Category: Journal

I’m in Belleville for Thanksgiving. I think I’m just going to take the time to relax. I’ve got a presentation at work as soon as I get back. I don’t want to think about that. I don’t really want to think about the election either. Or anything else. I just need a break.

I do want to track down Matt and take him out for sushi at some point. Even if it’s Belleville sushi…

Ellen and I went to see [Caesar and Cleopatra](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_and_Cleopatra_(play\)) at Stratford on Wednesday. It was… strange. Christopher Plummer was pretty great as Caesar. Seeing attractive young women on stage in minimal or minimally opaque clothing is always a plus. The story was compelling, even if the historical accuracy was a bit questionable. I had an emotional reaction to the play that took me by surprise, and outweighed any intellectual response. Even though it’s not technically a tragedy, it *feels* tragic. I suppose it is meant to be a prequel of sorts to [Antony and Cleopatra](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_and_Cleopatra). Not that I’ve actually seen that.

We’ve missed a bunch on Stratford plays we wanted to see. Ellen hasn’t been up for it much and I’ve been kinda busy with work and stuff. We’re planning on seeing [Emilia Galotti](http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/plays/galotti.cfm) in November, but I think that’s it for the season. We saw [All’s Well that Ends Well](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All%27s_Well_That_Ends_Well), which I liked. But we missed Hamlet and Trojan Women and [Fuente Ovejuna](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuente_Ovejuna).

I’m still feeling kind of miserable (physically and existentially), so I decided to skip the all-candidates at UW this afternoon.

[Denver Gingerich](http://ossguy.com/) from the [Waterloo Students for the Information Commons](http://wsic.uwaterloo.ca/wiki/Main_Page) *was* there, and posted some [notes from the debate on their wiki](http://wsic.uwaterloo.ca/wiki/2008_Federal_Candidates_Debate_Summary):

Continue reading Missed Debates

Part of me desperately wants to write about current events (which would naturally devolve into politics, sadly, but it’s the nature of the times). Unfortunately every time I try to write something or thing of something to write, I find myself coming off like a horribly insufferable little partisan weasel, of the sort I generally want to punch when I hear them talking.

I hate that.

I’d really like to write something edifying and possibly moving. Something I could be proud of. Instead, I seem to want to write another pointless blog post about how the other guy was wrong and I was right and you should all be amazed at how clever I am.

I don’t feel particularly clever, though. I like to think I have as reasonable grasp on things as any reasonable citizen who isn’t directly involved but pays enough attention. Except I know there’s all sorts of shit going on I don’t know about. The media sucks. Nobody really seems to know much of anything. They’re writing reams and reams to make it look like they do. I don’t want to join them.

I want to write long screeds about the evils of market fundamentalism. But then I realize (a) I’m probably preaching to the choir and (b) it probably doesn’t matter. Except it kinda does. There are crazy market fundamentalists out there right now who despite all the evidence around them persist. And those guys still have the nerve to ask you to vote for them.

I’d recommend you don’t, for what it’s worth.

I’d go into why, but then I just end up getting frustrated again. You know, partisan bullshit that I can’t adequately prove anyway.

This sounds really depressing, doesn’t it? I should probably post about Doctor Who toys or something. That would be a much better idea than hitting “Publish.”

*Publish.*

So today I went to see [the all-candidates debate at the Laurier Faculty of Social Work](http://www.wlu.ca/news_detail.php?grp_id=30&nws_id=4479). They invited all the candidates from both the Kitchener-Waterloo and Kitchener Centre ridings to attend. Candidates from every major party showed up, except, notably, the Conservatives. Both of them ditched us.

Hm. I wonder what that says.

I’m going to the debate at UW on Thursday. I’ll be interested to see if Peter Braid bothers to make it to that one.

With the political spectrum spanning the centre to the left, the debate was refreshingly (perhaps even boringly) cordial. I didn’t take notes or anything, and I’ll probably save my overall impressions till after Thursday’s debate.

Some notes:

* Andrew Telegdi mentioned Paul Martin favourably a number of times, and associated himself with Elizabeth May twice. I don’t remember him mentioning Stéphane Dion once. I find this… odd. He did point out that his party was very forgiving, however. So maybe they don’t mind.
* Cathy MacLelland (who I actually really like) seemed a little bit miffed that Telegdi was trying to abscond with her party leader.
* Telegdi came out advocating [preferential voting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferential_voting) when the topic came around to electoral reform, like Stéphane Dion did on cross-country check-up yesterday. The NDP guy from Kitchener Centre countered with mixed-member proportional, possibly because he’s forgotten about the Ontario referendum last year. Still, I like where this is going.

Okay, I’ll apologize right now. This is gonna be kinda gross.

I get lots of sinus headaches and am allergic to stuff. I’ve tried a few things for it, but lately I’ve been taking more and more pseudoephedrine, which kinda concerns me. I don’t want to be taking any drugs on a long-term basis. They don’t test for that.

So Oprah comes along and tells everybody about these amazing Neti pot things and suddenly they’re a big craze everywhere. You put some salt water in and pour it out your nose. Miraculously, you’re cured of all ills.

Now my dad’s a pharmacist. He’d pointed out these saline nasal misting things years ago and I’d use them sometime. They do something similar but with quite a bit less water. They’re also incredibly expensive, for reasons i can’t quite make out. But I have some experience with the concept.

The nasal mist thing never really worked out terribly well. Not nearly as well as the neti pot fanatics make out, at least. But I’d never really committed to it, and, like I said, there’s much less water involved.

So I get a little squirt bottle doohickey that came with little salt packets and decided to give it a go. This was Wednesday night.

Thursday at work, I started to feel like I was coming down with something. Last night I was pretty woozy and miserable. Today, I woke up with the left side of my head completely congested and some lovely yellowish-brown mucus. Yum. So I stayed home from work.

I’m trying to decide whether this thing gave me a sinus infection or stirred up something that was already there. Or I just coincidentally came down with a cold. I’ve decided I’ll keep going with the squirt bottle thing for at least a few days to see what happens.

I’m feeling a bit better now and think I kinda need to get out of the house. So I’m gonna go for a walk and listen to podcasts. I’ll keep you updated on what colour my mucus is tomorrow.