September and other such nonsense

My productivity has come to a standstill for many of the past few days. I'm officially an employee of my school district again, but I haven't worked since the first week. However, not all hope is lost... I'm supposed to cover for 3 days this week at a nearby highschool, and I was requested for sub work by two department heads at two other schools for next week. So, I guess I should feel a bit better about my minute space in the cosmos.

In all reality, I haven't been completely unproductive... I'm almost through reading my most recent novel, "Eleanor Rigby" by Douglas Coupland, which I'm thoroughly enjoying. For any of you Douglas Coupland fans (EVERYONE should be a fan), it's highly enjoyable... probably my second or third favorite with "Hey Nostradamus", "Life After God" and "Generation X". I think I'm going to have to hit up something a little more dense after this... maybe "Fahrenheit 451" or "All Quiet on the Western Front", two books on our district reading list that I should probably read before I'm forced to teach it. I suggest this as a strategy for anyone in the teaching profession... read your materials before trying to teach them!

Also, I've spent a great deal of productive energy on compiling my favorite 90's rock tunes, of which I now have three, yes THREE, volumes. Below, I'll place my discography. I tried to make them varied, but they really do represent the best of 90's Alternative Rock with a little grunge and some more pop stuff to compliment the mix. Since I was a huge fan of a lot of the mainstream Canadian rock bands of this era, many of my favorites have made the list.

In doing this compiling, I've definitely established myself as one of those people who will always love the music of his time... like my more aged counterparts who lived their teenaged years in the 80's and wholly embrace the likes of KISS and AC/DC and Guns & Roses, I have clamped tightly on the Stone Temple Pilots and I Mother Earth and Pearl Jam and Seven Mary Three. My dad still listens to Deep Purple when he can, and I know my mom loves to tap her feet to some classic country as well as some secret hippy tunes that I may reveal at a later date. It must be innate biological programming... what other explanation do we have? Sure, we're products of our DNA, but we are equally products of our environment. And my environment featured Nirvana and the Crash Test Dummies.

Other than battling feelings of hopelessness when looking at my job prospects, I've been keeping up with the fitness routines that we established over the summer with our Bootcamp classes we attended for July/August. Although the strength training has largely gone the way of the dogs, K and I now have gym memberships (which we have actually been USING), and just yesterday we ran in the Terry Fox run. I did a 6km circuit in about 35 minutes, which I was pretty happy with overall, and I'm hoping that if I can keep it up, I'll be running in some 10km road races next spring. That's a long way away, I know, but ya gotta have goals, right?

Finally, the smell of autumn is starting to fill my nostrils as of late. The upcoming scent of rotting foliage should be unavoidable in the weeks to come as the temperature dips down to near-freezing at night. Although we've had some nice days, today was not supposed to break 20 degrees, and after a summer of 30 degree-plus weather, 19 feels pretty chilly. But, it's a beautiful chill here... the trees are starting to change, there's an abundance of squashes at the market waiting to be made into soup, and Thanksgiving is approaching, which means I need to ready myself for turkey leftovers for months to follow. Ahh... sacrifices. Until then, I just need to keep begging for work and hope that K doesn't totally lose her mind over the fact that for now, my paycheques might be a bit, well, all over the place.

Now, without delays, here are the playlists that I've so lovingly created...

Best of the 90's - Rock, Volume 1:
1) If I Had My Way - Big Sugar
2) That Song - Big Wreck
3) Shine - Collective Soul
4) One - Creed
5) Bones and Joints - Finger 11
6) Monkey Wrench - Foo Fighters
7) Shimmer - Fuel
8) Used to Be Alright - I Mother Earth
9) Load Me Up - Matthew Good Band
10) Resurrection - Moist
11) Naveed - Our Lady Peace
12) Creep - Radiohead
13) Cumbersome - Seven Mary Three
14) Ana's Song - Silverchair
15) Spoonman - Soundgarden
16) Interstate Love Song - Stone Temple Pilots
17) Little Bones - The Tragically Hip

Best of the 90's - Rock, Volume 2:
1) All Hell for a Basement - Big Sugar
2) Anthem for the Year 2000 - Silverchair
3) Awake and Dreaming - Finger 11
4) Basketcase - Green Day
5) Bittersweet - Fuel
6) Black Hole Sun - Soundgarden
7) Blow at High Dough - The Tragically Hip
8) Cocaine - Black Crowes
9) December - Collective Soul
10) Disarm - Smashing Pumpkins
11) Evenflow - Pearl Jam
12) Everlong - Foo Fighters
13) Everything Zen - Bush
14) Headstrong - Seven Mary Three
15) In Bloom - Nirvana
16) Raspberry - I Mother Earth
17) Tangerine - Moist
18) The Dolphins Cry - Live

Best of the 90's - Rock, Volume 3:
1) Better Man - Pearl Jam
2) Money City Maniacs - Sloan
3) Open Up Your Eyes - Tonic
4) Courage - The Tragically Hip
5) My Life is a Stereo - The Watchmen
6) Buddy Holly - Weezer
7) Midnight Rain - Wide Mouth Mason
8) Clumsy - Our Lady Peace
9) Gasoline - Moist
10) Selling the Drama - Live
11) One More Astronaut - I Mother Earth
12) When I Come Around - Green Day
13) Slide - Goo Goo Dolls
14) Counting Blue Cars - Dishwalla
15) Superman Song - Crash Test Dummies
16) Mr. Jones - Counting Crows
17) Come Down - Bush
18) No Rain - Blind Melon
19) Good - Better Than Ezra

Enjoy!

T