Thursday, May 07, 2009

With a Pint of Cider Under My Belt....

There was spring lamb, chocolate cupcakes, a party hat to end all party hats, an entertaining karaoke version of Sweet Caroline and over the top ice cube throwing. A grand night all in all was had at the Tir Na Nog. And here I find myself in front of Mr. Mac. It's 12.05 am and I haven't done my half hour of writing for today - much time was devoteed instead to cursing the ethics process at Queen's, which requires one such as myself to complete 20 pages of paperwork. I heart bureaucracy!

So some random notes and rants to come. Bear in mind I've had ice cubes thrown at my cleavage tonight and have a pint of cider running throough my veins (not biologically true I suspect, but it sounds good).

Random Notes:

I am going to be a runner. Right now I am a gym rat, but that's not the same thing. The reason I know I am going to become a runner in the near future is because I've decided to. One of my goals for 2009 was to run a half marathon and I've finally decided to take that goal seriously. So I registered for the PEI half marathon, which takes place October 18th. Conveniently this works well with visiting the Island apporox. one month after Sister & Rowan welcome ye first Courtney/Thunder munchkin :) And as a warm up for the half marathon I've registered for an 8km 'Beat Beethoven' race here in Kingston which takes place June 7th. Apparently an orchestra plays a 50 minute Beethoven piece and the goal is to run the race before the music stops. So...YAY. I'm pumped. Last year it was the 320 km Tip to Tip cycling trip...this year it's..um...a lot of kilometres by foot. Note to self - check the exact kilometreage.

I am having my first PEI visitors to Kingston tomorrow!! So excited to welcome Doug and Rachel to the limestone city. I have many plans to impress them so that they will return tothe Island and convince everyone else that they MUST visit Kingston (and me!). First stop on Saturday will be the Farmer's Market! Friday night...hmmm....maybe a party or two. We'll show the Ontarians how it's done..

I'm dogsitting/housesitting this weekend. I will be the proud, albeit temporary, guardian of Kopka (a.k.a. Ana's aweomse Husky sled dog). I swear she's a mancatcher! And it'll be nice to stay at Ana and Ben's place, because, well, I need an escape from my place at the moment.

Vancouver bound on Tuesday! Seriously. Vancouver? Tuesday? How did that happen? Oh yeah...that booking I made back in the depths of frigid February. Ah, to be on the West Coast. I can't wait to see all my peeps - ANdrew, Natasha, Chris & Wendy, Eddy,Scooter, Brie & Aurelien. When I list off the people I know (and love!) in BC, I wonder why I'm not already living there. Still, I have great people here in Kingston. I've determined there are great people everywhere..it's just a matter of finding them and then Velvcroing. Trust me...that last part of that last sentence makes sense to me right now. Maybe it was more than one pint of cider.

Anyways...almost two weeks in Vancouver then I hop across the border to Pennsylvania, where I'll hopefully have a place to stay at Emily's in Pittsburgh and then eventually I'll find my way to State College (where Penn State is located) for a conference on the Future of Food. Good stuff, can't complain about an academic conference where there's the opportunity to have dinner at an Amish farm and a local foods picnic complete with fiddling music. I may be imaging the fiddling music part, but it sounds fun yes?


Very Obtuse Rants:

I have nothing. I had rants I was conjuring up earlier in the week, but they've left me. Odd.
Very odd. Completely unacceptable really, I like to think a rant at 12.24 am is the sign of good things to come.

oooooh. I just remembered one of my rants. Sooooo.....Sony sucks. But it's not just Sony, it's approximately 98.412% of the companies out that that produce 'things'. Well, let me tell you, they may manufacture them things,. but they surely don't build them to last. And I am 100% aware that this may be the most brilliant business model ever conceived: let's build stuff that people want, or think they must have, but let's build it so it only lasts a year or two. When it breaks, they'll have to buy the newest model. We'll stay in business and they'll be happy because they have the 'latest' model. Tech products are an obvious one here ...for example a digital camera that can't handle a mere 4 ft drop to a carpeted floor or a DV player that goes wonky after a year, but there are other, simpler products, that are also built to NOT last. Like, for example, an iTouch carrying case that only lasts four months, or boots that are worn after six months, or a blender that starts to moan after a year. I tell you who should be moaning - YOU and ME. We are getting screwed over royally by this 'disposable' business model. I'm not old enough to say 'I remember when I bought things that lasted 20 years...but I do remember that the blender and electric beaters that my Mom had in her kitchen were there from my first memories and remain usable and actually better at performing their tasks of blending and beating than their new fangled versiosn with all the bells and whistles and crappy 90 day guarantees.

A 90 day guarantee?? Seriously.

And speaking of shoddyness...what about the Confederation Bridge to PEI. The thing cost $1 billion dollars to build..the company could only guarantee it's life for 100 years. Um....the pyramids of Egypt and the Roman Coleseum...need I say more.

We are getting jipped and we don't seem to care. In fact, it seems that many of us are embracing the idea of getting more and more, of replacing yesterday's gizmos with today's and being totally cool with a gadget that has a lifespan of a year. Really? That's good enough?

I, personally, don't think so. But what do I know...I just came home from the pub.

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