Sweet Dreams Are Made Of These…

Before I ventured from the Great White North, to the further point on this planet from where I grew up, I picked up a moleskin. I wanted to do some thinking… writing… learning… whilst on my journey, and thought keeping it contained would be a good idea. That and, let’s face it, moleskins are pretty cool (at least the make you feel cool just by possessing one).

I have done lots of thinking, and have learned a lot. Unfortunately, I haven’t written much of it down. I am starting to more. I kind of want to keep this journal as a reminder… almost like a textbook from this period of my life. And because of that, I don’t want to write just any old thing in it. I want to record things that inspired me… changed my philosophy… my beliefs… my point of view. As well as my emotions… confusion… love… joy.

Back in January I decided to take a few days and dream a bit with God. Have you ever done this? I suck at it. But I gave it a go anyways. I wanted to sort out what I really wanted in life. What I really wanted to do with my life. What I really wanted. It sounds a bit like a selfish tear, but it’s not. These are/were dreams. Can you ever go too big with a dream? Isn’t part of the makeup of a dream the possibility that it may never happen, because it’s so outrageous? But with that comes the possibility that it can!

Like I said. I suck at it. But I was flipping through it yesterday… thinking about what I might record next (it happened to be a theory about atonement…go figure!), and I came across my “Dreams” page (which is added to every now and then). What I have found in life and with God, is that the response we get, or the realization of our dreams, may not always look like what we have been expecting. And sometimes they do. The first two dreams I had written down are one of each. And they are being realized in my life right now.

The first, was to be married to a woman who:
- loves me for me
- understands me for me
- loves my Jesus
- shares my passions
- likes to dream
- is my best friend

In 27 days, this dream will be a reality. Jo is an enormous blessing in my life. Every day I have is better with her in it. I have not hidden from her in any way shape or form, and she has not recoiled… but instead has stepped forward and embraced. She is an amazing person.

The second, was to make a living doing something I love to do. The more time I spend doing research assisting, the more appealing continuing my education becomes. New possibilities have come with my jobs, and what seemed, frankly, impossible, aren’t looking so anymore. I have no problems getting up at 5am because I love what I am doing. This was the one I didn’t see coming. For the first time in a while, I love my job.

I’ll round off the post with a couple other dreams that have made it onto the page that maybe aren’t as significant, but are still things I want to do:

1. Meet with and pose for picture with Weird Al.
2. Learn to dance.
3. Play the violin (specifically, Thunderstruck by AC/DC)

Yeah, those last ones are a little anticlimactic, but whatever, it’s my life, I’ll dream how I want!

Been Busy

Since starting my job at the University, my living style has dramatically changed… I need way more sleep. However, I am a part of some very cool stuff in the realm of human biology. This article is old, but it still explains what we are doing (still):

LINK

Me thinks it would look good on my resumee when I decide to go with my biological science program hmmm?

Working It

I picked up another job last week… Started it this week. I am a research assistant for a Bioscience, Health and Nutrition study. We test the glycemic index for different foods. Different companies pay the uni to have their products tested. So we feed people (depends on what study we’re doing, but usually there are a couple different products and then the control substance…which is a nice tall glass of glucose water!) and then we take a blood sample and measure the glucose. It’s actually really interesting, and has implications for diabetics. I have only been at it for 4 days, but it is pretty good so far.

It IS a insanely early start… I need to be at the uni by 630am…which means I am up by 5… but I am done before noon… and at the ripe ole age of 30, I think I have maxed out my wages.

Job has really been a blessing to us. I cringed at the thought of a 9-5 job, and wanted to work in fields that I would enjoy. And I now have 2 jobs (computers, and biology). Both in fields I love. (For those of you who didn’t know, I had applied to some uni’s here in the Biological Science programs. Actually, the uni I am working for rejected my application. Ha!) And neither are 9-5.

Admittedly, the early starts are tough, but it gives me lots of time during the day to do other things. I am working on some of those other things. Hopefully, I’ll have some stuff to share about that soon.

Unviolated

Went in for a medical for my immigration today. Pretty painless. They took a little blood. Wanted a little urine (by the way, apparently a little plastic cup is my pavlov trigger… alost needed another cup!). Took a chest X-ray. Did some basic mobility exercises. Weighed in and was out the door.

Now you may think this was a simple routine check over. You couldn’t be more wrong. In fact, I am a little irritated that I never had to disrobe, or be prodded or anything. I mean, when I drop down 300$ for a checkup I expect a good going over. I was only physicall touched twice. Once when they took blood for my HIV test. Once to take my blood pressure. Somebody’s making a killing doing these medical check ups.

I was fully expecting a medicinal manhandling. It’s like I was asked out on a date and they took me to Burger King and back home again. Must have been my breath.

A Shark Predator?

One of the reasons why you should support PBS. Here is a video of a giant octopus attacking, and killing a shark. Metafilter has been good to me today.

Now You Can Be A Gil Grissom

via Metafilter

These training modules are intended to provide interactive training that covers basic information about the identification, preservation, and collection of DNA evidence at a crime scene. Recommended practices covered in this tutorial module may not be applicable to all situations or crime scenes. You should apply local department or agency procedures or applicable laws that govern the use, collection, and processing of DNA evidence.

You can find them here. How very cool.

The Signs Are All There

Laboured breathing.
Sharp pain in side.
Dull ache in legs.
Burning sensation on right shin.
Feet throbbing.
Festy smell in the air.

That’s right. I played some sport today. We haven’t got a bunch of people together to play some soccer and some footy. Being older now, I have to resort to “old man” tactics while playing sports other than hockey. Some would call it cheating. Some would call it bullying. Some would call part of the game. I like to call it evening the odds. So I use my size to my advantage. You may be young and quick, but you’ll think twice running at me during “touch” footy and I “touch” you. Since I can get you back for playing smart and exploiting our weaknesses, I’ll play a bit dirty. Not so dirty that no one wants to play… let’s just say I exploit their weaknesses. All in good fun. I never go out to hurt anyone… and it’s just til I get back into some resemblance of some shape… which could be a while.

To feed that fire, I was also a victim of school yard politics. That’s right. A victim. Just because I’m Canadian. And haven’t played much rugby. I was picked last. Even after Mitch, who hurt his ankle and couldn’t move properly.

Granted I do suck. But by the end I was going alright. And scored the winning try.

Which will be my only consolation as I find my self paralyzed with pain this evening when both calves cramp in the middle of the night. Oh, it’s coming. You know it is.

Sharing

I have started to load some pictures into my Flickr account. You can get there either by:

1. Clicking on the moving pictures on the sidebar.

or

2. Clicking on the Flickr link on the top of this page.

or

3. Clicking this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cjlapointe/

As I get pictures from the wedding and the bucks party, this will be the place to find them. Enjoy!

Linkage

I have added this button to the sidebar.

del.icio.us is a social bookmarks manager. It allows you to easily add web pages you like to your personal collection of links, to categorize those sites with keywords, and to share your collection not only among your own browsers and machines, but also with others.

So basically, it lets you take a look at what I have bookmarked. It allows you to “tag” your bookmarks as well which helps when you go looking for them later. I am trying to get in the habit of bookmarking things here, so I can look links up when I am away from my own computer. I have also gained a lot by looking through others’ del.icio.us pages. Have fun.

New Job

Started a new job today. I am now working as IT support. Basically I make crazy money to watch Windows updates. It’s only a couple days a week right now, until I learn more, and my employer decides he wants to keep me. Whoever told us we needed an education to get a good job was full of crap. I giant pile of crap.