Northern Lites

A Week of Mondays

2011-11-10T19:39:00.000-07:00

Greetings, Long time no words.

So I have not been writing here, hardly ever. It comes down to the usual list of things that took effect once I moved to Vancouver. Not the least of which is I am connected so I don't need this medium to break my isolation. Full time work and being spent enough at the end of a day where not much has happened is the other reason.

This week I feel venting is a bit in order. It started well enough, with Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer's zany live show. This ran latter than I had expected, leading to not getting home till past midnight. It was worth the cost but, sleep is a resource I do not wish to give up. Monday started good. I choose to ride into work despite the cool damp nature of the morning. I was warm enough and dry enough but the streets were wetter than they looked.

I was coming up on to Gore street, at the south eastern corner of china town, I had picked up a little too much speed on the long section of low grade. One way or an other I miss judged how far I was from the intersection. Breaking hard to stop back fired. My breaks worked perfectly. My wheels stopped turning, the ground was lubricated. We fish tailed. Now as it turns out I have more control over the bike than I thought I did, because I was able to pull up and out of the skid and loop around to the edge of the side walk.

Some thing felt off, checking things out on the other side of Gore, reviled a minor warp to the rear wheel. There was discussion after the fact that if I had bailed the wheel would have been fine. That logic is good because the recovery put a lot of strain on the wheel. Against my better judgement but in the absence of better options I rode the rest of the way to work.

Work was a slog. Full of revision after revision. At the end of the day, I checked on the bike, I had through the abuse of the morning broke a spoke. I took the train home and left the bike in the builds locker. I had hoped to take it to a down town shop during the week but found my self stuck behind a deadlind for too much of the time to make it outside over lunch.

On the flip side I have a new bed and when I do get a full nights sleep I am well rested.

Not so sucky

2011-09-30T18:42:00.000-06:00

UPDATE.
I got a call around 1:30pm today. The bike mechanic was able to contort the steel back into form. I will be picking it up tomorrow.

Well this just sucks

2011-09-28T22:41:00.000-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.
A warning if this post has even more typos, grammar errors and spelling errors it is because I have had several needed beer.
In July I ordered and received a new bike chosen because it would be the best fit in its class. Money was put aside over several months for this purchase. Cutting corners was not on my mind, I wanted a frame that would last years and I wanted a good ride.

Well today the wrong part was out of true in the worst possible way. I bent parts that should not be bent, 180 degrees from where they should sit. I am angry, numb, pissed off, worried that it can not be fixed, hopeful that it can. If the best case plays out, the parts will be bent strait others replaced the machine will be ride again. Should this play out there will always be the taint on this frame of it failed once. This machine was to be my long turn ride.

Healthy and ready to ride

Pay close attention to the way the parts are bent wrong.

Seriously, FUCK. FUCK FUCK. FUCK FUCK>

Its a damn good thing the frame is light, I was carrying it a ways today.

BEER. A few are needed on a day like today.

Built of steel with quality parts, I spent more money than I had originally planned to because I wanted one of the best frames that could fit me. Now it sits in the shop where it was built waiting its turn on the mechanics rack in the hope that malleable qualities of steel will allow it to role smooth again.
What little luck I had was that the fail happened near Main and 33 close enough to the buses that I had a chance to make it to Mighty Riders be for the closed at 6pm. They say it can be fixed. Hearing that alone pushed me out of the near shock state I had drifted into towards angry.

Great Summer Days

2011-08-08T19:26:00.000-06:00

Greetings.
July was gloomy I was not happy. August is turning out much better. Its gotten hot. My tomatoes are doing great. There is a aphid problem with some of my plants but nothing is dead yet. At long last a beach day was had and it was good.

These days I have the tyranny of the produce. I am growing more than I can realistically eat. The other day I harvested some greens from the garden only to find more of a similar green sitting in one of my planter boxes. Damn one more thing to eat. There has been some concern for my mental health as I found my self willingly eating kale. This out of normal behavior has since been rationalized as a reflection on my desire not to buy leafy greens as long as my garden can produce them for me.

Work is also going well. You have to enjoy a job where an afternoon can be spent learning how to make your job easier. Its not easy being inside with the bright sun and I have to admit that as long as I have my projects under control I am leaving the office quickly. To be fair if when there is a bigger work load I stay in a little longer but high summer and a slow work flow will drive me outside.

Presenting this week in Gardening

2011-06-29T23:09:00.000-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

Having given it some though I have decided that yes I will use this forum to tell any one who cares about how great my life in Vancouver is.
Today and yesterday I walked home from work. Last weeks rushed rides to work left my knee feeling funny and the Seattle trip and late running
Sunday evening left me tired. So riding has not been happening this week.
Thankfully I am only about an hour and twenty minutes from home and that is taking my time. So it was a lovey evening and my time was taken.

On this walk I past an orchid that stank of trash or crap, I could not tell for sure, I could tell the flies loved it. I took a detour today,
it might have been a short cut but for taking the wrong path through McSpaddon park. This turned out to have a surprise in it.
Hiding away next to the tennis court is a Community garden. I thing I may have seen it before but thought that it was some how attached to a school.
Today I walked right by it and saw that it was green and full of future and present food.

Curiosity lead me to slip through the gate and have a closer look. Some are over grown some are well tended some are weeded but need details
managed like climbing things for peas. The place is pleasant. As it turns out my garden Annex has slightly more then double the area of the
plots in that garden. That garden also suffers from being overly Clayey and needed a boost in organics to improve texture.

Naturally I said hello to the one person tending to a plot. This plot had some Swiss chard, radishes, of which a rather large bright red one was extracted.
A conversation about gardening was had with the young woman who was weeding that plot. I explained my plan for my mini greenhouse, I was carrying 4 bamboo sticks.
I shared a home grown radish I had picked yesterday. We both benifited from gardening advice from a later arrivel at the plot. Tips on tomatoes were shared.

Eventually I did leave the garden but not before leaving with a new plant. Some member of the mint family I am not positive on its ID. I know a handful of mint family things
it is not but no certainy of what it is. I made it home. Changed out of work cloths put rice and the left over chicken in the rice maker and turned it on. That proved to be a
highly successful method. THe rice got cooked just fine and the chicken came out hot but not dry from having steamed with the rice.

The automatic dinner heating gave me time to build the salvaged green house. Today a fellow who sublet an office within the office my company occupies was moving out. He was switching
to a home based business so he could spend more time with his little one. Thanks to his cleaning I found a large role of clear plastic in a recycling bin. Yesterday I had used some
plastic bags go shelter a pair of struggling tomato plants and a pepper plant. These were uggly and rather adhoc creations. The plasitc presented a better fix.

So the mint like thing was planted in an empty slot left by a cucumber that was not sprouting. An A frame was cobbled together using bamboo and string. The plastic was stuck in place with
tape aquired last year after a friend left the job. It took lots of tape and I had just enough plastic. Its more than a little ugly, but I have easier access to the
plants thanks to the flip up end.

I also have to report that my Kale is growing well as are the potatoes, one of the tomatoe plants has more then one generation of flowers on it and several are getting close to blooming.

The Garden Annex

2011-06-22T18:53:00.000-06:00


The start of the Annex. The two stakes mark tomato plants from my landlord.

Greetings Bloggies.

When last we spoke I was unloading my self of a couple tones of iron and plastics. I do not regret that choice. Somedays I think I wish I could have a car to move one thing once. Those days are few enough in between for me to know that I am not really needing it.

Today I am going to tell you all about my accidental garden. When last we met the garden I was offered a small corner of the plot across the alley. I accepted that offer and later that weekend tilled that plot with a hand trowel. That is not the smart way to garden. It was enough for me to plant the first generation of veggie seedlings some of my own and some from my sister. I could nearly have kept things there save for the ticking biological time bomb that was the tomatoes.

Some fool thought it was a good
idea to sell me a spade.

Mr. Socks, him cat.

I was given 4 tiny pucks of dirt with tomato seeds planted in them. I had no trouble sprouting them in the Hobbit hole but thriving beyond that did not happen here. So I did what any sane person would do. Transplant the sad skinny things and take them to my office with its south facing windows. That was the recipe for growth. Within days they had grown more then they had in the three weeks they had spent in my house. The tomatoes were quickly running out of soil too much longer in the office and a hot day would have killed them. The tiny toothpick sized things were now 30 to 50 cm tall and out of room to grow. So I did another perfectly sane thing, I bought a spade.

The tomatoes forced my hand. There was not enough space in the corner plot to fit them and I lacked potting soil and pots to give them the chance they needed on the patio. Hence the spade. On a Saturday after noon I went and got a tool. I then dug out the whole garden. At this time nothing had been planted and the untilled earth was getting hard. So my logic was even if I don't plant it my self at least it will be ready. I finished that day with 4 raised beds. Then next day I went to my office and repatriated some very thirsty tomatoes.

The plot as of today.

Radishes

I should have known I would not stop there, and I did not. The final bed is still not yet planted. Three of the beds are planted with seed purchased by the gardens official tenants and soon I will need a hose.

I have been making do with a bucket that spent the last 6 months siting on the side of the street next to where I used to park my car. This will do until the cucumbers and zucchini come online.

A wake for Serenity.

2011-05-16T00:03:00.000-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

I did something big this week. I became car free. It was a long time in the making andit was the natural thing to do. I had owned a 1999 Subaru Legacy for four years. In April of 2007 I had cash from my North West Territories gig and was needing mobility in a bad way. I was splitting my time between Nakusp and the Okanagan and the north. The car was needed to get me around and back to the airport. In those days I was effectively homeless but had lots of places I visited. I named it Serenitybecause well that was also the year I fell in love with Firefly.

I was never a car person. I came to driving late, not getting my license till I was 26. A car is a black box fossil fuels go in momentum and green house gasses come out. I was bad at taking care of it. My values never placed putting money in to its up keep a priority. Though a few things played out against it. In October 2008 I got laid off and repairs slipped in my priority list as I clamped down on spending. I also never took the time to find a shop. I was absent minded about simple things like checking the oil. Three times I drove into things costing me money to fix the bumper. The third time cost me my signal light which I never fixed, I taped it up and it still worked, but I figured why fix it I will ding it again any way. Countless times I completely over revved when shifting and made burnt car parts smell.

In the country I loved driving that car. Between the springs of 2008 and 2009 I made many trips over the mountains from Nakusp to Nelson and Castlegar. I enjoyed those drives, the zigs and the zags. Put me in traffic and I my attitude goes down hill quickly. After I moved to Burnaby to attend BCIT I used Serenity a lot less. Once a week became the normal mode. Then Twice a month. Burnaby was big enough and I was far enough from things to make using make some sense. Last august after using Serenity to drive a way from the worst job EVER, I moved in to the Hobbit hole in East van. This move saw a major drop in usage.

Moving in to the Hobbit hole lead to a spike in driving as repeated trips to IKEA were need to make the hole livable. That period passed and usage dropped to once a month or less. I still live in the Hobbit hole and am planning to stay there for some time. I know of more neighborhoods where I can find a pedestrian lifestyle and I have no desire to change that. In some ways this is a return to my families roots as most of us have been dutch city dwellers.

After the moving in phase I knew getting ride of Serenity was a goal. I knew from my time in Burnaby that I did not drive much in the city. I also knew that my location was better then I had in Burnaby, I am closer to the trains and right out on two major bus routes. At first, I thought about selling it online, but got distracted by work or looking for work. I also held the belief that once I had a steady income I would fix it up. Time when on and I realized thats not my game. Its sad to say but the truth is my car declined in condition because I could not be bothered. Perhaps I would have used it more over the winter if I had not left my snow triers in the Kooteneys but thats speculation. More recently I made a half hearted effort to sell it. I did not want to pass a lemon on to honest people.

I reached a compromise this week. I donated it to a Kidney charity. It got transported from here for free. They will make an effort to sell it and I get a tax receipt which will help me out with my plans for this year. I was a little saddened to see the thing go. 4 years is a while. It played a huge role in my personal life in the Kooteneys, with many a good and a few bad memories attached. It was something I proud of at first. It was a grown up thing to have gotten, but I stopped being proud of it as my neglect added up. The last few times I drove it the exhaust system was getting really loud and I felt ashamed to be in it.

Gardening or How to meet your Neighbors

2011-05-15T00:07:00.000-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

And Sow it begins.

So it came to pass that on Wednesday evening I was at loose ends. Work had left me tired and a little stressed. The job is good, I am learning every day. Deadlines, technology and using my brain all day do add up. So as it has become some what routine, I watched the previous nights Colbert Report and made some dinner. I need to veg out a bit. After dinner I watched an other 20 minutes of tv before asking well now what. Not feeling too energetic I chose a walk over a bike ride. I did not make it very far.

Five meters past the back gate is about as far as I made it. I spotted a neighbor I had not seen tending the never tended garden plot in the back yard of the house opposite mine. Not being shy I said hi. She was cute.

Dar She Grows.

Honestly I had nothing better to do nor could I think of a better thing to do. I took off my good jacket got my hands dirty pulling weeds. Notes were compared in the smallness and remoteness of the towns we came from. I believe my neighbor was from Fort Saint something.

An apparent side effect of country living is the chance to learn a thing or two about dirt. Though I never had the slightest interest in tending the soil when I lived in the country. It happened that I had at least a half informed notion of what was food and what was foe.

The plot thickens

The I don't know what I want feeling went away. My hands got dirty, small talk was had. The garden cleaned up. It went from a over grown patch that I did not even know was a garden to a blank slate ready to make food and pretty flowers. That simple act of doing reset my brain.

Open the pod bay doors HAL

In my mind Gardening is slowly becoming foods little brother. Though I had always cooked in some capacity I did not approach it as obsessively till I had lost control of it for some time. The lose of control came from camp life.

Out there, in places remote enough for the notion of "The Outside World" meaning, you are fed. They cook for you in exchange for a very long days and what was to me dull work. Returning to civilization drove me to express the creativity I was denied out there.

Long garden is long.

The same places where I was fed are also places where the ground is white more of the year then it is bare. Places where the soil is an after thought if there is any. Now back in a place where there is green I want to add more too it. It also happens that you can grow food which makes the whole thing double-plus-good.

So this may come a bit late for mother's day but the thanks has go out there. I have to thank my mother for teaching me the basics of cooking and gardening. Cooking was a more deliberate act of teaching. The knowledge of gardening was haphazard. I learned about gardening because if it was between May and September/ October, if I wanted to talk to her I had to come to her and that place was the gardens. Weather you want or not you learned to tell some plants a part, how to transplant thing and how to weed things.

The BBQ might become a planter.

It has come to pass that the arts of making and growing food are slowly enriching my social life. I have said more to my land lady since I have planted my peas then I have since last summer. Of coarse the friends that hate me for my facebook food posts will hate me even more once I start posting the dinners with the home grown greens but thats their troubles.

What I learned from Bread.

2011-04-27T23:16:00.000-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

So when last I wrote I was stuck on the loose of the past narrative in my life. Well life does not stop. I find there are difficulties with my new job that keep me thinking. Some work nights I don't sleep as well as I should. I know for sure that I am not doing my work as fast or as well as I could. Which is why I am going to write about bread.

In the spring of 2009 I was in the depths of my being laid off state. I had not made serious progress in getting a job and was only starting the process that would take me to BCIT. During that time in a move based on the desire of safety I was staying in the old log cabin at my folks place. Due to the limitations of that dwelling, its lacking both internet, TV and running water, I spent time in the folks dwelling, where I would make some use of the kitchen.

At this time many days were unproductive and I strongly lacked motivation. So I sought a way to create a feeling of having done something. There was also a element of recovery to this, I could not cook in the camp I had spent the previous years working at so I getting back into that game was part of my return to the world. So bread became a challenge for my self.

My early loafs were inconsistent, hard, dense and took me hours to make. Now bread still takes hours to make there is no way around that. In the early days I would read the recipes to the letter and measure with care. Due care and attention and guild lines still resulted in breads that lost all their charm the moment they cooled to room temperature. I was missing something.

A no knead bread, during the Soviet Potluck at BCIT.
In Nisgia'a D, The potluck Organizes you.

Fast forward to easter weekend. A point in time somewhere near the two year mark in my bread journey. Over those two years I have made bread off and on depending on weather, employment and the state of my mind. Progress was made, first I mastered a batter bread that needed know kneading, then i moved on to french bread. So back to the weekend.

Sunday evening I figure I want to make bread. I start a dough. Realizing it was late and I did not want to stay up late enough to let it rise properly I retool it to become a yeast based pancake. In the morning I make and eat said pancakes. They were all right, and I was faced with a large bowl full of yeasty batter. I had made enough for a loaf so It was a lot of batter. I do the only thing that made sense, feed it more flour and worry about what to do with it later.

Later becomes late. I had a short notice dinner with a friend and college. Strange to see a friendship/business contact grow and know this is how grownup things happen. Three beers and at even more hours later I come home to find a monster in the bowl. Through luck a cool house and lots of flour the dough did not over ferment and develop a yeasty flavor. Without a recipe without a plan I turned that sticky mass into bread.

The bread from Easter weekend, Made with no plan.

This worked and worked out well for one reason, practice. After two years my fingers know what a good dough feels like, I know how to micro adjust the moisture by just wetting my hands under the tap. Those and many more little methods turned a creation that did not know what it wanted to be into a good loaf. It is in light of this accumulated know how that lets me know my current imperfect performance at work will end and in the future I will be good at it. Like with bread things that were hard ant took a lot of thought will become easy and I will be able to through ingredients together in a rush and make them work.

A flat bread.

The end of a narrative.

2011-04-22T17:18:00.000-06:00

Greetings.

As I finished writing the last post I realized something. I have reached the end of a narrative. This blog started as a way of killing time and creating some level of connection with the outside world. Discovery NWT, Rabbit lake Sask and Minto YT are all places remote enough to give the phrase "outside world" meaning. I was not in the field long before I realized it was not for me. I held on because I needed money and at discovery, the operation was more relaxed then at some the other sites.

Depending on when and how you divide up the time I was in a state of unhappy employment or unemployment for at least 3 years. This blog has helped me vent. For now my work is interesting but not mind breaking. This begs the question, what is this blog for now. I have no short term plans to go any place remote, my life does not suck. Do you 5 readers really want to be blasted with stories of how good life is in Vancouver, because without the north controlling my life thats what this might come to.

Just to show my life is not all rainbow scented unicorn farts, I went to my favorite chocolate shop only to discover I had no means of giving them money on my person. So I had to ride my bike back along False creek without gourmet chocolate.

I have to work and I don't mind

2011-04-18T22:22:00.000-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

So have made it through two weeks of work, technically 9 business days as I started two weeks ago tomorrow. So how is this two week mark different and how am I taking to office life. Compared to the last time I was two weeks in to a job things are way better. I lack a roommate, there is no mouth breather smecking chocolate on the other side of the room. Its not -35 outside. My work day is short enough to leave me with energy to spare. Gone are the 10 to 12 hour days I now work 8 hours.

So how is the work. Get to office around 8. Sit in front of my duel screens of my computer work station, when I want a distraction I look down over Granville Street. If the deadlines permit, as so far they have, I leave work around 4pm. One of the things I am still getting used to is not having home work. It works out that historically the only times I have had a lifestyle with semi-regular hours and or the choice to go home at the end of the day was during my schooling days. Until now the only time I had dealings with a desk on a full time basis was school, so even with the year between BCIT and now and 5 years since my undergrad wrapped up, I secretly expected home work. So colour me a little surprised when I am simply free at the end of the day.

Having signed a nondisclosure agreement as part of my terms of employment I am legally bound to not speak any details. It is safe to say I make maps related to the companies operations. My current products are simple but growing in complexity. I am working with a software that was not covered at BCIT, however its core functions are largely the same. I am impressed that I really did learn things at BCIT.

The people in the office so far are nice, we get along in as much as we interact. I have the choice of shutting my door and being alone. One thing learned through BCIT, during the practicum was the discovery that damn it the way I like to work best is to be left alone with a guild line on the out put. I have that here. No one watches over me. We talk over how things should be done, I make my interpretation and then I make some changes, repeat. Its my first grown up job. Or it feels that way.

It has its new hazards, I managed to leave my keys and wallet in my office last wednesday . I had made to Commercial Broadway Skytrain station, before I realized my error. I was in safeway on the way to grab some eggs before I found my wallet was not on me. Had I had my keys on me I would have headed home, I was tired enough. As it was I did not want to beg the landlords to let me in. I was lucky that there were still a few people about when I came back there.

That trip down town was extra interesting, it was game night the first of the play offs and the train was packed. To make mine and a whole lot of other peoples lives interesting, the escalator going up at Granville station was not working. Now thats a hike.

So there you have it a word salad about work in the city.

The Accidentally Good Week Part 2

2011-04-04T11:36:00.000-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

When last I wrote, I had just spoken with some geologist and an HR person from an exploration company, with a couple other options on the table. Last friday saw me take an interview with a larger company, one I had been in touch with for some time.

I did my best at that interview, I dressed well, I spoke well, I listened to how they described the job. As I learned more about that job, I became reenforced in my conviction that the sleeper hit from earlier in the week was the better option. The larger company was offering a job of narrower scope. In an environment of few choices I could have taken it. After all there is no doubt in my mind that I need the cash flow either way and the experience would have been good. In the end I was honest. I said, I had an other thing on the table and it was a better fit for me.

After a lunch I called the office of the company that was offering a job which included an office with a door and expressed my interest in taking the position. Then I waited. After waiting some more and heading home I wrote an email reenforcing Yes Please I really would Like to Work Here. And then I waited, some nerves throughout the weekend. The worst of them this morning, from 8am on ward, as I know the office day their starts at 8.
Thankfully I did not have to wait all day and the call came at quarter to ten and it was a firm YES. So tomorrow I show up for work. A grown up job at a desk.

In between these interviews, I did some research into the third player. This was an engineering company looking for Geologists, work related to resource modeling, writing 43101 reports and all the trappings of a classic professional geologist career. Not a bad thing, but divergent from my current interest/direction. I wrote back and told the contact as much.

So now, I have to show up for work tomorrow. Now I can see if this will work for me. Now I can take the train to work and if the weather really sucks not step outside between my office and the train station. I have wanted a job that allows for what passes as a normal life for some time. I knew for a long time field work was not in my bones. Now I will beable to think about having a cat.

Its a grown up job at an office.

An Accidentally Good Week Part 1

2011-03-30T16:53:00.000-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

On monday I woke up for the facing the second week in a row where I was struggling to come up with an agenda. The previous week was largely wasted. Monday of this week was not well used. I left the house to walk along Broadway, trying to look for inspiration. I was angry at my self for wasting the previous week and was going to try to use that anger to get me motivated again. Motivation when looking for a job is a stop and start thing. I did learn that I should be able to get a smart phone for very little. I did do laundry in the morning of that day so it was not wasted.

After coming home not having gained inspiration or motivation, I returned the the time killing device I have been using, Minecraft. To make minecraft run smoother, I shut down a bunch of apps including my mail app. So it was not until late that I fingured I might as well check the mail because I am just OCD enough that un checked mail don't sit right. In the mail was one short email. I saw the name of the company and knew it was legitimate.

How did I get mailed you might ask, well I was a bit nuts. I put my resume, on Craigslist. I stripped it of phone email and address and placed it in a category where I had seen geology jobs posted. That was a fishing expedition. Classed under, its not supposed to work but the risk was low enough and the cost nonexistent. Knowing enough about the firm that reached out to me I quickly wrote back that I was willing and able to come in for an interview on short notice if need be.

The next morning, I got called and was in my good shirt and tie and in the board room less then an hour and a half later. When questioned if I could query, I not being able to think of any SQL on the fly but wanting to show that I had comprehension mentioned Little Bobby Tables. There was a laugh.

Things did have a hick up where I miss heard an instruction to come back in twenty and thought that I was going to be called. Thankfully the situation was solved. I got invited back into the office again, this morning for a more in depth follow through, a skills assessment and chance to meet people.

In between the miscommunication and is resolution, that time frame being yesterday afternoon, two other good things happened. I got a call from a firm I have been trying to land an interview with for some time that interview is now scheduled for friday. I also got called by an engineering company looking for geologists, also office based and vancouver based. That phone call ended and with in a minuet my phone rang, it was the call that fixed the miscommunication of earlier in the day.

So now, I need to learn somethings from Fridays interview. It is agreed that the friday interview is a good thing, I want to know what plan A is since plan B came out of the blue relatively speaking. I want to get a handle on what the details of the post at plan A are. I would kick myself for not finding out and loosing a possibly better job. I know that Friday afternoon I will be close to making a choice.

Part two will be when I sign some paperwork or otherwise take action to accept an offer.

It has to be said there was luck in all of this. Enough brains to see what I saw as worth while but the luck of being seen on craigslist is still luck.

The wrong stuff

2011-03-15T13:42:00.001-06:00

My first car, a 1989 Honda Accord

Greetings Bloggies.

I have through sloth and indifference created an annoying situation. 4 years ago I bought my second car. My first car got taken away from me for cheap days before I went to the north for the first time. The cash was helpful as I had non then. Four years ago a second car was a good idea.

At the time in the Spring of 2007 I had a steady job in the North West Territory and was quickly putting away money. Spring came along I had the computer I wanted, things seamed solid with job, I had enough cash to spare and frustration with a lack of mobility. At that time my life was still centered around Kelowna, and prior to getting the car I would arrange pick up and spend time at my folks, not a way to live. So I conscripted a friend to help me get a deal and I found a machine that was in budget and alright.

Me unloading Wessel from Serenity

Never Ever back out of underground parking
without having coffee first.

The car a 1999 Subaru Legacy proved up to my needs, as I was traveling between the Okanagan and Kootenays it was good on winter roads and reasonably fun on the same roads when they were dry. But fundamentally I am not a car person, though I have a notion of how an internal combustion engine works, by and large its a black or in this case green box to me. Fuel goes in, momentum, heat and carbon dioxide comes out. I don't like or want to spend money on cars, I did not have any shops I trusted so I was slow to have it looked at. I was also hard on it, it was the first standard I owned, and after all this time I still mess up more then I should.

Roughly a year and half ago I moved to Vancouver, Burnaby to be more exact. Prior to that move the car was used often as the ability to travel to a different town was a key part of my private life. After the move usage decreased with time. Fuel down here was more expensive and even more critically there were alternatives. It turns out that when faced with an alternative I will use it.

The car sometimes known as Serenity,
before I had a chance to do any harm.

That did not surprise me. I was late in getting into driving, not even starting lessons with my father until the spring of my grade 12 year. It did not help that I did not think much of the available things to do in that fly speck town. Being that I was weakly motivated, when provincial exam season rolled around I abandoned the effort. In the summer of 2005 after hurting a foot and choosing not to take bush work and knowing that I would have field classes the following year I at last made the effort to finish the process. So Some time after turning 26 I at last had certificate good enough. That was too late in life for driving to be much more then a chore on all but the best parts of the roads. Besides it being too late to get a love of driving, I had already found a love of cycling and have established long ago that if my bike sneezes I have it looked at.

So now I find my self with an ugly, high mileage car, and not enough interest or money to fix it up. I was telling my self last year, when I get a steady job I will fix it up. Now I know better. I use it less then twice a month. The last time I seriously used it was helping my sister with stuff from Ikea. I walk to the stores or ride my bike. Nearly any event I want to go to I can get to by transit. I just don't think about using it in any thing like a day to day setting.

So what todo. I know it would be far too much money and time for me to fix it. I know that is not a thing I will do. Yesterday I established that the condition of the beast is poor enough that I am unlike to get rid of it through a dealer. The truth I don't want to sell the car. I would feel bad about saddling others with a bucket load of little things. I don't want to sell the car I simply no longer want to own a car. And no taking the insurance off if is not an option, I have to park on the street.

A Legacy of a legacy system.

A Hobbit Manifesto

2011-03-13T18:16:00.001-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.
Since I got back from the Yukon I have been trying to come up with a good entry. I knew I did not want to spout the bitter rantings I have before, that was done. Those you know know I I know why I don't want to do that work and its been said. So I got to thinking about my identity, and the aspects that the work I have done clashes with and what makes me happy, thus the Hobbit's Manifesto was born.

This is for all the Hobbits who never left the Shire and did not mind.

I have as my Facebook Bio that I am the worlds tallest hobbit. Why. Well Consider the Hobbits, not Bilbo, Frodo, Merry, Pippen, or Sam, but all the other ones, the ones who's life style was being protected by the halfling fourth. Now we are unfortunately well into the third age of mankind and have forgotten some of the better notions. I intend to remind people of some of them.

SLOW DOWN. Friends people, enemies not every thing has to happen right away. Good things take time. If you rush you will miss out on simple pleasures. It is these simple ones that hold together your sense of wellbeing while wait or plan for the next big event. Its good to have big plans and adventures. Its good to want to go to an expensive opera or hockey game, but don't let that cloud you to the good cup of coffee you could enjoy if you did not have a long commute.

Modest means. In the same vein as slow down and in part as consequence of modest means are part of the hobbiting life style. You will find your self hard pressed to achieve the life tempo of proper breakfast(s) good coffee and tea, if you try to afford the Mc-mansion in the Suburbs and the 2.5 cars to support the 2.5 kids. So don't. Step back. Ask your self how much space do you need, is a neighborhood defined by a building code, lawn mowing guildlines or something more fundamental. I am not expressly against a house in the suburbs however, any mode of living where too much time is spent in the isolating confines of a private car to a and from a private home is not compatible with the Hobbiting way of life.

A meal which was shared and enjoyed.

Community. Now that you have slowed down found a place you can afford and don't have to spend all your time at work to pay for it or spend all your time in transit you can start to really live. Hobbits knew how to party, they knew how to play. They knew their neighbors. Yes of coarse they worked, no doubt spending long hours doing farming things but in that cartoon of village life the shire represented they knew each other and so should you. I have the fortune of having lucked out and landed in a neighborhood where people are neighborly. Your neck of the woods may not have this trait but you can always be the first to say hi. Last weekend I undertook a bike ride of 15km for a cup of coffee and a chance to visit a cat. I shared some food I had made the day before and good company of the friend the cat and the eventual appearance of my sister reminded me of what I want to live for. Ordinary things, enjoying the view from a bridge on a sunny but cool morning and getting wired on homemade espresso shots is part of that and something who's absence is felt. I have been there and back again too and I am glad to be here.

Food and the other simple pleasures. Now I started calling myself a Hobbit when I noticed that I was living underground with a view of a garden, and it was not a dark dank hole. I also started calling myself a Hobbit when I became aware of the feed back from the food posts I made of facebook. Hobbits, are known for eating, and the pleasure they take from it. I share in that pleasure. As with Hobbits I feel food should be made fresh, from wholesome and whole ingredients. Take the time, don't be afraid to mess up, you will but so has every one else to me its a form of play. That it self is something that should be part of every day life. I even encourage going barefoot as once again part of slowing down and feeling the grass between your toes and getting into nature a little.

The text reads: There are the things you do
because they make you feel right & they may
make no sense & they make no money.
& it may be the real reason we are here :
To love each other & to eat each others cooking
& and say it was good.

So as I see it live comfortably, smell the roses, bake bread share the bread. Join your friends for beer, Cook and go for walks. Be a hedonist for the little things in life.

how to make me grumpy

2011-02-25T23:10:00.000-07:00

Greetings Bloggies.

So two more working days before I head home for 10. I have a fun things to go to and I will eat and drink good. I am coming home on an optimistic note as I got an email from a person who was trying to contact me about a GIS job. It was from an HR firm so I don't know much of any thing beyond interest in my resume. And I will apply for jobs when I am back in town. I still seek a desk job that will let me come home at the end of the day. I need a life that will let me keep cats.

All that is divergent from what I came here. So as I have described the need to report on the daily out put of the drills in a post shift orgy of rock looking. Yesterday was not any different. I knew the drillers had dropped off a stack in mid afternoon so it was known that we could do the log in part at any time after. That day was a tiring one for me. I think I moved a lot of core boxes.

So I was tired and I had just eaten a large starchy dinner. I did what any person would do. Put my feet up and veg for a few and get some strength up, also a chance to use the facilities, something that generally clears up ones mood. I was foiled by the appearance of my roommate who I shall call Eager Young Space Cadet, who knew that the core was waiting for us and wanted to rush off too it.

Now I am in general in favor of ending my working days sooner rather then later, that said, when I am tired and trying to recharge my batteries rushing will not get me moving faster. So I found my self agreeing to go out to do this last errand of the day half an hour sooner then my body wanted. Now Eager Young Space Cadet can fray my nerves from just miss alined personalities, He is a good young fellow. A point that we clash on is I see this as a job, a means to some specific ends with my long term goal being as noted above.

So I am up at the site tired and grumpy faced with a young and ernest fellow who really gives a damn, gives more damns then I likely ever did about this industry. And when I am faced with that situation I get grumpier. And for all that rushing to get out there, the job took longer then it normally did. I really got extra grumpy, when a coworker came and hug out in our room at a time I was wanting to chill and I had forgotten my head phones at the shop. I got driven to near madness with his chewing on his finger nails at the time I was wanting to read and go to sleep, chewing loudly.

This morning I woke to the sound of his 6am alarm, an though oh great that time already. Morning passed in its normal haze. The default friction slipped into to the way of things as we got in each other space, or I should say he got in mine. I got snappy, after we got a strong critique for wrongness. We were wrong. I got snappy saying see what happens when you rush me out of my slump. To which a comment about long hard days are normal and I should grow up.

I grew up last summer when I realized living for the now is more important. Hard work is needed but is not the goal of life. Chill people. Drink with your friends or if you cant find your friends drink with BOB.

Repetitive Brain Injury

2011-02-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

Greetings Bloggies.

My job here in the Yukon is almost no different from the job I left more then 2 years ago. Because of the overall similarities in the tasks performed there is only a short learning curve to climb. Most of that learning curve is learning the house rules and a fundamental geology points I have to discriminate.

The trouble is I got good at this three and half years ago, I got bored of it soon after. After I crossed into being board of it my interest and energy flagged. Doing the tasks again and again puts a strain on the brain. Like a bad keyboard mangles the wrist or a jackhammer pulps your hands, this work hammers the brain. Little new challenge and a lifestyle I am tired of living leaves me standing in front of the rock thinking well I know whats in this I don't really feel like measuring it and typing all that crap down.

Today I wanted to fix a from, that sends the curser every which when I hit tab. Tab should send you from cell to cell in an orderly left to right pattern, here its like that only some of the time and I do not use a mouse in spreadsheet space if I have any say in the matter.

A knee

2011-02-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

Greetings Bloggies.

As you know I am at a job in the Yukon. I took it because I was short on money and did not do the best job of opening new options. I have a roommate who is not nearly as fun as my last camp roommate. This recent grad is too ernest, with a overly divergent sense of humor from mine to make great company. That is a detour from what I came here to write.

I have said before that I must leave this line of work to get what I want out of life. That still stands, I want a home I am sleeping most nights and the stability to have pets. I also want my body in its best shape. The life style I have here does not promote that. I spend most of my day standing, I manage to fit stretches into the work flow. Standing is what I do. I stand then lean over a box full of rock enter that into a database and move along. The peak activity is moving the boxes in and out of the shop. That works out to walking 10 to 20m at the most often carrying something so awkward that there is no ergonomically sensible way to get it off the ground, the carrying requires odd twists of the hip and lower back. My shoulders are feeling strained but what is feeling things tonight is my right knee.

Now this knee has a history, several years ago I will say winter of 07, and the worst case of it in december of 08, I twisted it. 07 was the first time, not the worst time. Now what I established after the fact and confirmed through a physician was that my leg had gotten weak and the tendons and other connective tissue lost some of the support of the muscles and they had to take more load.

In Vancouver I would walk 3 to 4 km on an average day, 6 to 8 on others and ride a bike with some frequency, thats all I needed. Under those conditions my knee seldom hurt and was resistant to torque loads. Now I am two and half weeks with out a good walk a little more since I had a bike ride. Add on lots of standing, lifting, from squats, and over the last few days my knee has been giving me a little pain.

Today, I made a quick movement that made me think, oh shit not again, I heard an unpleasant noise and briefly felt my knee cap feel as if it was in the wrong place.

I suppose that I could go to the gym, there is some gear in house, but most days, I work form 7am to 6 pm and add in at least half an hour of evening quick log and a general state of dehydration and tiredness, I usually say fuck it to the gym and veg out over the internet for the remainder of the evening.

Work Life How much does work weigh

2011-02-21T23:20:00.000-07:00

Greetings Bloggies.

Balance will be covered in a separate post. So I have been at the Minto site for as of this moment 13days, and 14days in the Yukon. As is the norm I can not and will not talk specifics. What I will say which is less the said on the Capstone mining site, is we are looking for copper. I look at rock. hundreds of meters of it a day. My bench holds 21 boxes, I am expect to log that many boxes in a day. This is a reasonable productivity estimate once the kinks get worked out which they are, though not completely.

Now to log means that not only do I track down the breaks in rock type and where there are ore forming minerals, but also that I define sample intervals and then move the boxes, each weighing around 60 pounds, or 30ish Kg, and photograph them, then move them to storage.

To meet base expectations I would have to move a total of 42 boxes, once to load once to reload my bench, I have help some of the time, but that only goes so far to relieve the strain. Added to the daily detailed logging expectations are the day and evening quick logs which can comprise any where between 2 and 24 boxes most of which will have to be brought in looked over and eventually moved back outside. And now I know why my shoulders hurt.

I went and figured out how much this evenings quick log weighed, a quick and dirty hack at the math. Radius of NQ core 2.38cm. Density of Rock approximated at 2.65(quartz) the core box can be approximated at 5m. For this example I am using tonights abundant and exceptionally large quick log of 140 meters over 24 boxes, at least half of which I moved.

Volume of a cylinder, pi*r^2*h where h is height

(Pi*2.38^2*14000 * 2.65)/1000 = 660 kg

Volume times density yielded mass in grams.

Its clear that this work strains a body quickly, and my motivation to become more productive is limited because its just too physically tiring.

So now that I have going sciencey, its time to consider the other elements of camp life. The Kitchen is unreliable, with dishes ranging from bland to salting and not enough room in between, a bottle of Tabasco sauce held Franks Red hot in it this disappointed me greatly, not unlike some one offering you a beer and you end up with a warm Budlight. Technically the same thing as what you wanted but a lot closer to water then what you had hoped for. The coffee sucks. There is no way around it. Its hot its brown its bitter. A few times I have drank it cold, paint thinner would go down smoother.

The location is lovely but I shuttle between the same two places and neither give me the view of the mountains to the East that I want. I currently have less responsibility then I did when I left my last longer term job, being that I am at an arms length to the drilling operation. Its a bit odd that logging core is all I am doing, I don't go out to set up drill collars or shut down holes, the managers do that and I am not one.

This brings me back to an old saw of mine. That is, the space I can be promoted into on this current path is not one I want to be on. The extra stress of management with the being out in the field away form the chance of me getting a live stable enough to have Kittens in is not where I want to end up. I must find some one in this industry who is in a spot above where I want to be and get me a mentor, to help me move to where I want to be. Which is behind a desk doing computery mapping or data crunching, fixing things.

One of my key happy moments on this job was on my first day on the ground, hitting on a fix hidden in an error message. My IT know how lead me understand that error and it felt good.

Now most days here my having gone to BCIT has gained me nothing. I killed a year and found a city I loved and ended my first long term relationship but did not gain the edge yet to escape bush work. As I said earlier I grew up in a cabin in the woods I have been trying to leave ever since.

Really is it too much to ask for a live settled enough that I can have cats. I am 31, I can cook clean, make my self chocolate truffles, bread, cake, pie. I can dress well ( took me this long) I just want a normal life where I don't miss out on things because work is half way across the country.

A note on the tone on that above paragraph, it is not intended to be bitter, only that this is now my default position.

Well here I am

2011-02-08T18:57:00.000-07:00

Hi all.
I made it here fine. I am once again in the Canadian work Gulag. Long days and damn it you are expected to like it. Well I will try. I still want back home to Van.

I need to land me a office job. I will be watching the net closely for leads in that direction. I will also try damn hard to steer this job into a good direction for me. More then one option is whats needed.

This job will start at 7am an end when it will end. Now why is that. That is because we believe we should live a fast paced lifestyle so we can make money quick to buy things made over seas. For me at this job, this facility creates copper concentrate which gets shipped over to asia to be made into things. Because we want to buy lots of things asia demands lots of our copper there for people like my have to work faster and harder then we would like.

People slow down relax don't by the next newest toy right away, I want to have a more relaxed job, I can't have that here if every one is rushing around buying crap

On the way

2011-02-07T23:25:00.000-07:00

Greetings.

So here I am. Alone in a cheap motel on the edge of a strip mall on the out skirts of Whitehorse in the Yukon. Its in the -20's outside. The room smells of old stale cigaret ashes a sent I have not enjoyed since the Red Coach inn in Yellowknife. During my stay at the Red Coach, the room which clearly said no smoking had along the walls the grey burt embers of old smokes. Here I see no visible evidence but its in my sense.

The day was over all good. I was fortunate enough to have a ride to the Airport, the amount of stress this removed is huge. Not just from the not having to transit it but to not having to do second guessing as to when to leave. The airport was well YVR domestic terminal gate B 12, wholly unremarkable. I did find my self in the security line behind a fellow talking endlessly about his fishing boat to a balding fellow with a slick backed mullet. Fish story man turned out to not be some one you wanted a head of you in line. I suspect mullet man grew tired of fish story man's fish stories because he entered a different line for the baggage screening. Fish story man ended up being rather a bad traveler, the person who could have been his wife and certainly his travel companion ended up having to wrangle trays for him and her. Fish story man had half a kilo of loose change on his person which he had to shovel out by hand. I went for my default empty pants pockets in to coat take coat off have no troubles.

As trips go having Fish story man in front of you as the worst part defines a good trip. The flight it self was great. Due to a very empty aircraft I got myself an exit row to all to me. A good nap was had, the view was great. It did not feel as much like leaving BC. There was not the moment and suddenly prairies. No there was alternating mountains and valleys the whole way. I saw several glaciers and would have seen more if my seat was on the west facing side of the plane. I saw a lonely little volcano doing nothing all by it self.

I took my shuttle bus to the hotel, realized after I got there that I had no idea who was in town and no way to reach them. Well ain't that great. Then out of nowhere, kind of like in the spy movie when the cover is blown, the room phone rings. The phone call was from the company travel person telling me who to get a ride with in the morning. The plan was a ride to site a 8 am.

I get back to the computer from that call and find my self with a half a brick. Tap the track pad, hit the keys threaten it, not much happened. The USB wireless mouse worked as did the power button. I could not type or even hit enter. I spent the second half hour in a state of stress. I did the smart thing and bitched at the fellow at the front desk. I later did a actually smart thing and asked the shaved headed fellow if there was a shop where I could find computery things. There was a stables close by. Thankfully I got distracted.

The distraction provided me the opportunity head back to my room, not straight to the shop, I reset my computer and it now works. Still slated for replacement.

Just as I got back from my trip to the shop the room phone rings again, its the travel wizzard telling me that my ride is now leaving at 10 am. Yay a slow morning. I will attempt to contact the contacts that got forwarded to me. Then comes the fun part, work.

The job will be logging core something they don't tell you about in school hours of looking at rock in the form of a series of not tubes. Long days are enforced by the fact that the drills have to keep turning or they will freeze. This work has a repetitive quality to it.

I made an understatement there, its nearly robotic assembly line data collection. I have the miss fortune of also getting bored of music quickly enough that eventually there is no media that I can pack with me that keeps my brain from it self. I don't like spending long hours in a room working alone with my own brain. I want to work in an office where I can occasionally interact with other humans, ride my bike to work and even just pretend to work.

Bye Vancouver I miss you.

I am

2011-02-07T22:34:00.000-07:00

A Socialist.

This blog is a precipitation of a train of thought that has gone around my head for some time. I am no Crommunist, but will give airing my politics and values the best representation. The drive to write this come from having been to china town twice over the week end. Its the beggars that wander the street that just brought me from not wanting to write this to now.

Living in east Vancouver, it does not take a long trip for me to find various panhandlers and other street people. I am confident that there is a small army of social workers trying to make people function and be clean. But I wonder as I see people on the street that are clearly mentally ill, though not all on the street are that way I suspect that there is a large long term sub population that is. As I was riding through China town yesterday after nice trip to False creek I got asked for money by one bumm and passed on by an other that was clearly sick and could have had any number of things wrong with him. After that last encounter I realized as a tax a payer I would be in favor of funding proper long term for lack of a better word mental hospitals. This would not solve all problems but it is unethical to leave those whose who need care away from it.

I am not a socialist because I think there should be mental hospitals, but because I think there is a place for a public sector to provide services that make a society work.

Its not complicated, some services are essential a but expensive and can not be expected to be profitable. Education, is the easy sell, with it you can fuel a country's growth. Health care (Death Panels not included) is a second easy sell, healthy people can produce.

Having grown up in a small town surrounded by smaller towns, mountains and lakes. Non of these towns alone or together would likely be able to provide the resources to keep the roads open. It becomes clear quickly that a place for a level of central planning and funding plays a role in society.

In the end it comes down to there are some things that should be because they can make life better for all or a fix the problems of a few if it is beyond their reach. It also comes down to its fine for me if the solutions never are profitable. Heck I think its important to think longer term and big scale and sometimes thats not the place of industry.

Work.

2011-01-16T22:39:00.002-07:00

Hi.

For those you who follow me on Facebook you know that I have stated that I have agree to take a job. The job will be doing what I have done lots of, looking at rock. It is not the perfect job. I find the specific actions of that work boring. I had to take it.

My motivation and progress in getting work an other field was terrible. My funds will start being very low by late next month and well I did not have other leads. The best lead I did have fell through when I got out competed.

As I said before I intend to keep the process of moving forward to different career options moving. I know this will not satisfy as is. The mistakes made a few years ago are learned from. I know better not to focus less on the later. That was some thing I did too much of when I was with Tyhee. This time I have short term material goals. Yes I am using stuff as a motivation for work you need something to push you through the days. I also have more friends and I will miss seeing them as often as I like but I also know I will have people to come back to.

It may not be my favorite world but its a living. I will try to have good photos and stories to share when I come back.

Bad Movie Night

2011-01-16T12:39:00.005-07:00

Greetings

You know its the 21 first century when, not having access to Facebook on your phone is a bigger issue then not having their number. Yesterday over Facebook I was invited over to a bad movie afternoon. This was a far better alternative to an afternoon spent playing uninspired Minecraft, which was where I was headed on my own. I google the street address find it close by and hop onto Viking 1 and ride over.

Soon after I leave the thought crosses my mind that I don't know, how to reach the suite once I get there. I know from experience that suite number and door buzz codes at apartment buildings are not always the same. I did not have the phone numbers for any of the friends I knew there, they are on my friends list. This lead me to make the opening observation. This was a non problem on this occasion thanks to a 20th or earlier century technology, a note taped to the door containing the need to know info.

The bad movie showings included, Howard the Duck, a film along with the Farside might have affected my world view of ducks. If those slices of media were not enough to cement ducks in your mind as odd animals then go and read this dead duck day.

The movie event was also a cleverly hidden craft circle, with the host alternating between making a piece of scale mail arm and the kitchen with the two people I knew working tamer beading projects. It was suggested that I try to make something creative out of a bunch of colourfull aluminum chits and some metal rings. Being asked to be creative has about as much of an effect as running up to some one and saying "Quick be witty Now!" I decided that I was going to make a frame close to the size of a piece of paper, that way I could have a reference point for any thing more creative I might try.

Try would be the operative term. In the binary speak of Yoda, this was a definite "Do Not". The notion was that I could with the aid of pliers twist open the steel rings pop on the aluminum chit and close the ring. Steps one and two no problem. Step three, which after my first batch of chits fell off their rings was demonstrated for me was an other matter entirely. It turned out that the bits I was trying to link together were thin enough that any meaningful gap in the steel ring would be exploited and squeezed through. A proper fitting therefore needed the steel ring to a closed ring.

I tried I really did. Brow furrowed like a 5 year old might trying to colour between the lines (apologies to any 5 years olds). Sweat on my furrowed brow. For my troubles I had no more then three aluminum chits strung together, and a few bent and twisted steel rings that despite my best efforts still had the better part of a milli meter gap in them. I had given up before the end of Howard the Duck.

The next movie was Dead Living, a Zombie comedy directed by Peter Jackson. The movie climaxed with a nearly operatic finally involving a lawn mower. Some where during the evening I tried on his home made chain mail vest. This vest was made with a heavier steel wire then what I was playing with and was created using the same method as I had failed to grasp. I felt that one must try on chain mail if one has the chance.

The mail was comfortable, no chafing.

The final movie was a Lovecraft story, something Dagon. It was an odd anachronism to watch a movie stored on VHS on 42ish inch LCD TV. Part way through the movie some one showed up at the house. I did not hear what she said as to why she was there. It became clear that she was there to employ the hosts dwarfen skills in metal work.

As I was awaiting the gory death of the protagonist, and anticipating the appearance of a tentacled elder god, I could hear the goings on in the back room.

The when some thing like this

Ting, ting ting.

Wurrr wurr wurr.

ting ting ting.

A few tings and wurrs later the host came out of the back room and was seen entering the hallway with a hammer. The end result was that I was able to see a woman ware a chain mail and leather top, which does not happen everyday. Nerds I thank thee.

A possible plan

2011-01-11T14:19:00.004-07:00

Hi.

Non of this is certain and it is not the best of out comes but I might have to face not taking the best in favor of not ending up with the worst. On Thursday I have a meeting with a geologist for a company that might see me working in the Yukon and or Northern BC. I know 2010 saw me have some seriously negative reactions to some field work but There is a need for money. I have extra motivations these days.

On several fronts I am needing work more then the ideal job, firstly I am bored, I see too little of other people on the day today. Yes I have a good social life, the quality of the interactions is high the frequency is low. The low quality of work chatter, might help me form going bat shit crazy. Other motivations, I need a new computer. My Mac book's age is now no longer in doubt, the battery did a balloon impression and has started to be more of a chemical weapon then a power cell. A new battery may be much cheaper then replacing this computer in full, it is also throwing money into old hardware that I feel is not money well spent. At 4 years old its had a longer then average run for a lap top and might still find life as a extra computer. To round of the crass materialism is the desire for a new higher performance bike a new camera and a smart phone.

So on thursday I am going to do what I can to land that job. Hopefully land rotations short enough to not ware out my person, and with even more luck not miss the Jonathan Coulton concert on Feb 18. One of the things I am aiming to do different is to simply ask, what can I do or get involved in to go beyond core logging.

If there is no help offered in changing the content of the work, then I top up my coffers and do as few contracts as I can while focusing more energy on other lines of work. If the answer is yes well I don't know what happens then.

One thing that will remain constant, I will keep my eyes open for other work. I will continue to work the contact to sex up my resume. I still feel a little trapped working in exploration, a field I stumbled into and can't seem to stumble out of.

I have to admit I saw some value to the work as I sat in a pub telling folks of my first job out of school with a giant helicopter warming up in Yellow Knife. But Damn I am also a home body who dislikes overly long periods away form things, and misses his own cooking and the freedoms of the outside world.

An Mi 26, A flying machine that I saw on my first day ever in Yellow Knife. Its the one flying, the one hanging from the string is a Boeing Chinook.

Directions

2011-01-10T15:57:00.003-07:00

Greetings.

This is one of my thought processes pieces if you do not want to read about the workings of my mind or my origin story leave now. I will try not to let this become a whining entry like I wrote last fall.

I am currently following a lead from a former coworker. It is a lead that has a reasonable chance of getting me a contract. That is the good news, the devil is in the details. It would be the same old, same old. Another job looking at rocks in some nowhere place working too many days in a row to be good for the head. I am following the lead because I can not afford to not take a contract. A trip to the Yukon will only be cool for the first few days and then the drudgery and the cold will sink in.

So its clear that I want to do some thing other then exploration geology. Hell I never planned on getting into that industry, I had class mates who did that field was a very deliberate choice. I stumbled into it. I took a job in my second year in my program it paid good. Then at the end of my program too tired of school to want to take on grad school I took a lead from my economic geology prof and landed myself a job in the Territories.

The job lasted two and a half years, it did me well, and got me out of being poor for a while. I was insecure and did not make any effort at looking for another job. I was also young and thought that loyalty to a firm mattered. This was not a path most people I knew or even me self expected from me.

The default position or opinion held by the people around me was that I would go in to grad school. Class mates that had worked in more cooperate settings commented that my temperament did not fit what they had seen, I chose research projects out of curiosity not practicality and I would have had the full support of the people I knew on faculty. Hell I had more grad school contacts in my last years then I did in industry.

I sat baffled as friends talked about having competing job offers, while I throw my resume in to the black hole of the internet for nothing.

So great was my ignorance when I over heard someone in my class talk about the salary he was negotiating, I was surprised by the notion you could negotiate a salary.

The situation now is somewhat better. I am more diversified, I have experience, but I don't feel as optimistic as I would like. The upgrading I did at BCIT so far has only landed me a very small number of ultimately unsuccessful interviews, the jobs I am getting reenforce the old trends its not the happiest of things.

This is not about me being globally unhappy, which is not the case. The one thing that was gained from BCIT with certainty was, in the absence of very strong personal ties to the interior, Vancouver is where I want to be. A shout out to the Skeptics in the pub people and the folks in East Van that I run into regularly for reenforcing that choice. Nor is the situation hopeless or stagnant. My resume is being sent to a professional should produce more polished document. Taking a different friends advice I have engaged in dialog with a recruitment agency.

At the end of the day, the easy jobs are the ones I don't but end up taking because at some point the money gets too low. Now I know I don't need to work non stop in that field to support my current standard of living but I want to be able to think beyond the basement suite.

The question I ask me self daily, is what can a person of average intellect, a generalist science education and moderate tech literacy do. I am confident that living in Vancouver is the out come I want to have after that I am less and less certain as time goes on.

How to have tea.

2011-01-09T16:03:00.003-07:00

Greetings Bloggies.

And so it came to pass that I was walking along Commercial drive on Friday. A day of comfortable temperatures but unpredictable weather. I was approaching the northern end of the street, I had a mission, to get a pin. The pin reads,

I will not

Obsess!

I will not

Obsess!

I will not

Obsess

It may not be as awesome as Lars's Campus Crusade For Cthulhu, but its cool non the less. I was just out side a bike shop, saying one or two words with one of the staff who was on the side walk as I was passing. At this time I was not going for walk out of the need for that, I had already filled that walking back from the tailors on Hastings earlier that day, I was off to get out of the house perhaps say Hi to people I know.

I got distracted by the passage of a Tom Holt book. Thanks to the slightly sane nature of my personality I decided to start a conversation about the book or at least the author not having read that book specifically. For those who do not know Tom Holt is a english comic writer, I once described him as methadone for Pratchett addicts. If you enjoy Terry Pratchett or Christopher Moore you should like Tom Holt.

So, a conversation was started. The specifics do not matter but generally nerdy. Our collective direction of travel was the same for that moment. I picked up my pin and ran out of plans for the afternoon.

I accepted an invitation for tea, which resulted in the day having about twice and eventually three times as much walking as usual. Tea involved a long walk to a location recall being close to the Adanac bike route and very close to the freight terminal. The tea was had in a very lived in apartment with a pile of books on the hall way floor, including, at least three of the trilogy in 6 parts, other wise known as the Hitch Hikers Guild to the Galaxy, Making Money Terry Pratchett, and some scifi story collections. Facing the books was a large collection of teas. Greeting any human entering were basement cat and fluffy basement cat. Two pretty black cats of social and vocal characters.

Now it should be noted that this is a post about how to have tea not how to make tea. For all of the interesting talk, I can not accept the method tea brewing that was employed. One does not make tea by inserting a cup of water with the bag in it into the micro wave. This failure was allowed to pass after my host's cats decided I was a favorable piece of furniture. Also any one who claims, though I lack an proof, to have a friend who head of Security at CERN is cool.

The tea ran out the cats got bored and other things needed done. So an other Kilometer or two was added to my marching that day as the path was retraced thought apocalyptic skies and gusts of wind.

Later on I walked 75% of that distance to see Sunday's Best play. Their show at the Prophouse Cafe rocked. I had missed 4 or 5 of there last shows and hated my self for it. I did not have tea at the Prophouse but did approve of the brewing method. The loose leaf tea was steeped in a conical vessel which when placed on teapot drained into the pot, no mess, and no need for overly bitter overly steeped tea.

Anti Pope

2011-01-09T15:58:00.003-07:00

Greetings.

Because I have this stuck in my head I think you should too.

I like how the antelope is in fact a zebra.

The Fancy Stuff Why I Cook It

2011-01-04T18:18:00.003-07:00

Greetings.

This post has been simmering in my head since friday morning. I can no say why a brief chat on the street with a friend I did not expect to see in my neighborhood precipitated this but here it is.

If you know me on Facebook and you do if your any one you will know that I get both compliments and flack from food. Compliments from the few items I share with a lucky few friends and flack from the rest of the times when I was the only person to eat it but enough of a bastard to share it on Facebook. Though I would not call my food gourmet I do try to stretch my boundaries and have fun at it.

So the why of it. Firstly I just do like food and enjoy the experimentation and the act of both the cooking and the eating. I got raised in a home where improvised meals and variations on themes dominated over fixed recipes. This provided the seed for the try any thing as long as its not too complicated attitude I practice.

Secondly I spent a long time being functionally homeless. I was not a bumm, but from June 2006 to August 2010 I did not have a place of my own. From June 2006 to October 2008 the majority of my time was spent in the exploration camp at Discovery NWT. I certainly had the means to keep a place but with 6 out of 8 week spent in a camp there was no sense in it. After my a lay of I spent the tail half 2008 and much of 2009 on a cabin at the folks place. The cabin had minimal facilities but the absence of well plumbed sink turned me off cooking in there. I did some cooking during this time but it was not my space and its never easy cooking in some else's kitchen. This is where my first really sucky breads were made, the failures that lead to successes I have made more recently.

It was not until BCIT residence that I felt my cooking take off. Here at least the small slice cupboards was mine and the house had a good cooking culture. It was also under the pressure of the GIS program that I really started to value cooking as stress management function.

That brings us to now. Now I have my own place, simple basement suite in east van near lots of good shop. The unit was attractive to me the moment I walked in, it had a large kitchen, to be frank the main room is almost all kitchen. This was a pleasant contrast to the kitchen as after thought I had seen in other places. So now at last I can. But why do I and why the fancy stuff. Simply put I get bored.

Since completing the GIS program at bcit I have had an off again on a search for full time work. I have head my finances together with the fruits of two contracts, neither of which represent a direction I want to move in. The lack of steady work and a desire to feel I have done something leads me to cook and develop fancier dishes. The satisfaction of making a new bread or pasta work provides some of the satisfaction. Its a form of problem solving and creative expression.

Something I learned last year is something I enjoy. The one job, an unpaid practicum, that I enjoyed most of all was working for ESSA technologies on some software solutions. I did spend a great deal of time over my head and had to pick the brains (BRAINS!) of the team a fair bit, but I had fun. It was hard work often with my head banging against a mental wall but when I got things and managed to write some code and test , and eventually make it work it felt good. Cooking is easier then that but there is a similar satisfaction in making things work and building from scratch.

Its a Life

2010-12-24T22:18:00.002-07:00

The meaning of Xmas.

Among the holiday events was tonight's adventure in vegetarian dim sum at Whole Vegetarian foods at Main and 15Th. I was lucky with my buses landing me there fifteen minuets before I expected. Thankfully the early was moderated by two others arriving at the same time. The others arrived before too long.

The meal was good the banter amusing. As often happens I took pot shots at the vegan at the table. To be fair I actually do like Rob and find the exchanges on Facebook entertaining. I do however find veganism a little silly and I have found other vegans too eager to point out the awesomeness of what ever thing they are eating and how it is much better being vegan. Not unlike newly hatched born-again Christians.

It is in the light of of this that I sometimes mock a friends diet. This reached the high point for wit this week which I will use my Facebook status said rather well

While admiring the browned cheese on the rice and simulated seafood casserole I commented on the unique quality of cheese to produce such an appearance. The vegan said, just you wait. My retort,

There already exists a perfectly adequate means for turning vegetable mater in to cheese. It is called a mammal.

It was after an hour of similar and and dis similar banter that we dispersed from the eatery. Some of the group had left slightly earlier and those of use that remained chose not to accept the invite to attend a church service. If it was not for Carrie and Chris's playing horns at the service non of our number would have much of any thing to do with a church. I might be willing to pay money to see Brian take on a minister at a church but that's a different story.

A brief post dinner talk lead to the agreement a drink or two would not be out of order. The three of us headed up the suggested direction in the hope that it would be open and close. Sadly I can not start the story with a Doctor, Geologist and Physicist walk into a bar.

We walked south up hill in the rain in search for the pub a golden fleece to our damp Argonauts. The walk created opportunity for window shopping and associated commentary, high lights include the house of the mannequin parts and the red light, I assumed it was a robot brothel as well as the bath tub come love seat. Lounging would have had its down sides if you ended up tap side. Sharing the window with the love tub was a polished copper and brass contraption that at once looked like a bong and was likely a plunger for a toilet. I naturally assumed it would be a good idea to combine the two. It did not take long for that idea to be shot down for a lack of a market. Then along came Bob.

Bob, was found in the road which was doing its best to impersonate a small river. In fact he was dead center of the curb lane. Our initial stratagem was catch and release. As he had fallen and spilled out over the tarmac we felt it best if he was not there when the lights went green. With a hand under each arm we moved him on to the side walk. Bob did not walk 5 meters from us before his left side took over and started steering him towards the road. A bit of man handling later he was out of danger, until he fell full on into a cedar hedge. At this second fall it became clear that his walking home was not going to happen.

So with a heave hoe, we pulled him up by the scruff of his neck and with Doctor and Physicist on each arm proceeded to try to walk him home. It was around this time the Wonderful Life comparisons started to crawl across our minds. The heavy rain, the cut of his coat, I could imagine him call us swell. Bob did not call use swell but we were repeatedly praised for our kindness and such.

Bob guided us towards his abode through what I must consider instinct more then a rational process, more then once pausing and questioning where he was or where he was going. During this trek he offered us a shot of brandy for our troubles. A story of bob was painted in sparse detail, a visit from his children tomorrow that was not looked forward too. The darkness the rain and the sad slices of life bob offered added to the Wonderful life feel of the moment. How could you not make the comparison, here we were saving someone from a terrible fate on Christmas eve, with perfect lighting for it. This was the low budget remake with hope sold separately, Its A life, not staring Jimmy Stewart.

Eventually he recognized his house. In a fit of independence Bob tried to make for the entrance way on his own power. This effort lasted all of 3 meters, he collapsed in the bushes of his? front yard. After picking up Bob and the peaces of Bob's stuff we once again helped Bob walk. It was fortunate that the door was not locked. Bob was not in a position to use keys. Bob thanked us one last time. Lars handed him the two plastic bags Bob dropped, Bob asked what's this.

We left bob in what we assume to be his home. We have no way of verifying it. The truth, in stated of literally falling over drunk, bob was not going any where and the worst case was not to bad. For bob the worse case was it was not his house, it would have been the police station for him, which would at least be warm and dry.

I could try to fish out some thing about the meaning of Christmas from all of this, but the only fishing that I did this evening was of bob from the road and the bushes. Dr Rob, can have the last word. As we were walking in search of an open bar Rob pointed out that, perhaps Bob could make use of the plunger bong conceived of earlier that night. After all a nice buzz could take the edge off a hang over and Bob would be needing some quality time with the toilet.

The Long Game

2010-12-10T15:41:00.004-07:00

A bitter Sweet hello to my bloggies.

So I am writing this because a resolution has been achieved. In early November 2010 I got an email for a job opening that apparently I was a good candidate for. The position was for a GIS position with a local environmental and engineering firm. A series of emails were sent back and forth as I tried to fish out the details to see if I was interested. I has barely been home from Saskewan for more then 4 days when this news fell on my lap.

It was good luck.

Well not luck to be honest. The product of the Long Game. As I was preparing to head to BCIT to get re-educated, a series of contacts were made with the intent of landing me a practicum position before classes started. Due to this work by end of summer I had gained a series of contacts who were interested in talking business. It was one of these contacts that reached out to me in early November with the lead on the job.

For once the advice form HR websites and the endless pamphlets on how to get a job paid off. I had done as they said, made a contact, kept in touch and was on their radar when an opening showed up.

That is how it should work, but in the end I lost the job to someone with more GIS experience. There is value to my geology work but my mapping work exists only in the class room. I could not compete as well as I hoped. So now once again I find my self at loose ends. I only know what I hate to do for work and have no idea about what I want to do. So now that it is the new year and I have lost one more opportunity it is time to put forward a rather lame but honest new years resolution. It is my goal for 2011 to get a job that only sucks my soul a little and lets me come home at night.

Fandom

2010-11-23T09:01:00.003-07:00

Greetings Bloggies.

This post is in response to having met people I consider myself a fan of. Specifically Spider Robinson, author of many books and even more terrible puns and George Hrab, author of 1 book several albums and a similar body of puns. In generally I have not self identified as a FAN. Outside of geography, I have no affinity for sports teams, and like any non fan I only care if the team in my city is winning, the rest of the time I don't even know they are playing. Similarly, movie stars and most famous performers fail to engage my interest.

The people I am fans of have reached me in ways more personal then the players on a sports team or an actor on the big screen. Spider Robinson, has made me laugh, taught me some of the principles of truly horrible puns, I have lost count of all the books of his I have read. I have stopped reading him in recent years, I have had my fill and even when a writer is good I will over time want to move on to new voices. That said his more emotional short stories still linger in my memory and the community that existed in the Callahan's pub series made me want to have some of that for my self.

I only saw Spider briefly, he did a reading and a signing afterwards. I exchanged only a few words, enough to convey my appreciation. This limited dialog is what I expect from a content producer in the traditional media. The other side of the coin is the relation that can exist in new media, those people who have carved out a space for them selves on the internets because the old school distribution and sales methods fail for something as fringe. The best example of that in my life is George Hrab.

Some where along the line I started to listen to podcasts, downloadable, generally audio content, generally free, often amateur. Many of them simply suck. Since at the time I had a boring job that did not always require my full attention I listened to many such shows, this chain eventually lead to the Geologic podcast. Its mix of dry humor, strait up silly skits and random factoids entertained me. This precipitated an exchange of emails that has continued in an off and on trickle over the last few years.

Upon hearing that George was going to be in Vancouver, I ordered my tickets as soon as I knew the site was online. To be fair he was a guest host on another podcast which I have been listening to for roughly the same amount of time, but he was coming to Vancouver non the less. So colour me surprised when, I was recognized in as I spoke introduced myself. Two me an interesting illustration of the way the internet has opened up media.

I conclude this with saying that, within my interests I am as prone to fandom as most though I feel I am a laid back supporter. I am also glad that now that I live in Vancouver that I can indulge my fixations better as many things come to town, because of that I can start checking off personal goals rather then count missed opportunities.

Stuff.

2010-11-14T21:00:00.005-07:00

Greetings Bloggies.

Its been a while since I have written. I am back in vancouver. I came back on the 5th. Its good to be back but thats a separate post. This is a post I thought up while at Rabbit lake. Stuff, we all have it especially the people who read blogs.

I would say I am not the most materialistic of folks living in industrialized consumer economy, but I have my share of stuff. What got me thinking as my aged steel toed work boots absorbed water through their partly delaminated soles was that how little of the stuff I own has really brought value or utility to my life. In this case value stemmed from devices that have helped me earn money. I could do a separate post on items of personal or sentimental value.

I'll start with the foundation. Boots. I have two pair of quality boots between the two of them nearly every dollar I have made was spent standing in them or walking in them. Acquired first were the Scarpa hikers, my third pair of proper hiking boots and the first not to fail on a poorly placed seam. They have been resoled once but the resoling left them tighter then they were originally. Many an afternoon or evening was spent tramping across naked metavolcanics in a greenstone belt. That 2.5 billion year old pressure cooked volcanic rock wore those soles out.

Boot number two the work boots. Heavy bricks of hard rubber and leather. Not much for walking but a great boot to stand in. Stand I did, looking at rock in boxes for days on end leads to standing. They had one weakness I did not know about till after I got to the north. It turns out the hard compound rubber in their sole gets piss poor traction on snow or ice, worse then nearly any shoe I have have ever owned. Despite that they have still managed to have a huge number of hours logged in them. I debate resoling them. They might be worth it but that would also be a symbolic admission that I believe I will return to the lines of work that those boots represent, something I am aiming to avoid.

Next up is the multi tool. The least used item on it is the can opener. The knife has most often been used to sharpen wax china markers. I once tried to one of the longer narrow, not knife parts to pry off a hubcap on a truck. The truck was stuck with a flat on Prosperous outside Yellow Knife. I was trying to change the tired and had never seen the arrangement that truck presented to me. There was a plastic hubcap which had on it plastic lug-nuts. In the kit was a second tire wrench sized for the plastic nuts. Never having seen a hubcap that did not just pop off I could not image an arrangement as insane as that. So I did what I thought made sense, try to lever off the cap. I failed and had to beat the tool back into shape to fit it back in the housing.

Of the items that make me money perhaps most iconic is the hand lens. When pressed I will answer that I am a geologist. This is a suitable answer to outsiders as I have not yet attained a standing in the related professional organization. After a rock hammer the hand lens is iconic of geology. The pair, a cheap 10X and a vertigo inducing 30X have often let me identify tiny specks of gold that would have other wise passed me by. The flip side is true, they have also removed false positives from my data collection.

The art to using the 30X one is to focus your eye on the target and then slip the lens between you and it, you will never find what you were looking for if you go at it half assed.

Camp life

2010-10-26T20:20:00.002-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

This institutional life.
I am in an institution. I am sane, well on the average. The people around me seem generally normal but I can't shake the fact that I am in an institution, in this case Cameco's Rabbit Lake mine.

As a mine it has a mix of dangers and red tape. One of the first things I noticed is that almost no one walks any where and there is almost nowhere you can walk. This is a producing mine, an environment I have not worked in before, it also a Uranium mine. Add wolves and bears in the endless wilds around us, a no walking alone policy makes sense. This is not what I am here to say. I do not want to degrees into whining about the things I miss in Vancouver. The first draft of this when there and that paragraph died.

No I am here to try to describe, the character, as seen by a outsider of an institution. I have worked in exploration camps, 20 odd people or less. This camp is larger, but it has one thing overwhelmingly in common. These places are here to get work out of people. Every thing is rules. And that is how I think of an institution, a place with internal rules above and beyond the ones of society, hence no walking.

Out in the world, where people live, not just work and go into bed or the gym for maintenance, there are rules. Societies grow around rules, some rules die a well deserved death other new ones come into play and some stay the same for ages. As a law and generally rule following citizen, I follow the rules that keep me out of trouble and follow my own for there reasons or lack of. What separates institutions out here form the world out there seems to be extra rules.

No walking alone is a good example. Out here, that rule makes sense wolves and bears, haul trucks ( 500 tone), and Uranium all make going for a stroll a poor idea. I know I want to but rules, that and the fear of walking into a hot zone. Other rules, no drugs or alcohol, your here to work, and work safely. We the company want to get our 12 hours out of you and you will damn well play some other time. Also everything happens at a set time. On the other hand things are free. You can eat your fill, get your sweet tooth filled and come back for more later.

Other odd rules include no touques or hats of hoods in the dinning hall.

Signs, clutter the walls in places like this. I don't know what the lowest common denominator is but there is an assumption about it being fairly low, if the toilets have pleas flush after use signs.

Rabbit Lake

2010-10-19T22:21:00.000-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

So, this time I will return to my more positive tone after several whiney posts. It could not be be helped, I was down and not doing the right things for my self so I bitched over the internet, a truly modern past time.

So I am working in the north again. Norther Saskatewan. Things are different here on many levels. I am working for an engineering company not a exploration company. The site is a producing mine. In this case Camico's Rabbit lake, one of this countries oldest continuously producing Uranium mines. Thats right not gold, no the soft pretty metal people dig up to hide in vaults, but the 10th most abundant element in the crust and one of the best energy sources for the future, Uranium.

Though I like the fact that I am working in a support role for a uranium mine, I am glad that my work takes place away from sources of radiation.

The differences between Rabbit lake and exploration jobs, are large, for one thing at the small exploration camps, the geologist were king, the camp existed to make sure our drilling got done and the data came in. Here we are a small subset of a huge operation. This camp can hold up to 700 and might currently hold 300. What the exact number is don't mater, I have been used to camps of 10 to 40. Other things that are different. The job I don't know how to do it yet. I am learning and have a good teacher. I know the core of many of the tasks but not the specifics. It is refreshing to do new work.

What I know of the work is that I will be doing tests on the hydraulic nature of the rock and I have a fancy tool to do it with. The tool has an odd mix of simple tough elements and finer nearly delicate elements. As I said on facebook some times I feel more a plumber then a scientist, but tools get data and without data, there is no science.

The following sentences were written the day after the bulk of the post.

It should be said, after today that there is still no shortage of drudgery as part of the job. Today I was tired and hand to log my first hole for engineering purposes. It was fairly smooth, I need to pick up the pace and fight the strain that comes from too much of the same thing.

Somethings are the same. The food is industrial bland. Engineered to not offend any one and to provide calorie rich fair to those who need it and those who do.

The question I still can't answer is can I do $30,000 or hours of work of this and feel satisfied and have the life I want. Though I am slated to be here for three weeks I don't know when or what I might get called on to do again, if any thing. How often and for how long will I have to be away. It is a question of both. Three weeks is a sane amount of time away.

So I am unresolved. I still think that gaining work closer to the city I live in and coming home at night are my long term goals. The long term keeps getting interrupted by the short term demands of money. That stuff is like crack, every time you start to run low you or you bills just keep demanding more.

Rabbit Lake

2010-10-18T21:35:00.004-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

Though I like the fact that I am working in a support role for a uranium mine, I am glad that my work takes place away from sources of radiation.

The following sentences were written the day after the bulk of the post.

Somethings are the same. The food is industrial bland. Engineered to not offend any one and to provide calorie rich fair to those who need it and those who do.

September

2010-10-04T22:26:00.003-06:00

Greetings Bloggies and other readers.

Well its time for me to be honest with my self. September was a wasted month. Effectively nothing forwarding my longer term goals was accomplished. I can not blame external forces. These failures were all mine. A cold that lasted much longer then I would like, gave me the excuse to slack off for part of the month. Minecraft, a game wedged it self in my weak mind and sucked up even more time (Joe, I admit it its not minecraft's fault).

I made other foolish choices. A set of decisions at the end of august or start of september put two opportunities in conflict. One was a reasonably likely geology gig in the Yukon, the other an interview with a instrument company. I admit that I want to step away from exploration geology as a career, but a 2 to 3 week job, and a chance to see the Yukon is a foolish thing to skip out on. I feel that I botched the interview, its nearly two weeks and not a peep back. The conflict was between the opportunities was of my own creation, I could have arranged the interview later, by the time I started wrangling the people to get me that interview I knew the time line of Yukon job and could have done things differently.

The interview was approached with false confidence and being under prepared, add to that I was in the tail end of the cold and life was not at its best. I did some research prior but still got stonewalled at some basic questions. One question that got me was about where I saw my self in N number of years. It was pointed out to me that I should have had a vision as to where I was going after BCIT, with the diploma form there. The truth which is I wanted an office job, to get away form the periodic exile that geology can cause so I that I could have a more balanced life, would not have fit the expectations. With greater knowledge of the prospects there it became possible to question if the opportunity was a good fit. There is uncertainty about weather my current thinking that role fit. Either I gained enough knowledge to conclude that the role was not right for me because the technical and creative aspects were above me, or I have retrofitted those thoughts on to it because I have not heard back.

When I step away from my attempts at a professional life, September was good month. By and large I ate well. I cooked some new things. I have gone out to pubs, I have started to establish my self as a regular in one or two places and have a greater sense of community. I got someones phone number but forgot to call her because well I realized I felt no chemistry, I can only throttle back my geek so for. Bike rides, kayak adventures, walks and other activities killed some of the time, at least I don't feel as much like the dough boy. As a Dough boy, the best loaf of bread to come out of my kitchen was created last week.

From the inside of my head things were up and down and backwards. The backwards was the worst. The earlier half of the month, confirmation bias a side, saw me dreaming about my ex girlfriend, some of those thoughts have leaked into waking. If living in Vancouver means one thing in my life its moving forward and the motivation to chase away that past from the front of my mind is a good starting point for getting out the funk I drifted into. To be fair there is a place for those memories and emotions just not in quantity or persistently.

Thats all for now.

In the past this would have ended up in a bound note book in an illegible scribble.

More gripes

2010-10-02T23:35:00.003-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

I have been delaying writing this for some time. But for some time stress has been building. I suppose its normal. I am not busy enough, nor am I getting my head in gear enough to really fix it. The cumulative effect of this is I find me self more bored and lonely then I would like. The key symptom is tension in my jaw, to the point of nearly being painful.

As I had said on facebook, the trouble with the current period of my life is that it got started with such a completely emotional decision that following up on that with rational actions leaves me second guessing things. On July 20th , when I left the Elkhart job, I was certain of what I did not want to do. The life style desired was clear in my mind the means to support that less so.

A flurry of activity to get settled kept my mind occupied for some time. But as time passed and the obvious targets for jobs came back with negative news my mood and motivation weakened. I always have this irritating thought, running through my head when ever I am looking for work. I am educated I have a couple peaces of paper to prove that I passed through some programs, but I don't really know what I can do. I don't have an clear idea of what jobs I am qualified for. Often enough I wonder if I could find a form of happy working at a coffee shop with people hipper then I. I feel that would not really work.

Right now my best prospects will take me out of town if they pan out. On a short term basis. I am not sure how I feel about that all in all. Certainly, the money will solve the problems it can solve. I just wonder how far I can go on that path. Ultimately I want to have a job in town. In the end I will take what I can get and make the best of it. Lacking a clear passion to steer me that is just how I am going to have to stumble through life.

Not too Bad

2010-09-24T17:32:00.002-06:00

Greetings.

This is a short comment directed to the previous post. Though I am having ups and downs at this time my life is good in several metrics. I am more confident then I have been in the past. There are more people in my life that I know and some that are turning it better friends. Evenings have been well used more often then at other points in my life and fun is being had.

Captain I am not a merry man.

2010-09-24T13:45:00.002-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

Yesterday I managed to compress a week an half's worth of emotional cycles into one day. I started the day in the right head space getting up earlier and doing some exercise including a nice fast walk. I was in a good mood I had gone to bed the night before saying I was going to turn over a new leaf and get my ass in gear.

I gave my self a good emote, I watched American Beauty, cleaned my room and changed my sheets. So yesterday started solid. I had the notion that I would use my walk to plan what I would do with the day. The positive mood started to get cracks in it quickly. As I walked and tried to plot out the next 8ish hours I realized I could hardly come up with an hours worth of clearly defined things to do. The day was not wasted but it was. I reviewed some technologies attached to a job I have not yet gotten, and in my current mood strongly doubt I will get. How much of that doubt is the mood and how much is real cause for not getting hired is unknown.

I do know that my history of getting past a first interview is not good. Nearly every job I have gotten I landed because there was a space that needed filled then and there. When I have gotten interviewed I never hear from the people again. So before the morning was out I was slipping down the slope of why bother.

The afternoon did not go to badly, I went for an other walk around lunch time had a few conversations, that always steers me back on the right mental track, picked up the book I wanted from the library. Laundry at least gave me the feeling of having done something. Cooking and the plans of meeting a long misplaced acquaintance from high school moved me along. The chili and corn bread was good.

I did get out on time to go to the pub, only to discover I had made a few tactical errors, I forgot to exchange phone numbers, I also did not look at any photos on face book. So I found my self in a packed Gas town pub not sure what I was looking for. In then end I left feeling down for having given up. It would have been better if there was a free seat at the bar then I could have waited thing out over a beer.

The evening was ultimately recovered when I went to my seemingly default thursday evening joint and did run into some people I knew and met a few others. My introspective mood did make me minimally social at first. Some alcohol and company repaired that. It does me good to start getting known in a place.

The song for yesterday was Phil Rossi, I Like Your Grave, I woke up with it in my head.

Denial of Service Attach

2010-09-16T09:29:00.003-06:00

(Or Saturday Night Part 2)

Greetings Bloggies.

So, It should be clear by now that I did have a good night, good enough to come home at close to 3am, that was last Saturday. A friend who was having an evening of a similar nature but of a longer duration started texting me at some odd hour after 2am. Regretfully I was firmly on the route home with no desire loop back to down town after all the trains had long since stopped running.

On the walk home from the bus stop I received a couple more texts, this time it was raining hardish. I don't want to say it was raining hard I have not been in Vancouver long enough to be a qualified judge of rain types. Without giving it much thought I typed( a generous description of what I have to do with the damn alphanumeric pad my crappy phone has) a reply. The texts largely consisted of I am here doing this, to which I replied I am else where and had enough of doing that.

During that process my higher functions were still partly offline due to a pleasant level of intoxication. So the math of Rain + Phone = Bad did not cross my mind. It would have been slow to cross my mind sober as well. The craptastic motorola had one or two features worth having, one of which was a ruggedized latex similar sink too keep water and crap out. Unfortunately that started to disintegrate and I had pealed much of it off because it was ugly.

So step forward half an hour, my phone is on the kitchen table, I am drunkenly updating facebook. Thankfully nothing too interesting happened that night, so I was mostly just overly cheerful. After I finish with the interwebs I make for bed.

Somewhere in there I hear my phone say from the kitchen table.

Please Say a Command.

This happens some times, it should only happen when the button on the side gets pushed. Keys or change in the pocket with the phone can set it off. All by its self it should do nothing. I do what I always do, Tell it to Fuck off and push a button to make it shut off. I am not even sure if I told it to fuck off on this occasion. After that I thought nothing of it and went to bed.

Perhaps if I had superstition I could have fished an omen out of having Telephone by Lady Gaga in my head just before bed. It was one of the last songs I recall in the club. Lacking superstition, I will go for irony in its place. As I slept my phone engineered its own robot uprising. Time after time starting at some time around 3:45 am till near 8 am it repeatedly dialed and redialed my sisters cell.

Looking at the call log, there were multiple times where the delay between redials was effectively zero. If I did not know any better my phone was attempting a Denial of Service Attack, simple hack involving getting allot of devices knocking on a door till it opens and security is breached. Thankfully the robot uprising is over.

Saturday Night Gotta Be all Right

2010-09-14T20:22:00.005-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

Well the other day I did something rather rare. I went out on a saturday night, not only that but I went out to a place where the primary activity was listening to music that sounded like ....Boots And Cats And Boots And Cats. Night clubs are not my natural habitat but it was a friends birthday and I did feel like going out.

In the past most of my visits to night clubs have been in Kelowna and well it turns out I did not much care for that city or many of its institutions. On those occasions the club was preceded by hanging out and drinking at saner places. This poisoned me to any club because I was enjoying the conversational time. On Saturday night I quickly realized that the place calling it self a pub was much more a club.

A couple beer and the encouragement of an acquaintance later I took to experimenting with dancing. Now I would be the first to say I have two left feet, but even in that context I figured if I am there I might as well try to enjoy it and that is what one does in a place like that. So some how I used all the social errors in the past years to make few errors and come damn close to fitting in.

Several things happened for one thing the number of people attached to the birthday party was huge, I only knew a handful of them from before and many of them did not stay too long, but I was still part of an in-group and that is a social capital that can not be faked. For my own enjoyment I accepted the odd Zen of a dance club, if you want to have fun there you have to ignore higher functions where possible, to get in to the mood was almost a meditation. The other thing I did was make the assumption that few people there really know what they are doing. I watched the overheated masses minded my feet and aped the herd.

The odd thing about the club was the playing of the 1970's animated Lord of the Rings on all of the TVs, complete with badly rotoscoped orcs. I kept time by the scenes. I failed to notice if we had managed to prove the old saying wrong. It is well known that "one can not simply walk into Mordor", but can you Dance into Mordor?

I left sooner then I really needed too. My mistake for not checking when the last train was or the time of the night buses. I left 15 min after the last train had left water front station and half an hour before the next N9 home. Even though it was late there were sane and sober people to chat up as I waited.

Eventually I got off the bus and walked the last leg home. Durning this time I got texted a few times. In replying my phone got damp. It worked fine up until just before 4 am. Just before going to bed I heard it start to fired up the voice activated dialing. A feature I never use and the only words it has ever heard are Fuck You. I pushed the button that usually shuts it up and went to bed.

See part two coming soon

Who Am I

2010-09-09T15:23:00.004-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

I am trying to write here more to get my thoughts in order. Though it is perfectly normal I wish it was some other way, I wish I knew what I wanted to do for a living. What I do know is a handful of things about my self and some things I have learned I don't want.

I think I might be more social then I thought I was. Growing up I had few friends and the small town pushed me aside as I did not fit. Now that I am in a big city with chances to join self selected groups I am enjoying getting out more then I thought I would. I also know that I don't take well to being alone or by myself as well as I thought I did, I get rather off if I don't get out enough.

I enjoy being a good host. I have tested this and found that I can have good dinner parties, or at least people over for dinner and it is fun. I enjoy the creation of a menu for the evening. I enjoy fitting the cooking into my day and timing it right.

I also know that I am a science and science fiction nerd. I will make Star Trek references. I have also learned that if they fall completely flat to try to move away and don't waste time explaining.

I enjoy experimental cooking and know that the first batch of something will likely be a fizzle and will only cook dishes I have tried a couple times before on guests.

I still hate getting on the phone to do things.

I know lots of factoids. I doubt that they will ever help me land my dream job. That saddens me.

I always get irritated at just how hard it is to land work. I also get irritated at publications aiming to help you get work what they say has not changed in ten years.

I can't really imagine what my next job could be. I know I want a city based job, likely it will be in a office at a cubicle.

I know from experience that I have had my fill of bush work. Long term contracts in the boonies do not fit with how I want to live. See above about being social.

I know that exploration geology is where I have made my money in the past. I know that there are large idealogical differences between me and it. That industry hosts at least in opinion more global warming doubters then most others because its in the business of creating more.

I know customer service did not work for me. I have flipped one too many burgers.

I feel over qualified for many jobs and under qualified for the jobs I think I want to get. The criteria for jobs I think I want to get is based on, this is stuff that I have touched on in my education, I might be able to do it and enjoy it.

What I think I know fairly well about how I want to work is this. I want my job to primarily be centered in Vancouver. Shorter term field assignments are an option but not extended sustained camp jobs. I don't want to be too isolated in my work place, all by myself my brain gets weird. I want to work with people who's values are similar. I want to stay at a place long enough to start getting good at somethings. As an bonus I want regular weekends, the possibility of benefits( with my teeth and eyes I rather feel they are needed).

Other things I know about me. I like to make decisions quickly when they need made. My cooking has gotten better and also my kitchen has gotten neater as I cook more.

Lastly I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I don't have enough money to be an astronaut, the drive to be an entrepreneur, I might be able to grow into management but I don't know. I like to solve problems but I generally find I need help finding the starting point.

Motivations.

2010-09-09T09:41:00.004-06:00

Greetings bloggies.

I am facing the mental struggles that in part define the place of life I am in. That is I am looking for work, and worse trying to have the work be part of a career. To get myself moving, not just in the right direction but in some cases just moving I have to remind myself of the hows and whys. How I have managed to make things work in the past and why I want do things differently now.

Firstly I always start off rather pessimistic about finding work. This is my default starting point from which I have to shake myself free of it is also reenforces by the low success rate I have in landing interviews. Of the handful of interviews I have had only one lead to a job. That was Harvey's in Kelowna where I spent some time flipping burgers. I landed that job walking in on the day someone else failed to show up for their first day. All other interviews have been dead ends. Weather it was office depot in Kelowna, MDA in Richmond, I have not gotten past that gate keeper.

The professional successes I have had have been in mineral exploration. Geology runs in the family and mining is a perfectly fine industry but not one I ever planned to get into. I knew when I was 5 I wanted to be a scientist, when I was 25 I had enough of university and did not want to remain on an academic path. Steering me off the academic path was landing a field tech job in 2004. It paid well and I had some adventures along the way. I was also hired sight unseen.

In 2006 I got wind of a company needing some aid dealing with some out of date data. My tip came from my economic geology prof who had studied with part of the management team some time back. A little aid on fine tuning the application with a friend at Tim Horton's and I had landed me the job. Once again shipped out to the boonies with out even an interview. Taking that job was a no brainer, I had $300 to my name and well little other prospects. I stayed there for Two and a half years, till I got recessioned. I admit that my motivations were weak form time to time and by the time of the layoffs I was glad to going. My attention span was expired. I also wanted a personal life and at the time of the layoff I had one that made staying up north far less attractive.

The end of my stint with Tyhee, lead to a period of decompression. Having spent more then two years working 6 weeks at a time with two week breaks tired me. I saw the flaws in that life style that punctuated equilibrium of work play work, and the difficulty in keeping normal friendships. I took some time to not think about work.

When at last I did start thinking about work I found my self stuck. I admit that basing my self at my folks place also in the boonies though not as far from any thing as the North West Territories was a poor tactical choice. It has taken me some time to want to take the risks that can truly lead to a better life ( more on that later). I found my self looking into environmental science consulting firms. I had gained an interest and respect for them when working up North.

There was something interesting and well just a little healthier about the work the environmental consultants and government scientists did. For starters the shifts they did were much shorter, a few days to a few weeks followed by returning to the office to draft reports, a far cry form the 6 weeks in the medium security installation that is a fly in camp. The government scientists caused resentment among some of the more senior camp staff, getting called lazy and such. I place that down to envy, of course you are going to not like some one who reminds you of the flaws in the choices you made, like coming home at the end of the day benefits, more paid vacation, did I mention benefits. Things somewhat lacking to a junior person in the exploration sector.

I chipped away at getting into environmental work for some time in a very half hearted manner. I think the overly long stint with Tyhee made me somewhat negative about work overall, I had too many hours logged and not enough stimulation. I would like to add that this is not Tyhee's fault for say, there are many dull aspects of the job, core logging will never be thrilling, it was my own fault for not trying to push myself into other areas. At that time I though perhaps the work world would be kinder then it was. In the end I had a bitter taste in my mouth from too many hours of the same thing and had taken that bitterness with me out of camp.

Spring came a long an little progress was made. It became clear that I was not going to get there from here. I invoked a ten year old suggestion. A geography prof back at Okanagan University College, recommended going into Geographic Information Systems as a way to get a head. I looked into and applied to two different programs ultimately going to BCIT because of the branding associated with it. I am glad I did. It broke a overly long period of irrational self imposed isolation, it let me make new friends and live in a new city. GIS is my first best hope.

Stepping back a few months. After receiving confirmation that I got into BCIT I set about doing some foot work. I knew that the program placed a strong emphasis on its practicums and I knew that the course load would be large especially considering how mentally soft I had become since the layoff. So I spent a large chunk of the summer, in between trying to teach my self the basics of visual basic, trying to land me a good practicum.

It was for me a stressful process, writing emails, and much worse phoning people, learning the art of getting past the front desk. The work did pay off in the end. By the middle of august last year I had lined up 10 or 12 firms that I was in a position to visit and or talk practicum placements. The choice ultimately came down to two things. One I liked the management at one place the most, ESSA Technologies, and that the manager had the ability to make the choice about taking me on with out having to go through too many steps. By this time last year I had my practicum lined up while some others had yet to think about that yet.

That practicum was a positive time. The people in that office were closer in ideology to myself, no global warming skeptics there. The work was hard, I solved cool problems all be it slowly. I even got a portion of my work incorporated into a software update. In the end there was not a place for me after my practicum wound up.

The end of the program brings me roughly to now. Granted I had the one job between then and now, a job that followed the pattern of the others. The capricious whims of the markets lead to a demand for geologists and on short notice, through a camp cook on face book I applied for a job. You can see how it went from previous posts. You can also see from previous posts how I ended up in Vancouver.

So here I am, in one of the best places to live on Earth and stuck. Yesterday I got a job offer kind of may by. A contact I reached out to as part of my preGIS program foot work emailed me to see if I was interested in a short term contract. There are too many ifs for me to even believe if this is going to go through, and I am not sure other then money if I want to do it. Its another geology job. Its good to make money and I can make good money that way if I can get my self to do it, but it reenforces a path I want to leave. I find my self stuck. I am too much of one thing not enough of another and every thing I know I know to a shallow depth.

There in lies either a very real obstacle or a large imagined one. I sit here with a BSc in Earth and environmental sciences and an Advanced diploma in Geographic Information Systems. I know my BSc is highly general, I did do much of the geology classes offered where I was but I was also top of the class in my freshwater sciences class. All my applied experience is geological, but there are better trained geologists out there. I am not exactly sure what I want to do, I know what I have learned about what I don't want to do. I am also unsure of what I can do. Or perhaps it would be better to say that I am unsure of what I can say I can learn todo.

So this brings me to a point like I was last summer but worse. Last summer I was wrangling practicum options, I found it easier simply because I was not asking for work. Now I have to try do define what I am and offer and then convince them to offer money for that. I know that in practice I can execute that. In fact the tentative offer I got yesterday proves the value of the long game of keeping people in touch and getting a name out. I know the value of the long game, but my finances tell me I need to play a shorter game. I also know I want to play that game in Vancouver.

The importance of food and cooking.

2010-09-03T23:50:00.005-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

While sweeping the floor and scrubbing coffee stains off the tiles I did some thinking. Here is where my brain when in between brief distractions from Lady Gaga. I started thinking about food, something of a default for me. In this context I was thinking about cooking and my job search.

I had just looked at a post for a GIS specialist for a geology company, a job I could do and do well. I day dreamed about the interview I would like to get. I thought about the currently empty slot of hobbies and interests on my resume. Of the thing I do the one I most likely would put on there would be Cooking/Baking.

People I know have compared cooking to working in a lab setting or working on code to those people this is old hat. I am going to explain why I think that hobby is a quality that is desirable to employers.

Firstly it simply shows initiative, to take control of a problem and solve it for your self rather then out sourcing it to boston pizza or #1 smiling noodle house.

Secondly, creativity. If you cook beyond the point by point break down of a recipe you start to explore play and come up with new things.

Problem solving, job posting always part of a job posting. A little redundant, if you did not have the problem of needed food and a house you would not need the solution of a job. But that aside, cooking represents a day to day example of that. On a nearly daily basis I balance nutrition with flavor and an constantly changing set of ingredients to keep my self happy and filled. To create food out of stuff, translates over to a workspace where the limits of the firms of departments resources constrain what can be done, and there for you have to improvise with in those bounds. Cooking saves money by not outsourcing to consultants.

I did not think of this when I started this post but the social element plays a role. Through food and entertaining, you can shape your space in a group cooking and sharing food with others shows that you play well with others. It says I may have some quirks but overall I am a mostly sane person with friends.

Food it may not say I can do the job from a standing start but it shows damn it I can try and I wont burn the water I promise.

Discontent.

2010-09-02T14:59:00.002-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

My brain is starting to itch. August was good. I had a good time moving in and getting back or in touch with people. It matches the first first level needs I left camp for. Now I find my self in a state of mind that is not quit entirely unlike the long dark tea time of the soul. At some level I have had my fill of leisure.

The shorter version is that I need work. As much as it is needed for the money I need it for the stimulation. Yet I say this I am slow to take action. As has happened before I get irritated with the doing of nothing, having cleaned the house enough. I also start to be come ashamed of my unemployed state. This can result in my hiding at home, not wanting to admit to my self or the world that I have this problem. On monday I went down town to do some foot work only to leave the key peace of paper with important addresses at home. I found that scrap today.

Thankfully the desire to do things is starting to strongly out weigh other forces. Now the part that I really hate is starting, the slog through online postings, in person meet ups and phone calls to get rejected.

I know that on paper I am qualified do a reasonable range of jobs, I can even swing a decent career out of my education and ambition but I can not say with certainty that any thing I am looking at applying for will yield satisfaction. I also know I have to accept those risks, I walked out on a job because it failed at nearly every level all at once and I know that things will fail.

I am starting to write here again because I realized that I need to get my thoughts in order, a month of slackerhood has made me soft. Now I need to put pressure on myself and clear my head. I know I will get pissed off with these ventures but I also know I will not fail our right simply because I have enough drive to get irritated with a static existence.

In the mean time I have chicken stock forming on the stove top, a utility item for later when I will lack the food time have now.

That Damned Book

2010-09-01T14:31:00.003-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

Some thoughts. Well its September. Now that summer is winding down I can start thinking about about life in a more serious way. I have spent too much of my life in a academic setting to not have September feel a little like the new year. August was largely a month of leisure as I spent the first two and a half weeks just getting my house in order followed by well, I am not sure what exactly. I swept the floor lots.

Today I am writing because I started reading a book I have never had the chance to finish. Last night I finished Mary Roach's Packing for Mars, a book that left me tired for laughing at few points. I would recommend that every one read at least one of her books. Having finished that and being fueled by too much coffee too late in the day I had to find something to read.

As I now have a Kindle knock off, the Kobo, sold at chapters, I have no need to get out to the library or a store for more entertainment. However I was feeling lazy so I did not want to scour the internets for my next book. On a search through the machine I found Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

Me and this book have a history. I have started this book twice. The first time literally more then half my life ago, in grade 8 I had started it. Hell I had made decent progress. In waiting for the bus I got approached by what is now a human being but was then a ass with hormones. The net result of this interaction was the book being thrown on to the school roof. There was not enough time to arrange a rescue before catching the bus. I never saw that edition again.

The second loss is less clear. I know some years later I started reading it again. Yet some how in the flux of people at the parental home it got carried away by some one else unaware of the fact that I was reading it. Or at least that is my working model. Now it is being read on a computer, the text snagged from project Gutenberg. This time I will finish it.

Better then Old Spice Guy

2010-08-05T12:34:00.001-06:00

The new house

2010-08-02T23:27:00.004-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

By now most of you are following me on face book and this is getting less and less views.

However, there is a place for wordier thoughts. I have an apartment. I am on Nanaimo street in east Vancouver, a clean well kept well treed part of town. Commercial drive is a 10 minute walk away where I can get great food stuffs and find lots of eateries. Commercial Dr, has lots of novel shops and few chain stores which is refreshing. Some of the Hippy and Hipster sub-populations are a bit much at times. Occasionally I want do there what I want to do to Baker Street in Nelson, drive up in a Semi and give a way BBQ Stakes and Bud light.

So about the house. I would say close to twice the size of my last place. Which in a chat conversation earlier today with one of the few people to have visited me there, was described as "barley big enough to open the door into it much less live in". That is no longer an issue.

Here is what I landed from Craig's List.

A proper kitchen with a double sink, a full size fridge and stove. Enough cabinet space to stock stock up on lots of staples. I also have a bath tub.

For added goodness the floor was retiled before I moved in, and its real tile. I learned the other day that the heat is in floor.

I am happy. The compromises I was making for too long, the risks avoided are being taken or changed. Its some what scary how fast I have been spending money but I worked hard to make it and I never did try to live the life style I could support.

Now I am nesting, I still need a bed, but thats coming along and I will be sleeping good before too long. Building this home is good for me.

For years I have wanted to have people over for dinner, the Soviet pot luck of last year was one of my favorate moments and well I just want to entertain a little from time to time. I also can't help but think that I am single and young and damn it I want my home to reflect that.

The tent I called home.

The bed where I realized. We're Not going to take it No We're Not going take it Any More.

Screw Exile

2010-07-21T10:13:00.002-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

I made a radical action yesterday. I literally walked off a job. After several weeks of bad attitude, sub-standard and uncomfortable working conditions and just too too many things just not working right I left. Packed my things and drove out the front gate.

I took that job knowing I did not want to be in that industry. What I under estimated was just how much that industry is a life style and if you don't want to live it leave. Yesterday morning I did some math, not fancy math just counting the years spent sleeping on small beds in short term locations that went long. The number was higher then I liked. I knew I had to get out. I had spent too much time working for later.

The final straw was remembering a goal I had years ago. I was living with some roommates in a largish town house in Kelowna, still one of the nicest places I had lived. I was of the mind that I wanted to take advantage of that place and get some friends over for dinner. I never did. Since then I have not had the quality of living space where I could serve more then 1 or two. The thought that for 10 years I have failed to realize that simple goal. Realizing that though I had the income potential I have failed to furnish myself with the quality of life I want.

So some what on automatic pilot, not sure when or how I made the choice but I started to pack my things in the core shack. I had not made and progress that morning and felt down just looking at rock. I felt good when I walked away.

I am sick of camping out of luggage, of temporary places. I have taken a liking to Vancouver and I am going to move there properly. Currently I am in Nakusp it is my mothers birthday, I made crapes. The plan what passes for one at least is to pack the few things I see as key to defining my space and drive to Vancouver and set up shop. Wish me luck

Awsome

2010-07-12T00:03:00.002-06:00

Kelowna

2010-07-07T20:54:00.002-06:00

Greetings Bloggies

As I have said I am not about to start blogging the tire some details of work. I will speak freely of the circumstances around the job. So it starts with location. Due to some details of the camp running slower then expected I have spent the last ten days in the Holiday inn in west bank out side kelowna. An un remarkable highway motel on a unremarkable strip of highway.

Having Vancouver get under my skin I have really started to see the smallness of this area. Nearly every thing is 1 story tall. Nearly every surface is a parking lot. It appears that the towns measure growth by how slowly rush hour traffic moves. Having had to drive through Kelowna rush our on an errand I realized just how bad it is here. I have traveled similar distances in Vancouver at high traffic flow. In Vancouver the traffic spends much less time stopped.

To add shinny red food colouring to the injury of exile I went for a chinese buffet for dinner today. I don't know why. I was hungry from walking around in the field and at least there I could get vegetables. Nothing makes a person miss Vancouver like trying to eat out in a small town. I can't get over how impoverished the food seen seems here.

And just to remind me of why I have not missed this area much over the last 4 years, the HEAT. Good Gods I don't miss the blast furness of the miles of pavement and raw sun light.

Vancouver I miss you.

Rule 34

2010-07-06T18:36:00.002-06:00

Greetings bloggies.

So I am on a project which I will not talk about here. For the first week I have been working with an other junior geologist who also shares my desire not do exploration geology, and would rather have a life of more weekends and such. This first week has involved a redundant and repetitive job that has only limited bearing on the over all out come of the project. This has given us the time to talk.

Today 34 came up in conversation. Rule 34 states that if it exists then there is porn of it. We concluded that any sufficiently advanced culture would arrive at rule 34. This is based on the premiss that Rule 34 can only exist in an environment where there is non centrally controlled media distribution and the culture has to a healthy degree moved a way from repressive ideologies that want to control sex.

Regardless if you care for the content that rule 34 can represent it is clear that its ability to exist is a good thing. I question if rule 35 is a good thing but thats for a different topic.

BCIT Finals

2010-06-27T22:12:00.002-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

This will be the last time I blog from here. Here being BCIT campus residence. I have some final thoughts about these last 11 months. I came here with different reasons and plans then I am leaving. I came here to become more employable to move away from my old looking at rocks profession to take on a more settled life. I also came here to get back out in the world and make new friends. Those things seem to have panned out. I feel that I have learned lots and I know I am more employable.

I say I am more employable because I have received interest in jobs that I would other wise not have been a candidate for. Technical skills and employability aside, I have found it is the secondary things that made this trip more worth the trouble.

The 9 months of this program pushed me harder then some elements of my academic program. The condensed nature of the program built a sense of community with some students that I had not had in 5 or 6 years since Hawaii. After the relationship ended and took with it any interest in my moving back to the interior I started to look at this town and started to like it. That is the first thing I gained that did not come as expected. That I want to live in Vancouver, the size and diversity attract me. There is an energy that many places lack. I have been to too many smaller cities where there is a strip of chain stores and every thing closes early.

The wanting to live here is the first major upset to my expectations. I have put my money and stuff where my mouth is. To prove that I am coming back the excess of my stuff is now in a small 5x5 storage locker near the burnaby vancouver boarder. I am coming back. And I am not coming back to a clean slate. Thanks to the GIS program having a healthy number of local folk in it I have start of a few friendships and a network.

This program, and the time in Vancouver in an odd way was a life changing experience. For the first time I have found a place where I wanted to live. Kelowna, I was happy to be out of Nakusp and have sun in the fall, but in the end I loved the Okanagan Valley and hated Kelowna. The north was the north, too far from any where and too cold for too long. Here there is a balance, warm weather good eats and as important good people to eat with. I discovered that here I don't just have to get by but can find all the ways to enjoy and enrich life without having to reach too far.

I will miss having a summer in this city but I will look forward to coming back into town and settling in to my own place.

Back in the field

2010-06-22T20:52:00.003-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

Well the good news is I got a job. Mineral exploration in the general area around Merrit BC. A job much like the one I had with Tyhee. This is an irony to me. I had promised my self that I would not pursue that type of work again. I also gave my self some conditions where it would be ok.

So then why am I going back into the field to look at rock again. Firstly they hired me. I had been finding few jobs related to my new Diploma and was becoming increasingly aware of tightening finances. I was getting close to looking for true grunt work. So money is good. Secondly while this geology job is not specific to applying my GIS training, I will maximize the use of that training where it is appropriate to stay sharp.

Other conditions, its a short term job, a three month contract. This means that It meets one of my conditions, not wanting to be out in the field for too long. Secondly it is in a much less isolated location. The camp can be driven to and is within a half days drive or less of places I will want to be.

Now that I have had the chance to think about it I like the idea of being in the field again. Its stirring my sense of adventure. Lastly it gives me a chance to use some old cloths as field gear and get rid of the stuff once and for all.

Not an image of the camp I am going to. But similar ish.

Vancouver Things

2010-06-14T23:22:00.003-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

Some slices of life here. Last Wednesday I went down town. I had a good walk down Burard Street photographing my favorite down town building. The ever lovely Marine building, in all its Art Deco stylings. To any readers here who are or will be in Vancouver, take the time walk north to the water and check it out.

I also picked some berries on Saturday. Salmon berries I am told. I am not sure, what I do know is people eat them and the leaves look like raspberry plants. Generally they are raspberry like. Since Mr. Darkrooms birthday celebration was the following day and there was a planned pan cake breakfast I had a good reason to pick berries. Though honestly, I just like picking berries. Also there is something about a city where there is enough wild tucked away that a person still pick berries. I like it.

I should also not the racoon spotted west where I am, it was getting a solid Ka'ing at from some crows as I passed by. Causing me to wonder if they had fought over garbage.

Sex Part III

2010-06-06T22:04:00.002-06:00

Beetle Mania

More Vikings

2010-06-06T21:52:00.003-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

This is old news in the space nut world but since I was just writing about Viking 1 I should write about the real one too. Viking 1 was in the Space news loop when on May 20th the Rover Opportunity passed the 28 year old record for longest running lander on an other planet. Viking one was working on Mars for 6 years and 116 days. Opportunity has surpassed that and if Spirit wakes up in the coming spring it will have passed that record too.

Viking 1, a mock up. Not the real martian back ground.

Opportunity. Real Mars back ground photoshopped in rover.

According to one web site both the Viking landers and the Mars rovers were expected to last 90 days. My question is when will JPL start building cars.

Introducing Viking 1

2010-06-06T12:46:00.003-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

Back in October I made something of an impulse buy. A new Bike. I had not brought my old bike with me to Van and had tired of the cramping in the wrists and back that its compact trail oriented frame cause. So against better judgement I spent money that well I did have it to spend I might have spent else where, perhaps for better things.

Viking 1 because I name vehicles after space craft but also because it is a long bike. A Viking Long bike. Retroactively I have named my old mountain bike Zond 1 too keep the russians in the loop.

In the end I rationalized that it was my knee that needed the new ride. After having twisted it in december 2008, rather strongly, and a few more minor times before, I knew that having weak legs was a recipe for doing so again. The truth since I have started ride more regularly this spring my bad right knee has seldom been in pain. Even more importantly it has been less prone to feeling like it is going to twist out from under me.

The flip side is that I also get to explore town in away that can't be done when you need to look for a parking spot.

Science world where Yesterday Dragon boat races were being held. I boat was warming up to the chant of We Suck Less, We Suck Less. I did not stick around long enough to find out if that was true. I had to head west. I made it as far west as Jericho Beach. I stopped at White Dwarf books.

At White dwarf books at last I found a selection of Sci Fi books that was not the same old same old of the best sellers and newest books.

Procrastination 2

2010-06-04T09:38:00.001-06:00

Good News, Every one

Futurama in Lego = WIN

Glee: A Nothern lites Entertainment Report

2010-05-25T23:34:00.005-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

So it is time for an installment of my very infrequent Entertainment reports. I have just finished watching one of my favorite TV shows. Glee.

Now those of you who know me know I am more likely to watch science fiction or discovery channel. Those that know me better would know I have no love for High school culture and any thing that glorifies it. The last thing that most know about me is a general lack of interest in pop culture and the associated music. These trends make Glee an anomaly in my viewing habits.

So why glee. It came to me as a recommendation from a once good friend. Needing something to reset my brain during the fall semester I started to watch it regularly as fluff. The surreal musical numbers and lots of singing and dancing creates an appearance of fluff. Neither the show nor my self stayed in the same place. The show went away after the first 10 or episodes. It reappeared at a time when I had been as far from my normal happy middle ground as I had been in a long time. And brought characters in to parallel emotional spaces. On one occasion I concluded that I have to be the least manly man on campus, I was feeling a little down watching Glee and eating GOOD Chocolate.

So what do I get out of Glee. More all the time is the answer. For one thing I do like music, I just have tastes that are not up do date and find too much of the stuff on the air sounds like every thing else out there. So in that context Glee wins just for range of music choices. Music is not the core of what I get out of Glee. As I had said at first it was for fluff. Later the emotional depth of it was running parallel to my own and it brought both uncertainty and comfort, but its easy to bring out emotions I already have. Lately as I get distance from heart break and the range of emotions a break up can cause I have been finding Glee doing some things much more powerful.

Glee makes me feel things. Things out of the scope of my day to day. And Yes today I was rocking out to both there KISS covers and Lady Gaga covers. If there is one thing I have learned I need to do is to keep emotions closer to my day to day existence to keep them form swamping me when they get bigger. Some how a odd little show set in one of my least favorite times of life helps with that.

So Here is to the most emotionally complex show on my TV.

GLEE.

Choices

2010-05-24T19:36:00.003-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

I have been chewing on this post for a while, it started out life as a guild to going out for chinese food. Which in Vancouver is a complicated question and still worthy of a post. It has morphed into something more personal. After a 2.5 year relationship ended it occurred to me that I had no compelling reason to want to move back to the interior.

I have spent an amount of time going through the heart break that came with the territory and it sucked. My recovery started to run in parallel to a reduced work load from the program. As I went from 5 days of classes and 8 days of home work a week to 4 days of classes and 1 in the office, all the way down to full time in the office I started to have time to look around.

My practicum was in Kits just off of Burrard street. This lead to two routes home, both exposed me to the city, North walking over the Burrard street bridge to down town or strait east over Broadway. No mater how I cut it I saw a good sized slice of town.

Between the mountains the water the food and other, I admitted it I love this city.

The important thing of this is the choice. Not the choice to love vancouver, the choice to stay here not because I no longer have reason to move to the interior but because I wanted to for its own sake. Not because the jobs are here and it makes economic sense but because I have choices of how and where to spend my time after work.

In some ways this strikes me as a contrast to how I made my choices earlier in life. Looking back I am starting to think of my 20's as a period where I either acted on defaults or constraints. I took and kept what I could get because I had few choices. I made do and a chunk of honest hard work and thrift made it possible for me to afford to make the choice to stay in Vancouver.

I like this city and I will stay here not because I have to but because I want to. I have some work to do before I have a proper home in this town and there will be hick-ups along the way. Nothing a good pint at a local brew pub could not ease the pain of.

A Robots Place Is In The Kitchen

2010-05-18T09:09:00.003-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

I have had the same thought several times. I am reasonably sure that it is not original to my self but the source is long lost to me. The thought in question is

" Never get a human to do a robot's job"

I thought it last summer on one of my earlier skytrain trips where the train seemed to running too fast and breaking too hard, I was convinced that a human was at the controls of the robot train. More recently I was watching a portion of the movie 8 Mile, set in the 90's in Detroit. There was a factory seen in which the 'hero' was loading stamped steel plates from one thing on to a dolly. Lift shift drop, Lift shift drop, lift shift drop, a robots job. Now I have a rice maker.

I had toyed with Idea of getting one as I finished the program gift to my self since the start of the program in September. A couple weeks ago freshly exposed to an solid review and extensive first hand experience from a family member I caved in. Thankfully they make them in single person sizes. I spent the little extra and got the model that can cook brown rice.

In fact here is the list of things it can cook, that I know of.

Brown rice

White rice

Sushi Rice

Congee

Mixed rice, such as plov or name your rice with stuff cooked in it dish from any where in the world

Oatmeal.

The review, on brown rice it comes out fluffier then the times I cook white on a stove top.

If set to Sushi rice I do get the right kind of sticky and the urge to buy a bunch of seawead and start making roles.

Other quirks, a timer, which gets set for when you want the food ready not for when it starts cooking. For this morning I prepared the machine with oatmeal water and dried friut set the timer for 7am. At 6:59:59 am the alarm goes off and there is a bowl of steaming hot food. The first time I used the timer I loaded it with brown rice for breakfast. I got up to the smell of cooking brown rice. Almost as good as waking to the smell of fresh bread.

I for one welcome our future robot overlords.

All Hail Zojirushi

Other features, beyond rice cooking.

a handle to pick it up by when you want to put it away.

A clock that keeps running when you unplug it so you don't have to reset the clock when you want to use the timer

A retractable cord to ease in the putting awayness.

To this machine I give it 8 out of 10 tentacles.

C Food

2010-05-14T23:36:00.005-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

Well it has been a while since I have giving the three people in my audience something other then filler. Though some of the comments on the filler were positive.

So about ten days ago I took the time to join some class mates for a its almost over dinner. There was a Dine Out Vancouver promotion. Fancy places offered discounted meals to attract new clients. I accepted the invite and joined my friends at C Food. A up class place at the foot of Howe Street where it meets up with False creek.

Its hard to give the meal a just review. It was gourmet, not proper meals. As much about the exploration of texture as it is about being filling. To make it filling the staff kept us fed with a steady supply of bread. This made the meal filling not just tasty.

Like any truly great meal the food is not the start or the end of the occasion. A truly good meal is a product of the people it is eaten with. So tucked away in the wine cellar, even if it was up stairs, with 9 or so class mates and some friends or spouses I had a good meal. As a group we went through a hard fast paced program. We helped each other where we could and it was good. So here is to my first truly great meal since an era ended recently.

Followed up with a lemon cheese cake with fruit compote.

My meal was a salid with smoked trout.

Some form of very yummy glassed salmon with mixed vegetables and something called sea asparagus.

Others has a lamb shank and there was even a dish with Octopus bacon.

Team Pants

2010-05-06T19:35:00.003-06:00

Hi All

For the business management and stuff class I ended up after some confusion attached to a group for reasons unknown to me calling its self Team Pants. Well it was a fun group to work with and we did some good work on short notice and all. I snagged this photo from facebook.

The man in the tie is the instructor.

Kirk and the Quest for the holy Grail

2010-05-05T23:05:00.001-06:00

The First Of May

2010-05-01T10:25:00.001-06:00

Its the first of May and that means only one thing

Filler

2010-04-29T08:36:00.003-06:00

One of these days I will write meaningful post I swear. Till then I show you one of my favorate examples of an applied pun. A periodic table table. I really like they way they use the Lanthanide and Anthanide series as bench. Technically they should be stacked as column but that don't work so good on paper.

Procrastination

2010-04-19T21:18:00.004-06:00

So I have a test tomorrow. Second to last one. During the process of studying I lost momentum and found my self on a Icanhazcheeseburger affiliated site. There I found some treasures.

My top pick is

This was introduced with the Caption, If you are going to

believe in any thing let it be this

The world needs more chocolate T-Rexicorns it just does. I assume it is farting Rainbows

This would go great with my fish and chips bumper sticker. Which reminds me I was going for a walk yesterday, Sunday. I was leaving through the south exit of the campus, where the church across the way has its sunday free parking. As I went up one of the streets I passed by followers heading home their routs taking them up past both Huxley and Darwin street.

And this is just mean, leave the Sauropod alone.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TXIPNdoRHio/S80eSu83BJI/AAAAAAAABms/igiZuXFwqM0/s1600/tumblr_kyptwellIX1qzpwi0o1_r1_500.png

Roasted Happyness

2010-04-18T09:26:00.002-06:00

Roast Chicken a food that even Easter Island has enjoyed.

Steps 1 small bird. 1 Cast iron grill pan half a red pepper, a whole lot of Barbecue sauce and garlic, for a little over an hour at 350F. Not 350K, and most certainly not 250K. But you know that. What made me happy was the roastedness of the bird.

Skin like old parchment, or what I am told parchment might be like if it gets old, I suspect that old is the only way you find parchment these days. The flesh was so tender and perfect that the leg bone came clean out when I tried to remove the drum stick. All the wonderful fatty juice stayed under the skin cause it got sealed in. Mmmmmmm good.

The roast pepper was yummy too. The baby corn was added in the last ten just to use up the last I had in a can.

While it was not needed, it turns out that roasting a chicken in a cast iron object does wonders for the seasoning of the iron. Just cooks the fat into the metalthat will go a long way to keeping it rust free and healthy.

Because I have not gotten tired of it the view from the Burard St Bridge going into down town Vancouver.

A life reminder

2010-04-11T00:22:00.002-06:00

Vancouver Again and again

2010-04-04T22:00:00.006-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

I am sorry but due to a loss of a post due to a lack of back up the retrospective post I wrote last week will remain off line for the time being. I have not had the head space to rewrite it in the same spirit it was written in.

An evening stop at Brentwood Skytrain station. I was watching the sun set as moved east and was lucky that Brentwood was high enough up that I caught the last of it.

My new cooking toy. Because when I am feeling down I like to shop for kitchen things. Though it makes me sad that for the time being there is no one in my life to fully share it with.

While stopping to get refreshments at a safeway I spotted this as I was in line.

Microwave Omelet pan, perfect Omelets in minutes. Personally I did not know that it took more then minutes to make omelets, unless you are waiting for the chicken to lay.

Perhaps the best graffiti in town. Mr Spock. On a pillar holding up the Expo-line portion of the Commercial and Broadway skytrain complex.

The best of bad humor from the BCIT medical office.

And again to borrow from Flat Land, the reference not the Line.

I do miss A squared. And its not an easy thing to let go of or want to let go of.

Dear Friends and A like

2010-03-30T12:50:00.003-06:00

This is a public Service announcement

For any of you who will be in Vancouver or intend to be in Vancouver please do your self the favor and make a little detour.

If you claim to have ever liked Chocolate you must make that trip.

The shop is called Xoxolat, its a play on the Aztec derived spelling of the word and perhaps plays on the north american convention of signing hugs and kisses with X's and O's.

View xoxolat in a larger map

exame week

2010-03-16T21:56:00.002-06:00

Doing lots of tests this week no real time to right but I was greeted by a lovely sight. The clouds cleared and the sun came out. And there it was.

2010

2010-02-13T16:57:00.003-07:00

no Flying Cars but the Olympics are here

Mmu Muffins

2010-02-11T21:49:00.003-07:00

Greetings Bloggies

Having made a chicken stirfry for lunch and having gone cross eyed in my digital mapping class I figured today
would be a good day to bake something.
Todays experiment was carrot pecan muffins.
The method was google recipes until i found a recipe that
matched what I had in the house.
The results yummy.
In an effort to be heathyish i used mostly whole wheat flour.

After Noon Break

2010-02-08T21:06:00.002-07:00

Greetings Bloggies

Today turned into a lovely day. It started off raining, but hell this is Vancouver I was told to look forward to days when it was not raining. Having had a big lunch in the form of a sandwich before my prelunch class I took the time to spend some time out side. I managed to slip into a local park and take a lovely phone picture form the top of a hill and also of a rain bow over the campus as the rain died.

Progress

2010-02-07T18:20:00.004-07:00

Hi Bloggies

I am procrastinating a bit by writing this but its been in my head today.
I know going into the GIS program that it would be heavy on the computer programing. This was proved to be a steep learning curve. Only recently through both changes in the character of some classes and the work at my practicum have I really started to see what I really am getting out of this program.

While it is nice to get computers to draw pretty maps and extract information from databases to build maps. That is not what has gotten me excited. It turns out I have developed a liking for computer programming. Its not easy and it challenges one of my bigger weaknesses, it forces me to have greater attention to detail. It also forces me to think clearly. Being forced to take on those things is a good thing.

What really has been getting me excited is the problem solving. While I was never the largest fan of word problems as a child I find that in this space I love it. Right now I have a three week assignment using one of the hardest languages I have had to work into date. And in the coarse of 6 to 8 hours of work spread of three days I have gotten a good chunk of the first stages functionality built. Today I woke up with ideas about how to make it work running through my head. I built most of it.

Then I got stuck. But I got stuck in a way that was good. For I knew I knew how to ask it to give the map's layers names, I just did not have a logical and simple way of doing it off the top of my head. Thankfully I am lazy, this is an asset in programming. I researched a few paths I though might take me in the right direction before seeing them as too much work. My code was working but my logic was poor.

During a break I asked a roommate who is a computer science student about the problem. And here is where I really saw how much I had grown. I asked for help, I got the logical step I was missing. Within a few minuets I had told VBA, to make a array, its like an egg carton, this one was holding words and only words. And I had not even tried to make an array in that language before. 6 months ago or less I was struggling to get stuff into an array let a lone get it out of it again and make it do something useful. But I did get stuff out of it and it did do some thing useful.

With my practicum I have been given a baby steps project. It does tie into a tool they have. I was given a set of stages to built it in. I finished the last of small steps on Friday. Now I get to start playing outside of the little sand box of opening a txt file.

All of this has in common the wonderful feeling of having a problem that needs solving but also that it can be solved. So I find my brain running in the background coming up with ideas when I wake up even though I can't recall explicitly thinking of it during the previous day.
I also like that I am now with a heck of a lot of work and some brain pain able to produce something that can be useful.

'Array to hold string that is layer name
Dim aryName As Variant
aryName = Array("Crime 1995", "Skytrain", "Main Roads", "Police Zones")
Dim i As Integer 'counter for array
i = 0

'Loop till gxObj is nothing
'this will cycle through the selected enumerator
Do Until bgxObj Is Nothing
Set ShapeClass = ShapeWork.OpenFeatureClass(bgxObj.Name)
Set ShpLyr = New FeatureLayer
Set ShpLyr.FeatureClass = ShapeClass
ShpLyr.Name = aryName(i)
i = i + 1
'

CrimeMap.AddLayer ShpLyr

Set bgxObj = bEnum.Next

The better part of this mornings work. Yes I do under stand what is going on here. Barely.
I told myself when I went into this program that I wanted to come out good at something. I think I will miss that target but I will have the tools to actually get good at something it will just take time.

A Saturday

2010-02-07T00:34:00.002-07:00

Greetings Bloggies

Today I walk to Metrotown. A large shopping and office complex. I had some food stuffs to get and it was just too nice to any thing but walk. The tv weather said this evening that the High was 12c but it could have been warmer. On that walk I saw a few dogs. A kid and the rest of his family doing a paper rout. Two Palm trees in the yards of some houses and a cherry tree in bloom. I also picked up a silicon rubber pastry brush because it was half price and the spatula of the same make is wonderful.
I also made crapes for breakfast and roasted a chicken for dinner.

Good Morning

2010-02-01T17:50:00.003-07:00

Greetings.

Just a picture I took from my spaceship window this morning

A day at the office

2010-01-22T21:57:00.002-07:00

Greetings Bloggies.

Well today was the third day of my practicum, currently I am only coming in on fridays. The work is solving a problem that would be simple if I have been programing for longer. But at little over 6 months trying to teach computers new tricks, getting one button to do one thing slightly more fancy still feels hard. I do learn lots.

Getting out of Burnaby and into a part of town where if I did not work in a plastic wrapped building and worked on a floor that did not look at the building across the street I could see False Creek.

So I took a few photos on my lunch and on the way home.

Also the Happy Computer

The Adventures Of Emile

2010-01-22T21:51:00.002-07:00

Hi Bloggies

In this episode we will join Emile as it bakes a cake and roasts a chicken.
Over the coarse of sunday and monday Emile, the ceramic roasting dish received as a Xmass gift was used in the baking of a Birthday cake and the roasting of a chicken. The chicken was planned as my monday dinner and left overs for the week. The cake was random.

On sunday morning I was one of the first up, and almost certainly one of the first up for this floor. So when a room mate from up stairs asked if any of the people had a cake pan I volunteered. Turns out the thing makes a good cake after all.

In the Kitchen again

2010-01-16T21:16:00.002-07:00

Greetings Bloggies

After having been in spitting distance of The Railway Club on two occasions this week and not making it to either event associated with that place. I took it on my self to attempt to reproduce one of dishes I have had there. Pulled Pork. I differed in that their preparation uses Dr. Pepper and I used root beer. Because I like root beer.

The preparation was simple a quick rub of salt pepper and paprica, browning the meet and keep it company in the oven with some Jalapenos and onions. Cover with Root beer bake at 225. Mine was in the oven from 10am to 4:30.

Some time after 4 I started to make buns to go with. The failing in the buns was not kneading them enough to get them to make nice balls. So then ended up more like a roll then a bun. Its all good.

At the end of the process the pork was taken from is pop bath torn apart with forks and mixed with BBQ sauce at low heat.

The Only Twilight post I will ever Do

2010-01-10T21:22:00.003-07:00

Greetings Bloggies

A roommate brought home some Twilight candies. To which I say in the spirit of Ralph Wiggum from the Simpsons, " It tastes like sparkling."

Mmmmmm

2010-01-10T21:09:00.003-07:00

Greetings Bloggies.

So I was informed that I was not sharing the products of my cooking adventures with people that are not here.
So as a biproxi alternative to feeding all of my 5 loyal readers at one I will blog about food. The last post concerned the use of
the roasting pan and iron. Both of which have been used since. This post covers my adventures with a rolling pin. I had actually gotten my self one before christmas but never used it. It was a So So one made of steel.

The extra new one is Danish Maple. Its longer and heavier then the steel one. With that in my grasp it was time to revisit pizza.
My last and nearly first effort was not bad. But it was lumpy and uneven. Tonights batch which is really yesterdays was perfect.
I made this batch of pizza when the sauce I made thursday or so failed to be tasty for pasta due to a lack of non paste tomato products. That made it the perfect pizza sauce.

To night and this weeks supply of left overs used the last of that sauce combined with olives and read pepers and chicken fried in a little of the sauce and some smokey hot sauce. I think my post title says the rest.
Thankfully I have enough dough in the freezer to roughly double it.

Loot

2010-01-05T18:13:00.003-07:00

Greetings Bloggies

A rare window in which I can blog. Having left Dial-up country for the city and not yet returned to a full on slot of home work its time for a quick post. I am excited by the gifts I got for Xmass. Which include a waffle iron, a lovely french roasting pan thingy and rolling pin. I have made used of the first two.

The waffle iron was used on the simplest instructions in the included booklet and the roasting pan for duck. The waffles still need fine tuning and I am out of all purpose flour. The duck on the other hand worked out the best yet. The duck leg was roasted in a rub of salt with thyme, paprica and basil. It was roasted skin side up. This produced a crispy skin draining much of the fat into the dish. I decanted some of the fat and roasted a Yam with it umm.

I have yet to use the rolling pin.

The majority of waffles were frozen for later use.

Soviet Blocks

2009-12-14T14:54:00.004-07:00

Greetings.

Now that the semester is over I will take a few to post a photo spread I had in mind for ages. It was not until I had finished my exams that was able to get around to it. So here is my ode to the modernist master peace that is BCIT.

I really feel that this place was built by a soviet defector hired for cheap.

Food Porn

2009-11-08T13:33:00.003-07:00

Greetings bloggies.

For the second house potluck I have made bread. because I had this no knead recipe from a the internet by way of a bakery in Nelson that I have been planning on trying for 8 months or so.

Here is the visual on the out come. And as a revision the meal. This may be the best we eat all season.

Also yet an other use for a Dutch Oven. I love that peace of metal.

Fringe

2009-11-06T19:39:00.002-07:00

Greetings Bloggies, No This is not a peace about my hairline but if it was I might use that Title
I went shopping this afternoon.
I was out a fair number of things so I went to the really big Walmart Super Centre By Boundary and Gallardi Way.
For those that take the Sky Train, Rurpert would be your stop.

After spending a chunk of change at WalleMart I headed the block over to Canadian tire.
Where I found what I needed that I failed to find and Walmart. On the way out I spotted a Police car in the underground parking
lot. Not an impossibility, but the Tim Hortons was above ground.

A closer look showed that it was not a real Cop car but a Prop. I had Boston Police painted on it. This pleased me.
For there is only one thing it is likely to be, A prop from the wonderfully Pulpy sci-fi show Fringe. Which was originally filmed in Boston until the moved to Van to save money.
It should be noted that this shopping area, is almost on top of a very large collection of film studios. Saddly I have yet to see any craft with Caprica City licence plates

Work space

2009-10-13T23:29:00.002-06:00

I caved in after getting back from my thanks giving retreat. I spent some money on improving my workspace. This hard ware will carry forward reasonably well. A new LG 18.5inch wide monitor. It was the second cheapest on, the other being an acer with a lower contrast ratio. It is so good being able to see the details of text with out having to squint. Things have been busy. I have not read a book since I cam here. The norm is to watch an hour of tv before bed. Thankfully the high band width here makes it practical to snag the content from the web.

The Story of the Chicken

2009-09-16T18:43:00.002-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

The other day before class started. I made one of a few larger shopping trips, this one was to TNT Super Market, home to every thing interesting or ordinary depending on your culture. I had a guild who know the uses of some of the moderately interesting food stuffs. Among the things gottern, were, Squid whole but cleaned, Frog Legs, Pork belly, and Cornish game hens, also duck legs.

On Monday I cooked up on of the chickens. Lacking a BBQ sauce I faked it. The general gist of the thing was, Honey Soy Sauce, a little seseame oil. The bird was roasted in my cast iron dutch oven. In the company of some home grown potatoes and stuffed with garlic ginger and shallots. I cooked it up monday so I could have a good lunch for Tuesday which is one of my longer days.

So come late morning Tuesday I am briefly back in the house and microwaving the food back up to and eatable temperature. Now it should be pointed out that the residence here have some limited house keeping on week days for the common areas.
The house keeping staff was in my building as I was warming it. The more social of the two said it smelled good and my being big mouthed caused me to recall what went into it.

It made my day when I saw some notes being taken on the preparation of a chicken. And yes I have to say having eaten it, is worth reproducing, the potatoes were some of the best part.

BCIT Week one

2009-09-13T07:35:00.008-06:00

Hello Bloggies.

It has been a good time. A fast time and that time will continue. A week ago today I finished off a trip that I started out some 10 days or so ago. The first leg was a two day trip to Vancouver island, a blog worthy thing in its own right. Key points of note, are that I had never been two the island before, a side from when I was an infant, I got to go to a good friend's wedding after not seeing her for years, and saw some Alpacas.
And Ice cream shop near the Bay

A small tug boat named BOOMER CAT, which I want to read as Boomer, Cat!, as I know a dog of that name, but I don't know how he takes to cats.

Above, Passing another Ferry in a tight channel, Some random Alpakas on Somones road. The MacKenzie side of the wedding, party, the bride, husband sister mother and father.

The wedding was quick well done and really showed they cared for each other. The reception was a blast. Side trips included seeing crabs jelly fish and other marine animals on a trip to a local bay. I would have liked to stay there longer and I will have to go back. But I had to make my way to Burnaby to get the ball rolling.

I made it to town with out trouble, the ferry was easier the second time. Moving in was strait forward, I had packed lightly. Not a bad idea, but at some points I realized that I just needed some things I did not yet own. So the first few days before class were costly, with the need to stock the shelves and cover up loose ends. Of the extras I picked the best one is the cast iron dutch oven, filling the need of both a roasting pan and larger pot for the stove top.

Back to School Value

2009-09-06T15:12:00.002-06:00

Greetings Bloggies.

I have to say I like Walmart. Firstly I have to say that I am now in BCIT residence enjoying the state of not yet having started classes and the act of moving in. This moving in business took me to the Walmart super centre to stock up on uninteresting times.

As I had said I like Walmart, but it would seem that Walmart wants to like me even more. I was walking down this very long store
I passed several uninteresting signs for back to school sale priced items. The last one I saw just made me laugh. There front and centre, Just out side of the aisle with the pharmacy themed items was a back to school display. The top banner was average, with clip art style images of pencils rulers and scissors. Down below it got interesting, it was not a display case full of pens of paper, but KY Jelly, his and hers two packs. Yes it turns out back to school is the best time to get personal lubricant.

And So it begins

2009-09-01T19:56:00.002-06:00

Well Here we are

Tomorrow morning I leave for Vancouver in something of a round about way, stopping in Langley before heading to Duncan for a friends wedding. After that I head off to Burnaby where I will move into residence at BCIT, and Start a new set of projects. It will be fun.

Vancouver the End

2009-08-21T09:26:00.003-06:00

So its Friday. I will be leaving town tomorrow and will not have the chance to blog from the big city again. When I do return to town I will have a full time table and will not have the luxury to blog or explore town as much. This images came from my walk down West Broadway after a good and productive meeting. So the things include. A book called Tartan Romancing the Plaid, also, the old London Drugs as a anti bird device made out of old dropper bottle droppers. Lastly a exit sign for the new Canada line, sky train very much making me think of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure,Way out, Dude.

Random Tidbit

2009-08-20T17:08:00.002-06:00

After having, a good meeting, a long hot walk and doing some laundry I did some surfing. I came across this on critter names.
Cool Criters From i09

Food Play

2009-08-19T11:59:00.002-06:00

I was hungy I wanted something to go with the Wanton,
I cooked up some sweet and lime Cabbage. Very good. Methode, thing slice cabbage, with or with out onion, add 1 teaspoon is of brown sugar, when mostly cooked add juice of one lime. Very tasty.

More Vancouver Again

2009-08-19T09:14:00.003-06:00

Greetings Bloggies

Yesterday was a good day. I had an informative networking meeting, followed by a long day at a beach ending at a pub full of nerds. Some where between the beach and the nerds I walked from Kits, beach to down town over the Burrard st Bridge. This got me some good photos. Its a shame I dont have a better camera, but I have motivation to gain the means.

Enjoy the city.

Vancouver Week 2

2009-08-17T12:00:00.003-06:00

Greetings Bloggies

An other adventure of sorts. After missing a bus on friday trying to get to a near by movie theatre to go see District 9, I went and got me self out to see it last night. It turned out the theatre I was trying to reach while is physically closer to where I am currently staying is actually harder to get to then one that was farther away. This is due to to the fact I can get to the huge metro town complex on one Skytrain, where as the closer Coquitlam theatre needs a buss that runs less often then the train.

I get to metro town, I know it was big but I did not stop and find out how big. It is a mall built at the root of an tower complex, the mall has three stories and feels like it is 1km by 1km. I must have arrived at both closing time for the shops and the ending of a movie because there was no room to move in the crowd. I got my ticket early, but wandered the mostly closed mall looking for some where to get a cool drink before finding the Chapters and its associated starbucks. That killed a little time.

When I did check into the movie house, it was packed, it was about 10 to 7 and the movie started at 25, only seats nearest the front were free. If I had not finished the book I was reading earlier that evening I could have had a better seat and just read while waiting. As it was it was still a good movie watching experience.

In this day and age, it seems rare to go to a theatre and have every one watching the film, this was the exceptional time, I heard virtually no chatter, and seemingly no cell phones went off. I can't say if people were texting or not, because 90% of the house was behind me. Being that close made it hard to see all of the screen at once, with the subtitles at times that was a pain. The film was good, perhaps not as revolutionary as some of the hype made it out to be. It did a good job on moral grey areas, there were some big jumps in film style as I think Peter Jackson wanted to have a bigger hand in how it felt then perhaps he should.

Prior to the film I checked out the Dinosaur displays, I had seen adds for it on the trains or at skytrain stations. My favorate was the T-Rex model standing ontop of the sign on the floor saying Food Court.

Them Bones Them Bones
Them Dry Bones