I got soul, but I'm not a soldier
Okay, so an update on things so far. We got the parts Ranger home okay and ripped into it. Got the rad support off of it and its now patched up and painted an in its new home on my Ranger that I'm going to drive. Dad looked into insurance for me and I'm going to have to pay $1700 a year for insurance, which is a helluva lot better than the $5600 per year the last time I tried to get a truck insured.
Went to the dentist this morning for a cleaning. Also told them about the annoying pain I was having last week, and it looks like I'm going to need a root canal. :'(
And finally, I'm borrowing Curtis's PS2 for a while. Hooray for consoles! The last time I had a console to play with it was a Sega Genesis...
City Culture
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Your personality type is RCUAN |
You are moderately reserved, moderately calm, unstructured, moderately accommodating, and non-intellectual, and may prefer a city which matches those traits.
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| The largest representation of your personality type can be found in the these U.S. cities: Reno, Las Vegas, Richmond, San Diego, Sacramento, Greensboro, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Portland/Salem, Houston, San Francisco Bay Area and these international countries/regions Belgium, Switzerland, Taiwan, Hungary, Luxembourg, Iceland, Netherlands, Guam, Sweden, Czech Republic, China, Puerto Rico, Mexico, India, Wales |
What Places In The World Match Your Personality?Powered by CityCulture.org Not so sure this is too accurate... Don't think I'd ever be jumping for joy if I found myself living in one of those cities (if I was living in a US city someone probably had a gun to me head).
Homeward bound
Today was my last day working for the DNR office in Bathurst. Dad arrived around 4 just as I was getting back from the Megladon (Jim took me out for a drink as its my last day). We watched a bit of TV, then went to The Big D drive-in for supper (always wanted to eat there). Then we headed out to Janeville to get the U-Haul trailer. The lights on the trailer weren't working right so we played around with it for a bit to get it to work. Then we headed to Danny's cottage to get the Ranger. Loaded it up and then headed back to Bathurst. We needed to stop at an Esso to fill up the tires on the Ranger and fill up the air tank so we can top up the tires when necessary. The fastest we can safely go towing this trailer is about 70 km/h, and with a regular 4 hour drive at 120 ahead of us, tomorrow will be a long drive home... But it'll be worth it! So in the end this parts truck cost me $116.90 for the trailer rental, and then there'll be gas for the Silverado.
Funny conversations
chrmar: As usual I've managed to end up with more stuff than I came up here with... I don't have enough boxes...
Josh: lol
Josh: Use compression ;)
chrmar: "All those years of playing Tetris have payed off..."
Josh: lol
Josh: Yup
Josh: Just dont make a line, you might lose it forever :S
chrmar: LOL
Exploring we will go...
Today ended up being a low day for Marc & I; we only ended up getting 2 samples. Although we also tagged a couple of outcrops and mapped a shitload of roads. At the end of the day we went out to the falls on the Millstream River, it was pretty nifty.
After work I went and got a bit of groceries, stuff to last me for the week and a little extra this and that to take home...teehee. My mouth is still in pain, although now it seems to be a bit of a throbbing pain on my upper, right-side back teeth. Pharmacist at the Superstore said I need a dentist, but I won't be able to get to mine until next week at the earliest. I bought some extra-strength Advil to hopefully alleviate the pain better than extra-strength Tylenol.
Called up the office for the junkyard in Sormany that Marc & I have been driving by the past few days to see if they have any 83-92 Ranger parts. They do, and the guy I was talking to is going to check their warehouse and see if they have any doors with vent windows and call me back tomorrow. We'll see if they do have any and if they do, how much they'll charge me for them...
After conferring with dad we figured out that so far we've invested $1235 into my truck:
$650 for the truck itself
$120 for a starter
$25 for brake lines
$300 for parts truck 1 (which gave me a box and interior bling)
$30 for a factory tailgate
$35 for a new-in-box left fender from the Sussex Flea Market
$20 for a semi-new right fender from the same guy I got the tailgate from (it was covered in surface rust)
$35 for exhaust bits
$20 for colour-match paint (gotta keep the cab lookin good, yo)
and the second parts truck from Danny is a freebie, which will give me a rad support and exterior bling, and some interior bits too.
Kevin is selling his Ranger and the set of aluminum rims he has. I'll probably snag those from him, if he'll take payment in installments...
Daily summary
Got up, got ready, made my lunch, went over to the office for 7:30. We didn't end up going out to the field today so we sorted our samples and I washed 25 bags of pebbles. Then Marc and I puttered around with Caris trying to get the downloadable topo maps from the SNB website to work, but didn't figure it out. We buggered off around1:00 to take the rental to Reg so he can head straight to his field area in the morning. We're going back to the field tomorrow, but with the office's 1/2-ton so we won't be able to go through any challenging roads or anything.
So this afternoon I loaded up my clothes and headed out to John's to wash them. Hooray for free laundry. I read some more Turtledove; its a really good book, as to be expected. Drove over to McDonald's for a late lunch/early supper and got some chicken nuggets. Yum!
Somehow I've managed to get a dull pain in the right side of my jaw. No idea what's causing it, seeing as how my wisdom teeth were yanked out over a year ago. The Tylenol2's seem to be taking care of the pain for the most part. Really wish it would go away, though...
Finally got caught up on Sci Fi Friday. I really don't understand why the episodes download at such slow speeds from 3000-5500 seeds. Also, I downloaded a supposed unaired pilot for Tru Calling, and season 1 is in the queue. Looks like it might be an interesting show.
Also, all the roomies are gone. I have the apartment to myself! This may be a lonely week.
My week in a nutshell
I haven't been blogging this past week, for reasons I can't really figure out myself. Little interesting things happened pretty much everday this past week but now I can't remember them all. Highlights include conversations with some friendly landowners, finding abandoned vehicles at one site, hiking in along trails (and sometimes straight through the bush) to get a sample, with a tether behind me to measure distance. The tether also serves a dual purpose for getting back out, especially the time we trekked through straight bush with no trail. On Thursday many nautical jokes were cracked about the Big White Boat (New Brunswick Truck Rentals 04 F-150). The first sample of the day was in a guy's yard, who's son had 2 (two!) 88 extended cab 4x4 Rangers. Two! I would love to have just one. They were both in pretty good shape, too.
Tuesday was trivia, we placed second. Friday was Jimmy Flynn, hilarous guy I tell ya bye. Yesterday we went to see The 40 Year Old Virgin (Nathan's role model) and then went to Cyndie's for her daughter's birthday party. Man, little kids sure can hit a piñata.
In other news, Sabine is leaving today for good. She's done her work here in Bathurst and doesn't need to come back. Monique is leaving today as well, but only for a week. She's coming back after that to work another week and then she's done. So, for my last week here I'm going to have the apartment to myself. Should be interesting.
Seeing as where Sabine is leaving, I unhooked the router so she can take it with her (she paid for it after all). Even though my computer is connected directly to the modem, it still acts a bit sketchy. Pages load slowly, still get timeout errors now and then. I really hope its just a problem with being up here cause I'd really have to format and reinstall Windows. There's just too much stuff on here that would need backing up and I don't think I'm going to have the time to do that anytime soon...
Blast from the past
Atlas of Saint John from 1875.
Things sure have changed in 130 years.
Argh
It seems no one else in this apartment knows how to clean a counter when they're done with it. I fear for the cleanliness of my food when I prepare it.
And of course roomie A is in the shower right when I need to brush my teeth. But today I was smart and grabbed my toothbrush and toothpaste when I got up.
August 27th can't come fast enough.
Tagged by the Pompatus
Name six songs that you are currently digging ... it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words or even if they're any good but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions and then list the six artists and the songs in your LiveJournal. Then tag six other people to see what they're listening to.1. "Pon de Replay" by Rihanna
2. "All These Things That I've Done" by The Killers
3. "Statue" by The Low Millions
4. "Goodbye" by Cory Lee
5. "Beverly Hills" by Weezer
6. "Lyla" by Oasis
A fairly eclectic mix, I suppose. But these are the songs that I like the most that gets played on Max 104.9, the only English radio station here in Bathurst (aside from CBC Radio One, but no one listens to that...).
And the six people I tag:
StephenAnthonyAndreaSnayTaraAndrewNow I just picked six people out of the list of blogs I read. Don't know if they've found and/or read my blog, though...
MPAA Rating
My life is rated R.
What is your life rated?
Alcohol: the cause and solution to all life's problems
Today for the most part was pretty uneventful. That is, until this afternoon. We went out to Tetagouche Falls to go swimming. Its a beautiful place. The pool at the base of the falls is pretty deep and it makes for great swimming. The rocks in the area are really fucked up, Jason and I thought maybe some rhyolite and other shit. Once upon a time there was a damn on the falls, and part of the damn wall is still there. Also, there's still a turbine there but the rest of the powerhouse has been removed. Its some really cool shit.
After that we headed to Jason and Cyndie's for some drunken Balderdash. It was a good time. I got a little drunk and I still am a bit under the influence while posting this post. I'm just glad Ylang isn't here, cause man she really frys my ham.
Cellulized and other updates
This afternoon I finally got a call from Sounds Fantastic informing me that they had some CDM-8615's in. After work I went in and filled out the requisite paperwork and got my phone. It just so happens that they recently started a limited time only offer for students on new activations: 8 months unlimited local calling, 8 months of call display and I think 3 months of unlimited text messaging or something like this. All I know is that its a super sweet deal. Also, I purchased a 1 year extended warranty so that the phone is covered for the entire length of my contract. I really like the phone! The selection that's on it from the factory for ring tones, screen savers and graphics is understandably limited. I can download stuff from the internet, but I think it gets a bit expensive. I'll just wait until my $30 credit kicks in and then download some things then.
I called home and talked to my dad tonight to give him my new cell phone number. While we were talking I informed him when I wanted to come home (Aug 27). Our original plan was for him to use Kim's truck and get Danny's trailer so we can bring the 83 Ranger home with us. But dad got to thinking about this and with the current price of gas (he put $220 in Kim's truck [a 2005 Silverado] hauling a 20'+ travel trailer up to Neguac and back) and the fact that Danny's trailer isn't licensed (another $30-some), he figured it would be best to rent a U-Haul rig from a place in Bathurst to bring the Ranger home with and then drop it off in Saint John. I went to the U-Haul website with the intention of renting a dolly, but it was only $13 more to rent a full trailer, so I went with that as it would be better than the dolly in the long run. I have a dolly reserved for me on the 27th; they'll call me by 5PM on the 26th to arrange pickup. If they want me to pick the trailer up before dad can get to Bathurst than I'm going to have to see if Jim or Bill can take me out the U-Haul shack to get the trailer (providing U-Haul will let me pick up the trailer with a vehicle other than the 2005 Silverado I reserved it with......).
My speed daemon has come back to haunt me. I never really thought much of it and figured I was being rather well behaved with my driving up here. Apparently I drive too fast around Madran for the guys (I don't think I've gone above 20) so this morning when Jim and I pulled in there's a sign stuck up on one of the sheds that says "Speed 10 km max". I made a comment about the sign and Jim said "I think that's there for your benefit". When I got out of the truck Peter pointed at me and then the sign...
And finally, starting tomorrow I'm going out in the field with Marc to do some till sampling and other miscellaneous Quaternary geology. I get to tromp around in the woods shovelling dirt into bags, woo hoo.
Might as well join the bandwagon...
And do a numerology analysis thing. Not exactly sure how accurate this is, though...
Name Analysis: Christopher David Martin
Expression: 11
You are endowed with a high vibrational energy that may be expressed through inspirational, teaching, preaching, acting, art or invention. You have access to prophetic wisdom and your positive attitude is a transformational force in other people's lives. Fame and notoriety is very likely at some point in your life, as your kind of energy gets noticed! Much will be required of you in life when you have a master number vibration, because much will be given.
Soul Urge: 4
Practical and well organized, you desire security above all else. You are loyal and it is important to you that your work provides security for others. You take life very seriously and others know they can rely on you. You desire to build your home, your family and your livelihood on a solid foundation based on hard work and common sense.
Persona: 7
There is an air of mystery and secrecy about you. You are poised and sophisticated, and prefer to dress in a clean, well-groomed and understated way. You seem unapproachable to others because of your introspective and analytical temperament. You are the philosophical loner, the probing seeker, and only those of like-mind really understand.
To do your own analysis, go
here.
We won!
Finally! All our weeks of hard trivia-ing have paid off, and The Rock Stars Without Guitars won Tuesday Trivia! Our numbers were small as a good chunk of our team was absent tonight but we placed first nonetheless! Tonight's sponsor of trivia was Noranda, so the prizes we received were three jackets, three sweaters and eight sleeves of golf balls. One of the team members is a golfer so he took the balls. I took one of the coats. Its a nice blue nylon-type jacket (similar to my purple one) with the Noranda logo on the right breast with the text "Noranda Brunswick Mine". Nifty stuff.
I burnt my finger...
...on a Pop-Tart. When they say the filling may become extremely hot, they ain't lyin!
Money makes the world go 'round
In order to pay my tuition I've had to get a Student Line of Credit from the Royal Bank. The original agreement was for $8000/yr for 4 years for a total of $32000 once I'm out of university. I have to make monthly interest payments which keep going up the more I take from my loan. I figured $8000 a year would be enough to keep me going. This past year I went through the entire $8000 by Christmas. I was unable to get a job so all my expenses were covered by the loan. So, I had to go the bank and get them to up my limit for this year to $10500 so I could pay my tuition. I paid my tuition and then had no money for the second term. Ma and pa had to foot the bill for my rent and food, which strained them financially.
This summer I'm working a good job with fair pay. Although, being my typical self I haven't saved much of what I've made so far so now my loan balance has only gone down to $10360. I called the bank today to get my limit increased so I can pay my tuition. They're going to raise it to $16000 as per the original agreement so that'll leave me with $5640 to pay tuition and buy my books. Tuition this year for me is $5701, paid in two installments. This should be an interesting year....
2 down, umpteen to go...
When I brought some more models up here to Bathurst with me, I had intended to start working on the 57 Bel-Air first. So far I've painted the frame and the engine. But I got distracted by the 40 Ford coupe. I had gotten the original model from Nathan's dad many moons ago and, as was usual at the time, butchered the car. I didn't have all the original parts so I had to kitbash the car into existence. The paint was horrible as I was painting all my models with a brush at the time. But seeing as where I was given 2 40 Ford sedan delivery kits, one of which wasn't even started, I had the parts I needed to finally build this car as it should be built. So, I've been working on it and now have it finished. Here's some pictures of it:
One Two Three Four FiveAlso, I finally had the opportunity to take pictures of the 82 Mustang that I finished. Not exactly sure what sort of Mustang it is, but I guess its some sort of street machine. It has a 2.0T engine, which is pretty sweet. This is the newest Mustang in my collection to date.
One Two Three Four FiveModels yet to complete that I have with me are: 70.5 Camaro, 80 F-150, 40 Ford sedan delivery, 57 Bel-Air, 67 Impala, 78 El Camino, Ranger 361V bass boat. I might get them all done in three weeks...
The mists of time
Stolen from other sites...
How Time Flies20 years ago: My age was measured in months. My first birthday was approaching. I had blond hair and a mullet.
15 years ago: I was enjoying summer and looking forward to grade 1.
10 years ago: I was your average elementary school kid. A friend moved out west and I heard little from him afterwards.
5 years ago: I was going through the trials and tribulations of high school. I was involved with the musicals and met lots of interesting people.
1 year ago: My first serious relationship was over and I was crushed. I made the decision to transfer into engineering and transferred from UNBSJ to UNBF.
1 month ago: I came home for the long weekend after spending my first month in Bathurst.
1 week ago: I was in PEI with my friends and having a blast.
Yesterday: I cut some rocks and then spent the rest of the day sorting through samples to be sent away for thin sections and chemistry. Did a bit of shopping.
Today: Relaxing after doing some laundry. Going to work on another model.
I went shopping for a phone....
...and came home with a phone. Of a different sort. I've decided to take the plunge and get a new cell phone on a 2 year contract with Aliant. The phone I want is the Audiovox CDM8615, which is pretty much the cheapest flip phone they have. We started filling out the contract and did the credit check. I get to get a phone without paying a $50 underage deposit, yay! Possibly something to do with me already having a phone (prepaid) with them. The salesmen started doing all the paperwork and then discovered that they have no more 8615's. So he said to come back on Monday and he'll put aside my credit check info (cause I guess your credit goes down if you get a credit check too many times).
So, after that I went in search of a small collapsable table (like a card table) to build models on. First stop was Staples. They had a small table but it was like $30. So I started looking at mice as mine is slightly broken. Decided that I'd forgo the mouse purchase this pay and wait until later. Then I looked for a replacement battery for my portable phone as its not keeping a charge long anymore. Found a new 2.4 GHz phone (mine is 900 MHz) for $20, so I bought that instead. After I paid for the phone and a splitter I headed off the Zellers.
Once at Zellers I had no luck finding a table. Instead I browsed around and ended up buying a t-shirt for $3.50, a Lego set and a present for Andrea (possibly late birthday or maybe save it for Christmas... I'll let her decide :D). After that I figured I should head back to the apartment before I spend anymore money...
Q&A
Stolen from
Tara's blog:
Who are you?
Are we friends?
When and how did we meet?
Do you have a crush on me?
Would you kiss me?
Give me a nickname and explain why you picked it.
Describe me in one word.
What was your first impression?
Do you still think that way about me now?
What reminds you of me?
If you could give me anything, what would it be?
How well do you know me?
When's the last time you saw me?
Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't?
Are you going to put this on your space/Blog and see what I say about you?
Copy/paste into the comment box and answer away!
PEI Trip
The adventure began at 7:30 on Saturday morning when Nathan arrived to pick me up. Then it was off to Saint John to pick up Jason. After we got all our stuff packed into the car (man, a Tercel can hold a surprising amount of stuff) it was off to the island. We got to the bridge around 11:00 or so, at which time Nathan pulled over and let me drive across the bridge. It was a fun experience. We then went to the Gateway Villiage for tourist info and the like, and then headed to the first go-kart track of the day. The track wasn't all that bad and the cars were pretty good, too. Next stop was Charlottetown.
Once in Charlottetown we headed to the comic book store where Nathan did his yearly shopping of a gazillion comics (he ended up paying $115 or something). We then did a tour of the Province house and went to the Confederation Arts Centre which had a bunch of crazy new wave art that involved pictures of garbage and other nonsense. By this time I was mucho hungry and we went to the underground mall place (think Brunswick Square but smaller and more closed in). Our Charlottetown adventures finished, we headed off to Cavendish.
Getting to Cavendish was fun, involving much map interpretation and an on-the-fly change by yours truly in the hopes of a shortcut, which actually worked. First stop in Cavendish was Sandspit. We went on the go-karts there and while the track layout was great and the cars were okay, the track condition was horrible. Many bumps, especially under the overpass. We went on the bumper boats and cars a couple of times along with some other rides. We then went to the campground, set up the tent and then went in search of food. We ate at Rachel's Ristorante which was an excellent experience. The server at the entrance was very nice (and rather attractive). Our waiter was a very nice (and attractive) girl by the name of Jen and she was very gracious when we asked her how
she was doing (I guess people don't ask her that often). She called us "gentlemen" all night and was very prompt and courteous when inquiring about our meal (Jason always had food in his mouth when she came, though). She ended up getting a big tip from us. After eating we went back to Sandspit to do more bumper boats, cars and rollercoasters. The guys didn't feel up to going on the Rok N Roll after eating, which was a slight disappointment to my iron stomach. Once Sandspit closed it was back to the campground for the night. We went to bed at about 11:30 and ended up chatting until 2:30 or so.
We woke up on Sunday morning around 9:00 and packed up the tent. This classic money shot was taken as we were waking up:
We headed to Sam's Family Restaurant for breakfast on the patio. We went to the Fan-taz-ma-goric museum first, which wasn't all that great of a place. The Tut's tomb replica was dank and dark and smelly and all the videos were on VHS and very worn out. Next stop was the Wax Museum, which featured a wax replica of Harry Potter right at the entrance:
I figured if I didn't get a picture of this, Andrea would shoot me. After the Wax Museum Nathan and Jason went to the Ripley's odditorium, but I opted out cause I figured that although it might be interesting, it wasn't worth the admission charge. While they were in there I went to the giftshop and bought this lovely little gem:
Its apparently their biggest seller and tastes like cherry. I just can't bring myself to open it. I also bought a nifty drink shaker that seals really well (a little
too well; I don't think its going to be drunk-friendly). Our Cavendish adventures completed, we headed towards Burlington.
Once in Burlington we went to Woodleigh's Replicas, which features replicas of various castles and buildings and the like from Europe. Much fun was had there, including a hedge maze. After Woodleigh's we headed to the Burlington Amusement Park, which is Atlantic Canada's Premier Go-Kart facility (so they advertise). They have the biggest track and they also feature the Naskarts! These things are fuckin sweet. You have to be 64" to drive these things because you sit so low to the ground. They're nicely padded and steer very much like a car. I had a blast on the track, although Jason tried to run me off it. :P We spent some time on the other go-kart track, the bumper boats and the bumper cars. Once finished there it was on the road back home.
We stopped at an Irving along the way where I bought a bunch of pop in the cool glass bottles that are everywhere on PEI (they don't have aluminum cans and will even pull you over at the toll booth if you have them!). We stopped at the Cow's in Gateway Villiage for some ice cream and then headed home. From the time we got to Cape Jourimain till we arrived at Jason's place on Douglas Avenue it took us 2h40m, which is pretty damned good. After a quick stop at Jason's we took him to Erin's house and then Nathan and I headed to Scholten's for some dollar fries. Nathan then took me home and thus our journey was finished.
For more pics go
here
Holiday Monday
Monday was a pretty lazy day. I slept in until 11:00 or so and then puttered around for a bit. Dad and I painted the 57 Bel-Air (purple), the 67 Impala (yellow), the 78 El Camino (light metallic blue) and the Ranger 361V bass boat (black). Once we got everything painted and they were fairly dry I carted everything back to my room. Around 5:30 or so Shannon called and asked if I wanted to go see a movie with her and her friend Carla. I agreed so it was a quick supper followed by a fast drive to Grand Bay to meet her at 6:00. I had to stop at the Irving to deposit my GST cheque and I needed to get gas. When I was driving past the Westfield Golf Course I passed an RCMP cruiser where the officer was madly gesturing for me to slow down, which I did. When I met up with Shannon she informed me that her and Carla had decided on Stealth, which was fine with me as its on the list of movies I want to see this summer. The movie was pretty good, I thought. It managed to keep the typical computerized-war-machine-gone-amuck plot interesting. Although something that stood out in my mind was the first mission of the special terrorist-fighting flight team was in Rangoon, a city in Myanmar. Now, the US government currently doesn't recognize the military junta that's presently ruling Myanmar and thus still calls the country Burma. The movie is set "in the near future" so the US eventually accept the government or something. Obviously this isn't the thing about the movie that sticks out the most in my mind, but I'll forgo giving a detailed review of the movie to spare those that want to see it without being spoiled. :)
(A post chronicling the PEI trip will be made once the pictures are uploaded...)
