Holy Crap

So, I just found out that one of my best friends from high school (with whom, unfortunately, I have not spoken in a long time) got married. That's right, on or about August 25th, 2003, my friend Simon Wright got married (apparently shotgun-style) to a girl named Julie. And he may or may not be tied up in her basement...

I actually found this out at work (where else?). Jordan served someone who was renting on her husband's account - Simon Wright. Now, I was skeptical, because I knew that there was another Simon Wright in town, and as we are the WASP capital of the world, I knew we had to have another Simon Wright or two. I left my intrepid scout Mr. Davidson in charge of getting to the bottom of this mystery.

And get he did. Jordan found his online journal and he had a post announcing his shotgun-style wedding. Sorry I didn't get you a present, but I will assume that by your humble nature, this recognition will take the place of any gift in the world. Except for cash. You'd probably still take cash.

So, all the best, I know we haven't talked in a while, but good luck and I'm glad for you. And if anyone else knew about this - WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!?!?

Stepping Down

I faxed in my letter today that will officially drop me down from an Assistant Manager at Blockbuster to a Shift Leader. Effective September 20th, I will no longer have to deal with crap on such a direct level. Like the proverbial monkey, I can now...ah, you see where I'm going with this. Really, it's rather gross, but I am tired, so that is not surprising.

Anyway, the countdown begins - t-minus two weeks. Then the real fight begins, to get paid with more than just peanuts and free movie rentals. I'll keep you updated. Assuming they pay me well enough to afford the electricity to run the computer.

Sincerely,

Shift Leader Mike!

Beards

Has anyone else noticed the sudden proliferation of guys with scuzzy beards, and the fact that girls seem to swoon over them. Now, I'm not talking about goatees or anything, but rather full yet ratty beards. The people who grow them are usually guys in their late teens so they really have no ability to grow facial hair and it just looks bad. Shave! The blades aren't all that expensive.

Happy 48th birthday Dad!

Final Day!

Well, the day didn't start off great - both because it was our last day of camping, and it was a very cold night. But, we got all packed up (which was kind of an adventure. The tent came out of the bag a lot easier than it went back in.

The only thing we had planned for the day was to got to Southampton to find the canoe outfitters and try to go canoeing on the Saugeen.

So, we drove into Southampton, and parked down by the lake, took a really good picture of an island with a lighthouse on it (Southampton is famous for them, after all), and went on our search. We walked up the main drag and found the shop, which offers a shuttle service that takes you and your canoe to the end of the course, and you paddle your way back to the start for about four hours. Conveniently, the shuttle runs every day. At 8 am, 10 am, and noon. We inquired about it at 12:30. Crap. Alas, our canoeing plans were foiled once again, but now we know the deal, so we can schedule something at a later date.

On the plus side, with the extra time, we went to the Southampton Market, where we found a few good deals. Afterwards, we had a bite to eat, and headed home. Thus ended our camping odyssey. I think I stood up fairly well to it. Carley came out completely unscathed. I got eaten alive.

Pictures will be ready soon, I'm just waiting to get them from Wal-Mart.

Camping: Day 2

Day 2 was split between whether we would go for a hike (there are five different trails of differing lengths that you can go on at the park), and going canoeing on the Saugeen River. We decided to go down to the beach and see if we could find a canoe launch.

We started off by going down to Lake Huron and a beach just inside Port Perry, took a few pictures out on a little point and a few more on the beach (including one that should really turn out well of Carley that I don't think she knows I took…). The sun was out in fits and starts, so we both had a chance to get a bit of colour before we set up to find ourselves a canoe launch - which proved to be highly unsuccessful. We drove around in all the possible directions we could, but wound up not finding anything. We asked at the sign-in place at MacGregor Point and she told us there was a really good one right inside Southampton - right on the way home! So, we decided to do it after we'd packed up. More on that later.

Now, of course, we still had a few hours to fill, so we decided to go for a hike on the Tower Trail, which was only supposed to take an hour and a half, but we wound up walking "one kilometre" to try to meet up with another trail. One kilometer. Yeah. Right. The trail was gorgeous, though - even if there were a lot of bugs. We saw three turtles, Carley saw two deers and I saw one of their butts. Ha! Other than that - a lot of bugs.

By the end of the whole hike, we were both pretty exhausted, so we retired back to the campsite, and built another fire - which actually worked on the first try this time!We had teriyaki chicken for dinner with some very fine pasta, and had more s'mores. We got into bed just in time, though, as the wind picked up quite a bit, although, surprisingly, it didn't bring a storm along with it like we were expecting.

So, that was day 2.

MacGregor Point

Carley and I took some time off this week and made a trek to MacGregor Point Provincial Park, just outside of Port Elgin on Lake Huron.

We got there at around 2:30 Tuesday afternoon (it was about two-and-a-half hours from Orangeville), and left around noon on Thursday. The drive was a lot easier than I expected, straight up 10, straight across 21 and then it's down to looking for signs!

We got set up pretty quickly. Well, more accurately, Carley got set up and I think she was just too nice to tell me I was in the way. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in our first bid to find the beach - instead we found a beach full of rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. It was actually really nice because the rocks were all different colours and were very large, but we were looking for a sandy beach, damn it!

So, our beach bid proving unsuccessful, we went into Port Elgin to play some very challenging mini-putt at Maxi Mini-Putt. It was only $5 for two rounds of 19 holes. Carley and I came up even, one match apiece, but I think I cheated. We actually forgot to pick any up, but at the end of the course, the operator had many a pamphlet about Jesus.

We came back and then began the fun: fire. We both knew how to build one, we had all the right materials, but we could not build the fire if our lives depended on it (which, come to think of it, it very well could have). All told, it took us 25 minutes or so to get the stupid thing started, and cost us about three trees worth of magazines. But, we got it going, and had excellent hot dogs, bagels and s'mores over it. OH! Then some stupid racoons came up and tried to steal our food! Damn racoons! I only saw one, but Carley said there were three! It sounded like they were pretty well terrorizing our entire campground.

So, that was Day 1.

Oops

I totally forgot, but I bought another CD just a little while ago. It's an older one, Emotion is Dead by The Juliana Theory. I learned about the Juliana Theory from Carley, and first heard some of their songs on the Undergrads (and when the hell is that coming to DVD?). Quite simply, it's excellent. Very melodic, and I love the lyrics. So good, and it cost me about 33 cents, as I had an HMV gift certificate from my Aunt Val and Uncle Glen.

CDs

In the last few weeks, I've bought three new CDs - Pearl Jam's new live CD from a benefit concert last year, Matt Good's White Light Rock & Roll Review album (those are with Nancy's Futureshop giftcard that I got for my birthday), and Thornley's debut disc - $9.99!!

First, Pearl Jam's new disc. Pearl Jam is an enigmatic band. They are one of the very few bands to have survived the "grunge" explosion of the early 90s. All the other big ones have burned out or gotten stale, but Pearl Jam is still around. They release a lot of live stuff, a lot of B-sides, rarities, don't make a lot of music videos, and never really fell into the trap of celebrity that so many bands and artists did and still do.

Now, I don't like a lot of live stuff. I know it's hip to love the live versions, but, quite frankly, I liked it when I heard it on the CD, if you can't recreate the sound, it's not worth it to hear it live. Pearl Jam can recreate their sound. Man, oh man, can they recreate their sound. They do a brilliant version of "Black", which in itself makes the two-disc album worth buying. Plus it was nice that the concert was for charity.

Second, Matt Good's newest album. I actually haven't managed to listen to this album all the way through yet. What I've heard is very good, very typical Matt Good, nothing really different, nothing really new. Still a solid album, although it sounds pretty heavily produced, so we'll all have to see how "Alert Status Red" sounds if Matt starts belting it out on stage.

Finally, Ian Thornley - former frontman for Big Wreck - heads the band Thornley, and gave a very strong effort with this disc. The songs all follow a very similar thread, and, if you're listening to it on a long trip, they all kind of blend together. But it is definitely very solid, very hard rocking - my first thought was that the disc reminded me of Jet's performance at Edgefest - and the fact that the album was only $9.99 meant that even two good songs would make the album a steal.

You want to stop downloading and save music? CHARGE $9.99 FOR EVERYTHING!

Homeland Insecurity

So, the Phoenix Coyotes just signed Brett Hull to a contract, and everyone's voicing his opinions on Brett Hull's betrayal of his roots. You see, Hull was born in Canada, but moved to the States when he was young, and became an American citizen.

Why, when we have embraced athletes like Daniel Igali (born in Nigeria) as Canadian, do we all feel the need to be mad at someone who has done the same thing, except they left Canada? Is it because he became an American?

Lennox Lewis still gets credited as being Canadian (he trained in Kitchener), but considers himself a citizen of England. Is it because of our love affair with the Brits, as opposed to our dislike of the Americans that causes such a sharp contrast in opinions between two athletes?

Canadians need to spend more time honouring the athletes and people we do have than worrying about those who emigrate.

Computer Issues

It's not exactly like I'm posting all the time anyway, but I actually have a reason for my absence recently: I fried my computer.

That's right, one day it simply would not turn on. There was definitely power going to it, as the glowing green light that keeps me up at night was on in the back, but it simply wouldn't turn on. So, I took it over to VAM Computers, where I'd never actually gone before but had heard good things about, where they confirmed my suspicions that I fried my motherboard.

I had to get a new board, new RAM, and, as it turned out, a new modem, which I probably won't need anyway because I want to very soon make the switch away from dial-up, so I'll need a new modem anyway. All told, $350. Not terrible, but money I could have used.

Things I Learned Throwing Batting Practice

This isn't exactly a revelation, but I thought it was pretty cool. First, I discovered that I can actually throw a knuckleball. It's very slow (and I mean slow, even for a knuckleball), but there isn't much spin at all on it, and it dances pretty well.

The other think I learned is that repeatedly throwing knuckleballs kills your fingers. The first knuckles on the ring, middle, and index finger of my right hand were all swollen, and my cuticles were all cut up.

But it's still pretty cool that I can throw a knuckleball.