Business is taking a significant downturn and the weather's (supposed to be, though it hasn't really) changing. In a week I'll have been in Lake Louise for 3 whole months, at which time I'll pontificate about my experience here and blah blah blah.
Also bought my first new piece of technology in a long time, a yellow 8 GB iPod Nano of the new model. It's one of the better portable MP3 players (in my opinion), with a great new larger colour screen and the useless tilt feature (actually caused the thing to slow down by forgetting to lock the device and putting it in my pocket, where it continually turned around and around confusing the software). Perhaps it'll be useful to me one day but for now it's a bit of an inconvenience and I can't find a way to shut it off.
Also visited Calgary a couple of times, and I have to admit that I'm not impressed... the dining scene can be somewhat limited (though I found a place with good BBQ pork in Chinatown) and the culture is somewhat non-existent (I'm not talking about cowboys and the poetry-reading, ivory tower intellectuals Harper seems to rail on for votes). However, it does have those large stores that I like to go to sometimes to get books and whatnot, so it's not all bad.
With the weather in Lake Louise it's sometimes hard to tell which season it is. Most of the irritating summer workers are about to leave (or already have), leaving the irritating year-round workers. Can't wait for winter to come so I can start learning to fall on my ass with planks attached to my feet.
On another note congratulations to my cousin Catalina for giving birth to a baby girl. Wishing her the best. Also a congratulations to newly crowned Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Oliver and their wedding. I apologize for not being there but I hope it was a great day.
So I met a black bear today and fortunately I didn't get mauled. In fact, he/she looked sort of curious and fortunately wasn't in a mood to play with me. Like any other person who could've become a bear casualty I have to admit that I took some unnecessary risks in order to meet up with the creature.
a) I noticed bear droppings on the trail some distance prior to meeting the bear. I knew they weren't horse droppings but I kept on walking.
b) I walked on a trail that was adjacent to an area that was sealed off due to previous bear attacks/encounters. I had hoped that the trail would take me far enough from the area that I wouldn't run into a bear... clearly bears don't obey those red warning ribbons.
I guess if you were a deranged tourist and really wanted to see bears (or you're an illegal bear poacher) then this advice will help you along your way... but if you're anything like me then this would be good advice to avoid bear encounters.
Well, in the blink of an eye I finished my presentation, graduated, convocated, got a new job, moved out to Lake Louise and started my new life as dessert plating jockey. That was fast.
On the other hand, I'm starting to run out of places to hike (better get started on those backcountry hikes), I'm running out of things to read, and the altitude makes me an even cheaper drunk than I was... oh, the price I pay.
Hmmm... this site's starting to look a little dated. Perhaps I'll spend some time updating it, beats working on the thesis presentation.
So I stupidly deleted the entire contents of my previous news page and I have to start over again... that's several years of irreverent information down the drain. Oh well, here's hoping the new page lasts longer than the old one. Graduating (hopefully) by the end of the month and my thesis presentation's on May 15 at 10:30. Guess I should start writing those slides.