a wolf angel is not a good angel

Pure Nerd
73 % Nerd, 13% Geek, 30% Dork
For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored better than half in Nerd, earning you the title of: Pure Nerd. The times, they are a-changing. It used to be that being exceptionally smart led to being unpopular, which would ultimately lead to picking up all of the traits and tendences associated with the “dork.” No-longer. Being smart isn’t as socially crippling as it once was, and even more so as you get older: eventually being a Pure Nerd will likely be replaced with the following label: Purely Successful. Congratulations!

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 79% on nerdiness
You scored higher than 9% on geekosity
You scored higher than 51% on dork points

The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test

I am not sure I agree with the Nerd/Geek distinctions, though.

My grandmother’s cancer appears to have returned. I don’t really know what this means; these are all the details I have. My grandfather then felt ill and was in hospital today, though he seems to be better now. (He is still in hospital.)

I found this out after I mentioned that I had sent them a postcard, something I did to put off actually having to see them. Well, it’s the holidays soon, and I will see them then. Because I am mostly out of guilt about this.

Mostly.

Apparently the jetlag etc is finally catching up with me. I am feeling far better than I did when I woke up (early, took a bath, fell asleep on the couch, rewoke up by 7), so that’s good. I was sort of crazy(er) this morning. Case in point, from a friend, this morning:

you want to have visions of aliens hastening our extinction? this is your happy?

Now that she words it like that, no.

1. What do you see as the biggest difference between Canada and the United States?

Well, probably it would be that Canada tends more towards worrying about the group, the US towards the individual.

2. What would your ideal vacation look like?

Hmm. I think I’d be in a nice city — right near a lovely beach (with water warm enough to swim in, so at least 13C/55F). You could walk a lot; there’d be good coffee. I’m not sure who I’d be travelling with, if anyone.

3. How did you choose the line of work you’re currently in? (Feel free to be as vague as you like given that you don’t really identify what it is you do on your blog.)

Well, essentially, it’s the main employment for linguists who are not in academia but still working as linguists. So it was really the only job I could have gotten. I chose linguistics through a combination of luck, interest, and desperation.

4. If you had to choose a favorite author, who would it be?

Well, favourite for what? That question is way too broad. I think I’ll give Jeanette Winterson that honour, though.

5. If you had to boil down your philosophy of life into one line, what would it be? (I know, isn’t this lame and Oprah-esque? But I would like to know! Pretend it’s worded in a less afternoon-talk-show fashion.)

It’s the same as my mother’s, actually (though she does not get depressed like I do): things get worse.

These are from New Kid.

Fair is fair, so I will ask people questions too. Also I will answer more.

Why they ask you to open the window shades on the airplanes when you’re landing.

Trip report will come some time in the future, when I have edited my photos etc. Instead, I’m going to talk about our new G-G, Michaelle Jean.

Apparently, the Globe and Mail broke a “story” that she might be a separatist, and she probably has separatist friends (”not that there’s anything wrong with that”), and her husband may be a separatist.

Now, I don’t know (or care) whether or not she’s a separatist. I do not care what she voted in 1995. She’s a *francophone* working in *radio* in *Quebec*. If she doesn’t know any separatists, she is way too antisocial to be a G-G. If she refuses to have any as friends, she is too intolerant. If she is one, well, separatists are Canadian citizens too, and not second-class ones. I like that people who want to split the country can have high leadership roles anyhow, though sometimes it hits absurd.

I seriously do not care what her husband’s politics are. Fine, he’s a separatist (probably — this says nothing about her politics, by the way, I know many couples where there is strong disagreement on this front). But he’s NOT the G-G. I was horrified at the article which wondered how he could let himself be the G-G’s husband. They didn’t, I assume, just get married, which means that they are suggesting he should have divorced her (unlikely) or that he should have prevented her from taking this position (um, no).

Ms. Jean is clearly a very intelligent person, and no doubt she has thought about this before accepting it (including the fact that this position brings with it a certain amount of controversy), and I’m not sure what rumours of her allegiance to Canada gain anyone (other than separatists, who get more anti-Canadian press), and I know what rumours about her husband gain people (nothing).

Gah! I used to like you, Globe and Mail.

I got some time walking around the city alone yesterday, and though it rained, well, I had an umbrella. I feel much more balanced now, more like myself: I think I needed it, and wasn’t really able to explain it, or perhaps felt odd asking for it. But it was wonderful.

I’m not sure if I’m ready to return to Canada or not, but I suppose it doesn’t matter: I am going back there Sunday. I hope I can get a window seat.

This is one of those times I do not have much to say. I am away. At the same time, I’m at work. Perhaps the real reason is that I am in fact only on a computer during work hours, and there’s just not that much time. Though also, when I do have a moment, I am not writing.

Only a few more days. Two work days, a day off (for which I have a few too many plans), and then home. A long plane ride, featuring Monster-in-Law, no window seat unless I get lucky at the airport, but many books and hopefully a nap.

I finally have a few spare minutes at a computer! How exciting. (I have had a whole day full of not-spare minutes at a computer.) I am going to be far less computered than I had thought: perhaps I will actually be back Sunday or Monday.

I am not, however, sure what to write about. I want to write about here, but I haven’t decided what to say about it. The bathrooms all have little occupied signs on them, like airplanes, which is useful once you figure that out. Paper towels tend to be coloured, greens and blues. People at this office dress better than the one in the US.

As for me: I am on and off not unhappy, but I am better here than before, so at least part was location. I am busy, which is good in that it keeps me from being unhappy, and bad, in that it tends to exacerbate things when I finally unbusy. But I am okay.

There will eventually be lots of photos.

I am convinced I have used this title before. Nevertheless. I am leaving for the unwified airport in about 30 minutes, there to be on a plane for about a quarter of a day. I *do* know when I’ll be back again: maybe tomorrow, but certainly Monday. And back on this continent on Sunday next.

I hope that getting away will also involve getting away from depression, for a little, but historically that has not been a particularly effective method for me, while away or back. I have a post in the works about escape from depression by leaving; this might end up mixed with my post about homes which I have been thinking about for months now. I really want to write them, only without the effort: I really want to have written it/them.

I think I am avoiding movement, getting things done: life. I am less okay than I let on.