This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.                             the guys: philogynist jaime tony - the gals:raymi raspil

        20061208   

Michael considered fate at 16:12   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

Man is montreal lame now that Britcoal has left.
I was at Biftek tonight, and I had my pants on the whole time, nor was anyone peer pressuring me to puke on myself.
Maybe this is all a bad dream.......and when i wake up Britcoal will be beside me....er, I mean back in montreal. 

Wow, congrats on everything! 

What? You are in town and you haven't been to dinner yet??
Ricarda is in Spain, you could visit her, I can hook you up with some friends in Florence as well. 
This week was a bit of a turning point for me. Back in Maine, I finally found an apartment I liked and signed a lease, I've settled into the job after a few weeks of warming back up to it, and I'm done thinking about the transition. Certainly, I'll have to make it back to Montreal soon in order to pick up some belongings and finish up some administrative paperwork relating to my thesis, but these future trips will be just that - a trip, a temporary visit, a respite.

What's more, a certain grammatical finishing statement was placed on my work over this year as well, with the acceptance of a boiled-down 15-page version of my thesis work for publication in the proceedings of the 2007 Compiler's Conference. Luckily for me, this means a trip to Braga, Portugal in March on NSERC's dime - the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

If things go accordingly I may request some extra time off from the job and spread myself around Europe visiting the various folks I know there. My sister completeled her Microbiology PhD this summer at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and is due to ship out to Paris this January for a three year post-doctorate. While I've never had a burning desire to visit France, I certainly won't scoff at the chance.

One of my close friends during my pursuit of a masters over the last two years in Montreal was a Polish fellow with a penchant for linux, good television, and boozin'. Suffice it to say we got along quite well. He has since returned to Norway, where he grew up in his later years, and is working in Oslo. If I make it there it will be wonderful to have a place to stay as I have heard it is one of the most expensive cities in the world.

Yet a third friend, this one a true Canadian, is currently in Ireland trudging through medical school. There is nothing more I would rather do this spring in the British Isles - other than perhaps attend the Isle of Mann TT races - than sit in a cozy Irish pub drinking myself silly with a good pal.

Finally, and only possibly, my last 'new' roommate who is Danish may be back in Denmark when late March rolls around. He has vague plans with a good high school friend to start a restuarant there and, he being an excellent and learned chef and his friend being a world-reknowned artist of space with installations in many hotel lobbies and bathrooms in Europe, it would probably be a great idea to do so.

Alas, alack, there is nobody I know who I could reasonably visit in Amsterdam nor Italy, and certainly not in Spain, which is a shame. Then again my time will be limited and all good things, be they labelled permenant or temporary, they all come to an end before you'd desire them to.

What's left? Formalities. There is maybe one more paper currently orphaned on the servers at my lab that could be spruced up and submitted this year. The thesis review is in full swing but remains just a simple step, not a hurdle to overcome. My tuition is paid. No longer am I in any real sense of the word a McGill Student nor a Montrealer.

While I have spent the last few weeks playing hide and go seek with the wispy thoughts of a happy return - the idea of dropping it all and moving to Montreal (be it for work, or play, or more ridiculous school) was still available with some sort of tangible reality attached with gossamer threads to the back of my mind - I feel that this week I have overcome them and put them finally to their rest, like unsatisfied ghosts whose fears are now allayed. That chapter is now closed.

But like a rabid reader flipping pages long into the night it is difficult not to at least check out the first few sentences in the next chapter before you set the book down and turn out the light. Where is our protagonist going next? What will he do when he gets there? Inevitably, the curiousity keeps me awake long into the early morning hours and for that, I am now suffering. Tired and restless, tossing and turning, with many a sleepless night behind me, I am already trying to figure out which path to take.

"Go further into the darkness, and follow the little green elf - Turn to page 73"

"Turn back, and return to the safety of town - Turn to page 12"


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Check out heroecs, the robotics team competition website of my old supervisor's daughter. Fun stuff!
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