Dream Country

Bottled up inside

2008-03-14T15:41:00.002-06:00

I appologize for the gap between blogs again. I really do keep meaning to update more often. Everytime I get on track to do so, somthing comes along and scres it up. There has been alot going on in my life recently and frankly work has been hellish.

There is however somthing I have been meaning to discuss. I have some time this afternoon so I thought it was time.

I can let loose and be a pretty crazy gy. But for the most part when it comes to dealing with anyone except my closest friends I like to present myself as a prefessional, well manered and respectable person.

SO when something awesome happens, that is totally brag and show off worthy, that would amaze, infatuate, and impress people I get put into a bit of a pinch. I WANT to brag, I want to make people jealous, but at the same time i don't want to be a jerk. What I have to brag about is not really all that appropriete to just go around talking about to just anybody. Some of the things i want to talk about would distress/disgust/upset people, and would deffiently make them look at me differantly...and maybe like me less. I actualy have only 2 people that I am able to brag to. One I barely ever talk to 'cause the O Dogg is always busy working on the road.

Its like I am 2 people. Now I know everyone has differant sides., but mine are like night and day.
Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde if you will.

I AM a wild and crazy person who has some insanly crazy adventures who does things that many people don't even think of. and I do things that others consider "un proper" and such.

and I AM a presentable, respecatble, mature person.

how the Hell do you deal with somthing like that?
Its hard, cause some times I come REALLY close to slipping up and saying the wrong thing to the wrong people.
So I am stuck being two people, and it sucks, why cant I just be one person all the time?

So yeah, I have done something awesome, but I can't openly talk about my awesomenes....GRRR

VACATION!!!

2008-02-08T14:49:00.000-07:00

Woot.

No work for TEN days. I am officialy off from now until 8:30 on the 19th. and DAMN does it feel good. Normally there is so much to do that taking a holiday is very stressfull, but I think I worked damn hard this week and I am already fully in relaxed mode.

I have been planing this time off for a bit now. One of my best friends who i never get to see cause his current base of opperations is Vancouver is coming.

My friend owen who i know if one of my few regualr readers is coming. I have to pick him up on Saturday. He isgoing to be in town until Thursday.

The only thing that sucks is he has to be back in Calgary at like 6:30 AM on Thursday...so that sucks.

I should be having an awesome game of Risk in the weekend. Heading up to Edmonton for a day, and all around just having a blast.

2 days after Owen leaves we will have a full house, its Amy's birthday next week and a pile of friends are coming down. We are going to dinner and then toboganning. Its gonna rock.

In other news I finally joined the Apple world and bought an ipod. Its not new, its not the best but it will work just fine for me. I got a 4th gen 40 GB ipod (read 37 on ebay. got what i think is an awesome deal. I have 10 hours of music on there so far and still have 36 GB of space. AWESOME. The only reason I got it is that i love listening to music at work, but my computers ound sucks REALLY bad, so that basically nothhing is listenable. and I HATE it. So thats why the ipod.

I have also been discovering some awesome new music recently and I am really enjoying that. So that works out well with the ipod as well.

Anyway, i am going to leave work early, so let my vacation officially begin.

I Like Plants

2008-01-31T15:11:00.000-07:00

In the last couple months I have become interested in house plants and my collection continues to grow.

Between My girlfriend and I we now have - 3 differant cacti, an Aloe Vera plant, a Holiday "cactus", a venus flytrap, a spider plant, and a mystery tree I got from work.

I love taking care of them and finding out about them. My Venus flytrap is already starting to grow new traps, and they are bright vibrant red.

I am in the process of getting a couple new plants soon.

The only problem is the lack of good lighted room in our house.

One of the most interesting things I have learned about is a type of plant called a
"cultigin"

Basically these plants can not survive without human interaction. they almost never go to seed and when they do they are usually not viable. they only grow and spread through cuttings.

I like the idea of a mutual almost symbiotic relationship with a plant. Its seems almost spiritual.

I am hoping to atain a cultigen in the next month or so. I cant wait.

Cloverfield rules

2008-01-22T15:49:00.000-07:00

Anybody else go see Cloverfield this week?

Me and some friends who have been following it since the beginning went opening night and it was awesome.

No spoilers here, just go see it. If you have problems with motion sickness be prepared for a spinning movie. but its worth it.

best part

some dude actually had a seizure in front of us. it was THAT good.

It will piss allot of people off with some UN answered questions, but who really cares. The best movies leave some things open to interpretation.

As a movie fan in general, regardless of genre and just for the love of the art this movie is amazing. In 1999 the Blair witch project tried to do what Cloverfield has succeeded in.
Being filmed on a "home camera" and still looks amazing.

The monster is freakishly huge, powerful and very well designed.

I WILL go see this again, and you should too.

This is the kind of movie that makes movies worth watching, with writers and directors and whole crews that want to take movies to a whole new place. and not just hash out the same crap over and over again.

so do me and yourself a favour. if you like movies and want to continue seeing new and awesome things. go see it.

a delay

2008-01-17T14:34:00.001-07:00

I was going to post an acctual post today, i promise i was....seriously.

however some things have come up and I am in no mood to talk about anything fun. In fact I am in one of the worst moods I can remeber being in in a really long time.

I was literally hyper-ventilating and shaking in anger before lunch. Then some more shit happend and I am even more pissed off. I wouldnt say I have calmed down but I have gaind a little control and composure back. maybe I will post what I planed on tomorrow....we'll see.

New Obsessions part 1.

2008-01-09T16:02:00.000-07:00

SO I have a few new obssesions these days.

Like many people I have been hooked by the evils of guitar hero III.

I had played a little of guitar hero II, but not much. While my room mate got GHIII for Christmas and its taken up alot of my time these days.

I started on easy but did really well on that from the start, so I moved on to medium. now I have gotten pretty good. I have got gold stars on almost all easy tracks and 5 regular stars on almost all medium tracks. I can get 95-98 percent on all medium tracks pretty much with out a problem. So I figured I was ready to move on to hard......HELL NO! Boy was I wrong. The jump from medium to hard is huge. I have only tried a few times but I have only been able to complete one song. So i think I will be practicing on medium for a long time to come.

I bought myself one of those 3rd party wireless guitars from wal-mart during boxing week sales. and I am so glad I did, my room mate and I have recently started playing co-op and its alot of fun.

I wish we had the earlier games so I could play some differant song, but that will come eventually I am sure. In the meantime I will display "constant vigilance " (bonus points to the identifier of the referance) and i WILL get good enough to complete hard one day. as for expert...forget it.

In other news...

Who knew Carmen Electra was "pretty" and not just hot

Seriously, i don't think it looks anything like her. Just search google images for Carmen electra and you'll see what I mean. Completly differant person.

Either way I am a big fan of this look.

Have a good night, talk to you soon. I promise

Jesus Christ Superstar

2008-01-04T16:30:00.000-07:00

I was very privilaged to be able to go to the recent production of JCSS last month.

It featured Ted Neely, the guy who played Jesus in the 1973 movie.

He is now 64 years old but man can he sing.

There were times where you could tell he lacked the power he once did,and it might have been preferable to have a younger person that would fit in with the age of the majority of the cast, but it was still such a treat to see him on his "farewell tour"

Plus Judas as played by Corey Glover from Living Colour was freaking cool...kept waiting for him to break out in "cult of personality"

Herod was awsome, probaly close to the best part of the show.

I was not as pleased with Pilot. I have always loved his parts, small though they are. So i suppose I was a little more critical.

It was a great show, I have been wanting to see it live for years but never had the chance before. And the fact that I was 5th row was pretty damn cool.

So yeah. if you ever get a chance to see JCSS do your self a favor and do it.

Wholly Crap

2008-01-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

So apparently I havnt posted in over 2 months....I feel really bad about this. But please to anyone that is still out there, forgive me and allow me to explain.

The last 2 months have been INSANE.

First of all its the busy tim eof year at work, Christmas, holidays, new year, etc, everyone changing thier copy but being impossible to get a hold of.

Second of all I have recently moved. Basically we started looking for a place October 15th and moved in October 28th. Then the unpacking, the moving in of a room mate, orginizing, setting up utilities, figuring out bills, buying stuff we need, etc.
Plus add in a weekend trip to Lethbridge mid november to see one of my best friends.

Third, Christmas holidays, booking time off, driving to visit the in-laws, shopping and all that.

Now I finally have some time to think about all the stuff I have been neglecting....Blog, writing, excerciseing, reading, etc.

So thats some of the big stuff from the last while. As for the small things that have been happening. Got to go to a few more shows: Blue man group, Jesus Christ Superstar, Korn. all great shows and highly enjoyable (more on JC another post)

Got spoiled over christmas, discovered some really cool things, have developed a new interest/hobby, no longer talking to a family member to name a few things. I will go into more detail on these and more exciting/interesting things at a later date...and I PROMISE that I will post somwhat more regularily....its a new years resolution.

Adventures in House Hunting

2007-10-25T16:42:00.000-06:00

So I am moving, or at least hope to be moving at the begining of November.

Had some interesting characters in our search for a place to live. We saw some amazing places for good prices, and unfortunetly we have had our hearts broken a couple times.

Its not 100% finalized but I should have a place to live by the end of the day.

Its a 3 bedroom townhouse, and its going to rock. My girlfriend and her brother and I will all be living there, and I can't wait. Her brother is awsome.

I am so excited and so disgustingly nervous at the same time. The housing market is so insane in these parts that it will be costing us a fair amount of coin. Hence why her brother is moving in with us.

We shoudl acctually be getting the first place we looked at, so we have had plenty of time to think about how we will set it up. I CAN'T Wait.

More news as it comes in.

Star trek

2007-10-18T15:42:00.000-06:00

So I admit it I am a geek...as if you didnt already know.

The only thing saving me from being the "24 year old geek that lives in his moms basement" is that she isnt around except for on weekends and I live there with my Girlfriend of 2 years.

Anyway, one of the geeky things about me is my love of star trek. Now I am not a huge read all the novels, own all the toys, know every single episode fan. I like watching the show and the movies, knowing bits about characters, have some conversations about it and it pretty much ends there.

Recently I bought all of the Next generation box sets. I got them all for about 43 bucks each, which is an great deal considering they retail for 60-80 and they were originally 180 when they first came out.

I have been watching them slowly. I am just 4 episodes into season 2. Here are my observations thus far.

The first season was great, but it only gets better from there.

For some reason the word. "reconnoiter" is used not once, but twice in the first 20 episodes.

as in

"Mr. Data, go and reconnoiter those tunnels and report back to me"

It is basically the same as "scouting" or "doing reconnoisance"...so why not just say scout? i have never as far as I remeber heard that word outside of those episodes.

Season 2 is good so far, but man i hate dr. Palanski. So glad she is only around for 22 episodes.

Weslye is a dink no matter how you look at it. he whines alot, his "uniform" and I use that lightly is terrible. but the worst part is, he acctually had alot of potential, hinted at in a vert early episode.

Originally i was going to guess that there was only 2-3 episdoes I had never seen before, however. based on the recent discovery that basically everything I thought took place around season 4, was acctually in season 2 and 3.

Riker grows a beard, Palanksi season, introduction of the borg, new uniforms, picard turned into a borg and a few others.

I am now going to estimate that in 178 episodes, there are 5-6 that I have never seen. mostly from season 6 and 7, and a very large number I have only seen once. at this point, 30 episdoes in. I am pretty sure I have discovered one. I will keep you up to date as much as I can.

but its time for me to go...to boldy go where no one has gone before......home after work.

Arrrrrg

2007-10-02T15:19:00.000-06:00

Okay, so one of these days I will get back into updating this thing on a regualr, or at least semi regular basis.

I have a few things to talk about, just havnt got around to it. so in the near future I will be talking about the following: 2 concerts, swimming, video games, Star trek and funny words, hair, and i might introduce a new reocuring feature.

so watch for that. and yeah in the mean time....enjoy a joke.

Image created from an original Dieselsweeties comic strip by Rstevens found here http://www.dieselsweeties.com/archive.php?s=1834

for more pixelated hilarity visit

www.dieselsweeties.com

S.O.D. out

Wooo...A PARTY!!!!

2007-09-10T15:53:00.000-06:00

I asked for a special Birthday cake.

Here are the results.

Take one Rubik's Cube, Scramble it until the colours are distributed as much as possible, avoiding as many same colours side by side as possible for reference.

Make 6 colours of Icing.

Bake 1 Butter pecan cake and 1 chocolate cake and put them together.

Followed by a White cake: Make sure to put a Piece of Tin-foiled Cardboard and icing between each layer.

With a Steady Hand Draw a Grid on all side of the Cake

Fill in all the Square's with differ ant colours, on Colour at a time

And you have a fully accurate, fully awsome, fully delicious, Rubik's Cube Cake.

When it comes time to Consume. Separate each layer, so each party going may choose which type they like. Each piece of cake is a cube, from the cube, amounting to 27 piece's of Cake....far more than needed at one of my Parties.

There you go. My most awesome birthday cake ever. Courtesy of my even more awesome Mom.

The only thing I could have done better was, when scrambelling the cube I was only worried with avoicing duplicate colours as much as possible. What i neglected to consider was distrobution. the Final Cake had only 5 Visable blue squares (the other 4 were on the bottom), but the full 9 Green and Red square. But that is a very minor thing in the shadow of how amazing the cake was.

Thanks for taking a look.

More to come.

Please "Digg" By following this link ( I dont know how to add a button)

http://digg.com/design/Most_Delicious_Rubik_s_Cube

wow time flies

2007-08-16T15:17:00.000-06:00

So i have been saying to myself for almost a month now "update blog" and it just keeps getting pushed back and i keep forgetting about it.

Anywho.

Its my birthday in just over a week. And all I really want...is to play a god damn game of risk. Is it so much to ask to get 5 other people together for a few hours to play a great game. Just sitting around, spending some time with friends.

Honestly it shouldnt be this hard. I have tried so many times, and it always falls apart.

Take for example the weekend of July 28th. It was a gorgeous 30+ degress for like 5 days straight. 2 weeks prior I had invited approximetly 25 people to come to my place, hang out in my backyard swimming pool, and then when it started getting cooler, heading inside. Video games, board games, snacks, movies, etc and for the select few...Risk. Would you like to know how many people showed up that day? ONE. one bloody person, my best friend, drove from Edmonton to come down. So my "pool party" turned into 2 guys sitting around in a pool for 5 hours.

And people wonder why I am bitter about so many things. I keep buying/ getting thing that should in theory entice people to venture to my house: a nintendo wii, multiplayer video games, cool movies, a giant risk board http://riskyventure.blogspot.com/, a backyard pool, a pool table, etc....yet no-one is willing to drive the 30 bloody minutes to my house. I am afriad to saying but I am pretty damn close ot giving up.
(I do have to give thanks to M & M for ventureing to my place a couple weeks ago, despite getting a new awsome TV)

So anyway, here we go again.

I have invited a bunch of people to my place for the weekend, just hanging out playing games, shooting the proverbial shit, snacks, movies, whatever. Now i don't expect to play Risk because I have invited people with no interest in the game over aswell.

However it sure would be nice if people replied to my message. Of all the people I have invited a grand total of 2 have even acknowledged me. and niether of them can come.

and people wonder why I am not on face book. Cause why the fuck would i join a place to "keep in touch with people" when nobody keeps in touch with me as it is. (more on my resistance to face book another time)

Anyway, last years "party" acctually went really well, so I hope this year will too. But if EVERY other attempt I have ever had at a get togther is any indication. I will be a lonley person on my birthday again this year.

A new shiny

2007-07-20T15:21:00.000-06:00

So as many of you know, and if you read the 50 things about me, you all know. I can solve the rubik's cube.

I learned about 4 years ago. For a while my obsession died down, but in light of a few differant things like, youtube, the 25th anniversary and teaching my girlfriend I have grown obsessed again.

So i have bought a couple differant ones, and then was in contact with a man who is famous for his giant rubik's cube collection. I asked him about a few differant things, inclduing what the value of a cube i have might be, should I want to sell it.

He told me a value and the asked for picture. So over the next few dyas we talked back and forth and I sent thge pictures. he told me he wanted it and offered me a nice sum for it, which is what I was gearing for when I asked how much it was worth, figureing he would not have this paticular cube as it is from a Calgary radio station. Instead of taking the money I asked about the possibility opf trading with him.

To which he agreed.

I shipped my cube on Wednesday last week at 5:30, and it was in his hands in Luxumburg in an astounding 4 days, he had it monday morning. My package from him arrived onm Thursday. and its amazing.

This is the cube he got from me (i still have one for myself)

The six sides are

Rolling Stones - let it bleed
Led Zepplin - ST
Pink Floyd - dark side of the moon
Beatles - Stg peppers
Eagles hotel california
Q107 radio logo (not shown)

I love the cube he sent me is made of metal and has the colours laser etched into the sides.

This picture simply doesnt do it justice, its a gorgeous item and is very heavy ( i still have to weight it)

Basically I just wanted to share it with you, because I think it is very cool.

Update

2007-07-18T15:34:00.000-06:00

I FINALLY updated my other "topical" blog.

sorry for the lack of doing so.

there will be more shortly, and hopefully another game soon.

http://riskyventure.blogspot.com/

check it out.

A beautiful racket

2007-07-05T15:04:00.000-06:00

So on Friday night last week I got tickets the White Stripes Concert that night in Calgary.

So it was a mad dash home, to pick up Mimi, and then off to Calgary for the Show.

I have been a Stripes Fan since pretty close to the begining.

We missed the opening act,. but it was a nobody anyway.

The Show was AMAZING. There were a few small thinsg to nitpcik at, but I have been raving about it all week.

First of all the stage was completly drapped in Red. Jack was dressed in all red , Meg had a red top and black pants.

The entire road crew (sound, tech, stage, etc) were all wearing black suites, fedora's and white ties. So instead of a greasy looking roadie coming out to fix a connection or what-not, you had a slick dressed professional looking guy, who looked like he belonged on stage.

Unlike the Roger waters Concert I can not give you a highlights section, because basically it was the entire show.

They played pretty much every song you can think of by the stripes, going all the way back to 1998. Including the haunting Cover of Jolene. All they missed was Hardest button to button, and fell in love with a girl. (that I can think of)

There was some pretty cool effects, lighting and sound wise., like during John the Revalator...not even sure how to describe it.

The White stripes are such an amazing band, Jack white has got to be one of the greatest Guitarist of our time if not all time. The sounds he coaxes out of his guitars shouldnt be possible. And though simplistic, Meg's drumming and her movements are infectious. On this tour they are loosing mony on Many of the Stops. Because to celebrate thier 10th anniversary, they are stopping in every province, and playing in some painfully small venues (the saddledome was an exception). They are also performing a number of "secret" shows on many of thier stops. So far they have included: on a city bus in Winnipeg, including Wheels on the bus, a bowling alley in Saskatoon , jack threw a few balls during the show, and a youth drop in centre in Edmonton.

I am very glad I got the opprotunity to see them live. One of my top bands.
It was deffinetly one of my fave shows.

many people say many of the White Stripes songs are just noise...but I have to say its certainly a Beautiful Racket.

Time to do some catch up

2007-07-04T15:25:00.000-06:00

Multiple posts coming.

First

Sunday June 24th I was in Edmonton for the Roger waters Dark Side of the Moon Concert. This was my first big Concert with my Girlfriend (been to many smaller ones)

It was a great show, and really great seats (they better be for 1 buck 60 a piece...luckily we didnt pay...thanks again DDH)

The thing I noticed most about the show was the errie stillness. I have been to many concerets in my time, some heavy, some mellow'ish..but notthing prepared me for this. It was assigned seating on the floor, which is just fine. But the people...just stood there. Yeah there was the occasional fist in the air, lighters, and chering, but all in all a very calm, non-active crowed. I relaise that Pink Floyd is not your most energetic, but it was still a strange experiance.
Mimi is a huge Floyd fan, so I know that she greatly enjoyed the show.

Highlight for me include:

Vocal solo by Carol Kenyon (?) on the The Great Gig in the Sky, just amazing power and range.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8k7dBwSlGRA

The new song: leaving beiruit - very good, very funny video to go along with it.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-nprJ88OfF4

The props: flying pig, falling spaceman,
http://youtube.com/watch?v=C4GP69Oevjw, http://youtube.com/watch?v=ngpSapzaopA

and of course the Dark side cover brought to life. I can't find a video that even comes close to doing it justice. Think of the cover, make it 3-d with lasers and make it spin..then increase the cool picture in your mind by 3000 times. then you will be close.

A Crying Shame

2007-06-28T11:48:00.001-06:00

So a while back Jack white of the White Stripes wrote a song FOR Coca-cola to be used in a commercial. He didnt want to use another one of his songs but agreed to do a new one. kind of cool, its like half artistic credability-half selling out. Anyway. the commercial was made in a very white stripes fashion. But then it was only aired in Austrailia and ONCE in the UK. NEVER in the west. The white stripes are huge here, and its a great commercial. So as the Title says...What a shame. But thanks to the wonderfull invetion called the in-net-tra-web. It can be shared with all of you...so thats what I am doing...enjoy.

So Whats New WIth you?

2007-06-25T13:42:00.001-06:00

So ignore number 5 on the previous list....My friends suck.

I was orginizing a risk game. made sure i had the basement cleaned, bought snacks, got the trophy finally. it was all set. and then everybody bailed. The one that bugs me the most is one friend is moving to Ontario for 3 months in the next few weeks. I wanted to get him involved in the game. So he was the first person I called.. yeah he bailed. along with everyone esle. so yeah, my all the friends I have had the longest. Currently they suck.

Anyone out there interested in playing risk? drop me a line.

As mentioned above the Basement is fiannaly cleaned. I feel so much better now. its somthing I have been meaning to get done for a really long time. Now I will have time to sort through more of my crap and get rid of it/better orginzine it and spend some time with more of my Hobbies, most notably I want to start learning to play guitar again.

I finally got to go in my pool on Saturday. It was still damn good upon entry but once you got moving around i warmed up nicely.

I guesse thats about it for now. Went to a concert last night, more on that later.

50 posts, 50 things

2007-06-19T11:05:00.000-06:00

Another stolen Idea but a damn good one.

In honor of my 50th "blog" here is a list of 50 things you may or may not have know about me.

50: I can Solve The Rubik's Cube in less than 3 minutes on average.

49: I have a cat named Whisper because when we got her she made no sounds.

48: The first CD I ever owned was Bryan Adams: 18 til I die from 1996, I now have over 350.

47: I lived in BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, and PEI for 3+ months each in a 16 month period.

46: I am addicted to tea: Regular, black tea, very strong, milk and sugar...blame my mom.

45: My Hair has not been its natural colour for more than 3 months since I was in grade 9.

44: I have had a pine tree for over 16 years and it is barely 2 feet tall. My own personal dwarf.

43: I own over 75 pez dispensers, and I never wanted a Pez collection...but I do love candy.

42: I have met former Prime Minister Jean Chretien..

(and many other famous people,but thats another post)

41: I was in a Movie with Mellisa Gilbert of Little house on the Prairie...no you can't see it.

40: I was in a marching band for 6 years and never learned an instrument.

39: Once upon a time I held 7 individual and 2 team club records on the Innisfail team.

38: I now only hold 1 individual and 1 team.

37: I personally sold at least 16 copies of Howls moving castle by Dianna Wynne Jones.

36: I didnt know my fathers real name untill I was 13...(he goes by a nickname)

35: I would like to be some kind of "Alternative fashion"model.

34: I have a musical autograph collection with over 50 signatures.

33: I take horrible pictures, either in front or behind the lense.

32: I have had my Eyebrow pierced for over 5 years.

31: I HATE Will Ferrel, just not as funny as everyone thinks.

30: I love cartoons and still watch them on a fairly regular basis.

29: I sang in a Choir on a Christian Hymn CD as a child.

28: I never took biology, physics or chemistry.

27: I have two Nieces and Two Nephews aged 2-6

26: I LOVE Scrabble. i own 5 differant boards and the dictionary. I LOVE Scrabble.

25: I HATE Clue, I'm just no good at it, but i reallt should be. I HATE clue.

24: I want so badly to be on the air and in commercials, but I HATE my voice.

23: I bite my nails worse then just about anyone you will ever meet.

22: The only time I dont bite is when I wear nail polish...I like the pretty colours.

21: I still have all my wisdom teeth

20: I quote movies and cartoons constantly, weather its relevant or not

19: My girlfriend HATES that.

18: I strongly belive that one of the coolest things EVER is Bioluminescence.

17: I have an allergy that makes me sneeze at least 10 times a day and I have no idea what it is.

16: I saw my first musical in May, if it wasnt 1000's of miles away I would go over and over.

15: I almost died when I was 4, from drinking somthing my brother got in austrailia.

14: I can tear a Red Deer Phone book in half

13: I Can juggle

12: I can Contact Juggle (you might have to look that one up)

11: I taught myself to Ride a unicycle

10: I DO NOT want to be a clown or in the circus

9: One of these facts is a lie.

8: I am a trekkie and proud of it.

7: An ex that hurt me really bad is also one of my best friends and favorite people in the world.

6: I once had huge crush on a girl I could'nt even communicate with.

5: I don't have lots of friends, but those I have are pretty darn good.

4: I love swords and will one day have a large collection.

3: I am very disturbed that THIS is a guy and that I still find my self thinking "Damn She's hot".

2: This post was acctually way harder than expected and I have no idea how AW did 100.
1: I have what many would call an unhealthy obsession with Queen. I have SO much queen stuff. Every Album, all the live stuff, all the official dvd', box sets, almost all the solo stuff, posters, figures, tour programs, multiple copies of some albums (all differant versions) I have LOTS. Friends are convinced I dont listen to anything else. Its pretty extreme, I admit it.Oh well, its a passion, and face it...they kick ass.

A note to Mother Nature

2007-06-19T11:01:00.000-06:00

YOU SUCK.

So I mentiond a bit back that I bought a Pool. the day I bought it, it was like 33 degree's. Since I set up the pool , 2 weeks ago we have barely reached 20. YOU SUCK. I finally get a pool and its too flipping cold to use it.

In other news, my basement is finally almost cleaned up and I am 90% done setting up a game of risk for the weekend which I sm super excited about. A buddy (the winer of the first game) is moving away for like 3 months, so I want to get another game in before he is gone.

Mimi is still looking for employment, we are hoping to hear from a guy from IBM any time now. that would be just about the best place to start as far as I am concerned.

We are head to Edmonton this weekend for the Roger waters Concert on Sunday night. A cooworker who had tickets that he couldnt use was awsome enough to pass them on to me. WHOO I love free stuff.

Thats about it...basically THIS post was just an excuse, so I could move on to the NEXT post.

On-ward

Amazing Scientific Discovery

2007-06-11T11:06:00.000-06:00

I forgot to include this on the blog aboyut the trip, but that may be for the better, because it may have been lost. so here it is. the most amazing scientific discovery made on my trip.

My Smelly Feet acctually Smell like...

Doritos.

Thats right. Regular amazingly delicious Nacho Cheese Doritos.

Let me explain.

While walking around Quebec City it was raining. my feet got wet...soaked in fact. My shoes are old and leak. and when really wet the colour stains my socks with blue spots.

So after Hours and hours of walking in the wet, sweaty shoes. I was finally able to remove my socks when we got on the train and put new ones on. I just stuffed my socks in my bag.

The next morning I opened my bag and was greeted by the smell of my socks.

It was strange, but not entirely revolting. I was curious so I took a closer smell. After a few moments to think about it I determined that it was in fact Nachos that I was smelling.

My girlfriend agreed with the assesment, but I still needed confirmation.

When we arrived back in Edmonton, and I met up with a friend I asked if he wanted to smell...of course he said no, but I knew he would anyway. And sure enough, he also aggreed.

So there you have it, my smelly feet in fact smell like nacho cheese doritos. I have no idea how this can be a good thing, but it certainly can't be bad.

Its Friday

2007-06-08T16:01:00.000-06:00

Yup another Friday afternoon, and I am updating my blog.

I have decidced against a full detail of the trip as I have been telling it all week. and If you look back you will be a break down of the trip as it was planned.

instead here is a much condesed version.

The First train to Vancouver was 2 hours late, but absolutly beuatiful.

Vancouver was wet but fun, didnt do much the first night, just walked around and got wet. Got a decently nice hostel for both nights in the city.

victoria: 6+ hours of travel round trip and about 6 in the acctuall city. Some great street performers, some beautiful buildings, all in all a nice relaxing day in a great place.

Vancouver again. much nice day, wandering around the GIANT china town district. sadly we were unable to visit with the couple friends I have there.

3 days on the train: this was beautiful, lots fun, lots of movies, great people, decently comfortable seats.

the BAD part of the trip. the train getting to Toronto was 5 hours late, we missed out bus, got kicked out of the train station and had to spend 4-5 hours sitting at a 24 hour tim hortons, before being allowed into the bus station the following morning. It makes a great story, but the thing is, we have recieved NO explination as to why this happned, we were stranded in downtown Toronto, with no compisation. I will be on the phone with via customer service for the next long while i Garuntee you that.

Bus to barrie. Sleep off the all nighter. spend a day with family friends, and some really great kids, jumping on a tramoline, washing laundry and just relaxing.
back to toronto. do some shopping, buy the most kick ass shirt and found the most kick ass comic shop.
At 2:00 we went to the Queen: We Will Rock You Musical. I was set up for this to suck. It had so much potential to do so. but it was Awsome. the seats seriously could not have been better. and yes i will say it. They did in fact rock me.
next I got together with my awsome newfies friend that I have not seen for close to 5 years. we went out for dinner and just visited for hours. then we went to a super late movie. then pulled another all nighter before getting on another train... this time to Ottawa.

With the arrival in ottawa, came the return of Hockey. Day one of the Stanley Cup Finals and the city was electrified. We did some shopping, saw the cool buildings and got to hold 300,000 dollars in solid gold. Stayed in another hostel. then it was off to Montreal.

Our time in Montreal was limited. We went to the Gardens, visited with a friend and that was about it, then off to Quebec.

We walked to the Hotel, and I suprised Amy with staying at the Quebec equvilant to the Banff Springs hotel. They upgraded are room, which was awsome. the next morning we had a large number of miss-adventures in the city trying to find things I remebered from 2002. Then it was on one last train to Halifax.

This was another Via rail gong show. but i wont bother getting into it.

In halifax we saw some sights, watched a movie, saw the atlaantic and then got a really expensive Cab to the Airport. Spent some hours there, then got on the plane for home.

and thats really it. it summery. Via rail the company sucks, via rail the acctual ride is cool. I miss my old friends and didnt get to see enough of them that I wanted. If i lived intoronto I would be seeing the Musical as often as possible. I live in the wrong part of the country. We didnt have enough time in a lot of place, and way to much in some.

If your going to take the train, dont plan to make lots of stops in all the cities, its was to stressfull. but if you are interested in following in my footsteps, I can give you a pretty good, slightly used, out line of a 14 day trip.

thats it, time to finish up and head home.

I'm Baaaaaack

2007-06-04T16:28:00.000-06:00

Thats right my whirlwind 16 day holiday is over and I am back home and at work.

Nice relaxing day back behind the desk. I will give you a great story of the ups and downs of my trip tomorrow (if all goes well). For now a little teaser of what you can look forward to.

late transport, old friends, amazing shows, not so good shows, rude people and amazing discovery's.

in other news, I am now the pround owner of a pool. I got home and promptly bought a 12 foot pool. It was on a kick ass sale at the ol' toys r us. It took like 7 hours to fill and it was cold as hell, but it rocks. can't wait for a pool party.

minutes to midnight

2007-05-17T10:20:00.000-06:00

Okay I lied. I had to make another post today.

So i reviewed the Korn album the other day. while i have another review for you...but dont worry its much less detailed.

Linkin Park - Minutes to midnight,

This is LP's third full studio album, its been 4 years since thier last offering....AND IT SUCKS.

Okay so I have only listend to it once, but it was all i could do to get through that. I have been waiting for this album for a long time (previously stated 4 years)/ and even though I knew it would happen I was hoping I would not be terribly dissapointed. There is far less "rocking" than previous offerings. Chesters "rage" voice is all but missing. while his singing time is greatly increased. I have always been a fan of both , but with the balance shifted the other way. lots of rage with some owsome singing bits.W

ith thier first 2 albums I found myself listening to them over and over again right from the start. i didnt even want to finish this one.

Which is a real shame because my one complaint I have always had about linkin park is both albums are just 36 minutes long. This one is almost 10 minutes longer, which is a nice improvement...or at least it would be if it wasnt 6 more minutes of suck

Your telling me that in 4 years all you could come up with was 42 minutes?

anyway, I will listen to it some more, maybe my judgment is a little premature. we'll see. But notthing really caught my ear enough to warrent it. I am only giving it more time to maybe "grow on me" because I have been such a fan. I will let you know if my oppinion changes.

But at this time i just have one more things to say. I am so glad I am a Pirate and didnt just buy it on Tuesday like i normally would have.

Update before the storm

2007-05-17T09:43:00.000-06:00

Okay so here's the news.

My girlfriend is FINALLY officially my roommate. Since Sunday and its been great. I have some one to talk to and to hang out with. its awsome.

This last week has been crazy getting as much out of the way before my trip as possible.

I am leaving for 2 weeks, part of which is over the start of a new month. So basically i had to try and have as much of the next 2 weeks done ahead of time. I think I have done a pretty damn good job, so my coworkers will have a minimum of stuff to cover for me.

And this week has been all the finalizing of plans, and details and making sure i have EVERYTHING I need for the trip. Its been a crazy run. but We leave on Saturday. I am now incredibly excited and nervous at the same time. Its been a lot of planning and there are a lot of things that could potentially go wrong. But I am sure it will all be fine.
I will be sure to take lots of pictures and post them on here eventually.

Other than trip planning, working and Moveing My girlfriend in, I have been playing lots of video games, and working on the house.

See you all after the trip.

Freaky Friday

2007-05-04T17:18:00.000-06:00

Well, not really anything freaky about it, i just needed a title.

Its after 5, work is over, but I am waiting for Amy to arrive in town before we go to Spider Man 3 with M & M.

I got a new cd today..it acctually came out back in feb/march, but I just got it.

So i am going to give you a review of it.

Korn MTV Unplugged.

The MTV Unplugged series is a little hit and miss. Some great shows have been recorded but never released, others have been released but sucked. Luckily there are also those that kicked ass and were released. Luckily, I feel that Korn is one of those.

Now many people have been less than impressed with Korn most recent string of albums...basically anything since Follow the leader. I on the other hand like all of it.

Now and accoustic albnum is somthing of a differant story. This is a band that collectivly normally has 19 strings, a drum set and a dedicated singer, all of whom deffinetly have thier dials turned up to 11. and are considered the fathers of "nu-metal"

The albums starts out with a signature track and one of Korns most popular. Blind,. there is heavy emphisis on the percusion element of this song, I found Johnathans voice paticularily stong on this track, its nice to here a track from the early angry screaming korn. love the instrumental at the end.

With out a break the band moves right into Hollow life, which takes on a very errie, melodical sound, even more so than the original. by being slowed down and having the volume dropped, this song while keeping the original idea, takes it further and to a simple and at the same time more complex place

Amy lee from Evanescene is introduced for a duet version of korns biggest hit, Freak on a leash (see previous posting), which is also the only single thus far. As much as I love korn, and as much as I love Amy lee. this colaberation had much more potential than result. Not to say I dont like it, i do very much. but it could have been even better. For me the song kind of falls apart from 2:45-3:10, when normally john goes nuts All we get is him saying "go" over and over again, while amy does her opera-chanting that see is so damn good at....I felt a little ripped off by the lack of john involvement, but the rest is about as good as it gets.

the next track in Falling away from me , this song began as a powerfull anthem about anti-abuse (the video had the number for the kids help phone at the end). Although the errieness returns and the power of the message is presented in a differant way, i felt that it lost the same impact. However the entire band player very well on this track.

This is like a dream come true. a fave band covering a fave song. Korn singing Radioheads Creep after a small dedication from Johnathan. This is notthing short of amazing. They capture the original as only korn could., sad, strong, defient..amazing.. i would love to here a studio version of this.

Love Song a track from the most recent Korn album. Hard, heavy, angry, just unplugged, not much else to say about it.

Got the Life: I have to admit that my expectations for this song may have been a little high. This was THE song that got me into korn. I love this track, its one of my faves. It was performed well, but i think the percusion and everything became to cluttered, there was too much going on for an accoustic track....maybe its just not the same with out John wearing that bright green fur trench coat and it lacked the "rum-biddy-boo" thing

Twisted transistor /coming undone these 2 songs are newer songs, so havent been around as long to have developed as much of a place in my heart , so i cant critique them as much. hoever Twisted transistor lent it self paticularily well to the accoustic intruments, the rythem was perfect for it. of the 2, TT was better.

The next track is a medly of sorts, Make me bad, and In between days.The second colaberation of the set, this time with Robert Smith and the Cure. Not sure waht exactly to say about this one. John Davis had a marilyn manson esqu drawl for parts of the song, it started out as make me bad with Roberts smith on background then flawlessley moved into "in between days", with John on Backing vocals, then back again. it could very well have been one song originally. Beautifull. (as a side note I make a great Roberts smith for 80's parties.)

The final track was Throw me away. It starts out with a japanese taiko drum set. which was very cool. I felt this was an odd track to finish the set with. but it was done very well, again though, maybe a little too much going on with the percusion and other stuff. COuld have been toned down.

and thats how the disc ends. There were a few more track recorded that for one reason or another are not included: thoughtless, dirty, and no ones there. I would have liked to seen thoughtless if notthing else. All in all i quite like the disc and think it was a fitting rebirth to the MTV unplugged series....now i just want the dvd.

I promis ethe next review i do will not be a complete track by track break down, i just had lots of time tonight.

Heros heros heros HEROS

2007-05-03T16:17:00.000-06:00

Seriously if you dont watch heros...WHATS WRONG WITH YOU.

I admit I was a late comer to the series...not for lack of interest, but for not being a big TV watch, so I downloaded them all to get caught up.

Let me list some of the things thats make this show great

Super powers, a huge cast, time travel, exploding cities, star trek referances galore, people ripped in half, swords, awsomeness, malcom macdowel, cliffhangers, flashbacks,uber-coolness, semi-canabalism, people being throw off buildings, comics books,george takai, sulu (yes he needs mentioning twice) cross promotion, its kicks ass, lost is the equivilant to the Geico cave-man pilot in comparison, and that only describes the average episode...never mind the best most awsome one.

Seriously, find a way to watch this show... this is seriously MUST WATCH televisin (or at least download)

Something vexes me

2007-05-02T14:35:00.000-06:00

Somthing has been bugging me recently...okay its always bugged me, but more so lately.

Its no secret that besides my girlfriend i have little to no social life. Never have. This has been made more pronounced by the fact that I live in a differant town from where I work. Any friends that I do have live in the town I work in. So its virtually impossible to convice ANY of them to venture a short 20-30 minute drive to hang out at my place. This is endlessly aggrevating.

I have many things to do at my place and I am always adding to the options. I have a pool table, countless video games, and a full cubboard full of board games. Over the last year I have made sure to expand my multi-player video games and purchased extra controls for friends to use.
I have also spent a decent amount of money on board games.

Recently I went on a crusade and had a 3 foot by 5 foot risk board custom printed. (somthing that i am often critisiced and ridculed for)
I have also purchased a Nintendo wii system.

The reason I have been doing these things and buying these things is in hope of. hopefully, maybe at some point, one day being able to convince people to have a little get togther for some fun and games....TO NO FUCKING AVAIL. I spent weeks trying to arrange game of risk with co workers. I have since given up that idea.

So all i can feel is that I have wasted so much money in the 12 months, because all i have accomplished is more games for me to play by myself and a smaller bank account. its VERY frustrating.

on top of that, there is part 2 of my vex'ed'ness

At work we have sports teams, joining local leauges and such (softball, footbal, vollyball, etc)
I have NO interest in any of these sports and I suck at all of them.

Coworkers also get together at the bar for drinks and wings or what ever. I dont drink and people who know me, know that spending money on stuff that dissapears instantly (food, candy, etc) is not my thing.
Not being part of these teams or going to the bar for a "staff function" is something that I am also often critisiced and ridculed about...

here is an example:
Are you coming out to "Event x"
no
why not
dont feel like it
why not
oh i have stuff to do
oh come on, your not doing anything
i have company coming for the weekend
so bring them along
nah, we have plans
like what?

and it goes on and on like that, or I simply get accused of being anti-social.

So i dont play your damn games , well, you don't play mine either.

Sick of the wait

2007-05-02T13:57:00.000-06:00

In October of 2005 I met my girlfriend, we got to see each other pretty much every day until the end of April 2006. School was over, I came back to innisfail, she to St.Paul.

We for the most part managed to see each other every couple weeks and then only on weekends.
it has had to continue that way ever since, because I graduated and she had another year.

All along its always been "just until the end of april", "we only have to keep doing this until you graduate"

I am so tired of having to say goodbye, only getting to talk to her in email or on the phone and I am SO sick of missing her. At one point it not so bad, 2 weeks was long but it was manageable, but it soon got to a point where 1 week was barely tolerable, and at the end of the semester it got to the point where we missed each other by tuesday at the latest (after seeing each other sunday)

But now here we are, its the end of April, in fact its the begining of May, and she is graduated. and i still have to wait to see her.

All of her stuff has been moved in, but she has not. We decided that before she moves in,. we go on our trip and she has to get a job that she should go home and visit with family and friends for a couple weeks.

so now "the end of april" has turned into the "middle of may", and then we quickly leave for our treip, which is great, its together constantly, but she is still not really moved in.

I am just so impatient for it, but its ALMOST over.

Her and her brother should eb down this weekend, bring some more stuff that she needs, and taking alot of stuff she doesnt when theyt leave.
the following weekend I will be going up there for a visit, and for her brothers bitrhday, and I will be taking mor eof her stuff we dont need. then bringing her back with me to stay.

and then we start our trip.

all I can say is i am SOOOO glad the wait is almost over.

Trip of the century

2007-04-24T12:13:00.000-06:00

okay so i lied about the whole "update on friday" thing. but not on purpose. I had the following entry all typed up and the the internet died (gerri halliwell is at it again)

First of all let me say that the planning of this trip has been a logistic nightmare, and you will see why as you read it.

So with out further adeu, here is an in depth description of my first trip taken with acctual "vacation time" with my lovely Girlfriend

May 18th: after work. We will finish our packing and then ake are way to Edmonton, where we will spend the night at a friends.

May 19th: We will get up bright and early and head to the Via Rail train station where we will board our first of many trains at 8:55am, Where will will spend the next 24 hours on our way to vancouver.

May 20th: we arrive in Vancouver and will spend the entire day, touristing and visiting with friends, and dipping a toe in the Pacific ocean and then we will spend the night there. (lodgings TBD)

May 21st: Getting up early and taking the Ferry to Vancouver Island to Spend Victoria day in *GASP* Victorian, and then taking the last ferry Back and Spending another night in Vancouver (lodgings TBD)

May 22: Most of the day spent in Vancouver doing some last touristing/visiting and then its on the Train at 5:30 PM.

May 23-24: these 2 days will be spent entirely in the train from Vancouver through to Toronto.

May 25th: Arrive in Toronto at 8:00pm. We will then get ona Bus at 10:00pm to Barrie Ontario where we will spent the night at an old family friends place.

May 26th: This entire day will be spend in Barrie, visiting, relaxing, washing clothes and restocking on snacks and we will spend the night again.

May 27th: Bright and early we take a bus back to toronto. we will have a couple hours to do what ever. At 2:00 we will be seated to watch the Queen: We Will Rock You Musical. After the show we will hit young street, much music, the CN Tower and other touristy things, and then catch a late movie (shrek 3 , pirates 3, spiderman 3). The idea is to kill as much time as possible before heading to the train Station where we will spend a few hours. because the train leaves early.

May 28th: We will take the train to Ottawa early. In ottawa we will go to a few museum, see all the cool building, head to the parliment and such. and we will spend the night. We have not decided where yet. A friend may be able to get me a sweet deal on a hotel, if not we will stay at the International Hostel which is in the old Prison. You acctualy sleep in the old cels complete with bars.

May 29th: We take the train to Montreal. Where we will spend around 8 hours with friends and doing a couple touristy things. We would have gone to Cirque Du Solie, but they are randomly closed that Tuesday. We leave for and arrive in Quebe City in the early evening. We then check into our beautiful Hotel and have some down time to relax and such.

May 30th: We will spend most of the day in Quebec city, seeing the sites, wandering old Quebec, Maybe do some shopping, and going to all the cool places I remeber from when I was there in 2002., including the coolest little resteraunt ever. We will get back on 1 final train at 9:00pm.

May 31st: After spending our final 18 hours on the train we will arrive in Halifax Nova Scotia at 4:30 in the afternoon. We will do some touristy stuff, go out for dinner, dip a toe in the atlantic ocean, do alot of time killing and go to the latest movie we can find (Shrek 3, Spiderman 3 or Pirate 3, whatever we havnt seen yet) As late as possible we will take the $50 cab ride to the airport.

June 1st: Arriveing at the airport as early as possible, we will kill some time before our 6:00am flight takes off. We have a brief stop in Toronto, where we get off one plane, board another and take off within 45 minutes. We will arrive back in Edmonton at just after 10:00am. At which point we will make our way back to Innisfail. The original plan was to spend the remainder of the weekend in Edmonton with friends, but i recently got an email from a more distant friend who is going to be in red deer that weekend, so we are going to visit with her instead. (although that could still change if she doenst get the time off)

June 2-3: these 2 days will be spent with one of my best friends, relaxing, and recouperating from the hectic journy.

June 4th: Back to work.

there you go: 8 provinces, almost every capital city in the country, 2 oceans, 6 trains, 2 planes, 2 buses, 2 ferrys, almost 8500 kilometers on land, approximetly 5000 more in the air, close to a dozen old friends, a musical, the tallest building in the world, countless tourist traps, and endless number of memories in 14 days.

So needless to say the planning of this trip is taking ALOT of my time.

next update: soon in regards to a major event in my life.

An attempt at rebirth

2007-04-17T21:29:00.000-06:00

Okay okay, so I promised this a long time ago. I keep putting it off, decideding if I even want to continue this blog. Well I have been told by a couple people that they acctualy read this thing. so here goes...getting ready for a long one or at least multiple entires. Cause belive it or not stuff has acctually been happening in my life....which makes the fact that I didnt update at all even worse.

So remeber way back in February when I ended up in the Ditch? well its still costing me money. On top of the tow truck and the fixing of my tire. I hav recently had to get some work done on my brakes, some part was badly bent and the mechanic says he has never seen anything like it.
When i went in the ditch one of my mud flaps came off, it took a small amount of body with it...well that small amount of body has now turned into a big hole...so i have to get that fixed sooner rather than later. so yeah not fun.

On the plus side of life and there is acctually more plus than minus here.

I am getting a rather large income tax rebate, so thats super cool...so I can afford to get the work done on my car at least.
And i also decided to FINALLY get a cd player put in my car, got a cool deck from Canadian Tire and had the awsome guys at Vibe Car audio hook me up...i am VERY PLEASED.

What has been accupying most of my time recently?

getting fit, going to teh gym almost everyday, excersiceing at home, and swimming as many mornings as I can crawl out of bed.

but even more time consuming is the planing of the vacation my girlfriend and I are going on at the end of may. Its big, its bold, its expensive. more on the trip next post (Friday at the latest I REALLY promise this time)

Plus there is alot of work around the house going on and prepareing for my girlfriend to move in with me at the end of the month. FINALLY.

so there you go, I think I managed to keep that relativly painless. but there will be more to come.

whatever

2007-03-29T15:51:00.000-06:00

yes its been a long time since i posted anything.

not that anybody cares, but I am acctually still alive and doing my thing...which even i dont know what it is.

I would like to say that I have been busy, but that of course is bull shit.

I will make a real post soon...i promise....maybe

DONE DONE DONE

2007-02-28T21:55:00.000-07:00

UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE.

go to

riskyventure.blogspot.com

the board is done, thats right DONE.

check it out, make sure to read it all for a full explination

the risk project advances

2007-02-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

I have created a new blog...dont worry this is still my main residence.

the blog i am talking about deals entirely on my giant risk board project mentioned earlier.

This was not my idea, that honour goes to co-worker.

so check it out and if you could be so kind, spread the word, tell your freinds, the more people that know about it, the more possibilities of acctually getting it done.

let me know what you think.

http://www.riskyventure.blogspot.com/

update to THIS blog coming soon.

YAY Pictures, meet my friend

2007-02-22T10:55:00.000-07:00

hey, now that i can acctually post pictures to my blog i am going to re-share my friends music page. Please visit her myspace, have a listen and if you like what you hear head over to CDbaby and buy a copy of her cd.

This is my friend.

This is her album cover

This is her myspace

http://www.myspace.com/eccentricitymusic

You can buy her Cd Here

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/eccentricity

and on Itunes.

Please Check it out.

MORE PICTURES TO COME

The PLAN

2007-02-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

So i have a new current obsesion.

Because of the game of risk from the weekend, i have decided to go big.

Near the end of the game my girlfriends brother had the 2 smallest countries, iceland and great britain. he also had like 40+ armies on those two places. obviously there was not enough room.

So as we were sitting there, playing risk on my pool table i got to thinking. wouldnt it be great to have a pool table sized risk board?...and the wheels began to turn.

in the last 4 days that idea has evolved a couple of times. The original idea involved a large piece of paper, a overhead projector and transparency paper, and lots of time drawing the map on the wall.

It was decided that, that would take FAR to long and way to much work. it would be much easier to get it profesionally printed. it would also be able to be put on a more durable material, and there-for prevent it from getting wrecked.

the idea has also evolved to include; large dice and little push sticks to move the armies around, like the old world war II era military campaigne rooms....like this one from Uxbridge.

(my first blog, picture, it acctually worked, wholly crap)

picture it, 6 people gathered around a 7x3 foot map of the world, pushing thier armies around in a massive game of risk. perosnally i think it is a wonderfull idea, and most that i have told about it agree.

now the biggest problem comes down to cost.

aside from the time involed in making it on my own the overhead projector version would cost about 30 bucks (for the transperancy sheets and the paper) i think...and thats before trying to get it laminated to protect it, and not even counting all the differant colours of markers or paints i would need....and thats just for the map.

I have no idea how much the professionaly printed version will cost (but i have sent away for an estimate) but it would be faster and MUCH easier and higher quality. so i broke it down a little bit to make comparisons to see how much would be worth spending on it.

50-100 dollars for a concerts =2.5 hours of entertainment

$10.50 plus snacks for 1.5 hours of movie

average new board game costs 30-60 dollars (scene it, dvd trivial pursuit, etc)

tim hortons coffee once a day for a month = about 50 bucks a month.

so really, if i were to play 5 games, each averageing 4 hours, thats 20 hours., if it was a 100 dollar map, that would be like 5 dollars an hour. and the more games i play (which i would plan on) the more cost effective it would become.

the dice, and the sticks could be added to the game over time. the most important part is the map.

I also thought about turning the game into a semi-regular gathering, have it like a poker tournament. say a $10 entry fee. half goes to food and prizes, the other half goes into the pot, which the winner gets to keep. we could even have a trophy that gets passed around. i think that would be very cool.

So i will look into it/work on it over the next little while, i'll let you know if it happens,

in the mean time....UNICORNS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5im0Ssyyus

A game of Risk

2007-02-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

I love Risk and so rarely get to play, somthing i intend on changing, especially after this weekend.

My girlfriend and her brother came to visit on Sunday. We didnt do to much, sat around, played video games ( i now love guitar hero, but suck at it).

Sunday night we decided to play a game of risk. there was only 3 of us but it was a really great game. noone was eliminated really fast, it was fairly evenly matched throughout.

My girlfriend ended up winning, by the last turn it was obvious that she was going to, but i thought i could prolong it a little while....but man did the dice work against me.

with no hint of exageration at all. there were AT LEAST 50-60 rolls of the dice involved in her final attack every single one of them had at least one 5....and thats at least. i would say 10 of the rolls were tripple 5's, there were multiple 6's, but ALWAYS one 5.

to give you an idea of just how badly she kicked my ass with those dice. at one point she was attacking my Ural from her Afganistan. i had about 20 armies, she had 26...she took Ural with 24 armies...thats right she destroyed my 20 and only lost 2. and this trend continued til she took close to 14 country's.
in the end, the world was over run with soldiers dressed in bright pink fatigues.

It was fun, i loved it and am much looking forward to another game. hopefully with more people.

Make Love the Old Spice way

2007-02-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting for this for a while and its now online so i have to link to it, bruce campbell is so awsome..pretty sure this is basically playing on his book "make love the bruce campbell way" hence the title.

pure gold

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Af1OxkFOK18

Freak On Amy Lee(sh)

2007-02-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

just found this, new it was coming, and was looking forward to it so here it is

Amy Lee from Evanescence with the guys from Korn, performing Freak on a Leash unplugged on MTV

Words...failing...me.....awsome

http://youtube.com/watch?v=on-lvCQONxc

i LOVE music videos

2007-02-07T09:26:00.000-07:00

After yesterdays post i got thinking about great music videos and how much i love music videos. I have a large collection of videos downloaded from many differant era's and bands plus i have a number of bands music videos dvd's. (still think Bryan Adams needs to put one out)

Music video is such a great art form if it is done right. but like all art, there is alot of crap out there too.

some of my fave videos include:

(those who know me may wonder about the lack of Queen videos, i simply cant pick which ones i would want to share...so just bounce over to youtube and watch them all.)

an amazing cover, better than the original (though i like it too) and very moving to think about the conext in JC's life.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go

its just dark and evil and cool
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5ycZLGtYscc

What got me into the band in the first place.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q83rUJoBMOg

a double shot, the original and the cover
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gBdUz_IJ4VA (from the much missed Spitting image)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9KW8DRSvEoQ (created by Todd Mcfarlane)

All done in just one take.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KQonPfZpRLY

this man is a genious, all his videos are great, this one parodies the original best.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PPimiYS4qXM

famous banned video (but not famous enough) (i have been informed that i should put a NSFW warning for this because near the very end there is a small clip of some bare boobies)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JPm997UbrBs

SO LONG - and he plays three parts, i wont link any of his others, but they are all great.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UwOA8H5Vaak

okay i could keep going and in fact have many more to post,but if i dont stop now i never will, i will post more eventually. If you sat here and watched all of these i have just succesfully wasted around an hour and 15 minutes of your time, not counting the time it took to load and for you to read this. so get back to work.

yellow head bobbing cat in office with techno music?

2007-02-06T15:24:00.000-07:00

Behold what as a young'n was as close to my favorite music video in the days before Much music and the crap that it breeds.

there be super villains, comic books, animated characters, cheesy acting (though i dont remeber that from as a kid) and people covered in goop
we had this recorded for a long time and i was very upset when the tape wore out/got erased

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YkYkUYehDVQ

and in a flash of brialliance i remebered the name of a song with a super cool, yet messed up music video that when trying to describe it, most people think i am really nuts.

watch this

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RNzgpAyMH_A

and YOU attempt to describe it:...yellow head bobbing cat in office with techno music? my point exactly.

2007-02-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

so things DID acctually get better on february second and for the weekend.

First thing Friday morning i found my long M.I.A remote care starter.

At lunch on friday a coworker walked into the office with a new Nintendo Wii system.

i asked where he got it, called the store, they had one left, wouldnt hold it, so i went on lunch drove and managed to buy the last one. its super coool, yeah it cost a good chunk of change, but i was not expecting to get it untill april ish, so thats sweet. its alot of fun.

saturday i just sat around the house and relaxed. then saturday night went to a chapters employee reunion movie night...where in 7 hours we only watched one movie. (*more on that later) we just sat around, ate snacks and chatted about everything, movies, music, work, chapters, customers, employees, etc.

at midnight a couple people left, then CFG, the host and myself stayed up for another 2 hours shooting the proverbial shit.

sunday was another day of notthing, playing video games (new and old), watching TV (macGyver anyone?)

So it was a good relaxed weekend, which i really needed.

as for the movie. it led toi a round about remeberance of the best musical advice, (stick with me here)

we watched Monty Pythons Quest for the holy grail. I like many people love this movie. its quirky, its stuipid, its strange, its funny and random.

but i have always had a peeve with it.

I find the first half is deffinetly the better part of the movie. i think the black knight should have been later in the movie, cause it is my highlight.

however, the ending of the movie has always pissed me off. now i KNOW that its supposed to be funny, the fact that it doesnt end because the king gets arrested by modern time police.

but i always felt ripped off, funny sort of, but i rarely make it to the end of the movie due to despising the ending. i realize the budget for this kind of movie is low but seriously....RIPPED OFF...

back to the reminder, i have always prefered the genious but much forgotton "Life of Brian"
Monty Pythons take on a mesia type character that is just the victim of bad circumstances.
and it has the best ending ever ...any movie that ends with the impending death of the hero to a song called Always look on the Bright side of life, gets an A+ in my school.

and its somthing that i try to live by, and everyone should, but it can be hard sometime,s especially when you have a day like i did on thursday.

for those who have not seen the movie, or could just use a good pick me up. you can view the ending Here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pCWw6W5NEa8

or just read the lyrics

Here:

http://www.geocities.com/fang_club/Bright_side_of_life.html

"always look on the bright side of life (whistle)"

Strange Compulsions

2007-02-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, so i have some hobbies, some might say more than the average person and they are certainly differant from the average person.

But none of them are FULL TIME hobbies (except reading, listening to music, watching movies and playiong video games)

that is of course unless you group them all together into one mass hobbie

basically

I like to learn to do things others can't.

To date i have taught myself (with some assitance) to

juggle: just regular jugging, notthing fancy, but give me three fairly balanced objects and i can do it.

Contact juggle: this one is a lot less known. have you ever seen Labyrinth? if you havnt whats wrong with you i should slap you with a cod. anyway, at the begining of the movie when david bowie first arrives and offers Sarah a crystal, he does this cool thing where he rolls it along his hands...anyway, yeah i can do that. its pretty sweet

Unicycle: For some reason i always wanted to be able to do this, so a couple years ago i finally got one and now i can ride it.

juggle whilst on said unicycle: this is still very much a new thing, i can do it going only in a straight line and only for a short period...but i can do it.

Rubik's Cube: Back in 2003 i taught myself to solve the rubik's cube. and i can solve it in under 2 minthes 99% of the time.

Tear a Phone Book in Half: This is my most recent endevor and i am pleased to say i am now able to tear HALF of a full sized red deer phone book in half (tear it along the spine, now you have 2 to practice with)

All of these things that I am able to do, i am able to do better than most of the population, but i am by no means GREAT at all of them. basically Jack of all trades, master of none...but its still pretty cool.

things i want to be able to do in the future include: juggling clubs, juggling 5 balls, play guitar/bass, shoot a bow and arrow with acuracy, and improve on my skills in all the other things in this list.

If you have any suggestions of things to learn, let me know and i will consider the attempt.

the craptastic saga that was February 1st continues.

2007-02-02T10:01:00.000-07:00

So you've all read the story about my adventures in the ditch.

after i was removed from the ditch i drove approxzimetly 20 more kilometeres to work. then at lunchy i drove to the far north end of red deer to pay for the most expensive 5 feet of my life. and then drove back to work.

i finished out the rest of my crappy work day...and got into my car to go home, relax, then go to the super fun happy time that is the writers workshop with 2 coworkers and the "AW teacher" who is lots of fun, and likly some other familier faces.

HOWEVER

not 2 blocks south of the office...SOMETHING WAS WRONG.

So i pull over at the next available place. get out hey look at that a flat tire and i just drove 3 blocks on my rim...oh what to do..pull out the spare, jack up the car, taker er off, put on the spare...it wont go on this way so it must go that way (oh and by the by..IT WAS COLD ON THE SNOW)

tack the jack down, throw the flat in the trunk..try driving, nope not right....tighten spare, try driving...BAD noises. Run to store (on foot) call some peeps, call my mom. she just got home, wait 30 minutes for her to arive.

She takes one look at it and says..."its on backwards" i say, "it wont go the other way"
we jack it up, take it off, turn it around, sure enough wont go that way. try a few times, nope, try my moms spare, nope not working either. call mechanic friend, says it has to go that way but it wont.

what to do? put it on backwards and drive really slowly to canadian tire.

mechanic takes one look..."wholly crap, thats not right, you have it on backwards."

ask them to take a look at old tire, see if i can avoid buying a new one. 1.5 hours'ish later and its fixed and on thier. Mechanic says, nope no way that spare can go on there.

pay

got to mc-d's for food, cause really hungry..wiat for long time depsite being close to only people in the place. then go home..finally arrive at 9:00.

missed writeres work shop and just want to curl up in my bed and avoid the world for the next month....

if Today (the 2nd) isnt better? i just may do that.

so yeah, February is off to a GREAT start.

aside from car troubles, work has been hell. and everyone is saying i look really tired. i noticed the black bags under my eyes, but i am sleeping enough (i think)

My mother asked if somthing is bother me, but i told her that as far as i know there isnt. but who knows right? anyway it loks like i havent slept in days or i got punched in both eyes. so what ever.

I am officially doing notthing that involves work in any way this weekend.

So, on my way to work today....I SPENT A HOUR IN THE DITCH

2007-02-01T15:44:00.000-07:00

So my day has been rather exciting thus far

wanna hear the story? Okay

So I am driving to work on the highway. I am almost at gasoline alley, just at the turn actually, I had already passed a few vehicles in the ditch from last night.

So am I am coming around the corner I can see two sets of police lights from other more recent accidents. One on the south bound side so I don’t have to worry about it, the other in the left hand lane on the north bound. so I start to slow down...the truck beside me slams on his brakes to slow down....or something and starts to swerve....towards me. So I have to try to avoid him, I loose control on the ice because we were also going around the corner. And I spun out and ended up in the ditch, YAAAAAY....don’t worry I was perfectly fine, didn’t even bump around at all.

so I get out of my car, take a look, no damage...except a mud flap came off. But I am on 3 wheels so there is NO way I am going anywhere.

So I walk a little to a police car up ahead of me, he says a tow truck is on the way for the vehicle up there, so maybe they can just quickly pop me out first,

So I sit in my car waiting, facing south. I turn around din my seat to see if the tow truck has arrived yet (after a while) when I turn back, to face front, all of a sudden there is another vehicle on its side about 100 feet south of me...I missed it...it had happened in about 7 seconds.

Another car crashes into the ditch in front of my eyes, but I think they did it on purpose to help the other people. While I am sitting there a few police cars, ambulance and a fire truck go to the south accident.

Tow truck shows up, pulls the guy out behind me (flips the vehicle over first), mean while traffic is building up because of the new accident,

Finally a tow truck stops and pulls me out. All he had to do was pull me like 5 feet and I think it is going to cost me 75 bucks

of course I am now on the south bound highway, so I have to wait for my windows to defrost all over again, then merge with the backed up traffic, then drive all the way to the pen hold overpass, and then I drove to pen hold and went into the city that way...needless to say I was late this morning

The important thing is I am okay and there is not really any damage to my car, but fuck.

So yeah my was great morning, how was yours

Yay writing worksahop tonight, i really need to do somthing fun...except for my holiday (week off) mots of January has really REALLY sucked

I am in Fact Awake...AKA...Alive

2007-01-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

So sorry about the large gap in posts. I have kept meaning to get somthing up here, but havnt really had much to talk about, just been busy working (at work and at home), playing video games and doing oh so much driving. (back and forth to work, driving to calgary or edmonton for the girlfriend, etc)

But i have honestly felt bad about neglecting this realm, and have finally been called on it by a couple friends, so I decided to just do it.

the writers workshop that i have gone to a couple of time is starting up again this thursday, so i am really excited for that, i can pretend I have a social life outside of my girlfriend for 1 day a week for the entire month of February. YAY!!

Things are acctually going really well for me these days, in my life in general..besides being bored alot of the time.

I am getting into better shape, and i am now 100% student loan debt free (since the begining of the month), so all of my money is acctually MY MONEY. My girl friend is also getting into better hsape, although stressed about schoool., my mom has lost lots of weight in the last 8 months and her blood pressure is the lowest its been in a number of years. and the best news of i I got just on Sunday

I went to visit my dad, he is no longer going to the hospital everyday, nor is home care coming to him. The doctors are still a little worried about his lungs and the nemonia and that. but somehow, through all of the crap that he went through, almost dying and such a couple times, he is somehow cancer free. back in sepetember the treatments had no affect, so it should still be there and more likley futher progressed...but yeah, all of a sudden completly gone from his spleen

he is still very weak, and it is still going to be a long haul, and he will never be the same as he was, but things are going very well....so that is big weight off all of our shoulders.

and on one more note, i am learning a new worthless tallent , of whihc i already have so many( solving rubik's cube, juggling, unicycling, contact juggling, etc) i am now in the process to being able to rip Phone books in half....i cant quite do a whole red deer phone book. but if you were to take a big phone book and tear it down the spine in half, i can do that with pretty much no problem....so thats pretty cool...or at least makes a good party trick.

so there yo have it, an update, finally. hopefully they will become more regular in the coming times.

"What's going on?"
"We're telling stories. You just missed a really good one about a man who won November 1937 in a poker game."

2007...Forget the pig.

2007-01-09T14:31:00.000-07:00

its now 2007. This is supposed to be the year of the pig...I say forget that bunk...its 2-007...double oh seven...thats right its the year of the BOND.

I think they should have delayed the release of the new Bond movie Casino royale by like 10 months and released it July 7th 2007. 070707. that would have been sweet,..just like instead of 2007 they should have got off thier ass and released the transformers movie in 2005 (the very begining of the old movie says "it is the year 2005")

so i pledge to watch every james bond movie in 2007....maybe...probly not

Anyway.

so 2007. I think i am acctually going to make an attempt at resolutions for the first time in my life.

I have a list of things to do less, and a list of things to do more.

- swear less
- complain less
- spend less

- Excercise more
- Write for myself more
- Better manage my time...uh...more

never been a big resolutions guy, but there are certain things i wish to accomplish this year, so maybe i should give it a go.

I have acctualy compiled a giant list of things i want to get done in 2007. around the house, financialy, in life, etc. the list has less items then weeks, so all i have to do is get one of these major things done every week and i'm laughing.

...more to come

End of the year extravaganza

2007-01-09T14:14:00.000-07:00

THIS POST WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MADE ON THE 29TH, BUT I WAS HAVING TROUBLES GETTING IT TO POST, SO I SAVED IT AND THEN WAS SUPPOSED TO EMAIL IT TO MYSELF SO I COULD POST IT FROM HOME, BUT FORGOT, AND THEN I WAS ON HOLIDAYS SO IT IS ONLY GETTING DONE NOW. SO THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MY LAST 2006 ENTRY, SO TREAT IT AS SUCH.

So here we are, the Last working day of 2006. Time for a look back at the year that was and then a look forward to the year ahead.

January of 2006 – I spent 3 / 4 ‘s of the month in Red Deer, working on my Practicum at Zed99 and KG Country. I learned a lot, and was given confidence in my witing for close to the first time ever.

I went back to school for February, march and April. These months were for the most part uneventful. Busy with work and my new girlfriend took up the vast majority of my time.

During this time I put together a couple application packages. One for Zed 99 and the other for a new independent station that would be opening in my home area soon.

My mom got a job in Calgary and now stays are her sisters during the week and comes home on the weekends. The plan was originally for her to move there, but that is not going to happen now. So I continue to live at my moms place

Early April I began gearing up and working ahead for some time off from school. I arranged a bus ride and a place to stay with an old friend in Vancouver. I spent 4 days in Vancouver leading up to the Concert and musical event of my life.

Queen + Paul Rodgers Live. Front Row, Special pass, huge ticket package. I never in my life dreamed I would EVER be able to see queen live, even if it was only half of them. The show was incredible and something I will never forget…especially thanks to the 200+ pictures I took that night.

After a couple more days it was a bus trip back to Calgary for the last 2 weeks of my post secondary Education. For the most part they were a simple and lax 2 weeks.

After much cleaning, and packing I bid farewell to my Collage years, becoming the first in my family to go and complete extra schooling and goodbye to my girlfriend for an unknown period of time.

Back to Innisfail I went to apply for jobs. I met with the Creative director in Red Deer and was informed that despite enjoying working with me, there was currently no jobs available.

I applied at the other red deer stations and then got a job at the Local HMV.

Then I got a call from the ZED with an offer of a part time, temp position while they went through some changes…which I gladly accepted and began the first week of June.
After just 1 week I was offered the Job full time, starting in July…which of course I took….

But sadly I had to cut my Mohawk. So what did I do? I SHAVED IT ALL OFF, that’s right. Completely cue ball bald, and I have since been letting it grow out. 6 months and counting.

Since then I have spent lots of money (a car, a new computer, a bow flex, dvd’s, cd’s) and lived my months in 2-week intervals in which I get to see my girlfriend. We did a lot of things, and had a lot of fun with just us and with friend(s). I also made some great new friends. I saw a few small concerts at bars and such. Also as a perk from work I got to go to the Gun’s N Roses Concert in Edmonton. Which was cool. (see previous review)

I have done a huge amount of work around the house: trimming all the hedges, completely cleaning the basement, building a closet in my room, rearranging my room, hauling tones of stuff to the dump, getting a new couch and washer, getting rid of an old crappy deep freeze, rearranging the living room, cataloguing all our hardcover books, ripping out carpet and tile and lino in the hallway and back porch (that’s right all of it)…among a lot of other stuff

I learned to drive a big ass truck (Look up a CXT) and got to drive it in a few parades, which was kick ass.

My dad has been really sick, and nearly died in November, but I’ll let you all know that my dad is a walking, breathing miracle…his kidneys are working, he is no longer intubated, he is no longer in the ICU and is getting better every day. He still has a long way to go, but its much much better than he was.

I am in the best shape of my life (or close to) I am happier than I have been in a very long time, I have a kick ass girlfriend, and I have a job doing something I love. So yeah, I would say that 2006 was a pretty damn good year.

As I look towards 2007, I see much of the same . GREATNESS. Still only seeing my Girlfriend every 2 weeks for the most part, until the end of April when she graduates and moves to innisfail with me. I am going to curb my spending, and make a goal of saving X amount of dollars in 2007. I am going to continue getting into better shape, continue making the house better, I am going to join the competitive swim team to try and get my records back, and I have a lot of other goals.

So I hope everyone enjoyed 2006, and hope your 2007 will be better, remember to be safe over the holiday, what with all the parting and stuff.

Until 2007.

Cheers.

Mammoths, Giant rats, minature elephants, hobbits and the like

2006-12-19T15:11:00.000-07:00

I just had to post about this.

The discussion in the office this afternoon, revolved around the idea of bringing back the Whooly Mammoth, and progressed to the magical island Flores, where scientists have found the remains of Dwarf elephants (about the size of a buffalo), Rodents of Unusual Size (about 1 meter), hobbit sized people and komodo dragons.

A little background info may be requierd. Around the office, or at least in the creative department I have become known as the "did you know guy", or the FYI guy and other names of the sort. Because when an idea pops into my head, or a topic is brought up that interests me, or poses a question, i always find it nesacary yo look into it (like how coffee beans are not beans...its true)

these research expeditions can sometimes last a matter of minutes, or get spread out throughout the day, they can even occasionally last for days.

But not only do i research new topics, i also retain a vast amount of random facts and tidbits. so topics can easily seque into other bizzar and entertaining if not informative veins.

So from a random conversation to cloneing the mammoth. My coworker didnt belive me that they could do it, but was amazed when i told him that they had found a frozen mammoth in Siberia or the like...not amazed that it had happend, but at the fact that i knew about it.

And the next hour was spent inbetween working, discussing mammoths and how the word is decieving because it doesnt acctually mean big at all. (another topic to be sure), how we could/should bring them back, and then onto the island of misfits, which was also somthing i had prior knowledge of, the grolar bear, a cross between a polar bear and a grizzly (which has happend in captivity but only ever found once in the wild), the strange creature found in Maine this summer that looks liek a warewolf, and the awsomeness of bioluminescent animals.

Anyway, it all led to some humorous disscusions, comments and jomes...even reaching a climax when a coworker who sits literally 5 feet away from me, called my phone to tell me to shut up about polar bears.

I hope i might have raised your interest in strange and bizzar topics, and I encourage you to research things to thier full conclusion, so you too can be know as the office FYI guy...or gal

The Set List

2006-12-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The Jungle
It's So Easy
Mr. Brownstone
Live And Let Die
Better
Robin Guitar Solo & Jam (with Dizzy & Frank)
Sweet Child O' Mine
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
You Could Be Mine
Dizzy Piano Solo (Angie)
The Blues
Rocket Queen
Richard Guitar Solo
Richard & Robin Guitar Duet (Angel)
Out Ta Get Me
Piano Moving Jam
November Rain
Down On The Farm
IRS
Ron Guitar Solo (Oh Canada, Don't Cry)
My Michelle (with Sebastian Bach)
Liquor & Whores (with Bubbles)
Used To Love Her
Patience
Nightrain

ENCORE

Madagascar
Chinese Democracy

Paradise City

Guns N Roses Concert Review...AKA

2006-12-08T14:46:00.000-07:00

So Guns N F'in Roses.

I went to the last canadian tour, in Edmonton Last night. What follows is my review/ description of the of the evening. Each section will get a new heading...the special thing about these headings is they were all alternate titles for this post/review, but there was just so many of them. Enjoy...

So I got free tickets to the Guns n roses concert in Edmonton Via my kick ass job at a radio station. After a bit of a struggle i was able to contact my one friend that lives in Edmonton.

After work on Thursday I drove to the city, met up with my friend and we headed to the show shortly after. Now we were aware that the show was going to be long, and run super late, but there was a reason for getting there early.

Enter sub title one.

* Dissapointing Naked Girls*
The very opening act of the show is the suicide Girl Burlesque show. For those unfamilier with the suicide gilrs..its a web site, where females of the goth culture congregate, share racy photos of themsleve decked out in the latest in goth fashion, talk about death and all that..or at least thats what it was before the cooperate machine got a hold of it...needless to say I am a fan...I love beautiful women and i have a thing for goth chicks. Now dont get me wrong the show was great, som very talented girls., one girl was doing some crazy tallented stuff with a hoola-hoop...no this isnt a dirty thing, just spinning it in amazing fashion.
The girls were all hot, doing a number of quick outfit changes, and dancing. one bit involved girls in stewardess outfits, dragging luggage behind them..when lo and behold another girl unfurlas herself from the non to big piece of travel ware....the finale involved bikinis, bottles of chocolatte syrup and plenty of sticky girl on girl T and A chocolatte smearing...this was not as "sexy" as perported (is that the right word?)...really, just messy....but the dissapointment comes from the fact that although very attractive, non of the girls were all together "goth" If i am promised goth, and expect goth, and dont get goth..well you get the idea.

ON WITH THE SHOW....

i dont acctualy have a sub title for this part cause we pretty much ignored this act and chatted.
The first musical act was a band called Helmut...while having heard good things about them, they really just sucked live..maybe they are better on the albums, but thats it..noithing else to say...ater they played for half an hour ..9-9:30, there was a 30 minut intermission

ON WITH THE SHOW....

* That Sebastian Bach has a dirty dirty mouth*

This part of the show was phenominal, Sebastian was full of energy, national pride and entertainment and it all spewed forth from his form...along with an unending tirade of vulgarities and F bombs the likes of which i have not seen for a LONG time.

everything was puncuated with swears, he said many great things , just interupted by the swearing alot. my fave parts i think where he did a whole "i know, that you know that i know that you know bit, about canada kicking ass and being responsible for Sebastian bach. the other fave was when he talked about the reality TV super group.he syas somthing along the lines of...
"you remeber that episode that i said i quit drinking?...I F***ing lied (with wahh wahh wahh music) no one tells me F***ing drinking aint good, i can drink a F***in labatts F***ing blue whenever the F*** i F***in want to"..and then went on to screw up an insult aimed at ted nugent...all in all Sebatian Bach was F***in kick F***ing Ass. (now for 1 hour intermission)

ON WITH THE SHOW

GUN's N ROSES - takes to the stage..aka...axl rose and some fucks play some GNR songs

The show was great, let me just clear that up..besides it problems, i so enjoyed this show.

So Axl and current crew took to the stage at 5 to 12..thats right the acctual show started at midnight.
(this is all out of order, i'm just going to type it as i remeber it)

they played a couple songs, the the one guitarist got a 10 minute guitar solo....and it sucked....this guy was hairy, and big beared, dressed like an idiot...and his guitar playing skills basicaly involved fast moving fingers makeing a shit load of noise...seriously this guy made me so angry through out the show...i am pretty sure with a cheapeffects pedal and a cheap guitar i could play to a calibre equal to this SHITE.

and one point axl is singing and he stops dead, leans over , and sya, hey...turn the fucking music down, bring it down, and turn some lights on...im thinking oh shit, whats going on, is he gonna freak and cancel the show?...no..he tells everyone on the floor to settle donw, and take 2 giant steps back cause people at the front are getting crushed and hurt...that was so fucking cool of him.

The show continues, another guitar solo, this time from bumble foot...thats right his name is bumblefoot..now he is acctually good at playing guitar and made some of the good kind of nise...but then he started playing oh canada...and it was fucking terrible...there was no way i was standing for that shit.

They play lots of great classic songs (song idiot in front of me swooned when they started playing some of them) and they played a large number of new ones.

there was a bornig ass pianon solo form some no name.

The was a differant piano solo from axl theat led into november rain which was sweet.

near the end Sebastian Bach joind them on stage for a song which was awsome, then Bubbles from trailer park boys came out to a near standing ovation...for which i sat down..and they played liqour and whores (??)

there was one encor and then we booked it at 2:30 in the morning...thats right it was a2.5 hour set...HOWEVER

*so good, so needlesly long and full of filler*

2 10 minute guitar solos
2 10 minute piano solos
and inbewteen each song about 1-3 minutes of filler

easily an hour worth of f filler at this bloody concert.

a few points to critique

When axl was good he was freaking awsome. seriously i dont know what he's been doing since his terribel attempt at shows in 99/2000, but this is like night and day...he rocked....mostly

There were times in the show that you couldnt really hear what he was saying, which led to my theory of

* TURN DOWN THE SUCK*

Somtimes it seemed that the music got turned up and Axls mic got turned down...he was still singing, but you couldnt quite make it out..so it was like...he cant really do this part/song very well anymore, but its live, so we can hide it with noise, so no one can tell.
there were times where he very well could have just been mumbling the tune rather tahn singing.

and the biggest thing that my friend and i noticed...

*WHERE THE FUCK IS AXL*

Axl ran off the stage at least 25 times througout the show..for apparently no good reason.
he occasionall came back witha differant jacket, or shirt, or returning with a previosu jacket. each of the se random dissaperances took 2-5 minutes...far longer than need to change a shirt...what was he doig back there? another line of coke? getting his clockwork motor rewound? geting a tease of a BJ from a suicide girl?...no one knows...it happend so many times...we would be wathcing, turn to each other to make a comment, turn back and BAM "WTFIA"

this also added to the length of the show needlessly

every time he left, i wasnt sure if he was coming back, thought maybe it was the old axl coming out and he was endingthe show early for some unknown reason.

the crowed stood and cheered for the old songs and basically sat down and watched for the new stuff...not that it was bad, its just not a good idea to play new music that nobody has ever heard ..(a couple track are okay)..the problme is, most of the time people cant understandf what you are singing at a concert cause it is so loud and the settings are not ideal. people can only sing along because they already know the words.

they didnt play a song i was hoping for...the rolling stones cover sympathy for the devil. but they did play live and let die, which was sweet enough

anyway..as i said the show was great..just very long..and i am soooo tired...i'm working on 2 hours of sleep in the last 33... axl has been rejuiced, and kicks ass...even if he is still super fucked...I look forward to the album...if it one day graces shelves of music stores around the world....I recorded most of the old songs at the show, audio at least..i will be puting them on my computer and seeing if any of them acctually turned out..heres hoping anyway.

thats about it...this is long enough,,,thanks for bearing through it.

the rest of the night ws uneventfull...except for getting lost on my way out of that stupid city

untill next time...

Stolen Property

2006-12-05T12:57:00.000-07:00

I will fully admit, that when I am bored, yet dont really feel like doing a real update (when most of the time i dont get comments anyway) I steel great ideas from friends, and try and steel thier fire a bit...or i just think they had a neat idea, and want to do a follow up.

So stolen from the Pages of MB once again, here is my list of skeletons in the entertainment shelf. but i cant do the fancy picture thing from my work computer for some reason.

Movie: Final Fatasy: Spirits within

What is it: 3-d CG movie, from the makers of the Final Fantasy video games

Why i have it: cause its awsome..sucked in the refereance to FF, but as far as animated fantasy movies go, i love it.

Movie: Matrix reloaded

What is it: First of 2 sequals to the amazing matrix movie (yes made i faced that addiction as well)

Why I have it: Cause i worked at a music/movie store when it came out, and i hadnt seen it yet...had I dont so I would have avoided it like the black death.

Movie: Sky Captain and the world of tomorrow

What is it: completly cg animated sets, props and locations, with real actors:
Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Angelina Jolie, about some airplanes and shit, i dont even know....so really What is it:...crap in a dvd case

Why I have it: My mom won it on a radio call in contest at the station i now work for, she gave it to me..i tried watching it...and failed.

Movie: Vertical limit

What is it: Mountain climbers, gone to rescue someone or other, bad guys trying to do somthing, avalanches insue, triumph over adversity..blah blah blah...oh and Chris O'donnal..a VERY small redeeming quality.

Why i have it: an ill advised x-mas gift from the aunt and unlce that despite knowing me my whol elife, know Nothing about me.

Movie: Trick or Treat

What is it: 80's horror movie based on backwards satanic messages in records, bringing a demon version of a fictional dead rocker back to life to kill people. cameos by Ozzy Osbourn ( a priest) and Gene Simmons (a radio dj)

Why i have it: my brother had it when i was a kid and i loved it, its rock and roll, cheesy horror..come on. and i got it for 5 dollars on dvd from work with discount.

Movie(s): house 1 and 2

What is it (they); more 80's horror. basically you guessed it, a haunted house, parallell dimensions, etc and characters in each played by guys from cheers.

Why i have it: saw as a kid, always talked about it, made friends rent and watch it, we laughed our asses off (more at the second one)... got cheep on dvd this halloween

Movie: Blood and Donuts

What is it: Canadian horror movie. Vampire, doesnt want to be around anymore, goes into hibertaion in the 60's wakes up in the 90's. Go to an old hnag our that was once a bar and is now a donut/coffe shop. Meets buffoon friend
who needs help with gangstars...cast of unknowns.

Why i have it: it was on at 2:00 in the morning, saw the title, was like, WTF, started watching it, turned out to be good (in that its cheesy, bad, its supposed ot be kind of way) ..ordered for cheap while working at HMV..still love it.

Thats my list, enjoy and if your a friend who may be interested in wathcing any of these wonderfull titles..just let me know...i'm always game

A post A post A real post (that turned into a rant)

2006-12-03T16:03:00.000-07:00

I figured it was time to do an acctual post, seeing as i have been saying i would.

A topic that I have disccused with friends in the past. I dont bring it up all that often, cause its not THAT big of a deal.

Alcohol. Basically if you know me, you know i dont drink, i dont mean i dont drink very much or very often, i DONT drink. Its just not for me. Most people assume that means that i am completly against drinking and that i hate people who do, or that i am always judging them.

NOT TRUE

I dont care if you drink, its your chice just as my not drinking is mine. I respect your choice AS LONG as you respect mine.

I dont care if you want ti drink and have infact on a number of occasions been the DD. And I have laughed my ass off at drunk friends.

Now where i do take issue is when it becomes a problem, or an excuse.

When you NEED to drink, then i dont like it and think its a problem.

Examples. You refuse to go to a party because there wont be boose, and you cant drink. You go to a party but have to drive so you cant drink and you are misserable.

Basically if you are unable to have fun or enjoy your self at a social gathering with out getting shit faced. THAT i dont like.

Or when drinking becomes an excuse. the whole liqued courage argument. doing dumb shit and using alcohol as an excuse.

Example. guys get really drunk, head out and start breaking shit and think they are except from responseability because they were drunk and dont remeber it.

Or when you do stuff you regret/dont remember because you were drunk.

Example: Girl gets really drunk, hooks up with some guy, gets fucked by him...doesnt remeber the next day untill someone tells her....THATS a problem.

Or Girld Gets really drunk, fucks some guy and then regrest it and wishes she hadnt done it, and says the only reason she did is because she was hammered.

If you cant control yourself and stop yourself from doing somthing you know is wrong, or will not be happy about in the morning Thats a problem.

If you cant remeber anything about the night before ( i dont care about small details, like not remeber saying some random thing) thats a problem.

If every single time you drink and get hammerd and feel like absolute hsit in the morning and for the next 2 days, and swear up and down that you wont drink/(drink that much) EVER again...and 7 days later your in the exact same place....

THEN I may loose some respect for you.

Or how about if a friend is willing to give you 400 bucks is you can go 1 month without drinking, and gets notthing if you do. and you loose after just one day....or call off the entire deal with just one week left and say (and this is close to an exact quote) "its not worth it to me, i have been a total bitch to everyone since this fucking bet started, and its just not worth it, i am a wreck when i am not drinking, so its done, this bet is off'

What has caused me to talk about this is a friend of mine, the closest thing i have to a best friend, recently got dumped by his first long term girlfriend...we were recomeneding he break up with her month upon months ago, but of course he never did. basically in my oppinion she was a total bitch to him (from stuff he told us, only met her a few times) and treated him like crap, even though he deserves so much better. but understandably when the time comes it still hurts like a bitch.

How does my best friend handle it? By cutting off contact with just about everybody (myself included) moping around and....you gussed it, drinking like it was going out of style. He turned to the bottle to solve his problem....which of course it doesnt.

This bugs me, I dont like to see people act like this, it makes me sad. Esspecially when most of the people i know who do these things are better, stronger and smarter than that.

there are so many better ways to deal with these kinds of things. I love my girl friend so much, it would devistate me if we ever broke up, i would be misserable to be sure. but i would NOT try and drown myself with shit. I would try my best to get over it as quickly as possible ( i realise its easier said than done, i've been there before). Like right now.

My dad is on the verge of death and i highly doubt he will make it to the year 2007, yeah its morbid, yeah its depressing, yeah its pessimistic...but its true. I am to the point, because he has deteriorated so mcuh that i want them to stop trying and just let him go, because he is barely there and getting worse, and its hard to see him. Thats fucked up and you know it. I am sitting here prepareing for my father to pass away. i did the crying thing the first night when i was told what was going on. and havnt since...it might sound cold, but i'm dealing with it in my own way
. and i am sure i will cry when he is acctualy gone, but as each day goes by, i am begining to doubt that more and more and it pisses me off but i think i will be more relived....anyway pardon the tangent, the point is...

Yeah life sucks right now, some bad shit has happend to you, but just fucking deal with it, dont try and wash it out of your head with poisons, cause never mind the normal chemicals in the drugs, that are not good for you, that method of dealing with shit isnt good for you.

Just so we are clear...i dont care that you drink just do it responsibly and dont be an idiot...and dont judge me for not drinking, in the way you think i judge you.

PS: why is it that 90% of the time when i tell new people that i dont drink at all, they almost unfailingly go on about how "thats the smart thing to do", "I should do that", "I wish i could do that" , "man your smart, i wish i was like that", "hey man good for you, dont be like me"
I have heard those prases so many times in the last 4.5 years since i stopped drinking (thats right i was once one of you). yet nobody follows up on it...if you want to stop drinking...just fucking do it....oh and if you say "i dont drink either" and you acctually occasionaly do? dont fucking lie...say.."i dont drink very much, or very often" ...as with everything else, when you say you dont drink, mean it and back it up"

That random music tag game

2006-12-01T09:14:00.000-07:00

A friend told me to do this, so what the hey.

This would likley work better at home, but i only seem to update this thing here at work...makes sense right?

so all music, put it on random, fill in the blanks with the current music, i dont fully get it but what ever.

Opening Credits: Muse - Muscle museum
Waking Up: She Wants revenge - she loves me, she loves me not
Falling In Love: Ima Robot - paint the town red
Fight Song: Queen - keep your self alive - (early bootleg version)
Breaking Up: Meatloaf - Cry over me (bat out of hell III) ( i shit you not)
Making up: Interpol - slow hands
Life's Ok: Modest mouse - tiny cities made of ashes
Mental Breakdown: Freddie Mercury (as larry lurex) - I can hear music
Driving: She wants revenge - out of control
Flashbacks: Meatloaf with Marion Raven - Its all coming back to me now (yes the celine dion song covered by meatloaf...once again, i shit you not)
Regret: Freddie Mercury (as Larry Lurex) - Going Back
Final Battle: Meatloaf featuring brian may of queen - Bad for good
Death Scene: Queen - the night comes down
Final Credits: Nine inch nails WITH DAVID BOWIE - Hurt

some of those were pretty creepy how they worked out, but i assure you that i did not rig it in any way.

so yeah, i highly recomened the new meatloaf album, and stocking your collection with as much queen related material as you can.

The reason (yeah its long, you wanna know, deal with it)

2006-11-30T10:19:00.000-07:00

So i'm informed that i havnt been updateing my blog enough recently and i should get on it.

Truth be told i do have a couple ideas for posts, just havnt gotten around to them in the last week and a bit cause ALOT of crap has been going down, and i will post those ideas sometime in the next little while, but let me give you an update as to whats been going on.

So rewind back to Tuesday November 21st. This day started out as a great day, i was finally 100% recovered from the November 1st mess of stuff that needed to get done. I was all caught up and wednesday , thursday and friday were set up to be the days when i worked ahead and got lots done for the first of the month so i wasnt swamped.

6:00pm Tuesday - I get home after making a couple stops, i got a phone call from my dads wife. My dad has been in the hospital for cancer treatments for a few weeks, but has taken a bad turn and i should probly get itno calgary right away.

8:00pm-1:am november 21-22 - at the foothills hospital, been in to see my dad breifley, he is not doing well, his fever is very high and he is having troubles breathing and has to have an oxygen mask on. he has neumonia and some rare bug in his bloood. his labored breathing has affected his heart.

7:00 am-1pm - november 22 - call from dads wife, things are still not going well. return to hopsital. visit with dad a few times, he is not allowed to talk because his heart rate is too high and unstable because the breathing needed to talk takes to much effort.

6-9pm - return to hospital, visit with dad, same as earlier but doing better.

Thursday november 23 - dont go to visit untill later because havnt heard about any changes.
8:00 pm - stop to visit with dad, no one else is there, he is doing MUCH better no longer wearing the full oxygen mask, and he is allowed to talk. visit with dad for over an hour, he is doing so well, talking about taking him OUT of ICU and back to the cancer ward tomorrow night.

10:00pm return to innisfail and work on friday. Friday is spent doing damage control on what i missed wednesday and thurday and i dont much feel like working.

Friday night, travel back to calgary to visit Amy. Dont go to visit dad cause i'm told he is still doing well and when i got back to the city it was late already.

Saturday morning - call from Dads wife. they moved him to the cancer ward and then quickly back to ICU. his heart rate has spiked and is VERY high. when i get to see him, they have intubated him (tube into lungs to help clear them of infection and to help him breath) he is sedated, and so any of the seeing him i have done is hard because he can not respond.

Sunday, on my way out of the city i stop to see him breifly, no change, but heart rate has gone down a little, but is still high. no point is staying around cause he is not concious.

I spent somthing like 50+ dollars on parking throughout the last 5 days at the hospital and at the residence building.

I have borrowed my girlfriends cell phone in case they need to reach me quickly.

This week is stupid busy,

Monday november 27th - i got no work ahead done last week, so now i have a GIANT stack of contracts to burn through this week, most due by wednesday at noon, and thursday at noon. I hear nothing from calgary, and just keep working, but keep chekcing the phone every 5 minutes to see if i missed a call.

Tuesday november 28th - tired of not having an update i call the hospital and get the run around, finnaly get ahold of my dads wife, who tells me there has been no changce, still sedated, vitals stable (heart rate still high), they took stem cells from him monday and tuesday. Still LOTS of work to do. I wokred late to get stuff done. more stuff keeps coming.

Wednesday - novemebr 29th - work is looking up, i am almost caught up, but still have lots to do. again no calls from my dads wife. I work late again tonight to continue trying to catch up. and then on the way home i stop to do some shopping (or looking around at least)

on the highway at about 7:15 PM, the cell phone starts ringing, JUST as the road conditions get a little worse, very windy and blowing snow. Its my dads wife. things are not good. His heart rate is FINALLY back down to normal, he is still sedated and intubated. and this everning his kindeys have begun to fail. so NOW he is on dialasis.

which brings us to today. november 30th: nothing since that call. I am more angy about all this then anything. its almost been a week since his really bad turn and he has been sedated since. he is now intubated and on dialasis. and NOBODY will say that he's going to die. yes i love him, yes i want him to live, but can we be realistic?...even if he pulls past inactive kidneys, bad lungs, (now) bad heart, neumonia, some bug, plus a couple other things, he STILL has 2-3 months of cancer treatments that may or may not even work.

all anybody says is , when or if he gets through this (pick an issue) we'll do this..bull fucking shit. just fucking say it...my father is going to die, he will not make it to his 62nd birthday, he will not see me get married, he will never see his yet unconcieved grandchildren. and i doubt he will see the 7th year of the millenium. and in fact i dont want him too. i dont want him to go through this for another month. my dads wife has stated that she knows he would not want to be on life support and so do I. yet thats basically where he's at now.

how many more tubes and pipes and needles do they have to stick into him to keep him going before they just say enough is enough? its really fucking hard to see him the way he is, and i dont want to see him fade away more and more as he gets tired, before they finnaly let him go.

So all week i have known the call could come at anytime, but now its more likley than ever and honestly i think i would rather it be sooner than later.

thats it, a real update sometime this weekend, maybe tommorow afternoon.

"I like the way colors taste.Except I don't like crimsons...or turquoises...especially when they put their heads into their shells and won't play and when you break their shells to let them out they die..."

A Page From that Brad Mattford guy' book

2006-11-21T09:56:00.000-07:00

I've decided to follow the example of my friend and post links to some of my favortie sites scattered across the internet.

Some will be fun, some will be in depth, some will just be a single video.

First the random:
http://gprime.net/flash.php/youareapirate

The greatest flash video/song ever:
http://www.ultimateshowdown.org/

My daily doses, the best comic, tv, video game, movie related sites
http://www.penny-arcade.com/
http://ctrlaltdel-online.com/

Another good comic, not the best, but there is some gold in there
http://dieselsweeties.com/

Like music? have a band you like? want to know more like them? want to create your own radio station?Say Hello to
http://www.pandora.com/

Two of my best friends blogs:
http://somethingbradford.blogspot.com/
http://reednrite.blogspot.com/

And the game responsible for getting me healthier by helping me drink more water.
(you'll have to ask me to explain THAT one)
http://www.addictinggames.com/kittencannon.html

i think thats good enough for now.

More to come...and a REAL post soon, i promise

"Have you ever had one of those days when something just seems to be trying to tell you somebody?"

Depression Sets In Once Again

2006-11-18T00:21:00.000-07:00

For those that know me, you know I have had rough times in my past. Periods where I would go through pretty bad cases of depression, usually without reason whatsoever. For the most part over the last year and a half I have banished those times from my life completley. But every once in a while I drop down a little....Tonight (this weekend?) is one of those times.

The cause? about the only thing that still gets me down like this. Lack of friends, companions, social life, etc. I got off work early today, I was home by 4:30...what have I done since then? Absolutly NOTHING. I watched lots of tv, played some video games, and watched some more videos on my computer. thats basically sums up what i have done for the last 8 hours. sad yes, story of my life? ...even more so.

Even my mom who hasnt had a social life for most of mine spend most friday nights these days hanging with friends untill 4 in the morning...when was the last time i was even awask at 4 in the morning....no fucking clue

Straight to the point, i have no life. at least not when I am not seeing my girlfriend. I'm not saying I CANT have a life without her, its not like i am completley dependant on her for fun, i just simply DONT have a life or friends, or at least not any that i see outside of work, or when My girlfriend isnt around.

I am a sad sad little man. But i'm mostly used to it, its been this way my entire life. never any really good friends. I moved from my home town at 13, i never had many friends there. In my new home i had a couple friends, but for the most part we only saw each other in school. Things have only gotton worse over the years, less and less friends, and those that i do have I certainly wouldnt call "good" friends. they NEVER call me, they always forget to include me in things, half the time when they are around they dont want to do anything anyway.

So i went away for a year, made some new friends...that have never kept in touch, no matter how hard i try, even moved in with one of them for like 3 months. later found out that he was living in my province for 4 months before he contacted me...days before he went back home.

So i got a job in a new city, made a bunch of friends there. some that I though were really good...untill they stopped ever calling me, replying to my calls or emails. EVER.

So i went off to school in a differant city..made a bunch of classmates who never invited me to the parties or whatever it is they do with out me. Keep in touch with none of them cause none of them keep in touch with me even though they keep in touch with each other.

So why the fuck do i always attract the same kind of friends? the ones that put no effort into the relationship and honestly dont seem to care if we never see or hear from each other again?

The current group of friends i have, are coworkers and i have notthing against them, we sit in a room with each other for 8 hours a day 5 days a week, understand us not seeing each other often outside of work...but WTF about EVERYBODY else?

Honestly? why have i been doomed my entire life to have no worthwile friends? if i were to ever get married i have no idea who my groomsman/best man will be..no fucking idea...none of my "friends" deserve it. they all ditch me and ignore me every chance they get....yet i keep trying to be friends with them? why? cause they are the only fucking friends i have and ever will have.

oh well...so guess what i'm doing this weekend? thats rig7ht,. the same fucking thing i've been doing all night.

"If it ain't real - fake it!If it ain't yours - take it!If it's all gone bad - forsake it!If it ain't broke - break it..."

(WARNING COMPLAINING AHEAD)

2006-11-16T16:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, so for the most part I have a very kick ass job. I love it. Not once have a awoken in the morning and though "I dont want to go to work today", sure i say, man i just dont want to get out of bed, ..but it is never because of work, i just like sleep.

Anyway, i love my job, i want to keep my job, i love my co-workers almost in a universal basis (that means almost all of the 40+ other people i work with)

It is by far not a HARD job, it can be difficult to get stuff done some times, and occasionally it is stressfull. but overall it is a fun, entertaining, easy and enjoyable job.

But there are times...not many but they exist, where i despise the whole damn industry. and usually it is caused by one individuel. now this individuel occasionaly changes, but recently it has been the same one over and over and OVER again that has just so fearsomly irked me.

My point is, its so easy for one person/experiance to ruin somthing for sombody. Think about it. how many times in your life have you been out somewhere, at a party or a movie, and the night has been ruined by just one individuel.

Today is one of those days. I mean this whole week has been crappy and busy and a littel stressfull, but today it all came to one person talking to me twice and frankley just royally pissing me off. eventhough part of it was my fault, i just dont like talking to or dealing with this individuel EVER. and every time i hear the name or see it on my call display i cringe/shutter/sign in annoyance. I just cant help it. its all based on my past dealings with them. not that the person is ever mean to me, its just the condisending, judgmental, superiority complex, whiney attitude/tone this person takes with me and everyone else.

okay i've ranted, been distracted, fumed, simmered...i'm done.

um, so yeah....oops

2006-11-14T16:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, so after my rant i decided to look into the 4th book in the series i was talking about that ended in a cliffhanger and have been waiting (so far) 4.5 years for the next book. So it turns out that one of the 2 authors involved in writing the series, dies in 2005...so that might just maybe explain the delay...but still, 3 years between book? come, in the series they have only published 3 books and the first came out in 1991.

okay so anyway, still upset by the whole making me wait thing, but also feel a little bad cause the women died.....ooops.

F***'n Trilogys

2006-11-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

Why does everything have to be a trilogy?

Okay so there's the saying good things come in three's. I'm okay with that. I agree with it, there are plenty of great 3's in the world' and in fact i am a big fan of many of them. movies, books, sexual gatherings (the F+F+M kind, none of that F+M+M nonsense)
lots of goodness to be had for all in the pressence of 3.

Some of my fave things are in fact trilogys:

Movies: lord of the rings (this fits in the book catagory too), x-men, star wars (original of course), die hard, indianna jones.

Books: Lord of the rings, darksword, shannara books

but seriously, the trilogy has become so cliche. its over done.

I bought a new book a few weeks ago ( i bought a few but i am talking about one specificall).
Its from an author i know and love, at first glance it was a stand alone novel, removed from his main line of books. then i thought it was part of a smaller series. then i thought it was stand alone again. then it acctually turns out to be a bridge to link both. so thats cool. So i'm all settled in for a good read, ready for an awsome stand alone story.

AND IT DOESNT END PROPERLY

do a little more research...and its another freaking trilogy. Now this man provided me with one of my fave trilogys (although the can be read seperately), and has writtena couple others. but seriously. i HATE THAT..at least have the common curtasy to say "book 1 of 3" on the cover or somthing, so i can buy the book, and put it on the shelf untill the set is done and i can read them all in one go without having to wait 2 years inbetween books.

at least i know with this author it will be only a couple years, i have been waiting for a 4th book in a series, that book 3 ended on a cliffhanger for 4 years and counting.

Seriously

WTF

just write one big freaking book, release them all at the same time, warn me, or DO SOMETHING DIFFERANT FOR ONCE.

I may love your books, but not everything has to come in threes. even if i have previosuly mentiond that i really enjoy them.

"Sail Away Sweet Sister"

The Other Candiadate

2006-11-07T15:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, so if you've read the latest post by that guy over at Somethingbradford, you'd now that he is trying to get elected employee of the year, and he has only worked at his job since the 12th of June.

I personally everyone should vote for me instead. I wont go on and on about why i deserve it like he does. basically all you have to do is take his campaign statements and add "But Phill is cooler" to the end of it and you will pretty much get the idea. that and I have been here longer than he has. so yeah. if you get the chance, vote for me and not that other guy.

Weapons of mass distraction

2006-11-06T15:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, to the point. I admit I am horrible at keeping up with "responsibilities"

the main thing keeping me from you will also be what brings me to you with greater ease in the future.

That thing? A BRAND SPANKING NEW SUPER AWSOME COMPUTER. So yeah thats been taking up a lot of my time, setting it up, figureing everything out and generally basking in its greatness....what can i say, i'm a "21st century digital boy".(awsome song that i forgot all about untill today)

So yesterday was Guy Fawkes day. i hope it was "explosivly" good for you. Its funny, i just watched V for vendetta on Saturday, the day before the day that the movie revolves around..so that was pretty cool, cause i had no idea that V had anything to do with GF or November the 5th in general.

So today's topic is crimes against state and such. and why they always seem to happen at the wrong time, and never at the times that could prove wholly benificial.

Now dont get me wrong this is NOT an endorsment for assasination or murder or conspiracys or anything like that.
but just look at all the murders and assasination attempts on presidents, kings, dictators and such. who lives and who dies? The presidents that were assasinated were some of the greatest men in history who did so much good, such as good ol Abe Lincoln. Tsar Nicholas, not really that bad, John Lennon, a musical genious, Gahndi..the most peacful man in the world, beloved by millions.

Then there is those that have gone thier entire contorversial reigns and never even been attempted on...case in point...Bush... he is hated by most of the world and even most of his own country. Public oppinion of the united states has dropped drastically, and global perception leans heavely towards fear and terror...yet no one has even tried to take him out? I just dont understand.

Once again, i dont think this should be done, we can put up with him for 2 more years (hopefully the world lasts that long) but why do these people always seem to aim for the good guys?

The great people of the world are destroyed and those that destroy go on...to do greatly terrible things to the world.

An Intervention Is Requiered

2006-10-30T13:57:00.000-07:00

I have a problem.

I cant stop spending money.

I have recently bought a new computer and so now i have to stop spending so much money on random stuff. Now that I am no longer working at HMV it will be easier for me to slow down the spending. I wont be buy all the cd's and dvd's that i have been for the last 5 months, and i wont be stopping at toys R us every time i go to the mall.

But its not enough. This weekend I was with my girl friend and we wentout for food 3 times, plus all the extra gas., plus halloween related stuff. we went to value village for costume stuff and i spent more money.

But i found the coolest thing. I found and bought a miniu cross-bow. real wood and metal and such, not just a plastic toy. Its so awsome. But as cool as it is, entirely un nessacary.

I admit it, I am addicted to spending money, i like "stuff" and "things" and I cant get enough.

And i still dont have all the stuff i need for my new computer. I need help. seriously. If you know me, and you see me spending money, smack me. I think i need to lock my credit card in a wooden chest and push it to the back under my bed, so i cant use it.

If you have any suggestions on how to go about curbing my spending they will be much a ppreciated.
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His Head Exploded In A Aray Of Shapes and Colours

Stolen time

2006-10-26T09:04:00.000-06:00

Time

its certainly a funny thing. Somthing I have been having troubles finding recently. But i cant figure it out.

Once upon a time i was working 2 retail jobs. approximetly 13-15 hours 3 days a week and 8 hour 2 days, plus 8 hours every

Currently I have been working 2 differant jobs. so start to finish of work day 2-3 days a week 13-15 hours and 2 days 8 hours. and NO weekends. so i should have MORE time than i did back then.

But i never feel like i have enough time to get anything done. so my question is, where has my time gone?

Yes i have a girlfriend that i talk to all the time on the phone now, but that still doesnt account for the lack of time. I play LESS video games, watch less movies,read less and hang out with friends less (cause they all moved to go to school) yet i never have any time to get stuff done around the house. I just dotn understand.

And i love the job that i am at full time, unlike when i was miserable alot of the time a couple years ago.

from what i have heard this is a common problem for alot of people. as we get old we have less and less time.

So i propose a theory (or 2)

Some kind of alien or government agency has found away to capture and store time, so they are stealing it from everyone in the world and stockpiling it for diabolical reasons that we may never understand. or
Its just because we keep adding more and more things to our to do list, so it just feels like less time, when in fact it is just more stuff.

personaly i think the first reason is more likley.

what do you think? and if anyone can think of a way to get our stolen time back let me know.

Can we say crazy?

2006-10-25T13:45:00.000-06:00

Work is nuts. Its so crazy busy this week. i think i am making decent progress though, hopefull it all works out.

i am almost done my second job, just one shift left.

I am working on my halloween costume, i still need a number of things, but i think i wil mannage.

okay now its time for me to do my part at promoting a good friend of mine.

A class mate of mine has been working like crazy the last couple months on her debut album and its finaly finished. She had a friend/family cd release party this last weekend, and it was a blast.

The albume will be officially available to buy on October 31st at

cdbaby.com

In the mean time please visit her myspace and check it out. nd please if you like the music look into buying a copy or two for you and your friends when its available.

http://www.myspace.com/eccentricitymusic

2006-10-24T10:56:00.001-06:00

Waiting.

Waiting sucks, no matter what you are waiting for it sucks. But at the same time it is almost always better than the acctual arrival.
Think christmas. you cant wait for it, the anticipation eats at you. you cant sleep, you wonder what you'll get and then come Christmas morning ...dissapointment. sure you like what you got but its never as good as you were hoping/expecting.
The waiting and anticipation is always better (or most of the time anyway)and once the thing/day/person arives, before its even over and done with (out of the box, arrived, leaving)...you start counting down for the next thing that you are waiting for.

No matter how much it can suck we finds ourselve living in a life that revolves around waiting. Birthdays, christmas, the weekend, a raise, a new album, a phone call...we are always waiting for somthing. and then moving on to somthing else. why is that? Why cant we just be happy with what we have?

No answers to be had here, just questions and thoughts. untill next time, you'll just have to wait

2006-10-20T10:53:00.000-06:00

as it begins.

this will be a new attempt at holding a blog, i have had a couple differant ones for differant reasons...the first was for therapy (self imposed just so you know) the second for bordem reliefe.

this one will be for my writing. i have mention elsewhere that i want to start writing for myself more than i have, and this was recomended as a way to start doing that. so here we are.

I will start by explaining my name and the title of the blog aswell as what many of my individuel posts will be titled. I have been reading the phenominal Sandman comics from Neil Gaiman. They have influenced and inspired me in a number of ways and continue to do so. They are so high up on my list of best things I have ever read. Dark, witty, smart, deep, fantastical among other things. all in all GREAT.
I knew i would like these "comics" long before i ever read even a line in any of them. these books have won so many awards and inspired so many people. I tell everyone about them.
I love comics, i love the xmen and spiderman and all of that. but they are so repetative in so many ways. and they just keep going..which is way to big of an investmant for me. esentially the superhero stories are the equivilent of masterbation in comic book form. pure fantastical fluff..fully enjoyable and entertaining but of little substance in the grand scheme of things.
The sandman comics have deeper characters and stories, which just seem so much more interesting and i dont know solid. maybe its the darker art (as opposed to the bright comic colours) or that fact that they are over and done with and not a character that has been around for 50 years that we all know the story of. (ala spiderman)
So yeah, i love the sandman comics, and neil gaimans stuff in general, its my current obsession in the comic world (that and early 90's super hero trading cards) so thats what alot of things will be in referance to. dont worry if you dont get it, you can always ask me to explain somthing further.

anyways. this blog will be full of random thought, museings, rants, essays and stories. I am a writer by trade, but dont write enough for personal value outside of work, so I will eventually post some short stories here along the way.

"How would you feel about life if Death was your older sister?"