Go House Lifter!

A nice story from the Make a Wish foundation...

Crap, no more hockey!

Congratulations to the Carolina Hurricanes for winning their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. Their team and fans deserve applause for their efforts and performance. And of course, thanks to the Oilers for giving our city some excitement in the springtime. There was definitely no shortage of effort, and all the credit to the Hurricanes for coming together for one more big game. As for the Oilers, thanks for the memories as I'll always remember watching game 3 against San Jose when Horcoff scores the winner in triple overtime. Hopefully next year we'll see a Battle of Alberta and the Stanley Cup returning back to Oil country =D.

Anyways, I regret not blogging recently because some topics that I wanted to talk about have passed and I can't really go back and type something out. It is as if there is a time limit on a topic, and once it expires the topic is null and void. However, one I think that can still be done is an apology. Devin, if you're reading this one I owe you an apology. It was a while ago when you needed a lift home and I should gave offered it. I apologize for not giving you a lift, I mean if a friend can't give a simple ride home, then what the hell? I'll try not to let it happen again, friends need to be there for each other, even in small things. I think its been part of a trend of bad decision making and I'm definitely unhappy with myself. Its humbling and a confidence breaker to step back and see you're not the person you thought you were. Sometimes I think that joke picture of the male brain on Maggie's blog is a compliment.

Now, if I can pull my act together and pass my online course, I'll be shipped onto placement in Camrose from July 10th to Sept 1st. Its pretty exciting to get to live on my own, even though I'll have about 6000% more work to do. Nevertheless, I hope to make the most of that opportunity and if I for some reason don't make it, I'll probably spiral deeply into some unescapable bout of depression. You will find me hiding in the basement closet never wanting to come out.

Oh yeah, I also am going to the Esks game on the 24th. So far its my family, however my dad won't make it so there is an extra ticket. Anyone interested in watching the Esks take on the Stamps gimme a shout.

Thats all for now...

Seize the Moment, Seize the Day.. 5 days later


Whups, I had started this a few days ago and kept it as a draft. Hopefully the finished product will have some sort of cohesion...

Anyways...

The "Seize the moment, Sieze the day" stuff is the theme and title song of my brother's high school graduation. So I had attended my brother's convocation at the Jubilee Auditorium. By the way, the song is actually pretty good and hopefully they'll try to record it somewhere. Anyways, recently I've been witness to a few milestones (a first car, marriage, high school graduation)and it has kind of forced me to think a bit (I know, I try not to strain myself).

So I started thinking back to my own graduation, and really not much came back. I never really thought graduating high school was a big deal. In fact, why are we really celebrating it? Whoop dee doo, we managed to get at least half the questions on our exams right... yeehaw? But I realize now that graduation was not merely about passing high school. I guess I might have gotten it then if I had truly listened to all the speeches I would hear. Graduation was also about transition, that one chapter of life was closing and another one was beginning. New changes were going to happen, and for better or worse, we're taking this time to celebrate the actual past that happened, and the bright potential future. Really, this is where all the cliches come but they're really the only way to describe whats going on...

Actually, hold those thoughts for another entry... This is where the blog takes an abrupt turn yet. This is what I get for not finishing a blog on the day I started it.

Today I was heading home from the U of A and decided to take the LRT. Now, as I was going down, I suddenly saw some shapes near the edges of the station. In fact, they were on the tracks. Great, I thought to myself, it was some people goofing around or what it looked to me was that someone threw a random bag of stuff on the tracks. Then I realized that it was actually an elder lady who fell off her powered wheelchair (perhaps she just got off the train, stayed on the spot for a little bit to find something?). I'm not going to describe it much. She was lying on her side as emergency personnel was helping her, and what looked to be her husband holding a considerable sized cloth covered in blood next to them. I'm not sure how to describe how I felt, but I saw the face of someone else and I went a bit numb...

This blog started off looking at milestones and celebrations to a tragic event. I can't even think about what I would reflect on. I'm a bit mixed in what to think or feel. I haven't exactly learned a grand lesson from all that has happened, but I'll be mulling it over for a while...

Clinical Reasoning

Well, its been about a week since I finished finals. My last two exams were a multiple choice exam and a practical exam. The practical (OSCE - stands for Observed structured clinical exam??) would have us assess a fake patient in either a physical or mental health aspect. I think I'll just talk about the OSCE now, it was quite an experience. There was actually a lot of material to cover, and in the end we would draw up a piece of paper that would only look at a little portion of that material. Basically, know everything or risk getting something you can't deal with. As well, to pass you had to get a mark of 70% or better. It did seem like an exam that you kick ass in or utterly utterly fail, but there were a few borderline marks.

I got to school about 10:00 am even though my test was at 6:50 pm so I could walk through mock scenarios a few more times under "Exam conditions." I thought it'd be a lot easier to know what to say after going through it with other people over and over again. I'm not sure if I would have done better if I just relaxed for the whole day and then come in near 5 to do the exam. I feel as though I need to go through the day focusing on that one event, even though thinking about the test sapped my energy because of nerves.

Now, the OSCE is set up so if you're doing a physical assessment, you've got about 6 minutes to take a quick history and then determine whats wrong. For a psychosocial part you've got 10 minutes to take a history and then go through an assessment. The physical portion is fairly straightforward, you get someone who "hurt" their right shoulder or left hip and knee. However, the mental health part can be tricky because their diagnosis can be major depression to mania. Depending on how the patient plays it, it can be very tough to handle the situation. In some cases, the patient refused to go though the assessment and other times they would be touching the student and rapidly talking.

Oh yeah, another thing that kind pissed me off was that my test had been moved back 40 minutes, so I said ah screw it, I'll come back later. Of course, when I get there about 7:10, I found out that they had been close to on time and that I got skipped. Crap! So my exam actually did get pushed back 40 minutes, but it was my fault. That was so awesome...

So anyways, I finally walk into the exam room and get my case scenario. Yay, its a mental health and my patient's diagnosis is Major Depression. Now, I kinda had an idea of what would happen. Major Depression would not affect someone's ability to tell you how to perform something, they can and know how to do it physically and cognitively. However, for some reason, there is just this void inside and it sucks up all your energy. Anyways, I walk in, start up the history and ask a few questions. Generally, I'm doing fine although I do need to speak up.

Now for my highlight moment!!

One of my questions is something along, "imagine you are at home and are about to goto bed. What should you do to make yourself feel safe?" Usually people will say check windows or lock the door (correct answer) but my patient says oh I've got a HANDGUN underneath my pillow. Oh fantastic, you're depressed and you have a handgun. Its a wonderful combination that mixes well, like Kool Aid and water....

Afterward we were talking to the evaluator of the OSCE, and he said to me it was funny the way my face looked when the patient said that. He also said he hoped that I acknowledged it in my written portion of the exam. I of course nodded politely and thought, good thing you aren't marking it! I'm so glad I have clinical reasoning...

But yeah, bottom line is that I passed it and am so glad that its done with!!! =D

Down but Not Out

My lack of effort or drive, whatever it is exactly, has cost me bigtime. I didn't really expect it to happen, but it did. What happened is this: I didn't get credit for one of my courses. I'm not going to bother getting into the specifics (fair or unfair, bullshit class or not?), except the bottom line is that I failed it. Now, I forget if I've mentioned it earlier, but I was heading toward my next clinical fieldwork placement on May 15th. However, that is no longer so, because a requirement of attending fieldwork is passing all previous Occupational Therapy courses. Therefore, when May 15th rolls around, I'm staying home.

I did not see this one coming at all. I was sitting in the computer lab and checking my email and it felt like a glancing blow to the face. I was in a state of shock but trying to immediately deal with it as best as I could. I immediately set up an appointment with the instructor and see what my options are in this situation.

After that appointment, it basically confirmed that I'm not going to fieldwork. To kind of compound it a bit, that was also the day that I was going to the oral surgeon to figure out the details of my wisdom teeth removal for the summer. That ended with me being at Westmount Transit Center, and during that time I actually stopped by and visited with my former Mandarin teacher. It was more or less a pleasant visit. When she asked how I was doing, I said good, but of course it was more like "I'm fucking crushed because I can't go onto placement."

On the long bus ride home, I forget if it was the same day or earlier, I had a long time to think. After recovering from the initial shock of all, I started to think. Maybe this could be a positive event after all. In fact, this could be the best thing to happen to me so far in OT... Yes, failing a course. Why? Because this consequence has given me a sense of urgency and a sense that I do need to apply myself. If in the end that isn't enough, than so be it. But I better not fail because I simply did not put in enough effort, that I couldn't put my mind to it and conentrate on doing the best I could. Me putting in a shoddy effort is insulting to those individuals who couldn't make the program but would have had the attitude and work ethic to succeed. I better not simply take up a spot and waste it.

Of course, I better walk the walk. Its all fun and exciting to do the whole "rah rah" thing but I better start this newfound energy for effort by making sure I pass my next two exams that are coming up... Wish me luck. =D

Well, that sucked

Blah, today I went to school for almost no reason. You see, in my program I have to select 5 modules out of a wide variety of topics (such as "Sexuality in rehabilitation to Splinting). So I went to school thinking, "Yay I'm going to knock off another one of the 5." But then it got cancelled. Weee! The kicker is that I had an contact lens appointment scheduled for that time but I had to move it. By the way, I did have an appointment even before that one. I have to goto another one because I could not insert the stupid f*cking contacts into my eyes (why did I censor myself?). It was almost a waste but I ended up signing up for a module sometime in June.

Oh yeah, also saw Silent Hill. My impression of this movie actually goes against the title of this blog entry. I didn't think this movie was as bad as indicated by movie critics, but I can understand why they scored the movie they way they did. However, I am convinced that the director thought it would be a good idea to tell the actors to base their performances off the CGI scenes from the video game...

Okay, time to put this one to bed. I thought I'd finish with what I thought was an interesting quote...

Chris Martin on "The Scientist": "That's just about girls. It's weird that whatever else is on your mind, whether it's the downfall of global economics or terrible environmental troubles, the thing that always gets you most is when you fancy someone."

Movies suck!

Take a look at the top box office moneymakers at www.rottentomatoes.com. It is just astounding to see that of the top ten, only three of them collected generally positive reviews. Now granted, something like Scary Movie 4 is going to get panned by the critics but just wow, it is astonishing (but not suprising) the level of suck that is going on in the theaters.

I had been hoping that Silent Hill had gotten some positive reviews. While doing some quick reading, I also found something else interesting. I took this passage from Roger Ebert's review of Silent Hill.

"Dr. Shlain made the most interesting comment on the panel. He said they took some four and five year-olds and gave them video games and asked them to figure out how to play them without instructions. Then they watched their brain activity with real-time monitors. "At first, when they were figuring out the games," he said, "the whole brain lit up. But by the time they knew how to play the games, the brain went dark, except for one little point."

Kind of explains the whole too much video games makes your brain go dumb dumb thing...

But anyways.. about Silent Hill! Who wants to watch it Monday? Even though its gotten a bit crushed in the reviews, it apparently has a good atmosphere and setting to the movie. The visuals are supposed to be fairly impressive and that alone can set a really good mood. I'm hoping that reviews have some kind of negative video game bias and that affected the reviews. I would liken what I've read about the movie to something along seeing a really pretty girl's face and then being snapped back into reality when you actually hear what she sounds like. It would be like Jennifer Aniston with the voice of Fran Drescher (spelling?). Now that is a truly horrifying thought...

Alas, it is time for some more studying. Well, I've just got to power through and look for the light at the end of the tunnel...

Bellringer

I've got a bellringer test tomorrow, oh what fun that will be. For those that don't know what it is, I have an exam for my cadaver lab. There will be 50 stations where you have a minute and 15 seconds to identify muscles and such on various specimens. Well, after that I've got to start studying hardcore for my finals. Sigh, its that time of year where everything feels like its swamping you. Ah well, gotta work through it because I just have to. Good luck to everyone studying up for finals, and curse that awesome spring weather laughing at me...

Doesn't Even Deserve a Title

Check out this old interview with Mario Lemieux by Dan Patrick. Its an old one but funny. Even if you don't, my favorite part is the end:

DP: What's the best thing you did with the [Stanley] Cup?
ML: I slept with it.
DP: By yourself?
ML: My wife was beside me.
DP: So, you and your wife slept with the Cup?
ML: In between us.
DP: You spooned with the Cup?
ML: Just for a few minutes.

And another interesting link, I just have to say that the architecture of this building is amazing. =D

Jeez, I have nothing to say at the moment. I wish I was a great storyteller so I could type out something. In fact, I wonder how is it that other people can be such great storytellers. They can create such glorious narratives about the most inane events (One time, I ate food I microwaved by myself...!). But then again, I prefer having an easygoing life. Dramatics aren't a part of life I wish to have, but building Lego cities is...

Ichiro!

Can't believe I watched this baseball game, but Japan beat Cuba 10-6. Weeeeee... it defeated studying Anatomy. Now I go into the lab not knowing what is what. Again. Dammit. "Weeee... that is what you say when you are having fun. You refer to yourself and other people" (Mitch Hedburg, some year).

Go Heavy or Go Home!

That little saying comes from watching a UFC special on Rich Franklin. Its posted up on the wall at the gym he weight trains at. Yep, nothing like watching somebody else train their ass off. The video is here and is about 200 megs. If you've got a broadband connection, it can't take too long to download. For me it was about 25 minutes or so. Also, the first two minutes are awesome. You'll have to watch it to see what I mean. =D

Some other interesting stuff is that our OT class is trying to do a fundraiser for next year. Apperantly its quite a big deal, and what we're doing is setting up an all day cycling on a exercise bike marathon. Basically, a whole bunch of teams register for a fee (having 2-8 people) and have to keep the bike's wheels turning for 8 hours. For the registration fee, half goes to a charity and half goes to our class' grad.

As well, there is this pledge thing. Here is where I think this idea falls off a bit. If each person from the faculty can raise $100, multiply it by the number of students (90+) we can cover our whole grad. The only issue is, its a pledge and therefore we go around asking people to donate to our grad. I believe at least 90% of these pledges would go toward the grad. Really, I can't imagine doing that, "hey wanna donate to my grad? By the way, you probably won't be going." But I could still try to come up with pledges. The way I would do it is hold a Poker tournament with buy-ins, and give away prizes instead of having a prize pool of the buy ins. Or I can sell stuff, but the poker idea is more fun. I just can't think of stuff I already have that I can give away right now...

Alexander the Great!

So my favorite hockey player ends up burning Canada in mens hockey. Well, what are you gonna do? Everyone is going to become a hockey analyst and remark about the game and team that was put together. Me? It just means Smyth and The Six Million Dollar man can come home and get some rest for the Oiler playoff drive. Good luck to Russia now, since they're the ones to knock off Canada. I have to admit though, I felt good for the 'ole Russian Rocket, Pavel Bure, who was the previous most exciting player in the NHL! By the way, anyone ever feel that he sort of looks like Macauly (sp?)Caulkin (yes the kid from Home Alone!)? Except without those baggy drugged up looking eyes...

Anyways, let the hockey rants begin...

Weekend Update

Anyways, on to a relatively interesting weekend. I'll start with the most recent event, which was a very ruggish and daring outing to a beauty salon in Chinatown. Yeah... I'm serious. Continuing on, I was there for... I don't even know what its called. I just heard the word "Extraction" and understood it involved my face. This procedure also involved some sharp objects. Presumably this was all to smoothen out pimples and so on on my face. Now, I like to think I have a decent threshold for pain, but wtf? This is one of the few times my eyes started to water in response to some kind of physical impact on me. The other time being a punch in the face.

The day before, I helped out in moving some stuff from one house to another. This led to the usual surge of "growing up" thoughts, so naturally I kind of shut them out for the time being. I don't have any crazy stories from this, which is probably a good thing because that means nothing was destroyed.

Okay, enough of this post. I'm going back to the Somethingawful comedy goldmine. Now, some of that stuff is very funny, but also very offensive, hence the name somethingawful. Anyways, my favorite archives are the tales from the zoo... =D

Ahahaha...

Hopefully the link won't die right away but chcek out this headline.

Woman accused of being a condom bomber.

Waiting by the Door

I don't think I can really type out a relatively lengthy blog anymore. At least for this little while. I think I'll just pop in random comments for my own sake. Unless somebody want a blog about a cadaver lab...

Anyways, a sort of interesting thing happened today. Well, for some backstory, lets go flashback to my youth. Back in my elementary days the routine for me before I left school was to grab breakfast, watch tv, and than watch my mom drive off to work. As she drove off, I would stand at the screen door and keep waving until I couldn't see the car anymore. Than I'd bolt to the side window of the house and be able to catch a glimpse of the car before it rounded another corner.

I think its fairly undisputed that I'm a mommy's boy (whether I like it or not). So today I had to car as I needed to head back to the University for an evening class. Things have changed a bit, I don't stand at the door anymore to wave, but as I backed out and drove out of our neighbourhood, I could see my mom waiting by the screen door waiting until she couldn't see the car anymore. I don't know why I didn't today, but I know on Thursday I'll be waving back.

Traveling Tickle Trunk

Trunk does not actually travel or tickle people. Maybe I'll explain this later...

Anyways, Happy Chinese New Year weekend! (Though I'm a bit late)

Actually, this weekend should kick ass. I'm going to the Oilers/Canucks game, there is a very good UFC event going on, and its Superbowl weekend! Rock on! I'll try to actually blog later on.. because you know, its good for self reflection and stuff. =D

Nope!

I've been trying to blog but when I get down to it, I just blank out and decide that sleep is a much more enjoyable experience. I guess this blog will partly be a response to Dev's latest effort. Now, I'm fairly content with life and there is much positives to focus on than negatives. Actually, content might be the wrong word to use. Perhaps its more appropriate to say that I can accept what my life is at the moment. I can't say that I'm fully satisifed with myself.

Motivation has definitely been something I have struggled with for the past year. My work ethic seems to have flatlined somewhere. I think I might need some kind of book or guide for self organization and perhaps to get me inspired. My work has not been stellar and the "pile system" hasn't been all that great. It has really been the same old story for a long time. Its getting annoying, when I do set the time for schoolwork or whatever, I just would rather stare at the table than finish what needs to be done. Am I really that lazy that I just don't want to do any work? My sense of needing to do a good job or finishing tasks on time has dwindled away. Ah... fuck it...

In other news, I'm heading out to the Bryan Adams concert. I believe a number of other people are heading out there as well, but really I'm more going because my mom wants to. Well, for the concernt I will be looking toward the moment where everyone pulls out their lighter during the song "Everything I do." I'm sure that'll be one of the highlights of the show...

Ah man I'm tired... okay lets shut down one down...

Sick Day

Lately I've been very sick and have been stuck inside for a while. I'm not sure whats afflicting me, but the symptoms include the runny nose, sore throat, and a while ago headaches and fevers. All thats left is a slightly irritated throat so I'm still coughing quite a bit. I still need to just sit tight so that it doesn't get worse or flare up again.

In late November I had an allergy test and found out I had a similar ordeal with the people who are allergic to all kinds of things. Trees, dirt, grass, and for me, dogs. It is apperently a relatively severe allergy and one theory is that Ryan's dog and something else hit me...

Anyways, does anyone feel like hitting an ice rink on Friday? I talked with Kat a bit about heading to one of the outdoor rinks outside the North YMCA. Not sure about details, but I know I'm determined to get out there, I've been inside a little too much lately. >=(

Okay... thats all for now. Gotta rest up and get better.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Hopefully everyone can take advantage of the holidays and cherish the time spent with your friends and family.

*Insert touching and heartfelt blog here*

Happy Holidays to everyone, have fun and be safe.

Nothing to do with school or writing structure!

So in very important Chris-related news, I broke my cell phone. So I now have a brand spankin' new fancy camera phone like everyone else does! Yippee kai yay mother... eh you know the rest. I wonder what else I can break and get replaced...

Quick question to everyone, any song recommendations for the iPod...?

Moving onto other news, I went to the Arashido Capital Classic Championship tournament. It was pretty cool because in addition to the "sport Karate" events (point sparring, forms) they also had events such as gi and no gi grappling, kickboxing, and pankration (amateur level). Anyways, I took this time to take part in judging forms and point sparring for the sport karate events. At first it was a bit nerve wracking because they were only going with three judges, and I didn't want to be the person who was way off base in giving scores. But overall I felt I was pretty spot on with my judgement and with what I was looking for.

As for the other events, it was cool to see a bit of the grappling. I didn't watch much of the pankration (basically strikes + grappling, but no strikes to the face on the ground and other modifcations). However, the kickboxing setup they had was hard to watch. Of course it was fairly amateur level, but there was practically no defense to be shown. It seemed like a toughman-style competition of swing your hands and hope your punches land. Now, my feeling on this kinda sport is you should either go full out and get KO'ed, or it stays like point sparring. Having a sport thats in the middle where you get sustained damage isn't worth it at a casual level. I'd rather be KO'ed then take repeated potshots to the face and body. It was hard to watch a match where someone was repeatedly turning around and getting chased out by shots to the head. Maybe its just the softie in me though...

That reminds me, I gotta start getting some more exercise. But thats hard, so screw it. =D

Anyways, is anyone else slightly disturbed that it hasn't snowed here in Edmonton? Then again, I don't want it to because I'm so miserable when its cold out. Not to mention its tough to drive the Mazda in winter conditions. Still, I'd like to paste Keith with one snowball this year...

Another rapid change of thought, I watched the recently released movie The Chronicles of Narnia (someone should make a book outta this movie!) and I enjoyed it. I thought the sets and imagery were done very well and really helped me get into the mood of the movie. I haven't read the books, but I think I will try to over the winter break.

Since its the holidays, I thought I'd try to look back and think of a memory to conjure up feelings of sentiment, or something like that. I don't remember how old I was, but I was at a BCAA (Borneo Cultural Association of Alberta) Christmas party and I came upon this little boy who was crying. (Hopefully I'm not making this memory up) I must have spent a lot of the evening trying to calm him down. It turns out he is terribly sad because all of a sudden his dad just disappeared. So yes, we looked all over the restaurant at which the party was being held at. I think we did some really retarded searching though, like under tables and the like. Eventually, we stop looking because "Santa Claus" has come out bearing gifts! I'm like, frick kid, I want to get my present, lets go, and maybe Santa will cheer you up. The kid reluctantly follows me, and then all of a sudden his face lights up! Thats right, it turns out that the person playing Santa Claus for that party was his dad.

Also, one year, they gave me pogs with a Power Rangers slammer. =D

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

Just thought it was a funny title. Well, it makes me laugh...

I had originally started this blog on Monday, then saw something shiny and got distracted. Well, it more or less happened like that. Without further ado...

Bit of a sports busy weekend. I attended the Oilers home game vs. the Chicago Blackhawks. The Oilers should have pounded them but alas, it was a 4-3 loss for the boys in blue. It was still an entertaining game, just would have been much sweeter to see a win. Then I got to watch the CFL Western Final on a 60+ inch big screen tv. It was a good, intense, and tight game. It was all tied up in the fourth quarter and it was the team that makes the first mistake that would lose. Thankfully, Dickenson throws an interception and the Eskies turn it into the winning touchdown. The last minute was still nerve-wracking because B.C. had the ball and could have won on a miracle touchdown. The Eskies coaches had to make some tough, somewhat questionable decisions with the football. Good thing they pulled it out because if B.C. somehow pulled it out, I cannot even think of what the backlash could be.

By the way, it must be near exams or something because the blogs have come back alive a bit. Sigh, in the meantime I've got some group projects to work on. I'm just trying to make it to Christmas. Than to summer. Than next Christmas, than graduation! Yay!

And speaking of Christmas, it is nearly December and hasn't snowed. I wish I can find this kind of toque somewhere for the winter. Looks spiffy to me =D. But to keep going, its not very cold at all! What up with the lack of white stuff on the ground? Remember when we had the Grey Cup in 2002? Or the Heritage Classic in 2003? Those were both late November games and it was FREEZING temperatures!! Now? The only sign of November is the fact that it gets dark really quickly.

In a completely different direction, I would like to try to do some kind of self reflection. I think its fairly evident I hardly practice that on here. Time to time while I'm sitting on the bus or whatever I think about what I've gone through or my opinion on certain topics and how I could blog about it. Oh, then I don't. Even right now I'm having lots of trouble deciding what I want to type. I think I need some help out here on this one...

Actually, does anyone have a topic I can try to think about for myself? Or ideas to just get started. When I first started having a blog, it was just fun to have my own little space on the net. At the time I was also looking at other people's blogs and saw what kind of thoughts would come out. I thought eventually that I could have similar types of things happen, that my writing could improve, that I could "grow". Oh you know... all the good stuff that comes with having a journal. Well, I don't think that has happened. So I'll try to get some kind of opinion piece at the least coming out.

"I walk alone... ", "no its I walk the road!"


The title comes from a small disagreement between my mom and my dad over a lyric in Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." In any case, my mom was right (like always? I really don't want to admit it). Yeah, and this came up because my mom's new favourite song is that Green Day single. Suddenly she has become a Green Day fan and wants to pick up their DVD "Bullet in a Bible." Thanks to my so deservedly won Best Buy coupon from McDonalds, we'll be doing that.

So my placement just ended. Really, I don't know where to start. It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible. It was pretty good and it close to what I kind of expected. However, at times I felt that what I was doing could have been done by anybody. In regards to Ryan's blog, I feel that I enjoy the fact that my profession has a broad range of opportunities. I can enter mental health, work with kids, look at job safety and so on. However, this is also a weakness because I find there is some lack of direction for the profession of Occupational Therapy. Generally there are some things associated with OT, like splinting, but I still find it hard to come up with a simple explanation for what we really do. Um... we try to keep you functional!

I'm just continuing this draft that I started on Monday. I was thinking that I would try to blog weekly and have Monday entries. Well, I'll shoot for Monday or Tuesday as I missed it yesterday.

However, I have to cut this one short because I need to head to bed. There is potential that I might be up again at 2-3 am. To be clarified later...

There She Is!!!

Yay for blogs that just won't die! I find typing up entries really difficult, but I guess I'll keep plugging away at it. Its only been a few years. Supposedly keeping some sort of journal is good for self reflection, which is in turn good good for you because it allows you to something something. Whatever.

So a few days ago I started my first fieldwork placement. I have been placed in a long term care facility and so far its been a good experience. Hey wait a second, that sentence doesn't seem right. Well, you know what I mean. Anyways, my preceptor is super nice and I think I'm pretty lucky to have this person right off the bat. In general, the staff is great and add the fact that I got to stay in Edmonton I have a good situation. The only possible stressor for me at this moment is all my assignments that are based on this placement. My University courses thought it would be a good idea to give us assignments and have us work on it during placement.

As for the placement itself, I don't think I will go into much detail about it. However, I will list some observations real quick:
- Wow, the stuff you learn in school is important!
- It is a suprise how much consideration needs to be taken when getting a wheelchair for someone.
- I can't imagine having to worry about being still in one place too long because a pressure sore might occur. (Basically, sustained pressure on an area of the body can cause an ulcer to the skin.)This ties in with the previous point because this is something that can happen due to sitting still in a wheelchair for too long.
- Bowel and bladder control! An embarassing topic but a vital topic in a person's well being. In fact, I've come across a video of someone with a spinal cord injury who would prefer control over those things rather than be able to walk...
- There are lots of small victories that can mean so much to the client. Something like being able to comb your hair again can be a huge deal.

Okay, enough of that.

Now, onto something differet. Hm... oh crap! Just recalled that on Saturday there is a birthday party! Its kinda neat there is a theme to it. The theme is to.... rock out! Come out dressed as a rock star! Hehe, so far I've thought of stealing my brother's mask he has been working on, wearing a long wig, and throwing on a KFC bucket onto my head. Then voila! You've got Buckethead! Well, it would be pretty damn funny.

Lastly, while reading Maggie's blog I found the paragraph about her cousin Lewis absolutely hilarious. Maggie if you get to read this, first check out this flash called "There she is!!!." Click watch movie. Its probably the most enjoyable flash movie I've ever seen. Watch its sequel too. Now, if you choose to check out the rest of the site, well.... yeah.. your cousin could very easily have found something not suitable at all.

But yay for a flash movie about a rabbit and a cat...

Rock out!

Thats a Nice Story

Well, I haven't blogged for a while and so now is a good as time as any to post something. By the way, for the singles and singles of individuals that looked at my vacation pictures, I will finish putting them up on myspace sometime soon.

So far my program... sucks. It is different than my previous University years and a lot of people feel that we haven't done anything concrete yet. We've just got special words we like to throw around such as "enabling", "client centered", and "holistic." However, I remember being told by others to just wait for that first field placement. After that, you suddenly spring to life. Everything clicks and from there its a whole lot more smiles than before. Hm... I guess I better make sure I get all my requirements for that first placement. Oh yeah, I stay in Edmonton for my first one in October.

The most interesting classes I've had so far are when patients have visited. Actually, the first one was a standardized patient named "Millie." A standardized patient is actually just an actor or actress playing the role of a patient. Sort of like Kramer when he played the part of a ghonorhea (sp??) patient from Seinfeld. Anyways, she basically played the part of a stroke patient and came into the class so our instructor could perform an assessment. It was pretty neat and the actress did a really good job. she even cued our instructor to remember that in her stroke case she could only hear from the left ear.

The next visitors were a very nice, humourous couple. It is kind of a sweet story because they met in Rehab. One of them has Multiple Sclerosis and the other one has a brain injury after being struck head on by a vehicle. These events and their meeting occurred way back in the late 1980's. I'm not going to mention too much about them, other than that they seem to have a high zest for life. They love their independence and wouldn't trade their lives for anyone elses. For some reason all I could think is that Hollywood couldn't produce a script that could touch their story. There is no doubt in my mind that the whole class loved having their presence. I'll add one last thing that I really admired about their relationship. They seemed to be able to talk to each other about anything and I guess they've learned in their way of life not to take anything for granted.

It seems like a shame to just give them only a paragraph, but I think I may be seeing them in future classes. Alright, thats all for now. GG o_O

5 Quickies

So Chris, a question on your imminent future, how are you feeling about a whole new school year?

My mood right now is a bit of excitement. I'm crossing my fingers that I didn't forget to tie up any loose ends before I head into my new program. But there should be a lot of things to look forward to. Hopefully I'll meet some new people in my classes and get ot know them, learn something new, build a career, and have some fun while doing all that. I do have however this lingering doubt in the pit of my stomach that maybe what I'm going into won't be the best fit for me. ...Ahhh shut up. I can't really worry about that too much.

How was your vacation trip to Brunei?

I really enjoyed it, but I don't think I did as much or appreciated it as much as I could have. Seeing so many relatives back "home" was a treat, unfortunately I've never regretted being unable to speak Asian languages as much as when I was in Brunei. But I'm incredibly lucky to have had the chance to go and experience some travel like that. Now another question I'm wondering is whether or not to blog about it. I'm feeling that I should, but I will actually have to plan it out like an essay. I'm just not sure what to include and exclude, and whether I have too much to say or nothing at all.

How was your summer overall?

It was excellent! If I complained about it at all, I'd have to somehow roundhouse kick myself. In all likelihood I've probably had the most time available to be running around having fun. Now its time to prepare for the year and be ready to "hit the ground running" for school.

What are you looking forward to?

I don't really know. Since I'm kinda unsure of what the future holds for me, I have an optimistic "lets see where this takes me" kind of attitude. In sports however, I know that 68 Edmonton Oiler hockey games will be televised for free. Oh that might hurt the studying a little bit... hey anyone wanna know the cost of seasons tickets? For the best seating, season tickets will cost about pretty much the same as a year of going to University fulltime. Yay!

Any last comments?

Yeah, while the optimism meter is running high I just wanted to say to all my friends out there, good luck on the upcoming year in whatever your endeavour may be. Work hard, play hard, be safe, and have some fun. =D Heres to all the good times we've had, the crap we've waded through, and whatever it is that comes up this year. And just so you all know, whether you need somebody to cheerlead, celebrate with, need support or help, whatever, just ask and I'll show up.

Photos

Expect some photos of my vacation sometime soon. Man, I'm kinda excited to post them up, some of them I think are really cool.

Greetings from Brunei!

Yay! My family and I made it safe and sound to my mom's hometown in Brunei. We finally arrived after catching a series of flights, some being very brief stopovers. The list of our stops is as follows: Calgary, Los Angeles, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, um... some town... and we arrived in a place called Miri. From there we were driven about another hour and a half I think.

Anyways, I'm on my cousins comp and I don't plan on staying on this too long. Just letting whoever know that I made it, yay!

Fishing trip pictures

Just some photos from our fishing adventure in Slave Lake a few weeks back. To take a look, click here.

Summer Days drifting away...

Its nearly August which means there is... sadly only one month of summer left. However, I'm glad to say that this summer has felt pretty long. Its just that I've kinda lost track of time because I don't really need to follow a schedule of some sort, although things have felt eventful lately.

Some of you know who Linda is. She went to Vietnam and while there took some studio photos. I don't know if she really felt like showing them, but they're not exactly difficult to find and I think they look nice so I thought I'll put up the link. You can find them on her myspace by clicking here.

Oh yeah, I totally misread the date on the Eskimos tickets that I have. They said August 26th, not July 26th. Man, I would have looked retarded going to Commonwealth on the wrong day. Anyways, I have around 6 tickets I can sell off for $5. From what I know they are lower bowl seats closer to an endzone and they come with a hotdog and drink, and a park and ride bus pass. I believe the game falls on a Tuesday night and starts at 8 p.m. Lets go support the Esks "defend the turf!"

Hmm... other than that I'm kinda done here. I would talk about the Karate BBQ except posting up pictures with captions would be so much better, but of course I have none. Oh I know! I'll type up something about the hypnotist show from when I went to Klondike Days.

Alright, its 11:30 pm and its Me, Larry, and Tony heading out to Molsons Brewery to watch a hypnosis show. Earlier in the day we watched him (Marc Savard) perform and we all had a really good time. We figured his adult show would be really great as well. The show is just starting so Marc is calling for volunteers and Tony and Larry go up. Larry gets let off the stage but Tony is deep into a trance, so he stays. I think I'll just tell one part of the act and let Tony choose whether or not he wants to share his experience. Now, skipping to near the end of the show, the hypnotist decides to have fun and tells all the guys on stage that the following be true: they're all 9 months pregnant. The girls next to them are nurses to help them and everytime Marc coughs, the guys get hit with an intense contraction. Hehe, the look on each guy's face was priceless. Oh, and according to Tony's nurses, he was having twins (boy and a girl!). While coughing and hitting the guys with consistent contractions, Marc decides to stick a microphone in some faces to see how some of the guys are doing. We had answers from "oh man I'm so sorry! I screwed up", "don't tell my mom" to Tony's articulate answer of "Screw you!". When the "babies" were delivered it was great! This one guy who was pretty big was very emotional, he was crying and just so very happy. It was touching and frickin hilarious at the same time =D. Then Marc goes to another person, a white guy with glasses and a red cap and looks at the baby and goes, "why this baby looks just like you! How are you doing and feeling?" Then the guy looks back, somewhat incredulously, and says "uh... my baby's black".

....

Ahahahahhahaha!!

My teef hurt!

The other day I picked up another package from my faculty. This one was to make sure that I had certain immunizations and that I would need to take a physical to make sure I was healthy. It also had for me a list of places asking where I would like to go for my field placements. They gave a map of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and it showed all these places I've never heard of dotting the provinces. Well, sooner or later I'd be living on my own for a while, but facing the prospect of it is kinda daunting. I can't remember how many times I'll get sent out, but its not really one long placement. Its a bunch where I'm gone for a few weeks, come back, then go back out. Anyways, the bottom line was that this is getting me closer and closer to that first class in September. I sure hope this is what I wanted to get into. This ... ahh... know what? I don't really feel like blogging about how I'm a bit freaked walking into this. I'll just keep it to myself for now.

In other news, I got some fun stuff lined up before I'm leaving. Does anyone wanna goto Klondike Days on the 25th? It would be cool to get a nice group of people and head out. I would like to grab a small core number for sure though, because inevitably the group splits up. But thats fine because people want to do different things. Also, I have a couple of tickets for the Edmonton Eskimos game on the 26th against the Alouettes, gametime I think being 8 pm. Anyone possibly interested? I guess I shouldn't forget the Karate BBQ we have this Sunday, anyone who wants to go? Just ask me for more info. Looks like I'm gonna have a ball before packing up, can't really ask for much more.

Alright, thats all for now. I'm gonna goto sleep and hope my mouth recovers from the sharp pokey scrape thingy the dentist's assistant uses.

Gone Fishin'

Before I forget, I need to give much thanks to Dev. He is the one who brought his camera and took all the pictures during our time in B.C. The Vancouver trip was a great experience. My only regrets is that I didn't keep track of how much I spent, and that I didn't see my aunt too much. In sum, it was a blast hanging out with everyone, so thanks for the memories guys! The trip has kinda divided my summer as well. I have "Before B.C. trip", and "After B.C. trip." Oh yeah, now I'm thinking of heading back there when the Olympics come back to Canada. That would be friggin awesome, watching Canada defend their gold in Ice Hockey.

As I mentioned before, I have some more travelling to do as I leave for Brunei at the end of July. Also, Keith is having a birthday party about less than a week before we leave and right after is the Karate BBQ, and I plan on hitting Kdays on the 21st. Anyone up for some rides??

Getting back on track, this weekend a bunch of families (Mine, Dev, and Tony's) plus a bunch of others went to Slave Lake for some fishing. We arrived Friday night and set up our little dome tent right away. We didn't do too much that night and went to bed because we wanted to get up early in the morning for some fishing. That dome tent sucked so badly, it last worked when me and Keith were younger. However, now that we're bigger than our parents, that thing didn't us all that well. I haven't slept that badly for a long time.

The next morning we had to walk to the dock and the group consisted of Tom, Helen, Dev, Ant, Keith, and my dad. Well of course, plus me. Tom had rented a boat for us. So we get on the boat and well, theres not much to tell. We fished! We had several fish that weren't big enough to keep, but my Dad and Ant came up with two keepers. My memorable moment at this point was that I had this huge bite, and although I was sitting at the back, my line got pulled to the front. Since I didn't anyone getting tangled in my line, I went to the front and I saw tons of seaweed in front, so I was convinced I was hooked on some seaweed. Except it was pulling on my line, and was pulling so hard I needed to increase the tension of my line. I'm pretty sure it was a fish of some sort since my line suddenly relaxed... Ugh, then we decided to move the boat somewhere else, and we were travelling into the waves. Whoever was at front got totally soaked by Slave Lake water. Yay! ....yuck...

We headed back for lunch and split into different groups. Now it was Dev, Ant, Keith, Edwin ?, my dad, and me. We didn't really feel like walking the long way, so we tried a shortcut. Imagine that we had to walk a U end to end in order to normally walk to the dock. Well, we tried to avoid going around by heading into the tall and somewhat ominous grass. At first it was fine, although a few thorny plants annoyed anyone wearing shorts. However, it turned for the worse when we realized that this area was right next to the lake, and it would be swampy. It was gross!! Shoes, socks, and pant legs were ruined! But you know, it was friggin hilarious.

We get to the dock in shorter time but a lot smellier, but whatever! We get the same boat as the morning, but this time it just completely sucks. Now, it wasn't working very well in the morning, and this time the boat decided to going forward wasn't in the cards. So my dad figured it would be best to idle in reverse (going in reverse would spray too much water at us) and to help us along, use the oars to paddle back to the dock. Yay! The renter of the boats got back to us and gave us another boat which was in much better working condition. So we got out, and this time me and my dad were the ones with keepers. YAY!! I caught a fish!!! Yep, I'm a real outdoorsman. That pretty much ends the exciting parts of the trip.

I think I have a few pictures because my dad took his new digital camera there. Hopefully I'll get a hold and post some up soon. Three cheers for camping!!

Photos!

I threw up a few pictures for those who wanted to see on myspace. Should be able to just click the picture next to my name on MSN Messenger.

Vancouver Trip... End

Well, this is the last one about the Vancouver trip. I seriously doubt anyone's read all of it, but I guess that isn't the point. I just wanted to be able to remember what happened.

Friday

On the tail end of the trip, we decided to check out Vancouver's lookout tower. Its one of those space needle looking towers like the CN Tower in Toronto, although not nearly as tall. It was actually not too expensive to go up and the tower provided a really good view. Damn it Vancouver has some really nice scenery. It was really neat because we were able to look at places we had already been, like Stanley Park, Grouse Mountain, and we could see where we parked our van. There was also a revolving restaurant on the next floor up, but we didn't go there.

Next we went back to Metrotown once again for some more shopping. I forget how much time we spent here, maybe an hour or a little over that. Either way, its a nice mall but its no West Ed. Nothing really too noteworthy to mention except we killed some time.

At 7 we went to the Richmond Night Market. Basically its a parking lot full of stores that mostly sell some kind of novelty item that you don't need, but its nice to have. You know things like laser pointers, hats, DVD's, squid balls (food), and swords. They do have a section for food. In fact, one of the things we saw was a strip of bacon wrapped around sausage. Yum! Anyways, for products like electronics, you should be a little wary. If you do your homework you can buy certain things like headsets, mouses, and so on.

We finished off our night by eating out at No. 9's again and would head back to the house to pack up.

Saturday

Well when we got back to the house we talked with Tess for a bit because it would be our last night staying there. We would hit the road around 8 on Saturday morning to drive to a place called Radium, which was still in B.C. I tried to get up early, but it was difficult thanks to Tess and her introduction of "Ladder Theory" to us.

So it was a drive yet again, and we killed time by the usual ways again. Sleeping, music, portable DVD player. This time for me it was mostly sleepy. I was actually seated in the middle and it was sooo easy to fall asleep!! Anyways, after about 8 hours we get to the hotel we're staying at. The reason we were stopping here was to cut the trip and spread it over two days, and to check out the hot springs.

So after settling in for a bit, we checked out the hot springs. It was basically a pool outdoors except heated naturally. You could see the steam rising up and as I've said before, this kinda stuff added a nice atmosphere to me. It also rained for a bit too so for a little while I was hot and cold. Brrr... it burns! Anyways, it was comfortable and we talked for a bit, a nice place to be. Afterward we headed back to the hotel and finished out the night by watching the Arrested Development DVD I got. Hehehehe...

As for Sunday, theres really nothing to comment about. Its just the finish of the drive and so the journey ends here. I think I'll post some final thoughts next time.

Vancouver trip Cont'd, Part III

Wow, when I look back, it seems to be an eventful trip. I'm just trying to remember the main things about the trip and not fill up on the stuff like how Tony got me a balloon (Yeah, I really wanted it... :S). It saddens me to know how quickly it started and ended. Anyways, better start getting to those days before my memory crashes.

Before I forget, we also went to Kit Beach. Although the weather wasn't really that great for swimming, we still got to play in the sand! At first I was gonna help Megan build an alligator, but it was kinda boring. Then Dev helped her finish it while Tony and I build a small sand town called Clamville. The reason its called that was because Tony kept finding clams, and when we were done, he made a big lake and dumped them in there.

Wednesday

Each morning I was usually among the first to wake up. I eventually started a routine where I would eat my cousin's cereal (Vector!!). If I recall correctly, this day was a bit of a sleep in day. The agenda for the day was Stanley Park. It took a while to get there but when we did, someone came up with a very good idea to rent some bikes. We all thought it would be really fun but the nearest bike rental places were apperently off the island of Stanley Park. Well, after a few minutes due to a traffic circle that came out of nowhere and well, forced us to circle, we found a place for bike rentals, but more importantly, parking space. Now there was an option of using tandem bikes (the bikes with two seats) and singles. Tom and Helen went for it, and in a what the hell mood, so did Dev and Tony. I for the life of me would have killed whoever went with me.

So we went off and decided to bike around Stanley Park. We saw some totem poles, acanon, light house thingy, a dragonhead replica that had gone on the front of a boat, and some beaches. I had a really fun time biking around and there was just sooo much to look at! Its too bad my descriptions would mostly consist of words like water and rocks because thats what surrounded us. Yet it pleasing to the eye. After the bike ride we headed to the beach again.

The most interesting thing was that they were filming for the movie Like Mike 2. However, watching them film wasn't too exciting. We stayed at the beach for about half an hour to an hour. I really can't remember. I was looking forward to my next meal which would be at some sushi place.

We went over by Robsons Street and walked into this nice Japanese place. I can't remember what this place was called, except that it started with an S. They had these cool tables and the booth that surrounded it was shaped like a boat. But we ended up getting a table in the corner inside what seemed to be the only table that could have seated 10 or more. The restaurant seriously put tables if there was a 5 foot circle possible. Everytime I walked outside of our booth, I would walk into somebody. As for the food, well it wasn't as great as it could have been, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Afterwards we cruised Robsons St. for a bit of shopping. There I got the first season of Arrested Development from their big Virgin Records store, and a nice Canucks hat from somewhere. This pretty much ended the day.

Thursday

This would be the day we decided to tackle Grouse Mountain!! The hiking distance is about 2.9 km and the vertical is about 900 m. I looked forward to this because I could treat it like an adventure. So we started our ascent up, and it was kinda funny because part of the group believed we were only going up a bit of a distance, then coming back down. The other part of the group knew better. Once we started, we were gonna finish going up. On a sidenote, I don't think I could have done it going down. I just wouldn't be able to get my footing. Anyways, we start going up and I start sweating alot, partly because its a hard hike and partly because I just tend to sweat easily. Again, lots of nice scenery to look at and near the top there was this fog/mist that gave a really nice atmosphere. It was kinda neat to walk out of it and into the sunlight when you finally got to the top.

At the top there was a bunch of shows, and one being a lumberjack show. It was really entertaining, and nearby were some animals. I managed to get a glimpse of a wolf. Afterwards we ate at the restaurant they had, watched a few more things, and took the $5 trip back down the sky lift thing. Oh yeah, the way up cost $32.

Afterwards we went back to my cousins place to clean up. Then half of the group would go clubbing and the other to see a movie. We ended up watching War of the Worlds and I thought it was a solid effort. Unfortunately, it wasn't anything groundbreaking and that actually takes away from the movie. I enjoyed the first 3/4ths of the movie, but the end just kinda happened and finished it. Well, I want to read the book now. That would be the end of that day for us, which would lead us to the last two days of our trip (Sunday doesn't count, we were just travelling back).

'Till next time!

Vancouver trip cont'd...

Monday

During our stay at Victoria, we had a hotel room and we crammed the 7 of us. I guess I neglected to specifically mention who was on the trip, so let me do so now. We had Tom, Helen, Dev, Ant, Kevin, Megan, and myself. Anyways, before going to bed the movie American Beauty came on. Most of us ended up staying up to watch that movie. Previously on the drive I had watched Good Will Hunting so now that was two new movies for me. Both really good movies, at least in my opinion.

Anyways, back to Monday. We woke up and breakfast was a bagel. Nice!! To kill some time we went shopping again. Finally, we all went whale watching. The regular price I think was about $75, although I could be wrong. However, there was a student rate of $50 and Tom had some kind of coupon. At first he couldn't use it because he neglected to mention it when reserving spots for us, but after some Jedi mind tricks he was able to use it. Now for some killer whale watching!!

So we boarded this open boat thingy while wearing a jacket and a nice bright red toque they gave us. The reason for the clothing was because it would get really cold once we hit certain speeds. It was a fun ride in the boat and we saw some nice scenery (spelling?? and dammit Alberta and your flatness and lack of coastlines...). We travelled in the boat thingy for about an hour or so until we stopped to look at the whales. Due to regulations, we had to keep a certain distance away from the whales, but we got a bit of a close up when they swam toward us. This one lady seemed angry that the whales decided to swim closer to another boat, and vented a bit at our guide. She asked well how come their boat got to be closer to the whales?? Well, frick, I don't know... I guess the whales decided to swim closer to that boast to piss you off. Anyways, I believe Dev has some nice shots and I got to see a whale breach (basically the whale jumps out of the water and does a flip). When we were leaving, our guide said okay lets go back! So we all looked away and of course a whale decides to breach! Man, screw that! I'm going to Seaworld again for Shamu.

We also visited Mile Zero and to my understanding... actually... I still don't really know what the hell it is. But anyways, we ventured onto the coastline and took some pictures on the rocks. It was also a very nice scenic area.

After some ice cream stops, we need to make it back to the ferry back to Vancouver. Its a bit late so everyone is worried about the ferry being full. And being the super prepared people we are, we are taking the last ferry out. As we're driving theres a whole bunch of cars zooming through. It seems everyone is trying to make the last ferry!! Now somewhere along the stretch of road there is a big looming sign. On it all I could read was ....%....Ferry....Full. There is a big silent collective "oh crap!!" in the van! We get closer and there is a big silent collective "phew!" because the sign says the ferry is only 31% full or something like that.

The ferry we're on is a new one and its fairly nice. So we have another nice cruise and we go back to my cousins house for a night's sleep.


Tuesday

Dammit, my mind is drawing the biggest blank in the world. What the hell did we do on this day?!? Oh wait! I think we went to Metrotown. Basically the biggest mall Vancouver has is really two malls that just happened to be built right next to each other. The other one is called... Metropolis! Yay! Right next to these malls is an area called Station Square. We happened to park there and we saw a Thai restaurant in the parkcade. Yeah... okay... For the most part the stuff we saw there was pretty much the same stuff we'll see in Edmonton. However, they had a Nike store!! I'm convinced I would have bought something if I had stayed there more. Usually I hate buying clothes because I have to try it on and crap like that. I probably would have gotten a hat.

Afterward we hit up Granville market... place... thingy... whatever its called. On the drive over we would take East Hastings street. It was a street we would get a bit familiar with, as it is notorious for being a very seedy and dangerous area. Once, my dad unknowlingly took Tess, Keith, and I for a quick walk there. Some hilights include a guy who was literally pissed drunk. But carrying on, we managed to pick up snacks while at the market. I mainly picked up apples, I believe it was oranges for Dev, berries for Ant, and Tom had pepperoni sticks. There were a lot of neat little stores (like the kids area!) but there wasn't really anything that screamed, "buy from here!! Totally what you want and you won't find it in Edmonton!" Although Kevin did pick up a nice colouring book about the history of swords. Yes, a colouring book that was all about swords.

For our dinner, we would goto a Chinese restaurant called Number 9's. Yeah, I don't know why you would call yourself that, but whatever! I thought it was one of the better Chinese places, but about the same as a place like Good Buddy. It was good enough to come back here again though, I'll say that much. So after we filled our stomaches up we called it a night, which would lead us to...

Wednesday

Okay, this is for next time!

There and Back Again

Well, we're all back from the Vancouver trip. I had a blast, and pretty soon I'm going to be gone again. I have some camping trip to go this upcoming weekend, and on July 29th I leave for Brunei and come back August 23rd. It was fun hanging out with everyone and the things we saw and did.

We left on the 25th of June and came back July 3rd.

Saturday

We left Edmonton at about 4 am. For the most part, it was pretty much a straight drive except for gas breaks. We did have a quick lunch break though, but there was a concerted effort to limit stops. In total the drive there was about 12-13 hours. I was crammed into the back with Kevin and Megan. Actually, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Pretty much the ways to kill time was to sleep, listen to music, or use Megan's portable DVD player. There isn't much to tell since nothing crazy happened on the drive there.

At about 5-6 pm B.C. time we found the place we were staying. There was an arrangement where my cousins would take the 7 of us into their home. They lived in Coquitlam which was a bit far away from the places we would see, but that was the only negative. There have a pretty big home housing my Aunt and my cousins Tess (who is our age) and Vince (who is 24). Tess was always the cousin I would hang out with during family gatherings since we were close in age. I didn't see Vince much during the trip, although that was kinda expected. But anyways, we arrived at the house where my aunt greeted us. She helps us settle in a bit and jokes that I'm useless in helping navigate us around in Vancouver. Since this is the end of a long drive, we're all hungry but can't decide on where to eat. We wait for Tess to come home from work and she also ends up joking that I'm useless in navigating Vancouver. Thanks guys. Anyways, we eat at Red Robins and after that, the day is over.

Sunday

So the plan was to stay in Victoria after arriving in Vancouver. To get to Victoria with our rented van, we were going to take a ferry. Everybody woke up and got out the door relatively on time, but we just missed catching the 9 am ferry. We wandered the shopping area that was close by and took pictures near the coast. Soon we heard a big loud voice telling us to get our butts back into ours cars to drive onto the ferry. At the same time they started unloading the ferry that had currently docked. The cars unloaded and drove down the road we had crossed to take the pictures. At first everyone was all excited about the ferry and we stood outside for a while, but then it started getting cold and windy. The ride was about an hour and a half before we reached Victoria island. After checking into the hotel we went shopping. For the most part it was just wandering around. It pretty much would come to splitting up, with the groups being the two couples on their own and Me, Dev, and Ant just wandering around.

Our next meal would be at a place called "Barb's..." well I don't remember anything else about its name. But it had very good fish (halibut) and chips. Good enough to come back the next day. What was very cool was that were floating houses right next to the place! I wish I had a camera so I could show pictures, but alas, I don't.

Next was Butchart Gardens. Although there were only about 2-3 hours left before it closed and there was some light rain, it was probably the best time to go. I thought the light rain added a really nice atmosphere to the place and with us getting there so late, there was no one else there. I really enjoyed the place there and this was also a place of some stupid fun. First off, we picked up umbrellas and for the most part, we used them as swords to fight. The funny thing was that Kev saw some wheelchairs for use, so he decided to grab one. About 30 minutes into the garden, the genius decides he is sick of the wheelchair ,and we ditch it somewhere. Later on when we go back we find that someone already took it back. The funniest part is at the end when Dev, Tom, and Ant decide to have a quick wheelchair race in the parking lot. Somehow, Ant goes veering off to who knows where, and some guy sees them all and busts them. He just yells out, do you need to use that? Ant looks at him, looks down, goes alright, I'll get up. Meanwhile, it seemed that Dev and Tom weren't spotted, so they quickly finished their race. Tom won by the way. That was pretty much the end of that day.

Short Update from B.C.

Well, I'm still in B.C. but the trip is almost over. We've done quite a bit, so hopefully I can remember most of it. At the moment it seems everyone else is asleep. It looks like I'm one of the first to wake up. Its kinda funny because usually on a family trip that would go to Keith, and I would be the last to wake up. As much as it is a bummer to have the trip end, I imagine people are starting to miss their beds.

Quick bulletin update, I'm in, yeehaw!

At 2:00 pm on a Wednesday afternoon, I get a call from someone in the Occupational Therapy department. I wasn't at home at the time (at St. John's Ambulance) so I missed it. By the time I get home and call back, all I can do is leave a message. So I don't know if I'm in. The next morning my cell phone has a missed call at 9, and I'm kicking myself for not getting out of bed. I end this phone tag session quick and reach someone and eventually hear, "we have a spot for you, will you accept?" So Yay!! My future is on track for now! Of course, it only gets harder and I'm gonna have to put in a tremendous effort the second I step into a class.

However, there is a potential problem. Next week the department mails out some package but at the same time I'll be in BC. They may need me to sign some documents, but if I fire off an email to the lady in charge, my parents could hand it in.

Anyways, time to grab a quick nap before heading off West. Later days!

Update

Alright, lets just get a brief sit rep on whats going to be happening with me. On Tuesday and Wednesday I'm heading to St. John's... center? place? Eh, whatever its called. Anyways, I'm going there for a Stardard First Aid/CPR course. I've always kinda kicked myself for not getting this sooner. You never know when any little tidbit from these courses could come in handy. Luckily (and knock on wood) I've never experienced a very tense situation where such knowledge needed to be called upon.

On the 25th I'll be on a trip heading out to Vancouver. Yeah, its coming up pretty quickly and it will be a 10 day trip. Whats mind boggling is that when the trip is over and I'm back in Edmonton, it'll be July!! That means summer is half over! But back to teensy bit more about the trip. I also talked to Tess, who is my cousin that lives there. After she had a quick chat with her mom it looks like our group might be able to stay at their place. Awesome! Y'know, whoever planned this trip, I should probably say thanks to for including me in on this. It probably helped that I have a lot of free time now since I've just been bumming around =)

I think I might try to keep a journal of it. If I bring a small notebook, and jot some point form notes about what happened and fill it in with more info at another time it shouldn't be too hard.

Now, that kinda brings me to another thought, I always wondered if blogging would get easier. Really, it never did. I've never been much of a "sharer" to begin with, and writing a diary of some sort never appealed. So that would make having a blog a dynamite idea! Well, at the time I thought something would change and maybe I would throw more out in the open. Instead, I just end up throwing around some scattered thoughts and brief sentences on what I've done. Ugh, clearly I can be capable of more than that, right? Why else have I kept this up when I could have just forgotten about it? Well, I really like being able to read about what everyone else is doing. And another thing is it seemed like keeping a journal was a good thing, although I'm not sure why. It doesn't matter to me if no one reads this, but the potential for it helps keep me honest and a bit more open minded. Plus, I should type as though I'm typing this for another person to read. That way this blog will be a good archive of what my thoughts, actions, and opinions were.

Okay, I think I'll end this here and see where I go afterward. On a side note, if anyone is bored, check out this blog. The writer is a bouncer at a club in New York, and these are some of his stories and observations.

New Middleweight Champ!

I'm gonna make this a quick one, and mostly about watching UFC 53. I thought the event was pretty exciting, not completely full of competitive matches but rather to see if the guys they wanted to push belong in the Octagon. By the way I'm talking about professional fighting in the event known as the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The sport is pretty much called "mixed martial arts" or MMA for short. I'm not completely sure why I became such a fan of this, it can be pretty raw and brutal at times. I guess combat sports are pretty much the only ones where you find total one on one competition. And even though a fighter will need a lot of people backing him/her up (sparring partners, coaches, sponsors and so on) in the end, he is responsible for what happens to him. I also like the simplicity of the sport in comparison to something like football, baseball, heck even bowling (seriously, who came up with this idea?). Anyways, there was one fight between Rich Franklin and Evan Tanner for the Middleweight Championship and it was a solid fight. For me it was the culmination of Rich plugging away, working hard and smart, getting his chance and giving it his very best. He won the MW championship fairly clearly, but had his scary moments. Anyways, this picture best represents what it took for him to become a champ.

To be honest, I could probably go on for a long while, but its not like I think about this THAT often.

In other news, I haven't recieved word on whether or not I'm accepted into the Occupational Therapy program. Its "Mid-June" and I don't actually know how I'm getting the news, or if they're only telling those who get in. For a long time, my attitude was pretty much to just take it as it comes. Kinda fast how "Mid June" has come, and I have no idea what to expect. I'm hoping that I'll get to have a celebration dinner instead of a consolation one.

Looks like this stayed brief, but I better head off to bed and try to fall asleep.

Quick update...

I guess a quick update on my happenings would be a good starting point for this blog. So lets get straight to it...

My city job ended May 28th, so now I'm just sitting around the house and one week has nearly passed. Unfortunately, I still have to wait for another paycheque to roll in, and I kinda have to cross my fingers that my hours didn't get screwed up. I'm already missing 10 hours, thanks payroll! Well, I'll be positive on this one and I figure things will work out.

The weekend right after was another public library book sale. The prices went like this: Hardcover is $2, and softcover is $0.50. I got some sports books (I now have a bunch of books about the Oilers of the 80's, one co-authored by Kevin Lowe...), some Tom Clancy stuff, CPR/first aid books, and other stuff I can't remember all too well. I also ended up later picking up Michael Durant's book from Chapters. If you've ever watched Black Hawk Down (somewhat a spoiler coming up) Durant is a helicopter pilot that ends up getting shot down and captured. This book is a bit about his career and the 11 days he spent captive. It was a decent book but I just didn't like something about it.

Just today Maggie and I went to St. John's Ambulance center (place??) to register for a Standard First Aid and CPR course. Its slated for June 21st and 22nd. If anyone else wants to come out for it or maybe more info, just give me a shout...

Star Wars and stuff

Its been a quiet long weekend. On Friday I got to drive to work again (right by Belvedere station) because my parents were going to Calgary 'till Saturday evening. The drive there was pretty much a non event, although I heard about the semi truck hitting the bus over the radio. Work breezes by and at lunch I actually start to feel my throat getting a bit sore. That's great, I'm getting sick...

Anyways, I figure out a plan to watch Star Wars Revenge of the Sith with my bro the next afternoon. We'll have breakfast somewhere, line up half hour before doors open and kill time however we need to. For some reason I think things are open at 9 so we leave around then, but of course nothing is. We eat at Moxies at 10, and that brings us to 11 am which is about half an hour 'till the theater opens. A bit of a line actually forms but nothing maddening. We're one of the first to be there so we get good theater eseats.

As for the movie itself, well its okay. It would be interesting to see the original trilogy again and see if everything fits in well. The biggest problem I have with the prequel trilogy (PT) is that its too much about the special effects. Sure, thats the draw with Star Wars, the lightsabers, blasters, and ships. I never was bothered with the differences between the original trilogy and the current one regarding things such as lightsaber fight scenes and crowd scenes, because thats really just a film making thing, if I was reading the story there isn't a difference. But the special effects are the focus instead of the characters and events. Seriously, whats up with all these CG characters and animals? The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy really sucked me in, whereas I find the SW trilogy I'm just amused by shiny lasers and force chokes. Oh yeah, I almost preferred the original lightsaber fight between Obi Wan and Darth Vader back in A New Hope than in some of the PT fights. Reason? I can't f*'ing see what the hell is going on! "I think its cool.. I can hear the whrrrr's and see bright lights twirling..."

Anyways, my parents get back in time for dinner (yay!). As we're talking, they look and point at the paper and my mom mentions she was feeling sick to her stomach when she found about the semi truck broadsiding the bus (The thing I heard over the radio). It turns out that this bus is part of the same service that my dad takes to get home. My dad took the first bus back, and the one that was hit was maybe the 11th or 12th bus heading to Edmonton. Four were killed and about 20 more were hurt. A bit of sad irony, the Journal reported that one of the victims didn't like to drive that stretch of road and so he took the bus because he felt it was safer. My parents found out about this when they phoned the friend they were visiting, and he came off on the phone as very worried because he knows what bus service my dad took.

While this didn't come across as a razor thin escape from fate, it was another reminder of how quick life can change. There have been a number of reminders over the past years, or at least it feels that way. I'm not really sure how to take these, do I just kind of accept it as a part of life? That these things happen and there is a certain level where we just roll with it? Or that its a signal to do the things you need and want to do?

I guess thats growing up. I tend not to think about the difficult parts of the future, just the potential cutesy Kodak moments...

Whats up?

Hmm... I haven't really looked up any more info about the CPR stuff, although I did see that the U of A is holding a session in mid June. Maybe I'm better off checking out other places.

Lets see, so far its been an activity filled week. I guess I can give a bit of a recap of what happened and some thoughts...

On Sunday a load of us went out to Hawrelak park, well, at least the site nearby. It was fun to be outside and ice fights are apperantly still really fun! Yeah, in one confrontation a friend named Andy comes up to me with a tray of ice ready to toss at me. At the time I head a cup of Vanilla Pepsi, and for some reason reflexively tossed it at him (yeah, real nice...). He still comes at me relatively unfazed and then I slip and wipe out on the grass and get even more grass stains. Whatever, I think he got the worst of it (=

Fast forward a bit to Monday where we decide to have a game of Monopoly. To tell you the truth, its not very often you can have a full fun game of Monopoly or Risk. Those games are quite the momentary friendship killer. Thats not to say that there can't be friendly games, but that it can be difficult (Frick?! Why are you attacking me?? He just took over a continent!). Sometimes you even start yelling at the dice (because that helps soooooo much!). The most classic moment ever though, and this has to be shared, is a game of Risk 2025. At the time, Ryan had the option to "nuke" continents and he opted to do so. Each side of the dice corresponded to a continent, and at the time I was nervous because I held 2. Anyways, he proceeds to roll the number that goes to his continent, and nukes himself. The card doesn't specify that you CAN'T nuke yourself sooo.... bam!! Its pretty much game over man. Friggin priceless!!

Anyways, we can't finish the game because people have work and school the next day, so right now that game is in stasis.

We'll fast forward to a birthday dinner at Mikado's (a Japanese restaurant). Everyone seemed pretty satisfied with the food, although it was a bit pricey. I was driving Keith and Delia, and for those who don't know, they get involved in the most stubborn arguments ever. I usually just sit and face the opposite direction, because its really frustrating listening to them.

The gist of it is this:

"People can be nice"

"But not everyone is nice"

"Well maybe because other people aren't nice to them"

"So people can be mean!"

"Well, only if people aren't nice... but... "

Like what the frick? This isn't even an argument. This isn't even a discussion, its just making a bunch of statements and trying to appear more right. For some reason, their personalities mix into the most frustrating conversations ever.

Okay, you know how whenever a group of friends get into activity _____ there is always one or two people who sit in the corner because they are uncomfortable with the activity? The bums that don't include themselves for some reason? Yeah, well thats totally me because afterward we went to karaoke it up. I'd just sit on the couch farthest and stare at the words on the screen. For some reason I just can't get into it, and it sucks because everyone else is having so much fun. I think its because I don't want to get up and sing into the mic and suck, but really, who cares? And its not like there's a prize to win or anything. One of these days I'm gonna get up in front of the mic!! ....but yeah...

And so thats an update! At the very least, this is a decent record of what I did this summer...

A question to everyone, who wants to learn CPR and get certified!! I have to start looking so I can sign up for it. Anyone else interested?

Last comments

I'll quickly end off what I started about the tournament. I promptly lost my next match 5-2 but it was a good experience (it was here where I didn't dodge all the sidekicks and got caught, it was sore for a bit but now its completely gone). Again, didn't embarass myself and managed to learn a few things. Yay!

I was going to talk about how others did, but I changed my mind. If they decided to blog about it, that's great and if not, thats okay. Maybe I'll comment, if anyone wants me to. Anyways, the tournament doesn't feel as long as it used to, even though I have to wait a lot longer for my events.

Not much else to report on a Monday. Well, today it rained and I didn't mind it all that much. It was just some minor drizzles but I had a decent jacket and hood on so it wasn't horrible. After the tournament there's not a whole lot to look forward to. Oh wait!! Movies!! I'm actually looking forward to watching a few movies! Hey, does anyone wanna watch Unleashed
this Friday?? A Jet Li movie with some hope!! woohoo!

Some thoughts and tiny bruises

Well I'll quickly start off by saying that I started my courier job for the City of Edmonton. I did this last year, and a quick description of what I do is that I deliver the garbage pickup calendars. Mailing it out appears to cause a few hassles with using Canada Post (oh yeah, and deliver these calendars in housing zones that do not correspond with your mail route) so thats why we have a job for the month of May. This is accomplished by having groups of 6, with one being a leadhand (and driver of a rented van) and the rest of us to deliver the calendars. This year I have a decent driver that is a retired foreman, and 4 fellow couriers that are female.

Interestingly enough, despite the City of Edmonton being "equal opportunity" the ratio of females to males seems to be 8 to 1. Is the fact that most of the couriers I'm working with girls a good thing? I'm not really sure it is. I'm not that great with initiating a lasting conversation and I don't have a whole lot to add when they're talking (did you see the Bachelor??). You also tend to overhear some interesting comments, such as: "Back during (high) school we used to have "commando" days. We thought it was so funny and cool! So I went the day without any underwear! Later on, I had a yeast infection..."

...What the ...

Huh?? How do you respond to that??

Some last comments about the job. Mentally, its not very difficult. For the most part, if you get good directions from your leadhand you won't get confused. It helps to be decent with reading maps and understanding where you are, but not completely needed. Physically it can take its toll, despite the fact that you are just walking. The weather is the tough part, and really when the job is walking outside there are a lot of tougher jobs out there. Despite that, I remember walking in some blistering heat last year and thought to myself, how slow am I moving??

Soooooo onto the Ging Wu tournament! Its a relatively big deal because our Karate club doesn't often go very out of the way to hit the tournament scene. This year was a good one as people from our club managed to medal. The ones that I think still read this blog I'll just congratulate, so kudos to Devin, Anthony, Larry... and uh... I'll give one to Kevin for helping finish my pizza. Thanks man, a very difficult role indeed. Unfortunately, I didn't medal but at least I didn't embarrass myself (=

This year would be a toughie, as now I'm in the blackbelt category. Now I would have to wait the whole day before my division starts. I guess I could have helped judged kata and sparring divisions, but I didn't really feel up for it. Sparring I wouldn't have minded. But katas (forms, patterns... same thing) are really tough because I didn't remember what different styles (even just for "hard", the one we're categorized under) look like. Katas, very briefly, can be described as prearranged movements in a fight. I tend to look at it more of a training tool that helps you in balance, conditioning, body movements, attention, and dedication to bother to learn something. I'll just leave it at that for the moment. Judging kata's can be very subjective, and thats whats difficult. I also tend to be very biased against certain kata's that to be put bluntly, seem unusual to me. I'm pretty decent with details regarding these, but I'd probably feel more comfortable judging these next year.

As for judging point sparring, which I call the baby of combat sports, its a bit less subjective. The main thing you learn from Point sparring is to land the hit first. However, some purpose is lost because you need to score jabs to the head the same as a hard body kick.

Anyways, on to when I actually competed. I'm just going to talk about myself, because thats whats important after all. Plus, I missed Ant and Ranald's sparring because my kata division got called up. I didn't place, but I'm confident I was scored in the upper half of the division. When you perform a kata, its pretty much only going to be you performing a routine for about a minute and a half at the max. In the middle of it, I knew I was doing a good job but that it wasn't enough. There are some adjustments to make (be quicker, improve certain parts that require kicks), but I got some encouragement. One person who's katas I admire is Irvin Tong (ended up with a silver) and when we lined up he gave a compliment, saying that was a nice kata. "Well thanks, but I'm still chasing yours..." I also got one from Larry, who's always been watching me like a younger brother. "Okay, well dude I'm gonna go with the conspiracy thing... it was great because you emphasized this part and this... and then you only got ______ for scores... jeez!!"

Now for the point sparring. Quick description of what it is. Its a match where the competitors try to get 5 points first, or the most in 2 minutes. I was pretty nervous about this one for the whole day because I really did not want to go in there and lose 0-5. I was in the lightweight blackbelt category in a single elimination tournament.

I didn't really remember a whole lot about the first match except for the last two points. Luckily, with the aid of some video (Thanks to Jo and her bro) I remember a few things. I remembered this guy is very aggressive, but that his hands weren't particularly sharp. His movement coming in while using hands were probably similar to mine. Anyways, he wasn't wearing a helmet despite the rules stating that it was mandatory. When it was pointed out, the score was 3-3 and the points came by him either attacking and landing, or attacking and missing and me countering. After he gets the helmet he scores so its almost over. Its only a 2 minute match so I kinda had an inkling that I was nearly out of time, but I wasn't going to rush in and get kicked in the body. Its down to the wire and he misses an attack and I miss the counter, but he ends up at the edge of the ring. Knowing I really have to come in, I switch from orthodox to southpaw and then throw a right leg kick that barely resembles anything, and come in with hands. The kick helps break the distance and I know I've got the point because my punches landed on the jaw of his helmet. Just as that exchange ends and the ref breaks it, the timekeeper throws a white belt all tied up to signal that time is over. Phew! Quite the timing... Well its sudden death now, so what do I do? I felt I'd get an opening, and in the video he is clearly inching up toward me before the ref restarts it. I'm actually backing away already. At the time, I just felt that the way he was standing he was going to come at me as soon as the ref says "start!" Well, that exactly happens and I jump back and throw a simple roundhouse kick that scores to his body. Match over and with a bit of luck I manage to move on.

Quite the paragraph for a 2 min+ first round match huh?

Thats all for now since its late. I'll probably add some more comments about how everyone else did.

Where will this lead to...?

I'm not really sure what I want to blog about. I guess I'll just type and see what comes out. Well, just recently I got back some of my final grades. For some reason this seems rather quick to me, although It has been a week and a bit for most of my finals. I've got all my marks except for one. There seems to be a pattern of A-'s in courses which I could have gotten A's in, and some B's to drop me down. My gpa is hovering around the 3.3 range, which has for some reason been a benchmark for me. I probably should have aimed higher, because that is definitely not a guarantee to hit or top requirements needed to get into Occupational Therapy. I threw an application to Business, but really thats meh to me.

The schoolyear for me has ended and I'm wondering if I really learned anything. This year isn't a whole lot different from last year. Grades are more or less the same. Is my mentality the same? I'd like to think I'm a bit less lazy in terms of using my mind, but that probably isn't true. In fact, behaviourally I haven't seemed to learn a whole lot. I repeated the same mistakes from last year. However, it isn't like I'm in academic disaster. I just need to tweak a few things, take more initiative and work very hard. There's a quote attributed to Muhammad Ali that goes like this:

"The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights. "

There is another one that I liked by Mike "Pinball" Clemons, coach of the Toronto Arguonauts. I don't remember what he said exactly, but in the time leading to the Gre y Cup Championship he said that it would be better to work hard and be miserable for a few weeks to be prepared to win, instead of being miserable because you missed out by not preparing enough. I just gotta try to keep these years in perspective. I can give it a good effort for 4 years and be a bit better off for the rest of my life.

No, good effort may not be enough.... After all, there is a difference between a good fighter and a great fighter. I'm still feeling mixed about University. My general mood isn't strictly directed at University life either. Its not a feeling of excessive stress or difficulty. Not that I haven't ever gotten the shakes (a feeling where you just think... oh my I am going to be annihilated on this exam...) buts its just something else that I'm discontent about. Its something that keeps recurring and I have small bouts of dissatisfaction vs optimism.

Eh, I'll read over this tomorrow and see what I think then.