So...I'm cheating at this by making this a blog post (which will be imported into Facebook) rather than doing this via e-mail, but that doesn't stop any of you who read this from creating a similar e-mail forward or Facebook note out of it, so I'm still within the intent of the message, right ;)?
Three things about me.....
Three places I have lived: Mom and Dad's (Scarborough), Tyndale College (Toronto), Mother-in-law's basement apartment (Scarborough). Does 3 weeks in Israel and Jordan count?
Three shows that I watch: Heroes, Lost, Battlestar Galactica
Three places I have been: Israel and Jordan (counted as one), North Carolina, several provinces across Canada
Three places I have been this week: church, work, Science Teachers' Association of Ontario conference
Three People who e-mail me regularly: Facebook (e-mail notifications out the wazoo, but I like getting them), the curriculum leader of science at my school, and several e-mail newsletters that I actually intentionally signed up for at one point but now just allow to collect dust in my inbox. I have decided not to take it personally that pretty much no one other than my mom e-mails me to say "Hi" because I know how busy my friends are ('cuz it's not like I often take time out of my day to say "Hi" either :( ).
Three of my favourite foods: Strawberries, sushi, pretty much anything in the "dessert" or "bacon and processed cheese burger" categories
Three people I think will respond: I hate surveys that ask this question. I refuse to answer. Respond if you want to and don't if you don't...if you have to choose, I'd rather get one of those "Hi" e-mails or a phone call than a response to this post.
Now here's what you are supposed to do.....(and please don't spoil the fun)
Hit the forward key, delete my answers and type in your own answers.Then send this to a whole bunch of people you know INCLUDING the person who sent it to you. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little known facts about those who think they know you. Don't forget to send it back to the person who sent it to you.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
In dreams brought on by sleeplessness...
I've had a couple vivid dreams the last two nights, so I thought I'd write 'em out. I don't expect them to be important or even that interesting, but meh...
Last night's dream was not scary, but you gotta laugh at how many different stories I mashed together. In my dream, I was Superman. (Yes, I am apparently so secure in my femininity that my brain sometimes makes me play the part of a guy...I've been Peter Pan and other male characters in past dreams as well.) I was in a house and saw Darth Vader terrorizing a family (because everyone knows that Darth Vader is Superman's arch nemesis...). He had this device on the ground that looked like a large black pyramid-shaped kitchen timer. Somehow I knew that the whole terrorizing of the family was just meant to be a distraction, and that when that timer went off something would happen that would badly affect not them, but me. Somehow I knocked the timer thing back some metres, and the family disappeared while I then tackled the timer, turned it multiple times to try to give myself more time before the thing would go off, and then carried it outside the house a bit. However, some kind of marching band music was already starting to play loudly inside the house, and I somehow knew that if I heard too much of it things would not go well for me (this reminds me of a Lois & Clark episode where some psychologist brainwashed some people to kill when they heard "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and then played it on a loudspeaker). I started to run down the street and tried to fly, but I could only get just above the local shops and houses, and I was slow as molasses. I spotted Darth Vader walking down the street following me, pointing me out to every passer-by he could find. I tried to overcome my weakness by thinking of Jane, the love of my life with the red hair (yeah, I know, red-haired Mary Jane was Spiderman's crush, not Superman's :P), kind of like how in the book version of The Princess Bride Wesley tries to think of Buttercup to help him when he's being tortured. It only helped a very little bit. Finally I went right up to Darth Vader and held him against a wall, but my super-strength was also affected by whatever my affliction was, so I couldn't even beat him up, just hold him against the wall and stare at him. Darth Vader told me that when I'd had my powers I hadn't appreciated them...I guess he was trying to teach me a lesson, but was I going to die as a result of this lesson? Apparently not, because I suddenly glimpsed a reflection in the window behind Vader of Thing from the Fantastic Four coming up behind me and getting ready to punch Vader's head (it's good to have friends with superpowers when your own run out, even if they're from a completely different series). I was about to duck when I woke up.
Moral of the story: even superheroes shouldn't rely solely on themselves to do stuff...working with a team = good.
I did also have a very vivid scary dream two nights ago...I don't remember all the details, but after trying a particular doorknob a couple of times and finding it locked I somehow forcibly unlocked it (I seem to remember using those large snips caretakers use to cut locks off of lockers at schools, but that doesn't make sense given that it was just a doorknob). The door opened into the side of a hallway. A frosted window was across the hall and a little bit to the right. Bruce Willis was sitting on the ledge of this window and was looking at me...and was missing his right eye, with the eyelid sealed shut (like post-New-Caprica Saul Tigh in the re-imagined series of Battlestar Galactica). Okay, so that looked disturbing. I had this sense that I needed to overcome some challenge in order to survive this encounter. Hmm, maybe the challenge was that I needed to face my fear and enter the hallway and talk to him. As I entered the hallway and greeted him, I noticed someone else who was coming towards me down the hall & was already practically beside me...a tall lanky guy wearing a lab coat, with his mouth open, emitting a high-pitched mechanical whiny sound like Data did in his nightmares in the ST:TNG episode Phantasms. Bruce Willis had also gotten up off the window ledge and approached me, putting a hand on me to push me backwards. Of course, because this was a nightmare, I was powerless to fight back, and could only stumble backwards as Willis continued to push me until I ended up back-to-back with someone else I couldn't see. After that, all I remember is Bruce Willis telling me something like, "You had your one chance, woman" (hmm, so maybe if I'd just gone away and NOT talked to him when I saw him I would've been ok?)...and then I woke up as all the people surrounding me began to drill into my stomach with a fairly large drill! Not a pleasant way to wake up :P. When I am tired and it is dark, things like that keep me freaked out for a couple hours...at first I couldn't even handle opening the door to go out to the living room :P. Stupid scary dreams :P.
Moral of the story: some doors are better off left closed...and locked!
Last night's dream was not scary, but you gotta laugh at how many different stories I mashed together. In my dream, I was Superman. (Yes, I am apparently so secure in my femininity that my brain sometimes makes me play the part of a guy...I've been Peter Pan and other male characters in past dreams as well.) I was in a house and saw Darth Vader terrorizing a family (because everyone knows that Darth Vader is Superman's arch nemesis...). He had this device on the ground that looked like a large black pyramid-shaped kitchen timer. Somehow I knew that the whole terrorizing of the family was just meant to be a distraction, and that when that timer went off something would happen that would badly affect not them, but me. Somehow I knocked the timer thing back some metres, and the family disappeared while I then tackled the timer, turned it multiple times to try to give myself more time before the thing would go off, and then carried it outside the house a bit. However, some kind of marching band music was already starting to play loudly inside the house, and I somehow knew that if I heard too much of it things would not go well for me (this reminds me of a Lois & Clark episode where some psychologist brainwashed some people to kill when they heard "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and then played it on a loudspeaker). I started to run down the street and tried to fly, but I could only get just above the local shops and houses, and I was slow as molasses. I spotted Darth Vader walking down the street following me, pointing me out to every passer-by he could find. I tried to overcome my weakness by thinking of Jane, the love of my life with the red hair (yeah, I know, red-haired Mary Jane was Spiderman's crush, not Superman's :P), kind of like how in the book version of The Princess Bride Wesley tries to think of Buttercup to help him when he's being tortured. It only helped a very little bit. Finally I went right up to Darth Vader and held him against a wall, but my super-strength was also affected by whatever my affliction was, so I couldn't even beat him up, just hold him against the wall and stare at him. Darth Vader told me that when I'd had my powers I hadn't appreciated them...I guess he was trying to teach me a lesson, but was I going to die as a result of this lesson? Apparently not, because I suddenly glimpsed a reflection in the window behind Vader of Thing from the Fantastic Four coming up behind me and getting ready to punch Vader's head (it's good to have friends with superpowers when your own run out, even if they're from a completely different series). I was about to duck when I woke up.
Moral of the story: even superheroes shouldn't rely solely on themselves to do stuff...working with a team = good.
I did also have a very vivid scary dream two nights ago...I don't remember all the details, but after trying a particular doorknob a couple of times and finding it locked I somehow forcibly unlocked it (I seem to remember using those large snips caretakers use to cut locks off of lockers at schools, but that doesn't make sense given that it was just a doorknob). The door opened into the side of a hallway. A frosted window was across the hall and a little bit to the right. Bruce Willis was sitting on the ledge of this window and was looking at me...and was missing his right eye, with the eyelid sealed shut (like post-New-Caprica Saul Tigh in the re-imagined series of Battlestar Galactica). Okay, so that looked disturbing. I had this sense that I needed to overcome some challenge in order to survive this encounter. Hmm, maybe the challenge was that I needed to face my fear and enter the hallway and talk to him. As I entered the hallway and greeted him, I noticed someone else who was coming towards me down the hall & was already practically beside me...a tall lanky guy wearing a lab coat, with his mouth open, emitting a high-pitched mechanical whiny sound like Data did in his nightmares in the ST:TNG episode Phantasms. Bruce Willis had also gotten up off the window ledge and approached me, putting a hand on me to push me backwards. Of course, because this was a nightmare, I was powerless to fight back, and could only stumble backwards as Willis continued to push me until I ended up back-to-back with someone else I couldn't see. After that, all I remember is Bruce Willis telling me something like, "You had your one chance, woman" (hmm, so maybe if I'd just gone away and NOT talked to him when I saw him I would've been ok?)...and then I woke up as all the people surrounding me began to drill into my stomach with a fairly large drill! Not a pleasant way to wake up :P. When I am tired and it is dark, things like that keep me freaked out for a couple hours...at first I couldn't even handle opening the door to go out to the living room :P. Stupid scary dreams :P.
Moral of the story: some doors are better off left closed...and locked!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Today's AVM clinic visit
This is long. Sorry. It kinda has to be in order for you to understand the results of today's visit. Let me tell you a story...
***Part 1: Background***
Many of you will remember that in early August 2004, approximately four years ago, Martin collapsed at work with stroke-like symptoms. When he was taken to Sunnybrook Hospital (I know that's not technically its name), it was discovered that he had 2 AVMs in his brain, and that one of them had ruptured, sort of like an aneurysm. (If you don't know or don't remember what an AVM is, don't worry, I will include info on that below.) The focus four years ago was on saving Martin's life as the bleeding AVM threatened his life, then on getting him conscious again, then on getting him back to full mobility and so on. The AVM that had bled was removed via surgery two days after he collapsed (yes, Martin has had brain surgery), but since the other AVM was in a different area of the brain they did not traumatize Martin's brain further by digging around for it at that time. AVM #2 was left alone for the time being.
Three years ago, the medical team was pretty much satisfied that Martin had recovered enough from his bleed that they could start treating the other AVM--i.e., to do preventative work on it to get it to a point where it would not be able to bleed like the other one had. (Untreated, there is a 3% chance *every year* that an AVM can bleed.) The treatment recommended by the team was a highly focused type of radiation, which could be used to target just the AVM while leaving the surrounding brain tissue unaffected. Treating an AVM with radiation is not like treating cancer with radiation, however; while cancer patients go in for multiple bursts of radiation over many days, an AVM patient spends only about 20 minutes being treated in the radiation room (well, once all the setup is done...it takes a full day of CAT scans and such to prepare for it), receiving only 2 short bursts of radiation during that time. The radiation is completed on a single day. (The reason multiple sessions aren't required for an AVM like they are for cancer is because cancer grows...an AVM does not. As Schwarzenegger would say, "It's not a tumour.")
One day of radiation...that's all it takes. However, the treatment does not actually stop there. The purpose of the radiation is to create scar tissue inside the blood vessels of the AVM--scar tissue that builds up and builds up slowly, over the course of three years or so, until the AVM's blood vessels finally clog up and stop allowing blood to flow through them. If no blood can get into the AVM, the AVM can't bleed. While it might sound like a bad thing to cut off blood circulation, this is actually safe (and desirable) with AVMs because the blood vessels in an AVM do not service any part of the brain...they're kind of a tangle of useless blood vessels (more on this below). After the day the radiation is received, the patient goes about his daily life as usual, not coming back to the hospital until 2 years later (when the medical team looks to see if the radiation has done its job and finished making enough scar tissue), and, if necessary, once a year every year after that until the AVM shows that it has been fully treated. No additional radiation is given at the 2- and 3-year checkup (unless, I guess, if the progress of the AVM's treatment has been unsatisfactory and the medical team recommends it).
Last year, in the summer of 2007, the AVM clinic had Martin get an MRI done, and when the results came in we went back to the clinic to find out how the treatment of his AVM was progressing. The doctor told us last year that the MRI showed the AVM was either gone or almost gone, but that the resolution of an MRI is not fine enough to tell us for sure if it was indeed fully gone. For that, you need to get an angiogram done--a very invasive and uncomfortable procedure. The medical team recommended we wait another year, get an angiogram done at the end of that year, and then come in when the angiogram results were read to see what they had to say.
Today was the day of that visit.
***Part 2: A refresher on what AVMs are, and the results of today's visit***
The first picture above shows very loosely what an AVM is. On the left is an artery--a blood vessel that carries blood away from the heart, designed to handle the high pressure that such blood is under. On the right is a vein--a blood vessel that carries blood towards the heart, designed only to handle the much lower pressure that such blood is under. Normally, blood flows from an artery through several tiny blood vessels called capillaries before it gets into a vein, and the capillaries reduce the pressure the blood is under. In an AVM, these capillaries just aren't there. The vein shows up early, so to speak, and the blood flows directly from the artery into the vein. Because the vein is not designed to handle the kind of pressure the blood from the artery is under, there is a risk that it will rupture, causing bleeding into whatever body part the AVM is in (which, in Martin's case, is the brain, and bleeding in the brain puts pressure on the brain and is A Bad Thing). In addition to this direct artery-vein connection, this set of blood vessels is malformed, making a kind of tangle or knot of blood vessels in the brain. Hence the name AVM, which is short for arteriovenous malformation--"malformation" because of the tangled knottedness of it, "arteriovenous" because it involves an artery and a vein.
As I said before, it's not a tumour. It is not cancer. It does not grow. You do not develop it later in life. If you have one (or more than one!), you are born with it, and you would never know it until either it ruptures (this is how we found out about Martin's...collapsing with stroke-like symptoms kind of calls attention to something being wrong) or you require an MRI for some reason on the part of your body that happens to have an AVM (this is how we found out Martin had a second AVM and not just the one that burst). Even having a CAT scan for something else in your life generally will not call attention to any AVM you might have, because the resolution of a CAT scan is not fine enough to point them out. A more realistic picture of an AVM can be seen at http://brainavm.oci.utoronto.ca/images/malformations/avm_embo_treatment/what_is_avm.jpg.
Alright, enough background and on to the results. Three years ago, the medical team told us the AVM was approximately 2.5 centimeters in diameter (that's about an inch, for you non-metric folk). Today, we were told that it seems all that is left of the AVM is a shunt, although it is possible there may still be a small amount of tangle there. When I asked what size it is now, the doctor said it doesn't really have a size anymore, and that is when she drew the two diagrams that I have attempted to reproduce here. The second picture above shows what Martin's situation is now. The blood is still going directly from an artery to a vein (which is a Bad Thing), but most if not all of the tangle has been dealt with. The radiation has almost completely dealt with the AVM. Because the blood is still going directly from an artery to a vein, there is still a possibility of a bleed occuring. The doctor who spoke to us told us the chances of a bleed might be lower with this situation than what the chances were 3 years ago, but that there aren't enough good studies out there right now for the medical team to know for sure.
Where do we go from here? The medical team recommends we wait 1 more year and get another angiogram done at the end of that year, then come back to the AVM clinic when the results of the angiogram are ready to see what they have to say. Hopefully we will discover that the radiation has finished its job and closed off even this shunt. If not, we will have to make a decision: do we do another burst of radiation, or do we leave the AVM as-is and live with the (maybe reduced, maybe not) risk that it will bleed at some future point in Martin's life? Well, that is a decision for next year. For now, I will be glad that the AVM is much reduced from what it used to be, and hope that when we go back next year we'll find that the AVM is completely gone and that no further treatment is necessary. More radiation would not be the end of the world (especially since it was so effective in reducing the AVM down as much as it has), but it would mean quite a bit of discomfort for Martin on radiation day and for a few days afterwards.
There, I think I've said all I wanted to get out. Feel free to ask questions if you need clarification on anything above or just want to "know stuff."
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Quick random vacation thoughts
Yeah, I know, that webpage I put up for our vacation hasn't been updated since the first day, and we're now on day 10. I have been taking photos, I just haven't been uploading them, adding my comments to them, etc. I guess I'll just have to do it when I get home (I did go through the tedious step yesterday of editing a whackload of time stamps in iPhoto to make up for having had the date set one day off on my camera for a few days, and making new Google Maps screenshots to reflect the changes in our planned route).
Random thoughts of the now:
1. I just got back to the hotel here in Rivière-Du-Loup, QC after having had dinner at St. Hubert's. The last time I was at a St. Hubert's was years ago (I was dating Martin but hadn't married him yet, so it was somewhere between 8 and 13 years ago) when my family had won a stay at a cottage near Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. When we walked into the restaurant back then, I asked for our table in French...and when we were seated, I noticed we'd been given English menus. I took that to mean at the time that my French had not been very good (though it's possible the host had heard my parents speaking in English). This time, however, I was able to interact with the hostess in enough French that she had a stack of French menus in her arms ready to take us to our table...until my mom asked her in English if they had smoking and non-smoking sections or if it was all non-smoking. Then the waitress looked confused and asked us if we wanted English menus. Anyway, that's a little thing that made my day :).
2. Totally unrelated to our vacation: I have now seen a TV ad for women's razors with 5 blades. I have not yet seen an ad for a man's razor with 5 blades. Has it not been developed yet? If not, why was the woman's 5-blade razor developed first? I would have expected that it would be marketed to men first. Why does anyone need a 5-blade razor anyway? And when will the insanity stop? The way of the future apparently is a razor with a googolplex of blades :P. (If you don't know what a googolplex is...look it up. There, you learned something today, thanks to me. Don't say I don't ever do anything for you ;).)
I'm sure you're all expecting me to dive into one of my long-winded entries about my vacation so far now, but it ain't gonna happen; I choose to go continue to enjoy it instead :). Bye for now.
Random thoughts of the now:
1. I just got back to the hotel here in Rivière-Du-Loup, QC after having had dinner at St. Hubert's. The last time I was at a St. Hubert's was years ago (I was dating Martin but hadn't married him yet, so it was somewhere between 8 and 13 years ago) when my family had won a stay at a cottage near Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. When we walked into the restaurant back then, I asked for our table in French...and when we were seated, I noticed we'd been given English menus. I took that to mean at the time that my French had not been very good (though it's possible the host had heard my parents speaking in English). This time, however, I was able to interact with the hostess in enough French that she had a stack of French menus in her arms ready to take us to our table...until my mom asked her in English if they had smoking and non-smoking sections or if it was all non-smoking. Then the waitress looked confused and asked us if we wanted English menus. Anyway, that's a little thing that made my day :).
2. Totally unrelated to our vacation: I have now seen a TV ad for women's razors with 5 blades. I have not yet seen an ad for a man's razor with 5 blades. Has it not been developed yet? If not, why was the woman's 5-blade razor developed first? I would have expected that it would be marketed to men first. Why does anyone need a 5-blade razor anyway? And when will the insanity stop? The way of the future apparently is a razor with a googolplex of blades :P. (If you don't know what a googolplex is...look it up. There, you learned something today, thanks to me. Don't say I don't ever do anything for you ;).)
I'm sure you're all expecting me to dive into one of my long-winded entries about my vacation so far now, but it ain't gonna happen; I choose to go continue to enjoy it instead :). Bye for now.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Tales from the Senior Math AQ, part 2
Today in class my teacher mentioned in passing that one of the only things she remembers from chemistry class is that are 6.02 x 10^23 particles in a mole. She says she only knows this because her chemistry teacher used to sing it to her. I immediately asked her who her chemistry teacher was...it was indeed the one, the only, Mr. Seshadri. She then asked me if he did the hydrogen cannon experiment for us with the lights off and then fell down as if he was dead--yep, he did that. (In her class, she was one of the girls who rushed to the front to see if he was okay, before he said he did that every year because it resulted in him being rescued by beautiful ladies. Yeah, I think he mentioned that to us as well.) She asked me if I knew the "To Be Happy is To Be Stable" song, which included the part starting off "happy happy happy happy..."--yep. I mentioned him singing the periodic table to the tune of the alphabet--yep, he did that for them, too. Ah, Dr. Seshadri, your legacy lives on. In my yearbook, he wrote only "Wah!"...that was all he really needed to say to sum up our time with him :).
Tomorrow my gaming life may be exposed to the rest of the class, since the formative assessment my table group has designed requires the use of 8-sided, 10-sided and 20-sided dice. Apparently no one else in the class is in the habit of having these things on their person (to be fair, I didn't have them on my person, either, though I did have to remove them from my satchel this morning when I changed it from D&D mode to school mode). Oh, the joys of getting adults to spend their paid tuition time rolling dice (it's a formative assessment of the probability unit from the grade 12 data management course, alright?)! I think every math teacher needs a couple sets of various-sided dice, though; the more you can bring gaming elements into the classroom, the better, as far as I'm concerned.
Now I will resume waiting for hubby to return from the procedure he underwent at the hospital today. As Inigo Montoya would say, "I hate waiting."
Tomorrow my gaming life may be exposed to the rest of the class, since the formative assessment my table group has designed requires the use of 8-sided, 10-sided and 20-sided dice. Apparently no one else in the class is in the habit of having these things on their person (to be fair, I didn't have them on my person, either, though I did have to remove them from my satchel this morning when I changed it from D&D mode to school mode). Oh, the joys of getting adults to spend their paid tuition time rolling dice (it's a formative assessment of the probability unit from the grade 12 data management course, alright?)! I think every math teacher needs a couple sets of various-sided dice, though; the more you can bring gaming elements into the classroom, the better, as far as I'm concerned.
Now I will resume waiting for hubby to return from the procedure he underwent at the hospital today. As Inigo Montoya would say, "I hate waiting."
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Tales from the Senior Math AQ, part 1
As part of one of our activities today, each of us had to choose a mathematical concept found in the high school curriculum starting with the same first letter as our first names. Let's see, my name starts with J. Hmm. Not an easy task. I asked if I could be jerk (which is the derivative of acceleration, for you non-physics people)...that didn't fly because it isn't even in the high school physics curriculum, let alone high school math. (I don't think it even came up in the particular university physics courses I took...I think some high school teacher of mine brought it up in passing one day.) My classmate Jason and I were sitting back-to-back at different tables, and we both turned around and looked at each other and realized neither of us had a good idea, and none of our tablemates had any ideas, either (and neither did our teacher!). Eventually I decided we could be the unit vector ĵ (or j-hat, if you can't see that little circumflex). Thankfully, that worked nicely for the exercise we had to do, but for a while there ya kinda had to wish for a name starting with T (tangent trigonometry trapezoid) or something else with a lot of options. Well, at least we got to be unique :). Teachers, if you're going to use a strategy like that, have a backup for those of us who are somewhat, well, alphabetically challenged :). Oh, and you chemistry teachers out there, keep in mind there is no J on the periodic table, either. Boo-hoo :(.
All in all, my AQ course is going well so far, partly because my teacher uses a lot of group work and hands-on activities to teach us rather than lecturing for the whole 5 hours each day. The course runs 8-1:15 each day (with only a 15 minute break--yep, that's right, no lunch, but that gets us out nice and early rather than dragging the day on) and the last day of the course is July 24.
All in all, my AQ course is going well so far, partly because my teacher uses a lot of group work and hands-on activities to teach us rather than lecturing for the whole 5 hours each day. The course runs 8-1:15 each day (with only a 15 minute break--yep, that's right, no lunch, but that gets us out nice and early rather than dragging the day on) and the last day of the course is July 24.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Possible free trip to the Olympics! Are you in?
Have I got your attention yet?
Alright, before I go any further and explain what I mean, I have to make a statement that most of you can just ignore:
This blog post / Facebook note should be understood as being completely OOG--out-of-game--and treated as such by any in-game characters and elements. (If you don't know what that means, trust me, it doesn't affect you...carry on reading the rest of this.)
Now that that's over with...I have a question for you.
Would you be willing to do something a little strange if it could get you a free trip to this year's Olympics in Beijing? (Huge disclaimer: this might not necessarily work out, but more on that shortly.)
Rest assured, the "something a little strange" is not unethical, harmful, or illegal.
What do you have to do? Simple to say, not so easy to do well: you have to run a labyrinth, blindfolded, or help a blindfolded runner to complete a labyrinth by acting as part of its (humming) walls. For example, check out the labyrinth that a Tokyo team put together on June 1: http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml3dI-1Cog4 . Similar labyrinths have been run by teams in Guelph, Madrid, New Zealand, two separate locations in Brazil, Switzerland, Jerusalem, Dallas, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, and New York. The current record is just over 15 seconds (15:44) and is held by a team in San Francisco, although it is a pseudo-record because the method they used in that run breaks the rules in a way. Still, you can see their run here for inspiration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfsh8o4hZ6E . I believe the current record for a run done completely by-the-book is still 16 seconds, held by the New Zealand team for a run they did May 4. You can see that run here: http://lostsportnz.blogspot.com/2008/05/3-circuit-labyrinth-in-16-seconds.html
Edit: breaking news: New Zealand now has a new record...14.03 seconds!!! http://lostsportnz.blogspot.com/2008/06/labyrinth-training-live.html
How does doing this get you to the Olympics, rather than getting you branded as a cult member or thrown in an institution? Bear with me. You may recall that I have been participating for the past few months in a game sponsored by McDonald's* and the International Olympics Committee--a game called "The Lost Ring." For reasons that I won't bother to explain here, these labyrinth runs are tied into that game, and are sometimes referred to as "the lost sport." Very recently, the game's designer, Jane McGonigal, did a presentation/interview about gaming at the 2008 New Yorker Conference (a presentation/interview which you can see here if you're really interested--it does provide some interesting social and psychological commentary and helps explain why some people get really hooked on online games, for example). Anyway, the important thing is that when she very briefly talked about the Lost Ring game (in the very last minute of the video), she said that they will be bringing people to the Olympic lawn in Beijing to play "the lost sport." While we have known for a long time that the International Olympics Committee is a sponsor, and that the closing date of the game is the same as the date of the closing ceremonies of the Olympics, this statement by McGonigal is the first time any of us have had confirmation (not merely suspicions) that a "lost sport" run in Beijing will be an important part of the game.
The question now is simply: which people will be taken to Beijing? While it is still possible that the "people" Jane referred to are just the actors hired to play the characters in the game, there have been other indications that point to the idea that the people taken will be the players who manage to put together the best labyrinth team in the world--the team that can run the labyrinth the fastest without breaking any of the rules. See, in the game, "the lost sport" is treated as a game that used to be part of the Olympics, but was "lost"...and now that it has been "found," we need to make it part of this year's Games (for reasons that have to do with a huge amount of backstory I am leaving out). Besides, if only the actors representing characters we already know about were involved, there wouldn't be enough people to run a proper labyrinth, so I have a feeling at least some of us players are going to be needed.
Here's the deal: I want to put together a Toronto team for "the lost sport." I have at least a couple of people from the Guelph team interested, in addition to myself. I need more (or at least I probably do, depending on how many people Team Guelph manages to bring along). If you are interested in participating, I don't care who you are or whether we have exchanged two words in the past 20 years, I want you on my team. You don't need to be an athlete--I'm certainly not! You just have to be willing to try something a little different and have fun with it. If you are interested, let me know. I have not yet set a firm date for a training run, but I am considering any of the following:
Sunday, June 29 (once church is done and I can get to and set up the area)
Monday, June 30
Tuesday, July 1 (Canada Day!)
Saturday, July 5
Sunday, July 6 (same concern as June 29)
I have to tell you that I am intentionally leaving out ALL the backstory and twists and turns and intrigues that have been part of this game for now. I want here to communicate solely what you need to know to judge if you're interested in doing this strange thing in order to possibly qualify for a trip to Beijing in August. If you want more details about what the premise of the game is and what-all else has been happening besides the labyrinth runs (and what the metaphysical, quantum-mechanical reasons are behind our need for these labyrinths), let me know and I will fill you in...but you don't need to know those details to participate in the training runs themselves.
*Here in North America McDonald's doesn't seem to be advertising their involvement too much, but you can see they are involved by noting references to The Lost Ring on the McDonald's Australia site and the McDonald's Spain site (you have to cycle through some of the floating images on the center of that site to see it, but it's there), for example, or by going to the official site for the game and noting the McDonald's symbol above "official partner" in the lower right-hand corner (once you get past the trailer) and the references to it in the Terms of Use on that site. Oh, by the way, part of those Terms of Use states, "You understand that the Game is for entertainment purposes only and no prizes or awards will be given in connection with Game"...but like I said, we have reason to believe that some of us will be needed in Beijing...I guess we just can't consider that a "prize" ;). Anyway, come to have fun...and if a trip to the Olympics ends up being part of the mix, all the better :).
Alright, before I go any further and explain what I mean, I have to make a statement that most of you can just ignore:
This blog post / Facebook note should be understood as being completely OOG--out-of-game--and treated as such by any in-game characters and elements. (If you don't know what that means, trust me, it doesn't affect you...carry on reading the rest of this.)
Now that that's over with...I have a question for you.
Would you be willing to do something a little strange if it could get you a free trip to this year's Olympics in Beijing? (Huge disclaimer: this might not necessarily work out, but more on that shortly.)
Rest assured, the "something a little strange" is not unethical, harmful, or illegal.
What do you have to do? Simple to say, not so easy to do well: you have to run a labyrinth, blindfolded, or help a blindfolded runner to complete a labyrinth by acting as part of its (humming) walls. For example, check out the labyrinth that a Tokyo team put together on June 1: http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml3dI-1Cog4 . Similar labyrinths have been run by teams in Guelph, Madrid, New Zealand, two separate locations in Brazil, Switzerland, Jerusalem, Dallas, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, and New York. The current record is just over 15 seconds (15:44) and is held by a team in San Francisco, although it is a pseudo-record because the method they used in that run breaks the rules in a way. Still, you can see their run here for inspiration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfsh8o4hZ6E . I believe the current record for a run done completely by-the-book is still 16 seconds, held by the New Zealand team for a run they did May 4. You can see that run here: http://lostsportnz.blogspot.com/2008/05/3-circuit-labyrinth-in-16-seconds.html
Edit: breaking news: New Zealand now has a new record...14.03 seconds!!! http://lostsportnz.blogspot.com/2008/06/labyrinth-training-live.html
How does doing this get you to the Olympics, rather than getting you branded as a cult member or thrown in an institution? Bear with me. You may recall that I have been participating for the past few months in a game sponsored by McDonald's* and the International Olympics Committee--a game called "The Lost Ring." For reasons that I won't bother to explain here, these labyrinth runs are tied into that game, and are sometimes referred to as "the lost sport." Very recently, the game's designer, Jane McGonigal, did a presentation/interview about gaming at the 2008 New Yorker Conference (a presentation/interview which you can see here if you're really interested--it does provide some interesting social and psychological commentary and helps explain why some people get really hooked on online games, for example). Anyway, the important thing is that when she very briefly talked about the Lost Ring game (in the very last minute of the video), she said that they will be bringing people to the Olympic lawn in Beijing to play "the lost sport." While we have known for a long time that the International Olympics Committee is a sponsor, and that the closing date of the game is the same as the date of the closing ceremonies of the Olympics, this statement by McGonigal is the first time any of us have had confirmation (not merely suspicions) that a "lost sport" run in Beijing will be an important part of the game.
The question now is simply: which people will be taken to Beijing? While it is still possible that the "people" Jane referred to are just the actors hired to play the characters in the game, there have been other indications that point to the idea that the people taken will be the players who manage to put together the best labyrinth team in the world--the team that can run the labyrinth the fastest without breaking any of the rules. See, in the game, "the lost sport" is treated as a game that used to be part of the Olympics, but was "lost"...and now that it has been "found," we need to make it part of this year's Games (for reasons that have to do with a huge amount of backstory I am leaving out). Besides, if only the actors representing characters we already know about were involved, there wouldn't be enough people to run a proper labyrinth, so I have a feeling at least some of us players are going to be needed.
Here's the deal: I want to put together a Toronto team for "the lost sport." I have at least a couple of people from the Guelph team interested, in addition to myself. I need more (or at least I probably do, depending on how many people Team Guelph manages to bring along). If you are interested in participating, I don't care who you are or whether we have exchanged two words in the past 20 years, I want you on my team. You don't need to be an athlete--I'm certainly not! You just have to be willing to try something a little different and have fun with it. If you are interested, let me know. I have not yet set a firm date for a training run, but I am considering any of the following:
Sunday, June 29 (once church is done and I can get to and set up the area)
Monday, June 30
Tuesday, July 1 (Canada Day!)
Saturday, July 5
Sunday, July 6 (same concern as June 29)
I have to tell you that I am intentionally leaving out ALL the backstory and twists and turns and intrigues that have been part of this game for now. I want here to communicate solely what you need to know to judge if you're interested in doing this strange thing in order to possibly qualify for a trip to Beijing in August. If you want more details about what the premise of the game is and what-all else has been happening besides the labyrinth runs (and what the metaphysical, quantum-mechanical reasons are behind our need for these labyrinths), let me know and I will fill you in...but you don't need to know those details to participate in the training runs themselves.
*Here in North America McDonald's doesn't seem to be advertising their involvement too much, but you can see they are involved by noting references to The Lost Ring on the McDonald's Australia site and the McDonald's Spain site (you have to cycle through some of the floating images on the center of that site to see it, but it's there), for example, or by going to the official site for the game and noting the McDonald's symbol above "official partner" in the lower right-hand corner (once you get past the trailer) and the references to it in the Terms of Use on that site. Oh, by the way, part of those Terms of Use states, "You understand that the Game is for entertainment purposes only and no prizes or awards will be given in connection with Game"...but like I said, we have reason to believe that some of us will be needed in Beijing...I guess we just can't consider that a "prize" ;). Anyway, come to have fun...and if a trip to the Olympics ends up being part of the mix, all the better :).
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