[Insert pretentious name here]

The time has come...in 4 hours I will be off to Ask and Imagine for a week (or so) filled with excitement, self discovery, and other such exciting things.

I won't lie, one of the biggest reasons I'm looking forward to this is because I get to see Rushy again :) But, this doesn't come without sacrifice, as because of some freakish planning, I miss Charlie's visit to PEI.

Anyhoo, I'm off to bed.

This may seem familiar if you read Nick's blog, as I am mostly just expanding on what he said and adding a few original words here and there :)

Education...what is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of that word? Most likely it is something along the lines of, "School, university, classroom" etc, and, for the most part, I would agree with you. But, this year has been a year for a different kind of education, for my whole family. This might turn into a bit of a tribute to my parents, but stick with me :)

Throughout this whole year, people have been in and out of our house, with exchange students and friends from all over the world; Thailand, France, Austria, you name it, and they were here (or soon coming). My brother and I have also been in and out with exchanges and such, and my parents have been with us the whole way, most importantly emotionally and spiritually, but also financially :) This summer, my parents haven't had the chance to relax with the house to themselves at all, and it isn't about to end. It has been an incredibly stressful and busy year for them, but they are still right by my side.

I guess what I'm trying to say here, is...Thank you Mom and Dad...for everything. And I know that when I look back on my education in my youth, it won't be the high school classroom education that sticks out, it will be these moments. *

So...No matter how annoying and frustrating your parents may get, remember: they are always there for you. And finally, IMHO, life education is immesurably more valuable than that of the classroom.


*(see acov.nfiniti.org for original copy of this phrase)

Game Days have become a bit of a tradition here. Myself and a bunch of other friends, some of whom I hang out with a lot, and others hardly at all, are interested in...you guessed it. Video games. Because of this, we decided one day to head down to the local LAN "café", Adrenalan, and play around. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun, and now, it has almost become a tradition. We haven't had a Game Day yet this summer, so I called up Nick Kennedy and we planned one for today. The problem is though, no one else can do it. So, we decided to wait until some other day to go to Adrenalan, and in the meantime, have a Game Day: Vintage, chez moi.

I recently set up a mini-network between this computer and a poopy old Windows NT computer from Dad's office so me and FX could play some Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun. It turns out Nick has a huge collection of pre-millenium games, such as Warcraft II, the original Command and Conquer, and Starcraft, just to name a few. Geeky? Hell yes.

So...I'm curious...who else does this kind of thing appeal to?

Man....It's not possible to describe how pumped I am for Ask and Imagine in less than two weeks. I don't think I've ever been so excited for something. Not only am I going to be able to see one of my closest friends in the world for the first time in almost a year, I am hopefully going to have the most spiritual and knowledge-expanding experience of my young life. Through some freakishly unlucky planning last year, I was forced to back out of A&I at the last second last year, though this year, nothing can stop me from going.

Now that I look back on last year, I am actually glad I am going this year and not last year. It makes it that much more special that I will get to see Rushan again, and I have had the chance to (kind of) get to know and work with (a little) the coordinator of A&I, Judy Steers. AND, hopefully I am a little more mature and grown up and I will be able to appreciate and more fully understand what is going on. (Although with people like Judy and Rushan running the show, good luck understanding anything! :D)

In other news, I have taken my goal to become Batman to the next level; I wore my Batman mask on a 20 minute walk to MacDonald's with some friends today. Needless to say, the feedback was...interesting, varying from people pointing and laughing to people singing the Batman song with me :)

"The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

That thought has been bothering me lately. Not the fact that the stars are inaccessible, (which they aren't) but the fact that I won't live to see Ralph Waldo Emerson proved wrong. Lately I have been thinking about it, and I although I still regret being born in the 20th century, it is for different reasons now than for before. Before I always wanted to live in the medieval era or before, but now, I want to see technology! I want to see mankind explore Mars! I want to see mankind live on another planet! But no, I have to live in an era where we are still struggling to cure cancer, still struggling to figure out how the laws of gravity and physics work! I mean come on, dark matter....are we still at a spot where we have to make stuff up to explain things that don't make sense? It's like saying "I swung my bat at the baseball but it missed, therefore something must have pushed it away!"


Ok, maybe not the best comparison, but it's the best I can do at 2 AM, and you get my drift, right?


P.S. I just decided that I want to be Batman, and I am returning to my dusty old blog, hence the slightly random name.

P.P.S. There are moments when one feels free from one's own identification with human limitations and inadequacies. At such moments one imagines that one stands on some spot of a small planet, gazing in amazement at the cold yet profoundly moving beauty of the eternal, the unfathomable; life and death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor destiny; only Being. - Albert Einstein

Nice quote, no?

I think I announced the re-opening of this blog a bit too early...I am busier than I ever have been in... well forever! I have soooooooooooooooooooooo much work to do, and even with me doing a solid at least 2 hours a night catching up, I am still only about 75% done. Hopefully I will be able to get some work done this weekend, though even that is not sure, as I have the band trip. Then, after that, I might be able to go on the big band trip to New York! All if I get my poopload of work done... And it is certainly slow going with me going to every freaking band practice going on in the school not even counting the extra ones every lunch time, trying to find time to hang out with friends I haven't seen for 3 months, getting my catch-up work done AND keeping up with regular class work.

So, sorry for breaking my promise for posts so early, but this time I have a real excuse. Hopefully once I get back from the band trip(s) I will have time to post and something to post about!!

Update your links people! Teh Wil is back, and more cynical than ever after 3 months of Frenchness.

Be prepared for disappointment after disappointment as you check my blog faithfully while I reward you with a post a month!

Kidding, but hopefully I will post more often this time around. Only one way to find out...and that is to try! I am planning to change the address as I really don't like my current one, so some of you might need to change your links. Anyhoo, good to be back in Canada, had a great time in France and most of you know the details. I am settling back into life on the island and the work pile is slowly dwindling so I am allowed a little computer time.

Welcome back to [Insert Pretentious Name Here] everyone.