So, I've been to the doctor a few times over the past couple of months about my ailing knees. Yes, I know, I'm only 22. And yes, I have bad knees. Both of them. It's gotten so bad that it is now physically impossible for me to run. I can make it maybe five steps before I'm hobbling.

Which sucks, because I was an avid skateboarder, and was looking forward to doing a lot of snowboarding this winter. So, the last three or four times I've been to a clinic, I've gone to either Lakeside Medical Clinic on the east side of 8th Street in Saskatoon. Every time I go there, they look at my knee, ask me what hurts, and tell me to wrap it up.

One time, they actually sent me to get x-rays, but I never heard anything about it. Not a "your knee looks fine" or "you need surgery" or "kiss it good by, it's going to be cut off". Nothing!

So finally, I went to the Kenderdine Medical Clinic. Wow, what a difference. The doctor I saw (happens to be accepting new patients, btw... if you want to know his name, email me or something) was outstanding!

He spent about 20 minutes working on my knees... both of them. Long story short, he figures I've got an ACL injury in my right knee and is referring me to a surgeon. And he has prescribed me some physiotherapy in the meantime.

Kenderdine Medical Clinic: 1
Lakeside Medical Clinic: -4

Kenderdine wins!

More updates later, I'm sure.

When I was about 12, my mom took me to an optometrist who decided I needed glasses. I don't know whether it was lack of taste on my part, or lack of taste on my mom's part, but I ended up with some pretty ugly glasses. As a result of ugly glasses, and an increasingly difficult social scene, I ditched the glasses in about a week.

When it came time to get my learner's license, I neglected to tell them about these glasses and managed to pass my eye exam. Cool, don't need em to drive.

However, over the past couple of years I've put on some friend's glasses and noticed a marked improvement in my eyesight. And I mean an incredible improvement. During my day-to-day life I don't notice my eyesight is less-than-perfect unless I think about it. Then I start noticing that things are a little blurry. Especially computer screens, which is problematic because I work on a computer 8 hours a day.

So, I was going over my benefits package that work offers, and found that the cost of eye exams, frames and lenses are all 100% covered. Sweet. So I made an appointment for an eye exam on Saturday. I'm actually pretty excited. I'll keep you updated.

I decided to have a leisure-shower. I consider leisure-showers to be any shower not otherwise-required. For example, the before work shower; the after work shower; the before public function shower, etc.

Leisure showers are always a much better experience than a required shower, and can sometimes prove therapeutic... in this case, a bit too much so.

I was jumping out of the shower, I had already started to towel my head, when....

.... I realized I hadn't taken the conditioner out of my hair. I feel like a complete retard even though no-one else needed to know about this.

I'm pretty much SOL for any kind of nutrition today. I did not bring a lunch, and I don't have a car with me at work, so I'm left to the mercy of the vending machine. Wow, how much this sucks is unbelievable. Never again will I come empty handed without a car.

The person at work I usually go for lunch with, brought a lunch today. Weaksauce.

An update to "My knees!":

Incredible! All I've heard of is incredibly long wait times even to hear back from these guys. I went in last week and was referred. They tried to call me on Tuesday, but I missed the call, so I returned it yesterday. The lady told me the wanted to get me in Thursday (that would be today) but was forced to fill that spot, and she had an opening next Thursday (December 1). Wow! I can't believe the turnaround. Update to come next week.

Myself and my roommate, Mike, just got a callback from a landlord today, saying that he would rent to us. Sweet. New digs. We are moving to a place in Silver Spring, which is one of the newer areas in Saskatoon. I'm pretty stoked for the new place, however... moving sucks, big time. Also, the fight for the big room will be on tonight. I'm going to offer to pay $50 more than him for rent, and see what he says. Shit. I won't be too impressed if I end up in the small room, because most of my stuff won't fit in it, and he doesn't have much bedroom-stuff.

Oh well, more on the moving saga later this week, with pics and everything. I promise!

I went to Taco Time to get a Soft Meat Burrito combo for lunch today, and their debit pinpad wasn't working. Tried it three times and got a pinpad error every time. So, they let me have my lunch for free. Sweet. Free food is cool.

Just got back from the surgeon's office. Both my knees are fucked up.

Left knee: Torn Meniscus
Right knee: Torn ACL

Oh how wonderful. They are doing surgery on my left knee first, sometime this winter. Then my right knee at some later point. I have to go get a brace for my right knee. $400. Damn.

So, I've moved into the new place. Took about seven hours last night to move everything, which is probably a record of some kind. It was definitely the quickest move in my short on-my-own life.

I did end up getting shafted on the bedroom situation. My room is ridiculously small, but I guess I'll have to manage. The kitchen is nice, big living room, nice hallways. Me and the roommate have some big plans for the place.

Pics to come soon.

The Christmas Party for work is tonight at 6:15. Supper isn't until 7:15 and I'm already starving. I thought long and hard about eating something before going because the food is probably going to suck something large.

I'm not really expecting all that much from the party tonight, so I don't really expect to stay too long. Oh well, I guess it's something to do for a little bit tonight.

In seven days (depends how you count, because it could be eight) - on the 20th - Marc returns to Saskatoon from Niagara, NY. As he so eloquently stated, some (read: many) Alexander Keith's and Cuban cigars are in our future.

From MAD's Rambling:

P.S. Stephen, I can't wait to drink Keith's and smoke a cubano with you.

Marc's return means I can finally watch the fourth season of 24, that I purchased last week, and still have not unwrapped. Oooh, I'm stoked.

In approximately 30 hours, I will be done work for the holidays. Sweet! I got stuck on the early shift this week. 6:00 am - 2:30 pm, which positively sucks. A lot. Getting up at 5:00 am is never fun, I don't care who you are. I am already not a morning person, and this 5:00 nonsense just compounds all of my morning issues. On the brighter side of things, the days go by ridiculously fast, and being off at 2:30 is cool.

I only work until tomorrow, then my holidays start. I was smart and booked 'em early. Dec 22 - 27, 2005: No work! That is six, (six!) days without work, how sweet is that? Pretty sweet!

Marc gets home tonight, which means a Cuban and some Keith's. Tomorrow is when the fun starts though. At about 3:30, the 24: Season 4 marathon will begin. I don't care what anyone says about being a 24 nerd. If you've seen the show, you understand. I am going back to Yorkton for Friday/Saturday to be with my dad's family. On Sunday morning I will head to Regina to be with my mommy. :) I'll probably stick it out there until Monday night or sometime on Tuesday, since I don't work again until Monday!

Those are my plans. Cool.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

9 days ago I posted Nova Scotia + Cuba = Hell Yes!, stating that when Marc got home from Buffalo, we would be drinking some Alexander Keith's and smoking a Cuban.

Well, Marc got home last night so I made two trips:

1. The mall, to pick up the Cubans (2).
2. Sutherland Off-Sale, to pick up the Keith's (6).

Since I had to work this morning, I only picked up six beer to force myself home a little earlier. I didn't end up getting to Marc's until after 11, and was there until like 1:30. This makes me very tired this morning. Today is 24 day!

I'm at my Mom's house in Regina for Christmas. I got here yesterday afternoon and will probably stick around until tomorrow some time. I spent Christmas Eve with my Dad's family in Yorkton.

Just thought I'd post a quick update here, as it's been probably close to a week! I will post a more detailed account of my Christmas holidays when I get back to Saskatoon.

Trust is a quality that - at first - is an easy undertaking. Having complete and utter trust in someone is tricky. It sneaks up on you, until the point you take it for granted. It quickly becomes something that you don't remember a time without, and can't imagine it ever happening again. You start to take it for granted, thinking that your trust is impervious to damage. You get so used to it, you stop thinking about it. That's just the way it is! However, once tarnished, the gape of past-trust seems daunting, and is nearly impossible to completely fill in.

What a long road ahead.

I have posted practically nothing since the 21st of December, and I feel guilty. I'm not entirely sure why I feel guilty, as it appears most of my regular blogs at least cut down production during holiday season.

And besides, it's not like that many people read me anyway. Oh well, I cheated myself. When I first started this thing back in October, my goal was to be a regular poster, and not have this site just dwindle away to nothing. If I would have kept on the pace of the past two weeks, it surely would have been over soon.

Oh well, on to the good stuff: HOLIDAY SEASON!

In Canada, the holiday season really only applies to the two weeks surrounding Christmas, generally ending on the day after the New Year's day holiday. So what did I do for the past couple of weeks? Not very much, and for the most part it was great.

I got off work on the 22nd, and started watching 24 Season 4 with Marc. It was great to get to spend a little bit of time with Marc, but we never did get to finish watching it. I will most likely end up finishing it off myself sometime next week.

On the 23rd, I headed to Yorkton, my birthplace and home to my father's family. I spent the 23rd and 24th there, and had a great time visiting with family and friends. On the 25th, I went to my mom's place in Regina and stayed there until the 27th. Also, a good time.

On the 28th, it was back to work. Not cool. I had to work New Year's Eve until 5:00pm, and then New Year's Day at 8:30am. Not cool. I suppose I'll get over it.

New Year's Eve pretty much sucked a great deal. We started trying to call a cab around 8:30, but were unsuccessful. We finally managed to get out of my house by 11:30, and ended up at our destination at approximately 11:45. Our destination was supposed to be a big party, but ended up being 10 people. Not a very cool situation for the count down. Oh well, once again, I'll probably survive.

Those were my holidays. Hope yours were fun, and all that jazz. To a good 2006!

I went to my first workshop this weekend in Regina. Script Supervision, instructed by Daniela Saioni.

It was incredible! I highly suggest anyone who comes across this course anywhere in Canada to take it. She offers a lot of insight into not just Script Supervision, but filmmaking and the industry of film in it's entirety.

I won't go into the details, but I will say 2006 has started off wonderfully for my film career aspiritions.

I don't think I've posted a picture of me before, and I found this one browsing around on Lana's computer. I don't care what you say about me, bwahaha!

I'm heading to Calgary next weekend (not the one coming up, but the one after) to try and find a job, and a place to rent. I really don't think either will be too difficult, so we'll see what happens.

I gave my two weeks notice at work today. After thinking about it for months, I've finally decided to throw in the towel and quit my job. I'm headed to Calgary this weekend to look for a place to live, and I've got work lined up, so I'm a headin' west!

Calgary was awesome last weekend. We found a house to live in, extremely close to downtown. Had fun, and yeah. I'm tired, and I'm going to bed so that's all I'm posting for now.

I'll give a full account later this week.

I bought a new watch last week. A Nixon Agent in Gray Digi-Camo.... this is the only decent picture I can find of it, and it's a terrible picture. But whatever. Watch was cheap, and my last watch got stolen, so my wrist was feeling naked.

I should be living in Calgary today, but a couple of things have happened that have left me stranded in Saskatoon for at least one more day.

First of all, the house we were supposed to be moving into today has had a "problem" that we were informed of on Monday: the water pipes froze and burst, and the entire house has to be refloored apparently, so we are no longer able to live in the house.

Crap!!

So the plan was to head up today anyway, kick it at a hotel for a couple of nights and try to find some permanent lodging. Then the snow started. We got totally snowed in today, and are stuck here for at least one more night. Hopefully we will be able to head out early tomorrow morning.

I plan on making "daily" updates about the move to Calgary. I won't necessarily post them every day, but I will write them every day then post them later (I won't have enough access to the internet the moment we move in to do it daily, but I will write them daily, I promise!)

So stay tuned.

I've decided to abandon my idea of taking a daily journal of everything that goes down in my new city of residence. Just a waste of time. However, I am currently in Saskatoon awaiting my roommates to get their shit together and moved to Calgary. Hopefully tomorrow.

So, this weekend in Calgary (actually from Thursday to Sunday) we were able to get quite a bit accomplished. We found a house (actually, a duplex). Two of us were able to garner a few more employment interviews. I was able to locate a few friends I hadn't seen in years and had a good time.

I'm only back in Saskatchewan for a day or two. My next post will be from Alberta.

I haven't typed a word here in weeks, and according to Google Analytics, people are still coming around here. I'm sure it's a select few people who actually know me, and a few random bums checking in on me or something, I dunno what the hell you guys are still doing around here but whatever, here's an update...

We got to Calgary on March 8, and we've been here since. I slept the first few nights on the hardwood floor, and it sucked something large. After that I slept on something that can only be described as half of a loveseat for about a week -- equally as uncool as the hardwood floor. Then I bought a cheap ass couch and chair for $35 simply so I could get by without demolishing what was left of my back -- and knees, but more on that later.

Then came nirvana -- my crap arrived from Saskatoon. Oh hell yeah! Sleeping in my bed (which I've slept on a max of 25 times since I bought it in September) was one of the best experiences of my life. Pure woohoo!

I started work on the 13th at a warehouse, and the work sucked. Terrible. I miss my shitty last job already, which is weird, because I hated my last job.

On Saturday we went out to Banff (one of my roommates, a couple of friends and I) and partied good and hard. Uhm, I'm lazy. I'll post more later.

I came out of my bedroom this morning to find one of my roommate brushing his teeth with the bathroom door open. I took a quick glance and noticed that his toothbrush had the same greenish color as mine. I went back into my room to await my turn in the crapcloset I suddenly realized that said roommate's toothbrush is blue, not green. (This roommate and I share the upstairs bathroom, while the third roomy has the basement bathroom -- so there is only two toothbrushes up there.) I came back out of my room and busted him on it:

Me: Is that my toothbrush?
Him: No.
I pick up his toothbrush and show it to him.
Me: This isn't mine.
Him: Oh, I guess it is yours. Sorry man.

And he couldn't to brush his teeth! Damnit, that was a brand new toothbrush and it cost me $4.00. Needless to say it hit the trash real quick, and his idiocy cost me another $4.00

I was sitting at home quietly doing nothing at all last night when a buddy of mine from Regina added me to his MSN. Turns out he lives in Calgary too! Sweet. So pretty much the first thing he says to me is "we should go for a beer." How am I supposed to say no to that? So I went and picked him up and we went to Fat's. We couldn't get a table because the Flames were playing at the place was packed. Soooo, we headed to Bob the Fish and proceeded to watch the Flames game. The Flames did their job, winning 5 - 2 over Phoenix, wooo.

Then we went to the Maid and got even more fucked up. I haven't seen this dude in over a year, and we partied like it. Was a good time.

I'm not too coherent right now.

What a night! Again! I love this city! Ok, I just read my entry about last night and I am quite upset with the level of English that I portrayed. I know that I all but abandoned this blog, and have been quite spacey while updating this site, but hell, you (few) people deserve better!

So tonight we went out for $0.25 highballs at Tequila. Myself and roommate Ryan ended up there at about 9:00 because my lazy ass took a hell of a long time to get ready. Anyway, we started drinking at right about 9:00 -- our first order was 9 triple rye and coke's (real triples, not the half shot triples they consider drinks at Tequila on Thursday's) -- grand total of $10. Suhwweeeeettt. Since we only brought $30, we soon realized we were going to need some more money.

Anyway, we had a few more drinks and danced a little before heading back home and getting some more cash. In the meantime we picked up roommate #2, Jaret. As soon as we got back the party was ON! We sat back at the table adjacent from the bar. We ordered a few drinks and sat down, and as soon as we did we got sprayed with a shitload of vodka by the hottie bartenders. Hell yeah!

So we started firing balloons (which we received from the hella-cool balloon man) at the bartenders, and the war started. We must have got sprayed with like $50 worth of alcohol. By this time it's about 10:00 and the $0.25 drinks are over and done with. Being the cheap ass he is, Ryan decided to do a backflip -- off the bar. So he walked up to the hot bartender and said "If I can impress you guys, will you buy me drink?" To which they said "Of course!" So he ran up and did a full backflip off of their bar, and they held up their part of the deal by giving us each a free triple rye and coke.

Whatever. Anyways. The next time I headed up to the bar, the bartender handed me 6 business cards. On them, they say "Come in on Tuesday before 10:30pm and get no line/no cover and a $25 tab." So -- we get $150 worht of free booze as well as $30 worth of free cover ($5 a person * 6). Word.

[Edit: Crap, I forgot to mention the VIP cards we got.. sweeeeeeeet. FYI - Sweet is my internet word of the night.]

After this I run up to the DJ booth and tell the spinner to play The Last Saskatchewan Pirate by Captain Tractor -- and the guy says YES! WTF! SWEET!

By this time Ryan had been at the DJ booth like 5 times and had introduced himself as Woodstock. So the DJ announces "This fucking song is for the Woodstock crew right --- there." and he points at us, and the other dude in the DJ booth puts a spotlight on us. So as soon as the song came on we went NUTS on the dance floor. Both of the bartenders joined us, as well as two of the beer tub girls and a couple of other random hotties. It was us three and about 7 girls dancing - sweet time.

Then we ran out of money and went home, but the night was worth it.

However, Ryan decided he hadn't had enough so we came back home, picked up some more cash then headed to Daily's Liquor Store and picked up a flat (24 for you Saskatchewanites) of Bowen Island for $23.00 -- oh hell yeah! And now that's what I'm drinking.

That was my night, woooooo! Party!

I'm going to have a bit of a packed house over the next couple of weeks. On the 14th, my buddy Ken is thinking about coming up for a few days and snowboarding. On the 19th, my sister gets here and she is stickin' around for a week. And on the 21st or 22nd a couple of our friends from Saskatoon are coming to stay with us.

I'm still not completely sure I will be here on the weekend Ken wants to come down, as I might head to somewhere in Saskatchewan for Easter. We'll see.

I'm not usually one to take afternoon naps, but I haven't been feeling all that well today and I kind of just fell asleep on the couch at about 3:00. Once my loud ass roommates succeeded in waking me up during the course of their normal day, I decided to migrate upstairs to my bedroom and continue my nap until about 7:30pm.

I awoke as soon as I heard Jaret (one of my roommates) yell at Ryan "Turn on the fucking hockey game!" That was enough to awake me from my extended power nap and hurry my ass down the stairs to watch the Flames destroy the Ducks. Currently, the score is 3 - 0.

Aside from the hockey, my afternoon nap has left me feeling a lot more refreshed and am actually feeling a little bit better. Afternoon naps rule.

For the first few weeks after I moved to Calgary the phone calls from home were quite often. My dad would call when he had absolutely nothing to say:

Dad: "Uhh, How's it going?"
Me: "Not too bad I suppose."
Dad: "I see."

Silence for a solid minute or so.

Me: "Ok, well I'm gonna go now."
Dad: "Have a good one!"

He's such a loser like that, he never has anything to say on the phone. As much as I hate it when he calls like that, I'm starting to miss it. Haha! Fuck, I'm a loser. Anyway, he called every day or two for the first 3 or so weeks I was here, but I haven't heard from him in the entire month of April!

On top of that, my sister who I love talking to hasn't called me for well over a week, nor my mom! Those bitches! (I'm just joking, they're both cool, not bitches.) I'll probably call those slackers tomorrow. But I'm going to hold out on my dad and see how long it takes him to call me. Hehehe.

And I have talken to my brother only once since I moved here, and that was like three days after I got here, so about a month. I'm not too worried about this, because we have a bit of a strained relationship, to say the least. He needs to get over some of his shit before I can be happy enough with him to call him regularly.

I don't know why I'm making a deal of this with myself. I mean, I really shouldn't care too much, but it's weird. Different and weird. Not necessarily bad, but it's a new phenomenon, you knoooooooow?

I had an interview today, and was offered the job on the spot. It's pretty sweet, I'm not going to get into the details exactly, but the company was voted as one of the Top 35 in Canada to work for, which is cool. They are paying me quite generously, which is extra-sweet.

The only drawback is that my commute is 33km round trip. :o Good thing I don't start until 10:00am, so I avoid the rush hour.

I picked up another new watch this weekend, I've been thinking about grabbing it for a few months now. The Nixon Banks:

I'm lovin' it!

I spent my Easter weekend in Saskatchewan. I got to Regina on Friday morning and had brunch with my mom and sister, my roommate Ryan, my buddies Noel and Devin, and Devin's parents. It was fun, but it didn't last very long.

After brunch (which was delicious) myself and Ryan headed to Yorkton. In Yorkton we spent most of our time at Cab spending money that we didn't have. My wardrobe increased mega-fold:

- wesc Hoodie
- wesc Long Sleeve T-Shirt
- Ezekiel Jacket
- Nixon Banks watch, see below

And a few other things, but whatever. We went for Easter supper at my grandparents and then headed for Saskatoon. We stopped in and said hello to both of our parents. I went out for breakfast with my Dad and brother, then crashed out for a few hours before coming back to Calgary.

That was the very condensed version of my weekend.

Today was the first day of work at my new job. It was supposed to be yesterday, but due to a few circumstances it just wasn't meant to be. No big deal.

Work was good, not great, but good. It will pay the bills (for sure), and I don't hate it yet, so I figure I'll stick it out a bit. Besides, the hours are great! 10 - 6! Sweet.

I don't know what my obsession is with telling next to nothing about my work life. It seems like such an obvious thing to blog about, but I see almost noone doing it. Not sure why, just an observation.

Me doing what I do best....

This is an old picture, and actually the source of the top graphic on this website -- and I bet you thought I was opening a beer! Hah! Don't mind the stupid hat, I stole it from my (current) roommate, and proceeded to make myself look like an ass in it for most of the night. Wooo! Rye!

[edit: Wow, do I look like an idiot!]

The Esso by my house has an in-store Tim Horton's, and this, of course, is great news. I stop by every morning to pick up an extra large French Vanilla Cappuccino (avoid the lame comments, I've heard them all), the Calgary Herald and the Calgary Sun. I almost always drive -- actually, I've only walked it once before. The weird thing is, walking actually covers less distance than driving. So, since it is nice out now, I think I'll be walking in the mornings.

I got stuck in a seedy motel in Milk River, Alberta after my friend was denied access to the USA on Sunday afternoon. Not cool. That's all I've got to say about it.

I can't sleep because I believe my right earring is causing my earlobe to become swollen -- a good sign it is infected. I've been dousing it in hydrogen peroxide for a while now, but the swelling won't go down. Even worse, I can't get the stupid thing out of my ear, as I haven't done it since I first got earrings. Ugh, this is stressing me out.

[update may 5/06 10am: I finally got my stupid earring out. It only took a couple of days of playing with it to finally get it to pop out. Hopefully I can get the swelling down now. Woo!]

I spent the majority of this beautiful 23 degree day outside.

I hit the driving range with Preston for the first time this year. Although I had to hit the worst rental clubs you could ever imagine, I was still swinging half decently for the first few swings of the year. I was just glad to actually get out of the house and enjoy some nice weather for once.

The rest of my day was spent either on Preston's patio, or my deck, soaking in the sun. I can't wait for summer when I can look forward to this almost every day.

At about 7:00 Preston and I decided we hadn't gotten enough swinging of the golf clubs in for the day, so we decided to head back to the range. This time I took some real clubs, and every swing felt that much better.

This is going to be a great golf season, and I can't wait!

After yesterday's sun-filled extravaganza at the golf course, I have done absolutely nothing today. I left my house once - to go to Subway. I'm a little upset that I've done absolutely nothing, and will most likely do absolutely nothing for the remainder of the evening. It's starting to look like I'm going to land on the couch and watch movies all night.

Saturday is supposed to be a day of fun, not this garbage. I need to get out more. Super cool.

I went out for my first real round of golf today. Well, half a round anyway. Me and Preston went and played the Valley 9 at Shaganappi Point. I shot a terrible 48. Absolutely horrid. I took an 8 and a 7 to start off the round, which put me 6 strokes off of Preston's pace. I managed to catch him and tie the round, but I still played terribly. My putting was garbage and I didn't hit a fairway until the 6th hole or something stupid. On top of all that garbage I only made par on one measly hole.

I'm looking forward to get a lot of golf in this year, but hopefully I don't have a round that resembles anything like this monstrosity again.

I got my hair cut today for the first time since I moved to Calgary nearly two months ago. Wow does it feel good to actually have a decent looking head of hair! I won't be embarassed to go out in public without a hat on. I should really not let my hair go for that long -- it's not like haircuts are expensive or anything.

It's too bad I don't have a digital camera kicking around to show you people how sweet my new hair is.

One of my roommates has gotten himself into the habit of making late night phone calls that originate at anywhere from 10pm to 12am, and end anywhere from 2am to 3am. Every night.

Now, I wouldn't overly mind, however 99% of the time when he gets a beep that is for myself or my other roommate, he simply tells the caller "I'm on the other line long distance, I'll get him to call you back." And he continues his conversation for another hour, or two, or three. Then he never gives us the messages.

After a number of my friends complained about this late-night phone monopoly, I decided to try and bust him on it last night. I had Preston phone me up at 12:30 or so and ask for me while we were talking on MSN. Ryan said "I'm on the other line, so I'll have him call you right back." So I thought I had him cracked right open. Negative. To my shock he actually came downstairs about five minutes later and told me to call Preston back.

So, he gets one point in the positive mark. However, it is extremely annoying when I want to make a phone call late at night and for hours on end pick up to his conversation. Not cool. Take tonight for instance, we have a few friends driving through to B.C. from Saskatchewan and staying the night at our place. I do not have a cell phone, so I need to call them from the house phone to check on them, make sure they're not dead, etc. So for three hours straight I picked up to him on the same stupid ass conversation, and he refused to get off the phone. This is equally not as cool as telling my beeps to screw off.

I'm going to have to regulate this very soon. More to follow, I'm sure.

I've never been in a situation where I was not able to be in my mother's presence for Mother's Day. I've always either (a) lived with her, (b) lived in the same city, or (c) lived close enough to drive. The past couple of years I've been living in Saskatoon and she in Regina. My modus operandi has been to neglect phoning her for a week or so, then just show up on her doorstep out of the blue. It always brings tears to her eyes, and she cries every time I give her a gift. We spend the day catching up on the things that really matter, and just enjoying the time together. You know, regular mom and son things. Well, regular if you don't get to see each other that often I suppose.

Unfortunately, this year is different. I fear she's grown accustom to my "surprise" visits and is expecting them. I've done everything I can to dispell the notion it may happen again this year: I've called, or emailed her every day leading up to tomorrow (not including today, but that will happen later). I've informed her that I will not be travelling east any time soon, etc, etc.

The worst part, however, is that not only do I not get to be there tomorrow, but I neglected to buy her gifts. I'm so used to doing my Mother's Day shopping a day or two before the Sunday that I kind of just forgot about it until, well, right now. Crap. Even if I could afford to run out and by her something to top the last two years gifts, there is pretty much no way to get it to her by tomorrow.

Obviously, I feel terrible. I hope she understands when all she gets is a phone call tomorrow. :(

It was Ross' 23rd birthday last night so we decided to go out and have a pretty good time. We started out at The Alcove with his girlfriend and his sister, where we sang karaoke. Awesome! I've only ever sang karaoke once before and it was a couple of years ago. Ross and I sang The Wrong Way by Sublime together. Good stuff.

After The Alcove, Ross and I went to Tequila for a bit, but it was super packed so we took off for The Back Alley. Last night was my first experience at the alley and now I know why everyone goes there. That place is huge! I'm not a fan of metal music but it was a fun party atmosphere.

Meh, we had a good time anyway.

Happy Mother's Day!

I might be heading to Saskatoon for a day or two on Wednesday. A friend of ours is in town for the next three days and one of my roommates is going to drive him home and have a visit. I haven't decided if I want to go or not yet but it might be nice to get home for a couple of days as I haven't spent more than six hours there since I moved more than two months ago. I guess it will depend a lot on work, so who knows.

Is anyone else running in to this problem? Ever since the weather turned super nice I've been having trouble thinking of anything decent to blog about. I've been spending a heck of a lot of time outside, actually enjoying life but I find myself extremely upset that I have got nothing decent to write about.

I simply sit in front of my computer screen hoping something profound will come along, but it just doesn't. Weather > blogging.

It looks like I'm headed to Saskatoon tomorrow. I'll most likely just be there until Thursday night or Friday morning. If anyone in Saskatoon wants to get together tomorrow afternoon/evening for a drink or a coffee or something, let me know.

I've really not had much to write about the last couple of nights, and that hasn't changed yet. So here are some pics from yesterday. Sorry that I'm a terrible photographer.

The view from the Shaganappi Driving Range:

The fire we had last night:

And, in keeping with the tradition of posting horrible pictures of myself:

After three interviews, I have a new job! It's not really a glamorous job, but being one to not divulge what I do for a living I'm not telling what it is. It's about 50% more money than I've ever made in my life though, which is pretty cool. I'm stoked.

I'm in need of a new cell phone, but am not too sure what cell to go for, nor what carrier to go with. I'm not a fan of Rogers so I will most likely end up going with Telus, but who knows? Something crazy could happen. What phone do you use, and do you like it?

My little sister Sam graduated recently, winning a bet with my father, mother and grandmother that she would be able to finish on time. Since my sister is my favorite relative, and simply one of my favorite people, I am quite happy for her. My eyes well up with tears whenever I think about her accomplishing anything, let alone something like this -- so it's easy to say that I turned into a pubescent teen when she told me about this. She sent me some cap and gown pictures and told me I could post 'em. Here they are... no fullsizes, sorry.

 

I work early tomorrow morning, yet I am still awake at 1:45. I went to bed a little after midnight and just laid there for nearly two hours. I find it so utterly annoying when things like this happen, to the point where I get angry with myself, leave my bed and come downstairs and start blogging. I guess it's not all bad, since I haven't updated in a few days.

For those that care, the new job is going good... I really enjoy the place I work and my colleagues are great. The money is good, so that makes me happy. Not much else is really happening in my world, which is probably why I've got nothing to write about lately. I'm a bit pissed off at myself for not updating, so hopefully I'll turn it around soon.

I'm going to try to get back to sleep.

My little sister Sam turned 19 today. So, go her for being legal age in Saskatchewan and stuff. I hear she got a new 30gb iPod Video as a combined grad/birthday present. I'm jealous.

Over the weekend I decided that it had been too long since I had a haircut (May 8 to be exact) and thought it would be a good idea to just pick up my roommates clippers and shave it all off. Bad idea. So now I've got no hair, so don't expect me to post any pictures any time soon. I hope it grows quickly.

I'm heading out to the airport in about twenty minutes to pick up my little sister, Sam, who's here to visit again for a week. This means I'm going to have to park there again. I've come up with a master plan to solve a number of my minor-problems on the way there.

1. Gas: I'm almost out, so I'll stop at Esso and pump in $10. (Esso is about one block from my house).
2. Parking: I have no cash for parking, so to pay for the gas I'll pull out $20 from the in-store ATM.
3. Coffee:: Esso has an in-store Tim Hortons, so I'll get my extra large French Vanilla Cappuccino.

I will then use the $20 to pay for the gas and the coffee, which should leave me with close to $8 for parking. As long as I'm not at the airport for longer than 60 minutes, I'm golden!

I was in Saskatoon on Saturday and Sunday, and not in Regina as most -- myself include -- would have liked. Although Saturday was not too fun, Sunday was not bad! Marc and I hit Moonlake Golf Course and decided to hit 18 holes, which we played mediocre at best, until about the 12th hole when we both turned it on. After the 18 we decided to play another 9, which we played very very well so we decided to go another 9.

Eleven hours in 30+ degree weather would usually mean a terrible sunburn, but aside from my legs I'm quite alright. Golf is sweet.

Here are some pictures of me from Wednesday before we went out for Jordan's birthday. Unfortunately, despite popular consensus I should wear these clothes out... I changed before we went out :o

Just me.

Chris & I

We're going out again to celebrate his birthday tonight, and I don't really know why, but I'll have fun anyway.

At the end of July (the 29th to be exact) I went to my buddy Chad's wedding in Fort Qu'Appelle. On Saturday I will be in Prince Albert for the second wedding of the summer that I'll be attending.

Now here's the twist: my Uncle is marrying my former-roommate's mom. Yeah. Isn't that something out of a bad teen movie?

In all seriousness though, I met my former roommate after my Uncle and his mom had hooked up, so it's all good. I don't know what's up with these weddings being in beacons of tourism in Saskatchewan, but it's kind of lame. I'll be in Saskatoon tomorrow night, and Sunday night for sure... maybe a few days more. So, uhm, call my dad's place if you know me and want to get together.

Again, sorry for not updating in quite some time, I really don't mean to go on these blogbreaks all the time.

I did head to Prince Albert and attend my Uncle's wedding. I always forgot how great it is to actually spend time with large parts of your family, when you don't actually get together for a while. The only people missing from the wedding were two cousins, and my brother, so it was good.

I got home last Monday night, but when I woke up on Tuesday morning all was not good in paradise. Turns out one of either: (a) my evil roommates; or (b) our evil friends, gave me Tonsillitis. It was either Ryan or Chris, and I know it, those bastards. Anyway, so I've pretty much been on the couch/in my bed for the past 8 days trying to make my way through this bottle of penicillin and hope all is better.

I'll update more when I feel better yo!

Jaret, Ross and I went to the U of C to check out Atmosphere last night. I've been listening to them off and on for a couple of years, and have had a few chances to check them out live, but last night was the first one I took.

Besides the fact that they didn't take the stage until 10:00 and a bunch of mediocre-at-best leading acts ate up the concert for three hours, they were really good. I'm pretty sure that a very good sized chunk of the crowd had not heard their music before, but everyone was still pretty jacked up. I'd check them out if I were you.

Welp, today I turn 23. Happy birthday to me!

On Thursday night I entered a $3.30 satellite to a $10,000 prize pool tournament on Jet Set Poker. I won handily. I finished with 55,000 chips and my closest competitor was 18,000. (They gave away four seats, so it didn't go until everyone was out of chips.)

The $10k tournament was today at 3:00 and I was primed and ready. This particular tournament was a Head Hunter, which means that a good chunk (a little more than half in this case I believe) of the prize pool was set aside as "bounties". Every player is assigned a bounty based on their tournament rankings for the month up until today's date. Every time you knock a person out you get that bounty.

I only managed to knock out three people for a total of approximately $130 on my way to finishing 11th place, which came with a prize of about $75.00 for a total of $204.69. I was a little choked that I didn't make it to the final table, which would have put my winnings closer to $300... or even won the damn thing and taken home over $1500, but whatever. Not bad return for $3.30.

I managed to hurt my knee again pretty badly (do a search for "knees" for more info) and have decided to come to Saskatoon for a week. Maybe two. I got in last night around 6:00 and the first thing I noticed is how much colder it is here than it was in Calgary. I mean, shit. It is f'ing cold out here! I'm pretty sure it is definitely not this cold at home, so I half regret actually coming out. I'm sure I'll get over it.

I will be working while I'm home, doing some light duty things, just to earn some cash while I'm lame. Nonetheless, being home should still offer me some time to actually update again, and I'm hoping I'll be able to finish up the redesign soon. There's not really much left to do, but I'm just not happy with it quite yet.

I took the above picture last time I was home. Click for full size.

I've been in Yorkton for the past week, following the sudden passing of my Grandfather last Wednesday. These things never get any easier. I was asked to give the eulogy, as well as be the urn bearer and I did both.

This funeral was especially tough. I had lived with my grandfather for a year - when I was about 17 - and we had grown pretty close.

I'm not going to drone on and on, but RIP GG 35-06.

On Saturday night I had another episode in which my right knee gave out. The last time I mentioned anything was on December 1, 2005 (My knees! Part III), and that was pretty much the last time I had anything to update with. I was supposed to have surgery in March, but wasn't able to make it back to Saskatoon in time for the surgery. Apparently, the surgeon's office tried to get ahold of me in September but were unable to, and no one (read: my brother) relayed any messages.

So anyway.. last night I went to the doctor's office to get my sore knee checked out, again. The kind doctor did a couple of tests and informed me that my right knee was massively screwed and needed to be looked at by a surgeon ASAP. He instructed me to come back at 8:20 this morning, so I'm going. I'll have more later today.

One year ago today I posted about going to Calgary to look for work and a place to live. This post was a result of hasty decision making that would become a theme for the next year of my life.

At the time of that post I had a decent job in the software industry working for Emergis. For the most part I was happy there, with a few minor exceptions, however, after eight months I was growing disenchanted with my position in life. I was bored in Saskatoon, and was growing bored with my job. After a rather bad day at the office I decided I was moving out of Saskatoon and that was the end of it. Immediately after getting home from work I called up a couple of friends and recruited them to move to Calgary with me. That task was surprisingly easy to accomplish. It took two phone calls.

There was almost exactly one month in between my deciding to move and the day we moved into our duplex in Calgary. Finding work was easy, but the jobs I was getting were pretty lame compared to what I was doing in Saskatoon so I never stuck with any of them for long. There were a couple of warehouse gigs, a stint as a (new) car salesman (which was fun, but just not for me) and a few other things. By October I was growing restless again and needed a big change.

While visiting family in Saskatoon that month I was having a discussion with my father about what my plans were. I made another hasty decision and applied to Mount Royal College for the winter semester. At the time I applied just to have the option of going, not really sure whether I would enroll or not.

When I got back to Calgary and received an acceptance letter I decided I would actually go through with it and enroll. Five months later and I'm through my first month of my first semester, and I actually feel like I'm accomplishing something, albeit five or six years later than I would have liked.

Unfortunately things are not exactly copasetic. The winters in Saskatchewan are excruciating, harsh, inhumane and undesirable. Protected by the mountains and graced sporadically with chinooks, Calgary offers a milder winter than I've been used to in Saskatchewan, but it is by no means warm. I hate cold weather. I can't emphasize enough how much I hate cold weather. While I've put up with it out of need (based on my location), I've always loathed winter. I've been toying with the idea of moving to Vancouver or Whistler since sometime around my birthday.

While the weather is the driving reason for my contemplating a move to the west coast, there are other factors that have me considering another relocation. First and foremost is the ocean, followed closely by beaches. I've always loved the ocean, and that's all there is to that. Also, I love big cities. I would like to live in New York City, or London, or Berlin, or any other world city, but Vancouver is as close as I can get at the moment. Toronto and Montreal don't fit the weather bill.

I do know that Vancouver will be more expensive, but am not clear on exactly how much more. Calgary's real estate market caught and passed Toronto last year, and is inching closer to Victoria and Vancouver every day. I haven't looked into the differences in living expenses that closely yet but it's on my list of things to do.

Anyway, there's a general look at my life for the past year, and a glimpse of what might happen in the next.

It's been almost exactly a year since my last move. I had almost forgotten how much of a serious pain in the ass it is to move all of my crap... that was until yesterday. Yesterday I moved from my duplex into an apartment, because both of my roommates moved back to Saskatoon. Lame.

Sorry, not much more to add, other than to say I really, really, really hate moving. Gah.

During a discussion with my sister, we started talking about things that we know about ourselves, here's what I came up with:

1. My name is Stephen. That's the proper spelling, by the way.
2. I am 23 years old.
3. I am Canadian, and I love it here. But, I desperately want to leave.
4. I am a geek—and a nerd.
5. I believe in drug reform, even though I don't do drugs.
6. I really like to party.
7. I think we need to cut back on green house gases.
8. I need to work even harder than I already do at school.
9. I want to be a journalist.
10. In the past year I've wanted to be in business; be a screenwriter or film director; and a transportation engineer among a list of other things.
11. I am heterosexual.
12. I have homosexual friends and think gay marriage is a good thing.
13. I enjoy smoking sheesha.
14. I like too many kinds of music to pick a favorite.
15. I've regretted ending almost every relationship that I have ended.

I know more about myself but I just figured that part of our conversation would make a good blog post. What are some things that you know about yourself? Write a blog post then email me (steveglauser ...... at ...... gmail dot com) and I'll link to you.

About a month ago I got a phone call from my surgeon's office informing me they had a date availble to operate on my right knee. For the past thirty or so days, I've been a little indifferent about it and have paid little attention to the impending scalpel-to-flesh meeting. That's changed a bit today.

Now aware that in less than sixteen hours I'll be sitting in a hospital waiting room, reading a book and waiting for nurses to come and prep me, I'm starting to get a little nervous. I'm not scared that there will be a complication of some kind, or that I won't come out of anesthesia in the correct amount of time and will be locked onto a ventilator for days. I'm worried about how much it's going to hurt once the initial morphine wears off. I'm serious.

And, to top it off, I don't necessarily want them to keep hitting me with morphine or give me a shitload of pain meds. I just want to be able to get out of bed on Wednesday morning and not be in a crippling amount of pain. Although I'm sure it won't be as bad as I'm making it out to be, this is my first time (and, definitely not the last -- or the second last, for that matter) under the knife, I'm not too sure of what to expect.

In the coming weeks I'm going to have a lot of time to myself, laying on my bed. I plan on doing a lot of reading and movie-watching, but I've also instilled in myself a decree to rejuvenate my blogging. I know I've said it before, but, now I actually really do have some time on my hands. This summer has been a particularly busy one. More so than I can remember of any recent summers, and I haven't been spending too much time online. And the time I am spending online tends to be wasted on Facebook instead of here or on Too Real (which is another story altogether, btw).

I'm sure I'll be back here on Wednesday with a post-op report. Hopefully it won't be full of too many drug-addled euphemisms and makes some kind of sense. See you then.

On Tuesday I went under the scalpel and had my ACL reconstructed. When I first got to the hospital at 10:00 am, I pretty much just fell asleep in a hospital bed and waited until 12:45 pm or so to be called to the OR. I made my way down to the OR and laid down on the operating bed.

Having never been in an OR before, this was quite a daunting experience. The amount of stuff in this room really made me wonder whether or not I was coming out alive. While I was being put under anesthetic, I found myself wondering whether or not I was going to come out of my sleep. I mean, I knew I was going to, but I was just a little nervous about it.

I woke up at about 4:30 and don't really remember much about what they told me, seeing as how I was cranked on morphine and whatever else they pumped me full of. It couldn't have been much as I fell asleep again, only to wake up closer to 7:30. They ran through a bunch of questions and statements, which I still don't remember as I was probably still full of way too many drugs.

At the moment I've got a huge splint on my leg that makes it nearly impossible to move. However, if I remember correctly, I should be able to take it off today and start getting a little bit of movement out of my knee. The pain killers I've got are working well, because if I wait an hour or two too long to take one, my knee starts throbbing. Painfully.

I'm not really looking forward to the first couple of weeks of recovery, as apparently they will be the worst. Who knows. All I know is that I am looking forward to being able to walk without worrying about a knee brace, or whether or not my knee will give out.

It has been a while since I last wrote about screenwriting on this blog.