Jul 09, 2009 Denver, Musings, Philosophy, Work 2 Comments

One Year

This past weekend marks my One Year Anniversary living and working here in ‘merica and overall it has been a very positive experience. There have definitely been times when it was tough, or lonely, or when homesickness got a good hold on me but they have been fleeting periods. Since I have been here I have had a great chance to see many new things, climb new mountains (both physical and metaphorical) and have met many people that I am proud to call friends.

Professionally I know that I have taken on many new things and have achieved some huge goals that I didn’t think were possible a year ago; or more accurately, couldn’t have even conceived of a year ago. I don’t tend to talk about work on this site, and I’ll generally keep it that way but since it was the whole reason I came down here it definitely deserves a few column inches. I am pleased with the professional relationships I have forged, and the lessons I have learned along the way. I am really curious to see what the next year brings!

After a year I don’t have any earth-shattering profundities or soul changing revelations, just a sense that my time here has been worth the cost so far. Even today, as the novelty has completely worn off of the “new city” and the “new job” and the “new place to explore” I still find things that are interesting and challenging and keep me on my toes. My experience so far with Search And Rescue has been a true lifeline for me. The training was intense and real-world, and the close-knit feeling of the group was by far the best part of my week for a long time. I do want to extend a sincere and significant Thank You to everyone that I’ve met here that has become a new friend, to all my friends in Calgary who have stuck with me, and especially to my family who I know is always there for me.

Ok, ok, they’re bringing up the orchestra so I should get off the stage 😉 but let me wrap up by quoting myself, a “myself” from a year ago:

This opportunity has taught me something else about myself though, I like challenges and I like being out of my comfort zone, I like confronting the unknown (and I like triumphing as well!) I believe life is about adventure and with the right frame of mind adventure can be found in many different places: the back yard, the mountains, the wider world, and in this case, a new job in a new city. The difficult thing with adventure is that it’s so often synonymous with adversity and how often do you roll out of bed in the morning and say “oh boy! A chance to face more adversity!”… yeah. I guess this is my way of acknowledging that this change, this adventure, will come with it’s dark moments and it’s downtimes.

So I say, bring on the adventure! Bring on the good times and the bad times and everything in between! (source)

And what kind of “mussings” post would it be without a little insight from my good friend, my poetic Rock, Mr. Robert Service:

Have you gazed on naked grandeur
where there’s nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
Have you swept the visioned valley
with the green stream streaking through it,
Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost?
Have you strung your soul to silence?
Then for God’s sake go and do it;
Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.

Jun 01, 2008 Denver, Musings, Philosophy, Travel, Work 1 Comment

The Nature of Adventure

If you’re a regular reader here you’ve probably noticed that there are two things I generally avoid talking about: work, and my personal feelings/issues. My philosophy has always been that I wouldn’t post anything here that I wouldn’t put up a on a bulletin board in a public place but for this posting I’m going to change that a little because in the last week or so some fairly major changes have come about that are a collision of work and personal issues. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go all emo on you though.

First, the good news: I was offered a promotion and a chance to work in the Denver headquarters of my company. The bad news? I took the promotion and it means moving to Denver. (If reading this here is the first time you’ve heard about it then I’m sorry I didn’t get to tell you in person)

Let me say that I am unequivocally excited about the new position, it is a huge step up in responsibility and involves leading a core group with tremendous influence on the other segments of the company. I am excited and scared in equal measures about the prospect of moving to a strange new city and this has been the largest stumbling block of the whole process. I am excited because it is a new challenge and a new city and an opportunity to explore and push my own personal boundaries. I am scared for all the same reasons which usually manifest as the “what if” reasons: what if I can’t cut it? what if I don’t meet anyone? what if I hate it?…

This opportunity has taught me something else about myself though, I like challenges and I like being out of my comfort zone, I like confronting the unknown (and I like triumphing as well!) I believe life is about adventure and with the right frame of mine adventure can be found in many different places: the back yard, the mountains, the wider world, and in this case, a new job in a new city. The difficult thing with adventure is that it’s so often synonymous with adversity and how often do you roll out of bed in the morning and say “oh boy! A chance to face more adversity!”… yeah. I guess this is my way of acknowledging that this change, this adventure, will come with it’s dark moments and it’s downtimes.

Let me also say that my long term plan (adventure?) is still hazy and ill defined. Calgary will always be home to me, a home which I will be glad to see again in a few days! (June 5th actually)

So I say, bring on the adventure! Bring on the good times and the bad times and everything in between!

Have you gazed on naked grandeur
where there’s nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
Have you swept the visioned valley
with the green stream streaking through it,
Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost?
Have you strung your soul to silence?
Then for God’s sake go and do it;
Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.

Mar 10, 2008 Musings, Philosophy Post a Comment

Rotation

“Tell me”, the great twentieth-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once asked a friend, “why do people always say it was natural for man to assume that the sun went round the Earth rather than that the Earth was rotating?”

His friend replied “Well, obviously because it looks as though the Sun is going round the Earth.”

Wittgenstein responded “Well, what would it have looked like if it had looked as though the Earth were rotating?”

Mar 10, 2007 Musings, Philosophy, Travel 3 Comments

Art: An Engineer’s Interpretation

“I just don’t get art” is a phrase I hear all the time, in fact I am guilty of uttering it myself once in a while. Today I took a trip to the Philbrook Art Museum here in Tulsa, and let me tell you: today, I got art. The Philbrook Museum is housed in an Italian Vila on 23 acres in the middle of Tulsa; built in 1923 by oilman Waite Phillips it is “now one of America’s finest art museums” and would agree with this assessment.

Formal garden of the Philbrook

I took a stroll through the different wings of the museum housing paintings, sculpture, pottery, hangings and all manner of art. I took my time, since it didn’t seem like the sort of thing that could be dashed through and moved on to the next thing. There were many pieces I would describe as good, or nice, or with the sort of generic compliment you would expect to give an aunt over the sweater she knitted you. There were a good number of pieces that gave me pause and reason to scratch my head but left me ultimately unfulfilled; and there were a very select few that stopped me in my tracks, touched something in my soul and made me grin with appreciation.

While I don’t consider myself a deeply religous person I had a religous upbringing and find Christian art to be tremendously evocative. This piece in particular struck me

Antonio d’Enrico, called Tanzio da Varallo
Saint John the Baptist in the Desert

It is John the Baptist just after he went into the wilderness. Strangely, the thing that struck me first was that his collarbone was sticking out and how realistic the muscles on his shoulder were. After that, it was the trees in background, top right that caught my attention and the intense look on his face as he stared towards heaven.

The next one that grabbed me was by an American painter named Thomas Moran, called Autumn

The lighting on the trees just to the left of the stump caught me first and then the colouring of the sky… just amazing. There was a whole bunch of Moran’s there that I really enjoyed, the kind of picture that holds you and the more you look the more you discover.

I also took a stroll in the Formal Garden outside

There were also a number of sculptures on display and there is something about sculpture that I really like as well. There were two by Rodin, Adam and Young Mother in the Grotto.

His limbs all look disproportionate and I’m not sure what the symbolism behind this is. Surely it isn’t by accident, I would image Rodin knew what he was doing… anyone have an idea?

All in all a very pleasing, uplifting and gratifying experience; I think I will have to make it a point to visit art museums more often since, as with most things, the more you know about it the more you appreciate it (or, the more you know art the more you get art!)