MTNGoatOnWheels

2006-10-30T12:54:00.000-05:00

So a few days ago, I notice the MSN tagline of a friend. It said something about changing the name of Avenue Du Parc. At the time I wasn't up to date on current local events and thus I had no clue what was he talking about.
Today, I was just browsing on TV and I came up to a news brief saying that this city wanted to change the name of a major avenue to another.
Here is where the rant begins...
With pot holes being at their worst, the local economy is not excatly flourishing (I don't live in Alberta) and given the amount of resources needed to change the name of a city street; It makes me wonder what is the reasoning behind it.
Maybe just the city wanting to spend money on apparences instead of fixing some non cosmetic things. Idiots...

yay!

2006-09-11T23:50:00.000-04:00

spam comments... i love them!
keep em comming!!!

Slowly getting back into it

2006-08-26T13:37:00.000-04:00

Once one stops climbing it is like the climbing ability just goes the way of the dodo bird. I'm fighting now to get back into my old grades but it's a long hard battle. The hard climbs have teamed up with lack of motivation and they are all coming for me.
On the other hand, I've got a new ally. I met a new partner just recently. I can't stop saying how cool she is. Although she doesn't lead and is climbing soft grades, I'm sure she will improve and maybe will get the urge to climb on the sharp end.
Anyhow, summer is coming to a close rather quickly. I didn't spend a lot of time climbing outside this year (read lack of motivation). That said, I am looking forward to this year's ice season. I just need to get my tools back! I'm putting in a rule, something that I should have learned in thailand but I missed the lesson. Never lend out your gear!

I just noticed

2006-07-17T22:44:00.000-04:00

This blogk is one year old!
Happy birthday bloggy thingy!!!!11

Let me share...

2006-07-17T22:39:00.000-04:00

8 strawberries
3 tbl sugar (or honey, i don't have any right now)
1/2 cup orange juice (with pulp)

put all that in a blender and give it a whirrr...
add in:

10 ice cubes
1/3 cup of vodka

give it more whirrrr in the blender, until all the ice cubes are slush

pour into two medium glases
garnish with a cut strawberry

enjoy!

It's only wednesday

2006-07-12T10:24:00.000-04:00

But I feel like its Monday all over again!
I went to the gym last night; Climbing is a hard activity these days. I took my brother in law climbing (as my sister and her family are currently visiting my mom) as he'd never done it before. It was hyisterical! Its always fun to see newbies go climbing for the first time, it makes me realize just how hard climbing is! All in all it is a great activity.
I'm at the office now, I'm supposed to start on a new project that deals with taking a result set derived from a database, convert that into an XML document then, from that document, output a print quality PDF file. Its an interesting project, definetly something I have never done before. It is always cool to learn new things.

Meh, one more picture

2006-07-05T21:21:00.000-04:00

Pictures!

2006-07-05T21:06:00.000-04:00

Then the world goes upside down

2006-07-05T21:00:00.000-04:00

I can't even begin to detail how much things have changed.
Before life was routine. Things came and things went. Now, everything is new.
I guess to sum it up in one world would be: change.
One change that I'm happy about is me going back to the gym. I've been going hard this week at least. I'm so not at the level where I used to be and its kind of frustrating! The goal of climbing is to have fun and that is excatly what I do. Although my whole body hurts...

Some things never change...

2006-06-19T13:27:00.000-04:00

Some people are still very plastic.
To all of you that fit that bill:
From the deepest crevasse located in my heart... fuck you!

One last thing...

2006-05-30T19:35:00.000-04:00

Living with a roommate sucks... If said roommate was a chick and there would be a possibility she'd go to town with me, then maybe. Then again, that's a whole other can of worms. Living alone rocks.

Updates

2006-05-30T19:14:00.000-04:00

I got a damn pot belly! Bloody hell, I can remember a while ago wanting to be bigger, to have more volume to my shape. I got that covered now, mission accomplished. Now, guess what? I have over done it. In my close to 8 months of lazyness I think (because I've no scale...) I've gained about 20 pounds of pure shit in me. I have lost muscle, or it has mysteriously transformed into a jelly-like substance that seems to be in it's place.

So what now? Back to training. Pure and simple... I have to go through a lot of pain, like I did when I started doing excercise a few years ago. In fact, I started it the past weekend. Saturday was a tour in the gym (Horizon, I've not been there in over a year) and on Sunday it was a day trip to Val David (pics are up on the site) (no, not this site). During the approach walk, we got lost and ended up hiking for a good 2 hours or so. That heat, the pack and the trail killed me so much I dehydrated, but like a dumbass, I didn't notice or ignored it. When climbing my first route, I felt like it was the hardest route I had ever done! It was only a 5.9 on top rope. I was lowered down and it hit me like a ton of bricks. A lightheaded feeling, extremely weak and nasua: dehydrated. I drank my 1.5 litre nalgene throughout the afternoon and I didn't dare try to climb another route for fear that I would puke my brains out. I was pretty tired when I got home.

Yesterday, I did some weights working opposing muscles plus a few rounds on the hangboard doing pull-ups. After that I went for an evening jog. I've not counted how many blocks but it was a descent distance for a fat ass like myself right now, a shameful distance when I used to train. Tonight, I plan to do the same or at least a variation but definetly going to go for a run. I have to get back into my normal self... Because of how I want to feel, because I want to be healthy and because my goddamn clothes don't fit anymore.

One step at the time.

Spam rhetoric: A rant of sorts

2006-05-30T19:04:00.000-04:00

What is the use of going to a useless blog and hit up a comment trying to peddle whatever it is that you peddle? How effective is this type of marketing?

I realize that companies must send out mass mailings and do a lot of shady things to get noticed, that is the name of the marketing game after all. However, to make posts on a blog or sending emails to a list urging us to go to you for the cheapest meds, how much ROI are you getting back? The minimum cost of producing this would be a few hours of a programmer's time to set up a spider to place these posts. I do wonder sometimes if the increased business as a direct result of that little post is viable.

I've not come up with a single spam message that would make me want to buy their product. It's a question of ethics; If I would want to buy Cialis or Viagra, what makes the average spam dude thing that I will want to buy it when you spell it Ci@lis or V1@g@ in order to sneak by the spam filters of people's email reader of choice?

Man, the internet is a wonderful thing, but sometimes some kind of standard is required, or a certain level of marutiry of cominication skills. Just a rant.

So...

2006-04-25T21:44:00.000-04:00

My last post was about the Ant wars I'm forced to wager. The update on that is Ants are stronger than me. They are attracted to the cat's wet food I give him in the mornings. The dry food has no appeal to the ants whatsoever. This is a good thing, except for the cat. Since the remedy is to remove anything desireable to the ants, the cat food must go. So now, I am going to eventually train the cat not to get wet food and be happy with the dry. Maybe he'll get a good serving of wet food on the weekends, when I have ample time at home to remove the place once he has finished.
I'm going to try hot sauce on their entrance, let's see if that keeps them at bay for a while.

War has been waged!

2006-04-19T11:18:00.000-04:00

Between The Cat and I and the Ants.
It seems that I have some unwanted guests (not the human kind) living in my flat, Ants. It seems they have taken a liking to The Cat's wet food and have resorted to raiding it after he's done eating it. Yesterday was pretty bad! I laid out the food plate for The Cat at around 8:30 am. Then I went back to bed (as I was dead tired from the previous night's debauchery), about 3 hours later, when I woke up, I found a well established ant-highway going from the door of the kitchen (there is a crack there where I suspect the Ants have make an entrance) and The Cat's food plate. It was terrible! I sweped up maybe 50 of the little shits and flushed them down the toilet (what a way to end it all).
Anyhow, yesterday as I returned from work, I decided to clean the flat top to bottom. I dusted, wiped, swept and mopped all over, not sparing any pine sol either! And this is my triumph, at least I think (er, hope) it was. In the crack where the ants come in and out from, I cleaned it very well and I laced the walls (pertaining to the crack of course) with Tiger Balm. Now, the cracks have a nice mentholy smell, one that I can smell when I'm standing in the doorway to the kitchen. I hope that will be enough for the ants to wager against going to go eat The Cat's food. This is the first battle. The war has been waged.

I noticed something...

2006-04-10T21:47:00.000-04:00

Just coming back from climbing. I had a great time! Although, I'm pretty sore and I could have climbed a lot better than I was, but no matter, the important thing is that I'm back on the horse. I need to get fit!

But, as I was saying, I noticed something. I don't post as many pictures are before anymore these days. Well, my appologies for that. Without further ado, here is one picture!
This is a impromptu portrait session that I did in my new place.
This girl wanted a "indie" photo of her. She wanted a portrait, but not in a conventional sense portrait. She didn't want to smile, although, that is her nature; she is always smiling!
Anyhow, on the left you can see the result. I've yet to scan out one more roll of film from that session. All in all, I like how this frame came out.

Training is hard

2006-04-10T16:19:00.000-04:00

Let me just tell you about it, er, should I say whine about it instead?
Anyhow, this weekend was my return to the gym. Since I've started the moving into an appartment process, I've readily avoided the gym! I have become lazy over the past few months, so much so that I've even started to grow a belly! Not a huge spare tire thing, but it's not a ripped 6 pack!
Climbing on saturday with my long time climbing partner, it was fun! I got on some leads, but I realized that I am bad at it. I've lost so much in terms of climbing ability. But not to worry, I intend to get it all back and then some! Yesterday I went out running with the roommate (god, I hate that term; He is NOT my roommate!) I could only exhert myself for about 15 minutes... Now, I hurt all over! But it's a good hurt, muscles are coming back to life and soon I'll be able to push myself even futher, like before!
Until then, I'll just be walking a little slower these days.. ouch.

Daylight Savings Time

2006-04-03T08:47:00.000-04:00

I suspect there must be a large number of people who this morning woke up excatly 1 hour late. I am working from home today because I must make up one person out of that group.
So, while I'm here, I might as well tell you some news here. Saturday, I was supposed to go have dinner with this girl. Well, that didn't happen. I don't know excatly what happened but dinner never happened, instead, I managed to pick up a refugee.
My friend calls me on Saturday morning and asks me if I could let him in for a few days while he finds a new appartment. I reluctantly let him in with all his crap he was hauling. Well, I'm on day two of harboring a guest in my tiny appartment... I don't excatly know when is he going to leave but let's just home it's soon. I kinda liked my time alone and the experience of having a roommate is not appealing to me.
Well, those are the news. Which reminds me, I have to reply to my traveling friends! They are still in New Zeland somewhere. It's pretty cool they still write to me and tell me travel updates. It's going to be almost 6 months since I met them. I have to figure out a way to see them again.

Update

2006-03-29T16:13:00.000-05:00

I reckon it's time to give you kiddies an update as to what's been going on.
Well, I'm oficially in my new appartment. Living alone rules! So far, It's been pretty steady at my place, there is always someone coming over and doing stuff. Usually it's only my buddy coming to chill with a beer and a J before his hour long drive back home.
Last night, my music girl friend came over. There is nothing going down with that chick, as she is in another planet. She constantly talks to me about her latest love affair with a 20 yr. old virgin. I'm like, dude, do you really have to tell me this shit? Anyhow, We drank some wine last night, ate some indian food and just chilled. I took two rolls of film of head shots of her... let's see how they turned out. I'll have to develop them pretty soon though, if all goes well, I'll get to Photo Service on Saturday and I can come home and process them.
Well, besides that... not much else is going on. Life as usual, er, not really... but I'm looking upwards!

Almost done

2006-03-20T11:47:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, my brother came up to visit. I had planned for him to help me move into my new appartment. That was scheduled for the Friday... The actual move took about 2 hours. It was 2 van fulls of stuff and it was settled.
Next, we headed to IKEA to go do some damage to my financials. 1600$ later, I now have furniture! Everthing has been taken out of boxes and it somewhat put away. There is still a lot of stuff to be put into their place but it's coming along nicely.
I made my first home cooked meal last night.
I am going to like being out on my own.

What a weekend

2006-03-13T09:01:00.000-05:00

Of debauchery!
Here are the accounts... Saturday, I went to see a friend. I hung around his house for a while. We watched some videos and listened to some music. All week, I'd been trying to score some smoke but everyone I knew had let me down and since my other friend's kid was just born on Monday night, he wasn't around. Anyhow, I picked up my stash and headed home.
So, the weekend was my first official weekend in my new place! I didn't do much, as there is nothing in my appartment, but anyhow, being there alone and knowing it is my place just felt good. Besides, Saturday night, I was just too drunk and wasted to really do anything.
Sunday, different story. One of my friends, who has a station wagon was cool enough to drive me to Ikea so I can pick up some furniture. I ended up getting a sofa and a kitchen table with two chairs. The sofa is amazingly comfortable, it reclines a little back offering more room to sleep, well, me stoned, I just dosed off. It was grand.
Right now, it's Monday, at around 9 am. I am so repenting from my sins.. I'm litteraly just so tired that I can hardly focus. I think I'll make today an easy day for me. Bad part of all of this is that I am supposed to go to the gym tonight. I'm not sure I'll go that far, I can't see myself doing a workout while I feel like the lonely roadkill tossed on the side of the highway. Ugh, tired.. so tired.

I like this picture

2006-03-03T22:51:00.000-05:00

She Almost Did It To Me!

2006-02-27T13:24:00.000-05:00

My mother! She created a huge mess with the my internet company that it took a good 45 minutes on the phone, not to mention driving the customer rep up the wall, to resolve this issue.
Let me explain...

I've had cable internet with Videotron for about a year. The reason being as my mother doesn't use cable, instead she chooses to pay people to cook satellite cards for her, and I need the invoices under my name so I can expense them through my office. This situation has worked out fine for the past two years, I get my bill every month, pay the amount, then eventually expense the whole thing. Complications started about two months ago...

My mother got wind that Videotron offers, among their internet and cable television services, a telephony service (kind of a voice-over-ip deal). Their service is fairly cheap comparing it to the local phone company, so she got the brain wave idea that she would switch.
One day, I come home from the office and she tells me about her idea for switching. I knew I was going to be moving (didn't really know where, but I did know that I wanted to move) so I didn't put much thought into that, I just told her to wait. She, of course, didn't wait. She called around and tried to get the telephone service installed at any costs. I was relieved to find out that she couldn't add any services because the account was solely to my name. I again, told her to wait.

Eventually, a few weeks later, she some how managed to get everything installed. I didn't ask how, I just asked (and stressed) my internet account not to be messed with! I repeatedly asked if the cable TV and the telephony service was going to be under her name, basically ensuring that I was kept separate from any of this. She said yes, and kept saying yes. I guess I was satisfied with this response, as I didn't think much of it. I wound up with cable television in my room, as long as I wasn't responsible for it, I was pretty much happy!

Today, since I was calling all the utility companies to advise them of my change of address and to open accounts (gas bill, electricity bill..), I ended up calling Videotron and schedule a service transfer for two weeks from now, my moving date. This is how I find about the huge mess I was in...

Apparently, I had subscribed to all of their services, telephony, cable television (with the decoder box) and the internet. I didn't really question the claims, I just only thought "fuck, she (my mom) did it to me!!" Anyhow, I tried to cancel the extra services but I had been locked in a 12 month contract! So either I break the contract and pay the penalty fee or I just move with phone and all. I decided to move everything, after all where I go, I have to have an internet connection due to my work. So at that point, I was going to move with my mother's phone. She was not going to be happy. Oh well...

I call her, she had received a call from Videotron so she was up to date on what was happening. She freaked out... And I have no idea what did she do as they had assigned her a new phone number. I tried to ask her what had she done but, in her usual style of avoiding any and all blame to her, didn't tell me anything in detail. I decided to call back Videotron and straighten the whole situation out once and for all, lest I would be stuck with a 300$ bill at the end of the month. I wanted only internet service to be at my new apartment.

I reach a customer service representative at Videotron, I explain to her the situation in detail. I get put on hold as, I'm assuming, she talked to her manager. Eventually, she comes back and passes me to someone else. I again, explain to that rep the messed up situation and I ask her to please rectify it, somehow! After about 30 minutes on hold and answering small questions, I get a solution to my predicament.

What ended up happening, which is still in the process, is my mother will take control of all of the services for the time being. When the two weeks are up, and I am able to move, they will sever the internet service from her and place it under my name and address. This was the simplest solution they could come up with.

Anyhow, needless to say this was not a pleasant experience, and it not really over and done with, it will not be until I'm in my new apartment.

New Appartment

2006-02-25T23:59:00.000-05:00

I just signed my lease for my new appartment. I went and spend a lot of money on cleaning products and some kitchen supplies. Spent today cleaning like a motherfucker. No matter how much I scrub, no matter how hard I wipe, an old appartment just cannot look new again. But at least it will look clean!

I had a friend come over and help me clean, she was nice enough to do a kick ass job on cleaning the dusty kitchen. I cleaned the bathroom and I did the living room. I've yet to finish with the firdge, the oven (basicaly finish off the kitchen) and clean the bedroom and the vestibule area. I am hoping I will get a lot of it done tomorrow, then it's just to wait until the right time to move my stuff. I cannot tell you how anxious I am for the first night in my new pad.

I went to have dinner with my friend at a newarby restaurant, near by my new place, as I have literally 20 different restaurants in a 6 block line. Dinner was extremely enjoyable! One of the best Indian cuisine restaurants I've ever tasted! I will be definetly coming back again, hopefully next time I go there, I'll only have to walk 4 blocks and be in my home.

Something that I've wanted for a long time!

2006-02-20T15:54:00.000-05:00

Many moons ago, too damn many in fact, I moved back in with my mother to help her out financially. That turned out to be more of a commitment than I originally anticipated, as she came down with depression and some psychological issues. That was around 4 years ago! Now, she is a lot better compared to back then, she has been able to travel, she is relatively stable albeight ailing of all sorts, but that is to be expected when you are 72 years old. Fast forward...

My predicament has always been that I've not lived in my own home for a long time now. I've witnessed a lot of my friends move in and out of their places, arrange their homes in a certain way to please them and buy some decorations to put up somewhere. Meanwhile, I just sit in a corner admiring and secretly wondering what would I do if it were me who was living in an appartment.

My days of wonder are over! I have decided to strike it out on my own. To get an appartment for myself and to start my life as it's been pretty much put on hold for so long now. I will be awarded with some liberties in decorating my place as I see fit, to adorn the walls with my photos and do pretty much whatever I like.

I've started packing some stuff today, things as my books and DVDs are already in boxes, ready to be hauled into an appartment. I've yet to find a place, but that will not be very difficult, at least I'm hoping it won't. Just today, I'm going to call a place to arrange a visit. The price is good and the location is not excellent, but it will do. The complex is located near a major Montreal artery and it is close to where I have to be.

In the back of my mind, I am worried for my mother. Will she do OK without me? Is she ready to live alone? I know I am ready to live alone, I am quite anxious in fact. This is now a new chapter in my life. Turn the page.