still we made it through, only god knows how Kristin used to blog at a different site, but she went away for a while and came back refreshed at better now. I'm enjoying reading her stuff again - if you read today's entry, maybe you'll be impressed, too, at how she can give life and insight to a play-by-play of her morning. An excerpt:

8:30: I'm wearing jeans that are three sizes two big and a long blue shirt with a front pocket. I am suddenly feeling my age: I am getting older and I can say it without the hint of irony reserved for twenty-somethings who roll their eyes between cigarette puffs and confess,"God I'm getting old." I see small crow's feet and veins in my hands. My bones creak when I sit on my chair. I want to tell my Nanny not to get married at 23, God, you have so much life to live. I think oldness can be equated with the intense urge to dispense asshole advice to the young.

  | ¶ 11:05 a.m.

  it's been a little too long, holding it in, trying to be strong I recently acquired a new water-resistant shell jacket (in lovely green) so I'm more inspired to get out and exercise no matter what the weather. I've been out biking twice in the rain lately. I don't have fenders on my bike tires, so that means plenty of water splashes up my back as I coast through puddles on the pavement. I try not to focus on that, though, and concentrate on making sure my feet aren't slipping off the pedals.

Yesterday morning Devin and I went out for a nice ten kilometre ride in the rain, and by the time we got close to home, we were so wet, I figured riding directly through the puddles wouldn't result in being any wetter than I already was, so I aimed straight for them. It kinda made me laugh, to play so carefree-like, even though my socks and shoes got drenched through.  | ¶ 11:55 p.m.

  you woke up screaming aloud, a prayer from your secret god The sky is falling in Alberta. Exhibit A:

Mike & Michelle

Thu, Oct 25, 07 at 08:20 PM

We feel that Stelmach has made a big mistake. We feel that the revenue hike was done out of greed and didn't think enough about the overall outcome. Our economy is going to be hurt by this decision; this could lead to less people moving to Alberta. We just bought a condo and fear that this may lead to property price depreciation. We will never vote for Stelmach again!

That comment page from the Calgary Herald website is predominantly comprised of similar sentiments, expressed with varying levels of sophistication. I don't know if what he decided was good or bad, but people sure are quick to predict doom and gloom out there. This report was not exactly created by idiots:

Chaired by Bill Hunter, former president of Al-Pac with more than 30 years experience in the natural resource sector, the six-member Royalty Review Panel also includes experts in resource taxation and the royalty system. The panel will collect input from Albertans and key stakeholders.

I think the reaction is mostly a result of the campaign waged by the oil and gas industry prior to the report being completed - emails and editorials circulated weeks ago (from what I've seen anyway). I don't have time to read the entire 105-page report right now, but I quickly glanced through the "How does Alberta compare?" section and the committee presents a convincing case for amending the formula at least a little. Go ahead and read it if you are so inclined - the report is posted on the Alberta Royal Review homepage. They do a pretty good job explaining how they reached their conclusions, breaking down industry jargon so it makes sense to the average citizen.

I will be very interested to see how this plays out in markets and in the business community over the coming weeks.  | ¶ 1:23 a.m.

  I have already paid for all my future sins Friday night after my midterm I treated myself to a movie at the Rideau Centre. Lately I've been feeling lonely and restless, so I fought the urge to go "home" afterwards and decided to do something that would help me lose myself for a while.

I saw the overly long-titled "Assassination of Jesse James (by the coward Robert Ford)". It was a really good movie, but be warned if you plan to see it, that it is long (around two hours and forty-five minutes), and has a bit of a slow pace. One glowing recommendation I can give is for the performance of Brad Pitt. Surprising, I know, because he's not generally known (in my books at least) for his acting. But this movie, he truly pulls it off. He's different than he usually is, and it works - you forget that it's Brad Pitt and get lost in the story. Just what I was looking for.

It hasn't been a very good week for me. I had several school deadlines to meet, and when you're sensing a general, but strong, lack of purpose about what you're doing, even a deadline isn't terribly useful to get you moving toward what you need to accomplish. Mostly I just end up feeling guilty about my lack of discipline and frustrated with myself for the seeming inability to care.

But don't worry, I think I still did alright on my accounting exam Friday. If you're wondering why I'm doing accounting for a political science degree, it's because I have to satisfy one elective criteria, so that's the one I chose. I figure it can't hurt my life to have a better understanding of financial matters. I loved the introductory accounting course I took in high school, so it's at least something I can wrap my head around. Another perk is that I ended up in the TV section of the course, so that means that class happens in my livingroom, which is always a bonus.

This weekend we are re-visiting summer for a bit here in Ottawa. I went on a nice 12 kilometre bike ride along the Rideau River, and some sections of the path were so covered with colourful leaves you almost couldn't see the pavement underneath. I stopped to take this shot (with my cellphone) at the halfway point of my ride - at Vincent Massey Park, where there are picnic tables and barbecue pits. Pretty lovely, huh?  | ¶ 9:04 p.m.

  look how they shine for you Okay, this made me laugh.

Women in several countries have begun sending their panties to Myanmar embassies in a culturally insulting gesture of protest against the recent brutal crackdown there, a campaign supporter said Friday.

The group, Lanna Action for Burma, says the country's superstitious generals, especially junta leader Gen. Than Shwe, also believe that contact with women's underwear saps them of power.

Saps them of power, eh? The power of the panty!  | ¶ 8:22 a.m.

  you end up living someone else's dreams

Ottawa will plow ahead with its push for a common securities regulator even in the face of unanimous opposition from Quebec's National Assembly, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said yesterday.

I realize this is a random dorky point that might not interest most people, but I think it's good that Jim Flaherty is pursuing getting a national securities regulator for Canada. As a person who worked in an industry where the ten-regulators-for-ten-provinces made an impact on the amount of paperwork you had to do, I can appreciate this. Not only that, but the regulations were also subtly different for different provinces, so I can definitely see the motivation for merging these regulators together. For instance, doing private placement financings, you had to file separate paperwork (containing different levels of detail) in each individual province where you had investors living - it was tedious. Oh yeah, I even had to file paperwork for a single investor in Nunavut once! Who knew there was a securities regulator in Nunavut, I ask you. If they can do it in the US (the SEC) for a much larger business community, surely Canada can implement a comparable system.  | ¶ 2:35 p.m.

  east of the sun, west of the moon There are the Facebook resistors out there - the ones who don't want to jump on the bandwagon just because everyone else is doing it. There are a variety of reasons, of course - just plain not being interested is a good one. I've sung the praises of Facebook for the way it facilitates re-connecting with people from one's past. And sure, it might just be a simple click to accept someone as your "friend", but sometimes these initial encounters amount to more. Emails are sometimes exchanged, giving the old friend the scoop on what has happened in the decade or more since last contact. And sometimes, if one is in the same city, meetings can occur. We all have different friendship styles - some are better at keeping in touch over time - but re-connecting without judgment or resentment is an affirming aspect of friendship for me, since I've moved around so much and have found it hard to be a presence in the lives of everybody I've left somewhere.

When I was in Moncton earlier this year, I got the chance to visit with my "best friend from junior high". And sure, we have gone down very different paths and have very different lives (she has three kids - eek!), but she is still the generous and accepting person that I remember, and hopefully she still thought I was interesting too (!).

And tonight I got the chance to visit with another old friend, a gal pal from the Bishop's days. Tracy works as a flight attendant but had a layover in Ottawa, so we had some snacks and drinks together. We were both a little nervous about the meeting, wondering whether we'd still have stuff to talk about after all this time. But we realized that we were friends for a reason back then, and that is that we are similar creatures and have plenty to talk about.

And God saw that the book of face was good.  | ¶ 11:59 p.m.

  the low moon helps me sing There are some TV shows that you sense you need to see from the beginning to get into them - like "Lost", which I have not become a fan of. Heroes is another one that I suspected you needed to get all the background for. I didn't watch it on television when it aired last year, so I recently downloaded the first season to see what all the fuss is about.

I can report, after dutifully watching all twenty-three episodes of that season, that although it is a somewhat intriguing storyline, it's not terribly intellectually challenging, and man, do they drag it out. Twenty-three episodes were probably not necessary for the amount of real storytelling they actually do. I particularly enjoyed Episode Twenty, though.

And yeah, now that I'm all up to speed, I'll probably keep watching. The characters are likable enough.  | ¶ 11:38 p.m.

  now I know that I'm right here where I was before
We'd done most of the grocery and supply shopping on Thursday night, and not even knowing it was Alexander Keith's birthday on Friday, we stocked up on cans of Keith's for sipping around the campfire. Devin even had these cool foam hats from his, um, lunchtime observance of the date. I felt like a good Maritime patriot, let me tell you.

Getting out of Ottawa ended up being a bit of a nightmare. That damn Queensway, on which we live at the East end, gets pretty congested with all the folks heading anywhere West after work (so, everyone). It was mid-afternoon already, and I'd planned a quick stop at Canadian Tire for some tarp poles. But after an unintentional detour through Quebec (oops!) and inching through traffic for what seemed like ages, we figured we had to be at the Kanata exit. We left the highway, though, and learned we were, in fact, still in Ottawa, albeit the West end.

It was gloriously hot and humid that day - I mention that because it has not been that nice since then.

It was dark when we arrived in Algonquin Park, so we couldn't really take in the scenery that first day. Before night fell, though, we drove through some cute little towns. This is a really beautiful part of the country in these parts, I say. The dark was not daunting, though; I'm getting to the point with the camping that I enjoy the challenge of setting up in the dark or de-camping in the rain (more on that later). We're pretty good at getting organized and it's just so fun to pick the perfect tent location and then arrange the "kitchen" and get the fire started. Fun indeed.

We knew it was going to rain, so our tarp system had to hold. We're a little less experienced with the whole tarp business - Devin's got lots of rope and we get by by improvising and using bungee cords when necessary, but ideally you have to get a set-up that has good drainage (i.e. no men peeing outside the tent!). So that first night was a bit of an experiment, trying to ensure that the tarp was angled just right and fighting with the cheap-ass poles we'd gambled on at Canadian Tire (that's my thumbs-down review on that page). The rain eventually woke us us in the early morning hours. Worrying about whether the poles and tarp were staying put combined with the very bright lightning and very loud thunder ensured that we were wide awake, so we got up to check things and tweak the system. Devin even dug a couple trenches to give the water somewhere to drain. Being huddled in a tent under trees is pretty scary when the thunder and lightning roll in. I was counting the time after a flash before the clap of thunder - it was so very loud but not instantaneous, so I figured we were safe. Man, though.

Thankfully it was not raining later in the morning when we eventually woke up for the second time. We enjoyed a yummy breakfast cooked on the new campstove (we're all fancypants now, don't you know). And then we had an entire day to chill out, which was a little strange since all of our camping outings thus far have been for one night only. It was sorta grey with on-and-off drizzle, so we went for short walks around the campground, purchased a deck of cards, and sat in our "kitchen" trying to remember how to play rummy and crazy eights. It was nice way to spend the afternoon.

That second morning, though, it was c-o-l-d. As they'd forecasted, the temperatures plummeted and it was little tougher to get warm. I'd packed well, though, and had lots of layers to maintain my core temperature. We took our time leaving that day, and that ended up being a bit of a mistake. Another mistake was the taking-down of the tarps before packing everything else, because the skies opened up and the rains poured down on us. We thought we got a lot of rain that first night, but it was nothing compared to what we got hit with this time. The packing was half-done so we left the tarps draped over things to protect as much as possible, and we hunkered down in the tent to wait it out. But you get impatient and figure you may as well be working, so we ended up doing a fair amount of packing in the rain. A lot of pine needles and wet items were shoved into the trunk. Here is the video Devin shot just after we got on the road.



And the rest of my pics are here.  | ¶ 11:56 p.m.

  seeing it all so beautiful, the way it oughta be
Camp story to come. This was me on Saturday morning.  | ¶ 11:58 p.m.

  the rain rain making me cry If you need me, I'll be the soggy camper at Algonquin Park for the next two days. It's hot here now, but they're calling for rain. We should have the tarp-placement sorted out by the time it starts..! I'm off to the beach at the Lake of Two Rivers.  | ¶ 3:02 p.m.

  I can't tell dreams from truth You know what I don't like?

I check the online People magazine site almost daily for my fix of celebrity news. They update their photos everyday with about 15 new shots of celebrities doing this or that from the day before. Lately it seems like so many shots are behind-the-scenes on movie sets. For movies that won't come out for a very long time...! They're filming the Sex & the City movie in New York right now, so they've had plenty of shots of the cast hanging out in fabulous clothes, but yesterday they showed a shot of Carrie (the main character if you don't know) in a wedding dress. Is that not a movie spoiler..?! Thumbs down.

You know what I like?

You know there's a provincial election happening soon in Ontario, right..? I'm not terribly familiar with Ontario politics and wasn't really planning to make any kind of effort to get registered or vote (the referendum question does interest me, though). But somehow the voter registration people have me on their list already and without me even having to do anything, I got a voting card in the mail. To make things even easier for me, the card indicates that I am to vote in my own apartment building. I could go down in my pyjamas...! (But I won't.) (I will vote, however.)  | ¶ 3:04 p.m.

  remember when I was so strange and likeable My prof for the Politics of Law & Morality class leads a good lecture. She's knowledgeable, informal, and welcomes participation, so the classroom is full of pretty intelligent opinions (no noticeable idiots yet) and we cover some very heavy topics, so it makes for some very thought-provoking lectures.

We've covering more theoretical stuff for the first few weeks (who defines what morality is and is there a universal agreement on right and wrong, that kind of stuff) before we get down to specific topics like environment or terrorism. The following is an excerpt from one of our readings about "student relativism" ("SR") that I found to contain some particularly good points. The article introduces the topic of SR thus: "Many, if not most, college students say the believe that morality is all relative. In this article on student relativism, Stephen Satris suggests that the relativism of college students is not a genuine philosophical position but a way of avoiding analysis of one's opinions". Right there, I'm already interested. Here is an excerpt:

"...SR is primarily a method of protection, a suit of armor, which can be applied to one's own opinions, whatever they may be - but not necessarily to the opinions of others. "Who's to say?" is not an expression of one's own intellectual humility, broadmindedness, or unwillingness to condemn others. Rather, it is an expression of the idea that no one step forward and judge (and possibly criticize) one's own opinions. One would not like that. One says it is impossible. One's own opinions are proper and acceptable just by virtue of their being "felt" as one's own. No further scrutiny, judgment, or improvement is to be allowed or tolerated...

It is my belief then, and the argument of this paper, that SR is fundamentally misdiagnosed when it is viewed as a philosophical position, and that it is no position at all but rather a powerful, elaborate, and at times devious defense mechanism for protection against having to maintain any position or make any serious critical (reflective) effort...

One must be brought to realize that one is in a real world, not a fantasyland of platitudes and complacency."

See what I mean?  | ¶ 9:24 p.m.

  I hope that my sanity covers the cost I've got a new plan of action for this month. It involves me going to class, doing my readings and assignments (I haven't missed any, but they're looming), and accepting the fact that I'm a student for just a little while longer. Yep, that's me.

So, since I know you're dying to hear, here is the scoop on my classes:

Canadian Provincial Politics - I have a short assignment due in two weeks, analyzing a chapter from a book. I got the book from the library today.

Intro to Financial Accounting - We have weekly online quizzes. I got a perfect score last week and the next is due Wednesday.

The Politics of Law & Morality - we have a major paper due in three weeks (oof). I think I will maybe cover the topic of abortion in Canada (we have a choice of many controversial subjects like homosexuality, child pornography, genetic manipulation - you get the idea). I have yet to do any research. I'm also behind on my readings. This class needs a lot of attention.

Intro to Research Methods - we have an assignment to submit online by Thursday. It's a series of short-answer questions for which there has already been a lot of online discussion on WebCT, so I'm not super-concerned about it. But I have to do it yet.

International Relations - hmm, I don't think we have anything due (maybe a midterm?) until late in the term. I better check that.

In other news, I'm planning a camping trip for the weekend. No yoga this week.  | ¶ 11:40 p.m.