch of pics and they're here.

Saturday evening a bunch of us went to see Danny Michel, a performer recommended by froo (that's Persuade touching him over there). She'd seen him perform at the FolkFest one year and persuaded us to join her at the Hillhurst Community Centre for the show. Persuade, Jamie, froo, Vernon and I piled into Fred and drove down to Kensington. It was an odd venue for a music show, but it worked. They served alcohol and we all enjoyed the performance a lot. Danny does this cool thing where he records himself and then loops it back while accompanying the track with a different chord sequence or instrument. He incorporated various tapping, chord progressions, and even children's toys into his show on Saturday. Very unique, and an impressive talent.

Later we wrapped it up with some snacks over at Molly Malone's. Devin joined us after a separate party session with a friend, and he and I were crazy enough to walk all the way home - a nice five kilometre walk to solidly blister up my tender feet, which were sporting completely impractical-for-walking sandals. Ah well - it was a nice peaceful night for a walk. More pics here.  | ¶ 8:39 p.m.

  you're a modern girl and I'm an old fashioned fool
Persuade: I just sent boobinz the pic with me and you... he never saw my new sunglasses... and, I quote, he "wants to fuck them"
Chief: heh
Persuade: which is how we express a deep deep love for something
Chief: yes, yes  | ¶ 3:59 p.m.

  I see in your face the places you've been
Earlier today I went glasses shopping with Devin. I've been procrastinating on this task since December - it's just so frustrating shopping for new frames, I find.

So today we hit the mall and just plunged into the job. I tried on pair after pair after pair and we managed to find a few potential options. After narrowing it down, I decided to consult my personal shopper/stylist, my friend Persuade. Devin snapped this image of me wearing my favourite pair with his camera-phone and emailed it to her. She then telephoned and told me these ones were an excellent choice. So I ordered 'em. Fun technology, eh.  | ¶ 11:54 p.m.

  we hardly see the peaks we left behind I should have realized that I would need to chop my distances if I was going to increase my pace. I just tried to run 5K in 30 minutes and failed miserably. With six minutes to run each kilometre, I plotted my route on Gmaps-pedometer and made note of each kilometre marker. The first three kilometres were okay, and I successfully finished them in six minutes each, but I felt like I really had to push myself. With the blazing-hot-summer-in-May that we're experiencing this week, I was hurting with the heat too. It was bad enough that I stopped at 3.35 kilometres and walked the rest of the way home. Apparently I'm going to be plotting a few more 3- and 4-kilometre runs before I tackle the 5K.

In non-running news, I added a few links to my list over there on the sidebar. Kristin and Tadlee are some good blogs I've recently started reading (don't know either of them), and OhMyNews is a world news site.

I have the day off today. Our company typically gives us an extra-long weekend when there's a holiday weekend. Good thing, too - I've been working so hard lately. Yeah, right.  | ¶ 12:59 p.m.

  this is who I am, you can like it or not On a recent Oprah show, she said something about how she "doesn't believe in luck", doesn't consider herself "lucky", but rather that we create our own luck when preparation meets opportunity. And that kinda made me stop and ponder.

Oprah's not lucky?

I think we have a clash of perspectives in the world these days. As the rich get richer and more and more of the world's population find themselves "poor", and the values of capitalism remain prevalent in the Western world, we must find ways to justify our excesses. Nobody can deny that Oprah is a generous woman - nope, that's not the point. Does she deserve to be paid the money that she makes? Yes, according to the distributors who want to make her show available, and yes, according to the advertisers who will pay heavily to expose her audience to their product. And does she produce a good product? Yes, Oprah sheds light on numerous issues and helps countless people. She's worth it. Just don't call her lucky.

I actually think that this "preparation meeting opportunity" thing is valid to a degree, but for some people I think it's just something they tell themselves so they don't feel guilty about their material success. And it definitely shows a healthy sense of self-esteem: believing you possess a unique quality that entitles you to massive reward isn't delusional - but it might be wishful thinking...

I get it - preparation is something you can do yourself. You study like crazy, you work your butt off, you schmooze with the right people, you attend the right functions, you adhere to a set of behaviours that will put you on the path to success. You should do all these things if you are truly motivated. But how do you account for this elusive meeting with "opportunity"? Are we all granted equal access to Opportunity? Was Oprah more prepared for Opportunity when it came knocking than her peers before her?

[I have more to say on this, but I'm going to leave it at that for now.]  | ¶ 5:53 p.m.

  oh baby baby, how was I supposed to know Aha.

Fashion watchers have been anticipating the change almost as closely as climatologists monitor sea levels. For decades men's swim trunks, under the name 'board shorts,' have inched steadily downward toward a style that would more accurately be described as pants. Finally they are beginning to recede. Thighward.

From Redefining Your Level of Comfort.  | ¶ 1:17 p.m.

  well I went to bed in Memphis and I woke up in Hollywood
It is hot, hot, hot here in Alberta! Record-setting heat, we're talking. My apartment is pretty stifling - thank God the bedroom is the room that cools off the best, so sleep isn't too challenging.

Devin and I decided that we needed to get out and cool off, and since there aren't any beaches here in Calgary (you knew that, didn't you), we settled for a chilly, chilly Bow River. Down there by the water, though, there is enough of a breeze that you feel cooled off simply by approaching the water's edge. We dipped our feet a bit, but the slippery, rocky bottom combined with numbing icy-ness meant we didn't do much real wading.

And what tops off a visit to the beach (!) better than a stop at DQ for ice cream treats...? Chocolate sundae for me and a coconut creme blizzard for Devin, thank you. Yumm.

Click image above for more pics.

[Edit 1:19 PM: video!]
  | ¶ 12:23 a.m.

  when will you realize, Vienna waits for you
We're having some kind of pre-summer heatwave here in Calgary this week. It is currently twenty-five degrees, and they're calling for thirty tomorrow. Eek. Devin, froo and I went to Melrose for lunch and baked on the patio while we ate lunch. I kept trying to slather on the sunscreen since I could feel my skin frying, but I'm lightly burnt this afternoon anyway. That's me over there trying to protect my arms.

Too bad it's too early for rafting. The Bow River is still low because the mountain snow hasn't melted yet, and it's probably still icy cold too. It would be nice to live near a beach on days like this...

Okay, weekend recap: Devin and I had talked about going to Fish Creek Park (it's in the south end of Calgary) to investigate the bike paths, but we didn't quite make it. I was ultra-ambitious and started my Saturday morning with a 5.9 kilometre run (in forty minutes). And then I spent the rest of the day being vegetable-like while my body recuperated. I'm pleased with my progress on covering longer distances, at least. But I've decided to stop increasing my distance and focus more on improving times. I'm still running a fairly slow pace, so I'm going to shorten my next few runs and set some target times. I'll keep you posted on my progress; I know you're just dying to hear.

I've been downloading various chick flicks lately, so I subjected Devin to "13 going on 30" (cute movie with Jennifer Garner) Saturday evening. I'm trying to find a good copy of "Mean Girls", so that will be next weekend...

To observe Mother's Day the family gathered at Mother Tucker's for another feast. They have a pretty impressive buffet there with some dee-lish-ous nanaimo bars for dessert. Devin, understandably, wasn't interested in participating in Mother's Day activities. Later on we capped off the day with some whiskey and wine and watched the super-fantastic Part One of the Grey's Anatomy season finale. I can't wait for Part Two tonight...!  | ¶ 7:19 p.m.

  today is where your book begins; the rest is still unwritten
We had another evening of cooking lessons tonight. It's the same thing I attended back in December at SAIT as a team-building exercise, but this time with a different menu and some different faces. My boss bailed at the last-minute (ironic, in a way, since he's the only other member of my department, and assumably the person I should be "team-building" with). Oh well, that meant an open spot for froo.

We started a little awkwardly. Last time Chef Duane gave us a bit more introduction and a demonstration on certain menu items. This time he just assigned us to a team and told us to get started. Then he kept coming around telling us what we were doing wrong. It was a bit frustrating at first. But froo and I teased him a bit and he snapped out of it. He actually is a very nice young man. Our three teams proceeded to assemble a feast of chili, pizza, crostini, salad, stuffed potatoes, and triple-berry crumble.

Like last time we were provided with plenty of wine and beer; that always helps. It wasn't a bad way to spend an afternoon. My pics are here.  | ¶ 12:20 a.m.

  we'd stay and dance till after the band packed their stuff away I checked my blood pressure today. It is 113 over 61 - low as usual.

I ran farther today: 5.6 km in 37 minutes. It was tough; that's the first time I've done over five kilometres.

I went to the dentist today. I'm getting impressions of my teeth made - good times biting down on various waxy substances.

froo is arriving from Denver shortly. She was re-routed on her way home from Minneapolis. She's bringing gifts - yay.  | ¶ 11:49 p.m.

  don't you think you better run run run run run run run run run run run run At work I sometimes unload the dishwasher on our floor and re-fill it with the collection of coffee cups that accumulates in and around the sink. As I did that just now, I realized that this was probably the most productive part of my day.

Argh. I hate this place.  | ¶ 1:54 p.m.

  Tommy, can you hear me Eep.

The industry is buzzing about how the Tom Cruise wacko factor may have damaged "Mission: Impossible III."

(It's an editorial discussing whether Lindsay Lohan's party reputation is currently or will later hurt her ability to be taken seriously as an actor.)  | ¶ 12:05 p.m.

  come with me to my planet Watch out for monster mushrooms!

  | ¶ 8:20 p.m.

  there's not enough ends in the week, wouldn't you say I had a pretty busy weekend. Most of my accomplishments involved exercise in some form, though, so that might not be considered terribly exciting. Saturday I did yoga and weights, both at home. Devin and I also dropped froo at the Homeland Security gate at the airport - she was on her way to good old Minneapolis for a conference. And, obviously, to visit the Mall of America... that girl loves to shop, don't you know.

Sunday was a big day, starting with a biking adventure. I dug out my bike rack, strapped my bike on Fred, picked up Keri's bike at the compound for Devin, and drove down to Glenmore Park to take advantage of the lovely bike paths. It wasn't our intention when we started, but we ended up doing the entire loop around the Glenmore Reservoir. I measured it when we got home and discovered it was fifteen kilometres! That's a solid ride.

After relaxing in front of a movie for the afternoon, Devin and I then followed up with a 4-kilometre jog. Can you say champions ?
I should probably mention the part about how all this exercise was partly to compensate for a Thursday night session at the Kilkenny. Those banana-jager shooters are just too tasty... Also my cousin Mike was in town, so Friday night at the compound there was a hefty meal enjoyed, complete with strawberry-brownie-delight (that is, strawberries, brownies, ice cream, whip cream, chocolate sauce).

It was nice enough outside that we ate in the backyard. I have a few pics posted here, if you care to check. Don't mind the images of the three-year-old sipping beer - my mom says all toddlers like beer...!

  | ¶ 2:24 a.m.

  it's hard to say what it is I see in you
I found this piece in the New York Times to be truly heartwarming.

...this studio holds one special class a week for dancers whose movements do not exactly exhibit the refined control of a prima ballerina. There are no lithe leaps, perfect pirouettes or pointed toes here. Most girls cannot walk or stand, much less make a shallow curtsy. Their crutches and walkers lie nearby and their customized ballet slippers are stretched over leg braces.

The eight little ballet students, who have cerebral palsy and other debilitating physical conditions, are assisted in class by teenage volunteers with strong healthy bodies and infinite patience.

  | ¶ 5:07 p.m.

  go together like a horse and carriage I read a really interesting piece in the Economist magazine the other day (the April 15-21 edition) called "The Importance of Sex: Forget China, India and the Internet: Economic Growth is Driven by Women". Some excerpts:

One longstanding reason why boys have been seen as a greater blessing has been that they are expected to become better economic providers for their parents' old age. Yet it is time for parents to think again. Girls may now be a better investment.

Girls get better grades at school than boys, and in most developed countries more women than men go to university. Women will thus be better equipped for the new jobs of the 21st century, in which brains count a lot more than brawn. In Britain far more women than men are now training to become doctors. And women are more likely to provide sound advice on investing their parents' nest egg: surveys show that women consistently achieve higher financial returns than men do. [Who knew!]

Furthermore, the increase in female employment in the rich world has been the main driving force of growth in the past couple of decades. Those women have contributed more to global GDP growth than have either new technology or the new giants, China and India. Add the value of housework and child-rearing, and women probably account for just over half of world output. It is true that women still get paid less and few make it to the top of companies, but, as prejudice fades over coming years, women will have great scope to boost their productivity - and incomes.

...Not only will educated women be more productive, but they will also bring up better educated and healthier children. More women in government could also boost economic growth: studies show that women are more likely to spend money on improving health, education, infrastructure and poverty and less likely to waste it on tanks and bombs.

In other news, I jogged again last night, prior to watching the Flames go down in flames (pretty funny, huh). Devin came with me and we covered a solid 4.55 kilometres; this was our route. It was a bit tough for me. But check me out, I've run just under NINE kilometres already this week! Rest assured I'm sleeping really well these days.  | ¶ 1:28 p.m.

  and so it is, just like you said it should be I used to say "I'm calling in sick". But lately it is, "I emailed in sick".

Today I emailed in flex day. That is, I took an unplanned day off completely without notice, except an email to my boss at 8 this morning. Our company gives us "personal days off" in addition to our pre-determined vacation time. I knew today was not going to be busy (as compared to my usual days, or something), so I figured it would be acceptable to miss the day.

I recently decided that I was going to start running a little more seriously. There's a crazy idea floating around in my head that I might even train for and run a 10K sometime later this summer. As a kickoff to that, last night I headed out for my first "long" run. I used the Google pedometer site to plot my route before leaving, and proceeded to complete 4.358 kilometres (that last .008 is significant...!). I was pleased with my performance; time is not terribly relevant at this point - I just want to DO it. So it didn't hurt and I wasn't fighting myself too much. Music is an integral part of blocking out loud thoughts and any discomfort, of course. I did it.

Contributing to my motivation is the fact that I finally feel better, after a relatively long stretch of illness of late. That damn stiff neck and cough/cold were making me pretty miserable. I said this once before, but it bears repeating: feeling good after you felt bad feels good. Like, it's such a tremendous relief. I'd felt kinda like I hadn't had a good night's sleep in over two weeks, and was getting sick of doping myself up with pain-killing and cold medication. I can breathe! I can turn over in bed without agonizing pain! Life is good.

The fatigue I felt this morning was from honest-to-goodness exercise, rather than tossing and turning and waking up in pain. So I took the day off.  | ¶ 12:02 a.m.

  but it don't seem to matter to the subway squeakers There is a certain breakfast restaurant phenomenon that I keep observing which baffles me. It has to do with coffee service. Why is it that you get asked if you want more coffee almost as soon as you've had a couple sips of your first cup? And then again five minutes later? Sometimes they don't even ask if you want more - they just see that the cup isn't full-to-the-brim, and they're all over you with a warm-up. Don't they understand that this upsets the cream-sugar-coffee ratio that many of us have perfected through trial and error?

Yesterday Devin and I went to Smitty's for a scrumptious breakfast, and the coffee pushing was at the worst I've ever seen it. I'm not exaggerating when I say we were asked a solid TEN times during the meal if we wanted more coffee. And to confuse the issue, coffee was presented by about five different people. I joked that they were recruiting customers to serve coffee, and that pretty soon I was going to just grab a pot and start pouring.

I like to sip my coffee - I'm not one of those people who needs to down two quick mugs before they're even socially presentable. And so I sip away, and they keep re-filling... it makes me wonder if there are people who sit there during a breakfast and drink half a dozen cups of coffee! I wish they were as diligent with the water pitcher, because my water glass wasn't re-filled once.  | ¶ 4:35 p.m.