Tagged with baseball …

13.04.14 [Sunday]
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campbell river, sports, travel

time and work

Yesterday I watched a documentary about the Chinese artist/dissident Ai Weiwei. The scenes where he was in Chengdu made me miss China. Not that I was especially happy when I was living in China, but visiting China after my term was done? I loved it.

Maybe I just miss being on vacation. I know from Australia that working five days a week wears me down. After easter I was joking with some of my coworkers about how I could get used to that 3-day work week/4-day weekend cycle. But it wasn’t a joke exactly. I totally wish my job was a (predictable) part time one. Especially here in Campbell River where I do not need to be working as much as I do to pay my rent (as opposed to Vancouver or Sydney).

I mean, I like making enough money I don’t have to put off buying groceries till my paycheque comes in. I don’t want to make less per hour, just work less. Socking money away in a bank account is something I’ll appreciate eventually (when Aileen and I hit the trans-siberian for example), but for now it’s not exactly providing a huge amount of pleasure for me the way lazy long weekends do.

But I have vacation time coming, and I’m taking it in San Francisco. The Jays are playing two games against the Giants the first week of June and I’ll be there. I bought tickets yesterday and had to fight very hard to not spend hundreds of dollars on each one.

I got one seat behind the plate-ish along the home-3rd base line (which is my favourite place to watch a ballgame from even if it is thirty rows further up from where I’d get them at a Goldeyes game), and the other by the Giants bullpen lined up along the 2nd-3rd basepath. I’m hoping Lawrie’s back with the big club and isn’t injured so I can watch him do his thing fairly closely. It’s too bad about Reyes’ ankle injury.

Sometimes I think about my time here in Campbell River being something like my time in Wanzhou. When I do that it feels more manageable. I mean, I couldn’t possibly go to San Francisco for a week or Vancouver for a weekend from Wanzhou. And I made it through those years all right. But I worked a lot less as a mediocre teacher.

Sigh.

That’s my infrequent update on what is happening in my non-reading life. (For my reading life, as always check Librarianaut)

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12.10.14 [Sunday]
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campbell river, movies

not dead; just quiet

This morning it’s raining and blowing in exactly the way that would have made moving in a terrible ordeal a couple of weeks ago. I’d kind of been envisioning that day to be like today. so that each box would be starting to disintegrate as I hauled it up slippery steps, the sideways rain getting into the back of the truck to make sure everything would get endampened while hauling happened.

But that didn’t happen, and now it’s blowy and rainy on a day I get to make tea and practice for doing nursery rhymes with the demanding audiences of under-15-month-olds I have tomorrow.

I guess settling in is happening. I work Monday to Friday with late shifts on Tuesday and Friday, allowing me a little weekday morning flexibility. I’ve been able to listen to baseball and read books and write and go out to movies (I’ve seen Dredd, Looper and Argo since being here and I’m the only person who’s stayed for the credits at each one – someday someone else will also watch the full credits and we will become friends). I’ve even been paid already.

One of the things I’ve noticed a lot about town is that people do things to benefit the Rotary. There’s a Young Professionals of Campbell River group that does networking things and is having a gala ball to raise money for a Rotary Splash Park, and I see signs in all sorts of businesses that say they’ve donated to some Rotary drive. I have to admit I don’t get it. Since my knowledge of the Rotary comes basically from Hunter S. Thompson (an admittedly virulently-biased source), it’s confusing to me why people would advertise allegiance with them. Those signs make me think of those “I donated to the Police Association so I don’t get speeding ticket” bumper stickers I’ve heard exist.

I’m looking at getting a car. Not a new one. Something I can pay cash for and drive only when necessary (going to other libraries for work, or picking up friends who come to visit). I have to fight my tendency to just buy something quickly because I hate thinking about it, but I’ve managed to get through so far.

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12.09.30 [Sunday]
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library, sports

relaxing thoughts of baseball

I’ve been getting settled in Campbell River the last week. It seems pretty good so far. I love the view from my apartment even when it’s cloudy. I’ve talked more with my neighbour in the last five days than I have with any neighbour I’ve ever had before.
morning
My internet is installed and I’m glad to have it as the MLB postseason looms. This year I won’t have to watch playoff games the day after to fit in with my sleep schedule. Though I guess being out in Pacific Time means most games’ll start when I’m at work. That’s too bad. I guess the Giants games’ll be at a more suitable time, and those are the ones I have a more vested interest in. It’s only been a few years since I adopted the Giants as my NL team, and I’m very obviously not a lifelong fan as I’m kind of cheering for the Dodgers to get into the postseason too. I like the sparks that would fly if they met for the NLCS. I really want an all black and orange World Series.

Last night I met a bunch of the library community at the retirement party for my predecessor and it was pretty fun. I was introduced to a storytime puppet and there was food I could eat, and we talked about how you can date novels by the technology inside. Library people are people I can get along with. The assorted librarians’ husbands were also very welcoming. One guy makes really detailed sculptures of fish!

And tomorrow I start work. Which is weird. But I’ll be at an information desk, which is where I do well so it should be fine. I’m sure there’ll be a few “Ack! It’s my first Baby Time!” posts as the month progresses. And Halloween. Oh man, I’ve got to figure out a costume.

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12.06.13 [Wednesday]
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library, sports

suddenly everything happens at once

I’ve had a pretty lowkey couple of months since my winter term ended. Plugging away at the IFLA project and doing my Children’s Publishing course. But now this week everything decided to start happening all at once. I had an interview yesterday for a Professional Experience course doing techy stuff with a Teen Summer Reading Program. The interview went well and I was hired, so instead of having one more course to finish, I’m doing that instead. I also got hired (for pay not course credit) to work on producing videos for SLAIS over the summer. And next week I’m going to Ontario for ten days to interview IFLA-connected librarians (again for course credit, but the trip is paid for not by me).

All of this busyness while I’m applying for post-school jobs. And that came around to bite me today. I applied for a job in Kelowna which would have been pretty sweet, and they called me to bring me in for an interview, but the interview time was Monday, when I’ll be in Ottawa. So I had to turn them down and hope that they have a bunch of terrible applicants so they have to go to a second round of interviews once I return. It’s nice to get offered an interview, and it sucks to not be able to go do it. I get this notion that this was my only chance and now it’s gone and I’ll never work again, which is patently untrue, but still.

I also got to watch the last third of a perfect baseball game tonight. Matt Cain is a pretty awesome pitcher.

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12.04.18 [Wednesday]
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comics, games, library, sports, vancouver

all these events – i feel so social and poor

Post-school life is starting to come together (though I kind of need a job). I mean, I have classes coming up again in May, but now that all my friends have graduated it kind of feels like I have too. I’ve also gotten to play a new game and go to a conference and be part of Jamie’s four-night trivia blitz.

For a research project I’m working on I got to interview a former National Librarian of Canada last week, and she was adamant that going to conferences without having a job to do is pointless. I think that makes sense. This Saturday I’m going to be doing some liveblogging for the North Shore Writers Festival, which should be fun. I’m going to be a convenor for the BC Library Conference in the middle of May and I’m volunteering at VanCAF. I mean, I had fun wandering around at Emerald City, but I do like having something to do.

Also, when Sean comes to town in June the Vancouver Canadians will be playing. It works out that we’ll be able to go to a baseball game in the afternoon and then the Bombers-Lions CFL season opener in the evening.

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12.04.09 [Monday]
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photography, sports, vancouver

i am a big fat dynamo

Today I did my taxes, got some more Lego out of storage, bought minor bits of recording equipment, dropped off my Emerald City film to be developed, got new passport pictures taken and purchased inner tubes for my bike (because I got a flat the other day coming home from school). That was all before 4pm and watching baseball (on TV in a bar).

The home opener for the Jays season was spoiled by our exceedingly handsome closer, who was unable to not blow the save. Le sigh. At least Colby Rasmus made an excellent diving catch and hit a triple (which, even though it’s illogical, is a feat I respect way more than a home run, no offense to Mister Bautista), and I watched the game in good company.

One of the things I really enjoyed about our Easter dinner yesterday was one of my friends being a little drunk and really wanting to take us all to a goth night. Her pitch to me was “Goth girls are all hot and they love librarians so you should completely come.” While I agree that goth girls are hot, and that their librarian preferences are probably a bit higher than the general population, I didn’t go to that part of the evening. And it turns out that was just as well, because the bar they ended up at was doing a lesbian night as opposed to goth, which would have hurt my chances for love far more than my lack of ink and paleness.

Remember how I talked about the cherry blossoms being awesome here? This is my fucking bus stop/skytrain station:
where i catch the bus
Spring here is great. I don’t care if you’ve already hit 20 degrees for weeks on end in Winnipeg because the planet is boiling.

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12.04.09 [Monday]
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photography, vancouver

springing

While watching/listening to baseball on the internet is the part of my daily routine that’s changed the most with spring beginning, amazingly enough the out of doors are also getting seasonally appropriate.

Downtown blossoms

I enjoy the sheer number of cherry blossoms when I’m out walking. At the SkyTrain station closest to my apartment it’s this huge fragrant canopy of white (and a bit of pink) with people happily gawking and taking pictures in it all. Very neat.

Looking inland

At our Easter dinner at the Little House from the Prairies yesterday we were talking about the absence of seasons here and how we might romanticize the cold back in Alberta and Manitoba (I do not romanticize such horrors, just to be clear). We were also talking about living in a place where tour buses come to visit, which is kind of weird. But the not exactly closest (but close enough to be the first one I think of) park to my house is Stanley Park, all huge and treed and full of totem poles and aquaria and such.

City boats

I like living near water and being able to go to the park and watch seaplanes and people messing about with boats. Now that it’s actually getting warm enough to sit outside and read, you’ll probably see more pictures from me that could be taken by a busload of tourists. But it’s where I am. I think I like it.

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12.04.06 [Friday]
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school, travel, vancouver

opening week

My mom is off to France, heck, she might even be there soon, and I am done school for the term. Many of my classmates are now done school for good, which is a little weird. Weird that we don’t all finish together, I mean. I don’t have the great cathartic sighs of relief, since I’ve still got two and a third classes over the next four months. Plus doing interviews for a book we’re working on.

The good thing is that remaining a student leaves me able to work in Graduate Research Assistant positions over the next few months. I’ll hopefully be doing a bunch of video production work for one of my profs, and right now I’m doing a whack of content management stuff for SLAIS’ new MA in Children’s Literature website (which isn’t up yet).

The wonderful bit about this kind of work is that I can do it on my own with a baseball game on. The Jays have new uniforms and hey, maybe this is the year they’ll play meaningful September ball. I enjoyed the hell out of their first victory of the season yesterday, but really, I just like watching games.

I was looking at my history of being here in Vancouver and I noticed that this month till the summer classes begin is my first time I’ve really spent in Vancouver without school going on. I ran off to China and Australia at the ends of my previous semesters, so I’m going to have to remember that there isn’t any meeting with people in my classes that will just happen because I’m sitting in a chair near somewhere they are going. If I’m going to see my friends I have to contact them. Which will be difficult but I’ll do my best. It’s a time for hope.

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12.02.11 [Saturday]
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books, comics, sports, tv

sometimes i watch sports

I love baseball. True fact. But this past week I read The Complete Essex County and it was about small-town Ontario life and hockey played a big part in it. Today was Hockey Day in Canada so while I worked my afternoon away I took the opportunity to stream NHL games and feel a bit more stereotypically Canadian.

There is something about the way a hockey game is called that is calming just because of its familiarity. While baseball commentators on TV or radio can annoy the hell out of me (Buck, McCarver, Morgan) because of the inanity of what they say, I barely hear the words coming from the hockey game. I know friends of mine have strong opinions of who is damned good at their job in the booth hanging over the ice, who should never be allowed near a mic and who should have retired fifteen years ago, but to me hockey all sounds the same. It’s just this chanting cascade of names in succession (Tanguay to Jokinen to Iginla to Jokinen shoots Luongo saves), and it’s soothing as all hell.

Sean, who preferes football, and I have talked about the American ability and proclivity to mythologize the fuck out of things (he’s better at explaining it than I am). Listening to these games today I was thinking about how the announcers’ hockey chant is less a mythologizing than a ritualizing. In the game itself there’s no room for much more than the names, while baseball announcers have epochs to tell stories between pitches. Baseball’s got sagas while hockey’s doing rosaries.

Kind of bullshit, I guess, but something I might keep in mind. For future refinement.

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11.06.20 [Monday]
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australia, games, sports, travel

i have (a few, weakly-held) opinions about sports

One of the things that I enjoy about living in different places is the difference in sports people play/watch. I guess it’s because sports are kind of like games (which I love) except they require more physical effort than I’m willing to engage in most of the time. I can take a bit of an interest in what people do to satisfy their practical day to day needs, but what I get excited about is the pointless shit people pour themselves into like inventing people and having them converse, or painting little pieces of plastic and using other pieces of plastic to determine whether awesome or terrible stuff happened to the first pieces of plastic, or whether one group of people can get an object to a place while another group of people tries to prevent that. That shit is gold.

Rugby is big here. So far I missed game one of the big NSW vs Queensland Rugby Union grudge match (State of Origin) through my own forgetfulness. NSW, where I live, lost, so maybe the next one will have even more riding on it? That’s Rugby Union, which is actually less popular. Rugby League has the big pro league. There are a tonne of teams just from Sydney it seems. Technically I think I live in Rabbitohs territory but a case could be made for me being a Wests [sic] Tigers supporter.

When I turn on my TV every once in a while the game I see most though is Aussie Rules Football, which is kind of awesome. I’d tried to learn a bit about rugby many years ago for Tri-Nations (that’s union), so I had a bit of a grasp of how the game worked. Aussie Rules is crazy awesome. They’re allowed forward passes but you can’t throw the ball, only kick or hit it with your fist. If you catch the ball cleanly in the air you get a free kick from the spot you caught it. The point is to get the ball between two narrow uprights for 6(?) points or two wider ones for 1. It’s on a round field and they’re just running all the time. It reminds me more of something like Ultimate than football or rugby, really.

And then there’s netball. This is like basketball except there’s no dribbling: when you catch the ball you have to stay there and throw it. There’re also no backboards to the nets (which are a bit lower than basketball I think) so you’ve basically got to be right under it to score. It’s always women playing it on TV, so I imagine it’s not deemed the most masculine of sports.

There is a baseball league but it’s a summer sport so I haven’t seen it yet. I’ll probably drag Holly to a game in November so I can come home with a Sydney Blue Sox hat.

Woo. Sport in Australia. I thought about doing this half-assed summary because Sean (who got me into blogging so many years ago) is doing some great work with his Bastard Bomber Fans blog. It’s about CFL football, and the Blue Bombers in particular, and is exactly the kind of thing Sean should be writing. Dude knows his football, and cares about it too. And reading his analyses after the fact means I don’t have to feel bad about asking dumb questions or stating obvious things to try and appear like I know what’s going on during the game. As in all games throughout history, everybody wins!

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