I finished Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It seemed quite similar to 1984 in many respects, but not so similar that takes away from their merit. I liked 1984 better, but BNW had it's moments too. I'mr eading a book now, called Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley. It's sort've a dramatized account of Noah's Ark. A girl at work watned me to read it. Looks like relatively light reading, although long, but I like it so far.

Someone at work the other day causually meantioned some advice they'd heard, that if a deer jumps out in front of you while you'r driving, you should hit the deer, instead of swerving to go into the ditch, because the insurance won't cover you as much, without proof that there was a deer. Am I the only one genuinely appalled at this notion?

first island summit and so much more

Yesterday, I went hiking alone to Father & Son Lake. Gorgeous weather. The trailhead is pretty remote, and half of the fun was not seeing a single other person all day. The hike in was super easy. The lake is between the size of Quartz Lake and Cedar Lake, probably about 400m wide. Nice color, but nothing too startling. Nice forests, lots of spiderwebs. I saw the biggest golden eagle (or at least got the closest view of one) I've ever seen. Huge. From the lake, I somewhat spontaneously decided to push for the summit of Mt McQuinnan. The lake is at 900m, the summit is 1500m. It was quite steep and about halfway up, I met snow. Lots. From there, I slwoly hiked on. Didn't sink in much, so it wasn't bad, just had to take care with my footing. It gradually got steeper and steeper. I decided I'd stop as soon as I couldn't safely get any further. I was quite intimidated, but I took it step by step, and even though the angle got to about 70 degrees, i managed to use my walking stick and patches of brush to help me up. There weren't many maneuvers that wer too tricky, nor any spots where I was fatally exposed, but it was still pretty intense. And the sun was just blasting at me from the reflection of teh snow. Iw as actually concerned about snowblindness. Thankfully I'd worn sunblock. A moment before I reached the summit, a huge helicopter came outta nowhere. Trippy. The summit was also covered in snow and trees, but I found a dry cliff edge to chill and absorb the view. I could see the Strait of Georgia and the Pacific, Arrowsmtich as well as a whole panorama of huge peaks from Strathcona Park, and i could look down on the lake where i'd come from. Good times. I wanted to smoke some mild salvia, but was afraid I'd start to trip out about the sketchy descent. I ended up smoking some anyways, and although it didn't do much, I think it actually helped calm me down for the descent. At first I couldn't find my return route, cuz my footprints had already melted. But eventually I figured it out and it really asn't too bad going down as long as I stayed focused. I mean, i certainly wouldn't just take anyone up there. It's definitely a challenge, but there's not really any spots where your overexposed. I shoe-skiied down the slope, which was pretty sweet, bottled some water whose freshness you'd be hard-pressed to beat, and made my way back down to the lake. At the lake, i got naked and laid on the rocks for a while, smoked some more salvia, imagined that all the tress were covered in ash (like after a volcano eruption, a la Dante's Peak), then went for a dip. Wasn't too cold. Nice. Definitely a place worth coming to if you were gonna fish, camp, or push for the summit. Lots of solitude, hence my nudity and the abundance of spiderwebs on the trail. On the trip back to the car, a bunch of brids flew out of teh bush and there was this creature there that I can't identify. At first,I thought it was a big fat brown bird flapping its wings really fast, trying to fly. But I swear I could hear it breathing, so I started to wonder if it was something like a really freaked out bear cub. I didn't stay to find out, but I'm gonna settle with descrbing it as a cross between a big grouse and a baby wolverine. As I drove out, i tried to find the shortcut back home, but got lost. I foudn Port Alberni's water supply, but no suitable road for a shortcut. At one point, I smelled something burning, so I got out of the car and the hood was smoking. I opened the hood and it was just a tiny branch that had gotten under the hood and caught fire on the exhaust manifold. Completely benign. Now that's funny. It was a good day. Pics to follow

Work is sorta going well. Apparently my boss was happy enough with my effort the other day to allow me 5 days off next month for a techno trance rave dance party at a lake with cabins near kamloops and free food with trina, all for $60. And after, I'll have a day to recover and then WARPED! Stoked this year. Anti-Flag, NOFX, Rise Against, AFI, Silverstein, Senses Fail, and Underoath. Anyways, apparently the upper echelon of power at Quality Foods, has caught wind of me selling salvia to a guy at work. They also seem to know that I take very liberal coffee breaks. I can't possibly imagine how they know about the salvia, but with their knowledge and the 32 digital security cameras in the store, I'm starting to feel like I'm in 1984. It's seriously tripping me out. I had been told they keep tabs on everyone, but this is crazy. Speaking of, I smoked some salvia the other day in a field, alone. It was really cool. Very clear-headed, good times.

Shel Silverstein - Forgotten Language

Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly
in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions
of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying
flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers. . . .
How did it go?
How did it go?

long time coming

John K Samson (Weakerthans) - Hypothetical

Say you wake up one morning without a language
Not lost, but taken away
Stolen by a monster from childhood fever from some small slight
- You didn't eat your peas
Do you weep
Or lie back down?
Begin to plan a day of watching shadows wander towards the door
or smelling the garbage and touching the furniture
Pressing your face to the radiator
Walking with eyes open, eyes closed
Living without naming
Unnamed

Say you wake up one morning without a body
You miss your hands like a dead friend
You play their favorite songs, mourn all their potentials
- what they held
Make a missing poster for your heart
With a description, a photo and a phone number
Find your ribcage full of topsoil in a garden down the street
With transplanted yellow flowers peeking out

Say you wake up one morning without the world
The world leaves you for another, never returns your calls
Passes you on the street like a stranger
All you seem able to do is eat potato chips, cry
and drink warm vodka from a jam jar and watch tv
The National Geographic specials seem especially cruel
Secrets of the Amazon, Plains of the Serengeti
And tearing up topographical maps doesn't make you feel better.

Say you wake up one morning without me
Say I just disappear, crawl back into the suburbs that spat me out
Do you organize a search party or burn my letters?
Does you language take a black marker to the words that I use too often?
Does your body remember mine?
And will the world look like it's going to say something and then just shrug

i think i have pink eye

I was up at 6 something yesterday morning to catch the bus to the ferry to Van. I chilled out at Ambleside Park for a while, had a good nap, practiced karate, then walked to the dojo. The test went well and I don't know for sure, but I'm fairly certain I passed. Had to rush to the bus after and got home later, and had to work at 6 this morning, but it was a pretty decent trip, all things considered.

I'm low on sleep and I have an early shift today. I had forgotten to set my alarm, so I certainly woulda slept in, but something woke me up. A voice. One word, repeated twice, but I don't know what the word was. weird. I guess I should be grateful.

I finished Hey Nostradamus by Douglas Coupland a few days ago. I really really liked it, although I still haven't pieced together two fairly big plot points. I would highly recommend it too anyone. I found Coupland to be like a more down-to-earth, subtle, and less radical version of Chuck Palahniuk.

The other day, after twice scoping out the location, me and a girl from work hiked up the beach and onto some private property which has one of the biggest houses I've ever seen. Totally isolated and a seriously amazing view. oh and a pool, which is why we went. We were gonna go for a dip in celebration of the full moon. I thought no one would be home, but they were. Although what actually stopped us was that the cover of the pool was automatic, so you couldn't just pull up an edge and slip in. Still a really cool night though. Felt surreal.

Last night, me and another girl hiked up to this spot that I found last year. It's a radio tower about 800m (at most) above sea level. We missed the beginning of the sunset, but it was still crazy. Felt like I was in a different era. Even though there was lots of clouds for the light to get caught on, the visiblity was the best since the first time I went there. I could see the coast mountains all the way down past Powell River. Amazing. I forgot to bring a headlamp though and on the way back, we thought we were lost which was pretty sketchy. I'm gonna try to go back tomorrow, althoguh I doubt the sunset conditions will be optimal.

I test for my blue belt on Friday.

evasion

I just finished reading my second Crimethinc book, Evasion. I'd only reccomend it if you're interested in dumpster diving, train hopping, shoplifting, squatting, and just drifting in general. Non-fiction.

I started reading Hey Nostradamus by Douglas Coupland, lent and reccomended to me by Trina. I was in love with the book by the 8th page. Really cool so far. Not sure about the whole plot, but it's written from 4 different perspectives in 4 chapters, possibly spanning decades, with the focal point being a school shooting. Set in North Vancouver. Fiction.

Saturday night, I went to an outdoor rave. I was supposed to be bringing 3 friends, but that plan fell apart at the last minute, so I went solo. The locale was about 10 minutes down a paved road off the highway, then another 10 down dirt roads, making various turns. A setting very similar to Cedar Lake, for those Goldenites out there. I arrived before the music had started and the darkness had settled. I had a few beer and ate about half a gram of mushrooms in chocolate. There was a breaks stage and a drum n bass stage. The rbeaks stage was unreal. Part breaks comin out the yin yang. Very very awesome and fun, and I chatted with one of the DJs and got his email, so hopefully I can get hooked up with some wicked tunage. The DnB was pretty top notch as well. Despite the ridiculously small amount of mushrooms consumed, they ended up getting the better of me and making me pretty paranoid, anti-social, etc. SO I was gettin really weird vibes all night and ended up just retrating to my tent and rocking out in there. I think it might actually take the cake as the single best night of music I've heard. I don't know if I really fell asleep, I think I just went in and out of awareness for a few hours. Finally around 8, after the music had stopped and most people had deserted, I broke camp and heading for home. Slept 15 hours that night, most ever I think. I definitely wanna go to more of these parties if that's what the music is gonna be like. I'm thinking of trying to make up a batch of scooby snacks, but I'm not sure how readily available the ingredients are. I just want a way to stay awake without having to get really high.