i tweet therefore i am

So pre-flight the other day, I couldn't sleep and was bouncing around on the interweb, bored and looking for something to do. I ended up finally looking at twitter. Until then I had successfully avoided all things twitter. In a moment that I may end up describing as either genius or weakness, I joined.

So yes, you can now follow me on twitter. I don't think I'll be one of those people who tweets each time I twitch, but you never know. I imagine I'll just tweet short thoughts, links to random things and have the odd twitter conversation (does anyone know what that's called?). Also, I'll probably tweet new blog posts as well.

I'm not following many people so far, and don't have many followers. I think if I keep using it I'll follow a few more people. Maybe some of the people I have praised and punished on this blog should be followed.

how do you like your plane...big or small?

I'm flying again, moving progressively farther west and north. While doing the puddle jumper flight from Regina to Calgary this morning I was thinking about people's preferences when it comes to plane size. Now I know some of you may say that it's not the size of the plane that matters but where it's going. However, I for one think size matters. When it comes to my planes, I like them small.

I've flown in planes of all sizes, from a two-seater to massive jumbo jets. Hell, I even put my life at risk and flew Aeroflot (affectionately known as Aeroflop). Without roads, small planes are the main source of transportation north of 60, so I've spent a lot of time in them. In a small plane, you hear all the noise, feel all the bumps and are crammed in, but at least you know you are flying. Also for a number of irrational, incorrect and mildly insensitive reasons, I feel safer in a small plane. Let's consider:

• Ground control: in small planes, you can usually see the ground. Even if it's cloudy, you know you're closer to it than you are at 30,000 feet. Closer to the ground, means less distance to fall (I told you these were irrational)
• Glider Effect: a big plane is a whole lot of metal. A small plane weighs a lot less. Combine this with being closer to the ground, and a small plane can glide safely to the ground (see above for how it's closer to the ground allowing it to do this) while a big plane will likely just plummet straight down, damn gravity.
  
• Terrorists: think about it, terrorists don't blow up small planes:, they go for the biggest bang (literally). If I think of all the big terrorist attacks on airplanes, they have usually been big planes.
• Hijackers: (see terrorists above) Once again, big plane with lots of people. Small plane, not enough passengers for adequate leverage.
• Personal Touch: In a small plane you often see the captain and co-captain, many times they are the only crew on board. I'm convinced this personal interaction makes us safer. They know who their passengers are, we've chatted, made some jokes, shared a granola bar. Because we've interacted they now have a personal vested interest in getting me there safely.
  

So yes, a small plane may not take you as far, or may take longer to get there, but in my view it will always get you there safely.

PS - given I spend a lot of time in small planes, please don't shatter the illusion by pointing out the irrationality of these reasons.

guilty pleasure: literal video #1

The blog has been quiet for a while, but finishing law school, graduating, moving and travelling has taken up most of my time and energy these last five months. Anyways, as noted below I've started a blog for my time in Regina, which has now begun. There's a new post over there.

On this blog, I'll probably be posting those silly or general thoughts that don't quite fit on the Regina blog. On the topic of silly, I figure it was time for another guilty pleasure, this one a literal video. Literal videos can best be described as someone singing exactly what is happening in the video. I stumbled upon this one the other day. I've discussed my love for cheesy 80s/90s power ballads before and now one of my favourites gets the literal video treatment. Enjoy!

moving

As some of you are aware, once law school ends I will be moving to Regina, Saskatchewan for a year. In the spirit of this move I've decided to move my blog as well. Beginning in May 2009 (with a few advance teasers) I will be posting short tales of my experiences and life in Regina. Think of them as short monologues..in fact, think of them as Regina monologues.

The new blog can be found here.

an explanation

Regular visitors to the blog may have noticed that the blog was locked up for the past few months. Essentially, I shut down the blog as I had not been posting regularly in 2008 and when I got back to school I found I didn't have the desire to write.

Not knowing whether I was done with the blog or not, I thought I would shut it down for a while and give some thought to what I was doing with it. This was also during the time when blog posts were coming back to haunt candidates during the election.

I looked at a couple of options on Blogger for shutting it down, but it came down to two, deleting the entire blog or locking it up so that I was the only person who could access it. I wasn't ready to delete the blog entirely, so I locked it up.

I probably should have put a post up first telling people that I was going to do it first, but I figured I hadn't posted in quite some time so I just shut it down.

If I gave the impression that people were being locked out of the blog, I am sorry. Really, it was more of a blog downtime. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do with the blog, and I'm in exams right now so this will probably be the only post to the new year, but I realize the world needs access to my guilty pleasures so feel free to poke around and indulge.

i got meme'd

Megan, the little sister, meme'd me. Her answers can be found here. My responses are below.

A) Four places I go over and over: Saskatoon, Calgary, Toronto and Yellowknife. My life is a circle between these four cities. This will change as I will be going to Calgary less often now that my sister has moved back to Toronto.

(B) Four people who e-mail me regularly: Megan emails all the time, usually to go for coffee; it appears the phone is so last year. Jana, Facebook (all my friends email through facebook), and spam (is that sad?)

(C) Four of my favorite places to eat? Swiss Chalet, Swiss Chalet, Swiss Chalet. Hmm, does that count as 3. Other than Swiss Chalet, I'd say the Thai restaurant on 33rd in Saskatoon.

(D) Four places you’d rather be? London, Prague, Utrecht and Budapest.

(E) Four people I think will respond: None, I'm a bad sport, refuse to spam and won't pass this along.

(F) Four TV shows I could watch over and over: Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog (ok it's an internet tv show but it still counts); Firefly; Relocation, Relocation; and Project Runway.

have i matured?

My recent experience of getting getting glasses has brought a sense of aging, but it's also now brought a sense of growing maturity. When looking at glasses, I asked if they had anything big, black and geeky. I thought hey, I'm still in school, I should have some glasses that are fun and ironic. I can hear you all now, "act your age, not your shoe size".

Well, surprisingly enough, the eyeglass retailer was able to find t a pair and brought them in. I was excited to try them on. I was hoping for Elvis Costello, but ended up looking like Drew Carey.





Despite the Drew Carey look I thought they would be a fun pair for going out and having fun, but t I realized I am just not cool, hip or ironic enough for these glasses. In the past this would have been a pure impulse purchase, $300 for irony. The fact that I put the glasses down show not only that I am aging, but that I am maturing.