Ryan J. Allen » normalcy

Weekend Updates

Ryan J. Allen — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 11:24:48 +0000

Further updates: I played squash on Saturday morning. Adam and I played an intense match-up. New racquet and new shoes in hand for Adam. It was fun.

Saturday afternoon we got Adam’s bike back on the road. Topped up the battery, pumped up the tires, cleaned and lubed the chain, full oil change with filter. Adam says the bike runs well. It was exciting.

Sunday I got on the bike to go to church. There was stuff going on in Kingston. I got out for a 7 km run at a 5:05 min/km pace. I was pretty happy about that.

Katy’s gone to Africa and I don’t have any vegetables.

Novelty E-mail Addresses

Ryan J. Allen — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:56:25 +0000

There was a time when e-mail was new to all of us. If you are of my generation then the idea of your own personal e-mail address probably came at a time when the username part of the e-mail address was an opportunity for self-expression. As we’ve aged, most of us have outgrown our novelty e-mail addresses and exchanged them for something more straight-laced. (Some people haven’t, but it cannot take more than one job search for those people to be sorted out.)

Here are a few novelty e-mail address usernames and Internet handles of my own that I can recall. What are some of yours?

ryan_amazing
speedofpain
ocip

You Always Want What You Don’t Have

Ryan J. Allen — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:17:10 +0000

I am going to be honest with you: I am feeling a heavy balance between being happy to be here in Germany, and being excited about returning to Canada. What I mean is, rather than living in today my mind is thinking about the future. Given the option of going back to Canada today, I just might go.

But it is, as I said, a balance; I am really excited about a lot of stuff I have planned in the next 3 months. While I’m sure I could fill the days in Ottawa as easily as I can fill the days here, there isn’t a lot that I feel like I’m missing. This leads me to believe that it isn’t necessarily that I want to be in Canada now, but rather I am excited about everything that will be going on after I return in October.

This week Adam and I are signing up for a fall semester class at uOttawa, and I am unimaginably excited about this. I am sure that anyone who has ever taken a year off of school knows how exhilarating it is to get back to it. I’m so excited that I am thinking about signing up for a second class, even though I will miss the first month of lectures.

The Yo-Yo Ma gig is pretty exciting, too. It’s even more exciting after having paid the VISA bill that resulted from the purchase of those tickets. I believe the plan is to go for a delicious meal beforehand which will, undoubtedly, renew the VISA bill uneasiness.

Returning to regular church service will be great. At Parkdale the Sunday School often focused on the Old Testament, because many worship services discussed the New Testament. I miss both, and the singing.

I think even shopping at the Superstore, getting my hair cut at W, and riding the bus around the city will be awesome. Of course, in four months time I’ll be missing things like this about Germany, but one never appreciates what one has until its gone.

Maybe I’ll also look forward to seeing some people? Yeah, probably.

Morning!

Ryan J. Allen — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 03:49:22 +0000

Don’t you just love the feel of a brisk morning air, everything quiet but the birds, and the sun softly introducing itself to the day? Those of you who don’t believe in “before 6 a.m.” are missing out.

A New Age of Fiscal Responsibility

Ryan J. Allen — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:28:23 +0000

I am doing something that I may not have ever done before in my entire life: I am delaying the purchase of an item to the next fiscal month in order to delay my having to pay for it by another month. It is not a ground-breaking concept but it is one that I do not normally use; I am usually much more impulsive. The item (or items, as it will be, as I want to take advantage of Amazon’s free shipping) is not terribly expensive, but it’s also not an item that I need immediately.

A new age of fiscal responsibility? I can only conclude: yes.

Yo-Yo Ma

Ryan J. Allen — Tue, 19 May 2009 06:42:35 +0000

Yesterday whilst sitting on the balcony patio of the Grand Cafe Orient in Prague I called my personal concierge service and asked them to get me tickets to see Yo-Yo Ma’s performance at the NAC this October. After I got home I received an e-mail confirming my itinerary for the evening. The performance is just two days after I return to Canada–a great welcome home.

I am very excited.

Eight

Ryan J. Allen — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:02:27 +0000

Eight. What is the significance of the number eight? What does it mean to you? How does your context differ from the context of this post?

Eight could seem like a small number if you are thinking on a scale of millions, billions, or even larger. It could also seem like a really large number, for example if it were the number of times you could die and be resurrected in your lifetime. (Or would it count as eight lifetimes?) The significance of eight in this context lies somewhere near the middle of those two extremes, but is perhaps leaning on the side of seeming large.

In this context eight is the number of pairs of jeans that I own. Just given that information you may or may not think that is significant. Perhaps you do not even own eight pairs of pants, let alone specifically of the jeans variety. Or perhaps you own twelve pairs of jeans, eight pairs of khakis, nine pairs of dress pants, four cargo pants, and two pairs of patent leather pants (one black, one red). Whatever your current pant count, and your ideal pant count, I think you will shortly agree that eight, in this context, is on the larger side.

I say that eight is a significant number in this context because two years ago I did not own a single pair of jeans. In fact, I do not think I had owned a pair of jeans for 10 years. Some claim that I stated I would never own a pair of jeans, which I contest. In the last 6-12 months of jean-free living I knew that I wanted to buy a pair but it was not an easy task for an inexperienced jean owner as I was. I had great help in buying my first (two) pairs.

I still have the first pairs that I bought. One pair in particular was warn quite a bit and has some natural aged look to it (for example, the permanent wallet outline). They are still perfectly wearable and occasionally get called into duty. Some other pairs I have bought are used less frequently but still are enlisted for active service. I think this is the way of the world for wardrobe pieces–everyone has their favourites, and likewise their maybe-I-should-get-rid-of-thats.

And even with eight pairs of jeans, and with living in Germany, I am happy to report one trend that I have cautiously avoided altogether: the black jeans. I will not say never but…I really cannot imagine it.

Saturday Morning

Ryan J. Allen — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 11:31:01 +0000

The Collection

Ryan J. Allen — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:34:01 +0000

Inexplicably, I am feeling very tired this morning.

Completely explicably, I have nothing for breakfast and I have to drive to work this morning (versus taking the tram). I have something like 6 Euros in my wallet and my tram pass has expired. Said pass is €44.50 monthly for the “zwei waben” pass that I buy.

Tomorrow I am travelling to München so I will delay buying said pass until Wednesday. It’s a there-and-back trip tomorrow, which should be exhausting and will mean for an early morning start.

It is exciting to me to think that perhaps by the time my next tram pass expires I may be able to comfortably bicycle to work. Certainly I will be approaching the time when I would get the motorcycle out were I in Canada.

I watched the Daytona 500 last night and it was awesome. Jeff Gordon’s car had a camber issue which prevented him from taking the win, but it didn’t stop him from trying. Kenseth won; good for him.

Each work day I look forward to my friends joining me online at approximately 3 p.m. local time as they start arriving to work. Today is Family Day in Ontario, which should affect that schedule, and their continued availability. I am sure I will get through the day just fine, though it is truly something for me to look forward to.

I am quite pleased still to have the debts from my Canadian visit taken care of, though I am slightly anxious about the costs that I have already incurred for the upcoming European tour with Katy. Even though the costs are extremely reasonable. For about $265 I have: a flight to London, high-speed train to Paris, high-speed train to Karlsruhe, and 2.5 nights in a hostel(!) paid for. In all, I think this is quite amazing but the slight anxiety I have about it is evidence as to why I don’t travel much.

I watched 3.5 movies this weekend and will likely finish the .5 (Choke) tonight. The three I completed included a funny-enough comedy that turned into a bit of a love-story that may or may not have had a very sweet ending.

I attended a Wii party this weekend where I sang along to some Rock Band songs. I scored 100% singing Blink 182′s “All the Small Things” because of my natural talents. Attendees included both a goth and a ginger amongst the rest of us normals.

I ate some “frikadellen” this weekend.

“Say it ain’t so, I will not go, turn the lights off, carry me home.”

Just Like Everybody Else

Ryan J. Allen — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:19:46 +0000

In Germany my office is…well, an office. The typical setup in Germany seems to be an office shared by 3-5 people; my office is a smaller one, so it is setup for two people, but I am the only one in here. There are certainly many great features to such a setup including: the convenient and comfortable host of guests, the quiet work environment, the ability to shut one’s door, and more. One of the useful and unapparent perks is that you can close the door to change before going for a run.

I just got back from an afternoon run (a short one: only 7 km) and was sitting here “cooling down” before going to the showers when I thought: I should have a private shower in my office. Then I thought that if I am someday an executive I may have a private shower in my office. But, if that does happen, I will explicitly use the employee shower to shower to show that I am Just Like Everybody Else.