Good times

V-ball was absolutely wicked tonight.  Mara, Mike, Si Heng, Eric, and Sothy showed up and we took it too the court.  I was pretty surprised … almost like natural chemistry.  We had some tough games and some pack sessions.  It was all good and we were totally stoked - it couldn’t have worked out any better.  People were covering for the most part, we were getting back sets, quicks, slow shoots, and backrow’s in … it’s not too often we get everything going.  No complaints here for the most part; I was setting pretty well also.  V-ball hasn’t been that good in a long time.

Photo credit: 
Argentina’s Alejandro Raul Spajic (10) and Marcos Antonio Milinkovic go up for a tandem play.  Alejandro spikes the ball against Italy’s
Luigi Mastrangelo (4) during their men’s volleyball bronze medal
competition at the XXVII Summer Games in Sydney, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2000. (AP Photo/Beth A. Keiser) http://www.canoe.ca/2000GamesGalleryOct1/volleyball1.html

How often do you really sit down by yourself and ask
"who am i?"  I was talking to a friend a while back.  She
was telling me that in retrospect, some of the things she did in a brief period
of time didn’t make sense, was wrong and she wasn’t thinking clearly at
all.  How often have you come across that situation?

Of course, I won’t go into the details of what happened, but you really have to
ask yourself, "why did I do that?"  My response?  "Who
are you?"  No one really knows what’s going to happen in life, but if
you’re capable of setting goals for yourself, then that’s all you really
need.  Now don’t go setting goals that you can achieve in a week or so …
I’m talking about long term goals.  Goals that are just out of reach;
goals that are achievable and you’ll continue to strive for.  The
benefit?  Even if you don’t make it, you’ll be better off than if you had
set an easy one.  Let your goals and aspirations lead you through life.

The most important thing in your life right now should be you and you’re own
happiness.  Figure out what you enjoy doing, figure out what you hate,
figure out what you love, figure out what you want out of life.  When
you’re fairly confident you’ve figured that out, then work someone else
in.  In all honesty, how can you be completely happy with someone else,
when you’re not happy on your own?  I guess that’s what people mean by "settling down" - they finally know who they are.

Finding that life partner isn’t just about the spark, it’s also about the
companionship.  Beyond the spark, the friendship and the love comes from
knowing yourself and realizing that you can’t do it alone.  Identify your strengths, your weaknesses, and the companion that you find should balance
you out so that when you become one, you’re both stronger people.  The
eternal love that most are looking for is the appreciation of how well you work
together.  Believe it or not, that’s what lasts an eternity.  As
depressing as it might sound, nine times out of ten, it’s not the spark (on its own) that
lasts, it’s the deep bond that soulmates share … Sure, the spark gets you started, but after that, the spark is a
function of that bond, that friendship, and all things that go with it.

You really need to figure out who you are and it’ll lead to personal and mutual
happiness.  Do whatever you need to get there - be with multiple people or go it alone.  I’ll leave off with this. The real question is when do you really know who you are?  Unfortunately, only you can answer that.

I rolled out of bed late this morning hoping to get some cooking done and work in the afternoon.  No such luck.  I got consumed with cooking - about five hours  =)  Yup, it was one of those days.  I wish I had this much time to play with more often; I really do miss putting together something new and nice once in a while.  What was on the menu this time?  Pancakes with Leek, Chicory and Squash Stuffing  =D

I made way too much.  The filling consisted of butternut squash, leeks, Belgian endive heads, goat’s cheese, walnuts, and parsley - oh and some chili powder to kick it up a notch.  The corn meal pancakes were an adventure - had some fun flipping them in the pan  =)  Put it all together, drizzle some olive oil on top and a healthy portion of Parmesan, toss it in the oven for 15 and you’ve got a meal.  Anyway, I had enough filling and pancakes to make 18 servings - good thing I had some mouths to fill today.

Andra thought they were great and even James, who is somewhat opposed to Vegetarian  food, was pleased as well (I’m sure you’re reading this and will deny it profusely).  I’d say everything came together quite nicely.  I wonder what will be next … either way, I’m going out to try some Ethiopian food sometime soon  =)

Yup, it’s been a pretty busy day and some one-on-one time with my car was definitely needed - I am a guy after all.  Anyway, the car got a full scale cleaning inside and out.  Interior: windows, vacuum, low gloss Armor-All, leather conditioner.  Exterior: pre-wash, wash, Rain-X, dry, wax, post-wax soak, dry, tire shine.  Total time: 4+ hours.  Excessive I know.  Why all the work?  First of all, it was long over due.  Second, I wanted to get some pics in before I had to take the tint off the front windows - damned RCMP.  Either way, the car looks better than the day I picked it up and it’ll likely never be this way again  =(  Stay tuned for the tint removal adventure - I’ll likely be trying to remove it myself this weekend.  I hope all goes well - keep your fingers crossed for me.

Anyway, after the hard work, I got a couple games of v-ball in at UVic.  The knees are messed as usual.  What can you do?  I wish they would just heal and put me out of my misery.

Later on in the evening, I had nothing really to do so I decided to venture into unfamiliar territory.  A buddy of mine had organized a car meet at Timmie’s and I thought I might check it out.  For the most part, while kinda cool, it wasn’t my cup of tea as expected - but each to its own as long as you’re doing what you enjoy.  A whole lot of guys showing off their cars and drooling over the mods that they made.  The green and white CRX I saw with hydrolics warranted the thought, "Why?"  After that, a motorcade of RSX’s and Integra’s made their way through the downtown core to Clover Point … talk about causing a traffic jam!  The guys did 40 km/h all the way down checking out each other’s cars.  For all the girls that sat through the entire meet, you are truly amazing women!  Kudos to you!  Anyway, an eventful day indeed …

Update:  The tint removal went pretty smoothly and without too much of a hitch.  After unbolting the door panels, and steaming the tint, it pulled off relatively easy.  The only thing that was a minor nusance was the residual glue that was left over; luckily there wasn’t much of it.

…. has the ability to identify weakness and affect positive change.

All too often people get caught in a bubble and think they’re hot stuff.  The reality of the situation is that 99% of the time, there will always be someone better than you.  There’s no reason to think you’re the best and have your nose up in the air.  In my opinion, that can be a person’s greatest weakness - what are you compensating for?  What are you afraid of having people know?  The better approach would be to identify the weakness and do something about it.  Don’t avoid it - only then  you can be a stronger person.  No matter what you’re doing, if you have the ability to take a step back and take a real look at the situation, you’re stronger than anyone that can’t - and believe me, a lot of people can’t.  The first step to self improvement is the ability to identify weaknesses.  Be humble; there’s always something to learn and improve on.  Be confident, but don’t get cocky.

Apparently, there’s a festival called "edges" that’s been going on in Victoria the past few days.  It’s a selection of the best Canadian independent short films and videos.  I had no clue this was going on until a buddy of mine pulled me out to check it out.  We sure picked the right night and time to go … the first thing that came to mind after the first short?  "Someone please, tell me what the hell that was!!!"  I was trying to figure out who was on crack … Anyway, I couldn’t figure out what 80% of the directors were trying to achieve.  Perhaps they were just too abstract for me, or the quick, random images were giving me a headache and causing eye strain.  Either way, some of the stuff was pretty damned weird - and who the hell would think of running Marlon Brando’s movies through a "particularily problematic MPEG stream" and call it art?  I fell asleep in a matter of minutes; serves them right for showing 18 freaking minutes of it!!!  Whatever, I think that the theme for the evening "out there, eclectic explorations" is enough of an explaination.

Interestingly enough though, it did spark some thoughts in my own convoluted mind.  Most of the short films were from a whole other dimension and they made me realize how quickly we can become focused on life as we know it.  What do I mean?  With work and all our our immediate interests (whatever they may be), we can quickly forget about all the other things that are going on in life … essentially sheltering ourselves from the rest of the world.  My buddy apologized to me saying that the films were so off the rocker that it was an apparent waste of time.  It most definitely wasn’t the case though.  While they are different and most definitely off the beaten path, it makes the mind wander and spur interest.  It’s also a small opportunity to make sure that you don’t get too entrenched in your ways too quickly and forget about the rest of the world.  Make sure you always stay aware of what’s going on in your environment and try something different every so often.

Ok, I don’t know what I’ve done but the Systems group has gone a little nutz after I brought the first Powerball in.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a pretty cool wrist exerciser but since bringing one in a couple  weeks ago, it’s certainly spurred a lot of interest.  So much that a $400 order went in earlier this week.  Now six other people have them in the office … and a constant whurring can be heard throughout the day.  Everyone’s trying to beat each other’s RPM score … this thing’s starting to generate a buzz in other departments as well …

This past weekend I was up in Whistler … yup, I jumped off the plane from San Jose/Portland and booked it up to Whistler with Dave that very night.  We didn’t start making our way up there till about 9pm but got up there quick.  I was able to find a couple guys setting a quick pace - we were there in an hour and a half I think.

Anyway, the snow at Whistler was ok.  It snowed 15 cm’s the night before we got there.  You could only really ski the top third of the mountain and in the morning, the snow was great … when it hit the afternoon, things got a little slushy.  At mid-mountain, it was horrible.  Starting at 3:30 or so on Saturday it started snowing hard and did so all the way in to Sunday.  It was still going strong when I
woke up at 5:30 on Sunday (couldn’t sleep - shitty soft bed).  23 cm came down that night and it looks as though 27 cm dropped on Sunday ’cause they reported a total of 55 cm for the weekend.  We didn’t ski Sunday unfortunately, but did get caught behind the mudslide between Squamish and Horseshoe Bay.

Saturday night could have been much better.  A freaking RCMP pulled me over.  He dinged me for my tinted windows up front and now i have to take them off  =(  I was so pissed you have no idea … anyway, I have to look to take the stuff off this weekend.  Can’t put it back on now either since they’ve got me on record.  Had a Martini that night - it put me out pretty quick.  For some reason, it was more potent than usual; even Dave agreed with me on that one.  One thing we did catch, was a replay of one of Usher’s concerts - if he ever comes to Vancouver or Seattle, I’m there … won’t even have to think about it.  I was impressed when I saw him on tv … I think to a certain extent, he’s trying to continue where Michael Jackson left off.

Sunday afternoon was filled with Sushi and bbtea with Janice and Jan out by Metrotown.  I was completely out of it the whole day … so damned exhausted physically I couldn’t do a damned thing.  I was looking forward to heading home and sleeping in my own bed.

As I had mentioned in a previous post, I met a little girl that was four and a half years old in the airport in Portland on my way back to Vancouver (Day Five: Kids Rock!).  There was, most definitely, something there to reflect on.  I’ve known this for a long time and it was just further cemented in this recent experience.  Just like the mother of this young girl, always create an environment to support and promote creativity - the earlier you start the better.

All too often I come across people that don’t know who they are or what they want to do with their lives.  This takes experimentation, and while you could do it any time during your life, it becomes more risky as time goes on.  Furthermore, many questions, and therefore problems, could have been solved years ago - or at the very least, given you the tools earlier in life to deal with future issues.  Knowing this, I’m sure you can come up with a couple examples.  I can come up with a handful without even thinking about it.  So, what’s the point?  Help your kids find out who they are and what they want out of life as soon as possible.  lt’s one of the biggest things you can do to accelerate someone to a life of success and complete happiness.

"You know you’re in California when it rains and all of a sudden tourists stop and wonder what the heck is going on."

Yes, it rained today and I did that very thing.  It clouded over once when I was there and every other day since then it was bright, sunny and relatively warm.  I left my room this morning in a fleece.  Two steps away from the front door, I stop, cock my head to the left and ponder for a moment.  "It’s raining." Whipping myself around, I head back to the room to rip my gortex out of my packed suitcase.

<fast forward>

Sitting here in the middle of Portland airport, a young girl and her mother plopped themselves down behind me.

"Mom, let’s take the speed boat for a irde."  "This dolphin’s name is Adrienne."  "Let’s ride this two person ferry behind a motor boat."  "Won’t we get sick from going over the wake?  How big is the boat."  "Oh, it’s small but we’ll be fine."  "Let’s drop the boat anchor!"  "Look! I’m riding a whale!"  That’s only a few of the dozen ideas she had in the span of 5 minutes.

The particular object I was sitting on was fairly simple, but interesting enough to spur interest; perhaps that’s what attracted me to it subconciously.  The bottom half of the object resembled a granit boat and top half a soft rolling surface, humps if you will.  I’ts amazing where the imagination of a young child can take them.

The most amazing thing owever, was the ability for this girl to articulate her ideas … she was smart too.  "Hi, my name’s Chris, what’s yours?"  "Mine’s Arline, I’m four and a half years old and I’m from Portland.  We’re going to California."  She put a smile on my face and will liekly be the bright spot during this lame three hour layover in the airport.