Cary’s 100% Generic Blog

Buy Joel Plaskett’s new album, Three.

It’s awesome.

I’ve been listening to it for the past few days, and I can’t get it out my head.

More to come when I’ve been drinking less.

Listening to: Dr. Browning talk to Diane. Blogging in C105.

Time for an update. Most of this stuff is going to be about my job hunting adventures.

I have no idea how the Metrix interview went. I definitely don’t want that job - the people are nice, and it seems like a great company to work for, but it’s just not me. And I don’t want to have to uproot all my life and move to Toronto for a job I don’t absolutely love. The most memorable part of the interview was when Brad asked me and Cara how many golf balls can fit into a school bus. I guessed 540 000. I’ll post the answer at the end.

Anyway. Shad interview went well. I’m doing some follow-up work for the guy trying to figure out if he’ll be able to rent Robinson when he wants to or not (apparently the dressing rooms are undergoing renovations this summer! Awesome, but it causes trouble for Shad). I’ll find out in 2 weeks whether or not I got hired. I really want the Shad job. But it only lasts for a month, and I need to work for an entire year.

Student Liaison just posted a Recruiter job up on OSCAR, which would be perfect for me - but the contract is only 13 weeks long. I might be able to finagle a real job out of them afterwards, but I don’t know if I’d want to rest on that idea alone. And you have to be able to drive.

Anyway. There’s a lot more to write, but I have to get off to my Much Ado About Nothing dress rehearsal. We open tomorrow night!

PS - The correct answer is approximately 500 000. So I was only off by 40 000, or 8%. Not too bad for a few quick-and-dirty back-of-the-napkin calculations.

Before I get down to writing this stupid Multiculturalism & Immigration paper:

1. I got an interview for EAS. With any luck I’ll be directing a show in two months.

2. I wish my blog was as cool as Siva’s. But until 1and1 lets me edit CNAME records I’m probably stuck with generi-blog.

3. Friends & Websites I like are now posted on the right.

OK, I lied. Three things.

Thoughts:

Procrastinated today by working on the blog. Links to friends are now up! If you are my friend and want a link, leave a comment, post on my Facebook, email me, text me, or leave me an MSN message. Friends include my housemate Nick (Rare Lenience), my other housemates Brendan and Mike (GardyLoo Comics), and Scotto (Scott Williams Presents). Scotto is not a housemate… just a friend. I bring this up because apparently people actually read what I write - more than I thought, too. Crazy.

I invigilated for a French midterm tonight. God bless CCE and their willingness to throw free money my way. It was the first “real” exam I’ve invigilated (I’ve invigilated for deferred exams before where it was just me and the person writing the exam) so I was a little anxious. I’m usually too wrapped up in whatever exam/test I’m writing to notice what the invigilators actually do during a test, and I had no idea what I was going to do for this one. Luckily the prof was in the room with me. She sat, but for some reason I stood - I guess I thought it was a power thing. If I was standing, I had more power than the students who were sitting, and they would therefore have to respect me. Yeah, I know - weird.

Joshua Topolsky was on Jimmy Fallon tonight, and he had a prototype model of the Palm Pre with him. That thing looked totally sweet! Some really great design at work there, in both the hardware and the software. Too bad that, if it comes to Canada - and that’s a big if considering how long it takes us to get non-Blackberry smartphones up here - it’ll be a Bellus exclusive, and I’m with Rogers.

I’m almost done marking Logic Assignment #2. Turns out even when I try to mark easy I’m still a hardass. Sorry, kiddos - I guess I’ll have to go through your damn assignments and up all the marks by a percentage point or two.

Talking to my dad about my thesis, he suggested that I should rework some of it into a lecture, get into contact with some of my old high school teacher, and give it as a talk to some university-bound Grade 12 students. He might be onto something - but I’ve gotta get the damned thing written first.

I can’t believe that I will be a university graduate in 37 days.

Listening to: Boys Noize - Let’s Buy Happiness (from Oi Oi Oi, pretty much the only album I can listen to when I really need to get work done).

Below is my grad blurb. Since they’re totally self-indulgent anyway, I did it in the style of a 25 Things Facebook note. It’s 25 things I want to remember when I open up my yearbook 5, 10, or 25 years from now and remember ArtSci - both the good and the bad. Since I’ll probably lose my yearbook and eventually lose my grad-blurb file (though since it’s on Gmail I guess not, actually), I’m posting it here too. These aren’t my 25 Things for all of university; just for ArtSci.

An ArtSci 25 Things:

1. Sleeping in sunny, warm, yellow West Civ.
2. Sleeping through Inquiry, 8:30AM Calc, Writing, Biology, West Thought, and Stats.
3. Feldmanian ducks.
4. Dr. Browning’s inability to give a normal answer to the question “how are you?”
5. Tequila Tuesday.
6. Staying up all night in C105, writing and editing Inquiry papers. Sleeping in C105, too.
7. A gigantic snow fort at 36 Haddon Ave N that you could see from Main St.
8. Sticky summers in Hamilton with no air conditioning.
9. Euchre, philosophy, and grammar in C105.
10. C105C105C105C105C105C105.
11. What a “Philadelphia” is.
12. Lit post-Halloween. Hell, anything post-Halloween.
13. Screaming ARTSCI TILL WE DIE till our voices gave out.
14. C: Why don’t you just get drunk and sleep in my bed? P: … I’ve been waiting to hear that for two years. C: It’s a double bed.
15. Lit Reflection night.
16. Parties at Ishtar.
17. Living in a basement for from years II-IV.
18. Phone call with Julie on my 19th birthday about a Stats assignment.
19. Trap Lines and that goddamn tackle box.
20. Anna Strathy’s story about killing mice with a cinderblock.
21. LaserTag on a Friday night with the best sib family EVER.
22. Checking my folder even when I knew there was nothing in it.
23. Almost giving Zsuzsi the most terrifying surprise of her life in my res room after I came back from a shower.
24. Putting $1000 of liquour on my credit card for Halloween.
25. The greatest chariot McMaster will ever see.

Listening to: The Weakerthans! Best band to mark to, bar none. Their catchy, Canadian rock-pop keeps me going through the darkness of poorly standardized logic arguments.

I’m marking Logic Assignments for ArtSci 1B06, as you can probably tell. Some are OK, some are bad, a few are good. They seem a lot harder than the assignments I had back in first year (especially since they can’t work in groups!), and… well, a lot more boring too.

I got the job with Kaplan. Probably because I am oh-so-logical (see above), oh-so-awesome (see below), and oh-so-LSATy (see last June). And because I sucked up hardcore to the Kaplan people - though, to be fair, everything I said was true. It’s nice to know that my future is a little less uncertain now. Now to interview with Shad, Metrix, and to hear back from BBF about my EAS show and I’m set. Also: Slevitt advanced onto the next interview stage! I hope she gets the job (she will). Training would be so much more fun with her there too.

Had an interesting conversation on gay marriage with my mom in the ride home from Toronto on Thursday. She’s in favour of gay people getting “married” though not of calling it “marriage,” because marriage is a word with a history, and that history includes marriage being between one man and one woman. Aside from how wrong that is (for one thing, if we’re making appeals to history here, we might as well recognize the fact that there have been many periods in history where marriage has been between one man and at least one woman. This fact seems to tarnish its sanctity a little, and seems to rarely be brought up), I thought it was funny that a woman with a doctorate in poetry was arguing that a word had a rigid, unchanging meaning based on its history. Yes, there was so much irony in that car that I was able to bake it into a cake, and yes, it was delicious.

I brought the conversation up with Aunt Nik, and she mentioned that my Uncle Scott uses the same argument (which  happens to drive Aunt Nik crazy as well. I have to wonder how many gay people everyone making this argument actually know, let alone how many gay couples. Because it’s a lot harder to tell your friend that you don’t think he or she can marry his/her partner, but that a civil union between them is perfectly acceptable.

It’s the 21st century, folks. I don’t give a damn whose A or V or M your P or T or D goes into, and neither should the government. It didn’t destroy society to let black people marry, to let women drive or vote, or to let non-Europeans into our country. It’s not going to kill us to let two dudes tie the knot.

I met with Chari on Friday to talk about my thesis (I call him Chari informally here and to my friends, but in our correspondence he’s always “Dr. Rangachari.” This is because I am terrified of him and because I don’t feel I’ve earned that level of informality with him. I also dress up for all of our meetings). Surprisingly it went really well - I think he was a little taken aback at how much I seemed to know (shit, I was). The next time I see him will be for my thesis defence (I like to call it a defence even though it’s just a presentation. It seems a lot more badass to invite people to your undergraduate thesis defence instead of your undergraduate thesis presentation), and then after that for my oral exam. It’s crazy how quickly the past 4 years have gone by.

Much Ado rehearsal yesterday was super-dee-duper awesome (mostly). Some people still need to get their lines down, but that’s never really bothered me. We’re all starting to get into it, but I think we’ve peaked until we can either a) get costumes on, b) get props, or c) get into the theatre. In all likelihood these will all happen at the same time, and I’m super stoked for it. I made a breakthrough on how to perform my “shut the fuck up brother, you don’t understand me!” monologue and I’m really looking forward to performing it. This role is probably the most emotionally dynamic one I’ve ever had and I’m really excited to see where it takes me.

Things I want to happen: get that hour back so I can mark more/write more, Brothero to find a job for the summer, it to be April 23rd so I can write, run, and veg.

Things I still want to happen: Slevitt to get hired, me to get hired by Shad, me to hear back from BBF about EAS, and for the last three hours of BSG to be awesome.

Listening to: nothing, I’ve been writing all night.

The following is what I spent my night writing. For those of you unaware, this is for my undergraduate thesis. I feel it’s fairly impressive, considering I wrote and researched it all in about 4 hours time. I wish I had some more sources, but the “history of European higher education” section of Mills is rather… anemic. Here goes:

A Brief History of the University

            This section will briefly outline the history of the university in Western society with an aim to understanding its roots and what it was originally designed to do. By examining the university’s history as an institution of higher learning, one may grasp the degree to which it has become divorced from its original purposes.

The Beginnings

Higher education is not a uniquely Western phenomenon. Many different civilizations worldwide have had institutionalized forms of higher learning: from the ancient Egyptians to the Chinese, any culture sufficiently developed to have a leisure class has had some form of “academics.” But the university is a uniquely

We may start a history of Western institutions of higher learning in ancient Greece. Its academies, lyceums, and gymnasia developed a system of higher education that laid the groundwork for much of Western civilization (Rudy 13). But they were not institutions that we would have recognized as universities: they did not employ formal teaching staff, offer specific courses of study, or grant certificates such as diplomas or degrees (Rudy 14). Such institutions would not arise in Europe until the late 11^th century, with the founding of the University of Bologna in 1088, formally recognized by Emperor Frederick I in 1158 (Gillett 69). The university as we know it grew out of cathedrals in urban centres. Urbanized, “secular” clergy ministered to schools in the great cathedrals of Europe, with individual master and lecturers beginning to appear towards the late 11^th century CE (Rudy 15). The increasing demand for people to fill highly skilled positions requiring intellectual ability (such as lawyers, physicians, administrators, and ecclesiastics) put pressure on these so-called “cathedral schools” to expand beyond their means, and as more and more students gathered to hear their lessons, some form of institution organization became necessary.

The Medieval University

The development of a recognized, formal institution led to several changes in the way medieval universities were run. The faculties at medieval universities came to be generally organized into four subdivisions: arts, law, medicine, and theology (Rudy 29). Although some masters had originally offered their services free of charge, a dearth of funding from the church and the proliferation of institutions of higher learning across Europe forced medieval universities to start charging set fees for instruction (Rudy 29). The increasingly formal institutionalization of universities also led to them specializing certain disciplines. If a student wanted to study law or medicine, he was best off going to Bologna, Ravenna, or Pavia (Gillett 71). But if a student wanted to study more than one subject, he had to attend many different universities, and probably leave the country as well (Gillett 71).

Medieval universities were heavily focused upon teaching. At its beginnings, a baccalaureate degree was not a degree at all, and was earned after several years of academic apprenticeship under a master, and was one of many stages in a student’s education (Gillett 72). It was not until later on that a baccalaureate degree was awarded for completing a set course of study (Gillett 72). After completing his baccalaureate, a student became a “journeyman” scholar, and was allowed to continue his studies towards a master of arts degree.  Young candidates for the master of arts degree were expected to lecture, assist regular masters “by giving “extraordinary lectures to help beginning students, or substituting for professors who were away on ecclesiastical or political missions” (Rudy 32). This practise was called doecendo discere, or “learning to teach by teaching” (Rudy 32).  After four to seven more years of study, the master of arts candidate was allowed to present and defend his thesis (Gillett 72). If he was successful, he would be approved as a teacher and award a Master of Arts degree.  This qualified the student to teach, and often he began right away (Morison 20). The original focus of medieval universities was teaching and being taught.

In addition to being required for teaching, a master’s degree was also a prerequisite for further study. In order to study any of the “higher faculties” such as law, theology, or medicine, one had to first be accepted as a Master of Arts (Gillett 72). Much of the medieval training in these “higher faculties” was vocational – medieval universities even included a course of study in ars dictaminis, or the art of letter-writing (Rudy 32). This was the medieval equivalent of the business degree. From their beginning, universities served a utilitarian purpose: civil law was the most popular field of study, with canon law and medicine close seconds (Rudy 31). Many students disliked theology, by far the most academic of the subjects available to study, finding it too theoretical (Rudy 30). From their inception, universities have played a role in filling the needs of society for highly trained, highly skilled professionals.

Medieval methods of instruction did not differ greatly from the universities of today. Lectures given in Latin were the common form of instruction (Gillett 71). This was a result of two factors: firstly, most of the classic texts studied were written in Latin. Secondly, medieval universities were highly international institutions; Latin was a common language (Rudy 32). formal disputations between students and masters, and amongst students themselves (Gillett 71). These disputations gave the medieval university a lively, dynamic atmosphere (Rudy 33). They were also of practical use: since many of the men attending university would go on to “dispute in law courts, in feudal assemblies, and in ecclesiastical convocations” (Rudy 34).

The Rise of Colleges and the Undergraduate

            Colleges began as charitable foundations that served as hostels for poor students (Rudy 34). Because of the amount of time it took to complete a master of arts, arts students were usually significantly younger than their counterparts studying law, medicine, or theology. The colleges were both a form of protection and control: university officials were afraid that arts students would be exploited by townspeople, but were also scared that they would be more prone to rioting and general rowdiness than the older, more mature students of law, theology, and medicine (Rudy 35).

While colleges offered a safe haven to arts students, they also provided an opportunity for scholastic advancement. Colleges would offer supplemental or review lectures taught either by regular professors, or students studying towards their master of arts. These lectures were given independent of the actual university: at the time, colleges and universities had no formal relationship. These “extraordinary” lectures were given free of charge, and were provided to complement the students’ normal studies (Rudy 35).

As the popularity of colleges and these supplementary lectures spread, they eventually came to be the sole providers of the liberal arts at some universities (Rudy 35). Despite their popularity, colleges on the European continent were eventually absorbed by the universities whose students they supported (Rudy 36). The opposite occurred in England, and by the sixteenth century English colleges had practically become autonomous institutions of higher learning, providing an almost complete curriculum (Rudy 36).

The Renaissance: Humanism and the Spirit of Inquiry

            The university saw relatively few changes from its beginnings in the 11^th century until the Renaissance and the rise of humanism. The philosophy of “l’art pour l’art” that defined the Renaissance was not easily translated to a university setting, as its primary function at this point in time was to train students to be lawyers, doctors, and future state administrators (Brucker 323). Slowly the university curriculum evolved to include some newer, human-centered courses, such as the study of Greek literature, Platonic philosophy, poetry, rhetoric, and history (Rudy 47). Gillett summarizes the impact of the Renaissance thusly:

The Renaissance was a period of intellectual, artistic, and literary resurgence. … It involved a rereading of the classics in their original versions and introduction of Greek and Latin as the languages of scholarship. It brought a zestful search for new forms in art and literature and an awakened spirit of scientific inquiry. It emphasized the intellectual, moral, social, and physical development of the individual. … It proposed an educational goal of self-fulfilment in terms of the “compleat man” (97)

Although the Renaissance brought no major structural changes to the university, it refocused the spirit of inquiry present therein from being intensely focused on vocational training to more scholarly and academic pursuits. The rediscovery of many classic works challenged the authority of previous centuries that medieval encyclopaedias contained all knowledge, and, more generally, a questioning spirit was favoured over one of outright acceptance (Gillett 84). It is this questioning spirit that would inform the development of science as a discipline over the next few centuries.

The Reformation: <TITLE>

            The Reformation saw drastic reductions in student enrolment at many universities. Over the course of ten years, the enrolment at some universities dropped to as low as five percent of their previous yield (Rudy 62). This drop can be attributed to several factors: firstly, universities were still closely tied to the church for funding, and many local authorities “confiscated ecclesiastical endowments that had been used for financial support of clerics at universities” (Rudy 62). Bitter theological disputes between faculty pushed away many potential students, and with the priesthood discredited, many parents had no desire to send their sons away for an expensive theological education (Rudy 62).

Universities, still tied to the church as they were, split into two camps: Catholic institution and Protestant institutions. Often, students from one locality would be prohibited from studying at an institution on the other side of the “denominational curtain” (Rudy 65). Funding became a frequent source of anxiety. In Protestant jurisdictions, Church lands had been confiscated, with some of this wealth reallocated to universities, although this often did not happen (Rudy 70). Additionally, the Church had funded a number of teaching posts, which had disappeared. Endowments were sometimes seized by local princes or town councils (Rudy 70).

Students suffered as well. Those who lived in monastic houses suddenly founded themselves without housing, and those who were living off of church scholarships were left hapless (Rudy 71).

            These setbacks were only temporary, as greater numbers of students flooded back into universities once Reformation society realized that new clergymen for the reformed faiths had to be educated (Rudy 63). New universities began appearing all across Europe as the burgeoning middle class began to realize that a university education was an excellent means of preparing their children for careers in politics or business (Rudy 63).

Despite the negative aspects that the Reformation seemed to have upon Europe’s universities, there were some changes that would end up being for the better. There was a push to demand more secondary, preparatory education before students were admitted to university (Spitz 58). The study of language and other humanist subjects were pushed back into this preparatory education, and the result was that universities developed their faculty of arts to be more on par with the “higher faculties” of law, theology, and medicine, rather than as a foundation for their study (Spitz 58).

Listening to: The new Franz Ferdinand album, “Tonight.” I downloaded it on the weekend and it’s pretty kickass. Twenty songs long, and it clocks in around 1.2 hours according to iTunes. After the so-so “You Could Have It So Much Better” I’m really pleased with the effort. It’s not quite an “album” yet (Franz CDs always feel more like a greatest hits collection), but it’s still solid.

Tomorrow is my interview with Kaplan. Slevitt’s going in for the same interview, albeit the teaching half. I hope that there are two positions available in Hamilton and that we both get them, because that would be freakin’ awesome.

Speaking of interviews, I got an email back from Shad guy. He wants to have me in for an interview! Awesomeness! Except it’s on the same day as my thesis presentation! And the same day as the second half of my enviro presentation! And the same day as drama night! Oh yes, March 19th will be a busy, busy day.

Today was the ArtSci thesis gala. I think it went well - I’m never sure. A lot of people seemed interested in my thesis, for some reason. And a lot of them said they’d come to see my presentation in C105. Which makes me (performer extraordinaire?) slightly nervous.

My father is hilarious: I texted him about the Shad interview, and he texted me back, “Gr8t!” Technology aren’t always best friends, but he’s trying. You’re getting there, dad. You’re getting there.

Funny thing  from my life: I was doing my taxes online with QuickTax. I click the “next” box after filling in my income tax stuff, and the little “Your Refund Is” box said I owed the government $363 000.00. This number seemed wrong, so I clicked back and found out that I had put the decimal in the wrong spot for my income. I laughed, but the mini heart attack I had prior to realizing what I had done was terrifying.

And finally: iTunes, you’re a piece of crap program. You slow down my computer and make me hate you.

Things I want to have happen: write 2000 words for my thesis tomorrow (bringing me up to 4000/15000), have the interview go really well for me/get the Kaplan job/have Slevitt’s interview go really well, get the Shad job. I realized today that there was a lot I would sacrifice to get the Shad job, if it came down to it. Dear Mr. Umar, pick me, please!

Slevitt’s writing an article about standardized testing for the Silhouette this week. As the resident guy-who-has-most-recently-written-a-standardized-test in ArtSci (now succeeded by S-Lev, but she can’t very well write about herself for an article, now can she), so asked me some questions. Here they are, with my answers. I’ll post the full article after it’s up on the Sil’s website.

1. Why did you write the LSAT?

I wrote the LSAT because I want to go to law school. You’d have to be quite the masochist to write it for any other reason.

2. How did you feel preparing for the LSAT as opposed to studying for a test in school?

I worked much, much harder. I wrote the June sitting, so I didn’t have to worry about school, but I was working fulltime. I had a certain percentile goal in mind that I wanted to hit which stressed me out a lot at first, since I was nowhere near that when I wrote my first mock LSAT. I took a prep course with the Princeton Review which had me in class three times a week for three hours each time for six weeks. Outside of class, I probably studied for 2-3 hours a day in the 3-4 weeks leading up to the LSAT. On top of that, I would do practise questions during my lunch break at work.

3. Describe your anxiety surrounding the LSAT.

I was pretty nervous. You really want to do well, y’know? It’s your future pretty much riding on one test. That’s not to say you can’t rewrite it, I just really didn’t want to.

4. How did you feel about the experience overall?

I’m happy with how things turned out. If I could do it all over again, I would probably write more practise tests. The thing about the LSAT is that it can be learned, and the only way you’re going to learn it properly is by doing practise tests. It’s a very, very stressful experience. I think it’s a good thing to have done, but I wouldn’t want to do it again.

Listening to: The Dodos

I discovered The Dodos at Danielle’s cottage this summer. Her friend Paul introduced me to them, and their music always makes me feel really good. I think it’s the harmonies. Maybe it’s just because Danielle’s cottage is like the most amazing place on Earth. Not sure yet.

Casket Cases ended last night, to raucous applause. It was probably one of the best shows I’ve worked on since I came to McMaster. Like I mentioned in my last post, it felt really good to get the viola out again.I think I’m going to take a few lessons this summer just to touch some stuff up. I had a lot of bad habits and some sloppy technique, but had been making a real effort to stamp them out before I kinda gave up playing. It’s now been so long that when I play I can’t tell if I’m using the good stuff I learned right before I quit, or if I’m lapsing into my former habits. You know how when you’re doing something (trying to beat a song in Guitar Hero, solve a problem, memorize lines, etc.) and you just can’t get it, but when you give it up for awhile, forget about it, and then come back to it you can suddenly just do it? It’s kind of like that, but I’m not sure if I’m doing it right or just fucking everything up. My uncertainty’s making me hesitant about actively playing until I can see a teacher, but I a) have no time for that right now, and b) have no money for that right now. But I don’t want to forget how much I love playing again.

So, so many things to talk about tonight. Where to begin? Let’s start chronologically.

Zombario t-shirt came on Thursday, along with mom, brownies, and bagels. All four things are awesome.

Casket Cases ended last night. What a great show that was to work on. Perfect casting, superb direction, fantastic writing, and I’ll be damned if Nick isn’t one of the most talented people I know for penning the music, helping with lyrics, and acting. We got a standing ovation for the Friday matinee, but not for the evening performance (which was kind of disappointing, but I’ll take one over none. I can’t remember the last time I was involved with a show that got a standing O). I tried to convince all the directors to submit an application to do it for the Hamilton Fringe Festival. Theatre that good should be performed as often as possible.

The cast party was at our place (isn’t it always?). A good party - I think I spent most of it with Sasha, Erin and Nick, but to tell you the truth it’s pretty hazy, mostly owing to the fact that I drank a half bottle of whiskey and got to bed around 5AM. This wouldn’t have been so bad except for the fact that I had to be on campus at 9AM for my Enviro field trip. Of course, my alarm clock didn’t go off as I had planned (who the fuck puts a “flashing light” setting on an alarm clock?) and so rather than getting up at 8:30 as I had planned I got up at 8:50. I still made it to campus for 9:10AM, which is probably when I would have arrived even if I had woken up at 8:30. The main difference was that I was that I was still drunk and I hadn’t showered or eaten - which would have gone a long way to sobering me up. My head still hurts, but I’m not sure if that’s got more to do with being hungover or thesis-related stress.

Our first stop of the day was to visit a guy named Dave Masters. Dave lives in a 450 square foot yurt year round. He moved there a number of years ago (six I think?) when his father got sick and he had to move back to the family farm to help take care of him, but didn’t want to live in the farmhouse with his parents. He wanted somewhere comfortable to live, but didn’t want to have a detrimental effect on the land he loved so much, so he bought a yurt. Don’t know what a yurt is? It’s basically a hut, but more portable. Though the primitive images conjured up by calling what Dave lives in a “yurt” don’t really do it justice. He’s got a kitchen, a small fridge, a TV, a computer, and an internet connection. He generates his own power via a wind turbine and solar panels (he says he lives completely off the grid, but I’m hesitant to adopt the term: he does, after all, have an internet connection, and that requires some power from somewhere else). He has a composting toilet and gets all his water from rain and snow. He’s extremely self-sufficient, and I think a lot of people could profit from adopting some aspects of his philosophy (me included) of really being connected to the place where we live. What he’s doing is really cool and he seems extremely happy doing it (while recognizing that his lifestyle is - very clearly - not for everyone). I think it would be kinda cool to have a yurt for a cottage up somewhere really remote. Or maybe a few connected yurts - they’re fairly cheap (Dave says that his setup would probably cost about $50,000) and beside that, they’re just really cool.

Our next stop was the Simpler Thyme Organic Farm. The people who run the farm eat only locally produced, organic food. Our host was Ann Lanigan, who is a half-owner of the farm. I can’t really describe her except to say that she’s really, really awesome. They fed us - all 14 of us or however many there were - for free. Like Dave, the people at Simpler Thyme also had a very interesting philosophy. What really stuck with me was Ann talking about how Canadians need to create an identity through our food. We really are disconnected from it - think about how many of the things you bought in your last grocery run come from even 100 km away or less, and then think about how much of that food is native to the region it was grown in. They gave us a lot of food for thought both literally and figuratively (cue groans… now).

When I got home I collapsed in a heap on my bed and slept for three hours. Who’da thunk, eh? Drinking all night and then sleeping for only three hours makes a guy kinda’ tired. Woke up around 8PM and started working on my thesis. First 500 words: written! I’m going to try to get another 500 out before I go to sleep for realsies tonight. Coming up later this week: inevitable meeting with my supervisor (ohGodohGodohGod), second interview with Kaplan (Thursday!), and inevitably more rehearsals than I have time for.