xmas in ouray

there was much cribbage, eating, and drinking had by all.

i want a new drug, and other huey lewis favorites (favourites)

so i've found a new drug... well more accurately i've found my favorite purveyor of my favorite drug (caffeine). actually i found it a while back, but now it is a part of my routine. there is a coffee shop on the corner of broadway and kingsway called "our town". not only is there a lack of scenesters (ala soma), but they have really comfy chairs that affords me an excellent view of people walking down broadway. to top it all off their coffee is really good. ok, enough of my useless yuppie talk... so, i'm back in the canadia. the flights were good and just in the nick (knick?) of time as dia is getting hammered again with snow. the highlight was getting to see teresa. it was good to catch up and it made the 4 hour layover very pleasant. here are some photos from my new computer.

viva america!

holy monkey there are a lot of pickup trucks in colorado! and a whole lot of good times to be had with the fam. we ate lots of great food and relaxed in our cabin in the san juans. tomorrow i head back to vancouver. hopefully i don't get stuck in DIA. happy post-xmas everyone!

weekend f.a.q.

1. is it true you went to america last weekend? yes
2. why didn't you tell me? spite
3. did you have a good time? damn straight!
4. did you smuggle a small asian girl accross the border? why not?
5. did you go to walmart? would it be "america weekend" without a trip to walmart?
6. you're not going to tell me you went to burger king are you? yes
7. has hell frozen over? maybe
8. how long did you spend in portland? 17 hours
9. is it the greatest city ever? yes
10. do you think you've been there long enough to make such a strong statement? yes
11. where else did you go? seattle
12. what did you do in seattle? went to a concert and danced like a maniac/idiot
13. was it americatastic? what the hell does that mean?
14. you know, did trailerparks and violence figure prominently? of course
15. was catherine overwhelmed? does this look like a "catherine's weekend f.a.q." to you?
16. are you going to answer all my questions with a question? no?
17. did you sleep in your car? yes
18. why would you do something like that? alcohol and rock stars
19. what was the best part of "america weekend"? new hobo gloves

yet another master card joke

ball cap with company logo: $15 CAD

two canucks tickets, 6 rows from the ice: $280 CAD

being nice to lori in the quality control department: free

trading the ball cap for the lori's tickets: priceless

people watching

it's already dark as the line of commuters grows under the street lights outside the train station. for the most part the people are quiet. the only thing escaping their lips are small wisps of breath that quickly disappear into the cold air. a young man in a black hoodie and a crooked ball cap clutches a shivering chihuhua in one arm and presses a cell phone to his ear. aside from the dog, his appearance is that of someone who would sock you in the face for looking at his sister. he paces along the sidewalk as he speaks into his motorola, but his conversation is lost to the sound of cars rushing down broadway. shortly the bus arrives and the people file on as the man with the dog speaks earnestly on the phone. he is obviously distraught and contemplates whether or not he should follow the rest of the crowd . as the people walk by they catch pieces of his conversation, "i don't know what to do." "he won't stop shaking." "are you near the hospital?" "i'm getting on right now." with that he edges into the plodding mass and then quickly climbs the stairs into the back of the articulated b-line. the bus is full and people scramble to find a seat in a nightly contest of musical chairs sans the music. as everyone settles in and the driver eases the bus into traffic the young man continues his strained conversation. the rest of the bus is quiet and the only discernable dialogue is his frantic phone call. it is clear that his worry is directed at the shivering dog pressed against his chest. "i came home and he was curled up in the corner." "he had puked blood and pooed on the floor!" "i'll be there soon." "he doesn't know what's going on. he’s totally out of it" the other passengers squirm uneasily. his voice cracks, "what's wrong with him." some struggle to hide their awkward smirks while a man reaches into his messenger bag to turn up his ipod. the young asian girl sitting next to him shifts herself slightly and leans into the woman on the other side. the conversation continues for several more blocks as his voice becomes more shrill in sharp contrast to his tough guy appearance. one passenger smiles as he finds the mans unabashed compassion for his furry companion a nice break from the typical stoic and silent passengers at the back. at the next stop he quickly and clumsily extricates himself and his dog from their seat tucked in the corner and departs back into the city. he walks briskly toward the veterinarian’s office at the end of the block. as the bus speeds away normalcy returns and passengers shuffle to fill the spots of people that left in an effort to avoid sitting next to someone they don't know...

red letter day

i almost forgot to tell everyone the exciting news: they checked my ticket on the sky train for the very first time last weekend! it was truly an exciting moment.

back story: the sky train is the elevated train that i take to work every morning. the sky trains are operated by the same company that runs the buses (translink), but unlike the buses they don't check your fare getting on and off the train (i.e. no turnstiles). apparently it works on the honor system (only in canada). they do have random checks by transit police and you can get a rather large ticket for not having valid fare. these spot checks are few and far between and after spending $100 for a two zone transit pass you want some validation. well, i finally got some when the transit cop asked for my ticket.

weekends = fun

so, it wasn't all fun and games. speaking of games, i went to the avs-canucks game on saturday night with steph... booooo! (not steph, the hockey game) at least the game was a good one and the avs didn't get blown out. plus we were freakin' close! only 6 rows back. it was a lot of fun except the part where luongo stopped 40 of 41 shots.


i know it's on it's side. i can't fix it.

the rest of the day was spent wanderin around town with the pan.

vancouver + snow = massive mayhem

why did it take me an hour to get to west van? someone ran their car into a telephone pole.

whaddaya mean snow!?

so it is snowing like crazy in vancouver right now. nuttiness! i am actually really excited since i didn't expect this much snow and i was starting to miss it.

well, work is fine, but i don't like how it takes up so much of my time (i know, get used to it). it doesn't help that i am tutoring still, but it makes me less stressed about money. i finally have the jetta up and running again, although she needs new tires. i am already formulating a plan to sell her after the new year. it will be sad letting go, but i certainly don't need a car and i don't need to be spending so much money keeping her on the road. plus, the money would help take a chunk out of my debt and possibly go towards a new computer, since that is what i could really use. thank goodness for the weekends. catherine and i had another awesome day wandering around the city. the short version: croisscram at cafe deux soleil, value village (savers), army navy, lookout at harbour centre, tim hortons double double, sky train to new west, snow starts, new west quay and free stuffed animals, another army navy, hobo gloves, blow me pin, casino boat, asian noodles on broadway, back up the lookout at harbour centre, lots of snow, casino in richmond, avalanche beating the canucks, b-line home, freezing cold bed, the end.

wtf jetta!?

*warning: the following may be viewed as bitching and moaning... that is because it is both bitching and moaning*

today was stupid. why? well it's not so much sunday that is stupid, but how i let sunday kick me around that was stupid. first off i slept in real late cause i was up real late last night (this is neither bitching nor moaning). i got ready to tutor and hopped in the jetta to drive up to west van (side note: you might think that you would drive over to west van, but west van is actually the west part of north van. so, i drive "up" to west van. not to be confused with the west end or the west side.) two blocks into the excursion it was obvious one of the cylinders was miss firing (this is the 3rd time this has happened in a month and i've already put 1800 bucks into it). so, i park my car and call up my tutors and my tutor boss and give them the good news. my tutor boss is not very happy with me and i get the feeling he thinks my car is actually fine and this is just an excuse to get out of tutoring. so, now it's off on the buses, which goes just fine until i try and go to my second tutor... i was going to explain the whole fiasco, but it isn't really worth talking about. needless to say there was a lot of walking, running, barely missing buses, and more walking. i am seriously starting to think about selling my car. i almost never use it and it is nothing but a money pit. in the meantime i am going to take it back to the dealership tomorrow and this time i'm putting on my angry face. for those of you not familiar with my angry face... well, it's just pretty darn angry.

all clouds and no sun makes geoff a dull boy all clouds and no sun...

damn you 49th parallel! there is something seriously wrong with driving south at noon and having to put the visor down because the sun is just barely above the horizon. the fact that the sun comes up 7:30 and sets at 4:30 is brutal, and it's only the middle of november. thank goodness for a partly sunny day today. i walked down to main street and bought some cool stuff, like a hoodie. the oppressive darkness/cold/rain is not making the transition to 'holed up in my office all day' lifestyle any easier.

i have good news and bad news. the good news is i'll be in colorado for christmas (21st - 27th). the bad news is i'll only be in denver for 3.5 hours (layover on the 27th). so, if anyone is interested in a ski trip to vail on the 22nd let me know. otherwise i'll wave as i fly over. or for you gj residents in the audience, maybe a trip to powderhorn could be arranged.

my new room:

routine and poutine

so, i am officially a yuppie. it all started with a new bed from IKEA and now includes espresso every morning and a half hour commute on the b-line and the sky train. anyway, the transition to young urban professional is tough, but as long as i pretend it isn't permanent it's ok. the job gets better every day and i'm actually starting to feel useful, if not always knowledgeable. i got my first designing assignment. i get/have to design a pseudo autoclave for the fuel cell manifolds we make. it's like a fancy sandwich press. in fact i might patent it (assuming i can actually make one) and open a panini shop.

thanks to catherine i have a cool new friend (almost as cool as catherine herself, but let's not get carried away). his name is cameron and he's an indie rocking badass, who just happens to love old school computer games. soon we are going to hang out and play xcom, master of orion, and xwing vs. tie fighter on his network of pentium 100 computers. i know you're all jealous, especially bob. by the way, i enjoy everyones comments. it is nice to hear from all you folks back in the states. speaking of the states, i am slightly prouder to be an american after last tuesday (sorry republican friends of mine).

a picture of luca and i having a dance party on halloween:

holy tiredness

what a exhausting week. so, i started my job on wednesday. the first day was honestly terrible. i really didn't know what to do with myself and everyone was too busy to waste a whole day walking me through everything. it doesn't look like i'm going to get to do much designing, which is really what i want to do. thankfully each day has been better than the previous. it will just take me some time to figure out the system. i like the people i work with and i think i'll get some really good experience out of it. my job title is 'project manager', which means i manage projects. essentially this company is an outsourced machine shop. there is a relatively large staff of machinists. my job is to make sure the part gets made correctly and in a timely fashion. it is a lot of paperwork (computer work), but there is lots of variety and the atmosphere is pretty relaxed. today we had a lunch-time trivia competition and i won two tickets to the canucks game next week (i bet you didn't know that the first heart transplant came from a baboon). now, i know, it's a canucks game, but considering i have watched exactly zero hockey this season i am really excited to go to a game.

in other turning-my-life-up-side-down news, i am now living in a new house. it is a huge heritage house and the people seem great. i haven't actually spent much time here yet because of work, tutoring, and hanging out with the c-pan. i will write more about the house later when i have had more time to digest and i'm not so brutally tired.

so, i promised an explanation for the halloween photos. first off, i have a canadian flag because i was dressing up like a canadian (toque, molson, flannel shirt, flag). if only i had some moon boots i would have blended right in. anyway, the night was a lot of fun, although there was a fair amount of drama (pronounced like dramamine without the -mine). some was good and some was bad and i'll leave it at that. i hope all is well with the rest of you (both of you that read this). come back for another installment of "geoff's canadian adventure".

halloween (i'll explain later)

words are overrated

officially still not canadian, but closer

i have my temporary work visa and all is right with the world!

fright night!

holy sweetness! fright night was a blast. for those of you who don't know what "fright night" is (which is probably all of you), it is a bunch of haunted houses and amusement park rides that stay open late the two weeks leading up to halloween. it is held at playland, which is a poor mans version of six flags. sprout and i went on nearly every ride and i forced her go into all the haunted houses. the whole experience was more fun than a barrel full of really scary monkeys... like monkeys with fangs... and knives... and kim jong-il hair. i hate to admit it, but i took perverse pleasure in cathrine being freaked out by the haunted houses... yes i am a jerk... and yes this is an egregious misuse of ellipses...




good news, i have the job offer letter! verbatim:

October 23, 2006

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter is to confirm that a job offer has been made to Geoffrey Hill for a full-time professional contract position at Pathway Design & Manufacturing Inc. The position offered is of Engineering Project Manager, as detailed below. The term of the contract is to extend from November 1, 2006 until October 31, 2007.

Engineering Project Manager

Qualifications
- A four year BASc degree in Engineering is required.
- CAD skills, including familiarity with Pro-Engineering
- Knowledge of manufacturing processes
- Ability to design mechanical systems and sub-systems
- Impeccable English communication skills, written and oral

Responsibilities
- Design parts and create technical drawings
- Supervise manufacturing staff and machinists
- Manage the manufacturing process
- Develop design specifications, perform analysis and manage projects
- Ensure all products and processes comply with ISO 9000:2000 quality system;
- Liase with clients' engineering staff to oversee manufacture of parts

Remuneration
- The salary for this position will be #### per week. Benefits include two weeks paid vacation during the course of the contract.

In any information is required, please contact the undersigned at ###.###.####

Regards,
#####

sweet, eh?

smells like asian day

yesterday was the first annual asian day. what is asian day you might ask? well, asian day is a day to experience all things asian. by "all things asian" i mean several asian things accessible by the 98 B-line. asian day got off to an inauspicious start as we wandered around the rather lame yoahan centre in richmond, but things picked up when we found the drink aisle in the supermarket. fond memories of japanese vending machines came flooding back and while they didn't have hot chocolate in a can i was happy to see that the 400 mL coke bottle cost the same as the 500 mL coke can, just like in the real japan. this was only the beginning of crazy japaneseness (japanery? japanocity?). we then went to daiso, the $2 store that was chock full of things i didn't need to buy from japan.





after daiso we walked through aberdeen mall, which is a mall, but where everything is asian (perfect for asian day!) the highlight of aberdeen was the photo booth where we had no idea what was going on, but ended up with some sweet shots anyway. then there was a heated game of bishi bashi (a chinese video game where you try to hit the right button as fast as you can). so, in reality it wasn't heated and cathrine kicked my ass repeatedly. in my defense, she is of asian descent and i'm pretty sure all asians are good at bishi bashi (one lesson not learned during asian day: stereotypes are stupid. the vw commercials tried to teach me that and it just didn't stick).





so, after aberdeen it was off to richmond centre for some dairy queen, which i'm pretty sure is asian. then we swung by the asian market where you can buy used clothing and squid at the same time. and thus concluded asian day. by all accounts it was a rousing success. cathrine summed the whole experience up by saying, "we're getting more asian all the time."

geoff's ode to boulder

i was recently visiting fuego's website and he is finally leaving boulder after nearly 10 years there. he had made an ode to boulder as a parting gesture. it definitely reminded me of a lot of good memories during a very formative time. so, as with so many of john's other good ideas, i am going to steal this one and produce my own "ode to boulder".

freshman year
- unloading all my stuff into the dorm and saying goodbye to the parents
- debauchery on the 3rd floor of crosman hall
- hallway olympics
- getting tear-gassed on pleasant st during the halloween riot
- wizzers hamburgers, magnum p.i., and ditty kong racing in the afternoons
- john boy's antics
- watching the avs with lori
- gainers off the high dive with paulin
- wandering the tunnels under campus
- frisbee with clint in the quad

sophomore year
- being sequestered in the basement of the itll and going crazy with my fellow aeros
- riding my bike across varsity pond every day
- hanging out with derek, dustin, and jesse at tantra lake
- the long walk back to varsity townhomes from tantra lake
- that stupid bottle of cap'n morgans spiced rum in the freezer
- gyros from the market deli
- coming home to find stewie playing tribes every day
- skate boarding in circles with derek during the "summer of hell"
- hanging out on sally's porch
- late night denny's with gerard

junior year
- the moorhead house
- adult swim with the boys
- the couches in the garage
- coming over the hill from louisville and admiring boulder and the flatirons
- so many nights standing in line at the foundry
- bad jokes and pitchers with katie at the oasis
- sneaking out of aerodynamics for wendy's wednesdays
- say it ain't so on the bass
- snow football on farrand
- sledding behind tantra lake
- concerts at tulagis

senior year
- more moorhead house
- parties at peter's
- hanging out with furrious and abs
- aerospace crush football and the double reverse flea flicker to start the half
- weekly meetings with nerem drumming on his belly
- one word "marvin"
- intramural soccer and broomball
- reading with eloy at the bpl
- anthony's wedding

1st year grad school
- walking back from that disastrous halloween with patrick
- foosball with b
- fac poker that went all night
- b-bus to denver with matt, jared, and derek
- watching the sun set from the southern sun with a java porter on nitro
- pizza and high speed aero all night with teresa
- backpacking with patrick sans matches

2nd year grad school
- indoor soccer with mindy and janet
- halo II domination
- disseminating math and science to 4th and 5th graders in lafayette
- the patio at the tantra house
- jesse's artwork on the refrigerator door
- t2 waking me up at 5 in the morning
- free drinks from lizzie at b.j.'s

post grad school
- talking music and relationships with jessica
- climbing bear peak with patrick
- dinners with jesse and tina
- packing up all of my stuff and driving away down highway 93

enough nostalgia

dios mio

i was on the number 8 bus yesterday and there was a group of obnoxious boys (latinos) speaking spanish behind me... and it made me really want to go back to south america. damn you canada and your stupid languages!

i got that place near 12th and cambie and i'm moving in november 1st.

pictures, as promised

official vancouver hipster

i can only hope that your weekend was as good as mine. as a matter of fact mine was so good that the headache is a hinderance to writing prose, so you will receive this update in bulleted form.

- anna found me a sweet house on cambie and 12th that i am going to check out tonight
- last viff volunteer shift where i decided to volunteer every week at the vancity theater
- night on the town with sprout and her boss from ontario
- lots of reading and skateboarding on saturday
- bought a new coat and the proceeded to spill wine and it and then proceeded to wash it out
- free swanky sushi dinner courtesy of sprout's boss
- existential conversations
- dressed up like a pimp for a work less party party. much debauchery and fun ensued (pictures to come soon)
- scootering (tutoring) and jump starting my ailing auto on sunday morning
- more debauchery at the viff volunteer party sunday night
- called pathway design and i should have my job offer sometime this week

as you can see it was a weekend chock full of excitement.

adjusting your longboard trucks in 10 easy steps

step 1: place your longboard at the top of a steep hill (one with a stop sign at the bottom is recommended. e 23rd ave just west of fraser st is perfect)
step 2: stand on longboard
step 3: allow gravity to pull you down hill (note that einstein says: gravity is not a force, but just world-lines being altered by the mass of the earth)
step 4: make sure to look cool by carving back and forth on your board as you accelerate
step 5: if your longboard becomes wobbly that's a good sign and means you indeed need to adjust the bushings
step 6: panic as you gain speed and are unable stop (feel free to scream)
step 7: perform action roll as longboard crashes into a bush at the bottom of the hill
step 8: check ipod for damage
step 9: check body for damage
step 10: tighten bushings on your longboard (remember that the more flesh and blood you lose, the more you need to tighten them. don't forget: rightie-tightie, lefty-loosie)

happy thanksgiving!

i hope everyone had a wonderful canadian thanksgiving. i know i did. the 'rents arrived safe and sound this morning. we had a super touristy day and it was a lot of fun. we wandered around downtown and had lunch and then headed up to the capilano suspension bridge and grouse mountain. certainly activities way above my normal price range. then we had thanksgiving dinner on main st. and talked about plans for tomorrow: granville island, stanley park, and queen e park. i must say that my first canadian thanksgiving was a huge success.

as for the job, i technically don't have an official job offer yet (i.e. i have no idea how much i'll be making, when i start, or what i'll be doing), but that is honestly inconsequential at this point. i talked to the h.r. lady last week and she said they will be offering me the job this week... sweet, eh? anyway, all i know is that i have to get a work visa in the next week or so. if you want to check out the company, it's called pathway design (i'd put in a link, but i'm not sure if i want a "paper" trail from my blog to my new job). i'll keep everyone updated as i get more info.

hooray

i got the job!

delusional hangover

if you thought coming down from your favorite drug is bad, just imagine the crash of coming off delusions of grandeur brought on by a foreign library card. so, apparently i'm not entitled to paint a maple leaf on my chest and run naked down king edward avenue. actually my ego was the least of my concerns when a dozen rcmps (royal canadian mounted police for the non-canucks in the audience) beat me mercilessly and demanded i give them the american launch codes. i cracked under their gestapo style torture techniques, but little do they know, they only got my sophomore locker combination. i use the term "sophomore" because canadians have no idea what it means (i.g. freshman junior foxtrot. that's right, we attack at dawn...). i wonder if they know what sophomoric means, as in, "geoff is always so sophomoric." speaking of "favorite drugs", what the hell am i talking about tonight?

so, unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, my real life isn't that exciting. although tearing tickets at the viff and teaching koreans about polyatomic ions is nearly as stimulating as my life as a covert agent. speaking of the viff, volunteering has been fun, although a bit boring at times. i've met some cool people and i'm seeing some good movies along the way. i'll post some reviews when i get a chance (watch out for descriptive words such as: good, bad, and not bad). this morning i got to work concessions, which is awesome considering there is a high tech espresso machine. that means lots of free americanos for me.

in sad news, my computer is terminal... i mean the kind of terminal that entails imminent death. my hard drive is slowly failing, and even though the s.m.a.r.t. status is still ok, there are some strange noises when i tilt my laptop and i've been seeing a lot of beachballs lately. favorite drug, eh? actually a "beach ball" is that stupid spinning icon that lets you know your mac is thinking really hard. anyway, all the important files are backed up, so i'm not worried too much. unfortunately i don't have any money and i won't be able to fix it anytime soon. hold on little guy, i won't pull the plug unless you're in a persistent vegetative state (yeah, i know, the double meaning of "pull the plug" is genius, thanks for noticing).

practically canadian

oh snap! who's a full blown canadian now? that's right, i got my library card today. i haven't tried yet, but i'm pretty sure it functions just like a work visa. in fact, i think it entitles me to free health care. here are some of the emotions i went through with my new card (by the way, sorry about the "snap". i got a bit excited):

CONFUSION


EXCITEMENT


MAGNIFIED EXCITEMENT


LUST


and finally HUNGER


and yes, the whole experience was emotionally exhasting.