I don't really believe in fate. But there is something that keeps happening, showing up in my life right when I start to forget it or move on as if something out there is telling me to hold on to it, and to not give up yet. Maybe I'm reaching, but then again...maybe I'm not. And if you do believe in fate, then the kind of things that have been happening to me would be sure signs...

I'll be moving over the next couple of days and I don't know when I'll have an internet connection again. Hopefully sooner rather than later. I haven't called Shaw yet to hook it up, because I'm going to try and see if I can get a wireless signal for free in my building.

I'm sort of on a rollercoaster right now, related not only to what I wrote in that first paragraph, but a bunch of other crap too. And I guess writing this is therapy. I had a great time this weekend, at the Granville Room and the Royal on Friday with some friends. Last night, I went out for a nice catching-up dinner and the fireworks with a girl I met at UBC. We sat next to each other in Plant Pathology (or some class like that) over four years ago.

It was nice and comfortable and she was even more beautiful than I remembered. Yes, I was happy. She was gorgeous and glowing and fun to talk to and we'll see what happens. AND for once in the last few months I WASN'T thinking about Kristin. We had dinner at the Yaletown Brew Pub and then walked down to Vanier Park with some red wine...btw China's Symphony of Light firework display last night was amazing. I'll try and get some photos on Wednesday for the Czech Republic.

And as for Nesters girl...unfortunately I just found out that she's a bit younger than I thought...so I guess it's out of the question. (Yeah, she's THAT young.)

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My mom's friends from Ireland are visiting for the next couple of weeks. I met them, my mom and my sister for lunch and wandering at Granville Island today. Took a few pictures with my new camera. I was just fooling around. I still have a lot to learn. It was a beautiful, hot, sunny day and perfect for wandering around the market.


Sunflowers


The flag at Ron Basford Park, I waited and waited and waited for it to blow straight, it didn't and so I got bored and gave up...


Strawberries


Bell peppers


Beeswax candles


Yellow cherries


My sister, Katie, Anne, my mom and Pat at Sammy J Pepper's on Granville Island


Boats in the harbour

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I did it. I'm a certified PADI Open Water SCUBA Diver now. My four ocean dives this weekend were great.

First, we went to Whytecliff Park, a protected marine reserve and park area about 40 minutes north of Vancouver. Our maximum depth there was about 35 feet, and we practiced some basic skills. Underwater, it was a whole new world, the visibility was okay, as long as we didn't kick up too much silt. There were a few small fish and fields of endless orange, red and yellow sunstars. I don't have an underwater camera, so the underwater pictures are from the net, the rest were taken with my point and shoot Canon Elph SD400.


Whytecliff Park...


A red sunstar...


A dead crab on the beach at Whytecliff Park...
On Sunday, we did our two ocean dives at Porteau Cove, about an hour's drive from Vancouver. There are a couple of wrecks there, a sailboat hull and an underwater playground made of tires. We went down to about 40 feet and saw the wreck of the supply-ship Granthall. It was much better than Whytecliff. The visibility was good, and we spent a good hour or so over two dives swimming around, looking at giant ling cod (about 3/4 the size of me), moon jellies, walls of brightly coloured sea anemones, giant five-armed starfish and a poisonous red jelly which we stayed well away from.




A ling cod...


The wharf at Porteau Cove...


Suiting up at Porteau Cove...


Me in my gear after the dive

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Talk about an expensive month, with SCUBA lessons, the mask, fins, snorkel, gloves, boots, knife and dive light I purchased, my new camera, diopter filters, the carrying case, the remote flash, cord, tuition, moving apartments, a new TV, a microwave, a couch and other assorted household furniture...I've raked up a few bills...into the thousands.

But anyways, here is my new toy...



The Nikon D70s Digital SLR camera. It's mostly for my Forensic Photography class starting in September, but it's also nice to have a really, really nice camera. I've always fancied myself as a photographer, and now I have some equipment to prove it. Expect some nice photos on here coming soon. I think I'm going to keep my point and shoot Canon Elph SD400 I purchased last year though, for clubs and parties and concerts; it's tiny, fits in my pocket and has a huge range of features along with 5MP.



I also purchased a nice set of strap SCUBA fins, gloves, a dive knife, a mask and snorkel, along with dive boots, which set me back a good couple of hundred dollars. It's just the beginning of thousands of dollars of equipment I'll have to amass before I can have my own set and call myself a real diver. We're doing our four ocean dives this weekend so I have to be up at 6am both days and off to Whytecliff Park and Porteau Cove to show off my skills before I'm certified.

I've decided to go ahead and complete the Advanced Open Water Diver course at the end of August, so I can learn how to properly use a drysuit, dive deeper than 60ft, swim a wreck and night dive.

Eventually...I'll go on and take an Underwater Photography course with them as well. An underwater housing for my new Nikon D70s will set me back about $700-800 bucks though, so it's going to be awhile before I can add something like that to my equipment. I'd love to be able to take nice photos underwater some day.

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yaletown nesters market girl you are hot.
all i know is your name and that you are hot.
i always pick your line even if it's longer.
i thought you were gone but you were probably just on vacation because you're back now. i noticed you a long time ago, but i had a girlfriend.
now i don't.
so nesters girl, here i come.

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A long, long, long time ago, my friend Chad Coleman decided to write a book. He was quite a character back then (and maybe still is, we haven't spoken in years) and this book surely proves it. These stories are 95% true, and I remember each and every one of them. Chad is a terrible speller, but I'm sure you can all figure it out. Chad, where are you? What are you doing?

I apologize if it's a bit difficult to read in this format. The entire text (larger and better proportioned) can be found here. This might not work all the time because my bandwidth on geocities is so low.

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From an online quiz...

Your view on yourself:
Other people find you very interesting, but you are really hiding your true self. Your friends love you because you are a good listener. They'll probably still love you if you learn to be yourself with them.

The type of girlfriend you are looking for:
You are a true romantic. When you are in love, you will do anything and everything to keep your love true.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:
You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you meet that person.

The seriousness of your love:
Your have very sensible tactics when approaching the opposite sex. In many ways people find your straightforwardness attractive, so you will find yourself with plenty of dates.

Your views on education:
Education is less important than the real world out there, away from the classroom. Deep inside you want to start working, earning money and living on your own.

The right job for you:
You're a practical person and will choose a secure job with a steady income. Knowing what you like to do is important. Find a regular job doing just that and you'll be set for life.

How do you view success:
You are confident that you will be successful in your chosen career and nothing will stop you from trying.

What are you most afraid of:
You are concerned about your image and the way others see you. This means that you try very hard to be accepted by other people. It's time for you to believe in who you are, not what you wear.

Who is your true self:
You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

i guess it's all true...

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scuba has been going well. at least it's keeping me busy and i'm not sitting around thinking of her so much.

i've had two pool dives so far, my third is tonight. the knowledge stuff is pretty easy. the instructors are cool. there are about 30 students right now, in two classes, as well as an all-japanese class being taught in japanese. they break us off into smaller groups of four or five for the pool dives.

i can set-up and dismantle my equipment, the tank, regulators, BCD (buoyancy control device) and hook it all up with the yoke, check the pressure guages etc...no problem. we've done a seated entry into the pool and practiced a bunch of underwater skills. last night we spent almost an hour underwater.


sharing an air source...

the first day was pretty easy, practicing breathing, clearing a flooded mask, recovering and clearing our regulators and switching to an alternate air source. last night was a bit more involved, doing a slow descent and ascent, breathing without a mask underwater for a minute (which was tougher than it sounds because you have to totally cut off your nose airway, if any water leaks in, you can get a bit panicky and your eyes are closed and you can't see a thing), then recovering our mask, replacing it and clearing it, we also had to feel what it would be like to run out of air, so our instructor shut off our tank underwater, we had to switch to a shared alternate air source, then when he turned our tank back on, back to our own regulators. after that it was just practicing swimming with a snorkel and clearing it, switiching back and forth between regulator and snorkel and some buoyancy control in the pool, which is pretty difficult too.


recovering a regulator...

all these things should be much easier and second-nature (hopefully) by this time next week, then it's off to the ocean.

it's an expensive sport though. to get a full set of decent equipment could cost me about $3000, and then on top of that, it's boat rentals, and getting to and from dive sites. i think i'll be renting for awhile. it's a shame nobody i know is doing this with me, it would've been nice to have someone to go diving with afterwards.

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happy fourth birthday banky edwards!

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this will be me in two weeks...

i've been so drunk these last two nights. on thursday, i met bre and mari and we headed to earls for dinner. then it was off to the media club to see marty's band 'shine on'. they were awesome. we all went to the blarney stone afterwards, then to the royal and then back to earls for some late night pints.

i met up with becky last night and went to wings on granville. her boyfriend, dave, came by a bit later. it was a booze-fest. this dude with a guitar walking down granville stopped by and played our requests as we sang along: smashing pumpkins, rhcp, ozzy, pearl jam, nirvana, stone temple pilots...it was great. i woke up this morning with a pounding head and no sheets on my bed because i was too lazy to make by bed before i went out. hmmm...

i signed up to take a scuba course, starting on monday. i haven't been too good with my studying, but i'll have a look through the text tonight. i get 6 pool dives over the next two weeks, and 4 ocean dives, to 60 ft, at whytecliff park and porteau cove way up the coast past squamish. it should be fun and will help me keep my mind off the ex. i hope. and there might be hot girls in bikins.

i head back from the director of the forensics program. he wants me to go ahead and get my criminal background check. so i'm off to the vancouver police department this afternoon to get that taken care of.



AND for the Vancouver Sculpture Biennale this year, they've put up a series of plastic 3D posters around the city. they are all individually numbered, so if you steal one, it's a collector's item. i stole one of the stove-top element, there's also a breast somewhere out there, and a few other things...

somebody from my past contacted me today out of the blue. it's weird because i've kind of been thinking about her recently too. it's good to hear from her...

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ok ok, enough of this shite...i'm sure all of you are sick of hearing about kristin and i'm sick of crying about it...and nothing's going to happen there, at least not for awhile, and maybe even never. so let's go on to better things:

i found an apartment. it's in a building i lived in four years ago, but moved out of because they didn't allow pets and i had a little kitty. i'm back there, sans chat, in a studio apartment this time. it's on the second floor, facing the back, with a beautiful view of the little alleyway and the building behind me...but it's fine. i have a small deck and it's in a quieter area, but still only a couple of blocks from south granville, and a five minute bus ride to the heart of downtown.

i also finally applied to bcit. i got all my stuff together, went all the way out there and got the ball rolling. now i'll just wait for my interview and everything should be in the bag. i'm going to try and take as many courses as i can this semester, because i want a student loan, so that i don't have to work. the class schedules are pretty wonky, so it'll be hard to find any job that will work with that.



i went and saw "i'm your man: the leonard cohen story" with my mom at the fifth avenue cinemas yesterday. it featured talks with leonard and performances of covers of his songs by jarvis cocker, rufus wainwright, u2, the handsome brothers, antony, beth orton, nick cave and others. rufus took the cake, he's got an amazing voice and a great stage presence...and is sassily gay, which i had no idea of until i saw the movie...(not that there's anything wrong with that). his rendition of 'hallelujah' is unbelievable...i've had the mp3 for years and years, listened to it a lot, but had no idea it was a leonard cohen song. leonard seemed nice and well spoken and a little funny. he is truly a poet and songcrafter. i enjoyed the movie. and the last song, a collaboration between u2 and leonard, performing "the tower of song" was unforgettable.

click here, and go check out the 'hallelujah' video...

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she is lost to the wind...
and so all i can do now is...
move on

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on thursday, i went and saw 'hot hot heat' do a free show, with free beer at the plaza of nations. a hot girl was sitting in front of me, but i couldn't get up the guts to talk to her before the show started...she went down front for the encore and i never saw her again...dammit!

hope everyone had a great canada day. i went down to granville island with my sister and parents. we had lunch at bridges and walked around.

i love it there. the jazzfest was going on so we saw a couple of outdoor shows and there was a cool indian food market outside near the 'cat's meow' as well.

i wandered home, walked back across the granville street bridge and met up with matt and his girlfriend, kendra. we went out to the 'atlantic trap and grill', an authentic nova scotian style pub that had live fiddle music for the night.

made me think of all the reasons why i love vancouver, here's 50 of them (in no particular order)...


The Cityscape

1. the ocean
2. the smell of the ocean
3. the view of the mountains from everywhere
4. sushi, indian, korean, mexican food everywhere
5. harbour centre tower
6. the big W on the old woodwards building
7. yaletown (fancy lofts and restaurants)
8. fountains
9. gastown (old vancouver, cobbled streets, plazas, nightclubs, lofts)
10. gastown antiques (curio shops in hidden alleyways)


Canada Place

11. walking around canada place (the view of stanley park and the north shore)
12. south granville (cool restaurants and shops)
13. science world
14. the vancouver aquarium (the best time ever!)
15. the el furniture warehouse (get wasted, listen to punk, watch skate videos)
15. earls (great food, great people)
16. the himalaya on main street (cheapest and best indian food around)
17. kristin lives here (yes, i shouldn't...but just knowing this makes me happy)


Granville Island

18. granville island (the markets, the food, the everything!)
19. stanley park (a giant hiking forest in the centre of the city)
20. the sea wall (walk it, bike it, enjoy it)
21. beautiful walkable bridges (granville, burrard and cambie)
22. bicycles (people use them here)
23. granville street at twilight (the neon lights, it comes alive)
24. fall and tree-lined streets covered in leaves (in kitsilano...)
25. 4th avenue (shops, restaurants, cool...)
26. caban (decorate your house...)
27. meinhardts and capers (organic and fancy foods)
28. balthazar (nightclub restaurant, used to be a brothel in an old mansion)


Kits Beach

29. kits, jericho, sunset, english bay, wreck (IT'S NUDE!) beaches
30. the vancouver film festival (hell ya!)
31. spike and mikes twisted festival of animation at the ridge theatre
32. the hollywood theatre on broadway (a double bill for $10!)
33. false creek (yes...it's a FALSE creek, with boats and other fun stuff)
34. lucy mae brown (funky lounge, used to be an opium den/brothel)
35. kokanee (it's THE BEER OUT HERE...)
36. starbucks (one on every corner...)


Wreck Beach

37. book stores (creaky wooden floors, a resident cat, books)
38. boats at the docks near granville island (rowboats and yachts)
39. lots of movies and tv shows are filmed here
40. marijuana is basically legal (i don't use it, but i like that it's legal)
41. hot girls (in bikinis)
42. squirrels in the grass (around south granville/kits/fairview slopes)
43. trees and parks (everywhere!)
44. the imprint of leaves on the sidewalks (little leaf stamps in the concrete)
45. i don't need a car (translink does all the work)


The Skytrain

46. the skytrain (it's futuristic and cool)
47. de dutch pannekoek house (giant pancakes, happy breakfasts!)
48. the ubc campus (it's huge!)
49. the rain (yes, i like the rain!)
50. 99.3 the fox (the fox rocks!)

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