YVR to YYZ

I'm home. What else is there to say? The last week has been a whirlwind of activity from last weekend's CNERS conference (May 20-21), going to Seattle one last time on Tuesday, my family's journey to Vancouver for graduation on Thursday, packing up all my stuff for the movers on Friday, Whistler on Saturday and finally one last dinner out with friends before returning to Toronto this morning. Yikes, it's been a lot of stuff coming on all at once. It's good to be home but at the same time I am not quite sure that it has hit me yet... I won't be going back to school in Vancouver. It's a pretty scary thought right now, although U of T's acceptance as a non-degree student was waiting for me when I got home. At least my Plan B is sort of falling into place.
Tomorrow I start work, god knows why I was foolish enough to tell them I would start the day after I got home, but I did. I think it's mainly to keep myself moving because I am not good at accepting and dealing with change. At least until the weekend, my mind will be occupied with work and unpacking all my stuff. I am a bit peeved that all my other stuff (books, computer, etc.) isn't here yet but at the same time I would be too overwhelmed if I had it all here to unpack right now.
Anyways, I am going to unpack one more suitcase, make tomorrow's lunch and pack my bag and then hit the bed early. Even though technically I am on PST time, I am definitely ready for lots of sleep. Too bad I have to wake up early for work. :(

Beluga Graduate

Honourary Degree Recipient at today's ceremony: Raffi Cavoukian!!!

How cool is that? I graduated with Raffi! I even got his autograph and a photo. I think it is fitting that I end my time here meeting a childhood hero. *sigh*
Pics to follow when my parents develop their film. Someday I will convert them to the digital revolution. Speaking of digital revolutions I have to welcome Mel to the smart world of the iPod and while she may consider it caving into consumerism, it's at least smart consumerism.

Graduation

The day is finally here! My parents and sister flew in last night and appropriately the weather has finally taken a turn for the better! Let the summer begin! If you're interested in today's graduation ceremonies and really want to watch me graduate after a long and arduous 2 years here in Vancouver, then feel free! The ceremony starts at 11am. Let's hope I don't trip!

Courtesy of Cassie

Cassie is pretty nerdy, but me? Not so much. ha ha ha!

Worn Me Down

I am ever closer to finishing the essay. I am over 4000 words now (approx. 4200) and close to finishing up three sections and then only 1 more full section to write. I may possibly be able to take this with me to the keynote speech at the CNERS conference tonight. Cross your fingers.
We had some massive thunderstorms tonight. One loud clap of thunder occurred directly over our house and sounded like a bomb exploding. It was a bit insane, with the lights flickering, threatening to go out. Torrential downpour, lightning, but alas, no hail. Maybe in July.
On the Weather Network, the map of Canada showed almost every part of the country had thunderstorms in some area, all at the same time. I have never seen that happen before... I predict a nasty tornado season coming out of this.

Motivation

I'm in utter hell. Say a prayer or cross your fingers that this damn paper gets finished tonight. I have resorted to writing cruel messages on my desktop wallpaper in order to motivate myself. This is the latest...



motivation 

Bachelor Finale - Charlie chooses Sarah!!!

Ok, I admit that I saw a few episodes of the new Bachelor series with Charlie O'Connell this spring. Tonight is the finale and now 2hours and 35 minutes in, we finally get to the meat of the show. He just told Krisily that she ain't his gal. I am really glad for that Sarah B. chick, because she's just cool. Even on the first day that he met her, he was struck by how cool she was. Anyhow, back to the revealing news...

Charlie chooses Sarah B!!!! YAY for her.

Camping on Galiano Island

I have just spent the past day and a bit recovering from the 3 day camping trip that Cassie, Mel and I took. It wasn't that laborious, but something about sleeping outdoors always makes me very tired by the end of such an adventure. We took the ferry from Tsawwassen on Thursday to Galiano Island and stayed at the Montague Harbour camping ground. It is quite a beautiful little spot and was rather peaceful. According to the park warden, we had just missed a group of 145 high schoolers who had been on a biking trip and had stayed at the site the night before. We actually saw some of them heading down to the ferry as we left the dock, so that must have been the tail end of the group. He mentioned that they were going over to Salt Spring Island next, so it's a good thing we didn't decide to go there instead. It would have been really annoying to have so many people around us when all we wanted to do was get out of the city for a few days.
I particularly enjoyed this trip because it reminded me of camping in Ontario even though we were on the ocean. I haven't been exposed to much salt water marine life since I grew up around the infamous fresh water oceans of the Great Lakes, so getting to see crabs, starfish, a sea anemone, and clams that spit water through the sand was pretty damn interesting to me.
Cassie gave Mel and I a brief lesson on Coastal archaeology in BC and showed us how to distinguish shell middens along the seashore. I like knowing the history of places that I am staying in, although sadly, I probably won't ever work on a Coastal dig because it just doesn't interest me enough beyond curiosity. I feel this way about prehistoric archaeology in Ontario as well. I haven't minded the few times that ASI has sent me out to work with other crews who work on the native villages, but by the end of the day I am usually bored of measuring palisade post holes and looking for pottery. The most interesting sites to me, are contact sites, where the so-called prehistoric and historic populations mixed usually through trade although sometimes cohabitating as well.
Anyhow, I have digressed. Galiano is very lovely and peaceful and I would go back there again if I am back in BC for an extended period of time, like a vacation of more than a week. The only thing that was slightly off-putting about the experience was the obvious dislike that some of the islanders have for 'mainlanders'. You'd think that people would just be nice to one another regardless of where they are from. I understand that the islanders live on Galiano to escape a busier lifestyle, and that they probably tend to think of outsiders as imposing on their tranquility, but at the same time, city folk also go there to experience the same things albeit in a briefer span of time. You would hope that they would respect the tourism that funnels cash into their businesses, but some just don't see it that way at all.
We went into the town area on Friday to get some juice at the grocery store/garage and Cassie said one of the local men who was standing there made some comment about the Simple Life while staring at her. I can't imagine a ruder comment because we certainly don't act, dress, or disrespect people like Paris Hilton, and nor was our camping trip meant as some little jaunt to experience 'hardship' or a different side of life that we know nothing about. Off-hand remarks like that are annoying because this man doesn't know us or our backgrounds, he just knows that we aren't from Galiano and therefore, we aren't truly 'roughing it in the woods'. I know I shouldn't be up in arms about this, but it sucks to have a comment like that even vocalized. Besides, if this man had thought about the implications of that comment, he would know that on the Simple Life, those girls go out of their way to find the most hick-like places in the US and go out of their way to belittle local citizens like himself. That was hardly the goal of our trip.

Anyways, here are some pics from the trip.


Montague Harbour


home sweet home


Cassie


mel


mini rainbow


flower


telus in the 'wilderness'


seals r cute


starfish

Kingdom of Boredom & Keane!

So that new Ridley Scott flick Kingdom of Heaven which is being promoted as the 'new Gladiator' (not specifically, but the inference is there) SUCKS!!!
I mean it does star Orlando Bloom of the ever-changing facial expression, but I sort of thought the potential for a good story was there. However, I found myself extremely bored with the history lesson on the Crusades, so I give a big thumbs down to Ridley Scott. Orlando Bloom needs some acting lessons and is not old enough to command enough energy into a rallying war cry a la Russell Crowe or even Colin Farrell, in what some consider the abomination of 'Alexander' (which I thought was pretty decent considering the long history of awful Classics movies).
I also give a major BOO! to the new Paramount Vancouver cinema at 900 Burrard St. because underground parking cost me $5 for the evening without parking validation. The Guest Services attendant claimed that Paramount has no affiliation with the Parking Authority in the building, yet the ENTIRE complex is called Paramount Place, and as Cassie shrewedly pointed out, the last time she checked, the building was built specifically for the theatre. Anyways, I am going to email a complaint because other 'urban' cinemas like Tinseltown validate parking for moviegoers and even back at home in Toronto the maximum I have ever paid for parking at a cinema in town is $1 with my parking chip validated at the theatre box office. What's up with Famous Players, eh? Greedy bastards.


On a different note, last night was the last concert that I had tickets for in Vancouver and it was for Keane at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. I didn't think much of the opening act which was some guy named Brendan Benson and his band called... The Stiff Tissues (YUCK!). I was pretty glad when they left the stage. Some weird women was sitting in the seat next to me on the aisle and she was having trouble moving when people had to come and sit down, so for most of the night I tried not to leave my seat because I had to keep climbing over the back of my seat into the aisle behind me just to escape.
I was hoping to get a pin or something from the merchandise table but the shirts weren't that impressive and they didn't have much else. Merch Guy said they didn't bother bringing anything over the border and that the selection they had was shipped directly from the UK to Canada. I guess when you only have 3 dates in the country it makes sense, but at the same time, would it have killed them to bring a box of buttons over the border? Anyways, that was a bit of a bummer but on the other hand I saved money!
Keane put on a fantastic show as I had expected they would. I suspect that the lead singer could actually have a career in musical theatre if the band split up. He just has a really pure and clear voice with a lot of range... watch out West London! They also had some cool little projection shows behind their stage set for some of the songs. I haven't seen any of their videos, but I expect that some of the work came from those.
An interesting highlight occurred during the encore when a girl at the front of the crowd leapt onto the stage and grabbed the lead singer around the neck. She was of course promptly removed by security but it was still pretty amusing. I think she wanted to hug Tom but she saw security moving in so she kind of made a desperate lunge for his neck which took him completely off guard and he almost lost his balance. He recovered nicely, had a good laugh and said he appreciated the gesture and that it probably would have happened at some point, so why not tonight. It just amuses me that some teeny bopper would throw herself at this guy. Keane are a pretty unassuming trio so it's not like they exude super coolness or whatever. They are pretty humble and obviously genuinely enjoy what they do, but I wouldn't say that the lead singer is that attractive. But I guess to this girl, they mean the world. It also reminds me of going to concerts when I was younger, because it has been a few years since I've seen someone hurl themselves on stage to accost a band. Ah well, I hope that she was let go by security with relatively little harm done.
All in all, it was a good end to the run of shows I have seen here in Vancouver. Sadly, I have no shows lined up for Toronto this summer, but hopefully some stuff I am interested in will come up soon.

Cursum Perficio

Today is another Mother's Day. It's a holiday that I haven't really had to celebrate in a while since my stepmom doesn't really like it. I am guessing because she doesn't really have children of her own or maybe because I made her life hell when she first dated my dad. Ha ha. Evil stepdaughter. Ok, ok, I am not really an evil stepdaughter, and I love Mary-Anne now, but I was a pretty bitter and depressed 17-year-old when she first came on the scene. Anyways, sometimes I get jealous for Mother's Day, but sometimes I am just glad that I don't have to spend the money, although I would gladly do so to have my mom around if that were an option.
Dave's mom is pretty cool, so I could always say Happy Mother's Day to her. She is very sweet and always nice to me. Ok, I am done with this depressing ramble and I don't want to dwell on this anymore.

Jen and I went to the Snow Patrol/Embrace concert last night and it kicked ass. Snow Patrol seem like a band that you would want to party with all the time. The best part of the show was probably the audience interaction which always makes a concert good in my opinion. I really appreciate when bands try and at least interact with their fans because it shows in general that they care and that they are having a good time as well. Besides that, there were some pretty funny comments about LA which they described as a 'shithole' having just come from some MTV shoot there, where only 40 people stayed to watch them after they went on after The Killers. That is really unfortunate because all those idiots who left missed a great band and then SP were playing to a practically empty house. Shitty. The lead singer also said that if he could, he would rent the largest tour bus ever and take the entire Vancouver crowd on tour. Imagine that... this was after he asked the audience for a place to stay because the band had to drop so much money in LA. I would have put them up in the dark, dank basement, but something tells me that they were not really that desperate to save a few bucks on accomodation. He also addressed the unfortunate matter of all the seating at the Vogue, which just gets in the way of the crowd that builds at the foot of the stage. I noticed this at the Killers concert as well, since I sat in the balcony just to have a better, uncrushed view of the show. I cannot believe that when I was in high school I would willingly throw myself into the crush of people which formed at the foot of the stage. There were times when I would just be fighting for my life rather than actually listening to the music which I had dolled out a lot of money for. I think that by the time I hit 18 I had gotten sick of coming home bruised and battered from shows. I believe that there is no way that you should have the same type of bodily trauma from a concert that you do from a hangover, unless you were drinking AT the concert. It's just a bit ridiculous.

Embrace, the opening band, who have been around for ages according to Jen (since she loved them in high school), were also pretty good. They mentioned that they had been trying to tour in Canada for 9 years but bullshit American Record Label politics had pretty much prevented that from ever happening. Until now. They were really cool and grateful to be in Canada. It was their first day in the country as a band and they were opening for Snow Patrol. Not bad for a band that couldn't get in the doors at the border almost 10 years ago. I even recognized a few songs which is impressive since the group began when I was in early high school when lots of other grungey music like Pearl Jam and Nirvana was the order of the day. The general sound of Embrace reminded me of Charlie Mars, who opened for R.E.M. back in November. I will definitely be downloading their album to listen to more of their music. And in my defense for downloading, the album isn't out until June but it was released in the UK way back in November. If I like it enough I will buy it.

In the past few days I have been trying to get my mind in order for the move back home. I have bought my ticket (I officially leave on May 30th) and arranged for my start date at work. Katie tells me that some French guy named Steve has my place on the crew right now and he drives them all bonkers. She says I will like the new Aaron guy who has a potty mouth that could rival mine. Can't wait to go head to head with this guy. She also said that Wes annoyingly asks everyday when I am coming back so she was glad to hear from me so she can tell him and then tell him to shut it. Ah, it's nice to be appreciated. And even more exciting is the news that the crew was given a brand new VAN, and we have our very own GPS unit. I am so pleased about this, that I think the summer will be quite good. As the only historic crew at ASI now, we will probably have pretty lame barbeques with only 4 of us, but we can always try to fill out those numbers with our husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, whomever. We don't really socialize that much with the Prehistoric crews because we rarely see them except when we get shifted around on Gradall days.*
There are some cool people on those Prehistoric crews, but others just suck. Our chief nemesis from last summer was assigned our shitty old van (named 'Craptacular') which secretly makes me smile deep down inside. Let's hope I don't have to see those bitches at all this summer.
Anyways, I am starting to look forward to making money again since I am down to the wire here. I need to save my pennies for moving my accumulated 'wealth of knowledge' across the country. Let's hope I can afford to have my library moved all the way home rather then dumped somewhere in Saskatchewan. Now that would suck.


* Gradall days are generally when Katie gets to stand around all day and direct the Gradall operator on what areas of the site to clear of topsoil so we can excavate the features. On these days, the rest of the crew including myself usually get shifted to someone else's crew for the day and then we feel weird because we have to start digging for post holes, stone tools and earthenware pottery which is not what we generally enjoy.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Oh to have the power to make two of the largest auction houses in the world bow down to a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

From yesterday's Vancouver Sun (and I am sure, other news outlets):

In possibly the highest stakes game of Rock Paper Scissors yet played, the world's two most prestigious auction houses were forced into sudden-death for the right to sell a $26-million art collection.
Experts from Sotheby's and Christie's settled the spoils in a tense game in a Tokyo office after the boss of a Japanese electronics company could not decide who should handle the sale of a collection including works by Cezanne, Picasso, and Van Gogh.
Both companies were annoyed by the strange request by Takashi Hashiyama, president of the Maspro Denkoh Corp., but, aware that the sale would bring the victor several million dollars in fees, rose to the challenge.
According to the New York Times , Sotheby's decided it was purely a game of chance and now admits it had "no strategy in mind."
However, Kanae Ishibashi, the president of Christie's in Japan, spent a weekend researching the psychology of the game on the internet and consulting friends.
They included Nicholas MacLean, the auction house's British head of modern art, whose two 11-year-old daughters fortunately turned out to be experts at the game. The pair, Flora and Alice, advised Christie's to choose scissors. "Everybody knows you start with scissors," Alice told the New York Times, while her sister added: "Rock is way too obvious, and scissors beats paper."
Two experts from each auction house sat at a long conference table at Maspro's offices and, watched by two Maspro accountants, were told that instead of the usual method of playing the game with hands, they were to write a single character in Japanese.
Christie's went with Scissors while Sotheby's chose Paper, meaning -- as the Maclean girls had predicted -- that Christie's had won.
Jonathan Rendell, the deputy chairman of Christie's in America, described the atmosphere in the room as 'difficult'. The paintings will be sold in New York on Wednesday.
According to Douglas Walker, the managing director of the World Rock Paper Scissors Society and co-author of The Official Rock Paper Scissors Strategy Guide, starting out with Rock is a poor strategy becaise it's the most obvious play. "The clenched fist -- it's a strong image," Walker said from Toronto. "We see it especially in males." Walker said in the high-stakes game between Christie's and Sotheby's he would also have advised to play Scissors -- which is exactly what Christie's did to beat Sotheby's Paper. The reasoning goes like this: since rock was too obvious a first play, your opponent would likely play scissors or paper -- the latter a much more likely move given that art work was at stake. If your opponent also played scissors, then it would be a draw. If paper, you'd win.
Walker said the RPS game between the two auction houses was over the highest stakes that he'd ever heard of. Personally, the most expensive game of RPS he'd ever been involved with was over buying his house. He lost to his wife. "In the end, it turned out to be the right decision," he said. "As far as we're concerned, decisions made with RPS are always right. Resorting to such games of chance is not unheard of in Japan. "It probably looks strange to others but I believe that this is the best way to decide between two things that are equally good," said Maspro's chief, Hashiyama.

Wee Me

What do you do when you have written half an essay but can barely hold it together to write for more than half an hour at a time? You create a Wee Mee! It is actually quite fun and with the help of screenshots and Greg to give my character an eyebrow piercing, we have myself! Although I have to say that Greg's own character looks much more like him than mine does me. Regardless, it was a fun 20 minute diversion.


Wee Denise 

I have also had the chance to download and listen to Ryan Adams' new album with The Cardinals, called Cold Roses. It's the first of three that he is releasing this year, so it's pretty exciting if you are an RA fan. I was supposed to see him here in the Couv last year in March, but he bloody well went and fell off the stage in Liverpool in January and busted up his wrist. I guess it's a blessing that he was able to recover mobility in it at all, but he has had to retire some of his guitars because he doesn't have the full range of movement that he once had. Anyways, a glorious return to form is found on the new album. Four songs stick out in my head already - Now That You're Gone, Sweet Illusions, How Do You Keep Love Alive?, and Let It Ride. It's definitely different then Love is Hell but kind of a throwback to Heartbreaker and some of his unreleased music. I think the lyrics are awesome as usual and I like the kind of southern rock feel it has. I can't wait to pick it up for real tomorrow.
Dave, you lucky bastard, I am so jealous that you get to go to see him in concert in Toronto tomorrow. I should be there! *cries* Ok, I am moving on now... sort of.
Back to Urbs Aeterna and Funeral Pyres.

P.S.
One would think since celebrities have oodles of money and all, that if they got pregnant they could afford the latest in awesome maternity clothing. Someone please remind Britney Spears that she has the money to do so and that it's not appropriate to go to the video store looking like you're heading into the shower. All I can think is, poor baby Spears.


BS 

Song of the Day

Just watching through my Six Feet Under DVD's and this song caught my attention. Some of the lyrics caught me off guard but I like them because I can relate to them.
Anyways, it's a great song and I will probably be listening to it non-stop for the next few days.

74 Willows by Ednaswap/Annetenna


74 willows wept the day
i plotted my escape
the road looking diseased
under a blanket of leaves

back now full circle so it seems
with unused memories
of secrets not worth keeping
and willows weeping

i used to think this time of year
of flying over the fence and beyond here
but i don't think so anymore

i've been looking for the ending my story lacks
a strong enough magnet to pull me back
oh, you are that
oh, you are that

a new outlook for a cynical soul
the feeling i get when the opiates flow
you are that
oh, you are that

i found myself slipping in the snow
adrenalin did flow
adding a smoke-screen
to this flashback scene

my brain raced right back from numb
a peculiar reaction
to those windows creaking
your voice speaking

i think of us travelling at night
at a hundred times the speed of light
i don't think so anymore

i've been looking for the ending my story lacks
a strong enough magnet to pull me back
oh, you are that
oh, you are that

a new outlook for a cynical soul
the feeling i get when the opiates flow
you are that
oh, you are that



i think of us travelling at night
at a hundred times the speed of light
i don't think so anymore

i've been looking for the ending my story lacks
a strong enough magnet to pull me back
oh, you are that
oh, you are that

a new outlook for a cynical soul
the feeling i get when the opiates flow
you are that
oh, you are that

oh, you are...that