Well scout,
Check this out.

Scout's Honour

I will post here again. Soon. When I have a chance to breathe. Perhaps the coming long weekend. I'm mid practicum right now, and shit's a little crazy. To tide you over, here's a picture of my aunt's new puppy.

Steel Construction

This has been my desk for the last semester.

Modern Moniker

Good Eve,

This semester is soon closing and the next chapter shall begin. Plots will thicken with intentions of grandeur. A local developer has taken to me to scale and approximate their ventures, my compensation should bring travel back into my life.

I'd like to see the Pacific in 2012.

B.A.Smith

Homework Extravaganza

Hey Buddy
Sorry to hear about your end o'summer situation, most particularly the new lack of motorcycle and job. How much more school do you have? Apparently I just missed you in Calgary. Peu. Things out here are okay. Weather has taken a turn for the wintrous a little early this year. Adam was coming out to go riding next weekend, but it's supposed to rain for the foreseeable future already, which doesn't help me feel less downtrodden. School is nuts for me. have 7 classes, which is pretty much double what I've taken in the last 5 years or so. It's good though, engaging, lots of work which is forcing me to develop some better habits. I start my practicum on Tuesday which is a little scary. But I think it will be okay.
Liza's in Winnipeg right now; her dad had a heart attack, pretty scary. He's okay, but has to get bypass surgery next week. Been riding a bit, not as much as I'd like. Just finished my last day at the bike shop, which feels weird. It's been what I did for so long it feels like a leap into the unknown to try and get a 'real' job. Which may not happen quickly I s'pose. Are you going to stay in Halifax after you graduate? Back to Calgary?
John out.

Cutty's Gym

Hot damn, let the internet shopping begin.

I need to find a job pronto. I applied all over town and have gotten zero call backs. Zero. I hear there is a dishwasher position down the street, I guess that is where I should start now.

How is school bro?

Ending the Drought

Two thirds of a year since anyone posted and it seems like time. My summer has come to close and I am now starting my first full week of school. 1000$ in text books, 675$/ month for rent, groceries... suddenly my summers earnings seem insufficient.

I started my summer with a boxing match on June 4, no contest there, TKOed my opponent in the second. A few days later I drove my motorbike out to the Bruce Peninsula, or at least I thought I was. Apparently motorcycles burn up oil much faster than cars and I ran my tank dry by Brockville Ontario, which is East of Toronto. I was 600 km short of my destination and had to essentially sign over my bike to a local Honda dealership. A few hundred dollars later I made it Toronto, spent the night with Dave Smith, and then caught a bus to Wiarton.

In Wiarton I was framing a fourplex for my friend Trevor. We lived in the woods, drank beer, rode four wheelers, and shot guns at beavers (they had it coming). I took a little break in Calgary to see my sister and family. Once there my mother convinced me to stick around and help fix up the house so that they might sell it. Maybe they will, but I kind of doubt any time soon.

Somewhere in this time I was drunk on a paddle boat and fell into a lake with my Iphone in pocket, so now I have a new phone. Strangely, once my Iphone dried out, about a month later, it worked again.

On my return to Halifax I couldn't find my car. I assumed CJ had let a friend use it and it was just parked somewhere else. Wrong. Our friend used it and then parked it out front of the house next door. Eventually this person filed a complaint and on August 20th my car was towed and seized. At 30$ a day plus 100$ for towing, my car will now cost me 700$ to drive again. Fucking neighbors. No car, no bike, new phone, no girlfriend, it has been an eventful summer at least.

I will be doing a lot more cycling though, so it's not all bad. I am currently writing this in AutoCad class because my computer freezes whenever I open AutoCad.

So long,

Blair Allen

Snow!

Hey Buddy. Long time no blog. Snow'd here again, just like last time I wrote a post; there must be some connection. It was nice to get back here for us too, Alberta and Sasky were ssoooo cold when we left. Although at this point, minus 5 out here seems a little frigid. I've been riding a lot, trying to get in shape for our Kenya trip, which is in 8 weeks or so. School goes I suppose, I am taking a course pretty similar to that geological history of life one we took, and the prof has a pretty killer accent again. Foraminifera! Monera! Stromatolites! Bitchin. I've been cross biking alot, it's super fun. There is more to distract you from how tired you are than on a road bike, although it's harder to find terrain to ride on. Luckily my ride to school and back possesses some killer trails. I'm still waiting to find out if I got into education next year, which is stressful, but I remain hopeful. I'm off, ttyl.
P.S., On the topic of killer AMC shows, try Walking Dead, it was tight.

No Hockey Sticks Allowed

Dear John,

Being back in Halifax is refreshing. Coming home for three weeks seemed excessive at first and then after New Years became so. The hours of shinny made all the time worht while though. The Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) has spent a million dollars on building an outdoor olympic oval on the commons here. It is free to skate on and free to rent skates and due to a large public demand they are considering keeping it, because they were just going to tear it all down and turn it back into a ball diamond for the summer. Infact I had to wait in a line for like 20 minutes to get on the frozen surface to skate with the thousand others. From a distance the spectacle looked kind of surreal: A swirling mass so thick you can't see through it, spotlighted overhead and glowing from the snow.

No hockey sticks allowed though.

A friend suggested we rent a rink because they are cheap. I imagine that everyone I know out here is probably terrible at hockey let alone skating but atleast I'll get to skate.

Mad Men has delivered on the entertainement. Cait and I have been watching it at a feverous pace, season 2 will last us about a week and if we get our hands on season 3 and 4 we'll probably be paining before February comes. Good characters, interesting plot, and a really polished aesthetic make it hard to not stay up and hour later. I briefly slipped into a nap yesterday, probably because I was up till 2am finsihing a third episode that evening. John Hamm deserves much of the credit for the shows watchability, even if he can't stay truthful to Betty.

Blair Allen.

Snow and Beans

Well, it snowed a bunch. This city goes apeshit when it happens: so vastly under prepared. It was nice though, not too cold, magical settings etc. etc. On a more interesting note, guess what I just did? Roasted my own coffee beans! Awesome right? It was super easy. Which makes me wonder whether I fucked something up, but I'll taste test tomorrow and see how it went. Either way, here are some pics.

Adopted Narratives

First of all, debt and righteousness ought not be compared, and I truly hope one has nothing to do with the other. Maybe how one gets into debt and for what cause can be righteous or not, virtuous or not. Nevertheless, debt seems to have gone from being something to avoid to something that people assume as inevitable. And part of this I think is because the vast majority of people are living according to some adopted social narrative that dictates what you should do and when. It goes like this: graduate high school, go to college or uni or trade school or whatever the fuck, graduate that, get job, buy house, get married, buy cars, get line of credit against house, start buying crap like flatscreens and vintage motorbikes (present company excluded of course) go farther in debt, don't understand why your so unhappy. Maybe I watch too much "Til Debt do us Part" (which is the best show to make you feel good about your finances), but you've got to notice how people do these things because "that's just what you do." It's everywhere. I was talking to my friend Chris last week who works for the Federal Gov't, and he had just returned from a conference for young federal employees that was basically a moving up the ladder shmooze-fest. He talked to some of the people there about why they wanted to move upward, and they didn't even give answers like "more power and responsibility" or "to effect change" or even "to make more scrilla," he got answers like "because that's what you do." If that's why presumably well educated public servants are playing out this narrative, I can only assume the rest of the corporate world is even worse.
So how did this happen? Somehow people think that living virtuous and meaningful lives has to involve buying a suburban home with room for 3 North Amercian kids and 2 North American cars (or 3 non-North American families and all of their motorbikes and mopeds). Maybe we watch too many movies and tv shows. Maybe advertising has become so effective that we don't even question whether we need a thing, only which one. It sucks and it's not going to change. And every once in a while I find my self sucked in too, worrying about where my parents were at my age and how people younger than me have kids and houses and high paying jobs. But you know what? Their lives mean no more or less than mine, and I often suspect (children aside, obviously they ought to fill a life with purpose) mine is more meaningful and I'm happier. I'm not distracted by the stuff I can't afford because I actually can't afford it. I don't have a line of credit or a home to borrow against that makes me start living way beyond my means, assuming it'll all work out because this is how it seems like everyone else does it and they seem okay. Fuck that garbage. I live in a tiny apartment, don't own a car, and only watch a tv we got for free. Liza's happy and I am too, we both like what we're doing and have a hazy but attainable plan, and will play it by ear. Like Liza said to me last week, "we've got our little apartment and we're both in school with no huge debt: you can worry about the distant future but you might as well just pick something and do it, and if you hate it do something else." Solid advice.

To answer your question from last post, it will take 12 months to finish an education degree which I plan to start next September. If I get a job, yeah we'll probably move into a bigger apartment and buy a car or something, and I'll probably spend a lot more on bikes. But I really hope that we can avoid the kind of rampant consumption that people seem to think provides meaning to life these days. Living simply is righteous in my books, and that's what I intend to try to keep doing.

Halifax 2 - Blair 0

Man. Oh man.

I got burgled again. They really put the effort in this time though, they had to smash in the bars intended to prevent their penetration. It's kind of staggering that the most blatant security measure was the one attempted and the one to fail and now what are we to replace it with...bigger bars? A Dog? Video Cameras? Booby traps?

Those seems like the natural home defence measures but I think instead I am going to move towards no longer owning much to covet. I can't do much about the stuff I already own but I can certainly avoid replacing the things I have lost. Cj's computer evaded the assailants which was a miracle, though we do make sure to hide it whenever we leave the house. I can live without my own computer, or a digital camera, or an ipod and eventually maybe some other things. I'll brew my own beer and sleep with this old baseball bat.

Aiya, I feel bad about it, but this stuff makes me hate Halifax. I start to resent the people I know and even half suspect them. That could make one crazy. I'm not. I don't...

I hope the West coast treats you better than the East is treating me.

A now disheveled and discomforted man,

Blair Allen.

Righteous Debt

How far are you away from a B. Ed.? I feel like University programs overlap each other in so many ways that getting a second degree is often less work than one might think. UBC? They have a nice campus.

30 hey, I feel you on that. For so many goals it seems like 30 is the day that it all has to be sorted out by. A career, marriage/kids, a house. The thirty demographic is always a strange one because there are so many of our generation at that level who are still doing the stuff they did when they were in their early twenties. I guess it shouldn't really change that much, but hitting the bar 3 or 4 nights a week and being a weekend warrior is not a path to righteousness by any means. More like perpetually debt. Unless debt=righteous. The thought of having kids at our age always seems like an obvious no to me, but then I think about what things will be like in 15 or 20 years when that kid gets cool and you're not yet over 50, that seems like a nice place. CJ has some family with tight generations and their events are always fun and packed. Her grandma Judy is about the same age as my parents!

I would love to be paying a mortgage right now rather than paying rent. I came out here with that idea in my head and since have resolved to save it till I graduate. Not working and spending money sucks, but I guess it is all with ambition of putting me in a place to rake in some mad scrilla.

Motorcycles are awesome. I try to ride mine to school as much as possible, except that bridge is tolled at 75.cent and I never carry around quarters, sometimes I get across and realize this so I beg them to let me through. Though in the winter the bike gets parked so maybe I have to graduate and then drive down to Argentina to live.

I have recently taken on Surfing. I have been out a quite a few times this year and am starting to get a handle on it. I have even found a board to buy, renting adds up.

I will be home for the holiday season, on the17th you? A hockey torunement for sure. We should each build a team and then play head to head, with pilsners in beer kosys, and nets turned face down. It could be our annual home coming. Though it won't get in the way of mixing the teams, we don't wait all year to come home and become each others opponents.

What are you listening to these days? Cj bought a Beach House LP which is really good, otherwise I am computer and Ipod less. The record store will need to become my friend.

After my University Experience?

Alas, dear chum, I am nowhere near this "after" you refer to. Sure, I graduated with a B.A. a while ago, but as it turns out attaining that particular level of post secondary education is equivalent to what graduating high school would have been 15 years ago. As such, I am doing several courses right now in order to go back and get a B. Ed. which at least is a professional degree and has a particular career path associated with it. Whether I'll actually be able to get a job afterward amongst extensive teacher layoffs is another question. I guess what I'm saying is that being a cog in the machine doesn't sound too bad from some perspectives; at least it's a reliable income. May I also say that, while it is reassuring to hear that you are having many of the same misgivings I (and I assume many of our generation) do, I'm a little unnerved by the fact that you have a couple more years to get where your going before you hit 30, while I have about 13 months. I don't know why that particular age seems like a finish line of sorts, but that's the way it feels. Anyway, glad to hear you're liking school, I've always suspected an education in something practical would be more rewarding in a lot of ways. Going to be in Alberta for X-mas?

Always start at zero

Dear Jong,

It has been way to long since either of our last posts. I think that the standard of quality may be to high for us to consistently make entries, Or that could be my problem. Potentially we have to lower that standard to ease the burden of potential disappointment to our readers in order to get some entires made.

I am in school right now. I feel pretty committed in a way I never was UofC, to bad it cost so much more. The classes I take are not any more challenging but the end product seems more tangible as a goal and as a tool to walk away with. The graduates of the program are well introduced to the industry by the time they graduate and seem to find placement in a variety of different applications.

I see this perspective where my diploma though grants me access to a new layer of the economy still limits me to a certain sector of it, but this is really only a limitation to someone who isn't willing to ply their learnings outside of the box so easily set up for them by the institution. Similarly, I see many friends, holders of bachelor degrees, who are given their rather broad degree and told the world is their oyster. The institution fails to narrow their career path for them and instead they are left to their own devices to carve something with their new tools. This place forces some to make a decision: more school or work for the man?

Does this kind of describe how you felt after your university experience? Some peoples ultimate goal from their education is essentially becoming a cog in the machine and getting paid well to do it but otherwise where do you go? I probably need to know a greater spectrum of graduates and the twenties are also a very transient decade.

Just came to mind recently.

You know what else came to mind, errors in counting. Let's say you and I have a timed trial, except we have no stop watches and are going to rely on the other counting the seconds. So you line up and I start counting as soon as you take off. 1....2....3....4.... and so on. I reach 28 by the time you finish a lap and we get ready to switch, what do I tell you when you ask "Blair, how long did it take me complete that lap?" I would likely say 28, but I didn't start counting from zero, I started counting from one, so what I should really tell you is that it took you 27 seconds to finish that lap.

Dillon is coming out here soon, I told him I'd start collecting bottles and cans to start a fund to fly you out here for a Bare/Bear Hands show. Plane tickets are expensive though, you may have to start collecting on your end.

Hey Buddy

Oh hi Blair. I see you are posting three times to my once lately, which causes me much chagrin, and I apologize. Things out west are going well, and I'm feeling good. I'm still kind of coming down from the big C scare last month, and it;s kind of hard to refocus on the stuff I was worrying about before it happened. Health-wise things are good, and other than a weeklong recovery from surgery I haven't really noticed any differences, which is kind of unbelievable. So now that that's done I have to start thinking about school and work and volunteer and career and shit again, which kind of sucks but is better than thinking about never having those things.

Raccoon was pretty great, it's true. That was definitely the most fun I've had playing any kind of instrument. I flew back to Calgary last month to play a show with Dave and Sandy, or wait it was two months ago, and it was awesome. We played a messy set at the Marquis and I don't think I'll ever play with anyone who howls with even close to the conviction Dave does; I wrote a song on the guitar and he lyric't and sang it and it was tight.

Going even farther back, our bike trip across Alberta was really fun, and we raised 180,000 for AIDS work in Africa, all for taking a two week holiday doing what I like to do anyways. Pretty sweet. Jumping ahead, Liza and I went to Saltspring on our bikes and camped two weekends ago, and I was also great, and I definitely want to continue to do some touring around here, also the summer is almost at a close. Speaking of which, school starts in a week and I'm not really looking forward to the constant feeling that I should be doing homework again. Guess that's the way she goes.

Sorry again it's been so long.

Dear

john,

I've been drininking an thinking. Spelling mistaktaked are more endearding than they are problematic so let's embrace them as much as we can an write on this "wall" as much as we can.

I miss band practice with Raccooon. F.Montreal is gearing up for a full winter of shows and a hot new release. If and when it comes out I will sound it West.

Well, whats going in on out west everything I ask interesting questions and get adequate awnsers. I don't feel involved as I could be,

HLIFx. Sorry.

Dear Danger Cat,

Where to next John B? Any interesting plans for the coming months or years? Still working in a bike shop? If so do you guys make hats? If so send me one. My company makes hats, but they are ugly and I wouldn't send you one. Although I am clearing out some of my wardrobe and am seeing how much of it I don't wear, so if you need a shirt lemme know.

Mike Loz came out a couple weeks ago. It was brief but me managed to polish off a good portion of my home brew as well as hit they beach, TWICE. Surfing is pretty awesome, I hope that come fall I'll be able to head out a lot more.

I don't really feel like I have any train of though right now, what have you got?

July, The Beach Month

Dear John,

It's great to hear everything went as planned and all that's left is a radioactive pill. The whole notion is quite scary and I can imagine the feeling of having the concern, having it checked out, and getting the "more testing" response would be rather sobering. Especially considering your impeccable shape, condition and wit. I suppose you can chalk another mark on your tally against Armstrong.

I am working out paying my tuition now, which is a bummer, but I will be taking the Architectural Engineering Technician's program at NSCC. Two years and then I am equipped to use Auto Cad and get paid for it. I am stoked, long term I hope in translates into more school, but for now I just need to start moving forward again. Working in construction is likely really good for the program except I kind of loath my boss, which combined with some other area's of my life has led me to question my respect of authority. It's tough finding leader's who inspire good work rather than demand it.

Ceej is home (in our old Apt.) sitting in bed reading. She seems well, a little snarky cause I keep telling her to get dressed but overall in pretty good spirits. The summer out here is beautiful as I imagine it is every where, but Nova Scotia seems so small that everything seems so tangible in a day.

Miko comes out to see me next weekend and I'm pretty stoked, surfing and home brew are the only things on the agenda really. Got a batch bottled for and ready for consumption this friday.

You should get a bike and then we can meet half way and start a bike gang, in Manitoba I suppose.

*This entry actually has nothing to do with the beach.*

Sans Cancer, Sans Thyroid, Sans Voice Modulation

But only for a while (the voice modulation). 3 days post op and feeling good, things went well according to the surgeon, and now I take a thyroid replacement every morning, swallow a radioactive iodine pill in a couple of weeks, and that's game. All in all a pretty small production for how terrifying everything seemed for a while. What are you taking in school? Hows Ceej and the new Apt? Bitchin' ride by the way, I've been considering one for quite some time.