I’m almost embarassed to be a part of this society. I just heard that they cancelled school and stuff today because they were afraid it was going to rain severely or something. As it happens, I was out today, and all I experienced was some minor rain. Even if it was going to be crazy freezing rain, there’s no need to cancel school! We live in Canada! Canada! It’s February! Rain should be the least of our problems. When I was a kid, I remember stomping 3km through knee-deep snow to get to school. And it was uphill. Both ways.

In other news, I’m hopelessly addicted to Geosense. Jen got me hooked on it. It’s a geography game, which if I had only heard about it and not played it, would make me laugh and point. My last exposure to Geography was in grade six, where it was known as “coloring class.” Maybe that’s why I initially sucked at this game. The game presents you with a city name, and you have to click on a map of the world to locate that city. You get points for doing this quickly and accurately. Russia, Australia, and Brazil were my nemeses. It became quickly apparent how clueless I was about these places. Now I’m getting much better, and I’ve learned a lot about world geography, while simultaneously avoiding a lot of work. My best score so far is 6164.

I’ve been watching a lot of Olympics lately. There are two things that were said on TV about the Olympics that really stood out to me. One was that Canadian athletes (with the obvious exception of hockey players) don’t seem to have that killer instinct or confidence to win gold. It’s bred into us that it’s good enough just to show up or to complete the race, and that winning is secondary to “Olympic spirit.” While that earns us friends, it doesn’t earn us medals. Which is why it’s kind of neat to notice that the countries that are unpopular for their beligerence or arrogance are winning a lot of medals in the Olympics. Chicken or the egg? I dunno.

The other thing was an athlete who said she was successful because she has the ability to make herself suffer. I can relate to this. It’s not suffering in a bad way, but suffering as in “discomfort for the purpose of gain,” like getting up early to go to the gym, running an extra lap even if your lungs are burning, or skipping the tasty dessert to stay in shape. I guess this can translate to many different things, in that putting yourself outside of your comfort zone results in uncommon rewards. All of us can do this once in a while, but the people who know how to apply it most effectively are the ones who most often excel. I found it an interesting and inspiration thought.

EDIT: So it’s super windy and cold today, and trees are blowing over. I heard that a car even flipped and rolled over on the highway today because of the extreme winds. As fas as I know, the schools are open. Parents, don’t give your kids umbrellas for the walk to school today. 😛