Two exemplary days from my week: Tuesday - badminton at the Knox Presbyterian Church, Wednesday - sushi and karaoke on Bloor. There's lots of fun to be had here, if you're looking. The big event was Pemma's birthday, and with a smattering of her co-workers and some Waterloo-ites, things got a little crazy. Daif? Say you were to walk into New Generation and hear "For she's a jolly good fellow?" That was us.

New Generation Sushi, Toronto

Karaoke, Korean style

There are more pictures over at oceanpark... with an evening that ranged from "In Da Club" to "Under Da Sea," "Do Re Mi" to "Downtown" (and a free-stylin' "My Sharona"), I promise you, none of them are embarrassing.

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In addition to hunting down as many places to play racquet sports as possible, I'm also looking for a choir (or two) to sing in. I'm still occasionally struck by all the options. In some ways that old schism hasn't gone away--big city versus rural country--but I love how Toronto is redeeming itself. Each time I move to a bigger city I empathize a little more with "those people" who in the past have learned that I am from Elm Creek (population: 325) and burst out with "but what do you *do* there?" Not much, I guess! But there are those "even in Toronto" who are looking to connect with people, and not just things.

More to the practical point, I'm working like a fiend, and positively loving it. My contract at the Princess Margaret Hospital has me writing software to help clinical pharmacists make changes "at the bedside" to the medications prescribed by a patient's doctor. They may read this, but the people I'm working with are smart, driven, and laid back, which is one wicked combination in a place to work. Technology in healthcare is pretty exciting at the best of times.

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And in the "food-for-thought" category (aka "lots of big words"): Biology Under Attack by Barbara Ehrenreich, a cell biology PhD. who pulled an Orwell (passing as a low-wage worker) with Nickel and Dimed in 2001. The article only really gets going about halfway through: search for "arrival of the intellectual" if it you want to skip to the good stuff. Granted, you probably have to care about "social theory" and not take the implication that "religious creationism equals dogmatism" too personally.