Questions of Science and Progress: July 2006

Everything in its right place

Sidewalk sale on my street, St-Denis

3 weeks and 2 days left. 2 more visits from friends, then the move back to Toronto. Hard to believe that it's come so soon.

Thanks to the Hidalgo family for inviting me to the family and friends pool party a.k.a. shooting tequila by the pool at 3 pm with "the titos"... probably one of the best days of the summer. Funny how I managed to find the one other chemical engineering girl... I'm damn near laminar (for all the CSChE folks).

I'm entrusting Rotman to rid me of all the chem eng jokes and replace them with business jokes like "I'm Chet. You're fired. Ha. Ha." *wink and gun*

The 1234 of breakfast places.

Not much has been going on. Work is wrapping up... trying to finish my final presentation to give to my boss and my team. Finally, I've got a deadline to push me to work. The kicker: that deadline is the end of my work term.

Been very impressed with Lillian, Katie, and Monika's respective blogs. Great to see that they're enjoying themselves. PCHO/DSMALL, join the scene...

Lots of things have changed in Toronto since I've been away. Gone are Phil/Dave/Lillian, my 4th year "we're not doing plant design and Paul is so lets go to KTown every saturday and invite him out so he can get hung over and not do the economic analysis" buddies. Amit/Ray, you're taking me to the new places I've been missing out on. Feraz, get married.

When the day is fresh,
I'm coming home again.
- quoting "A Plain Morning" a second time

"C'est la vie." - David Brent

I found the greatest article to describe my day today. Rotman, here I come.

Unhappy at work? Blame the boss

ROMA LUCIW
Globe and Mail Update

A vast majority of workers say poor leadership trumps salary and workload as the main culprit behind low morale at the office.

A survey of U.S. human resource executives by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a global outplacement firm based in Chicago, found that 73 per cent of respondents placed the blame for low morale among employees on poor leadership.

Only 16 per cent cited heavy workloads as the main driver, while 11 per cent pointed to salary and benefits. None of the respondents felt that long hours or the threat of layoffs contributed to employee frustration.

”Leadership, or the lack thereof, creates the work environment,” John Challenger, the CEO of Challenger, said in a release. ”If there is confusion about what leadership expects, frustration sets in and morale sinks.”

Read the rest here: Unhappy at work? Blame the boss.

Something glorious is about to happen

(...stealing a line from Bloc Party)

Ever have those days where things all of a sudden start looking amazing?

My ankle is finally feeling better... should be walking limp-less by next week.
Team Vietnam at 737
Great races at the Montreal Dragon Boat Festival
The weather is finally cooling down a bit, and not as humid
Going back to work (ugh) for my final 4 weeks (yeye)
One last visit from my parents to rejuvenate me
Getting back to the gym for some light weights (or... LIGHT WEIGHT! a la Ronnie Coleman)
The start of a new program at school
Getting my new laptop (hopefully a titanium-lid ThinkPad Z61t)
Possibly visiting Vancouver
The Jays taking 3 of 4 from the Yanks in front of 42,000

At the same time, I can help but feel sad about getting ready to leave this place. Even though I've seen so much, there are a lot of things that I still have to do.

So after 2 weeks of inactivity, I'm BACK! 5 weeks to go... let's do it big, and let's do it fast.

Something GLOORRIIOOUUSSS is about to HAPPEN!
("Positive Tension" by Bloc Party)

Out of comission

My ankle is still messed up and after 2 days at work, I decided to stay at home to give it a rest. It's actually getting a bit worse than it felt on the weekend. I'd like to go see everyone at the Montreal Dragon Boat Festival this weekend, but then again I'd also like to walk down my stairs. Perfect timing: 7 weeks left in Montreal, 6 weeks for it to heal.

Not much else to say... life gets pretty boring when all you do is watch "A Baby's Story" on TLC on weekday afternoons.

On a different note...

I read an interesting interview with Kele Okereke, the lead singer of Bloc Party. Seems very relevant to a lot of the conversations I've been having with friends lately.

SomethingGlorious.com: What makes up the content of the songs?

Kele: One of the things that was inspiring for me, upon coming back to London after touring last year, I saw a lot of my friends I was at University with who had just graduated.

None of my friends had anything positive to say about the transition from being a student to having to do a job. It was just a real sense of "is this it?" a real sense of disappointment. My friends kind of threw themselves into going out and getting fucked up and getting drunk, sleeping around.

In my mind, this next album I'm really exploring the nature of leisure and the nature of how to unwind. I'm just really curious about leisure in a modern environment.

None of my friends have positive stories about how they're feeling now.

See the whole interview here.

He makes some interesting points. We all work so hard during school and expect such big things when it's all over. But sometimes it seems we just go into something because we're expected to... we even expect ourselves to. Thoughts?

Cabin Fever

Now that I ruined my ankle playing soccer on Monday, I've got some time at home alone... perhaps a bit too much time. Sorry to Ange/Joe/Andy/Vince/Wings for having to cancel this weekend... but I'll see most of you next week at the Montreal Dragon Boat Festival.

On a brighter note, I finished watching season 2 of The Office... even better than season 1!

It's been a while since I've written something reflective. With just under 7 weeks until I leave, things are unbelievably starting to wind down. Here are some thoughts that have been going through my head lately.

Friends. Feraz in Germany, Phil in Vancouver, Dave in Calgary, Lillian in Australia, Katie in Peru... and on and on and on. The idea of friends going away for work/school is something I never thought I had to deal with.

In going to Montreal, I always thought I'd come back in September and we'd pick up right where we left off. But as Dave reminded me a couple days ago, things never really stay the same.

New friends to be made. Old friends to keep in touch with. And Toronto friends to continue to be strong with.

Next trip: Vancouver.

Family. It's funny how being away makes you miss your family dearly, bringing you so much closer to them. And then going home for one weekend reminds you how great it is to be away from them.

In the end, I know that this will put all the small annoyances in perspective.

I just don't know I'm gonna deal with moving back to the den in the condo.

The Connection

So after talking about it ever since I got my job in Montreal back in December, guess who finally made the 4.5 hour train ride to visit... yeye. I think we were a bit ambitious in trying to cram 4-5 days worth of sightseeing/shopping/eating in one weekend. But what a weekend it turned out to be.

Smoked meat, eggs benedict and amazing potatoes, chicken crepes and cheese fondue, poutine, apple crumble pie, more eggs benedict and a humongous capuccino milk shake, more apple crumble pie...

Jazz Festival, 1234, Karina's on Crescent, Shopping on St-Denis/St-Laurent/Ste-Catherine, McGill, Old Montreal and the Old Port, Tam Tams in Jeanne-Mance park...

Guantanamera!

Taking a break at the Jazz Fest

Some weird artsy thing on Mont-Royal Avenue

Carefree!

Skipping along in-and-around the McGill campus... "Je reviens à Montréal!"

"Jess, for the last time, we're not going in there."

Is this Montreal? ... ORRRR, Paris

The fashion magazine shot

A little clumsy with the frozen yogurt?

Sunset on the St. Lawrence River

Thank you Mr. Racist Street Performer for humiliating me... p.s. I'm not Korean

"Vous êtes tres beau!" LOL, merci madame

Greatest breakfast place ever, part 2. Thanks to the waitress for remembering us.

Changing Pace

Seems like a while since I've had a weekend to kind of relax and explore the city again. Nice change from the typical "club-poutine-wake up at noon" routine.

The Jazz Festival lives up to all the hype. All of the shows are in one fenced off area, where you can buy beer, walk around, and check out one of the many outdoor (and therefore FREE) shows. So far, I've seen:

Pyeng Threadgill. Great voice, jazzy vibe
Chris Velan. White guy, reggae tunes... apparently he sounds like Paul Simon. If by Paul Simon, they mean UB40, then yes he sounds like Paul Simon.
Guitar Explosion: Paul Deslauriers, Trevor Finlay, Jean-Sébastien Chouinard. Blues concert, 3 electric guitars... crazy solos!!!
Marc Atkinson Trio. Classical guitar, acoustic guitar, bass. They sound kind of Latin, with some pretty insane soloing on the classical. Not bad for 3 guys from BC.

Definately gonna hit up lots more concerts before the festival ends on Sunday.

Too many shows to check out.

One of the many free outdoor stages.

Canada Day at the Old Port was pretty cool. Much more of a family atmosphere with things for kids to do.

Big crowds...

... watching an aerieals demonstration by some Canadian olympic atheltes.

Continuing with changing my routine, I went to the Jean-Talon Market today. After one hour of walking around lost (and taking the metro in the wrong direction), I finally found it:

Fruits galore.

I didn't intend on buying anything, but I tried a clementine and the incredible sweetness motivated me to buy a whole basket... lol. They probably sprinkled the samples with sugar.

They're not lying, these smell amazing.

I felt like I was a chef on the food network sampling fresh fruits and vegetables in a random market as I was gathering ingredients to cook a gourmet meal... aka buying clementines to bring to work cause I'm too lazy to make a real lunch.