well I went to the orientation for the volunteer mentor program today to get the down low. it's cool how many doors volunteering can open up. The coordinator definitely has connecitons, to people in Golden, as well as people in the outdoor rec industry. Another guy is starting to teach Tae Kwon Do classes, so I think I'm gonna check that out, and I met a lady who teaches yoga.

I finished Fight Club? Did I mention that already? Tonight I'm gonna start my 4th Tom Robbins book, "Still Life with Woodpecker".

In other news, I've decided to buy a used punching bag. very stoked

number 37

Well I finished reading The Way of the Peaceful Warrior. It's strange, he puts forward the book, claiming it as completely true with only a few minor deatils changed, and yet, the story is completely over the top surreal, and yet when I looked up Dan Millman on Wikipedia, there was no mention of controversy surrounding what the dub as his autobiographical fiction. Anyways, it was a pretty good book. I found some of the dialogue to be rather tedious, but the message gets across well and it has definitely left me with things to think about, so I would reccomend it. I started reading Fight Club a few days ago, and I'm almost done it now. Pretty funny, very provocative. Great read so far, thoough for better or worse, not very long, just like all of Palahniuk's other books.

I am Jack's swollen sense of worth

Gosh, what a week. Ok, recap. Easy hitchhiking to Victoria for a 3 day stay at Lindsay's. Awesome weather, hada great visit. Checked out 2 karate classes, both were pretty decent. Easy hitchhiking on the way back. Stayed at home Thursday, work 4hrs friday, then ferried to Van. The next morning, I rode transit to Coquitlam for the CSKA Shotokan Challenge, or in Laymen's terms, a karate competition. I'd say it was roughly as many people as the JKA BC Provincials last year. So I get there and very quickly realise that the sparring event I've signed up for is actually free-sparring. The major difference between JKA and CSKA karate is that JKA doesn't even introduce free-sparring until brown belts and only black belts free-spar in competition and belt tests. CSKA, on the other hand, introduces free-sparring at the beginner level. So even though I'm a green belt, the only free-sparring experience I've had is from the 3 CSKA dojos I've visited, including the two in Victoria this week. I almost withdrew from that event, because I didn't have gloves, a mouthpiece, or a cup. But I decided I might as well try to round stuff up. So I bought an unfitted mouthguard, pretending to be wearing a cup, and after asking around for hours, finally found a pair of gloves to use. My other event was kata (form, sequence, pattern, etc). There were 4 or 5 guys in my category, which was white belt through purple belts (purple is right before brown). I thoguht I performed my kata very well. Of course, it'll always be a little better in practice, cuz your heart isn't pounding, but I was certainly happy with my effort. The guy after me, who was also a green belt, did the same kata as me, but in my humble opinion, I performed it better in basically every single way. Not that he didn't do it well, just that if you rbeak it down into the components (speed, timing, coordination, technical accuracy, etc) I think I did better on all counts. Regardless, he beat me by a tenth of a point, so I got silver. I was kinda choked, but whatever, I put out 100%, so that's the important thing. Next was the sparring. I basically had the attitude of 'nothing to lose', since I could hardly have any expectations. This was to be my first free-sparring match, the first time I'd worn gloves, and the first time in my life that I'd punched someone in the face. So my first match was against the green belt that had beaten me in kata. It's mostly a blur, and I don't understand japanese enough to know who got what points when, but I won. I was hitting him too hard, which your actually not supposed to do. It's not boxing, the idea is to show you can land the best techniques. It was tiring though, but I think we put on a good show. I got a bloody nose from it, a damn sore jaw, and a nice little bruise over my eye. So onto the finals it was for me, since there was about 5 of us. For some reason, there was a brown belt in our division, and I ended up going against him. It was his 3rd math, and only my 2nd, so he was more tired, but to be fair, he's got like 10 times the experience of me, especially when it comes to sparring. Anyways, it was a good tough match, but ended in a draw, so it went into a final minute of sudden death, in which I scored a point to take the gold medal. I was absolutely stunned. I couldn't believe it. Like seriosuly, what the fuck happened. I still can't get over it, but god damn it feels good. It's kidna funny, cuz I just started reading FIght Club yesterday and yesterday was the only thing in my life to resemble a fight. So after the competition, me, Ashley, Lindsay, and Steve went to an all-night party in a small warehouse. All female drum n bass/breaks DJs. Good beats for sure. As tiring of a week and day (pounding headache) that I had, I managed to dance for basically 5 straight hours. Oh, and I got drunk. That's probabl why I had so much fun. Only got about 4 hours sleep, and I worked 4 horus today. Anyways, it was a pretty wicked week, and I'm more than ever looking forward to the Albertan JKA Provincials, which should be bigger and better than this competition. Onwards.....

David Suzuki is coming to Parksville in May to give a speech.
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The last two days have been glorious. Blue skies make the island so much nicer during a normally dreary winter. Luckily I had both days off. Both days, I practiced karate, went for a good run, climbed a radio tower, and went to a karate class. The first radio tower was on Little Mountain, near Parksville. Just a hill among flatlands, but I caught stellar views of Mt Arrowsmith and the full 360. The second readio tower, was on a big hill in Nanaimo, so I got to see the lay of the city, as well as being able to see Vancouver, and even Mt Baker, which to my estimation, is about 275km away!! The first karate class I went to was up in Comox, where I'd been before. We're gonna try to strike a deal so that I can train there more often, but I usualy work the days that they train. The second dojo was in Nanaimo, with a really good Sensei that I've trained under on Gabriola Island. He teaches kids classes in Nanaimo, but he said I can train there on Thursdays after class, with him, for free. So one-on-one instruction for free. YES YES YES. Stoked about that. I'm starting to feel fairly confident going into this tournament next weekend, for one of my events, but not so much for the sparring, which isn't free-sparring anyways.

I also finally finished a roll of film.

I watched most of a really cool documentary on CBC tonight about gay marriage. Basically they took a gay guy from Toronto and had him live with a right-wing Christian radio talk-show host, then vice versa. I thought it was quite well done, and definitely helped me figure out my own views on gay marriage. The documentary series is called The Lens, and this particular doc will probably be shown a few more times in the next week or two.

I'm pretty stoked to here about the designation of the Great Bear Rainforest, finally some good news. I'm not sure about all of the details, but it sounds quite progressive. Much of BC's amazing, yet remote, coast will be protected or at least severely restricted. Good job, team.

It has been revealed that Teflon is probably carcinogenic. The maker of Teflon, Dupont, has finally admitted it, and has pledged to phase out the techonology. I did some research, but it was hard to figure it all out, but I think the information is convincing enough. I'm gonna look at my options, but I don't think I'll be using much Teflon anymore.

Last night, I booked my plane ticket to Calgary for the albertan provincials for karate. Very stoked for that.

Blasphemy is not a crime

Many of you have probably become aware of the incredbly explosive controversy surrounding the "Danish Mohammed Cartoons". If you are unaware, turn on your tv or pick up a newspaper. I'll admit that it's a complex issue and that it's too deep to really form a solid opinion in regards to, but I think the backlash against that cartoons is absolutely fucking ridiculous. I generally tend to stay neutral when the topic of Islam is brought up, but when something like this happens on such a large scale, it really makes you wonder. But just to balance things off, Christian Fundamentalists are assholes too. Have a nice day:)

of ghee and men

Well it looks like I was raising a false alarm about the whole apple waxing thing. Everything I said was true, as far as I know, but apparently my perspective was hopelessly uninformed and ignorant at the time of posting. I had assumed that during the winter, apples were grown in greenhouses, and therefore were always fresh at the store. I was wrong. Many things can be grown in greenhouses, therefore year-round, but apples aren't one of them. Fruit and veggies are routinely kept therough the winter months and if stored properly, aren't the satanic devices that I made them sound like. Wax seems like a legitimate method of preserving apples, as far as I know, except for two reasons. Number one, wax is made from animal products, which probably doens't bother many people other than vegans. Number two, it's pretty tough to wash the wax off the apple, so unless you peel the apple (and thus, lose the nutrients of the peel), you're stuck stomaching whatever is in the wax.

On a separate note, for those of you that aren't vegan, I reccomend using ghee in cooking. It's basicaly a purified butter that you can make at home, although I wasn't that one that made it, so I can't exact instructions. Basically you ehat the butter, and scoop out the froth, and some other stuff. This makes the butter both healthier AND longer lasting, which definitely isn't a common combination these when it comes to food. I just tried frying onions and garlic with ghee and it worked WAY better than any oil I've ever used, and unlike regular butter, it won't burn.

I've been able to find some soy cheese that isn't made with hydrogenated oil, and I also bought some organic goat yoghurt. I'm considering downgrading my dietary strictness. Organic eggs from neighbors farms, organic responsible (as in, animal friendly) yoghurt, and ghee, are all things that I might (re)introduce into my regular diet.

Well I was up early this morning, despite a pesky cold that is overlapping with the last one. It was a great day, so I hitchhiked to Courtney. I got my first ride in minutes, the second ride took about 30 minutes or maybe more, the third right was like under a minute, and that got me into Courtney, where I somehow managed to hitch a ride acorss town to my destination, the hemp store. I'd called ahead asking if they carried Salvia. They didn't have the extract, which is what I've used in the past, but the had the pure natural leaves, so I paid 40 bucks for 14g. I caught a bus to the edge of town, and got picked up thumbin it after about 5 minutes, then my next ride, took about another 5 minutes, and my last ride took about 3 minutes. So aside from that one gap, I did exceptionally well. It takes just under an hour to drive to Courtney, on the way there, it took me about an hour and a hald, and on the way back, it took about an hour, so 2.5hrs for a 2hr trip aint bad at all. It was a pretty sweet day too, I was walking around in a t-shirt, and on the way back, I got my first view of Mt Arrowsmith in months, which looked something like this...












One of the guys I caught a ride with definitely had a chip on his shoulder. He's lived and worked all over BC, Alberta and even the NWT, but he says in one year of living on the island, he's met more evil people than in his entire life. It seemed that what he was complaining about was a lack of a sense of community. He says people will vandalize anything without thinking twice, etc. He thinks the whole island is fucked and seems to think everyone here is a fool.

Another guy had done some work in Golden and told me a story about he was exploring some logging roads up the Blaeberry River on foot and ran into 2 grizzly bears. I thought that was awesome, cuz I'd had the exact same thing happen to me, Charles, and Kelly.

When I got home, I tried out a single puff of the salvia. I liked it. Definitely trascends words. Nothing too crazy, definitely mellow. Kinda mellows you out, without taking away your energy. I even danced for a bit. I feel a little queezy now though.

quantity not quality

At 375cm, Mt Washington supposedly has the 4th biggest snow base in the world right now. In contrast, Whistler broke records for snowfall in January, but only has 270cm, and Kicking Horse has about 160cm

I have some interesting information to share. All apples that you buy at major supermarkets (Overwaitea, Save-On, IGA, Superstore, Safeway, etc) that are BC apples are 2nd rate apples. BC's best apples get exported to places like New Zealand. In New Zealand, it's the stame story, they get our best apples, and we get their best apples. WHY? Profits, my dear friends. Kinda makes it hard to wanna support the local economy when you know you're getting the bottom of the barrel. There was always something about waxed apples that made me reject them, and that was before I realized that they use animal products in the wax. Wax extends shelf life. Check this out, the waxed apples that you buy today were probably picked in.... September!!! Yup, yum yum, fresh apples, only 4-5 months old. This is only waxed apples though. So by necessity, organic apples are on average, much fresher than waxed apples, even if the organic apple is strated to get soft. To get the best apples, you have to buy them at farmer's markets or directly from the farm. Or steal them off your neighbour's apple trees. Guaranteed freshness and most likely organic, and free too!