Happy New Year!!!

Here's something funny. I got this in my email today.

My apartment manager is a writer and a poet. Every Christmas he writes a good Christmas poem. Here's his poem for this Christmas:

Christmas Is...

An evening of faith, A morning of joy

Minding the promise of a newborn boy

Pale carpets of snow, a necklace of frost

Whispering prayers, their message not lost

Icicles twinkling in moon beams reflection

Cloaks of tree lights, a festive confection

Secretive presents, huddled beneath the tree

Children laughing, melodies of Christmas glee

A mighty chorus while the world lies still

Of peace and hope, love and good will.

By George Stevens

December, 2003

What's your favorite Christmas song? Mine is Bing Crosby & David Bowie "Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy". That song almost always brings a tear to my eye. It's a wonderful piece. I think my best friend L. has it on CD some where.

I'll be spending Christmas eve. With my parents in Langley this year and then I'm spending Christmas Day with my best friend L. It'll be fun. Would you believe I haven't finished my Christmas shopping yet? Yes, I'll be one of those completely crazy people out there tomorrow and Sunday looing for those last minute gifts.

I hope we get some snow this year. So far there is lots of snow in the mountains, but it hasn't quite got here yet. A white Christmas would be nice.

Gnite

Well it looks like the file hosting service I was trying to use (for the link to the video that I uploaded yesterday) is blocking people from downloading it now. They apparently have a 5Mb download limit. They allow you to have 30mbs of free storage space, but you can only download 5mbs a day. In other words, it would be inpossible for anyone to see every file in one day. Today only 2 people got to see the video, so I'm goingot have to try something else. Oh well, I guess that's why it's free.

Tonight I'm supposed to go to the post office and mail a big box of Christmas goodies to my family in the Okanagan interior. I've been procrastinating because I know the post office will be crazy. It's gotta be done though, so off I go.

I wish there was more time in the day lately. It gets dark right after work and then I feel like I have less time to do things. Isn't it crazy? I've been putting off updating my journal lately; my bad, I've just been really busy.

I was supposed to do a photo shoot right after work today at 4:00 PM but it was raining, so we had to postpone it again for the third or fourth time. Anyone living in a warm, dry tropical climate with nice long sunny days, you're more than welcome to adopt me! Please! But I'd want to bring my close friends along too ok?

So here I am at the end of my vacation time for the rest of the year. The past week went by super fast. I did get lots done though and I managed to get out to Burnaby lake again too. It was raining lightly, but it stopped just long enough for me to take some photos of the animals that I love there.





I got to see one of my favorite geese; that light colored Canada goose x snow goose. This time he let me get really close. Some other people were feeding them, so lots of geese and ducks came around.







Well, I should be in bed by now, but I stayed up late. No biggie.

Ciao!

Today it was kinda rainy outside. I slept in late and skipped breakfast (silly me). Later in the afternoon I went to Ikea to eat lunch (I love the Herb Baked Salmon dinner) and get some gift wrap, jam and some other goodies.





I really wanted to get some mini Christmas lights for when I make a little Christmas tree (so I can show it off to my lovely J.S. in Ontario and her really cool photographer friend S.P.) but they ran out of the blue ones that I wanted. No biggie though, I got some nice gift wrap and a few other items.

I also found this: What the heck is Glogg?! I had to buy a bottle of it just because of the name!





I know I'm a nut.

But isn't Ikea great?!

I had a great weekend. The weather was nice for me and I got out and took photos. On Sunday I met up with a guy who purchased something from me on Ebay. It was an easy exchange; I arranged to meet him at 5 Senses Bakery on the corner of Georgia and Howe St. in Vancouver. 5 Senses bakery is where my journalist friend J. and I meet for coffee about once a week. It's a great place to have coffee.

So after I dropped off the item to the buyer, I called J. on his cellphone and it turned out her was near by in Gastown so we met at the train station and walked around taking photos. My main prerogative was to try to get some snow shots of the north shore mountains for my lovely J.S. in Ontario to see. As it turned out though, there was a lot less snow on the mountains than I thought there would be, so I didn't really try to take any of those shots.

We ran into (not literally) a couple of people who were taking photos of each other. After briefly chatting with them, they allowed us to take over the shooting so that they could post together. They were a really cool couple who were staying at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver. The guy, M. Had an awesome camera! I was thrilled when I saw it because it happens to be my favorite one, the Canon EOS 1Ds. Not only is this camera a technical marvel, it is the veritable 'Epoch' of digital SLR evolution. It's the first SLR to give you the image resolution of a medium format camera. 11 megapixels is outstanding! But anyway, I'm going off on a tangent here, so I'll get back to the story.

Here's some photos of M. and J. the couple outside the Pan Pacific hotel:







After they left the sun was going down. I like the way the light looks near the end of the day down town. It reflects off the big buildings and those reflections cast light in places you wouldn't naturally see it. I'd love to do some portraits in this end of the day reflected light.

Here's some images that I took right near the end of the day:






The day before I headed over to one of my favorite 'tranquility' spots; Burnaby Lake. As many of you know, I have great respect and love for animals. There's almost always Canada geese there and many other species of ducks and birds.

One of the most interesting geese I've seen is this one. It has all the markings of a Canada goose, but it's much lighter in color. Where a normal Canada goose would be dark brown or black, this goose is cream colored. Perhaps it's a cross breed with a snow goose? This one was very friendly and allowed me to get close for this shot:



Here's some more:









So that was pretty much my weekend. I've got lots to do this week, but hopefully I'll be out with the camera again within the next few days.

Yay! I'm on vacation again! This is the final vacation of the year for me. I haven't planned next years vacation yet though because I always like to know what's going to be happening with friends first so I can plan accordingly.

Yeasterday it rained like crazy and they gave me a really crappy job to do. It involved pushing wheelbarrows full of one gallon potted plants up hills, through creek beds, down steep muddy slopes and over little silly planks. Bloody hell. But yeah, I'm glad that's over with (for the next week anyway).

Today it's a beautiful day outstide, sunny and warm. I kinda slept in this morning though, so I'm a little late getting my day started. My kitties were out of their regular crunchy kitty food (because I forgot to buy some last night) and so this morning they wouldn't shut up about it. I temporarily redeemed myself by giving them a can of tuna (They go crazy for that stuff). That will hold them until I get to Safeway this afternoon.

Oops, it's been a while since I updated my journal again.

To be honest, the past week or so has been weird--or I just felt weird, but I'm pretty sure my planets are exactly lining up lately. I've been tired, and especially tired of my work place (forestry). Last week I felt like there was this burning in my chest, this anxiety that I just couldn't seem to shake. I was off work all week last week because my knees were really starting to bother me again. So I don't know, maybe I felt guilty or something for not being there, or maybe I was just feeling bad about myself. All I know for sure is that I'm getting very tired of that place in a hurry.

Last week I did manage to do some things that made me happy though--it wasn't all bad. I had some nice photographic prints made for my best friend L. for her Christmas presents. I think she'll like them, they're big 11x14 black and whites of some Calla Lilies that I took photos of last summer.

It snowed here a little bit last night, but it melted by about noon. I'm actually looking forward to seeing some nice, fluffy snow. I'd really like to get some nice show photos this year or early next year. A few years ago I was in Summerland and it was late winter (I think it was about February) and I was driving around looking for some scenery to take photos of. (Back then I had this great old camera from 1972 called a Canon EF. She was a beauty, completely mechanical.) But the weather was dark and grey and it was well below freezing outside, so I couldn't find anything all that interesting. Then suddenly as I drove by this old orchard, I spotted something really cool! It was a few frozen Golden Delicious apples that were still hanging on the tree. I don't now how they managed to stay there as all the leaves on all the trees were long gone.

So I was awestruck by the vibrant yellow of the frozen apples, especially with the dark greyish blue contrast in the background, and I quickly parked the car and shot off some photos. Looking back now, I wish I'd shot some more variations of the same image, but I only shot two. Here's my favourite one:

So I'd love to see something like that again and of course shoot lot of pictures of it next time.

My high speed cable has been screwed up past the past few days. It drove me crazy because I couldn't check my email, and I'd just sold some things on Ebay on the weekend, so I needed to contact the buyers. Today it's finally working again, but it's been really unreliable. I'm thankful it's working for the moment though, because the service technician can't even make it here until December the 1st to fix the problem. Bloody hell.

Well, that's all for tonight.

Back soon! Ciao!

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I'm up late again--in fact I've been staying up late most of the week so far. I don't know what my deal is. I think I'm trying to make my vacation time last as long as possible. Isn't sleep such a big waste of time? I love sleeping though--and that's another thing; I keep sleeping late. The only reason I woke up this morning was because of a phone call from my best friend L. We went to a movie in the afternoon; The Matrix (Finale). It was pretty cool I thought.

So I haven't done as much with my vacation as I expected I would so far. I have plans to get some photographic prints made at ABC Photo (a pro lab in Vancouver). I should get it done before I have to go back to work. I also told my friend J. that I'd come into town and visit him some time this week for his lunch break.

Tonight I got some items organized to sell on Ebay. I haven't posted them on Ebay yet, but I processed the images and uploaded them to my image database. I'm selling some old camera stuff (yard sale finds) and some kind of sound processing system (which I know nothing about).

Sunday was a really nice day here on the west coast. I went to New Westminster with my friend A. And his girlfriend J. We went down to the river at New Westminster Quay.



There's always lots of people walking down there when the weather is good. There's a boardwalk all the way along the river. It's not my favorite place, but it is quite nice.







There's always a lot of gulls there competing for scraps of food. Someone (not me) threw away a sandwich and these seagulls went completely crazy!













(Note: No seagulls were hurt in the making of this document)

Another cool thing we discovered there were two little Saffron flowers. For those of you who don't already know, Saffron is a very rare spice and it's worth more than gold. It's the little red colored stigmas in the flower that they use in the production of the spice. These (threads) are so tiny, that it takes thousands of them to produce a few grams of Saffron.





Tomorrow is Remembrance Day for us Canadians. I usually go to the local war Memorial ceremonies to show my respect for those who fought for us.

-Gnite

It's Sunday morning. I think I might head into town this morning.

Last night I got a phone call from my nephew R. He was pretty excited about the way the moon looked (He was on his way home and noticed it while he was driving) and so he suggested that I take a look. I'd heard earlier that there was a lunar eclipse yesterday, but I didn't think we'd be able to see it in my area because it occured at 5:06 PM. It's still light here at that time.

Anyway, I grabbed my camera and went outside. R. was right, the moon looked pretty awesome! It was kinda redish-brown in color. I took a few shots, but it looks a little small. I wish I had a 400MM lens, that would get nice and close. Mental note: put 400mm Canon EF lens on christmas wish list.



On Friday--man the weekend goes by quickly!--I was working with P., one of the bosses at work. I didn't realise how strong P. was until I saw him lift this car up off the ground. Check it out:







And remember, always get someone to help you when lifting a heavy object.

I've just had another one of those strange nights. I got home after work (yesterday), checked my email, then I got really tired. I did have a rather physical day at work, so that would explain the wanting to take an instant nap.

Ok, here's the weird part; I don't remember even lying down. The last thing I remember was checking my email, and that was at about 4:30PM. I woke up at about 1:00AM this morning on the floor in front of the TV. My cat S. actually woke me up by rubbing her head against my face. (Perhaps she was concerned about me) I was in such a deep sleep that I couldn't even get up, I just laid there until my head cleared a little. I know that the phone rang some time during the night, but I didn't answer it.

I had every intention of doing some important things after work yesterday, like listing some things on Ebay, but yeah, I fell asleep hard.

So now it's 4:00AM and I'm wide awake. I just watched an episode of Angel from the season 2 DVD set and I ate (early breakfast, late dinner). No what do I do? I guess I should try to get some sleep, or else my sleeping schedule is going to be completely screwed up. I'm wondering if there's going to be any garage sales tomorrow moring? Maybe I'll take a drive.



My friend P. made a reference to my journal the other day. (Thanks dude! I hope you're doing well!) You can see his journal here: Pauly dangerous. He's a riot!

Well, I guess I should go to bed now. Here's a photo of my friend A. and I standing at Burnaby Lake.



And Me:



-g'nite