Voices of a Distant Star

What Does Democracy Mean to Me?

2011-11-15T14:52:00.003-07:00

Elections Canada and Apathy is Boring are holding an Art of Democracy National Youth Challenge that invites young Canadians aged 14–30 to answer the question "What does your democracy mean to you?" Here is my response:

For me, democracy is a responsibility and an obligation; a responsibility to engage oneself in civic discourse and an obligation to seek out and understand the actors and stories that shape our communities. Democracy is far more than having, and acting upon, the right to vote. Unfortunately many young people under the age of majority do not perceive democracy this way, and as such feel powerless. The term ‘leaders of tomorrow’ is often used when describing the potential young people possess for evoking change in their community. This implies that youth are incapable of providing a leadership role in their current state, and that at some undefined moment in their life they are granted the ability to be leaders. This attitude that leadership and influence are not earned through ability or effort, but granted at a particular stage in life is purely authoritarian. Having a voice in civic discourse is not a privilege to be earned, but a right available to all Canadians, regardless of whether they are of voting age. Cultural, economic, and technological forces will ensure that the world young people inherit as adults will be much different than today.

As globalism and technological innovations increasingly bridge cultural and economic gaps, it becomes ever more important that young people are raised to think globally and see themselves as global citizens. However, before this is can be accomplished, before youth are able conceive of how they may play an active role on the global stage, they must understand their own communities. The term “think globally, act locally” was first coined by philosopher René Dubos to illustrate how local actions could have broad global effects. Young people must recognize the importance of understanding and involving themselves in local affairs so they may apply these learnings to national and international issues.

The past twenty years has seen a decline in youth participation in Canadian elections, encompassing federal, provincial, and municipal levels of government. In the most recent Canadian federal elections, youth turnout ranged from 37 percent in 2004, up to 43.8 percent in 2006, and back down to 37.4 percent in 2008. (www.elections.ca/res/rec/part/estim/estimation40_e.pdf) Of all age groups, the youth demographic turnout was the lowest for all three of these elections. Age-based results from the 2011 election have yet to be released, but the trend so far has been discouraging. It is evident that it is absolutely important to civically engage young people before they are eligible to vote, so that once they enter the age of majority, the right to vote will be acted upon. However, as important as voting is, it is but one component of civic competence. Youth have the potential to become active and influential within their communities long before they are eligible to vote, but they must be engaged in dialog about the role they may play. It requires a collaborative effort with techniques that ensure that knowledge is shared and transformed.

Creating democratically minded young citizens who are active, creative, and engaged requires families, neighbourhoods, community organizations, local businesses, and governments to participate in dialog with youth. Dialog must be established so that youth are able to fully understand how and why they may contribute, and so that adults may understand how they can enhance the existing flow of knowledge. This must be authentic dialog, with an eventual goal of transforming the knowledge that shapes our communities. This involves developing relationships between youth and their community that are mutually beneficial. The traditional concept of the teacher-student relationship must be abandoned; the teacher must teach their students, but learn from them as well. At the end of the day, youth, adults, and democracy as a whole should benefit from this learning relationship.

Make it a Blockbuster Night

2011-06-13T14:39:00.005-06:00

Random annual blog post time!

When I first started this blog waaaay back in 2003, I was a part time employee at the Horizon location of Blockbuster Video. I stopped working there at the end of 2004, so I think I was only there for about two years. Those were two very important years of my life. Not only did they mark the conclusion of my undergrad degree, but it's where I met my wife. I still remember when she walked into the store and dropped her resume off with the manager. After the manager went into the back and pinned it to a cork board (great HR practice there) I snuck back to learn more about her. She started soon after, and I thought she was really obnoxious. And she thought I was gay. Somehow it was meant to be and we became good friends, and then one night she just never left. She's still there!

After leaving Blockbuster it became a whirlwind of changes, tragedy, and triumph. Everything from graduating from university, a new career, the death of my mother, pregnancy, a new child, a move to a new city, and another job change. That all happened in 2005/2006, so the time of my life I spent at Blockbuster seemed to pale in comparison. However, looking back now they were a couple of the best years of my life that just happened to precede some of the most tumultuous. I realize that now as I reflect back on my time there.

The reason for this reflection, and this blog post, is that Blockbuster Canada has been placed into receivership and is closing 1/3 of their stores across Canada. The Horizon location is one of those. None of the great people I met there work for Blockbuster anymore, and have moved on to greater careers and/or post-secondary education. Still, I am sad to see the location of so many great memories fade away.

Most of my friends at Blockbuster left within a few months of me, and with a couple exceptions (including the one who sleeps in my bed) I didn't do a very good job of keeping in contact with them. However, Facebook (the death knell of this blog) allowed me to keep tabs on them now and then, and vice versa. When I heard that Horizon would be closing I posted a simple status update lamenting the development, and the next thing I knew we were planning a reunion.

Before the reunion, Kayla and I stopped by the old store for one last visit. The store was only a couple days from closing and everything had been reduced to 70% off. The site was absolutely depressing. The walls were bare and picked clean, and what was left was being furiously flipped thorough by bargain hunters. I felt sad to see it like this. In addition to being a place of work myself and others, it felt like an important part of a greater lively community. It was the only video store in that area of Calgary and we always had a lot of great traffic go through there. Everything from guys who paid with wads of cash from brown paper bags, to the guy from the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra who wouldn't let me touch his violin. It was a vibrant and eclectic place, and would be no more. But I digress...

The actual reunion was a blast and it felt natural to be with these people again. We started off talking about the old days, but soon enough we were talking about everything in our lives since then. I have no idea why we all stopped hanging out because it was obvious to me that we were friends not because we worked together, but because we all meshed so well. It was a really enjoyable evening, and I hope it will become a regular thing.

As far as the company itself goes, I think the days of big franchise video rental stores are nearing their end. As long as movies are still being released on physical media we'll still see some smaller mom & pop stores, but that's it. I suppose that's fitting considering Blockbuster put so many of those places out of business in the 90s.

Netflix, VOD, and piracy is convenient and I admit to partaking in it all. However, I still like walking into a store so that I can browse the shelves of movies old & new. I like talking to the staff and soliciting their opinions, even if they're wearing a Twilight or Bieber button. To me it provides a sense of community that isn't as tangible in the online realm. But then again, I'm old fashioned. I still buy the occasional CD, and I dread the day when I can't buy my favorite game or movie on a disk.

My local Blockbuster is still open, and I hope will continue to be for a while. When it does close, those employees will get better jobs, people will find other avenues to rent their movies, and life will continue on. I'm just happy I got to be part of it.

Blogging for Grades

2010-11-09T10:41:00.002-07:00

What’s this now, a blog post?! It seems I have been reduced to one lackluster annual post. I do not see this changing anytime soon, at least until I finish my masters. You may recall that two years ago I started my MA in the Athabasca University MAIS program. It’s going well, and I am more or less half way done. I’d love to do it faster, but one course a semester is more than a handful. Actually, I’m sort of taking a second course this semester. It’s called Social Media Tools and Supporting Your Professional Learning, and it’s a non-credit course being offered by the AUGSA. As part of this course I have started Tweeting and now I have to do a blog post! What am I supposed to blog about?

Week 3 Topic:
What do you think the value of opinion-writing or reflective-thought writing may have for your professional learning?

Although I did not realize it at the time, I think that my blogging during my undergrad years was largely beneficial to my overall educational experience. I very rarely blogged about specific topics related to my studies, unless it was complaining about how behind I was on assignments and such. No, for the most part this blog has been about random musings and happenings in my life. Reflective thought, if you will. So, how was this beneficial? I think it provided me with an outlet to sort out the various thoughts floating around in my head, thereby allowing me to focus on the topic at hand when I sat down to write assignments. (Not that it prevented me from procrastinating).

I also feel that blogging improved my overall writing style. I do not claim to have perfect grammar or sentence structure, but allowing myself to differentiate two different writing styles (casual vs. academic) resulted in greater clarity in my academic work. I also think it allowed me to add a bit of personality to my writing both inside and outside of school.

Week 4 Topic:
Blog about your thoughts of how you think blogging could be used to support your own learning in your university courses and possibly even include a recommendation to a blog that you like.

For those not familiar with how classes work at Athabasca University, they are done online with an application called Moodle, which stands for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. Fancy name aside, Moodle is more or less just a message board application. You, your professor, and your fellow students can start and engage in discussions relevant to the course. The course professor sets out the general layout of each course page, usually creating different sections and boards for units in the course. Students respond to the relevant topics, engage in some good discussion, and proceed to do so throughout the course. While this largely works, it lacks a certain personal touch. Sometimes a prof will create an off topic area where students can post about whatever they’d like. This is a good first step, but I think blogging by both the prof and students would be incredibly useful.

Academic blogging, when tied to a course, should be relevant to the course topics, but free from having to address specific queries. I could discuss how I feel about the assigned readings, how the course is relevant to my personal and professional life, or just ruminations about the course as a whole. The difference here is that it would be much more unstructured than the typical discussions that take place in Moodle.

While Moodle does have a blog function, I have never seen a professor or student use it. I don’t think most people know it’s there. Fortunately Athabasca now has something called The Landing (or just Landing, I’m not sure) which can be best described as Facebook for academics. It’s a great tool, but unfortunately very few in the MAIS program use it and those that do are exclusively students. I think there is great potential in the Landing, and I hope to see it gain momentum.

So, I guess now I’m supposed to recommend a blog. As I said earlier, I don’t follow any blogs that are related to my academic pursuits. I prefer the random and obscure. I’ll just leave it at that.

Airdrie Centennial - Future Day

2009-09-29T15:22:00.016-06:00

I must apologize - it was my intent to tell my Centennial stories in quick succession. Unfortunately the advent of school has reduced my ability to blog. Still, I saunter on and intend to complete these, but I suspect that these posts will be less detailed as time goes on. I digress...

The theme for September 11th, 2009 was youth, so we called it our Future Day. The day itself was really just two large events. The first being the Youth Performing Arts Showcase, and the second was supposed to be a Battle of the Bands for local youth bands. I was in charge of the Battle of the Bands, but for some reason I only ended up with two bands entering. As a result we turned it into a concert, and we were able to secure Seventh Rain as our headline band. This was arranged by Al Jones at Here's the Scoop, and I can't thank him enough!

Jumping back a little bit, the idea of having a youth performing arts showcase was conceived early in the planning process. We had two teachers on our committee that were going to work on it, but like many committee members do, they mysteriously vanished a few months after arriving. Even though I was heading up the planning of the youth day, I had no clue how to plan a showcase of various choirs and bands. So myself and another committee member put out a call to all the schools to attend a meeting about hosting such an event. We told all the teachers that attended that we would provide them with a venue and the staging, seating, etc. they would need as well as promote the event. We tasked them with actually organizing it, which is a ton of work. It didn't help that our event would occur during the first week of school, so all the planning would have to be done the previous school year.

It amazes me now that it all worked out. I only attended one meeting with the teachers, and then sort of sent them on their way. One of the teachers took on a leadership role and ensured everything got done. On my part it wasn't exactly the best model of community development, but I think it just goes to show that if people are passionate about something they will ensure it gets done and done well.

I arrived at the park Friday morning at about 7:00am and began setting up a few things that we'd need for the remaining days. We all thought Friday would be a pretty quiet day that would allow us to get some things ready for Saturday and Sunday. We were wrong. Very wrong. You see, we knew we were getting 600+ kids, but they were coming throughout the day. There weren't going to be more than 100 kids at a time, so no big deal, right? Well, a lot of the schools decided to make a field trip of it and stayed for most of the day. We also failed to consider that 600 kids equals about 1000 to 2000 parents/grandparents/relatives.

Due to this event taking place during a regular school/work day, we had a pretty limited pool of volunteers. Thankfully those we did have possessed superhuman volunteer skills. We managed the onslaught of people pretty well, but our parking was only being manned by one poor volunteer and it quickly fell into carmageddon with people parking wherever they felt like even if it meant blocking in an entire row of vehicles. It got pretty bad, but the volunteers pulled together and made it functional again.

I was in and out of the park quite a bit on this day running various errands. At one point I had to make a mad dash to Enterprise to rent a truck because my coworker's truck broke down at the gas station. It was a crazy day. The upshot was that I ended up with a big obnoxious truck that I was largely incapable of parking until Sunday. (By that point I was backing it up into parking stalls and everything. If you know me, vehicles + parking lots often result in disaster. Going in reverse is just a horrible multiplier.)

Due to my frequent absences I don't have a lot of pictures of the performances. I do have some of the George McDougall band though because I know a few of the kids in it, and I didn't want to miss them.

We had about a four hour break between the school performances and the concert starting. This gave us a nice window of time to catch our breath (and eat) and start setting up for the concert. There was a Centennial High School football game during this time, but none of us attended. Apparently Bert Church High School destroyed George McDougall High School. GMHS has a sweet band, though.

We had three bands lined up for the Centennial Youth Concert. Local bands 'Storm', and 'Autumn Arson' would open for 'Seventh Rain'. All three bands started to show up at around 5:30pm to setup all the equipment. I offered to help, but there was about ten of them and they all knew what they were doing. Me? Not so much… So I just sort of hung out and was generally useless. At least I got pictures.

To be completely honest, I was really concerned about turnout for this event. I’ve run a number of youth events in Airdrie that were very poorly attended. There were only 68 people who confirmed on the Facebook event page, and I honestly would have been happy with that number. :P Teenagers started arriving as early as 6:00, many of them attending the sound check the bands were doing. And then they kept coming and coming. Once the football game was done a new flood of youth swarmed the park. It was wonderful! If I had to guess, I’d say we easily had 1500 people there, possibly more.

Working with young people is what I do, so I do not hold the typical stereotypes about them that many people do. Despite having many, many youth in the park most of them were being very well behaved. We had a few minor incidents, but nothing to really get worried about. Still, I’ve done this type of work long enough that if you get a whole lot of teenagers in one spot, especially on a Friday night, you should be prepared for all possible outcomes. As such, I called the RCMP just to give them a heads-up that we would have a large gathering of people that would be there until at least 10pm. The security that we hired for the weekend asked if they could bring on an additional officer. Initially I said no, but as more and more kids started coming and we had more incidents of alcohol possession, I agreed to have another officer come out. In the end the company donated the extra officer, so that was really nice.

The performances themselves were awesome! We started with Storm, a local band that I’ve had come out to a few of my events now. Storm consists of two brothers who play guitar, bass, piano, and sing., as well as a friend of theirs who is the drummer. The drummer didn’t make this show (as well as some previous ones) and I got the feeling he might not be their drummer for much longer! The two brothers in the band are very down to earth and some of the nicest kids I’ve ever met. They have amazing support in their parents that come out to all their gigs and usually setup their equipment and film the whole thing. Let me tell you, these are model parents. I love them! I also love the fact that every time I ask them to perform (always for free) the whole family is incredibly grateful and thankful. Anyway, they did an excellent job and really got the crowd going.

Next up was Autumn Arson. I hadn’t heard these guys before aside from their submission for the Battle of the Bands. I had actually met a couple of the members before as part of something I was doing in the schools, but I didn’t know they had a band. I listened to their first couple songs and was quite impressed with what I heard. The crowd was going crazy with these guys. Unfortunately I was running errands around the park (mostly picking up garbage and shooing kids out of tents) so I missed a lot of their stuff. Still managed to snap some pics though:

Rounding out the evening was Seventh Rain. Once these guys hit the stage a lot of the kids roaming about made their way to the entertainment tent. Seventh Rain isn’t a hugely popular band, but they’re quite well known in Calgary and area. They actually opened for Sloan a few months back, but I missed that concert. They played all original stuff except for one cover of ‘I Gotta Feeling’, which was pretty epic. These guys even had quite a few groupies swarming over them and doing the whole ‘scream when he looks at me’ thing. Not that that’s the only sign of a good concert, but it was a pretty good seal of approval. Once again, pictures:

Once the concert was done a lot of people left the park, but there were still plenty of youth mingling around. Technically the park closes at 10pm, so I just let the security people see that everyone left. They might have been lingering but there were no problems, so I seemed harmless enough. Where we did have a problem was trying to get all the girls off the stage and out of the tent once Seventh Rain was done. At one point one of the members of the band asked us to get them all off stage because he didn’t want to do it and look like a jerk. :) Some of them remained until well after the concert and didn’t leave until the bands left. In the end I was very, very satisfied with how everything went and really impressed with the youth in this community not only for coming out but also for behaving really well. I can easily say that this day is probably the highlight of my youth-serving career so far.

Airdrie Centennial - 100th Birthday

2009-09-17T14:26:00.011-06:00

Well, Centennial has come and gone and I should probably blog about it before it slips my memory. The four days have kind of blurred together and I have a pretty nasty cold now, so I do no promise complete chronological accuracy. I will do this one day at a time since there’s no way I have the patience to blog about the whole four days at once.

When I left you last, we had set up many of the tents for the weekend and were getting ready for volunteer orientation. Orientation went as expected and we had about 50 people on hand. We could have easily used 200 volunteers throughout, but those that we had were AMAZING! We also had many drop-in volunteers during the weekend, but I’ll get to that later.

Thursday, September 10th started out as any other day at the office would, although I had to be here at 7:30am to make sure the trailer (which we were using for our stage) was parked in the correct spot. It’s arrived promptly at 7:35 and afterwards I went to check my email and do other office-like routines. At about 10:00 volunteers arrived to start decorating the stage and building operations removed the fencing around the Legacy Art Project and covered it in a tarp.

I don’t remember exactly what I was doing that morning, but I recall I was out of the office and missed most of the decorating. Regardless, the volunteers turned an ugly old trailer into a very nice looking stage.

Shortly after they were done, one of the fellows at work set up the audio system we were using for the evening. I was to be in charge of A/V that night, but I had someone more competent set it up! The audio worked great, but after it was done I had to figure out the visual part on my own. This was all outside and it presented some unique challenges. I hooked up the City laptop and projector and everything on that end worked fine. It was far too bright out to see anything the projector was showing, but we knew it was going to be dark when we showed our video. My main challenge, and this was unexpected, was the screen. The city owns a large collapsible screen, so I figured that would serve us well. Unfortunately it was extremely windy out, so the screen was like a giant sail. Even after I tried to weigh it down, it would still blow over. We tried plan ‘B’ which was to use two big pieces of cloroplast with a wooden base. However the wind was still a problem. I tried putting them against a wall of city hall, but that didn’t work. What must have been plan ‘E’ was proposed by one of our building operations managers. We could borrow one of the large metal fences that previously concealed the art project and then tie the cloroplast to it with zip ties. After a frantic drive to a construction site to retrieve the fencing, we brought it back and it worked perfectly! I was honestly about to give up on the whole thing, but a few persistent people with clever minds came through for me!

Before the public portion of the evening started, we had a private reception for our dignitaries. They included our MP - Blake Richards, our MLA - Rob Anderson, Minister of Culture and Community Spirit - Lindsay Blackett, Lieutenant Governor - Norman Kwong, Provost of Airdrie Scotland - Tum Curley, and en entire delegation from our sister city of Gwacheon, South Korea, including Mayor Yeo.

I felt rather awkward during this part of the evening, and for the most part stayed away, ran some last minute errands and tested out the sound system with the MC, Deputy Mayor, Shawn Howard. We were just about ready to start off the ceremonies at 7:00pm when we found out that it was decided to show the dignitaries the Airdrie Centennial DVD inside before heading outside. This was fine, but it put our whole agenda behind schedule by about 15 minutes.

We finally got going at 7:15 and the dignitaries went onto the stage complete with bagpipe accompaniment. There were lots of great speeches, gift giving, and general comradery amongst our guests. Despite the very formal procedures surrounding the Lieutenant Governor, his speech was very informal and quite funny. He made fun of his wife, who was on stage, more than once! Unfortunately there were some hang-ups with the evening. Of course the audio decided to be finicky. Several times a large amount of feedback came from the speakers and everyone shot me looks when it happened. I don’t know what was going on! Actually, I think it was because we had a monitor speaker facing the dignitaries. The monitor was for the singer we were having later, so I really should have had it facing away until he went up. Anyway, someone eventually did move it, so it was okay after that. The other problem was that because we were behind schedule, it started to get dark while people were still speaking. This wasn’t supposed to happen until after the art was unveiled. :/

Anyway, the art was unveiled successfully by our volunteers and I think everyone liked it. It was commission by the City of Airdrie and the Centennial Committee and was done by artist Honsun Chu out of Cochrane. If you’re curious what it all means, here’s the description:

“The big sphere represents Airdrie, and each ring represents ten years since its inception in 1909. The three square beams represent three elements; time, space, and people. These elements support and were influenced by the growth and development of Airdrie over the past 100 years. These three beams represent the essence of the city; they are interrelated. If we study their movement, time advances in a linear direction, space expands three dimensionally, and people are the most dynamic force that move freely. Time advances in a linear direction, therefore we always have past, present, and future. People represents the residents, the communities, the businesses, the government and all the activities. People are the creator, the force that makes a location into a city. Space represents expansion and growth.”

After unveiling the art, we immediately showed our Centennial DVD. I wish I had an online version I could imbed as it’s absolutely amazing, but we are trying to sell copies (only $5!). As soon as the video was done (which went off without a hitch) the fireworks were set off, everyone had free birthday cake, and the evening was done. A tremendous success!

Centennial Tomorrow!

2009-09-09T15:05:00.005-06:00

It has begun! Today has been both draining and energizing. Tomorrow is Airdrie's 100th birthday and the celebrations begin. Today has been full of last minute preparations, panicked phone calls, and a general flurry of activity. My desk is pure chaos and I have post-its on top of post-its:

The parks department was out in droves to make sure everything at Nose Creek is looking pretty and stocked full of picnic tables:

Great Events tent rentals, as well as many local businesses such as ATCO, Century 21, and Re-max were out setting up their donated tents as well:

Of course, there were many staff and volunteers there this morning coordinating all this as well as hauling things around. I think I moved about 1000L of water from a struck into a storage area. I'm positively pooped, but I have lots to do, including volunteer orientation tonight.

Tomorrow's the big birthday party with fireworks and art unveiling!

The Keener

2009-09-08T15:38:00.004-06:00

Today's my first day of the new semester, and I'm taking MAIS 603 - Community Development. Usually the first week consists of introducing yourself to the other students and starting your readings. Here's how the course board looks so far:

Hello? Anyone out there?

Pets in the White House

2009-09-07T20:46:00.009-06:00

Considering my significant blogging absence, I need to rewind a bit and give a bit of an update on our whole pet situation. Sadly, our beloved rabbit Willow passed away last winter. Here he is the previous spring:

Willow was an awesome bunny, and he was the oldest of all our pets. I got him back in 2001 when I was still living in residence at U of C. I definitely wasn't allowed to have him, but I somehow managed to keep him secret the whole time I was there. He had a lot of character for a rabbit, and it was sad to see him go.

Not that he needed replacing, but not long after we decided that we would get Elodie a mouse for her birthday. Her name is Star, and she's a pretty good mouse:

Way back in 2006 we watched our friends' cat Phoenix while they went to China to teach English. Continuing with the 'we'll watch your cat while you're in Asia' theme, we are now the proud cat-sitters of Princess:

Princess' owner, Sarah, is off to Japan for a year for University. Princess would have had to go to the SPCA otherwise, and we didn't want that. Princess is a very sweet kitty, but she's only been here for a couple of hours so she's understandably upset. She's going from an only pet in a kid-free home to one with a very noisy toddler, a big drooly dog, a small yappy dog, and a cat who thinks she owns the place. Still, Princess is perhaps the most laid back cat I've ever met, so I think she'll adjust well. She just passed out in our chair despite her chaotic surroundings, so it's a good sign.

We're happy to have Princess. Have fun in Japan, Sarah! We'll take good care of her.

Community Showcase

2009-09-05T21:16:00.002-06:00

I always have trouble explaining to people what I do for work. My job title is Community Developer - Youth. In the simplest terms, a community developer works for the community. We help groups get started, we assist existing groups with projects and also help find them funding. Sp specifically for me, I work for the youth in this community. What's interesting in my case is that I'm not in the Community Development unit, I'm in Social Planning. I don't want to get too much into the differences, but Social Planning is also known as Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) and we're funded partially by the province. Perhaps I'll explain one day...

Anyway, whether we like it or not, a large part of our job is event planning. One of these events, called Community Showcase, is something we hold each fall. All the local agencies, groups, nonprofits, and sports organizations are invited out to flaunt their stuff. Many sports groups use this event to hold registration, so it can get pretty crazy. Basically, we provide a table and some space and let them do their thing. To attract the public we have a free BBQ, kids games, and some live entertainment. We tried to keep it small this year because we're going all out with our Centennial celebrations next weekend. Still, it's an event that I always enjoy doing.

This year we had the BBQ, and the mayor did an awesome job cooking hot dogs. We had staff from Genesis Place run some kids games, we had the broom ball association do some demos, and we had like 12 ladies from Good Life Fitness do a bunch of working out in skimpy outfits. It was a family affair, I assure you.

As usual, my wonderful Hyjinx Youth Council volunteers came out to help and were amazing. I've got such a great group right now, but sadly they're all in grade 12 and will be leaving me come June. I remember meeting most of them when they were in grade 9 and they were all so small and innocent. They're practically adults now, and I know I'm going to miss them when they go. We've formed an amazing bond, and although that sometimes leads to them telling me things I shouldn't know, I'm glad they're comfortable with me. The task now is to recruit some new members who will be with me for a few more years.

So, even though work has been stressing me out, there are moments when I absolutely adore what I do. This next week is going to be bat shit insane with Centennial, but we're all going to have fun doing it. I have a great work team and a wonderful pool of volunteers. Here's what's planned:

September 10, 2009 - Official Centennial Weekend Kick-off

* 3 pm - 5:30 pm - Unveiling of the Historical Markers Tour starting at the Plainsmen Arena for a bus tour to unveil five historical markers around the city.
* 7:30 pm - Speeches at City Hall
· speech from Mayor Bruce
· introduction of attending dignitaries
· speech from Blake Richards, MP
· speech from Rob Anderson, MLA (if in attendance)
* 8:00 pm - Performance by Ron Simon – Centennial Song
* 8:05 pm - Unveiling of the Legacy Art Project
* 8:10 pm - Birthday Cake
* 9:00 pm - Fireworks - Viewing from City Hall or Nose Creek Park

September 11, 2009 - 'Future' Day
School events and celebrations, school musical showcase, and Battle of the Bands (@ Nose Creek Park - Volunteers Required), and the Airdrie Youth Performing Arts Showcase!

Airdrie Youth Performing Arts Showcase at Nose Creek Park
9:30 am – 3:00 pm

* 9:00 - 9:30 am - R. J. Hawkey Elementary School Grade 4
* 9:45 - 10:15 am - Edwards Elementary Grade 4
* 10:30 - 11:00 am - Ralph McCall
* 11:15 - 11:45 am - Our Lady Queen of Peace / Good Shepherd
* 12:00 - 12:30 pm - A. E. Bowers
* 12:45 - 1:15 pm - Nose Creek Elementary
* 1:30 - 2:00 pm - George MacDougal High School Band
* 2:15 - 3:00 pm - St. Martin de Porres

Centennial Football Game

* 5:30 pm at Bert Church High School

FREE Concert by Se7enth Rain, with opening bands Storm and Autumn Arson

* 7 pm - 10 pm at Nose Creek Park

Airdrie Little Theatre Live Performance

* 7 pm - 9 pm at Bert Church Live Theatre

September 12, 2009 - 'Past Day'

Old Time Fair, Live Entertainment, BBQ (Nose Creek Park), Street Dance / Barn Dance

NOSE CREEK PARK

* 9:00 am - 11:00 am – Free Breakfast (sponsored by ATCO Gas)
* 11:00 am – 6:00 pm - Old Time Fair
o "Old Time" demonstrations (movie house/General Store/Black Smith/threshing machine/antique cars/crafts & quilting/fall fair/old time photographs)
o Public contests (pie eating, hotdog eating and homebaking)
- Homebaking Contest Rules and Details
o Kids games and races
o Butterfield Acres Fun Farm petting area
o 2 stages of local entertainment
o Horse & wagon rides
o Nose Creek Museum viewing
* 5:00 pm -7:00 pm - FREE BBQ (sponsored by Edward Jones)
* 6:00 pm –Midnight – Barn Dance
Featuring: Prairie Mountain Fiddlers/Ronnie & the Fixations and Why Martin

IRON HORSE PARK

* 10:00 am – 5:00 pm - FREE Miniature Steam Train Rides
* 10:30 am – Performance by Our Lady Queen of Peace School, "The Last Spike"

NOSE CREEK VALLEY MUSEUM

* 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm - UFA Centennial Display

BERT CHURCH LIVE THEATRE

* 2:30 pm – Airdrie Little Theatre Play

ECOLE AIRDRIE MIDDLE SCHOOL

* 2:00 pm – Unveiling of Historical Marker and School Reunion
Student/Teacher Reunion at Woodside Seniors Clubhouse at 411 Woodside Dr.

September 13, 2009 - 'Present Day' @ Nose Creek Park

* 8 am - FREE Breakfast (sponsored by the Airdrie Chamber of Commerce)
* 9:30 am - Mayor's Run starts (registration is earlier)
* 9:30 am - Non-denominational Church Service
* 11 am - 4 pm
o Farmer's Market, local artisans, Airdrie Community Choir, kid's activities, medieval group

Newer Template

2009-09-03T14:37:00.001-06:00

Trying a different one and it seems to be working better for me. I need to figure out how to centre my header though. Anyone know XML?

New template

2009-08-31T15:26:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I'm trying out a new template. The old one was too dark and cluttered. The only thing bad about this one is that it's custom and I don't have control over everything. I can't seem to get an image and my header and some of the widgets are being finicky. It'll do for now though.

Oh yeah, home ownership

2009-08-28T14:59:00.002-06:00

How could I forget? Kayla and I bought a house... a year ago. :/

We moved to Airdrie in February of 2007 and were renting a house from Kayla's folks that we intended to eventually by from them. It was a brand new house, and although we liked it, there were a couple of reasons we opted to by a different one. I suppose the main reason was price, but it didn't really fit our needs unless we developed the basement, and that would mean more money. So we ended up buying a nice house in a great neighbourhood. Structurally speaking, the house is good, but it needs some work. The carpet needs to go, the walls need to be painted, and there's no end to the list of things that need to be done to the basement. So far all we've really done is redecorate two of the bedrooms, but we're really hoping to replace the carpet with laminate soon. It's a horrible pink color and our pets have already defiled it a number of times.

Home ownership is great, but damn is it expensive. Our mortgage is twice as much as we used to pay for rent in Calgary, plus we have mortgage insurance, house insurance, and property tax. We manage to pay the bills just fine, but it makes it very hard to save up for things. You know, like a new floor! Oh, and we've never bought furniture. I'm almost 30 and I still have hand-me-down furniture. Le sigh...

Oh, and we bought a new car. That's not as exciting though.

Reading: Ripples from the Zambezi
Listening: Gregory and the Hawk (so good!)

So, uh...

2009-08-26T10:44:00.003-06:00

So, it's been a little while since I blogged last. Like a year and a half. Oops.

This is not a promise to return to blogging, I've done that enough and failed at it epically, but for whatever reason I've felt compelled to blog lately. There's just something about Facebook that isn't doing it for me. I feel the need to write something that isn't a stupid note that I need to tag people in. Regardless of whether I start blogging more, I think I need to update my template. I'm not happy with it, and even if this blog serves only to be an archive of my life, it should look better.

I guess an update is needed. I did indeed start the MAIS program at Athabasca. I completed MAIS 601 in December, and then MAIS 602 in May. I opted not to do a course over the summer because I really needed a break. I'd like to do three courses a year at some point, but I'm not sure I'm ready yet. Managing a heavy school work load, work with its many evening meetings, and also spending time with Kayla and Elodie. This is one of the reasons I can't commit to blogging. I found that during school almost all of my extracurricular activities, hobbies, and even my social life fell by the wayside. As much as I love video games, I've barely touched a controller over the past year. Aside from some Rock Band (that doubled as couple time with the wife), I've only played a snippet here and there.

Despite my ramblings, I do love school. Even with all the stress it brings, I'm eager to get back to it next month. I love the interaction with students and educators, the social discourse, the intellectual orgy of ideas and concepts. I'm also finding that the grad environment is much more open to individual concepts and even the questioning of ideas being taught. It's good stuff, let me tell you...

I don't really want to blog about work because it's kind of stressing me out right now. I really, really, like my job but I do not like event planning. Right now it's nothing but event planning and it's driving me insane. September may very well be the death of my sanity, by October will be Rocktober in comparison.

The family is good. Elodie continues to grow and be amazing and adorable. Every day, every single day, she does something that just surprise you - something that makes you smile and makes you proud to be her parent. She also does things like boss you around or drop the f-bomb, and that does not make you smile (well, the f-bomb did) but that comes with the territory.

Reading: Ripples from the Zambezi
Listening: All American Rejects, Marianas Trench (guilty pleasure), Andy Davis, Dave Barnes

See you in another year. ;)

Return to Academia!

2008-05-27T15:35:00.002-06:00

The five years (yeah…) I spent doing my undergrad degree at U of C was an amazing experience. To be truthful though, this had little to with my concentration and more to do with my involvement on campus and some amazing courses and professors. Coming out of high school, Political Science was the natural choice for me. I actually had no idea what I wanted to do with my life (still don’t) but I knew where my interests lay. If I had to do it over again I probably would have chosen Social Work or Education, but I certainly gained a lot from Poli-Sci. It has only been 3 years since I graduated, but it was not long after I completed school that I felt it pulling me back. However I recognized that I needed more life experience under my belt before I could really decided what I wanted to do. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my career path began before I even completed school when I got a job as a Youth Employment Coordinator. This lead to me working with youth in a variety of capacities at the City of Calgary, Child & Youth Friendly Calgary, and the Youth Employment Center. I had a brief stint at Bow Valley College that I enjoyed tremendously, but when the opportunity came up to work with youth again (and avoid commuting to Calgary everyday) I jumped at the opportunity. So I’ve been the Community Developer for Youth at the City of Airdrie for a year now and I think I’ve found the job and organization that is for me.

Over the last few years I’ve put a lot of thought into what I would do if I returned to school. It was always a toss up between a Masters in Counselling, Social Work, or Education as these three fit best with what I was doing and wanted to do in the future. As time went by and my life changed it became clear to me that fitting traditional schooling into my life would be very difficult so I began to looking into distance and online education. This limited what I wanted to do, unless I wanted to start from scratch and do another bachelor degree. Just when it seemed returning to school would be a pipe dream, I stumbled upon a program at Athabasca University called the Master of Arts in Integrated Studies. I was particularly attracted to this program because it is multidisciplinary and also because there is an opportunity to concentrate in Community Studies. The community development aspect of Social Work is where I have most of my experience and also the area I’m most interested in. But such is life that as soon as I discovered a program I was interested in there seemed no way I could pay for it unless I wanted to go further into debt.

I had pretty much resigned myself to putting off school for a number of years when I received word of a scholarship from the Family and Community Support Services Association of Alberta. The scholarship was only available to FCSS and PLC employees for programs that are directly related to your employment. Fortunately my position is funded by FCSS and the MAIS program is related to what I do. So back in November I submitted my scholarship application and hoped for the best. In February I heard back and was surprised I was granted the full amount I asked for - $9000! As exciting as this was, it meant nothing until I was accepted into the program so I did up a rather lengthy application and crossed my fingers. Last month I was accepted into the program that starts in September! Knowing me this will completely change, but these are the courses I’m hoping to take:

Making Sense of Theory in the Arts & Social Sciences
Researching the Arts and Social Sciences
Community Development
Planning and Action for Community Change
Organizational Prospectives
Social Movements
Transformative Learning for Social Change
Governance & Leadership
Innovative Public Management
Canadian Social Policy
Integrated Project

I’m both excited and daunted by the thought of going back to school. I wasn’t a particularly good student in University, so I’m really going to have to push myself in a graduate program. Oh, and did I mention I have a full time job, a wife, and a kid who need my undivided attention too? Good lord!

Doing this program won’t result in any sort of promotion or salary increase, but that’s not why I’m doing it. Even though this is related to my career, I’m really doing it for self development. I have no idea what will happen when I complete the program, but all I’m really hoping for is to grow as a person. I kind of see it like this:

Secondary School Robbie:

Undergraduate Robbie:

Graduate Robbie:

Self importance, here I come!

Epic Fail!

2008-05-14T20:49:00.005-06:00

So much for reviving the blog! April and May (up until now) were a bit crazy with both work and home life, but things are calming down now. So what's been going on?

Well, in not so good news, my Nan Stockley passed away at the end of April. For the most part she was in good health, so it came as quite a shock. I had talked to her just a week or so before and she seemed to be doing fine. It's too bad that she never got to meet Elodie, but she did talk to her several times. I'm glad she didn't suffer and that she was happy and in a good place when she died. Kayla has a nice post on her blog about her.

The day after Nan passed away was Elodie's second birthday. It was a bit bittersweet, but I made sure to have fun and celebrate it with her. We took her to Toys R Us and let her pick out some toys for herself. We were going to go to the zoo too, but she was pretty pooped when it was all said and done. We had a party for her a few days later and a bunch of people came out. I'll post pictures in a separate post, but they're on Facebook too.

It's hard to believe that it's been two years since she was born! She's grown up so much though. We can have full conversations (and arguments) with her and she's so full of life. There's certainly no dull moment. I'm constantly impressed with how smart she is and the little personality she has. She might look like me, but she's all Kayla on the inside.

Work was really busy lately because May 2 to 9 was Youth Week. As one of my co-workers put it, Youth Week for me is like Christmas for retailers. It was really, really busy, but I'm pretty happy with the way everything turned out. I still have a bunch of stuff to do before the school year is up, but it's very calm in comparison.

As far as big news goes, I'm going back to school! Grad school! I was accepted into Athabasca University's Master of Arts in Integrated Studies (MAIS) program. I'll start in September and will be concentrating in Community Studies. What's just as exciting is that prior to being accepted I was granted a $9000 scholarship from the Family & Community Support Services Association of Alberta (FCSS AA) to do the program. The City of Airdrie is helping out too, so it won't be a major financial burden. So exciting!

Easter Videos

2008-03-28T11:21:00.002-06:00

New Elodie videos

2008-03-26T21:29:00.002-06:00

My daughter is awesome!

2008-03-13T08:54:00.004-06:00

When I got home yesterday Kayla was napping, so it was just Elodie and I for most of the evening. While I was cooking supper, Elodie brought me a Wii controller and said "Watch game?" So I turned on the Wii and started to play Endless Ocean, but she protested and said "No, Galaxy! Mario Galaxy!" She then proceeded to tell me that Toad was actually Pikachu. If this isn't a reason to get Super Smash Bros. Brawl, I don't know what is.

Pardon me while I geek out

2008-02-28T16:20:00.002-07:00

Okay, so the ‘more blogging’ thing isn’t going that great. Cut me some slack! I have plenty of worthwhile things so blog about, but please allow me to geek out now and then.

As I mentioned before, I started reading the Harry Potter books again before Christmas so that I could do a complete run through of them for the first time. I’m now about halfway through the last one and I’m thoroughly enjoying it since it’s only the second time I’ve read it. But allow me, if you will, to speak about the films.

Although I enjoyed all the Harry Potter films upon first viewing, I feel that I now have refined my opinions of them over repeated viewings. The first film, although a good intro to the series, follows the book too closely. Christopher’s Columbus’ envisioning of the Wizarding world is just too cookie cutter – too colorful and vibrant. It feels sterile and fake to be honest. It’s as though there is nothing left to the imagination. I can’t quite explain it, I just know it’s not up to snuff. Really, the same can be said for the second film.

The third film, directed by the amazing Alfonso Cuarón, was a breath of fresh air. The Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite book of the series, so I went in with pretty lofty expectations. Upon first viewing I thought it was too rushed, and although I still stand by that somewhat, I think it was a vast improvement over the previous films. The whole ‘world’ developed its own character and the characters themselves developed into their own. Good stuff.

I first saw Goblet of Fire with Kayla in Banff and really liked it. Aside from feeling a little episodic, a terrible portrayal of Dumbledore, and no Sirius, it’s a faithful reproduction. It felt like a transition movie to me, but so was the book. They took a flippin’ huge book and adapted it without seriously mucking it up, so you’ve got to give them credit for that.

Now, Order of the Phoenix, that’s what I’m really here to blog about. I loved it in the theatre and I’ve watched it a bunch of times on HD DVD. In short, the movie is bloody brilliant! But the weird thing is the book is probably my least favourite of them all. It’s got a great story, but is seriously flawed in its pacing. The movie really tightens up the story and adds a lot of neat stuff I liked. The battle in the Ministry for Magic is ridiculously bad ass and my only complaint is that it’s too short. Some fans complained about certain things added like Voldemort in a muggle suit, the black/white apparating, and the way it seemed some characters could almost fly. I loved all that stuff as I really felt it gave the movies a distinct flavour.

After seeing OotP, I was pleased to hear that David Yates would direct Half-Blood Prince too. I think he did an exceptional job, and I’m confident that he’ll do great things again. Now there is a rumor that he might be directing the Deathly Hallows:

“Lois Lowry, a children's book writer, has updated her online blog with information about The Giver movie. She had hoped Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince director David Yates would be able to direct The Giver. However:

...he has just decided he wants to do the final Harry Potter first, thereby postponing The Giver by several years.”

There’s a movie adaptation of ‘The Giver’? Heck yes! Hopefully he’ll direct both, because that would be pretty swell.

Goodnight Moon

2008-02-12T11:44:00.002-07:00

Just bust a move!

2008-02-12T11:43:00.002-07:00

Elodie & her new bed

2008-02-11T07:21:00.001-07:00

Just this Friday we bought Elodie a bed and had her start sleeping in it right away. While it uses the same mattress from her crib, she was none too thrilled the first night. It's been a bit of a struggle, but once she actually falls asleep it's smooth sailing.

Wise Fwom Yo' Gwave!

2008-02-08T16:48:00.002-07:00

It is clear now that Facebook is responsible for the downfall of the blogosphere. Catnarok can’t be far behind. Anyway, Kayla was just telling me how unfortunate it is that I don’t blog anymore, and I’d have to say I agree. I mean, I could make excuses that I’m too busy, but really how hard is it to blog like once a week? Plus, it will give me a reason to end her Grammarazi Transcriptatorship over our home computer. I need my own computer BAD. So I really am going to try and blog more.

So what’s new? Let’s see… Elodie is growing and developing faster than I can keep track of. Each day brings a new set of words she knows or activity she can do. I mean the other day she drew a smiling face. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but it was pretty flippin’ epic when I saw her do it. She knows most of her colours and shapes, and she’s remarkably good at holding a crayon. She’s starting to learn her numbers too, but isn’t quite sure what order they go in. It’s quite cute if you ask her to count to 10 because she’ll just start randomly listing them: “five, six, nine, two, nine, TEN!”. I’ll have to take a video of it.

I don’t know if it’s that I’m growing up, or that I’m so busy, but I’ve barely touched a video game in like a month. I do have leisure time on occasion, but I usually spend it reading or cleaning. Yes, cleaning. Me… cleaning. I’ve been making a concerted effort to keep our house cleaner and although it feels like a losing battle, I have noticed a difference. Particularly I’ve been waging war against the laundry. You see even before Elodie was born we’ve kind of had this laundry pile that seems to always stay the same size. Clothes just kind of rotated through it and sometimes you’d not see a shirt for like a month. I am determined to eliminate the pile and I think I will be victorious this weekend. Maybe even tonight. Most exciting Friday night ever! One thing I’ve learned is that I have a metric fuckton of socks, but only like 8 matching pairs. How does this happen when 90% of your socks are black?

Goodbye HD DVD :(

2008-01-04T15:25:00.001-07:00

No one wanted the Hi-Def DVD format war, but unfortunately it happened. Everyone who decided to enter the market had a choice of choosing a side, or both if they could afford it. Everyone knew there was a risk and that eventually some people were going to lose out. Before it all started I preferred HD DVD for a number of reasons despite its lower storage capacity. In the end though my decision to go with HD DVD was really a matter of cost. The hardware was only $150 for the Xbox 360 attachment, versus $500 for a PS3 (at the time). I would have loved to have supported both sides, but it was not financially feasible. I feel both sides had a strong library of titles and the potential to ‘win’ the hi-def war. Things weren’t looking too great for HD DVD for the first part of the year, but then Paramount made the surprising decision to go from neutral to HD DVD exclusive. This seemed to even things out with Warner Bros. being the only remaining neutral studio. It seemed to me that being neutral was a benefit to Warner, but sadly they announced today they are going Blu-Ray only by May 2008. HD DVD is not dead yet, but with only Universal and Paramount on their side exclusively I do not see the format lasting much longer.

I do not regret purchasing my player or any of my HD DVDs, and I will still purchase some. I’ll likely stick to combo discs and exclusive titles, but it’s not like I’ve bought a lot anyway. I’m actually looking forward to the day that I can find a bunch of HD DVDs for dirt cheap in the bargain bin! It was a fun run HD DVD, but I’m afraid the battle is almost done.

Oh, by the way, ‘up yours!’ Sony.

Christmas!

2007-12-20T16:31:00.000-07:00

I’m going to go ahead and stop making excuses for my lack of blog updates. You should just accept them at this frequency. I’d upload photos more often but Blogger’s image uploading is painfully slow. If it was more like Facebook’s they’d be posted weekly for sure.

I’ve always loved the Christmas season, but it’s a whole different ball game when you’re no longer a student and when you have offspring. When you’re a student you’ve got a good 2-week chunk of time where you have no responsibilities outside of buying and receiving gifts. You’re between semesters, so no pesky studying or papers (unless you’re in a cursed year-long course) and you spend so much time with family that you don’t really need to worry about feeding yourself. This comes to an end once entering the real world (although you still get some time off) but then you have a kid and it gets better in some ways and worse in others. Having a kid around Christmas is great because you can spoil them and they get excited about everything. They don’t know why there’s a tree in the middle of your living room or why they have to sit on some creepy fat guy’s knee, but there’s tons of cookies and free stuff so they love it. Financially you can’t really splurge on your friends and family anymore, but you don’t have to feel bad because (hopefully) they’ll stop splurging on you to splurge on your kid. Christmas Day is very complicated with all the people you want to see and who want to see you. After the rather rushed and tiring first Christmas with Elodie we are now stipulating that anyone who wants to see her is coming to us. Maybe a little selfish, but it’s our sanity at stake here.

When I was in University one of my greatest joys of the holidays was having the opportunity to finally read for enjoyment (yay, fiction!). Typically I’d hunker down and read some of my favourite kids novels like the Harry Potter, the Hobbit, and the Chronicles of Narnia. Since I’m no longer in school I can actually read for fun all year long, but I’ve started re-reading the Harry Potter books so that I can read them all back-to-back for the first time. I also really enjoy getting time to play video games, so I plan to find the last few stars in Mario Galaxy and then maybe go back and finish Halo 3 & Metroid Prime 3. I’ve also rented a few Wii games for my new Wii Zapper (thanks Kayla!) and I’ve got some classic games on Virtual Console I want to play. This is far too much to accomplish in one week (especially since Elodie is at home the whole time), but I’ll do my best. :)

Happy Holidays everyone!

Blogging out of Necessity

2007-11-30T15:37:00.001-07:00

I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but blogging is pretty low on the priority list these days. So what's new?

Elodie is ever growing and ever changing. Her vocabulary increases daily as she seems to easily pick up new words. She's starting to form sentences now, albeit small ones. She can talk on the phone too, which is adorable. It's really the little things that amaze me about her. Yesterday she saw a bag of chips in the cupboard and asked "Daddy, chip?" so I gave her one. She ate half of it and then ran over to give me the remaining half and said 'thank you'. It was the first time she had said thank you without one of us prodding her to say it.

Last week Elodie had croup and it required a very long evening in the Children's Hospital. It's a bit of a surreal experience to be surrounded my sick children and exhausted parents in the middle of the night, but they run a tight ship around there. Fortunately for us the Airdrie Regional Health Centre is offering urgent care starting on Monday. I still think it's ridiculous that a city of over 30,000 doesn't have a hospital, but it's a start. The staff there is top-notch, so it's going to be a great addition to the community.

On another note, Super Mario Galaxy = Perfection.

Elodie + Stairs

2007-11-16T12:48:00.001-07:00

Very late Halloween pictures

2007-11-15T20:24:00.002-07:00

Yeah, I know, 2 weeks ago.

Pre-Halloween 2007

2007-10-31T19:31:00.001-06:00

The mundane is cute

2007-10-25T22:34:00.001-06:00

Here are three videos, all of Elodie colouring. Nothing particularly exciting or funny happens in these videos. Nonetheless, I felt compelled to post them because they're darn cute and it's proof that she's capable of sitting still and being quiet.

Elodie Shenanigans

2007-10-19T08:26:00.001-06:00

Elodie's first attempt at stealing the camera

Still trying to steal the camera...

Elodie films her own video (warning, causes motion sickness)

Elodie finds a butterfly (moth)

Elodie plays horsie with her dogs

So, yeah...

2007-10-18T20:06:00.001-06:00

I've been busy... Where do I start? Well, for starters my Pop (My Dad's Dad) passed away on October 3rd. Toby and I were very close with him and when we were kids we'd spend just as much time at my Grandparent's house as we would our own house. Almost every evening at 8:00 I would go and have my evening snack with my Pop. I remember times where I'd be out with my friends and I'd drop what I was doing just to make sure I was there at 8:00. After our snack he would usually watch a Western on TV. He would sit in his chair and I would sit beside him on the floor by the heat register. It was like a ritual, we did it almost every night. He had a way with kids and made each of his grandchildren feel as though they were the only one. We all have special memories with him, and as such we were all devastated by his passing.

I'm very happy that I got to go to Newfoundland this summer so that he could meet Kayla and Elodie, and vice versa. Elodie was a little wary of everyone she met on our vacation, but she immediately took to my Pop. He was very gentle with her and let her take her time to get to know him. There were many times I would catch her glancing over at him smiling and there were even a few times where she would sneak up on him when he was napping. The only sad part was there was when she asked him to pick her up, but he couldn't because he wasn't strong enough.

My Pop's story was a long one, and I couldn't do it justice to tell it here. He was a fisherman, a logger, and a labourer. He had so many stories to tell, and he always told them with pride and humour. While I will miss all the things I used to do with him, it will be his stories I miss most.

Whether it was the closure, to be with my Dad and family, or just to be 'home' I had to go back to Newfoundland for the funeral. It happened very fast, but within two days I was in Twillingate and the day following that was the funeral. To be honest the funeral felt impersonal to me. There were lots of readings and hymns, but my Pop really wasn't religious. To be fair though he had only asked two things: to have a closed casket so that people wouldn't be "lookin' down at gawkin" at him and not to have people go on and on with speeches about him. I think he wanted to be remembered for what people already remembered, and that was it.

I'm very glad that I went back. Being around my family, although chaotic at times, was really great. I had a lot of time to myself and anyone who knows me knows I love that. I went for some great walks and really got to think and clear my head. I missed Kayla and Elodie a lot though, so for probably the first time ever I was excited to come home.

During all this, I was supposed to host an event that corresponded with the municipal election we were having. Thankfully I have some amazing co-workers that stepped in for me and ran a great event. I really wish I could have been there, but they ran it just as well (if not better) than I would have, so I couldn't ask for more.

When I got back Elodie hadn't changed a whole lot, but she made sure to let me know about all the new words she learned while I was away. Elodie talks a lot. Granted is often the same words or two word sentences over and over, but she pretty much never shuts up. Hmm, who does she take after?

She may only be 18 months old, but as far as I'm concerned she has hit the terrible twos. Kayla and I really have been pulling our hair out at some points lately. She's stubborn and independent so she pretty much flips out on you when you do anything against the way she wants them done. You know that scene in Family Guy where Stewie is saying "Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mom, Mom, etc" Yeah, that happens to us pretty much daily. I can't complain though as it's exciting to see her grow up. I'm going to post some videos soon (they're uploading now) and you'll see how she tries to steal the camera away from me whenever I use it so that she can see the baby on the screen.

I'll try to blog more often since Elodie seems to change weekly and I really ought to keep track of it for those of you who don't get to see it.

Three

2007-09-25T16:52:00.001-06:00

I’ve been playing video games for a long time. In fact, I can’t really remember a time without video games considering we had an Atari 2600 that was probably purchased when I was an infant. Some people grow out of the hobby, but for me it’s never lost its charm. For the longest time games were a kid’s thing, and even then if you were over 12 and played games you were usually labeled a nerd (and that was before being a nerd was trés geek chic). That hasn’t completely changed, but video games have really come into their own. Whether it’s the cross demographic success of the Wii and DS (it prints money!) or the huge success of the Halo franchise.

Halo 3 comes out today and is expected to have the biggest opening of any piece of entertainment this year, if not ever. Yes, bigger than Spider-Man 3 and even bigger than the last Harry Potter book. Opening sales are estimated to be around the $200 million mark. How can a video game fan not get swept up in the hype? To be honest I’m not a big fan of First-Person Shooters and I don’t think that the Halo series is the pinnacle of them. In fact I’m quite enjoying Metroid Prime 3 right now (which is sort of an FPS), and I’m not even half done it. But you know what, I’m going to put it aside for now to play Halo 3.

There are a few reasons I’m excited about Halo 3. For the most part it’s because I’m legitimately interested in how the story wraps up and what happens to the characters. Halo 2 actually did a kind of crappy job telling its story, but I’ve even read a few of the Halo novels, so I really want to see what happens. Another big reason is the multiplayer aspect. The multiplayer in Halo 1 and 2 was a blast, even though I got destroyed by anyone I played with. I only played Halo 2 online a few times, and despite the 14 year olds who tell you how they will fornicate you and how you can fornicate yourself, it was fun. I’m really excited about Halo 3 because I have friends who have 360’s, so I’ll get to play multiplayer and co-op with them.

So tonight the wife is getting kicked out of the house (okay, she’s leaving voluntarily), the kid is being put to bed, and I’m going to spend some quality time with the Chief.

"I have defied gods and demons.
I am your shield, I am your sword.
I know you; your past, your future.
This is the way the world ends."

Let’s finish the fight.

New Elodie Pictures

2007-09-24T21:46:00.002-06:00

You don't mess with this girl's poutine
(Don't worry, we don't feed her poutine everyday)

Terry Fox Run

First Haircut!

Hey now, let's not make a habit of that!

It's good to have land

2007-09-23T21:26:00.000-06:00

After a few weekends of work, we finally have a complete front and backyard. It started with the deck (while we were away on holidays), then the fence, then a whole lot of loam, and finally the sod. There's still work to be done next year (garden, flower bed, and gravel path) but the bulk of it is done.

Our deck:

Our dirt:

Elodie helped

Our Pin Cherry Tree

Next up, sod:

The inside of our house. We're planning on painting the living room, bedroom, office, and Elodie's room this winter.

It's a party and all the nerds are invited!

Elodie Video Blowout!

2007-09-22T14:45:00.001-06:00

That's right, Kayla and I finally ditched the internet-lite and went back to regular high speed. Welcome to the year 2000!

Here's a bit of catch-up on videos of Elodie. Expect pictures later in the week.

Look how much she's changed!

June:

July:

August:

September:

Warning: Gross Parental Discussion

2007-09-04T11:50:00.002-06:00

When Kayla and I were expecting, waiting for Elodie’s arrival, people felt the need to present us with every child-related horror story they could think of. You see, prospective parents are always really excited about parenthood and all doe-eyed about what child rearing will be like. For whatever reason chiseled veterans try to knock them down a notch by relegating their own traumatic experiences. Most of these stories did not bother me. Tales of sleepless nights, vomit, and urine didn’t seem like a big deal. I mean really, I had been through most of that with my pets. Really, it’s the teenage years I’m worried about. There was one type of story that haunted me though – the day when your child discovers the art form of poop on canvas. Canvas being everything in their vicinity. Not every child does this, but I had a fear, an expectation if you will, that Elodie would choose to express her creativity in this way.

Once while we were in Newfoundland we put Elodie down for bed in just a diaper because it was quite hot and humid. When I went in to get her the next morning she was standing there and she handed me her diaper. I checked her blankets and they were a little damp, do obviously there had been an accident. It was of little concern, but I couldn’t help but think how much worse it could have been had she done more than just pee.

On Sunday we gave Elodie spaghetti for supper so we stripped her down to her diaper. After she was done we wiped her off and let her run around to play. Tanner and Kyla were over, so Elodie just chased their chihuahua around. The next thing I know Tanner is laughing and Elodie comes around the corner completely naked. It seems she has mastered the diaper removal technique, a prelude to my greatest fear.

On Monday Elodie went down for a nap, so Kayla and I decided to have a nap too. I ended up sleeping for an hour and then had a shower. Elodie was still asleep by this time, so I figured I’d better wake her up. When I went in to her room I noticed that she was still passed out – and completely dressed. I was just about to pick her up when I noticed something down by her feet. Something that shouldn’t be there. Something dark. I had to stare at it for a few seconds for it to register, but sure enough, there was a large lump of ‘coal’ sitting right there on her duvet.

There was a lingering moment where I just kept looking back and forth from the lump of poop to Elodie. She had woken up by this point, but was pretty groggy and just sort of gazing at me. I’m not sure how long this went on for, but Elodie snapped me out of it by saying “uh oh, poo poo”. Gee, thanks Tips. I was still bewildered on what I should do next, so I just ran into the bedroom and shouted at Kayla (who was awake now, and incidentally, in the bathroom) something to the effect of “I need help, Elodie pooped and it’s not in her diaper anymore!”

I then ran back and carefully removed the offending deposit with some diaper wipes and placed the whole thing in a ball on the window sill. Yes, it should have gone straight to the toilet, but I was in panic mode. I then proceeded to inspect her surroundings for any ‘artwork’ and to my surprise found… nothing. Even an inspection of Elodie’s hands provided nothing and aside from a questionable smear on her PJs everything was feces free.

I quickly stripped Elodie of her clothes and gave her a quick wipe down to clean off anything I may not be able to see. I then opened up her diaper and was surprised to find yet another deposit. A much larger one! I cleaned her up, put on a new diaper, and got her some clean clothes.

The whole event remains a mystery to me. How did the whole thing go down? How did she get poop out of her diaper without removing any clothes? How did she not get poop everywhere? The only thing I can figure is that she did her business once, realized a second was on its way, jammed her hand down there to removed it, tossed it aside, and then went back to sleep. Who does that? This is the girl who throws a temper tantrum if I don’t respond to her demands within seconds, yet she’s content to crap her pants, remove it, crap them again and then fall asleep. This girl needs to get her priorities straight!

Anyway, here are some pictures. They’re completely clean, I assure you.

Insights Profile (Peering into Robbie’s soul)

2007-08-29T09:03:00.000-06:00

Shortly after starting my new job back in June, I was subjected to an intense psychological evaluation. Okay… it was only a bunch of multiple choice questions, but it resulted in eerily correct profile of myself. It even identified things about me that I didn’t even realize existed, but are clear to me now. This week I was presented with my 33 page profile (!) and I’ve copied some of it here for you to see.

This Insights Discovery profile is based on Robbie White’s responses to the Insights Preference Evaluator.

Generated from several hundred thousand permutations of statements, this profile is unique. It reports statements which your Evaluator responses indicate may apply to you. Modify or delete any statement which does not apply, but only after checking with colleagues or friends to identify whether the statement may be a “blind spot” for you.

Use this profile pro-actively. That is, identify the key areas in which you can develop and take action. Share the important aspects with friends and colleagues. Ask for feedback from them on areas which seem particularly relevant for you and develop an action plan for growth personally and interpersonally.

Overview

These statements provide a broad understanding of Robbie’s work style. Use this section to gain a better understanding of his approaches to his activities, relationships and decisions.

Personal Style

Because he lives by principles and rules, Robbie is very consistent and dependable. In order to perform at his best he prefers specific and detailed instructions before starting a task. Robbie is a steady individual who lends a quiet stability to everything. Serious, conscientious and loyal, Robbie is a dedicated worker. He will seek an environment in which he can be quietly productive. Enjoying a “low profile”, one of Robbie's great strengths is his natural, unobtrusive, accepting manner.

He likes a harmonious environment, where each person can be appreciated for their contribution and can feel a sense of personal accomplishment. His sense of duty may make him appear rather serious at times. Easy-going, neat and orderly, he nonetheless values appreciation from others. He tends to take the things he does well for granted and usually underrates and understates himself. One of Robbie's strengths is an ability to let others work at their own pace coupled with an awareness of the unique contribution each person makes.

Robbie is dependable and responsible, with a high sense of duty. Robbie tends to be alert and often uncannily correct. It is as if he has an antenna that enables him to detect dangers long before other people do. He needs to take care to put forward his own accomplishments, otherwise he may be overlooked. The kind of work that best suits him requires patience, devotion and adaptability. Although he is quite ingenious and idea-oriented, he is rather modest about his finer qualities.

He can complete practical tasks and do repetitive work effectively. He will tend to seek solutions to current challenges in the successes of his past experiences. Robbie prefers to live his life in a structured and organised manner and prefers to work within established guidelines on tasks requiring detail and routine implementation. He has a distrust for the ostentatious, the speedy and the fanciful. Interested more in the realities brought to him by his senses, he is blessed with a special appreciation of natural things.

He may benefit from taking a step back to consider the cause and effect of his actions, and from practising becoming more tough-minded. He may impress others, albeit unintentionally, by knowing something worthwhile about many things, especially when he speaks about one of his specialised subjects. Robbie knows what is important to him and will protect it at all costs. Tenacious persistence and dedication to a cause are his character hallmarks. Finding it hard to understand why some others try to impose limits, order and structure upon others, he avoids attempting to change or control people.

Interacting with Others

Robbie seeks relationships which provide growth and development. Building harmony, understanding and common acceptance is a life-long assignment for him. His dependability and willingness to lend a sympathetic yet objective ear makes him a supportive team player. Robbie cares deeply - and shows it through his strong sense of responsibility which makes him very loyal to certain individuals or the organisation. When his loyalties and values are threatened, he can become very stubborn, rigid and demanding. He has little motivation to lead others through control, but hopes to see everyone living together harmoniously.

In conflict, he will listen to all sides before forming a conclusion and supporting a particular view. He is immensely loyal to respected persons or causes, occasionally to the point of idealising those people and organisations he respects. He may occasionally appear to lack self-confidence, which can be remedied by regular reassurance from people he trusts. He has strong family ties and to keep in close contact is an essential part of his make-up. He does not seek positions of “front-end” leadership, preferring to act behind the scenes.

As his feelings are intense, he may be unable to repress them at times. Robbie is gentle, sympathetic, tactful and supportive of friends and colleagues. Gracious, considerate and sympathetic, he is usually quietly effective in relating to others. He may have a tendency to repress anger. While appearing to agree with others, he may internally disagree, using passive strategies to release his tensions. Bringing a quiet enthusiasm and loyalty to his work, Robbie encourages co-operation and flexibility on the team.

Decision Making

Robbie seeks to unite all parties in a controversy and can readily see the validity of alternative points of view. He can be overly lenient with non-producers, which often results in problems in matters that require the application of discipline. Robbie will usually listen to, value and accept ideas and opinions from others, even those who may be viewed as unusual or even “odd”. He recognises judgements that rely heavily on logical analysis, but then may ignore this in making his decisions. He is frustrated by authoritative restrictions and resents being told how to work. He may dislike time disciplines and he may avoid conflict and unpleasantness in resolving the issue.

Using past experiences to help him solve current problems and get things done is one of his strong points. He is very firm about his inner loyalties and sets very high standards for himself in this area. Where he holds strong values, Robbie is firm and uncompromising in expressing and enacting his beliefs on these subjects. Robbie is good at easing tense situations, enabling competing or conflicting groups to unite. Robbie is extremely realistic and relies on and trusts what his senses tell him about his world.

He is prepared to make decisions through group consensus. His natural leadership style is to resist change for change's sake and to slow down impulsive decision making. Robbie makes better decisions when other people he knows share his values. He tends to make sound future decisions only after deeper reflection. His decisions are influenced by ethical and moral issues.

Strengths

This section identifies the key strengths which Robbie brings to the organisation. Robbie has abilities, skills and attributes in other areas, but the statements below are likely to be some of the fundamental gifts he has to offer.

Robbie’s key strengths:

•Consistent and trustworthy.
•Trusting and tolerant of others' actions.
•Honourable and easy going.
•Usually reads non-verbal signs effectively.
•His word is his bond.
•Can gain personal fulfilment through helping others.
•Affectionate, self effacing and accommodating.
•Good at undertaking routine tasks.
•A steady day-to-day planner.
•Curious and keen observer of life.

Weaknesses

Jung said “wisdom accepts that all things have two sides”. It has also been said that a weakness is simply an overused strength. Robbie's responses to the Evaluator have suggested these areas as possible weaknesses.

Robbie’s possible weaknesses:

•Avoids conflict like the plague.
•His steady approach to work may be seen as laziness by some.
•Can be manipulated by supervisors or significant others.
•Digs in if not convinced of need for change.
•May not respond well to sudden change.
•Settles snugly into his comfort zone with ease.
•Seems to lack drive or initiative when pressured.
•Masks his true feelings to avoid unpleasantness.

Possible Blind Spots

Our perceptions of self may be different to the perceptions others have of us. We project who we are onto the outside world through our “persona” and are not always aware of the effect our less conscious behaviours have on others. These less conscious behaviours are termed “Blind Spots”. Highlight the important statements in this section of which you are unaware and test them forvalidity by asking for feedback from friends or colleagues.

Robbie’s possible Blind Spots:
Although he may not readily display it, Robbie can be so committed to his own principles that he develops tunnel vision. A rather private nature may prevent Robbie from asking questions. Encourage him to demonstrate his grasp of new ideas by slowing the pace of the interaction. He should attempt to analyse what it is that is making him feel resentment on occasions. He is highly effective in specialist areas of work that require consistent performance, but may sometimes not see the big picture. Because of his well developed tolerance of himself and other people, Robbie may appear detached and disinterested.

When under stress at work, he may need to curb a tendency to become secretive or even rebellious in order to meet the demands of the moment. He is perceived by others as a natural helper and needs to feel appreciated. Robbie may have difficulty dealing with conflicts in relationships and may become deeply disappointed or disillusioned if a conflict develops from one of his interventions. He is not productive if he is not working towards his ideals. Unless he has the complete plan he may experience tension or frustration.

In touch and at peace with himself and the world around him, he automatically resists change to sustain the status quo. He may not fully appreciate how relaxed he appears to some people. Making a list and prioritising goals each day can help him overcome his casual approach to life. His own personal feelings in relationships and decision making are trusted by him and used to the exclusion of more objective data.

Suggestions for Development

Insights Discovery does not offer direct measures of skill, intelligence, education or training. However, listed below are some suggestions for Robbie’s development. Identify the most important areas which have not yet been addressed. These can then be incorporated into a personal development plan.

Robbie may benefit from:
•Not being afraid to make mistakes.
•Resisting the urge to introduce long-winded, complex solutions to straightforward issues.
•Maintaining a high level of exercise.
•Maintaining a greater balance between his feeling and his objectivity.
•Asking more forcibly for his needs and wants.
•Bringing more variety of activity into his life.
•Using others' objective criticism as a means of self development.
•Recognising the need for heightened urgency in some projects.
•Taking an active part in the process of change.
•Gaining a clear understanding of his true potential.

What's this, I have a blog?

2007-08-24T09:15:00.001-06:00

Sorry blog, but you’re just not on the priority list these days. It’s been a while, where do I begin?

Elodie has been doing great, and she’s growing up ridiculously fast. As I mentioned, she started walking while were in Newfoundland so now she tears around, terrorizes the animals, sneaks up the stairs, and constantly brings me random DVDs from the shelf. (She’s a big fan of Spawn, for some reason). She’s also talking a lot more, and quite honestly I’ve lost count of all the words she knows. There are a few that are notable though. Since she learned ‘Echo’, in Newfoundland we tried to teach her ‘Artemis’ and ‘Apollo’. Unfortunately those are too many syllables, so it’s ‘Arty’ and ‘Pauly’ instead. Thanks to my family she learned ‘Robbie’, so she busts that one out when she really wants to get my attention. The best (worst) of them though, is ‘No’ which she learned a few days ago. Just like how she thinks if she says ‘please’ she gets what she wants, if she says ‘no’ she thinks she doesn’t have to do it. Lovely. The cutest thing of all (aside from being able to do the itsy bitsy spider) is her animal noises. If you ask her, she will do the animal noises for the following animals: Puppy, Kitty, Monkey, Bear, Elephant, or Bee. I really need to put this on video and put it up here because it is far too cute.

Married life is… exactly the same as non-married life except I get my way even less than I used to. Thanks to an interest free loan from the Bank of Jessen, we came home to a lovely deck that I do not doubt made us the talk of the neighbourhood. Our fence was begun shortly thereafter and save for a few minor things, is essentially done. We still don’t have grass yet, so the dogs only get to go back there when it’s dry. Also, Apollo can kind of slip underneath the fence, but we’re hoping the sod will fix that. Speaking of dogs, Artemis started to develop a funny growth on his leg about two years ago. It grew very slowly but in that time managed to get about the size of my thumb! We actually didn’t think it was that big, but he got shaved while we were away and it became glaringly obvious. Not only was it big and ugly (think of a little Jabba the Hut on his leg) but Apollo started to lick and chew on it. One day Apollo chewed it so hard that blood splattered out, and then Artemis bit Apollo on the face. It wasn’t a pretty site, but they’re still friends. Suffice to say we took him into the vet to get it removed, and $430 later (sad face) it’s been removed and sent off for a biopsy. I’m secretly hoping that Artemis tries to remove his bandage so that we can get him a cone.

The video game industry, it seems, hates me. Nothing really worthwhile got released in the past few months and then ‘bam!’ everything starts coming out. This week Bioshock was released, as well as the new Crimson DS Lite. God, I want that thing. But, you know, I have a wife now. Next week is Metroid 3, September sees Halo 3, and October has Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. There are a bunch more like MySims, Zack & Wiki, Rune Factory, Naruto, Beautiful Katamari, and Guitar Hero III coming out in the next couple months too. It sucks and is awesome at the same time.

I have Torie and Alaina’s wedding tomorrow, so I’ll throw up some pictures from that as well as our deck and fence.

Elodie's new BFF

2007-08-12T14:47:00.001-06:00

Meet Rhapsody Wilde, born on July 24th.

Wedding Pictures - Vol. 3

2007-08-10T13:42:00.000-06:00

Wedding Pictures - Vol. 2

2007-08-10T13:30:00.000-06:00

Wedding Pictures - Vol. 1

2007-08-10T13:12:00.001-06:00

Are you ready?

2007-08-09T21:17:00.000-06:00

Just give me some time, there's like 500 pictures to go through!

Newfoundland Pictures - Twillingate - Part 3

2007-08-07T13:14:00.000-06:00

The End

Newfoundland Pictures - Twillingate - Part 2

2007-08-07T11:41:00.001-06:00

Newfoundland Pictures - Twillingate - Part 1

2007-08-07T11:33:00.000-06:00

Newfoundland Pictures - St. John's

2007-08-07T11:27:00.001-06:00

Heading Home for a Rest

2007-08-04T17:38:00.000-06:00

Sadly my time here in Newfoundland has come to an end. Although I'm looking forward to my own house, bed, and my dogs I'm not really ready to leave. I did most of everything I intended to do but there are some people I didn't get to see or didn't see enough of. Kayla and I are heading out tomorrow morning and we'll be in Calgary late tomorrow evening. Let's hope Elodie sleeps on the plane! See some of you soon, and I'll see the rest of you in a couple years.

Vacation from our vacation

2007-07-30T12:41:00.000-06:00

Today Kayla and I checked into our Bed & Breakfast for two nights and boy do we need it. It`s been great that we can stay in my Nan`s house for free, but we seriously need some time to ourselves. We even have the two days away from Elodie which is both exciting and nerve racking.

Speaking of Elodie, she is walking up a storm now. When we arrived in Newfoundland she could only take a few steps but now she storms about like she owns the place. I guess all it took was an altitude change and a dog free house to get the balance going.

I have a lot of great pictures, but they may not get posted here until I get back since it`s kind of tedious and time consuming to post pictures on Blogger. I hope to have my first batch put up on Facebook before I go though.

Vacation ongoing

2007-07-28T20:08:00.000-06:00

Just a very quick note since I'm currently lurking outside the library at midnight with a laptop. The vacation is going very well. Weather has been great and today was rediculously hot and humid. We've seen several icebergs and gone fishing once. We've been having fun and relaxing too. On Monday and Tuesday the Wife and I are going to a Bed & Breakfast and will be entrusting our offspring with my Dad and Toby & Barb. I am without cell phone service and internet (mostly) so aside from some Facebook withdrawls it's nice being off the grid. If I ever get to the internet cafe I'll try and post some pictures. Right now typing is hard what with being in the driver's seat of my car. Later.

Tourist for a day

2007-07-21T13:22:00.000-06:00

Our little family had a busy day today. We started out watching a tattoo demonstration at Signal Hill, then checked out Cabot tower. Unfortunately the observation deck was closed due to the ridiculous amount of wind. After that we went to Cape Spear to check out the most easterly point in North America, the two light houses, and luckily a pod of humpback whales. After that we went to Kayla's yarn store and then came back to the hotel so Elodie could nap and we could read. Book's great, by the way. I'm not sure what the plans are for this evening, but I think we're just going to go for a stroll along the harbour. We're all exhausted and have a long day tomorrow, so we'll try to go to bed early if the jet lag doesn't stop us.

I would post pictures we've taken, but I forgot my USB cable and this computer doesn't have a slot for memory sticks. Oh, well...

I also feel I must note that St. John's has the most messed up road system I've ever seen. Streets will just random;y change names or split off in four directions and you need to suddenly guess which to take since none of them have street signs. You also have to hope that the direction you picked isn't oncoming traffic because they also neglect to post 'do not enter' half the time. Quite frankly I'm surprised we're alive. It certainly doesn't help that our 'mid sized" car is a Buick Allure and is the closest thing to a boat on wheels they make these days.

On the Rock

2007-07-20T21:15:00.000-06:00

We made it to St. John's and eventually made it to our hotel with some trouble (this city is laid out all wacky like). Because it's our honeymoon they gave us a free room upgrade. Sweet! After a quick bite to eat we went to Chapters and we are now in possession of two copies of the Deathy Hallows. Excuse me while I go read.

So excited it hurts

2007-07-19T17:00:00.000-06:00

June was a crazy month (in a good way) and so far July has been a crazy month (in a bad way) and boy am I ready for a vacation. I haven’t been on a real honest to goodness vacation since I went to Denmark… in 2005! It’s going to be part honeymoon, part family vacation, part homecoming, and part family reunion. It’ll be a little crazy but we’re going to have a blast and of course make sure we take time to relax. Tomorrow morning we leave Calgary on a direct flight (thank God!) to St. John’s where we’ll spend two nights and then head off to Twillingate. I’m a little concerned about flying with Elodie as I’m pretty sure she won’t sleep, but I just hope the change in air pressure doesn’t bother her.

We leave Calgary in the morning but it’s a 6.5 hour flight plus a 3.5 hour time change, so we won’t be there until the evening. Once we get settled into our hotel we’ll be heading out to the only Chapters store in the city (!) to buy the final Harry Potter at midnight. Elodie is going to be awake either way, so we might as well enjoy it rather than suffer through her screaming in the hotel room.

Provided we all sleep well that night (doubtful) and provided Kayla doesn’t stay up all night reading (doubtful) we’ll be up early to check out the sites. We need to squeeze in Signal Hill, Cape Spear, and Wool Trends (Kayla) all in one day with a potentially cranky baby. Should be fun! The next morning we’ll be up bright and early to head to Twillingate.

Unfortunately the drive to Twillingate is about 500km on twisty Newfoundland roads, so we won’t arrive until supper time. At this point we’ll probably just want to collapse in bed, but there’s going to be family to see and tea to drink. I have a list of things I want to do and to show Kayla (some of which is scheduled by the hour) but it will really depend on how we’re feeling and of course the unpredictable Newfoundland weather. We will of course attend the legendary Fish, Fun, and Folk Festival and check out the many sites and scenes that Twillingate has to offer. We may even take day trips to Fogo Island and Corner Brook. At the end of the month Kayla and I have two days in a Bed & Breakfast and we can’t wait for 2 days of child-free bliss.

If I am able, I will update the blog on what’s going on and perhaps post some photos. There is an internet café there, but I don’t know how often I’ll go. I’m super excited to go and I can’t wait to show Kayla everything and show Elodie off. For those of you who will be there (My family + Burge family) I look forward to seeing you.

Impressive, Potter

2007-07-15T01:05:00.000-06:00

So I just got back from seeing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and I must say that it's the best Potter film yet. That's saying a lot considering the book it's based on is probably my least favourite of the series. While I have enjoyed the previous Potter films, I felt that the 3rd and 4th movies felt a little rushed and disjointed. OOtP is the longest HP book, so I was a little concerned about how it would be adapted. Simply said, the movie trims a lot of the fat of the book. Yes, there are a lot of things not in the movie that I would like to have seen but it just wasn't possible to have it all. Also, the movie takes some liberties with the story to make it work. Normally I'm not a fan of this (it bothered me in Goblet of Fire) but it's done exceptionally well here. I don't want to give too much away, but the director did some great things with the whole Potter/Voldemort mind connection thing.
A good chunk of the book is spent on DA meetings and Harry's occlumency lessons. These are done in relatively short scenes in the movie, but it's pulled off very well. Finally, the final battle between Voldemort and Dumbledore is really great, but a tad too short.

If I had to point out one flaw it's that with so many characters in the movie some of them get little to no attention. While they were present, I really wish that more time was spent developing Lupin, Tonks, Bellatrix, Hagrid, and Percy. Lupin and Tonks only have one or two lines, and the whole subplot with Percy is largely ignored. Harry and is posse don't have a lot of dialog together but I think they're developed well. What made me most happy though was that Michael Gambon seems to finally have a grasp on Dumbledore's character. I was not pleased with his previous performances, but here he was able to show Dumbledore's compassionate side. It's still flawed and could have been better, but it's an improvement. This is very important for the next entry and it's making me feel more comfortable with it.

Definitely my favourite Harry Potter film so far and I'm extremely happy David Yates will also be directing Half Blood Prince.

Now, what I'm even more excited about is the final Harry Potter book - The Deathly Hallows. We'll be in Newfoundland the day of the release and we're tempted to get the book at midnight so that we'll be one of the first in North America to get it. If not, we'll be getting it the next morning.

I can't help but throw out my predictions, so here they are:

-Snape will redeem himself and show that he has, and was, on the side of the Order of the Phoenix. I also think that he will do this by saving Harry, possibly dieing in the process.

-It will be discovered that Harry was once a horcrux, but is no longer.

-Malfoy will redeem himself.

-Neville will do something extraordinary. If he lives, he will become a teacher at Hogwarts.

-Ginny will show that she is a powerful witch. She will play an important role.

-Aunt Petunia will play an important role.

-I don't think Harry or Voldemort will die. They will both live, and Voldemort will suffer a fate worse than death.

-J.K. Rowling has said two major characters will die. I'm not 100% who that will be, but I think it will be two of the following: Snape, Malfoy, Neville, Tonks, or Ginny.

I have no idea how we're going to manage sharing the book while on vacation, but I suspect there will be a lot of evening reading.

Walking... Sort of.

2007-07-13T09:04:00.002-06:00

Just a preface, there probably won’t be as many videos of Elodie on my blog anymore. I used to upload them at my previous work because it was such a fast connection, but I’m not aloud to do that at my new work. I’m going to attempt at home, but given our tediously slow connection I don’t know how successful I’ll be. I’ll try though.

Perhaps I'm naïve, but I just assumed babies went from crawling to walking in like a couple days. Maybe that is what usually happens and Elodie’s an exception. Who knows? Anyway, she took her first steps about three weeks ago and right now her record sits at about 20 steps. Not bad, but usually she can only get a few before she topples over. I think she has a few problems. 1) Her head is huge. 2) When she walks she throws her hands in the air thereby eliminating any chance at balancing herself 3) She insists on running. If she’d take it slow she’d probably be okay, but once she gets moving she just books it. I have a couple videos, but for now here are a couple (rather poor) pictures.

Elodie has also become quite independent and insists on doing a lot of things herself. This includes feeding herself and as you can imagine that’s quite an ordeal:

Wedding Pictures

2007-07-12T14:01:00.000-06:00

My blog’s been a bit of a Debbie Downer as of late, so I think it’s about time I posted some wedding pictures. Sometimes I forget that some people don’t have Facebook (crazy, I know!) so I'll post the pictures that I had put up there. These are fairly low resolution, so don't expect to be able to print them off. Once we have the professional pictures done I'll post those too.

Pre-Wedding

Wedding Ceremony

Wedding Reception

Goodbye Nico

2007-07-10T14:17:00.000-06:00

It was with great sadness that I found out my friend and former co-worker Nico Hofferd passed away this weekend. She was a wonderful person who was kind, caring, and one of the more socially conscious people I knew. We worked together as Student Advisors at Bow Valley College and out of all the SAs she was the one who fought most on behalf of students. She had no problem ruffling a few feathers if she felt it would make student lives better. I remember the two of us would sit down and bitch and complain about policies and what things were wrong, but when it came down to it I’d always let her do all the talking. She used to tease me and say I talked too much.

I only knew Nico for less than a year and even then it was only through work. Regardless, I felt close to her and will miss her very much. I’ll never forget her sense of style, her eclectic music tastes, but most of all her compassion and tenacity. I’m sorry that I never listened to your radio show or ever came out to one of your performances. As terrible as things like these are, it can really put things into perspective. It forces us to take a step back and re-evaluate our surroundings and our priorities.

If any of you knew Nico you might want to check out her blog and Myspace. Although I had visited her Myspace before, I didn’t even know about her blog. It’s weird looking at it now reading about things that I also experienced, but once again it provides perspective.

Rest in peace Nico, perhaps we’ll see each other again someday.

Two Years

2007-07-06T10:55:00.001-06:00

Today marks the two-year anniversary of my Mom passing away due to lung cancer. I don’t know why, but it seems like an eternity ago that we lost her. Perhaps it’s because so much has happened in the time since then. I’ve had a child, got engaged and married, changed jobs, and moved into a new house. Regardless I will never forget the time spent with my Mom. I wish she had been here for all the wonderful things that have happened and will continue to happen, but I take solace with the knowledge that there are many people who will be able to continue to tell her stories so that we never forget.

It was very hard not having my Mom at my wedding and I know I was not the only one thinking of her that day. After the wedding Kayla and I visited Mom’s footstone in Strathmore to lay down Kayla’s bouquet. Here is a picture:

Trip to the park

2007-07-05T23:59:00.001-06:00

Kayla and I took Elodie to the splash park and then had some fun on the swings.

Perhaps I pushed too hard

Winding up for a thunderous low-five...

...and the delivery

Successfully Wed

2007-07-03T12:42:00.000-06:00

The wedding was a smashing success and I hope to blog about it soon, but I don't have the time just now. In the meantime I'll post our vows below. Also, for those curious, Elodie did not have a measles rash, but was allergic to the penicillin that we were giving her for her tonsilitis.

Anyway, here are the vows:

Kayla’s Vows:

Robbie,

Together we have been through more things in the short time we’ve known each other than many people see in a great span of time. We overcame challenges that were placed before us; sickness, recovery, death, and through our daughter, rebirth.

I cannot promise that things will forever be perfect with the simple exchange of rings, for we are imperfect by design. I can, however, promise to never forgot this moment, right now, with our friends and family and the step on our journey we are making.

Love runs deep, and respect runs with it. Over time, love wears down the imperfections and makes them smoother and easier to pass over. Also, as a river cuts a course through granite, creating something spectacular, so love cuts a path through the soul, forever changing its course and making it magnificent.

Robbie, I am so happy to be taking this path with you. Together, we are complete.

Robbie’s Vows:

Kayla,

When we met I knew that I had found someone special. You brought joy into my life and have been my guiding light these past three years. We have been through some of the darkest and brightest times a couple can go through and there is no one I would have rather shared them with.

Our journey together does not begin today, and that makes more committed to you than if it had. You love me, support me, and make each and every day better than the one before it. You are more than just my partner. You are my soul mate, best friend, and mother to my child.

Words alone are not enough to thank you for what you have given me and will continue to give me. I will stand by you regardless of what life throws at us and I look forward to experiencing further joys and challenges with you.

Kayla, I love you completely and unconditionally. Together, we are complete.

Measle Rash

2007-06-28T22:51:00.001-06:00

Elodie got her MMR vaccinations two weeks ago and now the poor girl has a measle rash:

Getting married in 40 hours!

Music From and Inspired by the Wedding of Kayla and Robbie

2007-06-28T08:49:00.000-06:00

Here is the full list of songs from our ceremony and reception. The bulk of these songs are being played during the reception prelude, but hidden amongst them are the processionals, recessional, the first dance, and others. Which ones could they be?

12:59 Lullaby – Bedouin Soundclash
At My Most Beautiful – REM
A Whole Lotta Love – Led Zeppelin
Calling You – Blue October
Dance With You – Live
Daughters – John Mayer
Everything - Lifehouse
Goodnight and Go – Imogen Heap
Hey There Delilah – Plain White T’s
Honey & the Moon – Joseph Arthur
I Love the Rain Most – Joe Purdy
Into the Mystic – The Wallflowers
Mushaboom – Feist
Outtasite - Wilco
The Luckiest – Ben Folds
Paperweight - Joshua Radin and Schuyler Fisk
Somebody to Love – Queen
Sunset Lover – Josh Kelley
Take Me Anywhere – Tegan & Sara
Tired of Waiting (Acoustic) – The Trews
When the Night Feels My Song – Bedouin Soundclash
World on Fire – Sarah MacLachlan
You’re My Best Friend – Queen

Two days to go!!

So bloody crazy

2007-06-25T15:40:00.001-06:00

Getting married in 5 days. Things are crazy...

1) Wedding dress was supposed to be white. It isn't. Everything else is.

2) Tuxes arrived - shirts white like they're supposed to be. Getting them changed to ivory. Getting my shirt couriered from somewhere. Hopefully here by wednesday.

3) Made two trips to Calgary this weekend to do stuff. Forgot to bring critical items. Both times.

4) Daughter is healthier but insists on waking up each night to terrorize us. Decided last night was a good time to learn to escape crib and hit floor with loud thump. Disassembled and reassembled crib at 2 in the morning. Daughter is okay.

5) Have to apply for $50,000 government grant for work. Due on Friday. Can't think straight. Writing in fragmented sentences.

Bachelor Party

2007-06-20T12:04:00.000-06:00

My bachelor party started out innocently enough. About 12 of us met for Laser Quest on Saturday to play a couple of games. I hadn’t really thought about it beforehand, but the age demographic for Laser Quest isn’t typically adults in their 20s (and 40s & 50s) so we ended up playing with a good twenty children who were probably 6 or 7. In the first game most of us got destroyed. I think I came at around 15th place out of 30 or so people. You see, those damn kids ganged up on us in little clusters and there wasn’t much we could do. Egos hurt, we regrouped for the second game and devised a brilliant strategy to bring down a fury of lasers on the unsuspecting rugrats. Some of us may have taken things a little too far (there were stories of a certain individual who may have physically accosted a child), but my strategy was pretty fair. I found a nice spot on a ramp and sniped those little buggers down. They had no idea what hit them… Anyway, in the second game I came in 3rd and everyone else did much better too.

After Laser Quest we headed off to Jack Astors to grab some food and drinks. I did not intend to drink at all save for a little beer, but my party had other plans. Shortly after ordering appetizers I was presented with a shot of tequila. Why tequila of all things? ‘Oh, well’ I thought, bottoms up. I took the shot, and chased it with some lime, then beer, then chicken wing. But what’s this? Minutes later a second shot appears before me. They didn’t see me do the other one, they say. I make sure everyone is paying attention and down the second. After eating my dinner and having a couple beers I was feeling pretty good. Someone then decided to buy me a muff dive, which is actually a pretty nice drink. I successfully did it without using my hands, but unfortunately no one got a picture. At this point I had had about 5 drinks, so I was feeling pretty tipsy. However everyone was done eating and we were ready to go. Tanner and Carsten had other plans though and they bought me a gladiator and a bottlecap. I have to commend them, both are pretty easy drinks. Had they given me something harder they may not have stayed down. After those two drinks I wasn’t feeling too hot, but after getting a couple burps out in the parking lot I was feeling pretty splendid, albeit tipsy.

James then drove him and I to Airdrie and somehow everyone made it to my house before me. I was greeted by a large crowd of people drinking on my driveway, so I’m sure my neighbours loved that. I decided to make myself a red bull and vodka so that I wouldn’t get sleepy and I figured I could nurse it for a while. For whatever reason I immediately turned on the Xbox 360 so we could play 4-player Ninja Turtles the Arcade Game. I have to apologize to many of my party attendees because I know I ignored you for most of the night. Although it was not my intention I think I ended up playing video games for a good hour and a half or more.

While playing Ninja Turtles people kept giving me drinks and honestly I don’t remember most of them. What I do remember though is Steen giving me shots of Akavit. For those of you fortunate to never have tried Akavit it is the most powerful, vile, gut wrenching drink conceived by man. Created by the vikings for lord knows what purpose, it has been passed down through the ages by the Danes to terrorize new son in laws. I never want to drink it again!

I know there were at least a couple shots of Akavit, some vodka, and probably more. At this point I was pretty tosted but I didn’t know it. We ended up beating Ninja Turtles and then played some Aegis Wing. I remember it was my idea to play it, but I have no idea who I played with or when we stopped.

After I stopped playing video games I stood up and that’s when things got bad. Everything after this point is a blur to me, but I remember making a little trip to the loo. I decided it would be nice to have a little sit on the bathroom floor and I think I may have been down there for a while. I remember James banging on the door asking if I was okay, so I decided I’d better come out. I stumbled around for a bit doing who knows what and eventually decided passing out in bed was an excellent idea. So that’s what I did. Unfortunately Jack and Carsten felt that I should get back up. They pretty much carried me down the stairs and I distinctly remember my vision being severely mucked up. They plopped me on the couch and I think people may have been playing Wii, I dunno. When no one was looking I snuck back to bed again and that’s where I stayed for the rest of the night. Thankfully no one did anything terrible to me in this state since they totally could have got away with it. In the end I had at least 10 drinks, but some have estimated it may have been in the 15 to 20 range. I doubt I had 20 drinks because I'm pretty sure that would have sent me to the hospital.

I awoke the next morning at 6am to the dogs whining. It struck me that I hadn’t taken them out when I got home the night before so they probably had to pee really, really bad. It took great effort, but I dragged my sorry ass out of bed to take them out and feed them. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t have a hangover – I was still drunk. I went back to bed and was woken up by Carsten at around 9:30. I thought more people would spend the night, but I guess they just wanted to have one person stay so that they could check-up on me.

I was doing okay as I sobered up but after watching Carsten play Goldeneye on N64 I actually got sick and ended up puking up all the water I was drinking. I felt really good after that though and then Elodie came home and we hung out and watched a movie.

I just want to thank everyone who came out, and I apologize for being a bad host. I didn’t get to talk to many of you much at all and spent most of my time playing video games and being passed out. I hope you had a fun time.

Our sick little girl

2007-06-18T14:06:00.001-06:00

Poor Elodie has tonsillitis, but is on her way to recovery. Here are some pre-sickness pictures:

She loves ketchup

Getting cleaned up

I love this picture.

The cat did not appreciate this.

Just starting to get sick & coughing.

Asleep in her swing. She calls it her 'wee'

Bust a move

2007-06-07T09:18:00.001-06:00

Ketchupy Conversations

2007-06-07T09:05:00.001-06:00

Crazy Weather, part 2

2007-06-06T14:22:00.000-06:00

Wow, I'm glad I stayed at home last night.

Chinook Centre

Lightning strike

Hello Deerfoot!

Crazy Calgary Weather

2007-06-06T08:44:00.000-06:00

From a co-worker:

Chinook Centre parking

Our Toddler

2007-06-03T21:37:00.001-06:00

Objection!

I only posted this picture so that people could see how effed up my feet are. What the hell is my toe doing?

Clipping Daddy's toe nails.

This would be cute if my feet weren't so gross.

Throwing up the horns

Daddy drinks because she cries.

Elodie drinks because Daddy does.

Did I mention Kayla got me a 360 for my wedding gift? Yay!

Further adventures in employment

2007-05-22T18:49:00.000-06:00

It seems I am never content to simply pick a career and stick with it. After only 7 months at Bow Valley College I am about to embark on another employment journey. Today I gave my notice at BVC and on June 11 I will start with the City of Airdrie as a Community Developer. Specifically I will be a Community Developer for youth. It all comes full circle.

I reluctantly applied for the job because I was happy at BVC. I ended up getting an interview and subsequently a job offer. I turned the job down since I figured there was no reason to give up a job I love for a job I might not love. But you see the City of Airdrie would not take no for an answer. They asked that I go out for coffee with them to discuss the position and they also threw some more money on the table. Calgary's job market is nuts...

Anyway I decided in the end that working for the City of Airdrie would be better as a long term career since there isn't much room to move around BVC.

Also, kudos to Nico and Alaina for figuring out I was quitting my job before I even gave my notice. I think you've been watching too much CSI or something...

Say Puppy!

2007-05-20T18:21:00.001-06:00

Wow, we're really annoying parents...

Here's Elodie climbing some stairs:

Here she is climbing the stairs again:

Here she is playing with her dogs:

(If you're wondering why I say "Ah, gross!" at the end, it's because I got a face full of dog drool.

Elodie eating supper at Grandma's:

Growing up so fast...

2007-05-18T09:50:00.001-06:00

I mentioned not long ago that Elodie started saying Puppy and Daddy. Well, we can now add Kitty, Baby, Hi, and Bye to that list. We're still having some difficulties with the definitions though. Daddy is still every human being and even the occasional inanimate object. For a while everything with fur was a pupppy, but now that she's learned kitty I think she's learning to differentiate.

Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures:

Elodie took a bit of a spill at Grandma's the other day, so she's got a bump on her head.

She does not appreciate being woken up by a camera flash.

She's a good carnivore like her Daddy.

Emo-Man, Emo-Man, does whatever an Emo can.

2007-05-07T15:26:00.000-06:00

So yeah, Spider-Man 3. Everyone on the continent seems to have seen it already but I'm going to provide my very brief opinion. The film has been getting mostly mediocre reviews and there is definitely justification for that, but there are enough enjoyable moments to make it a worthwhile film.

The first film did a great job of establishing Spider-Man and his origin, and the second was even better in that it delved deeper into the charachter. I think the aim of the third film is to focus on who Peter Parker is. That and have three villians trying to kill him.

As an action flick / summer blockbuster the film is quite a success. There are many great action sequences that are a lot of fun. Unfortunately the plot is muddled down by having three villians and therefore three sub-plots. Despite the lame new costume, the Green Goblin arc is the best executed one. The Sandman and Venom story lines are a bit of a mess and honestly one of them should have been dropped.

As with previous villains, the Sandman is really just a regular who made some bad choices. Unfortunately everything from his motives to the way he gains his powers is pretty laaughable. If I could have cut one of the villians it would have been Sandman.

Everyone loves the Spider-man symbiote story but it's not given the attention it deserves in this film. It seems Sam Raimi couldn't come up with a good origin story for the symbiote, so he went with the tried and true 'it came from space, that's all you need to know' mantra. I won't spoil how it goes down, but once Spider-Man gets his new 'costume' it changes his personality. This is when things get ugly...

Starting out the symbiote makes Spider-Man more agressive, cocky, and quite emo. I was wondering if he was going to start listening to Simple Plan and cutting himself in the dark. This started out okay but it got stretched out for too long. There a couple of scenes that are really, really, terrible and I wish they were cut from the film. You'll know them when you see them.

Venom doesn't actually show up until fairly late into the film, so unfortunately he doesn't get a lot of screen time. Why put Venom, arguably Spider-Man's greatest villian, in a movie and barely give him time to do anything?

Spider-man 3 could easily have been a better movie if it was edited differently. Editing wouldn't have saved the chessy villian origins, but it certainly could have helped the plot. Personally I would have edited out some of the scenes involving the 'new' Peter Parker. They were a disgrace to film. I would have also had Spider-Man lose the symbiote earlier so that Venom could have had more screen time. Finally, just get rid of the Sandman, we didn't need him.

Good:
-Great action sequences
-Good final act that at least wraps up all the loose ends of the messy plot
-Aunt May. She's awesome.

The Bad:
-One too many villians
-Emo Peter Parker

The Ugly:
-Random poorly secured molecular binding sites in New York. Yeah...
-Dance sequences
-Using a butler as a plot device

Mmmmm, cake

2007-05-07T13:26:00.002-06:00

First Word!

2007-05-05T22:21:00.001-06:00

It's hard to determine exactly what a baby's first official word is. She started saying 'Dada' and 'Mama' quite early on. She also started meowing whenever she saw the cat, and calling everything and everyone 'Daddy'. Today however she said what I think we can agree was her first word: Puppy.

Despite her unmatched love for the cat (who she calls DeeDa, a verbal anagram of Daddy), she decided to start saying puppy. Of course she first said it when she was being babysat at Kayla's parents house. This evening when she was having her bath we tried to get her to say it and were quite successful. I'll see if I can get a video of her saying it and then post it on Monday.

Wilford Brimley

2007-05-04T12:33:00.000-06:00

I love a good lolcat (the "I'm in ur X Ying your Z" variety being my favourite) but I just about bursted out laughing at work when I saw the lolwalrus:

Elodie video catch up

2007-05-04T08:52:00.001-06:00

Here`s a few videos of Elodie that I`ve been meaning to post for a while. They`re a few weeks old.

I ♥ Odin Sphere

2007-05-04T08:32:00.000-06:00

The PS2 continues to outsell all the new consoles, so there will continue to be great games being released for it. I cannot wait for Odin Sphere:

Happy Birthday Elodie!

2007-04-30T09:37:00.001-06:00

It hardly seems like a year has gone by, but today Elodie turns one. It breaks my heart to have to be at work today but we had two birthday parties for her this weekend. This first one was on Saturday and we had some of our friends over. (Thanks Erin, Lisa, Cat, Krista, Chris, Jeremy, Shelley, Karen, James, Jen, Torie, Alaina, Laura, Tanner & Kyla). Instead of a birthday cake Kayla made 48 (!) cupcakes. We also jazzed up the place with copious amounts of pink 1st Birthday decorations.

After everyone arrived we decided to have some cupcakes. We lit a candle for Elodie, placed the cupcake on her highchair and began to sing happy birthday to her. We underestimated her speed and reach and the next thing we knew she had put out the candle with her finger. She was none to pleased with how the felt, so we promptly cuddled her and gave her ice cream. All this was caught on video with my DVD camcorder, so I'll try and get it uploaded one of these days.

After she had calmed down we gave her a cupcake (sans candle) but she was still quite wary of it. After Kayla shoved some in her mouth she realised it was tasty.

After everyone was done snacking we moved on to presents. I told people not to bring gifts, but I knew people would anyway. Thanks everyone!

Everyone was gone by 8:00, but that's okay because Kayla and I were exhausted and we had another party to prepare for. On Sunday we had the birthday party for out Family. (Thanks Dad, Darlene, Steen, Darcy, Carsten, Jack, Lorna, Theresa, Brian, Shiela, Jeff, Tanner, & Kyla).

This time Kayla made an awesome birthday cake. We still lit birthday candles, but we made sure to keep them out of Elodie's reach this time. Unfortunately she's got a good memory and started crying the second she saw the candles. We tried offering a cupcake, but she was suspicious of that too.

She was eventually won over by the cupcake.

Time for more presents! Elodie received lots of books (which we asked for) and also some plush animals, a teething crab (?!), and some clothes.

One of her gifts from Kayla's parents were a pair of 'Baby Bandz'. I tried to put her new sunglasses on her, but she wouldn't have it (there was much screaming). She preferred to try and put them on herself, but she was rather unsuccessful.

A big thanks to everyone who came out this weekend!

Ultimate Cuteness

2007-04-20T16:03:00.001-06:00

Here we try and help Elodie walk but she's more interested in her blocks.

This is us fine tuning Elodie's motor skills.

Flames in 6?

2007-04-20T12:15:00.000-06:00

I'll admit it, I'm a casual hockey fan. I'll watch a few games during the regular season and I almost always make it out to one or two games. Other than that though I don't follow it religiously like some people. For whatever reason though I really get into playoff hockey. Next to Olympic hockey, it one of my favourite things to watch.

Last night's game between Calgary and Detroit was a blast to watch and I'm amazed at how differently Calgary played in the last two games vs the first two in the series. They still to need to win a game in Detroit though, so they've got some work to do.

When I was in younger I did follow hockey religiously and at one time Dominik Hasek was one of my favourite goalies. I read a funny article about him today, and I have to share some quotes.

Goalie Chris Osgood, who won a Stanley Cup with the Red Wings, rejoined Detroit last year, only to see Hasek return a year later. Osgood had heard the stories of how the goalie once hailed as the Dominator was . . . different. "Not weird," Osgood said. "Different . . . But he's a true pro."

Of course, anyone who has followed the NHL the past 10 years knows exactly how different Hasek can be. In his prime, he would flop to the ice if even the breeze from a passing forward so much as ruffled him. He did more contortions than Houdini. And he was always losing some piece of his equipment -- gloves, mask, stick -- when making a save.

...

"We didn't do anything in the first two games," said Calgary forward Jeff Friesen, who sat out the opener with an injury. "I was watching him and there was this bird flying around from the rafters [at the Joe Louis Arena] and he's trying to catch the bird when the puck was in our end. He was pretty relaxed in there."

Virginia Tragedy

2007-04-17T15:15:00.000-06:00

I imagine everyone is a little shocked about the recent school shooting in Virginia. This shooting, as well as those in the past, are even more scary to think about when you work at a college. The unfortunate reality of it though is that events like this can happen anywhere and can involve any type of people. Therefore people look to see how they can prevent them and to do that they look to blame something.

Even before we knew who this shooter was certain media outlets were playing the blame game. To no one's surprise the ever lovable Jack Thompson blamed video games within hours of this event. I will not waste space explaining my disdain for this man. Here he is in action:

In the off chance you're agreeing with what he's saying, please see here.

Not to be outdone, Dr. Phil 'I'll tell you what' McGraw gave us his $0.02:

“The problem is we are programming these people as a society. You cannot tell me - common sense tells you - that if these people are playing video games where they’re on a mass killing spree in a video game, it’s glamorized on the big screen, it’s become part of the fiber of our society. You take that and mix it with a psychopath, a sociopath, or someone suffering from mental illness, add in a dose of rage, the suggestability is just too high. And we’re going to have to start dealing with that. We’re going to have to start addressing those issues and recognizing that the mass murderers of tomorrow are the children of today that are being programmed with this massive violence overdose.”

Now I'm not a Dr. Phil fan, and I'm not agreeing with everything he's saying here. However I have to make note of one of his key points:

"You take that and mix it with a psychopath, a sociopath, or someone suffering from mental illness, add in a dose of rage, the suggestability is just too high."

That's the kicker. These people aren't right in the head to begin with. No amount of Grand Theft Auto is going to make a mentally healthy person into a murderer. I don't think there is a single video game out on the market today that could train someone to kill, but I will agree that if an unstable person played certain games it could have a negative effect. But you know what? Movies, books, music, etc. could do that too. Trying to censor media isn't going to solve a damn thing! I don't know what lead this young man to do what he did. It could be anything and it would not be fair for me to speculate. But you can bet if so much as a Game Boy is found in this man's house the $#!% will hit the fan.

I'm not going to pretend I have a solution to prevent events like this because there isn't one. I certainly believe gun control would help, but really the issue is much larger than that. I also believe that having video game ratings and enforcing them is important. Ultimately parents should monitor game purchases by children, but unfortunately that isn't often done. Yeah, little Timmy could probably play Gears of War and turn out just fine (look at me!) but let's make sure Mom and Dad know he's mature enough and mentally fit enough first.

Let's stop looking for an easy target to blame when things like this happen and try and understand that it is not as simple as pointing fingers.

My Visual DNA

2007-04-17T10:59:00.000-06:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

This means trouble

2007-04-16T21:08:00.001-06:00

Also, bath time:

Blame Facebook

2007-04-16T08:16:00.001-06:00

Poor, poor neglected Blog. There have been legitimate things to blog about but it seems all my free time that I spend on the computer is dedicated to Facebook. Most of you have probably heard of Facebook, but if you haven't I suggest you stay away. It's like digital crack!

On the baby front, Elodie is doing well and is growing up much too fast. She got a second tooth right next to the other and I'm sure more are on the way. She isn't walking on her own yet but she is getting much better at walking with the aid of furniture and people. I'm hoping she'll be able to walk by the time the wedding comes along, but it's no big deal if she can't.

I'll try to get some pictures up on here since I haven't posted any in a while. I have some good videos too.

Separation Anxiety

2007-04-11T11:46:00.001-06:00

You often hear about how hard it is to drop your child off at their first day of kindergarten. Why does no one ever mention how hard it is to leave your child with someone else for the first time. We've had family and friends babysit Elodie for a few hours but today is the first time Elodie is being taken care by someone else all day. I don't know why, but I'm incredibly nervous and can't wait to go home.

Kayla has a job interview in Edmonton today so we're having a friend stay at our house to watch Elodie. It shouldn't be a big deal, I mean we know her and it's at her house, but still...

Maybe Kayla will get a wicked job and I can stay at home and she can be the alpha earner.

Waffle Berry

2007-04-05T11:50:00.001-06:00

Try not to get motion sick watching this one: