Out Of The Loop

So last week, after accepting the job with San Pascual Academy, I get in touch with the HR person who’s job it is to get me on the payroll and begin my orientation.  I go and see her, she takes some information from me and sends me off to get fingerprinted, get a physical and a TB test with instructions to return in a week with the results of my tests.  I wrote it down in my planner.  Today was a week later.  I was under the impression that I would be attending an orientation meeting this morning at 9.  I show up 20 minutes early and no one’s there.  I wait until 10 after.  Still nobody.  I try calling.  No answer.  I go home.  I make some more calls to figure out if I messed up or what.  Turns out, the HR lady I spoke with a week ago who set up all these appointments with me is no longer with the company, rendering everything she did with me basically useless.  And somehow, it did not get communicated to me that I would no longer be meeting with this particular lady.  Everything’s sorted out now though.  I was so confused for a while there.  Anyways, I’m getting pretty anxious to start my full-time job.  I’m really curious what it’s going to be like, and, let’s face it, I want a fat paycheck!  My part-time job is the easiest job ever, but the pay reflects that I think.  So that’s my update for today.  I need to make interesting things happen so that I’m writing every day.  I’m sure you all must be dying of anxiety waiting for my next post.  Well, I am aware of your plight and I’ll do my best to keep the good times coming.  ’Til next time.

My California Woes

So for the most part, my stay in California has been really good so far.  I’m enjoying the warm weather, the proximity of the beach, the adventure of getting to know new people.  It’s a blast!

I finally managed to get a job – two jobs actually.  I got a part-time job at Barnes & Noble Booksellers.  That one should be fun and fairly easy.  And now that I’m done school I’ve been excited about doing more recreational reading, so this job is right down that alley.  Not only do I get a sweet discount on books at the store, but they also have a book loan program to encourage employees to stay up-to-date on the newest and most popular books.  I’m allowed to just sign out any hardcover book in the store for 2 weeks.  Sweet, eh?  And the store is always getting pre-publish manuscripts that we can read in-store months before the book actually goes on sale.  So I’m excited about that in a nerdy, book-worm sorta way.

I also got a full-time job with the San Pascual Academy.  It’s a high school for severely emotionally disturbed teenagers.  My job title is child care/mental health worker.  I’ll be helping make sure the kids behave and stick to their routines and whatnot.  And I’ll have the opportunity to interact with the registered psychologist they have on staff, which is what I really wanted.  I’m hoping this job will provide me with the experience I’m looking for to prepare me for grad school.  I’m pretty excited about it.  I start training this week.

So that’s the good stuff that’s going on for me.  But recently there have been a few things that have threatened to overshadow my good fortune.

First, I discovered something distressing about my car.  If you read my post about when I tried to cross the border with my car, you’ll remember that I needed to import my car in order to be able to register it in California.  Well, I waited for the letter that would tell me if I actually could import my car and when I finally got it the news was less than ideal.  Turns out I won’t be able to import my car at all.  So it’s useless to me and I can’t sell it here because it’s useless to the rest of California and the US.  So if I want to sell it I have to bring it back to Canada.  But for now, I still need it until I can get a new car.  Which is easier said than done.  Needless to say, it’s a hassle that I really hoped I wouldn’t have to deal with.

Second, I need to get a California driver’s license.  You wouldn’t think that would be very difficult.  I’ve switched licenses from BC license to a Texas license without any trouble.  Just dropped in at the DMV and switched it over in the same day.  Same thing when I switched my Texas license to an Alberta license.  But California is a little more anal.  Since I have a Canadian driver’s license, I have to take a written driver’s test AND a road test in order to get my Cali license!  Not only that, but the DMV is insanely busy here.  If you just drop in you may be waiting hours, and if you try to set an appointment, all the places I called are booking appointments two weeks away.  That’s ridiculous as it is, but then consider that the law here says that new arrivals to California are supposed to switch their licenses over within 10 days.  I’m going to wait two weeks to get in to take a written test and then once I’ve passed that I can schedule my road test.  I’m looking at maybe 3 weeks or more til I can get my license.  Ridiculous!

Third, I lost my wallet at Disneyland yesterday.  I don’t think I have to explain at all how crappy that is.  My whole life is in my wallet.  Driver’s license, credit and bank cards, SIN and SSN cards, permanent resident card.  And all I can think about is the worst case scenario.  I just keep checking my credit cards online to see if there’s any crazy charges.  I’m really hoping that someone finds it and returns it.  I’ll give it a little time.  So yeah, that sucks as it is, and it really makes it hard for me to resolve my other woes without all the stuff in my wallet.  

That’s about it for my woes, I guess.  That’s enough, I say!  Anyway, don’t worry about me, I’ll figure things out.  I just needed somewhere to vent about it.  The good still outweighs the bad – it usually does.

Peter’s Top Ten Films

So I figured out something that would be fun to do to keep me contributing to my blog when I don’t have other interesting things to add: top ten lists!  This definitely isn’t an original idea, so hopefully people aren’t sick of this sort of thing.  I always find them interesting, though.  I find it gives you a broader impression of a person and will sometimes alert you to something interesting that you should check out. And I’ve been searching for new creative outlets and figured this would be a good one.  So here goes…

My first top ten list is my favorite films, which is a fairly common theme for top ten lists, and it’s actually going to be a baker’s dozen, cause there were a few that I just couldn’t leave out.  A list like this is likely to undergo revisions constantly as I become acquainted with new and different films, but the films included here have withstood the test of time or proven themselves worthy of this list in other ways.  Ok, the list:

1. Tombstone (1993)

Based on true people and events from the old west, this film combines a variety of memorable characters, a simple, yet clever script that gets stuck in your head and just enough action and emotion to make possibly my favorite film ever.  Val Kilmer’s performance as Doc Holiday is definitely one of his best and certainly the best in the movie.  As far as films go, Tombstone is not necessarily the best made and not all of its lead characters give stellar performances.  But what won me over about this film is that it’s so fun to watch and to relive.  After seeing this movie for the first time when I was about 12, I put a lot of effort into memorizing Doc Holiday’s catchy lines.  At one point, I could quote most of the movie.  I even went online to figure out what Johnny Ringo and Doc Holiday’s latin conversation was all about and memorized that too.  To this day it is still fun to watch and after every viewing I catch myself repeating lines like “I’m your huckleberry” for days afterward.

 

2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

This film made me want to stand up and cheer when I first saw it.  This is a very well-made story of everyone getting their just desserts.  To avoid spoiling the movie for anyone who hasn’t seen it, I won’t go into detail.  But this was a movie that really played to my emotions.  With Morgan Freeman’s soothing narration guiding you along, you really begin to identify with Andy Dufresne and feel genuine empathy for him by the end.  It’s just an amazing movie that will leave you feeling victorious.

 

 

 

 

 

3. Braveheart (1995)

This movie made kilts cool.  Who didn’t want to be William Wallace after seeing this movie?  Heck, I still want to be William Wallace!  This is another film based on true events.  Maybe it’s because I can imagine it really happening that I get so involved in it.  Amazing story, awesome battles, great characters, amazing soundtrack.  I even started to dislike the English a little bit after watching it.  And just like with Tombstone, there are some good quotable lines in this movie that I couldn’t help but memorize as a teenager.  And to prove I was a real Braveheart fan I even bought both soundtrack cds.  Great movie.  To this day I still well up when Wallace yells “FREEDOM!”

 

 

 

 

4. Crash (2004)

If you read my post about people not being as different as they think they are, you can probably understand why I like this movie so much.  This film takes a look at some of the perceived differences among human beings that so many people feel are irreconcilable and exposes those differences as arbitrary and silly.  For me, it’s all about not treating people as categories, but as fellow humans.  And that is very important to me.  The film is a real emotional trip for me.  And I cry every time that little girl jumps on her daddy to protect him from the gunshot.  One of the most unforgettable movies you’ll ever see.

 

 

 

 

5. Big Fish (2003)

This is one of those movies where I have a smile on my face through the whole thing.  It’s charming and humorous and fantastic.  It really lets your imagination run free.  But it’s not all fun and fancy.  For me, the film reflects a lot of personal feelings.  There is the son, trying so desperately to get to know a father that he feels he knows nothing about.  And the father who, seemingly effortlessly, leads a meaningful and eventful life, reflects my own desires to lead a fulfilling and meaningful life.  The conclusion to the film leaves me crying not so much tears of sadness, but tears of joy – the same kind of tears that I hope attend me when I’m done on this earth.

 

 

 

 

6. The Usual Suspects (1995)

A great crime movie.  Every character is brilliantly acted and it makes for an engaging and enjoyable story.  It sucks you right in.  And the ending is probably one of the best in the history of film.  Definitely one of my absolute favorites.  After seeing this film, Keyser Soze instantly became my favorite anti-hero and was sort of regarded in the same way as Chuck Norris – invincible and capable of anything.  And who can forget the line “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.”

 

 

 

 

7. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The only horror movie ever to win an Academy Award for “Best Picture”, The Silence of the Lambs is a unique type of masterpiece.  What made me love this movie was Anthony Hopkins’ performance as the infamous cannibal, Hannibal Lecter.  When I first saw this film, I was a budding, teenage psychologist and when I saw Hannibal Lecter I saw a beautifully complex monster.  I have since learned that someone with Lecter’s profile would never exist outside of the movies, but as a fictional character Lecter stands out from the rest.  And the screen chemistry between Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins is superb.

 

 

 

 

8. Saving Private Ryan (1998 )

I love war films.  There are some great ones out there.  This one is one of the best.  As cliche as this might sound, films like this help me gain some perspective and appreciation for what happened during some of the bloodiest times of our planet’s history.  Saving Private Ryan tells the story in one way, other films tell the story in different ways and in  different times.  What they all tell me is that I should never forget the price that our forebears paid to have what we have today, good or bad.  And I would say the same thing whether I was Canadian, American, English, French or German.  A tremendous price was paid on all sides and it would be foolish to forget that.  That’s more an explanation for why I like war movies in general.  But you get the idea.  Saving Private Ryan is definitely one of the best made movies of its kind.  Moves me to tears.

 

9. A Beautiful Mind (2001)

It might be the psychologist in me that made me like this film so much.  But it’s a great movie no matter how you look at it.  Well made and well acted.  And it even gives a pretty accurate depiction of paranoid schizophrenia.  I did an assignment on it in university.  The only big stretch the movie makers made was the nature of Nash’s hallucinations.  The hallucinations that may accompany schizophrenia are usually only auditory hallucinations, although they may be very sophisticated.  Visual hallucinations are rare and usually occur as random flashes of light, never as people or groups of people.  Regardless, I liked this movie so much that I had to watch the entire thing with the director’s commentary.  This is the only movie that I’ve ever done that for.

 

 

10. Hotel Rwanda (2004)

This is another one of those movies that wakes a person up to what goes on in the world outside of our comfortable, middle-class bubble.  I’ve known people who have lived in Rwanda and Uganda and have told me stories of their families being killed and how they immigrated to Canada to avoid the same fate.  It’s another one of those things that we cannot afford to be ignorant of.  It’s sad that we often stay ignorant until a high-budget Hollywood film tells us about it.  But at the same time, we respond well to that medium and a film as well-made as Hotel Rwanda does a good job of telling an important story and sending an important message.  You’ll notice that a lot of my favorite films are ones that make me cry and this one is no exception.  Really tugs at my heart strings.

 

 

11. Se7en (1995)

Another great crime/psychopath movie.  Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman are on their game.  I first saw this movie around the same time that I saw The Silence of the Lambs for the first time.  I think I went through a psychopath phase back in the day.  This film is shocking and a little bit brutal with a twisted morality behind it all.  Makes you think.  And one of the best movie endings ever.  Great film.

 

 

 

 

 

12. Shooter (2007)

This is probably the only film on this list that doesn’t make me engage in deep thought and self-reflection after viewing it.  It’s just a pure, simple good action flick.  With a sniper.  What more can you ask for?  Marky Mark with a sniper rifle!  Killing people and being all bad-a$$.  When I need to unwind a little, this is the movie to help me do it.  This pick makes it on my list as a little personal indulgence.

 

 

 

 

 

13. Goal! The Dream Begins (2005)

This one’s another indulgence.  This was not a critically acclaimed cinematic masterpiece by any stretch.  But I could not stop smiling or contain my excitement the whole time I was watching it.  I think it comes down to a couple of things: One, I love soccer!  If I could do anything for the rest of my life, even without getting paid, I would play soccer.  I dream of playing soccer and standing on a well-manicured pitch with thousands of passionate fans screaming and chanting around me.  And in the film, as Santiago slowly comes to realize his dream, my dream is realized through him.  And it feels incredible.  Second, Santiago Munez is a poor Mexican immigrant in East Los Angeles who goes from rags to riches as he follows his dream.  I was a missionary for two years in East LA and I became very familiar with the plight of so many impoverished immigrants and I came to respect their values and work ethic and the kind of people they are.  And the story of one of them who manages to break the cycle of poverty makes me feel triumphant.  I loved this film.

Prom!

So I’m not going to prom or anything, but my cousin is.  And since prom is tonight and I’m living with my aunt and uncle right now, I get to see how big a deal it is here.  It’s a big deal.  And I get the feeling it’s this big a deal in most high schools in the States.  There’s a few reasons why this tradition probably seems so crazy and extravagant to me.  First, I attended high school at a small school in rural Alberta.  Seventy-two people in my graduating class and the high school, junior high and elementary school were all contained within one building.  Compare this to class sizes of 700 or more and high schools that look like university campuses.  Small schools just can’t put on the sort of events that big schools can.  Second, my high school, and most other Canadian high schools that I know of, only had one big, formal event in the whole school year and that was the graduation banquet and dance and whatnot.  From what I understand, there are three main formal events every school year here, that are each sort of a big deal on their own: homecoming, winter formal and prom, prom being the biggest.  And third, I was sort of socially awkward in high school and probably didn’t pay as much attention to and put as much importance on my graduation event as a lot of other people did.  So, that being said, all this hubbub about prom seems pretty extravagant to me.  But the kids really get into it and, I mean, why not?  You need to have some fun in high school.  But within reason.  I think some people go way over the top.  That’s all I have to say about that. 

This is a Filler Post

I don’t really have anything to write about, but I’m trying to keep some consistency in my blog-keeping so I’m just gonna write something.  I’ve got an interview tomorrow with a foster family agency that I’m excited about.  I’m getting pretty anxious to get a job.  I’m kind of glad for the momentary poverty, though.  It has reminded me how important it is to be smart with your money.  But I’m definitely ready to have an income now.  I think every once in a while it’s healthy to have changes like that to make sure you’re not taking things for granted.  I think that’s a big reason why I decided to move to San Diego.  In some ways, I felt like I was beginning to take my life in Edmonton for granted.  I was getting in a really comfortable place and was worried that I would get stuck in a rut and stop growing.  I’m thinking as I’m writing that maybe that’s silly; I know I’ve got it in me to keep growing no matter where I am.  If nothing else, this move will have helped me clear my head and reorganize my thoughts.  And I’m not even two weeks in!  Well, looks like you all got a brief peek into Peter’s thoughts today.  I promise something more interesting soon.

The Happiest Place on Earth!

My diligent blog readers, I have a tale of happiness to relate!  I can’t say that my first week in San Diego was a fun-filled, thrill ride.  Most of my days have been spent job hunting on my computer and driving around dropping off resumes and whatnot.  And since I haven’t been here very long I don’t really have any friends yet either.  So when I’m not job hunting, I’m trying to find a way to entertain myself all alone.  It hasn’t been bad, but definitely not a party.  So, it’s friday night and I’m sitting and watching Monk with my aunt (nothing wrong with that by the way), when I get a phone call.  The only people I’m expecting calls from are potential employers and I felt like they probably wouldn’t be calling me at 9 on a friday night. Turns out, it was a girl I had met the week before at church.  Based solely on that first impression at church, she had decided she would take a chance and offer me a special opportunity.  Some friends of hers had some free passes to Disneyland and I was to be the lucky beneficiary of one of those passes!  So I spent all day yesterday at the happiest place on the earth!  What joy filled my soul!  I made some new friends and I was at Disneyland!  The last time I was at Disneyland I was 14 years old and I was definitely overdue for a visit.  I got a little frustrated at times with the multitudes of strollers and little children that flooded the happy streets.  But it was Disneyland, so I figured I’d cut them a little slack.  It was a good day.  We managed to fit a lot of stuff in and I was truly exhausted by the end.  Funny thing, a couple of weeks ago I was telling someone how I’d probably never go to Disneyland again cause I’d rather go to the more grown-up parks and then, my first week in Southern California, I end up going to Disneyland.  The fates decided I still had a little bit of childhood to get out.  And that’s my story.

People Aren’t That Different

I’ve lived in quite a few places in my life.  If you’ve ever asked me where I’m from you’ve probably found that out.  Now that I’m getting accustomed to my new place of residence I’ve been reminded of something that gets on my nerves every place I’ve ever lived.  Everyone thinks their city or province or country is different from everyone else in ways that they just aren’t.  In psychology this is called the “false uniqueness effect.”  There are, of course, obvious differences between every city and region, for example, Canada is typically colder than the US, BC has more forests than Kansas, people in Texas tend to be fatter than everyone else and so on.  And people usually get these ones right.  But some of the things that people claim to be unique to only their city are just silly.  Here are a couple of the most common ones:

Many people seem to think that where they live has the craziest weather; I’ve heard people from a variety of cities use the line “if you don’t like the weather, just wait 10 minutes” as if they are the only city to experience rapid meteorological changes.  This could probably be explained by the statistical phenomenon called “regression to the mean.” This occurs when something stands out because of an extreme score or characteristic, but when it is retested it turns out to be the same as everything else.  In their own city, people get accustomed to the normal pattern of weather and then when something out of the ordinary happens they remember it, and because they’ve never seen it anywhere else they conclude that their city is the only one that experiences that sort of unusual thing.  But, assuming that their trips outside of their home city are relatively short, then probability dictates that the weather would be average in whatever place they visit, not a fair comparison.  So, my point is the type of weather is different from place to place, but not as different as people think.

Another one has to do with the quality of drivers in a person’s region.  Many people claim that their city has the worst drivers ever, or they choose one rival city on whom to bestow the title.  When someone makes a right turn and crosses both lanes to end up in the left lane I’ve heard people from many cities exclaim, “oh, Edmonton drivers are so terrible”, or “that’s what we call a Texas turn”.  But lets get real, that happens everywhere.  I’ve lived and driven in cities like Vancouver, Edmonton, Houston, Los Angeles and so on.  Bad drivers are everywhere!  Beside people being wrong in their claim to the worst drivers ever, doesn’t it seem like an odd thing to insist that your city has?  I can understand when people claim that they have the best shopping malls or the best parks or the best hockey team.  But why claim to have the worst of something?  Strange.  Perhaps there’s some sort of deranged prestige that comes with having any sort of superlative something.  

So the lesson to be learned from this is that you’re not as different as you think you are, or at least, not in the ways you think you are.  The drivers in Vancouver, on average, are going to be just as bad as the drivers in LA and anywhere else that has the same motor vehicle laws as we do.  The girls in Florida are going to be, on average, just as attractive as the girls in New York (although the Florida girls may wear less clothing).  I think it would make us a lot more understanding to think more like that.  

The differences and similarities I’ve been using as examples depend a lot on culture and probably wouldn’t hold quite as true anywhere outside of Canada and the US.  But, on a more serious note, I think this tendency to almost force ourselves to be so different and unique from everyone else contributes a lot to the things that are wrong with our world.  I learned something as a missionary for my church that has stuck with me ever since.  I discovered, when talking with people from other religions, that there was often a lot of animosity towards members of my church based on what they thought our beliefs were.  It’s easy for people to get caught up in a lot of the details of my church’s history and miss out on what we really stand for.  After talking with these people for a while we would often realize that our beliefs were much more similar than we thought.  There were still important differences, but when we saw how similar we were, the animosity disappeared.  I think people, on average, desire the same sort of things, but everyone is so concerned with pointing out what’s different and incompatible that we lose sight of what’s similar and common to us all.  

I started out light and got a little heavy by the end.  But I hope I got my point across.

I have arrived! Look out San Diego!

 

After almost a week of traveling, I arrived in San Diego just a couple of days ago.  I’ll give y’all a brief rundown of the trip.  My good buddy Doug Dupont accompanied me on this whirlwind adventure.  We drove down through B.C.  We went through Clinton, cause I’ll probably never see it again; stopped in Abbotsford, spent the night with my old roommate Bobby Hinman, went and visited the Irwins in Chilliwack, hiked Teapot Hill at Cultus Lake, then tried to cross the border into the States.  What a gong show!  First, they ransack my car and then, as an afterthought, they tell me I need proper documentation to import my p.o.s Toyota into the U.S.  So, since it was after business hours and we couldn’t do anything that night, we hung out with Bobby some more.  Then, in the morning I spent two and a half hours calling Toyota headquarters in Canada and the US and a Toyota dealership in Chilliwack only to find out that it would take 2 to 3 weeks to get the documents I needed.  So we decided to scrap that idea and, after getting some helpful advice, we decided we’d try to cross once more before just renting a car.  This time they got on my case about being a permanent resident of the US and not having a permission to re-enter letter!  So I had to prove that I was a student in Canada for the last 4 years and they almost ransacked my car again, but finally they decided to let me through and told me I better not keep my car in the States.  Ha!  So we got in the US.  Then we visited my sister in Tacoma, WA, spent the night there, the next day   

we made it to northern California, spent the night in Crescent City, went to some Redwood groves in the morning, drove down to San Fransisco, drove over the Golden Gate bridge, went to the Fisherman’s Wharf, looked longingly at Alcatraz (all the tours were sold out for days), and continued on south.  We spent the night in a not-so-classy establishment off the interstate between San Fran and LA.  Next day we made it to LA, made a quick stop at my mission office in Arcadia, took a quick tour of my mission and East LA, went out to Huntington Beach, where we bared our pasty white bodies for Southern California to behold, after playing for a while we arrived shortly in San Diego, where we received a hero’s welcome (almost) at my Aunt and Uncle’s house.  What a trip!  Now, I have to get serious and find a job and stuff.  Wish me luck.