December 2004

December 30, 2004

Somehow, in a blur, ten days have gone by. I think that a few days ago I was thinking about putting up a post, and next thing I knew, it was now.

Today was quite an eventful one; waking up at six in the morning to get ready and go snowshoeing in Albion hills with Hiroko and Conan...pretty fun stuff.

Somehow snowshoes have become all high-tech, and instead of the old animal sinew stretched between bits of bent wood as I was expecting, we had some crazy new-fangled things that - miraculously - you could actually walk in. What an innovation!

It's been pretty fun having Hiroko here for the week, and actually approaching this city as if we were tourists; we've probably done more in this city in the last few days than we have in the last couple of months. The whole thing has given me a new perspective not only on Toronto, but also the ways in which we as Canadians try to portray our environment to visitors. I've now decided that if there were two words with which to sum up a Canadian, it would have to be 'self conscious'.

As much as we've tried to show off all that Canada and Toronto has to offer, it somehow seems irresistable to put in a few self-depracating shots along the way, poking fun at either the transport system, the difficult-to-open packaging or many ways in which Toronto comes off as "New York Jr.". What is it, exactly, that keeps we Canadians from bragging? We have a great country here, but something makes it impossible to sing its praises without at the same time self-consciously providing a counterpoint to every positive thing we might point out?

Well, all pontification aside, I hope that everyone has a wonderful New Year's Eve tomorrow, and I'll see you all in 2005.

Cheers!

December 20, 2004

What's it like outside, I wonder? You know, I can't really tell, because my windows are covered with ice. The temperature has dropped through the floor, and with the wind chill today it's -37C. What?! This is clearly complete and utter madness. Laura and I are in shock, and walking home from James and Jo's house yesterday we almost froze to death. Ergh...

As of Friday I am 90 pages into my book, somewhere just over 27,000 words and still going strong. I'll likely leave it at 100 pages until the New Year, as there are a lot of things to do before Christmas to get ready for going out of town, etc. I'm really pleased with how things are coming along, and if all proceeds like this I should be able to finish writing the book on schedule.

It's also an exciting time right now because of who's around; Ian is here visiting from Japan and in just one week Hiroko will be coming over from Japan as well. Laura and I have been trying not to scare Hiroko with reports of how cold it is, but it will be a shock for sure!

December 14, 2004

On Saturday there was a pleasant sprinkling of snow over the city, with a light flurry of white filling the air for the entire day. It was amazing, the transformative effect it had on the normally drab cityscape; highlighting rooftops and trees, dusting parks and playgrounds. I rode home from Aikido through the snow, and I think that I was grinning ear to ear the entire time. 'How fun!' I thought. 'Snow!'. I love snow.

Laura and I later went for a walk along College street, enjoying the lights and peeking in store windows, all while the snow kept coming down.

Saturday was a thoroughly pleasant day.

Well, now the snow is gone, and its damn cold. The temperature dropped overnight from where it was around zero yesterday to a slightly brisk minus ten. Snow I like, cold I could do without. Today will be a real test to see if I can make it through the day without turning on the heat...I'll be sitting here writing all day while wearing about six sweaters. No wonder my book is set in Greece! I'll be working all day trying to imagine I'm there, not freezing my butt off.

December 10, 2004

Today I learned to read Greek. All in all, it's much easier to learn than Japanese, where after years of study I can still only read at the level of a dyslexic 10 year old. Yup, at 24 characters, Greek is a breeze.

I know what you're thinking; 'Why, Aaron, did you decide to learn Greek script?' To you crafty people who were thinking that, I say "Good question!" You see, there are officially one too many characters in my book named after a letter of the alphabet, as well as a few other names that really have to go. In a story of betrayal, war and the eternal striving for virtue, there is no place for a guy named 'Duder', a cunning warrior named 'Susie' or a brooding member of a mysterious religious order named 'Mr.P'. Let's just say I'd had enough of that, especially when the chapter I'm writing at present introduces something in the order of eight new characters (I'm running out of letters in the alphabet, and I didn't want to start numbering them).

Now a little while ago I came across a website that was tantalizingly named "Lexicon of Greek Personal Names" which was apparently compiled by a group of Oxford scholars to "collect and publish all ancient Greek personal names". Yeah, that's right, all of them. Great! The only trouble was, they were all written in Greek.

So this morning I learned to read, becoming functionally literate in my third script (or fifth, if you count Japanese as the three scripts that it really is). My friend Lavrentia sent me a book from Greece aptly named "Learn Greek in 25 years", and given my age I figured there was no time like the present to put it to good use. And this lead me on an amazing journey of discovery in my neighbourhood, solving a mystery that has dogged me since we moved here.

You see, Laura and I live in a Greek neighbourhood, and across the street there is a Greek cafe with giant white Greek lettering in the window. After a little practice deciphering ancient names from the Lexicon, I decided to use the fruits of my tireless efforts at self-education for more practical ends. I put on my glasses and stood in the window, slowly sounding out the characters on the front of the cafe out loud (as I have started doing, now that I spend so much time alone). I stumbled over some of the characters, said it a few times, then PRESTO! The mystery was solved. It said "Greek Cafe".

Well aren't I a fricken' genius.

Ah well, at least I have two pages of new names to pick from.

December 9, 2004

I've got to thank Mike for sending me this link...this is a little piece of video that got me going. This is what a few people from the 'democratic' country of the good 'ol USA had to say about Canadians disagreeing with them on some issues...enough to drive you crazy. I'm glad they 'let us' share the same continent as them...what a pleasure it is.

The upshot of it all is that there's another clip here of one of these twits getting their comeuppance on their own TV show...rather gratifying to see, really.

December 8, 2004

1...2...3...everyone say it together...Yay for me! My shoulders are getting sore from giving myself such a hearty patting on the back, but as of noon today I hit 50 pages in the draft of my book. Sweet! Times that by ten, and I should be done! It's quite a shock just how fast you can get it going when there's actually one of those 'outline' thingies...who knew?

...and this just in...only a few hours after putting up this post, and I'm at 55 pages...woo hoo. I would type more, but my keyboard is ON FIRE. :)

December 6, 2004

It's pretty hard to believe that it's December already...but then, considering the snow that's flying around outside today, maybe it's not all that hard to believe.

So, as of that last post, I started writing, and after a week of that I find myself 36 pages into my draft. This is exciting, as some time ago Laura said to me, "I'll take you seriously when you hit 50 pages." Woo hoo! Fourteen pages to credibility! At this pace, I should hit that about halfway through this week.