i went and saw Dragonforce last night here in saskatoon. it was unreal. dueling key-tars (apparently thats how nic says your supposed to spell it). green tights, plenty of long hair all make for some good laughs. check out this video. seeing these guys play there guitars like that was sick.
if you dont want to watch it all, at least fast forward to the 2 minute mark to see the solos. wow

september

a lot has changed for me the past few months. got a job, bought a house. ok, so only two things have changed. 2 is a lot in my opinion.
anyway, its september now. starting to get into the new routine and almost feeling used to showing up to work everyday. i dont miss school. lets not lie. it was a good run, but i dont miss it.

september is a sweet time of year. the US Open just finished in dramatic fashion, baseball season is wrapping up and the push for the playoffs has begun. hockey season is just starting and i cannot wait. plans are in the works to get to at least one Canadiens game in montreal this year. the riders absolutely destroyed the bombers last weekend. life couldnt be better.


a few books ive been reading lately are from a pretty different point of view from a lot of books ive read in the past. dont get me wrong, ive read some great ones-donald miller, brian mclaren, anne lamott, blair roberts. people like that. with great stories that have made me think.

more recently however, i picked up a book by richard dawkins called 'the god delusion'. the guy is a world renowned scientist so at times it can be a tough read, but it made me think. if you actually do read it, which i expect none of you will, chapter 7 was the one that caught my attention. that and the first line in chapter 2. ouch. id be interested to hear your opinion(s)

the book im currently reading is called 'american fascists' by chris hedges. so far this one is really good. easier to read than dawkins but just as hard hitting. he went to seminary at harvard, but is writing from a very similar place to where i find myself these days.
so there it is..the point of my blog. a challenge...pick up something you wouldnt normally read. something that will make you think and challenge what you have grown up thinking is true. its good for you.

i just realized i have nothing profound to say and this blog is a complete waste of your time if you are reading it. i apologize.

2 years and 8 months later

in january 2007 i moved to saskatoon to go back to school. my job in yellowknife was ok, but it didnt really challenge me. doing the exact same thing day after day got old after about 10 months and i decided i needed something to push me a little bit more.

i didnt know what i was getting myself into when i signed up for grad school. i figured it would be a shorter version of my undergrad degree and i would learn some new concepts and enjoy the life of a student again.

the first few months were awful. it was so different than anything i had expected.i wanted something that would push me a 'little' bit more...not to the brink of quitting. the courses were noticeably more difficult, the expectations were that much higher and every person i met in the hallways was a hell of a lot more intelligent than i was. i wanted to quit everday for the first few months.

jackson and tressia were the two people i would work with everday for the next 32 months and were also a big part of the reason i stuck with it. they were both super patient and friendly and sort of taught me the ropes about working in a research setting. i enjoyed getting to know them better and learned a great deal from both of them, not only about chemistry but about life as well. you dont get a chance to meet such quality people all the time, and it was more than a privilege to get to work with these guys.

anyway, my time in the Foley lab has come to an end. a new chapter starts once i walk out the door at the end of today. a new chapter that i am super excited for. however, its still hard moving on. even though my new workplace will be within walking distance of where ive spent the last few years, it wont be the same. ill miss the surroundings that have become so comfortable.

maybe thats when its time for things to change..when things become comfortable?

unemployed no more

so i got a job at the Canadian Light Source (sometimes called the Synchrotron). im pretty excited about this opportunity, and excited to be able to stay in saskatoon for a while longer. check out
THIS video cause it explains what happens in the building much better than i can.

a week in Montreal

After a week in Montreal the time has come to head back west. Montreal was unreal, but before I get to that, I have to say how bad the Winnipeg airport is. It would be worth driving to a different city like Regina or Minneapolis to avoid this building. Now that I have that out of the way...

Montreal is a sweet city. Go read Nics blog for what he thinks. It is written far better than mine will be. Growing up I always thought I hated large cities but that's because the only ones I had seen were calgary and Edmonton. No wonder I had a bad taste in my mouth. I've been a few more places since my younger days and have learned that a lot of bigger cities actually have things put together in a much more logical manner. Montreal is one of those. 

Besides that, the history and architecture are great in this city. We watched tennis for a week straight, ate some amazing ethnic food, and of course it is home of the greatest franchise in pro sports. The only thing it is missing is the Expos. If we could have seen a baseball game there, our week would've been entirely complete. We did however manage to find an unlocked door in Olympic stadium to take in the place that would have been home of the 1994 world series champs had there not been a strike. I still blame this strike on the demise of the MLB in this city. 

We had a blast, met some sweet people and watched some unreal tennis. Thanks to Jacynthe for letting us crash in your living room. We will be back when the Canadiens begin pursuit of their 25th Stanley cup. Until next time..

from a nobel laureate

"the main thing you need to learn is doubt. Don't believe anything you're told without good reason and argument. Doubt underpins science." Sir Harold W. Kroto, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996


he was speaking in scientific terms, but i think it is a good principle in general. any thoughts?

past its prime?

so i came across THIS article on macworld.com, who apparently found it on PC world. its about facebook. read the whole article if you are interested. its not that long. but ill pull out the five headlines from the article for those of you who are too lazy to click the link.

1. Facebook Veterans are Defecting to Twitter
2. People Who Actually Have Lives Don't Use Facebook
3. In the Real World, People Often Have Good Reasons for Losing Touch With Old Friends
4. Having too many friends takes the edge off facebook postings
5. After That ‘25 Things’ Note, There's Not Much Left to Say


I don't really know what points 4 & 5 mean. but I can tell you that 2 & 3 are bang on. anyway. found this article interesting. especially since i have been making similar points for a while now. things that support your own view point are always entertaining, no?

in other news. Stephen Harper thinks ?all taxes are bad taxes? this could get ugly.

making the news.

its sort of funny what kind of stuff makes the news these days. heres a couple of the ones i found humorous while reading the globe and mail and drinking my morning coffee:

-stephen harper puts communion cracker in his pocket.
doesnt matter if its true or not. who really cares?

-a guys guitar got broken on United Airlines, writes a song, gets famous
check out youtube for "United Breaks Guitars", especially if you like
TAYLOR guitars. Tim this one might be for you. Pretty decent video
and seems like a great marketing strategy for his band


in other news, i went to A&W last nite for supper cause i had a coupon. i dont usually eat fast food like that cause i end up regretting it the minute i finish. last nite was no different. the story gets worse. so im ordering at A&W and they asked what i want to drink. of course i said root beer, its A&W "world famous rootbeer" after all. but they were out. A&W out of rootbeer? what? must be global warming.

news

for those of you that still follow this...in recent news, i have successfully defended my thesis. and more recent news, once Nic's nose heals he will likely be married off faster than...well, just really fast. i was gonna write something witty, but would likely offend someone. he is gonna be one good looking dude. watch out ladies.

in other news, check out CBC Radio3, today June 23 and check out their selection for New Music Canada's Track of the day. if you dont get to check it on june 23, or you do and you cant find it, follow THIS link and it will take you to the correct posting.

2 days

this is what my desk currently looks like, as i'm studying for my defense which is on friday. its amazing how much stuff i am still learning. running out of time to learn anymore but excited for the challenge that lies ahead. i imagine that my pit stains that day will possibly exceed the ones i had while taking pictures at melissas wedding. and those ones were impressive. ask her.

Playoff picks

Tim picked his 8. Here are mine:
Montreal will beat Boston. They've done it before as the underdog. It can happen again

Washington is too good for the rangers
I hate Carolina, thats reason enough to pick the devils.
And in the second most exciting first round matchup Pittsburgh will knock out Philly.
As for the west..
San jose Anaheim will be a long series but the sharks will win that one.
Detroit will squeak by Columbus no thanks to osgood.
Vancouver will also squeak by the hot blues.
And the hawks will knock off the sketchy-of-late flames.
I know i am stoked for the playoffs! Here we go!

why gas prices increase in the summer. or "suck splats" and why we should rid the world of them

I came across this article by Mike Fak and thought it was not only bang on, but also humorous, so i figured its worth a read for the three of you that still check this blog. we can change the world one person at a time...

**************************************************************************************
I went to see my son at college last week and since it is finally getting warmer outside, the kids were shedding their heavy garb for more summery clothes. One thing that I just shook my head at is the fact that at least 75% of the students I saw were wearing those infernal, nasty looking flip flops on their feet.

Now those chunks of rubber were invented to help prevent people from passing on foot diseases in community shower settings such as the armed forces and schools. They were never intended to be official street garb but somehow everyone in the country is going around with those things stuck between their toes and thinks its attractive footwear.

I imagine part of my angst with those things is that I grew up in a day and age when young people worried about how they looked. Never in a million years back then would anyone be seen walking around town with $5.00 thong shoes made out of recycled tires.

I watched our recent high school's Grand Prom March and was shocked to see at least a half dozen young ladies wearing $400 dresses walking around with worn out flip flops on their naked feet. I don't have a daughter but if she told me she was wearing flip flops to the prom, I would cut three holes in a fifty-pound potato sack and tell her now she has a dress that matches her footwear.

I don't know why restaurants allow people in with those things on their feet. It clearly says no shoes no service and I proclaim resoundingly that flip flops are not shoes. In fact, a person walking into an eatery with those ugly things on their feet is flopping airborne particulates of toe jamb all through the dining area and that should be considered a health hazard. Toe jamb causes cancer in laboratory rats you know.

Of course it isn't only younger people who have failed to understand the rudimentary couth of covering one's feet. You see people of all ages under fifty walking all over town with that disgusting "suck splapt" sound every time they take a step.

Maybe that would help stem the tide of this epidemic of podiatary ignorance. If a person had to go into a show store and ask the clerk which aisle "suck splapts" were in maybe they would be ashamed to ask and would go and buy a pair of gym shoes or God forbid, a pair of actual dress shoes.

Take a look at when flip flops or rather "suck splapts" came into vogue as everyday attire and you will see it correlates with the beginning of the downfall of this great country. "Suck splapts" are made of rubber. Rubber is a petroleum based product. It makes sense then to correlate that the production of these nasty rubber shoes in such monstrous numbers is the root cause of oil going so high on the market.

If everyone went back to good old fashioned leather soled shoes, we would have more and cheaper gasoline plus fewer cows creating a hole in the ozone layer with their flatulence.

It is time we outlawed flip flops. Or at least changed the name to get the proper sound those disgusting things make when someone walks in them. Suck splapt, suck splapt, suck splapt.

not proud to be canadian

i watched the junos last nite. make fun of me if you want, i dont care. during my short time on this earth, ive noticed that if you travel to other countries, people will always ask about celine dion and bryan adams once they find out you are from canada. i always used to find this embarassing. there is so much canadian music out there that is far better than these two "icons". if you dont believe me, listen to cbc radio 3 online, or your local community/campus radio station. (or come watch my band play in regina april 25th. haha)

however, last nite i found myself shaking my head at least 3 times while watching the junos. Nickelback won three awards. this is a black mark on canadian music as far as i am concerned. these guys make celine and bryan look like gems. "you look better with something in your mouth". that is a line in one of their songs. really?

i have never heard it put better than how Patrick Boyle from calgarys FFWD magazine put it in THIS short letter to chad kroeger and his buddies. read it..you will laugh. i did.

breakfast with jack layton part 2

the following is part 2 to my trip. read part 1 first.

i started off.
i got to see some cool cities. san antonio, austin, waco. but the highlight of the trip was probably pulling into oklahoma city and making tyler butel get out of bed to let me crash at his place. it was sweet to see a friend on the journey.
after i left oklahoma city, i popped in "The Shack". apparently its the hot thing these days. i listened as roger mueller read the story. this book is also apparently pretty controversial, although i am still not sure what the big deal is. its a work of fiction, one guys opinion of who God is and how he works. cheesy in some spots. but will likely strike up some conversation. if youve read it, let me know what you think.
anyway, that got me through northern oklahoma and kansas. made a crucial pit stop at Alef's Harley Davidson in wichita. the place was huge.
now i was in nebraska. that sucked. i had only been to nebraska once before and i didnt care for it much then. i was quickly reminded why. as i drove through small towns with signs saying "founded in 1857" i often wondered "who thought it would be a good idea for 210 people to live here. right in the middle of nowhere." it is worse than manitoba...ok, well maybe not that bad. and they did have free pregnancy tests at a clinic. i was too slow with my camera to get a picture but the sign said "Free Pregnancy Tests. Parking in Rear". i chuckled.

south dakota was nicer. hills and vallleys. great sunset. and by the time i got to north dakota it was dark. which is ok with me. i turned north from bismarck and officer 236 decided that i was going to fast. he pulled me over and gave me a 50$ ticket. i am still sure the sign said 75mph not 70. not impressed.
i made it to minot that night and found a hotel and was out before my head hit the pillow.
i drove to the border where i was to meet a guy to import the vehicle (the reason for this whole trip). i beat him there so i decided to head down to the local bar/restaurant/ice cream shop/parcel pick up/ local indoor smoking room where i had breakfast with jack layton. youre right, it was not jack layton at all, but it looked just like him. and i wasnt sitting with him. i was near there table where i heard conversations about wives. one guy piped up "i dont have one of those anymore. i found out she was dating someone else, cashed her out, and asked her to leave". i thought that was a nice way to put it.


anyway, 2198 miles later, im back in saskatoon. tired and smelly. but got to see a lot of country the last few days. check out a few pictures on flickr.

i had breakfast with jack layton part 1

the following is poorly written account of my trip from saskatoon to mcallen, texas and back.
part 1

it was snowy monday morning in saskatoon, i threw a few things in a bag, mostly a few books on cd, an ipod, a toothbrush and some shorts and hopped on a plane at the airport. after a quick touchdown in regina, we were off too minneapolis. after we landed we had to pass through security as per usual, and as i was putting my shoes back on, i looked behind me to see none other than mr. ochitwa.
now, mr. ochitwa was my grade 7 teacher in white city. i was sure it was him because he had the famous scar on the left side of his mouth where a chainsaw had gotten the better of him. (true story. or at least thats what he told us in grade 7 and i still believe it). we visited briefly and headed off to find or connecting flights. the minneapolis airport loves mcdonalds. everywhere i looked, people were packing away a quarter pounder and fries. awesome.
a few hours past quickly by listening to people on CNN talk about some financial crisis at AIG in the states. i caught only parts of it.
we loaded up the next plane and headed to los angeles. LAX. the airport is like a city. i asked how to find my next flight and proceeded on 20 minute walk outside. it was 10pm and must have been 25C. gorgeous. on my flight from LA to houston, i sat beside chase. chase was living in venice california and was on his way to SXSW (a music festival) in austin, tx. he told me stories of how after buying a 150$ licence you could carry a lot of marijuana on you in california and could even grow your own. apparently i look like someone who would be excited by this. i wasnt. he was a great guy though and even gave me a set of earplugs to use for the red-eye to houston.
i landed in houston, and slept in awkward positions that made my legs numb for the next two hours. my flight to harlingen, texas was late due to the heavy fog that had set. finally we made it to harlingen (look it up on a map-its basically on the mexican border) where bob picked me up to drive to the dealership. bob was a former pro-wrestler. no lies. and in a few weeks he would be having some of his old wrestling buddies come to the dealership to sign autographs and such. wrestlers like doink the clown, rikishi and others i cant remember. he told me the hollywood lifestyle he lived as a wrestler and how in mexico when they recognized him they let him drink on the streets and would even bring him tequila. great guy. good stories.
i was finally in texas.. almost 24 hours after i left saskatoon.
the only problem was i was in texas. i dont love texas. but i do love tacos. and i found some great ones.
it scares me that i could cut someone off while driving, and make them mad. its not good to make people carrying firearms in their vehicles angry.
now i had about 2198 miles to drive. thats like 3500km for those of you like me who dont know what a mile is.

Propagandhi-Supporting Caste

on tuesday, one of my all time favorite bands put out a brand new album after almost 4 years since their last one. i saw them play about a year and half ago here in saskatoon and it was one of the best shows ive ever seen. so i felt like i was about 15 years old waiting for march 10th to come when i could run down to the record store and pick up the newest release.
i remember in high school my dad read some of their lyrics or essays they had on their website and wasn't very impressed, so my old band wrote a song about it called "my dad hates propagandhi". it had nothing to do with my dad hating propagandhi at all. it was probably about some lame girl stealing one of our friends or something. anyway, back to the matter at hand...
you may not agree with everything these guys say, and you dont have too. but they have done a lot to make this world a better place. one cool idea they had was instead of leaking their songs around the internet before they were released (which probably still happened) they set up a site where you could download two, for a small donation to your choice of humanitarian effort.
anyway, their music is incredible, and their lyrics make you think and give you insight into some things that are going on in the world around you which you likely wont hear about on CNN or CTV.
if you are bored at work, go check out their website, they have a good list of books to read that may give you a different spin on things.
anyway. this record is great. i cant wait till they drive through my city.

CBC Radio3

Hey. I finally figured out how to add some songs to our profile on CBC Radio 3, New Music Canada!
Check it out HERE,
these are new songs that are not on our myspace page, so check them out if you get a chance.

tell your friends? i would

looking for a job

i confess, i dont know much about how to set up the ideal budget to run a country in the midst of this "economic downturn". or even in the midst of a positive economy for that matter. but here is an interesting quote from someone at the globe and mail

"In this budget, the government looks to have taken every demand placed on it and given almost everyone a partial loaf. Not enough to make a fundamental difference in economic terms, but a political difference that will buy them time in office."

you can read his whole article HERE if you want. he makes some interesting points. ill save my commentary. most of you can probably guess what i think. anyway

it is a strange time to be looking for employment/a means of income.

Mike Milbury actually has rational thoughts

I admit Mr. Milbury is not my favorite guy around. But I would rather listen to him than 98% of the crew on TSN. Read THIS
short article about why Don Cherry should be in the Hall of Fame...the guy is a beauty.

nickelback

if you love nickelback, or hate them. or even if youve only heard of them...go read
THIS article from calgarys "ffwd" newspaper.
its hilarious.
also...
go check out kris's blog. he wrote something for the first time in 2 years.
not bad. but its a decent read.