"Illusion, Michael."

in the Loo

there is a building that was built to look like a microchip. it's good to see educational institutions frivolously frittering away the money of its students on fanciful architecture. i would like to have a word with that whosit that signed that work order.

i visited Waterloo with the Ladies on saturday for what i thought was my first time. once we arrived at St. Jacob's Farmer's Market, i realized that i had been there with family before; it was more fun this time around. we shared a beef doner stuffed pita thingie, half a dozen perogies, a cabbage roll, two hot apple ciders and six apple fritters. it was like stepping off the curb and getting hit by a bus full of tasty. all three of us were in a seriously giddy mood even after a seriously giddy friday, so the subsequent road trip and tour of the city held some memorable bon mots.

alison and kevin graciously showed us around campus even though they had work to do. the library was as dichotomous as they described it. on one side were tables and chairs and a din of about 60 dB. just two columns of bookshelves over, there were batteries of study booths in which it was quiet enough for anyone to a) study; b) sleep; c) watch anime on a laptop, without being disturbed.

there was a science building with a mini museum/science centre in it. i was very psyched to see dinosaur fossils (though they were replicas); they had the usual suspects: tyrannosaurus, deinonychus, parasaurolophus and i think there was also a velociraptor model. there were also a slew of gems (mostly amethyst) and some ammonite shells. highlight of the tour, by far.

after the tour, we dropped off alison to work, and picked up jacqueline to go grocery shopping and have dinner with the main group of visitors (aletheians). good times.

"What Physics Teachers Do During Breaks"

last week, a student asked me
and my associate teacher very seriously,
"sirs, do you talk about physics all the time?"
and i replied, very seriously, "yes. yes we do."
i had meant to be glib, but it was true.
her eyes widened in genuine surprise
and she walked off to tell her friends.

---

today i received a free lecture on quantum physics, de Broglie's wavelength, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, wave-particle duality, Schrodinger's Equation, and the health benefits of eating salmon. i had forgotten how much i had forgotten from second year astronomy and quantum mechanics and electricity and magnetism.

it's not all physics and fish, however. sometimes we chat about computers, how crappy Microsoft is, why we will have to eat squid when we can no longer sustain cows, how one could go about teaching the Coriolis Effect to grade 10's, whether or not Tigerdirect is selling a Seagate Barracuda 500 GB 7200 rpm 16 MB cache hard drive for $110 when a Seagate Barracuda 500 GB 7200 rpm 8 MB cache is being advertised for $110 as well, etc.

North of Dupont

last night, i met up with a troupe of classmates from my Drama Strategies course to watch Hannah Moscovitch's "East of Berlin" at the Tarragon Theatre. it was an elaborate dramatic monologue of the son of a Nazi war-criminal trying to cope with the revelation of the atrocities his father committed. i have to write a review on the production and this is my sounding board.

it was a rainy night and far colder than i anticipated. i had to downgrade to a thinner jacket because it was far more waterproof than the slightly warmer one i went out the door with. i parked at mccowan and made the trip to Dupont station without any difficulty.

i had drawn myself a small map of the area with instructions on how to get from Dupont to Tarragon Theatre. i did not account for the lack of accuracy of the official Tarragon website's map. so when i thought i was to turn, i did and found myself on a road not mentioned on that map. so i doubled back and headed north on Spadina some more, to Davenport. then i headed west until i made it to another street i completely did not recognize. thus, i wandered midtown after sundown on a rainy and windy night for a good half hour before i decided to ask for directions. seeing as how i was supposed to meet my instructor at 7:30 for the tickets, i thought it'd be a good idea to be as not-late as possible.

as i turned about George Brown College campus for approachable faces, i saw a small, squat building with the word Tarragon fitted to the side with a dim light casting ominous shadows over the name. i made my way into the cramped foyer and found my classmates. i repeated "it's going great! how's yours?" about 13 times to everyone who asked how my placement coming along. inside the actual theatre was even less space, so i made my way to the back (the top) by the AV booth. lo and behold, the AV guy that squeezed past just before the show started was Kevin, from elementary school and high school. hoimin - 5 : Facebook - 0.

the play itself was well executed and at times uncomfortably intimate. the set was essentially a large stage-wide bookshelf that pushed its way halfway up the stage. i was quite glad to have been sitting in the last row. there was one character (out of three) in the play with the same name as me, so i heard people calling 'me' or referring to 'me' the whole night.

it was a fairly lengthy work for three people to perform, the bulk of it going to the main character. the humour was well-timed and tastefully understated, the dialogue was believable and often times truncated by very telling emotion. the themes and questions were grandiose and far-reaching, but also at times extremely personal. whole worlds would collide in the interactions of two characters, as each one carried personal and national baggage beyond their comprehension.

the main character was played superbly, unfortunately overshadowing the slightly above-average performances of the other two. the soundscape was chillingly authentic in its minimalism, complemented by the lighting. scene changes and props logistics were marvelously fluid and natural. that was my favourite part.

stupid feelings...

what i am i supposed to do with them?