Right on the heals of the storybook ending, I have what would be the Best. Birthday. Party. EVAR!
For the Love of Bros.
Gaming and Music. Oh how you’ve made me.
I’m taking it back – geek is no longer ours
Corrosion what?
A Trans Canada trip in Words.
Best Birthday EVAR! Game of Thrones Birthday Rap
For the Love of Bros.
Bros before hoes, ammairight?
I went out last night. I haven’t been to a club in Canada for over a decade. Back when I was probably around 265lbs., unhappily single, and Poppa Roach raised the roof. It was probably Christmas Eve, 2000. Needless to say, it was a long time ago.
It’s interesting coming into the scene with a fresh set of old eyes. And I’m not kidding. I felt like the old guy for quite a while until some more thirty-somethings started making their way into Sugar. The venue was adequate. I’m far from being a connoisseur of palais de soirée dansantes. It had the standard lasers, disco ball, elevated plateaus and, of course, the bars. The Adam K featuring DJ Exodus event drew a fairly diverse crowd, including the typical EDM crowds that you’d find at the Electric Daisy Carnival or Coachella. What I found kind of surprising was the sausage to bun ratio. If I wasn’t mistaken, I’d say there were more XYs than XXes at the club. An observation that caught me even more off guard was the amount of hugs that occurred–and I don’t mean amongst the ladies in the house. The “Bros” were all over each other. The amont of plutonic love amongst the males was almost sickening. They were all over each other more then the members of the opposite sex.
Okay, that’s probably a bit of an exaggeration.
This may be my generation talking (oh how age continues to creep up on me), but I don’t recall that many friendly male on male embraces when I was of club hopping age. A chest bump with a slap on the back, sure, but a full on embrace was generally reserved for family or friends when you don’t see them for weeks to months at a time. And even then, it wasn’t uncommon for it NOT to happen either.
But this was common faire last night.
It’s also important to note that I don’t consider this inappropriate, rather, it was more heartening than anything. It was also a reminder of how far that kind of expression amongst men has come in a decade. When you think that there was a time when a firm handshake was most physical contact two men would ever share, this is pretty substantial in a social context.
Now if you find this commentary a bit boring, let me finish off by saying the highlight of my night were the two dancers who’s attire amounted to a g-string, nipple covers, and body paint.
Who needs material things?
The Game of Thrones Storybook Ending for the Red Wedding
I haven’t posted a YouTube clip for some time. This one I felt was worthy to bring back the old custom. The Red Wedding (which was inspired by actual events, shocked me a little. I knew no one in the Game of Thrones was safe, but still. This one took me by surprise. This little clip helps make light of a such a gruesome episode and plot twist.
WARNING: Gushing spoiler!!
Gaming and Music. Oh how you’ve made me.
Within the orange bricked walls of the office of which I work, we have been undergoing a search for a good co-op game for the Mac platform. And long time Mac user will understand just how daunting of a task this is. We’ve been powering our way through the games on Steam and the App store. Having given up on those, we further landed upon GoG.com.
Holy shit.
North American boxart (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If you’ve never been–let me be the first to tell you. This site is heaven if you grew up nerdcore in the 90′s and early naughties. All of Activision’s “-quest” games are served up for your pleasure. How about some Freespace, which is my mind is one of the best space sims ever designed. My absolute weakness was Shogo M.A.D. from Monolith. The game wasn’t huge, but it appealed to my gaming and otaku heartstrings all at the same time.
Even better–these games are all DRM free. Even if they weren’t DRM free at the time.. they are now. Some of the games also come with some extras, like soundtracks and wallpapers. The majority of games range from $5-$10, which is also decent. Only problem is that the shear enormity of their library makes it a deathmatch for wallet. But you know what? Worth it.
Oh, and it appears we settled on Total Annihilation for co-op needs.
Gaming occupied a lot of my free time yesterday, and today it seems to be music. Actually, the music started last night–as I’ve gotten back into trying to produce my first mashup: Bad Julio in a Schoolyard Romance (Lady Gaga‘s Bad Romance vs. Paul Simon‘s Me and Julio Down by the Schoolard. It’s a thing.). Getting knee deep into music over the past eight waking hour or so, I couldn’t help start to question where would I be without these two seemingly great things? During my so-called formative years, so much of my income (pffft.. income) was spent on music, video games, and tabletop gaming, not to mention so much of my free time. While it may seem superficial, I firmly believe the sum of these past times are what made me who I am now. Without these things, I may have never gone to China and thus never met my wife. These hobbies are what got me heavily into computers, which lead me to a short lived career in systems repair which I grew desperately tired of, and eventually escaped to asia because of. It is pretty hard to think of the “what ifs” are here–which is kind of scary.
I’m taking it back – geek is no longer ours
As I’ve noted in the past, I wasn’t a popular/cool kid. At the time, and onto today, this has been my preference. Sure it impeded my liberation from chaste, but at least it provided me with the opportunity to find true friends and the avoidance of the superficial/pretentious. The irony is that in some respects, I have to some respect become that which I most loathed.
We all know that guy that derides modern music, regardless of genre. Classic rock guy hates today’s rock. 90′s alternative guy vs. emo. It even bleeds into today’s EDM, with claims that the dance music of today lacks creativity. In short, this person has become an elitist snob.
This is kind of how I feel about all things geek. There’s so much out there, it borders on on the ridiculous. And it’s so to find. The commercialization of the culture has killed
These people are ruining it for us!
all it’s meaning. Now that geeks are ruling the world, big business of course knows that it’s these people they must pander to in order to get profitable return. The Big Bang Theory, Community, How I Met Your Mother, and the return of Arrested Development all serve as prime examples. The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones are reaping great rewards because of this trend. And don’t get my started on Doctor Who.
It’s sad because all these I enjoy (save for Big Bang Theory.. not a fan). The success of these shows goes to prove my point about how mainstream geek culture has become, and in return has taken away everything that was once great about it. What used to be holy grail searches for nerdy treasures has become a short trip to your local mall’s HMV store.
I’ve developed a small fetish for t-shirts. I love wearing rare t-shirts that no major retailer would ever carry. The Interwebz™ has so many! It’s fantastic. When I walk into the office and people recognize the reference on one of these shirts I wear, it’s all good. These are people who grew up in my generation and for them to make a comment, it’s kind of expected. These are my people. But when I go to any random Starbucks and I get comments, at first it’s kind of exciting. This excitement quickly fades though, as its a reminder to me that while the t-shirt isn’t everywhere, the cultural references are. The magic of finding like minded geeks is gone because now there are so many. What’s worse, these “geeks” never had to suffer like my generation did and ultimately just don’t get it.
So now I’m a bit a stuck. How do we take the geek social shift to mainstream back to a sub-culture of outcasts that have congregate at conventions in order to meet the like minded? Seriously, we all need to unite and take it back so we can make being a geek great again. And by great, I mean socially ostracized from the mainstream.
Corrosion what?
Goth rosary (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I remember back in the early noughties I must have been in or around Bayshore hobbies with Ross or Kyle (or both!) when I picked up a CCG that I never played (nor ever did) called Gother Than Thou. It was a time where I through around my cash fairly loosely so me picking up something as useless as this wasn’t even remotely unheard of. I bought it because I went through a phase. A phase a lot of people I know went through. The whole “I wanna be a vampire” phase. Leafing through these cards, I quickly learned how goth I was not–especially when it referenced a band that I had as yet never heard of; The Sisters of Mercy. The card was to recite some of the lyrics to this ten minute opus that was the anthem of the goth world called “This Corrosion.” Lyrics that did not include the near infinite loop of “hey now, hey now now.”
I seriously had no clue. And in hindsight, I’m glad I didn’t.
Yeah, I’m going to call it out. It was silly. Black and white make-up, victorian garb, seeing next to know daylight hours (wait.. that was the best Interwebz™ and geeking out time–I retract). And don’t forget the drama. Being a goth was an eighties and nineties equivalent of the modern day emo.
Yes, I can appreciate it was just another way of youth finding a group in which they could belong and be unique and different by being just like everyone else in your circle. I shouldn’t judge. I know that. I was no better (despite not being goth).
This makes sound like an old man. But seeing that the youth of today haven’t learned the pointlessness of all this from their generational ancestors bewilders me. Being young and stupid seems to be a constant.
A Trans Canada trip in Words.
More what?
Energy.
It was my initial thought when I left on Monday morning for this great trip across the country that I would blog every evening.
Yeah. Right.
I’ve never drove this hard before. At least 10 hours a day behind the wheel not including stops. Including various stops, I was looking at 12 hours a day at minimum. And by the time I got everything unloaded and into a hotel, that last thing I was capable of was not opening up a laptop, let alone actually type something out. Even now I feel like I’m pushing it, and today was much shorter than the rest of my days this week. But here I am. Finally. Already in Victoria. And without pictures. Those will be forthcoming.
Let me talk about Ontario for a minute.
It’s huge. First north. Then west. A lot of road time. Being raised in the GTA, you don’t really get an appreciation for the giant that Ontario is. Something else you don’t realize is how mountainous it can get as we continue your trek north. It’s not the rockies, but they’re still huge. Luckily it wasn’t snowing through our journey as I’m pretty sure those roads could get treacherous. It also doesn’t take long journeying north before you start to notice the importance of time start drifting away for a lot of people. The rush of life dissipates and it’s really kind of nice.
A PD version of the Trans-Canada Highway shield. Version PD du panneau representant la route transcanadienne Trans-Canada highway 1 Route transcanadienne 1 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Moving on to Manitoba. Upon arrival to the boarder, you’re greeted with a really nice sign, and really rough roads. The Trans-Canada is very wide and infinitely straight ahead. It stays that way for quite some time until you get closer Winnipeg at which point there are more straight roads, but also smoother. You might recall the phrase “wide-open spaces.” This is Manitoba. It is seriously flat. No hills anywhere (except for trash hills). I can’t reiterate enough how expansive this open space is. It’s awe inspiring, but it really starts to get old once you hit Saskatchewan.
Ah, Saskatchewan. The province that bares the brunt of a lot of our jokes. How boring you are. How inappropriate the name of your capitol city is. More of the same until start getting closer to Alberta, at which point your driving up and down hills but continuing in a straight line.
Alberta. Now this land was a little more interesting. The land lumps continue, but you start seeing something that you just don’t see in Ontario. Random oil pumps, trying to syphon the crude out from the ground. Plenty of cows also hang around these things. And this, too, goes on for a long time. Oh, and before I forget, cheap(er) gas. Cheapest I saw (and bought at) was $1.08. That didn’t last long though.
As you approach Calgary, you can begin to see the Rocky Mountains in the distance. Snow covered, and immense. And they only get bigger as you continue along Highway 1 into Canmore and Banff. Then the fun driving begins.
If you’ve ever flown before, you’ll be highly familiar with the ears popping. This happened numerous times through the Rockies. Our cat, Mac, wasn’t very appreciative of this part of the trip. The constant change of air pressure caused him some grief which lead to our own grief in the form of cat cries. Driving through, again, the immenseness of these mountains can’t be understated. So tall. So large. So… legendary (sorry, was watching the first season of “How I Met Your Mother last night”). For all my worrying, the drive actually wasn’t that bad. There was only a stretch of about 2-4 km where there were a lot of 40km/h turns that were kind of sketchy. Other than that, it was all beauty. That is, until after Kamloops.
I stopped in Kamloops, BC because I thought the trip after that would be a piece of cake. And it sort of was.. with the exception of all the high cross-wind warnings that I saw, and the high cross-winds that I drove through along the high altitudes of the rest of the Rockies. I think dealing with these winds was the worst and most tense part of my entire drive. Having the cargo rack on top of my Escape made it all the worse because I could feel that extra bit of push trying to knock me over. Still a lot of altitude changes and meow-ings. Being on the British Columbia side of the mountains saw the Rockies in a different colour. Green. Lots and lots of green. Alberta side–all white with snow. BC side… green with white caps and avalanche warnings.
Eventually the altitudes and the mountains subsided and the drive became a hillside journey with lots of rivers and more trees. British Colombia was easily the most beautiful part of the drive. This drive eventually gave way to the ferry to Victoria and my final destination.
Nearly six days of travel with 5000kms under my belt, I’m happy to say that the trip was worth it. Having the opportunity to see the country as I did and not have to drive back.. how could I not do it?
Most of us barely get out of province. We choose to fly off to other vacation destinations instead, and never get to know our own country. Now I can honestly say that this country holds so much beauty. So much in fact, that we could spend all our vacation times throughout our lives and still not see everything this great land has to offer. Soapbox rant over.
Ultimately, I strongly recommend making this trek at some point in your life. Preferably less rushed than mine, of course. My only suggestion would be to rent a car to drive out, then fly back. Trying to drive through the prairies more than once will bore you to tears and may cost you your life.
Why I’m Leaving Cambridge for Victoria, BC.
So the news is out there. I’ve tweeted. I’ve spoke in person. And now, the inevitable blog post.
It’s still true. it hasn’t changed. I’m moving to Victoria, British Colombia. To most, if not all, this came as a bit of a shock. And really, it should have been nothing short of it. Not even two years ago, I signed away my life for a home. It had appeared that I was finally getting ready to plant my roots. It would seem, however, that I’m more of a potted plant than a root-able Canadian maple.
I’ve made it no secret that I was getting itchy for a change. I’m over two years in with my current employer which is my exit average. I’ve also had the urge to move since last summer. All the warning signs have been there. I just needed a reason.
Then there’s that nagging need I have for new adventure…
I’ve had a series of adventures since returning from China. A year off the career track while trying to get my wife’s residency permit. Getting residency and moving to Toronto. Buying a home and moving back to Cambridge. All good learning experiences and I regret none of it. But it’s time for another big one. It’s not up and going off to a foreign country, but it is definitely a big move and a great journey. It’s that journey that I crave. That ongoing need for journeys and new experiences is what keeps me motivated.
I’m no John Cabot or Jacques Cartier, but I’m an explorer by nature. When I think about how much time I spent as a youth finding new places, it does seem to make sense why I still want to go on new expeditions in my adult life. The dirt hills of Montrose St., the off the trail trails of the Riverbank trail (I know the word trail was overused there). Being grounded for two weeks without bicycle privileges after walking three kilometers down river during the spring high-season. I was the Chris Columbus of local nature trails and landmarks.
I also don’t kid myself. Chances are Victoria won’t be my last stop. I really don’t know where I might end up next afterward. I might come back to Ontario again live amongst my nearest and dearest. Then I might be off again to Kathmandu. And on that thread, it does make me thankful for those whom I call friends and family. They have tolerated and accepted these random acts of insanity that lead me to various ends of Earth Inc. Without getting all mushy.. a sincere thanks to all of you. You are with me in my thoughts wherever I go and you are the reason why this area is North on my compass.
One thing that I have left out, which should really be obvious by now. Travelling around gives me the best fodder for conversations and blogging.
EF You GoDaddy.. hello GreenGeeks!
GreenGeeks Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So, you’re not going to notice a difference.. or maybe you will. So far load times of this page seem to be faster than they were yesterday. You see, up until a couple of a hours ago I was hosting with the evil GoDaddy. Now, you’re seeing the power of GreenGeeks.. and while we barely know each other, I must say, I like what I see.
They migrated my site. Free.
They’ve given me unlimited everything.
And everything seems to run faster.
Oh yeah.. they run completely off of renewable energy.
So far so good. Everything seems to be working. Welcome to our new home.
Healed on a death bed.
Life from crap. (Photo credit: Greyhawk68)
Can’t ever say I don’t have a flair for the dramatic.
I could have been dying yesterday all I knew. Temperature was up. I could hold down the chow, but I felt nauseous all day. And my ham bones got REAL familiar with the toilet seat.
Okay, I know I wasn’t dying, but I knew for certain that half my weekend was going to be worthless. Hell, I was next to worthless as well. I did manage to wash some dishes–but then I needed to sit down.
Then I went to bed…
Today is like a rebirth. From the depths of a temporary tormented hell I’ve resurrected. And it’s sunny, to boot. It’s one of those feelings you get that help you remember that it’s good to be alive. But it also makes me thirsty.
One of the problems of going on an adventure is that eventually the time comes when you really want to go on another one. Some small, some big. I’ve done small tiny adventures for a while now.
Summer is coming.
(see what I did there?)
