blargh is the new black

Now situated at random student hang-out starbucks across from church I may be attending... got new printer today (one that works with Mac... sorry no laser Jer, but it was the only one I could find!)

Also got some batteries for my camera so expect some fun pics of Kingston area and me doing crazy stuff here... until then keep it real!

I am in Kingston now

First of all, Kingston is freaking beautiful. The population is similar to Peterborough but it is very spread out. There are tons of trees and greenery, cliffs, and of course, Lake Ontario visible from my classrooms and a massive river running through town. Absolutely breathtaking.

The man I'm living with is named Jim McTavish and he is certainly a blessing from God. On my first night he drove me all around Kingston to show me where everything is, and he even took me out for dinner to a spicy, spicy thai restaurant (and he paid too!) Much better than a dorm for sure! I am thankful for his kindness.

Also he is the first true "Liberal Christian" I have ever met. He rejects pretty much the entirety of scripture as authority, but he reads theology and goes to a couple different church meetings. He also recommended a church that fits "my spiritual needs"... an associated gospel church called Bethal Tabernacle. They are reformed but as far as I can see also charismatic to some extent and apparently they have some rockin' worship, I'll be checking them out this Sunday.

The Kingston downtown also makes me happy. With 2 colleges and 1 university it is entirely aimed at young folks. The main street has a bunch of indie record shops and even an American Apparel (yes!) and to appease my homesickness, the sister Chumleigh's is located in downtown Kingston... lol I just need to not become as regular a customer as I am at home because I don't have a job anymore!

That's all for now, any Kingston folks better give me some love soon before I get lonely!

last post before Kingston

Well, it is 2:31 am and I have just finished packing all the stuff that I am taking with me to Kingston (including a nice going away present from Steve: a six-pack of St. Ambroise Apricot Wheat Ale, sweet!) Tomorrow at 9:00 am I'll be leaving for Kingston with my parents.

I'm apprehensive... I have never set foot in Kingston before and now it is going to be where I live?! Oh well, at least I have Syb to show me around. We'll be catching the new Halloween on Monday and she's gonna show me around downtown.

I'm also excited, first time away from home and all... long overdue! We'll see how this Noah by his lonesome thing goes for a few months.

Thanks to Jer, Steve and Syb who made my final time in Peterborough fun... miss you Rach, see you as soon as possible. And all you who are in Kingston I expect a ring! See ya there!

recap of the weekend

Listening to: Daft Punk- Human After All Remix EP This notably includes remixes by big names such as Justice and SebastiAn, but the best part is that each remix is so unique and different from the original song that I can listen to over 30 minutes of "Human After All" without getting bored. Cool!

This weekend saw a rather short trip to Dundas to visit Rachel's fam and go to the annual Cactus Festival. Since I had to work till 11 I went up on Saturday morning, catching the ungodly 4:10 am bus. I didn't bother sleeping for the approximately 4 hours between my shift and the bus, instead using the time to pack and get clean, as well as spend some quality time with Steve and Michael Hayes who providentially stepped into my Tim Horton's 5 minutes before the end of my shift, and they didn't plan it. Michael lent me the extent of his Daft Punk collection which I have safely placed upon my computer's hard drive to enjoy until a later time when I can obtain more legal copies at the right price. Steve and I also had a rather metaphysical conversation about film, music and the nature of Daft Punk's record Human After All (do we sense a theme here maybe?)

Anyway fast forward a few hours and I arrive in Toronto at 5:45 am. And my bus to Hamilton doesn't leave until 8:45. That's right, three whole hours in Toronto. This is not something I would normally complain about, especially considering that the flagship HMV and World's Largest Bookstore are both within a block from the bus terminal. The only problem is that even in Toronto, nothing except coffee shops are open until 9:00am, annoyingly 15 minutes after I have to leave. So pretty much all I did was go for an early morning walk and then nestle into a corner of Starbucks with my double tall non-fat no foam latte and my bible for some good reading of Philippians.

Finally I get on the bus and at 10 am I arrive in Dundas. I talk with Rachel's family for a while before Rachel gets home after buying her wedding dress (which I obviously was not allowed to see). Eventually I decide to have a nap, which stretches out to 4 hours before Rach wakes me up. We then walked around the main street of Dundas for the Cactus Festival. This is an annual event that is rather popular among the locals and tourists alike. Dundas used to have the province's largest Cactus store, and therefore defined itself as the "Cactus Capital of Ontario," and inaugurating the festival because of it. Since then the store has gone out of business and the Cactus Fest has very little to do with Cacti. Instead it is an opportunity for all the stores on the main street to have sales, a bunch of vendors to set up sidewalk sales, and some live music and an overpriced midway. Pretend the Peterborough Ex were to take place on George Street with the Midway in the park and the vendors lining the Street and you get the idea... except on a much smaller scale because Dundas is rather small.

Eventually we had supper at a local pub with a bunch of Rachel's friends. The food was great, but the service was the worst I have ever had. They actually forgot about my meal entirely and we had to remind the waitress about it about ten minutes after everyone else was eating. Then when Rachel's friend Brian asked for some water it took at least 20 minutes for him to receive it, and this pub isn't very big either.

On Sunday we went to see the movie "Superbad" with Misty and one of her friends. This was the most vile, disgusting, perverted and immature movie I have ever seen, and that's only based on the first 10 minutes. I almost walked out of it and I feel like I should have. Don't go see it, the title describes it perfectly. After the movie we had dinner with Rachel's family and then took the long ride home and stayed up chatting until about 1:30 am... then I decided to leave considering Rachel had to be at work for 8am this morning... ick...

Of course, as a side note, I also forgot my plastic bag which contained all my toiletries, so today I have to stop off at Shopper's Drug Mart before work to procure such staples as Deodorant, Sunscreen, and hair wax. So Now I must go get ready in order to do this... sigh, well that's all for now, hope you had a good weekend as well.

Oliver is dead and other items

In what appears to be part of a series of unfortunate pet events this week, my beautiful exotic shorthair Oliver (aka Ollie, aka "Smashface" due to his breed's unique flat facial features) is now dead. His death was sudden and unexpected. We noticed that he was having trouble urinating, and that he was passing blood. We assumed a urinary tract infection and took him to the vet to get checked out. They wanted to keep him overnight for testing, but before they could do it he randomly had an intense seizure and then just stopped moving. The Vet assumes he had some sort of aneurysm.

Anyway, I'll miss the fella... he was one of my fav cats, wary of strangers but extremely affectionate to those he knew. He will be missed.

Tomorrow also promises to be the busiest day ever. Here's the lowdown:

1. Go downtown
2. Buy Greyhound ticket to Dundas
3. Get hair cut
4. Come home
5. Go to work 2:30-11
6. Come home
7. Have bath
8. Watch long movie to keep me awake
9. leave house at 3:30 am to catch 4:10am Greyhound to Dundas
10. Arrive in Dundas at 9:55am after lengthy stopover in Toronto
11. Sleep while Rachel goes wedding dress shopping
12. Spend all Saturday doing crazy stuff
13. eventually sleeping

There ya go. Have fun.

" † "

The day that I understand God is the day that I become an atheist.

the good, the bad, and the absolutely disgusting

Wow! This weekend was a winner (and a loser!) There are about five things that happened that I'll never forget, and some nice things too.... let's move along with the story...

Le Saturday:

Started out harmless enough. Jer and I decide to drive to the dirty 'Shwa for some fun and frolic, c'mon, we've done this a million times what could possibly go wrong on this routine road trip?!

Well, our brake lines could break.
Check.

That's right, our brake lines. Those are the things that stop the car's momentum safely and stop us from, say, rear-ending the angry man in front of us...

Well, we did our thing in the 'Shwa, no longer road trippin' but stranded instead, until Jer's dad came and picked us up. We then went to the Simpson's Movie to blow off some steam. Some shopping was also accomplished in the 'Shwa, but unfortunately Jer found nothing except his car's broken brake lines! Oh well, interesting day.

Le Sunday:

Went to see Daft Punk with Steve and his bro Michael. The concert was amazing and really loud. At one point a girl handed me a glow stick and then encouraged me to wave it in the air, which was rather interesting in that it is absolutely against my personality but was rather fun.

There are a few negatives to the otherwise great evening however. First of all there were lots of drugs. I mean, when I saw Phish life there was actually less pot at that show. We were surrounded by people smoking pot and it made me feel sick. Also there were a lot of scantily clad girls, fortunately no nude ones though! Thirdly and worst of all, when the show was over an obviously intoxicated girl puked on me. Full fledged vomit. Fortunately (well, for me only I guess) the only thing this girl had in her stomach was vodka, and lots of it, so her projectile vomit resembled water, smelly water, but at least water.

Oh, and when I got home just now I accidentally washed my pocket watch in the laundry, and at the moment it doesn't work at all... hopefully tomorrow morning it'll be okay once it dries up, but only time will tell.

Mostly a good weekend, but I have a feeling that the more challenging and annoying things will be more memorable than the "good" things... but then again remaining calm after being puked on builds more character than just positive happy stuff, so I'll take it. At least she said sorry.

The Noah Salo Guide to Ironic Haircuts (For Men), vol. 1

In celebration of both my um, "freedom from employment" and also my last year of being a single man, I thought that I might go for the "David Crowder look"... that is, not shaving or cutting my hair for a long time: