Confirmed!

My flight home is now booked and Zout will be returning back to Ontario from May 24th to May 31st!

Glad that it's over

Well there's only one week of nights left now and I couldn't be happier to once again join the world of the living and interact with society again. Working nights hasn't been bad as I've managed to reduce spending by a large fraction since nothing is open and thus managed to get some type of savings under me. I've also established some good saving habits which I'll hopefully be able to maintain when I leave nights.

Over the past week there have been a few other blog worthy events that I've been unmotivated to post about prior to today. Last sunday was the Sun Run which is a 10K run which I completed in a half decent time. It would have been nice to have run it fresh like so many others but due to the fact that I'd been up all night going into it, I think it dropped my preformance enough to have it make a large difference in time. After about 5 Km, I started to feel a lot of drag in my legs and really couldn't pick up any real substantial pace. Next year though, I'm sure it will be a different story.

Wednesday night, I attended a poker night at a co-worker's place. I realy had no intent on winning as I had to work that night and the limited time I had to play was not enough to out strategize everyone else. Thus about 30 min before I had to go, I started to make some bolder decisions and risk quite a bit more to unload my chips. Fate must not have wanted to lose though, as I kept on picking up winning hands on the turn and river and pushing the game on for me. This continued until I was in the final two (from ten). At a juncture where I was already late for work, I went all in on a King and six just to try and make the game end for one of us. Thankfully for the other person, my luck ran out at this point and I had to settle for second. That being said, I think I iritated a lot of people by knocking them out with such a reckless style. So goes life though.

Plans for when I get onto days:
- Get some frames for some of my posters
- Get a haircut
- Go for a walk in the sun
- Bandana BBBQ on the 5th!!!
- Spider Man 3!!!

I also make expect to more blog posts or at least more than I'm making now with stuff actually happening.

A dedication

While it's true that I've found a new home all the way across Canada and have started to branch out meeting new people, not for a moment have I forgotten about the many friends I have back at at home. That being said, Feta Paté will be presented to the folk at VGH as a dedication to a good man whom I'm proud to have known.

Still Havn't got it

So while socializing with the X-Ray folk last friday, I came to the conclusion that my ability to make any type of conversation in a night club is still pretty terrible and abyssmal at best. In truth I've never realy understood why people even try to talk on the dance floor where there's loud bassy music but it still happens. As a small saving grace, I think I have gotten better at matching people's expressions so when they look for a sentiment, I can usually produce it.

Last week was a pretty big under the gun weekend as I had two final exams to write, a fundraiser to ambassador for and the student celebration to attend. As per always though I pulled them all of with a little brown grace and style.

My housemate just purchased a bbq and patio furniture and because of this, coupled to me leaving nights, we are having our first formalized social event at our place. In celebration of the BBQ, we have titled it after the infamous Simpsons episode where lisa goes vegatarian and the worm talks like a sheep, 'The 364 BBBQ'. Truthfully, I don't expect many people to attend since I'm now in the older work world where people work saturdays, but we'll see.

I'm still enjoying a lot of new Indie Rock Music these days. The Fray are often queued up on my playlist amongst some new groups like the Papercuts and Modest Mouse.

I watched 300 the other day and thought it was quite good. There was a lot of gore most certainly, but I found its appeal in the way they chose to use the different methods of filming and narrative to tell the story. I also liked the narrative because it was done by David Wenham who played Faramir in Lord of the Rings.

The build on some of the actors has motivated me to pick up my training again so that at some point in the summer, I might look half decent if I were to yell at someone "This is Sparta". I would need a Giant black hole though along with this, if such a thing were to be done.

Movies watched Recently:
300 - Great. Not Superb. (Tidbit: The guy who plays Xerxes is the actor who was in the most recent episode of lost.
Bridge to Tarabithea - Nice little children's tale. Worth a watch.
Happily Never After - Leaves something to be desired.

Anticipated Movies this summer:
SpiderMan 3
Shrek 3
Pirates 3
Transformers (though it sucks that optimus isn't a big red truck when transformerd)
Simpsons Movie

The latest and reflections

And so we have it. Another year logged in the chronicles of my life and as per usual, it has been quite the doozy. I'd like to thanks all those who took a moment of their time to send me their regards as I entered the age of the 26. Truthfully, being rememered and the receipt of a kind word or wish are the best gifts that an individual could ask for and am grateful to each kind word I recieved.

My birthday itself and the days surrounding it were quite fun. I had the 16th and 17th off and made the best out of both days. Friday, I picked up all the pieces for my new computer and assembled it with the assistance of my housemate. From there I spent a couple of hours moving over all the media and such from my old computer and installing all the various programs that are immediately necessary.

Saturday Giles and I, amongst other company, frequented an Irish pub in the Kitsilano area to celebrate St. Patty's and the B-day. All in all good times were had, Guinness was drunken, jigs were danced and many, many, many photos were taken. I've posted a small fraction of those taken on my facebook account for those who wish to see them. After the Wolf and Hound, we made a stop off at Denny's, watched a portion of Borat at my place and called it a night from there capping off one fun night.

In recent weeks

Well, due to various items such as work, school, job interviews and facebook updates, there hasn't been that much time for blog posts. Thus, this post will summarize the last week as best possible.

Facebook
So in truth, it's not half bad. It's a little busy at times with all the potential groups and different features but that's likely its appeal to the younger crowd and how it became so popular. I forsee myself likely getting into posting pics and making comments on peoples walls but that's about it. Time will tell depending on how much free time there is to play.

Dancin with RTs
I attended the RT fundraiser last friday and had a pretty good time. My initial goal of going was to meet people that I'd seen in the hospital and learn a bit about them so that when I saw them again, the exchanges would be more enjoyable. I threw this plan into motion and it panned out pretty well for the most part. As per usual, some people were pleasant, some not so much and the natural ratio of girls that thought I was hitting on them.
Things picked up a little bit when a few folk from the department showed up as they were ready to get down on the dance floor. Many drinks were had and much dancing was done. By the end of the night there were two items which I'd derived from the night; there are some wicked people in the department to hang out with and accordingly, some of them are very very attractive. ;O)

New Computer
For my B-day, I'm treating myself to a new computer and it's about time. My current model is a PIII 667 and is badly out of date. The new specs are:
- Antec Sonata II Black ATX 16IN Mid Tower Quiet Case
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB
- OCZ Gold XTC PC2-6400 2GB
- EVGA Nforce 680I motherboard
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Dual Core Processor
- BFG 7900 GT OC 256MB graphics card
It won't be a top of the line system, but decent none the less. Definately better than what I have now.

Coffee...
So no coffee date yet. Schedules conflict and we've both had a lot of things on the go. Those are the main excuses that go through my head to justify it not happening. In all truth, if she were to set down a time, I'd likely make my schedule conform to it. It's worth waiting on though and as such, I'll be patient.

Departure off nights delayed
My departure off nights had been dealyed by a month due to me covering people who are headed on vacation. In truth in sucks, but the payoff might be that I don't have to do nights ever again. It's also another month with shift premium pay which isn't so bad.

Jitsu Van
Working on it... slowly and methodically.

T-Bone turns 26 in two days!!! Nothing like a day where you celebrate yourself and drinking guinness.

The Facebook revolution

Gradually as the time passes ever forward and more people keep indirectly inviting me to facebook by inputting their e-mail list with me on it. There is also a few folk at work who keep pestering me and thus, likely tommorrow, I will register an account on facebook and join the hipper crowd.

Slowly becomming a stranger to posts

Well, truth be told nothing too exciting has happend in the last recent little bit to note in a blog. I had a few days off work which saw me get a haircut, sleep and run a lot and got some work done. And then back to work.

In the face of this lacking interesting stuff, I will use one of my back up blog topics to fill in such a void. What is this topic you might ask? It relates to pieces of music that have a habit of stopping all thoughts and either conjure up a fond (or not so fond) memory or even just have you stop to appricate the work as a fantastic piece. Over the last few months I've been making a list of songs that pop up on my playlist that have effect. It's not a comprehensive list off all songs as that would take too long, but it's long enough for you, the reader, to get an idea of what I'm reffering to.

John Hiatt - Have a little Faith in Me
I first came across when it was covered by Jewel from the Phenomenon soundtrack and I say that it's been a favourite of mine since then. Overall, I'd say its the humble and emotional nature of the lyrics that struck a chord (no pun intended) with me.

Jon Bovi - I believe
Suprised that it's not 'Livin' on a Prayer' or 'It's my Life'? Well I have no real explanation other than that I've found this song to be their very first power anthem and one of their best. Often you'll catch me quoting the line "with every breath I breath, you and me could turn a whisper to a scream".

Alexi Murdoch - Orange Sky
I came to know this song mainly from the first season of the OC, which was their shining season. It was included on their first soundtrack but only in a two minute version. The actual six minute version is a nice, relaxing song which has a habit of always causing me to reflect on how cool the events of my life have been.

Our Lade Peace - Theif
No real explanation for this one other than the opening line which goes "I don't want to understand this horror" always catches my ear due in part to the way Raine gently opens with it.

James Blunt - You're Beautiful
This was the first strumming pattern that I ever learned to play on my guitar. Everytime I hear it, I remember that simple feeling of actually thinking that I might be able to become a decent guitar player.

The Offspring - Gone Away
This song gets me super pumped everytime I hear it. I always kick it up a notch during a run if this every comes on.

Celine Dion - Because you loved me
It played that moment I realized that fairy tales can cross over to a real life time stream and that day dreaming isn't so bad.

Bahia Principe - Bienvenidos
Best trip ever. Nothing will ever beat it, save for perhaps another trip.

Lifehouse - Everything
This tune was on the No Name Face album and remember thinking that if I ever got married that I wanted this to be playing in the background at some point.

The Wallflowers - Heroes
A classic song orginally written by David Bowie and covered by the Wallflowers for the Godzilla soundtrack back in 99 or so. This version has a better sound to me as Jakob Bylan (lead singer) has more of an emotional contribution through his voice than Bowie.

Youth Group - Forever Young
This was a tune from the third season of the OC where two of the main characters find themselves slow dancing for no other reason that the two of them are together as if it's all that ever mattered. I also remember copying it and just enjoying the pleasure of such a moment.

Josh Joplin Group - Camera One
This song was a small hit in the states in February of my first year and everytime I listened to it, the events of the past week would fly through my head like a funny and somewhat ridiculous TV show.

Jet - Shine On
I remember listening to this song on the new (at the time) Jet album on my way back from Peterborough and having the reality of my gigantic step hitting me. Leaving my family and friends, driving across Canada and starting over with nothing. Whenever I hear the song now, I always shoot right back to the moment in the car.

There are likely quite a few songs that I've missed but that's to be expected. For those reading this, I'd be curious to know which song(s) have such an effect on you. It'd be interesting to hear.

P.S. Why is this kitty so entertaining?

48 Hrs prior to sleeping

Before sleeping last night, there had been an interesting 48 hours of events. In that time I:

- wrote two midterms, one on each day
- worked an extra OT shift in between
- managed to flood the toilet

I could elaborate in my usual way but for once, I think enough has been said already.

The latest from West Bone

Truth be told, there have been many a time when there have been occurances in the past little while where I have had more than enough reason to throw something down on the blog but ultimately, the lack of sleep and associated ailments which have come with that put a major halt on that. Today though has been a different story as I got more than a good nights sleep today and am brimming with pros to lay down. And so, to catch everyone up in a quick and effecient manner, I present a series of short blurbs from Bone in the West.

Furniture
After quite the ordeal in sorting out a delievery date and a broken door knob, furniture has found its way into my apartment. Now I must say that while I knew the apartment needed furniture, I was still taken back when the sofa and loveseat were put into place as it completely overhauled the atmosphere in apartment. In the end there was a completeness to the apartment in their presence and a feeling that I'd finally attained all the basics to call this a home.



























Bone's off Nights... soon
After a brief discussion with the department manager last weekend, a decision was made that I would come off nights. My argument wasn't anything much more than the nights wern't agreeing with me as my health was suffering due to the lack of sleep. Strangely enough, there wasn't any real counter discussion to convince me to stay on nights and so at the end of March, when all the student are highered and they can staff nights better, I'll be comming off nights.

First Visit Downtown
I had three days off last weekend and decided to make the most of it and spend the night hanging out with Giles for the first time in months. After a day of getting things done around the house, I met up with Giles and we decided to grab some dinner. I suggested the 'Cactus club cafe' which I'd passed by several times in recent months. This decision paid off in the end as the food and the service were definately quite good. Aside from this, the atmosphere in the restaurant was quite nice as well and will definately be a location I will return to in the future. From there Giles and I then walked down which took about 30 minutes as far as I could guess. Now, while this may seem archaic to some as I could have easily taken a bus, I preferd the walk as it allowed me to both take in the scenery and learn more about downtown at a decent pace.
Nothing overly eventful happend at the bar that night. I met a few of Giles friend's, a random girl from the hospital decided to start flirting with me and some decent scotch was had. For those that are curious, I didn't reciprocate any real interest.
We decieded to walk back home as well as a means to save money on a taxi. The walk back home was just about the same as the walk there other than the folk who drove by and screamed out the taxi window the Giles and I were a 'bunch of fagots'. Now while I have always been comfortable with my heterosexuality in the face of gay accusations, I found this to be enerving
due to the cowardly nature of someone making a deragatory comment like that behind the safety of cover. I guess that's to be expected in a city as big as Vancouver.

Ipod Video!
After having my alarm somewhat crapped out coupled to the fact that I wanted some music in my room since my desk is outside, I decided to add an Ipod Video and JBL on time radial speaker set to my 'to get' list. Now initially I was going to wait a few months and save up bits of pay checks for it but after finding a pretty good deal on a used one, I moved up my purchasing time and acquired a 30gb Ipod video. Overall, this is a very top notch product as the video quality is quite good and decently sized. The only downside is the amount of time required to change everything into an mp4 video file for the ipod.

Dine out Vancouver
One of my peers at work invited me to join her to the Stone Grill where she had made a reservation for two and naturally I decided to take her up on that offer. Now for those few who know of my potential work interest, this was not her but none the less I still had a very good time. The food was exsquisite as was the method that they choose to serve everything. We both ordered the steak and instead of cooking the items for you, they instead serve it on a hot stone which has been heated to 400 deg and thus it cooks the meat while you're actually eating it.
The other good thing about this Dine Out Vancouver special is that you get an appetizer and dessert with the meal. Overall the meal and the atmosphere is definately worth the price paid.

Closing comments:
- Can't wait til I'm not on nights anymore
- Cmon UBC; Daddy needs a new Jitsu club...
- Everytime, I hear the new JT single, I remember a time in Peterborough dancing on the bar celebrating amongst good friends
- Diggin the tune 'Welcome to the Black Parade' by My Chemcial Romance. Cool name for a band too.
- Quite a few people I owe an e-mail to and need to get to that
- Today has to be a study day. I'm so behind on my classes and midterms are next week.

Current Song: Welcome to the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
Current Mood: Lamenting that I have to go to work tonight

Rocky Balboa

Today, before heading to work, I found myself watching Rocky Balboa for the third time. Truth be told, for a movie that I thought would be a joke, it is slowly creeping its way into my list of overall favourites. Aside from the fact that it's a nice way to way to end the Rocky series of movies, Stallone and company portray a solid story of a man who's got all he ever needs for the rest of his days; Heart.

(Spoiler alert)

Adrian
The movie starts off in a very nostalgic manner with Rocky going about his daily routine and highlighting a man's life whose very nature pays homage to the romantic notion of 'better to have loved and lost'. The small subtleties of Balboa remembering all the small things about his dearly departed Adrian are reminiscent of a notion that is of an old coda which is that of a 'Gentleman and his Lady'. All the details the are so meticulously pointed out all relate to the simple fact that all he ever needed from his lady were trust and honesty and that is all he needed to get by.

Drive
Throughout the movie, the constant symbol of the basement is brought back time and time again and that no matter where one finds himself in life, there's nothing more worthwhile than putting yourself behind a drive to be the absolute best you can be. The interesting thing about this movie though is not only do they show drive of the Hero Balboa, but also of the apparent enemy. Both characters train and push themselves with the soul intent of findind a satisfaction within themselves.

Never say Die
The line rings in your head like a bad backstreet boy song at the end of the movie. "What is it you told the kid? Dosn't matter how hard you get hit, it's your job to get up". The beauty of the whole scene when he says this is that all the sentiments of grit, tenacity and ire and the accompanying will of a champion just resonate and surge forth as you watch the scene. Very well done in this bit of film.

Truth be told is that I could go on and find other noble virtues that are portrayed in the movie as there are many. Overall, the entire piece is well done from top to bottom and definately worth the watch (but not during sex as its worth more than that).

Some more resolutions

Some more resolutions popped into my head recently. These are all things I was already intending to do beforehand but getting them down in writing makes it more of a must in terms of getting them done.

6. Reduce my student loan 25% of the total by years's end. (Naturally the goal is right down to 0)
7. Become a man that people could portray as being 'A man who lived the dream'

(The old one's)

1. Set into motion the Jitsu Van domain of Jitsu Canada
2. Stop fearing that decisions made in the past will have the same repricussions. Every situation is different.
3. Get off these bloody night shifts.
4. Finish at least two CT courses (work related stuff).
5. Let everything be. If drama comes, it comes; if it goes, it goes. Everything happens for a reason.

Bit of a scrooge

This holiday has been a strange one. The most obvious reason I can think of is because I had to work on x-mas and boxing day coupled to the fact that I will be working on New Years as well. That being the case, I didn't realy get as festive as I usually do and the result was that I wasn't as jolly as some of the folk around me. The end result has me feeling like a bit of a scrooge in the end as I might have dampened everyone's happyness around me just a little. If I did not contact you and wish you a happy holiday, I apologize as I slept through most of everyone's awake time. I hope that I do not have to work all three stats next year for my sanity's sake.

On the other side of things, I flew home to be with the family for a few days between the worked stats. There was a bit of a lul in my work schedule which allowed me such as chance as decided to take advatage of it. It worked out okay financially as my sister cashed in some of her rewards points and this lowered the cost to something more reasonable relative to the short time frame.

The trip home has been refreshing and allowed me to reflect upon the matters discussed above. In the past few days, I've had the chance to see some of my close family as well as touched base with a few friends. It has definately picked my spirits from the scroogish attitude I had before. The only downside to this trip home has been the overall jet lag of comming off being awake at night and having to switch for a couple days. So goes life though. I do have to get off these night shifts sometime soon though.

In a few days, I'm about to join some of the many folk who currently use Skype as my father bought my a USB skype phone. I didn't know these existed until recently, but it is a neat little product for those who use have a greater disposition to VOIP. Hopefully I'll actually use it though.

That's about all off the top of my head for now. Hopefully everyone has a safe and happy new year. I've got a couple resolutions that I've made which are as follows.

1. Set into motion the Jitsu Van domain of Jitsu Canada
2. Stop fearing that decisions made in the past will have the same repricussions. Every situation is different.
3. Get off these bloody night shifts.
4. Finish at least two CT courses (work related stuff).
5. Let everything be. If drama comes, it comes; if it goes, it goes. Everything happens for a reason.

In closing, everything will be fine...

A letter

Dear RA,

I found myself in the Bay the other day. I had recently seen an add with an advertisement for 30% of all mens wear. That coupled to the fact that I had previously decided on getting my parents a Hudson Bay Company gift certificate for x-mas, brought me to a Bay store just the other day.

I entered with the intention of parusing the items at the Bay for a few minutes before proceeding to make my intended purchases of Boxers (which were part of the sale) and the gift certficate. This decision turned out to be very costly.

Within an instant of finding the Men's wear, I found myself in a Sport Jacket section. Normally I would instantly be turned back by the crazily high prices but the two signs of 'Take 30%' off and 'Take an additional 30%' off convinced me to browse through their selection. I began to look, and then I began to try on and before I knew it, I had found myself a tan orangish Tommy Hilfiger Sports Coat that I could not bear to part with.

My desire to have good clothing did not end there. While trying to bypass everything to make it to bexers, I found myself looking at some Nautica performance sportswear. I didn't even bother to try either of these on as they looked like good quality items and seeing how they were also 30% off, I decided to purchase a few.

With the total tally of unintended purchases adding up, I quickly made my way to find the items that I had gone to purchase. I found the boxers rather easily and proceeded from there towards the checkout. On the way there some nicer looking dress shirts caught my attention but I managed to refrain realizing that I already had quite a large bill comming to me.

In the end, without any service personal attending to me once so ever, I managed to double my orginally intended spending amount. That realy does not bother me so much though. Nothing at all bothers me about any of this in truth as I think I am comming to understand why you enjoy shopping at the Bay so much. The quality of the items they offer are definately quite high and the prices which they ask for are quite reasonably. In the future, I think I will definately be find myself there more often.

Sincerly,
Zout

P.S. I have not seen you on MSN lately. Have you taken an MSN sabatical?

One year ago...

While working out at the gym the other day, a tune came on that shot me back to a year ago to a moment when nothing but pure electricity ran through my veins.

I awoke that day knowing that later on, I would be heading to the great city of Montreal to see something that I'd only seen twice before. For some reason though, I couldn't get as excited as I wanted to be. I went through my normal motions of the day and did all the usuals all the while trying to get pumped. Perhaps it was the fact that the city of Cornwall (amongst other factors) were sucking the life out of me. I don't think I'll ever know...

The important thing though is that I did make it through and lasted til the end of the 'work' day. From there, the ambiance started to build. I had something to eat, relaxed a little bit and proceeded to get ready to head to Montreal. The drive there was relatively tame except for the actual city itself which saw me utilise some colourful language. That passed though.

We entered the arena and found our seats. It was then, where the magnitude of the evening started to set in as we were literally an earshot away from the stage. The pump started to set in at this point so much so that I think I blew almost $65 on memoribilia. That might sound like a lot but it consisted simply of a shirt and pendant. But I realy didn't care at that moment.

The opening band almost brought me back to the non pumped stage. It would only take the next few minutes after them though to bring me back and surpass that by almost a hundred. The screen above the stage lowered slowly as the house lights went down. From the behind the stage emerged most of the band members. The sound of the electric guitar filled the guitar and from and all the way accross the arena, the man emerged with his acoustic guitar, strumming like there was no other place in the world that existed except for the 20, 000 people in the stadium. And from his lips emerged:

"Come see a living breathing spectacle only seen right here.."

As I sat there at fitness world, just sitting there, thinking back, I must have spent at least three minutes or more staring off into the distance. And for those three minutes I was back in Montreal, Canada just reliving one of the best moments in my life. From the last man standing to his cover of "Have a little Faith in me", the man and his band didn't miss a beat.

Day off

Today I have a day off after a six day stretch of 8.5 hour shifts. This day off couldn't have come at a better time as needless to say I feel very tuckered. Aside from working for the past six days, I have also been at the gyme each day which also adds to the tucker tole. Earlier today I wanted to attribute my fatigue to 'pushing the limit' at which point my roomate just looked at me and asked me 'if I'd been excessively flying at Mach 3?'. From that juncture, and likely from now on, I will likely refrain from using the term pushing the limit.

On a completely different note, I've been feeling a little hyposensitive to music as of late. Now, I think I'd safely say that those who speak to me often on MSN or take note of my MSN handle often enough would say that I regularily throw random song quotes into my name to reflect something of note in my daily events or on a reflection of things. Lately though whenever I try to find something of thematic value to quote, I find it a little more difficult. Perhaps because there's no real lyric about moving to Vancouver and starting on night shifts. Someone should work on that.

To conclude, a few comments of movies I've seen semi lately:
World Trade Centre - worth a watch but focusses less on the events of the day and more on a made up story
Beerfest - Another zany tale from the makers of Super Troopers. Better than that island movie but not as good as super troopers
You, Me and Dupree - Kate Hudson is smoking hot. Not nearly half as good as wedding crashers.
Talledega Nights - Unfortunately Baby Jesus couldn't make this as good as Anchorman. One might almost say its bush league.
Death of a President - Find it. Get it and watch it. This is a good one. Aside from the fact that its a movie about Bush dying, you're almost convinced that this is a real documentary knowing its fake. A brilliant work.

New Toys

Well I was afraid that this would happen. I went in to buy an iPod shuffle and walked out with a collectors edition 20th anniversary Optimus Prime. Now, truth be told, this supreme action figure is wickedly sweet as it features an Energon Axe, Ion Blaster and Light up matrix chamber. At the same time, I remember sitting at my desk staring at it thinking that my geekdom level had increased thus causing the percentage ratio of possible women entering my apartment to drop a few points. Overall though, I'd say the pros and cons balence out.

The decision to get the shuffle though wasn't quite as spontaneous as I'd done a bit of research the night before. I was mixed when I entered best buy on whether or not to get the shuffle or the SanDisk Sansa 1gb player. The pros of the latter player was that it featured a display screen, fm tuner and voice recorder. I was also trying to avoid being part of the 'iPod generation' and support a smaller company. Upon seeing the shuffle though, I realy couldn't justify not getting it as its absolutely tiny and light weight and since its purpose was a running/gym player, it made the most sense. The actuality of it all is that there is a reason iPods are so popular as they are pretty practical in the end for music listeners. I would definately recommend it to others.

Pictured below are both items.

Closing Comments:
- Look at it. It's tiny!
- Yeah for free time on night shifts for making blog posts!
- Aight, no more gifts for myself. Must focus of either saving or getting gifts for others.
- There is an off chance that Zout may return to Ontario sometime this month. More to come on this.
- The snow is starting to go away and the rain is starting to return. I can't decide whether this is a good or bad thing.
- Some people still suprise me. This time, the further demonstration of moral fibre deserves an acknowledgement. Now, just what to say.
- Gingerbread Latte - Good but expensive, served warm, drink fast. Egg Nog Latte - See Gingerbread. Coffee with Skim Milk - Flavour of coffee is stronger and thus makes coffee choice more critical.
- Congrats to all who moved up a degree in Dan Ranking. Now its time to get my ass in gear and put everything in place so its my turn next year.

No Song. Neutral Mood. Meh.

Re-inspired by the musings of others...

Once upon a time it use to be a whole lot easier to blog as notable events happend in my life on a semi consistent basis. However with things mainly being in a settling mode right now not a whole lot of worthwhile stuff has realy happend of the usual upbeat Dawson's Creek like tempo that things use to be. So instead, as a few other fellow bloggers have done, I'll just make some small rants about everyday events just for rantings sake.

Night shift
Overall, its not so bad. Yesterday kind of sucked because I'd been up for 8 hours already prior to starting work and then when I came in, the work ran heavy for about four hours. It wasn't even the easy stuff either; hard trauma cases where people are in a lot of pain, broken something and can't move; or just plain so out of it that they can't help type stuff. I was thoughrougly tuckerd by the end of the shift. Today is making up for it though as its been mainly easy cases and very few of them.

I've redeveloped my affinity for coffee as adjusting to night hours isn't something my body readily did. Its not such a bad thing though as there are quite a few coffee shops in the Vancouver area and this allows me to sample a great many of them.

Sleeping during the day is also slightly weird as its light out when I go to bed and close to dark when I wake up. At the end of the day though, the extra $2 an hour makes up for everything, especially since I don't know very many people anyways and havn't got much of a social life right now.

Portable DVD player
As of the first or second shift working nights, I concluded that there's only so much reading one can do in the downtime and that a portable dvd player would be a cool item to have that would deal with that lul time. I spent quite a bit of time researching all the options that were available to me but in the end it came down to a choice between the Phillips PET1002 and the LG LPA 735 for their ability to play Xvid movies. The decision was made for me in the end though with futureshop putting the LG player on special with additional savings in the form of a general savings coupon. In the end, the total cost after tax was very reasonable and I've already got some good use out of it. Definately a worthwhile purchase.

Snow
How the f*ck is it snowing in vancouver and warm back in Ontario? Did my moving here bend the weather patterns so that snow would come with me? Either way, its been quite the set of events. I do have to say that Vancouver folk have no clue how to moderate themselves when it comes to handling snow and more specifically driving on the snow. Some of the stuff that drivers do just blows my mind and some of the risks they take are ludicrous. I specifically stayed off the road for this very reason as my normal road rage (under normal driving conditions) likely would have multiplied by a factor of X to the Xth power and likely seen more anger than than is healthy.

Closing Comments:
- My old mp3 player kinda went shotzkey on me which makes me want to get another one. Part of me is saying that I should save my money now since I'll need it in the future while the other half of me says that I have worked two full OT shifts at time and a half and can afford a little personal spending.
- I'm gradually starting to ease into some social circles and develope a few friendships that might have some good longevity. I even find myself developing semi serious attractions to some women as well. While my heart has not completely found itself fully restored yet, it might be able to handle a few runs of mental chess with the opposite sex.
- 202 posts isn't a big deal when yours posts have 3 lines of text and one train of thought for the last dozen posts.
- I baked some Spicy Oatmeal Raisin cookies the other day. I forgot to take a picture though and wish I had because they turned out spectacularily.
- I'm gonna get the jitsu gears going in the new year and think that developing a sucessful club will be my new years resolution.

No current song. I'm at work!
Current mood. Excited as I just schduled an exam by myself. (usually the clerks do it)

No longer sitting on the floor!

Yes, its true and you are seeing correctly. From here on in, I will be resuming my old blog post schedule as I am no longer sitting on the floor to use my computer but instead back in my good ol computer chair and my awesome new desk.

Vancouver so far has been great. Nothing too exciting has happend since I've got here since I've mainly just been working and getting my apartment in order as well as all the other things that go with that. Settling into a new hospital and new department has been a fun little adventure and looks like both could be promising. Everything at VGH seems to make so much more sense than it has in previous exposure (no pun intended) to diagnostic imaging field.

I've met a handful of people outside of the hospital in my wanderings but havn't had much social time since its taking time to get myself settled. I should be all done after this weekend though since my stuff finally arrived one of my last tasks just requires me to put it away.

I think I'll leave the rest of this post in summarized closing comments form.

Closing Comments:
- The city itself is beautiful and filled with culture at almost every corner
- People here seem to be way more health concious than in any other city I've lived in (especially compared to Cornwall). I think I've seen a total of maybe three fat people in the month that I've been here.
- My cell phone bill is going to be huge. Time will tell though just how big.
- I came at the beginning of rainy season and it certainly has been quite rainy. All part of the journey.
- It seems as though I'm not the only one in this town who has settled in for a little bit to take in the surroundings for a couple years. Of all the people I've met, only about half of them are from Vancouver.
- There hasn't been a day that has gone by where I havn't thought about how awesome it will be to get a club going here. Soon enough, soon enough.
- I baked a cake for the potluck last week which I self titled Zout's Choclate Volcano explosion. Everyone loved it. Here is a photo:














And here is a photo of the picturesque neighborhood that I live in:














Current Song: Goo Goo Dolls - Without you here
Current Mood: Pumped for the Gym

Well I would make a post...

But right now my computer is sitting on the floor in the living area of my apartment. Thus sitting in front of it for long periods of time is not easy and hence why there have been no posts. When things are more condusive, you may or may not here about:

- the new apartment
- my new TV that broke within 2 mins of me purchasing it
- the new job
- life out west

Until I get paid and get a desk...