climate change activist and science communicator; photographer; mapmaker — advocate for a stable global climate, reduced nuclear weapon risks, and safe human-AI interaction
Generally musings of the day, usually accompanied by a photograph
The combination of grossly insufficient sleep and mild snowfall has produced a morning of havoc. My normally-hour-and-a-half commute became two and a half hours, with people crammed cheek-by-jowl in a streetcar with totally fogged windows, lurching among confused drivers. Then, I forgot my (quite durable and expensive) umbrella somewhere on the subway or in a subway station.
With luck, it will turn up at the TTC lost and found within a few days.
I am on vacation for two weeks!
In this case ‘on vacation’ includes moving, preparing four doctoral applications, and a week-long trip to Vermont (which actually will be relaxing).
I should be back at full force in January.
I had a marvelous birthday weekend.
I am still looking for a place to live in Toronto. At this point, I am looking for a room in a house that I can get on a month-to-month basis. I want something near the subway, and ideally fairly quiet.
If you have any ideas please contact me. I am very busy with doctoral applications and other tasks, so the amount of time I can dedicate to house hunting is pretty limited.
The GRE is in four days, and I am pretty nervous. I don’t think it should be the most important consideration, when people are applying to graduate school. It is a very artificial test, largely based on some really narrow conceptions of how language should be used. I bet a lot of authors who have won major literature prizes would have trouble with their ‘reading comprehension’ and ‘verbal reasoning’ questions. Often, several answers are justifiable, and the rules according to which the test-writers choose which one is ‘right’ are somewhat arbitrary and parochial.
But I shouldn’t grumble too much. It will be over soon.
Getting in applications by the end of the month is a major undertaking. At the same time, I have a couple of exciting trips coming up. I am going to Ottawa next weekend for the launch party for my friend Andrea Simms-Karp’s excellent new folk album: Hibernation Nation. I have had the songs stuck in my head constantly since I first head them. Probably about 100 people have caught me humming them to myself on the subway to and from work, operating under the false assumption that everyone around me has hearing as mediocre as mine.
The weekend after, I am going to New York City for American Thanksgiving. I definitely need to have my applications in by then, as the trip will incorporate a 28th birthday celebration and is something that I want to be able to focus all my attention upon.
Pressed by application deadlines for doctoral programs in the United States, I have booked myself to write the Graduate Record Examination on November 16th.
In an ideal world, I would have more time to prepare for the GRE. As it is, American programs require complete applications including GRE scores between December 1st for the earliest schools and January 15th for the latest. November 17th is the last possible day to write the test and get formal results by December 1st.
In addition to dealing with the GRE, I need to assemble references, statements of intent, research proposals, and so on.
It is all a bit daunting. I am thankful for the efforts of a particular young woman who is doing more than anyone to keep me sane and generally on track.
Yesterday, I participated in the novel, engaging, and pleasantly pagan festivities at Toronto’s Night of Dread. Put on by the Clay and Paper Theatre Company (whose work I have photographed before), the evening involved both small and gigantic representations of fears including ‘corruption’, ‘nuclear war’, ‘selfish leadership’, and ‘lack of stability’.
Accompanied by drummers and brass instruments, a parade marched out from Dufferin Grove Park and out around the neighbourhood before people assembled to see some of the fears burned atop a massive bonfire, followed by more music and special bread. I can’t explain exactly why, but seeing families and children at the event was comforting and encouraging. It may have something to do with the act of physically coming together within a community, making art, and participating in a non-commercial spectacle together.
The sense of history that accompanies gathering around a fire is also a comforting reminder that humanity has always had troubles. It is easy to look at woes from nuclear meltdowns and tsunamis to wars and currency crises and think that we are living in the worst of times, or even the end of times. Gathering in a manner that would have been recognizable to people from thousands of years ago drives one to think about all the fears, misfortunes, and tragedies that have afflicted the world across that span, and it kindles a hope that we might overcome (or at least continue to contain) the dangers and sorrows that exist now.
The symbolism may not be sophisticated, but it is rather satisfying to see enormous representations of fears marched around and eventually burned. The pyrotechnic element reminded me of Luminox.
Sorry for the recent lack of photos and content generally. In addition to full-time work and three hours a day spent commuting, I am working on job applications, apartment hunting, preparing applications to doctoral programs, and getting ready to write the GRE ASAP.
Despite the many highly valid objections against doctoral programs, they are looking like my best option at the moment.
[Update: 10:32pm] If you want to read something much more interesting than my blog, I suggest T.E. Lawrence’s book about trying to join the RAF incognito after his famous Arabian adventures. The whole thing is available for free online, in two versions. There is one with curse words, and one for those with delicate ears. It’s remarkably modest for a book about a military hero. Right out the outset, he gets embarrassed by a doctor noticing that he has been too poor to eat well during the past few months.
Fairly frequently, there are morning trains on the yellow north-south line in Toronto, running toward Downsview, that do not continue north to the terminus station. Rather, they order everyone to disembark at St. Claire West station. Then, they go up a weird little blind alley, pause for a minute or two, and return to the station heading south.
I usually learn that I am on one of these trains in an uncomfortable way.
It being early in the morning, my brain is barely functioning. In addition, I am almost certainly listening to music or a podcast on my iPod. I sort of vaguely register the fact that everyone else on the train has gotten up and left, but the time it takes for me to understand the situation exceeds the span of time granted for disembarking. So the doors close, and I follow the train down its little dead end path, before it begins traveling back south again.
The mistake is easy to correct. You just get off at St. Claire West station redux, go upstairs, cross over to the northbound platform, and wait for the next train. What is awkward is how the conductor of the train walks the length of it in that little dead-end tunnel, moving from what used to be the front of the train to the control car at the other side. As the conductor passes, there will be some kind of exchange in which it is mutually understood that you are the dim-witted fellow who didn’t follow the instructions to get off the train.
Today’s conductor was quite amicable about it – even concerned for my mental well being. He told me that the dead end tunnel stresses some people out. I explained that I had seen it before, in the semi-conscious haze that characterizes mornings for me. All told, today’s experience was much more pleasant than my last St. Claire West reversal, where the conductor rather energetically berated me for still being on the train.
My photos from Occupy Toronto are going up on Flickr.