Sad news- Irvin Kershner passed away today. He was a movie director, most famous obviously for Empire Strikes Back but he made others as well.

Did you catch this year's Canada Reads panel? Georges Laraque! Sweet! One of my favorite of all Oilers alumni, up there with Gretz and Mess. He was great in Battle of the Blades in the sense of he had lots of fun. As if that wasn't cool enough, Sara Quin too! Sweeeet! Plus she's defending a graphic novel. Definitely have to read that one. Of all the Quin twins, Sara is definitely one of my favorite top two ever, right up there with Tegan.
Anyways, Homie Bear Reads has been pretty slow lately. I got Justin Cronin's The Passage from the library and only made it about halfway through before I had to give it back. Good book, he was at a SDCC panel we went to.
If you can believe it, I have been working on a Green Lantern collection (The Sinestro Corps War Volume 1) for almost four weeks! Not sure why six or eight comic books collected together is giving me such troubles. I really like it, even showed Michelle a cool part that I thought was well written and drawn (many power rings in search of new recruits all of a sudden . . . )
Doesn't help that at work during my breaks I'm trying to read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Which so far doesn't seem to be much about zen OR motorcycles.
My own motorcycle is getting raked right now! Which gives me a very zen feeling deep inside.
Also, squid worm! Finally! I've only been waiting for one of those for like, my whole life.

This one's for Jon.
Waaay back in the day we were in an Astronomy course together. First year university. It was an interesting class, not only because of the subject matter but also because we spent most of our time drawing X-Men and Star Wars guys and writing sonnets to various planets. I've been cleaning out the basement of junk and I came across our masterpiece, written during the lecture on the solar system's 4th planet, which I present, unedited, to you now:

Mars- The Sonnet

The funny thing about Mars
is that it's the same size as Earth only smaller
Not many people have cars
So to visit people they have to holler
you can jump real high over there
But one thing that's different is the air
If you attempt to breathe it you will die
So let me warn you to not even try
They have a big big volcano
Olympus Mons is its name-o
It has three moons, Phobos, Deimos
and Manhattan Island. But that is not THE most
amazing thing about Mars, Mars, Mars
That's where they make those candy bars

Fourteen lines, just like all other sonnets. That's about all it has in common with that fine artistic form though. Manhattan Island?
On the same page there is a poem about Saturn. The word "Saturn" is written out and around it are the words "Its rings circle it always" as if those words were the rings. Get it? Artistic!
But those were good times.

So now that all I have to do at work is take five or six loads of coal, I am sleeping so much better and I have so much more time for things like listening to podcasts. I find one episode of DNTO is good for a round trip. But it's bad when I'm writing down interesting things to remember for later while 300 tons of coal and metal are careening down the snowy haulroad. Just kidding! Right! I would never do such a silly thing would I? Or if I did I certainly wouldn't blog about it. Or if I did I would make sure to make it sound like I would never do such a thing on the blog so I wouldn't get fired. Umm. Confused yet? Anyways, check this out: Takeaseat.org is the site for Dominic Gill's documentary about how he tandem biked all the way across the Americas, getting total strangers to ride tandem with him. As soon as I get home I want to check out the film, and the book too.
The Green Lantern trailer came out, at least in the Spanish speaking world. Even though I am a GL rookie, it was still kind of cool to see Kilowog and stuff. Not sure if I buy Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan though. He's a great guy and I like how self-deprecating he is in interviews. So . . . yeah actually that should be fine. Anyways, here it is, Linterna Verde:

I got a speeding ticket today, d'oh!!! Except, no I didn't! Sweet! Cop pulled me over on the way to Hinton, it's snowing but the roads are in good condition, so I may have been doing 125 or so. I suspect that I was doing 120 by my speedometer but my snow tires add about 10% in actual speed. Anyways. So cop pulls me over, asks where I'm going.
Hinton
Business or pleasure?
It's where I work.
What do you do?
Coalminer.
So you live in Edmonton but work in Hinton?
Yes sir.
Been drinking?
No sir.
Okay hang on while I write this up.
So he comes back and says, how long you been driving back and forth like this?
I dunno, most of my life I guess. I haven't gotten that many tickets considering.
And I'm not going to give you one now. But drive safe okay? The roads are in rough shape.
Yes sir. Thank you sir.

Then later a caribou of all things crosses the road right in front of me. I gave him a ticket for jaywalking.

Bobber update: it's right down to the frame now, and ready to be taken in to get raked by a professional welder. Although we now have a welder and I was able to spend an hour or so at work learning the basics of welding, raking the front end is kind of like the neurosurgery of welding, and I will never be much more than a field medic type welder at best.
Totally unrelated other stuffs: Anyone have extra tickets to see Ayaan Hirsi Ali next Sunday? It's sold out. The only other person I can think of that we were stymied from going to see is Lady Gaga. Gaga and Hirsi, probably the first time they were ever mentioned in the same sentence. Well, maybe not. Let's ask Google. Hmm, inconclusive.
And what is Apple cooking up over there anyways?
Update: Well, of all the things it could have been, announcing that The Beatles are on iTunes is about the absolute least exciting. Ever. Lame.

Running on my treadmill, listening to the iPod. Good recipe for coming up with the crazy shite! Remember this one?
A line from Unforgiven II inspired this little snippet (Unforgiven III is my current favorite Metallica song though, this line is so wrenching to me- How can I blame you when it's me I can't forgive). Anyways.

She traced the outlines of his tattoos with her fingers. They always asked about the tattoos.
"What does this one say?" She pointed to the script on his chest.
"Black heart scarring darker still."
"Jesus."
"Fuck."
"What?"
"You say Jesus, I say fuck. It's like a blessing. The muslims do it, whenever someone mentions their prophet they always say 'Peace be upon him.' It's like that."
"Huh. Sounds more like a curse to me."
"Yeah. Exactly."
"Jesus."
"Fuck."
She giggled. He didn't. After a while she went on with her line of thought.
"So this tattoo around your heart . . . you have a black heart?"
"It's from a song. This guy sleeps with a girl and then kills her and leaves."
He felt her tense.
"It's just a song. A tattoo. I'm not gonna hurt you. Jesus."
"Fuck."
"Exactly."
She went on to explore his other tattoos.

I'm trying to get out of the habit of saving good stuff for special occasions. Because you know when the perfect special occasion for almost anything is? Right now! Michelle got me Seasons 2 and 3 of Deadwood for Christmas last year and I only just finished season 2. It was worth the wait but No waiting 11 months till I watch Season 3.
Some highlights sans spoilers:
“Pain or damage don’t end the world, or despair or f*cking beatings. The world ends when you’re dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man — and give some back.”- Al Swearengen. How can you not love good ole Swedgin?
Of all the great songs that play as the end credits roll, the best from this season is The Fox by Bill Staines. I didn't mind the quack quack quack!
Anyways, how's this for a sweet move I gotta practice? Maybe I'll try it out on you!

The easy part is done, now I have a bunch of boxes that used to be a motorbike. In the space of an afternoon we stripped it down to its frame, more or less, though the wheels are still on it. The engine is sitting on the floor of my dad's garage. We'll have to see what parts that will need, and we can look at getting the front end raked. The back we might be able to do ourselves. Maybe. So now over the long cold winter this is where I go for inspiration to keep at it.



Oh yeah Pallas helped too.

You know what the saddest song in the world is? A Dream That Can Last by Neil Young and Crazy Horse.
One of the more uplifting songs in the world is The Cave by Mumford and Sons. And don't forget Just Breathe by Pearl Jam. Don't Give Up by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush too. I think you need at least three uplifting songs to cheer you up from the saddest song in the world. Though listening to the saddest song in the world can actually make you feel better, too, in a weird way.