Here I am back home again, and I'm here to rest. All they ask is where I've been, knowin I've been west

It's funny to think back on all the places I've called "home" in my day.
This year between April and September I used the word for six different houses or rooms, all told. One of which included a drafty garage for three months, but that's a different story all together.

And my newest home reminds me of the good old days. AKA it's got slanty floors, questionable windows, beer bottles galore, and a mint balcony to boot. Toss in a couple of couches that we picked up off the side of the road in a rainstorm and you've essentially got my old undergrad house.
Except now I supposed to be grown up and shit. But I'm still clingin to that dream...

Anyway, after a month of being home from BC, I finally landed myself a job back here in London. I've been at it for about a month now, and so far everything has been pretty good. I'm working in a microbiology lab that's close to the university, and fortunately my roomie drives to campus every day so I catch a lift up with him. The money isn't great but it's decent enough coming straight outta school.
More than anything I'm getting a ton of good experience so far. It's so damn hard to find jobs that aren't posted as needing "a minimum of two years experience" and whatnot. And once my contract runs out at the end of February, it looks like another client might be in talks with my boss, which in turn means I might get extended. Fingers crossed that I don't fuck things up...

Can't think of much else to say at the moment, but I can guarantee I'll be writing on here more often. I wanna get some of the summer's stories on paper before my booze-riddled brain forgets all the sordid details. Not to mention all the other shit I'd like to rant about these days.

Poli-ticks

Which of the bloodsuckers shall I vote for... hmmm....


Considering I can't even imagine anyone but Layton actually being a reasonable leader of this country, and there isn't a chance in hell he'll even come close to winning, I still haven't decided. Hell, I've heard there's a little box you can check off that says you don't like any of the candidates so you'd rather vote for thin air.

Maybe I'll do that.

She said yer pretty good with words, but words won't save your life and they didn't so he died

This year's top 5's, and as per usual I'm too lazy to describe any of it.

Top 5 Albums

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

Top 5 Songs

5. Kings of Leon - Fans

4. Tegan and Sara - The Con

3. Against Me - Borne of the FM Waves of the Heart

2. The Hold Steady - Stuck Between Stations

1. Billy Joel - Only The Good Die Young

Top 5 Movies

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

Top 5 Pictures

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

It's 9.8 straight down. I can't stop my knees

It's hard to believe it's been half a summer out here already. Time flies when you're having fun I guess. And it flies faster when you're boozed up 4 nights a week...

For a few years now I've been itching to head out West to have some time away from the everyday humdrum crap back home. And after 5 years of university, the world had honestly fallen into two dimensions. And what spells 3D like a shitload of mountains?


And so far it's worked pretty well. I'm honestly having the time of my life out here, with only a few negatives being outweighed heavily by all of the fun and wicked memories. My boss is awesome, he has the coolest dog in the world. My job starts early, but we get off at two so the day is never killed by work, even if we have to a nap. And I've met a ton of new people, with more showing up all the time. And the golf is amazing, even though I haven't been out in a couple of weeks.

One of the big negatives of my time out here has been the fact that I got evicted from staff residence along with three other guys. The story is absolutely ridiculous, and basically comes down to the fact that a girl cried and a sexist bitch had the authority to overreact to an innocent misunderstanding and kick us out.


But like I said, my boss is awesome. So three of us have been living with him in his garage. It's actually not as bad as it sounds, and once Bryan leaves this weekend Danny Boy and I will have more space. But it absolutely sucks being distant from all of our friends, not to mention the fact that we have hardly any fridge space and limited privacy. I hope we can find a place to rent soon though, cuz I'm getting pretty tired of living out of a suitcase and sleeping next to snoring fools.

This weekend we're heading to the Stampede, which should be amazing. Especially since we'll be meeting up with some old friends to party and check out all the hillbilly events going on.

Anyway, there's far too many stories to write about, and I'm far too tired to tell em at the moment. So here are a few pics worth a few thousand words.

A lifetime in an instant

"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy."

- Albert Camus

Tonight I returned home from Toronto, after spending the day at the funeral for an old friend. Apparently he answered Camus' question. Just not the way we wish he would've...

And right now I'm kinda left with a blank feeling. Obviously it's sad as hell, that was abundantly clear with all the sorrow in the funeral home today, but besides that I just feel a sort of void about the whole thing.

I can only imagine what his father and brothers must be feeling right now. That had to be the hardest part of the whole thing - seeing his dad. The loss of his wife less than a year ago, and now this... it's aged the man so much. And I know he was always close with Mike, which probably makes it that much worse.

And though Mike had a harder time in life than most people, I'll always remember how he always wore that fuck you smile, giving the world a big middle finger even when he was down. He always had enough fire to stand back up, but I guess something happened last week that made him make the choice not to stand up anymore.

It's just so strange, this was the kid that led the school soccer team with me when nooone else had the stones or know-how to do it. Not even the bloody coach.

This was the kid that taught me the value of a lunch that consisted of a jumbo bag of skittles and a box of chocolate milk.

This was the kid who showed me the fine art of foosball, back in the days when games were more important to us than the future or responsibility.


And though we had drifted apart in the past few years, I always had the feeling that we would connect later in life, somewhere and somehow. And I don't think it's even sunk in yet that that's never going to happen...

I just hope that now he's resting more peacefully than he ever could've in life.
But at the same time, I can't help but feel that he would've made a different choice if only he'd known how much he was loved and how much he'll be missed.

hey now, hey now, don't dream it's over

Yesterday on the bus ride home from campus it finally set in that I'd never have another class or write another undergrad paper ever again.

I had just pulled an all-nighter (the first one ever in my 5 years at university) finishing two big lab reports. Let me tell ya it was a rough night. Probably wrote up close to 35 pages in the final 24 hrs before the deadline. Handed in my 29-pager with 2 minutes to spare. Talk about down to the wire. Then I just had to drop off the second report and it was all gravy.

I grabbed a disgusting "souvlaki" (I can't believe they can call it that) from the Pita Pit just before getting home, and promptly fell asleep for 18 consecutive hours. And I woke up feeling tired as hell... weird.

The birds living in my wall are doing their best woodpecker impersonations lately. I tried ramming some pop cans into their access hole below my window, but they got around my blockade. At this point there's no point in even trying to get our slum landlord to fix the damn thing. It would take them months to get around to it.

Anyway, it's time to study up for exams.
translation - slack off for a few days and then cram like hell.

Some things never do change with time or experience...

Like a fucking sailor...

Came across this little gadget over at Grouchy Old Cripple.

For the record, I only read that blog for the sheer comedy.
Plus the saturday boobage, but that's a different thing altogether.

Maybe I oughtta tone it down a little...



Nah, fuck it.

They're not yelling "boo" they're yelling "boo-ush"

What a difference a few years, a few thousand dead Americans, and a few billion dollars can make...

I'm the stocks on the day of the crash

Woke up this morning feeling pretty good.
Just came off a solid ten hour sleep, and a big 18-0 victory in waterpolo last night in our first playoff game. It was a huge upset considering we had 1 sub and they had an army. Plus they did this big hardcore chant thing before the game, so we thought we were toast. I punched a girl's fingers pretty hard, kinda felt bad about it. Overall our preconceptions were way off, and they were brutal players.

Anyway, just before heading to campus I got a call from my mom informing me that a letter had arrived back home to tell me that I wasn't accepted into the micro/immu masters program for next year.
To be honest I'm not entirely surprised, since my marks are just below the cutoff. But I am surprised that I heard back so soon. The deadline for applications isn't until June, and if there are spots available at that time they contact the people who were just below the cutoff line. So to hear in March seems kinda odd...
I'm still going to look into the details of applying to different faculties though, since the micro guys might just be pricks.

Once I got to campus and had something to eat, I instantly started feeling like a bag of shit. I had to leave class early, and I still feel terrible. Gut and sinuses. Hopefully it's just gonna last for today.

Details are still coming in for the summer out west, but by the looks of it I'll have to look into a job or an internship come the fall. I'd like to stay in my field, and maybe in a few years I'll come back to do the masters thing. As for now I've gotta buckle down like crazy to get some decent marks this semester. The next month is gonna be brutal, so I'm gonna get at it early for once to hopefully lessen the burden.