The Glass is Half Full

So, whenever I think of optimism and "the glass is half full," I can't help but think of the following routine from Demetri Martin (slightly edited):

Those who see the glass half full are considered optimists. Yeah, but shouldn't we be more specific about the contents of the glass? If it's a glass of poop, I'm going half empty. I don't like poop. As an optimist, there's a half-empty poop glass here, so don't worry about it. Baby blood, that's even more complicated. Is this blood going to a baby or coming from a baby? If it's to a baby, yeah, we got a half-full glass of baby blood here. It's gonna be fine. Don't worry about it. From the baby, okay, hold on. It's a half-empty baby-blood glass. Don't ask me why he collected the blood in a glass. Just listen to what I'm saying.

Anyway, the reason I've got optimism on my mind is because I've had an ear infection for about about a week now. It started out really mild, but it's gotten a fair bit worse the last few days (I've been to the doctor a couple of times about it). Well, I haven't really been able to hear anything through my left ear since Tuesday night because my ear is all swollen up. While the infection has been quite annoying and painful at times, this lack of hearing has had it's benefits.

Take, for example, the fun it created at work. We have a couple of pressure regulators in our lab that make a hissing noise when air is flowing through them. Yesterday, while I was in the lab, I noticed that I couldn't hear the hissing at all when my left ear was facing the regulator and that the hissing would get progressively louder as I turned my right ear towards the regulator. Well, I was really fascinated by this and started testing it out. While everything I was doing made perfect sense to me, my research assistant got this really confused look on his face when he looked over and saw me spinning around in random circles in the middle of the room. Maybe he thought that the pressure of grad school had finally gotten the best of me. Anyway, we had a good laugh about this.

My favorite benefit, though, was discovered last night while I was in bed. I was still awake when my roommate started snoring. I was not happy when this started. Normally I just kick his bed when he starts snoring, but he had work early in the morning and I didn't feel good waking him up. So, I was lying there not knowing what to do and ended up randomly rolling over onto my right side, thus blocking my good ear. The snoring stopped instantly! It was wonderful.

Olympic Opening Ceremonies

So, I've known for a while that the opening ceremonies were going to be tonight and I've been really excited about them. Then, I found out that our ward was having a Valentine's Day activity and dance tonight, and I'm now on the committee that has been planning it, so I was pretty sure that I would be going to that instead of watching the opening ceremonies. Well, I haven't been feeling very well today and decided that it would be best if I didn't go to the activity after all. I am so glad that I stayed home.

Watching the ceremonies has been wonderful and has turned out to be a lot more emotional than I was expecting. The most emotional part for me was when the Mounties carried the Canadian flag into BC Place. I was feeling a lot of Canadian pride at the moment, and that was mixed with some strong feelings of missing Canada as well. It was a strong, and interesting, mixture of emotions.

Another emotional part for me was when the Georgian athletes walked in during the Parade of Nations. Earlier today, a Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, died in a crash during a training run. The Georgian team was fairly small, and it was clear as they walked in that they were in mourning for their lost teammate. The welcoming applause and support that the audience gave them was very touching and it was great to see and hear everyone, from a wide variety of countries, rally behind this team.

Aside from all of that, I thought the ceremonies were great. They were beautiful and fun. I was really amazed at the whole presentation. I was in total shock during the beginning of the cultural celebration when the projectors made the floor look like it was breaking up into a bunch of ice flows. It was amazing.

The Olympics are more than just an athletic competition. There's something special about them. There are other international competitions, but none of them have the same feeling.

How I Spent My Night

Toffee Crunch Crepe Cake

So, if you've looked at all at my other blog, 100 Things, you probably have a pretty good idea that I like food and that I like cooking. Well, tonight proved to me again that I really do enjoy working with food.

Tomorrow, the chemical engineering graduate students are participating in a "Cultural Culinary Conclave" for the weekly graduate seminar. Students are encouraged to bring a food either from their home country or some other country they have a connection to. Last year I represented Canada and made Nanaimo Bars. I didn't want to make the same thing two years in a row, but I couldn't think of anything else from Canada that I could do well (I've been wanting to take poutine, but I just can't think of a way to make it convenient for everyone there and to make it fresh enough so that I don't just show up with a goopy mess of soggy fries). So, this year I decided to go represent France and make crepes. However, I didn't just show up with a plate full of crepes (even though I'm sure people would love them). Instead, I decided to go with a recipe that my sister gave me a while ago. This would be the Toffee Crunch Crepe Cake that is pictured above.

Anyway, this is pretty much what my entire night consisted of after getting back from institute tonight. It's actually a pretty simple cake to make, but it's time consuming because of the crepes. I decided to make two cakes just to make sure there was enough for everyone. So, this meant that I ended up spending an hour standing at the stove making crepes. Do I normally like to stand in one spot for an hour? No. But this wasn't really a problem tonight, or most any other time that I'm cooking. Anyway, I actually ended up with enough crepes to make three cakes, so now we have an extra one that is staying at the apartment. My roommates were happy to hear about that.

Something else interesting about all of this is that I have another roommate who likes to cook, and who cooks for us quite a bit. He tends to stick to the savoury side of things and cook main course type foods. While I like to cook in general and like making nice dinners, I tend to spend more time on the baking/sweets side of things. I guess that balances things out in the apartment.

Urban Dictionary

So, there's a new Facebook fad going around right now. I've noticed a few people doing it. In their status they have written "go to urbandictionary.com, type in your first name, copy and paste this as your status and the first entry for your name under comments." So, I decided to try this out and was pleasantly surprised. Here's what urbandictionary.com had to say about me:

The most incredible guy in the universe, end of story. He’s sweet, caring, and truly amazing. He isn’t concerned with himself at all, but instead he’s concerned with other people. He always knows the perfect thing to say and the right time to say it. He takes your breath away and leaves you speechless. And he has a way of making your heart melt like no one else ever will. Robert is so wonderful, it’s almost impossible to find the words to match.

A Little Thinking

Something happened this morning that go me thinking a bit. I have a good friend who is on a mission right now and I'm one of the people that her parents forward her weekly emails to, which usually come Monday morning. Well, this morning her email contained some sad news from her mission. Apparently a couple of Elders passed away recently because of a gas leak in their apartment. Obviously this was completely unexpected and a total shock. Nobody ever expects someone they know to pass away suddenly, especially on their mission when they're on the Lord's errand.

As soon as I read her email I started thinking about a former roommate and dear friend of mine who passed away during Christmas break just over three years ago. We had only been back from our missions for a year and a half, so he would have been close to the same age as these Elders. It was also completely unexpected with no warning in advance. He was one of the best people I have ever met and it was really hard to hear the news.

I think it's interesting how quickly we can become so close to somebody. We had only met during our freshman year at college. And in the four years between us meeting and him passing away, we had only been in the same area for less than half that time. However, he was one of the best friends I've had.

Anyway, in thinking about all of this, I am also reminded about the comfort that I received. It was really hard for the first couple of days. But, things got better. I still miss him, but the gospel and a knowledge of the Plan of Salvation helped with coping with the situation. I know that death isn't the end. I know that God loves and cares for all of us and that situations like these aren't just random, pointless tragedies. We might not always understand the point behind them, and sometimes it is only meant to be understood by a select few, but there is a reason behind it.

It's interesting how a knowledge of the Plan of Salvation can take situations like this and remind us of the greatness of the Plan and also fill us with faith and hope. Like I said, I still miss my friend, but the pain that I initially felt upon receiving the news has since been replaced with greater faith in our Heavenly Father's plan. And I believe that this can happen with any challenge, hardship, or tragedy that we encounter.