Saturn(a)

This is the largest size this picture can be to be anyway near half decent quality - but you can clearly see the breathtaking moment where there were 3 ferrys PLUS the one I was on all in the same area!

Sooo...I went to Saturna Island on the weekend. Despite what Nate may say, that is not a type for Saturn...I travel only through time...NOT space. It was a lot of fun...got to hang out with the family (most of it anyway), and see the new things there like their kitten and their trampoline. I know...I know...Saturna is sooo exciting. There was even a bottle return event thingy I helped out with for 4 hours.

No, but seriously it was mostly relaxing and I don't get to see my family as much as I'd like to. My dad was at school a bit on both days to work on his Master's thesis. My mom has been working on her rug-making-by-tearing-apart-strips-of-old-clothing-and-weaving-them-together craft stuff. My brother had his birthday yesterday on the 29th, but he is going to an IMAX theater on Friday in Victoria with a whole bunch of friends and such. My sisters are still small and young and innocent and sometimes quite crabby, but Natalie is really learning the piano and Emily is addicted to reading books to the point where she doesn't want to put them down..ever.

Oh...and I got a new keyboard so I took another crappy pic. (It's a keyboard)

Woahh...just stumbled across this site about Street Wars! That's awesome...too bad it already came here.

Looong days

Soo...this weekend has been quite busy. I've barely been home. Yesterday I woke up and left the house at 10:30 with my afro pal Gordo. He had crashed there after the drive-in movie theater escapade of the night before.

Which we BARELY survived getting home from because Rob finds it amusing to drive on the wrong side of the road with ONCOMING TRAFFIC!

We had a very specific goal in mind in leaving the house: eat sushi...eat all we can of sushi. Little did I know I would not return home till 5am the next morning.

First there were 7...Brad, better? Tanya, Gordo, Rob, Murray, Q, and I...who went out for sushi followed by ice cream. I was soooo full after that.

After this we walked down to the other end of the New West Quay where there is a small playground. We ended up playing a game of tag which is awesome because I love doing childish fun activities like that...and it's good exercise. Rob decided to make a bit too hasty of an exit from his climb up a light house looking piece of equipment and actually fell off it (too bad you can't really see that thing in this picture). He fell from the upper bar hit his feet on the lower bar flipped around and landed on his ass on the wood chips with his feet on the base of the tower. Miraculous he then got up and started running away from Q. He didn't make it very far before he slowed down though - but he didn't seem to really be hurt. Also oddly enough he seemed to be in more pain 10 minutes later just from spraining his ankle.

After getting tired of tag and Rob getting in an argument with some lady about our use of the playground, we headed out. Eventually we (all but Q) ended up at Rob's place way over in Delta. We chilled out there for a bit and played some pool while Murray left to go to work. When Rob had to meet up with his dad for dinner we ducked out and the four of us (Brad, better? Tanya, Gordo, and I) left and went over to Brad's place. While there we played poker, guitar, and after Murray and Rob rejoined us we had/played Sex. Yes, they have this game they made for game design class which is called Sex.

All in all it was a looong night and I fell asleep for the last 45 minutes at Brad's. Hopefully they weren't playing too many games with me while I slept. Some of my friend's have a tendency to do that. I'd better go check if there's anything drawn on my face.

Run!

So today I went for a run...and I haven't gone for a run in a looooong time. To give you an idea of how long it's been, let me tell you I ran the exact same route as last time and last time I passed a couple big empty lots and this time instead of the lots I passed an Extra Foods, Shopper's drugmart, Taco del Mar, Subway, Starbucks, Coast Capital, a gas station, two video rental places, two tanning salons, an Esquire coffee house and a sushi restaurant! They certainly weren't there last time...and I didn't even know Starbucks' had drive-thru's.

Oh the lazyiness of me.
Oh the growth of Cloverdale.

Know where to run to

So recently I have been wondering about my living arrangements. They are nice...they are excellent actually because I am paying just $100 a month for food and being spoiled and taken care of. However, I am far from work...so far that the transit trip adds 3 hours to each day (well doesn't actually add 3 hours to it...I don't quite have the power to make my day 27 hours long...but that's the point...it therefore takes time away from other activities).

Recently my brother - who coincidentally lives in Vancouver way closer to where I work has started working with my cousin who lives in Cloverdale with us. So a bunch of people, which actually means just my mom and sister suggested I could switch places with him and live there and get some of those 3 hours back.

UNFORTUNATELY I would no longer be spoiled and I'd have to pay rent and my transit is free anyway and I want to save money for the fall when I will be moving in with some friends and I don't like the small amount of space in the house there and it may also be about to be sold by the landlord and I don't know if my brother really wants to keep working for my cousin yet.

BUT I do like the area and there is a nice park right by there and it would be good to live there in the summer and go swimming in the lake nearby and it so close to work and it is possible to make the early meetings and thus finish work early and it would be much more independent of me and I could afford it while I am working during the summer and it would get me off my lazy ass to do more for myself and see more of the city rather than the boonies and meet some new people not that I don't like the friends I already have.

I'm just crossing my fingers that the landlord actually is selling or my brother comes back from the job he's working on with my cousin in the Queen Charlotte Islands to decide he doesn't like it because then the decision will be out of my hands anyway. Then I will have an excuse. Is that stupid? WELL is it?

BUT it would be nice for my brother to actually have a job because he's had trouble finding one and it would be bad for my brother and my sister if they get kicked out of that house and I like run-on sentences wheeeeee.

I need a picture now...hmm...ok...here's my brother and sister in their most flattering poses:

The OR

Sooo...today I spent about an hour in the operating room. No, I was not being operated on... and no, I was not operating on anyone else...I would be highly underqualified for that role and I have no wish to handle other people's bodies in that way now or in the future (bodies haven't/won't change(d) enough in the future).

Nooo...I was there to SEE stuff. Mostly to see what it is my supervisor does and what monitors and equipment he uses. My supervisor is an anesthesiologist and it appears as though his whole job in the operating room consists of somehow putting the patient to sleep (not like how you put an animal to sleep). I have come to the conclusion that he doesn't actually do any "surgery" unless you call giving someone a needle "surgery".

There were lots of other people on the operating room though, and they were in the middle of an 8 hour operation in which they were creating an ear for the patient by taking some cartilage from the patient's ribs and using it to shape his new ear. Man...I don't know what I expected...but it was just weird...it was so casual in the OR. They were planning on working on it for 8 hours so of course they were taking their time...but I mean here there were a bunch of surgeons sitting down at a little table cutting away at pieces of cartilage with scissors and making silly jokes (some were doctor jokes I didn't understand) while the patient was laying nearby unconcious with a big slice in his chest. At least they seemed to be having fun.

Purposely no picture attached to this entry.

Party

Well, the Mexican party was a blast, as was to be expected. We had a bunch of people that most of my group of friends did not know and who did not really show up in the Mexican theme, but that was alright because they stayed on a different floor most of the night. Some of us went for a swim in the pool which was outside and unheated and very (very) cold but quite refreshing.

We had a pinata but it wasn't taken down in the traditional-hit-it-with-a-stick way. Instead Nate decided to punch it until it fell and then Alex punched it on the floor until it exploded candy everywhere (some of the candy may still be there). Oh yeah - it was a Batman pinata. Who would have thought Nate would want to punch out Batman.

No movies were watched - not even any TV, and no Risk was played - not even other board games, but that can be marked down as being because it was a PARTY and not a usual Rob's-house-get-together, and it was excellent as it was.

I'm sure I will get multiple pictures from multiple sources, but for now you can be satisfied with the video we made for Gordo, who could not be with us. I make no appologies for my zanyness in this production.

Mexican

Hello people. The man¢ana is apparently Five of May (as well as no day of the trousers), and so my friends and I have decided that seeing as we already glided to have a party in that day, now it will be a Mexican part. I am far from being an animal of the party as each one knows that I am a smooth one reserved mannered to individual, but they apparently suppose to me to play the role of the ' Mexican drunkard ' (not it search of the image of google that) in this next party. ME!?

What is I supposed to do on this? I will obtain you again in what you happened.

NOTE: This post was translated into Spanish and then translated back into English in order to make it authentic...yet understandable (somewhat)

It's all over...and just begun

It's all done! Schools out...no more books and all that jazz. Actually...it's already been more than a week into my new summer job because I haven't wrote anything in so long. I even have all my grades back already and I'm sure I've forgotten a lot of what I may or may not have been taught in the past (which is nice to visit) term.

The job is going quite well, so far it seems almost more like school then a job. Like school I show up when I want but generally am there for a long time (well...actually it has to be sometime bloody early - but I get to choose exactly when). Like school, especially the last month of school, I am working on a programming project. Oh, and like school I haven't been paid...but that will change. Congrats to all you other people who managed to find jobs recently!

My tutoree apparently gets an extra two weeks to study for his AP exam because they forgot to send his test...him and another student. What a joke! Sort of comparable to the extra two weeks we managed to push back the deadline for an assignment in one of my tiny classes. Anyway, it means I will be tutoring again for a couple more weekends. Anyone know if I will still have access to the campus that long? That new security guard, let's call him Matt Damon for simplicity sake, is completely different from the old weekend guy Alphie. He popped his head in the door and said something like "You guys are both TA's, right? Just wanted to let you know I closed the school up 15 minutes ago." He was practically asking us to lie. Not like Alphie who said he had to close the school a half hour early and thus I get paid less for tutoring. Damn him. Go Matt Damon.

That's already more than you need to know and I didn't even get started on the future.