Hearing Damage

My iPod is totally going to cause me hearing damage. I say this not because this issue has been in the news non-stop for several weeks, but because I'm regularly in a situation where I'm forced to blast the volume on my iPod. It's called the gym.
I don't think there are many gyms that play good music, most just stick with the local radio station or something, which sucks but can be tolerated. This is not the case at my gym. My gym has found some satellite station or a whole bunch of cds all labelled 'shitty music.' They take this music and blast it through the whole gym, so I am forced to crank the volume on my iPod in order for me not to go insane.
How bad can this music really be, you ask? Oh it's so bad. They play ever dance mix version of nearly every popular song ever recorded. If it's already a dance song, they've pumped up the techno beepy noises and sped up the tempo. If it's a ballad, then it's practically the Chipmunks on acid. I can't decide which is worse, when they take a good song and mess around with it until it sucks, or they take an already crappy song and make it worse by techno-ing it up?
Whoever has created these mixes should be charged with cruel and unusual punishment, for both the song and the listener.

The Hat

It's about time I posted some pics of the Hat. So here's what some of my life looks like.

This is what Medicine Hat looks like just outside the city , flat with the occasional oil well.

I haven't managed to get myself a 'real' bed yet, but at least I have a bedroom. It's not this fuzzy in person.

I have now graduated to a world where I have TWO chairs! Company doesn't have to sit on the floor.

That's right, I keep my shoes in the kitchen. It's awesome. I had an empty cupboard and figured it was the best way to put it to use.

(Above)This is what I see when I look out my balcony, not quite a view of downtown but almost.

(Below) If nothing else, I can at least say that I live in a city with the world's tallest teepee and you don't.

Quickies

Not much to report, I know I had a great idea, but it has escaped me.
But for your entertainment here are a couple things.

I played basketball on the weekend and left the court with a bruise on my face. Why do I even bother playing sports?

I've decided that men are like shoes. I know exactly what I'm looking for, so I can never find it but end up choosing something that resembles what I actually want. It never goes well with either shoes or men.

The joys of the afternoon shift

At my new job I work the afternoon/night shift. I start at either 3 or 4 and work until about midnight, this wasn't a strange transition for me, after all my years of waitressing it came quite naturally. Now that I've gotten into my routine, I've discovered the best part of working at night. I'm no longer addicted to TV.
When I was in Picton, and also a bit when I was in school, TV would somehow take control of my life. I'd get home from work and turn on the TV and watch until I fell asleep. I actually only enjoyed a handful of the shows that I was watching, but I would watch everything. I felt a weird sense of panic if I missed an episode of a show I only marginally enjoyed and completely lost if I missed an episode of a show I actually liked. It was getting ugly, it even got to the point where I had watched so much 'America's Next Top Model' that the word fierce has entered my vocabulary (it means hot if you didn't know).
I'm happy my TV addiction has been kicked, now the only shows I watch are the ones that I feel are important enough to set a tape for, or I'm home to watch. I'm down to basically three shows, ER, Lost and Grey's Anatomy and I like it.
The downside to this is that I'm now often home during the day and have started watching Days of our Lives again--but that's a whole other problem.