Screw Exile

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

Kelowna

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 Or what camp does to a person.

Greetings

This post dates from the first weeks of the Merritt job, in the summer of 2010.  The first two weeks of which consisted of wandering around a field with a GPS and hand held computer.  We were often close enough to the truck that keeping the stereo on was a viable option and in general walking around in a mountain plateau is far from the worst way to spend your time.  This combinations of things gave us time to talk.   I have no recollection of this conversation ever happening, but that it did hints at the effects of sun on my brain.

Rule 34 came up in conversation. Rule 34, the most notorious of the rules of the internet, spawned from the under belly of the web known as 4chan, states that if it exists then there is porn of it. A  conclusion was reached that implied 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.

Yup, too much sun. Written Summer 2010, updated winter 2014

BCIT Finals

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

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

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.