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).