As of 7AM this morning I'm on holidays for the next twelve days! That's the coolest thing ever. Here are some things that are tied for second coolest thing ever:
1. Little red panda cubs born at the Valley Zoo. Help me cheer on my little cousins as they struggle to survive their first few months.
2. Many dinosaur fossils just down the road a ways from my place. (The actual location is secret to protect the site.)
3. Tomorrow I'm running my first race! Happy Canada Day Race. Yay for me! Join me in cheering me on! And Michelle too but she is an old pro at races and our little 5 KM race is just a cakerun for her. In fact she was the 5 K run clinic leader for the past few months.
4. This: and this: arrived in the mail for me this week from my internet pal Travis Hanson, the most excellent illustrator and print-maker. It joins the other print I already have and never ever tire of looking at. You can order your own prints or his books if you like over here.
5. Monday is our second anniversary. Yay for me and Michelle!
6. Bears. Or maybe they should be the coolest thing ever and everything else can be tied for third.

I did a little writing exercise on the weekend- deviantArt's Kuroitora posted this painting of his character Bianca, and said the interpretation was up to us. So I came up with this.
It was fun. makes me want to do another one, maybe with some of you as a little challenge or something.

Homeless Eskimos
Poor old Edmonton has been suffering one blow to its self-esteem after another. First Chris Pronger demands to be traded because his wife supposedly hates Edmonton (and then he goes on to win the Cup in Anaheim). Our infrastructure is crumbling under the increased traffic caused by the boom, and because of that boom the city can't even get someone to bid on a contract to fix up a section of the Whitemud. And construction costs for planned projects are skyrocketing. The housing market is through the roof, and the rental vacancy rate is in the 0.x% range. It's causing a homeless crisis so bad that even our city's professional football players can't find a place to live.

I was sure the new Harry Potter book was coming out this month- June 21st. Turns out it's July 21st. Oh well, I choose to display the glory that is my new Quidditch Bear anyway, done for me by a talented deviantArtist called Stonewalker. Note the HB on his collar, and the salmon-shaped snitch.
Want to be in the movie version of Half-Blood Prince? I don't think I would want to since I would always be punching Alan Rickman in the nose. And I'm sure Alan Rickman is a perfectly nice guy and doesn't deserve to have me punch him in the nose all the time. Uh, but if YOU want to be in the movie, in the roles of either Lavender Brown or Tom Riddle, check out this article to learn more about the open casting call.

I actually had my camera out yesterday when that backhoe caught fire, but rather than take a bunch of pictures I chose instead to spring into action. Some of the guys thought I should've let it burn and got good photos. Anyways, the reason I had the camera out was so I could take some pictures of the catastrophic failure suffered by 32 truck. Luckily no one was hurt. Basically it broke in half where the nose cone joins the frame but a few bolts on the suspension and some hoses held it together. It's hard to tell from the photo, so you can look at some more here if you're interested.
Come to think of it, this is the very same truck that caught on fire a few months ago. You can read the epic retelling of that incident here.

The Longest Day of the Year
The sun was already up when my alarm rang at 4:58 AM. I finally arrived home in Edmonton a few minutes before 11PM, just as the last few milliphotons of nonlasering sunlight dipped below the horizon. I love the solstice.
And at least it wasn't the longest day of the year in the other sense of the word. Just another dayshift. Oh yeah and I got to help put out another fire at work today. A backhoe this time and really there wasn't much in the way of flames by the time I got there.

Did you know that Mars has a naturally occurring laser? Yeah, it's kind of crazy, but true. The details are pretty technical, which is another way of saying I don't understand it myself. It has to do with photons and protons. Next time someone is boring you to death with personal details about their financial debt load, just say, "Yeah, but on Mars there's a natural laser. I'm working on developing one for myself."
And if you want to experience Mars-like conditions for the next year and a half, just volunteer with the European Space Agency and they can hook you up.
Personally, I am more interested in experiencing QueenCharlotteIslands-like conditions later this summer when Michelle and I go on holidays.

Some of the things that are exciting to me this week:
-new White Stripes! Too bad I couldn't get tickets to the show, but if you have some you don't want just let me know. I'm even willing to go to the Whitehorse, Yellowknife or Iqaluit shows.
-new purple froggy! Well, they call it a toad but it looks like a species of poison dart frog to me. Too bad Michelle won't let me get one, but if you have one you need to get rid of, just let me know.
-new black running hat. So I don't overheat while running. My wife didn't just let me get it, she bought it for me! yay! On Canada Day I will be running my first race, just a little 5 k one. But I'm excited.
How about you- what are you excited about these days?
PS- turns out Ashley MacIsaac and Jack White are distantly related so Ashley will open for the White Stripes for at least the Eastern leg of their Canadian tour (Which I will also accept tickets for).

This is why I need a digital SLR:

My trusty little Fujifilm 3 megapixel just isn't the best camera to have when you come across a wolf chowing down on a deer. Or a grizz. Though to be fair I doubt I would bring a $1200 camera to the coal mine with me. Here's some video of haul trucks I took last night with same. Note the snow. In June.

Last month Lloyd Alexander passed away at the age of 83. So I went back and read The Prydain Chronicles for the first time in over twenty years. My Grandma, an elementary school librarian, was always giving me these fantastic books to read, starting with The Hobbit when I was ten. But I think her favorites were Alexander's tales of Taran the Assistant Pig-Keeper. Rereading them as an adult I'm pleased to say they retain their magic, unlike some of the books I read back then (excuse me I have to sneeze, ah-ah-shannara!) They have a real sense of humour to go with the typical heroic quest themes of this type of fantasy.
Some of the unforgettable characters you'll meet are Fflewddur Fflam, the wannabe bard with the lie-detecting harp. The photo of Alexander above is pretty much how I imagine Fflewddur.
Gurgi, a vaguely-described creature of epic loyalty and appetite, if not brains. I think he is a sort of hominid, maybe an unknown variant of australopithecine.
Then there's Doli, the grumpy old dwarf who discovers that turning invisible is not all it's cracked up to be.
And of course, Taran and Eilonwy, the assistant pig-keeper and the girl he loves.
Disney made an animated movie of The Black Cauldron but I've never seen it. I don't think it's available on DVD, actually- it didn't do too well, possibly because it was rated PG rather than G. Funny how that makes a difference.

What could be better than Johnny Cash performing with Emmylou Harris? The answer is nothing in the entire universe. (Though the second song is perhaps best left in the 70s with such things as the original Battlestar Galactica and disco.)

And for more Emmylou edification, try Prayer In Open D, from her tour with Spyboy which I was lucky enough to attend, way back in I think 1995. I went alone since no one I knew had heard of her. I also love her cover of Leonard Cohen's Prayer For A Cowgirl. The "video" is kinda cheesy so just listen. And this live double shot features her own songs "The Pearl" and "Red Dirt Girl".

Part of the genius of Star Wars was how much was going on in the background, not part of the story but contributing to it nonetheless. Like the huge skeleton in Tatooine's desert. Threepio and Artoo walk right by, not even noticing, yet it made you feel that this was an alien world with its own history and biology. That's why I love the mystery of this photo out of Newfoundland:

What is it? How old is it? Maybe it was a walrus, eaten by a polar bear. Or a narwhal trapped in the ice. It might even be some prehistoric creature preserved for millenia. Who knows? And we'll likely never know, as the iceberg is floating and melting away, indifferent to our curiosity. Which is kind of how I prefer it, actually.
(Full story here.)

I dreamt that I was back at university doing a research paper on architecture and Faith No More. Even in the dream I had trouble finding any kind of useful citations.
Anyways, I got to thinking (yeah I was bored at work today) about some of the architecture I've seen in my travels, and how it relates to Faith No More. For no extra credit, here are my findings:


Potala Palace- Edge of the World


(Not my photo) Guggenheim Museum- As The Worm Turns


Christchurch Cathedral- Epic


The Petronas Towers- Woodpeckers From Mars

In Colby Cosh's newly comment-enabled blog I tried to start a small discussion about cultural differences between Americans and us Canucks. It seems an American thought the new Shreddies marketing campaign was only funny if you're Canadian. (And another Yank thought it was nice of us to have Spanish on our cereal boxes, having never, apparently, been exposed to French before.) Anyway, not much got going there but it reminded me of a conversation I had at work the other night with a buddy who has been buying some real estate south of the border. Make sure you imagine his portion of the dialogue with his Jamaican accent.
Me: Arizona, eh? It's pretty nice down there.
B: You shoulda seen the guy I saw on his Harley. Driving down the highway with two guns strapped to his waist.
Me: Whoa. Crazy.
B: And NO HELMET!


Anyways, the Pirate Bear Karen Ellis drew for me is back because Michelle and I are off to see PotC3 after she gets home from work.