The place to waste Time

Last Post Ever!

2007-10-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

This will be my last post in this format on this website.
Please stop wasting your time by coming here.
Any relevant life information of mine will now be communicated to people I know on facebook.com.
Goodbye cruel blogging world!

Muwahahaha

2007-03-28T18:40:00.000-07:00

Howdy Folks!
Bet you thought you'd never see anything in here again, didn't ya?
So did I...
Guess I must be reeeeeeeeeeeeally bored if I'm back here again.
I guess I was just in a typing mood because I just wrote my brother an e-mail since I haven't talked to him in some time, in person or otherwise. I suppose we both just lead fairly busy lives. Plus I don't really like calling someone if I haven't talked to them in a really long time. I'm not really sure why, but maybe it has something to do with my feeling slighted that they haven't called me by now. Everyone I say this to says, "You know, the phone works both ways". Well, duh! But I like to get called every once in a while too, people! Must I always be the initiator!? It certainly seems that way with some people. Of course, I'm not really partial to talking on the phone in the first place and am reluctant to call people, even good friends. I'd rather talk face to face, but that's somewhat difficult because you need to call them to talk to them about meeting in person to talk. Perhaps I should just take more advantage of e-mail and make sure I send messages well in advance so that I know that person will get said e-mail before the meeting time or what have you... But then again, I'm lazy and a procrastinator.
I suppose in the end I either need to get over feeling obligated to initiate phone calls as well as feeling slighted if I don't receive calls or resign myself to talking to people during chance meetings around the town and leaving saying, "I'll give you a call sometime".

If any of this seemed crazy to you, better to never come back to this webpage because I'm sure if I ever blog again, it will be as rambling and crazy as this one.

stuff

2006-07-08T17:32:00.000-07:00

So, I guess it's been a little while since I last blogged. Two months, to be exact.
I'm not really sure why I haven't written on here, guess I've just been rather busy.
Also, I'm never really sure what is going to come out when I start typing, which is a little worrying. Seems to be much like my essays from university, although with less research.
I'm not even sure why I'm writing right now. Perhaps it was becuase a certain someone, who shall remain nameless, berated me (slightly) for not having posted. Apparently she's rather diligent in checking up on me, among others.

Well, I suppose a quick life update is in order.

Linsday and I have just recently moved into a new apartment, the location of which I will reveal in person if questioned. I'm beginning to feel at home here, though we're not totally settled yet. There are a couple of rooms awaiting unpacking, like the office, and a straightening out of other rooms, like the living room whose arrangement isn't quite right yet. It is a first floor apartment, which suits me fine since I was the one doing most of the heavy lifting on the move in. Speaking of which, the move went fairly well considering it was just Lindsay and myself. It only took us about 4 hours because most of our stuff was already packed and I managed to borrow a hand truck from work, which made things significantly easier. We intend on having some sort of gathering once we're settled in more completely, so details on that should be forthcoming... eventually. It's nice to have a place where we could actually have people over for supper without having to move the table into the living room and moving excess furniture into adjacent rooms. Also, the living room is larger here than at other places we've lived, so we'll better be able to accomodate more than 2 other people, besides ourselves. The insuite washer and dryer is also a major plus, particularly for me whose chores include the laundry. Three flights of stairs and having to pay through the nose for a poorly maintained washer/dryer set made the times when I did do the laundry rather long and painful occassions. This will be a treat compared to past experiences.

As for work, I recently became a full-time customer experience person. At my place of employment, having full-time hours does not necessarily make one "full-time" because being "full-time" comes with some supervisory responsibilities, as well as being able to receive medical benefits. So I've been trying to learn more about our products and their placement and whatnot in order that I may better serve my fellow employees who will probably eventually look to me for some guidance, though it doesn't really seem that way right now. In addition to my time on the sales floor I am also still covering facilities duties as management have been unsuccessful in finding someone to replace me in that capacity. I'm a little upset about this as that facilities role somewhat hinders the time I can spend on the sales floor learning, but it is something that also has its perks. I do get to take my breaks whenever I want (15 minute ones, at least) and I know exactly what needs to be done and how long I need to do it. I'll be happy to give up that position though, once someone is found to replace me. Cleaning at work makes cleaning at home that much more of a chore.

Anyways, I'll quit complaining now. I haven't much else to write about, so I'll leave it at that. One last thing, though. I will, in future, attempt to write more like I talk. I'm just so used to trying to make my language sound more intelligent and compelling in writing. Perhaps one day it will pass, but today does not seem to be that day.

Until next time.

nothin in partic'lr

2006-05-08T12:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought I'd blog just because I haven't in a while. Recap; the move went well, we're currently living in Dad's basement and they leave in about 9 days for Australia. My sister, who was in Canada to finalize some visa stuff so she could go back to Oz stayed with us for a couple of days, which was nice because we probably won't get to see her again until January when the happy couple comes back to celebrate with their Canadian friends and family who couldn't attend the main event. Got my final marks back for uni... didn't do too bad, though I apparently bombed on the finals in my english classes (stupid university policy making all finals worth at least 30%) so I only finished with mid-70s in those english classes. History was not so kind to me though, as it hasn't been for many people who lived through it... history, that is. Only finished with a 65, but I'm just glad it's all over. My convocation is on May 24, same day as Mike's hack job at the surgeon's, and then I'll be all edumacated officially. Wooo. Ummm.... letsseeeeeeee... I started full-time (well, almost) today, bringing in the shipment. I think they put me on that shift because there are only 7 guys on staff and they needed a grunt to move boxes, but that's ok. Those shifts start at 6:45 so I'm done pretty early in the day. Tomorrow I'm being trained on cash, even though we're going to get new registers in 2 weeks, so I'll have to try and learn stuff about the old ones and then learn the new ones. But as my new coworker pointed out, you probably won't remember the stuff about the old tills anyways, how true.

Speaking of new coworkers, I was introduced to several the other day (6, I think) and one was a girl who happened to be in my history tutorial during school. Small world, ain't it. This is also the same girl who served us at Kelsey's a number of times, though I didn't know who she was at the time. I think she may be following me, but I can't be sure. Will let you know what happens... unless, that is, my obituary winds up in the paper under a story about a brutal murder by stalker. Or my imagination could just be running away with me. Guess that's what happens when nothing reeeeeeally interesting happens. Although there was last night racing motorized toilets at the drop-in center. I have to say that was pretty fun. Also, playing bump, set, kill with some of the senior high was quite enjoyable as well. I'll give you an explanation of that game in person if you'd care to hear it.

Well, I think I'll sign off now. I'm going to try and be a bit more diligent in my blogging, but don't count on it, as I said, nothing really blogworthy going on right now. Until next time. Same bat time, same bat channel.... ok, not the same time, but who's counting?

neglected

2006-04-19T23:21:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, I have severely neglected my blog over the last few weeks. This is for a number of reasons; 1)I've been busy packing and whatnot, 2)because of #1, I haven't had much time for writing about useless things, 3)nothing spectacularly exciting has happenend, and finally, 4) I'm kind of bored with writing in this. Perhaps #4 is just spring setting in, what with it being nice outside and me not being trapped indoors because of a fear of possibly losing various extremeties to the cold. Or it could just be the busyness. Who knows for sure? Even now I struggle for things to write down on here. That could also be because it's 12:23am and I have a cold that is slowly disintegrating what is left of my brain.

Anyways, I'm still waiting to finish my last final. 7 days until I'm free from the fetters and excitement of formal educational settings. Bittersweet, really. I have one mark back so far, and to tell the truth, I'm not terribly pleased with it. I must have bombed on the final because I thought I would get something in the mid to low 70s, but that was not the case. In any event, I passed the class the second time around (yes, second) and it raised my average a measly .21 percent. And it only cost me a couple thousand dollars, hurray!!! Oh well, c'est la vie.

In other news, as mentioned above, the forthcoming move has me somewhat preoccupied with packing and whatnot, though I never seem to get as far as I would have hoped. I'm sure it will all come together in the end. My sister just came back from Australia to finalize her visa stuff, so I have some more slave labour that I can draw upon. She's seen the worst of my moving experiences, which included her doing most of the packing day of the move, so I'm sure she won't mind helping me out some. That brings me to my last point before I throw myself into bed and hope that I don't have to spend too long staring at the ceiling before sleep takes me away. I mentioned in a previous blog about a barbeque that would be happening at my dad's place (where we are moving to for a couple of months while he is in Oz for aforementioned sister's wedding that I am too poor to attend) and we're hoping to start that around 1pm on Saturday, April 29th. If you wish to help with the move, we'll probably be starting early that day since we can pick up the truck at around 7am, but just come after you've eaten breakfast if you'd like. the barbeque is not only for people who are helping with the move, so come and enjoy some food and hanging out for the afternoon no matter what. God willing it will be a beautiful day and my dad has a huge backyard, so it should be a good time. Call me for the address if you're just coming for the barbeque or if you need more details. ummmmm....I think that's it, but if I miss anything important, let me know. Hope to see you April 29th!

1 down, 2 to go

2006-04-10T17:52:00.000-07:00

So, I had my first exam today, History 114. It went pretty good, could have gone better. I wasn't exactly prepared for some of the questions he put on the exam, but I'm pretty confident I at least passed. I've been getting mid-70s in that class so far, not my best work, but it's fine by me. Anything is better than what I got in this class last time I took it. Yeah, second time around. Not fun. And covering 1500 years in one exam isn't exactly a walk in the park. It started out good as I was walking to the exam though because I found a couple of bucks on the ground, but I wasn't sure if I had used up all my good luck on that or if there was going to be some left over for the exam. Oh well, it is what it is now. I've got another exam tomorrow in English that I think I've got a pretty good handle on, but I will need to review some tonight. English is a little bit harder to study for, unless you have time to reread several hundred pages, which I don't. It'll go ok, though. I'm not worried about it. I'm just worried about after it. I need a good full-time job. Or something equivalent. But that's a blog for another day. Time to STUDY!!!!

woohoo!

2006-04-07T23:10:00.000-07:00

So, it was the last day of classes today... forever. Unless I decide to further my education, the only thing between me and my BA is an essay and three exams, so about...12 hours, altogether. It's kind of a weird feeling. I'm moving onto the next stage of life, I have to find a real job, and I am moving soon. Good thing I don't mind change too much. Concerning the job thing, I now have a plan B, which is more hours at Old Navy, though that's not first choice. Sure, it's a good temporary job, but I would like to be employed somewhere where I am possibly the youngest person there rather than being surrounded mostly by teenagers. I'm sure it would be ok if I were in some kind of managerial position (though I'm not nearly qualified for that), but I would like to put my degree to work. I have some prospects there, but we'll see how it goes before I say anything more. I have to talk to the guy I would be working for about my new availability for projects/contracts, but I'll try and keep you informed. He sounded rather busy with work last time I talked to him, so that is probably a good thing for me. Anyways, that's about it for now. I'll probably be cloistering myself away for the next four days or so in order to finish that essay and study for my first two exams, which are on monday and tuesday next, so don't expect another blog anytime soon... Not that I've been exactly consistent about it as it is.

Oh yeah!

2006-03-24T08:31:00.000-08:00

It just occurred to me that I never mentioned on here about our impending move. When I say our, I mean Lindsay and myself and when I say move I mean residence-wise. I'm sure I've told some of you already, but for those of you who don't know, Lindsay and I will be moving into my dad's house for a couple of months while he goes to Australia for my sister's wedding. He needed someone to housesit and make the place looked lived-in and Lindsay and I needed to get out of our apartment. 3 years is enough. Our place is getting very depressing and a new development is that, through the cheap drywall, we can see all the studs sticking out just a little bit. Lindsay thinks there are some serious structural issues at work there, but I just think they used cheap and thin drywalling. Either way, time to get out of there. After we move out of my dad's place, we were kinda hoping to get a condo or something in the city, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen, so we're going to try and get a nice apartment that's big and bright and a place where we can entertain. See above description of current dwelling in reference to why hardly anybody gets invited to our place.

This brings me to the point of this blog. I'm looking for some people who would be willing to help in said move. I know I've already got some volunteers lined up, but many hands make light work, as they say. In appreciation of any brave souls who step forward to take the challenge, a sumptuous BBQ lunch (or supper, depending on when we get done) will be provided at my dad's place, which is excellent for parties. Depending on the weather, we'll probably have it outside in his nice, big backyard and the pool might even be set up for anyone interested in that. The big day will fall on April 29, and we're hoping to have a lot of the little stuff moved by then, so it will be mostly big stuff. More details to follow.

Once again

2006-03-24T08:20:00.000-08:00

So here I am once again, wasting time from the massive (well, to me its massive) amount of work that awaits. I'm in the process of trying to muddle through a research assignment on a topic which no scholarly person or organization have deigned to write about, which is super odd. I wrote a paper on William Gibson's "Johnny Mnemonic" (the short story, not the horrible, horrible movie) and if you know anything about Gibson, you'd be surprised that there isn't anything on the topic. This guy invented the term "cyberspace" in his first novel "Neuromancer" and is considered the grandfather (or father, depending on who you ask) of cyber-punk fiction, which is a huge genre. I mean, what else, besides computer manuals, do hackers read?? Anyways, besides that horrible project, about which I just e-mailed my prof, I have 2 essays due. Neither one of them is very long, but I just finished writing that other paper and my (forgive me) B.S. meter is running a little low. It would be nice to take a couple of days to recharge, but there's no rest for the wicked, as they say.

As for my previous blog about how I thought the last couple of weeks of school would be easy to get through.... forget it. It sucks! Going to class is one of the biggest chores now, I'd almost prefer to go to work and clean! Trust me, that's bad. Only about 2 more weeks of classes to slog through, so hopefully I don't give up on myself and not go to them. Anyone who feels like praying for me could pray that I would have the determination to finish all the work I have left to do and be able to stick it out to the end.

The cleaning freak-out begins!

2006-03-14T11:05:00.000-08:00

Lindsay is very familiar with what has become an infrequent occurence around our place. Sometimes I just get so disgusted with all the papers lying around and dishes and stuff that I just freak-out and clean as much of the place as I can before I get tired. I don't know why it happens or why I can't keep it from happening by trying to keep the place tidier, but I think it's a result of having to live in my mom's place growing up. She's quite the packrat and I see some of those tendencies being passed on to me. I guess the freak-out is my attempt at fighting against those tendencies. I usually spend a couple of hours going aimlessly from room to room picking up garbage papers and other things, putting them into appropriate piles, and then figuring out what is dispensable. This is part of my break from the freak-out because I usually need to catch my breath at some point during the episode and gather my thoughts concerning what to tackle next.

I should get back to it, though. The shredding pile needs to be attended to as well as the stuff in the washing machine, dishwasher, and I still need to vacuum yet. Woo hoo!

P.S. Don't ask me to come over to your house during one of my freak-outs because I'm immune to the messes of others.

You ever notice...?

2006-03-10T11:58:00.000-08:00

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to write in sarcasm? I mean, when you say something sarcastic people usually notice the snotty tone or however your particular brand of sarcasm rolls off the tongue, but it doesn't always come across when you write it. Besides the ever popular, "If you hadn't noticed, that was sarcasm" line, how does one get across a sarcastic point without turning the whole thing into an utterly ridiculous hyperbole of what you're trying to say... er, write?

?

2006-03-09T21:49:00.000-08:00

Made you look

I've been thinking...

2006-03-08T12:23:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know, scary. But I have. Do you ever have one of those days where you wonder what if...? What if this or that had happened, how would my life be different? What if I never existed? You know, things along that line. I don't really want to think about those things in particular, but I have been all the same. Maybe it's from God, a bit of prompting to make some changes in my life so that I can say when I'm in heaven, "The world might not have been the same without me, for the short amount of time I was there." As I type this, it seems pretty selfish and slightly depressing. If I'm doing things for some kind of legacy or something, then I'm not sure that even counts in God's eyes. I dunno... I'm not the type to worry a whole lot, just ask Lindsay because sometimes she gets frustrated with how little I worry, but I seem to be worrying about this. Like I said, not that I want to, but I am. Maybe if you, dear reader, have any insight into that kinda thing, you could drop me a line. Maybe I'm just paranoid. Maybe I should just forget about it. Maybe I don't even know what I'm talking about...

Here I go again...

2006-03-08T12:08:00.000-08:00

Ah, Bohemian Rhapsody, how I enjoy thee. Yesterday, Lindsay and I had a day almost entirely to ourselves (finally) and we went out in the morning. I wanted to go to Confed mall because there's a guy there that can fix basically any kind of watch in no time and I had a couple of watches that needed some batteries replaced. I was so sick of wearing my Walmart watch I began drawing on it in the hopes that I would be disgusted enough with it to go and get the other watches fixed up. While we were there, we went to CDplus and bought some CDs because they had some ridiculous deals on some good album. We ended up with one for Lindsay, one for me, and one for us both. Lindsay got Burton Cummings "Up Close and Alone" cuz she grew up with that kinda stuff, I got Classic Queen which explains the opening to this blog, and we bought a greatest hits of U2, all for 30 bucks. I haven't bought a cd in a very long time, which you could see if you saw the library list on my iTunes, so this was exciting for me. Of course, I ripped them on to the computer as soon as I got home so I could pick my favs and put them on the ol' iPod. I didn't particularly think that this was blog-worthy, but Amanda (of all people) was bugging me about how much time had elapsed between my blogs. So here you go, Amanda. Happy now? :P

P.S. I also got a 79 on my last english essay, which I thought was ok (not the best, but I can live with it) and my prof for my other english class didn't mark mine because he missed it. That's how school is going, if anyone was curious. And oh yes, I'm going to be done this year so all the boring lectures in between now and then should be easy enough to get through... I hope.

I hate being sick

2006-02-28T11:39:00.000-08:00

So I have this cold that has hit me like a fog to the brain and its as if someone hooked up an energy-sucking device to my heel and all my energy is flowing out. I'd have to say, next to passing a kidney stone, it's one of the worst feelings. Sure, there's no excrutiating pain, but neither can talk coherently or, in my case, keep your head from occassionaly falling back on the headrest. There's nothing I can do to stop it! ....there it goes again. Anyways, I've taken some drugs to try and stop my nose inadvertantly drowning me, so that may be affecting my brain as well. I tried to leave a message at the executive director of Regina tourism today and I believe, if memory serves, that I said "umm" as many times as my english teacher's grad student during her "guest" lecture. The grad student's, not the teacher's. See, I don't even know if what I'm trying to communicate right now is making sense. I think I'll just watch some Star Trek: TNG reruns until I pass out or something. If anyone gets this before 5 or 6 o'clock today, pray that I'm feeling well enough to go to Jr. High tonight, cuz those kids make me feel better just being around them.

Odd...

2006-02-22T21:23:00.000-08:00

I just noticed that the spell checker on this blogging website (You might want to investigate that one, Mike) tries to suggest alternate spellings for "blog". The top replacing word for blogging is flogging. Rather odd, don't you think?

Crazy University

2006-02-22T21:13:00.000-08:00

So I looked on my PAWS account the other day and on the front page they are advertising for the basketball playoffs this weekend. They want us to "Pack the PAC!" So I says to myself, I says, "Sure, might be fun. Something to do if I'm bored on the weekend. And hey, aren't those kind of activities free for students since I paid through the nose to things like the athletics fund?" Apparently I was wrong. They want me to pay $5 to go see a basketball game that I might only be midly interested in if it were free. What exactly did I pay them for if I can't go see these games for free? It's like buying a ticket to the Blades game, expecting that you're already paid for, and then finding out there's a finders fee for your seat or something equally stupid. If it weren't an un-Christian thing to do, I might be tempted to ask for God's wrath to be flung down mercilessly upon whoever thought that students should have to pay more for these games.

I'm not really as upset as I sound, I just thought it was silly. Plus, it looked like I hadn't blogged in a while so I needed a filler blog to tide me over until something else exciting happens. Well, besides getting to pie Jr. High kids in the face on Tuesday night, that was a good time. I'm glad Mike thought to bring along his video camera.

New Car!

2006-02-14T21:10:00.000-08:00

Yup, you heard it here first. Lindsay and I bought ourselves a 2002 Kia Rio RX-V. It's got a 1.5L 4cyl engine, so it's gonna be WAY better on gas than the Malibu with it's V8. It's a metallic green colour with black tinted back windows, 4-door, a Sony cd player and command start, though we're having a bit of a problem with the command start because the only manual we have for it is a 4-page photocopy of part of it and doesn't say what brand or type it is. That's kind of annoying, having a command start and not being able to use it, but hopefully we'll be able to figure it out by either taking it somewhere or asking someone more knowledgable. This is the newest car either of us have ever owned and the only car I've ever had that was made in the same decade as I was in at the time, so needless to say, I'm rather excited about the whole situation. We got a pretty good deal, about on par with the value of it in Kelly's blue book, so that's nice too. The guy at the Kia dealership where we got the car, Sherman, was really helpful and kinda went to bat for us when the Malibu wouldn't start the morning we had to take it in for the trade-in. First off, we got some decent money for it, sight unseen, and then they paid to tow it in, which was nice. All I can say is I'm sooooooooooooo glad to be rid of that beast of a car. It was more trouble than it was ever worth to have it. Good riddance to bad rubish. And that's all I have to say about that.

HOORAY!!!

2006-02-10T12:29:00.000-08:00

And so begins my vacation...well, almost. Just have to work tonight until 10, then I'm pretty much free until next week. Here's how it will go: days Lindsay works, hang out with her until about 11:30 when she goes to work, then watch TV/play video games until my eyes explode/melt or something better happens, Small group on monday, no junior high on tuesday because the kids are off school (and it's "Love Day"... will probably make Lindsay supper and give her her present, unless she has something else planned...), Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I'm scheduled to work, but 12 hours over 3 days isn't too bad, just normal. Also, sometime in there, I'll have to finish an essay and catch up on some reading, but that may be delegated to Sunday night because I'm a procrastinator that knows no procrastinating bounds. I might also go visit my sister, brother-in-law and their kids since he is off work, recovering from surgery. He's doing fine, I hear, though apparently he's lost some weight. It wasn't a Huge deal, but he had some wicked acid reflux because of a sphincter or something at the top of his stomach that didn't work so well so they had to take some of his stomach to make a better one. He's just tired and complaining because the only things he can ingest right now "look like pee"...apple juice, chicken broth, etc. I think he's just excited to move back up to mush food... the man loves his mashed potatoes. Anyways, please give me a call if any of you are bored during the days after 12 because I'm sure I'll be pretty bored with Lindsay at work. And a happy vacation to anyone else who gets this week off.

Site Meter

2006-02-08T12:38:00.000-08:00

So, Robyn hooked me up with this cool thing at sitemeter.com that is kinda like a hit tracker, but you get way more information on the people who are visiting. I don't know how much I should tell you that it tells me about you, but it's more than I thought it would be...

Ok, since you're twisting my arm (and you'll find out if you go there anyways), besides hits it shows where the people are from and the average number of visits a day and stuff, which is kinda neat. The thing I didn't expect to see on there are people's IP addresses, which some people don't necessarily want to share. Some nefarious sorts could use that kinda information to get into an unprotected computer, but I'd never do that...even if I did know how.
I'm sure you all have firewalls on your computer anyways. And for those of you who don't, Zone Labs has a nice free one, though it's rather disturbing how many attempts to access your computer it shows people (or programs) have made. Like the 650,000+ access attempts my firewall said it has stopped... Oh well!

Don't be too paranoid :)

MUWAHAHAHAHA!

Teeth suck

2006-02-06T12:45:00.000-08:00

Days like today I wish I just had false teeth. I've got some wicked problems going on with my wisdom teeth and it's making all my other teeth on the bottom hurt. Basically, my wisdom teeth are growing in sideways, which has also caused an infection, and I think they're pushing my other teeth together... and it freakin hurts. So, I've got an appointment on Friday now to see if that really is the problem and hopefully they'll be able to bump me up on the list to have them removed. Woohoo. No wonder I don't like the dentist.

Anyways, I should go. The fire alarm just went off in the building and I might be trapped up here, although it is very unlikely. The stupid alarm has gone off half a dozen times since we've lived here and they've all been false alarms. One was caused by someone slamming their door. Good thing we're moving....

BYE!

Mistake

2006-02-01T12:52:00.000-08:00

Well, thanks to my wife, I realized I made a mistake on my last blog. Apparently I talked about the car that we currently have, mistakenly calling it a Chevy Celebrity. CAR FLASHBACK!!!! I think it was just the "C" alliteration deal that got me mixed up, but the Celebrity was...3 cars ago. Wow. How silly of me. That prompted me to give a rethink to all the cars I've had. I typed out a big long paragraph about all my cars, but deleted it because it sounded really boring even to me and I was there. How much less would you guys care, I asked myself. A lot seemed to be the answer, so it got ejected. Anyways, oops on my part.

So, last night for Jr. High we got to play some wheelchair basketball. It was pretty exciting. My arms are a little sore from pushing myself up and down the court, but I think all involved had a good time. I know Rissy did because she told me all about how she was laughing at me while I played. More fool me for shouting encouragement from the sidelines when she was playing. Yeesh. *fist shaking in mock rage at an invisible Rissy* That seems to be our "thing" though, picking on one another. But that's ok, she's a sister in Christ and my biological sisters picked on me and vice versa, so it's all good. I'll just have to treat her to some "pie" later on <-- inside joke, ask Trent for "pie" if you're curious.

Well, that's about it from me today. I just read an article in the new Reader's Digest about blogging and thought it was about time I updated. Take care all.

Country music?!?

2006-01-26T12:49:00.000-08:00

So I was driving Lindsay to work today and on my way back I couldn't get a particular foo fighters song out of my head, so I turned on the radio. Now, for most of you, that might release a rush of pop or rock songs pouring forth from your speakers, but I find myself in, what some might call, an unfortunate situation when it comes to car entertainment. My car is an '83 (sometimes, like last night while driving a jr. high kid to the church, I feel like adding BC to that number) Chevy Celebrity. All original interior, including the AM only radio. Needless to say I listen to my iPod in the car whenever I can (it's only as dangerous as having the car stereo cranked), but on some occassions I find myself without and must turn on the radio for a distraction...like from people I feel should be endowed with a crushing blow from my 3,000 lbs of metal for something they did which I didn't particularly approve of (ok, prolly not 3,000, but it sure drives that way). To my surprise, I found myself liking some of the songs that came on, particularly the one with the following chorus which inspired this blog, entitled (I'm fairly certain this is the title anyways) "Back When";

Back when a ho was a ho
Coke was a coke
Crack was somethin' you're doing
When you are crackin' jokes

Back when a screw was a screw
The wind was all that blew
And when you said, "I'm down with that"
What you meant was the flu

Ah, for those good ol' days.

Makes me long for days on the farm... Sometimes I wish I hadn't had to leave the farm, but then I wouldn't have some of the wonderful things and relationships, particularly the ones with God and my wife, that I have. C'est la vie! (I hope I spelled that right....never was very good with french grammar and spelling)

The Work Horse Rides Again!

2006-01-25T09:04:00.000-08:00

So, I'm trying to get into a mental state where I am prepared for all the moving I'm going to have to do in the next couple months. And no, Mike, I'm not putting this all on you. Lindsay and I have decided that we need to move out of this apartment and it so happens that my Dad and his wife are going to Australia to see my sister get married. What does this have to do with moving, you may ask. Well, since the folks will be gone for more than 2 months, they need someone to look after the place... keep it clean, mow the lawn, take the mail in... in a word, house-sitting. The good part of the deal for us is that said folks will pay the mortgage and the bills while they are away, so Lindsay and I can live relatively payment free for 2 whole months, in the process saving some money. Now, this money, along with some money in savings, will hopefully go to buying a condo or a house outside the city. So we'll be moving out of our apartment and storing our stuff, moving Mike and Amanda into their new place, then moving our stuff back into a different place (God willing, not another apartment, but we'll see what the funds look like).

This brings me to the Work Horse part of the title. I have been thus dubbed because of all the assistance I've given to Mike and Amanda over the years, moving various pieces of large furniture (whether I knew what I was getting myself into before going over to their house or not). So, the Work Horse will ride again and hopefully nothing will break in the process... me or the things being moved.

Back again

2006-01-13T20:14:00.000-08:00

Hello again faithful readers,
Apologies for the length between blogs again. Seems like I don't have as much time as I used to to waste time, what with the job and school and having something of a social life. My loving wife has pleaded with me to keep my blog going because it helps me keep up on my writing and grammar and whatnot and she even went as far as to start her own blog so as to comment on mine. I was a little disheartened at that fact that I wasn't getting very many comments and thought that reflected poorly on my readership, which is why I was thinking of abandoning my blog. I'm not sure if I'm actually getting anything out of blogging. Some people may feel it has some cathardic value, but I don't feel like I'm getting that from my blog. Perhaps the problem lies with me and the depth, or lack thereof, of my blog subjects.

On that note, I've noticed some pros and cons with the new iPod that I got for Christmas, mentioned in my last blog. It's nice to have something to listen to when I'm wandering around campus and whatnot besides the chatter of my fellow students, but I fear it's affecting my interaction with the people I do know. For example, today I almost snubbed Lynette because I was too engrossed in listening to my music and was only able to respond to a call of my name at the last second. I tend to go into something of a trance when I'm walking between classes, shutting out most of what is happening around me because sometimes its either annoying, disturbing, or unimportant, but it backfired on that occasion. I also almost snubbed Rissy while I was walking because of my trance-like meandering, so apologies to both ladies. I didn't mean to ignore and I hope you can forgive me if it seemed that way.

For anyone who is curious, things are going pretty well with life. I'm going on a youth retreat next weekend as a sponsor, so that should be a new and interesting experience. I'm not quite sure what to expect, but it should be pretty fun and I hope that both the kids and sponsors learn something about God and His ways while we're up at Redberry. Please pray that no one gets injured as we'll be doing some toboganning on what I gather is a rather crazy hill, lined with trees and somewhat narrow. We'll also be playing some night games and that could get a little dangerous with unseen objects in the snow and around the camp. With work, I'm going to be rather busy that days that I am working because we're doing what is called a "January Tune-up" which involves a lot of cleaning and somebody coming from one of the other stores or something and rating us on our cleanliness. This, as you probably know, is almost strictly my area at work (with the exception of my new facilities buddy, Colin), so we'll be cleaning pretty hard. Ah well, I got some extra long (for me) shifts at work next week to get all the extra cleaning done and Colin is a really hard working guy. Should go fine.

Well, that's about it for me. Sorry it's been a rather long blog, but I had to make up for all the time I missed out on and I didn't even cover all that has happened since the last time I posted. Hopefully I'll have some interesting stories to tell about the retreat and work. Take care all.

So.....

2005-12-28T20:16:00.000-08:00

So here it is, the dreaded Christmas blog! ARGH! I knew this day would come and now it has and I'm....tired. Anyways, my Christmas was pretty good, though I was kinda dissappointed not to be in Saskatoon because it would have been nice to go to a Christmas service at my own church. As it was, I didn't really want to go to a service in Prince Albert cuz the last one I went to there was last Christmas and it was scary loud and super shallow... but I'm not judging. Maybe I'm just biased towards my church where I can actually hear myself sing (though that's not necessarily a good thing) as well as those around me, besides the people at the front. Ah well, perhaps next Christmas Lindsay and I will just stay in S'toon.

It's very tempting to stay here, especially since my mom likes to make me do much physical labour while I'm at her house. I probably shouldn't complain cuz of the whole "raising four kids on her own and still never wanting for anything" thing, but I'd like to relax on my days off. The threat of shovelling snow, or in the case of this year, having to put together a desk, take apart another one, and re-setup my mom's computer, kinda ruins the whole "vacation" ideal. Plus the fact that Lindsay and I only had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off work kinda put a damper on things since we had to judiciously (sp?) decide how to break up the time between my mom's and her folks' place. That aspect worked out pretty good, I must say, though more time spent down there would have been nice.

As for presents, I did pretty well considering I wasn't expecting much of anything. I knew that my mom was going to give me an iPod shuffle because she told me she had gotten one for not taking a Jeep on a test drive (I still don't understand how that works, so don't ask me). I also got a futureshop gift certificate from my mother-in-law (she knows what I like!) so I bought some games. My mom also got me and Lindsay a shiatsu massager dealy, which is pretty nice and if you wanna use it you have to come over cuz it's not leaving the house. Various other small gifts were also greatly appreciated, like my sister and brother-in-law's home-made wine (of which I have partaken, though I had about half an ounce cut with much Sprite, so it kinda turned into a wine cooler thing. and it was still making me pretty hot under the collar after a small glass. guess I'm a light-weight when it comes to drinking, which isn't necessarily bad.)

So, all in all, it was a pretty nice Christmas, though it was too short. Of course, my allergies disagreed, thinking it was too long to be around cats at my mom's and dogs at my mother-in-law's places. Good thing the cat hair didn't follow me home...too much. Anyways, I'm tired of writing and I have to go get Lindsay from work soon, so I'll try not to make it as long between blogs as before this.

...blah

2005-12-09T21:26:00.000-08:00

So, I guess it's been quite a while since I've had a bunch of time to waste making a post on here. Well, that's not true. I've just been so tired and busy watching movies during the day and then going to work at night. The whole working thing is once again new to me since the last time I did an honest day's work (where I got paid and involving physical labour) was....long enough ago that I can't remember...prolly last summer or something. Anyhoo, for those of you who don't know, I've been recently employed by that much loved arm of Gap Inc. we know as Old Navy. I'm "the facilities guy", as I'm known at work (Thanks muchly to Robyn who helped me procure said job. I got about 2 sentences in before they offerred me a job, which was sweeeeet.) It's all about the detail and floors. And boy is that place dusty...How dusty is it, you ask? It's soooooooooo dusty... it makes the Gobi desert look like a sandbox. K, maybe not that bad, but you get the drift. Anyways, what with the wet Saskatchewan weather outside that travels inside on the feet of our customers, through no fault of their own, little dust/lintballs run rampant on my floors. And yes, they are now my floors cuz I'm the only one I know who cleans 'em . Needless to say, it's a little frustrating trying to keep said floors clean, but I'm giving it my best shot. Besides, that's what they pay me the big bucks for (I am, however, unable to say how much said "big bucks" are in case any employee of Old Navy happens to see this.) So, long story short, I have a job and it's ok... even though it started off not so great. That's a story for another blog and things are better now anyways.

I figured it was about time for a new paragraph, but I dunno what else to say sooooo.....I'm going to go play some Yahoo! pool until I'm sleepy enough to go to bed. Good Night/Day/Insert applicable time greeting here!

Wish me luck

2005-11-29T20:28:00.000-08:00

So I've been reading some of the blogs I've posted in the past and I noticed that a majority of the time my last remark is "Wish me luck!" I've been thinking about that, and I don't really need people to wish me luck, I'm just so used to saying that from my "old life", I guess. I was co-leading this bible study for jr. high and in the book we're doing there's these "20 Cans of Success"...kind of a cheezy pun, but it works. One of the ones that stuck out was "Why should I feel like I'm cursed or have bad luck when the Bible says that Christ rescued me from the curse of the law that I might recieve His spirit (Galatian 3:13,14)? So what do I need good luck for? I've got God, that's soooo much better and He won't turn on you like "luck" can. Crazy the things you learn when you're supposed to be teaching others. Speaking of that, even though I think that I don't really have any business teaching these kids, some of which are probably more spiritually mature than me, God can still use me. That kinda blows me away. In the words of Trent (who you prolly know if you know me), "That's stupid!....in a good way." Anyways, I guess I'll have to work on saying "Pray for me" instead of "Good luck" cuz God knows that I can use all the prayer I can get, literally (the God knows part, that is). Anyways, I think that's all I have to say for now, other than I have another essay (*sarcastic hooray*) to do that I should probably be doing right now. Oh well, I can write 9 pages in 2 days....eeeeeasy...maybe...BYE!

Here again

2005-11-24T22:46:00.000-08:00

So, here I am once again. It is currently 12:46am and I can't sleep. My brain won't stop thinking things long enough for me to pass out. Fortunately for me, I have a friend who is working a night shift tomorrow and has to stay up late, so I'm talking to him while I write this. I can't stop thinking about applying for jobs. There's this one I might apply for on campus for a place I haven't seen before. Some kind of crepe place that's going to be (or already is and I missed it) in Upper Place Riel. Not really looking forward to cooking again, but money is money. Can't say as I'm looking forward to working during the holidays either, but I better get used to it. Can't live the sweet life of a student forever. Speaking of which, I'm debating on whether or not I should just be done with it this year. I will have enough credits for a 3yr english degree, but what the heck am I gonna do with that? Same thing I was planning on doing with a 4yr degree, I guess.... which was no plan yet for that either. You never know though. I might get out on the job market and get some really sweet job doing a whole lot of nothing and getting paid good money. YEAH RIGHT! HA! Oh well. Enough complaining for one evening. I really should try and get some sleep. Wish me luck!

Zodiac sign?

2005-11-16T22:03:00.000-08:00

Hello faithful compatriots of the BLOG,
What is my astrological sign and zodiac year doing up on my complete profile? What's up with that??!? I never asked them to put it there, nor did I give (or have to give) that information in the first place. What if I don't want people to know I'm a scorpio? What if, as a result of that knowledge, people start sending me my horoscope? That could lead to my accidently reading it at some point and could have disastrous effects on my spiritual life. Blogspot, oh blogspot, why do you make me suffer this way?> Now I'm going to have to find a solution to this problem which is going to take... wasted time. Well, I guess this is the perfect place for that, so here goes nothing. Wish me luck.

Wow!

2005-11-16T21:55:00.000-08:00

Hey Readers,
I just read my first comment. I was so excited when I came on to check my blog after playing video games for a while and to my delight and surprise, I had a comment! The thrill of comments on something you never thought anyone would see is totally amazing, unless it's something embarrassing that people shouldn't be seeing and saw anyways...Not that I have anything like that. Perhaps if I actually told people about this blog, I would get more comments and have that thrill again, but I probably shouldn't get my hopes up. Besides, now that I know someone has seen my blog, I may actually want to start talking about something which would be totally disastrous and the complete opposite of what this blog was originally intended for. Ah well, I guess I'll just have to come back and see if I get any more comments and go from there. Woohoo!

P.S. I did finish my essay, pretty much on time. I handed it in the day it was due, though I had to skip my classes to do it. It was worth it though, the late penalty would have been 10% and I can't afford that kind of deduction.

Place title here

2005-11-15T15:35:00.000-08:00

Hello Reader,
I don't expect too many people to read this blog, but I'd rather not address it to myself like some sort of journal because that is not what I intend to do here. Instead, I will use this forum to waste time when I should be doing better things. For example, right now I should be writing an essay that is due tomorrow and only half complete. I'm not really worried about it, but I seem to have reached that point at which I can longer write coherently and must remove myself from the project for a while. I'm the procrastinating type and have been so for as long as I can remember, so I'm sure I'll figure out a way of getting my paper in on time, no matter what shape it is in when submitted. I hope that whoever reads this doesn't think that in future posts there will be any pearls of wisdom or insight into my person, but I can promise that once you are done reading you will shake your head at the waste of both your own time as well as mine. Thanks for being here to waste time with me and I look forward to wasting more time in the future. Comments welcome... since you'd be wasting more time writing them and I'd be wasting time reading them which is what we're here to do, otherwise you would have hit the "next blog" button by now.