I've been intending to write a
daylog for quite a while now. I'm sure those who were following my adventures in
South Korea have been hoping for one, but my life back in
Canada has thus far not been as exciting as Korea.
Let's see... where to begin. I got back from Korea and travelled around a bit to visit my Canadian friends. I then spent about a month with my parents in Montreal and wrote a story about Go and Korea, loosely based on my own experiences, which is getting good reviews on the Zoetrope Studios website.
I moved to Toronto a little over a month ago, planning on getting a place with my friend Sylvan. His current lease isn't up until December though, so for the time being, I'm staying with my mother's friend Linda, who recently split up with her husband and now has a big empty house with no one but herself and her son, Robbie... and now me.
Sylvan's girlfriend Asuka has moved back to Japan so he's now talking about going over there for a year, in which case, I'll be on my own in Toronto, where I know essentially no one. So, if there are any Toronto noders out there who read this, and care to ease my loneliness, give me a /msg. Psychos need not apply.
My social life, aside from drinking beer with Sylvan, consists of Ultimate Frisbee on Thursdays (we play indoors, at this sort of inflatable tent golf driving range thing) and the Toronto Go Club on Wednesdays and Sundays. I was surprised to discover, upon going to the Go club, that I qualify as a 1d (see dan level) in Canada. So, if anyone wants Go lessons from a dan-level player, let me know. For now, I give free lessons on KGS (username "Xopods"), but as I get better, I might start charging a small fee, as the upper-dan players do.
My current medium-term plan is to go to Ryerson University in the fall. They have a special two-year journalism program for holders of other degrees. In the meantime, I'll be mostly working on my writing career; I'm in the planning stage for my first novel. It's a sci-fi story, but I won't reveal any details here, except to say that I think my idea is a winner, and my writing skills are getting up to publishable quality, so you may see my name on the shelves of a book store in a year or two. I'm also planning on starting up an underground newszine about the Toronto gaming scene; first I have to get involved in the scene, though.
With an undergrad degree in Astrophysics and two years of English teaching as my only work experience, I'm not qualified for many jobs in Canada, but money shouldn't be a problem. Between what I've saved in Korea and what my mother tells me I'll be inheriting from my grandfather, who is currently dying of lymphoma, I have enough to last me several years. The only problem will be actually keeping up the motivation to write my novel, the gaming 'zine and other projects. I don't work well without tight deadlines.
As for today specifically, the only thing of interest that I've done is to dye my hair a sort of auburn colour for fall. It matches my leather jacket quite nicely and I think it works well for me. Ladies, watch out. :-)