Here is another instance of my receiving a gift I forgot I requested.  Liv's mother returned from her trip from Ireland with a wealth in modern treasure!  As Liv pointed out, Ireland has the harp on the back of their Euro coins. I also enjoy the English pence, but why does the 2 pence use almost as much metal as the 50 pence?!

Coins from Ireland and the UK

So Sew Me

I have mended my material ways as well as my materials. Hooray for renewed pants!

Hint: Very

No one knows just how excited I am to have our company joined by another fish.

Dematerialising

During this summer while working in Toronto I was somewhat uncomfortable. I uncomfortable with my days, with how I could spend my free time, with where I was, or rather, where I wasn't, with whom I was not, with what I was not. No offence to my coworkers or to the place at which I stayed, but I was rather temporarily suspended from my normal life. At first that was alarming, but in the end it was just fine. I couldn't have been comfortable unless I also opted for permanence, which I did not.

Consequently, I was dosing myself on materialism. Yes, materialism. I used a new phone, my Nexus One, a new battery for my laptop, and the website Engadget (reporters of consumer devices) to distract myself.

Now I am back in London, I am back with Liv, I am back with friends, I am back to my room, to my space, to a lot of my habits. I am also back to Guelph, back to school, back to the atmosphere.

The distractions are now less necessary. I now get to live in an environment comfortable and happy enough to liberate me from my focus on materials. Good night Engadget.

Thursday Morning Schedule

3:40 leave house
3:50 shortly after reaching Riverside
3:55 by train overpass
4:00 by cemetery
4:15 approaching bridges
4:20 crossed bridges, about to cut through park
4:25 through park, walking streets to VIA station
4:35 at VIA Rail

Tip: do not run, and walk carefully, to avoid skunks at all turns.

Tidbits concerning Scott Pilgrim

All of this information was learned via the Wikipedia.

• Wallace Wells is played by Kieran Culkin, Macauley's brother.
• Alison Pill who played Kim Pine in Scott Pilgrim vs the World was also in Dear Wendy, which I saw in Toronto in 2006 in the theatre nearest where I just lived.
• Mae Whitman, who played Roxie, voiced Katara in the animated Avatar: The Last Airbender.
• Brie Larson, who played Envy Adams, actually is a singer/song-writer, as well as an actor.
• Chris Evans, who played Lucas Lee, will portray Captain America soon. Brandon Routh, who played Todd, is Superman.
• The film, which started filming before the 6th book was finished, initially intended to have Knives and Scott end up together. Thank goodness the film was adaptive enough to take the course the books ended up following.
• Beck is the sound of Sex Bob-omb, Broken Social Scene is the sound of Crash and the Boys. Metric are the sound of Clash at Demonhead. Chris Murphy of Sloan was the guitar coach for the actors. I am under the impression that the actor's themselves at least sang the songs even if they didn't perform all of them.
• The director obtained permission for Nintendo music by writing a letter to Nintendo describing their music as "nursery rhymes to a generation."
• Finally, magazines who reviewed the film are all incredibly stupid and should have their staffs fired for being out of it.

Autumn Cold

I have a new monitor. I got it a couple weeks ago, but in my need to have it NOW, I bought it while in Grey County... where it then had to stay with me afar, unable to treat it how it should, like a new best friend.

It's cold. Flesherton is almost always cold. It can be sweltering in Toronto, Guelph, or London, and when I come home, I have to wear a sweater if the sun's hiding from me.

Consequently, I have a lot of fav memories (yah, I wrote "fav") of me and the cold, chilling together. I consequently grew up in sweaters and have lots of sweet memories with them. "Richard, why are you wearing a sweater? It's 27°C out!" "Go die Monica." That's an example of a sweet sweater memory. It's also a rare event, I think.

Anyway, the other day I went to play tennis and it was chilly and I had to jog a little to survive before we got to the courts, and then it was overcast and the air was rife with the aroma of freshly decayed tree rot. That was good. That was quite nostalgic. Later in the evening I was out with Liv and couldn't find an opportunity to express to her how awesome I thought the atmosphere around us was, as it grew cooler and bitterer. I think I did articulate parts of it eventually, when I was dangling of a gym set. She probably doesn't realise how much I enjoyed being out there with her at that moment, as the context might be misleading. I like calling her Olive. It seems strange now, but forget that. I will call her what I want when I want. So sayeth me, master of my mind.

So yah, the cold. My house must be devoid of anything a reasonable person could name "insulation" too. As my knowledge of thermal dynamics increases (marginally), I have improved my coping mechanisms. Rather than shivering all night until I pass out, I now cocoon myself (cocoons are amazing). It's amazing, tightly enwrapping yourself and conserving the heat your body generates, enough to get you comfortably through the night, and to prompt you to remain still for hours upon waking, for fear of re-entering the well refrigerated house of my youth. That might be why I have fewer problems with exposed food expiring outside of the fridge: there's no temperature difference.

But that time, bundled away, is great for reflection. I still do it these days a bit when I wake up and am incredibly cozy, waiting for the world to start around me. The more time I have to Think and the fewer distractions I have from it (e.g. sitting on a bus without anything but my imagination to while away (not wile, apparently[1]) the rolling minutes), the better lived my life feels. I think I remember more (or at least I am told I should) and I have more moments of quiet smiling to myself. I appreciate the people around me more and my situation: a great reduction in discontent.

So, hooray for the chilly autumn air that defined my youth, often coinciding easily with the start of new school years, precipitating the frozen, reclusive winters and echoed during the reversing spring, forgotten by summer. I am going to buy a pumpkin.

1. http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=466