So far from home

Laptropolis the Third suffered a crippling blow to its primary power source. Knowing that it would take some time for a replacement part I thought I'd try my hand at fixing the problem. I cut into the plastic coating of the power chord using both patience and a soft touch (and a pair of scissors). Only a few of the wires were severed from my efforts and I thought I may actually have a chance at patching things up. Thoughts of MacGyver ran through my head - Mac evading armies of red ants, escaping from wine cellars, not getting blown up by land mines. Then it occurred to me that I'd never seen him fix a broken wire. The few severed wires in my hands seemed to be mulitplying (thank goodness I'm not a spinal surgeon) and I thought that maybe it would be a good idea to cut through the wire entirely and start again in a new location. It turns out that there's another wire wrapped within a wire (at least with my power cable). Surely even MacGyver would have been stymied by a development like that.

So I've had to go computerless for the past three weeks. Kind of bad timing considering how much has been happening. Here's a quick recap:

• The Learning Centre had a completion ceremony at the end of May. It was nice to see most of the students get dressed up. I presented an award and told a joke (I take no credit for the joke - I read it somewhere on the internet) What do you call a bear with no teeth? A gummy bear. (Slap knee now)
• I taught my last day of classes shortly after that - Thank sweet baby Jesus. The weird combination of animosity and apathy I felt from my English class never went away.
• I've had to listen to couples fighting almost every night for the past month. It's terrible and it makes me feel kind of sick.
• The Relay for Life went really well. It was Inuvik's first time in the event and I think the town raised $56,000. Thanks once again to everyone that supported me.
• I won a dance contest during the relay. I was told I had a funky way of dancing - I think what they meant was that I was one of the two guys who went up on stage and even though I moved my body arrhythmically to the music they felt they had to give me something for my efforts.
• Lastly, this is actually from last term but I've been saving it - the last inexcusable excuse from Aurora College 2009-2010:

Student has an earache, fought with her ex, and had to borrow food

I think she was going for a scattershot effect - I guess none of them hit.

It's my shadow from the night of the relay. We'd trade off walking every now and then when one of us got tired. The cool cape effect is actually an Aurora College flag that I tied around my neck. Some of the other participants took to calling me 'Super College.'

Just after my computer died the weather turned unseasonably (and unreasonably) warm. I kept my window open during the coldest days in winter (this building is excellent at trapping heat). Unsurprisingly, when the weather went above thirty degrees Celsius my apartment was unbearable. I left my place at 10:30 pm with the intention of reading by the river (above picture). Unfortunately the mosquitoes were out in full force and I instead went for a very long walk (which is probably better for me anyway). The bugs around here are a great motivator for exercise. I couldn't stop for more than 10 seconds (which made taking pictures difficult). Whenever I paused for too long they'd swarm me.

A picture from the completion ceremony. I helped make the balloon arch - even though I had to face my nemesis: High Float.

I took this during the rely at around 2:30 am. Shortly after this the fog rolled in and the temperature was just a little above zero. My body really struggled with thermoregulation between the hours of 5-7am.

Just around the corner there were kids bouncing on a trampoline, people having footraces and others just hanging on the porch. It was close to 1:00am when I took this.