Travel Daniel - Life & Study Abroad

Sledding #1

2009-04-15T08:23:00.001-07:00

Here is myself and my compadres from the program at Edelweiss which is a little tiny skill hill.

There's also:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj8hIDyop8c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkRaanQFzd0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS8v5hPzE_s

Dan

Look who's back

2009-04-15T08:10:00.001-07:00

Whew.

Crazy times, it's been way over a month since I last posted. Yet, now after much adieu I have returned. Like I metioned in my last post so long ago, I was just extremely busy the past while with everything on my plate I just honestly didn't have all the extra energies to put my fingers to typing more on my keyboard.

Last week was probably the most insane though. The Tuesday before last was the due date of my organizational report so my partner and I had to finish our recommendations to our organization on what steps they should take for trying to branch out. Then last week on Thursday we gave our presentation before the Organizational Development Manager, the organization director, my professor (who is the assistant dean of the Public Admin school), and our lovely adviser here Sandy. Our presentation went well and it was super reassuring to hear the organization members talk about how our ideas could really work or are interesting to try and try out.

The day after that we had a ten page paper due in that same class and then Sunday we had our final 15 page paper due. So, my time has been spent banging on this keyboard here for quite some time. Although, yes I procrastinate like any other ordinary person in the world and went out for gelatto or coffee every so oten, I did get them both complete and finished. What a super relief that was after sending in my paper on Sunday night.

Now the only the have to worry about is my written French test on Monday, which naturally will be weighed, measured, and found wanting by my elite French skills.

Anyway I hope everyone had a Happy Easter! I went to mass at a beautiful cathedral here in Ottawa and had an excellent breakfast of a black wheat crepe with shoulder pork and egg. Not to mention Illy Italian coffee, excellent stuff.

Catch you later.

Dan

Burning Hot

2009-03-11T15:46:00.001-07:00

Ahhh, sorry everyone. I know it's been some time since I last wrote anything. It's just that things have been getting rather hectic. Turning in papers, doing presentations getting papers back, reading loads, etc etc.

Bad news is that I have my midterm presentation due tomorrow that is worth I think 30% to 40% of my grade, that I'm now in full swing working with my organization LASI World Skills, and I have to start thinking and reading about the influences and possibilities for technology and the Internets on Civil Society as that is what I'm writing for my final paper.

Good news is that today it was sunny today here in Ottawa, and it's like the whole world is melting it's unbelievable, I got my Venezuelan group presentation grade back and we got an A, and I got my first paper 10 page paper from my other class and got a B+, which I'm quite happy about. I also get to do a group oral presentation on a movie of our choice for French, which is going to be a nice reprieve.

Back to work,

Dan

4 Man Gondola Ride

2009-03-02T11:12:00.001-08:00

DSC04355
Originally uploaded by M0nk3yM4n

August 29th, 2007

Four boys decided that being in Venice they needed to go on a gondola ride, and they came back four men.

Luke, Me, Kamil, and Tonahuac from left to right.

Culture Loss

2009-03-01T12:23:00.000-08:00

TED stands for Technology Entertainment Design, and is a conference that is designed to bring together the most thoughtful and innovative people in really any field that man has created or explored.

The conference was recently in the news as Bill Gates recently did his spiel on combating a few of the things that his foundation faces, and just to make his talk a little more interactive while he was talking about malaria, he unleashed mosquitoes upon the crowd. You can watch him release the jar of insect fury in that talk here.

However, a few of the talks were popping up on Digg.com, a site that I check regularly (okay daily) for the current vibe of the internets. And after I watched this talk about the co-founder of Twitter and how users are using it in ways the creators never even expected, and another talk by a journalist who tries some of the most expensive luxuries in the world and the price of happiness, I stumbled across this really cool talk by a guy by the name of Wade Davis on the endangered cultures of the world. Which I recommend that you watch, now.

Now, I learned some of the facts that he talks about while I used to think I was a Linguistics major at the University of Washington, and had many of the same thoughts about cultures and language and still do. It's really really sad that in the period of time between 2000 and 2050 our planet will lose half of the languages that were spoken now nine years ago. Like he says, the last speaker of a language dies every two weeks.

I agree with him though. I think we have to look at languages and their inseparable cultures as another way to look at our reality. Our cumulative knowledge and perspective as a species. As another branch of epistemology on a tree of human existence. A tree that is slowly losing many of it's branches. I think there is a lot to learn about the contexts and environments in which people grow up, like he said, our ideas about the mountain near us are different when they mean different things. The fact that to the cultures that exist around the Himalayas, Mt. Everest is the saint mother and to us in the West, the mountain is a feat that should be summited that 1,000s have left their oxygen tanks on are two very different ideas.

The fact that say I were in a situation where I had to ask someone directions to get somewhere, and if on that street corner you were to randomly place just five people out of the whole global population, chances are I would be able to communicate in English to one of them. Even though the statistics are a bit dated as the world population is now 6.76 billion a number that has tripled since only 50 years ago.

But for a majority of people in the world this is hardly even close to reality. The question is, what do we do about it? How does one preserve a language? Does it even matter when there is no one left to speak it? Can we still really call a language a language if it's not evolving and adapting? I think people need to be more cautious and careful about our effects on these endangered cultures and species.

Naturally, it's in many people's interests to learn French, or English, or Mandarin Chinese, and these minorities will do so seeking a better life because you can't find a job in your hometown where you speak language Y. Thus, I think it is up to the dominant cultures to make sure that these people unknowingly are not starting to break up the foundations of their communities and allow spaces for their language and culture to adapt and survive. That is extremely generic and not specific whatsoever, but this is a very contextual issue I imagine, as the people living at the foot of Everest are not under the same influences, as the people losing their traditional lands in the rain forest, or even the exodus of people from rural China (pre-crisis) to find jobs in the metropolises.

While I was in France, I was even asked to come volunteer for an organization supporting a local First Nations tribe in the Seattle area in order to preserve and sustain it's language. These problems really are everywhere, and aren't as distant as one might think.

Just some thoughts,

Dan

People to People - U.K. + Ireland 2004

2009-02-25T19:26:00.001-08:00

P2P Eurotrip 2004 551
Originally uploaded by M0nk3yM4n

I was organizing some of my pictures and came across this one today. This is me on my People to People trip on the summer of my Junior year in High School. Our group went to Nottingham Castle, and I asked Robin Hood if he would mind taking a photo with me. Shortly after the photo was taken, the guy in white behind us asked me impolitely to get out of the dirt and leave Robin Hood alone.

It was taken a ridiculously long time ago on June 28th, 2004

Funding Civil Society

2009-02-25T18:54:00.001-08:00

A picture devoted to my recent twitterbonanza streak

Now the real game is on.

Last week I sent in my groups Ethics Approval Form so that we are able to work with our civil society organization LASI World Skills, and not have to worry about Carleton University receiving blame for us getting harmed or using the data we collect for global destruction via melting the ice caps. Not that they need help right now, but anyway.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned it before but LASI World Skills is an organization that helps new immigrants to Canada with the proper channels and training or teaching to successfully enter the job market in the Ontario region.

They recently received special funding from the Trillium Foundation, which helps finance civil society projects in Ontario, to employ a full time "Organizational Development Manager" that will help LASI World Skills deal with many of their internal struggles and inefficiencies. Our challenge however, is to find new ways in which to make this position fundable and sustainable for the organization. It's getting so big that they need someone to handle menial bureaucratic business and without this type of position the organization itself will reach a limit in terms of the services they are able to provide. This also leads to the question of finding a way to demonstrate how this position helps the people that the organization provides their services for, as anything the position does, does not directly affect those they serve, and has more of a trickle down effect through streamlining interorganizational processes, and that is another hurdle.

Thus, this is where I am. All we have been reading about for class is the different and innovative ways Civil Society has channeled revenue into their very empty coffers, and I have a few ideas to try and make this work and have a few suggestions but I'm not sure where the organization stands already on funding efforts.

So, we will see what the next couple weeks has to offer. Although we only have this class once a week for only three hours, our professor decided to cancel it to give us time to go meet with our organizations. Really though, I just think he would rather chill in his office and jiggle the wheel on his Blackberry but, that's just me.

Of course, I'll spend the time wisely and go to LASI World Skills and start brainstorming with our liaison there.

Our first paper that we had to write for the class was due the week before last, and is viewable here. (10 pages!) I'm not sure what I got on it yet, and I am still quite nervous to find out...

Dan

Blast in front of Hussein mosque

2009-02-22T10:19:00.000-08:00

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h5hCnSXpjKsUh778941rnW-PgeawD96GP5180

I was probably in front of this mosque and in the Khan Khalili market half a dozen times last summer. Buying kuffiyehs and drinking coffee, looking at spices, and all the random trinkets. I remember I even watched an alley fight between two shops, the police stood by and only intervened after the fight was over.

The place is full of Egyptians trying to sell you everything you could possibly imagine and never need on a spot hundreds of years old. It's bizarre to think that people were hurt there. It makes me think that the cafe mentioned might of been this one I mentioned awhile ago, but probably not.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but when the Egyptian people feel betrayed when their government has basically been paid to side with the United States (getting the largest amount of "USAID" after Israel) and seeing Israel committing the atrocities of late, even though blind and not knowing who they are even targeting, people are going to start swinging.

Don't Freak Out About Studying Abroad

2009-02-16T00:17:00.000-08:00

I don't know who you were, or what made you want to click on the link that lead to my blog, but thanks for coming.

You somehow found my blog by googling or using another search engine and typed in the keywords, "Freaking out about studying abroad". You might leave later today, or tomorrow, and not knowing anyone else to turn to, you decided to search online for some words of encouragement and reassurance that you have dotted your "i"s and crossed your "t"s, and you haven't forgot to get your passport.

Lemme tell you, there is nothing to freak out about. The only thing you have to worry about is making sure each of your suitcases is under 50lbs. Make sure to double check the regulations with your airline before going to the airport, I recommend measuring your suitcase at least half a dozen times because paying any amount in any currency is no fun.

Make sure that you are not too attached to home. Your parents and closest friends and even significant others are just one Skype call away. Skype will be one of your best friends and if you choose to get a cell phone in the country you are staying in you can easily set up your Skype account to your foreign cell phone, so anyone calling you on Skype can reach you at anytime. For a charge of course, but I highly recommend it in case someone desperately needs to talk to you.

You are going to feel stupid the first few times you take out your camera and people are going to throw that "tourist" persona right on top of you, but sooner or later you won't care anymore and you will take the best pictures. Worried about losing your camera? Upload all your pictures to Picasa Web Albums or Flickr and you will never have a reason to lose your now priceless photos. Plus, you can share them with everyone back home with just a few clicks.

I also recommend keeping a blog. Blogger is free and is totally easy. Even if you don't have any idea how to web program, you can still use templates and designs to show everyone back home and yourself and future employer in ten years how far you have come.

I think the best piece of advice for anyone though, and this is something that took me a whole trip to learn is to just relax. Good and bad things are going to happen, and the people who can take the hits as they come and not freak out when there isn't any use in crying over spilt milk, is going to get the farthest and have the best time. I could tell you how my luggage was lost upon arrival in Sweden and I had to wear the same clothes for three days, or how I was deliriously sick in Egypt, or how at the last minute in Poland I realized my plane ticket left from another city across the country all together. I'm still alive, still kicking, and still abroad. And when it's all said and done, you too will have your own stories to tell.

I think after that there is nothing to worry about, the rest is a cakewalk. You are going to have fun and you are going to learn so much.

Get back to me, let me know how it went.

Dan

Jinni.com

2009-02-13T12:38:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to take a second and introduce everyone to Jinni.com, which is a cool new movie website that just started up.

Many people in the USA, myself included, are fans of Pandora.com as an internet radio that based on your likes, suggests very accurately other songs that you might enjoy. It's almost eerie how it recognizes the type of songs you like, and more often than once it has suggested other artist or songs that I like that were spot on. Jinni is very much the same idea but with movies.

Right now it's only in closed Beta, so you have to sign up but it only takes an e-mail and two seconds. Then you can search movies using any keywords you want.

Watch the example video demo to check it out.

Dan

Civil Society & The Venezuelan Embassy

2009-02-13T10:43:00.000-08:00

As I said in one of my earlier posts, I had to group up in one of my classes to provide an overview of the current state of Civil Society in Venezuela and all the nice side questions that go along with it.

Now you can look far and wide for a definition of Civil Society, but you aren't going to find two places that say the same thing. I don't think I've had a single day here where my own perceptions of 'what' Civil Society has changed in one way or another. But, just for a quick definition.

Anything you do with a group of people can really, in a sense be Civil Society. The coop down the street, the PTA, Employee Credit Unions, any unions, fan clubs, your book club, the NAACP, are all examples large and small.

Simple enough, it's just that there a hundred of exceptions and problems that arise when trying to define Civil Society or Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).

Is it always civil? The Ku Klux Clan? The aggressors in the Rwanda genocide, or the Hutu people, is a word that actually means collective or people en masse. A conflict probably largely attributed to the after after effects of colonialization but, that is anther story. The largest druglord to ever live in Columbia, Pablo Escobar, was once the 7th richest man in the world providing the substance, but provided many basic things for the poorest of Columbia.

Is it always seperate of the government? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Maybe the operate independently but more often than not they are tied to government for funding.

And for a lot of organizations out there, of who receive funding from government, many problems arise from wanting to carry out an objective or mission while your financial flow is at the behest of a government, even though yes, you are a Non-Govermental Organization. This leads to ideas about organizational accountability but that is yet another story.

Believe it or not, there are such things as GONGOs, which make no sense whatsoever, and that Wikipedia link is a little biased if you couldn't tell.

Anyway, for one of my classes we had to paint this whole picture, wrong or right, free or constrained, of Civil Society in the hotly controversial climate of Venezuela. So, we split up a few parts amongst us four, and most of the things we read although legitimate were definitely from the anti-government perspective, as the American-loving President Hugo Chavez has spiced things up quite a bit in the country. And yes, he does make televised appearances like that to his country.

Anyway, the cool part of this story is that as kind of a last minute thing we met with the de facto ambassador of the embassy. Who gave us his card...

Cool, eh? According to the embassy website he isn't official the ambassador but is in line to be designated as the ambassador.

Our conversation lasted about an amazing hour and a half, which although he admitted not being an expert on Civil Society in Venezuela, it was still very enlightening. I think both sides of the table came in expecting for it to be a shooting range, and after hearing some of the things that Hugo Chavez has done since the U.S. backed coup d'etat against him in 2002. But, after a few questions that kind of prodded around our conversational breathing room, things ended up going very nicely and comfortably, and to our surprise we learned a lot about the governmental side of
things that we hadn't heard before. Now, don't get me wrong. Hugo Chavez still expelled the representative of the Humans Rights Watch mere hours after he gave his report last year because it heavily criticized his government yet it is a document that I used heavily for my portion of the report

Later though that night at our class field trip to the World University Services of Canada, our group was randomly selected to do our presentation and I'm positive that that meeting made a difference in our perceived knowledgeability of the country. So, although I almost lost my ears again to to this extreme climate walking back from the embassy, it was well worth the visit, and I think my first to any embassy which was cool.

From Ottawa

Carlos, Me, Jose Antonio, and Victor with Simon Bolivar behind us.

I don't know what we got on our presentation just yet, but maybe I will when I get it.

If you'd like to read our overview we handed in last Thursday, you may do so here. It's a little jumbled from the website I uploaded it to, but my portion starts around where it says "Policy & Operational Challenges".

And for now, that is all.

Dan

Where'd I go?

2009-02-13T10:39:00.000-08:00

I know, all you faithfuls out there who have checked my blog everyday only to be disappointed in the fact that I haven't updated in almost two weeks, and I apologize for my absence.

Though! I have to say it has been a rather productive two weeks!

But I'm back, and I'd I hope that I won't be gone again. Let's keep in touch? No? Yes? Okay.

Dan

I has skates!

2009-02-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

I'm totally cool now, and never have to rent skates again.

Today my landlord asked me if I wanted to come with him to go get his skates sharpened so I could look for skates my size while he was getting his sharpened. Unfortunately, they didn't have any there unless I wanted to pay $130 or something, but the guy at the counter recommended another place and finally, oh finally, this being like the 4th place that I've been to find skates in my size and a reasonable price, I finally have my own. Now I have to wait till I'm not busy so I can tear up the canal, or my feelings of guilt that I should actually be studying are suppressed enough so that I can go. I'm sure I'll go this weekend though, I finally got some of the details for a "French Toast" group that meets every so often to parler en français and have breakfast at this (ironically) English restaurant/bar. So, I know I'll get a chance to use them then as I'll just skate there.

Really though, ever since I started learning French, my English has really gone down hill. I've said more stuff recently that doesn't even make sense than you would believe. I don't even sound like a native English speaker anymore sometimes. I use to pride myself on my spelling and vocab and now with all this French learning I try mixing the French and English spelling every chance I get, I could not survive without some sort of spell check for both languages. Learning French really improves the way you think about English I think, but when it comes to reading and writing for me, it's starting to become an absolute nightmare. Hopefully sooner or later, all this learning business floating around in my head like some amorphous blob, will eventually fit in to all the correct places and solidify so I can get through one sentence without second guessing myself.

Dan

New Wordle

2009-01-28T11:51:00.002-08:00

A new year, a new month, a new wordle. Click on the picture to look at it. Wordle takes the words that take up the most from a website or rss feed and displays it in a format kinda like this, with the biggest words appearing the most often.

Dan

Reinvention

2009-01-28T09:22:00.007-08:00

http://www.triplepundit.com/pages/obamas-energy-plan-data-dismisses-doubte.php

An interesting article I came across about people challenging Obama's new energy plan. I think that it's so important that when you quote someone you don't just give a name. No one knows who you are talking about or really cares. Even more, you give a name and maybe the organization they represent, okay sure. For all the money, you give a name, a company, and the facts that make everything oh so clear. It's all about building a supported argument.

Michael Morris criticizes Obama's new energy plan calling his new plan "too ambitious".
Michael Morris is the CEO of American Electric Power.
American Electric Power is the largest producer of electricity in the United States from coal sources.

Ahhh, yes. Michael Morris you slimy toad, no wonder you would say such a thing.

Accountability is important to the core and is something that I think we are seeing more and more each day. People are fed up with the way things work, government and the market are not meeting the needs of the people and are commonly voicing opinions that are in reality false and contrary to what paths should be taken. I guess that simply it's easier to criticize someone or something than make the effort to diversify, change, or adapt. (The dinosaurs I'm sure argued argued till the end, look what happened to them.) Which if AEP is the largest producer of electricity in the United States, something that I imagine is largely unaffected by the crisis, there is much to be gained here in diversifying and locating areas where people need jobs, stepping in and making much greener choices and possibilities. But I digress, and not everyone has or thinks with that kind of audacity, creativity, or even altruism

If I were the CEO of a company like AEP would I think that way? Would you? Even after what happened in Tennessee? It's hard to say, and imagine harder for those who have built up companies from nothing to find yourself in a changing world, but they have all the power and resources to keep reinventing themselves. They don't have to apply for grants and monies or convince anyone that they have a good idea and that they should be invested in. Their business plan is secure for the time being, but the clock is always ticking against them.

Look at the way Apple has changed itself and the whole way we use computers, and then changed the way we listened to and purchased music. As of this press release in April 2007, Apple said they have sold 100 million iPods. That's 1/3 of the United States, and amazing when five years before that was the release of the very first model and most people used CD players. I remember I thought I was cool because I had a CD player that read data discs with 200 Mp3s on it. In just five years they changed the whole music marketplace. Why can't a company like AEP or Ford or even Microsoft do the same thing? Madonna, Metallica, and ACDC are still part of the scene to continue with this muisc trend. Now I know music, is not energy, or electricity, or cars, or even Windows, but I think the idea is still the same and the possibilities are there for each yet in different ways.

I propose though that we create a new word in English that defines a character like that of Michael Morris, or George Bush, or anyone really who stands on a soapbox and voices an opinion of dissent, of criticism that in reality is selfish as their soapbox is really made of gold and all they really want is to keep shouting in spite that reality is against them. Fighting against the things that would do them or bring their soapbox harm, by voicing or disillusioning the facts? A certain someone on an aircraft carrier with a "mission accomplished" sign comes to mind. Some sort of mix of self-serving obdurate greedy weavers of unchanging discord but all in a single word I think would be fitting, a little harsh okay, but I don't think someone facing circumstances like unemployed Amber Easton cares at the moment about pleasantries.

And by the way, California is rocking out when it comes to "greeness". Although I think some statistics are null because of the amount of humvees and escalades in California....but I kid.

Dan

Obama-Biden + Ubuntu = <3

2009-01-25T13:48:00.005-08:00

I recently wrote an idea on Ubuntu's brainstorming website after reading an article on Obama being curious and asking Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems to wrote a paper on how Open Source Software can benefit our government. The website is an open website that anyone can join and users and submit suggestions on how to improve the Ubuntu platform which other people read and vote up or down or provide other possible solutions to be voted up or down, to which once high enough or popular they are read by actual developers and improvements occur and changes are made.

I thought for all purposes that Ubuntu or Mark Shuttleworth, it's founder, should write an open letter to our new administration advocating the use and applicability of software like Ubuntu, and how really they both can benefit. Here is a cool New York Times article on Mark Shuttleworth.

You can check my idea out and read it here.

Or you can quickly register and give my solution a vote by clicking on the button below.

Knee Deep In Work

2009-01-25T13:06:00.005-08:00

Yes oh yes, here it comes. I knew it would eventually come when I read the syllabus but truly, the workload has finally arrived and I started to load up my hard drive with .pdfs and dig through my three inch thick $144 course packet for obscure selections of articles that are sometimes incomplete and I have to find them out in vastness of the World Wide Web anyway. Thank you Mr. Professor, who doesn't really care.

To just rant for a bit, I hope I never become so academicized that I become like that professor or any professor like him, because I know there are millions of them out there. Professors who could just listen to themselves speak forever, and feel like it's necessary to use prepositions and bizarre transitions in relation to their lecture like, "We are going to come full circle back to [this topic]" or "and that leads perfectly into my next topic". I mean I understand a need for transitions but it should come naturally. It really is just ridiculous and you aren't making yourself smarter by doing that, I just won't buy it. Saying on the first day of class that you want people to be respectful and not hear any cell phones go off, and then have yours go off the next day. Really professional. I feel like if you are going to go up and talk, you should know what you want to say, know how you are going to say it in a way that is going to be understood, and then confirm that the message came across. Basic tenets of communication, that somewhere get lost in these "purveyors of academia" who use way too much time to explain too little. Maybe I'm the only one with this opinion but time will tell, and my observations will be heard.

Work coming up though, Thursday I have my presentation that I was going to do this past Thursday but we ended up not having enough time (the one where I had to rewrite all my notes). But, at the end of the class I was supposed to present it she handed out the presentation rubric which will probably put a bit more fear into me to make sure that I have a well planned out comprehensive presentation that makes links with the common themes and other big ideas of the class.

Then a week from that our country profiles and presentations are due, which we are looking at a broad analysis of certain countries and their relationships from every which angle with Civil Society, or Voluntary Sector, or Third Way depending on where you from or who you are talking to (no one truly knows what the Third Sector is, it's all of those terms and none of those terms). My group with Carlos and Victor, in my same exchange from Mexico, and Justine make quite an awesome group though and we all went to Justine's house this morning for breakfast and to discuss how we are going to play it out in our paragon example of democracy, Venezuela!

We ate maple beans which I had never had before and were quite good, asides from that recipe I think you can buy them in canned form. I'm not a huge baked beans fan whatsoever but I gave it a shot, and came out impressed.

Anyway, hope you are all having a good weekend. I need to make a journey from my place (Point A) to the grocery store (point B) so I can eat this week...

View Larger Map

And now for your pleasure, one of my favorite videos that I recently refound on YouTube.

It's crazy to think that six months ago I had my first experience in a hospital outside of the United States, and ended up getting blood all over my shirt. I had to find a new camera because I left mine in some Cairene Taxi, and was woozy everywhere I went in that sickeningly hot city. I remember that I ended up finding out that I had low blood pressure and I think it was from all the heat and lack of a reliable source of protein. What a crazy week that was, it was like being in a constant state of in between sleep and awake. A condition I find myself in way too often! Anyway, here it is.

http://traveldaniel.blogspot.com/2008/06/your-party-has-taken-turn-for-worse.html

Dan

Crazy Bug found on rent dishes.

2009-01-25T12:45:00.002-08:00

P1000207
Originally uploaded by M0nk3yM4n

I forgot to post this the week before last when I moved into my apartment, but the girl who lived here before me had a bunch of her own stuff and didn't use any of the dishes or other things that Joe, my landlord, provides. So, when I went into the basement/cellar area to grab all the stuff I picked up the box full of dishes and carried it back into my studio basementy place. Upon arrival, I noticed this bizarre looking creature on the plate, and no joke it wouldn't be able to fit in my hand it was so long. I think somewhere it took a wrong turn in the ocean and found it's way to freezing Ottawa. Weirdest thing I've ever seen. It did end up being squished, and now all it's friends are going to come for me in my sleep...

Dan

A new world.

2009-01-23T12:35:00.004-08:00

You woke up Monday, how'd you feel? You woke up this morning, or, any morning since Tuesday, and how have you felt? A whole lot better? I thought so, I know I did...minus the sleeping part.

I haven't had to post anything after that wonderful Inauguration Day, I've been busy with all my classes. I had a presentation to dish out in French on a newspaper article which compared to my presentation on Carmen back in Nantes, this was like walking on cake, or cake walking,...or maybe even a piece of cake you could say. Anyway, that went well even though I think that 75% of the people in my class could not understand what I was saying because I got placed into a lower level French class, which isn't a big deal but I definitely had all the luck to study in Nantes. However, though it went great and I'm sure I got a good score, talking about global warming, how most of the summers around the world by 2080 are going to increase in temperature by 60% - 80%, and how people in South-East England of all places are going to have to impose water control regulations because they aren't going to have enough water soon. It was fun though and even though it's suppsed to be only two minutes, I went for longer and tried to get shy people to talk in French.

Since studying abroad and having to do presentations and presentations I have realized that part of the reason why I don't like presentations is that people are so artificial during them. It's a weird social interaction where you only get to hear what I'm saying, even if it is important, and I think that puts me off. So each time now I find myself giving a presentation I try to break that, and I think what I always am secretly subconsciously gunning for is getting people to laugh. If I can do that just once, the rest of the presentation sails true and smooth. Maybe not always appropriate of course, sure, but it works, and people feel so much more genuine afterwards. I think it has something to do with not talking down at people, I'm not sure. I'll keep expanding on this.

After that, I had to prepare for a presentation for my Thursday civil society class, that when I was almost done Wednesday night my laptop flipped out and deleted a bunch of my notes. I definitely had a panic attack, and didn't go to sleep until late. I did finish preparing before class but the gods decided to play a very cruel trick on me and we ended up not having enough time in class on Thursday for me to present so on one hand I finished but on the other I tortured myself for naught.

Have you ever laid down to go to sleep, thoughts and ideas spinning in a million different directions, finally fall asleep, alarm goes off, and the lost though you had feels like 10 seconds ago and really you didn't even sleep at all? That my friends, is the worst feeling in the whole world, with a full day ahead of you, it makes me shiver. Don't go to sleep after midnight consistently, that's what happens and it isn't fun or pretty and after a cup of coffee that jittery, nervey, zoned out feeling arrives to the scene, and that's is the weirdest. I feel like I can walk through 100 people that I've known forever and not recognized a single person. Anyway, I am pushing forth a stronger sleep mandate from hereinoutinforth.

Ottawa is still quite the same, and now that my walk home isn't as adventurous as it used to be thing aren't really that exciting and with the OC Transport Strike still going strong, it doesn't look like easy mobility is going to come around anytime soon. I'm not complaining, it makes things simple, just not very exciting. I tried buying ice skates so I could take the canal to downtown but they either didn't have my size or the skates were $200, sucks eh?

Da

Tomorrow!

2009-01-19T18:17:00.002-08:00

Ahhhh!

My professor just e-mailed my class realizing that the Inauguration started tomorrow right as class starts, and if we wanted to spend the first half watching the Inauguration! Of course as a reading assignment we have to read the Obama-Biden National Service Plan before class but I suggested in my response that we could even watch it on cnn.com/live as having a place to watch it was an issue. So, thankfully I get to see most of the Inauguration tomorrow!

Here is the Obama-Biden National Service Plan fact sheet, I recommend reading it. Since I have to read it you should too. It outlines how tomorrow's new administration is going to encourage all Americans, big and small, (but I guess more big these days) old and young, to participate in their communities and provide many opportunities for those in college and even high school to start this very important trend. I haven't read it yet but I know that one of the things that he wants to do is double the size of the Peace Corps, as well as diversify the current AmeriCorps volunteer service to aide in Education, Community Emergency Planning, going Green, Health, and helping our Veterans.

Maybe I'll even write more after I read the article but it looks very promising on paper.

Happy Inauguration Day! That I now get to watch...

Dan

WAR

2009-01-19T09:53:00.006-08:00

I signed up for the closed beta for this internet TV service a long time ago and since then they have switched from being an application all on your computer to just a website that you can go to and watch streaming channels from all over the world. I searched for a bunch of random stuff to see if they would have it, and found this which I had never seen before but thought it was pretty cool, check it out.

Also if you still don't have a place to watch the the Inauguration other than those lucky enough to have TV, you may watch it on Joost live here.

Or also you can watch it on CNN, here @ http://www.cnn.com/live/ , which it's even cooler because it's coordinating the showing of the Inauguration with Facebook statuses.

Dan

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

2009-01-18T14:17:00.006-08:00

If any of you managed to make it through his farewell address on the 15th I commend and salute you. I watched the first five minutes on YouTube and couldn't stand watching that criminal stand up at a podium and have people clap for him. It's just ridiculous. You don't clap for convicted felons, you wouldn't clap for murderers, and yet there he is, giving his "Farewell Address Defense" of the worst two terms in American history. The worst part is that throughout the address he has that little hidden smirk that comes out at the end of every word and the ways his eyebrows move make you think he's about to deliver the punchline of a very elaborate eight year long joke. Or that, he's thinking in his head while he's talking, "I completely these idiots are still buying this." Just the fact that he even mentioned Iraq and Sept 11th is the sickest thing. Two completely unrelated events, that were avoidable and twisted before the eyes of the American people. That the American people will never fail or falter, and that after eight years that all of us somehow believe that he wrote his own speech, because I honestly do not believe he knows the meanings of all the words coming out of his mouth. How do his former professors at Yale even wake up in the morning, they let him graduate, they gave him a diploma. I could type a million sentences and I don't think I'd be through expressing how I feel about this person who has cost so many people so much, all in the name of the United States, something so sacred and dear that will take years and years to bring light and hope to people's lives that have been left in the dark.

And I'm only a stupid measly college student who is better off than most Americans. What about the estimated million of innocent Iraqis who died? And the now over 5,000 American soldiers? (Click and let it load, then hover your mouse cursor over the small rectangles). What about the 2.7 million people as of December, who don't have jobs? I mean It's just, there isn't a way to say how horrible it is. Look at yourself, look at your family, your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers, your colleagues and others. Are you, and they, better off now than you were in 2000? What could you do then that you can't now? What do you have to worry about now that you didn't have to then? What a different America that was. What a different world that was.

Here are the 1st and 2nd parts of the Bush Farewell Address. Good riddance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dVm66pxBMw

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=KHuDWtvU69U&feature=related

I'm very happy though that in the end most people saw some sort of light besides the flickering of their television. As 68% of people polled by CNN said that the Presidency was a failure.

And don't say that terrorism is less a problem today than it was in 2000, because it's not, as result of the Iraq War. The 2006 article from the New York Times says that terrorism (Islamic Fundamentalism) has "metastasized" or has changed or transformed with a dangerous connotation. (That's your word of the day people, click on the link for a pronunciation)

I'm not a huge fan of Keith Olbermann on MSNBC not because I don't think he speaks the truth, I'm very positive that he does, but he is just too in your face and is too obnoxious. I think that if you speak on TV you have to do so in a way that will change people's opinions not in a way like he does sometimes that only makes me wince even while hearing the truth. Not matter how shocking and how atrocious it is, not everyone is as educated or fortunate as you to know all the facts or have the time to go looking for them. But, here I think Keith does an adequate overview of the past 8 years in 8 minutes, just to give you all a refresher.

I hope that if you can, you all will watch the Inauguration, whether live or on YouTube or CNN.com like I will later (I have class for three hours stating at 11:30), as I think it will be something to never forget. As much as I am "ProBama", let's remember to keep our eyes and ears open, lest us forget the lessons we learned the past eight years.

Dan

Living below Zero°

2009-01-15T10:02:00.005-08:00

Short Term Forecast

Updated: Thursday, January 15, 2009, 10:00 EST

	Thursday Afternoon	Thursday Evening	Thursday Overnight	Friday Morning

	Cloudy periods	Cloudy periods	Mainly clear	Cloudy periods
Temp.	-5°F	-7°F	-13°F	-14°F
Wind	NW 6mph	NW 3mph	W 6mph	W 6mph
Humidity	53%	64%	70%	66%
P.O.P.	10%	0%	0%	0%

Check that out, it's not lying. At this moment it is -5° Fahrenheit. Do you have any idea how cold that is? Have you ever been somewhere that cold? I mean right now it's 32° at Steven's Pass, that's nothing compared to this. I can tell you I've never been this cold in my entire life. This severe chill is supposed to last for a week or two, but it is so so very cold. It's so cold that you walk outside and I have to cough after taking a deep breath because the air is void of any humidity. The first breath through your nose instantly makes you aware of every nose hair you have in your nostrils because they instantly freeze . And if you say you don't have any nose hair, stop lying to yourself, yes you do. Across the river in French-speaking Quebec, they even came up with a new word with this crazy frigidity which they call le frette (roll that R as hard as you can). You can say, Il ne fait pas froid....il fait frette! (It's not cold, it's really really #$&%* cold)

My day started a little bit like this:

Stepping outside my new place, and locking the door, I start my walk to class. It's really not so bad, the sidewalks are kept clear and most drivers here in Ottawa do not make pedestrians feel like they are road kill when they cross the street so it's nice. However, within maybe five minutes I started to feel the chill to set in. Even with my jeans on with a base layer underneath, a t-shirt, a thermal long sleeve, and a button up shirt, and then my new North Face jacket, I could feel the cold seeping in, as if I wasn't really wearing anything. It's kind of weird how quickly it happens and catches you by surprise that even while walking, you realize how cold you are and that my legs are really soaking cold in a way. The worst part of all though this morning was that I forgot my hat. Major mistake. After a minute of walking, my ears started to hurt they were so cold, and with only a hundred yards to go, my right ear started hurting really sharply and so I tried rubbing feeling back into it with my gloved hand to no avail. It really sucked and even now when I touch my right ear versus my left ear it feels way hotter. Someone told me you could get minor frostbite from just being outside for ten minutes, and I don't think they were exaggerating. The other crazy thing is that when the wind picks up just a little bit and my eyes start to water even just a little, the air is so cold that it starts to freeze my eyelashes together. Walking along and all of a sudden you can't open your eye all the way is really quite an experience, as I think my eyes are freaking out.

So, being the second day walking in this insanity and being the last straw, I just purchased a geeky Carleton beanie hat that covers my ears. It could have been a $100 hat and I would have still bought it because it's really, just that cold and I'm not going through that again.

And I've started walking through all the tunnels that connect the buildings at Carleton to spare myself from it. I feel though it's kinda like that one bad movie The Day After Tomorrow and no matter what I do, the freezing cold is going to come find me and suck the life out of me.

It is really bone chilling, breath-shortening, unbearably cold,

Dan

Curling near the Rideau

2009-01-13T15:13:00.008-08:00

Curling? Yes I know, what a sport. Really though it's like a Canadian version of Bocce ball. A game that isn't to be conquered through brute strength or getting up to the foul line enough times in a game, but that minute skill that is required in other games like pool, or Foosball, or beer pong and other annoying games where bizarre twists of the wrists are required. Curling much to my amazement though, is a really fun sport and I really enjoyed it. In fact, I've already begun talks to going back to the curling....place (what's it called?, since a "rink" is what you call the team). It takes just the right amount of effort and push to get that rock down the "sheet" and you even put spin on it to get it to curve in different directions, and when it gets close enough to possibly slide within the circle, it's way too satisfying and intense. Especially after a certain line intersecting halfway through the bullseye or "house", the other team can sweep the ice in front of your rock to help it slide right out of the house, it's just as satisfying to sweep one of theirs right out of the house as to slide one of your own in.

Okay, so curling is also like horseshoes because you play up and down the "lanes", each time up or down being called an "end" with something like nine ends per game or something. Then, curling is also like shuffleboard because as you let that 40 pound "rock" it's called, gently out of your hand you want to get that frustrating too fast piece of granite right on the bullseye without going over and without going too short. Then multiply that by eight for each "rink" and you have a recipe for having a lot of those "rocks" knocked out of the bullseye or pushed into the bullseye or blocking your own "rocks" on the bullseye. Let me tell you though, when those heavy granite rocks are really moving and they smash into another, it's quite a satisfying sound when another person's rock gets sent flying away. When your own rock is pushed away, not so much however.

Unfortunately, my Seattle buddy Charisse had other plans this past weekend and couldn't made it so I teamed up with Carlos and Victor from the same exchange that I am in and Canadian guy and played against girls from the Public Policy/Administration grad student organization called MAPA. We ended up winning with the one point scored the entire game/time we were there, and hilarious times ensued. Carlos didn't even know what curling was until the night before when he looked it up on Wikipedia!

Anyway here are the pictures, and even a video. Check it out!, I didn't even make it past that damned "hog line" in the video, even with a tripled sweeping team.

Also did you know that you can leave me a comment (without having to have an account) down at the bottom? Hmm?

Daniel trying to curl like a Pro from Daniel Miller on Vimeo.

Dan

Daniel's walk home last night in video form, and other bad and good news.

2009-01-09T16:26:00.005-08:00

Last night, feeling a combination of bored, lonely, and cold walking home across the Bronson bridge I decided to document a part of my journey. Hope you enjoy it. Thankfully in my new apartment which I'm moving to on Sunday, is only a 15 - 20 min walk instead of this hour-long insanity that consists of walking across on and off ramps and plowing my way up and down hills and hills of snow. I can't remember exactly what I said in the video but watch at your own discretion.

Dan's walk home Pt. 1 from Daniel Miller on Vimeo.

Dan's walk home Pt. 2 from Daniel Miller on Vimeo.

Having my new camera is just phenomenal by the way, I got a Panasonic Lumix FS3 for $60 some odd dollars at Best Buy after Gift Cards and an open box discount!

Last night though I got home and my tooth hurt really bad. So bad in fact that I didn't really sleep all that much, and then had to break it to my landlady this morning that I wasn't going to stay at that faraway apartment any longer. She did say she was going to give me my money back though! Whuuu! However, after being at campus for a couple hours and reading my tooth throb came back like a bad habit and I decided I had to go to the dentist, who decided I needed a root canal. So, I spent almost 4 hours today in a dentists chair as they scraped out the inside of my tooth and gave me six shots of Novocaine (the Canadians call this process "freezing" however) to keep my enflamed nerves from screaming in pain as he scraped them out.

I had a sandwich from Subway after getting out and got a invite from Carlos a guy from UNAM in Mexico who is also part of my exchange, to come out to a bar with him and other people from the program. So, here goes my first Friday night in Ottawa...

A + tard,

Dan