Anyhoo, I NEED to raise $250 in order to participate. If I don’t raise it I think you get dragged out of your tent at night and curb stomped and then made to promise not to tell anyone ever. They tell you if anyone asks to just say that you just fell.

So PLEASE for the love of anything decent in this world, go here and donate to my cause. Even if it’s just $5, it’s getting me that much farther away from the curb stomping I hope to avoid.

The plan now is to build overpasses that will hopefully solve all these problems. They’ve put up a site called 23avenue.com that doesn’t seem to be indexed by Google to keep us all updated with a webcam and other textual snippets. Incidentally they are using the open source platform Joomla to manage the site. You can access all the plans including their vision on how the landscaping will look. They say it will take THREE years to complete, which seems like a long time but it’s probably going to be longer, especially if any of those guys from the Wayne Gretzky bridge are involved. So this is good, the overpasses will make everything better, but in the meantime the whole intersection will be a construction site. How will they manage this?

Where I work is just on the other side of the intersection from where I live implying that it should be feasible to walk to work during the summer months. Now due to the construction pedestrians are no longer allowed to walk through the intersection because it is deemed a construction zone. What they have done to accommodate this is set up a free bus service from bus stop to bus stop to get you across the intersection.

Two big problems with this:
- The bus (number 74) only comes by every half hour. This is NOT good enough for someone just wanting to cross an intersection.
- The bus stops are very far apart. The distances are AT LEAST 1 km apart. The stops should be right before and right after the intersection. At least put in a temporary bus stop in at 99th st and 23rd Ave so when you’re coming out of South Common you don’t have to backtrack to catch the bus. For example, if you’re coming out of the A&W there you can start walking down the side of the road to get to the bus stop but there is no bus stop because the last one wasn’t even in sight and is now far behind you.

It’s an unacceptable situation right now. Perhaps it’s best just to don a hard hat and reflective vest and hoof it across?

The last time I blogged I briefly mentioned that I was looking for somewhere else to live. Since then I have moved, to the south side of Edmonton, just minutes from where I work. Living close to work is truly a luxury. It means having one more hour to do what I want, not having to use that time driving. It means being able to go home for lunch. It means saving money on gas and getting a little more exercise from walking or riding to work. It means fluidity, if that makes sense. The place itself is a semi-detached townhouse (joined on one side), with four bedroom plus den, fireplace, dishwasher, fenced back yard, high vaulted ceilings, and a big park out back. Another plus is that my friend Allan who I grew up with is my roommate, and we share a number of interests like electronics, gadgetry, and science in general.

I don’t usually talk about relationships on the blogo-net, but I have met someone pretty awesome and things are going famously.

My apologies to everyone who has been checking back here every day with nary an update. I always say that I’ll keep this thing up to date but it never seems to come to fruition. It’s fun to blog, the hardest part is getting started. I always feel I have nothing to write about until I force myself to click the ‘write post’ button.

Another thing to note is that the comment spam that I have been getting lately isn’t too traditional. Thing like office furniture rental and band lyrics sites… Still the largest fraction is for drugs of which I have no idea what they are.

What have I been up to? Hmm. Well I bought another 1981 Celica Supra, with the 5-me engine, except this car was turboed way back in the 80s. This would be a very unique characteristic as I have not heard of a turboed 5-me ever before. Once the mark 2 and 3 (mkII, mkIII) came out in the later 80s, people would just swap engines from those cars into the mkI (my model) to give it more power.

Jared gave me his snow blades to try out. I went to Fernie and used them for the first half of the day, and aside from looking ridiculous they are pretty fun. However I switched back to snowboarding at noon because there was lots of deep fresh snow that wasn’t being properly exploited with the snow blades.

I went to Calgary to play some guitar in a studio called The Slaugherhouse. I guess it use to be one, our studio room was called “The Killing Floor”. I made a recording using my mp3 player and it came out great! I’ll post some clips sometime. Meanwhile, see all the pictures here.

In case you are wondering, that thing on my head is a helmet cam.

I am also looking for somewhere to live, closer to the Alberta Research Council. If you have any ideas, let me know!

Here’s a video of it in action.

Right after finishing it.

When I am out of town doing field work, this is how I play electric guitar in my hotel room without an amp. Guitar -> Pedal -> Line in to MP3 player -> Line out to headphones.

A nice picture of my car somewhere between Nanton and Chain Lakes.

Labrador Tea flower.

Iced tea, specifically Labrador Tea. From an early morning in Fort McMurray.

A funnel shaped spider web covered in dew.

And early morning sunrise in Whitecourt.

Mushrooms on a stump.

Caterpillar invasion!

Blue Bell flower.

This leaf had the life sucked out of it, now it’s half ghost.

The old man’s beard.

Found at an old hunter’s cabin up north.

And old abandoned church in farmland up north.

Cleo!!!

Dad getting into a dingy up at Window Mountain Lake.

Cute little Pica.

This job was only suppose to last until the end of August but now I am staying longer, with a distinct possibility of me getting a full position here… which would cause me to stay here in Edmonton. However I am torn because I was planning to move to Calgary after this job was finished to be close to good friends, the mountains and my parents. I have very good friends here in Edmonton but I am also a bit sick and tired of it. Since I was 17 I’ve moved around quite often, at least every 10 months or so, and I love it.

There won’t be any decision making whether to move or not until later in the year but even by then I know it’s going to be a hard decision. It’s hard to leave such a good job for the unknown.