What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com]]>
Hope.
If there's been something missing in this country for the past eight years (arguably more), it's been hope. Especially in the last year, as we've watched our economic structure collapse on itself, as we've watched our energy costs soar, and as we've watched the ticker reach 4000 casualties of war in Iraq, hope has been missing.
The usual politicians have taken their places at the podia, spouting the usual things about the usual topics and in many ways, this election doesn't seem all that different from the one before, and the one before that, and the ones before that.
Then came Barack obama, and for the first time since I started paying attention to the American presidency, back when Perot made his bid, I find myself inspired by a candidate.
Inspired by his message of hope. Inspired by his message of change. Inspired by his message of unity and humanity.
And that's why I know this candidate is extraordinary in a field that is all too ordinary.
Yes, we can.
Additional Reading:
Now, if only they'd make a corresponding automatic watering system that would take input from Botaincalls, my plants may actually survive.
Via Slashdot.
]]>A couple of phone calls and about 15 minutes later, my mom and dad stopped by to pick me up and take me the rest of the way, right after the guy from the CAA showed up to put the car on a platform to take to an auto body shop. Interestingly enough, no one stopped to help in the 15 or so minutes that we were stranded by the roadside. Didn't really expect people going to the airport to stop, but figured maybe someone coming back would have.
"I feel like an idiot saying this, but we are going to be de-icing the plane." (Pilot, Air Canada 441)
Once at the airport, 20 minutes late, everything went very smoothly and I got to the gate before they even started boarding the plane. We were delayed somewhat by the need to de-ice the plane, but that's not uncommon when flying out of snowy airports. Despite that, though, we landed only 3 minutes late, and I was off to my next challenge: retrieving my checked luggage, clearing US Customs and Immigration, and getting to my next gate within 90 minutes.
I think this was more about my worry than any actual problem, though it wasn't helped by the copious number of people who'd been waiting in the claim area when I walked in looking very nervous. One woman kept complaining to her Green Bay Packer-adorned husband that this happens every time in Toronto and they were getting awfully close to their boarding time.
I think I waited for over half an hour for my bag to appear and then almost as much to get through the line for US Customs and Immigration. Fortunately, I've done this many times before and I had all my paperwork fully filled out and ready to go, so I slid right through. Even had time to help out another family in a rush who hadn't filled out their forms yet. Also saw the Packers fan and his family escorted past the line, so I think they made their flight.
I barely remembered to pick up some candies for the office before hopping over to my gate, which was--surprise surprise--also delayed. Almost forgot the candies when I boarded and found myself in a three-way switch to unite two separate families' seating arrangements: me from 27D to 28D, the lady in 28D to 27C, and the boy in 27C to 27D. Whew.
I said I was going to work on my screenplay during this trip and I hadn't really done much with it up to this point. I was fiddling around with the entertainment center embedded in the seatback in front of me when I managed to trap myself on a boring map screen. Alas, the touchscreen was poorly calibrated and I couldn't press the arrow or menu buttons on screen to take me anywhere else. Without any more distractions, what was left but to go to work, really?
I worked on the screenplay for about three hours and managed to get to about 10 pages, although some of it was blocking and descriptions for the intended order of scenes to take me to the end of my first Act. When it got to the point where I was too tired to think anymore--i.e.: I started passing out--I switched over to watching a DVD on my laptop.
I'd never seen The Devil Wears Prada before and I'd had it in my bag for awhile--I always keep 6-7 DVDs in my bag to watch whenever I have some free time--so I popped it in. I only got to see 20 minutes of it before I had to shut everything down to land, but it made for a very quick flight.
Henry picked me up at the airport after a seemingly interminable wait for luggage and then we were off to Brodard for Vietnamese rolls and noodle soups. After that, I was really pretty damned tired, so it was home for a nap.
Got up around 9 pm, showered again, and jumped in the car. Maybe if I'd called someone before jumping in the car, I might have known where I was going, but I didn't. Instead, I just started driving toward Santa Monica until I found Rod, who gave me directions to a party in Culver City.
Woohoo! Fun party with a core group of my favourite people! Harris was the host and there were a tonne of people there: Natalie and Alejandro, Erin and Jorge, Jenni and Rod, Deborah, Jessica, Buckley, Shadee, Harris' new girlfriend Jen, Joe and his new girlfriend Kirby, and CJ and Courtney (I hope I spelled that right because I heard Corny the first time through). I was so happy to see them and it was a great evening, that started with me walking in on someone guessing "circumscision" in a game of Taboo and ended with me walking a number of people out to their cars.
Y'might think that the evening would have ended at that point, but not really. I went home and watched the rest of The Devil Wears Prada, then started plinking through the extra features when I got a call around 3:30 am from Jerah. She and her party buddies were stranded without a sober driver after a party they were at ended early due to a mishap. So, back in the car and off to downtown to ferry them back to Jerah's for the night. Probably the most amusing part of the drive was trying to go slow an easy so as not to upset the drunks. My driving style is usually... aggressive.
Got back home shortly after 5, which was right before Henry went out to do the early dawn hike up to Griffith Park, though we missed each other in the darkness.
All in all, I think I did everything that I love to do today. I got to spend it with my family, fly, work on my screenplay, eat at a new restaurant, spend time with friends, watch a good movie, and help someone in need.
Happy New Year, everyone. May it be your best one yet.
]]>"Ian..."
"Yes?"
"Come back here."
I walk back into the pantry.
"What did you do?"
"I burned myself." I lower the ice pack to show off a 2" mark, brilliant red and stinging like mad. It's just a long thin line at a rakish angle across my cheek.
"Ow. How did you do that?"
"I was about to iron a shirt this morning, wasn't very awake, and I needed to check to see if the iron was hot enough, so I lifted up to my face to check the temperature and got a little too close."
A moment of dead silence and a stunned expression.
"I love you, Ian. You're brilliant and almost too brilliant. I'm glad you're still human."
]]>Courtesy of Rob
]]>On the one hand, I could say that the students are lazy and aren't doing what they ought to be, but that's not the point of the video. That's just a knee jerk reaction to how things "should be."
Fact of the matter is that the world is a very different place than when the school systems were created. We've moved faster and further in the past twenty years than we had in the previous hundred. Is it no wonder that our school system is no longer adequate to deal with how modern students learn?
What's it going to take to have real learning inside the new paradigm?
]]>So, Tony Romo, this year, I am thankful for: