A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
Yes, yet another picture of Robson Square in Vancouver. If there are any Vancouverites reading this blog, sorry, I know you're seeing alot of your own city. But I really, really, like it.
Busy, Busy, Busy
Walkway from Lost Lagoon to Stanley Park - downtown Vancouver.
I've just now started this crazy Company Law assignment. It's going to be ridiculously busy, and I apologize if my insightful blog posts are going to suffer - also decrease in quantity until next Wednesday.
Great to have new readers!
We lost our 3rd straight football game last night - 13-0 to the other law school team. We're going to have to try more short passes or something - anything - because whatever we are trying just isn't working.
I've become a real fan of the "interests" section of the profiles of bloggers. It allows you to link to all the other bloggers who have put that as a particular interest. Which is neat - I can now track down all other "Delirious?" fans, or people that listed "Chariots of Fire" as a favourite movie, for example.
Lots of prayer going on right now - boy do I need it. I'll be so glad when this is all done, right now it's just grind it out and push through.
Mt. Baker
Mt. Baker.
This is my current desktop background. I don't really have anything interest to blog about, but I'll throw this pic up for now. Stay tuned, there could be more later.
Insomniac
Downtown Vancouver. That's the courthouse, right in the middle of a park.
I've been battling over the last few weeks with something I've never had a problem with before.
Insomnia.
But it's not a normal type, or what I've been told is normal. Instead of simply lying in bed, unable to sleep - I fall asleep instantly, like I normally do. But then I dream through the whole night - short dreams, long dreams, etc. And I wake up after all of them. No nightmares, or anything like that. Just dreams - about everything - from working in the library, to watching a movie, to talking to people, etc., etc., etc. And then I wake up after all of them. And then it takes me a few minutes to fall asleep, but then I have another dream, and I'm waking up again in anywhere from 10-30 minutes.
The end result is that I'm not getting the usual deep sleep I normally get, and I've been waking up absolutely exhausted. Normally, I hit the pillow and I'm in a deep sleep for the entire night. Now, I'm waking up all through the night, and I'm tired all the time. I can't even imagine how terrible this is going to be during exams - hopefully it won't be happening by then.
Does anyone have any tips/ideas/advice? Has anyone even heard of this problem? It seems "minor", but it's been driving me crazy, and I'm looking forward to sleeping again.
Baseball
Well, everyone's talking about the Red Sox/Yankees series - and the Yankees incredible collapse and the Red Sox going to the World Series.
Or, if you haven't been following that, you can see the Astros/Cards - a great series - probably a better one. As I type this, it's almost over - the Cards are 1 strike away. Sets up a Cards/BoSox series...yes, confirmed. Cards win. I'm picking the Cards to win the series in 7 games. But still.
The biggest news on the baseball front is
here. Carlos Delgado could very likely be back with the Blue Jays next year. Incredible. That would be a phenomenal and fantastic thing - the Jays, with healthy bodies and Carlos back, could actually be a decent team next year. Add a bit of pitching, and they'd be more than a decent team.
Health Care
Yes, this is my second post of the day. You should still read the one
below - it's a good story about me almost dying. There. If that didn't catch your interest, nothing will.
Anyways.
If you remember correctly, a key plank of Paul Martin's reelection campaign (maybe the only plank, the number of times he repeated it) was that he was going to "shorten wait times". I heard that OVER and OVER again. At the time, I remember saying that short wait times is a result of a system that is working, rather than an issue in and of itself. You can't just say "We're going to shorten wait times", that's not a goal. That's a result of an efficient system. But I digress.
But there's a major problem. Even with the commitment to health care funding....
Studies are showing that surgery waiting times are getting significantly longer.
Here's the stats.
Waiting lists are 92% LONGER than they were in 1993.
Total health-care spending rose to $121 billion dollars in 2003, a 4.6% increase.
Average wait times for surgery:
Shortest - Manitoba - 14.8 weeks
Longest - Saskatchewan - 33.3 weeks
Nadeem Esmail, author of the study - "Canada ought to look to seven countries - from France to Japan and Switzerland - that have universal pulic health care systems but allow private medicine too, and have no significant wait times."
Let's have a quick reminder.
- 1993, the year that the study started from was the year the Liberals took power.
- At best, in Manitoba, you're waiting about 3 and a half months for surgery
- At worst, in Saskatchewan, you're waiting about 8 months for surgery.
There is something wrong with this. And the Liberals haven't fixed it. It's time we tried something else. And someone else.
Close Call
I really never thought that walking slowly might save my life.
I usually park at the big Springett parking lot at Western - at the corner of Western Road, and Lambton Drive (the road the Law building is on - the one that runs down to Brescia). So I park there and just barely miss the light. So I have to wait to cross the street - for anyone who is often there, you know it's a long light.
So I wait. It changes - and a bus, which was waiting to turn left, turns. I start to walk across, but for whatever reason, not at my usual fast pace - not sure why. There's 2 lanes, then a turning lane, off of Western, onto Lambton. There's a car stopped in each of the first 2 lanes, and nothing in the left turning lane. Yet.
When I'm right in the middle of the 2nd lane a van coming flying through the turning lane - apparently trying to make a left turn on a red light about 10 seconds after it turned red. Either that, or he wasn't paying attention. Either way, he shoots across the intersection, about halfway into it. If I'm 3 steps farther across the street, I would have been directly in his path. I stop walking. This driver, probably a 70 year old man, realizes his mistake. So what does he do? Put the car in reverse and zoom back into position. Again, I was glad I hadn't continued walking around him, or he would have run me over the other way - because this whole time he wasn't looking at me. He never saw me, unless it was after I eventually finished crossing the street.
So a close call. I'm thanking God I'm alive, and uninjured. I don't think I've ever been that close to something like that before.
And so it continues...
Vancouver Art Gallery.
Well, law school interview number 1 is done. It went okay, and I guess that's all I can ask for. I suppose I'll probably do better next time, that's usually the way these things go. It's really difficult to tell how they went, but maybe that's an art that you pick up over time as well.
And, thanks to the principles of conformity within the business world, those pics of me in the last blog with the "chin growth" are going to be the last like that for a while. Clean-shaven again, much to the delight of some, and to the chagrin of others. We could do a poll, I suppose. Let's not.
News:
1) Britney Spears has had enough. She's sick and tired of being an "
overexposed blonde" and has decided to take a break and let other blondes dominate the front pages of the tabloids. Wanna bet that the next issue of each of those tabloids will have a story about her decision to "step back" on the cover - thereby gaining her more exposure?
2) We have got to stop sending military forces around the world if we can't support them. If our troop in Haiti have to
beg for equipment, there's something major, inherently wrong with our military. This must be examined, and it needs to be a priority of the government. Now.
3) After all those ads, the list of the
Top 10 Greatest Canadians is finally out. Now they have a American Idol style voting system. Although it's a nice idea, and I'd like to see the final results...how did Don Cherry make the top 10?
RTOTD: Who IS the greatest Canadian?
The Food.
The Food.
The Group.
The Group.
The Fun.
The Fun.
It was a great time at the inaugural CLF Meeting. Great fellowship, great food - and lots of it. Probably the beginning of a great year. Was at my house from around 6-10ish, then people had to leave for OCI's. If you're a Law Student reading this and you want to come to a future meeting, please let me know.
Funniest moment of the evening (and turning point in the "Taboo" game):
"A non-old person who has lots of money." Answer? "A yuppy."
After that, the guys took over and the girls never recovered.
It was a superb evening. And I even got some free OCI advice too - can't complain about that.
Looks like we are going to be having weekly meetings, and we will be doing Operation Christmas Child to support kids who won't be getting Christmas presents otherwise. I fully expect all law school people reading this to help out and fill a box - more information coming soon.
Smart Kids
I read this newstory and I had to post it. What a kid - pretty good smarts:
12-year-old toll-collector
Go read it.
Under Pressure...
Vancouver at night, from the top of Grouse Mountain.
Well, today was the first really gross and disgusting fall day we've had yet. Drizzly, cold, windy bad weather. And, not surprisingly, I've been feeling really gross and disgusting all day as well. Seems like the barometric pressure changes in the atmosphere when it goes from being nice one day to crappy the next actually DOES make a difference. Or something. Or maybe it's just that bad weather puts us all in bad moods. One of the two.
Further note - a bunch of us are playing football at Westminster High School Football Field on Saturday, at 12 noon. If you want to go, feel free to show up. If you need directions or a ride, let me know. Hopefully the weather won't be quite so gross then.
News:
1) The 3rd US Presidential Debate has come and gone. John Kerry, that wonderful Democrat, seems to have won. But it's a bad sign when people think you've won the debate.....and then go and
decide to vote for President Bush! Slick, Kerry, really slick.
2) And if you need another reason to support President Bush, 54% of voters think he's in
better shape. Heck, although he might need to work on "rear deltoids and traps" (whatever that means), he's the one considered to be in the best shape. If Bill Clinton's hair and looks won him 2 elections, maybe this will end up being the clincher for Bush. Somehow I still doubt it.
3)
Psycho man beats up 74 year old woman. What a bizarre world we live in. I mean, come on, if you had a lovely little Shih Tzu named Scooter, and the big bad Rottweiler came and attacked your dog, wouldn't you protect it? And if you owned the Rottweiler, wouldn't the logicial thing be to call your dog off, rather than beat up the woman trying to protect her dog?
4) And Michael Moore is officially a "
slimeball". George Bush, Sr. has said it. What a guy.
That's about it for today.
NHL Lockout
Well, here's what my schedule should be today:
Football from 9-10pm.
Home by 1015 pm.
Schoolwork, while listening to the NHL.com live radio feed of the Canucks-Sharks game - the season opener for both team.
But it won't be. Because we have a stupid set of NHL owners, and a stupid set of NHL players, which will ultimately mean there won't be hockey until at least January. If we are lucky. It could be longer. I'm optimistic there will be hockey this season, but I'm not expecting it until January.
IP exam, almost finished. Now the Company assignment starts soon. That should be "fun". If it's as good as the Property assignment from last year, it should be okay.
Football Game 3 tonight. We are 1-0-1, with 3 games to go. Personally, last weeks' game was awful for me, I'm sure it will be better today. If not, I'll bench myself.
Thanksgiving
Truly, a great holiday. Happy times, lots of food, what more could you ask for?
I think there should be more holidays. All the time. Maybe a weekly one - like, say, Mondays. Every Monday should be a holiday. And Friday, too. 3 day week sounds good.
I've been trying to come up with a list of things to be thankful for, but it's tricky. Not that there's not a long list, just that trying to come up with stuff can be difficult. And something that's interesting to read, as well.
Which I'm probably not doing so well with right now.
Busyness, Part 1
Vancouver Library. Remind you of the Roman Coliseum? It should - it was designed after that. Posted in honour of
Gladiator - which I got for my birthday! :)
I wasn't actually in the library today, but I grabbed this pic from my Vancouver trip because I thought it adequately summed up my day today. A looong day of working on my IP exam and Negotiation and Mediation (from now on, shortened to N&M).
Movie Review:
Ladder 49
First off, I was surprised they called it "Ladder 49", because the main character (Joaquin Phoenix) is part of crew "Engine 33". Now, I suppose it's because they work in pairs, and "Ladder 49" does sound better as a movie title rather than "Engine 33", so I guess that's a point inf favour of the movie.
Overall, I quite enjoyed it. Good acting - extremely believable, very likable characters. A rare movie that didn't contain a villain - unless you count fire. I've heard the movie was a tribute to the firefighters that died in the World Trade Centre attacks, and if so, it was a good tribute. Some parts were perhaps a little slow, but overall, a definite thumbs-up. A good drama with some surprises, some cool fire scenes (which looked good, not fake), and good characters.
2 new movies for my birthday - the aforementioned
Gladiator, as well as
The Last Samurai. Both favorites of mine, and welcome additions to my very small DVD collection - doubling it!(currently sitting at 4 now, I believe. Along with a couple VHS tapes...going to have to work on that...hehe).
I'll have a CD review of
Alter Bridge - One Day Remains coming tomorrow. Watch for it...heh.
Finally, for all the bashing
Governor Arnie Schwarzie has taken, the California governator is sitting on 60% + approval ratings, and die-hard Democrats are even coming around. Can't say I'm convinced a guy who starred in
Predator is the best man to run the nation, but he's gotta be doing something right. Full marks to him for overcoming sterotypes and doing a good job. Go Arnie Go.
That's about it for today. Again, I promise that health care blog is coming. Just have to get around to it.
BC Timberwolf
This is the timberwolf we saw in Vancouver. We whistled, and he came up to the fence - right in perfect range for the flash!
New Beginnings
Well, as noted before, there are some new changes to the blog. I'll point them out briefly, if you haven't already noticed.
1) There will now be a title. Allows for faster archiving, and also for skimming to easily see where that comment thread was (it'll help for older posts - like the ongoing smoking debate below).
2) You can now email my *wonderful* posts by clicking the handy little email button at the bottom of this post. So when my social commentary is so insightful and relevant that you need to send it to the Globe and Mail, you can just hit that button, enter the email address, and boom! They've got it!
3) Obviously, if you've been here in the last day or so, you'll notice the big new feature - pictures! Starting with the Vancouver courthouse yesterday, I'll be updating lots of pictures to this site - digital cameras are great tools. It's somewhat tricky - as it will ultimately end up above the title until I can figure that out (once my IP exam is done, maybe. Or just the next time I get bored for a greater length of time than it takes me to post this...) - BUT, that doesn't mean it won't be cool.
As mentioned, I'm doing my Intellectual Property mid-term right now - it's interesting enough, and I enjoy the class immensely. Second on the list of favs behind Negotiation and Mediation, for sure.
I must have played the worst game of football in my life on Wednesday, but we fortunately escaped with a tie. It'll have to be better next week, but I'm sure it will be. They were a good team, and we'll be a better team next week as well. To tie a good team with a weaker game is a good thing.
We're off to Chatham on Sunday for Thanksgiving with the family, and I still have to sort out my Monday schedule. Getting this IP exam done is a top priority, and finishing catching up on some of the work that has gone by the wayside thanks to the Vancouver trip, the moot, and OCI's will be good as well.
And it's freezing in Weldon right now. Why they need the air conditioning on when it's not that warm outside I won't know. Will it be this way in November too? It better not be.
Vancouver Courthouse - what a sight. Quite the difference from our cement block we have here in London.
Seems like the smoking in prisons discussion has re-opened a bit, see below - or the hot links on the side of the page. I wish there was a way to bring current threads back up - if anyone knows how, please let me know.
5 Thoughts of the Day
1) Whereas a lot of people have been happy that the MP's have been refusing a big pay raise, apparently
some Liberals aren't so thrilled. One MP - of course anonymously - even asked "Why are we screwing ourselves and not allowing the raise to go through?" Hmmm. Good question. Maybe if you would be brave enough to say who you are, we'd be brave enough to answer that tough question.
2) Tony Blair says the world can now "
end African poverty". Sounds good, Tony. I think it's time we worked on that as well. He calls for the end of attention and the beginning of action. Sorry - but was your speech calling attention, or creating action? How much relief did you provide when you made that speech? Ironically, not mentioned in the article - I wonder if it was there.
3) The government's blatant disrespect for our Canadian naval officers continues. Defence Minister Bill Graham (ironic, really) instead of dealing with the issue of poor equipment, has stated that the fire aboard the maiden voyage of the Chicoutimi is "part of the
risks associated with serving in the Canadian navy...". No, Bill, you're wrong. The risk is allowing you and your cronies to continue in your blatant disregard for the state of our armed forces and to continue to jeopardize our Canadian lives, while dumping blame on someone else. It's about time the Liberals were honest with our military and just told them they don't give 2 cents about them. After all, that's about what they've contributed to the military over the past 11 years.
4) Prime Minister Paul Martin says he will
go to the polls if he loses the vote on the Throne Speech tonight. Great to know that we have a PM that will risk spending millions more of OUR money on another useless election because he refuses to work with the opposition. Thank goodness for Stephen Harper and the Conservatives not doing what convention insists they do and vote down the throne speech. Even though they are not in government yet, they're saving us money.
5) And finally, if you're stuck on the Bush vs. Kerry issue, and you can't decide, why don't we just take it down to who would make the better First Lady. And really, Mrs. Bush would have to be better. I mean, way to
take the bull by the horns and declare once and for all who is wearing what colour at the presidential debate. Isn't that what we want from the American president? Leadership? Unwillingness to back down? Go Laura Go.
Well, the birthday is over. I'm 20, still alive, and contrary to what my younger brother said - my life has not ended yet. He was convinced that your life ends once you become an adult - and apparently 20 was when I became an adult. But as far as I know, I'm still okay.
Negotiation and Mediation class is phenomenal. I'll probably blog about it every Wednesday, it really is that good. Definetely the law school hilight of the week - maybe the hilight of my academic career so far. Highly recommended for all you LS people out there.
And I've enjoyed the new group of comments on the blog - hearing from people all over the place. It's great! Keep it coming - I always like having other bloggers to follow.
Finally, it seems like school is settling down. With no more OCI crap (except for the actual day), and the moot over, and back from Van-City, things seem to be back to normal. Which is still busy, but more normal.
The IP midterm is received today, and then the Company assignment starts the week after.
I've got another major health care blog on the way - so stay tuned.
Today's the big day! Officially 20!
JT is back.
Thanks for all the comments while I've been gone - it's nice to know that my recent blogging has helped encourage some readers to kick around.
Maybe I'll go through my weekend chronologically.
Thursday
I flew out to TO at 1120. Flying for the first time was good - lots of fun. Takeoffs and landings are cool - and my ears didn't hurt nearly as much as some people told me they would. I didn't like the annoyingly hyper flight attendents, but I suppose that's better than rude ones.
Got into Vancouver (VC) at 120 PST. Dropped my stuff at the
hotel, then I took off to see the sights. The conference didn't start until 7 pm, and so I had about 4 hours to kill after I got into the hotel. By 3 I was hitting downtown VC.
It's a beautiful city. So clean. The library downtown is fashioned after the Roman Coliseum, which was neat, and there were no cigarette butts or gum, or anything like that. Lots of glass buildings - all very new. And the courthouse was incredible! Glass walls, terraced gardens inside - just a great place.
The other thing I noticed was that there were far more ethnic "minorities" - minorities in quotes because I probably heard more Mandarin walking around downtown than English. London is such a white-anglo-saxon city.
I got down to Stanley Park around 4ish - and it was surprisingly not busy. What a great place. You could see everything - lakes, bays, mountains, forests, totem poles. Even the odd rooster running around - I think it got out of its cage. It's a better park than Springbank - again, very clean. And the water is actually blue and clear and green - rather than brown.
The conference started at 7 - a decent opening speaker, but probably the least interesting one. After that, we had a student event for all the 25 law students there (representing 8 different law schools) at the
restaurant/bar that they had at the hotel. That was really neat - got to meet a lot of great people with similar interests and faith. Finally got to bed around 1130 PST (or 230 EST, as my body was telling me). Jet lag is not so much fun.
Friday
Got up for the "breakfast buffet" at 815. I thought that it would be a real breakfast buffet - afterall, that's what they said. What did this mean? It meant scones, 2 different types of melon, coffee, OJ, and peanut butter or jam for the scones. THAT'S IT. That cost me 7 bucks, something I would not pay for again.
The speakers were all really good. I really enjoyed the one on worldviews - but it would take too long to go into all the details, so if you're interested, ask me next time you see me. Suffice to say the speakers were phenomenal, and the whole trip was well worth it for sure. No complaints.
The day on Friday was kept busy with speakers and workshops - including a good one on the same-sex marriage issue. Heard a speaker talk about civil unions and the government getting out of the actual "definition of marriage" business - I'll probably blog about this sometime soon, so hold up for that.
Friday afternoon at 4, they had the Annual General Meeting, so myself and a lot of the students skipped out to Starbucks.
At 530, we headed up to
Grouse Mountain for a dinner and a chance to see the city late at night. I'm going to have a figure out a way to post some of my pics - the view of the city was awesome. We also saw the timberwolves up close - they were orphaned, so they keep them in a pen. You can whistle, and they sometimes come up to the fence (I ended up getting a great pic because he wandered right up, and I got the flash, even though it was dark).
After that, we had another student mixer, and I didn't get to bed until around 1 AM.
Saturday
Another early morning, with more sessions. I skipped breakfast this time after getting gouged on Friday.
Sessions were good. At lunch, we ended up going to a Chinese buffet - loaded with grease and our clothes stank after we were done, but the food was good.
Saturday afternoon was a free time period, so after we had the greasy food, we decided to go for a swim at the pool. It was absolutely freezing cold, and the "hot tub" jets didn't work, and the water temperature was barely above lukewarm - which meant we weren't there for too long. Most of the rest of the afternoon was spent getting ready for the banquet Saturday evening, and having a quick rest - jet lag is bad.
The banquet at the hotel was great food. The hall we were in was often used for weddings, I think, so it was well set out for a formal banquet. The food was great - another buffet (my 2nd in 5 hours), so that meant there was a lot of food eaten that day. All very good, high-quality food, but an awful lot of it.
The keynote speaker on the Saturday night was really good. Name was Jordan Lorence - a member of the
Alliance Defence Fund. His bio's probably somewhere on that site. I actually haven't looked at that site, so I don't know entirely what that group does, but I'll leave it for you to look up. Anyways, he was amazing - great stories, excellent speaker. One thing I was reminded of this weekend was that lawyers all like to talk - lots of the sessions went long.
After the banquet, we had a great worship time with one of the law students there leading the worship. Some of the people there were really talented - this one girl taught piano, sang the national anthems at CFL games, led worship - AND is clerking at the Federal Court of Appeal. All you non-lawyers might not understand exactly what that means - let's just say that it's VERY prestigious. And she was only one example - lots of people there that had similar resumes.
Again, that went late (see a theme here?). Got to bed around midnight.
Sunday
First day I felt over jet lag, and I'm flying home. Ironic, really. There was an awesome Sunday morning service at the hotel - and then it was goodbyes all around. I flew out of VC at 3 PST, got into Edmonton at 530 PM MT. The flight was delayed, and then I ended up in TO at 1225 AM EST. The flight back was fine - except for the annoying Laurier Golden Hawks Women's Volleyball team - they were really annoying, loud and hyper. Not sure why, it's not like Laurier actually ever WINS anything....
So that was the trip. Now back to the grind. All in all, an amazing weekend - one of the best ever (for a lot of reasons not noted here - getting into the meat of the conference would take pages, and pages) - so lets just say that it was one of the best weekends of my life for a tonne of reasons.
Now I just have to remember how to take notes on administrative law again....
