Downtown!

"When you're alone And life is making you lonely,
You can always go downtown

When you've got worries, All the noise and the hurry
Seems to help, I know, downtown

Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city
Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty

How can you lose?" -- Downtown, as sung by Petula Clark

Today my division started life in its new locale. We’ve been moved downtown from Liberty Village.

Oy. Tha discombobulation.

I’m not doing too badly in that I took Thursday and Friday off and actually WASN’T ill during a vacation. I got some chores done and chilled out. It was nice.

A few things happened, in no particular order or priority, but for some reason they are sticking with me.

To Live and Die in L.A.

I rented and watched To Live and Die in L.A starring Willem Dafoe and William Petersen. It was one of those movies that always stuck with me as something to see, as I never did go to see it when it was first released.

I had wondered particularly about Petersen, who seemed to fall off the face of the earth after Manhunter. I had absolutely adored him in Manhunter, so I was glad to see him re-emerge in CSI.

As for Dafoe, he has always been a favourite of mine. This movie was an early career coup for him and he looks incredibly young, almost baby faced in it. Not that he looks like a wreck now, but you know what I mean.

The Wang Chung soundtrack and painted face dancers aside for a moment, this movie holds up incredibly well. Well, actually I do like Wang Chung’s title track, but I’ll never get the painted face dancer thing. EVERYONE in the 1980’s needed to do this. Quick! We need dancers! We need them in satin leotards! And paint that chick's face like a tiger’s!!! Weird.

At any rate, I’ve been revisiting some movies from my “yute”, and this one was an interesting snapshot for me, both of its own time and in terms of my emotional memory of what I was doing and thinking when it came out. It's a seedier view of L.A., how I imagine it must be in real life.

Joyce Meyer

Ms. Meyer is a preacher in the U.S. who I’ve known of for some time. I couldn’t sleep early Friday morning so I got up and ended up stumbling upon her 5:30 a.m. show. I’ve been picking up her podcasts since and really enjoying them.

Now, I want to be clear here. I haven’t had some born again episode – although if you are a born again Christian, hey, it takes all kinds so rock on – but bascially I like Joyce Meyer cause she’s not full of crap.

I’ve always considered myself a deeply spiritual person, although I don’t talk about it much, I believe that the expression of spirituality is a very personal journey for everyone. I’ve felt as much reverence standing in the forest as I’ve felt in any church, mosque or synagogue and I think it’s important that all paths are respected. But what I really like about Joyce Meyer is that she talks about actually living and doing as a Christian should. In today's show, she was berating the audience because she'd heard through the grapevine that the restaurants were complaining cause the conference attendess were such lousy tippers! Heh!

In short, Joyce wants you to walk the walk instead of parking your butt in a church pew every Sunday and feeling sanctimonious.. Many of her sermons focus on managing real life issues that are very important. She’s also incredibly funny. When she talks about not being judgemental of others and walking around like you’re “Holy Spirit Jr.”, well I don’t know if it’s just the way she says it, but it cracks me up everytime. I’m really enjoying her series on Grace at the moment. If there’s one thing I need to do, it’s to stop worrying so much about what I can’t control.

Joyce, your timing couldn’t have been better.

Motivation to Move

I actually had time to catch up on all my podcasts while I was off, one of which was Motivation to Move. It’s done by a guy called Scott Smith, who was once over weight himself. The theme song is quite cheesy, [yet surprisingly catchy] and he has a lot of good tips and inspiration. He’s also “been there” in terms of weight loss so he doesn’t candy coat anything [no pun intended]. I like his “This ain’t easy but you can still do it” schtick.

So off I went to my new work locale today, with all this and various other things swimming in my head.

Pros of new Locale

I have an office, a rather large one actually. I’m thinking I’ll get a wet bar installed.

There are a lot of stores where we are and it’s easy to get things done at lunch.

I don’t have to pee in the kitchen. Yes, our washrooms were in our kitchen at the old locale so obviously #2’s were banned outright and I certainly didn’t use it whenever anyone was having lunch.

I don’t get a nose bleed from the angle of the stairs up to our front door.

I have quiet to think and plan.

Cons of New Locale

It takes 30 mins to get to work on transit when it used to take 10.

My parking costs have doubled – but I don’t care because I am getting my car back and I am driving it so I can be home in 15 mins max. No more waiting 40 mins in -30 windchill for a trolley thank you very much. I’m done.

In my office I feel incredibly disconnected from production

We were just getting into a good groove at the old place.

Downtown is noisy, dirty and full of people. Liberty Village was quiet, clean and full of trees.

At any rate, onwards and upwards. I’m sure it will all work out.