It's late and I'm sitting here with a blank page in front of me and I'm trying to think about what to write. I have RR's voice in the front of my head saying, "You can't just set out to write something, you have to let it come naturally." I can't remember if he said that (or something similar) or if it was someone else, but it's my mind, so it's RR's voice, and my mom's voice in the back of my head from who knows how many years ago saying, "Write about what you know." Well forget that. I'll just write about whatever comes to mind...there will be a few things.
I'm good with computers and technology in general. I can pick up a device and figure out how to use it very quickly. The only bad thing is that I have become free tech support for everyone I know. For the most part, I don't mind. My friend CC asked me to build him a desktop computer with a reasonable amount of money. It'll be fun and I don't mind that. JN asked me to see why her PS3 won't talk with media on her computer. I didn't mind that either. (I couldn't figure it out...I'm having the same problem too) My mom asked me to make her a DVD of music videos. She provided the list, I'm making the DVD. I kind of owe her since back in the 80's, she made a carefully edited VHS tape of music videos that I taped over with a Gilligan's Island marathon. These people are very close friends or family and I never mind helping them out. What I don't like is being asked by passing acquaintances, people I barely know, or just random people online, if I can help them with their computer problems. I usually feign ignorance for their problems, but in all honesty, I'm thinking, "Yes, I could help you out, but I don't want to, and you should go away."
I wasn't overly concerned about it until recently, but now I'm kind of thinking that I'll end up with cancer. My paternal grandmother had it and so does my dad and all his siblings. This sounds like it runs in the family. Over the last 5 years or so, I had wholly different reasons (which I won't get into right now) for supporting cancer research. Now I think supporting cancer research could benefit me directly, which scares the hell out of me. It's definitely in the top 5 of my current fears.
I've called this blog Confessions of a Bachelor, but I really haven't made too many confessions...so let's get a few out in the open and off my chest...not all these will be about relationship stuff.
Until a few years ago, I had the worst break ups ever. Well it's not so much that the break ups were bad, it was more my execution of them that was bad. I've broken up with women by leaving a note on her dooor, texting, e-mail, phone call...rarely did it happen in person. On the flip side of that, I've been dumped by most of those methods as well, so I know what it's like on the other end.
If someone farted in the elevator...it was me.
I smoked cigarettes for a little while. I also have smoked cigars, and pot. I still have the occasional cigar. The person that will be surprised by this the most will be my mom....that should be enough confessions for one blog.
I speak confidently. In fact, I speak so confidently that even when I'm wrong, and people know I'm wrong, they frequently doubt themselves and think that I'm right. I think I learned this mostly from my mom, and I'm pretty sure this is how she fooled me into thinking that she knows everything when I was a kid. I use the same technique on my own kid now. This isn't the only thing I picked up from my mom about parenting. I've more than once heard her words coming out of my mouth. First it was scary...now it's just funny.
Friday, 14 October 2011
Thursday, 6 October 2011
Zoom Zoom Zoom Part 2
Now your trip can have one destination, or a few. On my trip down to LA (it's a small town in Southern California), RR and I made San Francisco a major stop on the way. On the first trip through Alberta, Edmonton and Calgary were both major stops as well. The important part is to make sure you know what to do when you get there. Which brings us to Step 7 and Rule 7.
Step 7 - Have fun in your destination.
Rule 7 - You're a tourist, and tourist attractions are fun (for the most part)
It's probably a good idea to have something in mind when you go, a few goals to achieve. On this last trip, one of my goals was to hit the Water park at West Edmonton Mall. It's a major tourist attraction at a major tourist destination...it was easily achieved. One of RR's goals was to eat at a Red Lobster...again, easily achieved. But sometimes things aren't always known beforehand. Sometimes you stumble on things, which bring me to the next rule.
Rule 8 - Seize an opportunity.
Nothing exemplifies this more than my trip to London. We were heading to the Churchill museum and Cabinet War Rooms (highly recommended if you go to London), just down the street from the Parliament Building. On the way was Westminster Abbey. It's pretty impressive from the outside, but (despite the insistence from my mother) I was not planning on going inside. There was a giant line to get it (the British do know how to queue), and I figured, "meh...it's just a church." But on the Abbey grounds is St. Margaret’s Chapel, which was open and had no line. It was significantly impressive to make me say, "Screw it...I'll wait in the line, but I have to see the full Abbey." Fortunately the super long line was for credit card and debit. The cash line had about 10 people in it and we all made it in very quickly; and boy am I glad we did. It was VERY impressive, and a good example of how seizing the opportunity worked out in our favour.
Step 8 - Start the return trip home
Yes, now the vacation is winding down and it's time to start heading home. If you haven't planned it out already, the return route may be open for some debate. With places like LA or Portland, there's less choices for a route back than someplace like Edmonton or Calgary. On this latest trip, RR was thinking about taking an alternate route back. As a good road trip companion, I followed Rule 9.
Rule 9 - Sometimes you have to sit back and let the other guy have carte blanche with everything.
I told him that he could pick whatever route he wanted and I would drive it, stopping wherever he chose for the night. He ended up scrapping the idea and we just went back the route we went out on. Oddly enough, on every road trip RR and I have been on, the trip back is always faster than the trip out. Neither of us could tell you why. It's not even that I drive faster (on average I'm always 10 km/h over the limit), nor does it just seem faster...it actually is faster. On the way back from Barriere, we even stopped for lunch an hour outside Vancouver, and we still arrived back earlier than I thought we would.
Step 9 - Arrive home
Now your trip is over. You're back home. Congratulations on successfully completing a road trip. There are a handful of other rules which didn't fit into the narrative, so here we go.
Rule 10 - If you're travelling to Edmonton from Vancouver, bring your own food or prepare to eat a lot of A&W.
Rule 11 - If there's something you really don't want to do, let the other guy have his fun while you wait and/or do something else.
Rule 12 - Make sure you get windshield wiper fluid with bug dissolving agents in it.
Rule 13 - There's only a couple of you...you know who "dealt it", so just admit it.
Rule 14 - Use cruise control...a lot.
Rule 15 - Don't let music be your only entertainment. Discussion and trivia can stimulating for the mind and helps keep you awake on boring highways.
Rule 16 - When you get gas, use the bathroom, regardless on whether or not you need to.
Rule 17 - Bring bottles of water, because some rest stops don't have sinks.
Rule 18 - Always steal the hotel soap
Rule 19 - If you road trip with someone who snores, bring earplugs.
There might be more rules later....If there are, I'll make a special post about them.
Step 7 - Have fun in your destination.
Rule 7 - You're a tourist, and tourist attractions are fun (for the most part)
It's probably a good idea to have something in mind when you go, a few goals to achieve. On this last trip, one of my goals was to hit the Water park at West Edmonton Mall. It's a major tourist attraction at a major tourist destination...it was easily achieved. One of RR's goals was to eat at a Red Lobster...again, easily achieved. But sometimes things aren't always known beforehand. Sometimes you stumble on things, which bring me to the next rule.
Rule 8 - Seize an opportunity.
Nothing exemplifies this more than my trip to London. We were heading to the Churchill museum and Cabinet War Rooms (highly recommended if you go to London), just down the street from the Parliament Building. On the way was Westminster Abbey. It's pretty impressive from the outside, but (despite the insistence from my mother) I was not planning on going inside. There was a giant line to get it (the British do know how to queue), and I figured, "meh...it's just a church." But on the Abbey grounds is St. Margaret’s Chapel, which was open and had no line. It was significantly impressive to make me say, "Screw it...I'll wait in the line, but I have to see the full Abbey." Fortunately the super long line was for credit card and debit. The cash line had about 10 people in it and we all made it in very quickly; and boy am I glad we did. It was VERY impressive, and a good example of how seizing the opportunity worked out in our favour.
Step 8 - Start the return trip home
Yes, now the vacation is winding down and it's time to start heading home. If you haven't planned it out already, the return route may be open for some debate. With places like LA or Portland, there's less choices for a route back than someplace like Edmonton or Calgary. On this latest trip, RR was thinking about taking an alternate route back. As a good road trip companion, I followed Rule 9.
Rule 9 - Sometimes you have to sit back and let the other guy have carte blanche with everything.
I told him that he could pick whatever route he wanted and I would drive it, stopping wherever he chose for the night. He ended up scrapping the idea and we just went back the route we went out on. Oddly enough, on every road trip RR and I have been on, the trip back is always faster than the trip out. Neither of us could tell you why. It's not even that I drive faster (on average I'm always 10 km/h over the limit), nor does it just seem faster...it actually is faster. On the way back from Barriere, we even stopped for lunch an hour outside Vancouver, and we still arrived back earlier than I thought we would.
Step 9 - Arrive home
Now your trip is over. You're back home. Congratulations on successfully completing a road trip. There are a handful of other rules which didn't fit into the narrative, so here we go.
Rule 10 - If you're travelling to Edmonton from Vancouver, bring your own food or prepare to eat a lot of A&W.
Rule 11 - If there's something you really don't want to do, let the other guy have his fun while you wait and/or do something else.
Rule 12 - Make sure you get windshield wiper fluid with bug dissolving agents in it.
Rule 13 - There's only a couple of you...you know who "dealt it", so just admit it.
Rule 14 - Use cruise control...a lot.
Rule 15 - Don't let music be your only entertainment. Discussion and trivia can stimulating for the mind and helps keep you awake on boring highways.
Rule 16 - When you get gas, use the bathroom, regardless on whether or not you need to.
Rule 17 - Bring bottles of water, because some rest stops don't have sinks.
Rule 18 - Always steal the hotel soap
Rule 19 - If you road trip with someone who snores, bring earplugs.
There might be more rules later....If there are, I'll make a special post about them.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Zoom Zoom Zoom Part 1
Over the last 12 years, I've been on a good handul of road trips. All of them (except 1) have been with RR. We've been to Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Edmonton, Calgary, and a few other smaller places. We've seen dust devils and a California wildfire. We've driven through wind, rain, sleet, snow, fog, heat, lightning, and gloom of night...except for that one time just outside Canmore where it was getting dark and the rain was so bad that we had to stop (video explaination available here @ the 2:20 mark). We have road tripping down to a science, but we hadn't been on a solid road trip in years, so when RR had some vacation time and took his birthday week off, we went on a road trip. I guess this post is almost a guide on how to have a good road trip. I'll break it up into steps and rules.
First things first, you have to be in the right mindset. With everything on a road trip, you have to keep an open mind. Secondly, never reject any idea out of hand; always use careful consideration. Let's make that the first 2 rules.
Rule 1 and 2: Don't be a dick.
With this in mind, we come to the first big hurdle...where to go. I suggested Seattle. It's not too far, it's familiar ground, but on the downside, it's been done...almost to death, so already I wasn't married to the idea. RR (after careful consideration) rejected the idea, as this may interfere with my EI, but then suggested Edmonton. Seeing no downside, I agreed, and the destination was established. Now it was time to plan the route. Let's start numbering these things.
Step 1 - Choose Destination
Step 2 - Plan your route
This one was simple. We take Hwy #1 until we can get on Hwy #5, then take Hwy #16 into Edmonton. It's the most direct route and the whole thing would have taken about 12 hours if we had driven it straight. RR suggested we throw in a stop on the way. Keeping an open mind, I agreed and let him work his magic. He picked a chain hotel in a small town called Barriere, just North of Kamloops. It would take us about 5 hours to get there, which breaks up the trip nicely. One thing to note, only the drivers get to have final say about the route and how long they're willing to drive on it, but don't be a dick about it.
Step 3 - Plan your stops (including accomodations)
From there, my first concern was in car entertainment, particularly the music. Which leads up into the next step:
Step 4 - Bring enough music
Now there's many ways of solving this problem. You could just say "It's all Rush, all the time", but that seems a little uneve. Early on, we burned CD's, then later MP3 CD's of our favorite music. This had some limited success. We found that whenever an MP3 CD was played on random, songs by Collective Soul would frequently pop up. It became somewhat of a scourge and we've limited the number of Collective Soul songs on road trips ever since. My car can now read a USB sitck, so I just asked RR to give me 5GB of music. I meelded with my 5GB, tossed it in and set it to random. This was met with great success.
Rule 3 - Make sure the distribution of music is fair and balanced
Now I know what you're thinking, "What if there's crap that he puts on that I don't like?" This is why we came up with a 'veto' rule. RR and I allow one song to be vetoed every 1/2 hour by each of us. Follow Rule #1 and #2 and there won't be too much of a problem. RR and I have somewhat different tastes in music. He likes what he likes, I like what I like, and there's a whole handful of stuff that we both like. Usually on a road trip, I'm exposed to music I've never heard and end up enjoying quite a bit. I'm sure it's the same way on his side too. Which brings us to step 5 and rule 4.
Step 5 - Pack your bags
Rule 4 - Don't over pack your bags
Do I really need to mention much more about that? If you're going for a 4 day trip, don't pack like you're going on a jungle safari for 3 months. Remember to pack some snacks and make sure that some of those snacks include beef jerkey (the perfect roadtrip treat) and Red Bull (because driving in Alberta gets boring).
Step 6 - Drive (or Navigate)
Now you can finally hit the road. All the prep is done and the trip can begin. Getting the trip underway is such a rewarding feeling. I mentioned in an earlier post about Unemployment Depression; well nothing cures it like getting started on a road trip with your best friend. Roles have to be established though. Whoever isn't the driver is the navigator and gets whatever the driver needs, as long as he's not being a dick about it. It's trade offs like this that keep people from arguments on a fun trip. Which brings us to Rule 5.
Rule 5 - Whoever pumps the gas, the other guy does the windows.
This simple rule, and RR's mastery of navigation supremely impressed my sister while we were in Edmonton and Calgary. RR is attuned to what I need to hear as a driver that he can give me excellent directions. My sister, on the other hand, gives directions so poorly, that I don't know if she knows where she's going half the time. "Left turn in 200m onto 72nd st. You'll want to be in the lane to your left." is how RR would give directions. My sister on the other hand is more like, "Left...left..left.left.LEFT!LEFT!!LEFT!!!". I was unable to move into the left lane. So keep the next rule in mind:
Rule 6 - Taking the wrong exit and missing the right exit are equal amounts of fun!
First things first, you have to be in the right mindset. With everything on a road trip, you have to keep an open mind. Secondly, never reject any idea out of hand; always use careful consideration. Let's make that the first 2 rules.
Rule 1 and 2: Don't be a dick.
With this in mind, we come to the first big hurdle...where to go. I suggested Seattle. It's not too far, it's familiar ground, but on the downside, it's been done...almost to death, so already I wasn't married to the idea. RR (after careful consideration) rejected the idea, as this may interfere with my EI, but then suggested Edmonton. Seeing no downside, I agreed, and the destination was established. Now it was time to plan the route. Let's start numbering these things.
Step 1 - Choose Destination
Step 2 - Plan your route
This one was simple. We take Hwy #1 until we can get on Hwy #5, then take Hwy #16 into Edmonton. It's the most direct route and the whole thing would have taken about 12 hours if we had driven it straight. RR suggested we throw in a stop on the way. Keeping an open mind, I agreed and let him work his magic. He picked a chain hotel in a small town called Barriere, just North of Kamloops. It would take us about 5 hours to get there, which breaks up the trip nicely. One thing to note, only the drivers get to have final say about the route and how long they're willing to drive on it, but don't be a dick about it.
Step 3 - Plan your stops (including accomodations)
From there, my first concern was in car entertainment, particularly the music. Which leads up into the next step:
Step 4 - Bring enough music
Now there's many ways of solving this problem. You could just say "It's all Rush, all the time", but that seems a little uneve. Early on, we burned CD's, then later MP3 CD's of our favorite music. This had some limited success. We found that whenever an MP3 CD was played on random, songs by Collective Soul would frequently pop up. It became somewhat of a scourge and we've limited the number of Collective Soul songs on road trips ever since. My car can now read a USB sitck, so I just asked RR to give me 5GB of music. I meelded with my 5GB, tossed it in and set it to random. This was met with great success.
Rule 3 - Make sure the distribution of music is fair and balanced
Now I know what you're thinking, "What if there's crap that he puts on that I don't like?" This is why we came up with a 'veto' rule. RR and I allow one song to be vetoed every 1/2 hour by each of us. Follow Rule #1 and #2 and there won't be too much of a problem. RR and I have somewhat different tastes in music. He likes what he likes, I like what I like, and there's a whole handful of stuff that we both like. Usually on a road trip, I'm exposed to music I've never heard and end up enjoying quite a bit. I'm sure it's the same way on his side too. Which brings us to step 5 and rule 4.
Step 5 - Pack your bags
Rule 4 - Don't over pack your bags
Do I really need to mention much more about that? If you're going for a 4 day trip, don't pack like you're going on a jungle safari for 3 months. Remember to pack some snacks and make sure that some of those snacks include beef jerkey (the perfect roadtrip treat) and Red Bull (because driving in Alberta gets boring).
Step 6 - Drive (or Navigate)
Now you can finally hit the road. All the prep is done and the trip can begin. Getting the trip underway is such a rewarding feeling. I mentioned in an earlier post about Unemployment Depression; well nothing cures it like getting started on a road trip with your best friend. Roles have to be established though. Whoever isn't the driver is the navigator and gets whatever the driver needs, as long as he's not being a dick about it. It's trade offs like this that keep people from arguments on a fun trip. Which brings us to Rule 5.
Rule 5 - Whoever pumps the gas, the other guy does the windows.
This simple rule, and RR's mastery of navigation supremely impressed my sister while we were in Edmonton and Calgary. RR is attuned to what I need to hear as a driver that he can give me excellent directions. My sister, on the other hand, gives directions so poorly, that I don't know if she knows where she's going half the time. "Left turn in 200m onto 72nd st. You'll want to be in the lane to your left." is how RR would give directions. My sister on the other hand is more like, "Left...left..left.left.LEFT!LEFT!!LEFT!!!". I was unable to move into the left lane. So keep the next rule in mind:
Rule 6 - Taking the wrong exit and missing the right exit are equal amounts of fun!
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