Friday thoughts

Hello there patrons of the internet,

I'm just home from my first week of 9-5 at my new job. I think it's safe to say without a hint of bravado that I am a shining light of professionalism in my training class. I hope it gets me a raise, but it probably won't. I think legally saying anything more will get me terminated (were this a real websight on a real computer, and not a colouring book taped to a broken typewriter), so contact me in person and I'll dish.

Related, but non-disclosing and thus non-liable, is that I found out today that we are allowed to choose our own desktop backgrounds on our work computers. Therefore, I spent my 15 minute breaks looking for something very appropriate, and finally settled on the following:



Which, in retrospect, might be inappropriate, but considering what other people have up, is no less strange or out of place. So Luke Norton now adorns my work station, but he is not called Luke Norton, oh no. You see, just prior to selecting Mr. Norton's photo for my wallpaper, I gave my computer a name tag which reads "Hello, my name is Yankee Mike," named for the first two phonetic characters of the machine's serial number. So now people ask how Yankee Mike would handle situations or what he would say about training procedures. On one occasion, someone said to the trainer (who was being an angel in diligently explaining some facet of the company's policies), "I don't know what Yankee Mike would say about that," and was greeted with a look of curious stupification. It was pretty much the only time I wasn't wishing to be surrounded by a different group of people.

Should Mr. Norton (aka Yankee Mike) wish me to remove the picture from the system's computer at any time on the grounds that it's weird or creepy, he may feel free to contact me and it will be off like a new groom's shoes.

It being Friday and having an actual "weekend" to look forward to, I took a detour on the way home to a local coffee shop, drank tea, sat by the window and read a good (albeit unexpectedly dark at times) book while listening to very decent and atmospheric music. Here are some highlights, though not the whole boring list:

Dead Letter and the Infinite Yes - Wintersleep

Still True - Feist

You're Drifting - Oneida

Like Spinning Plates - Radiohead

Baby Doll - Cat Power

It was one of those grand days when my iPod knew just what kind of music would suit the air around me.

I have planned a trip around the world. Please see the route below.



A few things: multiple stops in one country generally indicate that I want to travel around in that country (ie/ I'm not certain I HAVE to see Perth Australia, but I'd like to get a flavour of that area, perhaps more than saying in one of the major cities can provide), but in some cases there are definitely certain cities I'd like to see (ie/ Moscow/St. Petersburg). So here we go!

Starting in Peterborough, drive to Toronto.

Take the train out to Vancouver

Fly to San Francisco to see people whose acquaintance I briefly but warmly made in Paris

Fly to New Zealand

Fly to Australia

Fly to Tokyo, Japan, probably for only one or two days. I think that's all I could handle, but this schedule is loosy goosy, so who knows?

Take a ship up to Vladivastok

Ride the train or fly to Moscow

Train to St. Petersburg

Train into Warsaw

Train to Amsterdam

Train down to Italy. It doesn't matter too much where I go in Italy, but I've listed Rome here for the sake of ease.

Fly or take a ship over to Spain (which ever is cheaper). Similar situation to Italy, doesn't make too much difference which parts I see.

Train over to Andorra (Andorra doesn't get enough credit. I bet it's beautiful there)

Train up to Paris for a good few days.

Fly to London

Train or drive to Newport

Fly or take a ship over to Ireland. Explore THOROUGHLY.

Fly over to Iceland. If a ship is feasible, TAKE A SHIP TO ICELAND.

Fly to New York to see some more Parisian people.

Take the train back to Toronto.

Drive home to Peterborough.

You may notice that I have no destinations in South America or Africa listed. This is for two reasons. The first is that South America doesn't really interest me. The second is that if I ever get up the courage to go to Africa that will be a trip all on it's own.

So once I win the lottery, I'll get right on that! Want to come? We're sleeping outdoors at least once on every continent!

And finally, I am starting to make a mental list. It will be one of those "101 things to do in 1001 days." So stay tuned.

Gotta go move some chairs.

p.s. Tomorrow is the first day of the Peterborough Folk Festival. I can't take it all in, but I do have room in my schedule for a band called "Ghost Bees." I am SO excited to see them, whoever they are! Ghost Bees! Couldn't you just?