are blogs dead?

a photo of the middle class

i'm noticing that most blogs, including my own, that i follow are realizing less frequent posts. or not. maybe i'm not paying enough attention.

i want to post something brilliant but my brain is mush. most noticeably on fridays. which is today for those who check here too often.

and for those keeping score at home, my basketball game has mostly returned, and i will not have to quit my job to retain my basketball abilities. (people with couches rejoice) that means i can retain my great joy and outlet and the gym to offset the non-joy and repression i get from working. hurrah! balance is restored.


so my gal and I went house hunting. our real estate agent wants to put us in an area he believes will increase the most in value --- so we went to scarborough (upper UPPER beaches).

bungalows...

now, i'm not from southwestern ontario, so maybe they mean/signify something else to those more familiar with them, but to me (and i believe to my beloved as well), they signify sadness. failure in thought. a lack of imagination. all that space and you built a squat little one floor house smack dab in the middle of a lawn? all that lawn, that imaginary green space that actually spends the majority of its existence as a snow and leaf receptacle, you highlight this with a house? with a shack? the houses we looked at were so small. i'm not even sure we can GET a mortgage. i mean, i wouldn't give me a mortgage.

these bungalows sell for the low low price of $295,000. and just a GO train to the city! no. hell no. i'm not going to pretend to be able to afford to overpay to live in the middle of nowhere (sorry, upper beaches). i can't. i'll pretend i can afford a nice west end home. the hunt will continue.

it's fun to walk into people's houses though. we looked at 7 in all. 3 had no occupants. but 4 did. and whoooooooohooo, people that aren't me live like fucking pigs!

it was awesome . children running rampant, neglected kids wanting to play with you, the tv on, watching hockey, kicking out the renters from the basement, the sauna behind a secret door in the bathroom, the toilet paper left in the unflushed john, the dog that won't stop barking, the cat hair, the dirty laundry.

people are so gloriously bizarre behind the doors of their home, doors they have to open to you if they want to sell it to you so they can move their quirks on to other molested abodes.

looking back on this blog entry, it kind of sucks. maybe this will save it:

the NEWFS WON GOLD!!! is that a first? probably not, but i love that they closed all the schools in the entire provicne so that newfs everywhere (or, the newfs who didn't move away, nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah) could watch it.

as i am currently IM'ing with my 10 year old cousin madison, she says that she watched it, and so did everyone she knew.

HISTORIC! a day she'll remember for the rest of her life. get enough newfs feeling the pride like that and we can separate! us and alberta, taking our oil and getting the hell out. well, not exactly 'OUR' oil. in fact, we just get to work on the projects, and the real profits go to big multinational bloodsuckers. okay scrap that 'we' party. but there are other assets. (the bay street lingo!)

i have a terrible ego-driven desire to return to newfoundland, run for premier, hold a referendum to break off from canada, win, join france, import cheese and wine, have a huge huge huge HUGE 3 year party, and then turn the province into a tourist/oil/party/music/culture paradise!!! HELL YEAH!!

considering the rate of global warming and the potential for exponential increases, newfoundland could be jamaica in 35 years. and me, the boss of it all, the king of newfoundland!! ME! THE KING OF NEWFOUNDLAND! the land of the free and the drunk and the rich and the warm. how'd you like that.

[insert funny closing line here]

[insert addendum to that line here]

[insert witty closing statement]

warm regards

f

yeah

i guess it's been a week, viceroy.

i'll post soon.

house hunting in scarborough, my saturday misadventures.

coming soon.

there was a storm

1. this is beautiful. click it to make it full screen to get a sense. maybe it's just me.

2. this has some bendy trees. the colour of the sky is striking.

3) and this is the most beautiful. in the driveway of this house, a dad was playing hockey with his little girl (see the little snowgirl in between the mom and dad snowpeople).

there was a storm, a gift, an opportunity, a time, a plan. basically there was a place over there that we were going to for reasons, we had our reasons.

the plan involved dormant, snow covered cottages, people moving snow, and sunshine.

me and my gal were off, into the great blue yonder. (that i'm guessing means, the area over there/yonder, instead of 'the great blue yonder' as a singular noun, a mythic place).

i had gifted stacey's parents a coupon good for one snow removal from the roof of their cottage. they called it in, nary a week after i had jokingly said to her mother that it's too bad the coupon would expire this year, and here it hadn't snowed since christmas... 3 days later owen sound has no power. huge storm hits.

and we're off.

into the great blue over there.

and it was stunning.

and there were giant snowmen and the stillness and the trees all bent over, touching the ground with their heads, but not breaking, although many did. and we drove and we laughed and saw a windmill field that makes me excited still, like watching the future unfold in an old field, a giant array, the day of the triffids, war of the worlds, 50 of 'em, just standing in the great blue yonder. the pics will have to wait, as i was too excited to photograph them on the first drive by, and it was dark on the second. but i have seen the future!

"well hell, Ethel, i sure done don't know what he means, but the boy says they's farming wind over in the sky, yonder".

and so it is...

template for pics

I had a beauty-infused weekend.

i'm posting this as a reminder to myself to post and update.



NOTE TO PEOPLE: sleep is a cure-all. i had my first 9+ hours of continuous rest this weekend since i have started my gig, and i feel strong like bull! spirit lifted.

will post later

zero-ness

nothing.

that's what i got.

working. paying down the visa. you know, being a man, a grown-up man.

"bit late", some might say, but it's been a good run. is my run over? i don't think so. not quite yet.

the week where i thought i was going to lose my mind about having to work the hours i do, in the environment i do, is followed up by a week where i like my job.

i take 200 steps to get on the subway near my house and never step outside again until i get home and walk those last 200 steps. (for those who think that's disgusting, i agree, but when it's cold, i don't agree. :)

i get paid well enough.

i work 8 hours a day, generally as a rule, without OT (although this will change when my contract expires).

the people i work with directly are really good people, and fun. my office-mate is funny, and we spend the days cracking jokes and laughing. i am as fortunate to have him in my office as he is to have me. and i know this.

i had a revelation looking at all the business school students that have now grown up into mole-city adventurers --- i'm not one of you. this wasn't a revelation in a bad way, i wasn't putting them down or mocking their life choices or considering them inferior because they look reserved and conservative and slightly dead on the inside - i just realized that my people aren't these people. and that's cool. knowing where you're from, what you are, that's a part of 'growing up' i guess. i salute my friends, for being beautiful and alive. long may you run.


the above picture is from a frieze by klimt - his beethoven frieze. It depicts mankind sending a knight out into the world to find happiness. i think it's my favorite thing in the universe right now.