No Three-Way for Me

Unfortunately, the storms clouds over Toronto did not clear in time for Sunday night's three-way conjunction between Luna, Mercury and The Pleiades.... I tried to catch the left-overs of the celestial orgy tonight, but Mercury and The Pleiades had moved away from the moon and disappeared behind the horizon before it was dark enough to see them.... all I could get was the crescent moon.... which wasn't bad actually....

can't see her?.... let's get closer....

even closer....

whoaw....

you can see her pores.... Mare Crisium or the Sea of Crisis is the big crater at 4 o'clock....

I'll have to keep an eye out for more interesting shows up there, 'til then.... wishing you all clear skies ahead....

TECHNORATI TAGS: crescent moon

Peromyscus maniculatus

A few months ago, I was in the basement getting a beer from the cold cellar.... I opened the cellar door and switched on the light.... there, sitting on the shelf, was a little deer mouse looking at me.... we stared at each other for a few seconds, each contemplating the next move of the other.... he hopped away, but not before turning around to take one last look at me and then scurrying off.... After making such profound eye contact, I couldn't bring myself to kill the little guy in a mousetrap.... so instead, here he is....
I intended to immediately release him into the woods somewhere far from the houses.... but in his shivering, cowering, post-capture shock-like state....
I thought I'd keep him for a while, feed him, and let him recover before introducing him to a completely new environment....
Nermal seemed to like him, he would sniff and tap the cage every so often.... Nermal could often be found sitting by the cage just watching the mouse run around.... at night sometimes, you'd find him sleeping nearby.... I know, I know, my cat is weird.... you'd probably think that he would have knocked the cage over and killed the thing by now.... no, not Nermal....It's been almost two weeks now since Mousey was captured, and I figured he was ready to face the real world again.... the weather has gotten really nice and he'd chewed enough holes in his cage (an old hamster cage btw), that I thought it was time to let him go.... before he let himself go, right back into the cellar....So long and good luck little guy....and Happy Earth Week....

TECHNORATI TAGS: deer mouse

A Tag, Another Tag, and Screw Lea Salonga

From Mel: You need to list 5 addictions and pass this tag/award to your friends.

1) Coffee.... a chronic addiction.
2) Lost.... just got hooked last year.
3) Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry.... a new and current addiction... I used to hate this book!.... now it's riveting hehe ya right....
4) Star Wars.... since I was 5.
5) Blogging... again.... after a pretty long hiatus.

Okay friends, any takers?

From Bry: I just realized that this tag has to be handwritten. Great, good luck reading my chicken scratch....

(a) Write who tagged me,
(b) Answer the following questions:
(b1) my name/user name/pseudo
(b2) right-handed or left-handed?
(b3) my favorite letters to write
(b4) my least favorite letters to write
(b5) and I should write "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"
(c) Tag five other people.I used to have a huge crush on Lea Salonga, then I met her in person after a Miss Saigon show in New York.... she seemed full of herself. Then I went to the Philippines and my gf at the time kept showing me all the reasons why I shouldn't like Lea Salonga, like how she was maarte (sorry, can somebody help me translate that into English - too something?, it's one of those words that I can't quite find the English equivalent to, kinda like 'umay'.... but I digress...) and how she was a terrible actor. My ex was right, my ex was also the jealous type.... anyways, move over Lea Salonga, I got Susan Bolye now!

damn that was hot.... I have been watching this over and over again and watching her on the news for the past 4 days.... when I first heard that song, I was in grade 9 on a field trip to see Les Miz with my French class.... in my 20's I heard Lea Salonga sing it.... but those were the years "when dreams are made and used and wasted".... a decade later and that song makes more sense to me now that I've met those tigers with voices soft as thunder.... subtract her awesome voice and she's still the perfect person to deliver that song.... thanks for inspiring me Susan, I'll still refuse to believe that "there are dreams that cannot be, and there are storms we cannot weather"....

I'll kiss you Susan Boyle and Nermal sends a high five to Pebbles....

TECHNORATI TAGS: tags, susan boyle

Two and a Half Hours at the AGO

A couple of weeks ago, I was in downtown Toronto for an interview, so I figured since I was already there, I'd take a break from my studying and check out the new and improved Art Gallery of Ontario....

I had been waiting for the new Frank Gehry addition to the AGO since 2006 when they started construction.... it is his first major work here in his own hometown.... I liked it better than I had expected... I thought it looked kinda boring from the scale models and renderings.... I thought it could have been more funky, it is Frank Gehry after all... but I guess the finished product is funky enough, but boring enough to fit right in here in Toronto.... the glass facade took on an almost metallic quality in the sunshine.... quadruple click the center of the picture to see how it looked back in June 2006....

Very cool and purdy.....

From Grange Park, you can see the back of the new and improved AGO.... quadruple click The Grange to see it back in 2006.... I'd bet that building would disappear if the sky was just the right colour....

Twisty stairs....Twisty stairs echoed by the trees....

Twisty stairs continued inside....
Climbing those stairs got me dizzy.... literally....

I met up with my friend Chuck at 6pm, admission is free on Wednesdays from 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm.... I figured I might as well appreciate some of the art inside, and not just the architecture..... fortunately, she is an art appreciator.... unfortunately the AGO doesn't allow you to take pictures of the art.... but don't underestimate the power of the Force....

We didn't get to see all the art because we joined a tour of The Grange.... it turned out to be more interesting for me than the art.... The Grange is the oldest brick house in Toronto, and is part of the Art Gallery of Ontario.... it was built in 1817, and donated to the art gallery in 1911... during the time of the renovations, the gallery received letters written by the original butler of the house, and it told of a young maid named Mary O'Shea, who the butler often caught keeping candle wax leavings and then burying them all over the house.... he would follow her secretly taking note of where she would bury the pieces of wax.... included in his letters was a map of where she had hidden her treasures.... so during the renovations, they decided to excavate.... they found the little treasures and so much more.... the first piece of wax they found was rolled up into a ball and contained within it was DROPS OF BLOOD..... dooo do do do doooo.... I won't tell you the rest of the story coz you should check it out for yourself.... but let me just say it gets weirder and weirder....

Anyways, here's what the glass facade looks like from the inside....

I'm gonna have to go back to see the rest of the art.... I also intend to do some more clandestine photography.... I don't get why we can't take pics, most of the other museums I've visited allow photography.... oh well, I love a challenge.... stay tuned..... here's a last shot, you can see the CN Tower's reflection....

TECHNORATI TAGS: art gallery of ontario, ago
WHERE IS THIS?: check the map

sono ad me Domine

I have no wit, no words, no tears;
My heart within me like a stone
Is numbed too much for hopes or fears.
Look right, look left, I dwell alone;
I lift mine eyes, but dimmed with grief
No everlasting hills I see;
My life is in the falling leaf:
O Jesus, quicken me.

My life is like a faded leaf,
My harvest dwindled to a husk:
Truly my life is void and brief
And tedious in the barren dusk;
My life is like a frozen thing,
No bud nor greenness can I see:
Yet rise it shall--the sap of spring;
O Jesus, rise in me.

My life is like a broken bowl,
A broken bowl that cannot hold
One drop of water for my soul
Or cordial in the searching cold;
Cast in the fire the perished thing;
Melt and remould it, till it be
A royal cup for Him, my King:
O Jesus, drink of me.

"A Better Resurrection"
~ C Rosetti

R.Domini: .........................

lux lucis te rectum ad domus tui et ignitum ossa vestrum....

A Happy Resurrection Sunday
Joyeuses Pâques
Maligayang Pasko ng Pagkabuhay
Chúc Mừng Phục Sinh
Isuta Omedetou

pax Christi vobiscum

Here's to better resurrections, whatever it is you may be seeking, working towards, working through, hoping for, waiting for, etc....

TECHNORATI TAGS: Easter

Feets Don't Fail Me Now

....at least I hope my feets didn't fail me back there in Buffalo.... I just got home from taking my Step 3.... finally! after rescheduling it four times and postponing it for three extra months.... well, 16 hours divided into two days later, and I'm hoping that it was my very last USMLE ever....

I began my USMLE journey two years ago in Atlanta where I took the Step 2 CS exam.... right after that exam, I payed a courtesy call to the Atlanta cathedral and was freaked out when I learned that it was called the "Cathedral of Christ the King".... this freaked me out because just a few months earlier, I had ended my Canadian exam journey in Hamilton with a similarly immediate courtesy call to that city's cathedral.... you guessed it, it was also the "Cathedral of Christ the King".... I used to believe that everything happens for a reason, so I took it as a sign that Providence was at work in my life.... I have since convinced myself of the randomness of the things that happen to us in this life.... sometimes a coincidence is just a coincidence.... sometimes serendipitous (shrug), but coincidental nonetheless....

Living with my logical hemisphere in charge has sucked the poetry out of my life though.... I was happier believing in the existence of small miracles.... it gave me comfort to make some semblance of sense out of the meaninglessness of all the randomness around me..... I guess the human species has been making up stories and rituals to explain and control the world around him since Homo neanderthalensis buried his dead with flowers?.... several evolutionary steps later, and here I am, Homo sapiens, still seeking to find meaning in the minutiae of my existence....

So anyways, right after my exam, I set my GPS to find the nearest Tops Friendly Market to buy some Hawaiian bread for my mom... Tops never stops saving you more after all, Tops never stops.... at least that's what the song says.... unfortunately, Tops stopped at four bags of Hawaiian bread.... but this piece of minutiae isn't my point.... my point is that on my way to find Tops, just a few hundred yards away from the exam center, I passed by a little church and school called.... "Christ the King".... I tried to ignore it at first, but I ended up turning the car around so I could formally close my USMLE journey with a courtesy call with Christ my King....

So the sun sets on another chapter of my existence.... faith, don't fail me now.....
from the Tops parking lot....

and the US-Canada border....

totus tuus ego sum Domine

TECHNORATI TAGS: Christ the King, coincidence or Providence
WHERE'D THIS HAPPEN?: mapquest it