The fall

It’s been well over a month since my last blog post. The last one was long (3786 words) and so I thought it may count as two which would give me a bit of rest before having to pen another. In truth, I am feeling like I am running out of steam and find it’s hard to motivate myself to sit down to write them. It’s always easy to write after a trip, but on the whole, I am starting to question my dedication to writing these posts. I have given it a good shot (2 ½ years), but on the whole, I find it too limiting. It’s a one-way form of communication and although it may be great to read them, it leaves me with a feeling like I have just poured out my soul, but got little back in return. I rarely get comments or Emails from my readers letting me know what is going on in their lives. So what’s the point? Relationships can’t be carried by one side only and perhaps my friends and family put off writing to me because they get these regular updates from me. But it leaves me wanting as the communication is only one way.

I have a hunch I will get more Emails if I stop writing blog posts and maybe that is the way I am going to start to go. At the very least, the posts I do write will become less frequent. At first they were weekly, then biweekly and now, maybe every month or so. If you want to know what is going on in my life more frequently than that, I guess you are going to have to pick up the phone or send me an Email.

Mom came for a good long visit which recently ended. The first Nina and I saw her was at Cathie and Robert’s home in Leamington Spa at the end of September. Mom stayed with them for the weekend and Cathie thought it would be fun to have us over for the night as well. We drove down on the Saturday afternoon and spent the evening with them. We stayed the night and had Sunday morning together before the rest of the cousins arrived in the afternoon for tea. It was a great chance to reconnect with people I hadn’t seen since I was a child; in some cases, people I had the vaguest recollections of. In the late afternoon we drove back to Leicester and brought mom back with us. She has 3 days before she was departing for Turkey and so she stayed at the Belmont Hotel where Nina and I had stayed when we first arrived and, more recently, Nina’s parents stayed when they visited at Easter.

That same evening, about 2 hours after we got back home, water started leaking from our ceiling again. The exact same thing happened 6 months earlier and it was due to a clogged drain above us. The landlord had promised to pour caustic soda down the drain monthly to ensure no more clogs would occur. But he forgot. The water stopped within 24 hours and we were eventually able to put our living room back to normal (without the buckets and towels spread along the floor). This time he brought in a builder who tore up the floor above us and replaced the drain of a shower which was believed to be the source of the problem. Now, we only hope it doesn’t start all over again in another 6 months.

The morning after the water leak I started university (because I wasn’t under enough pressure as it was). I was immediately and noticeably taken by how friendly and welcoming everyone was. As I am going part-time, I am only taking two modules this semester and after the first week where I had experienced both, I knew I was in the right place and I was going to have a great experience.

One of my modules is Creative Digital Media Design which is all about the lifecycle process of creating some form of digital media. I chose the Green Impact project because it was one of the only projects (out of a choice of 7) that actually involved creating something real for an actual client and seeing the project through from concept to realisation. I am in a group of 6 people and we have to help promote a university-wide contest to help employees become energy efficient in their workplace.

We got together to discuss possible ideas and then met with our client; the Environmental & Sustainability Officer for the university. He gave us some direction, we asked a bunch of questions and started to get a handle on what we have to produce. Then the group unanimously voted me as the Project Manager and their fearless leader for this project which spans the term and will determine 100% of our grade in this course.

My second module is Research Methods which is an introduction to research at a Master’s level and starts to prepare us for the daunting task of writing a thesis. This class is only made up of the 11 Creative Technology Master’s students who I will be with throughout this year.

Of the 11 of us, we all come from diverse background. Surprisingly, I am the 4th oldest with 6 of us classifying as mature students (28+) and the other 5 are in their early twenties. As well, 4 of us are doing the program part-time (over 2 years) and the other 8 are completing it in one year.
The backgrounds of my colleagues include photography, music & music production, graphic art, animation, film making, creative writing/poetry, programming and web design.

The program sits as a hub over the Arts, Humanities and Technology departments and thus we get access to all their resources. In addition, we have our own space called the IOCT (Institute of Creative Technology) Lab. This is a space that is only accessible to us Master’s students as well the IOCT PhD students (so maybe 50 people in total) and it consists of a large open flex space with tables and chairs, a lounge and desks with Macs for us to use. It’s a place for us to meet, work or just relax.

Frequently talks and showcases are held there, but it’s not uncommon to find it empty and it’s the one and only place on campus where I can go to work with the comforting knowledge I will not be disturbed.

The Lab is stocked with equipment and technology including: Microsoft Surface (http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/Pages/Product/WhatIs.aspx), countless Macs, projection and teleconference equipment, robots of various descriptions, cameras (point-and-shoot as well as SLR and video) and a myriad of specialised equipment we can sign-out when required. It’s a unique space and for the 11 of us, it’s our home for the next year or two.

Every Thursday afternoon we meet in the IOCT Lab for a 3 hour session where we discuss ideas, have lectures specific to our needs/wants/interests and explore our creativity. It’s one of the highlights of the week as the content is determined by us. As an example, many of us would like to learn Photoshop so a future session will involve a hands-on tutorial. The IOCT is a unique concept and thus the Master’s program is tailored to promote the use of interdisciplinary thinking and working. Some key research into the next generation of the Web (Semantic Web) is being carried out in the IOCT and this is a topic I get quite excited about.

When mom got back from Turkey, Nina was in Pantelleria for the end a short 12 day field season. Mom stayed with Jane for a few days and I travelled out to Kibworth to spend a day with them. It rained Vancouver-style for the majority of the day and after getting soaked during an outing to Market Harborough, we spent the rest of the afternoon in Jane’s lovely house. The following afternoon mom and Jane came into Leicester to see a film and I met them for dinner afterward at our local Italian restaurant.

On mom’s final weekend, she came to stay with us. Nina arrived back home on the Friday afternoon and mom arrived in the early evening. It hadn’t been mom’s intention to stay with us, but as she had an early train booked to Manchester on the Saturday morning, it made the most sense as we live closer to the train station than any of her cousins.

Saturday evening she came back to us after her day trip and I made us dinner. It occurred to me that it was likely the first time I had ever cooked supper for her! We spent an enjoyable evening at home and on Sunday afternoon we drove out to a large meadow with a meandering creek on the edge of Leicester. It was the closest wild green space to us and a place I had walked to on many occasions. We had a walk around the area and enjoyed the countryside before driving her back to Jane’s.

On the Tuesday we took mom out for the whole day. As it happened, it was one of the wettest days in recent memory and made for a soggy journey through Leicester. But nonetheless, mom seemed to enjoy seeing a side of Leicester she hadn’t seen before. We took her to the Guildhall, Cathedral, Leicester market, through the lanes, to the Jewry Wall museum (with a Roman ruin from 200AD), Newarke House museum (historic Leicester museum in 3 old adjoining houses) and we finished off at De Montfort where mom was interested in seeing the IOCT Lab.

Tuesday was the last time we spent with mom as I had a driving lesson that evening and she was leaving mid-day on Wednesday.

The Department of Motor Vehicles in BC is quite asinine. They give everyone who passes a test a license to drive any car; automatic or standard regardless if you are even capable of driving a standard. In fact, you can take your test in an automatic, having never as much as even been in a standard before, and you get a license which permits you to drive both types of transmissions, even though you may be fully incapable of operating a standard. Asinine!

This hit home for me when I handed over my Canadian license in return for a British license. Since the British authorities we unable to determine if I was licensed to drive a standard in Canada, they issued me a provisional license which only allowed me to operate an automatic. I could drive standard, but I required a licensed driver in the car with me. So it meant I had to take a driver’s test, just like every British 17 year old, and something I had not done for 22 years.

I bought a book outlining the Highway Code in Britain and thought I might as well take a few lessons to brush up and ensure I pass. It cost me a fair bit to take the test and I had to wait 3 months so I did not want to risk any chance of failing and going through the whole procedure again.

The husband of a business contact of mine is a driving instructor, so I booked 2 evening lessons with him leading up to my test. He did a great job of reminding me of a few bad habits I had collected over the years and overall was confident I was a safe driver and should pass with ease.

On test day Nina took time out from university to go with me to the testing facility (since I couldn’t drive there without a licensed driver accompanying me) and I took the test. You are permitted 15 minor infractions and I am happy to report I only racked up 3!

This next weekend dad comes up to Leicester to visit for just over 24 hours, which will be a speedy visit. Shawn was here in September, mom in October and now dad’s mini-visit in November, this is the last scheduled visitor of a fairly busy year.

I wrote this blog post over the space of a few days, and as I finished it the news broke about Premier Campbell. So I am going to take this opportunity to say something that has been on my mind for some time. I think it’s a shame that the people of BC have totally and completely overreacted to the HST as a tax. I understand there is anger over the way it was brought in, although I think that was also a bit melodramatic.

On CKNW I hear callers on an almost daily basis mentioning how they are overtaxed and it makes me giggle. Next year the VAT in the UK will reach 20% and on top of our income tax, we also pay council tax (city tax). BC is not over taxed in comparison.

I think it’s a shame the people of the province have turned on Campbell as this will almost definitely ensure the NDP wins the next election. If they get back in, it will only be a matter of time before people start recalling the glory years of Campbell and his tarnished record will start to look pretty good in comparison.

I think there is about to be a large dark cloud hanging over the province and Vanderzalm, who made a mess of things the first time, deserves a large part of the blame with his fear mongering and grandstanding. His vitriolic rants have little to do with a tax and more to do with feeding his over-sized ego. He wants to go out in a blaze of glory and that is all he is about.
And the people of BC have eaten it up. Over the past year these same people have made me glad I no longer live there because I am clearly part of a very small minority. I am pro user-pay systems, consumption taxes and a pro-business government. From my perspective, things can only get worse with the current political mood in the province and I would rather watch from afar than live within the mess.