Feel Good Hit Of The Summer

Ahh. Life is good.

I went kayaking with my dad on friday. We went around Newcastle Island, and it was a pretty nice day. The water was pretty calm on one side, but on the open ocean side it was pretty choppy, especially when the ferry's wake hit us. We stopped for lunch on Newcastle, then came back through the harbour, weaving between the hundreds of anchored boats on the water. I like being out on the water, and it's been a while since I've been out on a small boat.

Yesterday I hung out with a few friends around the house here, then went to a bbq at a friend of a friend of a friend's house. Really. It was good though, ate, drank, and played some Wii. I bailed early so I could go out on the town with Jeremy before he leaves back for Alberta. I got home and was just heading out the door when I realized that I'd left my wallet (with cash and I.D.) at the bbq. So I'm an idiot, and I couldn't go out. So I turned on Star Wars and passed out to that. Good times with light sabers.

Today I did some yard work before the rain rendered weedwacking pretty useless. I started looking into the BCRPA and what it's going to take to get registered as a personal trainer. Since I have educational experience, I can challenge the exam outright. I have to choose whether I want to take the regular or advanced test. I may as well do the advanced. I took two practice exams, and scored 75% on both. I need 70% to pass. But I need to get reacquainted with the material all the same.

This week coming up is looking pretty good already. I'm going to take a day or two to spend on the lake or river. I'd like to look further into the personal training thing, maybe even book an appointment with a gym or two to get some non-internet information. Thursday I've got soccer, and I'm hoping to run at least once before then. If I do a lake day at westwood, I can squeeze that in fairly easily. I was thinking I'd also like to golf this week, so I'll try and do that wednesday or friday, hopefully with my dad.

Sounds pretty cushy huh? I'm really happy to be able to spend some time off after getting my degree. I almost feel like I don't deserve it. Oh well. I'll continue to have a very laid back and enjoyable summer, whether I deserve it or not.

Hope you had a good weekend, and thanks for reading.

'Somehow everything's gonna fall right into place'

Yes

I've been home for a week now, and things have been pretty good.

I've spent time at the ocean, on a lake, and at the river. I've played frisbee golf, seen movies, and watched a great sunset. And I spent an entire day doing nothing at all but hanging out and playing my bass. Things have gone pretty smooth.

Today isn't much different. I hung with Blake this morning before he had to go to work. We had a good b.s. about stuff. Tonight I'm playing soccer in Qualicum, then hanging out with friends afterwards. I'm really enjoying spending so much time with friends. It was one of my new years resolution to be a little more social, and it's going fairly well.

The remainder of my week is pretty booked already. Tomorrow I'm going kayaking with my dad, and I'm sure he'll pick a really cool spot for us to go. He tends to have a nose for that kind of thing. Later on tomorrow night I'm meeting up with friends that I haven't seen in a while for dinner and drinks.

Saturday will be a pretty relaxing day. Jeremy is coming home for the weekend, so I plan on doing something with him, whether it be at the beach for bathtub weekend, or just hanging out here playing music. Sunday is my grandma's birthday, so I'll be over at my parents house for dinner. Monday is my mom's birthday, but she'll be busy all day so I have no plans for then yet.

The days are filling up pretty fast. I've got a couple weddings in august, along with a few trips planned. I'll be able to squeeze in a couple days a week of just relaxing or hanging out at the lake, which make for some of the best days. I also want to start running again fairly regularly. It's a little tougher than it usually is because I don't have a training goal right now. I may have to find one, like the victoria half/full marathon in a few months.

Have a good end to your week, and thanks for reading.

'belief is a beautiful armor
but makes for the heaviest sword'

Waiting On The World To Change

I wrote this when I was in camp...

July 05/08

I'm laying in my room in camp in Alberta, thinking about nothing and thinking about everything. I ummm, feel like I'm ready to start the rest of my life in a new direction. I don't feel like I'm giving up what I'm doing, because this was never really a long term thing, or even a thing at all.

Where I am now, in a work camp on a service rig on the wrong side of the world, affords me some opportunities to think in a fresh way. At the same time, I've been thinking about something for a long time, maybe longer than I consciously know. It's hard to explain. Consider the scene from batman 1 where michael keaton is trying to explain himself to vicky vale. He can't find the right words to explain. He tries, but vale doesn't get it. Anyways, I'm not batman. But there's this logical sequence to life that I just don't line up with right now. You go to school, you might go to university. When you're done, employment starts to mimic your love life, or vice versa: you experience some lame, dead end jobs and girls, and these somehow shape you for that woman and that job you marry. Have kids, get a mortgage, blah blah blah. I'm really afraid of falling into that cliché. Oppositely, I feel no need to be overly unique for any reason. I just feel this pressure. I'm in a time of transition, and I almost feel like I'm being pushed into a direction of convenience, of "logic". It's tough to explain when I don't even really know. "If not there, then where?" is a question I don't have the answer to.

I don't know. I'm still in school mode I guess, and think there's an answer to everything.

Let me change gears a little bit. Life fucking sucks here. I hate it. So much. I've never been big on complaining, and I happen to think it looks bad on people. So let me look bad. At work I have three levels of superiors from floor level to office. Each one tells me daily, maybe hourly, how weak, incapable, worthless, and stupid I am. I'm not listened to, trusted, or respected even in the slightest.Every co-worker I have, and I'm NOT overemphasizing, loves to comment to my face how I have no work ethic and that I'm putting zero effort into my work. Even me saying "fuck you" to the face of 2 supervisors/managers after one of my routine humiliations gets me nothing but a smirk.

I am convinced that this is the asshole of humanity. If you read this, you won't begin to fathom what this is. I have bit my tongue so often after being laughed at, yelled at, and shit on, that my jaw hurts.

Blah blah blah, find the positive. blah blah blah. I've been in camp 20 days or so. In 20 days or so I'll be done. If I can do that, I can do anything. But I'm going to be a wreck at the end. Right now I can't even write a description of what I feel like. "You little bitch" was the line my boss threw in my face today.

I plan to walk dead through the next 20 days.I don't have a shred of respect for anyone, and nothing I do here really matters. When I get home I'll be a different person. I can't wait.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=b8MdE8e0Buk

Cheer Up Boys (Your Makeup Is Running)

Wow what a weekend.

If things go on like this, it's gonna be a heck of a summer. Yesterday I went out to the river and out for dinner. The river was a really good time. I went with Jen and her friends, and we laughed long and hard on the rocks in the sun. The water was nice enough to swim in, but we just floated around.

Today I went downtown and watched Jen race in the sillyboat races at the harbor. It was crazy busy down there. I won't say too much about the whole thing because I couldn't have been there for more than an hour. I got there in time to see the race, then I wound up buzzing off.

After watching the race, me and a few friends took a ferry over to Gabriola island and hung out all day. We cruised the harbor over there, sat and drank on a patio, and hung out on a random beach. It was really good. We came home and continued drinking at my house. Not a bad evening in my opinion. Or weekend for that fact. I haven't really stopped doing fun stuff since friday.

Tomorrow is the start of Jen's days off, so we're gonna head to westwood to spend the day on the lake. Which excites me. I might bring my running stuff and go for a run, then just lay around for the rest of the day.

It is so smoking hot in my house. I need to invest in a fan to cool my room off. I can't complain though. The nice weather has been amazing, and it needs to last. Pleease.

Have a good week, and thanks for reading.

'Talk is cheap and lies are expensive, my wallet's fat and so is my head'

1000 Julys

Went to see The Dark Night last night.

It was exactly what I wanted it to be. It was a really weird dynamic having the audience almost cheering for the bad guy. I thought Heath Ledger played a really genuine joker, and it was downright creepy at times. I'm not a good movie reviewer, but it was a dandy.

I'm heading to the river tonight, and I'm pretty stoked about getting out and doing summer stuff. The weather has been simply phenomenal the entire time I've been home. Being away gave me a really wicked appreciation for being home.

What else is new? I played soccer on thursday, and I need to get in shape I'm thinking. It was bad. I was almost embarrassed to be so bagged after only a few minutes. I really enjoyed it though, and I'm on a team with some really nice people. I was put on the team in last place, and we wound up winning our first game, so everybody was in pretty good spirits.

Other than seeing batman yesterday, I had a really good, productive day. I got lots of things done, like getting passport photos taken and stuff. I also bought a few (three) hats because they were on sale. I'm officially on the chicago cubs bandwagon, and I'm telling everyone who'll listen. Which is strange, because they're probably the biggest losers ever.

Anyways, summer is perfect so far, and I already forget everything that went on in the last 2.5 months.

Thanks for reading.

'Let's just call it what it is'

Feels Like Summer Again

I came back to BC earlier than I thought.

I was supposed to be off work between the 26-30th of july. Instead there was a scheduling conflict between my company and our employer, Husky Energy. I was sent home yesterday, and I'm supposed to go back on the 22nd, to work until the 26th, then come home again until August 11th. I have little profit to make if I fly back and forth, and buy new equipment that I need for those few days. So I think, and I have to give this more thought, that I'm done with Nabors. The plan was to go until the end of July, so this isn't falling too far short.

I got home yesterday afternoon, after driving 7 hours from Fort Mackay to Edmonton, sleeping in Edmonton International tuesday night, and flying into Vancouver in the morning. I slept most of the day yesterday, and today was amazing to have no alarm to wake up to.

I'd talk more about work, leaving work, and the ups and downs, but I'm really ready to move forward. The last thing I want to say about my experience in Alberta this summer, and I'll try and stick to that, is that I'm happy with how I worked, how I acted, and how much I learned about everything. I'm unhappy with my experience up there, about the amount of money I made, and the frustration resulting from simple managerial incompetence at every level. I'll say no more.

I'm really looking forward to seeing movies, running westwood lake again, being with my friends and family, and basically just being home. The first thing I did when I got home, after I discovered my internet wasn't working, was pick up my bass. I missed that sucker, and catch up time is on the way.

Tonight I'm going to summer soccer in qualicum, tomorrow hopefully I'll get to 'the dark knight', and this weekend will be an actual weekend! Wow.

Hope you're having a good summer so far. Thanks for reading.

'What's time but a thing to kill or keep or buy or lose or live in?'

Do What You Have To

The night before the day.

I travel back to camp tomorrow after a few days off. I feel like I didn't get a chance to fully relax and unwind, being that I was away from home, without friends, etc. In a way I'm very excited to be going back to camp. If I'm going to be away from home, I better be making money. That being said, it was nice to sleep without an alarm.

Seven hours on the road tomorrow, and it'll be me, my ipod, and a bag of candy I'm hoping.

I don't have much to report I guess. My weekend and my Canada Day were both fairly/very uneventful.

I'm going to be in camp until July 27th or so. That may be extended as long as August 1, but no later I don't think. Nabors' policy is that we only go 24 days without a day off, but my tool push may extend that a few days. After that I will be ready to come I think.

Well this is my last night to sleep in, so I want to get to it. I'm generally happy now that I'm set. Two months ago I was really skeptical about being here. In a month I'll look back and find that this was successful in the ways that I wanted it to be successful in. It builds my confidence to know that I can go into a different environment and make things work. I won't discount the good bounces along the way, but there were bad ones that kept the overall thing pretty balanced.

Off I go. It's the Tour De France and text messaging that's going to keep me going for the next month.

'Down to the wire
I wanted water but
I'll walk through the fire
If this is what it takes
To take me even higher
Then I'll come through
Like I do
When the world keeps
Testing me, testing me,testing me'