Last week RTE One needed a Student to Interview on a puff piece about student life, and I happily obliged. As cheesy as it was, I really enjoy’ed it.

The show is broadcast live so I had to head into the studio early for rehearsal and mic check. Then a friendly stage manger led me from place to place and finally to the green room to wait for my big debut. I sat in comfy couches watching an Aussie soap opera and a gardening expert talk about what winter plants to grow. I laughed out loud when it clicked in my head that it was getting into ‘Irish winter weather’. After explaining my outburst to one of the hosts, she explained that Irish winter is cold, just a different kind of cold. I agreed with a comparison of Irish winter being ‘plant in your garden weather’ and Canadian winter being ‘build a snow man weather’.

The hosts and staff were super friendly, and if RTE gets pingbacks consider this my official thank you for everything.

I think the best part was just taking part in the fun of putting together the show. It reminded me of ’show night’ back in my theatre days. It was nice to see so many people enjoying their jobs as oppose to the stress I see on everyone’s faces in the hospitals and clinics.

‘The Afternoon Show’ airs live on weekdays @ 4:00pm on RTE One.
More Pics below

The girl from the previous bit was told to ‘look busy in the kitchen’ while we did ours.

Stripes are slimming no?

Is it just me or did Sheana dress to match her coffee mug? I knew I should have worn my blue fish shirt!

But there are those other times, when I’m standing on stage after a show breathless, or chasing the puck down the ice with every muscle aching, and even after a tough OSCE after a long night of studying. Those times, I feel, are the best part of living. Just doing things and experiencing the rush of life.

Besides, me + free time + six million toothpicks + 170 litres of glue would never produce this. I would start out making the Lost Boys armour from Hook, but then end up as man sized wooden porcupine. (It would make for quite the awesome nemesis for a balloon animal super hero though.)

I just moved into the new apartment, and needed a desk. There was only one solution, Ikea time! The Ikea here in Dublin has just opened this summer so the store was full of first timers. It was like taking kids to their first trip to a theme park, lots of bubbling smiling Irish.

I was able to pick up a decent desk (69 Euro), desk chair (39 euro), plates, cutlery, mugs, and glasses much cheaper than the malls here.

More assembly pics below.

So many pieces. I think I will take a nap first.

My creation has legs!!

It’s looking like a desk.

Done! Who says I’m not handy? (Yes, I keep my pens in a roll of hockey tape)

I was out and just grabbing some gas before heading home. As I drove toward the Sunoco, the darkest cloud, which I can only assume was made up of a combination of the costumes from the matrix and lost dreams, swept over us. It didn’t take long for the lightning to start, first a few, then a few more strikes. Quickly it became strike after strike with no relenting.

The little voice on the radio informed us in a calm way that there were multiple tornado touch downs in North York. I got out of the car at the gas station, filled up, and ran inside to pay quickly. Naturally their debt was down, and for some reason I didn’t have my credit card with me. As I tried to stall while thinking of a way to pay for the 40 bucks of gas sitting in my tank that didnt belong to me yet the radio in the station started to drain out my panic.

REPORTER 1: ..and firefighters in the area are evacuating the homes.
REPORTER 2: How much damage is there already?
REPORTER 1: We don’t know. We go now to Jim who is there. Jim what do you see? How much damage is there?
REPORTER 1: JIM ARE YOU THERE? …. Jim?
REPORTER 1: We’ve lost Jim.

As I left the gas station, lightning still lighting the skies, I started wondering what happened to poor Jim. Was the storm merely blocking communications? Or was Jim scooped up by a tornado soon to venture in the land of Oz? Jim, if you’re out there, let us know.

Yesterday Jeff and I preformed at the Markham Jazz Festival. It was quite thrilling since I’m not really known for my musical talent. We played a song called 3.14159 written by Greg and based on the music from 867-5309/Jenny.

With only a week left till I return to Ireland, the count downs and crunch time have begun. Things are quickly being struck off the list of things I wanted to do this summer. No camping. No carpenter tool playing. and No film. *GASP* This will be the first summer in a long time without me and my friends creating a short film. There was just no time this summer for it. I had a 6 week break from school and spent half of that away from home (Windsor, Mexico, Spain).

Along with all the running, travelling, and working in clinics, I was able to make a dent in my personal web work. When it comes to web jobs, I always get them done. I’m pretty good at deadlines and buckling down, but when it comes to my own personal sites that don’t have deadlines or a paycheck things tend to move much slower. This site, for example, is very international space station like. Every blog post or so I also fix a CSS bug or add a some code and so on until 20 years from now it will be able to refuel ships in route to save the earth from a giant meteor, or whatever the blog equivalent is of that.

I recently added things to the site, Spain photos to my new flickr pro account, tag cloud since my categories are more than ambiguous, and also, what should be working now, support for openID commenting. Enjoy

Oh and also, AlphaCarbon Studios is offering an End of Summer sale on websites as mentioned in their newest post from the Markham Pedestrian Day.

Dear Mexican Waiters,

Thank you for being so friendly at the restaurants. The service was always stellar. However I thought I would point out that it’s quite silly to put my napkin on my lap when I enter a buffet. There is no possible way for food to get to my table without having to get up to get it. Thus, after you take my drink order, I must take off the nicely folded napkin and discard it on the table like bad poetry from a grade 9 drama class. If you are looking for something to do with your hands while welcoming us to the restaurant, may I suggest shadow puppets?

Always Sun Burnt,
- Señor Wes

Dear British Tourists,

It is true your accent is very fun to listen to. I do enjoy pretending I’m watching a documentary on the History channel when you begin to monologue. However, this is not licence to tell everyone at the resort your views on American politics or your comparative analysis of England versus the former colonies. Although educational I’m sure, I came to Mexico to have my eyes burned by the salty ocean, not my ears about how I have failed as a son of Britannia.

Your Canadian Cousin,
- Wes

Dear Overprotective American Mothers who have their kids in both water wings, life vest, and a floating waist ring only after escorting them to the pool on leash,

Stop, Please.

- Wes

This weekend was the 4th annual Running from Cancer event in Windsor Ontario. The 5k/10k/Half-Marathon events raise money for both the Windsor Regional Hospital and the Windsor and Essex County Cancer Centre Foundation.

This was my first year in this event, and I wouldn’t have known about it if wasn’t for Lee-Anne. With only my hockey training, I was looking to finish before the people that looked like they were one cookie away from a heart attack, and after the people who had clothes designed for running. Most of the race was a blur mentally, and was mostly just me repeating to myself things about ‘just keep running’ in a ‘Finding Nemo’ sort of way. However I do remember a few moments of diverse thought.

• As a pack of 15 year olds in soccer uniforms passed me: I’ll catch them later
• As my shoelace fell apart: F***ing shoelace
• As I reached the half way point: It would take me longer to walk back now, might as well keep running.
• As I finished: F***ing Soccer Players

As I sat breathless with my camera taking pictures of the winners at the award ceremony, I was caught off guard when the over enthusiastic running announcer called out my name. As I staggered towards the trophy table, partially blinded by the bright yellow volunteer shirt worn by the ladies passing out awards, I tried to figure out what was going on. It was explained to me that trophies were given out to top racers in each age division, and that apparently the ‘real’ first place runner in my age class (20min) already got an award for placing 3rd overall, so I was bumped up since I finished second in my age range (which was a surprise to me to begin with). We raised some money to fight cancer, got some plastic to put on my desk, and reminded myself why I need to run more. All in all, it was a good morning.

1) Shoot another short film. Jeff and I are working on a heist film. There is still some details that need to be worked out but I think it is very doable if we jump on this quick before my trip to Mexico.

2) Medical RPG. I’m currently in production of creating a PC game of the Medical RPG genre (not sure if such exists yet). At first I was thinking of using XNA and C# but my artistic skills leave something to be desired so I might resort to a oldschool sprite 2D RPG and save people my horrible drawing skills and hope that my epic story will save the horrible graphics.

3) Campus Radio. Ya you heard me. I’m crazy. I’m thinking about starting a campus radio at RCSI. I will need alot of help, so this one might not happen.

Ontop of all the things I want to do, there is still a ton of stuff I HAVE to do.

1. Create the Surgical Soc Site
2. Mexico
3. Paediatric Observership
4. 5k Race
5. 10k Race
6. Work
7. Study

Its an ambitious timeline I will admit that, but I like a challenge.

May 19th 1499 – Catherine of Aragon, is married by proxy Arthur Tudor

May 19th 1536 – Anne Boleyn is beheaded

May 19th 1643 – Thirty Years’ War comes to an end (well the last big battle anyway)

May 19th 1925 – Malcom X is Born

May 19th 1967 – The United States, Soviet Union, and United Kingdom agree to ban nuclear weapons from outer space.

May 19th 198* – Wes Wilson is Born

May 19th 2015 – Canada and United States develop the worlds first true AI

May 19th 2015 (later that day) – Time travelling Ninjas steal the AI

May 19th 2019 – A joint task force of RCMP, Navy Seals, Dr. Wilson, and a lost 3rd grade school group on a field trip to the Ontario Science Centre, use H.G. Wells time machine to pursue the ninjas and regain the AI. The mission is a success except for one tiny mishap involving a monkey and a Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch mix tape which changed the time line so that the world’s largest super power was now Upper Mongolia, which owed much of its success to the release of Heroes episodes that didn’t suck.

Also, it’s that time of year again, classes and test stop for 2.5 months!!! I know crazy right? If I write all my crazy tests next summer (USMLE, MCCEE) that leaves this summer to really start shooting some stuff film wise. We got our new site up (AlphaCarbon Studios) and are super excited to jump on our new projects.

SUPERNATURAL… Jeff got me hooked on Supernatural, I’ve gone through the first 3 seasons and after the nightmares of zombie vampires attacking me to the tune of old rock finally went away, I just can’t get enough of it. The plot (like 80% of shows that make it to season 4) is starting to get silly and lose its way, but like 3 seasons of Dead Zone, I just can’t turn it off!