thus far...

ok, so I just thought I'd recap what I've done since I got laid off March 15th. by the way, I think I should add that among my other goals alrady listed, I intend to read as much as humanly possible.

I hitched to Vancouver for a few days (visited Drew, Jolene, and Shannon in Kamloops en route), visited some friends and attended a Taking Back Sunday/Underoath concert. It was good, but the average age must've been like 16. It was alright though, the kids get really into it. But most people were too weak to lift me up to crowd surf.

Back in Golden, I arranged for all of my stuff to be moved back to the island and then me and Alex drove down to Vancouver. I went to 5 karate seminars in 4 days that were taught by one of the top intructors of the continent. Went dancing at The Met and ran into Laura Ramsden, Tyson MacIntosh, and Ashlee's old roomate (who know lives above the girl I was staying with). That was pretty random. Went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge too. That thing is so high, it's like 75m/230feet up. No bridge jumping off that thing, no sir. It was raining and low-eason, so there wasn't too many tourists, and it's actualyl not too too touristy, worth checking out.

During this period, I started and finished The Outsider/Stranger by Albert Camus, my first formal introduction into Existentialism. Only about 100 pages, it didn't grab me at firs,t but I can see now how that's part of the whole setup, the second half was quite good and the the whole conclusion really made me think, but I'm not sure exactly what it all means. I'd recommend it though.

Back on the island, after I unpacked and sorted myself out, I hiked up Mount Finlayson (416m) in Goldstream Provincial Park, overlooking everything from Victoria to Sooke to the Olympic Peninsula. Despite the poor visiblity, Mt Baker was somehow still present, although barely. I stayed in the super posh Hotel Grand Pacific with my mom, because she was there for work. Awesome pool, hot tub, saune, steam room. I put in almost 4hrs there in 24hrs. Wandered in Victoria a bit, then went camping with Andy Gondek out in Jordan River, which is about halfway from Sooke and Port Renfrew. It rained a bit and the birds ate all our food, but it was still pretty cool for being the first camping of the year. my first camping trip last year (with Drew) wasn't till May long weekend, so I was pretty stoked. The enxt day, we tripped out two stoned girls in one of the two cafes (no gas stations) of Jordan River, then went and explored French Beach, before I hitched back to Qualicum. Made it all the way in one ride, only waited about 10 minutes.

Aside from cooking, karate, I haven't done much this week. Followed up some potential job opportunities, sorted through lots of pics, played catch, and played some soccer with everyone Emily works with. We finally watched Borat the other night. The only other movie that's made me laugh that hard was Jackass 2. Top notch, I loved it, highly recommended.

I was going to go back to Golden this weekendand go to the Taste the Chaos concert in Calgary and see Saosin/Senses Fail, but for various reasons, i've decided not too. In its place, though, I have another plan, which would include exploring a brand new region, but I'll wait till I'm sure about it, before I spill the beans.