New Lens on Life

Awesome

2010-03-13T07:20:00.000-08:00

Now usually if it’s something care related then it’s me showing it to my brothers, but this morning my Brother the northern pastor sent me a link that made my day. Literally changed my mood completely!

2010-03-10T06:28:00.000-08:00

Final Day of the Cleanse:
It’s been a really hard go this time around with the cleanse, so I’m going to review some highlights here, my feelings on day 15, and my accomplishments.

Highlights:
I started the cleanse sick this time. I had a pretty nasty sore throat and really bad congestion. The cayenne pepper really burned going down because of how raw my throat was and it made it really hard to stick to the cleanse in the first few days. I was also quite tired, but I figured that was the cold more than the cleanse. Was better about 4 or 5 days into the cleanse.

Work was quite rude to me while I was on the cleanse. We normally have donuts brought in once every 3 or 4 weeks at work as a thank you from a customer or if someone’s feeling generous. Since I started the cleanse we have had: Donuts brought it 4 times, a Frito-Lay worker drop off a huge box of chips that we could take home, Parts has offered me slurpee’s multiple times, free lunch provided on two Saturdays, and Pamela baked ‘oven s’mores’ which looked delicious. It’s been hard on Morale.

In a positive light I am feeling quite a bit healthier, the jeans are looser, and according to the scale I’m down 21 pounds! It’s a great feeling to be a little closer to ones goal, and now hopefully between swimming, and the amount of Veggies that Pamela and I have started to ad into our diet I can use this as a kickstart towards my goal weight.

Anyway signing off to go squeeze some lemons for my last 6 glasses of the Lemonade!
Drew~

To buy or not to buy, and what to buy.

2010-03-09T17:30:00.000-08:00

So, here I am typing on my Mac desktop with this awesome new software that I received from Macheist. Particularily this MacJournal I’m quite excited about as it will allow me to track my thoughts, and easily blog them when I so desire. ANYWAY this post is about what to purchase.

You see, I’ve been a pretty hardcore Mac fan for a little while now, and I’ve had no end of Joy from my 24Inch Core2Duo Mac. But now I’m married, and so I don’t get sole use of the Mac, and sometimes my lover and I are in a bit of contention about who gets to use it. So we are considering adding a new computer to the house, but what to do! Mac or not?

Well, my thoughts are that it doesn’t make sense for us to have two Mac’s because with our price range of 1500 dollars we’d probably default to doing everything media oriented on the iMac anyway because of it’s screen and more powerful processor. So that means that a macbook would just be a glorified typewriter for us. So I’ve been looking at what a person can get for 1500 dollars in the Windows world. This is what I’ve found, and what were going to be looking at getting in the near future.

The ASUS G51Jx-X1
The Big PRO’S to this computer are an i7 quad core processer, the Nvidia GTS360M Graphics, and the 1920x1080 screen resolution. What does all this mean in laymen terms? It means that it’s got enough grunt to play any video game on the market, enough processor to multi task up the wazoo, and a good enough screen to watch high definition shows on the go. Add to that some neat features like a backlit keyboard, and multi-touch trackpad and I’m having a hard time looking towards the Mac-tops and the 13inch macbook pro that you can get for the same price and... well theres really no comparison.

But what of the Mac. Will I miss ‘mail’ to much, or this new macJournal program? Being able to squeeze my mouse to navigate between windows, or time machine for easy backups. Perhaps most of all I’ll actually have to worry about virus’ and when I get an iphone it just won’t sync quite the same.

Anyway that’s what’s been going through my head in terms of where to spend some $’s these days. Plus this little entry is a great chance to test out macJOURNAL.
Drew~

The end of the Cleanse.

2010-03-09T17:26:00.000-08:00

So, I have one day left of the Cleanse, and i have to say that I am absolutely looking forward to it. I’m totally sick of it! The last few times that I’ve done the cleanse, the end has always been exciting, but I was more excited about all the weight I had lost and how much better I was feeling. This time around it seems to me that I’m more concerned about FOOD again. But probably a good part of that was because I was living with someone who was eating regular food, and had to work whereas before we always timed this with vacations. Long story short, I’m a little concerned that I’m going to have a hard time resisting bingeing on all the foods that I was not able to have these last two weeks.

Anyway 7 more drinks to go, and then a day of orange juice, then veggies, and then... steak on Sunday!
Drew~

Best Contest Ever!

2010-03-03T19:13:00.000-08:00

http://cliffyourride.autotrader.ca/

Literally win by having the crappiest ride. They'll drive it off a cliff for you, and give you a 30,000 dollar gift certificate to use on the website.

Perhaps the MR2 or the Bronco can win...

Green Screens EVERYWHERE

2010-02-21T01:36:00.001-08:00

2009-12-11T06:34:00.000-08:00

It'll have to be quick because I should be leaving for work soon. The weather has warmed up after our record setting 2 ft. in one weekend followed by -52 degrees with windchill down here in Alberta. The MR2 has done quite well, I needed a boost on Monday but it's been fine every other day.

Work is pretty crazy, we're doing the MASSIVE YEAR END CLEARANCE FOR THE LAST TIME BETTER GET THERE QUICK BECAUSE THESE DEALS WONT LAST LONG INDOORS AT THE EXHIBITION GROUNDS sale. Or something along those lines. Detail is madly trying to get everything spic and span for the insides, and prepping newly arrived vehicles to get down there as quick as possible.

Aside from that everything is looking up! Might look at buying a house again before I go back to school... anyone wanna invest?

And finally just like our joys and hopes in this advent season so to does the:

Muffler

2009-11-27T06:10:00.000-08:00

So as much fun as it was the first time I got into my car after the muffler had fallen off, revved it up, scared away all birds in a 3 mile radius, and proceeded to rip off down the street... It became old after about five minutes. Soon I notice the shaking of my rear view mirror more than the sound outside, and that cruising at 100km/h feels similar to that horrible seat in an airplane right near the engines. So heres some pics of New vs. Old and a fresh install.

Total cost was about 200 dollars, and it was worth it the vehicle is much quieter now. Something interesting to note is that because of the age of the vehicle when I order a muffler for it, even though on the screen the picture is exactly the same as what I have, what arrives is not. You can see the differences in the pictures between the old and the new. This is because of what they call 'SUPERSESSION' which means that the original manufacturer no longer makes the part and someone else does now. So the 85 MR2 Muffler has gone through 3 or 4 supersessions and it works like the game telephone. The more supersessions it goes through the less like the original it was. Just because you order a genuine Toyota part, the older the vehicle the more likely you'll have to do some fabrication and adjustment. All I had to do on this particular modification was to flip one of the brackets on the car mount.

Energy

2009-11-25T17:37:00.001-08:00

Tonight I got a Thai Foot massage as part of my drive to use up all of my benefits before the end of the year. It was really good, not just for the foot massage, but also for the opportunity to discuss energy, aura, prayer, and the idea of visualization.

So my goal for the next little while is to 'VISUALIZE THE WIN' But moreso to experiment with the idea that if one constantly visualizes debt, frustration, unhealthiness, then that is what the universe will give. Hmmm, talking about what the 'universe will give' makes me feel very new agey. But I don't think it's as strange as it sounds. What if I take visualization and call that prayer, and energy and call that the grace of God? Is that sacrilege... I'll have to ask Brother Pastor.

Anyway as I was saying before I got distracted I'm going to start consciously trying to visualize good things and positive things in my life. Whether it be a little bit of financial freedom, loss of weight, my car running well. It's given me a rededication to visualize (pray, imagine, direct the forces of the universe if you will) these positive things. Along with this will be the idea of not allowing myself to focus on the bad things. Dwelling on the negative things is, so goes the theory, just as powerful as visualizing the good things. I'll let you know how it goes. ;)

P.s. MR2 Muffler arrived, it looks very different than my current one. I'll let you know if it ends up fitting at all...

Funny Pic and a few other things.

2009-11-23T21:50:00.000-08:00

So today I purchased a new muffler for the MR2. It's been two weeks of driving without one and I'm getting sick of sounding like one of those honda knuckleheads with their big 3 inch cans making the sound of a sick lawmower. So soon once again I'll be able to drive through nice neighbourhoods not feeling trashy.

Also on the car front theirs a few other little fixes that I'll be having to do in order to try and get it running in tip top shape for the winter. I've been doing reading and apparently they make amazing winter cars b/c of the engine weight sitting directly overtop of the drive wheels. But given that it is still rear wheel drive is a lot more enjoyable to drive than the average car.

AUTOBOTS TRANSFORM

2009-11-19T18:36:00.000-08:00

O.k. so prolly not so much on the transforming but:

Cover Story...

2009-11-19T06:27:00.000-08:00

Friends are indeed good and important. Friends are an aspect of community. In Pamela and My community we have few friends, but they are good friends. People that can be counted on.

As I have been thinking through my discontent as of late I have been concentrating much on this idea of community. As a couple Pamela and I have two places where we have some community established, here in Lethbridge, and in Calgary. As our thoughts, well mine at least, move towards desiring to be in post-secondary education again the idea of community throws a little wrench into deciding where and how.

Lethbridge offers good jobs, a little establishment, less expensive schooling, and our current community. Calgary has the potential for bigger community, the inclusion of Family in our immediate group, and a different type of lifestyle. Honestly I believe that we would move to Calgary if it were not for the potential added costs of living there. It's hard to feel limited by funds, but it's a feeling that Pamela and I deal with on a constant basis. I imagine everyone does on some level or another.

As far as education goes right now Pamela is working on her BA in History with a minor in Spanish. Don't tell anyone but we have no idea what that'll actually get her. When people ask our 'cover story' is that she is hoping to go into work with non-profit organizations like Samaritans Purse working in Latin America. Which means that whatever I choose had better well be something that can be done in Latin America. This is why lately I have been thinking of a degree in technology. Lethbridge offers a New Media degree which basically leads towards a career in advertising, marketing, or combined with other skills anything from editing movies to doing layouts for magazines. This degree would fit the cover story nicely.

I've talked about 'cover stories' a few times and feel I should explain. Pamela and I are at the age where we are supposed to be 'doing something' with our lives. This is where much of my own angst comes from because although I enjoy being a part of the automotive industry, I've now been washing cars, and managing the washing of cars for over a year now. When people ask 'what I'm doing with my life' it involves soap suds and waxes and leaves something to be desired. Which is where the cover story comes in. I think our lives are very much summed up in how we answer 'what have you been up to' or 'what are you doing with yourself'. If we have no excitement answering this question it's wrong. I look at some family members and their answers are 'I'm a freelance journalist' or 'I'm a pastor of a church'. Others are 'I work for a bible school and live on an Island' or 'I run a home business and raise my three kids'. These all seem so very acceptable and wonderful to me, and yet 'ME MAKE CARS SHINY' does not. So MY cover story is 'I'm working right now to support my wife going through University and we are checking over the finances to determine whether or not we can support me as well. She's studying history and spanish to do international work and I'm going to go into media so I can have a mobile base of operations and we can travel together' *whew* I guess all I'm saying is that if the 'cover story' is much different then the reality, then we must not be content. I am not content, but hopefully soon my life will be a little closer to my cover story and the 'content' will follow.

Well, I should go and get to work on time. Toyota's don't clean themselves!

dREW~

Merry Thursday everyone.

P.s. the muffler fell off my care the other day.

Major Thoughts from the last weeks...

2009-11-09T20:03:00.000-08:00

1. Microsoft Frustrated Me!

I own an xbox 360 and I use a third party memory card to carry my profile with me. This way when I go to a friends house and we play a game together the advances and time I spend there can come home in my pocket with me and be used on my own xbox. I chose a DATEL memory card because I got 2GB of space for less than the cost of Microsofts 512mb card. The latest update for my xbox came down from the intertubes the other day and guess what. I can no longer access my memory card. This update's only purpose? Block third party memory cards. A LITTLE WARNING WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE. Conclusion that seems prevalent on the net - Microsoft is basically using the update to force you to buy their stuff.

p.s. I was able to recover my gamer profile but did lose some data, FRUSTRATING!

2. Soon I'll have Snow Leopard!

My wife Pamela and I purchased The Mac Box Set recently from the apple website so we can finally upgrade to the new Mac OS. We are still running Tiger, which is good but I'm definitely starting to see it's limitations. The Box set will upgrade our iLife, and iWork as well as the OS. Unbeknownst to me it turns out that the regular snow leopard disk would work as well. Apple decided to imply that you could not do that on their website. To me it does not matter because I did want authentic copies of ilife and iwork, but it would be nice to be given options.

1+2 = REALLY frustrating that the major manufacturers of personal computers are both getting very good at SCREWING people out of their money through these sneaky sneaky ways!

3. Happiness...

Pamela and I have been discussing much lately whether or not we are truly happy in Lethbridge. She is in school as a history major and is liking University and working part time as an employee of the city of Lethbridge. I'm working full time as the Foreman/Manager of Lethbridge Toyota's detail department. What does this mean? I organize, do inventory for, and participate in the cleaning of cars. It's o.k. there's some high points (I've cleaned a Porsche and an Audi TT recently) but overall I'm feeling this incredible sense of having topped out the position and not really having much other options in the job. I also had my 1 yr. anniversary there on Nov. fourth. Despite all I have learned, and the MR2 I now drive because of working there I couldn't help but feel like I had wasted 1 year of my life on cleaning cars a little bit. SO we are looking at the future a little more intensely - I'm thinking of going back to school and am waffling between going towards a trade of some kind (electrician perhaps?) and University to go for a degree in Multimedia Design or something similar. Essentially we hope to make some changes before the end of the coming summer.

4. Location Location Location:

We currently live in Lethbridge. My parents used to live an hour away and we saw them often, they have now moved to Sylvan Lake which is approx. 4 hours away. We have some good solid friends here but cannot feel like our community is lacking a little bit. Lately when we visit Calgary where Pamela's parents and a lot of our friends live we get an overwhelming sense of community and well-being, this is leading us to think that we would like to move back. But this will be dependent on the decisions we make regarding point 3.

5. MR2

I have new rubber and rims on the MR2 which is kinda fun, and am hoping that the car continues to run as well as it has been so far. Future things I need to do is adjust my throttle positions sensor, purchase new spark plug wires. I may also have a few dead sensors that need replacement as the vehicle is running a little rich. But I will hold off on replacement until I've done as much tinkering as is possible. Reason for this is that it could simply be that the Mass Air Flow sensor is covered in gook, or perhaps my intake is all greased up. Many things it could be, just need a little free time to get all those things patched up. ;)

Halo: ODST

2009-10-11T23:31:00.000-07:00

So this weekend was my birthday so I went and purchased a new video game for myself to celebrate. A friend came over and over the course of 2 bottles of rum we finished off the game. I found myself really enjoying it and finding it extremely easy to attach emotionally to some of the characters and couldn't quite understand why.

Today while playing I began to recognize the voice behind the character 'buck' and so went to imdb.com to have a look. Turns out that 3 of the voice actors in Halo: ODST are from another series that I enjoyed immensely called firefly.

So Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, and Alan Tudyk thanks very much for being awesome.

The 7 Bays of Glory...

2009-09-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

So this is something I'm stealing off of a car forum that I peruse called the 7 bays of glory. You need to pick vehicles that match the criteria for each bay, money is no issue, and it's kinda fun.

#1 - Daily Driver

#2 - All Corners (must be AWD)

#3 - High Speed Heaven (luxury & power)
#4 - Mid or Rear (engine behind occupants)
#5 - Off the Beaten Trail (4x4 & such...)

#6 - Track Time (track vehicle)
#7 - WILD CARD (just fill the bay - balls, class, style, prestige ... whatever)

#1 - Daily Driver = Subaru Forester STI - Think Wagon with insane performance

#2 - All Corners (must be AWD) = Porsche 911 Targa 4S

Explanation - Porsche = rear boxer engine, 911 = Performance, Targa = panoramic glass roof, 4 = drive wheels, S = Super Awesome

#3 - High Speed Heaven (luxury & power) - Bugatti Veyron cuz everyone needs a car with 1001 horsepower.

#4 - Mid or Rear (engine behind occupants) = Toyota Mark 1.5 MR2 a tricked out version of what I drive now... i'd need about 15000 to dump into it...

#5 - Off the Beaten Trail (4x4 & such...) - Toyota FJ Cruiser - because I work at toyota and these things are hilarious to drive!

#6 - Track Time (track vehicle) = Lotus Elise - Cuz nothing handles quite like a lotus.

#7 - WILD CARD (just fill the bay - balls, class, style, prestige ... whatever) = The Campagna T-Rex, this one is heavily modified but I'd take a stock one ;)

Well that was fun. Wanted to make a blog entry the first thing I did now that I've gotten the Mac back up and running. had a hard drive die on us so we lost most things. Used it as a chance to upgrade so now have a Seagate 7200.11 1TB 32mb buffer hard drive inside, and have become a HUGE proponent of backing up!

2009-08-01T20:14:00.001-07:00

Made me Laugh a LOT!

More of what I've been up to!

2009-07-20T23:28:00.000-07:00

So tonight I got home at 12:15 a.m. because I was working on that car again. ;) I love it!

Anyway tonights project was giving the engine a really good cleaning b/c it is filthy, and we're trying to establish where an oil leak is coming from. B/c it is the easiest to change we started with the valve cover gasket, also this is a chance to look inside where the cams and valves are and look to see what condition these things are in. They are in good condition! :) Little bit of gunk buildup but nothing serious. So after taking off the covers, doing a little painting here and there of everything from windshield wipers to the center part you see beloy. (used to be black and nasty looking!) cleaning cleaning cleaning we got the new covers back in and went to fire it up. No dice WOULD NOT START! Problem? Well lets see we got it wet so prolly distributor. Which it was after blowing it out and getting it all dried up started up with a mighty backfire and away we went.

It's been a ton of fun learning all this stuff first hand on my $800 mr2 and the more I understand about vehicles the more I'm enjoying them. I'm not saying I'll become a mechanic. But it's putting meat on the bones of my love of cars.

Things that still need doing on the MR2? Need new wiper blades, possibly new distributor and cap, some more gaskets, some soldering for the headlights (so they'll stay on at night :*). These are on my to do in the next few months.

As far as my goal of purchasing and having a vehicle running for under $1650 (the selling price of my motorcycle) I'm quite pleased to say I'm still 150 dollars underbudget, and I have a reliable city runabout.

What I've been up to Lately...

2009-07-20T23:17:00.000-07:00

2009-06-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

Some new pictures.

INTERIOR - SEAT REMOVED NO CLEAN.

CLEANED INSIDE

SEAT BACK IN

To Expand upon the car thing - Kind of an annoying table but if it says TRUE TRUE it means that I've bought it and installed it, if one true then I've purchased it.

FALSE	FALSE	HANDLING COMPONENTS:
TRUE	TRUE	New Struts (KYBGR2’s)
TRUE	TRUE	Tire Balance
TRUE	TRUE	Nitro
FALSE	FALSE	New Rotors and Pads
FALSE	FALSE
FALSE	FALSE	ENGINE/POWER COMPONENTS:
TRUE	TRUE	Spark Plugs x4
TRUE	TRUE	Air Filter
FALSE	FALSE	Block Heater Cord
TRUE	TRUE	Oil Change
TRUE	TRUE	Coolant flush
TRUE	TRUE	New Coolant Cap
FALSE	FALSE	Gasket
FALSE	FALSE
FALSE	FALSE	AESTHETICS:
FALSE	FALSE	Gold Clean
FALSE	FALSE
FALSE	FALSE
FALSE	FALSE
FALSE	FALSE
FALSE	FALSE	SAFETY/SECURITY
FALSE	FALSE	Ebrake (5-8 clicks)
TRUE	TRUE	Door Lock
FALSE	FALSE	Handle
FALSE	FALSE
FALSE	FALSE
FALSE	FALSE	GENERAL MAINTENANCE ITEMS:
TRUE	TRUE	Windshield Crack Fix
TRUE	TRUE	Washer Fluid
FALSE	FALSE
FALSE	FALSE
FALSE	FALSE	CAR AUDIO AND VIDEO
TRUE	TRUE	Stereo (From Danilo?)
TRUE	TRUE	Speakers = JL TR400-CXi
TRUE	TRUE	Wiring Harness
FALSE	FALSE
FALSE	FALSE
FALSE	FALSE	NON CASH PAYMENT FOR SERVICES RENDERED:
FALSE	FALSE
TRUE	TRUE	Pizza

1985 Toyota MR2

2009-06-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

So I bought a new car today. Well, new to me. It's a 1985 Toyota MR2 with 180,000 km's on it. It's got some rust on it but I'll be talking about the restoration process on here as well as on my cardomain page which I'll be creating on another site.

I LOVE cars, I have loved cars since I've been sixteen. I have not, however, ever purchased a car I've wanted but rather have always purchased a car out of extreme need. So I've owned an 88 B2200 mazda which was an unexciting truck who's only upside was decent fuel mileage and red colored gauges. When that was written off by a drunk motorcyclist doing 120 down my side road I had to purchase a 1994 Nissan Axxess mini-mini van which had a little more pep, and a sunroof, but was ugly and had so many holes in it that if you turned the heat off it took exactly 3 seconds to evacuate all warm air from the vehicle.

But tonight comes the culmination of 3 weeks of research, a plan to use the benefits of being a lethbridge toyota employee to the max, and 800 dollars + restoration money stored away. The purchase of a 1982 Toyota MR2. For those that don't know the MR2 is a mid engine rear wheel drive car which means the engine sits behind you in the vehicle. Makes the vehicle very nimble and very unique if a little harder to work on. They were Toyota's first foray into the world of sporty cars and it payed off. The MR2 was rated the #8 best sports car of the 80's behind a few names such as porsche, ferrari, audi, and BMW. Not to bad!

The car I've purchased is quite rusty, needs some engine work, tires balanced, fan fixed, oil changed, and a lot of TLC to the interior. But it's mine, it's an authentic project car, and the first manifestation of 8 years of vehicular passion. I'm stoked!

2009-06-05T06:37:00.001-07:00

So yesterday was relatively dissapointing. I went and looked at three cars that I was thinking might be a good inexpencive way to get into a toyota. Unfortunately they were all in much worse condition than advertised so kinda blew all of yesterday evening on vehicles that 2 of which I definitely won't own and one of which I'd have to fall much deeper in love with in order to buy.

I'm so torn up because I want a project car, I want something unique. I am into the vehicle stuff but I've neither to community, the personal skills, or the bank in order to do these things (the first two directly affecting the amount of the third needed)

And so I've been grumpy since getting home yesterday...

2009-05-08T11:09:00.001-07:00

So I had big plans on doing absolutely nothing yesterday when I got home from work as a good start to my 3 day weekend. But when I got home I got a call from Jeff a guy who was very interested in purchasing my motorbike and wanted it insured by the weekend. There were 3 major problems to this:
a)The fairings for my motorbike were at my parents farm 1 hour drive away.
b)It was raining cats and dogs out
c)Jeff wanted to put the fairings back on the bike with me before final sale.

So 6:00 I leave the apartment on the Ninja which I'm going to sell that night. I ride it in the sleet to my wife's work where I drop it off and pick up the truck, after changing clothes in the front seat in the parking lot I go get some gas, pick up some A&W and leave for the farm. Arriving there I pick up the 4 pounds of plastic, a bucket of screws, and a water bottle I'd forgotten there at Christmas and turn around and head directly back into Lethbridge. At about 9:00 I show up at the UFA where I'm meeting Jeff. He then follows me to my wife's work where we transfer the fairings and screws into his vehicle and I suit up again to follow him to his house on the motorbike through a little more rain. We arrive at his house and he has me drive up his grass, through a gate, and into a garden shed. He had mentioned on the phone he had a place we could work on the bike, I didn't realize it was going to be a 5x7 tin garden shed, the bike fit in at an angle with about 3 inches clearance in the front and you had to walk out the door to get around the back. The only issue now was lighting...

Hopping into this strangers truck we proceed to drive to Wal-Mart to find a coleman lantern to use, these are 60 dollars and to expensive. We then look for halogen lights which are also to expensive. We settle on a 150 watt bulb and a connector. Arriving back at his home his wife holds back there very excitable puppy whilst Jeff proceeds to cut apart an extension cord to use the wires to connect to the bulb. We take this outside and hang it in the shed, and there was light!

What you need to understand about the 1986 zx1000R ninja is that it was the first full fairing motorcycle released, and the first production sportbike to break 250km/h in the world. Despite these facts it was a first attempt and so the fairings unlike newer models come in 8 pieces and require about 400 screws to assemble. I have dissasembled this motorcycle once never intending to reassemble it and now here I am, on an 8 degree night, in a garden shed, pouring rain outside, lit by a bare 150 watt bulb, armed with 2 hex drivers and a philips head and attempting to put it all back together.

3 hours pass

The bike is together, it took some forcing, some sanding, and there are exactly 5 washers and 3 nuts left over whose home is unbeknownst to me. Jeff isn't to concerned, he's a great guy, the exact kind of guy I wanted to sell this bike to. He knows it's 24 years old, that it's not going to be perfect, that it needs some TLC.

We sign the papers and he hands me the cash and the Ninja is out of my life. Bittersweet.

2009-01-22T05:59:00.001-08:00

http://vimeo.com/2809991http://vimeo.com/2809991

Funny!

2008-12-14T12:45:00.001-08:00

2008-12-12T15:06:00.001-08:00

Well it's snowing here which is kinda fun. I'm glad that it's actually going to seem like winter.

No snowboarding yet but castle did open today and so as long as we can get some time and our boards waxed up we should be heading out there soon.

I'm working at Lethbridge Toyota as a Detail Tech which means I'm VERY good at cleaning cars now, and I'm quite enjoying my job.

So there you are a very very brief information blog.

2008-10-25T18:41:00.001-07:00

Brake Lines... Well as of yesterday when we woke up Pamela and I found that our front passenger break line had ben cut in a random malicious action. Theres' been a spree of this happening in Lethbridge Alberta lately apparently. So 102.99 later we have a new brake line and fluid and all that jazz, but also the fear that this kind of thing is going to happen again. Overall we're still doing great, but just had to vent somewhere about this random unjust act!

Drew Out~

2008-09-27T18:15:00.001-07:00

Funny Cats

2008-09-22T11:50:00.001-07:00

Awesome WRC Moment!

2008-09-21T08:45:00.001-07:00

I can has Job now!

2008-09-17T13:28:00.001-07:00

Well, my first day is tomorrow morning bright and early at 9:30 a.m. at Visions Electronics! I'm pretty darn stoked at this point! Let you know how it goes.

In finishing the cleanse news... I REALLY like Orange juice much better than the stuff we've been having.

Day 10 - Final Day

2008-09-16T09:18:00.001-07:00

So Pamela and I have made it to day 10. Only 5 more glasses of the lemon juice concoction and then onto orange juice for two days followed by raw fruit and salad for a day before being allowed things like Pita's, Burgers, Milk! I'm so excited!

However I worked out again this morning and haven't felt hungry for a few days. Still not sleeping fantastic we'll see if that gets better when I get back into solid foods.

Point of interest - the longer the mix sits the hotter the cayenne becomes. Last night I went over to a buddies so I pre-mixed some lemonade and threw it in a water bottle. When it came to drinking it 3 hours later I felt like the cayenne was going to burrow out the back of my head! It's unavoidable, but something to prepare yourself for if you do this.

Final Results as of this morning for inches and weight lost...

Weight: 14 pounds

Waist: 5 inches

Hips: 3 inches

Chest: 3.5 inches

Legs: 3 inches

Butt: 3 inches

So it definitely works as a reduction cleanse.

Overall it's been a good experience, although one I won't be doing again for quite some time... :)

Pamela and I have been doing Menu Planning for the last week or so, drooling over foods we want, and trying to find a way of reducing our monthly food costs, eat out less often, and have healthy variety in our home. The idea is to try and get almost 2 weeks worth of menu planning done and that way shopping is less random :)

In order to track our health as well Pamela and I are going to continue to track our weight after the cleanse, and as of tomorrow are starting a 3 day regimen to come back onto solid foods. This means that tomorrow and the next day we will be drinking several glasses of Pure orange juice. The third day we will have the OJ for breakfast, raw fruit for lunch, and raw fruit OR salad for supper (we're assuming not covered in ranch) Now if at any point our body rejects this we are supposed to go back on the cleanse for a few days... we would not be pleased!

So in the end it's been a neat experience, never thought I could do a liquid diet for this long, but there it is. I feel like I've become more aware of my body, I feel better, and I'm really jazzed about this as a kick off to a healthier lifestyle. What truly prompted this for me was wake-boarding this summer. I just felt like it should have been easier, but with the shape I was in it just couldn't be. I just don't want unhealthiness to get in the way of things that I want to do.

In other news...

Still no word from visions.

Spore is the coolest game on the whole dang planet.

I need to get Leopard for my mac!

Day 8, t-2 days... so long as my tongue cooperates...

2008-09-14T17:16:00.000-07:00

Well day 8 twas a good day. Played for worship in church today and then went with a buddy of mine to see Wall-e in the cheap seats. I do love that show.

As far as the cleanse goes I did not take the flush this morning as both Pamela and myself had to be out of the house by 7:30 this morning and didn't relish the idea of getting up at 5:15 to down a litre of salt water and spend those wee' hours of the morning on the toilet. I did however have 3 movements on my own so sufficient elimination is happening.

I've been getting hungry more often today, I'm not sure if it's just being busier or if it's the change in schedule.

I am really hoping my tongue will be clear by day 10 because I'm so ready to be done.

I'm sad that day 10 is the church's mens group bbq which I'll be doing music at, but not able to partake in.

I'm only losing about a pound a day now which means that my body is starting to equalize.

I'm craving Pita Pit, and a Taco Salad from the cheescake Cafe!

Day 7

2008-09-13T12:42:00.001-07:00

Well, it's approximately 3 days until we can start to come off of the cleanse, which in and of itself is a 5 day process starting with Orange Juice, Veggie Broth, and a few other things in order to keep a person from shocking their system to bad.

That being said I'm feeling really good for day 7 and so if we end up having to go over 10 days due to our tongues not clearing up or our desire to continue to cleanse as a way of reducing weight. However having lost over 10 pounds now and 4 inches to my waist I can say that I'm feeling quite good and my desire for real sustenance again may just outweigh my desire to lose more weight. I suppose what's really become clear to me is a)how much unreasonable food I do eat, and b)how little the body actually needs to sustain itself. IT seems to me that I can eat quite reservedly and still be getting myself the equivalent of nutrition 12 tablespoons of lemon juice and Maple Syrup.

Still have that burn in the back of my throat a little bit but it's not so severe now, still losing a lot of waste when I do the flush in the morning, and it feels as though my stomach has shrunk substantially as I am having a hard time downing the litre of salt water in the morning now.

My parents are coming over today and so it may be the first time that Pamela and I are exposed to a temptation to break the fast, but given where we are at, even if we wanted to quit we should probably do a slow ease back into food for fear of shocking our systems to badly.

It's been good, but at this point I do'nt feel like I ever want to do it again! But after seeing all the benefits I'd be willing to give it another go I think. They say that at the beginning of the cleanse that you should pump yourself up for it, and being mentally prepared for this is definitely the key to success!

Day 6

2008-09-12T14:58:00.001-07:00

Well over half way to minimum and we're doing allright.

I'm feeling tired today even though I slept for about 10 hours, hunger isn't really an issue though Haven't felt any all of yesterday or today. The burning in my throat has gone away which is good. I was a little sick to my stomach this morning, and downing the litre of salt water flush was quite difficult to get down and keep down, but I'm feeling much better now.

Mentally I'm getting pretty sick of the flush, there was nothing I wanted more than to make some waffles this morning or to go out for a Taco Salad with some friends, or figure out what kind of nuts this guy on '24' was eating b/c they looked tasty. It's making me wonder if I'm going to go beyond day 10 (and or tongue being uncoated) for the sake of reduction or not. At this point I almost just feel like I want to be done.

In conjunction with that feeling of just wanting to be done though I have been cooped up in this house for a few days by myself and that is really starting to wear on me. I'm definitely a level 10 extrovert and so having Pamela gone during the days and not being able to do anything more exciting than organize my iTunes and fold my socks has me feeling quite stir crazy. Hopefully this weekend will bring and opportunity to get out and do something.

Will be calling into Visions again today to see if they have my first day figured out yet, and no response from the Mines recruitment centre after two messages.

Day 5 of the master cleanse

2008-09-11T10:11:00.000-07:00

This morning I'm at 9 pounds lost, 2.5 inches from my waist, 3 inches from hips, 2 inches of chest and 2 inches of legs. So as far as a reduction cleanse I'm believing in this.

I did Tae-Bo again today which got me sweating, probably one of the most amazing things is that I have more than enough energy to work out, despite the fact that neither Pamela nor I have been sleeping well the last few nights. We're not sure if it's a result of the cleanse but we've both had dreams and nightmares.

Yesterday I was noticing that for about half of the day I had a burning deep in my throat. Now I've never had heart burn, but I would describe this as 'adams-apple' burn or just above. Also this morning even though I drank 8 litres of water yesterday I was definitely not peeing pale this morning. I have no doubt that I'm ditching toxins like mad... which is good b/c my last two jobs involved Asbestos and McDonalds food...

Still waiting for a reply from Visions, Dropped off the stuff and the hiring manager wasn't there so I'm going to call in today and see where things are at.

Pamela and i came to the conclusion that the Master Cleanse is definitely an 'anti-social' cleanse. But that's only because it seems that most of the social events that we participate in involve food. Whether it's watching a movie with popcorn, sneaking jujubes into the theatre, going out for coffee and desert or playing board games.

I'm not gonna lie but I'm craving foods like crazy, but it's not for hunger, but rather I miss the texture of food, the social aspects of food, the taste of food. So we've decided that we NEED to have a Steak at the Keg when we're done this with the stuffed potato and baseball sirloin with the three cheese sauce. We also NEED to have Pita Pit, and a taco salad from Cheescake. I've been craving greek but Pamela's not into that, and a friend was bugging me about how she went for a Sushi lunch. :(

So day 5 marks the halfway point for the minimum amount of days that you can do the cleanse. However if on day 10 you find that your tongue is still coated then you should continue. As well I'm torn because between this and tae-bo I'm on a good road to my goal weight and so I'm debating whether I should stay on it until I've reached that weight, which at the current rate will not take up to the maximum 40 days... We'll see how we're feeling. I think that we'll both have to quit at the same time or it may become to difficult for one to stay on it...

Day 4

2008-09-10T11:42:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning feeling pretty good. Had an 'elimination' before even taking the salt water cleanse but after that was feeling pretty clean. Still sore from my workout yesterday so I'm holding off on doing another one, although with the job not officially started yet I'm bouncing off the walls in the apartment. Says that me that I've definitely got enough energy!

The lemonade blend isn't tasting as bad anymore, but it still gives me a bit of a head rush. I tend to get 'hungry' about every 2 hours now which is perfect as that's the space between when I'm supposed to drink.

I'm realizing that I didn't have a very specific goal when I started this aside from 'general' health. But more and more I'm feeling like this should be a pretty good start to a healthier lifestyle for me. I'm realizing now that I'm not eating how much I snack! Whether it's actual things like jelly bellies we've got in the house, or making crackers and cheese I find myself standing up to go and grab them when I sit down to watch a movie with Pamela or sitting at the computer. I never felt like I snacked that much but now I'm aware and instituting some rules in my life to keep that from getting out of control!

Today I am spending my time cleaning up the house, playing with the new iTunes, seeing what a chip does to a Smart Diesel, and waiting for a phone call as to when my first day of work is.

Real Life Stuff

2008-09-10T11:41:00.001-07:00

I am currently a conditional Hire at Visions Electronics in Lethbridge! Conditional meaning that there still running the credit and background check on me. I should be getting a call in a day or two to figure out when I'll be working my first shift and start training! Exciting.

This works really well if Pamela gets Pratt & Witney b/c it'll mean that we both have 'career-esque' jobs that give us a good reason to stick around lethbridge and community that we've formed here.

Exciting things about visions for me:
Discounts on Electronics
Full Commission Sales
Do'nt have to work sunday's until 11:30
8 minute walk to work.

Day 3

2008-09-09T10:15:00.001-07:00

Well Day three of the cleanse and feeling good. Didn't sleep well last night, and i'm definitely feeling that my toungue is coated (this is one area where toxins can leave the body and be gotten rid of) The theory goes that you stay on this cleanse until your toungue is nice and pink again which happens anywhere between 10 and 40 days unless your a 3 times a day mcdonalds person... :)

This morning I opted to do a two litre salt water flush just to make sure I was cleaned out good and could really see if I was still having 'eliminations' If it runs clear for a few days it appears to mean that something isn't quite working right. Anyway two litres meant that for the next two hours I couldn't be farther than 20 feet from the bathroom b/c it definitely sneaks up on yah!

This morning I also did a 45 minute Tae-Bo workout. I wasn't sure what to expect given that it's been three days since I've had solid food, but it was no problem! Got through the workout and am feeling great!

The master cleanse is also a reduction cleanse, by giving the body what it needs and feeding it with the lemon juice cleanser it (in theory) can go and break down stubborn fat stores and b/c the body does not go into 'starvation' mode it also begins to eat away at fat stores. I'm definitely not a tiny guy and so this is one thing I am very excited about the master cleanse. So far I've gone from 262 pounds to 256. I'm curious to know if this rate of loss will continue, decline or accelerate. Some website I've read say that the cleanse can help you lose weight at a rate of 2 pounds per day, but that after the cleanse if you resume your old diet and lifestyle you will gain back 1/2 of that quickly and the other 1/2 over time.

In other Drew's Life News. I applied for two jobs yesterday, one with Milestone Mazda Subaru to be their lot attendant, and the other at Visions Electronics. I'm not actually sure, but I think that I've been conditionally hired at Visions, I have to bring back over 150 pages of paperwork and personality tests to them today and they need to run a credit/police check on me. But it should be pretty good if I can get it. It's 3 or 4 blocks from my house so I can walk to work, it's straight commission but that's never bothered me in the past, and we're coming up on Nov. Dec. which is when electronics stores do 50-60% of their yearly gross. Meaning that if I put in the time Theres lots of dough to be made.

So for those that care, another day in the life of Drew~

Oh, and this...

2008-09-08T11:49:00.001-07:00

Day two...
Woke up feeling pretty good this morning, did the salt water flush which worked w/in the 1.5 hours it's supposed to.

Around 11:00 (we had the day off so slept in) we had our first shot of the lemonade, and it was quite pleasant this morning. I'm not sure if I'm getting used to the Cayenne or what it is but it didn't simultaneously it the top of my head and the bottom of my stomach!

Not feeling hungry after drinking lemonade, but usually about 2 or 2.5 hours after.

In other news, both Pamela and I have our motorcycles up for sale on Kijiji now... sniff* We are just not in a place where we can continue to support them w/o it being a stress. Also having ridden now for 3 and 2 years respectively we would like newer bikes and so we'll use whatever we can get from them to put into savings for the next big thing.

KIJIJI LINKS:
http://lethbridge.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles-motorcycles-1986-ZX1000R-Ninja-W0QQAdIdZ73052791
and
http://lethbridge.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles-motorcycles-1986-GS750ES-Suzuki-Street-Bike-W0QQAdIdZ73047058

Well, started the MASTER cleanse...

2008-09-07T18:26:00.001-07:00

So today my wife Pamela and I started on the Master cleanse.

If your unfamiliar with what it is it's essentially a fast where the only thing you consume is a lemonade blend. 10 oz. of purified water, 2 tbsp of pure squeezed lemon juice, 2 tbsp of Dark organic maple syrup, and for spice 1/10th of a tsp. of cayenne pepper.
The quick and the dirty of what this mix does is: The lemon acts as a cleanser. It cleans everything from your kidneys to your liver to joints and even helps heal scars and old injuries. The Dark Organic Maple Syrup gives the body an available and easily used source of energy. It's ease of digestion means that the body doesn't have to use energy to digest it, but rather can use all the energy gained from the syrup to cleanse the body. The Cayenne pepper gives the drink a little kick, and at the same time helps the digestive system to continue functioning, this is important because the body needs a place to put and dispose of the toxins it cleans out. The water is well... water it's the oil for the body, does yah good!

DAY 1:
Well we started today off with the salt water flush which is designed to aid in the cleansing of the body. That was allright although salt water never does taste fantastic. It certainly did its job though, within about 30 minutes things were flowing quite nicely...

Around noon we juiced our first lemons (with our Magic Bullet) and added in our syrup and cayenne and took our first taste... SPICY WHEW! Also discovered their is a reason Aunt Jemima's has SO much sugar in it... straight up syrup is sweet... but definitely not in the sugar sense.

But as I write this we've put down three glasses of the mixture and have been impressed. I don't feel hungry so much as I almost miss the routine of food. 12:00 and 6:00 came and went without anything happening at all.

So things are going good for the first day. 9 more minimum, 39 more maximum!

Fantastic Motorcycle Art!

2008-08-20T21:42:00.001-07:00

Creepy, but impressive.

2008-08-17T19:10:00.001-07:00

WANT! Hang/Hank drum.

2008-08-07T20:12:00.000-07:00

This is a Hang Drum. They are a new drum style made by two guys in switzerland or some jazz like that. I dig it. Unfortunately prices tend to range somewhere between 1000 - 10000 dollars I hear...

However some people have come up with an inexpensive attempt at recreating the attempt using a propane drum. I think these are neat as well and will definitely be trying to make one!

2008-08-03T22:42:00.001-07:00

I love these Cat things, and you'll be seeing a few of them consistently from now on!

Back in the World Wide Web.

2008-08-03T22:34:00.000-07:00

So we've finally got internet in our place, and heres' the post-wedding bloggo!

First off, it's been over a month now since Pamela and I have gotten married and has been a wonderful start to the amazing life we are looking forward to living together. Not to say that there haven't been some ups and downs!

Down: When we first got to our apartment it hadn't been cleaned!

Up: Out in Tofino we got to see a humpback whale 'breach' (jump) (all 42 feet of it!)

Down: 3 weeks into living in our apartment we were kinda kicked out for 4 days so they could do some painting.

Up: We managed to convince them to give us cash for the days we were not allowed to stayhere.

Down: Our t.v. started acting funny

Up: In an insanely manly moment, I took the back of the t.v. off and ACTUALLY fixed the problem.

Down: My job is ridiculous with it's long hours.

Up: I've only got to do it for one more month!

So there are some little things. For family who might read this we do have our wedding photos back and some of them are posted on Flickr under my username 'drewfuspx' so you can see a few of them there, but we will get that DVD out as soon as we get our hands on the wedding videos and can work some Mac Magic on them!

Honestly it's hard to say a lot about what's going on in life, it feels like only now after 4 weeks of marriage that it's slowing down enough that we can breathe! I read a book the other day, we've watched a few movies, were starting to get into routines, have people over for visits, feel like we actually live somewhere. It's crazy!

But to conclude as far as marriage is concerned, let there be no shadow of a doubt, I am with THE only woman that can make me this happy! People can make all the ball and chain jokes they want but I feel a freedom now that I never saw coming, and I love having someone to share everything with, go to bed with each night, plan my life with. It's absolutely Grand!

2008-06-06T07:39:00.001-07:00

Things are going well on this end. Busy busy with my new work, usually leave at 7:30 a.m. and get home at like 6:00 p.m. so makes for long days.
My boss is pretty cool though today we were going to start early at 6:00 a.m. and so I was up and he called at 5:35 and said that the weather out there was crappy, he was up all night with his daughter, and so we weren't going to work today but to write down on my time sheet four hours.
What is it that I do? Oh I'm a fencer. Which is a lot more fun to tell people than to do I think. I've had people ask if that meant I used the swords and those funny masks i.e. fencing the sport. Nope... not that. I've also had people ask if that meant that I bought and sold stolen goods. Nope... not that either. I am a fencer, as in, I build fences. Barb wire, Wildlife, pole fences, residential, I can do it all!
Usually my day consists of a lot of walking, running a skid steer, ripping around on a quad, stretching wire, pounding posts, and stapling wire.
But the pay is pretty good and there is lots of overtime $$$ so for a young man 22 days from being married it is a good job!

2008-05-26T13:02:00.001-07:00

Ever wonder where things come from? Where they go? Or if we are going to be able to live th way we do now in 50 years? Check this out!
http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Fuse Frenzy

2008-05-21T03:11:00.000-07:00

The Gist of it is that instead of leaving at 12:30 and getting home at 3:00... we left at 12:30 and got home at 10:00 p.m.!!!

Pamela's motorcycle blew a fuse just when we left Calgary. We replaced that fuse and when we were about 10 minutes out from Vulcan the fuse blew again. We put in another got maybe a kilometer down the road it blew again. The next 8 fuses only took us about 200 meters. So we decided to take my bike to Lethbridge and bring my truck back to get Pamelas

Unfortunately both our bikes were loaded with stuff and we had no room so I ripped off to Vulcan on my bike and dropped my stuff off at the local Petro Can with Frank the friendly service station guy. From there I went to napa got some fuses and ripped back to my poor abandoned fiance. We put her bike on the side of the road and hopped on my bike and went back to the Petro Can and dropped her stuff off.

We then pushed on through the WIND and RAIN and got to lethbridge in time to go to the Chiropractor after switching into my chevy. Then we went down to Princess Auto and picked up some straps and found a make-shift ramp in a dumpster nearby and headed back out to Vulcan.

An hour later we picked up our stuff from friendly Frank at the service station and got back to the bike and pulled into the ditch to get the tail gate close to the ground for loading. Before we even got that set up two very friend guys stopped on the side of the road and offered to help us 'just lift it' into the truck. So out of the ditch I come and between me and this other guy we get the front tire up and then the back tire up with Pamela steadying it from up in the box. Our helpers then gave us 3 pounds of wire, told us to look them up for a drink or two if we were ever in Vulcan and left. After taking off the windscreen and mirrors we were able to get the bike secured up tight and began our hour journey home. Total kilometers today?

Calgary to North of Vulcan: 100 km

Where the bike stopped to Vulcan: 27 x 5

Vulcan to Lethbridge: 96 km's x3 (to Leth. and back and Leth. again)

Total - 523 km's!

Ended up being a long day but the bike is safe and sound here in Lethbridge now which is nice. Pamela had to miss work unfortunately but was able to get in touch with her boss. I will be looking into all the wiring in the weeks to come, but if we can't get it sorted may be bringing my truck with the bike in tow up to Calgary, or maybe to the farm depending on what is most convenient - prayers for it to be something easily fixable! But it's late for me so I'll talk to ya'll later!

dREW~

2008-04-30T23:58:00.001-07:00

Welp,
Finished up my first year on University with a Cumulative GPA of 3.51. Not to bad, could have been worse. With how little effort I felt like putting in between working and knowing that I was not coming back the next year it was hard to care. But in the end I think I did allright.

Also been sick the last few days. Throwing up, achy, the whole 9 yards. Lots of ginger-ale, watching t.v., playing video games. Pamela and I figure it has to do with my body just shutting down.

Speaking of Pamela my wife to be - that is only 59 days away now. It's terrifying to think of how much it seems like we have left to get done. But overall I think it'll all work out fairly nicely - although the RSVP deadline we asked people to meet is tomorrow and we are still waiting for 88! So that's a little disheartening. Kind of that 'hey it's the biggest even of my entire life and you can't take the time to say your coming' feeling. But I guess that's the nature of people.

Waiting on 3 or 4 job replies here for the summer. Fingers are definitely crossed for a position that Pamela and I both applied for in Elk Valley. But Pamela's really busy these days working for the Commissionaires AND the City of Lethbridge. I'll also be hearing back here soon about a position with Platinum Communications. So life is moving along, even though I'm o.k. if it takes a week or so to get there. I'm zonked!

Talk to ya'll later!

2008-04-21T14:33:00.001-07:00

SO I AM DONE SCHOOL. It is a fantastic feeling. I can't tell if I feel fantastic because the ending of school co-incided with my finishing at McDonalds. So perhaps it's the no longer working in a greasy environment eating greasy food, or if it has to do with the knowledge that unless I am lead back here I don't have to worry about tests and studying again!

But overall feeling good. Can focus solely on the wedding now and the potential to work in Elk Vally. Fantastic.
dREW~

2008-04-11T12:56:00.001-07:00

2008-03-30T23:11:00.001-07:00

2008-03-23T09:57:00.001-07:00

2008-02-29T11:33:00.001-08:00

Things are so busy getting ready for weddings! :) But Pamela and I are doing o.k. we have our Photographer, reception, ceremony, caterers, honeymoon all booked. We're almost done the invitations and have our registry finished. We're feeling pretty good!

Aside from that I am just going a little bit insane with school, I just finished a paper for Philosophy of Mind in which I detailed how our language pre-disposes us towards Substance Dualism theory. Interesting and I enjoyed writing the paper, but it took a lot of time. I've got an insane packaging assignment due on tuesday for my New Media class, and two midterms next week. It just never seems like it is going to stop! But then I remember there is just 8 weeks left of school, which menas 16 school days for me and I'm all done which is great.

Speaking of being all done at this point it looks like I am not going to be going back to school next year. I think that Pamela and I are going to be taking the first year of our marriage to try to work, try and get a little bit established and maybe get some money in the bank. Actually have time to work on developing our community here! But yah later~
dREW~

2008-02-23T14:15:00.001-08:00

G.K. Chesterton quote - "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried."

2008-02-14T07:50:00.001-08:00

It's been a busy week, and you can pray for me if you like! Monday I worked until midnight, was up for school at 8:00 and did school until 4:20 after which I did Chiro and then Pamela came over and ended up being awake till midnight again. Then i worked a 6:00 a.m. shift on Wednesday and the rest of the day was filled with swimming and errands and stuff. Got to bed at a decent hour but still only got at most 9 hours of sleep and so haven't really 'caught up' and then another full day of school today before heading off to calgary tomorrow after a shift to do a bunch of wedding stuff.

I think this feeling is called overwhelmed and my state is burnt out. It's o.k. I know it won't be forever but I'm really looking forward to this reading week and having some time to just relax, chill, not think, not reason, not carry...

2008-02-08T09:07:00.001-08:00

I'll admit, I am a little bit surprised. Working for McDonalds isn't sucking out my soul, it's actually given me a boost.

I'm not sure if it's not having to worry about money as much, the fact that I work with some hilarious people, or that it's a job I've picked up in 3 shifts and thus feel confident and accomplished, but overall we're doin good.

2008-02-02T10:30:00.001-08:00

First Day at Mcdonalds!
Welp, it's done and official, I've got the uniform, I've asked someone if they wanted 'fries with that' and I've used my 50% discount to have a 2 dollar meal. I'm a McDonalds employee.

Here's the layout of 'what you get' if your a McDonalds Employee.
$9.50 starting wage.
$.10 raise for each night available to work until midnight.

1 McDonalds Blue hat
2 McDonalds Blue shirts
2 McDonalds Black pants

Post Secondary Tuition assistance.
$.25 for every hour worked up to a maximum of 500 dollars.

So that's about it. It's honestly not to shabby given that I have a 4 minute walk to get to work (although kinda makes my bus pas a little pointless - that was 220 bucks I didn't need to spend) I'm getting the exact shifts that I want Mon-Wed-Fri mornings. The people are pretty cool.

So that's that, maybe post some pictures if I can get past the lump of pride... Talk to you all later.

Tesla - Electric Supercar - Neat Company

2008-01-26T15:01:00.000-08:00

Tesla Motors

2008-01-25T15:49:00.001-08:00

I'll have to supersize that...
So yeah, I've been hired at McDonalds... Not sure what job that I'm going to be doing, but as a university student who is getting married in the summer I needed to get a job thing going to get some money in that wedding fund.

Not sure how I'm feeling about working for a big terrible corporation. Feeling potentially a little dirty... will update you soon.

On the other hand, it will be interesting to see if all the things I learned about McDonalds in Sociology class. If nothing else I've always wanted to work in fast food a little bit and at a 7-11 a little bit.

So that's that, not sure how I feel! Later~
dREW~

2008-01-21T16:39:00.001-08:00

2008-01-21T00:23:00.001-08:00

I guess that I forgot to post on this topic. I'm actually engaged! :) It happened on January 12 at about 1:30 on a ski hill near where Pamela and I live. It maked the 2 years anniversary from the very first day that PAmela and I had ever hung out and it was the first time she had taken me snowboarding so it worked out well!

But yeah figured I'd put it out here for posterity! dREW~

a day in the life of a dREW~

2008-01-16T14:31:00.000-08:00

Sometimes i just think it's neat to hear exactly all the things that went on in a persons life in one day. Here's my current day.

Slept in toll about 10:00 because I don't have school on Wednesdays.
Showered and got ready to take on the world.
Worked on wedding guest list stuff, engagement announcement pdf, and figureing out how to bus down to the chiropractor.
Sent out engagement pdf.
Talked with my buddy Tobin about some stuff.
Hopped on a bus to the university.
Hopped on a bus to the city centre.
Walked to the Chiropractors office.
Chatted with a native guy d-town waiting for the Chiro to open.
Went to Leister's music and played a mini-djembe for 15 minutes.
Walked back to Chiro they were open now and got adjusted.
Walked to City Centre to hop a bus to the university.
Waiting at the university right know to catch a bus at 3:47
will go home, read like a mad man until having to leave for 7:15 reservations at Dionysius for Rodger's b-day party.
Will come home, play WOW with the boys for a while OR go to Pamela's house for a bit to cuddle and discuss wedding stuff.
Come home, write in my journal, sleep.

So yeah that's a day in the life of the Newly engaged dREW~

2008-01-09T21:03:00.001-08:00

Being tired and trying to figure out the philosophy of mind is not a good idea! But basically this is what I've gleaned from Jaegwon Kim's "Philosophy of Mind" Second edition.

Theres basically two ways to look at it and most other things fall under these. Physicalism which says that all mental processes happen in the physical (Has mass, effected by gravity, exists in time) realm. Then theres this Dualism thing, which I'm getting Mr. Kim isn't a fan of, which says that mentality exists seperately from physicality.

So for Physicality we have this:
if X has a Mental Property (which we'll call M) and if X also has P (which is a physical property) Then it stands to reason that if X has P (physical property) then P has M (which is the mental property) So all Mental properties seem to emerge from physical properties, and the closer physical properties are together the closer then the mental properties of those physical objects will be. Whew - and believe me that's the simplified version.

When it comes to the Dualism part... I can't really say that I get it quite yet, although I feel like I agree with it more than I agree with Physicalism. I think it's probably b/c of my theological background that I'd like to think theres more than just this physical realm. But I'll keep ya'll updated if I discover some truth about Dualism

Aside from that I'm just ridiculous tired right know, pretty stressed out about school, and ready for some sleep!
dREW~

Pawn shops are such a rip off.

2008-01-02T14:08:00.000-08:00

So I go into a few music stores in lethbridge here today, and it turns out that none of them buy brass instruments. Which is sad b/c in an effort to help clean out my parents basement of their children's things I took my old Trombone from high school and figured I'd sell it. Someone may as well be using it right? So I ask my mum about what we payed for it and she figured somewhere between 400 and 600 so I'm thinking to myself o.k. so if I get like 200 bucks I'm doing fine.

But as i said before no one seemed to be willing to buy it so I ended up at King of Trade of have their 'were sort of a music store but mostly a pawn shop' ideals and I figured I'd see what I could get for it. I get up to the counter and theres this young guy at the counter and I'm going huh... this might be a bad idea. So I present the case to the guy and watch in pain as he fails to open it on the first try, attempts to pry the horn out of the case w/o undoing the latches and can't figure out how to open the storage for the slide grease. Then he's like 'well, we don't usually buy these but I'll look it up in the book'. Let's look at that statement - we don't USUALLY do this... but we've got a book that will tell us the price... huh.

O.k. so after he manages to find the trombone section he says to me this "we need to send away all instruments for cleaning at st.johns (music store in town) and that costs $40.00 and the closes one I can find to yours we buy for about $100.00 so I can give you $60.00. I'll admit I was caught a little bit off guard, I expected something lowball like 100 or 150 but... 60 bucks? So I said to the guy "I was looking at the trombones that you are selling over there that are like mine and they are going for $300.00 so can't you give me like 100 bucks for it? You'd still be making 160 on it right?" and his reply "well no if we are going to make a profit we can't go higher than $60.00 because we have to pay for it to get cleaned, have to drive up to Calgary (no idea what that was about), pay for the utilities in this place, pay my salary, and blah blah blah" - finally I just said "that's fine, I'll just put it on kijiji - or freecycle I'd feel less ripped off" and left.

So if I were to take this lesson literally what does it mean? It means that the pawn shop business must be TERRIBLE to get ahead in. If you purchase something for 60 bucks and sell it for 300 making 240 dollars you will 'apparently' JUST barely make a profit - You know b/c of all the trips to calgary and utilities...?! But then i saw that on that street there were 6 pawn shops and thought to myself oh wait... there just a rip off and that's all there is to it.

Latest Fire Snake Spin

2007-12-29T01:05:00.001-08:00

Little x-mas something.

2007-12-26T13:49:00.000-08:00

So not the tightest video I've ever made but something fun to send out to people. Should be one of Pamela and My trip to Fernie soon!
dREW~

Classes are done!

2007-12-13T09:24:00.000-08:00

Welp, that is the final test done and I'm now good to go! Anyway this holiday season is shaping up to be pretty awesome. I've got 4 snowboarding days planned so far between now and x-mas, and from there things are shaping up to be good.

So far looks like next semester will be tues and thurs classes only which is great, and aside from that having to find a job to support myself!

Anyway I'm going to do some relaxing now so we will talk to you all LATER!
dREW~

Been a while.

2007-12-05T13:04:00.000-08:00

Well I figured that I'd just write a little thing on the end of the semester which is coming up. I'm doing well in most of my classes and am pretty sure that I'll be pulling of a B+ or A- average at least.

I'd have to say that I've enjoyed this first semester of university quite a bit. I've made some good friends, and really gotten a bit of a feel for what this whole University thing is really about. Now that being said am I sure that I'm going to do 8 years of school? Nope. There are a few things that I am seeing though.

I should not be at the U of L if I want to take clinical psychology (the psych that deals with people rather than just their brains) because the programs here are very limited in that respect. This means that If I'm going to want to go the direction of being a counsellor that I'm going to have to either transfer somewhere else - or I'm going to have to look into a Psych-Ed thing that I don't know much about at this point. -- of course this all presupposes that i'm still wanting to go towards the whole psych thing still. I'm really enjoying my Philosophy classes and finding that they are the most interesting, and the ones that are seeming to have a more profound impact on my life than any of the other ones. Most of my other classes. (psych and sociology) I'm finding interesting but not neccesarily passion inducing. Sociology is good but then again it's a lot about doing surveys, and hanging out with people, and then writing a paper that you hope people will read that will effect the way that a culture, subgroup, or deviance is defined. Do I want to dedicate my life to doing that... I'm not sure.

So at this point I'm going allright... well I'll take one more semester to try out a few more things and to get a better idea of what is going on with this Uni thing. See if anything else really peaks my interest. I'm looking at the car dealership as more of a viable option now given that it seems to be about as fulfilling as some of the things that i'm learning to do here at the university... if considered a little less "classy". Having Pamela around would make that job a lot more exciting as well.

So yeah nothing to life shaking. Loving being in lethbridge hooked up with a church that I like, with a girl that I love, and I'm getting by. (although a job is definitely not optional for next semeseter.) But I'm feeling good overall and enjoying the life that I'm living so what more can I really ask for right?

Anyway blessings and peace as we come up to the X-mas season on all of you!
dREW~

Advertising information. Love these vid's

2007-11-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

Funeral Information - Entertaining and informative vid.

2007-11-01T09:20:00.001-07:00

The natural lull in intensity???

2007-10-31T16:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been a university student coming up on 2 months now. It's been a good time so far! Although it's funny b/c I was pretty stressed out about tests the first time around, but this time around with my second set of exams coming up it's not nearly as big a thing... I'm not sure if it's just because I felt a little more solid about what went on in this second section, or if I'm sstarting to relax and be a little more content with good if not great marks.

But overall I'm sitting at a really quite decent mark, and maybe having established that I can do it i'm not worried. I dunno. Really I am just feelingl ike it's been a while since I've blogged and so figuedI should do something on here.

On a really exciting note my girlfriend of6 monthshas moved to the city where I lived. That's been fantastic getting to see her everyday, helping her move in. She's really quite wonderful!!!

Overall pretty much life is dang fantastic! - although I still need to win that lottery otherwise I will have to show up on friday for the midnight shift I've got... Oh well...
dREW Out@

I found this absolutely stunning!

2007-10-26T23:09:00.001-07:00

Pornography is a rampant form of mass media in our society today. For something that is not brought up in public because it is shameful it is probably responsible for 90% or more of the 'sexual education' that most people receive. It is considered to be a 'normal' part of many marriages, and an addiction for men of all ages.

Shelley Lubben used to be a porn star, you could probably still find her on the internet somewhere. Well she's out of the businesss now, and faith aside her story is amazing because it's a real behind the scene look at what exactly is going on when the camera isn't turned on.

http://www.shelleylubben.com/index.php?truth=home

Scripture Bell

2007-10-26T09:49:00.000-07:00

The BELL

"I KNOW WHO I AM"
I am God's child (John 1:12 )
I am Christ's friend (John 15:15 )
I am united with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17 )
I am bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:19 -20)
I am a saint (set apart for God). (Eph. 1:1)
I am a personal witness of Christ (Acts 1:8)
I am the salt & light of the earth (Matt. 5:13 -14)
I am a member of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27 )
I am free forever from condemnation ( Rom. 8: 1-2)
I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant (Phil.3:20)
I am free from any charge against me (Rom. 8:31-34)
I am a minister of reconciliation for God (2 Cor.5:17-21)
I have access to God through the Holy Spirit (Eph 2:18)
I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6)
I cannot be separated from the love of God (Rom.8:35-39)
I am established, anointed, sealed by God (2 Cor.1:21-22)
I am assured all things work together for good (Rom. 8: 28)
I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16)
I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph. 3: 12)
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13)
I am the branch of the true vine, a channel of His life (John 15: 1-5)
I am God's temple (1 Cor. 3: 16). I am complete in Christ (Col. 2: 10)
I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). I have been justified (Romans 5:1)
I am God's co-worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1). I am God's workmanship (Eph. 2:10 )
I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected (Phil. 1: 5)
I have been redeemed and forgiven (Col. 1:14). I have been adopted as God's child (Eph 1:5)
I belong to God

Keep this bell ringing...
We all are children of the Most High God.
He loves you to the point where you'll never understand!
So continue building your covenant relationship with Him!
And always remember and repeat this over and over again
"I am too blessed to be stressed, and too anointed to be disappointed."

Vague Assignments.

2007-10-25T15:30:00.000-07:00

I hate VAGUE. I do not think it has any place in a University Syllabus. I am currently in the process of trying to write an essay. I've written the first page of this essay about 17 times because I cannot figure out what I am actually supposed to write it about.

I've got an article called "why do drug dealers still live with their moms?" from a book called freakonomics. It's all about how Drug Dealers don't actually make very good money ($3.30 an hour) and that crack selling gangs are actually based on a very similar structure to corporate america. Great, it's a nice straightforward, if a little bit shocking, article. That's great. Now listen to my syllabus describe my essay:

"This essay is your brief discussion of knowledge as presented in one of the articles..."
"Discuss the evidence, the argument, and the values in your article and give an evaluation"
"In my own words describe the argument the author makes, what is their position? What are they trying to convince me of? What is their reasoning?"
"what values are reflected in the argument? Discuss the author's point of view this may entail discussing underlying assumptions, you may need to read between the lines"
"Evaluate the article and the argument it makes and the conlsuinos it draws has the author convinced you?"

These aren't descriptors of an essay, IN MY HUMBLE OPINION, they are short answer questions! A good solid essay question is. "given what this article says about black poverty in relation to crack cocaine usage, what do you see as a positive solution" or "what are some ways the authors may have twisted evidence to make their point" not 14 different little questions that you should answer in 5-7 pages double spaced with some obscure way to cite all sources made (which there are like 100 of anyway)

This is my rant after an hour of staring at a screen that is refusing to be filled with pixels that represent letters that will hopefully make words, sentences, paragraphs, and sense... 15% of my mark on this... why can't the exams be worth more I got an A on those...

Well back to it bitterly! dREW~

Alarm Clock Cat

2007-10-25T08:34:00.000-07:00

Musicians make better lovers???

2007-10-21T09:59:00.000-07:00

I dunno what it is bout these little graphics but they make me laugh. Feels good to laugh!

Have you watched the neverending story???

2007-10-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

This made me smile and laugh so much!
http://falkor.ytmnd.com/
Luv it.

I work for the only f-ing company who...

2007-10-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

...would have me tell them 3 times very specifically that I'm so tired, feeling sick, nautious, dizzy, and not sure if I feel comfortable driving to work, let alone running there 350,000 dollar loader for 8 hours that says. 'well we can't find anyone else so you HAVE to come in' or 'think of the money'. I wish I was more talented with expletives. I hate this, and I hate what it's doing to me...

I'm so tired...

2007-10-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

Why is University so expencive. Heres my schedule for this week.

Wed. 0:00 - 8:00 work. 11:00 - 4:00 school.
Thurs. 0:00 - 8:00 work. 10:00-2:00 school.
Fri. 0:00 - 8:00 work. 11:00 - 4:00 school.
Sat 0:00 - 8:00 work.
Sun 0:00 - 8:00 work.
Mon 0:00 - 8:00 work. 11:00 - 4:00 school.

It's just not fair! Why can't I be one of those little 18 yr olds who have the car, the school, the house, the vacation, and the allowance! ;) Such is life. I'm totally buying a lotto ticket as a weak attempt to get out of this! If I win, I vow' to not do another midnight on the loader!
dreW~

Forget test taking, how about test writing!!!

2007-10-09T12:17:00.000-07:00

So as a university student there are these times when I get to have multiple exams all stacked up on eachother, which pretty much sums up my week. 3 midterms in 3 days.

Now I'm o.k. with this, I understand the neccesity of having 'testing' in the way that we've constructed our education system in the sense of a 'confirmation of learning' despite all of the frustrations, paranoia, and conditions that people have as a result of this.

HOWEVER, when I go to write a test at the university level and the question is worded this way:
Which of the following are NOT an example of:
a. 1
b. 2
c. 3
d. None of the Above.

I get a little frustrated because the answer is D. But that creates a sentence that looks like this. - Which of the following are NOT an example of NONE of the above. - now I'm a psych major, not an english major, but that's a double negative right??? And those are considered to be bad karma in writing I think.

So I've done what any good student would do, I wrote my proff... we'll see if I get a response.

Aside from that other news is that I'm working as an alternate for Chinook Carriers now, so next week I will be working midnight shifts, and going to university. Should be interesting...
dREW~

Hey, how you doin??

2007-10-03T13:36:00.000-07:00

This is a question that comes under much fire because of it's impersonal nature. The answer usually ends up being something along the lines of 'fine, you?' --- 'fine'. This is of course extremely frustrating for those people whom are lacking in true personal connection because 'fine' does not give any sort of a connection. This week this is how I've been answering the question 'how you doin?'

"Well, last monday I was riding my motorcycle and it began to make funny noises. All the way until wednesday when the lack of power and noises made it so I couldnt' ride it anymore, but that was o.k. b/c I've got a van. Good thing to because on the Wednesday I found out that my grandfather had passed away and I had to be home for the weekend an hour away. So the rest of the week was o.k. although stressed b/c I had a Philosophy midterm coming up and at that point I did not Philo - Sophia (love knowledge) so it was frustrating. But i got that written and it seemed to go o.k. Resolving to myself that i wans't going to do anymore work that weekend I proceeded to invite my roomate to come with me for a salad at Wendy's at around 11:30 that night. Well we got about a block and a half down the road before the van started to make this strange noise, lose all power, and long story short not start up again. So we walked home in the rain and cold and I drank a beer and went to bed. The weekend worked out, good family that came and picked me up so that i could get to the funeral which was nice and then home again on Sunday via a very wonderful girlfriend. Through all of this I was feeling o.k. because I knew that I had my ol' failsafe the pedal bike. Well Tuesday I was riding to school and the gear on my bike decides to bend nearly in half and do to the upset in my rhythm put me into traffic. Thank the Lord it was near a red light or the silver camaro I got a very close look at probably would have been even a little closer. So now i'm left walking to school, unless I can gerry-rig something with the pedal bike..." --- "you?"

dREW~

The Cat Empire

2007-09-24T12:46:00.001-07:00

So this one won't be to long, I'm between classes at the U, just finished some hard lengths in the pool feeling good feeling alive, and listening to one of my new favourite bands called "The Cat Empire"

If I were to write a review of this band it would probably comment on the fact that the main vocals on this self titled album are fantastic in that they are quite varied, almost seeming to have a Jamaican lilt' although the band originates in Australia. It has much variance in the music such as "the wine song" which almost sounds like something you'd hear off of the fiddler on the roof, to the socially satirical lyrics that are present in "The Chariot" All in all, if this were a review I'd give this album a definite 9 in that I'd talk about how I enjoyed almost all of the songs but a few of them just seemed to lack substance. Overall I'd say pick it up in whichever way seems right to you. - at least that's what I'd say if it were a review.

Aside from that a few things that are going on in me' life is that I'm busy with School, this promised to be the busiest week yet with a Philosophy club meeting today, Wednesday meeting with some Inter Varsity Xian Fellowship people and early friday morning i'm taking part in a Psycology experiment where they will be testing my spatial reaction to emotional stimulus... Sounds like fun. (I opted out of the male sexuality one, as much as it would be an experiment 2 hours of exposure to pornography in the name of science still doesn't make it right in my mind.) Plus my first Philosophy exam this friday so much studying going oni this weekend.

Also a little bit excited about my birthday coming up on the 11th of October, if your feeling generous I'm lookiong for a USB splitter for my new Mac (usb2 plz!), new snowboard and snowboarding gloves.

Well that's enough I think...

Almost two years I've waited!

2007-09-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

Almost two years ago now I went onto the Apple Computers website and saw with my own eyes the newest incarnation of the all in one iMac. At the time I had the money in my bank account to jump on it, and had recently gotten my first credit card. But I allready had a decent laptop that was still running o.k.

1 year ago my laptop started having issues, such as the infamous 'blue screen of death' which would cause me to lose whatever was going on, as well as I ended up having many occasions where it would simply freeze. But I didn't really NEED a new computer at that point, all I really did was check my email.

Today I finally have reaped the reward of waiting, after two years the newest incarnation of the iMac is more powerful, sleeker, 'prettier' and less expencive than ever before, and I've got one sitting on my desk as I write with my bluetooth wireless keyboard. It's pretty fantastic to get something which I've waited for this long. Anyway I'm tired so this isn't very eloquent, but yay for patience, if half the other things in life I'm waiting for are 1/3rd this good it's all well worth it!
dREW~

Great ride, but boy am I sick now....

2007-09-10T09:54:00.000-07:00

Well the weekend went well... However I haven't been that cold that consistently for a long time! On Friday when I left after posting my last Blog I had high hopes that the weather would stay nice, well those hopes were dashed within the first 10 minutes out of Lethbridge when it began raining. That combined with a temperature of about 10 degrees meant that by the time I had gotten to Vulcan I couldn't really feel much of anything that wasn't in my helmet. But after buying a pair of bright neoprene gloves to keep the rain and wind off my hands I managed to make it the next hour into Calgary. Where I found the house I was going to locked, after a few phone calls I managed to find a friend who was home and got the chance to go warm up in a shower, and theres not much that feels better than getting into a warm shower after a long cold ride.

The next day however (you can see to the right it was still cold as Pamela and my motorcycles are smoking) was great as we got the opportunity to go and do the Turn on the Tap ride. We arrived at Samaritan's Purse at 8:15 a.m. and joined about 48 other motorcyclists from all ages, styles of motorbikes, and areas.

After a quick run down of the route and some safety tips we were then escorted through Calgary by the Police who shut down a few roads and cleared up deerfoot for us which I unfortunately don't have any pictures of. We had three stops along the way, two churches and a gas station about halfway along the kananaskis trail. It was a beautiful ride, despite rain, snow, and hail. But all told we managed to raise about 40,000 dollars for the bio-sand filters to be sent overseas, so it was very exciting and very successful, even if the weather was a little inclement.

Nothing else to new to report, I'm really sick now after being out in the cold so much, sore throat, fever all that. I have class in 55 minutes and I'm wishing that university was like a job where you could call in sick! But I've got all my assignments done and maybe getting out and about will help me feel better. I've got one last photo for you it's of my Pamela when we were halfway through Kananaskis country, just after we saw the snow on the side of the road!! Blessings ya'll! dREW~

how good it is.

2007-09-07T13:36:00.001-07:00

So last night after getting off of my classes I got to go home and relax. Took home some textbooks that I had the opportunity to leaf through and found some interesting things. Moreso than bible school I think I'm going to enjoy the class aspect of this experience solely because I do'nt have to take anything that I don't want to. Not that I'm complaining about Anabaptist Distinctives or anything but I probably wouldn't have chosen to pay for it if I didn't have to.

The other thing I got to do was to work on my bike a little bit. Tighten up the chain a few mm's, get some fresh oil into it, and of course take it for a nice little wash. Now the reality of my bike is that it is not running in pristine condition, in fact as I stand here I can catch the occasional whiff' of a mixture of oil and gasoline that tends to stain whatever pants I ride in on the inside of me left calf. But when I got on my bike this morning, and looked at the shiny gauges, and the silver exhaust, the headlight reflecting in what little sun there is today all I can do is sigh. As I pull on the leather jacket, the helmet, the gloves and fire up 1000cc's of japanese engineering I can only grin. As I pass the little rice rocket on university ave, or take a really nice deep corner coming down to anderson hall there is the hint of laughter bubbling up from deep within my biker's soul. I love it.

The bummer however about the bike is that tomorrow is a ride called "turn on the tap" for the samaritans purse in Calgary, which means that I get to leave after class today at 4:00 ish, but the problem is that the temperature is definately not warm. So I'll be suiting up and will probably appear moreso as a polar bear riding a bicycle rather than a leather wrapped menace to the roadways mounting his red dragon. But what can we do. Anyone inclined to pray could definately pray that the 60% chance of thundershowers in Calgary is lowered by 8:15 tomorrow when my PJS and I arrive at Samartan's purse and begin our ride with many like-minded christian riders.

Blessings on everyone, may you find things that make you as happy as I felt for the 10 minute trip to the U today.
dREW~

P.s. technologies a punk...

2007-09-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

On August 15th I ordered an iMac, an iPod Nano, and an iPrinter... rather just a printer. So I got my printer and my iPod almost same day but I've had to wait over a month to get my iMac because it was customized and all that jazz, whatever not a big deal. Also I got the iPod and the Printer for free via the online promotions. But now I see that they've released the new iPod nano's which play video and are a almost 60 dollars cheaper than the old ones!!!! It's one of those things where I know I don't need the new iPod's bigger screen and fun album cover info at all, but it's just really going to show that even when I thought I was on the cutting edge by getting my 24inch iMac loaded to the gill's I'm still running into something else that I'm having problems with. I wish I could have just taken the 220 bucks really... maybe I'll see what a pawn shop will give me... Anyway technologically frustrated... later~
dREW~

Am I in the right Major???

2007-09-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

Well today was my second day of classes and I'll say it was quite a bit slacker. I only had two classes and they were right up against eachother so it was be there for 10:50, get done at 1:30, take a swim and come home! So quite nice.

I'm not so sure but at this point the class that I am most excited about is my Sociology class, which is almost hard to say given that I'm a Psych Major. But the proff I've got for it seems really fantastic so that's why I'm looking forward to it.

Anyway off to Calgary this weekend for Turn on the Tap which is a motorcycle ride that is set up for southern alberta. It's about 350 km's and it's being done to raise awareness of the fact that a lot of places don't have clean drinking water, so every 100 bucks raised can provide Bio Sand filters to 10 people. I think it's cool, I'm excited to be a part of it, and I'm praying the weather will stay nice! So I've gotta get going given that I'm not going to be home at all this weekend and the homework assignments are allready assigned for monday so toodles!
dREW~

Two in one day?

2007-09-05T13:31:00.000-07:00

O.k. so I won't be making a habit of this, I promise. But I've allready got a locker for the pool, my student handbook, transferred all my dates into said book, I've walked over the university twice now making sure I know where my classes are, where the gym/pool is, where the Macintosh lab (which was locked!!!) is and found out where all the food places, which i'll never eat at, are located. So that was interesting. I've also found out that even though the University of Lethbridge is 90% concrete a cell phone will still work on the lower levels, although it may cut in and out. I learned this b/c all day I've been trying to hook up with other people that I know that are going to the university so that I can figure out who I'm going to be able to hang out with.

The reason I'm trying to figure out everyone else's schedules is because I currently have two roomates. The one works an evening shift and usually ends up staying awake till 3 or 4 before going to bed, waking up at noon, and going to work. The other works mornings and so we can hang out more now that I'm in the U. But he's moving out at the end of the month and another buddy of mine is moving in who is also on an evening shift. What does this mean? Likely that for the most part if I'm awake at home they won't be, or they'll be at work. so that means that for hanging out I'm going to have to look outward in order to find that.

But yes ,thus far the impression is that I think i'm going to like this University thing, my only need now is to win the lottery so that I can just be a full time student! That would be the life!!!
dREW~

First Day of School...

2007-09-05T10:01:00.000-07:00

What a strange feeling it is to be walking back into an educational instutition. To be paying fees again, to have a student id card, to be surrounded by many many people as we all try to gain a little bit of information that we might use to further our minds and as I've found with most people, our careers and our padded pockets.

Anyway things have been pretty busy for me as of late, just getting ready for school, just trying to prepare everything so that I don't end up walking into a class only to have the professor say... um your not actually on my list! But all has gone well so far.

I'm pretty stoked about the health aspect of going to school this year. It's about 1 hour from my house to any given classroom at the U, which means that the earliest I have to leave the house this semester, unless I get an early day job, is 9:00. Also all of the breaks that I have between classes line up really well with the lane swimming at the pool here, which I have access to via my U pass. Thus hoping to get in some swimming daily, maybe get some weights in and all that jazz, but there are some things in the not to distant future that I'd like to be a little more in shape for so that'll be good.

I'm taking four courses this semester. Psychology 1000, Philosophy 1000, Sociology 1000, and Liberal Education 1000. I'm pretty stoked for this because the four "ology's" are ones that I've been wanting to take for a long time, and if I'm going to switch my degree from Psych it will be to one of these other courses. So here we go.

Anyway I'm starting this blog up again because first of all I'm going to have a lot of time on computers, and maybe just maybe something I learn here will be postable, and thus potentially effect the world at large.

But anyway I'm going to head off and try to get my hands on my student Id card. First class in less than an hour now... little nervous. What if in the few years between Bethany College and now I've forgotten how to learn????