Imitation Of Life

I got home from work in a mood.

So I sat at my computer like I usually do and put on my music. I started at the 32's tonight. I have a list of songs sorted on how many times I've played them. So I started with the songs I've played 32 times. I was just going to surf the net and zone out, and this R.E.M. song came on.

Now, I feel like writing, and I feel like listening to a pile of R.E.M. It was a totally weird transition. I just stopped what I was doing, and opened solitaire - it's what I do when all I want to do is listen to music.

Something about R.E.M., I don't really get it. It isn't music I really like, but I just get super hooked on a half dozen songs of theirs. I'm glad no ones home to bitch about the loud music.

Anyway, I just conquered solitaire vegas in like 2 tries, so I put that down, and picked this up.

I had a great weekend. My week is super busy ahead of me. I want to really bank this month so I can get off to a great July. So far I'm planning on going to whistler July 8-13, and seeing No Doubt and Paramore on the 18th.

I feel so ADHD right now. The words haven't glued to this page so fast in 6 months. I feel like I could yammer on for eternity.

I won't. Have a good week, and thanks for reading.

Oh wait. Couple shout outs. Congrats to Jen, for banking a sweet raise. Not a bad time of year at all for it. Also big ups to my boy Blake. Great dinner last Friday, and a big happy birthday his way. He's a pretty cool kid.

Lata.

'This lightning storm, this tidal wave, this avalanche, I'm not afraid'

High Speed

I laid in the sun today and suntanned with a book. Need anymore evidence? I had a good day.

I have a good balance of work and play again. It was a good week for work, and the next two look as good or better. I'm flooring again now that Jeff is back in business. I'm bartending lots this week with a week long conference at the VICC. And I might pick up a shift for the city. After getting hired on last week, some excitement really sank in. I may very well be able to get a long term position with the city. I've never had any kind of real stability with any job I've held. Kind of a weird sense of security.

So I'm booking up weekends for my summer, and it's going to be busy as hell. I've got trips to make, shifts at work to promise, and weddings to go to. I want to repeat a lot of things from last summer, which is kind of weird. I like going random new places in the summer. Maybe some old favorites are just too good to pass up. I'm definitely going to Washington in september again, and I'm definitely going to whistler again in july or august. Going back to the Gorge for my birthday on Labour day long weekend is going to be the nut.

That's all long-ish term plans. My plans for this weekend are all about relaxing. I want to get my book done tomorrow or the next day in the sun. Tomorrow night is going to be all about good times. Try and get some unpacking and some bass playing in sometime in the next few.

I need some new music. I'm wearing out my stuff pretty quick here and need some ideas. What do you think?

'There's a car waiting, to take me to something'

Pride

I've been reading a little bit about pride. It's a funny thing in my opinion. It's really strange actually.

It's either a virtue, or a sin. It's heavily written about, for a long time, and they still can't figure out if it's a good thing or not.

I have an opinion on pride that I want to share. First I want to explain myself, instead of just digging a hole. I am not overly (or overtly) proud at all. And that isn't selling myself short. Sure, everyone does things of magnitude. But I'm not super proud of my appearance or my abilities (whatever that means). I'm also not a person of low self esteem - I prefer humility.

My opinion is that too many people who let their pride flow freely tend to cross the line into arrogance. Take the hockey playoffs. I was so embarrassed when the canucks lost. Not because they lost, but because people I know are so arrogant. I'm embarrassed to be around people who act arrogant. More so when they don't realize it.

Back tracking a little bit, I understand the grey area that pride and arrogance creates. I didn't grow up naturally confident, but at 24, I'm fairly confident in what I do. But I'm on the good side of the line. I don't demand respect from people like arrogant people do. I also don't give respect to everyone automatically, but that isn't the same (in my opinion).

I think a problem I may have is that people see pride as an important trait to have. That really isn't logical to me. I think the most ironic form of pride I've ever seen was in my former soccer coach. He was far too proud of German soccer, and proud of Germany in general. Ironic because of Germany's views on pride.

I'm not going to get on any friends for ever being arrogant. That's not really my business, unless it becomes my business.

Bedtime. I had to think too hard to write that. It took like two hours.

Whatever Gets You Through The Night

I'm pretty sure summer kicked itself in almost overnight. While shorts season for me starts very early - I wore shorts to LA in March, and haven't looked back since - wearing flip-flops is my sign that summer is here. And I'm rocking the flippie floppies straight time.

So I start a new job tonight. Not really a job, but some contract work I'm doing for the city. Blake, thanks for the hook-up bud. Seriously, where would we be without hook-ups??

I'm also going to the movies tonight! Woo exciting, right? I think the last movie I saw in the theatre may have been the dark knight. So it's an event for me.

I moved all my big stuff, and am now living at my new place. I have a few more boxes of stuff to move, and that should get done on sunday I figure. I also have a bunch of cleaning at my old house to do. With work, the movies, moving, and poker tomorrow night, it should be a busy and fun weekend.

Here I go.

'I got to stop wishin', I've got to go fishin'

Be Somebody

Wow what a weekend.

I went camping at sproat lake for 2 nights over the long weekend. There were 9 of us that went, and it was a blast. The forecast called for rain all weekend, but we didn't even get a drop. So we floated on the lake, made a massive fire, and basically drank everything in sight. It was a really relaxed weekend.

It was a nice intro to what should be a great summer. I think moving is going to do wonders for my summer. I'll have a backyard again, with enough room to play bocce and bbq. It's close to Long Lake, and I can foresee lots of lake days.

So yeah, everything is all good. This week I plan to move the bulk of my stuff. It's going to be amazing to have a decent amount of room and storage space at my new place. Other than moving, and working later on this week, I don't have much going on. There might be a big buy-in limit hold'em game on Saturday night, and it'll be the first live limit game I've ever played. Blake and I are sharing some action, so it won't be totally breaking the bank. It's probably going to be 2/4$ limit, and I'm used to 0.10/0.20$ no limit. Should be interesting...

Anyway, thanks for reading. Should be a relaxing, easy week. Hope yours is similar.

'With some luck I might just keep on climbing'

The Runner

Haha. I make myself laugh sometimes.

Flashback to October 15, 2008. I said: "I did the 16 hour voting thing yesterday. It really sucked Mike. Never do it again."

Well yesterday was the Provincial election, and I came back for more. I went to Chemainus to work at it. I was another 6am-10pm gong show. I suppose the need for money out-did the need to be sane. It wasn't so bad this go around. Me and Jen rocked it together at the same table, and it was bearable.

Anyway. It's the long weekend in like 2 days. Yessss. We've been talking about camping all month, and we finally have a plan. We're going camping, fishing, quadding at sproat lake. Only the warmest lake around. Should be a blast. And the forecast tells me it'll rain on me all weekend. Sa-weet.

So far there's 3.5 campers. Which is kind of weak. I'd rather like 5-7.

So I'm kind of going crazy about a few things. I'm not really working enough, and it's kind of frustrating because I have so much time to think about not working. There's some work on the horizon, it's just not here right now. What else makes me crazy? I guess everything probably stems from that. I would like to spend some money on something I don't need. That'd be fun.

Ok so nothing else is really going on. OH YEAH. The Canucks are out. They went on a super awesome run since like February. It was a blast to watch, and I'm not unhappy that hockey season is over for me. I'm glad Landon finally won a bet - as he's been betting against the Canucks since October. So good for you bud. But at the same time, I'm also glad he lost as much money as he did. You were a bit of a retard with those bets. 

'It's a beautiful world for you'

Down In It

Oh man. Having a week.

I have probably 20 cool parts of my week. Maybe I'll do a run-on sentence and then move onto interesting things in my next paragraph. I'm moving and packing my stuff up already, even though June 1st is the day... I'm playing plenty of tennis, and still sucking... I'm playing plenty of chess, and still sucking... It was great to see Jody and all my relatives that came out this week... I'm loving hockey right now, but it's weird watching hockey during daylight hours... I started reading 'The Road', and it's dark and hell is hot... I'm super busy this weekend, including work/fight night/ road trip/ canucks game/ mother's day. Whew.

*Insert paragraph that people give a damn about*

Haha. Riiight. Give Silversun Pickups a whirl. Their new album 'Swoon' was much anticipated by myself, and is an early candidate for album de l'annee. Band of Horses, Thornley, and Frightened Rabbit are also pretty hot right now on Miker's playliust. I'm leaving that typo, as a playlust is a reference I may start using.

I'm probably listening to like 40-50 songs a day. That's a little excessive, even for me. Other than that, I'm not doing much with my freetime, except what I listed above. May long I'm hoping to go camping. There's no plan yet, but there's lots of hype, and camping pretty much sells itself.

Have a good weekend. I doubt if I'll update before next week. While I feel bad for not blogging more, I'm really happy to be at my computer less.

'Coming back for even more of exactly the same'