Echoing Thoughts
2.10.07
Things
There are a lot of things that come into play in our lives. There are things we grew up with and things we still hang on to. Things we have and things we have lost. Things that we miss and things we want. Things that we understand and things that we don't.
My life is not different from anyone else's. It is full of things and here are a few examples:
Things that I grew up with:
A little blue corduroy cat
An older brother that I would fight with
Pets of various kinds and thus a pet cemetery in the lava field
Baha'i holidays and calendar
A name that wasn't popular at the time
Disney cartoons and Saturday morning cartoons
Things I still hang on to:
The little blue corduroy cat
Books that I love and don't have the heart to give away
Disney cartoons and Saturday morning cartoons
Clothes that I love but don't fit anymore
Shoes that hurt my feet but look so darn good
Ambition to get the career that I want
Things I have:
A lava lamp
A cat named Nahanni Delilah
Too many shoes but I love them all
Favourite TV shows I watch every week
A name that I love
An inflatable Moosehead beer bottle
Things I have lost:
3 grandparents
Friends that moved away and lost contact with
Key to mailbox
The other sock to the sock fairy
Voice after screaming at a concert
Motivation to go to the gym
Things that I miss:
My friends
Malt
Skyr
Horse meat
The ocean all around me
The original Transformers
Things I want:
A Wii
My dream job
The cat to stop throwing up fur balls and her food
My school loan to magically disappear
To go home to Iceland more often
Those gorgeous shoes I saw the other day
Things I understand:
Biology
Why kickboxing is so addictive
My own spirituality
Why University is so bloody hard
That getting the dream job won't be easy
The events in my life that made me who I am today
Things I don't understand:
War
Why girls wear short skirts to class when its -20
Space
Why I lose socks to the sock fairy
Computer programming
Why I seem to have trouble finding a job
And just for fun... Things that fascinate me:
Death
Knives
Space
My lava lamp
Human behaviour
The sock fairy
My life is not different from anyone else's. It is full of things and here are a few examples:
Things that I grew up with:
A little blue corduroy cat
An older brother that I would fight with
Pets of various kinds and thus a pet cemetery in the lava field
Baha'i holidays and calendar
A name that wasn't popular at the time
Disney cartoons and Saturday morning cartoons
Things I still hang on to:
The little blue corduroy cat
Books that I love and don't have the heart to give away
Disney cartoons and Saturday morning cartoons
Clothes that I love but don't fit anymore
Shoes that hurt my feet but look so darn good
Ambition to get the career that I want
Things I have:
A lava lamp
A cat named Nahanni Delilah
Too many shoes but I love them all
Favourite TV shows I watch every week
A name that I love
An inflatable Moosehead beer bottle
Things I have lost:
3 grandparents
Friends that moved away and lost contact with
Key to mailbox
The other sock to the sock fairy
Voice after screaming at a concert
Motivation to go to the gym
Things that I miss:
My friends
Malt
Skyr
Horse meat
The ocean all around me
The original Transformers
Things I want:
A Wii
My dream job
The cat to stop throwing up fur balls and her food
My school loan to magically disappear
To go home to Iceland more often
Those gorgeous shoes I saw the other day
Things I understand:
Biology
Why kickboxing is so addictive
My own spirituality
Why University is so bloody hard
That getting the dream job won't be easy
The events in my life that made me who I am today
Things I don't understand:
War
Why girls wear short skirts to class when its -20
Space
Why I lose socks to the sock fairy
Computer programming
Why I seem to have trouble finding a job
And just for fun... Things that fascinate me:
Death
Knives
Space
My lava lamp
Human behaviour
The sock fairy
27.5.07
Graduation
At last it is time to say goodbye to the University of Toronto. I have finished my education there and am graduating this summer. I am looking forward to the convocation ceremony. My family is coming over from Iceland to see me and so is my brother, who lives in Ireland. I get two weeks off of work to spend it with my family.
The only thing I don't like about graduation is that they only give you two tickets. You have to get in line for any extras so I will be spending a full day standing in line to get 3 extra tickets which they only hand out one at a time. Yay, I get to go to the back of the line 3 times!!!
It will be worth it tho if I get all 3 tickets.
The only thing I don't like about graduation is that they only give you two tickets. You have to get in line for any extras so I will be spending a full day standing in line to get 3 extra tickets which they only hand out one at a time. Yay, I get to go to the back of the line 3 times!!!
It will be worth it tho if I get all 3 tickets.
10.1.07
Patience
It is said that patience is a virtue but is patience a dying one?
One of my favourite past-times is to observe people in our modern habitat of suburbia. One aspect of our behaviour is standing out in my mind. We seem to have lost our patience. I am not talking about the blow-out type of behaviour that we see in road rage or when we inadvertently yell at someone when we lose our temper. I am talking about the subtle annoyance in peoples behaviour when things aren't going as we plan or want.
In our society things happen or work in a certain way and we have rules of conduct that apply to everyone. Yet it seems either people do not understand how these things in our lives work or just don't have the patience to wait until it does work.
When a person wants to cross the road at a cross walk one must press a button so that the cross walk light will turn when it is ok for us to cross. What seems to escape peoples attention is that pressing that button does not make the light turn any faster it just makes sure that the light turns on so that drivers and pedestrians know when it is safe to cross. Nevertheless people will press that button numerous times in one go and then again for another set of button pressing when the light does not change within 15 seconds.
At the same set of lights there will be a car stopped at a red light waiting to cross to the other side of the intersection. On the road is a large white strip of paint that is a mark for drivers to stop at. On the other side of that strip are two smaller stripes indicating the pedestrian cross walk. As if the red light cannot turn green fast enough the car inches forward and parks right on top of the pedestrian cross walk. This forces the pedestrians to walk into the intersection to avoid said car while hoping that the traffic that is passing quite rapidly won't hit them and the car trying to turn right inches even farther into the intersection to try to catch a glimpse of a break in traffic so it can turn. The driver trying to turn is also hoping that passing traffic won't hit him due to the first car blocking the view of the passing traffic. As the light turns green the first car speeds off as if inching forward during the red light actually gave him a head start.
At the corner of the intersection is a bus stop. There are two people waiting for the bus to arrive. They continually look at their watches and curse beneath their breath of how the bus is not arriving fast enough even though these people know the schedule says it won't arrive for another 5 minutes. When the bus does arrive they wait right in front of the doors to get in but always forget that there are people trying to get out. They shuffle reluctantly out of the way so people can get off the bus but as soon as the last passenger exits they rush on the bus.
At the other end of the bus is a lady trying to get out. The back doors work in such a way that when the light turns on overhead one can press on the handles and the doors will open automatically. This lady started to press on these handles before the bus had even stopped, thus the door is not opening right away due to safety reasons. When the bus stops she is shaking the handles with frustration written on her face as the door still won't open the second she wants it to. When the mechanism to open the door starts to open it the lady cannot get off the bus fast enough and as soon as the space between the doors are wide enough she jumps off.
These are just a few examples of the subtle impatience in people's behaviours that I have seen in my local area. There are many more examples but I won't talk about them all here. But what I do want to say is that I do not understand how better one's life would be if you got a 2 second head start in all these situations. Why does everything have to happen so fast, why does it have to happen right now instead of a little later? Are our destinations so terribly important that we have to be rude or even endanger other people's lives to get there?
One of my favourite past-times is to observe people in our modern habitat of suburbia. One aspect of our behaviour is standing out in my mind. We seem to have lost our patience. I am not talking about the blow-out type of behaviour that we see in road rage or when we inadvertently yell at someone when we lose our temper. I am talking about the subtle annoyance in peoples behaviour when things aren't going as we plan or want.
In our society things happen or work in a certain way and we have rules of conduct that apply to everyone. Yet it seems either people do not understand how these things in our lives work or just don't have the patience to wait until it does work.
When a person wants to cross the road at a cross walk one must press a button so that the cross walk light will turn when it is ok for us to cross. What seems to escape peoples attention is that pressing that button does not make the light turn any faster it just makes sure that the light turns on so that drivers and pedestrians know when it is safe to cross. Nevertheless people will press that button numerous times in one go and then again for another set of button pressing when the light does not change within 15 seconds.
At the same set of lights there will be a car stopped at a red light waiting to cross to the other side of the intersection. On the road is a large white strip of paint that is a mark for drivers to stop at. On the other side of that strip are two smaller stripes indicating the pedestrian cross walk. As if the red light cannot turn green fast enough the car inches forward and parks right on top of the pedestrian cross walk. This forces the pedestrians to walk into the intersection to avoid said car while hoping that the traffic that is passing quite rapidly won't hit them and the car trying to turn right inches even farther into the intersection to try to catch a glimpse of a break in traffic so it can turn. The driver trying to turn is also hoping that passing traffic won't hit him due to the first car blocking the view of the passing traffic. As the light turns green the first car speeds off as if inching forward during the red light actually gave him a head start.
At the corner of the intersection is a bus stop. There are two people waiting for the bus to arrive. They continually look at their watches and curse beneath their breath of how the bus is not arriving fast enough even though these people know the schedule says it won't arrive for another 5 minutes. When the bus does arrive they wait right in front of the doors to get in but always forget that there are people trying to get out. They shuffle reluctantly out of the way so people can get off the bus but as soon as the last passenger exits they rush on the bus.
At the other end of the bus is a lady trying to get out. The back doors work in such a way that when the light turns on overhead one can press on the handles and the doors will open automatically. This lady started to press on these handles before the bus had even stopped, thus the door is not opening right away due to safety reasons. When the bus stops she is shaking the handles with frustration written on her face as the door still won't open the second she wants it to. When the mechanism to open the door starts to open it the lady cannot get off the bus fast enough and as soon as the space between the doors are wide enough she jumps off.
These are just a few examples of the subtle impatience in people's behaviours that I have seen in my local area. There are many more examples but I won't talk about them all here. But what I do want to say is that I do not understand how better one's life would be if you got a 2 second head start in all these situations. Why does everything have to happen so fast, why does it have to happen right now instead of a little later? Are our destinations so terribly important that we have to be rude or even endanger other people's lives to get there?
15.12.06
No Snow?
It is the 15th of December and I sit here in my room pondering about the Christmas season. Tim and I got a Christmas tree, a real one, and set it up in the living room the other day. Tim grew up having a real tree and was dead set on having a real one this year. When we got it home it seemed bigger than it looked when we got it. We hung some ornaments such as a polar bear, moose, a santa, white lights, candy canes and some scandinavian ornaments I was happy to find in Ikea.
I did not really grow up with celebrating Christmas. Sure, when we went to my Amma's place we did but when we were at home we did not have Christmas trees or decorations in the windows. I was raised as a Baha'i and we do not celebrate Christmas. However we did have the Christmas feast like everyone else and I can't tell you how much I miss those foods. I am not a big fan of turkey. We would instead decorate the house for Naw Ruz, our new year. I would get gifts from my dad's side of the family on Christmas and I would get gifts from my mom's side of the family on Naw Ruz. If you count my birthday as well, I would get gifts three times a year.
Living now in Canada, in the greater Toronto area, Christmas is a big thing. It is however a bit different. It is almost the way you see it in movies. People decorating their houses, putting fake reindeer on their lawns, santa on their roof, stockings hanging on the fireplace with a big tree nearby for santa to leave gifts. At six o'clock on the 24th there isn't the traditional meal promptly set on the table while everyone is all dressed up. They do not open their presents that evening but wake up on the 25th and open presents in their pajamas. The first time I experienced this it was a bit surreal. I had a lot of fun watching Tim's family interact with each other during all this. It was a first for me. The only thing missing so far from this movie-like scene and that is the snow. So far we have had no real snow. In London, a two hour drive from here, has had a major snowfall event. 1 meter of snow fell within two days. None of it came here. It is almost warm outside. Many people are hoping for snow before Christmas arrives. It is strange to look at all the decorations on these houses when there is no snow. Hopefully there will be some before the 24th so Christmas will be complete.
I did not really grow up with celebrating Christmas. Sure, when we went to my Amma's place we did but when we were at home we did not have Christmas trees or decorations in the windows. I was raised as a Baha'i and we do not celebrate Christmas. However we did have the Christmas feast like everyone else and I can't tell you how much I miss those foods. I am not a big fan of turkey. We would instead decorate the house for Naw Ruz, our new year. I would get gifts from my dad's side of the family on Christmas and I would get gifts from my mom's side of the family on Naw Ruz. If you count my birthday as well, I would get gifts three times a year.
Living now in Canada, in the greater Toronto area, Christmas is a big thing. It is however a bit different. It is almost the way you see it in movies. People decorating their houses, putting fake reindeer on their lawns, santa on their roof, stockings hanging on the fireplace with a big tree nearby for santa to leave gifts. At six o'clock on the 24th there isn't the traditional meal promptly set on the table while everyone is all dressed up. They do not open their presents that evening but wake up on the 25th and open presents in their pajamas. The first time I experienced this it was a bit surreal. I had a lot of fun watching Tim's family interact with each other during all this. It was a first for me. The only thing missing so far from this movie-like scene and that is the snow. So far we have had no real snow. In London, a two hour drive from here, has had a major snowfall event. 1 meter of snow fell within two days. None of it came here. It is almost warm outside. Many people are hoping for snow before Christmas arrives. It is strange to look at all the decorations on these houses when there is no snow. Hopefully there will be some before the 24th so Christmas will be complete.
6.9.06
Public Mystery
Being a bit too public? Let me mention public toilets.
Everyone has the need to go to the bathroom while at a public place. Most public places provide us with bathroom facilities. Usually when you walk into a bathroom you expect it to be clean and user friendly. However it doesn't seem to live up to our expectations.
I have been into my fair share of public bathrooms and they are certainly lacking. Not only are there way too few hand dryers or paper towel dispensers, water always around the sinks and tons of dirt on the floor but what I find a little too public is the fact that not only do I have to share a toilet with the rest of the general public but I also have to endure the stench of urine a person was so kind to leave behind. Sure I do realize sometimes a toilet gets clogged and won't flush but I have noticed more and more a pool of old urine in the corner of the cubicle. Ok so this may not be the ideal subject on a blog but this really bothers me.
I am a girl and I enter women's public bathrooms. Now I thought all women sat as they did their business, some kind of squat over because they do not want to touch the public toilet seat. I fully understand that but what I don't understand is how a woman can completely miss the toilet and pee in the corner. And why isn't this cleaned before it becomes a pool of stench?
I cannot believe that this is a joke made by men that randomly enter women's bathrooms and pee in the corner and this happens in every country I have been to. Or that women let their small son's enter after or before them and let them pee in the corner.
I honestly don't know how this happens but I would like to know the next time I enter a public bathroom someone hasn't decided to be a little too public and share their pee and subsequent stench.
So... can anyone explain to me why this happens?
Everyone has the need to go to the bathroom while at a public place. Most public places provide us with bathroom facilities. Usually when you walk into a bathroom you expect it to be clean and user friendly. However it doesn't seem to live up to our expectations.
I have been into my fair share of public bathrooms and they are certainly lacking. Not only are there way too few hand dryers or paper towel dispensers, water always around the sinks and tons of dirt on the floor but what I find a little too public is the fact that not only do I have to share a toilet with the rest of the general public but I also have to endure the stench of urine a person was so kind to leave behind. Sure I do realize sometimes a toilet gets clogged and won't flush but I have noticed more and more a pool of old urine in the corner of the cubicle. Ok so this may not be the ideal subject on a blog but this really bothers me.
I am a girl and I enter women's public bathrooms. Now I thought all women sat as they did their business, some kind of squat over because they do not want to touch the public toilet seat. I fully understand that but what I don't understand is how a woman can completely miss the toilet and pee in the corner. And why isn't this cleaned before it becomes a pool of stench?
I cannot believe that this is a joke made by men that randomly enter women's bathrooms and pee in the corner and this happens in every country I have been to. Or that women let their small son's enter after or before them and let them pee in the corner.
I honestly don't know how this happens but I would like to know the next time I enter a public bathroom someone hasn't decided to be a little too public and share their pee and subsequent stench.
So... can anyone explain to me why this happens?
