*phew*

Weddings make two people nervous: the groom, who has just signed his life away, and the best man, who must talk about it.
-Myself, on having to give a speech at Brian Walker's wedding

...By most accounts, the test jokes went well...

You know, they tell you at these things to imagine that your audience is naked or in their underwear. Well, I'm doing that now... and all that's happening is I'm getting strangely aroused.

Another:

Leave it to Brian to pick his most loquacious, long-winded, and notoriously late friend to be responsible for A. getting him to the wedding on time and B. delivering a short speech.

And an audience favourite:

Well, as you can see from this slide, Brian wasn't born like most children but instead emerged from the waters of Lake Ontario..

My stint as Best Man went off without any complete disasters. I am sure Brian's stint as a married man will be at least as good.

* * *

In other news, my friend Li Dong is in Europe, my favourite of all continents. More specifically, he's in Italy, my favourite of all nations on that continent. And, for the time being, he's in Rome, the most historically impressive city in that nation and perhaps the entire world.

Juventus!

(Li: just avoid the pickpockets. Italian thieves, like Italian shoemakers, designers, mafiosos and sports cars, are bloody good at what they do.)

Mr. Dong has a blog dedicated to his earnings, er, travels. Do visit.

* * *

Has anyone noticed how the summers in Halifax have progressively gotten shorter since, like, I was born? It's the end of July and we've had maybe two weeks of sunshine. A message for those in charge of global warming: you're supposed to make this place like Miami, Florida, not London, England. Please mind the gap.

* * *

Finally, in other other news, it is thesis crunch time for us Political Science MAs. That mean I've got a lot of work to do between now and Mid-August. And it also means you can expect more concise-type posts — and fewer of those long diatribes I am generally known for — to be put up here.

* * *

Pfft, screw that. We're creatures of habit, after all, aren't we?

再见。