A Day, A Week, Hemant, A Year

This weekend my good friend Jason turned the “Big 30″, so he and his wife Cheryl put together a little swaree to celebrate the occasion. Guests were to arrive at their house for drinks and hors d’oeuvres at around 8:00 Saturday evening. There was also golf scheduled for the afternoon, but due to terrible weather, that didn’t happen. I wasn’t planning on golfing anyway since I’m a fair weather golfer, and I was pretty sure the weather wasn’t going to cooperate for this time of year. My predictions were dead on.

There was a good turnout for the festivities including our crew, and Jaosn’s many teacher and Rosetown friends. From my observations, everyone had a great time and were fairly well behaved…except Todd. It was good to speak to people I hadn’t seen in a while, and to celebrate this big milestone in Jason’s life. You can see some photos from the evening here (slideshow) and here (thumbnails). Enjoy.

My “cousin” (not really, but may as well be) Seshni got married to Scott this past Saturday, so family from all corners of the globe congregated in Saskatoon. My sister Yavini and her family were still here visiting, and my brother Veyantiz and his family travelled in from Sherwood Park, Alberta.

The wedding was a traditional Hindu celebration, and my mother performed the ceremony. It’s not often you get to see a non-Christain wedding around here, so it was quite a nice experience. There was a big break between the ceremony and the reception so the time was spent catching up with all of the relatives. The reception was a great time since so many people didn’t duck out early. I was hoping to take a lot of pictures at the wedding, but it didn’t happen. Feel free to check out a few I did take below.

We all headed back to Wilkie on Sunday and my parents’ house became Grand Central Station. The house where five of us used to live was now filled with twelve (including five under the age of seven). Despite the chaos, it was a pleasure to finally see the cousins together. The two oldest, Janak and Chiara were inseparable, thowing comments back and forth at each other (eg. “You’re the greatest cousin ever,” while the three youngest (all under the age of three) were not quite as “diplomatic”.

With all the kids playing together, I was no longer treated like a “human jungle-gym” (well, not 100% of the time, anyway) which was a nice break for my limbs. We spent a lot of the time in the backyard, and took them out to the park a few times as well giving me a prime opportunity to fire off a bunch of shots.

• Seshni and Scott’s Wedding – Slideshow or Thumbnails
• Ruane Kids at the Park – Slideshow or Thumbnails
• Cousins Hanging Out – Slideshow or Thumbnails

Day two saw Chiara, Mira, and Liam get a little more comfortable with their new surroundings, so they started to get a little more brave with me. For some reason, Chiara likes to call me the “Muffin Man”, and as a reaction to my beard, Mira told me that I had a “silly face”.

Since it was still so hot, and the house was trapping the heat like a greenhouse, we spent a lot of time in the backyard. Mom and dad have been working their butts off in the yard this summer so it has been a prime space to photograph the kids. If you’re interestested in seeing more pictures of them, check them out here or here.

Today was an exciting day since my sister Yavini and her three kids were flying in from Chicago. It had been a while since I had seen my oldest niece Chiara, and I hadn’t even met her younger sister and brother – Mira and Liam. I met my parents at the airport since it was going to take two cars to transport everyone and all the baby gear back to Wilkie. While we were waiting in the airport we had a pleasant surprise when some of our relatives from Vancouver (who arrived in Saskatoon on Wednesday) decided to come greet everyone as well.

Since the kids had been couped up on the plane for four hours, we decided to go back to my place to grab a bite to eat and just chill, letting everyone regain their senses. For those of you who have never been to my place, it is far from “kid friendly”, plus I am a completely insane neat freak. As you can imagine the children flew through there like a hurricane, and my blood pressure probably shot up by about twenty points as we needed to rearrange my living room on the fly. Needless to say, it was all worth it to finally get a chance to spend some time with them.

After a couple hours we jumped in the cars and headed for Wilkie. Once we arrived we knew that the extreme heat coupled with no air conditioning at my parents’ place was going to be hard on the kids, so we went outside and ran through the sprinklers. They turned out not to be so brave since the water was “so cold”. I did however use the opportunity to spray my mother with the hose nice and good.

Since the four of them were up at 3:30 in the morning to get to the airport, they were all pretty tired so the evening was pretty low-key. After some delicious dinner, the lot of them hit the hay. I managed to fire off a few shots while the kids were outside, and you can check them out here or here. They’re pretty cute…..just like their uncle.

It had been about two weeks since my last post and I was desperately trying to come up with a topic. Well, I’m happy to say that while a few of us were over at Kipp’s last night, a topic worth posting about was born. I decided to leave around 1 am, and made my way to my car, surprised to notice that there was broken glass all around the rear tire.

“Strange”, I thought, since I didn’t remember parking in a big pile of glass. Then I moved my head up a bit and saw that my rear left door window was broken. “Strange”, I thought since I didn’t remember my window being broken when I left the car.

Jason and Cheryl were leaving at the same time, and when it finally hit me, all I could say was, “My car got broken into”. After repeating this a couple times since neither of them would believe me, I took a look inside to see if anything was missing. I’m pretty anal about leaving nothing in plain view for that exact reason, and this time was no different. There was nothing taken – just the broken window.

I decided to walk down the road to see if there were any other cars that suffered the fate I had. Sure enough Todd’s rear left vent window fell victim as well. The glass was still intact, but completely spidered with a small hole visible. It looks like the culprits used a pellet gun as the weapon of choice for their crime spree.

This morning I called Speedy Glass to get an estimate and make an appointment. It was actually not as expensive as I was thinking it was going to be, but I can definitely think of of better things to do with $250. On the bright side, I finally had something worth posting about.

For all of the years that I have lived in Saskatoon, I had never visited the Mendel Art Gallery. I’m not sure why, but I just never got around to it. So to remedy this oversight, I decided to head over to the gallery this past Sunday. For those who are not familiar with the Mendel, here’s a brief description from their website.

Indeed, the Mendel Art Gallery is at the forefront of recasting the image and vibrancy of the City of Bridges as a major creative cultural centre in Saskatchewan and Canada. We recognize our role and responsibility not merely as stewards of the art objects we collect, preserve, research, and present, but as a potent agent of social change, driven by the multiple social, cultural, and educational possibilities of an expanded vision for the public art museum.

Through synergistic partnerships with contemporary artists and curators, like-minded organizations, special interest groups, and progressive members of the local business community, we demonstrate, on a daily basis, the necessity of art to the quality of life, and to the cohesion and advancement of Saskatoon as a first–rate, creative city.

Prior to leaving for the Mendel, I visited their website to see what the current exhibits were. There were two in particular that I was most interested in seeing. One was called “COOLART” which is an exhibit displaying artwork by students of Saskatoon’s schools. The other was “artistsbyartists” featuring the work of two Saskatoon artists – Yuka Yamaguchi, a self-taught artist born in Kobe Japan, and Dave Geary whose politcal work focuses on a “Great Saskatchewan Socialist Utopia that never was.”

The gallery is free to the public, but there is a donation box so I threw some money into that before making my way to the “artistsbyartists” exhibit. Yuka Yamaguchi’s work is described in the following manner. I tend to agree with it.

Her drawings are inward-looking, reaching both extremes of cute and the grotesque.

Looking at her work I found them interesting, but difficult to determine the meaning of. I thought I had a pretty good idea about some of them, but most of them were just way out there. This led me back to a bio of her at the start of the exhibit in hopes of getting a few hints to where she was coming from. It stated something along the lines of her work being done on the fly, with her just drawing without knowing where it would take her, without meaning. This definitely made sense. For example there was one piece that had a little girl sitting on the ground with a dismembered leg. She was proceeding to braid the muscles and tendons that were protruding from the piece that was still attached to her. Another one entitled “Inside of Me”, was of a fish impaling that same little girl.

The first piece I saw by Dave Geary was of two plush, stuffed animals. One of them was shaped like the province of Saskatchewan, and the other one was fashioned after a Saskatoon Berry. I said something along the lines of, “What the fuh?” As I made my way through the rest of his work, these two characters actually made sense, and went along with the rest of his pieces. Here’s a brief bio of him taken from the Mendel’s website.

Dave Geary is well-known as an artist, designer, cartoonist and zine producer. Images represented in artistsbyartists are a continuation of a political poster project Geary began in 2005 entitled The Great Saskatchewan Socialist Utopia that never was.

On display were Geary’s pieces that are influenced by posters found in 20th century socialist movements throughout eastern Europe. Geary takes the look of these posters and adds his own twist on them to fit into his “The Great Saskatchewan Socialist Utopia that never was” project. I generally liked them and thought they were quite clever.

The “COOLART” exhbition was in the main gallery so I made my way over there. I was surprised to find out that the Mendel presents the work of about two hundred students from kindergarten to grade twelve. There was a wide range of artwork including drawings, collages, sculptures, photography, and paintings. A lot of the work was very impressive, even from some of the younger participants. There are definitely some talented artists in Saskatoon.

There were two other exhibits in the main gallery including “Articulation Express : Celebrating Ahasiw” which looks at the life of aboriginal performance artist Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskwew. There was a movie playing, but I only watched it for a few moments.

“Lasting Impressions : Celebrated Works from the Gallery of Hamilton” has made its way through six venues across Canada. This exhibit focused on the modern art movement of early 20th century art – some of the most defining times in Canadian Art. I made my way this exhibit, but honestly I had little interest.

Overall I’m glad I finally made my way to the Mendel Art Gallery. I thoroughly enjoyed the two exhibits I specifically went to see, and will definitely keep my eye on the new exhibits that will go on display in the future. I’m already looking forward to the next “artistbyartist” featuring Sonya Adams who finds, “inspiration for her disquieting drawings from the remains of outmoded communications technology.” Sounds interesting. If you’ve never been to the Mendel, or haven’t been there in a long time, I highly recommend heading out there and supporting this Saskatoon gem.

Hoops is a weekly talk show that is broadcast on Raptors NBA TV and on the Fan 590, a sports radio station in south-western Ontario. It’s hosted by Eric Smith, “The Coach” Jack Armstrong, Paul Jones, and Sherman Hamilton.

Whether it’s on the court or off the court … HOOPS has all the stories covered regarding the Toronto Raptors, the NBA, and basketball in general.

With the Toronto Raptors set to face the New Jersey Nets in the opening round of the playoffs, excitement among fans is reaching explosive levels. You could see the enthusiasm amongst the Hoops hosts as well as the fans calling in. About halfway through the show, there was a call from Edmonton and Eric asked him if he was getting a sense of excitement amongst Edmontonians, and out west in general. Not surprisingly the caller said that if it wasn’t for satellite TV, he wouldn’t know anything going on with the Raptors.

Being a big Raptors basketball fan living in Saskatchewan, I knew where he was coming from. Eric then pointed out that there was a lot of calls coming in from all across Canada, and wanted to try and hear from all provinces. So with that, I decided to call in and continue the conversation of the popularity of Raptors and basketball in general across Canada.

It took a while to get past the busy signal, but I finally got through to the screener. He asked for my name, where I was from, and what my question was. After realizing that I was extremely intelligent, and probably incredibly handsome, he told me that he would put me on next.

“We have Hemant from Saskatoon. Hi you’re on Hoops.”

Eric may have pronounced my name properly, but the graphic on the TV sure had the spelling somewhere out in left field.

On the Phone
Hemond from Saskatoon

Oh well, I guess it’s better than Herman T. So since I was live on national television and radio, I put on my game-face and got down to business. I told the guys that I wanted to continue the discussion they started with the caller from Edmonton earlier. I explained that when the Vancouver Grizzlies and Toronto Raptors joined the league in 1995, it sparked an interest with me in the NBA. But it didn’t take long for me to realize that it was very difficult to actually see any coverage of the games since so few of them were actually broadcast in this part of the country.

My interest in the league continued, but I wasn’t very dedicated or involved. Then when I moved to Guelph, just outside of Toronto, all of the Raptor games were broadcast giving me what I needed to really feed my interest. The six years I was there was awesome for getting my fill of Raptors basketball. Then when I moved back to Saskatoon last year, I explained that I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to follow the team as easily.

As the guy from Edmonton stated earlier, I reiterated that with the help of today’s cable providers, one can get coverage of the Raptors for the entire season. I did emphasize however, that there are still some hoops (no pun intended) that need to be jumped through in order to achieve this, such as pay a premium fee to subscribe to Raptors NBA TV.

The question I fielded was why does the Raptors organization tout themselves as Canada’s team, but for areas outside of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) they are generally ignored by the sports media, and the sports networks make it so difficult to watch the team?

Out of everything the panel had to say in response to the question, Eric had the most intriguing statement. Actually, he started it off with a question to me.

In Saskatoon and area, do people tend to follow the Toronto Blue Jays, and get excited about the Major League Baseball season.

He already knew the answer, but he wanted me to answer it anyway. I responded with something along the lines of the following.

Yeah, I know a lot of people who follow the Toronto Blue Jays pretty religiously, and yeah, I think people tend to get excited about the baseball season.

Eric then when on to say that it took almost thirty years for that to happen. After ten years, the Blue Jays were ignored just as the Raptors are now outside of the GTA. He really feels that the same type of thing will happen with the Raptors – he just hopes (and me too) that it doesn’t take as long. I then asked the guys what sparked that interest in the Blue Jays to spread across the country, and the panel all agreed that it started to happen when the team began winning consistently, finding themselves at the top of the American League.

The call ended and I sat back to think about the conversation I just had. Even though it seems grim right now for interest in the Raptors to catch on in this part of the country, the guys over at Hoops seemed to have pointed out a little light at the end of the tunnel. And if their theory is correct, and the Raptors continue on this winning path that they have been following, the end of that tunnel may be closer than one thinks.

I was up pretty early Thursday morning even though I had packed the night before. Ryan and I hung out for a bit before he left for work at around 6:30. I watched some T.V. before getting into the shower. My flight was scheduled for departure at 1:30 out of LAX so Connie and I left at about 9:15, leaving time for traffic issues so I could get checked in with at least two hours to spare. Surprisingly the traffic was really good and we ended up getting to the airport in less than an hour.

I checked in as soon as I got there and it was only 10:30, so I had about three hours to kill. I wandered around, grabbed something to eat, and read. Nothing too exciting. LAX is lame, so my options were limited. It’s been a while since I’ve been through a U.S. airport security point, and I was flabbergasted that they didn’t check anything. In Canada, they make you take out electronic equipment so they can test it for explosives and such. At LAX, they didn’t do anything like that. Unless they have some type of machine that we don’t, it seemed pretty strange since they make it out like they are so concerned with security.

The flight was on time and went well. Once again I had a T.V. so I managed to make the time pass nice and quick. I had some little girl behind me who was imitating a coyote for a good portion of the flight which I could have done without. I’m currently sitting in the Calgary airport killing time again. I now have over a four hour layover before my flight to Saskatoon. After going through customs I pitted in Kelsey’s for a brew and something to eat. I did ask if I get could get on an earlier connecting flight to Saskatoon, but everything was pretty much full and I would have to pay a small fee to do it. I couldn’t be bothered. I should be landing in Saskatoon shortly after 11:00 tonight. I’ll catch a cab home and then crash in my bed. It’s been a busy ten days.

I wanted to do some experimenting with video editing, but didn’t really have a theme to work on. So I thought I would throw together a quick video tour of my condo – not the most intellectual or ground-breaking film, but it was fun to produce, nonetheless. I also thought it would be cool to give my friends and family who live far away the opportunity to see where I live.

So sit back, grab some popcorn, and hit play.

In an attempt to attract youth to the province, the Saskatchewan government in May will launch a new ‘wireless hotspot’ program in four of the province’s cities – Saskatoon, Regina, Moose Jaw, and Prince Albert. As exciting as this sounds I really hope the service is top-rate. Nothing will be more frustrating if one has to constantly battle with dropped connections, or really poor bandwidth in the hotspots.

I’m not sure this is going to retain or attract youth to the province, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. Major props to Lorne Calvert and the NDP government. I’ve included the article from the Star Phoenix for your reading pleasure.

Free wireless Internet to be offered in city
By Janet French of The StarPhoenix

It’s time to add the phrase “wireless hot spot” to your vocabulary — Saskatoon is about to be covered in them.In a move the Saskatchewan government hopes will attract and retain young people in the province, a new free wireless Internet service is set to launch in May in four Saskatchewan cities.

“I think it just opens up possibilities,” says Victoria Morris, one of the facilitators at the province’s first youth summit held three weeks ago. “If you’re at the Broadway Roastery or you’re in a park and you want to check your email or you want to surf the Internet, you have a place to do that.”

Free wireless Internet access was one of the recommendations emerging from the SaskatchewanYouth Summit, Morris said. Although the service is one of many changes youth are looking for, they’ll be excited that government heard their voices and took action, she said.

On Monday at the Broadway Roastery cafe, Premier Lorne Calvert and Andrew Thomson, the minister responsible for information technology, announced the province will provide free wireless Internet access downtown, on university and college campuses and in trendy areas of Saskatoon, Regina, Moose Jaw and Prince Albert.

Once the government spends $1.3 million installing wireless transmitters the size of coffee cans on light standards and telephone poles and a central antenna within each coverage zone, people with laptops and other wireless devices can surf the web and read e-mails around Saskatoon. Socalled “hot spots” where people can connect to the Internet will include River Landing, downtown, the University of Saskatchewan, the Kelsey campus of the Saskatchewan Institute for Applied Science and Technology (SIAST) and on and around Broadway Avenue, north of Eighth Street.

I have now been back in Saskatchewan for about two months. I can finally say that I have pretty much settled in. I have recently moved into my new townhouse in Saskatoon, and have finally started to feel like I’m being productive at work. Granted, I still have a few things to take care of, but I’m pretty much there. All-in-all, the move has been good. I do find myself missing Guelph and the old job, but that will pass with time.

Now despite being settled back in, there are a few things that I have found slightly irksome with my new ‘home’.

1) Shaw Cable – I knew that cable TV was going to be an issue once I got back to Saskatoon. The townhome I have moved into has no condo association, therefore no decisions have been made as to whether or not satellite dishes are allowed. Because of this, I would have to go with Shaw Cable as my service provider. This may not sound like such a big deal, but after you just spent big bucks on a new high definition TV, you want to get the most out of it. In Guelph I was with Rogers Cable and they offered about 25 HD channels. In Saskatoon Shaw offers 9 channels. I was willing to bite the bullet since the HD channels offered here did include the four major U.S. networks. Everything’s cool, right? Wrong. The four U.S. networks Shaw offers are from the west coast, meaning that prime time shows don’t start until 10:00 pm nightly. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I have to work and can’t stay up until all hours of the night watching TV. Why would they do something so idiotic? My theory is that Shaw did this on purpose so that their customers would have to buy an HD Personal Video Recorder (PVR) for $750.

2) Road Cleaning – Everyone knows that winter driving can be treacherous. Wet snow, freezing rain, packed snow, black ice – any one of these can make driving near impossible. If it wasn’t for city crews cleaning off the roads and keeping them safe, I don’t know how we would make it through winter. Well, I guess I’m gonna find out this winter what it will be like without them cleaning. Snow has now covered Saskatoon for over a week, and I have yet to see a road cleaned. 8th Street, a major road in the city is still covered with packed, icy snow, making it a mission to go two blocks down the street. Not even gravel has been distributed to make the roads a little bit more manageable. Has it always been like this here? I certainly don’t remember it this way, but I guess I got used to proper road crews in Guelph where roads were cleared within a few hours after a snowfall.

3) Grocery Stores – Out of the three grocery stores I have now been to in Saskatoon over the last week, I can safely say that they pretty much suck. Prices are high, and selection is weak. The most noticeable is the fruit and vegetable section. You’ll have no problem getting your typical, ‘mainstream’ stuff like potatoes and lettuce, but good luck finding anything like a hot pepper. I know Superstore will prove to be the answer, but who the heck wants to pack your own groceries, let alone buy the shopping bags?

4) This one isn’t really a problem with Saskatoon, but it just happened to occur in Saskatoon. Picture this – I’m driving down 22nd Street in Saskatoon one crisp Monday morning. Traffic is moving slowly since it is rush hour. The truck in front of me makes a hard stop, therefore I do too. I look in my rear-view mirror and see a ‘boat’ heading straight for me. I try to pull ahead a little more, but it’s too late – the ‘boat’ barrels into my car. After letting out a very loud expletive, I calmly wait for traffic to move by me so I can move over two lanes and pull off to a side road to exchange insurance information with the other party. Once on the side road, I notice the ‘boat’ doesn’t seem to be stopping. I lay on the horn. The ‘boat’ stops. We look each other in the eye, then she takes off. WTF? Are you kidding me? Who does something like that? I can understand someone taking off if they hit a parked car, but jeezus, you just rear-ended me on one of the busiest streets in Saskatoon. I was taken with such surprise that I didn’t even think to look at the plates. All I did see was that it was actually not a boat, but a late 70s gold Chrysler.

I guess it will just take me a little time to adjust to these things. I know they are minor, but when you get used to certain things, it is tough to let them go. I know I can deal with it since I was born and raised in this province. But the main reason I know I can deal with it all is because this is my home.