Runaway Future

Came back from long weekend at the cottage today.

I am so sunburnt my chest is glowing.

Wilco was stellar.
Pictures here.

Here’s a video of a Sperm Whale

Here’s one of Killer Whales eating seals.

More later, I read Kerouac’s journals all weekend. Amazing. I can think of no other word to describe it.

I’ve lost the meaning of money. For the past two weeks, all I’ve been dealing with is the pledges from Dragonboat. This involves me handling, counting, recounting, cursing at, etc thousands and thousands of dollars. It’s disgusting. I look forward to returning to computer work, which has been neglected while I play Mr. Accountant (which brings me to the paining question of how did I, the tech guy with no schooling other then a IT diploma, get stuck as chief financial guru for the festival?).

On a seperate but not completely unrelated note, I have been dogged by a desire to, of all things, program. Whether it’s coding or just simple web design, all that I have done as of late is simple maintenance on the websites, update the news, change a logo, make a link. I want to get my hands dirty (so to speak) and dive into code.
I marvel at how much my job and responsibilities have changed and how they still cause me fits.

I am taking Friday off, and heading to cottage country. Time with family and just time away. Will be nice.

I am going to see Wilco tomorrow in Dartmouth. I’m not really looking forward to it at present, mainly because I put in no thought or effort into it. I guess I’m tagging along with Mel and her crew, but that’s not really what I originally intended. It better be a good show.

Then next week, as part of the Jazz Festival, there are two shows being done at Dal with artists providing the musical backing for silent films by Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. It’s only five bucks, so I plan on going.

The week after that is the Clinton speaking engagement and then I move into my new apartment. The original person I had lined up to sublet my current place has backed out or something, so now there’s apparently someone else. I’m not particularly sure. All I know is when I *plan* on moving and that I don’t want to pay rent for two places. Hell, I’ll even do a half month here. Why does it all have to be a struggle? Is it me? Getting bent out of shape about things?

I’m currently reading Windblown World, the Journals of Jack Kerouac. I have only a cursory knowledge of Kerouac as an author, having not read any of his works (someday…). But these journals are solid. He discusses en length, the troubles, challenges, joys and moods of writing. It’s a book I haven’t gotten too deep into, mainly because I have been so busy, but there are so many parts that make me want to read aloud or copy passages from it as inspiration:

We live in the world we see, but we only believe in the world we do not see

A man must keep his doubts to himself and prove his works instead

His words on catching the moods where the words just flow, compared to feeling awkward, clumsy and forced are definitely sticking with me. Especially true as I face a blank screen, a blinking cursor and a deadline for an HF article three days past.

I say goddamn!

What a couple of weeks.

Canada Day was spent with Chris, Murf and Ryan. Defining moment was watching the fireworks from Ocean Towers, and suddenly everyone on the balconies bursts out with O Canada and Happy Birthday. Very surreal.
Oh and Chris won a golf bag. Like what the fuck?

Last week was taken up almost exclusively by the Dragonboat Festival. Too much work, not enough fun. I did watch the Shuttle launch, live on my computer, which was pretty sweet. What struck me is how precise everything is. Obviously it has to be, because they’re going into space and all that jazz, but the timing and precision is so impressive. And yet there’s such a human aspect to the whole thing too. I watched the live NASA cam for almost 4 hours and you could feel the tension as everyone hoped the shuttle wouldn’t become a tragic July 4th firework.
Dragonboat was on Saturday and our team did well and the whole thing raised more cash than last year.

Afterwards, I was pretty useless. Chris and I went out for beers and I was a dehydrated cheap drunk. Went back to Chris and Ryan’s and almost passed out. But wait! It’s 1am and we’re on the road to Prospect to watch a movie with some girl. Craziness. Got home at like 3:30am.

Then last night, went to see The Pirates of the Carribean movie. The showing we wanted to see was sold out, so we got tickets for one an hour later, than we killed some time and ended up at the back of a huge line to get seats.
The movie was decent, the ending an obvious ploy for the next one. I think the whole thing was just that much better because we had literally the best seats in the house. While everyone else is fighting and figuring to grab seats or save seats, we got the couch.
If you haven’t been to some Empire Theatres lately, there’s this red and white leather Coca-Cola couch dead centre in selected theatres. It’s the VIP couch and you can dish some cash out and rent it for a movie.
Unhappy with the seating arrangement, we did just that. For an extra 5$, we out-smarted about 200 people.

All in a days work.