An afternoon at The Word on the Street

September 26, 2010 2 Comments

Yesterday I made it out to my first Word on the Street festival with the girlfriend and her cousin. I’ve intended to go every year, but for some reason or another haven’t made it out.

I would’ve liked to have seen more books to choose from, but I understand it’s more for Canadian authors and magazines to showcase their works, where they wouldn’t normally have that opportunity. Much of the time I wasn’t into the subject matter of the books I was reading, so I guess that’s where I was disappointed. That being said, I was still able to find a few tents with subject matter I could enjoy, though everyone else must have had the same taste because those tents were packed.

It sounds like I’m making it out to be a terrible day, but it really wasn’t. It was nice being out in the great weather with a bunch of bookworms looking for good reads. I also had the chance to listen in on Neil Pasricha, the writer of the blog 1000awesomethings.com. He was talking about how his blog began as a way to cope with a friend’s suicide to now sitting on the best seller’s list as The Book of Awesome. Any blogger who enjoys what they do would’ve found his session interesting. One of the tidbits I took away from his talk was how he separates his week (168 hours) into four buckets:

Bucket 1 – Sleep: Sleep takes up 42 hours, or 6 hours a night on average.

Bucket 2 – Work: He accounts for his trips to/from Mississauga; again another 42 hours.

Bucket 3 – Life: Everyday activities like hanging with friends, cooking, etc.

Bucket 4 – Blogging: 15 hours of his week is spent working on his own blog, the rest is spent taking in other people’s content.

Obviously this is a bit of a stretch to ever think it would work out like this, but it’s a good framework to show how much time you need to spend to be great at your craft, for it to succeed.

Next up in the highlight reel was meeting a childhood idol of mine. I grew up watching Polka Dot Door on TVO, so seeing Polkaroo was all kinds of awesome. It was also great to see a bunch of kids still interested in this crazy muppet creature that’s much older than I am. It’s pretty sad but getting my picture taken with Polkaroo was probably the highlight of my day. We had to be really quick with it, so that’s why it’s a bit blurry and overexposed.

Original Polka Dot Door intro:

Filed under Book Reviews, Life

Rest in Peace: Angel – 1999 – 2010

April 26, 2010 Leave a comment

Early Friday morning one of our three dogs, Angel passed away after being sick for a while now. The bright side is that she’s no longer in pain. She was just over 11 years old and for a small dog that’s not a bad lifetime. Being the most energetic of the three (the others are her brother Hercules, 11, and mother Pepper, almost 13) we thought she’d outlast them all, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be.

To everyone who shared their thoughts and their own stories I want to say thank you again.

Filed under Life

Banff-tastic good times

April 7, 2010 1 Comment

Still catching up with my adventures in Alberta, this post will be on our three day trip to Banff.

After we got home from Edmonton, watched LOST and crashed, we woke up early the next morning to finish our packing and began our (much shorter) drive out to the mountains. As with Edmonton the trip was mostly in one straight line, except this time the mountains grew ever-larger in front of us as we drove west. Even being in Calgary I didn’t appreciate the mountains as much as I did driving close to them and eventually being amongst them. The best part was the weather cooperating and being sunny for our three days there; this of course made mountain gazing and hiking around a lot easier.

Day One: While there we did as much of the touristy things we could but the first day was spent just wandering around town. Though cold it was nice walking along the river at sunset. It also made it great for pictures of the trees/mountains reflecting on the water. For dinner we went to a place called Magpie and Stump for some great Tex Mex food (think Sneaky Dee’s in Toronto).

Day Two: This was our full day in Banff so we wanted to get a lot done. First off we made the drive up to the Gondola ride but were a little early so we hung out and took in the scenery from below. Once it opened we bought our tickets and went up. The ride was a mix of amazing scenery and scarier than any roller coaster. I was happy when we got to the solid ground on top. The path to another observation area was closed off but we got to see quite a bit from where we were. I can’t wait to frame the pictures.

Next up we went to the hot springs, which was nice and relaxing. The scenery made it worth it but we could’ve done the same thing back at our hotel.

In the afternoon we went for a long hike which started out to find the Hoodoos, which are described as strangely shaped rock pillars. We found them but could only view from afar, which was a bit disappointing. We spent much of the rest of the afternoon exploring the mountain and around the forests. I gotta say hiking is the most fun form of exercise out there and if you get the chance, do it!

Day three: We began our day after our 11am check out at the Cave and Basin which was a stinky sulfur-filled adventure. It was cool to see the original hot springs which are now a protected area for an endangered species of snail. We also watched a movie on the founding of the hot springs, which was a bit cheesy but still interesting to know.

After all that we went in search of food and gifts to bring back for family before heading back to Calgary and ending our stay in Banff far too soon. Though it’s a bit of a tourist trap, it’s still a beautiful area and it’s far more exciting than Niagara Falls, that’s for sure.

Have you ever been to Banff? What was your experience like?

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It’s worth the drive to Edmonton

April 5, 2010 1 Comment

Or something like that…

Since I didn’t have the chance to blog much last week, I’ll do a few posts recapping my time in Alberta, this week. Last Tuesday, the girlfriend and I picked up our rental (2009 Pontiac G5) from Discount and (after grabbing a coffee) began our drive north to Edmonton. First off, it took a little time for me to get used to driving a car again, after driving a van for the last few years. After that though, the ride was smooth and the car handled really well.

The drive wasn’t too demanding for handling, since it was for the most part, one straight line. It took us just under three hours with one pit stop along the way and there wasn’t much in the way anything.

At the mall I was at first a little underwhelmed. It seemed like the Eaton Centre; not altogether special. As we kept walking we saw the pirate ship where you can climb aboard for a small price (great for kids). We took a couple pics by it and moved on. After a bit of shopping and lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory we went skating on the indoor rink. I haven’t skated since I was like 14 and the girlfriend hasn’t done so in a while too. It took me quite a while to get used to it again, and by the end my skating was alright (meaning I could go more than 30 seconds without stumbling) but the ice was getting choppy. Though she isn’t skating inclined I was proud with her performance and effort. It was a fun time and it’s unfortunate that I got the skating bug again in spring.

Other than skating we didn’t really take full advantage of what the mall offered, but if I was to go back with a couple children it would make for a great day.

Our drive home got real dark real fast, but we made it back in time to watch LOST. You can tell where our priorities were.

Oh and here’s Charmer by Kings of Leon. The song of choice for our trip:

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First flight!

March 29, 2010 2 Comments

Saturday March 27, 2010 marked my first time flying ever! It was from Toronto to Calgary with West Jet and the experience was pretty cool.

  • At baggage check, thought my bag could have been overweight because I forgot to weigh it. Turned out it was well under and was processed quickly.
  • Security check was a little daunting but it was a quick process and I wasn’t even searched!
  • After that I needed a coffee (as usual) so went to the Tim Hortons which had a huge lineup (apparently, as usual). I didn’t think I’d have enough time (15 minutes before boarding) but I did, and managed to get through half a bagel before being called.
  • Since I pre-booked, I got a window seat and luckily no one else was in my row so I didn’t have to deal with any annoying people or babies. :)
  • When the plane finally took off it was such an amazing experience. Seeing all the people and buildings below turn ant-like made me understand why people want to become pilots.
  • The not so fun part was my ears popping. But eventually that was over with and all was well again.
  • In the air above the clouds there’s not much to look at so I spent most of my time watching a few episodes from season one of “Chuck”, reading and listening to musak.
  • Service was great as they came around offering little snacks like bits n’ bites or peak freens cookies.
  • Fast forward to the landing and that ear popping experience was very annoying. The babies on board went a little nuts, needless to say.
  • De-boarding the plane was quick and painless, as everyone got off within five-10 minutes.
  • Meeting my girlfriend at the baggage pickup section was by-far the best part though and off we went home in a surprisingly warm and sunny day.

So there you have it, my first flying experience. If you’re fortunate to remember your own, what was it like? Do you have any horror stories, or really positive ones like mine? Let me know!

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