the leckblog

Re: this space

2007-05-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

it's spring cleaning time. might keep this space, might find a new one. i'll let you know.

kenny vs spenny

2007-04-03T11:13:00.000-07:00

The best show ever.

forgot

2007-03-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, I forgot, I have a blog that needs my attention...

Um...

Caitlin and I got back together, FOR GOOD THIS TIME, and last weekend we got another hotel room and fucked up the neighbourhood by throwing ice cubes at kids and swimming drunk with little chinese boys. She still has crazy ADD and sometimes screams for no reason but it keeps things interesting. We went shopping and I ended up spending $300 on new running shoes with jaw-dropping new iPod technologies (probably made by some jaw-dropping starving children) and I spent a bit on new underwear for Caitlin. She got a pair that is extra-small and they don't cover her ass (nothing to do with ass size, just underwear size), but they're a really nice colour. Here for pictures.

Yeah, and I'm addicted to Facebook but don't add me cause I want to keep blog friends away from real friends, okay?

suffer

2007-03-18T16:45:00.000-07:00

it's nice to pretend.
sometimes we pretend to be different people and sometimes we pretend to be okay when we're not.
we can pretend so well that other people don't even know we're pretending too.
but the thing with pretending is we know we're just pretending.
and when we pretend, we're being something that we're not.
so we can only pretend for so long.

yeah, so?

2007-03-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is only 44 days away. I'm really excited for the entire experience. The drive, the camping, and of course the actual fesitval itself. There's something like a 100 bands playing- some of which have been my among my favorites for years. I know that this will be one of those things I'll remember for the rest of my life.

Really trying to buy a VW Westfalia before the festival too. As it stands now, there's four of us driving down in one little car. The drive is something like 2000 miles down the westcoast of North America (Victoria to Southern California) and it'd suck to be really cramped. The van would be cool to camp in this summer too.

Another thing that's going on is I've started to look for a place in Victoria to live. Right now I'm living with my mom and it's starting to piss me off again. I figure since I can afford to get a place by myself (with no room mates), I may as well 'cause this town is bullshit. There's no night life, no 'trendy' places to hang out, no bars, and I have to live with my past here. The target was April 1st but all the places available were shit so I've bumped it to May 1st. I'll stick to that and get a nice fresh start to the summer this year.

you'll be given...

2007-03-12T20:18:00.000-07:00

An old bicycle near the place by the water.
A reliable tent, backpack, friends, and dusty twigs.
Flooded campsites on remote islands.
The sand, the forest.

Or, hardwood floors.
A living room with cedar pillars.
Casual drinks, drawings, and fancy robotics.
A breath of fresh air.
With neighbours, and never room mates.

So sick of this town. So tired of the people.
Day in day out day in day out
With spring comes the anticipation-
For meaning, for something new.
And like every year, the search is on.

Click.

we were getting high

2007-03-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

Sticky brick walls, hardwood floors, and a curtain.
"Five-seventy-five." Five times five. A glass with ice.
A charge I'm happy to pay.
To say it's over.

300

2007-03-10T13:38:00.000-08:00

I went to see 300 last night. It was 2 amazing hours of gory spartan violence, blood, spears, and giant rhinos- pretty much everything I wanted. When people tell you that the entire movie is just one large battle scene, they're not lying. It's basically about 300 spartans that take on this massive army of persians. I highly recommend it to everyone.

This trailer says it all...

today i...

2007-03-06T20:25:00.000-08:00

...put on a presentation and facilitated an interactive exercise for a crowd of over a hundred of my fellow managers and bosses of my bosses bosses boss, later to be congratulated by my peers and executives for a job well done.

Almost didn't go to work today in anticipation of this. I went anyway though, and I'm glad I did. This may have been the first time in my life that I was actually proud of myself.

Challenges suck until they're over. You can quote that.

Peace.

t dot

2007-03-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

Toronto was a lot of fun. Got to meet tons of new people, made some new friends, and saw some new things. The massive freak winter storm was sort of fun cause it shut down parts of the city and everyone was freaking out about it. The CN tower froze and then it was dropping ice down on people and cars below, smashing everything up. It was cool to watch on TV.

Went to a sushi bar one night and tried almost every type they had. Ate this squid, baby octopus, and snails. Some other stuff too but I don't know what it was.

Saturday was nice cause I just walked around Toronto by myself and took pictures. Went up the CN Tower, gave some bums some change, and bought a new tripod and camera case for my camera. The guy at Blacks Photography was really nice and gave me a sweet deal... and when I was paying he said that one of my $20's was counterfeit but he didn't care and took it anyways.

Customer service at its best.

Speaking of customer service, the plane ride home with Air Canada was cool too. They have these new "on-demand entertainment centres" built into the seat in front of you. They're touch screen and give you access to tons of new movies (play and stop when you want), TV channels, a library of albums, and XM radio. There's something about knowing that a satellite is beaming music down to you while you're flying across Canada that feels so good. Really, a 100 years ago planes were made out of sticks and paper... Now we have satellites orbiting the Earth sending music down to our planes just so we can have a better customer experience. I'm all for it.

So the trip was a lot of fun. I like Toronto more than Vancouver and would consider moving there if there was a reason to do so.

Later.

housekeeping

2007-02-22T18:57:00.000-08:00

Caitlin and I broke up so instead of being an ass by posting retarded shit to make her jealous, I think I'll shut this place down for awhile until the dust clears.

For anyone that cares, I'll keep an eye on the comments. Also, I'll be in Toronto February 28th - March 3rd doing absolutely nothing so if you're not a creep and want to party, let's get 'er done.

Later.

don't know why

2007-02-18T10:13:00.000-08:00

i miss those days
i miss those times
i miss the twists
i miss the sun
the splash
the stumble.
a realization
another picture
yet to be developed
sits in limbo.

digital slr

2007-02-17T14:10:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was great because my new Sony digital SLR camera was delivered by Purolator. I spent most of the day reading the manuals, playing around with it, and taking "practice shots." Caitlin got me this Lonely Planet book called Travel Photography - a Guide to Taking Better Pictures for Valentine's Day, so I've been reading that to further experience. One of the things that the author wrote was that "camera's don't take good pictures, people do," and I can see how that's true- You can own the best camera in the world but if you don't know shit about taking pictures, it's worthless.

I based my reasoning for this purchase on two criteria:
- the anticipation and ultimate goal of becoming a successful photo-journalist; and,
- my desire to develop a real hobby and talent.

Therefore, my mission is to "know shit about taking pictures" so I can give worth to my purchase and fufill my expectations.

On Flickr, I've created a seperate set called DSLR where any pictures taken on the new camera will be housed. As of yet, there are none.

coachella

2007-02-14T21:37:00.000-08:00

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival...
very, very excited.

broken entered

2007-02-11T13:08:00.000-08:00

So at 21 I've now just started to think about some type of post-secondary education. Of course, I missed the fall start dates on a lot of programs but at least now the thought process is there. By the looks of it, post-secondary seems okay- I don't really understand degrees and how you get one in a certain area so maybe an information night or councilor would be helpful. Then there's this thing called an associates degree, which looks good, but sounds like it's not a full degree? An associates degree in english or history looks like a nice start, or maybe applied communications which includes photography, and video.

It's confusing, and I'm sure I'm sounding as smart as Ricky from Trailer Park Boys.

toronto

2007-02-05T20:13:00.000-08:00

Giddy up, I'll be in the T dot O dot for 4 days at the end of the month. The only place I've ever gone to for work has been Vancouver. Somewhere else, i.e. Toronto, is really exciting for someone like me. Plus, I've never been there and it's a free trip. Chances are I won't do anything at all but maybe I'll try to get out of my hotel room this time.

camera

2007-02-03T13:26:00.000-08:00

...I want it.

I wake up with headaches all the time. They're more like migraines but either way it's becoming a real problem. It's because my body is addicted to caffine and when it goes a long period without any, it hurts my brain. But how the fuck am I suppose to drink coffee in my sleep!?

massive attack

2007-01-30T19:26:00.000-08:00

Went to Vancouver again on the weekend. This time it was with Caitlin so it didn't feel like work and was a lot of fun. Bought shit at IKEA, checked out Science World, did some shopping at MetroTown- got a sweater that I've been looking for since pre-Christmas (only 65% cheaper). The hotel room was huge and we drank a bunch of 50% vodka and hit up the rooftop pool/hot tub a couple times.

Mo' money mo' problems.

The main thing I want to buy right now is a VW Westfalia Van. It was a mistake for me to sell my last van but I've learnt and I'm on to new and better things such as the VW. One of the guys I work with knows tons about them and highly recommends any year of Westfalia. Much like my plans for the last van I owned, I want to buy a Westfalia sooner than later, spend the spring fixing it up/adding larger tires to it/pimping it out, and have it all ready for the summer when it can be used for weekly camping trips.

Sometimes I want to just say fuck it and live in a van with my girlfriend. Drive across the country, drive down to South America, swim in some awesome lakes, dive off some sweet cliffs, drink a lot of good beer, make new friends, not worry, not stress, not anything.

2007-01-26T07:58:00.000-08:00

Last night I had a dream that Caitlin met a guy that she knows from the internet and they made this scrap book with pictures of me and comments like 'g-unnnnit fag' and I showed up and found it and the guy kicked my ass then killed her in front of me. It was one of those dreams that happen right before you wake up so even after you wake up you're still thinking about it for hours. To make matters worse, I took the day off work and my big plan was to play final fantasy 12 and nothing else. Too bad my brother took the playstation to his crackhead friend's house in victoria so now I don't have anything to do except think about the shitty dream I had.

helijet

2007-01-24T06:34:00.000-08:00

Back in Vancouver until Thursday night. Cya.

drinking gold and hot johnny rooke

2007-01-22T18:26:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I was in Vancouver tied up in a hotel room at a conference on how to effectively manage risk in your organization. Actually, that's a lie, it wasn't Vancouver- it was more Richmond, which is a hole, which doesn't matter cause I only left my hotel room twice, hence the tied up part, and when I left all I did was look for food other than Chinese food. Didn't find any except for Wendy's one time and this other time I couldn't resist getting this amazing Chinese deal where they gave me 5 items plus tea for $3.99. I was shitting noodles the whole next day but it was worth it.

K then what?

Caitlin picked me up from the airport in Victoria and we couldn't decide what to do so we bought some Goldschlager which is my new favorite drink because it has REAL GOLD flakes in it. Rumour says that the gold cuts your insides so the alcohol gets into your blood stream faster. Faster blood stream intake = more wasted. Why didn't I think of this before!?

Yeah so we drank that with my little brothers and I ended up throwing some girl's shoes out of my window because I found them in my room and they sure as hell didn't belong there.

Next day we slept too much then woke up and watched a nature show about birds. It was really interesting and there was this asshole bird named Johnny Rooke that would attack the camera people and eat baby penguins. He was such a dick but Caitlin said she thought he was hot.

I guess girls really do go for the bad guys.
Bad birds though?

By absolute coincidence, PG saw the Johnny Rooke nature show too. And I did a Google search on Johnny Rooke and it turns out there's a song about him by a band called Elliot Brood...

Ambassador is rich with stories. References range from typical Americana (civil war heroes) to Canadian history (Louis Riel, the Ambassador Bridge) and Mark's own made-up tales. (The evil character "Johnny Rooke" is actually a bird.)

I really need to hear that.

sweet

2007-01-15T18:25:00.000-08:00

This guy fixed my blog/commenting features. He's a template wizard. Thanks.

Anyways, for anyone that actually cares, I haven't written shit on this blog for awhile cause I've been busy doing other things like seeing my gf and working a lot. I'm happy with this new template. It's suppose to be for wordpress so if you notice, the sidebar animates and stuff so play around with it. Don't judge me but I stole it from somewhere, by no means could I create such a beast.

So what's up with my life you might ask? The usual stuff. I got a nice $200 piece of luggage from The Bay for $90. That made me happy. I'm excited to pack it and use it on some of the trips I'm going on for work. Wednesday-Friday = Vancouver; next Wednesday/Thursday = Vancouver; February = Everywhere in BC; sometime in April = maybe Texas; sometime in August = San Diego.

I've been mixin' traxxxx on Virtual DJ- pretending I'm good.
Saw Beerfest with Caitlin the other night- probably the best movie ever.

Annnd... My back hurts so fucking much so I'm going to lye down.

Later.

help

2007-01-11T19:10:00.000-08:00

Don't know if I'm on Blogger Beta or normal Blogger but I can't get Haloscan to work. Their 'new Blogger auto-install wizard' suggests that the template should have a 'save template function' where I would just save the template, upload it to Haloscan, and I'm done. Except there isn't a 'save template function' or 'layouts' but it's using xml and tells me I'm on the new Blogger.

Anyone want to help?

leckblog@hotmail.com
or try to use the comments below.

Thanks.

Template and comments

2007-01-08T21:50:00.000-08:00

New template (again) and I'm trying to get haloscan back on this so hang tight.

2007-01-06T15:59:00.000-08:00

I don't know what to post about except I'll say that the weather is fucked and that my favorite book, The Beach, got wet and half ruined so in it's place I bought 3 others. They were:
- An Inconvenient Truth
- Thailand, A Lonely Planet's Guide
- Thailand's Islands and Beaches, A Lonely Planet's Guide

2007-01-01T22:42:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years everyone.

New Years Eve 2007, the rundown:

The day started at 4am, woke up caught the bus up-island to Mt. Washington with Caitlin. The bus driver stopped at A&W for breakfast instead of McDonalds which turned out to be the most depressing breakfast of all time. I never knew that two simple hash browns could be coated in so much grease that they make the paper bag they're placed in turn wet. Either way, we forgave the bus driver for his horrible mistake since he was a good guy and reminded us of Toby from The Office.

We got to the mountain and took our backpacks and gear over to Caitlin's friend's cabin. We stashed our stuff there then went snowboarding for the day. It was pretty nice out so it was a good day minus the part where I got really frustrated and sat on the bunny hill for over an hour. Caitlin cried a bit but we made up and put it behind us.

After snowboarding we went back to Caitlin's friend's cabin and met some of the other people that were going to be staying there, then went to the store to get some chase for our drinks. That turned out to be a really tiring walk so when we got back we started to drink asap. I had a two six of coconut Bacardi and Caitlin had a mickey of Gin.

So everyone got along really well and I talked to some of Caitlin's friends for the first time, even though we've all hung out several times in the past. I can be shy or just grumpy or stupid sometimes and this causes me to become very anti-social. It's something I'll be working on in the new year.

Throughout the night we bounced back and forth between a couple parties at different cabins. At one point, I spun an alphabet dice around with a kid for about half an hour. It was intense.

That night we slept on the top bunk of a bunk bed. Someone put a sheet down for us to put over the plastic bedding but I was too drunk to care about it at the time. Bad mistake on my part cause all night Caitlin and I would wake up stuck to the plastic via sweat.

Today the weather conditions were horrible at the mountain so we didn't go snowboarding. We sat around, ate food and waited until 4 pm when we could catch our bus back.

More: photo, video, commentary.

2006-12-26T09:18:00.000-08:00

It's the lecklog... get it, blog minus b = log.

...sorry, it won't happen again.

2006-12-24T17:14:00.000-08:00

I downloaded a program called Virtual DJ the other day. It's amazing and it's fun to use even if I'm just screwing around with songs. Anyways, I sped up Matthew Good's Near Fantastica and to be honest it sounds better fast. Maybe if I get any good with this program, I'll make some sort of sweet remix. But for the meantime, my christmas gift to you is Matthew Good - Near Fantastica at 134.6 bmp...

2006-12-23T14:28:00.000-08:00

Around Halloween, I went to a store and they had a beer bong for sale. It wasn't any normal beer bong though, it was a skull and spine. Okay, I thought, this looks promising. So I checked the price tag- only $12. And with that, we had a sealed deal. I took it up to the counter and told the clerk that I'd like to purchase the fine product I had my eyes on. She told me that it's half price and that my final total was only $6 plus tax. God, that was awesome news. So I bought the skull and spine beer bong.

3 months later it hasn't gotten much use. It mostly lies on my bedroom floor bagging for some action. I know I should give it a little more attention but there's just not much time for beer bongs anymore. Maybe that's just an excuse. Maybe I'll whip it out on Christmas Eve with my relatives. Maybe that's a bad idea.

2006-12-20T21:27:00.000-08:00

Lately I've had a lot of urges. They are as follows:

Travel Thailand;
Travel Eastern Europe;
Take an all-inclusive trip to Mexico, Jamaica, Panama, or Cuba;
Move out of my Mom's house for the 3rd and final time;
Go back to school and get smrt;
Get revenge;
Drive fast;
Snowboard lots;
Listen to trance;
Eat only healthy local organic food;
Buy another van and go on lots of adventures;
Go on lots of non-van related adventures;
Paint;
Draw;
Make music;
Create videos; and,
Write.

2006-12-18T11:36:00.001-08:00

Tickle me Emo...

2006-12-16T09:40:00.000-08:00

I think I was going to blog about Christmas but I forgot what I was going to write.

2006-12-13T20:42:00.000-08:00

The Beach by Alex Garland. I recommend this book to anyone. If you liked the movie, the book is one thousand times better. I’m by no means a fast reader but I ended up finishing The Beach in two or three days. It’s just amazing, that’s all.

2006-12-09T12:15:00.000-08:00

Last night Caitlin and I did a good thing by going to Butchart Gardens with half a dozen old folks. They were all in wheel chairs and needed some volunteers to push them around to see the lights. Caitlin's mom works at an old folks home so we offered to help.

Butchart Gardens a huge tourist attraction here. It's open all year round and does pretty well. When I first went, last winter, I thought it was just going to be another stupid garden but was surprised to find out that the place is massive and actually kind of cool. In the winter they do this "12 days of Christmas" thing where they hide turtle doves and french hens and people get a kick out of it 'cause they sing that Christmas song while they look around.

In the summer they have a massive fireworks display every Friday or Saturday and lots of people go. Last Summer, Caitlin and I went and got wasted on a field while one of those funny bands with 9 people performed on a bandstand.

Anyways, last night was cool 'cause we all got a different old person and they were all really funny. Mine had a stroke and all he could say was "maybe baby." It was sad but I pretended like I knew what he was saying and sometimes I could make him laugh cause I'd ram his wheelchair into the back of Caitlin's legs and it was good times.

He'd say "thank you very much" a lot and when I would say "you're welcome" he would laugh really hard for some reason. He also would make one of those 'okay' signs with his hand and then kiss it like an Italian.

The old lady that Caitlin was pushing around had the hots for me and made sure Caitlin knew it. She's 91. When we brought everyone back to their home, Caitlin's old lady invited Caitlin and I up to her room and said that she had a gift for us. We both were really excited and she gave us the hugest thing of chocolate ever.

Then we went back to my place, finished off a bottle of gin that I had in my room and watched some TV. Best Friday night ever.

translate

2006-12-05T21:22:00.000-08:00

Today was a good day. It started this morning when I rolled over in my bed and flipped my cell phone open. The time read 4 am and I had to piss. I jumped out of bed, took an enjoyable piss then went back to bed thinking that I’ll be more than rested enough by 6.

My cell phone started its process of alarming me. 6:07 am. Snoozed it but told myself that the 6:17 am would be a for sure.

6:17 am and I jumped out of bed. This is a rarity. Had a normal shower and then got dressed. Put on a new dress shirt and a pair of black dress pants. Checked myself out in the mirror and realized that I had to shave so I took my shirt off and took care of the weekend stubble.

Dressed myself again and filled my travel mug with coffee. Updated the iPod and was ready for my bus for the first time in over a week. The recent snowfall screwed with the buses in a big way and I’ve been late for work almost every day. Not that it matters seeing as I’m a manager but I know co-workers tend to take note of things like that.

7:20 am and I’m on the West Sidney bus traveling route #70 southbound to downtown Victoria, BC. The bus ride is almost exactly an hour long and recently I’ve just listened to music, looked out the window and thought about writing and work. It’s not too bad. It’s a good time to wake up before facing people I have to deal with.

My bus dropped me off right downtown and I walked down to the office at the inner harbour. I found myself to be unusually friendly to everyone I saw.

The morning was spent on Microsoft PowerPoint, creating a presentation for a branch meeting next week. I’m actually quite proud of it and am looking forward to presenting it to a large group. Being a bit of a perfectionist, my work for the most part is well received because of the time I spend on things.

For lunch I went down Government Street to this little deli/coffee shop that I’ve been thinking about going to for a while. I ordered a smoked turkey sandwich and a large coffee on my credit card and the waitress was acting like she knew me. Turns out she did know me and is a friend of mine that I haven’t seen in maybe two years. It was pretty embarrassing not being able to recognize an old friend but she didn’t seem to make a big deal out of it all.

We went through the usual spiels that people do when they see each other for the first time in awhile and nothing was ever really personal. How was your summer? Where do you work these days? And so on…

A dozen or so customers came into the shop so I kept to myself and read a lot of the newspaper. The sandwich was really good and I’m sure I’ll be back soon for another.

I cut my lunch short by about 30 minutes because I have a lot on my plate at work.

Spent my afternoon in a long meeting and the day became slower and slower as time went on. Exciting was the voicemail I got from the bookstore in Sidney letting me know that the novel that I’ve been waiting for has come into their stock. The novel is Alex Garland’s, The Beach. I’ve yet to read it but the movie is one of my favorites so I’m sure I won’t be disappointed.

Eventually 5 pm rolled around and it was time to catch my 5:09 pm bus. The bus ride was alright. I managed to grab onto 20 minutes of sleep and shortly after waking up the bus pulled into Sidney. I got off at the bank and saw my mom there. We went to Tanners to pick up the book waiting for me then did some grocery shopping.

For some people this would be a normal day. Others would consider it a bad one. For me however, it was a good day; much better than usual. I hope my week follows the same tone.

2006-12-04T14:12:00.000-08:00

This is known as little bits of crap that create a post:

Upgraded to a Flickr Pro account today.

Went to the Christmas parade with Caitlin last night. It was really long and the best part was probably when a slinger drove by and every guy around us, including myself, started to explain to their wives/girlfriends what a slinger does.

Since all of the snow is starting to melt away, we might go tobogganing down this big hill by her house tonight. We'll probably get really cold and dirty but it has to be done cause Sidney never gets any snow.

What a great job these guys have... get wasted and leak information on new tech products.

wtf... the window in my room just randomly broke itself in half...

2006-11-30T22:23:00.000-08:00

I dare you...

2006-11-29T19:47:00.000-08:00

I heard somewhere that a healthy balance of Omega 3 and Omega 6 does wonders in fighting depression. They are rarely found in natural foods so they are typically bought over the counter at pharmacies in the form of either straight oil or caplets. I'd probably go with the oil because I'd imagine it'd be more potent than the caplets.

Some resources, if of course, you care to change.

The town I live in is best described as an on-going nightmare. The life I live in is best described as amnesiatic. Sleeping at home, sleeping on the bus, closing my eyes, wishing I was sleeping at work, sleeping in my mind, thinking about sleeping, day in, day out, counting hours, counting weekends, where does the time go?

A side note to this post:
For those who once were good friends, then became something else, you've now become my enemy. If that doesn't mean anything to you now, it just might in the near future. I make more money than most people do at the height of their careers- more than my fellow graduates, more than most graduates of post-secondary. My point is one-hundred dollars means nothing to me. I live on prinicples, not dollar figures; And that's what makes us enemies. And that's why the next time we meet, you won't be scheming the same person.

2006-11-27T12:05:00.000-08:00

I started a book and it's not going to be on the shelves or anything but I thought 'wtf I should just start writing a book' cause I know Peter did and his turned out pretty good. So look for that in probably ten years cause knowing me it will take that long to finish if it even gets finished ever.

Victoria is such a pussy when it comes to snow. We have maybe 15 cm's of the stuff and everything shuts down. Coffee shops, grocery stores, transit, and anything else in the city just stops. I woke up this morning, power was out, had a shower and got dressed in the dark, listened to the radio in my mom's car, they said that the buses were shut down today, so I got the day off work. Called my boss just to make sure, he said all public buildings were closed so that confirmed it.

My mom's from Winnipeg and she laughs at all of us because Winnipeg is like the hardcore ghetto of snowfall. I said that tonight it's suppose to get negative 17 and she said that negative 17 isn't even cold, try negative 40 and I said, no Mom.

2006-11-26T15:56:00.000-08:00

It's funny how something as normal as a snow storm can bring strangers together for no particular reason, other than the fact that there's snow on the ground. It's actually kind of sad how reserved people are, especially on the bus. Today was the opposite though- everyone was talking to everyone else. It was a giant loud conversation between strangers. It wasn't a bad conversation either; some of it was pretty deep. And everyone was talking.

It was such an odd situation but the thing is, it shouldn't be. Unfortunately, we like to think we're safe behind our anti-social barriers and refuse to even communicate with each other unless there's a reason to do so. I guess sometimes we just need a little snow on the ground.

2006-11-23T18:24:00.000-08:00

Remember the evil fish hooks guy I told you about the other day... Well today I missed my normal bus and had to catch one a little later and the evil son of a bitch got on again! Dressed exactly the same but twice as evil this time.

I was sitting there, chillin, and I saw him come on the bus and I kind of laughed to myself because I knew what was gonna go down. I also didn't feel as scared because there were so many seats where he could sit, so I wouldn't have to sit next to him again. Unfortunately, his evil-radar must have locked onto me from the other day and he decided to sit right next to me, again!

I didn't know what to do because right away he started doing this new thing where he pretends he's a great white shark or something and bites really hard into the air. It's quite threatening and really loud. As more people got on the bus, the seats around us started to get taken and this guy got pretty serious. He would point at people as they got on the bus and then point at seats, trying to get them to sit where he wanted. When they didn't, he tried to bite them, then he would put his fire-force field up like last time.

Also like last time, he wouldn't stop staring at me. I wanted to die. He has the ability to get inside my soul.

At the end of the bus ride he sort of leaned into me and I used my elbow to discretely jab his side. He looked sad, moved seats, stared at me, then got off the bus. Maybe next time he won't fuck with me so much.

On a side note, I've been listening to an insane amount of Linkin Park, Nine Inch Nails, and the Smashing Pumpkins lately. Loud and angry. It's fun to walk outside when the rain is pouring down really hard and everyone in their cars look at you and feel sorry but you don't give a shit because you're enjoying it. And when the songs get really loud and there's screaming, you smile but try to hide it because you know that smiling by yourself in the rain is just a little creepy...

Are you happy that I'm posting more again?

2006-11-22T19:06:00.000-08:00

Paris, France
August, 2006

2006-11-20T18:17:00.001-08:00

I ride the bus to work every morning and have been for the last two months. As people we try to get to know the environments that we're placed in so I've been subconsciously analysing "the morning regulars" on the bus.

From what I can tell, most of them are pretty good people but there's this one young Chinese guy that I don't like. He gets on the bus 15 minutes before the end of the route and I only don't like him for one reason.

This one time he was about to miss the bus and he completely flipped out on the sidewalk. I first thought that he was just a normal guy but then he randomly had this violent spasm of anger. He wasn't even going to miss the bus either, the driver just closed the doors- didn't pull away from the curb or anything.

But it was like before this little Chinese guy could even assess the situation this demon inside of him took over and he lost control. Everyone on the bus saw it and it was extra awkward when the driver opened the doors to let the guy in.

So if you were wondering, that's the only person I dislike on my morning bus ride and why...

Wait, maybe not the only person. This morning this psychotic retarded fisherman sat next to me. I saw him this one time before on the bus coming home from work at night. He creeped everyone out then and this morning was no different.

He was straight out of one of those scary movies wearing a bright yellow rubber fisherman jacket. It wouldn't have surprised me if he had hooks for hands. The creepy part was the fact that he was sitting right next to me but wouldn't stop staring at me. At first I sort of challenged him and tried to stare him down but there was too much evil in his eyes to handle.

Anytime anyone got close to him he would stick his finger out like he was trying to put this force field around him- but an evil force field. Not blue... red. It was more like a force field of fire. Really scary shit.

He got into a bit of a confrontation with some lady who didn't know why he was mentally attacking everyone on the bus but it didn't last long because I think she started to fear for her life and stopped. It was one of those moments in life where you know everyone is looking at you and feeling very sorry for you.

For a good 45 minutes I planned out how I would attack him if he tried to harm me or another person close to me on the bus. If he didn't have hooks for hands, he looked like the type of person who would strangle you to death so I planned around that. Chances are he would surprise me and get his hands around my neck. I'd be sitting so it wouldn't be like all of his body weight would be on top of me. I'd head-butt him multiple times right away before I lost too much air and then release myself from his grip when he was dealing with his pain. I was on the inside seat so I wouldn't have too many places to move so I'd grab his head and smash it into the pole beside him then kick him off the seat. After that I'd get on top of him and punch him out until the bus driver told me not to.

I was kind of hoping it would happen cause some of my co-workers were on the bus and I'd be a hero, well "hero" if I saved someone, "just as psychotic" if he attacked me.

The joys of not having a book to read...

btw, in the first picture you may have noticed snow. Unfortunatly, it's not local.

2006-11-16T22:43:00.000-08:00

So right now I would've been enduring the elements, waiting in line for a PS3 outside of a Future Shop except this morning at 8 am, when my bus took me past Future Shop, there was already a line of 10 or so people waiting. The store itself only had 10 or so consoles (pathetic, I know) so I decided against waiting for nothing.

Hopefully another shipment comes in soon and maybe by that time some of the games that I was looking forward to are released.

I took the second half of my day of work off today because I had the hugest headache. I actually couldn't function. I had a meeting at 9:30 this morning and I didn't say a word throughout the whole thing, even though I was suppose to play a large role in it. I just couldn't process thoughts.

I've determined that the reasons for this headache were of the following:

sick (influenza, something else);
physical and mental dependence on coffee (did not have coffee all day today); and,
stress (personal and professional related).

Tomorrow is a day off for me so since I won't have a PS3 to spend time with, I think I will just relax and maybe I'll go shopping for something else...

2006-11-13T10:09:00.000-08:00

On Thursday night / Friday morning, I'll be outside of a Future Shop in Victoria, patiently waiting for the doors to open at 8 am. At that time, I'll walk in, purchase a Playstation 3 then go home to bed. My friend is going to join me, not in bed, but to wait in line and purchase one as well.

Apparently there will be 8-10 units available, so being first in line is a priority. Sometimes I wonder if I'm too old for this kind of stuff and sometimes I remember that the day I say I'm too old for something is the day I'm too old. Period.

2006-11-11T22:21:00.002-08:00

Has anyone else switched to Blogger Beta? Does the stupid top "nav-bar" appear for readers here?

2006-11-07T06:26:00.000-08:00

This morning: Today will be a critical day in the history of our generation. Today the polls will tell us if the American people have woken up from their fear-induced comas. Today there's a chance.

Update, 9:57 pm: Democrats take the House; battle for the Senate still very close (3 seats). Just found out that CNN is holding an "E-lection Blogger Party." I'm an excited Canadian.

2006-11-05T21:43:00.000-08:00

For the longest time, I've been trying to find this Playstation game called Final Fantasy Tactics. It's amazing and every time I play it I get so far, then I have to return the game back to a friend or something- so I decided to buy it. Except no stores had it because Playstation 1 is considered ancient now and no one at the stores were very helpful either.

So last week I went on amazon.ca and found a copy of the game. I charged it to my credit card and expected 2 weeks for delivery. The next day I got an email from the seller telling me that he lived in Victoria and instead of waiting for delivery, he'd be willing to meet me in town. It was a score cause now I have my game and playing it is all I do.

Lately, there have been three things I can't get my mind off; traveling, going back to school, and buying two Mac's (Mac Pro, and MacBook Pro).

When I travel again, I would like to do a trip something like Japan, New Zealand, bit of Australia, then Thailand. And a trip to Portugal, along southern Spain, then up through Eastern Europe. And a trip strictly to England, primarily London because there's something about the city that won't leave my memory.

When I go back to school I want to take studies in English, Writing, Photography, and History. I'll work towards a degree related to English- haven't really looked into this whole post-secondary thing since I've had a head start on my career though...

When I get my Mac's I'll treat them as if they're my children. I'm really looking forward to Final Cut (video editing software), Aperture (photo editing software), and of course the lack of viruses. I think with the Mac Pro, I'd want to get a larger 30" monitor for editing videos, etc. The MacBook Pro would be used in conjunction with traveling and school but I would use the Mac Pro at home more.

I'm really tired so if it sounds like I'm dead, it's cause I am.

Later.

Design +

2006-11-01T20:34:00.000-08:00

As you can tell, I've changed the design (again). Of course, in the end it doesn't really matter what this blog looks like but I sort of have this thing where I get sick of what my blog looks like every couple months and when it gets to that point, I don't update or comment or participate with anything to do with blogs at all.

So a change was necessary.

Last night I let my computer stay awake to download the entire discography of The Chemical Brothers and DJ Shadow. Right now I'm addicted to 'Hold Tight London' -Chemical Brothers and I've been reunited with "Blood on the Motorway," a ten minute long ear-orgasm by DJ Shadow.

Also note that I offically declared myself a full-out nerd after buying an issue of, Wired, yesterday afternoon...

2006-10-26T18:51:00.000-07:00

Today I saw a homeless-looking man on Douglas Street, downtown Victoria. He was wearing a big sign that said:

USA
This November...
Trim your Bush!

I kind of laughed to myself then caught the bus.

2006-10-23T12:57:00.000-07:00

I sold my van last week to a guy named Norm. He works for the post office and his wife needs the van because she does delivery. They offered me $1500 for it and I said no, $2000 and they said, okay. Norm doesn’t have the money until the 28^th so he gave me a deposit and I said that I won’t sell it to anyone else.

Before I left for Europe I went camping with a bunch of friends at some lake in the middle of no where. We all got wasted and I backed my van up into the lake to use it as a diving board. Good times. The roof is seriously destroyed but I think Norm is too short to notice.

2006-10-19T22:53:00.000-07:00

Sounds a little like V for Vendetta to me...

"The beginning of the end of America."

2006-10-18T19:29:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Neo-conservative Fascism.
I introduce to you, the Military Commission's Act of 2006.

Choose one or more:

#2

#3

#4

The acts of torture now made legal and wholesome include the burning of flesh, the breaking of bones, the placing of needles under fingernails, the tearing of limbs, the disfiguring of faces, and the infliction of general bodily injury that may or may not entail – the fine print of the law isn’t clear, making it all the more nefarious, as fine print always is – the loss of a finger or a toe or a testicle.

A lot of people think that it's only matter of years until this whole "war on terror" bullshit comes to an end, a new president of the United States is elected, and the world can move forward with cleaning up what was done during the Bush Administation. However, when Act's like this pass into legislation, making them law, they not only disrupt democracy but also pose a great danger to the entire world.

I actually feel sick.

Edit: Just as a side note, I was telling my Mom about the Act and she said that the media should "just stay out of everyone's business and mind their own." My Mom works in the media and I thought that she, of all people, would understand what it is exactly that the media's role is...

2006-10-16T22:42:00.000-07:00

Throughout my life I’ve worked several jobs. These range from deep-frying fish and chips to massive initiatives with the provincial government. My first job was in 2002 at a small fish and chips restaurant in my town. I was really scared to apply but all of my friends had jobs by that time and I thought it would be a nice place to work.

“I’ve always wanted to work at a fish and chips place.”

That was the line that the owners remembered when I dropped off my resume. A couple days later they repeated it to me on the phone and asked if I was the guy who said that. They suggested that I come in to “get a feel” for the restaurant the next day.

I put on the only nice shirt I had, which was really a horrible looking shirt when I think about it. It was a collared button up shirt, except the collar was bright red and the shirt itself was blue. It had small, yellow squares all over it and was way too small for me. I would say it was a hand-me-down but I was the only person handing things down, being the oldest of my brothers.

The restaurant itself was cozy and gave me a good feeling when I first walked in. I smelt mushy peas and boiling grease, for some reason, that made me comfortable. The owners were more than welcoming and asked if I could see myself working with them.

For the next six months I put together fish and chip orders, deep fried chips, calamari, prawns, and other sea life. Eventually, my boss let me deep fry fish, such as halibut and cod, which was challenging but I enjoyed it being that it was the first time in my life I was “promoted.”

That summer I told my boss and his wife that I was going up island to move in with my Dad, and then start a job with a pulp mill. It wasn’t a lie but I knew it wasn’t the truth either. I did in fact apply at a pulp mill and thought about moving in with my Dad but the real plan was to move to Saltspring Island with two friends.

The weekend prior, a friend and I met a hippie from the Island who inherited a house from a relative. He was really down-to-earth and invited us to come back anytime we wanted. For some reason, we took this as an invitation to move in with him.

So I packed up some of my stuff into my 1989 Toyota Tercell, picked up my friend (the other one caught a ferry a couple days later), and quit my first job- moving on to a summer of double-stuffed Oreo’s and the recently released Vanilla Pepsi.

2006-10-15T22:01:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I really fucking hate people. My ex-room mate/friend is a perfect example of why. As anyone who’s rented an apartment or house before would know, a damage deposit is something that’s paid before the tenants move in. Usually, it is equal to half a months rent. In my case, the damage deposit was split between me and my room-mate (of the time) so I ended up paying $200 bucks. Not too bad.

When the tenants move out of the place they’re renting, the landlord or owner of the place gives the damage deposit back pending that the place didn’t get completely fucked while the tenants were living there. I paid my damage deposit directly to my room-mate because he was dealing with the landlord and at the time had a girlfriend who was moving in with us as well.

Well sure enough my room-mate (of the time) got hooked on bad drugs then went crazy and ruined a good friendship. Days before I left for Europe, he told me that he was going to move out and that I literally had less than ten days after I got back to find somewhere to live.

I told him to fuck off and said that it would be fine with me as long as he didn’t steal any of my shit while I was gone and that I got my damage deposit and all of my stuff back. He agreed and I left the country for about a month.

Came back and the place was a dump but obviously I had nothing to do with it. That night I started moving my stuff out of the apartment into my van. I got a call from the asshole and he said that he felt sorry but it sounded like he was on drugs, which wasn’t a surprise. I told him that it didn’t matter as long as I just got all of my money and stuff back.

Well that was a month ago, I’m still owed $200 and this shit head has my DVD collection as well. Each time I try to call or text him, I’m ignored and I’m really on the verge of kicking his face in.

Moral of the story is that in the end I don’t care about $200 and some DVD’s. Really, I don’t. I would say that it’s the principal of the issue too, but that would be a lie. The truth is that I’ve been cheated, backstabbed and used.

One time when he did reply to a text message of mine he said:

“I’m going to burn your money and leave the ashes in your mailbox.”

Defiantly a psychotic thing to say if you ask me...

But of course, there are more important things going on in the world and in my life so I’ll leave it at that. Pricks will be pricks.

2006-10-11T21:35:00.000-07:00

On the cold October street, a man protests the war. Rugged in appearance, he hands out what we’re told today is “propaganda.” He frantically engages each civilian as they walk past in their day-to-day routines, handing them informative pamphlets filled with “questionably credible statistics” and “facts.” Like a small child being force fed, the civilians each turn their cheeks before they taste what the protestor has to feed. The idea of accountability ruins their appetites.

2006-10-10T14:04:00.000-07:00

Who's excited?

2006-10-09T19:29:00.000-07:00

Today I woke up at Caitlin’s house, ate some peanut butter toast for breakfast then watched Lord of the Ring, The Two Towers. I’ve never seen any of the Lord of the Ring movies so we’re going through them all since it seems like it’s required to see these movies. We watched Fellowship of the Ring last week and plan to watch the last one sometime soon.

After The Two Towers, we had some grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, and then went into Sidney. We checked out Starbucks for some juice blends / iced tea before going to Home Hardware to visit Peter (note: clever use of hyperlink there). He found us looking at some For Sale signs for my van and helped us pick out some acrylic paint for those canvases that Caitlin got me the other day.

I’m telling you right now, there is a one hundred percent chance that these paintings will be disasters.

So we did that then picked up some bikes from Caitlin’s place and went for a bike ride to this Farm Market place in Cordova Bay. We played some intense mini-golf and I ruled Caitlin by 4 points. On one ‘course’ Caitlin took her first shot and missed and I took my first shot and it knocked Caitlin’s ball into the hole then bounced off a wall and went in the hole too. That’s a hole in one times two.

After coming back from that I went home to eat Thanksgiving dinner. It was good and then I called my Dad to wish him a happy Thanksgiving, even though I’m sure he doesn’t celebrate it, because what’s to celebrate about Thanksgiving anyways? He was happy I called and then I thought I should write about my day.

Cya.

2006-10-05T18:27:00.000-07:00

Memo:

All readers of this blog should follow in the gracious footsteps of Grace and submit their offerings to me before Monday. She was kind enough to give me a $20.00 iTunes gift certificate over a text message last night in response to a previous post of mine where I complained about not having enough money to buy music.

Don't forget that it's Thanksgiving this weekend and I know all of you have something very important to be thankful for- me and this blog.

Thank you, in advance, for your consideration of this cause.

2006-10-04T19:08:00.000-07:00

The other night my younger brother had a bunch of friends over to party downstairs. Throughout the night I would wake up to their drunken ramblings, then try to fall back asleep. At one point, 4 am I believe, I overheard a conversation about me. It was more of a discussion about whether or not I think I’m a better person than “everyone else.”

It really opened my eyes to the way people, these ones at least, perceived me. I started to wonder what it was I did that would’ve developed this opinion with them.

Throughout my short life I’ve had it fairly easy. Always had a good group of reliable friends, had my share of girlfriends, partied but still managed to keep my feet on the ground- never addicted to any kind of drugs, never smoked. Never was “cool,” but never really wanted to be. And whenever I found myself at bad point in life, (i.e. losing an important job, being involved with massive amounts of gossip and drama) I always found a way to turn it all around and act as if it all never happened.

So like the saying goes, “so far so good.”

But through learning by my experiences, have I become portrayed as arrogant? Have I developed this impression that I’m better than someone else?

I sure hope I haven’t.

I’ll continue this another time.

2006-09-29T07:15:00.000-07:00

Most of the time I read on the bus but I just came up with an even better idea- starting this morning, on my ride to work, I’m going to start writing on the bus. The bus ride is an hour long and I’m going to challenge myself to see what I can come up with, each day, on the way to work. Actually no, I’ll alternate between reading and writing.

To follow through on my effort to become more creative, I’ll post what I write each time here on the blog. I’m sure a lot of it will be crap because I’ll be in a half-asleep daze so don’t get too excited…

Sounds a little like it might become something like the busblog but no, it won’t. I realized a long time ago that if you’re going to have a blog, and copy other people’s ideas, posts, formats, etc, then you are just like everybody out there- and that’s horrible.

Okay so that’s that.

In another effort to become more creative, I ranted about a couple posts ago about why I don’t follow through with the ideas I have. I asked the question, “what’s worse: the feeling of failure, or the feeling of never trying?”

Shortly after, I went to my front door and was surprised to see a plastic bag with some things in it. My first name was on a pink sticky note so I looked in the bag and there were a bunch of painting canvases. Holy shit I thought. They were from Caitlin and I love her for her very appreciated, spontaneous gestures.

2006-09-27T07:03:00.000-07:00

So on House last night there was this autistic kid who ate worms in a sandbox that attacked his heart, lungs, liver, and eventually his eye but House and friends didn’t figure it all out until the end of the episode (of course). It was sick because it zoomed in really quick on the kid’s eye and showed all of these worms swimming around in great detail. At the beginning of the episode the kid was just drawing these squiggly lines on a chalk board and his parents were like wtf are you doing autistic kid? Well he was trying to tell you that he had worms in his eyes!?

Ah, of course.

It’s 6:50 am, It’s my 3^rd day on the new job. I catch the bus now. The only thing I want to listen to is 1995's, The Prodigy - Music for the Jilted Generation. Best CD ever. When I was in grade 5 trying to make new friends all I used to do was play Magic the Gathering cards and listen to techno like Prodigy and Underworld. It's been ages since I've been able to find any Prodigy songs to download so I think when I get some money on my Visa, I'll buy the CD off iTunes. How sad is that?

2006-09-24T16:27:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of ideas: Ideas for movies, screenplays, novels, blogs, and other creative projects. Many of them I will never start and those I do start, I rarely finish. In my opinion, it is this adjournment that has become the worst side of me. Many of us struggle with this rival side of themselves each day. It’s the side of the creative mind that holds us back inside. It holds us back from producing great pieces of art, photos, books, movies, or even blog posts. It holds us back from being something more.

Lately, I’ve been wondering why I’ve let the darker side of my creative mind stop me from delivering these ideas of mine. Why is it that the moment I think of something to try, such as painting, I shut it down shortly thereafter, putting in its place an excuse? Why do I dumb myself down on my blog? Why don’t I put together the movies and films that play over and over in my head? Why not?

Even more importantly, I ask myself what’s worst: The feeling of failure, or the feeling of never trying?

2006-09-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

"Common sense isn't so common." - Voltaire

2006-09-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

After returning to Canada last week, I immediately moved my things from my small apartment back to my mother’s house to live with her and my two younger brothers. I had enough of living with someone who’s addicted to cocaine; there’s only so much you can take before you’re faced with what’s going on. When your things go missing and when trying to turn your friend away from drugs blows up in your face, the only option left is to cut the dead weight and to move forward in your own life.

Liars, cheaters, thieves, and those who only know how to be fake- these people are a part of life but I’ve learnt to never trust them again.

The nightmare was simple: It was set at night in my dark room. My door would be open just a crack so a line of light from the hallway shun through. I would see myself sleeping alone with one eye open watching the line of light for any signs that the people out front were leaving. A shadow would cross back and forth, the room would turn pitch black each time. The front door of the apartment would open and close throughout the night and new voices would enter.

I’d hear them party for a couple hours, then leave, only to return to party hours later; wash, rinse, repeat. Each time I would convince myself that someone I didn’t know would enter my room looking for something to steal. “What reason do I have to trust these people?” I thought.

For a couple weeks this year, and for the first time in my life, I had reoccurring nightmares. Only sometimes they would be nightmares, and sometimes they would be reality.

Maybe moving back to my mother’s place was a step back in life, maybe it even, “screwed me over,” a little bit. But in my mind, a sense of security shouldn’t be a luxury, especially if you’re living with your best friend.

2006-09-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

An excerpt from my travel journal…

Trains to Amsterdam are free with our rail pass and they run every hour. We caught one at 6:46 pm (or 18:46) and left Belgium for The Netherlands.

Thursday, August 31 2006, Day 12

We arrived in Amsterdam shortly before 9 pm on Tuesday. We had no where to stay so the plan was to find an internet café and to go from there. When we stepped out of the train station some guy, white coat + long blonde hair, asked us if we had a lighter. I could tell he was a local so with caution I said I didn’t have one – even though I did in my bag. Somehow he stirred up a conversation about where we were staying and before we knew it he was leading us to a hostel.

He explained that he was a “hostel-runner” who works with certain hostels independently for commission and tips from travelers. He let me hold onto his ID card for reassurance.

My feelings about the situation were up and down. At some points I felt very safe and almost in debt to this guy for his help- where as at other times I felt no trust and would get very paranoid. I thought of some ways to casually get out of the situation just in case.

He led us into the red light district and to a hostel that’s above a bar. A lot of bars have hostels above them here.

He spoke in another language with the older lady at the bar then he would say a few quick words to me. He said he was negotiating a price but at this point I couldn’t help but think it was all just an act in some ploy to steal our bags, passports, or money.

We settled, uncomfortably, on the price of 25 Euro per bed. Good price but I knew the place was going to be a dump.

The “hostel-runner” said something quickly about his tips and I didn’t hear him. He repeated himself so I gave him whatever change was in my pocket then thanked him.

After going back to the station to use a bank machine, we paid for our beds and went upstairs to check them out. Sure enough, I was right and the place was ghetto. Oh well I thought, only 1 night.

We met Shawn, another Canadian, on our way upstairs. He’s from Vancouver and said that the hostel seemed sketchy at first to him as well, but said it wasn’t bad at all.

Got to our room and there were 6 beds. 5 of the 6 seemed like they were in use because people were either in them, or their stuff was on it. In the room, someone was sleeping and there was a Moroccan guy lying on his bed. He made the regular, “where are you from / traveling where” conversation and seemed out of it. We were told later that night to watch out for Moroccans.

The guy later said he had to work but I thought he said “walk” since it was almost 11:30 by then. Then I saw a large bag of coke and knew what he meant by “work.”

He left the room and moments later there was a knock on the door. Then the door opened and sure enough it was the sketchy hostel runner. He said that we were needed downstairs at the bar. I went and Caitlin stayed with our stuff since my paranoia made me believe that this was the final step in their plot to steal our stuff.

Turns out that the old lady made a mistake with the rooms and we were switched to a private room for the same price. Normally 80 Euro. At this point I started feeling a little better about things so we moved our stuff to the new room. Ghetto but at least it was private.

For more pictures from Europe, visit my Flickr page.

2006-09-17T13:55:00.000-07:00

Here’s the script…

“How was Europe?”

“Really good.”

“Where’d you go?”

“Um, all over… Paris, Nice, Barcelona, Brussels, Amsterdam, London, a lot of Scotland…”

“Wow that’s cool.”

“Yeah.”

Repeating where we’ve been and what we’ve done has become such a procedure that it almost makes me sick. There are five questions that people ask, and much like how a celebrity responds to questions in an interview, all of my responses have lost the taste of character.

2006-09-12T15:56:00.000-07:00

at the gatwick airport in London tonight. flight home is at 5:55am wednesday so it's an airport sleepover for the two of us. missed the original flight booked for september 11th because easyJet made some major fuck ups with our flight down from Edinburgh, Scotland to gatwick. these mistakes (computer failures, huge delays with baggage) ended up costing us over $1200.

that's a non-refundable amount because each company involved with the errors stepped back from any responsibility. i wouldn't expect much more from a couple of faceless corporations.

anyways, back in canada on wednesday morning. about 9am BC time.

later.

2006-08-31T05:28:00.000-07:00

unfortunatly, pictures to upload but no means of doing so yet. caitlin and i have been in amsterdam for the last couple of days now. we'll be staying here at the 'stayokay' hostel for another 2 nights. this hostel is more like a prision camp than anything. the list of rules is too much to handle and i'm not about to follow them.

amsterdam is great though. today we rented some bikes and rode them along some of the many canals here. we're going to bike over to the anne frank house after checking our emails at this internet cafe.

i've been keeping a detailed journal of our travels across europe and may post some pieces of it after i return to canada mid-september. we've been riding the trains between towns and they've turned out to quite a reliable and easy way to get around. however, the way we planned our route wasn't the smartest way because it involved several long train trips of 12 hours or more.

we started our trip in paris, saw the sights, then moved south to nice, france. nice was amazing and it was our first and only real sight of any decent weather. stayed a couple nights in nice, then went along the coast to barcelona, spain. that trip was about 13 hours. barcelona was a lot of fun and we spent most of our time at the beach either tanning or playing in the gigantic waves.

after a couple nights in barcelona we caught several trains up through paris and over to brussels, belgium. that trip must've been 18 hours or so. there were points when we were waiting at train stations at 5am. all part of the experience though.

i thought brussels was going to be a small little town but it turned out to be a city with large skyscrapers. i shaved my head there and after one night we left and headed for amsterdam.

and now we're here.

2006-08-22T10:59:00.000-07:00

ps: im in europe with caitlin.

2006-08-16T14:44:00.000-07:00

shit, tomorrow is thursday. i've got a job interview at 9am and after that i'm going to future shop because their head office called me last friday and said that my camera would be ready for pick-up thursday. yes! they also told me that i dropped the camera, which i did not, and that i will need to pay $120 in order to get my camera back. however, when i sent my camera away i was required to sign some terms and conditions (of course), and on these terms and conditions there's a section that says "maximum repair cost" and next to that it says "$0.00" and then a little below that it says "customer agrees to pay up to the quoted amount above" and next to that i agreed by signing my first and last name.

too bad future shop, cause i'll be getting back from a job interview and i'll be in a suit and i'll be ready to argue. and if the first person i argue with doesn't listen, i'm going to escalate it to their supervisor and so on. i'm already planning out what i'm going to say...

one of the lines i'll use is, "so you're saying that your terms and conditions are only honored when it's benefical to the company, but when they're in benefit to the customer, they are meaningless? is that what you're saying?"

another one will be, "listen, this is one of those times where you're going to need to start thinking outside of the box. you've already explained to me your policies and procedures and they're not helping. this is a time where you're going to need to provide some real customer service."

i can't wait.

also, i added archives to this blog. enjoy, drones.

2006-08-14T23:50:00.000-07:00

so reports now say that the foiled terrorist attacks would've been carried out on august 16th, after british police found plane tickets matching that date in one of the suspects' homes. that's this wednesday.

wow so a september 11th x2 was just around the corner and the great american and british governments have saved us all- seized the opportunity, implemented new airline restrictions, increased panic, raised our fears to alert status red.

a job well done.

as I continue to tune into the mainstream media, i watch long line ups in airports across the world and experts comment over and over again about the safety of our air travel systems. i can't help but think that the "terrorists" have already won this "war on terror." they don't even need to blow up a plane or a building to scare the shit out of the general public. they simply just need to get arrested with plane tickets.

win or lose, people get scared... and let's be honest, fear wins votes.

it's all too obvious that the neo-cons of the bush administration see this as an opportunity to justify as much as possible before the buzz dies down. remember, "the world is safer after 9/11." while watching cnn, i imagined the white house public relations executives scrambling to send e-mails on their blackberry’s as fast as possible trying to get a hold of this media opportunity. save the votes, save the senate, save the congress, save the country.

translation: scare the shit out of the world again and justify as much as possible in the mean time.

kind of sounds a bit like "terrorism" to me.

as much as i would hate to buy into this whole new fear fad, i can't help but be a little anxious considering myself and my girlfriend have international flights booked for august 19th and september 11th. however, i am very confident that there won't be any sort of terrorist attack. having never flown for any significant amount of time, i'm more scared about some sort of technical malfunction or freak turbulence weather storm.

my dad on the other hand expressed his deepest concerns the other night over the phone. to determine the amount of jet fuel that will be on board, he asked me how big the jet will be. i told him i didn't know and he wanted me to look into it. i suppose more jet fuel equals a greater chance of a terrorist hijacking.

but really, unless someone is in my face 32,000 feet in the sky with a gun, the idea of terrorism doesn't really scare me. what's scary are the weekend get-togethers between oil execs and government officials at texas ranches, or the v for vendetta world we're embarking on. i'm only 21 and most kids my age don't give a shit but as the pieces of this puzzle start to fall into place for me, i can't help but see countless reasons for concern.

2006-08-11T01:05:00.000-07:00

So I've worked two 12 hour shifts in a row now and my computer is being really slow at night but okay in the morning... ? Anyways, last night I was night dreaming and I built a sweet computer at dell.com and I decided that it's what I want more than almost anything right now. I know Dell has already screwed me but look at that thing, it's amazing. FASTEST EVER!

And it's special edition red.

And I wanna get one of the 30" monitors so I could be nerd in wide-screen. And have the included 20" monitor to the side of the 30" and use that monitor just for msn and stuff like that and I could have a shit load of internet news feeds open all the time to the side and be cool like that. But honestly, it would be good for video editing cause those types of programs take up so much fucking space.

Cool so today at work I told some of my co-workers that I have this feeling that the big overdue earthquake, aka THE BIG ONE, is going to come soon and they all laughed and called me Ms. Cleo.

2006-08-07T23:22:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the content I put on this blog and as exciting as waiting for replies from Future Shop over a warranty issue with my camera, or updates on my financial situations might be, I always feel that something more is missing. Now maybe it could just be a phase. Or maybe I'm just too busy with the summer, but I still feel that I could be writing a little more about things that actually matter.

Have I yet to provide any insight to what my thoughts might be over the recent crisis in Lebanon- or even Iraq, for that matter? Even though I can't help but spend at least 50% of my day thinking, over and over, about what's happening, I've yet to even comment about these times. I just put it aside and blind myself by writing my little post for the day.

Today I got drunk...

Today I called Future Shop...

Today I went camping...

Today I drank out of a beer keg, upside down...

Today me and Caitlin saw a movie...

You get the point. So about a month ago I started another blog where I thought I would spend more time writing about the types of things that matter to me (world issues, politics, environmental issues, ect) but shut it down several weeks later. I shut it down because it feels like if you're going to write about anything to do with the world, and you're either not famous or good at doing it, you'll sound dumb and your readers will not take you seriously.

And of course, then I went back to writing posts here. So since I still have this urge to write some more interesting content, some of which being world issues, politics, environmental issues, ect., what do I do? Start another blog featuring a more interesting side of me (depends who you ask) and commit to it, or try and throw some of it into this blog?

Either way, not saying anything isn't an option anymore...

2006-08-03T21:29:00.000-07:00

Ok so tomorrow I'm selling my dvd car deck to some random from upisland. He's been emailing me for the last couple of weeks really excited about the thing and we've made a deal. So yeah, as of tomorrow, no dvd movies while I drive. I don't really know why I bought the thing in the first place and I really need to get some cash together now for this Europe trip so I won't really miss the thing.

Hmm, what else?

I've been reading The Autobiography of David Suzuki and I can't go without saying that this book is simply amazing. He is one of the greatest Canadians, ever.

And, on Saturday, me, Caitlin and her parents are going to go to Western Speedway which is this racetrack place near here and I think there's a demolition derby going on or something. Either way, I won some tickets a while ago and Caitlin's parents say its cool if me and her just get wasted and they drive us home.

Score.

Oh, PS: called Future Shop and gave them some tracking number and had them figure out what the status of my repair was and the girl was pretty nice and said that it's at the depot now and it shouldn't be much longer and that they know that it's a RUSH ORDER and that normally they don't even ship the broken stuff away to get fixed for weeks after they get it. I asked her if I would have my freakin' camera before I go away to Europe on the 19th and she said that it's highly likely.

Score x2

2006-08-01T15:48:00.001-07:00

So last night was pretty much amazing. Went up island with Peter and Caitlin to Nanaimo to watch the Matthew Good solo acoustic show. The whole show was awesome. He played a couple new songs, some things off In A Coma, and some songs that I've never heard acoustic before. I ended up recording a good hour of the show on my vid-cam and uploaded parts of it onto my YouTube.

After the show we hung around by Matt's bus and waited for him to come out... We waited a little while then someone came out and told everyone to form a straight line at the front of the bus. I was so stoked. Matt chilled in the passenger seat of the bus and everyone got to come on and get something signed or get a picture. So yeah, I met Matthew Good- first time ever.

I've always said that if I were to meet Matt Good that I would have him sign my birth certificate, cause I'm that hardcore... So he did. He signed a speeding ticket that Caitlin still had on her and he signed Peter's ticket and this Avalanche card thing he had. It seemed like Matt recognized me from somewhere, maybe myspace or this blog or something internet related...

We all got some pictures and the night ended off perfectly. Except for the 2.5 hour drive back to Victoria, but whatever- it was worth it for sure.

2006-07-31T12:30:00.000-07:00

Ok Caitlin is in the shower so I can do a post now. Last night I had a dream that I lived by myself in Toronto and started this new sales job and I didn't know anyone. So I'm in a stupid meeting trying to sell this guy some stuff and it turned out really bad and I was walking back to my van which was parking in this shady parking lot under an overpass or two, I think a freeway was above... Anyways it was getting kind of dark and there was this crackhead army... crackheads everywhere and they were all sooo angry and wanted to attack me. So I was walking up to my van and I noticed that my back doors were open and there were crackheads stealing all of my shit...

Then I ran... and another crackhead yelled at me so loud. Then I woke up.

When I went back to sleep I returned to the same dream except I had a smart car instead of my van and it was all muddy on the inside and the windows were broken. I told the cops what happened but they ended up giving me 50,000 hours of community service work and got so mad at me.

Anyways, back to the real world. Went to a kegger at my buddy's house on Saturday... started at 2 in the afternoon and it was sponsered by Molson Canadian. I did a couple keg stands and beer bongs and it was good times cause all my friends were there. Everyone ended up going to the clubs after but I didn't want to, so I just slept in my van with Caitlin.

Then Caitlin and me rented Mario Kart: Double Dash!! for GameCube and it's gotta be the best game ever.

Tonight is the Matthew Good show in Nanaimo so it should be good times! Peter is coming. Wooohhhhsadfsha... No cameras but wait, mine is broken and Future Shop sucks so my only choice is to bring my video camera and record the whole thing stealth. Oh, also I'm planning on dressing like a dork. I'm excited. I'm going to wear a collared shirt underneath a sweater. Sweet!

2006-07-27T13:01:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I changed my room around. Moved my bed to another wall and switched some other things around. Not a big deal. I cleaned my bathroom too 'cause it was getting kind of scary. Since I moved in here last December, I've yet to clean the bathtub. So this really thick green film built up and made everything look shitty. I tried cleaning it last month but it was too hard... the stuff wouldn't come off. I spent an hour at it yesterday in my boxers and used almost an entire spray bottle of Vim.

Now it's shiny.

I'd take a picture but ya, camera is broken, future shop sucks. And who would really want to see a picture of my clean bathtub... really?

Part of the reason why I cleaned my room was to look for my old digital camera that I got when I ordered my Dell computer. It sucks but it's better than nothing. I must've sold it / lost it / threw it away or something because I can't find it anywhere...

Europe details are now confirmed!!!

Saturday, August 19th 2006 (4:30pm) - Catch flight from Vancouver International Airport to Paris, France. After a short stop in Calgary, Alberta (Canada), we arrive in Paris, Sunday, August 20th 2006 (1:00pm).

Travel by rail using the $500 rail passes we just received in the mail yesterday... Hit up Barcelona, Spain... Amsterdam... some other cool places, and kick it with Caitlin's relatives in Scotland for a week.

Monday, September 11th 2006 - Catch flight from London, England to Vancouver.

Holy shit, just realized that we'll be flying on September 11th... ummm...

2006-07-26T12:44:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty much a pro now...

2006-07-25T12:27:00.000-07:00

No new pictures cause my camera is broken.

Ok pretty good weekend, let's try to recap.

My 21st birthday was on Friday so I wasn't too excited to begin with but then my Dad called me and wished me a happy birthday and Caitlin came over and woke me up. I really have the sweetest / best gf in the world. Not like gifts even matter, but she got me an mp3 player (so I can listen to music on the trains in Europe) and David Suzuki's Autobiography.

We went downtown and went to Future Shop because my digital camera broke and I wanted to see if they were going to be nice and give me a new one. But they weren't. I ended up sending the camera away and they told me that it can take "up to six weeks," which is a real pain in the ass cause we leave for Europe on August 19th. No camera in Europe would be the worst. I hope it's back before I leave though.

Then we went to my Mom's work to say hi and I got a gift and then we went and I bought a new shirt and oh yeah, Caitlin got a Feist cd at Future Shop but it was a remix cd so we later went to A&B sound to get the original cd too. Both are sweet though.

Ok so some more stuff probably happened too... Drank a little champagne, next day didn't do much, went to a couple bars, passed out on a couch, woke up with a bleeding foot and sparkles all over me, then saw Caitlin, she was mad, made things better, went to a lake, then decided randomly to drive to Tofino at 9:30pm (typically a 5.5 hr drive), did that, got there in 4.5 hrs, slept in the van, checked out the beach, played a little frisbee with the wind, spent too much $, came home, slept.

2006-07-20T09:32:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, July 21st, I turn 21. Apparently that's called a champagne birthday or something because I'm turning the age of the date of my birthday? July 21... 21 years old. Either way, it's a great excuse to get wasted off champagne.

Caitlin says I should get excited about the whole thing but I'm not. My parents never really remember my birthday until the very last second and it's awkward. I was talking to my Dad on the phone a couple days ago and he thought I was my brother for a bit and said that my birthday was in March.

No Dad. July, not March.

Anyways, as a kid I always thought that 21 was the coolest age. I always said that my 21st year will be the best year ever. It will probably suck though, cause I was a stupid kid.

2006-07-18T15:22:00.000-07:00

Work today was long but good except the part where my french boss yelled at me, which in fact is becoming a daily occurrence. His wife told me not to take it personally, and I don't, but I told her that I'm not used to being called a "gay boy slow fuck," by my boss. I said it's kind of hard not to take it personally when it happens so much now. It seems though that she's in the same boat and is yelled at a lot too- which is really sad.

A highlight of the day though was when a party of four randomly showed up in a helicopter that landed on the back lawn of the restaurant. I stood to the side while the helicopter was landing, waiting with champagne for whomever it was that was showing up. Probably someone "important." What a way to make an entrance though...

Must be nice.

Another highlight of the day was when I stumbled upon Matthew Good's new MySpace page. There's two new demos posted there that are defiantly worth a listen. If these two songs are any sign of what's to come, I'm very excited...

Excited for the show on Saturday, July 31st too. Hope it happens.

2006-07-18T12:21:00.000-07:00

I planted some jalapeno pepper plants a month ago- only one of them lived. It's doing good...

Planted a couple sunflowers too. I don't really know why... I guess I just wanted to see something grow.

The internet is slow today and the batteries in my cordless mouse just died, again.

I see kids riding their bikes and rolling around in the grass and I can't help but think of better times. They have no worries, no care in the world. Israel starts what may be the third, or fourth World War with America by its side. Bombs come closer to the Syrian border; Iranian threats continue... Day 6, 7, 8...

Yeah I'm a little depressed today... pissed off, disapointed. Sell all my things, see a couple countries, come back to what?

2006-07-17T20:04:00.000-07:00

Hey so Caitlin and me went camping at Mystic Beach on the weekend and it was shitloads of fun. We got a chance to use our new backpacks and we loaded so much stuff on them like sleeping bags and a tent and tarps and I even tried to fasten a 24 case of Kokanee to mine. The strap gave way on the trail and the beer went everywhere but it was worth a shot. Having a case of Kokanee strapped to your back feels pretty good though.

For those of you who don't know what Kokanee is, ie. un-BritishColumbians, it's a really good beer.

So yeah, we had to hike on this trail and it took us over a big suspension bridge and down a big log stair case and across a bunch of mud and we ended up setting up camp on the beach. The whole trip was really fun and we even had the benifit of having a giant dead seal wash up right in front of our camp site... Sweet...

Dead seals smell awesome when they've been baking in the sun for two days. Mmm.

Yeah anyways Friday is my birthday so if you want to send me money for Europe that would be much appreciated. Thanks.

2006-07-13T16:18:00.000-07:00

Where I work is really nice, the people are all great, everyone does a good job, but for some reason our boss is truely insane. He's the worst person ever. He is short and french and has one of those stupid mustaches that you see short french people sporting all the time. He yells and screams like a baby when the smallest of things goes wrong.

Yesterday for example he told everyone that there was no tuna. He meant sablefish though. So when the waiters told customers that there was no tuna and the boss found out, he raged on everyone... even though the waiters were just doing what they were told.

(strong french accent)

"I TOLD YOU THERE WAS FUCKING TUNA, YOU FUCK. HOW STUPID ARE YOU? YOU ONLY WORK 7 FUCKING HOURS A DAY. ANY FUCK WHO WORKS ONLY 7 HOURS A DAY SHOULD BE ABLE TO KNOW IF THERES FUCKING TUNA OR NOT!? WHAT THE FUCK!!!"

After that it was downhill all night. Some of us were all kind of chatting out front cause it wasn't even busy and sure enough the french bastard came out...

"YOU LAZY FUCKS! YOU CAN CHIT-CHAT ON YOUR FUCKING DAY OFF. YOU GAYBOYS ALL HAVE EACH OTHERS FUCKING NUMBERS... CHIT-CHAT ABOUT WINE CELLARS AND BOWTIES THEN."

Later on when he walked by the pot of coffee, I was thinking that it would be sweet if he tripped and smashed his face into the pot and hot coffee and glass disfigured his ugly face and eventually led to his death...

Everyone just puts up with his shit even though it happens almost every day. Yesterday was the worst time yet for me but everyone else seemed to be pretty cool about it all. I hate it though cause I end up feeling like shit when he gets all pissed off and then I don't want to try anymore and when I'm dealing with customers I screw up and then the customers kind of laugh cause they're rich bastards too and then I go into the kitchen and sure enough the french bastard saw everything and he flips out.

2006-07-12T11:27:00.000-07:00

So we kind of planned our entire Europe trip around the fact that I was only able to get two weeks paid holidays off work but since I don't work there anymore it kind of opens a couple doors. Yesterday, Caitlin's mom suggested that we stay in Europe a little longer since I neither of us have to return to work afterwards. We'd need to save more money and with the trip a little over a month away, that might be hard. But it makes sense.

Our rail pass is only going to give us 15 consecutive days of unlimited travel though- leaving us in London. We've only talked about it for ten minutes or so but we were maybe thinking about traveling the whole Ireland and Scotland area by bus or whatever means since we would be chillin in the area for awhile.

But again, the only problem is money. If I was a famous blogger like Tony, I would just get my readers to donate me enough cash to travel the world. I'm not though, so it's back to bussin' tables...

2006-07-11T12:24:00.000-07:00

A couple nights ago, Caitlin and I went to Butchart Gardens to watch some fireworks. We showed up five hours early and ended up just watching people cause we're creeps. Even more creepy was this video I took of a emo kid rolling up a hill.

"Most kids roll down hills..."

Earlier in the day we saw the same kid and he was being all crazy with his sister and when we walked by I saw him kind of talk to himself a bit and then he was moving his fingers back and forth like he was casting a magical spell, then he flicked his fingers forward... It was the best.

2006-07-10T21:38:00.000-07:00

Today, Caitlin and I went downtown and got a lot of things done. I submitted my passport application and should have it before the 3rd week of July. Good news cause we're leaving for Europe mid-August.

Then we went to Mountain Equipment Co-op and bought the backpacks we'll need for the Euro-trip. We wanted to get matching backpacks cause that'd be cute and everything but they didn't have them so we got the same backpack except mine is blue and Caitlin's is sage. Mine is also known as the 'long' size because it fits better on me and Caitlin got the 'standard' size. She looks really really hot when she wears her backpack and if you ask her you might get lucky and she might post pictures?

Then we went to see a movie that I've been wanting to see for a long time. An Inconvenient Truth. Website here. Trailer here. It's absolutely insane. The entire movie is very simple to understand and it will blow your mind. Honestly, please see it. Even if you're the most neoconservative dick, see this movie. The graphs and raw fact that Gore provides are intense- I was a huge believer of global warming and climate change before but this movie has really put a sense of urgency on the whole issue for me.

2006-07-10T00:19:00.000-07:00

No this template isn't a mistake. It's sweet. Mock it if you must but I think it's all a blog really needs... Large picture / video, casual blogroll, site meter, title, place to comment, and text.

I thought the last template with 2 sidebars looked really good until it was brought to my attention that it sucked. I guess the middle content looked really thin and shitty on other monitors so I figured I'd throw the whole thing away and go with something really simple and easy.

So enjoy.

PS: Before you say it, I know it looks similar to Fil's blog. It's not the same though. Thanks.

2006-07-09T13:18:00.000-07:00

Test. Are you gonna make it just the picture then the writing below. Links at the bottom? Cause that would be sweet. Yep. Just hella simple. Nicee. Hi. Guess what? What? It's been a while since I've talked to you on msn. Haha. Cause we're with each other. Lots. Yeea. Haha I have so many pics of us being retarded. Lol send awayyy.

Test. This is a block quote. BAGHDAD — Brutality and corruption are rampant in Iraq's police force, with abuses including the rape of female prisoners, the release of terrorism suspects in exchange for bribes, assassinations of police officers and participation in insurgent bombings, according to confidential Iraqi government documents detailing more than 400 police corruption investigations.

This is text continued. Link. Bold.

Like Shit, Yeah... Like

2006-07-05T13:01:00.000-07:00

If trying to read Douglas Couplands, jPod, isn't hard enough, try reading it in a coffee shop with two recent grads sitting next to you reminiscing over all of the pointless moments in their lives while having the worlds worst conversation. A sample:

"Yeah and on that day I was just sitting on this bench thinking about all of the times we've had since grade 9 and all of the memories I've built about things and stuff and then one of the biggest memories came through the door and it was like I just broke down and didn't know what to do and like its just like like like what do you do, like?"

Shut up. Please.... I'm trying to read...

"Must've been tough, especially with your past and all hey?"

Who cares... Please. This book is hard enough to read. Just shut up or move somewhere else.

"Yeah well you know I was on the streets when I was 15 and its like I turned all of that bad stuff around and ended up graduating and all but you know when he walked through the door it kind of brought back all of the bad stuff you know like that like stuff stuff like?"

Ugh, you probably got kicked out of your house for one night and now you tell everyone you lived on the streets to make yourself look hardcore or to establish some sort of character about yourself. Could you just please move somewhere else!?!?!

...

Mom's pie worked. The next day I left jPod at noon and passed Steve's Touareg by the main security booth down the hill. He gave me a rehearsed-looking thumbs-up, and that was that.
At Mom's we switched to her K-car wagon and drove out into the Fraser Valley amid a chilly monsoon. I was wearing another outfit cobbled together from smugglers' remnants. Mom took one look at it and said. "Oh, Ethan. You're dressed like a newsie in a Broadway show."
"I told you, it's my new style."

God this book sucks.

"Well you know I'm going to Hong Kong in 7 days and I'm meeting up with this Scottish chick and it's cool cause on the plane ride there I know the captain and he said he's going to give me a tour of the cockpit and I'm excited cause you know that's like what I want to do is fly planes so yeah things are looking pretty good except my girlfriend cries too much when I tell her I'm leaving and then I get angry at her and she cries more and it's almost like I don't want to even see her before I leave cause you know it's just not how it should be. And I tell her..."

This guy talks about himself way too much. Great conversation...

"...that I'm leaving my entire life behind here and she's only going to lose a little part of her life which is me. So I don't really get what her problem is but yeah Hong Kong is gonna be the bomb yo. Like shit, yeah... like."

That's where I couldn't take anymore and I left.

Unorganized, Work, Earthquake

2006-07-04T15:14:00.000-07:00

I've got one of those feelings where everything is unorganized. My life, my online photo albums, my videos, my blogs, my files, my computer, my room; everything. It's kind of overwhelming.

Canada Day was good times as usual and maybe once I get things together I'll post a couple pictures or something. As of now I'm going into an intense working phase where I'm going to accept 12 hour days, 6 days a week. It may make me grumpy, it may drive me nuts, but it will pay the bills...

Unrelated but completely necessary to mention, I felt several small earthquakes this afternoon. One of which was a 3.7. My building shook a bit and afterwards I realized that I don't really have a plan in the event of an emergency. 'The Big One' is easily my biggest fear in life and the fact that its hundreds of years overdue doesn't make things any better.

Successful

2006-06-30T01:22:00.000-07:00

Since I work in an expensive, "high class" restaurant, I tend to get the chance to eavesdrop on some very interesting conversations. Today I heard a middle aged man say something along the lines of:

In life you have two options, the first being to just live life day by day and let it guide you where ever it wants and the second being a life where you live your dreams.

First I thought, no shit.

Then I really started to think about what I wanted to do with my life, for the first time in my life, and what types of things I'd like to have, tangible and intangible, before I retire. Writing is always something I've loved to do and I know that most of the time it doesn't show too well on this blog. The truth is that sometimes I see this blog as just a crying baby and I have to feed it posts to keep it quiet. That's not the case all of the time but I know that I can write much deeper content in a much more attractive format, if I dedicate the appropriate time to it; which is a good reason why I started the 1985 Project.

So back to my point: writing. I've had my taste of the "professional business world" and although it does hold many high points, like when you close a huge sales deal, the darker depressing side of business is not a path I'd like to live my life. I hold my moral values too close to become another member of this cheating culture we've created.

I've decided that I'm going to get the ball rolling as soon as possible towards the direction I'd like to go. Of course, I haven't narrowed down exactly "what I want to be," I know that if it has something to do with making a successful living off writing, I will die a happy man. So a career as a journalist with a popular web page on the side or a novelist, I'm not too sure at this point, but I know that as I move down this path, my career choice will become much clearer.

I know a lot of this sounds cliche or like I've just spent 24 hours with a high school counselor but bare with me.

As I continued to think about what the customer said, I thought about what type of life I'd like to build for my family. I thought about the things I love and the places I'm happy. This next idea may seem a little far-fetched but there’s nothing wrong with aiming high. I'd like to buy an island- yes, a whole island. Nothing enormous. Just a small island somewhere in between some of the Gulf Islands where I could have a weekend home. Something with a bit of forest and a couple of beaches would be really nice. It would have a dock and I'd like to have a boat to go back and forth from a home in the greater Victoria area.

The thing is though, people hear things like "owning an island" and tend to automatically think, rich bastard. But aside from all of this, I learnt something else today. Success isn't about what you own or how much money you have. It's about ending up where you want to be in your life and then living it. If someone’s idea of true success is living away from society, remote in a forest, and they've accomplished this, then they're successful.

I would never be the type to be a snob or a "rich bastard." I would never raise my children on those types of values either. I'd be extremely humble about the entire situation and grateful that I was given the chance to build that type of life for myself. I would never rub it in anyone’s face or flaunt my possessions. That's not happiness at all.

So I'm almost 21 and I now will seize every little opportunity given to me to move me towards this life I would like to build. Whether that's writing on the internet, or continuing to rudely eavesdrop on people’s dinner conversations, it doesn't matter. This is what I'd like to do with my life, and I'm going to do it.

Another enormous part of all of this is who I'd like to build my life with. No offense, but honestly it's none of my readers' business who I'm seeing or how I feel about her but I will say that Caitlin and I are mature and serious enough to be together for decades to come. When I say "my life," I really mean "our life." It's a mutual feeling between the two of us and I become a better man every day she's by my side.

Creepy

2006-06-28T15:17:00.000-07:00

This is what I do during the day...

Canada Day in 4 Days

2006-06-27T15:03:00.000-07:00

With the best day of the year only four days away, plans for where to get drunk and when are in the works. So far it looks as if a bunch of friends and me are going to head out to the Sooke Potholes for the day to drink and jump off cliffs into the water. Then we're going to head to downtown Victoria at 5pm-ish to try and secure some seats at a pub, preferably patio seating, for the next 4 hours. Downtown Victoria is seriously nuts on Canada Day- I love it.

A couple years ago, on Canada Day, we were all sitting at a pub on Government Street and a new Ferrari drove by and my buddy took a bite out of his chicken wing and then threw it at the car. It was great and I think I have it on video somewhere.

So I'm not exactly sure what happens downtown on Canada Day and why there are so many people out but once the sun sets there's a fireworks display and then everyone just sort of parties on the street. After a couple hours of that, the riot police come out and regulate all of the drunks. This is by far the best part.

Last year I missed the fireworks display because some chick told me there was a kegger down in Oak Bay and I got on a bus with her and then she ditched. I managed to make it back to the Inner Harbour, downtown Vic, in time for the riot cops though.

Helicopters come out with the spotlights and by this point you're just so wrecked nothing else matters... The cops form a line starting at Parliament, then just kind of move their way up pushing people into the downtown core where they can catch buses if they hurry. The buses are always packed and one year I was taking the bus home and people almost tipped it over. We have double decker transit buses here btw.

If you catch a bus on the way into downtown Victoria on Canada Day you gotta be careful too. One year I was getting loaded on the bus ride there with friends and the cops pulled the bus over and I had all of my empties in a plastic bag on the ground. The rest of my beers were in a backpack on the ground under a seat too and I guess a cop saw the backpack and he asked me to show him what was inside... but when I pulled the backpack up, I guess it got attached to the empties plastic bag and it pulled both of them up and all of this bottom of the can beer poured everywhere and I got kicked off the bus. My friends still got to ride the bus downtown but I had to hitch-hike the rest of the way. Not a big deal.

But yeah, the cops last year pulled this drunk guy out of a tree and beat the shit out of him and CH News was video taping the whole thing live then I got in front of the camera and was like "FREE IRAQ!" I felt pretty good about that but I probably looked like one of those drunk goons on Speakers Corner.

The only real problem with Canada Day is getting home cause me and my friends all live on this shitty peninsula so it's either bus or catch a cab and like I said the buses leave really fast and they are always packed. Catching a cab takes about an hour on a normal night after the bar because the streets get pretty packed. On Canada Day I don't even know if it's an option cause there's something like four hundred thousand people just roaming around and they need to get home too.

It's funny cause Caitlin's friends were wondering how they were going to get home and they brought up the idea of just camping on the Parliament lawn, and then my friends were talking about the same thing a couple days after and my buddy Keegan is like "fuck it, we'll just camp on the lawn of Parliament." I dunno if that will go over so well with the riot police and all.

Thus, the advantage of owning a van and not giving a shit about what people think. Right now my idea is that I'll park my van downtown somewhere on a side street pre-drunk-fest, then when I'm all wasted I'll just stumble back to it and pass out in the back. Wake up in the morning and it's all good.

Whatever happens, Canada Day fucking rocks and I love it so much.

5 PLACES I WILL GO THIS SUMMER

2006-06-25T23:41:00.000-07:00

Over the last week I've been trying to find ways to organize my plans for this summer. There's so much I want to see and I feel like I'm going to have to seize every moment to really take advantage it all. I figure writing down some of the top places I'd like to camp at (several times over the season) will be the first step. This way I can return to this post and check off the spots after I've been there. They are:

1. Mystic Beach
One of the many beaches along the Juan de Fuca trail- in my opinion, the best. A couple years ago I came to Mystic Beach with my family on some sort of day trip and I noticed a big group of people camping right on the sandy shore. They were playing guitar and probably smoking a couple joints and ever since then I've wanted to come back and camp there for a solid weekend. The best part is that the beach itself is a ways away from any sort of road. You have to hike down a big portion of the Juan de Fuca trail to get there so it's not like any random can just show up to crash the party. I remember the hike being at least half an hour. The beach is on the southern west coast of Vancouver Island so the winds can pick up and it's possible to surf too.

2. Tofino, Pacific Rim National Park
This one is obvious. I've always been in love with Tofino and its enormous beaches. When I went last year I tried surfing for the first time and I'd really like to try it again. Even though the town attracts thousands of tourists each summer, it still seems to maintain its down-to-earth feel. After my disappointing trip this April, I've come to realize that the 6 hour drive is only worth it in the summer.

3. Pender Island
I'd like to check out Pender a couple times over the summer because I feel like I haven't invested enough time to figure out what the island is really about. As I've said in the past, the landscape is amazing and it seems as if it would have tons of secret beaches to camp on. The ferry ride over to the island is less than an hour so I figure why not, right?

4. Quadra Island, Rebecca Spit Provincial Park
After my trip to Quadra last week, I know I will be back at least another couple times this summer. A trip is actually already in the works with me and some of my friends for the weekend of July 15th. This time around the weather will be nicer and I won't have to worry about rain coming into my little tent. Even though I've spent a couple days on the island now, I would still like to check out the north side and some of the other lakes.

5. Sooke Potholes
I was at the potholes for the majority of the summer last year. It's a big river that cuts through rock and leaves perfect cliffs for jumping. It's cool because as the river goes down there's no real current because there's all of these pool-like areas. Last year was the first year that people were able to camp at the park but I never got around to it. Seemed like the sites would get reserved pretty quick and we were left with just staying there for the day. The potholes are about a 45 minute drive from where I live so it's definitely manageable for a day trip. This year I'd like to reserve a couple sites and throw a big 2 day party.

So there you have it... This summer expect tons more video and photos than last year and I'll be sure to properly document each and every camping trip, drunken ramble, cliff dive, surf lesson and island I visit!

Saltspring Island + Pender Island

2006-06-25T12:25:00.000-07:00

I feel like a real dumbass when I forget to bring my camera to something sweet like yesterday afternoon when a friend and I bombed around the Gulf Islands in his friend from work's boat... It was good times though. We first went over to Sidney Spit, which is this island with a sandy spit on it really close to the town of Sidney. Drank some beers there and I took a piss off the back of the boat which was challenging. Then we went to Saltspring Island which took 40 minutes or so from Sidney Spit. Got there, I had an oyster burger at the Oystercatcher because earlier this week at work I heard some guy talking about them and how only real canadians eat oyster burgers and I've kinda wanted one since. It was good. Had a couple rum and cokes there too.

Then we went to the market that they have there every Saturday. I was kind of wasted at this point but I think it was about 4pm or something so the market was shutting down. We went to the cold beer & wine instead and ended up buying more beer for the boat ride.

Went back to the boat and took it over to Pender Island which was something like 10-15 minutes or something. Again, somewhat wasted at this point. Oh yeah and it felt like it was 30 degrees out too and I felt some heat stroke coming on.

First we landed at Poet's Cove which is this high-class dock place on the side of Pender Island. We went to the restaurant there and ordered some margaritas, drank them, then ordered another round but doubles because the first ones just tasted like lime. Then we left.

Went up to North Pender Island because Pender Island is actually two islands, North and South, and they are connected by this little bridge, which I would've taken a picture of when we drove under it but of course I'm retarded and forgot my camera. We had a bit of a discussion about which island we like more, Saltspring or Pender, and I decided on Pender because the landscape is better. Saltspring is cool and has some pretty sweet mountains but a lot of it is just shitty dry farm land where as Pender is a little smaller but is pretty much pure forest and there's just huge cliffs everywhere and tons of hills and mountains. Pender is also popular for its Disc Golf parks. I'm going to try that for sure this summer.

Anyways at North Pender Island we went into Browning which is the little town they have goin on there and we ordered some sweet nachos and I think I drank rum and cokes but I don't know for sure. The other two guys were going to camp there for the night but decided to just call it a day so we all got back into the boat and drank some more beers and drove back to Sidney.

The End.

PS: today I'm really sunburnt and it hurts.

It's True...

2006-06-24T01:57:00.000-07:00

Chris says:
LECKKK
hahaha
dude
we are chillen this summer
i dont care what you say
you are the leck
you started it all!!
hahaha
your the don mega NIGGAA
haha
ill call you tomrow

Brainwash

2006-06-23T11:56:00.000-07:00

Ah, so last night I must have fallen asleep to "True Hollywood Story," the Lindsay Lohan episode, and I had all of those shitty neo-glam fags in my dreams all night. You know the ones that obsess with the lives of celebrities and think it’s a huge deal when there's beef between Hilary Duff and Lohan or when Lohan goes shopping... shit like that. So it's like they were all talking to me about Lindsay Lohan and in my head I'm thinking "Ughhhhh WHY CAN'T I ESCAPE THIS DREAM!!!"

Then I woke up at 5:15am and walked out to my porch and the sun was coming up and I thought, "hmm that's weird," then went back to sleep.

And I guess the episode repeated itself some time this morning and the shitty dreams came back except this time I figured out what was happening inside my dream and I told myself to wake up. Sure enough, that bitch was on the TV screen and I thought, "Bitch, I know what you're doing... Don't brainwash me."

Then I watched it until a commercial came on.

With Courtesy...

2006-06-23T00:29:00.000-07:00

Having worked a couple shifts at my new job and made at par or more than my last job, I've really realized how much I hated my previous position. Sure I work nights but the reality of it is, I don't do much at night anyways. Having the day to do what I want (i.e. sleep in, go to the lake, get other things organized in my life), I feel that I'm at least five times less stressed than when I was being someone elses bitch for 9 hours. I honestly haven't felt this relaxed for over a year.

I can drink, eat fancy food and get high on caffine, all without leaving the confines of my workplace too.

Another thing that's really sweet right now is that I've been thinking a lot about past summers and who I used to hang out and all of the songs we used to listen to and the beers we used to drink and the cliffs we used to jump off and the parties we'd all go to and now it's like I'm trying to download all of those songs again and trying to make contact with these friends of mine in some sort of pathetic effort to retrieve what was of the previous summers because I'm scared that if I don't this might be one of those tipping point seasons where everyone just kinda loses touch and then it's off to making friends with the guys you work with or the assholes on the bus or whatever. You know what I mean.