15 Minutes...Maybe More:

Wow. I was on TV. Not only that, I was on TV standing 6 feet away from Sarah McLachlan, my favourite recording artist, listening to her perform. So, if you saw me and Boni last night, sorry, we hardly had room to breathe let alone wave when the cameras were turned towards us. Damn tall people. But since MuchMore is going to rerun the special presentation a million times in the next couple of days, here are some general tidbits of information:

1) Boni and I were standing directly to the right of Sarah when she's performing on the piano. Look for the woman with the dark v-neck sweater and short hair. You'll see me and Boni on either side, peaking around her head.

2) During the first interview segment, near the end of the "Lisa from St. Thomas" phone call question, there's a very clear close-up of Boni.

3) During the performance of "Dirty Little Secrets", the second song, there's an EXTREMELY clear close up of my head.

4) We had to rehearse the opening (where Bill Welychka first introduces Sarah while everyone is going crazy) FIVE TIMES before the show started. We had to cheer just as loudly each time.

5) I'm about the same height as Sarah. I know because she had to walk past us on the way in and on the way out, and I was maybe three feet away from her. Also, her hair is just brown, not black, despite what the promotional photos would suggest.

6) The floor director made it clear that we weren't supposed to approach her for autographs, but some people did anyway. Bastards.

7) When the show was over and we were waiting to get our coats, Bill passed by to grab something before he headed home. He thanked us for coming, and then the security guy said something like, "These people were waiting for you. Aren't you going to go over there and talk to them?" Bill stopped and looked at us for a second in a bewildered manner before the security guy started to laugh.

8) The Café Crêpe that's across the street and always visible during Much broadcasts has really good crêpes. Boni wondered if they were clever and knew they'd get free daily publicity or if they were just incredibly lucky when they acquired that piece of real estate.

"Though I've tried I've fallen, I have sunk so low, I messed up, better I should know"

If you aren't doing anything tonight, turn on the TV to MuchMoreMusic at 8pm. Boni and I will try to wave at you if the camera is turned our way. =)

"Listen as the wind blows from across the great divide"

A Smashing Start to My Career:

You just can't take me anywhere. I decided to be bold and attend a forum at York University that was organized by the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers and the Women in Engineering Advisory Council. My motivation for going was the fact that Bob McDonald was the keynote speaker. I thought, "Hey, it may be at 9:30 in the morning on a Saturday, but damn, it's Bob McDonald! I'm NOT going to be bored!" Oh, you don't know who Bob McDonald is? He used to host Wonderstruck on CBC, and now he has a CBC Radio program called Quirks and Quarks. I saw him speak once at Waterloo, and he was great. He didn't even major in anything science related, but he can talk about the subject in a way that anybody can understand, and he's really funny.

Back to my story. The talk was held in one of those typical university lecture halls, with the retractable little table things on the sides of the chairs. Now, these were less stable than what I was used to, and it serves me right for trying to save the environment and use a ceramic coffee cup instead of the available paper cups. Yes, that's right, I readjusted the table and the next thing I knew the cup and saucer were headed for the floor. The room became silent for two seconds, and I could feel every single eye on me as I bent down to pick up the pieces. One of the organizing ladies came around to make sure I hadn't also injured myself with hot coffee or sharp edges or something, which made the whole experience complete. And all this before the session even began.

Embarrassing moments aside, it was a nice little seminar. The ratio was approximately 6 guys to 40 women (but if you don't count Bob and the president of the society, then the ratio was a little closer to what I was expecting). Bob did a similar presentation to the one I had seen, but that was okay. The panel discussion was okay, it focused a lot on the typical "how do we get more girls to join the profession?" and "how do we guys to treat us equally?" Some good points were made, but nothing groundbreaking. The networking lunch was much more fun. I was at a table where pretty much everyone was a Chemmie, except one girl who was a Civ. I got some really good job search advice, and met some interesting ladies. And the food was good, which made it all worthwhile. I'm thinking I should really start to go to more of these events.

And who knew that York has an engineering program now?

"If my life is for rent and I don't learn to buy, well I deserve nothing more than I get cos nothing I have is truly mine"

My Father the Spy:

Operation CleanRoom is picking up steam, especially in the last couple of days since I decided to focus exclusively on my closet. That's when I found one of the coolest things ever. I pulled out a box from one of the more remote corners of the closet, thinking it was something like a portable heater or an old turntable. I popped it open, and it was actually an old tape recorder. It had two big spools, like the ones you see on TV, being used in CIA interrogations in the 1960s, or in old fashioned stake-outs with the two guys in the unmarked van taping the conversations of known mafiosos. The best part is that there's a tape on the machine that has clearly been used. I can't wait to find a power source and find out what's on it. I showed it to my dad, and the first thing he said was "Great! Now I can listen to those tapes that I have."

"Secret agent man, secret agent man, they've given you a number and taken away your name"

I couldn't believe my ears as I watched Everwood last night. The annoying nemesis, Dr. Abbott, was actually using Friendster as a resource to search for potential suitors for his younger sister. I was stunned. First of all, I figured these guys were extremely outside of the target demographic for this particular website. But, after taking a look around, it would appear that there are people of that specific age and background who do use it, and are apparently serious about it. I'm not sure why I was surprised when I heard it referenced on a popular TV show. I mean, these kinds of online networking services have been around forever. I don't know, it probably seemed really surreal to me simply because I've recently become a participant in this modern matchmaking scheme.

By the way, is there anyone out there who wants to see Kill Bill with me? Please?

"Always should be someone you really love"

Jaws, I was actually able to type in your blog address correctly from memory on the first try. You sure don't like to do things the easy way, do you? =)

Reading her blog today reminded me of a quote I heard earlier this week that made me laugh and then made me shake my head because I had laughed at it. I'll tell you the quote, and then I'll tell you the context.

"My God, look at the nut sack on that thing!" - Ed Robertson

The making of the video for the Barenaked Ladies' new single "Another Postcard". The concept: a six-storey tall chimpanzee is rampaging through Toronto while the five band members run around as either civilians or army soldiers with pieces of fake concrete falling around them. The chimp then climbs the CN Tower before it rockets into outer space. Also, each of the guys got to play a character with a line at the beginning of the video. Sadly, the nut sack line didn't make it into the finished product. Those guys are hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing for the entire half-hour show. Well, maybe during the commercials.

Speaking of music videos, I just saw the new Sarah McLachlan video, "Fallen". I've lost count of how many videos she's made in which she is naked. Three? Four? But it has been quite a while since the last one (which I believe was "Possession") so I guess that's okay. And I'm glad that her hair is long again, but the jury is still out as to whether the black dye job suits her or not.

"Another postcard with chimpanzees, and every one is addressed to me"

I seem to have the kind of luck that would result in a brief power outage at the exact time that I've set the VCR to tape something. Boo...

On the other hand, I went to see Cavalia, which was really really cool. There was a girl seated behind me who sort of summed it up: "They're making the horses act like dogs!" This was mainly referring to the fact that the trainers were able to get the horses to lie down and sit up on command. I think my favourite act was the Roman Riding act, where three riders were standing on two horses each, racing around the stage and jumping over bars. It was a really good performance, although the strong winds made sitting inside a tent something like a test of my faith in engineering. As it turned out, my faith was in the right place. =)

"All the mistakes one life contained, they all finally start to go away"

I hate confrontation. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. People who know me probably know this already. Why can't we all just get along? But what I hate even more is confrontation with people I consider to be my friend. This doesn't mean that I won't do it, but I get this pit-of-the-stomach kind of feeling (like I'm about to be sick or something). And I hate it. It's like we're attacking each other. I don't like attacking people when it isn't in a joking, "I don't really mean it" kind of way. It gets way too personal for me. More proof that I don't have the stomach for business.

Hooray for nepotism. I appear to have a job. How? My dad appears to have gotten the cultural centre job. But it's just a verbal agreement, he hasn't signed anything yet. Although, even if it were a written contract, it doesn't mean anything's written in stone. Things can change all the time. I suppose once he gets his first paycheque, then we'll celebrate the job. Oh, and the way this affects me is that I'm going to be his "staff". Yay, monkey work! Well, it's stuff like taking notes at meetings, doing some spreadsheet analysis, creating powerpoint presentations, and such. However, in the words of my father, "THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU STOP LOOKING FOR A JOB." Well, yeah, I don't plan on being a lackey for the rest of my life. This is more of a temporary financial solution while I'm between jobs.

Here's my funny story of the day: I was looking at the cultural centre's website to see what the board of directors (a.k.a. my dad's bosses) look like, and I came across the group photo. One of the directors is a lady who's name is (and I'm NOT kidding) Dr. Dong Dong-dong. I asked my dad if this was for real, and it was. Her last name could have been spelled Tung, and her given name is literally "winter winter". All I can say is, why??

"If I sorted it out, if I knew all about this one thing, wouldn't that be something?"

Things I Thought Would Never Happen:

I never thought I would see Jocelyn take down a 250-lb male. Okay, I didn't exactly see it, but she reenacted the event with some assistance from Em (which was one of the funnier and more painful things I have seen of late). I now know where the pain sensitive areas are, and how to get out of a situation where someone is choking me...err...from the front, anyway. Ooh, I should clarify this: she was taking down the guy as part of her "use of force" training. She wasn't being accosted on the street or anything.

I never thought I would ever join an online network. No, it's not a dating service, but it could be used for that purpose. It's also a friend network, and I've found people there that I haven't seen in years. Funniest thing: I had been on the network for 24 hours and I already received a message from a guy I don't know who's a friend of a friend of a friend of mine. Did I mention that this is a "six degrees of separation" kind of thing? It's staggering, I've got four friends on my network but through them I'm connected to over 27000 people in the world.

The girls and I went on a road trip yesterday to Creemore Ontario. It's an hour and half north of TO, just south of Collingwood. It was voted one of the top 10 prettiest towns in Canada, so we had to go and check it out. Cute town. We thought we would be an attraction for the locals ('look, Asian people!') but it turns out that there was another group of Asians, who were clearly tourists, at the brewery (Creemore Springs...good beer). Then we saw an Asian chick in a restaurant who looked like a local. So much for being unique.

"I think we're alone now, there doesn't seem to be anyone around"

Words you really don't want to see in a weather forecast in early October: Chance of light rain or snow.

Ah...pre-season hockey. As fun as it was to go see a game with my dad, the quality of hockey that we witnessed was disappointing, to say the least. Both teams looked like they didn't know what they were doing. And yeah, we lost, but it was marginal. The fights were satisfactory though. It's interesting that some people who are generally quiet and friendly, like myself, can become such advocates of sports violence when given the opportunity.

And what is with all these goddamned fruit flies?! We don't even have any fruit out in the open! No matter how many I squash, they just keep materializing. Again with that violence thing...well, they started it.

"Hello out there, we're on the air, it's hockey night tonight"