Well it's Saturday and New Year's is just around the corner and we are leaving for Montreal in a couple. I can't wait!
I don't know why I'm blogging since I do have a ton of shit to do before leaving, but I thought I'd put up a quick post.

I also decided Wednesday (with the help of a bit of convincing from K) to go to the Dominican Repbulic! We are leaving next weekend (talk about game-time decision :p ). I'm so pumped. I've never been south of Florida, and even then, I've only gone once.
If I'd have known earlier, I probably could have worked on my beach bod... unfortunately, my bod is far from beach ready.

News of the day :
Mike Tyson got pulled over for a DUI and then got charged with possession of coke a couple nights ago. Now there's a guy who's messed up...
I would not want to be the guy pulling him over though. :S Even with a night stick, he would probably give me a beating...

Last movie I watched :
Rocky II and part of III: I watched them last night. I actually had never seen any Rocky movies except for IV prior to last night.
This brought along a conversation that made me realize that there are MANY classic 'movies for men' that I've never seen:
Godfather series
Star Wars (i've seen one of them a long time ago)
Indiana Jones
Any Bond movie
Rambo
Only saw the first Terminator
The Rockys (until yesterday)
And there were more we thought of yesterday too..

So I've decided that I'm going to try to make it a point to watch them in the next while and let you know what I thought of them...

So as for my Rocky experience. So far, I'm loving it, I'd like to watchh the entire series from start to end though (maybe skipping II, since I just watched it twice yesterday).


Song I'm Listening to
James Blunt - Goodbye my Lover

What I last ate
Perogies at Edouardo's last night

What I last drank
Lakeport beer last night

New Year's Resolution
Get back into shape and get myself out of debt and start saving some money for a down on a condo

WELL HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVERYONE!

Well, I don't even know why I'm posting but I'm on the net, bored and drunk. I just had a delicious supper with my brother, sister, dad, his girlfirend, her son, his girlfriend and her son.
I was at my mom's earlier and drank about 5 white russians as well as a few beers and had some CR before dinner here.
Now I am heading to church and going to listen to some christmas songs and such. Should be good.
I'm so stuffed right now. Can't wait for Christmas present unwrappings. I sent random emails to my parents for the apst month to let em know what I want but I don't remember half the stuff I asked for so I'm expecting some surprises. Can't wait!

It's not looking very good for the sleigh ride tomorrow. The weather is not great for that kinda thing.
Anyways, I gtg to take pictures and such. I'll post them when I get back.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Song listening to at the moment:
Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Face Down

Well I'm home for the week and though I'd put up a post while I'm here.
Things are pretty quiet since I got here Wednesday.

Wednesday night, my brother, sister, and dad had choir practice for mass on Christmas Eve so I went and chilled with my mom. I fixed their computer and got drunk as she decorated the tree. I went to bed pretty loaded but was in pretty good shape the next morning.

Yesterday, I hung out at my dad's, wrapped presents and had a nice big supper. We watched the Leafs lose (Horray!) and then before going to bed, I started reading a kids book (8 years and up) called Silverwing that Barb lent me to get over my fear of bats.
Well let me tell you I could not put the thing down. I finished the book (272 pages) by noon this morning. That definitely has to be a record for me. I barely got up to make some breakfast.

So then we went to see my sister play hockey against boys...they got killed unfortunately but it was fun since I hadn't gone to the IF arena in years.
And at 5 (in an hour), we're going to get to go play on it. My dad coaches a team and he has an hour of icetime so it'll be fun to skate around and shoot the puck.

Tonight, we're going to my Mom's for dinner and probably a bit of drinking. My friend Sherry will be back in town and Natalie and Anna are now in town as well so we may get together at some point in the evening.

Tomorrow will be Xmas eve. I don't think we have much planned until later at night. I'm going to the 7 o'clock mass to see my sister sing with N&A then we'll come back here and open some presents before my dad, brother, and sister head back to church to sing for the 10 o'clock mass. Then after that mass, we'll open up the rest of the presents and have some drinks.

Monday morning, we'll be going to my mom's to open up presents there and have some breakfast. Then during the day, we're going to head up to Timmins to meet up with family, and weather permitting, might do our yearly sleigh ride. It's quite fun if there's lotsa snow. You get to push your aunts, uncles, and cousins off the sled and see them run after it :p Then we stop halfway, roast some marshmallows and weiners, take pictures and feed and pet the poor horse that's been pulling us.
Afterwards, we'll head back to my aunt's for some supper and one last bender before I head back to Ottawa all by myself on Tuesday.

So I'll let y'all know how the rest of my Christmas Vacation went on my next posting :p

3 Top Coutnry Songs:
Faith Hill - Mississippi Girl
Keith Urban - Days go By
Rascal Flatts - Stand

Top Xmas present so far:
D&G for men - I'm absolutely loving it. (Thanks again, babe!)

Currently Reading...
Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins

FOURS (from Paulyblog...he said he thought I'd respond, so I didn't want to disappoint :p )


Four jobs I have had:
1) CMO at Canada Student Loans
2) Markets Management Officer for the City
3) Roofer for Designed Roofing
4) Cook/Cashier at A&W

Four places you have lived:
1) Aylmer
2) Ottawa
3) Iroquois Falls
4) Nelly Lake

Four T.V. Shows I watch:
1) The Office
2) South Park
3) Corner Gas
4) Habs

Four places you have been on vacation:
1) Florida
2) Alberta
3) Iroquois Falls...yay
4) Toronto….yay

Four Web sites you visit daily
1) hfboards.com
2) gmail.com
3) last.fm
4) torrentz.com

Four of my favourite foods:
1) Fajitas
2) Pizza
3) Vietnamese
4) Turkey stuffing

Four places I would rather be right now:
1) Down South
2) Australia
3) Europe
4) Iroquois Falls (maybe)

Over a month since my last post. I'm a horrible blogger.
Perhaps it's because I was intimidated since I promised some good interesting stuff in my next post :S

Unfortunately, I'm falling flat on my face. This will most likely not be any more exciting than any of more other posts unfortunately. I'm going to have to start taking notes when I have some good ideas or some philosophical thoughts...

So, my leaf keeps turning. Since I last posted, I not only decided to skip out on any Australian fun, I ditched the whole Teacher's college thing completely.
This volunteering stuff is enough "kid time" for me at the moment, haha. I will definitely keep that going but I think I'd rather move up within the govy than do Teacher's college.
So a couple weeks ago I started applying for other jobs. I'm looking to move up and into the Comp Sci field, but for the time being, I'll take anything that's not a demotion.

So Christmas is just around the corner. I don't think that I've ever felt this non-festive a week before new year's eve. There's not a drop of snow on the ground and I have no exams to remind me that we are actually in December. I've got a bit of Xmas shopping done but I'm procrastinating, as usual.
It should be a good Christmas. I leave on the 21st and come back the 26th.



It's not very long but it should be enough time to see the friends I want to see, and spend time with the family.

I'll take this time to offer a ride to anyone who needs one, whether it's just to go there or to come back..as you can see from the picture. I am a hoot to drive with, as you can see from the picture.

I'm still awaiting my stupid Nano from Bel-Air Toyota. I bought my car in September and those SOBs still haven't gotten it to me. I hope to hell I have it by the time I leave because that's going to be one heck of a long ride back up north if I don't have it.

New Year's should also be a blast. I'm heading up to Montreal this year with my new significant other, Barb, her friend Carole and boyfriend Roy. We'll be staying at a really nice hotel and ringing in the new year at a fancy bar on the 37th floor of some building. Should be a damn good time.
I wonder if the booze hits you harder when you're at that level...? They say you do in a plane, but I don't know if you would on the 37th floor...stay posted for my results on this experiment...if I can remember...

So my Yaris is also working well but unfortunately, I've yet to name her. So I was thinking that Gods and Goddesses have cool names. So I decided to google for the Goddess of Black (click for my search result..do not check at work) and see if any cool names came up...although something did come up (my lunch), it wasn't a cool name. So needless to say I will not be calling her Riki... So if you guys have any fun names for her, lemme know.

Anyways, this is getting unnecessarily long. So I will finish it with my usual tidbits of information.

Quote of the week
"Man, that chick has got body karate!" - Poolhall Junkies (2002)

Top 10 Songs of the moment (in alphabetical order)
Augustana - Boston
Cauterize - Porcelain
Cauterize - Paper Wings
Damien Rice - 9 Crimes
James Blunt - Wisemen (from his 'Chasing Time' album)
Powderfinger - Sunsets
Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Face Down
Snow Patrol - Hands Open
The Fray - How to Save a Life
The Feeling - I Want You Now


Top 3 Albums of the moment
James Blunt - Chasing Time (Thanks Joe and Alice)
Cauterize - Paper Wings
The Feeling - 12 Stops and Home

Purchase of the month
Motorola Q

Drink of the moment
Vodka Martini

Websites of the moment
http://www.simonsezsanta.com/ in the spirit of Christmas
http://www.last.fm/ for all the music information you could want
http://www.torrentz.com/ search and download full music albums, movies, games, etc. using BitComet

Music Album Collection
173 Full Albums

Song Collection
4158 songs

Well it's been a while since I've posted on here.

Anyways, I don't have much time to write but I'll give you a quick update on moi( so you know I'm still updating this thing :)

- The volunteering is still going very well. I'm loving it and it's given me something to look forward to on weekends. Our hockey team (the one I'm coaching) is doing really well also. Although we lost our first two games, we came back and won our last 3. I think the turn around is due to the fact that my buddy Carter and I have decided to dress up in a shirt and tie for the games.
The kids (for both the camp and the hockey team) are awesome. I just realized how much I loved hanging out with kids. It's fun to be someone they look up to. Especially the kids from camp. They come from low income families and apparently a lot of them end up dropping out of school and get into crime and stuff later on, so it's nice to think I may be having a positive impact on their future.

- Went to the Sens/Habs game last night (thanks to Mort and Kin who thought of me when they found out they had an extra ticket). Habs beat the Sens (WOO!). But wow, are the Sens ever struggling this year. I'm starting to worry they won't make the playoffs.
On that note, I think this may be the last year I get half season tickets. It seems to interfere with a lot of my activities and the novelty of it has worn off. I still have fun when I go, but getting there sometimes feels like a chore.

- I got over my spat with alcohol. We've become friends again haha. I've gotten drunk a few times these past two weeks. But I did make myself a deal that I wouldn't spend a dime on booze till Christmas so I just predrink. It's saving me a load of cash and I think I may buy myself a snowboard when the end of the month comes. That or a Treo. I need one of those. I'm so disorganized.

- I also applied to go on Deal or No Deal when it comes to Canada. Roger and I both did. It's a hell of a long application, but could you imagine going on that? That would be sweet. I've never seen the show but one of the kids at volunteering plays it on the computer so I was able to observe how it works. It's kinda tough to suck at it so I think I'd do okay.
Little known fact is that Howie Mandel shaved his head because he has mysophobia (faer of germs). Apparently, it makes him feel cleaner. Also he will not shake anyone's hand.

Boff, so this was a pretty lame post. I'll try to liven it up with my future entries. Maybe I'll throw in a bit of info on my "love life"... (sometimes it's tough to write about some of that stuff since you never know who is reading) and perhaps I will throw in some discussions à la Hank Yarbo and discuss some fun subjects.

Top 5 songs of the moment
1. My Chemical Romance - Welcome to the Black Parade
2. Powderfinger - Sunsets
3. HelloGoodbye - Shimmy Shimmy Quarter Turn
4. Saves the Day - At Your Funeral
5. The Fray - How to Save a Life

Biggest Christmas Fad of the year
Upside down christmas trees - Thanks Pauly (of PaulyBlog.com)

Chuck Norris Quote
There is no theory of evolution. Only animals Chuck Norris allows to live.

Warning: Long post
----------------
It's been a while but thought I'd check in again. Been fairly busy.
The volunteering is going very well and I'm really enjoying it! My new eyes are awesome too! I'm loving it!
The Habs are doing well, and I won a free slice of pizza from Pizza Pizza last night at the Sens game as they clobbered the Leafs.

So things are going pretty well for moi!

I do have some bad news from this week though. This week was Edouardo's 5th annual pumpkin carving contest and Wednesday was the end of my 3 years as reigning pumpkin carving champ (technically I only won twice but there was a lockout two years ago).
Unfortunately, I had gotten a little ahead of myself and didn't have time to finish my pumpkin. I lost to a well deserving 'Brokeback Pumpkins' carved by Sandy, Samuel, Angela, and Mandy (not their real names of course :p).




Edouardo's coworkers also made a pumpkin of Dwight K. Schrute, that I though was quite well made.


Today's post's subject will be "Getting Old".
For those of you who know me well enough (or have ever gone to F&S on Thursday nights these past two years) know that I love to drink. I probably drank as much as some alcoholics for the past 4 years (although I don't think I was ever dependant on it). Anyways, I have slowed down significantly in the past year and as of late, I feel as though the drinking is on its way to near extinction. I seem to have completely lost my desire to get drunk. Is this possible? Is it just a phase?
Let's look at this. Let's rewind to Thanksgiving. That weekend, I went home and didn't get drunk at all.

The following weekend, on Friday, my friend Ellen had a potluck. Had a great time, food was great, and I got 'tipsy' but for some reason, wan't 'feeling' it. We went out but I really wasn't into it.
Then Saturday, Edouardo had people over to drink so I started drinking early and got semi-drunk but then again, I wasn't feeling it and just wanted to go home (but was too drunk to drive), so I went out with them and sobered up until I was good to drive.
Then last weekend, I did go out to Whiskey on Friday for teacher's college pub and actually did have a fairly good time and Saturday I went out but didn't drink since I had to drive.

And this brings us to yesterday, when I clued in that I was getting old (and tired of drinking). For starters, my cousin Dodger came to town with his two buddies to visit his twin brother Roger. We all had tickets to the Sens game so I offered to drive there.
They went to Minglewoods beforehand and had some drinks so by the time I picked them up they were fairly tipsy. I felt like what I assumer a dad feels like that when he drives around his teenage kid and his friends. They were laughing and talking and joking around the whole way and I felt totally out of place.
Am I becoming less fun? I don't get it. I'm sure 2 years ago, I'd be laughing and cracking jokes with them.

Then they were going out to F&S, which had been my favorite 'watering hole' for the past 2-3 years. So I decided I'd go for an hour and chat it up with some friends (only a few months back, I would never have turned down an opportunity to get drunk at F&S). So we got there just before 11, and to my surprise, there was less than a handful of people that I even knew and I felt as though I was the oldest person in the place. I felt awkward the whole time that I was there and stayed maybe 20 minutes before I headed home.

So now the weekend is upon us and, honestly, all I want to do tonight is clean, maybe watch a movie and go to bed early (I do have a big day tomorrow though). And at this time, I really don't have the desire to drink tomorrow night either.

So assuming I don’t drink this weekend, I'll have gotten drunk twice in the past month (and only once did I enjoy my drunkenness).

This may seem like no big deal to some of you but for a guy who probably averaged getting drunk 3-4 times a week in 2005 and even broke up with his girlfriend less than a year ago in large part because of his drinking and going out, that's quite significant.

Has anyone ever gone through this? I feel like it's so sudden and I am only 23 so I thought I'd have a couple years of hardcore partying left in me.
Perhaps I'm overreacting and this is just a stage I'm going through. Who knows?

Anyways, that was long so I will conclude this post with a few tidbits of informat

Joke of the day
------------------
Once there was a man jogging on the beach... and he heard a sound. It was a girl lying on the beach. She had no arms, no legs: and she was crying. So he went up to her and said: 'Why are you crying"
She said: 'I'm crying because I'm 20 years old and I've never been hugged.'
He thought about that for a bit: then he bent down and hugged her. The girl stopped crying, and he went back to his jogging.

The following weeke the man was jogging on the beach again and he heard a sound. It was that girl lying on the beach. She had no arms, no legs and was still crying. So he went up to her and said: 'Why are you crying"
She said: 'I'm crying because I'm 20 years old and I've never been kissed.'
So thinking it's make her happy, he bent down and kissed her. The girl stopped crying, and he went back to his jogging.

The next week he was jogging on the beach again and again he heard a sound. He stopped and saw it was the same girl: lying on the beach. No arms. No legs. Crying. He asked her: 'Why are you crying?'
She said: 'I'm crying because I'm 20 years old, and I've never been fucked.'
He thought about that for a bit... then he picked her up in his arms...

And threw her as far as he could out into the ocean. She landed with a HUGE SPLASH.

Then he called out after her:
'Well..... you're FUCKED NOW!'

Top 5 songs at the moment
---------------------
PlayRadioPlay! - Complement like Colors
Blue Rodeo - Lost Together
O.A.R. - Hey Girl
The Scene Aesthetic - Alvin Maker's Greensong
PlayRadioPlay! - Madi Don't Leave

Top 3 Chuck Norris Facts of the day
------------------------
Chuck Norris puts the "laughter" in "manslaughter".
Chuck Norris' calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd; no one fools Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris sleeps with a night light. Not because Chuck Norris is afraid of the dark, but the dark is afraid of Chuck Norris

Already at post #4 haha.
Well today was actually a really good day for me. Work in itself wasn't great but it was quite dead so I was able to reflect and make some big decisions.
Lately I've been wanting to really do something with my life. I decided that going drinking and partying 3-4 times a week and hanging at home doing nothing the other couple nights wasn't satisfying enough.

So I've been looking for volunteering activities these past few days and yesterday I found a few positions with Christie Lake Kids, to help out economically disadvantaged kids with sports and computers and such. So I wrote in to the co-ordinator and it looks as though I will most likely start next week. We're meeting up on the weekend to interview (how embarassing would it be to not get a volunteer job).

Fun Volunteer Quote
-----
Homer Simpson: "Volunteering is for suckers. Did you know that so called volunteers don't even get paid?!"

Also, I called Lasik MD and set up an evaluation for next Tuesday and surgery for Thursday. So in 10 days, I should be able to see perfectly clear without my glasses! I can't wait!!
No more losing my glasses or borrowing Rog's glasses. No more going to the Sens game and not being able to see what's actually going on haha.

Fun Eye Fact
-----
It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

And for the last big news of my day:
I called my mom to tell her about my laser eye surgery and she was telling me she was speaking to someone whose daughter is doing her teacher's college in Australia and she thinks it would be cool if I did that. She even offered to pay for my flight (although I think she's underestimating the cost).
I had never really even thought about it. Coming from the north, our idea of vacation was driving down to Toronto, Ottawa, or even Sudbury. You just couldn't really justify going anywhere because plane tickets for a family of 5 up north are ridiculously expensive. I have gone to Florida while in University and visited Alberta with my family once as well, but that's the extent of my travelling. So unlike many people I don't feel the need to travel as much.
So at first, I kinda thought, "No, that's a ridiculous idea...it would cost way too much..." but then I thought about it and realized that I really don't have much holding me back. I don't have a girlfriend anymore, I woouldn't be working anyways, and finding someone to sublet here wouldn't be a problem.
So now I'm seriously looking into this. Sure it'll probably cost me a ton of money, but you only live once, right? Good looking girls, beaches year round, a language I can understand...I really don't see why I would ever even come back haha... (it might end up costing my mom only a one way ticket haha)

Fun Fact about Australia
-----
Soda pop is called Lolly water
^ weird

Top 3 artists
-----
Of a Revolution (O.A.R.)
Hellogoodbye
Secondhand Serenade

Facts about October 11
-----
38 years ago, Nasa launched Appolo 7, the first succesful Apollo mission.
Today is Final Fantasy XII day in New York (huh?)

Cory Lidle, a Yankees pitcher crashed his plane into a New York City building, killing himself and his instructor. May they RIP.
Ironic article posted September 8: (STORY)