I've been busy this last week, but not with any single thing that demands a post of its own. Nevertheless, today is an appropriate day to write something, so I'll make something up.

The Church 50m from my house constructed a 20-foot tall X-wing sculpture out of popcorn and sugar for their summer VBS. Can someone e-mail me a picture? ;-) It unofficially surpassed the Guiness record of 18-feet, set by a Godzilla sculpture in the UK. I wasn't involved, as I was busy, and I have been a part of enough ambitious, ill-conceived art projects to think that they would not pull it off. But they did, so kudos to them!

The tranquility of Sunday makes it my favourite day. It is a day for crosswords, picking peas in the misting rain, playing Dutch Blitz and slowly cracking crab legs. All of which are things I did last Sunday with Rock's family. They have a warm home, helped in part by their 120lb blind sheepdog 'Bailey' who tends to crash into guests and walls alike.

On Tuesday I met a friend of Rock's named Amy, who is pretty neat despite being one 'C' short from having a name that is an anagram of 'YMCA'.
Nobody is perfect right? Well, maybe someone named Acmy.

Sam's blog says school has started already in Quebec. I look forward to it starting here too. This summer has been amazing, but I am eager to start moving forward, since I know where I'm going now.

Speaking of friends of Rock, the terrific and funny Shaela is back from wherever she was! We're doing something ridiculous and/or fun tonight, roasting a pig's head on a spit, I think it was. Something with Bruschetta anyway, but I guess that's true of anything.

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I've been stuck on the Judaism chapter of Religions in the Modern World for 21 days now. Not for its content, but because my reading schedule has been shot to hell. This does not augur well for the 14 novels I am supposed to read next term. The reason for this collapse has blue eyes, good posture and questionable driving habits. You are right to think these descriptors are arbitrary, but a full description is impossible. I've been troubling myself less with being deliberate lately anyway, in terms of communication at least.

Things are going singularly well with Roxanne. It's uncanny. If I was a pessimistic person I would be suspicious, but I'm not, now less than ever. I have a theory about how people create problems to the end of distracting themselves, but that's a tangent, and it takes the whole of my anemic focus to resist tangents in writing. I know that objectivity is usually missing at the beginning, but taking that into account, this is still unlike anything in my admittedly meagre experience. I am not so naive to think that it will always be this easy, but it's amazing how easy it has been. Not easy in the sense of being insubstantial, easy in the sense that it's always just been natural; there has never been any pretense or burdening formality. Strange since in the past I have thought I had to be a certain person to be liked. But conventions are rulesets for ambiguous situations.

Mia: Don't you hate that?
Vincent: What?
Mia: Uncomfortable silences. Why do we feel it's necessary to yak about bullshit in order to be comfortable?
Vincent: I don't know. That's a good question.
Mia: That's when you know you've found somebody special. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute and comfortably
enjoy the silence.

[Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) in Pulp Fiction]

So yeah, we've had a lot of comfortable silences and more comfortable, long conversations. We wrote and wrote, before we were together, which is a good way to start to understand someone. Good for us at least, since we are written word people. We're hopeless on the phone, which suits me fine. Phones are like instant messaging: only suitable as substitute communication. We do some interesting things, but it's more the case that boring things become interesting when we're together.

I've got some books to drop-off at the library.
Awesome! I'm in!

We played minigolf in the rain, with 12 of her old friends. No one got hurt, so it can't really be called a successful outing, but fun nonetheless. We played croquet in her backyard, with her family, which was perfect. Croquet is great because you can intentionally mess with other people (and yourself, it turns out). But mostly we just do nothing, the best sort of nothing there is. We inhabit treed areas, and watch the stars. If you are at peace with yourself, and you think that life is fundamentally a positive experience, even the simplest things become fascinating and wonderful.

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Posts and posts ago I referred to a bucket full of tiny frogs. It was taken from my childhood memories of frog-collecting adventures . . . . adventures that I relived this weekend with my young cousins. Seven-year-old Clare was my main accomplice, actually, I think I was her accomplice. We caught more than 50, because they are really small. We recreated an entire frog world in that bucket. By 'frog world' I mean we put a rock, sand and some water in it. They seemed to like it though, judging by their huddling . . . which is probably what frogs do when they are happy, or in a small space.

Clare also instructed me in spontaneous, mixed-media artwork, how to somersault off of armchairs, and how to tie shoes by yourself.

10-year-old David tromped around the woods with me . . . we saw a fieldmouse, were swarmed by flying ants and saw a giant wasp which was at least 2 inches long. We also drank dirty dish water and ate blueberries off the floor . . . . because we're cool like that.

I had a pretty good visit with Dad on the car ride down and at his house with his dog. I didn't get to talk to my mom, aunt or oldest cousin a whole lot . . . . mostly because the squeaky 7 or 10 year-old gets the grease . . . . c'est la vie. Anyway, I'm coming back down on Labour Day weekend because that will probably the last bit of summer in the lifetime of my childhood home, since it is being sold.

Speaking of cars and times past, Roxanne picked me up semi-unexpectedly this morning while I was walking home from my 4am bus trip. It was just like the first time we met out of class. I couldn't tell it was her, but I knew it was. I never knew it felt so affirming to be missed. Who knew three and a half days could be so long?

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As if my blog wasn't unfocused enough, here is a long rant about hockey. I have plenty of other and better things to write about . . . but there is about a 2-year backlog of hockey nonsense stuck in my brain, so I had to get it out. If nothing else, it will bring an exoteric flavour to this place. Did I just say "exoteric"? Sorry. Don't read this. No, seriously, don't read it.

Richard Park is the greatest (Korean) hockey player ever! And now he is a Vancouver Canuck. He's also the only Korean hockey player in the NHL, so he's also the worst, but let's look on the bright side. So that was the suitably nonsensical opening to the inexplicable (I'm told) topic that is my semi-obsession with hockey.

Unless you accidentally clicked on the "read more" button, you probably already know that the NHL exists once again, and that it's landscape has been shaken by various earthquakes measuring about 8.6 on the Richter scale. 8.6, incidentally, will be the GAA for the NYR this year, Mike Richter's former team.

No one wants to talk about the new CBA, or the process leading up to it, but I will point out a few good things that have come from it:

1. NHL participation at Turin 2006 has been ensured (Go Romania Go! I mean, Canada!).
2. Some rule tweaks might make the game more offensive.
3. The net effect of the cap of Canadian teams has been positive.
4. The effect on some teams I dislike has been negative.

The Olympics thing is self-explanatory. Canada will defend it's gold medals. The only team that can beat us is still the Czechs. The rule tweaks . . . who knows what will happen with them, let's hope they work. The two smallest market Canadian teams (CGY & EDM) have markedly improved in the post-CBA NHL, and the remaining four are generally the same as before, with the possibly exception of that team from Toronto.

Calgary was already going to contend in the West, but they added Tony Amonte, for some potentially valuable offense, and Darren McCarthy, to punch people and accuse others of being communists. They did lose Martin Gelinas, but they have 2 young guys with big upsides . . . Chuck Cobasew and that guy from the Juniors . . . . Dion.

Edmonton made 2 really smart moves: Pronger and Peca. They did have to give up Eric Brewer, but Pronger is better and more offensive. They may also benefit from a more open game. Their goaltending is suspect, but they have two promising prospects, so hopefully one of them will be good.

Ottawa apparently does not know that the lockout is over. I guess they resigned Havlat, which was a nobrainer . . . but they are mostly the same. Philly has possibly passed them as being the deepest team in the league, but they are still in the top 2-3 (TB? SJ?). Their only question mark is in goal, since Dominick Hasek is in rehab in the Czech Republic (probably).

Montreal . . . . all I know is they resigned some guys . . . . notably Alexei Kovalev, which was a coup.

Toronto . . . . I don't know what is happening with the greatest Irish player in the NHL, but his injury situation is not helpful. I don't think losing Leetch and Murray was so huge; they didn't have a whole lot left to contribute anyway, imho. It would have been nice to hold on to . . . . Gary Roberts, he'll be hard to replace, but c'est la vie. Jeff O'neill (wait, that sounds kind of Irish too?) was a deft pick-up. He'll fit well. As easy as Eric Lindros is to make fun of, I actually like him. Hopefully the year off will have done him good, and he'll have plenty of protection from the goon festival that is the Leafs, so . . . that move could work out well. They've always had a decent core . . . but I think they need at least one more big piece (probably on D) to make them serious contenders. Oh yeah, I forgot about Allison . . . . if he's healthy . . . that's good, duh.

Vancouver . . . . well, it's great that Marcus Naslund has stayed, and for multiple years at that! That bodes quite well for Todzilla staying . . . so that's good. Hopefully the Sedins will benefit from a more open game . . . and the big line definitely will. Losing Malik was very bad :( . . . . Bryan Allen can't pick up much of that slack. I didn't mind seeing Sopel go. He was OK, I guess, but overrated because of his chemistry with Ohlund. I don't know what Richard Park can do that Brandon Reid can't, but he did score . . . possibly the biggest goal in Minnesota Wild history, in game 7 against COL, a few years ago (that was him right?). Anyway, he can be added to the ever-expanding toolbox of 3rd and 4th line role players that we have. Van definitely needs another top-4 defenceman . . . and a scoring 2nd line center. The goaltending picture is still a perpetual question mark. The last playoffs was Cloutier's last chance . . . . but he was injured, so he gets another one. Let's hope Auld is the next Giguere/Kiprusoff. Anyway, I predict that the Canucks will win the Stanley Cup, because I do every year, and I'm always right! Except for every time.

Teams of interest from South of the Border:

Penguins have been going crazy. They won't make it deep in the playoffs, but they'll be fun to watch, and will definitely throw some hockey pools for a loop.

Philadelphia. D'oh! Probably the 3rd best team last season adds arguably the best player AND 2 really good defensemen! Frig! I'm glad we're not in the East. For my real pick, I pick them to win the cup. The only possible hole is in goal, but Boucher was good last playoffs.

Atlanta will be fun to watch, and if their goalie prospect is half as good as he's supposed to be . . . they'll make the playoffs easily. Holik was a great catch; they'll have a really good first 2 lines. I think I'll take a bunch of them in the pool.

The West will be really open this year. Perenial powerhouses STL, DAL and COL have been decimated. Especially COL . . . . . Turgeon and some other guy to replace Forsberg and Foote? HAHAHAHAHA . . . . ha! DET will still make the playoffs probably, but they are too old. SJ and CGY and hopefully Van will potentially be the big teams for a few years to come. OK, that's enough overconfident and manic speculation for a while. If you read to the end you get a prize, it can be whatever you want, since it's imaginary.

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Kelly

My little sister Kelly was here on Sunday, so I'll take this chance to introduce you to the last human member of my immediate family.

The rare trait Kelly has is that she is fourteen-dimensional, as opposed to being one-dimensional. Many people find one thing they are good at, or one trait by which they want to define themselves, and get lost in it; ignoring so much else. That's fine, but it's always refreshing to see someone who really branches out. Granted, this manic nebulousness sometimes comes at the expense of basic abilities like being on time, letting people know what country you're in, and knowing how to work the lids on coffee cups. But I'm deficient in commonsense myself, so I shouldn't criticize.

Kelly Starlight Hope Henderson was born on January 26th, 1983, the same day of the year as Wayne Gretzky. Perhaps not coincidentally, Kelly's various talents include athleticism. She took correspondence in grade 12 because of the travel and training demands of skiing at F.I.S. level. At the end she was fairly close to making the B.C. Junior Team, which is pretty tough because there are only about a dozen people on it. Nevermind that B.C. is one of the two provinces where almost all of the competition is. She could have made the P.E.I. team easily, for example, if it existed.

Klee recently got back from 8 months on that continent that starts with an "E". You know, the one with old brick buildings, lots of history, common currency, and culture and stuff. You can read about her adventures here, although she left out some of the good parts. Like the guy who was running from criminals and had a credit card scam that allowed him to stay at four star hotels, or the time she went to EuroDisney with The Arcade Fire. I don't know all the countries she went to . . . . definitely Scotland, Spain, Germany, Togo and France, but she spent most of her time in Paris. She had two jobs there, despite not being legally qualified to work in France. She's good like that. She slept in a secondhand bookstore for a few weeks, because it was free, and who wouldn't want to sleep surrounded by old books? She and her friend chased 3 guys who stole her purse in Barcelona, until one of them turned around brandishing a broken bottle. Luckily there was absolutely nothing of value in her purse, so she had the last laugh. No doubt she has many other stories, but you'll have to ask her about them in person. If you want to do that, she's somewhere in the forest around High Prairie, Alberta, we're told.

She spends most of her summers in the forest. All of them since she was 16 in fact. No one is sure what she does out there, possibly treeplanting, but more likely Sasquatch wrestling. Her winters are spent in Montreal, I guess she pretty much lives there by now. She took Liberal Arts for a couple of years and is generally idealistic, as all young twentysomethings are obliged to be in that city.

Kelstar and I fought a lot as children, I guess it was just the sister-brother-sister dynamic, we still do . . . but it's in a friendlier way. That is, less biting and fewer crayons being jammed-up noses. She and I are pretty good. My mom and possibly sister have to talk to her frequently to feel like they are caught-up; that they know where she is. But Kelly and I just have a basic, immovable relationship. We can not talk for half a year, and nothing changes. When were details ever important?

I guess the main thing about her is she is someone who is lucky to be pretty smart, smartly pretty, good natured and in possession of long, curly hair, but she doesn't take it for granted; she uses it to be good to others. Oh yeah, and she "can play the gui-tar like a mother****ing riot!"

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The photo above is what the inside of my head looks like right now.

The things I missed throughout the idleness of the last years of my life have all been concentrated into a span of days. So, this will be the least fair post ever in the sense that I am throwing things out without explanation. Granted, the explanations would take days, if they are communicable at all, still . . .



I usually take a more cryptic, ironic and detached tact when writing here. That's fine; that's a part of who I am, but it's not the only part. The words on these pages are supposed to be about my life . . . so, I would be remiss if I left out things just because they say too much about me; because they fall behind that wall of indifference which I too often front.

Right, so, there's a girl . . . Roxanne. It's not casual. That's all I can say without getting utterly lost.

Also, after an honest six years in the agnostic wasteland, I believe in God again. It's such a simple sentence to write, but the words are anvils (well, not "I" and "in" so much). It might mean what some of you think it means; it won't mean what all of you think it means. I will explain more eventually, but the main point is that belief is a catalyst for action. Any hermit in the forest can fulfill his negative moral obligations. That is, he can live without hurting anyone. And it may be that we are not obliged to help anyone, or fulfill any positive moral obligations at all. I mean, a cogent argument could be made that we don't have to help anyone at all; that we only have to not hurt them, but why wouldn't you want to? And what would you say if you came face to face with abject suffering? Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that the importance of this belief for me now is that it helps me act positively, rather than simply not act negatively. In any case, Wittgenstein says all of philosophy is a word game. I'm just happy to be playing again.

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Aside from my precocious early elementary years, I've always been an underacheiver.
Every single comment I have ever received on a report card was something to the effect of "David has performed satisfactorily, but could do much better if he applied himself." A debate could be had about whether a perpetual underacheiver is actually an underacheiver at all, but that's beside the point.The point is: I am finished with that now.

The top of the world does strange things to people. Since I moved up here I have felt closer to reaching the self that I want to be. The source of this is divided, albeit not evenly, between this place, these people and the fact that I am now one quarter century old. Explanations are not what is important though. What is important is that I have finally hit my stride; I am centered.

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