ugly day in the valley

I suppose you could call it an eventful day. I woke up and it was raining, which means the bike ride to work would completely suck. Luckily the wind hadnt picked up too much while i was coming here. The winds are crazy today! The radio was saying that gusts can reach up to 100km/h. I wont be surprised if the power goes out any time soon.

So its just Tyler and me in the office today, everybody else is away at meetings etc. We didn't want to go outside into the horrible weather for lunch so we decided to order a pizza. It should be on its way.

The video in the right column I discovered today. Pretty exciting! A huge meteor flew by the prairies yesterday evening, I wish i was there to see it. The video looks like transformers are coming to land, I had a good laugh about it.

I leave my billeting family on Sunday and return back to the house where i get to stay for the next while meaning this is my last day at work for a week as I am house manager with Krissy!

washed up salmon?

I guess frost will be the closest thing I can find to resemble a Manitoba winter. This morning on my bicycle ride to work, I was lucky to not slip on the glistened pavement. Ive also decided it might be time for me to get a tuque and some mittens.

While checking my emails today, which is beginning to seem rather pointless because all i ever get is junk. Junk mail shouldnt be allowed. If only I were the boss of MSN Hotmail. But on the bright side! I did come across an article saying that a business that is responsible for about 1/3 of all junk mail has recently shut down. The article stated that the amount of junk mail will begin to decrease. Ill believe it when i see it.

Well now that Ive gone off track, ranting about junk mail, I also got an email from Ticketmaster Canada telling me that tickets are going on sale for Anberlin with Madina Lake and Between the Trees, Unfortunaetly this show is only in Winnipeg. I think i might tell ticketmaster to stop emailing me. It seems pointless to recieve emails for shows only in Winnipeg. Its taunting me. I just wish i could go home to see that one concert now. Oh well, they'll come back for another tour.

Sarah from work took some beautiful prolific pictures of me a couple weeks and she just sent them to me. Im happy to have a few pictures of myself taken by a pro! Unlike the fuzzy closeups from my shitty digital camera.

Its Day 5 of billeting and everything is going pretty good. Last night Nic and I watched Wall-E. After the first 15 or 20 minutes of the movie I was a little skeptical about this film. I hadn't heard any english. Just little beeps and sound effects plus the repeating robot voice "Waaallee" and "Eeeevaa". I thought all the gadgets he collected were pretty cool though. In the end it turned out to be pretty interesting. I enjoyed the films outlook on a possible futuristic world. I bet the kids loved this one.

Five days left in an area filled with the scent of washedup salmon sitting there for days.
Back to work for another couple of hours.

i watch my yellow cat invade my red cat in the yard

It was about a 15 minute bike ride to work this morning. I enjoyed it aside from the fact I was early and had to wait outside. O well! I guess that means I get to sleep in an extra 15 minutes tomorrow.

Yesterday i didnt really do much. Helped Nic setup a bunkbed. Ate some bannock and played alot of Gears of War 2. As well Alice gave me a phone call, that was nice. The highlight of my day was probably when I made KD. Wow i missed that stuff.

So im working on this coloring book that hopefully be published within the next month or two. (Once Its finished) Its been kind of hard coming up with ideas to expand the scenes, but its coming along slowly.

So this picture to the left is what my coloring book is based on. Each little image is being broken up into single images and then expanded to become one page of a coloring book.

Wish me luck.

Billeting Day 1

I was really skeptical of the family i was going to be with right before i left. Catherine didnt know much about them and had only met them the same day.
Nick picked me up at about 730. Very young, 23, seems like a cool guy on first impression. Not so bad afterall.
He stops at little caesers on the way home to grab some food for the girl friend and the kid.
We get home and i meet the girlfriend, 21, and son Dominic, 3, very young and hip family. They comfort me well. I get the basement to myself, my own back door and they tell me to make myself comfortable.
Nick is a big gamer so there no shortage of consoles in the house. Thats a bonus. They just went grocery shopping and asked me what i like. I told them pasta and meat. seemed pretty easy for them. Its 8 o clock. I think ill go for a run.

TGIF

What a strange week. Working monday, then getting the tuesday off for remembrance day totally screwed up the week. Wednesday felt like monday. But in the end i guess it seemed like a short week.
Tonight the group all goes their separate ways to spend nine days with a local family we have yet to meet. It should be an experience. I just hope the family I'm with will be good to me. Otherwise nine days will be a really long time.

rememberance

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

— Lt.-Col. John McCrae

Happy Birthday Granny! I cant remember the last time i missed your birthday, but have a good one.

Today we mourn the losses of all those who have fought and been injured in the line of battle. Not much mourning going on in the katimavik house. We see it as another day off work, which is a little unfortunate. Hopefully most of us will take the time to remember those loved ones we have lost.

Katima-what?

Early in September, everybody i talked to wanted to know what i was going to be doing for the next school season. I told them I wasnt going to school and that I was embarking on a nation wide journey known as Katimavik. The commonly occuring response was "Katima-what?" or "Katima-who?". What a great conversation starter! The first time i had heard the infamous response I knew i needed to come up with some sort of shpeel. And here it went...

Katimavik is a nation-wide volunteer program for youths between the ages of 17-21. We spend 9 months travelling Canada, meeting new people, learning new cultures and volunteering at anything thats thrown at us. Spending three months in three different communities we are placed at different (mostly)not for profit organizations in the community where we volunteer fulltime.

That was how it went. It was rather extent, but thats how it had to be.

So here i am in Courtenay BC, volunteering fulltime at a wonderful place called ValleyLinks.

self welcome

It was either a journal or an online blog. I chose the online blog, mainly because my penmanship is at the level of a 13 year old. I never really applied myself to have neater writing. It didn't seem important to me. So i guess this is my welcome!

All throughout schooling i was never a fan of English assignments (essays, reports, journals etc.) but I've now realized that is such important aspect to life. To have a strength in writing would be such a pleasure IMO. I'm not sure if its because i lose my train of thought, or if its because i don't have the ability to generate constant ideas.
We'll see how this blog goes. I'm excited to see what comes out of it. Hopefully i can convince my mind to generate a few words to share.