I drove my mom to parksville this morning, and on the way back, I happened to notice three vehicles, marked Canadian Blood Services or whatever, parked in a hotel parking lot, thus leading me to believe that there was a blood drive today. So I called 1-888-2-DONATE that was plastered on the van, and scored myself an appointment in a few hours. You have to be over 17, no piercings or tattoos within 6 months, no dental work or flu shot within like 3 days, and no cold or sore throat. They probably test for STDs after you donate I'm guessing. Pretty stoked. This has been something I've wanted to do, but normally you have to go to Victoria or Vancouver to do it.

I finished reading The Alchemist by Paul Coelho, which Trina reccomended to me. I really enjoyed it and would definitely suggest picking it up. Somewhat analagous to Celestine Prophecy, and also to a much shorter fable I heard once, but definitely a rewarding read. Not very long either. I'm still reading the account of John Palliser's expedition to find passes through the Rockies circa 1857. Pretty cool so far. Really paints a picture of how things were back then. Tons of buffalo and antelope, the relations with natives, the hardships, etc. Also, I was at a bookstore and asked if he had a database to search for used books, and he gave me 2 websites. Abe Books and Bookfinder. I've tried at the library to find the books written by the founder of my style of karate. I've tried the Okanagan Regional Library, and Vancouver Island, and also had them send out a search through the other systems, but no one seemed to have this book. Yet I found tons of copies on Abe Books, and I also found Zen in Martial Arts by Joe Hyams, which is supposed to be a classic, but has been almost as elusive as the other book. Together, they cost about $8 and shipping is about $7. Defnitely wroth it, I think. I also ordered 2 books, Off the Map and Evasion from the fine folks at CrimethInc. I think their site is pretty sweet and they got me stoked on their dirt-cheap books, so I bought those two and I'm downloading Days of War, Nights of Love, which is a sort of series of essays to put it in the dullest way possible. I'm downloading it from here

Did you know...

-that certain trained monks can chant in chords?
That's fucked. A chord is between two and five notes. So whereas if we were to do it, it'd take 3 of us to make the same sound that one of these monks can do alone.

-the next total solar eclipse, which happens to be viewable in N America, unlike the one the other day, will be in 2008. There's like 3 partial eclipses before then.