Infrequent Nights

Rehearsals have started at Shakespeare by the Sea. I'm trying to take a lot of photos. When I get the motivation to post some, they'll be over here: http://picasaweb.google.com/gryanwhalen

Posted by Ryan at 10:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm confounded. Confused. Slightly annoyed. And mildly bemused. Why? Because, on a semi-regular basis (ie. about twice per week) someone carefully places a banana peel on my front step. He or she usually places it right in the centre. Slippery side down. The peel appears either overnight or early in the morning. I notice it when I first leave the house. This has been occurring for months. Even in the depths of winter this individual had the time and inclination to leave his banana peels on my step. That said, the spring weather seems to have either upped his or her banana consumption or motivation to confuse me. Three times in the past five days my step has been graced with a banana peel.

At first I thought it was possibly a coincidence. Maybe this guy eats bananas on his way to work and happens to finish around my place, so he tosses his peels here. But I've spent some time looking around the street and have NEVER noticed peels anywhere but my step. Furthermore, the peels are so carefully placed to be right in my path that it must certainly be intentional. Which brings me to question banana-man's motivation. Why me? Why bananas?

I've a couple of theories. None of them terribly satisfying. One theory is that whoever leaves the peels on my step knows that I've worked as a clown and therefore finds it amusing to put banana peels in my path as a sort of homage to a cliched slapstick joke. Another theory is that whoever is leaving the peels thinks I am the fellow who lived here before. My neighbours have told me that he was a bit of a scrapper and thus prone to having enemies. Maybe these enemies find it satisfying to leave peels on his (mis)perceived step.

Whatever the reasoning, I appreciate my peels. They add a bit of spice to my rather work-a-day life. While I'm mildly frustrated that I don't know who leaves the peels or why he leaves them, I think the mystery is more rewarding than knowledge would be. I don't NEED to know who leaves the peels. It gives me something to speculate about, and adds an element of intrigue (granted, intrigue of a rather mundane sort) to my otherwise unintriguing life.

Posted by Ryan at 02:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Bribery works. I'm not normally the sort of guy who would go listen to a motivational speaker. However, when my professor offers me a bonus 5% to attend a "lecture" I'll consider it. The lecture in question was a talk by Raymond Aaron. He claims to be one of North America's most sought after motivational speakers. This week, the 'Centre for Spirituality in the Workplace' invited him to give a speech about his "Seven Pillars to Success." So, with thoughts of an A+ as opposed to A in mind, I headed to the talk last night.

As soon as he started I knew I wouldn't be able to buy what he was selling. Admittedly, I didn't approach the talk with a completely open mind. I have my preconceived notions about motivational speakers. I couldn't help but compare him to the downtrodden motivational speaker played by Greg Kinnear in 'Little Miss Sunshine.' He had all of the necessary traits. Smarmy enthusiasm. Off-putting self assurance. Cheesy sense of humour. A reliance on overly simplistic metaphors and parables to explain life's difficult situations. He was the real deal.

Most of what he 'taught' was good advice. For the record, his seven pillars are: total commitment, give more, always learn, obey your weaknesses, clean messes, power team, and follow mentors. Nothing ground-breaking, and mostly good advice. Commitment to one's task inevitably produces better outcomes. Being giving has its rewards. Learning is the bee's knees. Realizing one's weaknesses is important. The mess bit I wasn't really with. He adamantly proclaimed that anyone with messes (and he meant physical messes) in their life was held back by them. I know people who thrive in states of apparent disorganization, so I couldn't really agree with Aaron on this one. The power team sounds super-heroish, but simply meant demand excellence of your peers and associates, and don't associate with those not willing to provide said excellence. Finally, his insistence on the integral nature of mentors to anyone's personal growth was unsurprising for a man who runs a number of mentoring oriented businesses.

While most of the advice was simplistic but sensible, it all originated from a curious and, to me at least, unattractive perspective. There was an almost oppressive sense of self-centeredness emanating from the man. Everything was about him him him, and his instructions on how to improve one's life revolved around you you you. Anyone who knows me, knows I'm not the least self-absorbed person in the world. I've got nothing against self-centeredness. It's as good a place as any to centre one's perspective. However, Mr. Aaron's life philosophy left almost no room for other people. His approach was guided by what I'll call a utopian individualism, which dictated that everything one does should be for the benefit of one's self. His two pillars which did involve other people 'power team' and 'follow mentors' only granted importance to these other people if they offered some benefit to one's self.

Aaron gave a good example of this sort of utopian individualism while he was explaining the 'obey your weaknesses' pillar. He explained that when he moved in with one of his previous life-in girlfriends, he and she had made a list of those chores they liked to do and those chores they did not like to do. Things on the 'like list' that corresponded would be done together, while things they disliked doing would be done by the "housekeeping lady." Aaron claimed that by using this approach in day-to-day life and only doing what one loves, one will ultimately be more successful. Maybe so. But my question is, what about what the housekeeping lady loves to do? Mr. Aaron's seven pillars take no account of her, except of her degree of utility to Mr. Aaron.

This (dis)utopian individualism came up again and again in Mr. Aaron's anecdotes. Everyone but himself, was simply serving a function for him to increase his wealth or happiness. Perhaps this is one of the reasons he has been through so many failed romantic relationships, as he repeatedly pointed out during his story telling.

The clincher for me, which made me mentally shift Mr. Aaron from the 'harmless eccentric' column to the 'nutbag charlatan' column, was when he gave us his "added bonus" by demonstrating "the Power Exercise." The power exercise involved Mr. Aaron grunting, flailing his arms about, aggressively breathing, and turning purple in the face. This all took about four seconds (which he repeatedly reminded us). Then, once he had reached his "heightened state of consciousness" where apparently anything is possible, Mr. Aaron broke an arrow by pressing the tip on his throat and the other end on a table and walking towards the table. YOWZA! Maybe if I didn't have years of sideshow and circus experience I would have been impressed. However, it just made me even more aware of the theatricality of his speech. It made him seem more like a snake oil salesman, than a legitimate businessman. Nonetheless, in the end, if I apply the universal performance assessment technique to his song and dance, I have to give Mr. Aaron a passing grade. After all, the punters did like it...

Posted by Ryan at 06:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Too busy for any writing these days. I have three shows next week at Alderney Landing. They'll be the first technical juggling shows I've done in a very long time. The weekend after that I'll be in NYC for five days. I'll be doing another show (different routine) and teaching a workshop. Two technical juggling gigs in two weeks. Strange. After New York I've got a week of pirate themed shows at the Maritime Museum. Hopefully I'll be able to skip most of those because I'm still a full-time student and I've got research papers galore due in March. If anyone wants to catch any of the shows let me know, and I'll fill you in on the details.

Posted by Ryan at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Anyone who keeps an eye on Canadian news releases (read: geeks like me and a few other sorry souls) will be familiar with the phrase: "Canada's New Government." It is invariably followed by Harper's plans for greatness. Recently I've been wondering when the new government smell is finally going to dissipate from the Prime Minister's Office? It has been over a year now. I'd have thought Paul Martin's photos would have been removed and Harper would have settled in. Do they get to be Canada's New Government (usually capitalized thus) for the entirety of their first term? I reckon if you're over a year into a new job you should no longer use the "sorry, I'm new around here" excuse. It'll just end up making you seem less competent

Link: http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease&searchText=false&showText=all&actionFor=632713

Posted by Ryan at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It has occurred to me that I have exactly as many girlfriends as I have motorcycles. That is to say, zero. Zero girlfriends. Zero motorcycles. If I've learned one thing from Hollywood it is that "Chicks Dig Motorcycles." While I absorbed this information at an early age, it hadn't occurred to me until today that my present bachelorhood was explicable by my lack of two-wheeled motor-powered transportation. But, upon further reflection it seems obvious that these two paucities are in fact related. Why else would I be single if not because I have no motorcycle? I certainly can't fathom why...

Posted by Ryan at 11:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After much whiskey yesterday, a few friends and I have decided that Goderich would be well-served by changing its slogan from "Prettiest Town in Canada" to "Living Cultural Museum." This place runs on a sort of anachronistic interpretation of modernity, which with good marketing could become a valuable cultural export. Like an unconsciously created Disney world.

And then Patrick played with Cheese.

Posted by Ryan at 02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For the first time in a long time, I'm at my parents' house for the holidays. I counted at least eighteen kinds of cheese in the fridge. In my boredom I have cooked up another animated gif. I am getting in touch with my mid-90s roots.

Posted by Ryan at 01:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of the things I miss when outside of Canada for long periods is CBC radio. I'm not really sure why I like it so much. I often find myself bitching about the quality of the programming. Nonetheless, I was raised on the stuff. It's sort of a comfort media to me.

While I do enjoy the CBC it can be a bit stodgy at times. There are only a few programs which push any boundaries. Definitely Not the Opera (DNTO) is an old stand by, usually worth listening to. More recently WireTap has been shaping up as an excellent program. The show has two basic styles. Sometimes it features taped phone calls (largely scripted) between host Jonathan Goldstein and his friends and family. Other times Goldstein simply tells stories. His stories are pervaded by a mythic feeling. They are very easy to listen to and have a sort of comforting quality about them. I highly recommend having a listen.

Posted by Ryan at 01:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Exams and too much juggling practice have left my right wrist a mess. Tomorrow is my last exam, after which I hope to give it a good rest. If anyone has treatment tips for 'juggler's wrist' I welcome them.

Posted by Ryan at 10:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Depending on your periodization, I'm a young member of Generation X or an old member of Generation Y. My outlook is firmly postmodern in most regards. For the most part I experience life as an individual. When I do relate to others it is often in a different manner than previous generations did. Technology allows me to build and maintain relationships that would not have been possible even 15 years ago.

These new ways of relating have led to increased individualism. However, the tradition of interpreting people through their relations has yet to change. Beyond basic physical attributes, when we define an individual it is almost always a definition which describes their various relations. We feel that by knowing how they fit into a number of groups we thereby know the person. Their familial, ethnic, national, and social relations act as identity creators. We lack a tradition of identifying people as individuals.

The new Western postmodern generations will require a new vocabulary of identification. Those people who spend the majority of their time individually and maintain a significant proportion of their relations through electronic means necessarily have a different interpretation of group identity. That interpretation informs their own self-identification and thereby makes examining their identity different than the way one would examine the identity of a 1950s high school student.

Posted by Ryan at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So a while ago I had full-on website melt down. I thought everything was fixed all fine and dandy. However I just realized this evening that my comment system went squirrelly and I had over 1000 comments waiting for approval. The vast majority were junk, but for those of you who posted comments and never saw them published I offer my apologies. I've been rather negligent in my site maintenance lately. I'll try to improve.

I'm off to fix up my spam filter.

Posted by Ryan at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Dear Mr. Connors

We do not know one another. Our ships have sailed close at times but never close enough to exchange signals of greeting. However, I do know of you. And you, in a way, know of me. You know of my present living circumstances. The small bachelor apartment, with a noisy upstairs neighbour and a leaky front window. The trucks barreling past on the street at all hours of the day. I quite enjoy the place, as I'm sure you once did.

However, recently my enjoyment has been interrupted on a number of occasions. First it was the Sheriff. Then the Police. They stop by looking for you. I tell them you've moved on to greener pastures, but they keep coming to check. Maybe you've returned? Maybe you're under the bed. Maybe I am 'Michael Connors.' Who knows?

You see Michael Connors, you're a wanted man. I don't know what for. The bastards wouldn't tell me. But they certainly do want you. So, for the sake of my uninterrupted enjoyment of your former apartment, please turn yourself in.

Regards,

The man occupying the apartment formerly occupied by you.

PS: I hope you're not a psycho axe murderer. If so, please disregard this message and have a nice murder-free day.

Posted by Ryan at 05:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Apparently we're in the holidays already. As I write this it is November 7th. The shopping season has begun. It hasn't kicked into full gear yet, but within three weeks time it will have.

Thankfully I have, as of yet, avoided all Christmas carols. Nor have I yet seen Santa Claus. I'm ready for him though. I just ordered myself a set of brass knuckles and a can of industrial strength Nair (on pre-Christmas special no less).

He is usually found in shopping malls. As the creation of marketers and their graphic design croonies the mall really is the most suitable place for him. He and marketers have hand-in-hand transformed Christmas from a time of year when kids might have expected an orange and maybe a wee trinket into some sort of dollar-hemorrhaging, crap-buying, red-and-green themed shop-til-you-puke adventure.

I'm no fan of Christmas shopping. I find the music nauseating, the crowds sickening, and all the happy-family themed strategically placed advertisements overwhelming. Which means November to me is: The time to start shopping for Christmas booze.

I made this short movie one afternoon a few years ago.

Posted by Ryan at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday, about twenty minutes into my European history class, the professor posed a question to the class. It was a simple question, posed in a condescending manner. He asked "who would have protected the 1848 Frankfurt parliament from rioting radicals?" The issue wasn't with the difficulty of the question, rather it was with his manner of posing it. No one wanted to answer. The classroom atmosphere has not been conducive to communication so the students all sat there, silently waiting for him to go on.

But he didn't go on. He yelled the question again. He started shuffling papers, and mumbling to himself under his breath about. Then he yelled "That's it! Read the book! This is over!" and stormed out of the classroom. We're not sure if he'll be back next week or not. This is the problem with the tenure system. Usually I'm a strong supporter of tenure. It is a good concept and allows a separation of administration and academics. But it also makes it just about impossible to get rid of a useless professor. This guy isn't a good teacher. He's moody. And he storms out of lectures twenty minutes in. Nova Scotia has the highest tuition in the country. It works out to about $55/lecture. I reckon we students should get together and submit a bill to him for services not rendered. But it'd be a waste of my time.

Posted by Ryan at 06:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The insanity has largely ended. I did my last shift at the museum yesterday allowing me significantly more free time. Much of that time will be taken up with research and writing, but I plan on increasing my posting here. So if you used to stop by occasionally start coming back. I'm going to try to make an observation of some sort at least once per week.

It's harder now as I no longer enjoy the wide eyes of a foreigner in a foreign land. I'm back in my element which means that the quirkiness of daily life has all long been normalized by me. Nonetheless I'll do what I can. I've also got more action happening over at http://www.canasianaffairs.com. Maybe I'll even put some new photos up soon. I'm doing some headshots for a friend this weekend.

Posted by Ryan at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was chatting with a Chinese friend here in Halifax today. He, like many of the Chinese students here, studies English with the ultimate goal of attending Canadian university. We started chatting about working in Canada. He painted a picture for me of the manipulation, discrimination, and profiteering that students like him are subject to.

First off, the legal entitlement of overseas students to work off-campus is sketchy. The situation is improving but there is still a lot of paper work to be processed and fees to be paid before one can obtain a work permit. He knew nothing about the official channels for a work permits. He just assumed that working in Canada is illegal for foreign students. Nonetheless, he admitted many students work. I asked him how much they get paid. He said about $5-7/hour. This is significantly less than the provincial minimum wage. Then, even more shocking to me, he mentioned what happens with tips. He says many students who work in the service industry are expected to give their tips to their employers. If they keep the tips they will be fired, and because they are for the most part working without permits and with little understanding of the system there is limited recourse available to them. When I tried to tell him how reprehensible this would be to most Canadians he didn't seem to understand. He just shrugged and said "Well what are we supposed to do?"

Were I not an overly busy history major I'd undertake an social-anthropological study of the situation of foreign students in Canada. If someone has time and does do some more general interviews and research I'd be interested to know the conclusions you come to.

Posted by Ryan at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Carnival Cruise Lines: the Wal-mart of the cruising world. They come to Halifax a few times a week, spewing forth droves of tourists with thick Jersey accents. I'm one of the few that actually likes Jersey, and appreciates the accent. But no amount of accent affection can help me get over the Carnies. Some of them have difficulty comprehending that Halifax is not in the same time zone as New York. Others seem to believe the magic of the cruise ship transports them to some alternate reality.

Last week a couple of Carnies walked past my house (I'm right in the touristy area of town) and one of the two pointed to my neighbour's door and said: "1348! That's sooooo old!"

The question I ask myself is: Is this an isolated case of peculiar ignorance, or a sign of the more generalized failure of an education system? I hope for the former, but fear the latter is more likely.

Posted by Ryan at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After about a week of website hell I'm back up and running. Don't expect posting habits to change much until November though. I'm working full time and am a full time student. I have very little free time. I do plan on posting a bit more regularly in the future though.

Halifax is nice. It is pleasant to be 'home' again. The weather thus far has been very agreeable. I'm not looking forward to the winter, but I have a nice spot downtown which is close to everything. Thus, I hope to avoid much being outside. I really dislike the cold.

I've been a bit news deprived recently. I used to be a media junky and now I have neither the time nor the easy access that I was accustomed too. The other day Telus (my mobile phone provider) sent me a coupon for a $35/year subscription to the National Post, which is one of two Canadian dailies. It leans to the right, but is a decent paper. I was excited thinking, finally I'll get my news-fix on a daily basis. Alas I was disappointed when I called the post and they informed me that they do not deliver news papers to individuals in Halifax. This seriously compromisese their claim to being a 'National Post.' Halifax is the major city East of Montreal, and the regional centre of the East cost. I guess this demonstrates the real rise of Western orientation that seems to have been accelerating recently.

Posted by Ryan at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I signed a lease the other day, but will be living out of my suitcase until I move in at the end of the month. I have a nice little studio apt. on Hollis street. Minimal posting habits will continue until early September.

In other news, I was offered the lead in a commercial to be taped next week. So those of you in Atlantic Canada may soon see me on television extolling the virtues of the Centre for Distance Education.

Posted by Ryan at 05:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My apologies for poor posting habits, and for not keeping in touch with those of you I should be keeping in touch with. I am still in semi-transient mode as I look for a place to live in Halifax. What this essentially boils down to is that I will be rather incommunicado until I settle myself in a bit and apply some sort of order to my life.

Posted by Ryan at 01:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm back. I'm still getting over jetlag. And I'm on vacation. I will get that last post about my Taiwanese Chinese studies up. But it'll take me some time. I've got a 2500km drive this week.

Last night I ate a lobster and barbequed pizza while I drank beer by the pool. Life is good.

Posted by Ryan at 02:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sometimes people mistakenly add me to their MSN lists. They confuse my email address with that of one of their friends. A few months ago, a young boy added me thinking I was a team mate from his baseball team. Thinking I was his friend, he started to chat with me. I wasn't sure if I knew him or not so I asked who he was. He said Conor. At first, I thought he was playing some sort of prank. Conor is my little brother's name. The little leaguer even spelled it in the same uncommon 'one n' way. But my brother Conor died in 2003.

Usually I just say goodbye to these mistaken acquaintances and let us each get on with our lives. But this time I wanted to chat. I wanted to hear what this Conor's life was like. I wanted him to tell me about his little league team, his school, his friends. Deep down part of me wanted to pretend for a few moments that I was chatting with my little brother. But he knew better than to talk with strangers. So he left.

Posted by Ryan at 09:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I rarely make mention of technology related issues, but this is pretty sweet. Jajah is a new service which allows for free national and international calling (within some countries) to its users. You go to the website. Put in your number, the number you want to dial and press go. Your phone rings. The phone rings on the other end. You both pick up. You talk. It's free. F-R-E-E.

Start registering your numbers now so you can get in on the freeness.

Posted by Ryan at 02:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Its that time of year when I plot numbers and course codes on pieces of paper trying to make class schedules and my degree requirements match. I've been planning for quite some time now to return to Halifax and start to finish my degree in September. I even have all of the classes I imagined myself taking sorted out, and written down in nice neat columns on scraps of paper scattered about my room.

As I have been able to log into my school's administrative computer network and I've noticed that my account has no holds, I've been under the impression I would be able to register for classes without any difficulty. Alas, as with so many other beliefs I've held, I have been terribly mistaken.

Today registration opened, so I diligentely logged onto the overworked school website to start signing up for classes. But it was to no avail. I am not allowed to register for classes. Apparently, my year off has shifted me from the 'active' student column to the 'AWOL' student column. Furthermore, even though all of my information is already in the system and all that really needs to be done is for me to inform them I wish to study and for them to flick a metaphorical switch, I still need to completely re-apply for admission. Furthermore this re-application for admission is to be done during the same period of time as regular admissions, which is to say the deadline was last Saturday.

So as of right now I don't know if I'll be able to return to school as planned or not. This is rather distressing for me as I had a nice plan worked out, as to which classes I would take when, leading ultimately to my graduation. I am hopeful that my pleading with the university will be of some assistance. I haven't got much to offer them besides my gratitude but hopefully that will be enough. Incidentally, it was just this weekend that I discoverd the university in question will be using my image and story in their upcoming recruitment campaign materials. It would be ironically unfortunate if I was disallowed to attend the university which is using me in its recruition promotion.

Posted by Ryan at 03:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

UPDATE: ROOM HAS BEEN RENTED.

I am leaving Taipei on July 26th. That's just under four weeks away now.

My room will be available as soon as I leave. It's a great room, in a nice apartment, in a fantastic neighbourhood. The room is really large with all furnishings including two bookshelf units, large wardrobe, two desks/chairs, a bed, air conditioner and other sundries. The apartment is very large and clean. It's a quiet place and your privacy will be respected. The kitchen has all one needs, and the livingroom is also fully furnished. There is a door from the room directly to the back balcony. The room has many windows and thus gets nice light, especially in the mornings.

The neighbourhood is great. The aparment is located about a three minute walk from Taipower Building MRT station. Its on a small street about halfway up Shida road from the station, which means it's also about a three minute walk from Shida, which is perfect for students. The selection of restaurants and bars in the neighbourhood is great. Guting MRT station is also only about a 10 minute walk away.

Price is 8400NT per month with a two month deposit. Its a bargain for the neighbourhood and quality of the apartment. If you or someone you know is interested drop me a line. My email is ryan at ryanwhalen dot com. My phone number is (02)-2363-1529.

Posted by Ryan at 03:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am phasing out usage of jebediah at sillyman.ca. If you need to contact me please use another of my various email addresses: ryan at ryanwhalen should work fine. I also ask people not to put my email address on the web. mailto links are so 1996. Address-trawling-spambots use them to harvest email addresses.

Regards,

The Mangement

Posted by Ryan at 05:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know I've said it before, and I'll likely say it again, but Edge is one of my favorite web sites. Edge 182 came out today. I particularly liked Daniel Gilbert's article "The Science of Happiness". Give yourself 10-15 minutes and go read it.

I also felt Gilbert's article justifies some of my borderline compulsive behaviour. He writes:

We're all told that variety is the spice of life. But variety is not just over-rated, it may actually have a cost. Research shows that people do tend to seek more variety than they should. We all think we should try a different doughnut every time we go to the shop, but the fact is that people are measurably happier when they have their favorite on every visit — provided the visits are sufficiently separated in time.

Those last four words are the important ones. If you had to eat 4 donuts in rapid succession, variety would indeed spice up your experience and you'd be wise to seek it. But if you had to eat 4 donuts on 4 separate Mondays, variety would lower your overall enjoyment. The human brain has tremendous difficulty reasoning about time, and thus we tend to seek variety whether the doughnuts are separated by minutes or months.

This explains, more eloquently than I could, why it is I stick with the things I love. It isn't that I'm frightened of trying new things. I'm certainly not. I'll try most things at least once. It's just that there are some things out there that I know I really love. Whether they be food, places, people or what-have-you, I know I will keep going back for more.

Posted by Ryan at 01:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've registered www.canasianaffairs.com for my new website. Expect more posting over there and less posting over here as I try to use my brain a bit more. I'm scared it might atrophy.

Posted by Ryan at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've decided to start a new website. This one is fine as a forum for personal stuff, and my experiences here in Taipei. But I feel it lacks focus. So with that in mind I created: Canadian-Asian Affairs. It is an area I have a good deal of interest in, but have yet to find a good resource for online. I reckon this new website will help me to improve my knowledge base, while providing a decent resource to others who may have an interest in the subject.

The address is temporary until I decide on domain name issues, but please go check it out and leave me a comment or two while your'e at it. I realize there are still a few layout issues (my category archives are wonky) but for the most part it is up and running.

Posted by Ryan at 05:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Like expats all over the world one of the things I miss the most is food. Not to say that Taiwan doesn't have great food. It does. But as a rule I have to avoid 'Western style' food here because it is usually barely edible. I don't spend much time dreaming about the favorites I'd make for myself on a daily basis back in Canada. But today I was cleaning up files on my webserver and stumbled upon this. I'd completely forgotten this, my first foray into blogging at the beginning of 2005. Now my mouth is watering and I desperately want some good home cooking.

Posted by Ryan at 08:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Edge, an always thought provoking publication of The Edge Foundation just released Edge 179. If you haven't yet, I suggest checking it out. Have a look through the archives while you're at it, excellent articles abound. It's a pity about the web design though. http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge179.html

Posted by Ryan at 01:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've made a few updates to the photo gallery this week. If you haven't yet checked it out, get to it. Most of the new photos end up in the 'Taiwan' and 'People' galleries with a few also going to the 'Still Life' section. Recently I've been trying to capture the feeling of the streets of Taiwan. It's a difficult task as street life is so vibrant and varied here. Moreover I prefer candid shots, which are that much harder to do especially at night time when the streets here are at their best.

Posted by Ryan at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Foshata. A site where one is finally free to randomly subtitle Japanese television commercials. I sense endless hours of procrastination here.

Links to a few I just made: fshMVR, fshMU7 and fshMUJ You can watch more by clicking 'random foshata' on the left. If you register you can vote, and make your own.

Posted by Ryan at 07:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've spent most of today fixing this puppy up: www.ryanwhalen.com/gallery/. The navigation is a bit wonky. For some reason I can't make it scroll backwards and forwards from every image. Nonetheless it is vastly superior to what I was using before to display my images.

Posted by Ryan at 12:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've recently turned myself on to the CBC archives: archives.cbc.ca. I applaud the CBC for actually utilizing the potential of the internet in this useful and well-designed web page. I was doing a bit of reading up on the Chinese diaspora in Canada and ended up at their archival timeline: archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-69-1433/life_society/chinese_immigration/. While there isn't much there I've not read in other places, it is great to be able to watch contemporary news reports about an historical topic of interest. Furthermore the site allows you to not only chart the changes within the Chinese Canadian community, but to see how they have been perceived by the mainstream media and how those perceptions have changed over time. Just click the little 'timeline' at the top and you're offered all of the clips available. The clips have background information available in a handy little box beside them, and are well arranged. There are hundreds of these timelines available, and the archives are highly searchable allowing users to view a timeline of all archived material available on the web separated by category. Timelines with similar topics are hyperlinked together, and it is all linked to Radio-Canada's French archive site.

I love this site, all I want is more material. I want older radio archives up there. I want more archived news footage. In my dream world I want to click on a calendar and see a news broadcast from any day of any year since the CBC has been in existence. And there is no reason they can't give me my dream world. All that is required is a lot of storage space, significant bandwidth, and some people to digitize the content and get it up on the web.

Posted by Ryan at 12:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So the other day, while in an MRT station, I walked past a bow-legged midget. And I thought to myself: “Oh look, a bow-legged midget. Wait a minute, ‘midget’ is out. They like ‘little person’. OK, so she’s a bow-legged little person.” Then I started to wonder, is there a politically correct word for bowed legs? Should I have been thinking “a little person with parallely challenged limbs?’ Or ‘curvilinear appendages?‘ I rather like “a little person with excessively curved propulsion protuberances.” But it is a bit of a mouthful. When I develop a handicap (or is that disability?) as most of us will someday, I will insist others refer to it with a bizarre yet evocative euphemism.

Posted by Ryan at 10:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I apologize for all of the domain name changes, and whatnot recently. www.ryanwhalen.com is temporarily not working. Apparently my registration was flagged as there was a huge discrepancy between my IP address (from Taiwan) and my mailing address (in Canada). The registrar flagged me as a potential fraudster and suspended my account. I've just chatted with their tech support, re-registered, and will hopefully have it back up and running in a few days. In the meantime: www.sillyman.ca/ryan/ will continue working now and for the foreseeable future.

UPDATE: http://www.ryanwhalen.com should now be fully functional.

Posted by Ryan at 03:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This blog can now be reached at www.ryanwhalen.com. I couldn't resist the $4.95/year domain name. It can still be reached via www.sillyman.ca/ryan/ but www.ryanwhalen.com is so much cooler. The photo blog is now at www.ryanwhalen.com/photos/.

Posted by Ryan at 06:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I can't really think of a decent way to tie this into my experience in Taiwan. Its just something I want to get off my chest. An idea, if you will, that I'd like to present to the world. If any psych majors read this, feel free to run with the hypothesis. I want nothing but an honourable mention when you accept the Nobel.

Men's bathrooms should have music piped in at all times, and that music should be loud and preferrably funky. Men the world over have occasional bouts of stage fright when using public restrooms, especially the urinals. I reckon it is an evolutionary artifact whose original purpose was to help prevent us from being caught with our proverbial pants down. I submit that toilet music would act to decrease the frequency and severity of these bouts of stage fright. It would work in several ways: 1) the music would act to muffle the man's own tinkle which would help to reduce his self-consciousness and 2) if the music were funky enough the man would be more inclined to relax thereby allowing himself to go with the flow. I think the effect various genres and volumes of music has on a man's ability to let himself go should be studied in more depth (that is to say in some depth at all).

I rarely experience this problem. I think it is a result of living on the road on and off for a few years and using hundreds, nay, thousands of public restrooms. Eventually one just has to get over it. However, I am frequently standing beside men who are very obviously suffering from stage fright. I feel sorry if they have to give up without delivering the goods. The application of my toilet music plan could help increase productivity, and worker satisfaction the world over. It would result in fewer overall bathroom breaks, increased ability to concentrate during working times, and a general sense of coolness in the can. So please help spread the word and advocate for music in a public restroom near you.

(image courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drewish/)

Posted by Ryan at 12:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)