Sorry for the lack of posting; it’s been a whirlwind of a week.

I got back from Tofino on Monday (which I’ll post about later), just in time to catch the end of the celebrations for British Columbia’s 150th birthday. I had forgotten about it until the Snowbirds flew over my apartment.

The Snowbirds are a aerobatic jet team made up of Canadian Air Force members that are at some big events and airshows here. I used to watch them every year at the Kamloops Airshow. They were my favourite part of going, so I was excited when I looked out my window and saw them flying over my house. I was suddenly a kid again, watching the jets fly over.

I ended up going out every night last week for dinners, drinks, and a going away party, so I was really looking forward to relaxing this weekend. Unfortunately, I found out on Friday afternoon that I had to fly to Kamloops for some work. I quickly drove home, threw some clothes in my suitcase, and made for the airport. Instead of a commercial flight, we got to grab one of the planes the organization contracts, so we skipped the airport and security lines and took a four man plane there. It makes flying so much more enjoyable when you can just hop into a plane like it’s a car and take off when you’re ready.

Despite the lack of notice, it turned out to be a really good trip. Work went well, and I was able to visit with Tanya and my parents. The only problem was on the way home. The two large coffees I had before take off were an incredibly bad idea. Ten minutes in I realized this was going to be a bad situation. The flight was supposed to be an hour and ten minutes, but it took a little longer due to poor visibility. We had to fly through the valleys instead of over them. Forty minutes into the flight I was seriously eying my friend’s water bottle.

Luckily we made it just in time, and my dignity was unscathed. Although, I think I may have damaged my insides. I was honestly about five minutes from a very embarrassing situation.

I may have to fly somewhere again on Wednesday, so I’ll have to try and unwind the next couple of days. And not drink coffee.

I spent all day yesterday in soul-draining meetings, and I spent today banging my head against a problem I wasn’t able to solve. I was hoping to tie everything off before the weekend, so I could enjoy myself with a clear mind, but that unfortunately didn’t happen.

I was feeling quite frustrated at the end of the work day, but right now, sitting on my balcony in the cool night air, enjoying a chilled beer, listening to some music, and typing away on my laptop, I’m feeling refreshed again.

I’ll be spending this weekend in Tofino, which is sort of a tourist resort village up island a few hours. I normally wouldn’t be able to afford this right now, but we know some people who run a whale watching ship there, and we can stay with them and go out for free, so it should be fun. We’re also planning on taking surfing lessons once we’re there, if the weather is decent, and I’ve wanted to do that for a while now, so I’m looking forward to that. It’s going to be stupidly busy, spending a long weekend in a tourist hotspot, but I should be able to handle it for a couple of days.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

This is the first episode of The Pod: The Animated Adventures, Techno is not a Joke, starring Julian Barratt and Tim Hope. They’re “a late eighties electronic dance outfit trying to cope with the mid nineties post rave come down”. I really like the animation style, and the quirky humour, and it’s a nice flashback to my techno-loving youth.

…unless travel, or snowboarding, or fine food and drink, or mountain biking, or vehicles, or scuba diving, or electronics, or a nice place to live, or peace of mind makes you happy.

I’ve been thinking about money a lot lately, which is unusual for me, unless it has to do with how I plan to be rid of it.

At the beginning of last year, I was more in debt than I’d ever been. I’d just finished my degree, spent a semester in Austria, moved to a new city, and filled my new apartment with furniture. I had planned on the debt, though, and I was making great headway on it by the end of the year.

I guess I got cocky with that little taste of success, and I started to loosen my already fairly slack grip on the credit card. Unfortunately, right after buying a few rather ridiculous toys, some unexpected expenses came up (such as a dentist’s bill reaching into the thousands), and I’ve now found myself nearly back to where I was.

When I moved here, the plan was to spend two or three years paying everything off and then moving on. After making more progress than I thought I would last year, it’s a little depressing to be pretty much back at the beginning now.

So to get back on track I’ve started to keep a budget, or at least a tally of what I’m spending my money on, and I’ve been looking at what expenses are hurting me the most. There is the obvious toy expense that I’ll have to keep a handle on, but another big money sink I have is food. I’ve mentioned this before, but I spend a ridiculous amount on food, so I guess this is where I should start trying to save. I’m not going to revert to eating like a university student, but am going to try and be smarter about what I buy and prepare. I’ve started bringing breakfast and lunch to work most days, I’ve been freezing more, and I’m trying to not let anything go to waste. I don’t know the average food costs for a single guy, but I’m willing to guess it’s under $750 a month.

It’s important not to dwell on debt, but it’s dangerous to ignore it as well. I guess a middleground has to be found.

Maybe I should start busking downtown. I can rock out to When the Saints Go Marching In on my keyboard now. On my expensive keyboard that I probably shouldn’t have purchased…

Why'd Baarle-Hertog have to go and make things so complicated?

An interesting town on the Belgium-Netherlands border, where random bits of the town belong to, and follow the law of, one country and random bits to the other. Some restaurants and houses are divided between the two countries.

Last year I killed a man

The conductor of a train that hit a man committing suicide tells his story.

GOG.com Teaser

Buy old PC games for $5.99 and $9.99 that are DRM free and XP/Vista compatible.

The Website Is Down

Looks like it's up to me…

Here’s an interesting look at the beginning of hip hop culture.

Martha Cooper was a photo-journalist living in New York City when she first began documenting the origins of B-boy (short for break-boys) and hip hop culture. While other New Yorkers at the time saw this movement as a trite, uninspired or even offensive fad, Martha found a new form of expressing art. Through her camera lens we recount the infancy of hip-hop culture, from the alleys and subways of New York to the masses beyond the boroughs.

Last weekend a couple of friends and I drove up to Mount Washington for some mountain biking. I’d only been once before, and this was my first time on a hill with chair lifts.

I have to say, those lifts really make a difference. It was great to start out fresh on my first run. We went down about seven times throughout the day, and I had a blast. I find mountain biking a lot more daunting than most other sports I’ve tried, because it sucks to fall on rocks, but it’s such a great feeling when you’re flying down a path and around corners.

Here’s a video of me riding. I still suck, and I really messed up that first corner, and I have some really obnoxious sounding brakes that I was riding all day, but it’s still fun to see. One of the guys I went riding with has an HD camera we can bring up next time, so you’ll be able to see every detail of my slow, slow riding.

It’s a really expensive sport that I can’t really afford right now, but in the next couple of years I think I’d like to get more into it. It’s great fun, and good exercise too. Plus the body armour looks bad ass.

 

A trailer has been released for Watchmen, a 2009 movie based on what many consider to be the greatest comic of all time. I actually still haven’t read it, but it’s on my shelf and waiting.