Larry's Phat Page: News

This week, by the numbers:

Grade in French 101: 82 (A- -- and well above the class average)
Number of (10MP!) pictures my newish[*] camera can store on the new memory card I just got it: 5,291
Number of pictures I will likely take in Detroit, Chicago, and of the train ride in between: not that many but a lot
USD I have on hand: $1.00 (arg I need to go by my credit union)
Time my alarm's set for for tomorrow morning: 03:30 :(
Timbits I'm buying tomorrow morning[**] to share with the family: 20
Forecast low in Detroit tomorrow: -7 (unseasonably warm!)
Forecast weather in Chicago for Saturday: high -3, low -8, chance of snow
Forms of transportation I'll be taking in the next week: 6
Books I'm taking with me for all that: 3 (plus likely one or two new ones along the way)

Gone to the Midwest, brb. (Well, early tomorrow morning.) Back Monday night!

[*] Bought it in like July on super ridiculous clearance, but had it shipped to mrdorbin's place, and then didn't make it down for months. So I've only just now gotten to use it.
[**] There's a Tim Hortons after the Customs checkpoint! I mean, Timbits are okay anyway (it's not like there's food in that food) but it saves the annoyance of having to say "YES I HAVE FOOD" at the NEXUS terminal and then go through Additional Fun.

So, the final? Hardest exam I've ever written. Seriously intense. Canada doesn't mess around with its schooling, let me tell you. I think I got a B? And that was with an insane amount of studying. The panicked looks on other people's faces as I left showed me I was well above the average.

(This class started by the professor noting that his mean final grade last term was a 61. Yeah, it's like that.)

Do I know anyone local who's into crafting and stuff? The MoV has a new exhibit in January. As a member, I can guest one person into the opening, which is the evening of Wednesday, 13 January. Let me know if you want the spot. (I also have two or three get-in-free-with-me coupons left if you just want to check out the exhibit sometime later.)

I was up until 3:00am reading, so today is an Artigiano day. Oh delicious espresso I love youuuu

a thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices

I seem to have a final exam tonight! That must be a misprint. Surely I am done with those, having, y'know, graduated. The things I do to stave off academic addiction...

Earlier this year, I seem to recall lamenting that I had no travel plans or tickets purchased. That .. so isn't the case right now. Next Wednesday, I fly to Detroit for family holiday whatever; that Saturday, I'm on the train to Chicago to escape the family omfg meet up with feignedapathy and maybe hotmoon, who are taking the MegaBus(tm) from Minneapolis. I haven't seen them in almost a year, so that'll be awesome. Back to Detroit late Sunday, then to Vancouver late Monday.

I've also finalized the flights for Epic TrainVenture 2010. I'm sure I'll post a longer write-up at some point, but the new fun thing about it is: I get to set foot on soil in every province in Canada on this trip. :D Off to St John's, Newfoundland on the 31st of March for a few days; then fly to Charlottetown, PEI for a couple of days; then bus to Moncton, New Brunswick, and train over to Halifax, NS. In Halifax I meet up with hsifyppah, the partner in crime trainventures. We're there a couple of days, then off to Montréal, then Toronto, with a possible sidequest to Sarnia. Lots of friends along the way to say hello to, too! And then it's off for the four-day trip to the west, with stopovers (30 min or so each) in Winnipeg (4 hours; the long exception), Saskatoon, Edmonton, Jasper, and Kamloops. We're back in Vancouver the morning of the 17th of April.

And I get visitors in January and February! In the next two months, I get to have ljtourist, ctseawa, Monica, Ben, solarbird, and annathepiper visiting. Plus maybe sonatine and Cody for New Years, if Brooke and I can sufficiently convince them of the awesomeness of homemade eggnog, delicious poutine, plus! pancakes in the morning.

2010? It's looking awesome, so far. }:D

X-posted to: Kos Diaries

The anger we are feeling over the healthcare reform process is, today, palpable. I am only 24 years old but I can tell you that this month I am cynical about politics for the first time in my life. The thought that the institutional barriers to genuine healthcare reform in America - reform that guarantees all citizens access at affordable rates and saves lives - are so powerful that they withstand the will of more than 60 percent of Americans and a powerful Democratic presence in every branch of the federal government, is sickening.

Now the idea that we will likely be forced to buy insurance from companies that live to screw us is the last straw. I refuse to accept that another generation will die before we see genuine and substantial healthcare reform in America.

This is the kind of moment when we need to get off of our computers and demonstrate our anger in a public way. We know there are more of us than there are teabaggers, and we can make a bigger statement than they have made in light of all the glory and attention the fringe Right got this year. This is the time when we need to be setting up permanent picket lines around insurance offices, hospitals and state capitol buildings.

This is the time when we need to be posting lists of people who died when their coverage was denied on the insurance companies' front doors to shame them.

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I think the course of my life has been to veer towards being increasingly agnostic. Whatever mechanism that people convince themselves that their own religions are "correct" doesn't work for me, nor does it make sense for someone to "choose to believe" a certain thing. To me, believing something isn't a statement that you like it or want to identify with it, it's a statement that you think it's true. But your own opinion has no influence on the greater universe. Can you say "I choose to believe there is sushi in the refrigerator" and by your belief have any influence over whether it's there or not? I say the same is true for religious doctrine.

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