Happy New Year, all!

I hope no one resolved to cut back on the schadenfreude.

We're still on. I've got my dad's phone. 983-6700.

Who's the designated cell phone guy today? Westbrooke still on?

Ford rooted for Oilers -- Former United States President Gerald Ford had a great affinity for the Edmonton Oilers according to a fascinating story by Jim Matheson in the Edmonton Journal.


In their playing days, Oilers' coaches Craig MacTavish and Craig Simpson had the opportunity to know the late former U.S. President Gerald Ford.
Ford, who died Tuesday at age 93, was on the board of former Oilers owner Peter Pocklington's Gainers meat packaging plant, and every winter for about 10 years, the Oilers and Pocklington's business associates would play golf with Ford in California.

"The last thing you'd expect as a hockey player was being on a team bus, pulling up to a president's house," said former Oilers winger Charlie Huddy.

"He was a real gentleman and always seemed more interested in your life than what he did. He was a fun person to be around," said coach Craig MacTavish.

"We got to taste a part of life that many people don't," said assistant coach Craig Simpson, who was a player at the time. "We could involve ourselves in his daily life and get to go into his home to see the pictures on the wall with all the dignitaries.

"I always thought it must be a drag for him to have to entertain us, but I had a few candid conversations with the president and Mrs. Ford, and we did talk about our colleges. I was at Michigan State, we talked about the rivalry."

not having watched the game, i'm guessing this kind of a shot sums up the experience tonight...

http://www.mpogl.com/

Isn't the line after that something incredibly prolific like "Susan, you're fired"?

All right, here we go again:

1. the new spidey is gonna be awesome, Paras you're a fool
2. the best line from F4 is "let's not fight about this (Doom to Sue) " to which she replies, "No, let's!"
THAT MAKES IT A CLASSIC RIGHT THERE

i'm not sure anyone really wants to know all that happened to me this year, nor am i sure i want to tell it, but hell, i'll give it a go.

a lot has changed in my life, from the obvious to the subtle, the public to the very personal... 2006 is a year that was both monumental and one that i would happily leave behind in a heartbeat. if anyone had told me how challenging it would be, i probably would've opted to skip it by. alas, that option was never available to me, so with much happiness, i am sitting just over two days away from full completion, prepared to say goodbye to it, as well as good riddance.

i worked a shitty minimum wage job at the start, but happily so, i've never been promoted so quickly in my life, and additionally, the ability to go home at the end of the day and not think about work was fabulous. that quickly changed to being a lab/research monkey for my future MSc. supervisors, with the added effort of applying to graduate school and starting my literature searches, meetings with industry associates, and on-the-ground field research. life slowly became more complicated, but, for the most part, i embraced the change, and the challenge. summer rolled around and i was whisked to the exotic destinations of High Level and Conklin, Alberta, multiple times, such that i became a familiar face (and name!) to the staff at Karen's Katering in Conklin, and i was starting to gain some cred among the rig pig workers also staying at the camp. amidst the bears, long sleepy drives and bad food, i enjoyed myself, and made fast friends with some of my coworkers and fellow students. this friendship continued to build as i switched from research assistant/lab monkey to official graduate student in september, complete with pay cut and then raise as i joined the ranks of renewable resources teaching assistants, and attempted to maintain friendly but entirely professional relationships with my students/classmates. the combination of taking classes, teaching labs and marking papers proved to be an intense stress, but one that i have learned from, and certainly enjoyed (for the most part).

but even with all of that, 2006 wasn't first and foremost about my career changes and educational status. it was about the people in it. ...i think, in the end, i've gained a sort-of balance... it really hurts, but i think the grand scheme of things has left me more or less still standing upright and not listing in any particular direction...

i lost a lot of people this year. a mentor in january, of a freak riding accident... someone i really looked up to. a friend at the end of april... one of those people who made me smile every time i talked to her, and one who made me feel the impossible was possible. my grandmother... and grandfather (of different sides, my parents are both now orphans) both in may, huge holes in my heart, especially my grandmother... people i cannot replace, stories and histories i will never hear or learn. advice i won't gain, points of view i may actually be better off without(!) and all the love and encouragement one could ever desire... another elder in my life a day before my birthday, all those remembrances... one of my aunts in august, and all the pain that brings with it, a life still full of promise and future, family ripped apart at the seams... it's a lot. a lot of emptiness, a lot missing now. sometimes i get afraid of opening the newspaper just in case more people are found in the obituaries... so far so good, knock on wood.

but, on the sunny side of things, i've had all kinds of friends and family celebrate positive events in their lives, from watching relationships bud, to positive shifts in employment and scholastic status, to learning that there are children on the way, to hearing that there are marriages coming up to joyfully celebrating marriages as they happen.

it has been a year of changes, a year of growth, and a year of maturitation. and while this year has been interesting, and has given me much to look forward to in 2007 (from knitting booties to throwing confetti, haha!), i would not relive it for all the money in the world. and try as i might it will continue to shape me far into the future, no doubt.

This is one interesting bullshit website.

http://www.rythospital.com/