Then getting your ass kicked by a really cold wave!!

Partly because I am a jerk and partly because I didn’t think this ever happened I am going to keep you all updated with the sun situation that is happening here in Tofino! Yup there is still sun and I think it is awesome!

Yuppers you heard right! The jerk and his darling wife are spending the weekend in the lovley (although for me always wet!) paradise of Tofino!  And for the first time ever I saw sun here! Really!! I have proof.

So in an effort to perpetuate my mid life crisis though the summer, today I added a new form of self propelled transportation to my arsenal. I am thinking about calling him Phil.

Yuppers It is a Chocolate deck, Venture Trucks, and Some really awesome wheels by Skate Mental.

So one of the most fun filled weeks that I have had in a while concluded with the craziest weekend!! Where to start! Well I guess at the beginning!

Friday (the 14^th) Shan, Kimli, Miranda, & I sauntered on over to The Calling Public House (on the corner of Davie and Denman) and drank beer for charity! Really! I have no idea how it all worked I just know that I ate a burger and drank a beer and money went to charity. I don’t even know what charity! :) It was good charity beer and good charity burgers!

Saturday (the 15^th) We (Josh, Shan, D, & I) were invited by Amanda’s friends for Karaoke at some pub on Davie called Checkers! There was a lot of beer again! No money went to charity but we did tip well because there was quite the mess when we left! We closed out Checkers but decided that the night was young, so we went to Denny’s for more drinks and possibly some bad grease! Unfortunately I was a jackass to the waitress and they didn’t serve us till after two (even though we arrived at 1:50ish) So Darren decided that he would walk his dog! Meaning run home and grab liquor to smuggle in and spike our drinks with! We ate random grease and laughed at the dudes’ moon walking when Thriller came on the jukebox! :) When it came time to go I walked back to Gastown and took loaded photos (the best kind)

Sunday (the 16^th) Involved Tomahawk breakfast and a mini road trip to Squamish! It was fun to pack us all up the Delica and go!

We got back just in time for roof meat (meaning meat cooked on the roof) at our house, oh and Rock Band

Tuesday (the 18^th) Amanda & I went snowboarding at Cypress! It was the best weather yet and there was I swear 10cm of fresh snow! We ended up drinking a pitcher of beer with lunch and were less then agile for the rest of the day but it was still good times! I tackled the harder blue runs this time around! After the day was done we all went to Dadeos for good time food! I heart Dadeos

Wednesday (the 19^th) I convinced some people that children were evil and rolled into band practice which was good followed as always by beers at the frog!!

Thursday (the 20^th) Was M’s Birthday!! So Dinner at Wazubees and bowling was in order! A whole whack of peeps came out for both which was really awesome because bowling is fun when there is a tonne of people about! After we closed out the alley some of us went to Gastown to continue fun times! Our smaller group closed out Deighton’s Well, and some of us went and closed out the railway! When Josh, Shan and Amanda caught a cab to the north shore, D and I grabbed a coffee! I didn’t get in till at least 4am

Friday (the 21^st) We decided that we would hike an unexplored section of the Baden Powell. Dude I have to say there was a lot of stairs! & epic forests!

Saturday (the 22^nd) Was a scoot about day and trips to the new Long &McQuade on terminal, and Tom Lee! I bought a new case for my eclectic and a stand for my acoustic. (whose name is now Penny no story I just decided!) Followed by the worst karaoke night ever! The Met Pub in Gastown is the scummiest place in the lower mainland!

Sunday (the 23^rd) I went snowboarding while Josh and Miranda drove the Delica as far up some road as they could! Snowboarding was again Epic weather! And even more fresh snow! There was a storm that rolled near the end that was nearly as epic as the riding! But the day in all rocked! My new pants and coat are awesome! I was snugly warm all day and I came home totally dry!

Monday (the 24^th) Miranda josh and I went for late breakfast at Sophie’s and hung out at the hospital taking photos of some of the old buildings and wings! Miranda had her scooter knocked over by cars twice, one we caught the dude in the act! Josh & I abandoned Miranda and rode around a bit!

Ok now it is my turn! I to will simply sponge of the elegance that is Kimli’s writing! I couldn’t have described it better! So go here and read this. Yup The Met Pub in Gastown has to be the worst bar in the history of bars!! I have been in some really crappy places in my time and this is now number one my bad place to go and have a beer!! Absolutely the worst place in history for Karaoke in Vancouver! Seriously don’t take my word for it read everybody else’s account Coaxial says “the met pub in vancouver is a truly unfortunate establishment.” I agree!! Shan from then by music had this to say in her modified version of why the met can suck it. “if slutty boob-jiggling clones is all they want for clientele, they can have them.” Yup they were all little clones of each other! I swear it was some sort of research project and they were all the unfortunate outcome!! A very Sassy Contessa said “The Met Karaoke is not first come first served, the regulars have the run of the show – most likely due to giving the bartender head in the flooded bathroom” The Weasel says “The Met is still a sketchy Hastings bar filled with toothless drunks and various rubby-dubs “ As a visiting Albertian A said that “The Met Pub in Vancouver was not an enjoyable experience” Kimli says “The Met Pub in Gastown fucking sucks and isn’t worth going to, even if you’re slumming or on the prowl for a wretched one night stand. I don’t care who you are; you can do better. “ Yup Man on sober reflection I still can not believe it! The Met Pub in Gastown = The Suck! It’s a downtown east side shite hole that is no different then any of the other heroin houses that you will find off East Hastings. DO NOT GO THERE!!! Don’t let the “Gastown” address fool you! it is a East Hastings crack bar like all the rest!

All right I am home I am loaded and I felt to need to blog it so here you are! I am however loaded an it is 4am and all that so I am going to keep it simple M had a good birthday she told me so and I also had good times :)

While waiting at the airport i thought i would garb a few photos of the place! I was waiting the whole time to get the 3rd degree from bored security guards but it never happened :)

The thing that I love the most about wandering about taking photos of random things (other then getting to take random photos of things that is) is the odd looks that I tend to get when in the middle of a sidewalk I suddenly fall to my knees and start snapping away! People stop, they look at me to make sure that I am not a crazy hobo, (the way I dress I think sometimes they are never sure) they look to make sure I am not dieing, then they try to come up with an explanation as to why I am taking photos of pylons and such! It’s great I will sometimes wear headphones but have the music off so I can hear whats going on around me but from everyone’s perspective I am deaf to them. Thats when I get to hear the good stuff! ‘maybe he works for the city’ ‘why would some one waste time with this?’ or my personal favorite ‘I wonder if it is for art or something?’

But don’t let Coaxial tell you that beer makes you a better boarder :) I was rocking along all morning till we stopped and had lunch! Lunch came with a pitcher of beer that seemed like a good idea! It wasn’t! I was so tired and groggy not to mention tipsy. I half sucked for a couple of hours after that! All fun though!
We will prob go again on Friday! I am super stoked :)

Today I again get to play host to a random Albertan! This time however it involves snowboarding. Yessiry today A & I are up to cypress to bomb down hills with all the early retired ski folk that also have nothing better to do on a Tuesday then ski. So yup here I am preparing to go snowboarding! And by preparing I mean I am loading some new music on my zune! :) I just wiped it last night to start anew because I am really anal about ID3 Tags and album covers. In fact I would rather wander around with missing music then have 59 songs named “Track 1/Unknown Artist/Album” and 25 more that are really the same song. I am taking Miranda’s P&S today so for the first time ever I will have some photos of the snowboarding adventure. Till then you get a random car that I found in Coquitlam!

I think I am going to start a contest! Because I like contests, therefore other people should as well! So here it goes!

THE CHALLENGE:
I will post a random photo of my feet and you have to guess as to my feet’s whereabouts to win a prize!

THE PRIZE:
The prize will be an 11″x17″ enlargement of any blogged photo of your choice!

THE RULES:
Your guesses have to be specific enough that one could go and see the spot that my feet were at.
You enter the contest using the comments and the first to guess correctly will win the prize!
One guess per person per week!

That’s it!!

AWESOME!! Ok lets start! Where are my feet!?

I sat down today with the intentions of writing the lyrics to a song or two. I realize after furiously smashing out ten things that all got promptly deleted that I have absolutely nothing to write about! I now really understand that whole plight of the tortured artist thing. You need to have something to write about, you almost need to have a dilemma in your life that can fuel your creativity. I feel like I need to have despair to come up with something good, something that doesns’t sound like the lyrics to a crappy boy band song, or a really bad country tune! I have no torture in my life!! I am happy with my station and as such I have nothing to write about. Creating is different than finding! As a photoG I am not creating most of the time! I am doing nothing more than finding the beauty/despair that is already there and showing to people that aren’t there to witness it them self. I think that this is truly why photography has a hard time being taken seriously as a real art form by some people. It is a hellava lot harder to create then find.

So this morning I was at the airport all bright and early to send my mom on her way back to the land of ice and Snow. Sucks to be her! :) After delivering her to the appropriate teller I thought to myself it’s a good day to go photo walking! So off to Iona I went! Now this is at 6ish and the park technically doesn’t till 8am so to go to the park it requires a little bit of a walk! But that’s ok I like walking! Here we have a photo of some rope it was old! :)

Camera: Canon 5D Aperture: 1.4 Shutter: 1/640 Lens: Canon EF 50mm 1.4 ISO: 50 Date Taken: March.12.2008

I also like blue! and this tree is very blue!

….I finally went to the Vancouver Aquarium. It only took me playing tour guide for my mother a tourist from Alberta to make that finally happen!

It was fun! There was fish!

But it will have to wait until tomorrow!

So I have been taking a lot of photos over the last couple of days, & I have so many exciting things to post about, but I have been busy with stuff! So as opposed to not blogging at all I am going to toss some night photo stuff up instead that is from the archives of the institute.

(edit Friday March 14th) OK I am just going to rant a little bit here!!! This is NOT I repeat NOT HDR!!! It is in fact as shot save a bit of dodging and burning and a bit of de-saturation in the sky (it was more tungsten then it is right now) I am never doing more to my photos then can achieved in the darkroom of old. Trust me I have one and I use it with the same results. So please please stop emailing me asking about what HDR program I used on this photo, what Photoshop filter is used for this etc…. I use curves, Levels, layermasks, and the Dodge/Burn tools!!! That and a proper exposure!

This is a random fire truck that is under the iron workers bridge! I am not particularly pleased with this shot but this was moments before we the most passive ‘bugger off this is private property‘ that I have ever received!

Random stove sitting on the side of the road near a cat that loved lasers!

This place reeked of fish!!

There you Go! We will return to our regular blogging tomorrow!

Here we have a photo that I took while at a bridal show that was held at a North Shore Art Gallery.  I loved the colour of the chair and the colour of the wall, and well I loved it all so I stole it in photographic form!  Hey they don’t call it ‘taking‘ a photograph for nothing!

Camera: Canon 1Ds Mark II Aperture: 3.5 Shutter: 1/60 Lens: Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM ISO: 400 Date Taken: Feb.24.2008

So Yesterday my mother arrived in Vancouver via Westjet! So what does one do when they are out at the airport with Albertans that come from the season/land of snow & ice!? Well take em to Iona Beach of course!! I absolutly love it when I can show off our fantastic weather to all you silly Albertans that choose to stay there!

This was a photo taken on the last gas town photo walk i was on (oct) I heart 1.4

Camera: Canon 5D Aperture: 1.4 Shutter: 1/30 Lens: Canon EF 50mm 1.4 ISO: 800 Date Taken: Oct.20.2007