Happy New Year! The Old Year was pretty happy too. Everyone always forgets to thank the Old Year. But we couldn't have done it without him.

Well the oeys are almost over and everyone is doing their decade retrospectacades. Umm. I spent an inordinate amount of time making poo jokes and thinking about Star Wars. So there will be no such decadectical from me.
But I do like to annually tell you what my favorite musics and books and movies were. Ever since Pallas was born I haven't had much time to read, so my favorite book of the year was probably Mr Brown Can Moo Can You? Oh wait that was Pallas' favorite. Mine was either Anathem (Neal Stephenson) or Drood (Dan Simmons). Actually I liked The Terror even better than Drood but Drood came out this year and might be the only book I read that was actually published in 2009.
Movies- hmm. Definitely not Transformers 2. Star Trek. Also Up. Both of which I just saw the other day since they were Christmas presents.
Musics- A year ago I would have thought Green Day would be a shoo-in but their last one didn't quite take with me as much as I thought it would. Instead my album of the year is Bif Naked's The Promise. It kicks ass. She kicks ass. Seriously. Did you know she had breast cancer and kicked its ass? Because that's how she rolls. Why don't you just get it off of iTunes right this minute? At least get these tracks: Sick. Ciao Bella. Fuck You 2. Honeybee. River of Fire. Especially River of Fire. This part gave me shivers the first time I heard it (actually it was tears because of the cancer thing but I don't think it was meant to elicit tears): You have set the world on fire/ and I say let it burn!

Well have a great Christmas everyone.

So we've finally gotten around to watching The Office, the first three seasons anyways. Having never worked in an office I enjoy this window into another world. That's one thing reality tv is good for, eh? Sometimes I think it's just a little bit scripted, and Dwight can't really be that idiotic, can he? He must play it up for the cameras a bit. Of course if they ever made a reality show of the coalmine, there would be some people who wouldn't believe these people were for real, either. Just think about all the bus drivers we've had. And there are so many other stories I could tell but I feel bad writing about my coworkers, most of whom are my friends and some I even consider my brothers. And the guys I don't like, well, I wouldn't want them stumbling on this some day either. "Hey Nathan, I saw on your blog you think I am a whiny baby." "Umm, no Tim, I was talking about the other Tim. The whiny one who acts like a baby all the time. Not you. You are nothing but sunshine all day long!"
There are some ex-coworkers, though . . . like the guy who was in a police protection program for ratting on his biker gang which got him out of prison for manslaughter. He didn't last long because he missed a lot of work. Because manslaughter is alright but don't even think about playing hooky!

Here's another facebook/tweeter repost- it's in Dutch but you'll figure out what to do eventually.

Also, I have one mroe day left before Christmas holidays! Sweet! Hopefully tomorrow is like today- except today was so easy I actually hope there's more to do tomorrow.

This is making the facebook/twitter rounds but since I am an oldskool blogger here ya go:

I tried so hard to like Transformers 2 but I just couldn't do it. This is what I liked: that blackbird transformer from the Smithsonian. He had a cool design and was funny. Umm, the heavy machinery transformer (Devastator) should've been really cool but only was kinda cool. Big difference between "really" and "kinda".
Shia LeBouf dies and goes to Transformers heaven? Rly? Good thing they let him come back to life to fulfill his destiny of bringing Optimus Prime back to life because there's no way Megan Fox could have stabbed him with that matrix thing. And just having the transformers angels send Optimus back would've been too easy. And speaking of easy, John Turturro's big moment where you thought he was going to nobly sacrifice his life to save the pyramid from being eaten by Devastator? Except all he does is call in an airstrike from the navy with the navy's new magic gun? Good shot navy! Way to go!
Anyways. Making fun of Transformers 2 is like taking candy from a baby. Only taking candy from a baby is much harder.

My little girl is not having a good night. I guess that's allowed. I am going on nightshift tomorrow so I stay up late the night before anyways.
We invited some neighbors over for supper last night, since we had all this great food for our Christmas dinner that wasn't. They have a little girl too, and she brought Pallas this funky monkey named Mo:



Here are some more photos from the past week since I seem to have nothing to say:

Thanks to the crazy weather our plans this weekend were canceled- my Calgary in-laws were gonna come up for an early Christmas. So that sucked. But on the plus side Michelle and I were able to go to the E-Ville Roller Derby tonight. Since we know BB Sting I've been to a few demos and stuff, but this was my first actual bout (Michelle has been to quite a few and provided me some color commentary). Los Pistolitas pretty much kicked the collective asses of the Black Gold Diggers, of which BB Sting is the captain. Doesn't matter! A hundred points for being awesome!

Okay so I'm not going to Star Wars Celebration V, but how can I pass up a chance to post a sweet Boba Fett pic? We already have our vacation plans- San Diego Comic Con 2010! I think there may be a Boba Fett or two in attendance at that event as well.
I don't know if you've heard about Edmonton's bid to host Expo 2017. It was all in the news again this past week because of some artist's conceptions and such. Anyways, the plan thus far is to spend $2.5 billion to hold a World's Fair around the theme of energy. You remember Expo 87, right? Vancouver. The theme then was transportation, I remember that from our brief foray. Although they had jets and stuff I remember thinking the whole transportation theme was pretty boring. Energy- also boring. Even more so. Absolutely vital to our civilization, obviously, but still boring.
Do you remember Expo 2008? You don't? Let me refresh your memory- since I just had to via Wikipedia. It was held in Zaragoza, Spain, and its theme was water and sustainable devlopment. Did you go? Why not?
This is why- if you have a couple of thousand dollars to spend on a family vacation and you want to do something awesome with it, you go to Comic Con or Celebration or maybe Cancun or New York. Whatever you happen to be in to. The Olympics or the Word Cup, maybe. Is Zaragoza on your list? Ummm. How about Des Moines, Iowa? I specifically mention them not to disparage that city, I am sure it is beautiful, but because Slipknot is from there and when they were here Corey Taylor said something like (I'm paraphrasing) "I love Edmonton because it's just like Des Moines- a godforsaken town in the middle of nowhere but you still know how to party, motherf*^kers!"
Let's say Expo 2017 gets awarded to Des Moines. Are you going to go? Maybe if its theme was Slipknot. I'm not sure how many Des Moinesians will flock to Edmonton in 2017. Or New Yorkers or whoever.
All this is to say I am not too thrilled with my city council spending my tax dollars (which have gone up almost $200 a year every year since I bought my house) to try and lure Expo 2017. I love Edmonton (blizzards and all) but I also know it's not Orlando or San Diego or London or Singapore.
But I might still jump aboard the bandwagon if the committee makes a few simple changes- like Expo 2017: Zombies, Giant Robots or Vampires- Which is the Ultimate Coolest?

I loaded my first truck this morning at 7, and then they were down for the weather so I didn't see my second truck till 2 in the afternoon! Gave me some time to read and take some pictures and video.
I sure wish I could take my Nikon to work with the new lens (without wrecking it with coaldust) , then these pictures would really pop:

Even when the Eskimos aren't in it, the Grey Cup is still the best football game of the year, including even that league down in the south there, whatever it's called. I only got to see the first half and then had to leave for Hinton but listened to the rest on the radio- almost like being there! Did you see this guy in the stands waving his sign? HOw true it turned out to be, only not how he wanted!

Uber-geeky warning- this entry is so geeky it is not safe for work!



So, this collector's board I hang out in, Snowtroopers.ca, is having a diorama contest. My entry is called The Spice Mines of Kessel. Since I'm a miner I figured it would be fun to do a Star Wars mine. Only, it's mostly the surface part where it's all guards and armaments and stuff.
Well, it was fun, but I am pretty sure the winner will be either this one or this one. How cool are those? In the geeky sense of the word, of course.

I finished watching the first season of Deadwood. What a great show! Al Swearengen has become one of my all-time favorite characters, right alongside Edward James Olmos' Admiral Adama and Hugh Laurie's House. I even looked up IMDB to see who plays him- Ian McShane, who is a voice in Coraline! He plays the foul-mouthed saloon keeper who helps Coraline escape from Deadwood.
Anyways, I went and bought a new lens for my Nikon today:

Working shift work out in the mountains I see some pretty incredible sunrises and sunsets. Sometimes both in the same shift. Anyways this shot was taken in Hinton actually, just outside my grandparents' house.

Anyways, so glad to see Amanda Lindhout has been freed. I hope she is not completely shattered.

We need you to take care of pumps today.
Okay
Later: Can we have an operator at shovel 6 to test out the propel motor?
Okay
Later: Can you run the blaster's truck to the other end to switch out the deck with the other one?
Okay
Not much later: There's a flat tire on that truck, go to the tent and change it out.
Okay
Not much later: Turn that truck around- they lost power at 25 drill so we'll go get the cable reeler.
Okay
And later: We need you to come to the dry to fill out the incident report from that pickup truck hitting your reeler.
Okay
Later: Can we have that operator back at shovel 6?
Okay
And later: Hey Nathan can you go check the pump in Prospect?
Okay
At the end of the night: How did it go out there tonight?
Okay

According to George RR Martin's blog, Not A Blog, the shooting for the pilot of A Game Of Thrones has almost wrapped! Sweet! I wonder when it will air. Not that it matters since I don't have HBO and will have to wait an extra year for it to come out on DVD. Or I guess they got that newfangled internet I can check. I hear you can see videos on it and everything!
I'm just about to start my reread of A Feast For Crows. I went on a sort of GRRM revival when I got the books for Robin and also Michelle decided to read them. You know you have the best wife ever when you can discuss whether you'd rather be the Lord of Winterfell or the Eyrie and whether Lucius Vorenus (aka Kevin McKidd) would make a good Beric Dondarrion, maybe, or possibly the Blackfish.
I feel such warmth to HBO for doing this series. Band of Brothers, Sopranos, True Blood, Rome, Deadwood . . . is there anything they can't do?

So I've been trying to work my way through Pride and Prejudice and Zombies for our book club. Yes, I'm in a book club but really it is a drinking club with bookish discussions and Wii Bowling thrown in. Anyways. Having a minor in English I can tell you I adore Jane Austen in theory without actually liking any of her books. It's okay to not be into something and still recognize its brilliance. Not my thing.
Zombies are my thing, however. One of my things, anyways. Remember when Homie Bear met the zombear? Or the Cadaverous Cattle? Yup. So I thought P&P&Z would be pretty much a lot of fun. Only it's not. The zombies are mildly amusing but I can't help thinking about all the stories we wrote in grade 5 and 6 where we basically did the same thing only with aliens and spaceships.
I am thoroughly enjoying Season 1 of Deadwood, though. And not even any zombies in it!

Through photographic trickery I have cloned this clone! Have you been watching your Clone Wars DVD set? Because I sure have.
Other things that kick ten tons of a$$- roller derby! I even made a Flickr gallery of great roller derby photos from other users. There's even a shot of my close friend BB Sting in there, taken by another close friend name of Rustyangel. If you are in Edmonton tomorrow night you should go check out the E-Ville bout against Vancouver's Terminal City. Sadly I am in Hinton working or I would be there too.

The Dread Pirate Pallas



Our little girl would make a pretty ruthless pirate because she sure likes throwing things overboard. You always know when she's done her nap because you hear five thumps- the sound of each of her soothers being thrown out of her crib. Her little bunny and Walfred are too soft to make thumps but I'm sure in her mind they scream horribly as the little nursery sharks get them.
So that's pretty harmless. Unfortunately her wicked ways extend to her highchair, or as she would likely prefer to call it, her captain's chair. She's really good at eating solid food now, but lately when she doesn't like something she spits it out and then throws it overboard. If there's a whole tray of such untouchables, she picks them up one by one and tosses them. In an effort to get her to stop, Michelle and I say "Mmmmmmm!" every time we try and feed her a morsel.
Me: "Mmmmmmm!"
Michelle: "Mmmmmmmm!"
Pallas: "Mmmmmmmmm!" as she spits out the chunk of food and throws it on the floor.
Mmmmmmm! As Inigo Montoya would say- You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

People who know me in real life describe me in various ways- my buddy Robin sums me up pretty well- "Nathan is a man who enjoys his grapes." Griffyn just describes me as "Michelle's friend" even though he's known me all his life and Michelle is just a pretty blonde newcomer. Oh well. No bitterness.
In my whole life I don't think anyone has ever described me as "organized", "neat" or "totally NOT absent-minded". Which is why I occasionally get $230 tickets from the police. Like today. I wasn't speeding or really doing anything wrong so I was a little unsure why the RCMP cruiser started following me. I was coming home from nightshift though and it is weird how often the police pull me over just because I am kind of scruffy looking. They kind of poke around and when they see no evidence of guns or drugs they let me go on my way. A minor annoyance but I'm happy when they do catch guys smuggling the nogoods.
Anyways he pulls me over and says he ran my plates and I don't have a valid driver's license! What? I've had one for almost 20 years you silly officer! Then I remember my recent (well, two months ago actually) 35th birthday. Ah sh^t! You gotta renew it every five years. It never even crossed my mind. In my defense I didn't get a notice in the mail. But on the other hand, it is very possible the unopened notice is somewhere here on my desk as I type. Yeah so, I didn't argue with the cop who was actually really nice. Especially considering I couldn't produce proof of insurance, which is also likely on my desk somewhere. The constable pointed out that not having insurance is a $2500 fine but he gave me the benefit of the doubt that I did have insurance. He also said he could impound my car if he so chose but he cut me slack on that too. Considering it didn't start this morning like it does (or not does) every time it gets a little chilly I almost wisht he would impound it. Then they could just keep it and I'll hitch-hike everywhere from now on.
So anyways, he took my expired license and traded it for a $230 ticket. I guess we can call it my not paying attention tax.

The weather was so nice today it seemed a shame not to go to Hawrelak Park. So many geese! More than a few ducks. Only one bear cub (named Pallas) !



Oh yeah and one mischievous gnome:

So it turns out there's a new Battlestar Galactica DVD out- sort of new, anyways. It's called The Plan. And if you haven't seen it or seen all of Season 4 yet then I invite you to go check out these cool shots of a sperm whale munching on a giant squid instead because here there be spoilers, so be warned.

Okay then. The Plan was alright. It was a bonus BSG movie when you thought it was all over forever, right? So nothing to complain about there. In fact, thanks all you BSG guys! That was nice of you!
Most of the new footage was what the Cylon agents were up to in the early seasons. It kind of fleshes out why the Cylons abruptly changed their minds about completely wiping out every single human being at the end of Season 2.5. (There's been a change of plans . . . sorry about killing all those billions of people!) And then there's some new footage of Final Five guys, mostly Tyrol and Sam.
The trouble is, all that Final Five stuff felt like retconning to me. It felt like Ron Moore put all the characters into a hat and drew 5 out and those were the last Cylons. Whatshername I don't care about (Tory?), Sam I guess I can accept, Ellen I just don't buy and I refuse to accept Tigh and Tyrol as Cylons. That was just some hallucination like Baltar's Six. The trouble is, having them be Cylons ruins their character arcs up to that point, and Tigh's story in season 3 especially is absolutely wrenching. But not if he's a Cylon!
And don't even get me started on the whole Earth is a radioactive cinder except when it's not thing. The more I think about the last season, and specifically the finale, the less satisfied I am with it. In my mind BSG ended when they found Earth and it was dead. And there were no Final Five. So, I guess everyone dies or wanders space forever which is a downer but at least it's not completely baffling. I sort of hoped The Plan would explain some of that stuff better but oh well. Even though I voice these complaints I still consider BSG my favorite TV show ever and really miss those guys.

Happy Halloween! I took an extra couple of days off since as far as I'm concerned Halloween should be a week-long holiday for everyone. We started the festivities with some pumpkin carving- I did a Cylon Centurion (new style, with a bit of help from this guy who did an oldskool one) and Michelle carved her first pumpkin ever! Then we added some vomitous pumpkin guts because that automatically makes pretty much any jack-o-lantern better. Hers was a big hit, but only one guy (a dad) recognized the Cylon.



And of course the highlight was dressing Pallas up in her costume. Not being crafty or anything we just ordered one off the internet. She was an elephant! We went trick or treating just on our block, got some candy for me. She's too little so I get them all! Hahaha my evil plan has finally come to fruition.



Yay for Halloween! Here are some spooky eyes before we say good-bye to the best day of the year. Plus I made a Flickr set out of the day. But don't forget tomorrow is Day of the Dead!

Here's my annual Halloween poem, kind of inspired by the huge spiders we had living on our veranda all summer. We had an uneasy truce with them.

The spiders on the porch are banging on the door
I know better than to answer but what can I do?
I open the door
Ugh! They're even bigger than before
Listen you guys, you know the deal
you can weave your webs and eat whatever you catch out there
but you leave us alone in here
Those clusters of eyes stare at me
and those mouthpieces
drumming and drooling
disgusting
"Hungry!" they cry in those dessicated arachnovoices
Too bad. You know the deal
"We change the deal! Hungry!"
Sigh
Fine
Wait here
I stomp downstairs and turn on the lights
manage to grab two goblins before the rest scurry away
"Where are you taking them? My babies!"
The spiders are hungry. Sorry
"But we had a deal!"
Yeah well
Deals change

It was time to do up the front yard for Halloween. I dug out last year's stuff, and set it up and it was a little underwhelming. So a quick trip to the store and now it;s a little better:

Some of my deviantArt acquaintances have been doing zombie Star Wars art for Halloween, the full gallery has been posted at Star Wars' Official Flickr page. My favorite is Grant Gould's, who posts more about it at his own blog.
As for us, we are going on a Halloweenish date tonight, to see Marty Chan's The Bone House.

I had a miserable day last week when I went to work sick. I woke up with a mild cough and thought it was just from coal dust. But by 9:00 I was feeling all kinds of rotten. I even thought about going home but I was just running shovel 6 which doesn't require much more than not falling asleep. Plus it was the last day before days off so I toughed it out. Then I wound up staying in Hinton an extra night and sleeping for 13 hours.
Anyways, I was sick for a few days. Now they say that 99.9% of the people who are getting sick right now are getting H1N1. So the odds are I had it. Therefore I don't need to get the vaccine. The tricky part comes in figuring out what to do with the youngling. I strongly believe the seriousness of the Swine Flu is being exaggerated by the media (quite unusual for them, since they certainly didn't get carried away over the Y2K bug or Michael Jackson's death or little boys and their balloons).
I also am a little leery of believing all the things you here about vaccines. I've noticed that the same people talking about autism and adjuvants tend to be the same people that, when you follow their agendas back, are anti-evolution and anti-science. NOT the people I want informing me about decisions I make regarding my daughter's health. On the other hand, the people saying we should all go get the vaccine early and often aren't exactly agenda-free themselves. Just how much money are the pharmaceutical companies making on the vaccine, anyways? You know those guys would never bias data to cover up side-effects.
So. What to do. Maybe my daughter will get H1N1 and need to be hopsitalized. But maybe she's already fought it off and won, assuming she was exposed to it through me. Maybe if we get the vaccine her immune system will react and she will have to be hospitalized. All these maybes. Might as well roll the dice.
Here's something that's not a maybe or a myth, though- the vaccine contains thimerosol which is a mercury compound. This is used as a preservative to prevent micro-organisms from growing in the vaccine (presumably it works because it is poisonous to microbes). Thimerosol has been discontinued in the US in children's vaccines except in multi-dose flu vaccines such as the H1N1 and the seasonal flu shot. Do I really want to give my 9-month-old daughter a shot of mercury, regardless of how little there might be per dose? It's free!
Ummm . . .

Seven years of Pooing in the Woods!

In the history of cinema, can you believe that there have only ever been two films titled The Crab? The first came out in 1917 and not much is really known about it, at least on IMDB. The other is in post-production and will hopefully come out soon to an arthouse near you. And doubly hopefully to an arthouse near me because my good friend Jonathan Wilde is in it. I can use his whole name because the official Crab movie website does. Jon plays the nice guy, so it will be cool to see him have to actually do some acting!
Congratulations Jon! I hope the movie comes out soon but on the other hand, I hope it takes a while so that a movie theater can be built in Hinton so they can show it in time!

Obviously I loved Slipknot but I was a little worried about how Michelle would react. She's absorbed a lot of knot by osmosis over the course of our marriage but still. Anyways she had a great time. It was cool to kind of watch it through her eyes. Corey Taylor was mesmerizing and full of love for his Edmonton family and Michelle was bouncing it back. (M: he's a class act. And who knew motherf**kers could be such an affectionate term?) Highlight- probably People = Shit for me. Orchestrated chaos. And seeing Chris Fehn and Sid Wilson and the Clown wandering around engaging in mayhem. For Michelle maybe it was when we all went down to our knees and jumped up on Corey's signal? Also the fact that she recognized Before I Forget.
Today I took Pallas for a walk, we went down to the little pond where the Canada geese have been massing. Michelle told me Pallas is mesmerized by them. Sure enough when we got there she was totally wide-eyed and amazed. Other than Hi! and dadadad (and sometimes HiDad) she doesn't really have any words yet so her wonder was expressed in a series of grunty gasps. "Ah!" and "Ooh!" and "Aaaaaaahhhh!" It was amazing to see it through her eyes. And yet geese-on-a-pond is a fairly low entry on the list of Awesome Things in the World. Just wait till I show her all the rest of them!

All the snow has kind of sucked some of the lifeblood out of the Halloween season, but that only gives it the chance to rise from the dead and be a vampire! So really, twice the hallogoodness.
Speaknig of which, MIchelle asked me how my day went and I said it was alright, but I was stuck running shovel 6 all day, the beast that refuses to die. Every time you think it's dead it comes back to life. Then I realized it was the zombie shovel! It even lurches when it walks. Only it eats rocks instead of brains. So that makes it better. A bit. Sort of.
Anyways, check out the Dedmonton site!

I hope you had a good Thanksgiving. What I'm really thankful for is my family.

Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful that two of my favorite things are together at last: Wes Anderson and Roald Dahl. Fantastic Mr. Fox!

Stay away from my M&Ms!
Also, you'd think you wouldn't have to be told, but stay out of the tiger enclosure!

Well I am off to work nights again, and I often have to remind myself why I do it. remember that Simpsons episode where Homer explains why there aren't any pictures of Maggie anywhere? "Don't forget you're here forever!"

By now you (if you care) have heard of Star Wars Uncut, a fan project to remake Star Wars scene for scene. Not quite done yet but the trailer is up.
Clone Wars Season 2 started up this weekend, but I am still a little behind on season 1 and so I won't be watching just yet. But Bossk is set to make an appearance this season which makes me all giddy.
And today we went to Chapters to take advantage of Teacher Appreciation Day and got a bunch of books. Too bad the Star Wars Legacy graphic album was one I already have!

Hopefully the new movie Whip It will usher in a new era of Roller Derby Enlightenment, paving the way for world peace. Or at the very least get a few more people out to Edmonton's own roller derby crew, E-Ville. You can even join if you want, they're recruiting! They were at WEM today doing some scrimmages and stuff, and since our good friend BB Sting is an E-Ville stalwart we had to go and check it out. Pallas was sporting her E-Ville onesie. And making her growling cheer noises.

Alright well here are a few lessons I've learned from coal mining, hopefully you will find this completely unedifying and inapplicable to your own lives. These are some things I learned the hard way:

-don't hide your hardhat in a contractor's truck so you can sneak home early for Christmas, otherwise you leave yourself open to being framed for stealing gas
-potheads are really big and heavy, so it's a good idea not to get snmashed in the face with one
-they also carry 7200 volts, so try not to disconnectode them till you get the "safe to work on the line" call
-even when they are disconnectoded, they can still carry a discharge so be careful about sticking your fingers in them. 7200 volts of static shock can clench all your muscles and render them sore for a few hours.
-no matter how many times they say they fixed shovel 6, they didn't fix shovel 6. Shovel 6 can not be fixed.
-you wouldn't think bananas can explode, but they can, and they make an awful mess of the rest of your lunch

When I got back from New Zealand and started up again at the mine after a 2 1/2 year layoff, I found an old counter in one of the trucks and took it home to count the number of four-shift rotations I did. This past week was the 200th. Pretty crazy. 800 (give or take, since sometimes I work less than the four shifts and very very occasionally I work more) 12 hour shifts and who knows how many loads of rock hauled or dug. I feel like I should write a list of Things I Learned From Coal Mining but like when Hobbes asked Calvin what he learned from the killer snowgoon fiasco, I prefer to learn lessons that have as little application to real life as possible. "Snow goons are bad news!"

We went for a picnic in the park today and I brought along the new camera. Pretty happy with the camera, not so much with my photography skills. Oh well, the first 1000 shots are the worst they say, usually meaning your first thousand ever but I take it to mean with any new camera, especially for me using a dSLR for the first time. And anyways all the shots of Pallas just turn out great cause she's the cuteling!