Three Different Views

Recently I drove from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Jasper, Alberta for a recreation conference.  The event was really good and I met and re-met a number of fantastic people who appeared happy, in love with their jobs and content in their lives.  Yep, those are some of my goals too.

On the way to the conference fall had settled in nicely with its yellows, oranges and even browns, but upon my return 4 days later winter had descended and left a mystical white and green wonderland.  There will be several posts that focus on the pictures I took as I believe I added about 1.5 hours to my journey on the way home as I stopped repeatedly at designated view spots and on the shoulder of the road, as safely as possible, clicking the beauties of the mountains, 360 degrees around me.

One of the most interesting moments was stopping as I ascended into the mountains, removing myself from my vehicle, and realizing that my car and the music I was listening to inside were the only sounds to be heard.  Nature was silent.  There was not a person or vehicle around that could disturb the peace and even near by animals were docile, perhaps sensing the beginning of winter.  I leaned on my car and just observed, listened, and thought for a while.  A delightful treat in the mountains.

Here are three shots taken at the Jasper Park Lodge of a lake near the hotel.  I am having fun playing with my computer photo program.  Let me know if you have a preference.

Number one has a boost of colour and I really like the digital looking reflection of the mountains and clouds in the water.  

Number two looks like it should be in colour, but on second glance the eye notices the only colour is yellow, thus the sepia version of the picture.  Still the gradations of colour are quiet interesting.

In black and white the third shot still gives the eye a sense of the layers of tones, highlights, shadows and hues.  Looks like an old postcard with a modern twist of clear lines.

I like them all but for different reasons.  The joys of photography and computer programs!

You Know Big Words

When I finished high school my family moved to Ottawa and I moved from a city of 3 million people (Cleveland) to a city of 40,000 (Medicine Hat).  It actually saw tumbleweed rolling through the downtown bit (too small to be called a 'core') one day when I was trying to get to know the city.  Culture shock in so many ways!  While in The Hat I pretended to go to class and played basketball with the Rattlers at Medicine Hat College.  One day, one of my team mates asked me a question, "why do you use such big words?"  I can't remember my reply but I remember being stunned that someone thought I had a large vocabulary.  It always seemed about normal to me.  (Recently I drove through the hamlet of a town she was from in Saskatchewan and realized why I seemed so odd and perhaps in her eyes.)  Once in a while I drag up this memory as I learn a new word and have a giggle.

This term of Grad School has hit me at breakneck speed like a wall of ruddy, inflexible, unyielding bulwark of responsibilities.  It was inevitable as my last term started really slow.  My class schedule alone is bulky, but add being a TA and a Grader/Marker to the mix, while I begin to hunt down an adequate summer job and the term is going to be over like the flash of a light-bug's bum.  Here I sit taking a break from the 1.5 inches of reading I had to accomplish for this week's classes.  Much, much reading to complete.  It dawned on me that I have been using a dictionary more than I ever had over the last 2 weeks, and had a giggle as my use of large words does not include much of the language I am encountering at Grad School.  Last week while reading an article about consumer culture and the media I lowered the article from my face and yelled at the wall, "who writes like this!"  It seemed as though the thickness of the vocabulary was going to leave me stuck in a quagmire of stupidity.   Thanks to my phone App dictionary.com I have learned even more words and someday someone will scream at me, "who uses such high falutin' big language?"  One can only hope.

Below is the list of words I have had to familiarize myself with in order to understand what the hell I am supposed to be doing.

List of Words
January 4 - 24

• invidious
• emulation
• pecuniary
• conspicuous
• fetishism
• dataveillance
• cathect
• cathexis
• semiology
• fecundity (have heard the word for years but can never remember the definition)
• metonymy
• diasporic
• concomitant
• meme path
• parlysian
• torun
• concupiscent
• phylogistic
• grodno
• tautology
• evenescent
• sanguine
• intransigent
• perspicious
• subsumptive
• subsumption
• occlude
• indefatigable
• eidetic
• contrastive
• hypostatization
• reify
• multiphrenic
• ersatz (I have had to look this one up many times over.)
• aestheticized
• neurasthenia
• cognoscenti
• antinomial
• flaneurs (French)
• typology
• ephemeral
• interpellated
• poesies
• monolithic
• lacuna
• limen
• limina
• threshold
• communitas
• liminality
• serendipity
• discursive
• phlogistic

Yep, that is the list so far.  How did you do?  Do you feel smarter than me because you could actually use one or two of them in a sentence?  Good for you!   Feel free to leave me a comment your favourite word on the list, about a new word you have learned recently, or a story about feeling completely incompetent.  Go!  Learn!  Use big words!

Found In a Bathroom Stall

Read the graffiti.

Believe the graffiti.

Follow the graffiti.

Recreation and Leisure in Canada

Just thought I would add some information about Recreation, Parks and Tourism on my blog.  (I need a break from reading, my eyes and brain hurt.)

Some people feel as though the recreation and tourism side of our vast fields is a bit fluffy and does not carry strong academic roots.  Interestingly enough, leisure and recreation is such an important part of healthy communities that each province in our country has its own municipal, regional or provincial department(s).  As well, Canada has a federal group that coordinates the efforts of Canadian professionals, called Canada Parks and Recreation Association (CPRA).  

In Manitoba (from what I can deduce being new to the province), there are several branches of the government that support, protect, provide space for, and who organize opportunities for leisure within the province.  One such organization is Parks and Natural Areas Branch.  An additional tourism branch promotes travel in the province using the moniker, Unforgettable Manitoba.  You may also be interested in a group that connects recreation and leisure services around the province, Recreation Connections Manitoba. 

Within Winnipeg, the City of Winnipeg houses its own Recreation and Leisure Department who maintain public access and use of recreation services.  This city offers an extensive list of opportunities to plan your free time with its Leisure Guide, if you are looking for ways to improve a skill or improve the enjoyment your free time.

Here is the website for the Alberta Recreation and Parks Association (ARPA).  They are the umbrella group that coordinates the work of public and not-for-profit recreation groups in Alberta.  Their annual conference is coming up in October 2010.  

License Plate Wars

As I continued my journey from Regina to Winnipeg, I rolled across the border early in the morning.  Once in Manitoba I realized, as expected, the license plate on each car had changed and the succinct, unique message found on the Manitoba license plates would be different than the earlier Saskatchewan plates.  Never having been in Manitoba, nor having seen a resident license plate, I sped up to the vehicle in front of me to get a closer look.

"FINALLY MANITOBA"

This was the message I read on the plate.  What?!?  You can't say that!  Such an insulting comment toward the Saskatchewan-ites.  If this was the license plate, why had I not heard of Montague and Capulet type wars at the shared provincial border?  People flinging insults and slurs at each other!  Such a rude message from the Manitobans!  Unbelievable that they get away with this, and so on went my brain of justice.  Then I got a little closer:

Oh!  It says, "FRIENDLY" not "FINALLY".

Thus endeth the Shakespearean war that had begun in my head.

Tranquil Plain and Eternal Sky

So I was off.  After living in the same province for 20 years, this nomad needed a change.  After research, conversations, emails, applications, internal meanderings, advice seeking, and drawing up my courage, I set off.  After receiving a 'yes' from the University and after saying 'yes' back, I began organizing.  My belongings, my house, my contacts, my life...of 20 years.  Off the Manitoba I went!

The hardest part was realizing how many objects I had collected over time and cheering that I was astute enough to purchase a house (that I kept) with a large crawl space for storage.  One month of planning what to leave behind, pack and roll into storage.  Then the rest of the time to pack, sell and give-away the remains.  The day of departure arrived and this mode of transportation.