What a day...
Two posts in two days - don't get used to it people ;)
But what a day it's been - I want to record it all here, if for no other reason that for me to remember it all.
First, the day started by sleeping through statistics class, which, I can assure you, is the best way to get through that subject *grins* So I had a lie-in, which was wonderul, got to school, handed in an assignment (for Soils class), then proceeded to learn (by talking to classmate, and from that day's lecture) that I had done a superb job on it.
Soils was quite fascinating today. We're talking about classifying soils, and we're learning all 10 of the soil orders. Thankfully we don't have to know the 31 soil Great Groups, the 231 families, nor the more than 10,000 sub-groups or 100,000 series! Wow. It's neat, though - very linear and analytical.
and THEN I found out my GIS midterm got scaled. So instead of 92.1, I get ninety-seven point four!!! YAAAAY! WOOT! Third highest in the class! (Happy happy tiger dance). For all the long days studying and preparing, and for doing ALL THE READINGS!!, wow it's worth it. Tee hee. I've been really happy with my grades this term; its nice to be reminded that when things are going well, and I'm in my prime, I can accomplish a lot scholastically.
From soils class I had to dash dash DASH away to work. I was hoping to make the 12:30 seabus to get to work for 1pm. But, I got downtown by 12:32 - drat. So to pass the time I went to Sophie's Books. It's a multi-lingual bookstore, and they sell all sorts of fun stuff. I was so pleased! I haven't been in there for quite some time. They had some very cute cards, so I bought some (in French, too!), and also a book of Haiku (the Sound of Water). Finally there was a graphical novel by a local writer, set here in Vancouver! It's called "True Loves" and I flipped through it - it's wonderful. So yay new manga! I probably didn't need to spend $50 on stuff, but it's a good cause, right? Right? And I haven't had a new book in so long. And many people in my life will love getting a cute French card! Yay. I don't have to be a tight-wad all the time.
But oops - it was now like 12:47, and I had missed the 12:45 seabus - icky! Oh well - I wandered down to the SeaBus station, and go figure - there's a theatre performance in progress! Some Christian outreach group was doing an interpretative piece on the meaning of God. In the rain. In T-shirts. Wow, that's brave - I'll applaud pretty much any cause that is willing to do that! One of the kids came up and talked to me, and was very friendly. No preaching, no moralizing, just 'what do you think?' I was caught off-guard; there's almost an expectation that religious types will be, well, dogmatic. So I had a nice dialogue with the young lade about this beautiful, wordless theatre piece in front of set. It was set, appropriately, to the song "it's my life."
A young man, dressed in white, stood in the centre of a circle of other kids, in blue. He was supposed to represent God, and then the people on the outside would alternately shun or prasie the man in the middle; they would love or hate him, or each other; they would be joyful or sad; each time, when they finished an action, he would reach out to them, whether they accepted his touch or not. It was an interesting perspective, and I like how they presented the divine as immanent and present on this plane rather than strictly transcendant.
Their piece concluded (they weren't asking for money, either - more bonus points for them! Though I actually wanted to give a donation because the piece was so beautiful, but they told me no. Cool.), I went into the terminal. There were still a few minutes before the 1pm sailing, so I stopped to watch some pigeons from the overpass that connects the station to the wharf.
The overpass crosses the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) marshalling yards, so there are about a dozen tracks that all converge together. Some are fillied with long trains of boxcards, waiting to be loaded or unloaded at the nearby port. In one track there was a series of empty boxcars - that is to say, the frame and wheels, with no box. The pigeons were roosing in these empty, open frames.
Just then, a Fluotist started playing (buskers often sit at the far end of the overpass and play for the commuters). And as he did, the pigeons, as if they had heard him, all took off and swooped around in circles. The piece he was playing was light, and dance-like, moving fluidly from one mode to another, like rushing water. And each time he changed tones, the birds would land, take off, flit about, circle, and dance in the air. As they played, I noticed there were some doves mixed in, and as the music continued more and more doves seemed to be added to the mix (the sun was also hitting them), and by the end of the piece it was like this cloud of tiny angels flying around the tracks. It was magnificent.
I get to work, and it's a zoo - at one point there were at least 144 people in the pool! Gong show. I got to rise to the challenge, and deal with a few minor first-aids and other minor problems, while still keeping everything clean and all the other tasks accomplished. We all came together as a team, and the time flew by. It was exactly the way a group of co-workers at the pool should spend their day: busy, active, interacting with the public, and supporting and helping each other.
Later on, in the evening, there was a more singicicant incident. But, it is probably the subject of a post all to itself, so I will sign off now and finish this tale another night.
One final note - I got to talk to Buck when I came home, which was glorious - icing on the cake of a beautiful day!
Cheers, y'all
Michael
But what a day it's been - I want to record it all here, if for no other reason that for me to remember it all.
First, the day started by sleeping through statistics class, which, I can assure you, is the best way to get through that subject *grins* So I had a lie-in, which was wonderul, got to school, handed in an assignment (for Soils class), then proceeded to learn (by talking to classmate, and from that day's lecture) that I had done a superb job on it.
Soils was quite fascinating today. We're talking about classifying soils, and we're learning all 10 of the soil orders. Thankfully we don't have to know the 31 soil Great Groups, the 231 families, nor the more than 10,000 sub-groups or 100,000 series! Wow. It's neat, though - very linear and analytical.
and THEN I found out my GIS midterm got scaled. So instead of 92.1, I get ninety-seven point four!!! YAAAAY! WOOT! Third highest in the class! (Happy happy tiger dance). For all the long days studying and preparing, and for doing ALL THE READINGS!!, wow it's worth it. Tee hee. I've been really happy with my grades this term; its nice to be reminded that when things are going well, and I'm in my prime, I can accomplish a lot scholastically.
From soils class I had to dash dash DASH away to work. I was hoping to make the 12:30 seabus to get to work for 1pm. But, I got downtown by 12:32 - drat. So to pass the time I went to Sophie's Books. It's a multi-lingual bookstore, and they sell all sorts of fun stuff. I was so pleased! I haven't been in there for quite some time. They had some very cute cards, so I bought some (in French, too!), and also a book of Haiku (the Sound of Water). Finally there was a graphical novel by a local writer, set here in Vancouver! It's called "True Loves" and I flipped through it - it's wonderful. So yay new manga! I probably didn't need to spend $50 on stuff, but it's a good cause, right? Right? And I haven't had a new book in so long. And many people in my life will love getting a cute French card! Yay. I don't have to be a tight-wad all the time.
But oops - it was now like 12:47, and I had missed the 12:45 seabus - icky! Oh well - I wandered down to the SeaBus station, and go figure - there's a theatre performance in progress! Some Christian outreach group was doing an interpretative piece on the meaning of God. In the rain. In T-shirts. Wow, that's brave - I'll applaud pretty much any cause that is willing to do that! One of the kids came up and talked to me, and was very friendly. No preaching, no moralizing, just 'what do you think?' I was caught off-guard; there's almost an expectation that religious types will be, well, dogmatic. So I had a nice dialogue with the young lade about this beautiful, wordless theatre piece in front of set. It was set, appropriately, to the song "it's my life."
A young man, dressed in white, stood in the centre of a circle of other kids, in blue. He was supposed to represent God, and then the people on the outside would alternately shun or prasie the man in the middle; they would love or hate him, or each other; they would be joyful or sad; each time, when they finished an action, he would reach out to them, whether they accepted his touch or not. It was an interesting perspective, and I like how they presented the divine as immanent and present on this plane rather than strictly transcendant.
Their piece concluded (they weren't asking for money, either - more bonus points for them! Though I actually wanted to give a donation because the piece was so beautiful, but they told me no. Cool.), I went into the terminal. There were still a few minutes before the 1pm sailing, so I stopped to watch some pigeons from the overpass that connects the station to the wharf.
The overpass crosses the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) marshalling yards, so there are about a dozen tracks that all converge together. Some are fillied with long trains of boxcards, waiting to be loaded or unloaded at the nearby port. In one track there was a series of empty boxcars - that is to say, the frame and wheels, with no box. The pigeons were roosing in these empty, open frames.
Just then, a Fluotist started playing (buskers often sit at the far end of the overpass and play for the commuters). And as he did, the pigeons, as if they had heard him, all took off and swooped around in circles. The piece he was playing was light, and dance-like, moving fluidly from one mode to another, like rushing water. And each time he changed tones, the birds would land, take off, flit about, circle, and dance in the air. As they played, I noticed there were some doves mixed in, and as the music continued more and more doves seemed to be added to the mix (the sun was also hitting them), and by the end of the piece it was like this cloud of tiny angels flying around the tracks. It was magnificent.
I get to work, and it's a zoo - at one point there were at least 144 people in the pool! Gong show. I got to rise to the challenge, and deal with a few minor first-aids and other minor problems, while still keeping everything clean and all the other tasks accomplished. We all came together as a team, and the time flew by. It was exactly the way a group of co-workers at the pool should spend their day: busy, active, interacting with the public, and supporting and helping each other.
Later on, in the evening, there was a more singicicant incident. But, it is probably the subject of a post all to itself, so I will sign off now and finish this tale another night.
One final note - I got to talk to Buck when I came home, which was glorious - icing on the cake of a beautiful day!
Cheers, y'all
Michael