Hey all, sorry I haven’t been posting much this week, but you know, such is life…
I just wanted to make a quick update for anyone out there who is curious. I spent this past weekend at an International School Job Fair, and needless to say it was a crazy, crazy time. I went overboard and signed up for 9 interviews, for schools in Japan, Korea, China, Thailand, U.A.E., and Turkey.
It was a crazy time, as I ended up running all over the place, and talking about myself for hours, and hours on end. After it all ended, I found myself getting offers for 4 different positions. I weighted my options carefully, and I ended up deciding on a school in Suzhou, China! I am super-dee-duper excited about this, right now. I have committed to a two year contract, so needless to say I plan on doing a fair amount of traveling in the next few years. So for next year, I expect this blog to be a bit more travel focused next year, as I try and share my adventures through this wonderful medium.
In the mean time, I am going to post a few pictures from my day trip to Suzhou that I made when I was in China back in the spring. Hopefully, this will make you all jealous enough to want to come and visit
So…should I be making room on my couch for anyone?
In recent months, I have tried to steer away from any personal stories here on the ol’ blogeroo. But in the past week or so I have found two exciting personal stories about upcoming travels of mine.
Over the Christmas Break I will be heading down to St. Maarten to visit my good friend/arch-hockey-nemesis Troy, who is working as a pilot down there. We could potentially do an edition of “The Puck Stop” live from a beach…something wrong about that one…
And in other exciting news. I just found out that I was selected to take a group of students on an international service project to Laos over the March Break. How cool is that? We are going to be going to Luang Prabang to help teach Buddhist Monks English. Best of all, the school is paying for everything!!! How freakin’ cool is that?
As luck would have it, my super-friend/Shanghai-Hostess-with-the-Mostest Carrie went to Luang Prabang earlier in the year. So I took the liberty to take a few of the pictures she posted on Crackbook and felt the need to share it with you all…really just to make you a bit more jealous…
“Friday, October 27, 2006…a day which will live in infamy. I have officially joined the blogosphere. I don’t so much have a concept, theme, or general idea as to what to have here but rest assured it should be filled with awesomness.
Tune in to find out!!!“
So here I sit, in front of a computer, typing away once more, and my opening post still rings true. I have no idea what the “concept, theme, or general idea” for this blog will be. I began posting quite a bit about myself and any of my adventures, but since then it has changed, as I have tried to make as many posts about politics, sports, the environment, wrestling, or (like the banner says), whatever the heck else I feel like.
Since I can’t make a vegan cake for a website, I have decided that in honour of my Blogiversary, I went through each of my categories here on this site and found what I consider to be the best post in each of them. This way, if you are new to me or my blog and want to get a sense of what/who I am then this is your chance, but if you are someone who has been checking this out for a while, you can go on a little trip down memory lane.
About G:We kick of with my most narcissistic category, the one devoted solely to me, and things about my life. I started this one out when I was posting my “Random Acts of Glenness” posts, but it has changed to be a tag for anything where I divulge any insight into my own past/personality. My favourite post in this category was definetly “My 2006 (12/19/06)“, where I described the details of a pretty tumultuous year. It probably was the last post where I focused on myself so much, having got all that I needed to say out of my system.
Cruising on the Information Superhighway: Now this is an odd categot, that I don’t really post in too much. It’s essentially just anything related to this wonderful thing called the internet. My post of choice would be “My Life is Now Over, and I Couldn’t Be Happier (12/6/06)“, where I cave into the great temptation that is Facebook. I was right all along, it certainly did take over my life…uggh…
Glen News: Yet another egotistical category of mine. This one about news in my own life, such as graduation, getting a job, or some of the details of my trip to China, including the post “Culture Shock (5/30/07)“, where I talk about going through a brief period of reverse culture shock after I get home.
Happy [Insert Holiday Here]: Instead of focusing just on me, these are the posts where I pass on some holiday wishes. Of course the usual suspects like Christmas and Hallowe’en are there, but I also try to include less celebrated days such as Guy Fawkes Night, Holocaust Memorial Day, or my Martin Luther King Day post, “What Would He Say Now? (1/15/07)“.
Hockey and Other Sports: In attempt to assert some masculinity I discuss sports here on a semi-regular basis, with the vast majority of the focus being on hockey, including my Fantasy Pool, mine and Troy’s Predictaculars, or my personal favourite the newly debuted feature, “The Puck Stop – Episode I (10/15/07)“.
Muzzak: And yet another of my nerdy passions comes through. My music posts are generally talkign about how great The Arcade Fire, and Broken Social Scene are. I have made a few attempts at creating solid playlists, with “Music to Break-Up To (12/7/06)“, being one of my proudest achievements. Oddly, this has been my most visited post since I started blogging. I guess there are always sad people out there.
Random Tales: This is a big category, where really, I just fill in some random story of my own that may be either entertaining or enlightening. In the past year I don’t think that there was any story more personally meaningful than “The Universality of Kindness (4/15/07)“.
Rants: The biggest category here, were essentially I just get on my high horse and rant about something bothering me. I have taken many posts out of this category by creating a few more, but these are the ones that slip through the crack. My first official rant, “Hallowe’en – The Critical Analysis (11/1/06)“, holds a special place in my heart.
Rasslin’: I originally started hiding my most nerdy of passions from this blog, but then Travis had the idea for a joint post where we discuss wrestling (originally for his blog, which hasn’t really been updated…), and hten I just began letting loose with many wrestling related posts. If I had to make one pick it would be “Heel Heat – Episode 3 (9/15/07)“, mainly because I’m proud of my Photoshop work on the logo.
Real Politiking: The first splinter from the “Rants” category, and a nerdy historical homage to Otto Von Bismark. I usually stick to Canadian politics in here, but “The Death of a President (6/21/07)“, is probably my post of choice in this category.
Remixes and Collaborations: So this one isn’t really a category in and of itself, it is just a tag I put on any posts that feature some outside input. The contributors thus far have been McNutt, Travis, Kory and Troy, who have done a great job of stopping me from having to think up original content. I have a soft spot in my heart for “Shades of Wrestlemania – Part I (3/23/07)“, because it had three special guests coming together in a pretty great post.
Travelling Tales: A blanket post for anything about travelling, either while I was in China or looking back at any travels in Europe or Asia. A few days after I returned from China and wrote “Why I Love China (6/1/07)“, which still rings true to me.
Tree Hugging Hippie Crap: Just last week, after realizign just how many of my rants were about the environment, I realized that I needed a seperate category and here we are. I am a big fan of “And the Counter Attack Begins…(2/01/07)“, just because it uses Stephen Harper’s own words to show just how little he cares about the environment.
Vegan Talk: Another new addition to the fold. I had made a few posts about animal rights, but they were pretty few and far between. About a month ago, I decided to start a feature explaining why I am a vegan, with “It Ain’t Easy Being Green – Take 2 – The Environment (9/26/07)” being something I’m expecially proud of.
Videos: Ok, so this is actually the biggest tab I have, but it just comes up every time I make a post with a video in it. I’m not going to look through all of them, I’m just going to make a post of the greatest gift YouTube has ever given us…
Why I Love…: This is the only recurring feature that merits its own category, because it really just fits in everywhere, “Why I Love Bloggin’ (4/16/07)“, my special 100th post holds a special spot and is probably the best insight into why I keep at this blog thing.
Well that concludes this special birthday post, I hope that you’ve all enjoyed the past year in cyber-space as much as I have!!!
October 1st marks an important day on the Glen-Calender (..Glalender?). On this day, 4 years ago I made a really important and influential decision. That’s right, on this day back in 2003 I decided to become a vegetarian. I officially gave myself one calender year to switch to a full-scale vegan, setting myself dates and targets (i.e. After this day, I will no longer eat _______).
When I first made this decision I got a lot of flak, including McNutt’s infamous “Go back to your room and think about what you’ve done” rant at me when I first told him and my father asking “what’s her name?”, thinking that I was doing it for a girl. Many, many, people said that I wouldn’t last a month and well here I am four years later.
In looking back I think that this is one of the best decisions I have ever made, I feel so much healthier, I am in better shape, and more importantly, I feel like a stronger person as a result of that day back in 2003.
That’s about all I have to say, I apologize for a lack of original content, I just wanted to wish myself a Happy Veggiversary, and to any other members of the Green Mafia out there, keep on fighting the good fight…in a non-violent way of course…
Hey there, just a quick little personal note from me. I just wanted to let anyone interested know that today, I finished teaching my first class as a real, big boy teacher!!! And it went super dee duper well.
Since my primary responsibility is that of a Residential Don, I only teach part-time. So I only had one class to teach today, Grade 8 math. The class went by really well, as we went over some rules/regulations and then I gave them some light work, and I asked them an important question for their math journals “If math were a food to me, it would be…”. For the record, I told them it would be soy for me, since it’s in everything I do, but is often hidden.
I don’t have much else to say to be honest, other than a big thank you to everyone who has supported me over the past couple of year to have helped get me where I am right now. I’d like to thank you all personally, but unfortunately this impersonal blog posting is all that I can do for now.
I hope that you know who you are, because I sure do…
Hey there, I know that this is my third post since my return from cyber-exile, but we can consider this to be the season premiere of Getting Glenergized, brought to you exclusively here at this blog (ohhh and on Facebook too…).
Anywho, I was just going to try and summarize my thoughts on things that have come up in the past couple of months, be it news, hockey, wrestling, or life in general.
The King is Dead, Long Live the King
That’s right, we have a new Home Run King, Mr. Barry Bonds was able to pass Hank Aaron’s venerable mark and is now the all-time leader in career home runs.
I’m not exactly a huge baseball fan, but I am both impressed and appalled by Bonds’ accomplishments. First off, playing at such a consistently high level for so long is something that needs to be respected for anyone. But on the appalling side of things, the man has been linked to steroids many different times. It’s a huge shame that the new sight for records is a cheater. I hope that the person to break it does it cleanly…
Big Brother is Watching…You Protest
At the last summit of the Three Amigos in Montebello, Quebec, the QPP decides that they want to go undercover as some protesters. Fine. They decide that they are going to instigate violence by throwing rocks and other things of that sort. Not so Fine. There is nothing wrong with trying to keep the peace, especially in a volatile situation such as this, but come on, there is a pretty thick line here that was crossed by the cops here. Ohh and they initially denied it too…good for them.
Man, oh man, where there a lot of big names changing sweaters this summer! I’ve got to say that the teams I’m most impressed with are Philadelphia, Colorado, Anaheim, and the New York Rangers.
I dug Colorado, Philly and the Rangers for signing the big four forwards of Smyth, Briere, Drury and Gomez. Anaheim on the other hand did something pretty impressive, they knew that they had a fantastic team that didn’t need much to tinker with, so they just plugged the two big holes left by Selanne and Niedermayer retiring by going out and getting Bertuzzi and Schneider to fill the glaring gaps. Sure Briere and Rafalski may have been better (and more expensive) bets, but Brian Burke did the best with what he could and I’m impressed with that.
Since I mentioned them in the heading, I had best talk about the Leafs. Sure I hate them, but I must say that I am impressed with their two big additions. Toskala is a great goalie and Jason Blake is an incredibly underrated top-level forward. But my only big question mark is the same one that comes for everyone who walks into the ACC, are they ready to be the centre of attention? I have a feeling that the media played a role in Raycroft crumbling down, and I worry if it’ll happen to Toskala or not. Sure I may delight at the Leafs crumbling, but I do sort of want to see them make it to the playoffs to lose to the Senators
Just to make myself sound like a genius right now, I think that the final four will be Anaheim, San Jose, The New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins.
Maybe It’s the Four Toed Statue!!!
Or maybe not…but the next creative dabble by J.J. Abrams looks incredibly promising, and I for one can not wait until January 18th to see just what is going to happen. If you don’t know what I’m talking about then give this a watch…
Wasted Opportunities
TNA had their golden chance to make Samoa Joe the Champion of the Universe, but no, they botch that one too. Well done Jeff, well done. If Joe does not win the title at Bound For Glory than the company is going to have some serious problems on their hands.
5 Years and Counting
At my home away from home, Kodiak here, there is a tradition that goes back several years. For every camper and counsellor who has spent 5 summers as part of the community gets a medal in a special ceremony. Several years ago I witnessed a number of my now good friends receive their medals and I looked up at them and I said to myself “Someday, I will get me one of those” and well, guess what, I stayed true to my word.
My good friend, MacAlpine presented me my medal by giving a touching (and inside joke filled) speech about me before I went up and grabbed my hardware. It seems like such a small and trivial thing, but I am incredibly proud of myself for this accomplishment. Every time that I have looked at the medal since I got it I have been reminded of all of the blood, sweat, and tears that I have put into my last five summers, and I am filled with a sense of pride and humility. I’m not 100% sure about next summer or any other ones, but I know that these last five have been so worth it!
Getting Settled In
Here I am getting moved into my new pad to start the daunting task of being a Residence Don/Math Teacher and my first Big Boy job, to say that I’m excited and anxious would be a huge understatement. No matter what happens, expect to find some stories posted right here for your blogging consumption.
Well I’m back from my Fifth summer at Kodiak, and I plan on resuming this blog in the near future. I am moving into my new pad this weekend to start my first big boy job and I have lots of thoughts on the summer to share. Stay tuned for more to follow soon!!!
Hey there, this is less of a post as it is a farwell. Tomorrow morning I’m heading off to my summer home, Camp Kodiak. I’ll be gone until August 20th or so. Being in the deep woods of Northern Ontario (Note: Blogger is not equipped with Sarcastic Emoticon), I will be unable to post regularly, making any blog posts/facebook notes a bit more of a challenge. As such, I am going on a bit of a summer holiday, I will try and make some posts on my days off or any other time I can find, but I make no promises.
If any of you feel nice, I would love to have you drop me a line while I’m at Camp, if not you can be big fat jerk faces…
Hey all, I returned to Onterrible just a few days, and man oh man, things have been pretty weird for me. Things back in Canada are so different than what I have gotten used to in China. I know that I wasn’t gone for that long, but I still have a few questions to ask…
Has everything always been so expensive? Has the air always been so clean? Have people always spoken English so freaking fast? Have Canadians always apologized so bloody much? Has tap water always been drinkable? Has outside always smelled so good? (as opposed to pollution and urine) Has it always been so easy to walk around without a pack on your bag? Have I always been so glad to be home?
Anyway, I don’t know the answers to all of these questions but I look forward to finding them out in the coming months…
Over the past few weeks I have had a couple of transcontinental phone interviews with a private school back in Canada (that I don’t really feel like naming on here, just to keep things private. But if you want to know just drop me an e-mail and I’ll be happy to talk about it). And well, they have hired me to be a Residential Don.
I’ll be living in the student residences, reliving some of my Acadia time, plus teaching a couple of classes (less than a full load), and running some extra-curricular activities. In short, I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing, something fun, different, and not binding.
Needless to say, I’m pretty pumped about this opportunity I have now.
Alrightie that’s really all that I have to say. I would apologize for making this blog post self-indulgent and all about me. But you know what? I think 80% of what has been posted here has been somehow about me and you keep reading, so logically I must be a draw.
Blogging, an ego stroke for nerds…hmmmm maybe I should sell that as a slogan to blogger.
