Namyopia

Everyone who wears glasses has at some point had to function, perform, and somehow get by without being able to see properly. You fell and broke your glasses rollerblading, you're 10 km from home, and well, you can sort of mostly see well enough to wheel home carefully. If you stay away from the grass. And you'll keep your hands out, just in case. After tearing a contact lens today while changing for yoga class, I decided to give the class a try with glasses. I hate wearing glasses for sports because they move around, virtually eliminate peripheral vision, get in the way, and only provide relative depth perception - all things that take away from a enjoyable sporting experience. In certain positions, they also just plain fall off. Now, in most sports, like running, skiing, or cycling, that usually won't happen since your head remains upright. In yoga, however, three moves in and you're upside down, glasses on the mat or at least dangling annoyingly while gravity fights to pull them away from you. So, first downward dog and they were history. This left me with another challenge: seeing the instructor. Luckily, I'd been going to the class before so I could follow what she was doing from her verbal instructions. However, instead of looking like photo 1 below, she looked more like photo 2:

On top of that, the room was dark. One thing I noticed, though, is that I depend on visually focusing on a point to maintain my equilibrium in balance poses. Not being able to focus made these a little tricky. Luckily, I didn't take topple and take anyone out during these poses. All went well, actually - certainly much better than R's yoga Nazi substitute instructor who apparently said "Those of you have bad energy should leave the class right now." No chakra for you! Step aside. (photos from Lululemon.)

Banff Mountain Film Fest (in Mtl)

This is the first time I'd been to a set of films presented as part of the touring version of this film festival. From the 320 entries, 7 were chosen and shown in Montreal which ranged from a 54-minute film of a couples' 8000 km bike trek from Mongolia to India (Asiemut) to shorter films on mountain climbing and technologies helping the disabled reclaim their active lives. Most were quite interesting if only for making one realize how narrow-minded we can become in our daily routines. If you're looking for an escape from the frigid conditions this weekend, you might want to check this out.

The impersonals

I used to wonder why it either took a while to receive a response when I wrote to someone on a personals site or they didn't respond at all. I actually found it kind of rude until I spoke with F about it. She said she received about 200 emails per week! Ah. I just got off the phone with someone who, although she'd given me two numbers at which to reach her, couldn't remember who I was. Even after giving her my name and a brief description of my ad, she guessed wrong when she tried to remember my pic. She did say, though, that it could almost be a full time job answering all the mail she received. To be honest, her ad isn't one of the most catchy I've seen, either, so I can imagine that some women are completely inundated with mail. So, to you guys out there, take note: there is a lot of competition. Don't take it personally.

Apple - it's the interface

It's been a long time since I've owned a Mac - eleven years now. I often miss it. Not for the machine but the user interface (UI), the user experience. One thing that always struck me about the UI, was that they do things right. They were first to let users copy and paste between programs and be able to scale and orient your printed output from any application. It's what and is you want to do and it's consistent across their applications. Enter the iPhone.

I just finished watching the keynote address that Steve Jobs gave at MacWorld to see what all the fuss was about over the new iPhone and can say that they've done it right again. Why? Because they built something around how users atually want to use the device. For example: shrink an image by squeezing it between two fingers on the screen and expand it by stretching two fingers apart; scroll a screen with a flick of the finger; run a real web browser on it; scroll through your music by finger-flipping through album covers like you'd go through your CDs.

Hats off to them for working so hard to keep it simple. That's no easy feat.

Never thought of it that way before

During the sermon at Ukrainian Xmas mass the other day, the priest said something very interesting. He stated that contrary to the story of the Bible, Jesus was not born alone. Millions of Christians were present at the birth of Christ. "How is that possible?" he asked us. Here's where it gets interesting. He went on to say that In the spriritual realm, there is no time. Therefore, all people spiritually exist in all of time as we know it, and spiritually we were all present at His birth. I'll let you think about that.

One of the most beautiful things I've ever heard

Today was Christmas for Ukrainian and other Christians who follow the Eastern Rite: Russians, Greeks, etc. It was the last of the holiday gettogethers for our family and it's one we all look forward to for the great traditional food and lack of commercial distraction this time around.

After mass today, my sisters and I went to parents' home nearby for leftovers from our great meal last night. I was the last to leave and I went to hug my mom goodbye, she said one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard: "When I'm gone, I don't want you to miss me, but I'm going to miss all of you." For a few seconds I couldn't speak and then had to fight back a tear at those simple, spiritual, human words. When the time comes, we'll miss you, too, Mom. For now, though, let's just enjoy that we're all together.

Belated best wishes for 2007

I feel very fortunate and blessed to have the luxury of being concerned about what to write for a New Year's blog post. As I take stock of my life situation, my family, my friends, and the creature comforts I enjoy, I feel that 2006 was a year in which gave me time to both get grounded again and to wonder about things beyond me. Thanks, Fel, for getting the new year off to a great start with mellowed meandering around TO and with your funloving FT crew (Woot!). Thanks to my family, MB, KTO, F, PD, LC, Bonnie and others for being your dependable selves.

For 2007, I wish that you surround yourself with great people and find a way to let your light shine.