Master and Commander of the HMCS Ta Lana

Well, after 2 stressful weeks, it's official ... I am now a Master (limited), certified by Transport Canada to pilot boats over 5 tonnes! This means I am a sea (err... lake) captain ... now I just need to find a pointy hat and a fake parrot and I'm set!

A Day In The Life Of A Newly Indocrinated Jasperite

Since my last post, I have arrived in Jasper and have begun training at my new job. I will be conducting tours and driving boats for Maligne Tours this summer, on beautiful (now 99% ice-free!) Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park. It's been an intense 3 1/2 weeks thus far, learning about marine terminology, emergency procedures, how to actually drive the boat (doing that right now, steering it is a totally different experience than from driving a car!), and all about tour topics (history/ecology/geology/geography/etc).

Amid this, I've been living the Jasper Dream; to illustrate, I will run through my day yesterday:

7:45am: Just started my work schedule for the year, which means that today is my final day off before 4 workdays in a row. I'm up early on this day though to go have brunch at the Jasper Inn with co-workers (subsidized by Maligne, only have to pay $5) before they head off to the Lake.

8:15am: Have brunch. Brooke and company are wearing the company uni, which I also had received the day before (the pants are sweet, and so are the jackets!) Filled my boots with sausage, bacon, pancakes, fruit, etc etc....

9:00am: Head back to Cavell (my apartment building), fire up the laptop. Pour over e-mail and Facebook, then enter 4 0.25 cent poker tournaments on Pokerstars. Cash in two of them (4th and 2nd out of 45 runners) for a tidy $4 profit.

1:00pm: Head out for the afternoon, having lunch at the North Face Pizzaeria (bacon and onion pizza + pop for $9!). On the way, some Aussie tourists, not suspecting sprinklers due to a watering ban back home, cross a median, only to be accosted by the Automated Sprinkler System Of Death (hidden throughout municipal land in Jasper), looooool...!

2:25pm: Begin the mega-hike of the day ... Old Fort Point to Lake Annette. Ventured through the thinned forest (underway the past few years for fire safety) to Lac Beauvert, whereupon I ventured past the lush fairways and greens of the Jasper Park Lodge (JPL) golf course to the Lodge itself.

3:00pm: Wander through the Beauvert Promenade, the haute couture mall in the basement of JPL. I'm sure any decent shopping spree would finish off my bank account in about an hour. Nice stuff though...

3:30pm: Speaking of bank account depletion, I buy an ice cream sandwich (Oreo) at JPL ... for $4. Yay Jasper inflation!!

4:20pm: Make it to Lake Annette after hiking through more thinned forest. My God, what a sweet place! Lake is spring-fed, not glacial, and it's shallow, making it delightfully warm. Beach is short, but not narrow like other Alberta beaches, and the view of Pyramid Mtn, Whistler's Mtn, and Mount Edith Cavell made it a beach unlike any other that I've experienced.

5:30pm: Make it back home after re-aggravating my knee descending a steep slope (it's fine today). Start dinner, end up making an amazing pork chop with fried sweet onion/corn garnish, with a side of chicken-broth flavoured rice.

8:30pm: Go shoot hoops at the community park to rectify brutal performance playing 21 against friends that day before. I'll be back guys, look out for me!!!

9:45pm: Study my boat/tour manual, surf the net and hit the hay....

6 months ago, I would have never believed I would be living this well, yet here I am! If you want to change up your living environment, just do it. I did, and my life is day compared to the night of the previous year....!

For Those Who Haven't Heard...

... I am moving to Jasper to work as a boat tour guide this summer, from Mid-May to Mid-October.  I'm doing this as (1) I need a change of scenery in my life and (2) I'm looking to get into outdoor recreation as a career, as I have a great degree of passion for it, something that was missing with regard to ergonomics, or working as a kinesiologist in a clinic.

Should be fun, I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

Jasper in January ... Or Is That April??

Last weekend, I went skiing at Marmot Basin in Jasper.  It was the first day of the Jasper in January festival, so while prices were cheap ($92 to stay @ Whistler's Inn in the heart of Jasper!), the crowds were out in force!  It took me 1 hour and 15 minutes to pick up my rental (note to self: get rental in town next time!). 

Once I got out on the hill though, it was all good though ... temps were well above zero (probably near +4 or +5 at the base by afternoon), and the snow was FAST!  It was a little icy in the shadows, but that added to the challenge, and it made the experience alot more fun for myself.

Overall, aside from hitting the green runs to warm up the legs at the start of the day, I was primarily on the blues all weekend, including a couple shots at the Knob chair (highest and considered to be the hardest lift @ Marmot, as evidenced by the NO BEGINNERS sandwich board sign at the base of the lift).

As usual, the mountain scenery was breathtaking (shame that I forgot my camera at home, blah); I gotta find a way to make the mountains my backyard sometime in the near future, as leaving Jasper (and Banff, and BC, etc) tugs at my heart everytime I do it...

New Year ... New Possibilities

Hope everybody had a great holiday season .... a new year is upon us, and as such, hope for the future springs eternal.  I intend to make waves this year, in spite of all the pessimism that you hear about in the media...

Goals:

- Turn my flat stomach into a ripped stomach

- Eat healthier (i.e. more vegetables/fruits, less fast food)

- Continue to test out internet business ideas until one of them takes off and becomes self-sustaining (meaning I can live off the proceeds without having to have a day job)

- Get better at poker, get sufficiently rolled to play $1/$2 NL on Pokerstars by the end of the year, and also play in some major tourneys in town (via satellite tourney win if need be)

-In general, pursue what makes me happy, both in my work and in my life!

Employer: "You're So Smart And You Got An Impressive Background, So We've Decided To Hire Someone Else..." Me: "Que?"

So as far as my career goes this year, I have been trying acquire employment with a Physiotherapy climic; I have had 4 interviews, with zero success thus far, despite being told I have a great skill set, and that I am a really nice guy.  I try to get constructive feedback, but they either skirt the question, or they have ignored me completely.

This begs the question:  Are employers getting so afraid of hurting the feelings of people, that even constructive criticism is now off the menu?

How are you supposed to improve your hard/soft job skills, when you can't get the crucial perspective of an outsider?  No matter how honest you are about your strengths and shortcomings, you are inherently biased about certain aspects of your character; these are things that only another person can pick up on.

I guess I'll have to make some blind guesses about where I'm coming up short, and see if it changes anything, but if there's any advice I would have for hiring managers/business owners out there, it would be this:  Don't mistake being assertive with being aggressive.  Offering up contructive criticism of somebody's skills isn't equal to berating or bullying them (especially if they are asking for it explicitly!)

Home for the Holidays!

Well, I just booked my flight home for the holidays ... arriving in Halifax December 24th at 10:20am, and returning to Edmonton December 28th!  Gonna be great to be home, if only for a short time!

DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!111one

So I hear that a recession is coming, or it's already here.  How do I know this?  Because everyday, the newspaper and the TV is filled with predictions of doom; they're even dubbing it "Great Depression 2.0" ... good grief!

To all the folks in the media ... YES WE GET IT, times are more economically challenging than they were at this time last year, due to the market crashing (never mind that it happened in 1998, 1987, and in 1974, and the world didn't descend into the apocalypse) and credit freezing up temporarily.  There is no need to regurgitate that which we already know, or to speculate endlessly on nightmare scenarios, while ignoring inspirational stories of economic triumph that point the way out of our economic woes.

The point is, bellyaching about the state of the economy will NOT cure it ... promoting success stories that provide lessons on how ingenuity and perseverance overcome challenges just might!

Cliff Notes:  Whiners almost never achieve success, doers eventually will, in good times and bad times!    

Obama Landslide? I Hope So!

It's the eve of the U.S Election, and Obama is up between 6-12% over McCain .... whoo-hoo!

All you folks down in the States, get out and vote tomorrow, the Dems won't win unless you make it so!

Back Again...

I've ignored this blog for too long, as Facebook kinda filled the "what's going on in my life?" niche for a while.  But recently, I've come to realize that I miss the process of writing, so I'm going to start posting on here again ... besides, it adds depth that status updates can't provide!

Coming up this week, I'll let you know what's changed in my professional and personal life ... stay tuned!

"I'm So Sick Of Waiting! 2007 Is Going To Be The Year I'm Going To Go For It...!"

Over the last several months, I have been catapulted into a series of life-changing events:

• My old laptop burst into flames in the middle of night in January, nearly incinerating me in my bedroom, leading me to question my direction in life.

• I switched jobs to a stable, night-shift job, which allowed me to focus on starting to draft my career plans, as there are next to no distractions during the day (except for cute kittens jumping on your lap!)

• I went out and got full gear, and started playing hockey once per week, just like I have always wanted to do since high school!

• I picked up "Start Late, Finish Rich" by David Bach and proceeded to banish debt from my life and get started on building a nest egg. I sleep much better now!

• I went on a week's vacation to BC, perservering through battery failures, locking my keys in my car, and badly misjudging distances. The soul-humbling scenery will keep me coming back for years to come!

• I bought the book "The 4 hour work week" by Timothy Ferriss, and it has set me on the path to cutting out all the unimportant crap out of my life, setting up sources of passive income, and generally taking control of time in my career so I can realize my potential as a human being. A must read for anyone!

• I got pushed into doing what I've been putting off for so long: starting up the consulting business I've always wanted to have. I presented on office ergonomics to management of my current job, and I will know by the end of the month whether I've got my very first client as a freelancer. Very exciting stuff!

I said to myself on New Year's Eve last year that 2007 was going to be the year that I was going to finally make it happen for myself, and look what's happened? In addition to my own ambition, it looks like The Big Guy Upstairs is looking out for me...

Achoo!!

I don't know what the heck's going on, but I've been a magnet for sickness this year. I am currently suffering through cold #4 on the year, and I got sick for two days following my flu shot last week. I guess the lunch room at my place of work is just like the 'ol dorm at college: a petri dish for germs of all kinds... :(

Post #250: Brought To You By Your Local Russian Mob Syndicate Posing As Russian Borscht Joint!

For post #250, I got this: If you have strong stomach and don't mind pointy objects getting jabbed into people unthinkably sickening ways, go see Eastern Promises at your local movieplex. It's a movie about the Russian mafia in London, and ... I'm not spoiling it anymore than I already have.

Just be aware that it's rated 18A for a very good reason. Having said that, um, enjoy!

Gas Pains

The natural gas people were here today to re-align gas lines and move our meter outside. In that process, they have left a huge hole in our backyard ... that's gotta make Scott (my roommate who maintains the garden and yard) happy, eh?

When I have time this weekend, I'll write about my career trajectory to date, as I haven't blogged on that in a long while...

October = Late Fall in Alberta

Today I'm booking a car appointment to fix the air in my car (dead air sucks more than you'll ever know, even when it's not hot out) and to get winter tires put on my car. A little early you say, laughing? Not here in Northern Alberta. It snowed for the first time last year on October 28th, and the snow stuck around until April!

Global Warming? What's that??



(just kidding, I actually do care about Global Warming, just tryin' to be funny...!)

Team Jimmy 2008 - Now With 57% Less Injuries ... I Hope

Well, I just picked a team full of ringers at my friend's Trooper's hockey pool today. Kopitar and Visnovsky have already got three points on the season - awesome start!

If I can somehow manage to get through the last two months of the season without half my roster going on the DL, I might just win this year!

Blustery Start to Fall

Man it's windy today. Trash is blowing all over the street, what a mess! Oh well, it's not my problem...

More pics coming soon...but first, a text post!

Hey everybody. Just dropping a note saying that I plan on writing here much more often, like every other day or so (you in the back, stop laughing!). I freed up a bunch of time by ridding myself of wasteful or important tasks, so I actually have room to breath now. It feels great!

BC Vacation Day 3

Day 3 of my BC Vacation was all about challenging my physical limits, by tackling the famous Grouse Grind, and the Sea to Sky highway, which holds some of the most spectacular mountain scenery that I have ever seen! Your guide to the pictures above lies below:

Pic 1: In North Vancouver on the way to Grouse Mountain to challenge the Grouse Grind.

Pic 2: Looking down at fellow climbers. The Grouse Grind is a 3.5km trail that challenges the statima of even very fit people. There is 2900 + feet of elevation change, or just shy of 1 km, almost straight up!

Pic 3: This is a picture of myself and Joesph, a guy from Atlanta, Georgia that I met at the 1/4 mark. His wife took the tram up the mountain (probably smart), so like me, he was doing it alone. We talked about a bunch of stuff heading up the mountain, which helped to take our minds off the punishment that the Grind was dishing out to us!

Pic 4: The view from the tram line, looking down on Vancouver (what I could see anyway).

Pic 5: Between Vancouver and Squamish, BC on the Sea to Sky Highway.

Pic 6: Squamish, BC, incredible cliffs! I think it may be The Chief, a cliff face famous among rock climbers...

Pic 7: Whistler, BC. If you look closely at the side of the mountain you can see the chair lifts for Whistler mountain!

Pic 8: Between Whistler and Pemberton, BC. Did I mention it was raining that day?!

Pic 9: Near D'Arcy, BC. I missed the turnoff to Lilooet, BC, so I ended up losing 1 1/2 hours driving to the former community. Nice scenery though!

Pic 10: This picture does not convey the incredibleness of this mountain stream!

Pic 11: Unbelievable...

Pic 12: In Lilooet, BC. Look carefully, that's a mountain rising up very high into the clouds. After I took this picture, I realized I locked my keys in my car. Dinged for another $35!

BC Vacation -- Day 2

This day started in Kelowna, and ended with me meeting up with a good friend of mine from college, Dunc. All comments on pics below refer to pics from the top down, as usual...

Pic 1: Nice hotel in Downtown Merritt. Good to see Mairitimers representing in this town (note the flags)!

Pic 2: Sprinklers on farmland in Merritt. With no AC in the car, I comtemplated stopping and running through them...!

Pic 3: Mountains on the Coquihalla Highway between Merritt and Hope. The Cascade Range is really beautiful, and ranks up there with the Rocky and Coast Mountains.

Pic 4: The lonnnnng descent to the Lower Mainland. I think my ears almost exploded, lol!

Pic 5: Almost to the Lower Mainland, one of the mountains in the Coast range come into view.

Pic 6-7: Downtown Vancouver. Very imposing and modern, but the next pic...

Pic 8: ... is just weird for the sake of weird!

Pic 9: An awe-inspiring view of North Vancouver from Downtown. This sight will live in my soul forever...

Pic 10: The spread of nachos and the Atlantic Trap and Gill on Robson Street in Vancouver, as I enjoy a bite.

Pic 11: Dunc and I after polishing off a pitcher and a few pints. It was easily the most fun I had during my trip to BC!

BC Vacation, Day 1

Preceding this, I ran into a pretty bad snag on my way down to Calgary for the last weekend of the Stampede -- my battery died in Red Deer. Since this happened just as every mechanic in town was getting off for the day (it was a Saturday), I had to miss a pub crawl I signed up for in Calgary, but I ended up spending the night with Curtis and Phil, two college buddies of mine. We went and saw the Transformers movie, which was OK (though it smacked of an ad for GM). I made it down to Calgary on Sunday, and spent the last night on the Stampede playing poker and hitting the Roadhouse bar with two other fellow Aitken Rangers, the Baxter brothers, Trent and Trevor!

The pictures above are from the first official day of my BC vacation (although a good part of the first day was spent in Banff National Park). Refer to the key below (and in all other posts on my BC adventures) for comments on the aforementioned pictures:

Pics 1 -3: Lake Minnewaka, Banff National Park.

Pic 4: Kicking Horse Pass, Yoho National Park. This road passed by one of the most ambitious engineering projects ever (the Spiral Tunnels, that trains use to make it through the pass safely) and a very difficult one in the present day (the twinning of the Trans Canada through Kicking Horse Pass to Golden, BC)

Pic 5: A snowshed tunnel in Rogers Pass. There were about five of these tunnels, of which some were not lit. This took me by surprise, even though there was a sign warning about it!

Pic 6: View of the Kootenay Mountain Range from Revelstoke, BC. Lots of snow in the mountains even in mid-July (!). I stopped here for some baked goods (including that BC staple, Namaimo Bars, hahah) to wake me up, as I was starting to zone out a little from all that driving (5 hours at that point). BC is not a small province!

Pic 7: A houseboat on the shores of Okanagan Lake in Kelowna, BC. Definitely gotta get some of guys and gals together and do this sometime in the near future!

My New House in Rio Terrace, West Edmonton

In order from the top: Front yard, back yard, backside of the house, kitchen, dining room.

Not bad for $600 a month eh (my room and my office are still in a state of flux, therefore you will have to wait to see them :P )

River Valley Walk

Edmonton's River Valley, as pictured on a walk this weekend. It is this feature that makes Edmonton one of Canada's best kept secrets!

Alberta Legislature Grounds

After crossing the High Level Bridge from the southside, you are literally at the doorstep of Alberta politics -- the Legislature Grounds. But even if you have no interest in politics whatsoever, the myriad of impressive fountains, reflecting pools, and gardens will act as a major draw. People wade in the pools throughout the summer, and ice vendors are located on site to provide an alternative cool down method for those who do not wish to venture into the water.

Pic 1: The most impressive fountain I've seen in my life to date. I've nicknamed it "the atom smasher"; notice the thin trail of mist sailing upwards from the immense collisions of water occuring below.

Pic 2: The reflecting pools behind the Legislature.

Pic 3: The pool at the back of the extensive system of fountains and pools at the legislature grounds. A great place to lay back and think about life...

Pic 4: The front of the Alberta Legislature.

Edmonton's Most Underappreciated Attraction: The High Level Bridge

The above three pictures were taken from Edmonton's landmark bridge, the High Level Bridge. It spans the river valley gorge between the north and south banks of the North Saskatchewan River. The height from the walking deck to the river below is greater than the vertical drop of Niagara Falls, if you can believe it!

Pic 1: Downtown Edmonton as viewed from the High Level Bridge.

Pic 2: Looking towards the (much lower) Walterdale Bridge further East.

Pic 3: Kinsmen Park as seen from the bridge. Football/Soccer/Ultimate players look like ants from up here!

A Text Post? Without Pictures? Am I Hallucinating?

It's been a hectic December thus far, with much going on. To start the week off, my car and my roommate's SUV got broken into. Nothing was taken from my car, even though they passed over my new Dave Matthews and Green Day CD! Whew! The next day, we went and saw a house in a nice neighbourhood called Rio Terrace, in West Edmonton. The owner was so impressed with our responsible, mature attitudes, that he rented it to us on the spot; not an easy feat, considering the cutthroat rental market in this city right now.

The new neighbourhood has virtually no crime, which is comforting, especially since the neighbours came over yesterday to ask me if I had seen anything suspicious, as their house was robbed in broad daylight. Yowsa! Good thing we're getting the heck outta here soon!

As for Christmas plans, I am flying home redeye-style on the night of the 19th - 20th of December, and I will be home until the 27th, flying back out West on the 28th in the morning.

Can't wait for some good times in the Maritimes!

Sorry Meghan, But The Name Of This Street Is ....

... Lavigne Rd! One of the most exclusive neighbourhoods in the city, Riverdale had to fight the city back in the 60's on the matter of expropriation of its land for use as parkland as part of the River Valley. Successful in resisting this proposal, this street of upscale homes sits surrounded by a sea of greenery and wilderness in the middle of a city of a million. Incredible place to live, with a killer view of downtown (see first pic) ...

Condo Towers Aplenty!

With the sheer nautral beauty, and the many opportunities for recreational activities in Edmonton's River Valley, condo towers line the the edges of the North Saskatchewan River ravine for miles on end. Many professionals live in these prized pieces of real estate, including members of the Edmonton Oilers, according to my roommate.

Lazy River

Crossing over the river from Hawrelak Park, I began to take a series of pictures of the North Saskatchewan River. A few weeks previous, I had been rafting down the Bow River in Calgary. I wanted to gauge how paddling up the North Saskatchewan River would be. It doesn't flow as fast, but the views are just as stunning! I will definitely be doing this next summer!

Hawrelak Park

The most celebrated park in the City of Edmonton, Hawerlak Park sprawls out from the base of the River Valley west of the University of Alberta. It is acres upon acres of open lawn, fire pits, kitchen shelters, and water (a lake in the middle of the park, and the frontage on the North Saskatchewan River). There is also a bandshell, where concerts, festivals, and outdoor orchestra productions take place throughout the summer. I walked to this park through the River Valley trails several times this summer, a fairly long walk from the 106th Street access (which takes 30 minutes to reach from my house!).

No wonder I'm in such good shape!