An interesting commission.

In Australia, every tour or trip or touristy thing that you could possibly book has a commission fee attached to it. If you book a tour of Uluru at the front desk of your hostel they will receive 5% of the cost of the trip, or so, depending on the deal the hostel and the tour company has made. Here, at the Bat House, we book tours and things for people. This means that the 5% that would normally go to a money-grabbing party hostel (one of the only other places in town to make a booking) actually goes to bat and rainforest research and restoration projects. In this country, one that runs on tourism, you can find many places such as this one that will also make bookings for you. From now on, I’m going to try to book events through organizations that actually really need my money. I’m going to take the trip, I might as well give a small percentage of my money to an organization that will put the funds back into the local community or the environment.

This is just an interesting observation I’ve made over the past few days since I’ve been running the Bat House. The commission I make from a simple phone call can actually double the income for the day. I don’t push the tours because that isn’t my job, but it’s great when people ask me to book for them and we have a selection of pamphlets and posters about local attractions. I’m going to keep looking for places like this as I make my way down the coast and hopefully my monies will go to some good cause as well as some great adventures!

Lost and found.

These are the important items I found while packing up to move:

1. My red reading glasses. I'm so glad I found them. They were in the lunch bag I had taken to school the day before my defence. I must have thrown them in there in my rush and forgotten about them. I almost packed it away, but I went back to see if I had left any food in it and there they were.

2. The presser foot for my sewing machine. The loss of this tiny item has prevented a few projects from being completed over the past little while. It's apparently difficult to find a store that carries the correct replacement foot as I have been searching for one for awhile.

3. The littlest miniest match from a mini match box set. It's about 1 mm by 1 mm by 6 mm. It had fallen out of my corner of uselessness one day when Emily was showing Matt some of my tiny things. I had found the set of three matches that are stuck together, but I thought the single match was long gone. Whenever I swept I looked for it a bit, but not very seriously. The very last time I swept the floor I happened to look down and my eyes landed directly on it. I went running outside and said, "Dad! Look what I found!" and he said, "What, a broom? That is no big deal."

Overall, I am very happy to have these three items back in my life.

Umami.

I have so many things that I need to mention here right now that I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I feel like it's been ages since I posted last. It's fairly obvious that I need to keep on top of this interspace and visit often in order to manage the things in life that are making me feel a little stressed out.

So, on six seemingly unrelated notes (not really though, it's always so much more complicated than that...just remembered a 7th item to mention), allow me to dazzle you with the going-ons in my life.

1. I try really hard to eat like a vegetarian. I'm by no means perfect and I definitely do through some meat-eating phases. These usually coincide with special occaisions when large family meals are traditionally served. Summer BBQ time is also tough. The thing is, I really an a bit of a foodie and I truly miss the flavours that get left out when I don't eat certain food groups. A long time ago Em and I came across the term umami in biology class. Umami is a Japanese word that means something along the lines of meaty or savoury. It is the fifth taste to go along with sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. So, I'm hunting for some good ways to eat more veggie umami tasting foods. As I type, there is a large crock pot of chili bubbling away in the kitchen. It's full of cremimi and other little mushrooms that I can't remember the name of right now. I also added a whole bunch of vegetable protein because I need more of that in my life too.

2. Awhile ago I had personal information cards (I'm not exactly part of a business) printed by a really cool company from the UK called Moo.com. I uploaded images from my work and travels last summer then designed the info part including a picture of myself. I used 23 different background pictures for 60 cards and I could have used 60 different ones if I so desired. Moo.com is a really cool website and a great company to work with. I would highly recommend them for any of your printing needs. You can also make personalized postcards and stickers at the site and I will definitely be partaking in the future. Last time I attended a conference I ended up ripping about 6 pages out of my notebook to scribble down my contact information. I hope I'll get to hand out a whole lot of these this summer instead.



3. Today I received a phonecall from the mother of one of the students I tutor. Apparently he achieved a Gold Medal at the science fair I judged last week! There were just so many displays at the fair that I didn't come across him at all. He didn't see me either, and only knew I was there when he noticed my name as one of the judges in the handout from the award ceremony. Awards were handed out at 8:30 pm and I was only at the fair during the morning. I'm disappointed that I missed him, but I'm very proud of his work.



4. Last week, my good friend Bronwen, from Ottawa, sent me a package in a colourswap. This was a little mail exchange I organized with a few of my crafty friends. Everyone had a secret person to send a package to full of knit, found, made, or thrifted items in the recipient's favourite colours. One of my favourites is blue and she sent me a lot of really neat treats along with a handmade, bound notebook. Bronwen is a great bookbinder and I love receiving notebooks from her. This one is called good notes. I'm going to write in all sorts of little quotes and poems I come across that inspire me. The first one is a favourite of mine by e.e. cummings. He was on my mind from two posts ago.



5. Before and after this post I've been working on a new crochet project. I rarely crochet, it jsut isn't my thing, but I will always love the mindlessness that is the creation of a granny square. The most traditional pattern in all of crochet has to be one of the most aesthetically pleasing patterns in Canadian history. Image a cottage without a granny square afghan? Last weekend, I was home and Belva gave me a giant bag of cast-away wool. Even though I'm trying to pare down my belongings, I will gladly accept any offering of wool. In the bag there were 11 balls of Shetland Chunky Tweed in horrible, coordinating colours. So, now I am making a giant granny square tweed blanket and taking into consideration everything I know about colour theory to make this mix into an appealing blend of warmth and coziness.



6. Yesterday and today I received e-mails from the ESA conference in Albequerque, New Mexico and Perth, Australia, saying that my abstracts for oral presentations were accepted. I'm very excited to travel a bit, but I really need to get my thesis finished. Today I caught a little snag in the results section and it definitely brought me down. I was feeling pretty rough and had to leave work and get some fresh air. Tomorrow will be a new day though and I'm going to forge ahead with the discussion.

7. Last, but definitely not least, this morning Doug was talking about the Guelph Guitar and mentioned that Robert Bateman had offered him a piece of Tom Thomson's coffin for the guitar or case. The thought of this is sort of overwhelming and the entire web of stories about art, science, history, life, people, culture, everything inbetween that I can't even think of right now just blows my mind. I'm so glad Doug is putting this all together and I've had the chance to see behind the scenes. I'm a huge fan of early 19th century Canadian landscape art, the work of the Group of Seven and everyone associated with them. I could go on and on about this part of the story, but my fingers are getting tired. I don't know if Doug will take this piece for his work because how will he ever sum up the circumstances that led to this offer in one chapter of his book?



That felt really good. Getting all of this out of my brain allows me to realize that there are many more important things to consider in the world besides my protein intake levels. Got to stay humble,
Cass

Happy Darwin Day!

Earlier today the webmaster at school sent everyone an e-mail that contained an emoticon wink and a recommended link. Of course, I clicked on the link and it connected to today's press release. Every day they (the webmaster and friends) feature an interesting article about the latest goingons at the U of G on the main page. Today's article started out with the line:

"Hoping for a little romance this Valentine's Day? Then avoid logging onto Facebook."

And it continues on to explain a pretty funny study by two Guelph PhD students. I didn't totally relate to their findings; the study cohort was from a younger age group than I and I think that I've worked through some of the issues that these people are currently dealing with. That being said it sort of made me feel better about disconnecting for awhile. Doug always teases me about being from the plugged-in generation and to be honest, I'm starting to feel the pressure. Looking at my computer makes me feel a bit nauseated and as I click along my regular websites I'm starting to feel a little bit bored :( These are bad ways to feel when you need to write about 100 more pages on your thesis.

Anyway, I'm constantly amazed by the opportunities for this sort of study to be carried out. If you can find a gap in the literature or notice some sort of controversy you'll be able to work out a project. I'm glad this type of social phenomenon (facebook) is gaining so much attention because it really lets us look inside the collective psyche and understand how society is shaping up these days.

Later, Cass

p.s. Andrew just told me that he is quitting school to focus on his rap career (sorta like Joaquin Phoenix).

One other thing.

This has been a good afternoon. I've been cruising along on the statistical analysis section of my thesis, had a good lunch, and a good chat with Doug and Uta.

I read over the entries I posted in January and I added some pictures. Good blogs have good pictures. (As a great example I'd like to direct your attention to 1001 rules for my unborn son. I've been following this blog since he started, can't remember how I came across it, but I love seeing updates. His tastes in music, art, and whatever, are similar to mine. I admire his sense of tradition, quirky ideas, and simple style. Also, he's just cool.) As I went about adding the pictures I had a chance to think back on what I had written.

I've learned a good lesson over the past few weeks. It goes a long way to explaining for myself why I started this blog. I have always been self-consious, critical of my own work, and determined to understand how exactly I fit in to all of the situations I come across. I think all of this is necessary on the way to becoming a content, aware, enlightened person (I mean, I guess that's what I'm aiming for). However, it's very easy to take this all too far and put a lot of unneeded and exhausting pressure on myself (same goes for most people, I suppose). When I started this blog I wasn't so intent on figuring things out completely, but more on sorting out the clutter and defining my problem and I'm identifying this as a very insightful concept. I'm starting to realize that you can't ever figure everything out completely. No matter how you try and how many hours you spend puzzling over everything in your life, figuring it all out would require more energy than one person has to spare. I mean, follow your heart, sure, but who the hell knows where their heart is going to lead them next? Why put so much effort into trying to guess what the next thing you want will be?

So, the idea behind this blog, I suppose, remains as an attempt to focus the chaotic creative energy around me. Staying positive in the place I am. Doing good work and being good to myself. Truly appreciating the people around me, but not trying at all to figure them out. Spending time with good music and activities that enrich all of my hours.

Yep. I like to write here, so I should be back soon.
Cass

First off.

There's this thing that has been bothering me for a little while now. I catch myself thinking about it at odd times and noticing it around me wherever I go. It distracts me from my work and my everyday life. I know I need to deal with it, but I'm not quite sure how to go about doing that.

If there's anything I've learned in my past 7 years of postsecondary education it's that when something is bothering you this much you need to do something about it. This bother is what makes the scientific community tick. We notice something and it gets to us, we feel angry about a situation, confused or frustrated because we don't know, so we learn all we can and we ask questions. We ask clear, consise, well-thoughtout questions. Then we take these questions and develop hypotheses and predictions to study. And so it goes.

This thing that I'm thinking about is too big right now for me to put it down in one post. I think I'm going to need a few good, long ramblings just to sort this all out. I know it has to do with communication, disconnect between the scientific community and the general public, the division of arts and science, being pigeon-holed as a scientist when there is really so much more that I do. I suppose I'm struggling to define my own identity right now. I'm at this funny-feeling changing-over graduating and looking for the next big project while I try to satisfy my craving for adventure place. I've spent the past year trying to live in the moment and manage my anxiety, but it's tough to enjoy my current situation while I deal with all of these new ones.

So, lately I've been looking for some way to focus all of this chaotic energy. I've been trying to find myself a personal challenge or project. A lot of people on the internet seem to enjoy documenting some aspect of their daily life with pictures and blog entries. I think I want to do this too. I've made three previous attempts to join the blogosphere. All regarding topics I thoroughly enjoy, but I haven't been able to commit. I'm not making any promises about the content here, but I am going to attempt to stick with it for awhile. Maybe I should think about giving myself a more well-defined goal in that respect. I'll think about it for awhile.

Just had to get that out there,
Cass