Liebe reader!

This entry marks the birth of a new era. A new era of progress -- of gear-churning, pulley-snapping industrial success. Or at least an era of gear-churning, pulley-snapping attempts at industrial success. In other words, I have three lonesome weeks to finish my Master's thesis before moving to the Netherlands to start a second grad programme. Nearly everything is in place: finances secured, flight to Montreal and eventually Amsterdam, place to stay. What's left to determine is whether the rest of this month will be an exciting adventure in philosophical scholarship or an exercise in damage control (in the event that my thesis turns into an entropic missile, hurtling toward catastrophe.) I'm hoping and pushing for the former, but I understand if you just came for the fireworks. Either way, I'll try to make reading this blog worth your while.

What happened to "Biscuits"?

Those of you who've known me for some time now may know that I used to run a blog called "Memoirs and Tea Biscuits." The 'may' here is very tentative, given that my blog likely would've won first-prize for most limited readership in a blog contest (had someone cared to have nominated it.) Alas, I received no blue ribbons, but I did have a couple of occasional readers (Ming, Nat… maybe Allison) and a somewhat famous one, too (Melissa Wheeler, of XPress (and now CTV!) fame.) Then, of course, there was Paul. His head-in-the-clouds-yet-dyed-in-the-wool love for all things "Biscuits" even earned him a dedicated section of my blog (which I aptly entitled "Kivi's Korner".) PERHAPS THERE WILL BE A KIVI'S KORNER THIS TIME TOO, PAUL. PERHAPS.

Anyway, sometime last year, I decided to let "Biscuits" go the way of an entropy missile (cf. above) because its time had come. This was suggested to me by the fact that the site's sidebar links had all become either broken, inappropriate or boring. It was time for something completely new. …So what's this new blog about, you ask?

Moving to Amsterdam

I've wanted to start a new blog for a while now but never had a good reason to do so. Thankfully, moving to Amsterdam seems to justify my starting a blog, so here we are. My hope is to post photos, anecdotes and (maybe even) useful information for those who plan on moving overseas. The tips should be pretty rudimentary, since I've lived a pretty sheltered life. I grew up in Ottawa and barely traveled. I've been around Ontario and upstate New York, I've flown to a couple of places on the West Coast (Oregon and BC), and Loré and I drove from Ottawa to Halifax – that's about it. But then reading this blog won't be so bad no matter who you are, will it? If you've never left the country, you're bound to learn something new. Seasoned globetrotters will get a kick out of my ignorance. Fun for everyone.

...Especially the logicians.

Oh, did I almost forget to mention I'm leaving to study at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation? And take a course on ethics in Wittgenstein's later work with Martin Stokhof? And live happily ever after, afloat in a gentle sea of symbolism?

Life sure is sweet. Even life with a thesis.