Took a couple of photos of the Stanley Theatre at Granville and 12th near my house last night on the way home from school. Tonight's the Earls staff party (which I'm going to even though I don't work there anymore), too bad I work tomorrow at 8am, then two exams, work again on Friday, another job interview and drinks again with Becky that night. It's a busy week.

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in no particular order...

1. touch the temples of angkor, watch the sunset over them...
2. smoke a french cigarette at the eiffel tower
3. drink red wine and get trashed in paris
4. hike the great wall of china
5. ride the trans-siberian
6. sleep in a bamboo hut on a beach
7. party all night in goa
8. party all night in mykonos
9. party all night on koh phangan at the full moon party
10. hike to everest base camp
11. enjoy a "coffee shop" in amsterdam
12. swim with dolphins
13. be naked at a beach and be comfortable
14. ride a camel in the desert
15. climb the pyramids of egypt
16. smoke a hookah (nargile) pipe in turkey
17. eat a "happy pizza" in cambodia
18. see a lunar eclipse
19. see a solar eclipse
20. go camping and have to fish to eat
21. speed on the autobahn
22. grow tomatoes
23. be in the newspaper in a foreign country
24. experience oktoberfest
25. experience the thrill of a european soccer game
26. drink guiness in dublin
27. eat dog
28. eat live octopus
29. eat an insect
30. tell my parents i love them
31. own a car
32. drive across canada
33. drive across the usa and stay in small seedy motels on the highway and lonely towns
34. find that girl and that feeling and it be forever
35. live on a boat for some time
36. visit new york city and stay up all night
37. visit southern california and try to surf
38. send a message in a bottle
39. drink fresh snakesblood in thailand
40. watch "gone with the wind"
41. see the northern lights
42. learn to scubadive
43. make a baby and teach it how to live
44. visit the antarctic
45. visit the galapagos
46. visit italy
47. visit israel
48. visit iceland
49. visit portugal
50. visit spain and party in ibiza
51. leave with more money than i came with at a casino
52. go to vegas and drink in public
53. take a year off
54. get some sort of degree
55. visit cuba
56. get published
57. write a novel
58. be the "best man" at a wedding
59. drink with someone famous
60. get interviewed for something i've done
61. be on tv
62. learn to play the accordion
63. see "the mona lisa"
64. see edvard munch's "the scream"
65. live in paris
66. live in london
67. karaoke in japan
68. learn to cook thai
69. drive a dodge viper
70. see the dalai lamai in person
71. get wet from the the ganges
72. get wet from the nile
73. see the amazon rainforest
74. spend a year travelling and living from a backpack
75. return to india
76. return to korea and stay for some time again, eat dakkgalbi in korea
77. see stonehenge
78. design and build and live in my own house
79. elope and get married
80. find a job i love, that i'd do for free
81. sponsor a child and their family
82. have a french conversation with a frenchman in france
83. learn hello, goodbye, i love you and cheers in 10 or more languages and use them as needed with locals
84. buy real art
84. sculpt something
85. see a shuttle launch
86. be in a live studio audience
87. change a tire because i have to
88. give blood
89. be in a car accident and survive
90. kiss the blarney stone
91. catch a salmon, cook it and eat it
92. visit africa and go on safari
93. get a six pack
94. learn to mix cocktails
95. mardi gras and new orleans
96. do it in public
97. own a kayak and use it
98. meet a vampire
99. spend some time in transylvania, see dracula's castle
100. foil a robbery
101. have a lucid dream
102. drink cristal champagne
103. drink a really, really good and expensive bottle of wine and be drunk
104. sell a painting
105. sell a photograph
106. get in the tradition of planting a tree every birthday
107. meet someone for less than a week and have them never forget me
108. finish the new york times crossword
109. have a subscription to the newspaper and read it

this list is a work in progress...

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Sometimes I open up my 'Bulk Mail Folder' just to see if there's anything in there I should keep. Maybe someone sent out a group email, it was mistaken for spam and sent away to never been seen again. I'm sick and tired of spam. My old email address, the one I use for signing up for silly contests and stuff gets over a thousand spam emails a day. My new email address gets about 40. I mean, c'mon, who actually reads and believes these things. How many must be sent out every day, millions, billions? What idiot is actually buying 'Penis Enlargement Pills' from a random email?

Sometimes, the Sender's name and subject just make me laugh.
Here are some of my favourites...

From Cathryn Kauffman
"You'll love the new, non-obese you"

From Sibil Harris
"non-smoker tenderly"

From Rolando Holbrook
"Good news Granny!"

From various randoms addresses
"shame of sex? we can change it"

From Ferdinand Hicks
"fwd: wanna money with HBID father"

From Bruno
"Can you be like a man? You won't increase your most important muscle in gyms"

From Bosom H. Beavers
"your Admiral he came in sudden twist of you the threshold of"

I must say that all of these make me want to click on them and buy whatever product they are selling. In fact, to be honest, the names have been getting much better. I remember years ago when you could tell it was clearly just two words chosen at random and stuck together. Like "Bell Cardboard" or "Cover Majesty"...most of the ones these days could actually be names...except for maybe Bosom, Bosom H. Beavers. HA!

SPAM will you ever end?

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I ran across this really cool blog today. It's just a collection of things this guy finds...he seems to come across a lot of interesting stuff.


A three item shopping list..."milk, cigarettes, cereal"


Jangy's bed assignment slip...


Teacher's Wish Lists...one teacher wants "pencils, pencils and fungus cream"


"Why did you grab my leg?"

So if you're bored...check out Things I Find...

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This sign was posted on the message board at Whytecliff Park the other weekend when I was finishing my Advanced Open Water course.

Not much has happened lately, if you're wondering. I'm just going to school, bumming around and working here and there. Work sucks right now, not that it's not fun, because it can be sometimes, and it's pretty easy, but my god, is it ever dead! I make no money! Last night was the busiest I've ever seen it and I still made a third of what I made at earls on a similarily busy night. So, looks like I better find a new job, because this can't go on!

School is cool. All of my classes are fun and interesting so far, except for Criminal Law. I don't know how you lawyers do it, but this stuff is the dryest, most boring crap ever. And what the hell is with the definitions in the criminal code..."An idictable offense is an offense that can be indicted." That is the worst definition ever, and one that my instructor repeats when I ask "I don't get it. What is an indictable offense?"

I wrote my first final exam, for Forensic Odontology, the study of dental remains to identify corpses, bitemarks and recognizing abuse, on Friday. It went well. Not as easy as I thought it would be, but it still went well.

It's been getting cold in Vancouver. Awfully cold. It rains here and there, the heating element in my apartment isn't working.

I feel blah these days.

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New Borat trailer out! I can't wait for this movie. I have a friend in Toronto who told me she met Sacha Cohen, dressed as Borat, at the hotel she was working at. He was in Toronto for the premiere of the Borat film at the Toronto Film Festival and showed up in a carriage pulled by prostitutes...



This better win oscars!

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Sorry for the depressing post last time. I had stuff I was thinking about. I'm a week into school. One course is already finished. Forensic Odontology, studying dental remains to try and identify victims and bite-mark analysis. It was really interesting, our instructor was great. I learned a lot. The course was fairly intensive with about 30 hours of class time spread out over four days. The final is next friday.

I can now confidently identify human teeth, name them properly, name most types of dental restorations and recognize these, draw correct dental odontograms, recognize and compare radiographs, do bite mark analysis and identify cadavers from radiographs or dental study models. We were exposed to a lot of gruesome photos over the last few days. I'll share one of the worst with you here.

This is one of the most disgusting images. An 87 year old female, suffering from neglect. The home she was staying in hadn't brushed her teeth in such a long time that tartar and plaque had built up so badly she could hardly eat.

Don't scroll down, if you are eating...















Forensic Photography starts tomorrow and Forensic Law is on Tuesday. I'm enjoying school a lot more now, probably because it's something I am actually interested in, it's practical and I feel a bit more mature and older and ready to commit to it.

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I took this photo on a particularly windy day with my Polaroid Joycam at Kits Beach, just after classes ended for the UBC Winter Term in 2001. I remember the day and I remember the smell of the ocean, the salt, and the way the water felt on my face as it sprayed up on the shore. My girlfriend at the time was an artsy, new-age grrl who had convinced me to become a bit more creative...it was the beginning of this website, the beginning of my interest in design and painting and art and photography, though most of that wasn't to be seriously considered until years later. It's a sad picture, I think, at least for me, because it reminds me of a different time in my life and how much of a different person I was then and who I thought I would be now isn't who I am. I received some news today that made me think of this photo and of that time, that day at the beach by myself and of this song and strangely, a bit of her (not in that way though). It's related in more ways than just the words to how I feel today.

I know a lot of shit has gone down in the last four months, I've gone through a lot of shit, I mean. I don't really blame anyone but myself. I know things will get better, I just don't know when. School is interesting, I like my apartment. Winter is coming again, and more windy days and leaves changing colours, and one day I'll look back on this, like that day years ago and remember.

A long December and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can't remember the last thing that you said as you were leavin'
Now the days go by so fast

And it's one more day up in the canyons
And it's one more night in Hollywood
If you think that I could be forgiven...I wish you would

The smell of hospitals in winter
And the feeling that it's all a lot of oysters, but no pearls
All at once you look across a crowded room
To see the way that light attaches to a girl

And it's one more day up in the canyons
And it's one more night in Hollywood
If you think you might come to California...I think you should

Drove up to Hillside Manor sometime after two a.m.
And talked a little while about the year
I guess the winter makes you laugh a little slower,
Makes you talk a little lower about the things you could not show her
And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can't remember all the times I tried to tell my myself
To hold on to these moments as they pass

And it's one more day up in the canyon
And it's one more night in Hollywood
It's been so long since I've seen the ocean...I guess I should

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Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter was killed last Monday. He was filming a documentary off the coast of Australia at the the Batt Reef. He was SCUBA Diving and swam above a stingray that attacked him. The stinger shot under his ribcage and pierced a hole in his heart.

I used to watch the Crocodile Hunter religiously. All his crazy antics, all his crazy sayings. This is sad news. He's survived by his wife, Terri and two children, Bindi, 8, and Robert, 3. At least he died doing something he loved.

Other than that, I'm doing the three remaining dives of my Advanced SCUBA course today. We're going back to Whytecliff for our Deep, Navigation and later this evening, our Night Dive. There aren't any stingrays around these parts.

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I've got nothing much to say. Actually, I've got a helluva lot to say, but I can't.
So instead, I'll leave you with my first real macro attempt on my new camera. I found this beetle, let's call him "Frank," on my patio the other day and decided he was worthy of a photograph.

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Continuing on Alexis' "lamest blog post ever" theme...looking back in history:

FIVE YEARS AGO...

--How old were you?
22

--Where did you go to school?
UBC

--Where did you work?
Earls

--Where did you live?
Vancouver

--Where did you hang out?
Earls, Kits Pub, Starbucks, The Ozone, UBC Main Library (nerd)


--How was your hair style?
Spiky and wild with lots of gel

--Did you wear braces?
Got them off in 97

--Did you wear glasses?
Nope

Who was your best friend?
Dustin Strong

--How many piercings did you have?
8 ears

--What car did you drive?
The 99 B-Line, the #10 UBC/Hastings, the #9 Alma

--What was your favorite band/group/?
Our Lady Peace, Pearl Jam, Nine Inch Nails

--What was your worst fear?
Not knowing what I wanted to do

--Had you smoked a cigarette yet?
Yes, I had, and unfortunately still do

--Had you driven yet?
Yes

--Had you been arrested?
Like Alexis, "not officially"

--Had you been to a real party yet?
You should have been there, Halloween, hundreds of people, the cop chopper
hovering above the backyard shining its light...

--Had your heart broken?
I had no idea what hearbreak was back then...

--Were u happy?
I thought so...

WHERE YOU ARE NOW!

--How old are you?
27

--Where do you go to school?
BCIT

--Where do you live?
Vancouver

--Where do you hang out?
El Furniture Warehouse, Seattle's Best Coffee, my apartment

--Do you have braces?
Nope

--Do you wear glasses?
Nope

--Still talk to any of your old friends?
Yeah, not regularly, but it's not like I wouldn't talk to them, we just live in different places...and one of them I'd rather not talk to, but I can't because I can't tell him why

--How many piercings do you have?
Nope

--How many tattoos?
2

--What kind of car do you have?
The 99 B-Line, the #17 UBC, the #10 Granville, the #16 Arbutus

--What is your favorite band/group/singer?
I listen to a lot of Ben Lee and Hayden these days

--What is your biggest fear?
Always feeling like I'm missing out on something, and that this is all there is

--Have you been arrested since if so how many times?
No, I'm not a maniac

--Has your heart been broken?
Yes, yes

--Single/Taken/Married/Divorced/Bitter:
Taken

--Are you happy?
Working on it

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