i cannot right

awkward family photos

2009-05-22T19:05:00.001-04:00

wwww.awkwardfamilyphotos.com

thanks for NOT coming to see the junior boys with me last night (except robbie j.)

2009-03-29T08:19:00.003-04:00

Robbie J. and I went to the MOD Club last night to see the Junior Boys and the opening band (or artist) Max Tundra. I've had a disappointing week with the Junior Boys when their new album was delayed a week, so I couldn't listen to it before the show. Boo to that.
Max Tundra is on the same label as the Junior Boys, and also has a new album out. I would describe Max Tundra as a mix of rave style electronic with musical theatre vocal stylings. AKA not that very good.
After a short break of some good house music from the club DJ the main act was on at 9:00pm. They started out with their new single "Hazel" which I've heard on their myspace page. After a couple songs from their last album and two more new songs, the lead singer told us that they only have 5 more minutes. The club was opening that night after the show. So they played their hit song "In The Morning" and left the stage to a great applause from a crowd that wanted more. The house lights didn't come up so I was hopefully that this short, 45 minute, set was not the end. After a couple minutes of applause from the crowd ....... the house music came back on ..... WHAT THAT'S IT. The applause quickly turned to BOOO's. So I was home by 10:15 (and I stop at the grocery store on the way).
So truly, thank you for NOT coming to see the Junior Boys last night. I don't blame the band for the short show, I looking to the club and booking manager.

work smarter ... not harder

2009-02-07T15:25:00.002-05:00

yesterday at work, was one of the most tiring days i've ever had, really. from 6:45am to 5pm i hiked around darlington nuclear power station measuring the water levels in 100 different monitoring wells through 3 to 4 feet of snow. my muscles are very sore today.
i'm going to be working on this wells for the next two months (the rest of the winter) purging and collecting water samples. there is no way that i'm going to be able to the pumps, generator and sampling equipment through all of this snow. so i presented the idea to my boss about buying a pair of snowshoes ... and he thought it was a great idea.
so after a short trip to MEC this afternoon, i'm a proud owner of some kick-ass, and huge (i'm not a small guy), snowshoes.

forgeting sarah marshall ... it's all in the title

2009-01-27T09:55:00.006-05:00

felicity and i were going to go snowboarding on sunday night at blue mountain, it's how we spend most of our sunday nights in the winter. but after a short time spent outside on sunday afternoon, i (the lover of winter) decided it was too damn cold to go to blue. the wind there can get really strong, so the -20 C quickly feels like -30 C.

So we stayed home and rented a movie from RogersOnDemand. It a great service that comes with a digital cable box, plus you can rent HD movie. Why buy a very expensive BlueRay player?!?!?!?

So we rented "Forgetting Sarah Marshall". It's a romantic-comedy, girl breaks-up with guy, guy takes a vacation to drowned his sorrows, girl takes the same vacation with new boyfriend, laughter ensues. WARNING: this movie is really really .... really slow. the pacing of the scenes and the movie in general was at a snails pace. also, there was no sound-track. a staple of the romantic-comedy is a sound-track of current and classic hit pop songs. FSM did not have a single song in the whole movie ... it was weird. and the icing on the cake, full-frontal male nudity ... of the lead actor ...... three times. dicks can be funny, but this was just jarring. on the better side it did have some funny moments and the "dracula puppet rock-opera" at the end was killer funny.

Rating: 6/10 (oh well, you can win all the time)

she's finally all mine

2009-01-22T08:04:00.003-05:00

after five years of monthly payments my car is mine. today i made the last payment to vw financial. it feels AWESOME. the car has taken me to many places, montreal, mt. tremblant, detroit, and many cottage weekends. i've put about 175,000 km on the car in the last five years, that 4.5 times around the equator, so i've spent a lot of time in that drivers seat. to the short list of people to drive my car (dave d., dave g., ben, felicity) she would like to thank you for the good times. and to my car, may you live for many many more years. happy fifth birthday.

i cannot wait for tomorrow

2009-01-21T10:57:00.003-05:00

five years in the making ... thursday will be a big day

porno movie

2008-11-08T13:21:00.003-05:00

felicity and i saw 'zach & miri make a porno' last time. it was a great movie for one reason. they used almost all of 'wynona's big brown beaver' by primus for the opening scene. great start to a funny movie.

siamese dream

2008-09-24T22:41:00.003-04:00

i watched a show on TLC this week about two sisters that are conjoined twins. how weird/interesting/difficult would it be to be one of two heads on the same body? to answer my own question, i thought that i would try it.

my lunch ... sucked

2008-09-12T14:02:00.004-04:00

it takes alot for me to upset when eating out. i've been a dishwasher in a restaurant in high-school and have seen the pains and troubles it can take to serve food to a busy dining room. i've had the wrong food served to me, and sometimes i just eaten the food that they brought on mistake. i've sat for over an hour to have vegaterian meal come out, no big deal. but today's lunch was one of the worst experiences that i've had in a long time.

i asked around work to see who would like to go for lunch. i got a good response so a half-full of us went to the local pub. after sitting for 50 minutes we started talking about how we hadn't our appretizers yet. they came but the waitress never once asked if we would like a second drink after sitting for a hour. at about 80 minutes our lunches came. i ordered a club sandwich with ham and brie from the specials menu, but little did i know there was an extra special ingredient in my sandwich. shortly after taking my first bite, my sandwich very quickly found it's way to the inside of a napkin, as i discovered that my club sandwich came with a slice of pineapple.

if you know me, you most likely know i HATE pineapple. much like coffee, i just don't eat it at all. i was amazed that it wasn't included in the list of ingredients that would be different on this special club. they listed ham in lieu of the bacon and brie instead of cheddar cheese. but to not list the pineapple?!?!?!?!?

who puts pineapple on a club sandwich ... seriouly!!!!

P.S. - I googled pineapple to find this picture ... and found this website. wow!!!
This one reminds me of someone bachelor party. any guess's on who's????

a childhood friend

2008-09-10T14:39:00.004-04:00

buying a nintendo wii really has brought back some great childhood memories. i remember my pre-teen years as play outside, skateboarding, making forts in the local ravine and stealing matches to start fires ... hey, we all did it. right???
i guess i just forgot about the hours upon hours that i spent playing video games on the family atari 3600 and later our NES.
having a video game system again has been great so far, and last night i was re-introduced to a childhood friend, mario.
felicity and i picked up super mario galaxy on monday night (after finding a futureshop gift card in the mail from our aeroplan points).
i only played through two of the possible 120 stars that you can collect in the game. first impressions, this is one awesome game. the basic game play is on a collection of small planets/asteroids. like 'le petit prince', which is another great childhood memory.

song of the day

2008-09-09T09:30:00.003-04:00

right now i'm listening to "am i wry? no" by mew. a great danish rock band that i got to see live last year. the interesting thing about mew is that the lead singer, sings really really high for a guy. not a falsetto voice, but a natural male alto voice. and his voice is amazing live.

check them out.

day 4

2008-09-01T13:40:00.000-04:00

4 days of wii.
4 days of mii on the wii.
i am addicted.

4:54 hr:mm

2008-08-29T21:28:00.000-04:00

felicity asked to turn it off, so wii don't lose the novelty.

wii and me

2008-08-29T19:38:00.002-04:00

after many, many conversations felicity and i finally went out today and bought a wii, and a wii fit. it's been in the house for 4 hours now ... we have been playing it for 4 hours. i'll let you know when we stop.

meat and beer don't like me!

2008-07-06T22:55:00.002-04:00

today i ate a lot of meat and drank a lot of beer at ben's bachelor party. later we went to the rivoli to play pool. when i was there i was secretly dropping bombs left and right. the lady at the next table asked one of my friends if the placed smelled right. he responded with "i don't know what you mean". she described it as smelling like "open sewage". yeah, open sewage.

i hang my head in shame.

Martin Charles Gordon Barons, P.Eng

2008-04-15T15:52:00.003-04:00

just got the confirmation that i can put some extra letters at the end of my name. it's only taken about 10 years of school, work exerience and exams, but it's finally mine.

i've got a fever ...

2008-04-04T13:32:00.003-04:00

i'm sick, and off of work for my second day. i've had a fever over 100 the whole time. i don't fear the reaper is coming. but man i can't get that song out of my head.

bemz ... that's a funny word

2008-02-01T09:08:00.000-05:00

so i have always had a secret love of interior design. i blame it mostly on watching endless hours of trading spaces in the late '90s at my parents house. i swear it was the only show they watched back then.

so when i was at home depot on wednesday i picked up a copy of 'canadian house & home' to get some ideas for decorating my new apartment with felicity. i found an article (aka advertisement) for bemz. they make designer slip-covers for ikea couches.

what a great idea. so many people have ikea couches, that well look like ikea couches. have a look if you're intereted.

www.bemz.com

something in the mountain air

2008-01-14T11:32:00.000-05:00

one night last week as i was walking to the main cabin at storm mountain lodge to get some more firewood, i thought about my blog. i thought about how i want to share some thoughts again on my blog. this is not a promise that i'll be righting here on a regular basis, just that i'll make an effort to.

so my thought(s). it never gets dark at night in toronto. as we all know there is light pollution in the city that casts a dark amber light into the nights sky. on weekends away from toronto, ex. dave's cottage, it's gets pretty dark at night. you can enjoy the stars in the sky and sleep with the curtains draw back. but then there is middle of the rocky mountain, deep in the bow river valley dark. as i stood there looking at orion on the horizon of castle mountain i thought about how wonderful it was to be away from toronto and the busyness and the people ... with my wife.

word of the day

2007-09-25T20:26:00.000-04:00

xzibit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xzibit

i think ...

2007-06-06T14:52:00.000-04:00

... i have given up on blogging. well the second coming of me blogging lasted longer than the first. maybe there will be a third coming. maybe i'll learn to write ...

something is missing

2007-05-14T15:08:00.000-04:00

i took felicity, rachel and rob to the airport last wednesday night. they were off to germany for a 10 day vacation. rachel is going to see her parents and to meet shane. let's just say rachel is very very excited about meeting shane from kazakhstan (that's ah nice).
so it's been 4 days without having my girl around, and simply put i miss her. i haven't written because no one really wants to read about how much i miss the woman i love, and how it's weird not being able to talk to her. about how i think about her in almost every free moment. how i talk about her with everyone i'm around. it would be just too gushy.

so instead i'll announce the awesome and amazing event that is coming up at the drake. i'm going to romania this summer for two weeks to run a summer camp for the orphans of cluj, romania. the team that is going is having a fundraiser night at the drake. everyone is welcome, but we are only sells 200 tickets. check out the poster for details, come out to the event to my team and have some fun too.

it's sunny out ... so welcome to my city

2007-04-30T08:35:00.000-04:00

wow, what a beautiful weekend. the sun was out in full force for another weekend. this can only mean a couple things; there will be group events that screw-up traffic, tourists that fill-up downtown and i will get a sun burn. well two of three happened this weekend.
i got up early on sunday morning and took my bike out for my normal short trip down parkside and east across the lakeshore path to bathurst and back. there was a bike race on the path this weekend, but it was the weirdest race. it was a short circuit race just within marilyn bell park. if you know marilyn bell park, you know it's just a small piece of land along the waterfrount. so i had to bike on the lakeshore, which is normally very dangerous, but it was a quiet sunday morning.
next was the giant sikh parade in downtown. it was huge. it took me about 20 minute to travel from dundas to king on university on sunday afternoon.
but my favourite moment of the busy weekend was the tourists, or more just one tourist in general. i only assume it was a tourist because it was a sweet driving manuever. i'm driving with felicity on the lakeshore going west, and we were first in line stopped at yonge. as we waited at the light a southbound car on yonge turned right onto lakeshore west. as soon as the car turned onto the lakeshore, it quickly made a 180 degree turn on the lakeshore. so now the car is facing me, and the other three lanes of traffic that are about to drive straight at the car. the look on the ladies face as priceless. as we all slowly moved forward, some people honked, everyone stared, i motioned for her to turn around again, but she decided that she was going to continue working on her driving skills. so she decided to hit the gas, turn back-up yonge, cutting across three lanes of live traffic and continue on her way. it all happened in about 5 seconds, but it was an amazing 5 seconds.
so i say welcome tourists. enjoy this summer shopping at the eaton centre, walking slowly through the downtown looking up at the cn tower and i'll be looking for you as i drive through the city this summer.

yes ... that's a guys ass

2007-04-13T10:01:00.000-04:00

i was working in oshawa on tuesday at the gm plant. just collecting some water samples for mary k's project. i went to the location 'pizza and sub' place for lunch, go-go's pizza and subs. being a first timer at go-go's, i asked the nice lady behind the counter, 'what's good for lunch? what should i have?'. to the great response of, 'the pizza is good, and so are the subs'.

i got two splices of pizza-pie and sat by myself (there was no one in the place) for lunch. on the radio was your normal sub-urbans top-40 easy-listening music of the last 30 years, but nothing from the last 5 years. working for the weekend by loverboy came on. it made me think of the coming weekend of course. but it was only tuesday. i think that this song should only be played on friday's.

everybody's workin' for the weekend
everybody wants a new romance, hey yeah
everybody's goin' off the deep end
everybody needs a second chance, oh

time for a rant

2007-04-12T09:29:00.000-04:00

handicap door activation switches, let's discuss them.

the front doors of my office have a one. many times i've seen the fedex or ups guy with a large handful of packages use the button. makes sense to me. i've used the button, when i've been carrying a full size cooler full of samples. i've also seen a fully healthy adult, carrying no more than a purse use the button. wait one second. this person would rather push the button and wait the 5 seconds it takes to slowly open, than using ... their God-given functioning arm. i see this happen most days coming to and from work. but it still blows my mind everytime. YOU ARE NOT HANDICAPPED ... physically. mentally??? maybe.

let's take it to the next level. a young child is begging their parent to push the button at the mall. to a response of, just once. NO, NO, NO. tell the kid they're not handicapped and it would be rude to use the button. IT'S FOR HANDICAPPED PEOPLE!!!!

huhhhh ... thanks i feel better now.

i almost have a new ipod

2007-04-11T15:26:00.000-04:00

on monday felicity gone a new ipod. again sorry for not locking the car. so i almost have a new one. she's in the car most of the times that i am. we do drive to and from work together. so it's nice to have some great music to listen to again. but i do still miss my own ipod. so it's time to vote, buy now or wait for a new edition to come out and buy it later?

myPod and herPod, not yourPod

2007-04-02T08:40:00.000-04:00

this weekend i went to my parents ... with F for the first time. it was a nice meet and greet weekend. i also got to meet F's sister wendy for the first time. the weekend was great, but it was tainted by a crime to society. on friday night, after arriving late at my parents house and running out to the car to grab one last thing we all tucked away for a nights sleep. i woke the next morning to discover that my and F's ipod had been stolen from my car. fffffoooooocccccccch. i was pissed. so i had forgot to lock the door of my car as i grab that one last thing. they didn't steal my work cell phone or F's expensive oakley sunglasses or even my wallet.
you have to understand, that next to a farm house, my parents live in the piss-middle-of-no-where. sombra to be exact, never heard of it (brouwer you don't count) not surprised. with a population of around two-hundred, i think i could do a door-to-door canvas to find our ipod's. the name sombra comes from the spanish word for 'shade'. i'd like to hereby rename to village, umbrio.
so i had to drive from toronto to the smallest town in ontario to get my and F's ipod's stolen. AHHHHHHHH.
sorry F.

facebook, no longer the face of evil

2007-03-29T14:14:00.000-04:00

so i've been on facebook now for just over a month now. i have 237 friends, and it has become my third most visited website (next to gmail and google). really it hasn't done much for me, until today. ya, i have found some friends that i haven't talked to in a decade, but i have been found by some people that i really can't stand or don't remember. it is fun to post and look at pictures, the tagging option is actually really cool. and yes, everyone can she who F is.
but today i actually used to the site for extending my friendships/community. as you know i got a longboard, but riding with ben or steve doesn't happen often enough and riding by myself is just okay. so today i joined the 'toronto longboarders' group on facebook. hopefully, i'll get out for some rides, meet new longboarders, and discover great places in the city to ride.

longboarding

2007-03-27T21:42:00.000-04:00

the weather is warm today, so perfect time to go longboarding. it's been a couple cold months of watching the longboard sit against the wall, as i rode the snowboard. i grabbed the board and the ipod shuffle, i've got to have some great music awhile i ride, and i was off to high park. after 45 minutes of dodging runners, cyclists and cars, i was a little tired and felt good about the ride. i didn't do the big hill down to the petting zoo. ben and i conquered that one last year. but it was the first ride of the year. my goal is to be ready for the torontolongboarders.com 'board meeting'. from the photos on their website it looks like an awesome event.

stick it to 'em ... oh would i like to

2007-03-27T09:53:00.000-04:00

stick it to 'em, is a team in the recreational co-ed floor hockey league i play in on monday nights. i've had the displeasure of playing this team for the last three season's. this team is way too agressive, especially this dude with a pony-tail. i won't bore you with the details of us losing to them, again, but give one example of why i don't like 'pony-tail boy' (or ptb).

in our league there is no high sticking, so the stick can never go above the waist. ptb took a nice slap shot in front of me, and hit me in the throat with the blade of his stick. he scored on this shot. i called a high sticking on the play, and questioned if it was or not. YOU HIT ME IN THE F**KIN' THROAT!!!!!! i think your stick was too high. just sayin'

i look forward to the play-offs in the next two weeks, where we will have to play them ... yet again. until then ptb.

one isn't bad

2007-03-23T15:04:00.000-04:00

i got onething done.
i saw dave.
we ate george's.
he beat me at golf.
on jared's wii.
felicity came.
she quoted beat poems.
from 'so i married an axe murderer'.

i told myself

2007-03-22T15:28:00.000-04:00

i told myself last night that i need some time off from social stuff. i seem to always have something to do. for example tonight i can:
- visit ben, i haven't talked to him for a week or two now.
- visit dave, he did screw-up his ankle/leg at my floor hockey game on monday. i should see how he's doing.
- go to leigh's fund raiser, i like wearing a suit, and i can there.
- go see 300 with henry, man i want to see that movie.
- go to an art gallery with felicity and kevin, i need to meet kevin.
- do laundry, clean cloths smell good.
all of this after says just last night, that i would have a night off.

i have a blog?

2007-03-22T12:32:00.000-04:00

doesn't look like i've remembered that. so it's been almost two weeks now since posting. i really have been busy. let's see what have i done.
snowboarding with the normal crew, plus felicity.
dave's 29th birthday and crokinole tournament.
the appleseed cast concert in buffalo.
lunch with felicity's parents.
played bass at church.
practice with the worship band.
help edit a video going to kazakhstan.
had dinner at rachel's.
played a floor hockey game.
got a hair cut.
went to the maddy's with matt and leigh.
went to freedomize.
hiked the leslie street spit in 4 inches of fresh snow.
went to the fox & the fiddle.
watched some entourage for the first time.
bought some cd's at sonic boom.
bought some cd's at hmv.
played some nintendo wii.
and when to work.

i'll try to fill in the details on a more regular basis.

wow, mute math review

2007-03-09T09:28:00.000-05:00

so last night was as great, if not better, than i expected. another crew of us (ben, shawn, steve, christy, kenneth, gillis, jared, shannon and felicity) went to see mute math play at the opera house. first off was the dinner at the real jerk, so good. the jerk was just hot enough for me and the rice was one the best i've had in awhile. as far as concert venue's go, next to the molson ampitheatre on a warm summer night, the opera is my favourite venue in the city. the main floor has three levels and there is a balcony, so great views from every spot in the place. it's the perfect size venue too, everyone feels close to the front. thanks to jared for showing up early and getting a great spot behind the stage right bar, perfect view.

so mute math is the greatest band live that i have personally seen. they build-up this energy throughout the show that feeds into the crowd but is also fed off of the crowd. listening to the whole crowd sing alot to 'noticed' was one of the highlights. others were the acrobatics of lead singer paul meany, the at-times violence drumming of darren king and the new song they play about half-way into the show.

so basically go see mute math, for only $20 it was the greatest show. mind blowing music. wow.

happy anniversary to me

2007-03-06T13:13:00.000-05:00

as many of you may know i've been pretty happy for a while now. and today is a very special day to celebrate why i've been happy. i know that not all of you may want to hear about me gushing about the happy in my life, but it is something very important to my life. i don't think i would be here today if i didn't have this. okay, enough walking around the issue ... i just wanted everyone to know that today, march 6th, is the one year anniversary for being at my new job. which i would now call simply, my job. it's been a great year at ch2m hill. i've learned alot, discovered the job that i want to be doing, and made some money on the way.

so here's to the happiness*.

* Copyright(2005) - Kenneth Friesen

so i've not been righting

2007-03-05T08:49:00.000-05:00

but i have been living a busy life. for example this weekend ...

friday - got up super early to drive to work in the aftermath of thursday's storm. F and I made it to work with lots of time to spare, but both of our office's were closed. Ya another snow day. but F had to work from home. so that night we ate vietnamese, walked another the rom (it's $5 on friday's now) and checked out the radical dudez at the horseshoe. which became random run in night, as alot of our friends showed up too.

saturday - played a good 'round-robin' of squash with trina, ben and pearce. pearce thought he was rusty, but he kicked all of our ass'. had dinner with F before going out to two events. first was preface, a fund raiser for freedomize india. a great social art event at grace's church. nobody does an art event like those freedomize kids. i left for a while to celebrate ba's birthday at gabby's. to my surprise the ufc fight was on at the bar. my table wasn't into the fight, wish F was there.

sunday - started early again, playing bass at church. then lunch with ba again to celebrate her actually birth date (march 4th). F found out that a guy at the table (of five people) was born in the same hospital only a month away from her in zimbabwe. now that crazy. relaxed in the afternoon with a great movie, saved!. then met up at the wheat sheaf for wings and beer.

all-in-all a normal weekend in the city. i'm looking forward to going home to my parents in two weeks ... to relax.

i stayed up late

2007-02-27T09:19:00.001-05:00

for the first time, in a long time, i stayed up to watch the oscar's. i even made it all the way to the end, after 4 hours of awards, to see the best picture award. but my favourite part of the show was watching these silhouette dancers. too cool.

a great way to connect and facebook

2007-02-26T15:56:00.000-05:00

after much complaining about it, i've joined facebook. why you ask? well, because everyone is going it. and if i remember anything from highschool peer-pressure, it's just easier to give in. i've spend a little time on the site now, and well it's a good time, but nothing like actually talking to my friends or have a drink with them. but give me some time, this thing may grow on me.

i just had a great conversation with a new co-worker. she was asking about living downtown, she lives with her parents in mississauga, and the need for some new friends. i just mentioned that i met alot of good friends from the church that i started going to when i moved to toronto. i always love hearing the next comment from a co-worker. 'oh really, i'm christian too.' it's great to make that connection at work. in the end, she's going to come to a service in the next couple weeks. sweet.

the great wave off kanagawa - katsushika hokusai (1760-1849)

2007-02-23T09:53:00.000-05:00

one of my favourite paintings. enjoy.

my life is a song

2007-02-22T17:56:00.000-05:00

so i'm watching breakfast television this morning, like i do every morning to see the weather and traffic. they now have a commercial or two during the show. this morning's commercial was from ups. i start tipping my toe to the song in the background of the commercial. then it hit me, 'i know that song'. so, ups is using 'such great heights' by the postal service in their ad's. it was crazy.

just a thought.

three eleven

2007-02-21T09:51:00.000-05:00

for a week now i've been hearing this small part of a song lyric in my head, but i cannot remember what song it is. i know that it is a 311 song and the lyric is "hey you, hey you, hey you ... (with reverb on it)". so i've started listening to all of my 311 songs. all 100 songs from 8 different albums.

311 is one of my favourite bands (as you could tell). i find that with 311 your a fan or your not. they don't really get any radio play, but maybe the song 'down' or their cover of the cure's 'lovesong', and their video are not played on muchmusic or mtv. i just laugh how they mix reggae, hip-hop, ska, punk and metal. and at times all in one song. nick hexum is the 'brian wilson' of the band, writing 99% of all the songs. but my favourite member is, of course, p-nut the bass player. this guy has chops. his style is very funky and his slap'n'pop playing is something that i strive to be able to do, as a bass player.

hopefully by the end of my day long listening of only 311 songs, i'll find the song.

word of the day

2007-02-20T08:35:00.000-05:00

bubinga

botanical name - guibourtia demeusei
other names - african rosewood, essingang, buvenga

one of four species, all native to africa, by the genus guibourtia. the species are reported to be botanically similar but are very different in color. the most plentiful is bubinga, produced by g. tessmannii , and g. pellegriniana . the trees are reported to be large, often reaching heights of more than 100 feet and trunk diameters of 10 feet. these species are found in equatorial africa, from southeast nigeria, through cameroon and gabon to the congo region. they occur in swampy or periodically inundated forest, as well as near rivers or at lakeshores. bubinga can be an amazingly wavy-figured exotic wood, sought by guitar makers and small box builders.

what a weekend

2007-02-19T08:26:00.000-05:00

i thought that life might slow down a bit this winter now that the very cold weather has moved into toronto. but alas, it was another weekend of go-go-go for me.

friday: got a call from steve's music at work, my new bass had arrived and was ready to be picked up. very exciting. i didn't have time to get it on friday, and it had to wait at the store one more day. after a full day of office work, i picked felicity up from work and started the weekend. after dropping felicity off at home, i picked up machina and headed to waterloo for the night. ba was back from australia, so we made the trip to welcome her home. had a great dinner with adele and tim (and penny the dog) then headed to the huether hotel for beers. i had my favourite 'black & tan'. conversation was great and it was nice to have ba back.

saturday: saturday started early, mostly because i couldn't sleep knowing that steve's music opened at 9:30am. so i was off to steve's to pick-up my brand new bass. that's the bass i bought, but i got the 5 string version. of course, i went straight home and played it. the played it some more. after about 2 or 2.5 hours of playing i was very pleased with my purchase. next was dinner with mark j. at swiss chalet before the leafs game. it was a great game versus the oilers. the high-light was a ceremony at the beginning of the game to honour the 66'-67' stanley cup winning team. after the game the night finished with a little brownie's and ice-cream, as i caught up with felicity at the end of a great dinner party at rachel's house. again, more great conversions and food.

sunday: sunday started off early again because of the new bass. i was on the list to play bass at church this sunday. wow, it was awesome (not just because the whole love of God part) this bass can play. i love the tone, the action, the feel, playing position and just how it feels in my hands. the new sermon series about sex started this week. i was amazed by how great the sermon was, i'm looking forward to the next four weeks in the series. had my traditional burrito boyz after church. then started picking people up to go snowboarding. machina first, then jody and finally steve. spent most of my time riding with machina, as it was his very first time snowboarding. good on ya machina. got home around 11pm, and went straight to bed. zzzzzzzzzz.

she finally paid off

2007-02-16T10:45:00.000-05:00

so i've been having some girl troubles. let's just leave it at that. but today having an old girlfriend finally paid off.

let's start the story back in 1995 (12 years ago). i was a l.i.t. at my summer camp. who doesn't love a good summer camp story. i met mary k. that week, and over that week and two more weeks at camp that summer we had a great teenage summer camp fling. i was in love (for a 15 year old). the next time i saw mary k. (2002) was at my good friend randy's wedding. randy married mary k.'s cousin, and she was in the wedding party (small world). we made some small talk. the most recent time mary k.'s and me lives have crossed was this past summer.

i was invited to a boat cruise of the beautiful toronto harbour by maxxam analytics (lab that does my sample testing). so after 3 hours of eating free hors d'ouevres and drinks, and talking work all night, the boat was about to dock when i was picked out by mary k. we talked about where we each worked. "you work at ch2m, you could get me a job there!?!?". i replied, "sure". so like someone else (double d) did for me, i wrote a nice letter to my hr guy and give her resume to him. she got hired, and now works in the k-w office. so why did this pay-off for me.

today i got a $750 rsp bonus for recommending her. sweet. i won't see a penny of it for the next 35 years, but that sucker is going to grow. again, sweet.

so thank-you mary k., it was a great summer fling.

UPDATE: a mere 4 hours after posting this, mary k. emailed me from the k-w office. apparently i owe her lunch in 35 years. no problem, it'll be on me.

snow day

2007-02-14T17:27:00.000-05:00

so today after driving to work for nearly an hour and a half and only making it about a quarter of the way up the DVP, I declared today a snow day for me. so i turned around and went home to work. working at home was great. mostly because of all the emails (personal ones) that I got to answer, the music that i could listen to at my level (loud), getting to wear my pajama's to work, and the long sushi lunches with other snow day friends (thanks trina). all-in-all i got about the same amount of work done on a normal office day. this is way i work best in the field, no distractions.

thank you toronto court services

2007-02-13T16:37:00.000-05:00

it may be hard to believe, but i had a good time at the york civic centre today as i went to fight my recent speeding ticket. after going to the toronto courts office downtown this morning, only to find out that i had to go up to eglinton west and keele for this ticket, i headed north after a short day of work outside again (damn it was cold today). i think that i was in the office for maybe 25 minutes. got my number, filled out my request to see the justice of the peace form, went upstairs to see the JP, talked to her for like 15 seconds and paid the new ticket. so my 22 kilometres/hr over $110 ticket was quickly reduced to 10 kilometres/hr over and only $40 bucks. sweet, cheaper ticket and no points. definitely worth my time.

last night i almost killed a guy in floor hockey (maybe the killing part was in my mind). he had just slashed my ankles with his stick one too many times. so with 5 minutes of play left and one last slash to the ankles, i showed him how much of a red head i can be. i've been very easily irritated the last couple days.

but today i'm feeling better :)

it's been a week

2007-02-12T16:39:00.000-05:00

i've now worked outside all day for the last 6 work days. it's not that special that i work outside, it's just that i've had to watch people work for the last 6 days. i don't get to do anything but right in my book and take photos. so other than being cold, i don't have much to talk about.

the truth is i have lots to talk about ...

time for a review

2007-02-05T09:43:00.000-05:00

i've given the three new cd's a couple listens, some tracks more than others, so here's my reviews.

air - moon safari
after being a big fan of 'talkie walkie' i found the early album a little hard to go back to, but only because i already knew what's in the future. some great stand out tracks, 'la femme d'argent' (sweet bass line), 'sexy boy' (the big single) and 'remember' (damn, i wanted to sample the beach boys 'do it again' first). big miss track 'ce matin la', i can't stand that horn sample. overall: 7/10, where 'talkie walkie' would be a 9/10.

deftones - saturday night wrist
this one truly speaks to the heavy rocker in me. screaming vocals, pounding drums, thick bass, and stephen carpenters always present 'wall-of-sound' guitar'. but all of the heaviness and madness is played with such texture and grace. i find it to be a heavy rock album that can be easily loved by the masses. favourite song name, 'U, U, D, D, L, R, L, R, A, B, Select, Start' overall: 9.5/10

dj shadow - endtroducing...
this one has gotten the least amount of play time. it didn't blow me away like i thought it would. i did have great expectations for this album. i tried listening to it by myself, with friends in the car on a long drive, just before going to sleep, but i just didn't get into it.
but this past saturday night at dave's place it was on while everyone was chatting and enjoying a small couch party. i found it's niche, the party album. it's a great party album. overall: 7.5/10

of course i have bought another album, +44 'when your heart stops beating'. let's see how the new blink-182 re-shuffle works out.

finally cut it off

2007-02-04T16:39:00.000-05:00

after 4 months, finally i got a hair cut. and it was free, thanks lisa.

one step back

2007-01-30T14:54:00.000-05:00

after much thought and discussion with my peers and collegues, i've decided not to do a master degree (right now). i feel that i'll be able to grow and learn through the work that i am doing right now, and once i have my p.eng this coming fall i'll have all the titles at the end of my name that i'll need to progress in the future. plus i looked at my schedule during a normal week, and i can't imagine putting two courses, studying, papers and exams into it. i'm a busy person.

another trip north

2007-01-29T08:50:00.000-05:00

in what is becoming a normal event for sunday night a small group of us made the trip to blue mountain for some snowboarding. and trina skied. much fun was had by all as the snow fell from the sky all night long. the poor driving conditions made for short lift lines. we hunted out every little hit that we could find to get some air. dave gillis was the star of the evening as he plowed into shawn, nearly ran into me and his coat is green. possibly next weekend will bring us back to the blue mountains you never know what is going to happen.

my never ending quest

2007-01-25T10:58:00.000-05:00

my never ending quest is for new music. i love new sounds and styles, great music by great artists, and stuff that makes my mind work when i listen to it.

recently my roommate decided that she was too lazy to fill out a free gift form from telus mobility. upon requesting if i could take the time (which really wasn't that long jana) to fill it out and use it, i went on a music hunt on amazon.ca with a $25 gift certificate.

normally finding new music is easy, i comb through the local hmv or have that new album that i've been waiting for by one of my favourite bands. but with a free certificate i wanted to get us the perfect album or two. because i would get free shipping by spend $39 or more, i bought three albums. and i do mean albums. i'm an album guy, i like awhole album as a piece of music. i rarely by an album for just that one song that i love. if i do, sometimes it works out (gnarls barkley - st. elsewhere) and sometimes it doesn't (fall out boy - from under the corktree). it took abou

t three days of looking over amazon.ca for the perfect albums.

last night i got these three albums in the mail. one for my lighter listening moments, one for my heavier listening times and one that is from a different genre (sampled music). i'll give each a good couple listens this weekend. reviews to come.

air - moon safari

deftones - saturday night wrist

dj shadow - endtroducing.....

my love of machines

2007-01-24T12:15:00.000-05:00

yesterday i spent a good 6 hours sitting at a cubicle at the pickering nuclear power plant doing my cbt's (computer based training's). 6 hours of mind numbing power-point training and quizzes. after about 4 hours of just sitting there i really needed a little sugar boost to keep me awake.
i scanned my chooses in the lunch room vending machine and found one of my favourite snacks that i had not enjoyed in a long time. a crispy crunch chocolate bar, sitting in row C, column 10. this is where it all went wrong.

push C ... beep.
push 1 ... beep.
hmmm ... where is the 0 button????
rrrr rrrr rrrr ... blop.
what the ... i didn't want that.

yes, there is no 0 button. there was a 10 button in the bottom corner. so instead of a wonderful crispy crunch chocolate bar i got ... gum. so sad, so sad.

TVO scares the s**t out of me

2007-01-22T09:35:00.000-05:00

conversations on the way to blue mt. are always interesting. sometimes i’m surprised about the topics that we get on during the 2 hour drive. later night was no different. a simple conversation about rainbow socks lead to rainbow bright and then all of the great childhood television shows that we loved. as a little side note, dave gillis has an amazing memory for the details of his favourite childhood shows. one of my favourite shows from way back in the day was ‘read all about it’. before the days of HD PRV digital cable there was TVO, ontario’s finest television channel. it had such great shows as ‘today’s special’, ‘sharon lois & bram’s elephant show’, ‘owl tv’ and the very funny ‘parlez-moi’. that French mime gets me every time. but my favourite was ‘read all about it’. now that i’m an adult (that’s still weird to say) i have very vague memories of the show. so I did some surfing to find a fan site about the show. upon doing so i found the picture below of the evil villain from ‘read all about it’. at that exact moment I felt like being electrocuted. i was truly scared. it was some deep childhood memory of being scared during the show that came back to the surface. completey weird moment.

if you want to enjoy the show again, check here.

it's me

2007-01-20T08:36:00.000-05:00

i hate photos of me, i am far from photogenic. i feel that the image in my minds eye and the one in the camera lense are two very different things. 'i don't smile like that', 'why is one of my eyes closed' are only two of the many things i think when i see a photo of myself. this is not a lack of self-confidence, far from it. over the past couple years i have become more and more comfortable in my own skin. it is a very important to be happy in your own skin, feelings of discontent can have an affect on all the parts of your life. the truly happy people that i know love themselves and share that love to everyone around them. it's a cool thing to see.

all of this came from a picture (i'm not quite at a thousand words) that i actually like of myself. thanks for the camera dave, and for the shot danielle.

i'm a car pooler

2007-01-15T16:56:00.000-05:00

today was the first day that i car pooled with ben. the wonderful rain/freezing rain/snow didn't make the drive much fun, but the passenger did. ben and i spent most of last winter driving together to blue mountain to go snowboarding. seeing that i was unemployed and ben was semi/part time employed we made the 2 hour trip to craigleith ontario many times. with this years lack of snow these adventures have not happen, and now that ben is in med-school i don't see them happening to often. but the car ride to work and school should be great to keep updated on our lives. things seem to happen and move fast in toronto.

in other news, i finally broke down today and bought some lotion. this winter has been really dry and i've been itching for weeks now. so with the advice of a 'happy' little voice i got myself some lotion. the only thing is that i can't reach the very middle of my back. hmmm, what to do?

i'm alive

2007-01-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

i've been at a job site all week, and my internet is down at home (aka the free wireless web i've been 'using' stopped working). so that's where i've been. work.

a couple steps closer

2007-01-08T19:02:00.000-05:00

i got an amazing email this weekend on saturday. after not talking to any of my professors for the last three years, i emailed my fourth year project advisor (and professor) for a letter of reference to get into a masters program at u of t. so she replied to me on saturday with a yes. that's awesome, step one.

i also got a my official transcript in the mail today. i had so quickly forgotten the marks that i got in university. it turns out that i got some good marks in 4th year. i need a mid b average in my fourth year to get into this program. and i have an average above that in both of my semister's. excellent, step two.

more steps to come.

it has to come back

2007-01-04T13:51:00.000-05:00

just in case you forgot, this is what snow looks like. i miss it.

music and it's moods

2007-01-03T13:08:00.000-05:00

i've been listening to top-40 hip-hop and dance music for the last month straight. to prepare music playlists for what was 'the greatest NYE ever'. but the night has past, and i don't have to listen to that music again. but i don't know what i want to listen to now. it's happened before. i was listening to lots of emo and punk-rock this summer before going to the warped tour. i think that i may return to what i always do. look for more new music.

i have an addiction. it's music. i consume it like the swiss chalet dinners before the NYE party (man we were hungry). the latest band that i've bought is Cansei de Ser Sexy or CSS. cool band from brazil with a great disco-punk sound. plus their lead single is called 'let's make love and listen to death from above'. death from above 1979 is one of my favourite bands from 2005. it's very sad that they parted ways.

got a band that i should listen to? leave a comment or link.

big word: addiction (9 letters)

the greatest NYE ... and the funniest

2007-01-02T08:15:00.000-05:00

i'm pretty sure that i saw all my readers (but ben) at NYE at the castle. i've got to say, it was an an amazing party. at midnight kenneth counted 175 people in the house, and more came in after the midnight hour. so i feel comfortable saying that we made our guess of 200 people. that is crazy, the house was packed.

easily the best part of the night was only enjoying by a small number of us (11 if i remember properly, oh ya plus 2 others). for the 187 people that missed the event, here it is.

the mass exodus from the party started around 2am. the organizers started cleaning up cups and food and some general cleaning. we called for the last two cabs at around 3am. it was going to take 45 minutes for the cabs. so we all went upstairs and started dancing again. around 3:45am, we came back down and waited for the cabs on the staircase. then it happened, a complete random couple came out of the basement (no one was in the basement all night), walked straight for the door and left. we looked in amazement at each other, then laughed loud enough i'm sure the couple heard us. it was pandemonium.

the questions started about what happened. who were they? how long had they been down there? WHAT had they been doing down there? and more importantly, on what? it's a dirty empty basement.

as one person said, 'they so did it down there'

best NYE ever. thank you everyone.

big word: pandemonium (11 letters)

ode to my neighbour

2006-12-28T17:57:00.000-05:00

he lives one floor below downstairs,
i listen to music he pulls out his hairs.
the heavy bass goes thump, thump, thump,
he hits the ceiling bump, bump, bump.
7 am was too early for him,
so was 9 and 10 and saturday night at 6:30 pm.
i don't think he likes the hits i play,
too bad i don't care anyway.
i want to be nice and do my best,
maybe i should yell down and take a request.
if the windows are shaking at 582 indian rd. apartment 2,
it may just be the red haired bass player living above you.

be careful this holiday season

2006-12-27T09:18:00.000-05:00

after living in toronto for a year and a half i have only run into the 'ride program' once. when going out with friends there is no reason to have a vehicle with you. i've lived on both a main street-car line and the bloor subway line. one night i did have my car with me. i was dropping friends off at home, going west-bound on dundas west, when i drove straight through the 'ride program'. i guess that i didn't think much about seeing police-car lights. after dropping a friend off, was going back down dundas west, and stopped the second time going through.

i was at home in the sarnia area this weekend for xmas, and out with a friend for a couple beers. it is about a 40 minute drive from sarnia to my parents in sombra. i've seen the 'ride program' many times in the sarnia area because, unlike toronto, you've to travel a long distance to got home in the country. so when driving home this saturday night i ran into the 'ride program' in their classic spot on the curves coming into corunna (a small town between sarnia and sombra). i was honest with the officer and told that i did have a drink that night. he nicely asked if i would use the roadside breath-a-lizer. i pulled the car over and got into the back of the squad-car (second time in my life in the back of a squad-car). i was scared. i felt somber but the difference between feeling somber and being breath-a-lizer somber can be very different. as i waited for the results to come up on the little machine the officer was doing a great job at trying to scare me more. 'hmmm, it's taking along time. you must have had alot to drink tonight. hmmmm.....'

i past the test, and he let me go home. but wow, what a way to end the night. so be careful this holiday season (especially at the NYE party), don't drink and drive ... or just tell the cops that you didn't have anything to drink.

home for the holidays

2006-12-24T11:24:00.000-05:00

it took me a meer 5 hours to drive home to my parents on friday night. this drive can be done in only 3 hours. but some truck driver parked this transport through the concrete median between trafalger road and james snow park on the 401. it took me over an hour to drive through the 8 kilometres of backed-up traffic. i was very close to having a 'falling down' moment, but i lived through driving a standard vehicle in 8 km/h traffic.

music is very important during a long drive like this. if i'm driving by myself, i normally just put my ipod on shuffle and listen to a random mix of all of the music that i love. if i'm driving with others i try to make sure that the guests of my car like the music that is being played. i try to be a good host.

i love it when a song or album or band has a strong memory associated with it. i had been driving for about 4 hours on this trip on friday night, listening to my music on shuffle the entire way. as i'm turning off of the 401, south of london, to finish the trip along the country road to my parents house a song by my favourite new band of 2006 comes on. this song (and album, and band) have a very strong memory to driving down this very road. i got a speeding ticket this summer on this road, listening to this song, when i was doing 48 kilometres over the speed limit. so i turned the ipod off of shuffle and picked mutemath's album. i finished the drive listening to the whole album, remembering the great trip this past summer to the warped tour with ben, dave and steve. gt's as ben would say, gt's.

big word: remembering (11 letters)

interesting and scary

2006-12-22T10:00:00.000-05:00

like most of you, i've spent a good amount of time surfing the net just looking at what's out there. the thing that most recently interested me are financial blogs. a blog where people post everything about their financial situation and how they are working to improve it. 'make love not debt' is one of my favourites. i was amazed by how much detail people are willing to put on the net. i think it is a very scary thing to do. no one posts their name, but someone with enough desire and intelligence could so easily steal from you. i'll blog about my life, but not my finances.

other financial blogs:
millionaire artist
2million
boston gal's open wallet

big word: intelligence (12 letters)

a brief history

2006-12-21T08:19:00.000-05:00

your past definitely directs your future. maybe not in the small details of your day-to-day life, but the habits, ruins and interests that you develop through life. one interest i developed as a child was skateboarding, which turned into snowboarding, and now more recently longboarding (thanks again for the b-day present). as you see, one interest developed the next.

so my brief history of righting (and reading) goes like this; can only remember reading charlotte's web and some barbara smucker books as a kid, joel eagleson gave me his copy of the hobbit and LOTR in grade 9 (four great books), struggled with english class through every grade of school, including getting just a passing mark on the english language proficiency examination (ELPE) during frosh week in university. the strongest memory that is burned into my mind is not being able to spell the word 'look' in grade 2 and my teacher making fun of me in front of the whole class because of it. thanks ms. townsend.

last night we play white elephant (aka dirty santa or yankee swap) to my home church xmas party. i put my $5 gift in an empty ipod box. if you like the show 'the office' you'll get my joke.

big word: skateboarding (13 letters)

m.env.sc

2006-12-20T11:48:00.000-05:00

i have decided to apply for a masters degree at the university of toronto in environmental science. when i finished my bachelors degree, what will soon be 4 years ago, i told myself i would never go back to school. but now that i have found the job that i feel i truly want to be doing, i want to be educated in this specific field. also my company is willing to pay for the degree. how sweet is that? so this is my problem. i am a horrible righter (please just except that i will be using 'right' in the blog for the word 'write'). i always have been, a brief history to come soon, but i cannot be anymore. if i get accepted to this program, i am going to have to right papers. so i am going to work on this problem. i am hoping that by righting in this blog daily, i will develop some righting skills.

i am also hoping that this blog works out better than my last one. righting a blog out of necessity, will hopefully be more productive than one out of boredom. those were not happy times (check the last entry).

big word: environmental (13 letters)

welcome

2006-12-20T09:11:00.000-05:00

welcome

i'll work on being able to right more