A positive spin

I'll be honest, this has not been the best of times for me lately, and I realize that this effects the tone of my blog. Therefore, I will briefly summarize my bitchings here before looking at the bright side of things.

The bad:

-It's been nearly 4 weeks since I've started my new medications and I haven't had more than a single consecutive day where I didn't feel.... not so great. I look forward to having a settled stomach.

-I'm not getting much composing done, and I'm getting close to zero hours of piano practicing in. Considering I'm in a music program, I sure don't feel like a very good musician.

-I got my hopes up: finances were looking good and I was encouraged to apply for a different credit card so I could do a balance transfer and reduce my interest payments. Turns out, I'm still a pile of financial shit - I got rejected, and that's exactly how I feel.

- There was a call for scores for an art exhibit concert on the topic of faces. They were looking for pieces that addressed the concept of faciality. I put far too much effort into my proposal and felt really confident. Now, my confidence is shattered - I got rejected, and that's exactly how I feel.

Blergh, that wasn't very uplifting...

But let's give it a try,

The good:

-The infusion set problem has been solved! For the last 2 weeks, my site changes have gone off without a hitch. It turns out that I can only wear them for 2 days, not 3, so as long as I change them every 48 hours, I'm in the clear. I'm am super grateful for BC insulin pump supply coverage for giving me the flexibility to experiment and discover this.

-My sugars are in much better control! 11.0 mmol is starting to feel 'high' (it always has been, but it was too common an occurrence to feel as bad as it should...).

-My TDD (total daily dose) of insulin has dropped to a 7-day average of 68u , compared to the 78u average from when I re-started the insulin pump. The Metformin seems to be doing its job, even if it is through making me eat less due to a constantly upset stomach...

-Despite what the credit people think, finances ARE good right now! My debt is falling, without sacrificing lifestyle - actually, I'm living it up more than I have in recent years. By living it up, I win with fun; by living more modestly, I am richer - so either way, I win!

In conclusion, things ain't so bad!

Nov 15-21

Ya, so I've given up on NaBloPoMo...

It just wasn't the year for it.

I have, however, been putting much more effort into my diabetes management, so I feel that everything has worked out rather well.

I'm now up to 2 metformin, twice a day, and it's going pretty well. It's been a few days, and I'm finally starting to see a more pronounced effect on my sugars. I lowered my basals across the board, but my sugars are still dropping at times, so I'm back to tracking sugars all day long to understand my patterns.

Nov 11, 12, 13, 14

So, I suck at NabloPoMo and I'm fine with that!

I also missed the testing thing today and really did nothing for diabetes education or advocacy.

What can I say - today has been a pretty bad day. My email got hacked this morning and sent out a whack of spam. I slept in far too late and decided to do kung-fu 1) before eating anything and 2) with high sugars (starting at 12.1 mmol).

I should have changed my infusion site before, as I didn't even get a chance to eat anything until 6pm tonight - I have a new infusion set in now, but I still feel wretched.

Everything sucks right now - I'm stressed because of school, the metformin is giving me heartburn, and I haven't been fully hydrated in over 2 weeks. Also, my daily insulin dose has not come down at all, in fact it's gone up - probably the stress-induced poor eating choices, but who knows.

Mumbly mumbly, motherfucker gah mumbly.

Days 8, 9, and 10

In addition to my plans to improve my diabetes control, I'm also bettering myself in terms of credit!

It's been a good month. You know how credit card bills now tell you how long it would take you to pay off your debt at the minimum monthly payment level? Well, this month I shaved off 2 years and saved about 12 dollars in monthly interest!

The insulin pump has been working pretty well lately. I had a perfect site change the other day - I bolused for my meal with the old site and then didn't eat anything for a few hours, so I'm not sure if the new site was working right off the hop, but that's good enough for me.

Just half an hour ago, getting ready for my shower, I pulled out my Sure-T site in the back of my arm... I had a quick shower and then put in a new site and I just bolused for my lunch, so I'm hoping it's working already - this is the real test. I'm about to head into a 3-hour lecture, so I'm REALLY hoping my sugars aren't going to spike!

I have a feeling that tonight is going to be an all-nighter. I have a lesson tomorrow (still lots of music left to write); usually, I work all night after my class on composition, but I have a concert to go to tonight.

Anyway, ciao for now!

Days 5, 6, and 7

Oopsie, I failed already!

In good news, I've been very good and regimented with my glucose tracking. I've been testing about a dozen times a day, keeping track of all my carbohydrate and blood glucose numbers. After I made a few very minor changes in my basals, it appears that they're good and holding me steady. Carb ratios are also seeming to be in check.

There's no surprise here, but the only real problem with my pump is that my sugars are jumping up around pump change time. I was hoping that Metformin might be a magical solution to that, but no such luck.

Possible solution to my infusion-set problem that I will test out next:

Change sets LONG before they even come close to expiring on me! As in, wear a Quick-Set for 2 days instead of 3. Last year, I tried a milder version of this, but I couldn't afford to shorten the life of my sites quite so much in Ontario- now I'm fully covered, so I can afford to do the tests I need to do to get real answers.

I'm looking forward to seeing if it solves my problem, but if not, it's back to the drawing board again!

Day #4

I've been feeling out of sorts for the last few days. I won't lie - going on Metformin has been kicking my digestive system's ass. At the same time, I'm also feeling out of sorts due to my sugars. Here's the odd part - it's not that my sugars are jumping all over the place, which can throw you off, instead they are staying very stable; I haven't had a sugar over 10 since yesterday at noon.

That's the reason I'm on the new drug - having a day where you sugars don't go over 10 shouldn't be such a surprise! Anyway, my sugars have been trending downwards (I had to snack on leftover* halloween candies while cooking dinner tonight) and that can make you feel kinda wonky, a little stoned even. I haven't been able to concentrate on working for the last few days, so I've just been staying pretty close to home and not getting much done.

With some diet adjustments and some bright-pink juice, I'm feeling better, but not yet 100%. Either later tonight or tomorrow, I will lay out my sugar logs from the last few days and look for some trends so I can start adjusting my basals.

*let's be honest, I didn't give out halloween candy this year, I shut the blinds, turned off the porch light, and hid.. I did, however, buy discount candy on Nov. 1'st!

Day 3 - Looking forward to World Diabetes Day

November 14th is World Diabetes Day and there are some great initiatives in the works. I always make an effort to inform people about diabetes on that day, advocating all over the place.

Last year, as a member of TuDiabetes, the big thing was that everyone was supposed to test their sugars at a certain time and post their result - it was called the Big Blue Test. I missed the time because I was in class or something and I wasn't really that excited about it. This year, it has a better pitch - you test your sugars, do 14 minutes of activity, and then test again - the point is to show the effect of exercise on your sugars.

Roche Diabetes Care has agreed to make a donation to organizations that get insulin to kids who can't afford it, for every view of the video below - SO WATCH IT!

There, didn't you like that - it's got a good beat and makes you happy to be alive, don't it?!

That's all for today!

NOBLOPOMOMAJIGGER!

Happy November, everyone!

If you're a douche, you'll be celebrating mo-vember, which I think is stupid. I'm fully aware that my disdain for idle moustache -growing is based solely on my jealousy/inability to grow decent facial hair, but that doesn't invalidate my opinion, haha!

Instead, I will be partially participating in NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month. The goal is to post every day of the month, but I'm not sure how much I care this year. For the first few years of my life as a blogger, I posted every single day, if not more; I think I also posted daily last year for November, but I'm just not that motivated this year.

So, today I had my endocrinologist appointment. I went in with a list of things to cover and they all got addressed. I got my prescriptions refilled, the paperwork filled out so I can get reimbursed for all the money I've spent out-of-pocket on strips this year, AND I got a prescription for Metformin. My doctor was fully supportive when I asked about it - he feels that it will help me get better control, lower my insulin requirements, and make it easier for me to lose weight - how can I argue with that?!? I'm gonna start tomorrow, and I'll keep you posted on how things are going.

Anyway, it's almost midnight, so I should stop writing or else I fail at NaBloPoMo on the very first day...

Welcome back, old friend

...or should I say, ENEMY!

I reconnected my insulin pump last night, and used it all day instead of my insulin pen.

Surprise, surprise, my sugars were between 14-17 mmol all last evening. I went to bed with my sugars still high-ish and woke up this morning at 3.2 - mmm, juice rarely tastes that delicious!

Anyway, after a day of elevated sugars, I concluded that it was a bad site and changed it a few hours ago, priming a few units into the new site AS I inserted it! In the case that my body is clogging the infusion set within moments of insertion, I'm not going to let it have the chance. I also started my basal insulin.

My sugars have been gently falling, so I'm keeping a tight eye on my sugars. I'm not sure whether that's still from the dinner insulin (3.5 hours old) or from either the priming or basal insulin from the new site. I'm hoping it's one of the last two so I can be sure that it's working. Nothing would make me happier than going to bed tonight knowing that I have a reliable infusion set going on.

For anyone wondering, I'm using the Sure-T set with the 6mm steel needle. Old school, I know, but it's quite comfy and I LOVE the short tubing!

I'm ready for a diabetes revolution! My latest A1C was 8.4, and that's simply not good enough. In fact, it's horrible. I'm doing everything I can to not feel like a horrible person - my essential laziness and apathy are putting my health at risk, and I just haven't been able to care (for longer than I'm willing to mention).

I've emotionally fought the issue of type 1 and type 2 diabetes through my formative years, being bitter that there's a similar condition out there that can often be avoided, or at least managed with healthy diet and exercise...

But look at me - I'm obese and lazy!

My TDD (total daily dose) of insulin is easily double what I should need for my weight - meaning I have hardcore insulin resistance, to the point that even if I wasn't type 1, I would have type 2 diabetes.

It's a catch 22 - the more insulin resistance you have, the harder it is to lose weight, for a bunch of reasons: 1)Insulin promotes fat. 2) The efficacy of insulin is greatly influenced by exercise (in complicated ways); it's extremely difficult to maintain stable sugars while exercising for me and I often have to use either food or insulin to correct.

It is depressing and ineffective when you have to intake more calories than you burn in order to keep your sugars stable! It's not just me, Kerri at SixUntilMe recently wrote about her struggles, and she's much fitter than I!

Long story short, I have an appointment with my endocrinologist on Monday and I'm going to broach the topic of introducing Metformin into my diabetes regime. It's a drug that is normally used for type 2 diabetes management, addressing insulin resistance rather than actually taking insulin. I'm hoping that this will help me to reduce the amount of insulin I'm taking. Also, if (as I suspect) my problems with new infusion sets is due to insulin resistance, my dreams would come true if the drugs solved that problem!

Anyway, I'd love to hear some feedback from any diabetics out there. I'll keep you posted!

Michael Reviews Things!

Today's review:

Lillian Alling

Have you heard of John Estacio? If not, click on his name and check out his website.

[Mini review: The website needs some attention... The angled headshot with cheezy background - it's not really helping! Also, the opera section of your website doesn't even mention your newest opera, and the "upcoming concerts" section starts listing things in Sept. 5/2009]

Anyway, he recently premiered an opera called Lillian Alling here in Vancouver. I was lucky enough to have been treated to the dress rehearsal as a birthday present from a delightful theorist friend of mine.

The Story (Spoiler Alert!)

While I'd never heard of her, Lillian Alling is an intriguing character. Here is a website about her. She is a woman enshrouded in mystery: she came from Russia(ish) and lands in Brooklyn looking for Josef, her lover. She repeatedly tells the tale about how they met in Russia and he said he would marry her, and how her life is bound to his life. Long story short, she walks to North Dakota, then Vancouver looking for this chump. Along they way, everyone tells her what a playa he is and tells her to give up, but she doesn't. You're left wondering, 'why is she so frikkin' naive?!' Some guy falls in love with her, and follows her all around. She feels she can open up to him and then reveals that she's not naive, she's a vengeful wench! The man she seeks isn't her lover, he's the man that killed her family, and I bet you know what she wants to do to him...

So she does, badda-bing badda-boom - bad man dies.

Oh ya, all of this story is nestled inside a side story about an old lady and her middle-aged son who is moving her into the city after a life out in the wilderness (ie. cabin). Surprise, surprise, she's the old version of Lillian Alling, having changed her name etc. Apparently murder is ok, her son doesn't even get mad when he finds out his mom is a killer... oh well!

Really, I liked the story - and the use of the story within a story.

The Music

Mr. Estacio writes good shit. I think he's onto what Opera needs - good solid accessible, but not boring music. At first, I wasn't really hearing the connection between the music in different sections, but as the opera went on and actively listened, it was building a sound story for me. It was a great balance - some kitschy stuff like a coney-island quartet singing when she arrives in Brooklyn, but there were some really well-crafted pieces:

My favourite scene was with the telegraph wire men - singing beepity boops, and all that fun stuff. I'm likely oversimplifying, but it expressed some really refined, yet broad wit.

Of course it's opera, so there were some fantastically orchestrated swells that took you along that journey of Lillian's across the great prairies and the rockies.

Basically, all of the exciting things I've been interested in doing in my own opera, were already masterfully done in this one. I need to look into other contemporary operas, but it seemed like the balance of recit and aria in Lillian Alling was quite far from what I'd been thinking of as traditional. The majority of the opera was in a hybrid dialogue which mixed the flow of recit with the lyricism of aria... ish. The distinction between dry and accompanied recit was out the window, (thank goodness), and it was often hard to find the distinction between the dialogue and the 'song'. Often I would realize they were singing what would classify as a duet/aria, but I couldn't pinpoint when it had started because they had been recit-ing just before.

The Other

This was a sizable world premiere, and Vancouver Opera didn't disappoint! The set was fairly high-maintenance, but was impressive: basically one main formulation with a truck that entered and exited right in the middle, from under the bulk of the mainstage.

There was a video-integration element which was ok, actually, no, I don't think it really did much... It was about a 5-15 minute section (I hate trying to judge time) where there was no real stage-presence. The orchestra was the main focus, and the only visual was the video which had recorded images of Lillian climbing on rocks, etc. For me, this seemed like an interlude which, in really old opera, would feature a ballet scene. I would have preferred to see dancing.

Oh ya, The Performing

I thought the orchestra was very strong, which is very refreshing compared to my last few live opera experiences...

The singers were great - some standouts worth mentioning:

Judith Forst, as Irene (Old Lillian Alling) - her diction should serve as a standard for the care that needs to be taken when singing English!

Colin Ainsworth, as Kristian, the farmer's son - a great tenor voice! The one true aria in the opera, and he ran with it. It was Ainsworth's aria that reminded me, 'hey, this IS opera!'

I really wish that I could scream to the heavens about how great Frédérique Vézina was as Lillian, but I can't. It was dress rehearsal night, so I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume (I really hope) that she was marking. I hate to be a bitch (no, I love it), but I was disappointed with how weak her voice was, but yes, I'll assume she was saving herself for the big night.

In Conclusion

All in all, I was heartily impressed with all aspects of this performance. After what seems like a long line of minimalist operas, I'm excited to see that opera can be comprehensible, engaging, emotive, beautiful, and exciting without lowering itself to the common denominator.

I really hope that this opera gets toured around and performed in many places - and when it does, you should go see it!

Michael Reviews Things!

This post:

Hilroy Notebooks

If you grew up in Canada, you likely used a separate Hilroy Exercise Book for each subject in elementary school. This review starts off with points for invoking nostalgia!

The reason I bought these notebooks is because I've been dissatisfied with the other notebook options out there. Coil bound books are obnoxious to write in and ripping a page out leaves that tacky side of feathery ripped paper. The tape bound books are unreliable. When I saw these ones in the store, I was excited by the simplicity of their design.

I'll be honest, I don't have anything negative to say, so here are my favourite elements:

Colour Variety

Blue, pink, green, and yellow

They're GREEN

They are part of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and feature Certified Fiber Sourcing.

Map of Canada

When I asked my American friend if he used these notebooks growing up, he pointed out "There's a freaking map of Canada on the front!" It has the up-to-date Territorial divisions which were missing when I was in elementary school - they were so behind the times back then!*

The map is only on the 32 page variety; there is a healthy blank space on the 80-page type so you can draw a picture of your own, or maybe it's a test to see if you can draw the map yourself from memory.

32 or 80 Pages

These are perfect sizes. 80 is good for taking notes in my seminars and 32 is a great size for individual projects or just to carry around with me for notes of interest.

Life Organization

On the back of the 32-page books, there is room for you to fill in your class-schedule information and final examination schedule.

Simple, Reliable Design

This could be seen as a slight weakness, but I like it. for a 32 sheet book, there are 16 pieces of lined paper (twice the needed width) folded in half, with a cover and then stapled to hold it in place. As a result, if you rip a page out, the opposing sheet will also fall out - this is something I remember from childhood. Nevertheless, if you conceive of the book as one notebook, not to be disassembled, it will stay that way for you!

Affordability

While a coil-bound hilroy notebook costs between 3 and 5 dollars, I got 3 80-page exercise books for $2.10 and 4 32-page exercise books for $1.60.

In Conclusion,

These little notebooks are fantastic and I highly recommend them to everyone!

*N.B. I am fully aware that the territory of Nunavut did not appear until after I finished elementary school...

Michael Reviews Things!

This post's topic:

Grand-dad's Birthday!

and

Jenn and Sean's Wedding!

I recently went to Winnipeg for a few big events involving my friends and family. Both events went off without a hitch - here are the details:

On Sept. 25th, my Grand-dad turned 90 years old! My mom and her brother organized a big ol' family dinner that brought together all the disparate family members. She and one of her brother have a long history of being less than pleasant... specifically with each other, haha! Anyway, almost everyone from the 4 generations was there with only two exceptions: grand-dad's sister who is locked up in an old folk's home and my sister because she had to work until 3pm when the dinner started at 5, and she lives 8 hours away.

It was an understated evening. I only ever see most of those people at Christmas time and it's always mild-to-moderately awkward, which I enjoy. This time, it was much more intense. I wish we were a more extroverted family- then it would have turned into a brawl, or there would have been screaming or slapping. Not my family - it's all subtle, underhanded, and spiteful - just the way I like it.

The dinner was fantastic, but I don't recall much about the details. There was chicken with some kind of creaminess and carrots and potatoes.

The next weekend, my friends Jenn and Sean were getting married. I was invited to the stagette, which was an all day affair. I was there for the brunch and a delightful plate-painting experience. We went to a do-it-yourself art studio and we all decorated plates or bowls for the bride. This reviewer thinks this was a fun and creative way to spend time with

the bride and bridesmaids and female relatives....

[Tangent - Davey... where the hell were you?!? Lord knows I'm not very manly, I'm pretty sure I lost 90% of my testosterone because of that day...]

The ceremony was beautiful - I showed up exactly minutes before the processional. The vows were heartfelt and entertaining. They should have been miked, but I heard enough of them to know they were good!

The dinner was also good, but there was no choice (unless you got the veggie option, presumably). It was chicken florentine - come to think of it, that's probably what I had at the other dinner, too. Taking the cake, though, was... the cake(s). The wedding cake had two types therein. The first one I had was quite nice, but the best thing ever was the second cake option: banana cake with 2 types of icing - peanut butter cream and chocolate. That's right ladies and gentlemen, you missed out!

The open bar was a welcomed addition, that I sadly

missed at the previous weekend's birthday party. Nevertheless, I behaved myself much more gentlemanly than I have at previous weddings, but that's a whole different story. A highlight of the evening was when they had a fireworks display honoring the parents. It lasted about 10-15 minutes, which is better than any Winnipeg fireworks I'd ever seen. Even more exciting was the fact that I got a sparkler.

I felt a little like I was put at the wrong table for the dinner. I had a wonderful time, but all of the people I was sitting with left soon after the dinner - the table behind me was the fun table, playing drinking games to pass the time of the speeches... Nevertheless, I had a great time and danced the night away!

Long story short, I had a wonderful time in Winnipeg - it's always nice to have reasons to celebrate; keep 'em coming, friends and family!

Stay tuned for the next installment of:

Michael Reviews Things!

A lot to be thankful for

As a child, I hated the part of Thanksgiving where you went around the dinner table, or at school when you went around the classroom and said what you were thankful for. I would usually come up with some kind of smartass remark, or something so predictable that it never even registered with me as sincere. I guess, with that childlike innocence, I lacked perspective and didn't even realize how thankful I should have been!

This year, I went to two different dinners and we never really talked about how thankful we are. I kinda missed that tradition, or some incantation thereof. One of the questions on a dating profile I recently filled out was about my favourite holiday. Earnestly, I answered Thanksgiving: it's not about religion or materialism, it's practical.

So now, excuse me, but I'm going to get a little clichéd and list off some of the things for which I'm thankful this year.

I'm thankful that I have such a great group of friends here in Vancouver. We formed instant friendships as soon as we wrote the placement exams and as a result, I never felt 'alone' in the new city. As the year and summer went on, I met friends and roommates of friends and expanded my circle well beyond the confines of school.

I'm thankful to have a growing community of friends around Canada and the states. Every year, it seems the landscape changes. Whether I'm going home to visit, or traveling to somewhere new, friends are usually not far away!

I'm thankful for family - near and far! This last visit home solidified my relationship with my parents; I was truly a visitor in their home, and not just the same son I was before I left home. I'm getting closer with my second and third cousins who live in Vancouver; they are wonderful, fascinating people and I'm glad to have that family connection!

I'm thankful for my health. While I may not have the most ideal diabetes control, I'm very fortunate to have the drugs and resources that are available to me.

I'm thankful to be so fully immersed in music - as a student, a teacher, a composer, a performer, and an audience- and to be pretty much able to support myself with what I'm doing. I know that this may not always be the case, so I am overjoyed at the breadth of experience I am currently enjoying.

There are many more things for which I am thankful, but those are the big ones I wanted to mention.

Oh, wait, of course I can't forget:

I am thankful for my blog. It helps me remember things that I would have otherwise long forgotten. More importantly, I love my readers! Thank you all for your loyal support!

Michael Reviews Things!

As part of my never ending, never successful, search for increased readership and blogger popularity, I'm going to do what a lot of successful blogs have done:

Reviews!

The first installment is:

My map bag ® Vancouver map bag.

So, I've developed a bit of a man-bag fetish these last few years. I fully acknowledge that it is a purse, but I like the term 'man-bag'. I always need to carry my diabetes essentials around with me, and those just don't fit in pockets comfortably

The bag features a map of [Insert City Here] and comes with a dry-erase marker so that the wearer can:

-give or get directions within that region

-circle their home address on the map to encourage stalking

-I'm blanking as for real, functional uses...

The store I got it from wrote on it in permanent marker "I'm on sale here" for promotional in-store use, but when I was shopping, it was the last one left, so I got it for 5 dollars! I think the retail price was about $15.

The cons:

As I should have expected, it was pretty cheap. Within a week, the plastic map started to crack. Unfortunately, my apartment is just off the side of the map so I can't even use it for those above purposes.

The pros:

It's a great conversation starter and an interesting concept. One Friday night on public transit, a kind, inebriated gentleman informed me that he had a map fetish, and he would be happy to release some bodily fluid on it.

The permanent marker is pretty kitschy and fun.

In conclusion, I have pretty low standards and this man-bag meets those standards.

Keep posted for the next installment of Michael Reviews Things!

I'm still kicking...

I just wanted to post an update to let you all know that I'm not dead.

My time in Winnipeg was nice, but wholly unproductive. I left my macbook charging cable in Thompson, so I didn't really have my own computer for the rest of the trip. I used my parents, but all my work was inaccessible. Now that I'm back, I can use my roommate's powercord, but I'm still limited in function.

I've been playing catchup all week. I'm trying to get 3 weeks of work done for my lesson today, but I'll be lucky if I have what resembles one week. I feel lazy.

I've had a dating profile up on plentyoffish.com for a while now, but nothing came of it. It was fun for online browsing, but I didn't put much effort into it. Recently, I've decided to take it more seriously, switched to a new site called OkCupid and I've lined up a few dates. There are three guys I've been messaging that I will be going on dates with in the next week or so, starting with tomorrow. I haven't decided exactly how much detail I will be putting on this here blog, but I'll try and keep it interesting for you!

Other than that, not much is new.

Birthing Day!

I'm in Manitoba.

Winnipeg was decent - nice weather, friends and family.

I came in especially for my grandfather's 90th birthday. He was happy to have so much of the family in for the event and the dinner was delicious. Also, it was deliciously awkward and tense - I LOVED it! At the same time, I'm beginning to tire of the same old family tensions. Can't we all just get along?!?

Speaking of good family times, I'm up in Thompson visiting my sister. It's a 7-8 hour drive from Winnipeg - eek! I will be here for less than 48 hours before heading back to Winnipeg for wedding-ish stuff. Apparently, my phone is completely useless up here - no 3G coverage means the phone does nothing! I suppose it's refreshing. Now that I've wasted time troubleshooting, I'm sure that nothing can be done and I can enjoy my time sans-cell!

Anyway, I had plan to get things done this trip, but that's out the window. I'm just going to enjoy my birthday and the rest of the trip.

happy birthday, world!

It really doesn't feel like I'm back in school; it's the second or third week back and I've only had one one-hour class, and I'm still having meetings to organize the year... I am doing lots of work though, I already have a 25-minute presentation due on Monday.

Also, I've been spicing up my SSHRC proposal. It's the same project as last year - an opera on the topic of Type-One Diabetes, but I'm working on making it much stronger. By the end of tomorrow, I will have gotten comments from 5 different professors with different thoughts on how I can make it even stronger.

Tomorrow is my first lesson of the year and we'll be talking about my proposal and thesis plans, so I'm very excited to get it all underway!

For Garry

One of the things I miss about playing for dance classes was the improvising. I would just play freely - not worrying about being original or even terribly creative. When I improvise at the piano, I feel like it's the easiest way of expressing myself.

Below, I'm posting an improv I recorded this evening. I recorded it on my Yamaha Silent Piano, so it's midi, but impressively so. I'm actually quite happy with how the tone sounds, etc.

Anyway, there's a reason why I'm posting it. I was recently informed that a dear family friend, my uncle Garry is losing the fight to cancer. His kidneys have shut down and he's moving into palliative care. His wife sent out an email, to which I wanted to reply earlier, but I just couldn't find the words.

So, when words aren't enough...

http://michaelpark.ca/site/ForGarry.wav

Back to School

Well, it's that time of year again; the summer is over and it's back to the books!

This is 21'st year going back to school, so I'm pretty good at it by now. Luckily, school supplies have gotten a lot easier over the years.

Since I use the same materials all year round, I don't need to make a special trip to the stationary store, in fact, I have pens and pencils galore!

Textbooks are a thing of the past. For my classes, we are assigned readings each week from a wide variety of sources, each of which are available online through journals, or in the library to photocopy.

I'm glad I get to avoid all of the newness that I had last year - meeting new people, getting used to new profs, navigating new buildings, learning a new city. This year, I'm settled into Vancouver and UBC. I know pretty much what I need to know to make school happen; it's just like I'm picking up where we left off in April.

I was almost worried that I was going to have to switch my sleep schedule back to something more normal, but the only class I have scheduled so far is at 1pm. I shouldn't brag, but that only scheduled class I have this term doesn't even start until the day before I fly to Winnipeg, so tomorrow seems like an exceptionally arbitrary date for 'back-to-school' celebrations. However, that's how it's happening, so Hooray!

Happy Belated Anniversary!

How appropriate.... I missed my own 5-year anniversary.

I was supposed to have a big exciting post on the 29th, but I didn't, oopsie!

In other news, the summer is officially over now; Vancouver has been cold and rainy for the last two or three days. Along with all of my school friends in Vancouver, I'm working on assignments and things to get ready for the new school year. I fell behind on my plans for productivity (no surprise there) so now I'm scrambling to get as much done as possible in the next few days.

When I start school, it's going to be intense - from today, there are only 3 weeks a few days before I head to Winnipeg for a big ol' birthday and a wedding. A major scholarship deadline happens while I'm out of town, so I have to have it submitted before I leave.

There are, however, some good things going on. I did a super fun photo-shoot the other day; it was partially just for fun, as I'll be superimposed onto the inside of a piano, but I should also get some decent headshots out of it.

Also, one of my good school friends has returned to Vancouver after a summer away.

Anyway, I can't really think of anything else to say, so toodles!