Blog: Articles from October 2007

For a moment today, I was almost able to forget that it was Halloween. Not that I have anything against Halloween. In its present incarnation it’s a charming way for kids to dress up, express their imagination, and of course, collect as much Canada as they can. And really, if you can’t count on candy in a democratic society, then what is my government doing with all those tax dollars?

Somewhere between this year and last, however, I’ve lost my connection to the Halloween spirit. It might have fallen between the couch cushions—I’ll check when I get home. I haven’t trick-or-treated in a couple of years, and I don’t do the party thing. So there’s not a lot for me to do for Halloween. I‘d dress up, but I don’t have many costume ideas, and I‘m too lazy to put effort into creating an excellent costume. I do admire those who take the time. On campus here we’ve got someone dressed up like Waldo (as in Where’s Waldo?) and a pair of carebears. Occasionally I worry that this lack of Halloween participation is a sign I’m losing my will to be imaginative and expressive and am slowly turning into a boring, practical person.

/me pauses to look at blog posts. Yeah. Riiiight. Not likely.

Let’s face it. Halloween is about the candy. I can buy as much candy as I went whenever I want, so Halloween has lost its lustre. I’ll probably stay home tonight and give out candy. Maybe I’ll put a scary movie on and watch that while I wait for kids to show up at the door. That’s vaguely Halloweenish, right?

Just wait for Christmas….

Often the question arises: what is Canadian? How do Canadians identify themselves as Canadians? How do non-Canadians identify Canadians? What represents Canadian culture?

The answer usually boils down to the commonly held view that we are “not American”. And it’s true. We Canadians love to distinguish ourselves from their counterparts south of the border. But that can’t be all we are—call me crazy, but I suspect there are other countries who also see themselves as “not American”. Pretty much the only countries that wouldn’t would be the United States (because they are America) and Tony Blair (because he wants to be). So there has to be more to our identity than that.

The trouble comes from the fact that Canada encourages multiculturalism (or at least, we say we do). This leads to strong cultural diversity across the country—a country which is rather big. Even so, there’s bound to be things in common from coast to coast. The CBC, for one.

Yesterday I went to see Stuart McLean and The Vinyl Cafe at our local auditorium. For those of you not familiar with it, The Vinyl Cafe is what Wikipedia calls a “variety show” on CBC radio. It has musical talent from across Canada, other cool things, and my favourite part—stories by Stuart McLean featuring “Dave & Morley” and their family. These stories, and the show itself, are quintessentially Canadian. I could tell by the number of people in the auditorium and their diverse ages. The youngest person was 6 weeks old, and the oldest was 88. And McLean does the show all across Canada, so the turnout must be good no matter where he goes. The Vinyl Cafe is something in which Canadians the country over can share and enjoy. I certainly did (and I fell for their merchandising scheme and bought a book and 2 CD collections of Dave & Morley stories, because I love them so much). Only in Canada…

So anyway, I guess what I‘m trying to say is more of a note to my non-Canadian friends. If you really want to understand what makes Canadians, well, Canadian, you need to really experience Canadian culture. If you catch an episode of The Vinyl Cafe (you have to hear him talk, the books are good for those familiar with the show, but not for first-time viewers) you’ll get a glimpse at one of the facets of Canadiana. Obviously not every Canadian loves The Vinyl Cafe. But the stories and the show give you an idea of what’s going on in our society that makes us the way we are.

After all, I spend way too much time watching exports from the United States. How about some quid pro quo?

Although it’s only been two days since we moved into the new house, and we had Internet by 1 PM on Friday, I still feel so disconnected. This really puts my online activities into perspective: I spend most of my waking hours online. If I‘m at home, I’m basically online. I may be doing something else, either on the computer or something completely different, but I‘m still online if people want to talk to me. For the past two days, however, we’ve been busy unpacking, cleaning, and organizing. I’ve spent so much of my “free” time offline that I feel disconnected.

So yes, I have no life. I don’t want one, but it’s good to know for sure. I miss you guys terribly. Yes, all of you, including the people who IM me for tech support (darn you) and the people who send me spam that tell me how to get free copies of products I don’t want. And I guess I miss those of you who like to talk to me, poke me to do things, or tolerate me in general.

As soon as my offline activities return to some sort of “normal” operations, I will be back. Until then…blah. Too many cardboard boxes.

Not in the literal sense (yet), but in a metaphysical, vaguely sort of philosophical manner of speaking. So many little things have intruded upon the scope of my life that I find myself adrift without a schedule, without priorities, attending to tasks as they pop up or as they flag me down with little urgent signs that threaten to bludgeon me if I don’t take care of them.

We’re moving into a new house across on Friday, so the past few weeks have been a whirlwind of the cardboard box variety. The primary inhabitants of our house are now cardboard cubes that contain stuff from the soon-to-be former occupants. So tomorrow we finish everything up and then Friday the chaos continues. Hopefully we should be installed and connected to the Internet the same day, so I will only be absent for the time it takes to move boxes, unpack, and then collapse in the heap of empty cardboard and sleep for a few days.

Unfortunately, university has not provided the satisfaction of which I dreamed four months ago. Most of it is…easy. There are some hard parts, of course, and it is bound to get harder. Second year will be better because there’ll be less people who are taking math because they need it for another discipline—smaller classes with more interested people. But for now, at least, it’s just another way to pass time. The schedule is good in that respect. It just didn’t fill the void that opened up after I finished high school.

So now I’ve got various projects and responsibilities and commitments all on the go in order to fill that void. I need to stop making commitments, but—as I‘m sure you’ve realized—it’s hard. And I don’t know what to work on first, so I jump about, which is never as efficient. I‘ve been working on two new websites, one for a friend and the other as a personal project with two other friends, but I’ve become mired in code for the latter with no escape in sight. I need to pull back, re-evaluate, and then finish it as quickly as possible—but as cleanly as possible. Bah. So everything is half-done and nothing is fully done, and I hate leaving my stuff in a state of undoneness (muwahahah)—it just feels so messy. I just haven’t had the time (or, in some cases, the inclination) to actually finish some of them.

And I need to write more. But in order for that to happen, I need to reignite a spark of inspiration within so that when I force myself to write it doesn’t come out stilted. The story is a microcosm in my brain—everything is there, I can feel it. I know it. But how do I express it accurately in the English language? It doesn’t come out right, not yet. I’m working on it—please stand by.

Bah.

I need a vacation.