The Blog of Granite

Glorious glories

2007-04-15T19:44:00.001+10:00

Oh nuts!!

2007-01-30T21:49:00.000+10:00

I wet myself...

2007-01-05T09:45:00.000+10:00

Casino Royale trailer redubbed with sound bites from The Simpsons and Kung Pow!!

Body Worlds

2007-01-05T08:14:00.001+10:00

If you've seen Casino Royale yet, you would have seen the scene full of fake looking de-skinned bodies in a museum, where Bond kills one baddie while another gets away.

Well, that's the Body Worlds exhibit. "The Anatomical Exhibit of Real Human Beings".

The one in the movie was Body Worlds 1, but while I was in Vancouver they were hosting Body Worlds 3. It was suhweet!!

They get the cadavers, and similar to embalming them, they leach this plastic substance all through their tissue and turn them in to plastinates (not dissimilar to how they treat the recovered wrecks of ancient ships to preserve them out of the mud and water I'd reckon)

This is the creator and one of his plastinates.

Obviously this isn't something sick like on Law and Order or one of those freaky psycho movies, all the bodies were donated for this purpose...

They're in all sorts of poses, and with various parts of their skin, muscle and organs removed, so you can see where everything goes and how it all moves.

This guy is holding up his own skin as if he'd taken if off just like a sweater.

This one also featured in Casino Royale.

And this really cool woman was full of prosthetics! She looked like a car crash survivor, there was something in her jaw, cheek, shoulder, arm, hip, knee and ankle, she was a mess. But the artist removed the tissues from these areas exposing the joints and prosthetics, showing exactly how it all works.

But the craziest was the gymnast who was balancing on the ground on one hand, and holding his ENTIRE organ set in the other. The organs were all arranged the way they would sit inside the body. Very well displayed. (Not the one above, it's actually a skateboarder, but I can't find a whole photo for you).

This picture is of a normal vs a really fat dude. He was so fat that his heart could no longer beat and he already had a pacemaker installed!!!

I'd expected to feel a bit squeemish surrounded by these mummified and weird looking bodies, but it was really fine. I can only assume because they weren't bleeding and twitching (except one... joking) and although you knew they WERE real, they just didn't seem real.

Where's my hybrid?

2007-01-04T08:00:00.000+10:00

This here is an hybrid Ford Escape. But not available in Oz.

And this here is the Toyota Highlander Hybrid. Can't find that one on www.toyota.com.au either.

And the final blow, the Camry, one of if not THE most popular family car in Australia. And no hybrid option like this one available:

And according to Popular Mechanics magazine, Toyota is also developing a hybrid Supra.

Something's definitely wrong with the Australian fossil fuels industry. We've got so much land and resources that we for some reason don't need to concentrate on energy usage and emissions? Doesn't sound right to me...

Compare our lazy standards to some of the European ones, for vehicle efficiency and emissions, house insulation requirements, even power generation emission standards, and tell me that we're not WAY behind the 8 ball...

Snow kayaking last year

2007-01-03T15:17:00.000+10:00

Possible a nudge late now...

2007-01-03T08:45:00.000+10:00

This is the photo from Banff that I was referring to...

The "G Tick" (of fully endorsed approval)

2007-01-02T16:24:00.000+10:00

Merry Christmas!!

Happy Birthday To ME!!

Happy New Year!!

My head was soooo sore this morning. Had half a bottle of Crown Royal rye last night, it's like Canadian Club style whiskey, but CC is in fact the Canadian equivalent to the Fosters image, no one drinks it. Well no one worth discussing (this comment is obviously based on the fact that only Victorians and Englishers drink it...).

So was rather thirsty, unstable and sore when I finally awoke at 1130 this morning.... Didn't get in until about 0630.

Tried to make dinner tonight, but all the shops were shut so fell back on to ol' faithful pasta. And watched Beerfest, funny funny stuff!!

Meanwhile, Casino Royale was excellent!!! I fully approve!

May the new year be full of blah blah blah and other such stuff. Stop smoking, drink in moderation, and lose some weight fatties...

Oh yeh...

2006-12-24T09:09:00.000+10:00

Picture from the hockey game in Vancouver.

Views around Kitimat

2006-12-24T08:55:00.000+10:00

This is the town centre itself from up the hill. There are heaps more houses than visible in this pic. The population's about 10,000 or so.

Looking out onto the chanel from the lookout. Alcan's out that way somewhere.

I think this is the school oval, just covered in snow.

This is like what I was referring to with Vancouver being so close to mountains. You expect it in a small town, but not in a major city.

Scary Snowmen!

2006-12-24T08:22:00.000+10:00

I told yall that snowmen were evil!! This one followed me home!!!

Kanucks vs Hurricanes

2006-12-22T06:28:00.000+10:00

Got a photo to upload when I feel like it, but anyway...

Vancouver Kanucks vs Carolina Hurricanes! Carolina took out the Stanley Cup last year, so was a good match! The Kanucks got up to 3-0 going in to the final period, and then apparently as a standard conceded 3 goals to 3-3 into extra time. Which means they play another 5 mins, sudden death, each team with a player missing. I think it was then that Carolina had someone sent to the bin and then the Kanucks scored the golden goal. It was seriously stressful, and it's not even like it's my team!!

Was worried that I wouldn't get to see the game, cos every time I went online to get tickets the website was doing maintenance and I couldn't get them, until all that was left was the $95 ones. But the hostels buy a few season tickets and sell off the individual seats to guests, so got lucky!

Vancouver

2006-12-22T06:17:00.001+10:00

Alright, so, after a 3 hour drive, 4 hour wait, 14 hour flight, 1 hour in customs, 3 hour wait, 3 hour flight, and another hour in customs, I got to Vancouver!

The urban sprawl was HUGE!!! The CBD itself is pretty big but can't hold a candle to Sydney, but the sprawl of houses just seemed massive! (Same for LA too, but you knew that...). Can even see how the whole area was laid out on a big grid.

Vanouver was just like I remembered, dark, cold, windy, rainy. Smelt like weed. But it's still a really nice place, it's surrounded by water on 3 sides and the mountains really bracket it in and it's just really pretty and unique. It's TOO close to the mountains. I've looked up the main street of a small town like Banff and you kinda expect the mountains to be right at the end, but this is a major city and it feels the same!

Met another Aussie at the hostel and we went for a walk over to the Granville Island markets and through Yaletown, and then I went for a burger and a few beers while watching the NFL. Hot damn that's a slow game!!

Movember and Canadia

2006-12-06T19:26:00.000+10:00

What have they got to do with each other?

Not much...

I leave for Canada in just over 12hrs.

And I made $510 for prostate cancer for a ugly facial hair growth... not bad...

Achtung!!!

2006-11-30T20:04:00.000+10:00

Before the chop...

2006-11-30T20:03:00.000+10:00

Close up of the glory of glories!

2006-11-30T20:02:00.000+10:00

It's starting to affect the way I think....

2006-11-23T21:32:00.000+10:00

My mo took a chop, i slipped on the sides when trying to tidy it up, so they were sacrificed to the prosta-god.

2006-11-13T19:34:00.000+10:00

Fishing!!

2006-11-12T17:00:00.000+10:00

Well, me and all the lads down this way got out to Nelson Bay on the weekend, stayed over on Friday, sank a lot of piss, and then got up extra early on Sat morning. Jumped on a boat, and went out towards the sea. What fun!!! Never done any proper fishing before, and that was seriously enjoyable! I caught 4 or 5 in total, biggest was a 41cm Mauwie (or spelt something like that) and a 34cm Nanigye (same again). And then we ate em all yum!

Haha yeh, must get out and do that more often! Couple of the lads were a bit poorly though, from the rocking of the boat. Seph's mate was a bit green at the gills the whole time, but Tommy Gun took a sudden turn and next we knew a cough turned a lot more chunky!.. Hahaa

But was good fun! Oh, and Seph had us booked at the Samurai beach resort, which turns out to be next to a noody beach. I LATER find out the whole resort used to be nudist too!!! Went for a walk along the beach, and saw what I can only describe was the beginnings of a old fat saggy 3way, of the bad kind... not quite on the beach, up in the dunes. Dirty nudists!!...

Can't believe I've never made it out to Nelson Bay before now, it was seriously good!!

2006-11-07T19:42:00.000+10:00

It's MOVEMBER!!! And I look gross...

Ninja!!!

2006-10-14T14:40:00.000+10:00

This is siack!!!

2006-10-02T13:44:00.000+10:00

Holy bejeeeezus!!!

2006-09-06T20:54:00.000+10:00

If you can get over the really bad song at the start, this is SERIOUSLY worth a watch!!!

CLICK

In case of Ninjas!

2006-09-02T12:51:00.000+10:00

In the spirit of the Zombie Protection Kit, I've decided to build one to guard me against ninjas.

I've bought a cheapass frame, am currently building a box behind it.

I've got a miniature samurai sword, which I now realise is actually bigger than the frame when in its sheath, so I'll have to look at a Plan B.

And I'll get work to pay for the stickers. Cos they've got too much dam money.

Stay tuned for pics.

Sitck Fight Mania!!!!

2006-09-02T12:38:00.000+10:00

Oh yeh, THIS is what I needed!!!

I'm so going to build one of these!!!

2006-08-28T18:28:00.000+10:00

Courtesy of McBain

Flash Kick!!!

2006-08-28T17:54:00.000+10:00

Stick Fight!!!

2006-08-28T17:51:00.000+10:00

ANZAC Day and how I'm now richer than all of you combined

2006-04-25T17:58:00.000+10:00

I won $120 on KENO!!! In one go! On my first bet! Boo-yah!!

So I pocketed $70 and went in to Two-Up with $50, went up, down, up, down, as low as $20, as high as $90, and walked away with that same $50. So all up, $120!!! Cool huh?

And I convinced the Dutchies (the new Dutch guy at work and his missus) to come along too, and they did, even though Arne had a suspected sprained back. They were really thankful, as it was a great insight into Australian culture for them. And me! I'd never done that before.

So basically, ANZAC day, Australia and New Zealand Army Corps day, there's parades etc in the morning, alcohol can't be served until 12 (or something like that), and it's the only day that Two-Up can be conducted on a non-gambling licenced premises. Any other day it has to be in a Casino, but not today.

So the pubs all clear out big spaces and everyone has a great time. The spinner is the guy in the middle, someone from the crowd, and they have 3 coins on a wooden paddle, and toss them into the air. The winning face (heads or tails) is the only thing you can bet on, and all odds are 50/50. The spinner puts his bet into a jar, and people from the crowd bid to meet him. He is defaulted to heads, so if he gets heads he continues. If he tails, he's out with no money. He needs to win 3 in a row before he can claim his winnings from the jar and reassess his bet for the next 3 throws, but the people who bid against him get their money straight away.

BUT, while this is going on, EVERYone in the crowd is making side bets with the people near them. So you just put your money in the air and say "$10 on tails" and someone near you will say "$10 on heads" and you've now agreed to play together. The tails better always holds the money. And that, in a nutshell, is Two-Up.

It's really amazing how much fun it is, there's no rivalry cos it's all to chance, there's no bickering when people start losing their money, there's no cheating. You even have people betting against each other on the other side of the room, just by nods and waves, and they gladly exchange money at the conclusion of the throw. Everyone's drinking and laughing and carrying on, especially when the spinner keeps hitting the roof with the coins and has to rethrow. It was a really fun day!

We need more public holidays! We're seriously lacking here. In fact, I'd like at least every second Wednesday off, that would be sweet. Let's make a referendum!!!!

2006-04-19T23:15:00.000+10:00

What I want my Tib to look like

2006-03-19T22:42:00.000+10:00

Calgary

2006-02-05T10:05:00.000+10:00

Got into Calgary when it was pretty much well into dark, very dark actually. And without a proper map, which showed the multitude of one way streets and other shite around the place, it took a LOT longer than expected to get to the hockey stadium. But luckily only missed the first session of play in the Calgary Hitmen vs Swift Current Broncos. First live hockey game!! Oh it's so much fun! Hitmen won in shootouts 2-0, but it was a pretty cool game. They're my team from now on, unfortunately they're in the smaller WHL, so chances of hearing more about them are pretty slim...

Up very early the next day for a tour around Calgary and the Drumheller Badlands. It was a good tour, going to more hoodoos, some old abandoned mines, the world's largest dinosaur (a 4x T-Rex model), and the Royal Tyrrell Museum, one of the world's best (apparently) for dinosaurs and paleantology. The driver again had a heap of knowledge about Calgary, Alberta, and Canada, and was really keen on doing the best he could. It was good. And then after he also had a free pass for us all to get up the Calgary tower, which is by no means one of those massive "tallest building in town" type things, but still some pretty good views.

Badlands

Hoodoos

This was weird, it looks like a hot barren land, but the river was still frozen.

Was planning to go to The Roadhouse on Jamie's suggestion, but honestly didn't feel up to it yet again, and also the general bad feeling I got about Calgary on a Sunday being completely dead in the ass, gave it a miss and caught up on some sleep. Well tried to, it was yet another 5am get up for the Greyhound terminal...

Banff and Lake Louise

2006-02-05T10:00:00.000+10:00

Banff is this cool little town right at the start of the Canadian Rockies and close to the Icefields Parkway. I mistook the position of it and nearby Lake Louise on the map, so was going to go there and then the next day go to Louise for a day, and then back to Banff... But the bus actually stopped IN Lake Louise en route to Banff, so jumped off there instead.

The HI at Lake Louise is by far one of the nicest and newest around. It was really cool, kinda like an Alpine Lodge, with a licenced cafe on premises (totally different to the Americans, where grog was strictly outlawed on the hostel grounds...). From there in the morning caught a quick shuttle bus down to Chateau Lake Louise, it was fairly early morning so went for a walk around the lake as far as you can, but by halfway back my feet were starting to get reaaallly cold from the snow and ice etc. The sun appeared for a short while from behind the hotel too, and then ducked behind the mountains again, so didn't warm up much at all...

The Chateau from the far end of the lake

Frozen waterfall

People standing on the ice and also some skating, but the hotel wasn't yet willing to rent skates out to the public.

Then back to the Chateau for a late breakfast and a coffee etc. Quick look around the shops, then back to the hostel, some lunch, quick shop for some souvenirs, and then wait for the bus to Banff... Bus was more than 2 hrs late cos it blew a tyre AND something caught fire onboard. Fortunately some nice couple in town is contracted by Greyhound in such emergencies and they shuttled everyone to Banff, so not a complete waste.

Got to Banff late, taxi up the biggest longest coldest hill in town to the hostel, which is kinda like the Louise one but a bit more compact. It was $1 beers night, but unfortunately didn't feel like partying up too much, too big a day. This is the only bit that really sucks about the trip, making such a big effort to see so much each day that I don't feel like partying every night. Oh well, it's cheaper this way anyway...

Looking down the main street of Banff.

Next day, had a tour booked that would take us to all the hot spots near by. Had arranged for a pickup from the hostel, but ended up downtown around that time anyway so phoned up and got a new time and place. Unfortunately, the owner operator gave us the wrong time, so we missed the bus. It came back, eventually, only missing a few places, and got a decent discount too.

Fairmont Banff Sprins Hotel
(sorry about the sun flare, the other photo was worse)

This cool little stream was covered in ice but still running underneat. Where the ice had holes in it was gurgling and sucking and reallly bizzar!

Got out to the Hoodoos, which are these funny rock formations when there are flat stones sitting on soft earth, and the earth gets eaten out from under it by rain and wind, making these funny little ant mound things. Then onto Surprise Corner, which is this spot in the windy back road where the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel just appears out of nowhere, very cool! The on to Castle Mountain lookout, up to Lake Louise again, and then back via Vermillion Lakes. All this was with commentary by the driver too, some funny but mostly informative (he wasn't as funny as he thought..). He was pointing out all the over- and under-passes for animal crossings over the hightway, obviously to discourage them from wanting to dodge the traffic like they unfortunatley do.

Vermillion Lakes, smelt kinda funny...

The next day, we hired a car and headed up part of the Icefields Parkway. Nice and slow. A little bit too much ice and stuff on the roads to really push it. Saw some wonderful stuff, magic views and frozen rivers and lakes. Almost made a mad dash to the Athabasca Glacier, but turned out to be further away than originally thought, unfortunately. That will have to wait till Jasper.

Typical view on the Icefields Parkway

Thank Casio for self timers!

Writing your name in the snow is harder than it looks ;-)

Then, rush back into town, check out the hot springs, and then on to Calgary!

Cold

2006-01-16T10:12:00.000+10:00

This was frikkin freezing Mr Bigglesworth...

I had just jumped out of the hot tub and rolled around in the snow. Don't know why. Mr Molson made me do it...

Drove past these on the way home, and just had to get a shot. Nice titties eh?

I'm a Snow Blowing Machine!!!

2006-01-14T07:27:00.000+10:00

Look at me go!! It was good fun actually. And not 2 seconds later, flat on my ass!!.. Kinda hurt...

New York

2006-01-12T15:24:00.000+10:00

Broadway

Wall Street Stock Exchange

This guy was completely kitted out for combat, no idea why

This sphere was in the centre square of the World Trade Centre, and survived largely intact (it was a very weird shape to begin with)

My Christmas Night (in Boston)

More pics of Boston

2006-01-12T15:13:00.000+10:00

Harvard University Administration

Long story short, this building was designed to look 2 dimensional from here

My first Moped siting

WWII Destroyer

Ye Olde Ironsides, world's oldest floating warship

Jump ahead to Quebec and Boston, just for some photos, since that's all you want to see...

2006-01-12T14:47:00.000+10:00

Quebec Legislature Building

Chateau Fairmont Frontenac, Quebec

View over Boston

View across Boston Common Park

Boston Customs House

One for Jamie

Inside Government House, Boston

Niagara Falls

2006-01-11T11:10:00.000+10:00

The Magic Bus took us to Niagara falls on a day trip! Crazy bus, looks like it'd be more suited to a stoner trip or something, but it was ok. Well, it was sufficient...

We stopped at a winery on the way, they make a white that was flavourless, a red that was undrinkable cos it seriously tasted like pepper had been added, and then Ice Wine!! This stuff is made from the grapes that get left on the vine way into the winter, so they shrivel up and lose all their water, and it takes 50 times as many to make a bottle of wine than in the picking season. But the wine is so nice!! Super sweet, only good as a dessert wine, almost like a liqueur, but it was goooood!

The falls themselves were amazing too! So much water falling over them, something ridiculous like a million bathtubs a minute. Serious! It was really cold and windy, and cos there's so much mist and vapour, there's crazy icicles on everything, the railings, the trees, the paths.

Went down the tunnels behind the falls, one gives a good view side on, and the other is 1/3 the way behind, it was cool! Unfortunately, the rest of the place is a shithole, so touristy and trashy, like 5 wax museums, 10 Ripley's, all these friggin souvenir shops, it's just a waste! Fortunately you can't really see all this from the falls area, so it's not totally wrecked.

Had a good chat with a Frenchy and a young Japanese girl on the way home, it's funny, English is her second language, but she's been in Canada for like a year, and even she agrees that I talk funny (for over here anyway...).

Toronto 2, Ed the Sock, and the Penpal

2006-01-11T11:05:00.000+10:00

Went up to the main shopping area, Queen St, not far from the hostel, and then just suddenly realised, Ed the Sock is filmed here!! So, asked a few ppl for the whats and wheres, and finally found the studio. Unfortunately, they were on xmas break, and straight after that would be location shoots, so no hilarity on this visit unfortunately...

Had a quick look through that district, up the CN Tower (sooo windy!!) and then met my penpal for 9 yrs Lindsay. She lives out in the burbs, kinda the distance my place is from Brisbane city. Went to her local hangout, met some of her (totally weird) friends, and then went out for dinner. Hot Wings! Hot!!!

After dinner, went along to a pool hall, a cpl games, and then her bf dropped me back to the hostel. Got a chance to chat and all, but would've been good to see her longer. Oh well.

Toronto 1

2006-01-11T10:45:00.000+10:00

Ok, finally get a chance to update properly...

Toronto, woke up, went down the street to Tim Hortons for some breakfast/lunch/whatever you call your first meal at 1130... Dropped my map on the way, and this guy picked it up for me and said "There you go mate". Well god dammed if the guy wasn't an Aussie from Melbournia, and had just arrived the night before too!

So, having a chat to him on the street when these two crazy Brazilians came up and talking to him too, he'd met them earlier, and they'd just arrived that morning too!

So, went to Timmies, had food, and then met these guys at the pub next door, called Philthy McNasty's. 3 pints later, we decide it might be time to see part of the city... So went for a walk around, got separated from the other 3, and walking past the Skydome, home of the Blue Jays, and up ahead I see the Steam Whistle Brewery... So I start getting all excited, and there they are, the other 3 right behind!!! So we all go off to the brewery, have a lot of free stuff, and then they say it's an hr wait till the next tour. So off to get pizza, and then back for even more free stuff! Got to pull the 5pm whistle too!

Went along to the filming of a Canadian comedy show called Air Farce, it's like Full Frontal but more political. Although we didn't know all th enames of all their victims, we still got the point and it was funny! Lots of anti-Bush jokes too!

Get back to the hostel, and these Brazilians break out their Cachaca, it's a local drink of theirs. Kind of like scotch, but not... Few quick shots of that, and then on to Philthy's again...

We finally leave at 2am when we basically get asked to leave cos it's curfew for the bars, and it's just been snowing, a fair bit, so we have the wildest bestest snowball fight!!! As we were tiring, 3 more ppl from the hostel showed up, and so it was on again! Woke up pretty sore, but not as bad as Chico, he got crashtackled by his mate and had a huge bruise!!.. And this is only day 1!!!

Back to Vancouver and on to Toronto

2005-12-27T04:56:00.000+10:00

From Victoria it's a 3 hr bus and ferry service back to Vancouver. This time, instead of staying in the "Downtown" hostel which is a good 30min walk from downtown, stayed in the "Central" hostel, which is right in downtown.. Go figure.

And this time, it wasn't fogged in! So, back up the tour to see the city properly, back out to Stanley park to see the harbour and the Lion's Gate Bridge without fog, and down to Canada Place to see whatever was missing last time.

Saw a movie there too, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, it was really cool!! Twisted, funny, really well done! The next day an early early cab out to the airport, for a cpl hours transit... 3hr flight to LAX, change terminals, 5hr wait, and then a 5hr flight to Toronto. Arrived about 2300, but well after 0100 by the time got to the hospital on their pitiful public transport arrangement. And then with halfassed directions to get to the hostel... But got there. Room was packed full, and here I come in with my nylon jacket and bags making an absolute racket, and still need to make my bed... I hate that part, I feel like everyone's cursing me...

Victoria

2005-12-17T11:00:00.000+10:00

Upon arriving in Victoria, there was the world's largest motorcade of trucks and big rigs and buses and stuff, all dolled up in fairylights and decorations and other xmas stuff, it was really cool! And they were all blowing their horns in time with carols and junk... My favourites were the cement mixers, spinning while covered in lights!

Victoria is the capital of BC, so it has the obligatory parliament house, but also the really cool British Columbia Museum. It had a big expo on the Beetles, so there was John Lennon's god awful Rolls Royce outside, and a heap of album covers and photos taken by Linda McCartney.

The rest of the displays were pretty cool, the First Nations gallery (i.e. North American Aboriginals) was good, these ppl were sooo much smarter and more advanced than the Aussie Aboriginals before white settlement.

From there across the road to the Fairmont hotel, yet another utterly imposing, massive chalet style building. There was a xmas tree competition going on inside, with all local businesses and groups raising money for sick children and making cool trees.

Can't recall if it was the next day or not, but a Parliament house tour was in order. Interestingly , the shield for BC had the setting sun on top of the Union Jack. It was only recently changed cos of the whinging whining British that nothing should ever set on the Jack, ans to they were reversed. They're like Queensland's parliament, with only a single house (but their Federal still has 2, like ours).

Dam, it was so long ago now I'm going to have to look up my diary to keep writing... Oh well. It's now Boxing day in Boston, that's how far behind I am... Merry belated Xmas to all!!!

BC Ferries

2005-12-17T10:48:00.000+10:00

Got to the Ferry with plenty of time, the girlies were right, there was sooo much more to see than we would have otherwise, the road ran right a longside the Skeena River, and there were waterfalls that pretty much ended right at the roads edge, and animals... Actually turns out it's one of the scariest, most dangerous stretches of road, even the locals don't like it...

On to the boat, which goes through the inside passage all the way from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy, on the northern tip of Vancouver Island. It was indeed a very pretty trip, however she didn't set sail till almost noon, arriving at 8am the following day, so a lot of the travel was in darkness. But the daytime stuff was amazing!! Also unfortunately, it was difficult to stay on deck for too long cos of the cold.

Got a tour of the bridge, the captain and one of the grease-covered guys (dunno what he was doing) were telling us all what the instruments did, the controls, all that jazz. They have 2 separate radar systems, depending on weather. One is v. high resolution, but turns to shit in the rain, so they use another one which can see better, but at the cost of resolution.

They had a movie playing on the boat too, Runaway Jury. Was kinda cool! Freaky, and twisting all over the place, but cool. And for once I understood it all, Boyd...

The boat pulled in about 8am or so, pretty much on schedule, and then a bus was there leaving straight for Nanaimo, halfway down the coast, so jumped on that. Turned out to be the milkrun, all stops, so took forever to get to Victoria!!! But got there eventually... 4 days of travel straight, finally over.

Jasper pt 2 and The Skeena

2005-12-14T15:32:00.000+10:00

Up and out early to see more stuff around the area before taking the car back and meeting the train out. There was Pyramid Lake, a nice ice lake with a pyramid shaped mountain behind it. And then some more frozen waterfalls I think, too long ago and I'm getting old... Then onto the Fairmont Banff Park, which is actually the most unimpressive Fairmont hotel yet, more of a series of hunting lodges around one central restaurant type building, but still very nice and great spot!

The Skeena takes you from Jasper to Prince Rupert, all the way on the west coast of British Columbia. Takes almost 2 days, well, it stops midway in Prince George for overnighter. Stayed in this nice little B&B, actually run out of this old couple's downstairs area. Excellent breakfast, and felt reallllly good to watch some TV for a change.

Rejoined the train in the morning, very long and boring trip, this is the longer leg of the journey. Much busier too. A lot of ppl obviously starting at George. Most of them sleeping, taking up the whole 2 seats, and often just pretending to sleep so noone will bother them.

Stopped at Smithers for lunch, well, late lunch. These 2 girls on the train who live in the area convinced us to get off at Terrace so as to travel the last section in daylight, since it's one of the most beautiful parts of the trip. They were right. The road travels along the Skeen River, right next to the train track, but wouldn't have seen anything at night, due to it being dark and all. Heaps of frozen waterfalls right next to the road, and massive chunks of ice floating down the river. Very cool!

Edmonton and Jasper

2005-12-14T14:48:00.000+10:00

West Edmonton Mall is apparently the Western Hemisphere's largest indoor mall! It's cos it gets too friggin cold outside to stay outside! This place is insane, it has a full on theme park with 2 rollercoasters and tons of other rides, a seal show, a water park with 13 slides, wave pool and bungee, ice skating, and an absolute ton of stores!

Edmonton was snowing on arrival! Really fluffy light snow, not heavy at all, but still snowing! Got cold real quick though, and quite a hike to the hostel. It was described as Downtown... well, more likely 'Catch the bus from downtown for 35mins'. But it was nice enough, and it's only a bed after all.

After the mall, detoured through the University of Alberta, which has some nice old buildings. From there, ended up at the river and could see the parliament buildings across the way, so walked across the bridge to the parliament building, and they were actually on recess of a sitting. The guy said come back in an hour and we could sit in on a session. So past all the security checks, and up to the galleries. Strange, I've never been to one of my own, yet sat in on a foreign state government...

There was this spot that he showed us right up the top floor nearest the lobby, where the water fountain below makes it sound like everyone's clapping just for you, it was crazy!

Another early start the next day to get to Jasper, arrived about midday, and hired another car, a Sentra I think, to see the rest of the icefields. Still heaps to see on the way to the Columbia Icefields, a ton of frozen waterfalls and such, and frozen rivers and lakes, and climbed up a mountain too! Got to the regular lookout, but heard the voices of some other trekkers, they suggested following their footprints around to another, even better lookout, which was just amazing. It was a rocky outcrop, couldn't see any other civilisation, simply amazing!

FINALLY got to the Columbia Icefields. The Athabasca glacier seriously doesn't look so impressive from the road, especially with no reference objects near it. Being winter, the buses stop going out and the visitor centre's not operating. So trekking closer to it, well, the dist between it and the road seemed a lot less too. Stuff slowly getting into proportion. And after what felt like a 20min hike from the road to almost the foot of the glacier, THEN I could appreciate the size of the thing. Crazy!!! But, unfortunately, being dark and cold, and with no buses out on it, couldn't fully and completely appreciate it. Will have to come back some time and see it again.

Luckily, having the hire care made things much easier! The hostel is WAY out in the sticks! I mean ridiculously! And no public transport, Jasper's WAY to small for that, and I don't even recall any cabs. The hostel was seriously unusual, walked up the stairs to check in and there's this crazy eyed husky barking at me. Finally got past the dog, and inside. Seriously old school! The dorm was huge too! Like about 60 beds in one massive room, with a ton of partitions. Fortunately it was very uncrowded.

Kamloops

2005-11-26T11:33:00.000+10:00

Kamloops is this fairly small city that's a convenient stop-off when taking Greyhound coaches, since it saves doing a full 15hr stint to get from Vancouver to Lake Louise. It's quite nice, but the hostel closed down merely 2 weeks ago, so we had to find the cheapest hotel in town. Which wasn't bad by any means. And it had CABLE!! Oh it felt so good to watch the news, and the junk like Orange County Choppers and other random rubbish.

Had a walk around town at night, since it gets dark about 5pm but you don't really feel like dinner till 7 or so. Found plenty nice old buildings, there's still a fair bit of oldschool houses and stuff in town. And a fondue restaurant. Had ribs and a bourbon for dinner..

The next morning, got up early and went along to the Secwepemc (pronounced Sec-Wep-Mec, and yes that IS how it's spelt) Indian Village Recreation. Funny how the ppl that live in this town don't even really know where it is...

But it was very informative. It had recreations of their houses in various stages of development, and it's interesting to realise that they didn't always live in teepees, but in winter made these crazy little pit-huts half submerged in the ground, and would store food and cook inside them and all.

This next image shows a pit home in various stages of construction.

More Vancouver

2005-11-26T11:19:00.000+10:00

Finally got a cell phone organised. If you fancy obtaining the number, email me, but so far I've been unable to accept international sms so I wouldn't bother.

Took a bike ride around Stanley Park in Vancouver, it was good fun and really enjoyable, if not still very fogged in...

There were squirrels, ducks and a big racoon that came right up to you in the park too, if they thought you had food. This squirrel took a shrimp chip out of my hand (but spat it out, obviously didn't approve)

Then went up to Grouse Mountain via Gastown. Pretty much stumbled across Gastown accidentally, didn't plan on going right then and there, but were just in time for the 3pm tooting of the steam clock. Very intricate workings that you can see from through the case.

Grouse Mountain is this awesome little Winter Wonderland right in (pretty much) Vancouver itself. AND IT HAD SNOW!!! I've never touched snow before, it was sooo coool!! I was like a kid in a candy shop, lemme tell ya.

Also got to see the Evening Star clearly too, that's the bright little dot just left of centre. Awesome sunrise!!! And then when the sun and light were gone, could clearly see the glow (only glow, due to fog) of Vancouver below us. In fact, the fog over the area made it all look like a lake of cloud edged by the mountain ranges. Awesome!!! And seriously underrated in the guide books.

ME vs FROSTY

2005-11-26T11:15:00.000+10:00

Click me

Sausolito

2005-11-26T11:14:00.000+10:00

Totally forgot about this gorgeous little town that was at the other end of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It's such a cute little seaside town, but absolutely smells of money! Very pretty. No pics on hand atm, maybe later.

Seattle and Vancouver

2005-11-22T15:34:00.000+10:00

Seattle was cold! And foggy!
Arrived LATE on Thursday night, unprepared for the cold, and had to wait an absolute age for the bus to come!! Finally found the hostel at half past midnight, passed out, and had to get up reasonably early, as we had a tour of the Boeing factory organised!!

But, we didn't quite get there. We were waiting in the wrong "3 minute waiting zone near the hotel", so the bus waited for us where we weren't and then left.

Fortunately we were able to find another company that would take us. Not allowed to take cameras in though, but we got a tour of the 747 assembly line. Cameras are banned NOT cos of security risks, but some clown dropped his camera 40ft down onto the wing of a plane and destroyed a panel!!! Also, the on/off of modern electronics can do something to the calibration of the flight systems, so no phones, pdas or anything.

When we got back in to town, got the driver to drop us at the space needle, built some time ago (google it) for the Seattle World's Fair (like Expo).

Seattle Space Needle

Then had to find our way from Seattle to Vancouver. We were originally going to bus it, but we heard all this fuss about the Amtrak, the train service, being sooo much prettier. So we gave it a go, and dam glad we did!!!

The track runs RIGHT next to the water, some times it's on pontoons off the land over the water!! It's a slightly straighter journey by train, but takes as long as bus cos it goes fairly slow. But realllly pretty. Unfortunately a lot of it was fogged in, there was apparently a very impressive island chain next to us the whole time called the Cascades, but we couldn't see it from the fog. Oh well, easily impressed...

Bad photo from the Amtrak

Vancouver is more fogged in and colder than Seattle!!! God dam it's cold here! It's prob just like going outside on a cld winter's night, but that's at 1pm here... Still adjusting.

One of the funny little ferries in Vancouver. The city's looked like this for 3 days now.

Then took a bus up to Whistler (aka Blackcomb) for the day. Got there about 1, went for a walk around the golf course and on around the lake, so we could catch the awesome sun set on the mountains there (it's a ski resort, so snow capped mountains and a few with runs down them). Don't have photos yet, they're still tucked away on my camera, but soon..

Then, we took a shortcut that'd get us to the bus more directly. BUT, the map didn't show the moat that went around the golf course, so we walked a lot further than expected and missed the bus. Oh well, there was plenty of services, so we had a poke in the adventure gear shops cos we both needed to buy better jackets and deliberately didn't do it in Oz cos it's too $$y. Found a nice fleece that'd keep me pretty warm for a good price, so was pretty happy about that. But then we poked our heads into the Roots store (it's a reeeally popular Canadian brand) and checked out their gear. The funniest bit about Roots, is that they don't use the word like we foul Aussies do, so they have shirts that say I love Roots and such stuff on them, and to top it off, their logo is a BEAVER!! haha couldn't stop laughing!

Anyway, found a tops jacket that was already reduced, and it was on further special, so snatched that up and now I'm toasty warm.

Trapt

2005-11-19T14:03:00.000+10:00

Just got back to the hostel from a stroll, there is a ton of kids that all look like Mands cued up outside on the other side of the road. Turns out that some bad Avenged Seventimes or something is playing. So I look up at the playbill, TRAPT is playing tomorrow!!! Sooo annoyed. Considering I wasn't even planning to be staying here tonight, and that I just miss them by a night. Currently scouring the other bands I badly wanna see, to check who else I might be near and probably not going to make it to..

Tired, sore, sick, and got an early morning start, taking the Amtrak (train) to Vancouver. Apparently much more scenic than the busses, so should be good.

U S of A

2005-11-17T14:52:00.000+10:00

Ok, been slack yes I know. Haven't had a great deal of time to update, and no time at all to get my photos off my camera yet. Need to find a good net cafe in the next few days though to put both memory cards onto a CD, so I'll post some pics then.

LA was cool, smoggy as shit and couldn't see very far. We were standing on the footpath at Santa Monica beach, i.e. where Baybwatch is filmed, and couldn't even see the water. Granted it IS a long beach, but c'mon that's ridiculous!

The Baybwatch hut

Then, yesterday, a 7hr bus trip from LA to San Francisco. Had to get from SM to the main train terminal first, that was an hour bus trip through early morning LA gridlock (not as bad as I pictured though) and then get another 10 blocks to the Greyhound terminal. Had to walk, cos we went to where the woman told us the bus would come, but no bus. So we asked some guy where 7th St was, he said 6 blocks that-a-way man! So we walked, found a pharmacy, asked where the terminal was, 5 blocks down that way man! So a long hot friggin walk later and we were there. Some of the craziest neighbourhoods though, dodgy bums and creepy people everywhere. Peter was actually scared, I just kept my head down and kept on struttin.

San Francisco is awesome!! I love this town, it's soo cool. We're staying in Union Square, which granted is the flashiest upmarket part of town (we're in cheap flatbackers accom though) and there's so many cool stores and flashy lights and xmas trees it's cool! Went on a tour today to Alcatraz (sweeet!) and then a half day bus tour. Didn't see the painted ladies though, disapointing, but saw pretty much everything else...

Alcatraz, star of The Rock

Turning the cable car turntable by hand (and body).

Tomorrow, going to get some bikes, ride across the Golden Gate Bridge (didn't actually cross it today) and then check out some other parts of town. Should be fun.

Photos coming soon.

Golden Gate Bridge, from on it.

Palace of Fine Arts, also featured in The Rock

Finding some weird ass shit lately...

2005-11-03T15:59:00.000+10:00

This one for starters:

BlogShares

And then this one - google my url, and google seems to know more (or less) about me than I did...

Freaking out man!!

Stupid friggin towels, pt 2

2005-11-03T15:40:00.000+10:00

I don't know his name, so I will refer to him as Towellie McTowel...

Towellie was sitting behind me in yesterday's exam.

The examiner did the usual "Please remove your hats, and place them with your pencil cases on the floor. If you have any notes of any kind, to do with this subject or any other, bring them to my attention now. Failure to do so will likely render you brutally violated" and what now.

So Towellie just sat there, with his little raghat on, didn't remove it. And then she finally noticed that he had a white sheet of paper on his desk. A cheat sheet.

"Excuse me are they notes?" "Oh no, they're just a table of Laplace Transforms, durkah durkah" "Well they look like notes to me you can't have them in here" "Oh no they're not notes, it's just a durkah table durkah". And so it went for a good 3 minutes while she was trying to convince poor uneducated towellie that they were infact notes, and he had to surrender them or be brutally violated...

Then, he kept his raghat on! She had to ask him twice to remove that!

THEN! We were doing the perusal, she says "you may start writing you have 3 hours", and quite a few beep beep sounds were heard, people setting their watches for reminders etc. Towellie, meanwhile, breaks out a fancy pants electronic device, he CLAIMS was a dictionary, when she specifically said no electronic dictionaries, only the paper type allowed.

God dam uneducated friggin ape! I'm so sorry for those that I have undoubtedly offended, but you can bite my Qur'ass!

Trans-to-da-izzle-ate

2005-11-03T14:16:00.000+10:00

Click here to translate this page to izzle-speak.

Seriously funny, Jamie's gonna cack when he sees this...

Sweeeeet ride!!

2005-11-03T13:01:00.000+10:00

Guys, I want THIS for my 21st!!!

CLICK

Elevator Etiquette

2005-10-31T14:01:00.000+10:00

After replacing "right" with "left", I completely agree with this guy.

Let's kill em all!!

Elevator Etiquette

Family crest

2005-10-19T15:10:00.000+10:00

I was discussing with The Baron (he is actually a baron) about family crests, mottos etc. He being German has a lot of history and that behind his family, with 2 castles and 2 forts around the place. I said the Grant's were Scottish, and began my search for the family crest and motto and tartan.

When he realised we had our own tartan, he got all excited "Sweet you guys have your own kilts and stuff" to which I replied "Nah, noone close to me owns a kilt, except maybe my grandad except he's a Doyle not a Grant".

Then I kept looking, and found the real reason noone has kilts.

Grant comes from the Gaelic Grannd, which is from the French Grand, which means BIG!!!

And THAT my friends is why the Grant's can't wear kilts!!

2005-10-13T10:08:00.000+10:00

Philip, after shooting some Chillimahol. He really, really didn't enjoy it!

2005-10-13T10:05:00.000+10:00

Not quite sure what just happened here... But does it really matter?..

2005-10-13T10:04:00.000+10:00

Pissed as a fart...

TRON!!!

2005-10-09T23:49:00.000+10:00

The REAL chilliman!!

2005-10-09T23:48:00.000+10:00

We'll take a vote. Is it:

a) Chillied alcohol
b) Chillimahol
c) Chillihol

Philip's 21st !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2005-10-09T11:59:00.000+10:00

Philip's 21st!! Tops night, footballers and cheerleaders. Cheerleaders could have tried a bit harder, but the footballers did a good effort. In fact, slackass cheerleaders only brought 2 sets of pompoms, one pair of FM boots, and 2 pairs of hot pants, out of a dozen wenches!! How ridicalus is that?!?!

2005-10-09T11:47:00.000+10:00

2005-10-09T11:45:00.001+10:00

2005-10-09T11:45:00.000+10:00

2005-10-09T11:44:00.001+10:00

2005-10-09T11:44:00.000+10:00

2005-10-09T11:43:00.000+10:00

Say hello to my little friend

2005-10-05T20:24:00.000+10:00

My new space invaders mouse mat. Is guaranteed to make me play all games better by 20%.

Mr Clean tell me is that really you?..

2005-10-01T17:21:00.000+10:00

WARNING: Bring Snacks

The Butterfly Effect last night!!!!!

Sooo cool!

They played most of the album Begins Here, and a lot of new stuff. Stuff they've written and refined, and they're heading off the the US to record properly. It's top shit too!!

They even played AD, the closing song on the album, really slow and really strong singing, he even took it all the way down till it almost stopped, merged it with SOS by The Police, and then brought it home. Awesome!!!

They're playing again tonight at the Gold Coast, and Sunday night at Casino, sooo tempted to go again, I know I should, but my uni load is dictating otherwise, stupid bitch.

2005-10-01T17:20:00.001+10:00

Checking out car care products for my new baby, have realised that you can't cheap out on your baby. Shit the stuffs exxy though.. Looking at $30 for a smallish bottle of soft wash, another $30 for good leather conditioner. Probably gonna get it professionally detailed soon, get a really thick quality wax on it, so it'll be that much easier to wash.

Alright, bit of time lapse living there, just finished nourishing my hide, it was getting a bit creased on the drivers seat, on the parts nearest the door, and I feared that it might one day start to crack etc. Went up to good old Autobarn and got some soft wash gel, leather conditioner, tyre shine, and some rags. Going to have to make a whole routine of it all now. Wash and shine on Sunday, interior on Monday, touch up on Thursday, something like that. And clean and polish every 2-3 months. Yep, that'll last about 6 months and it'll get scratched and I'll just not bother ever again. Can see it coming.

2005-10-01T17:19:00.000+10:00

Oh yeh, and Millencolin two Friday's ago!!! That was cool too!! Strange choice of open and close songs, opening was Mouse or Man, great song but not a typical opener, and closer was Kingwood Days, again a good song, not massive, but the title track of the album so fair enough.

2005-10-01T17:18:00.000+10:00

Bought a shirt too. Brown is the new black, or something like that. I like it.

Wasted some more time down at QR this week, fiddling with their motors. Tomorrow I've gotta play with their laptop and get the DAQ card to work properly, it's not behaving and I need some mods done to the software anyway.

Hahah check it out:
Link

Oh yeh, and last Saturday, huge piss up, Lydia's 21st at the XXXX Brewery!!!! It was assom!!!

Free piss all night. Beer on tap, although I had one, and got sick of it, and stuck into the champas all night, but I was rotten. And the next day too. And a god awful kebab certainly didn't help either.

2005-10-01T17:17:00.000+10:00

We (and by We I ofcourse mean Doc, Red and I) got back to the blokes place, and proceeded to harass the poor passed-out Red till he, well, just kept on passing out. He was barely conscious, but had no friggin idea..

2005-10-01T17:16:00.002+10:00

Some really bad photos..

2005-10-01T17:16:00.001+10:00

2005-10-01T17:16:00.000+10:00

And some really good photos..

2005-10-01T17:14:00.001+10:00

2005-10-01T17:14:00.000+10:00

Oh, and I had a Uni trip out to the Luggage Point shit farm. They produce methane in one of their processes and capture it, burn it, and power half of their plant. Amazing!!

2005-10-01T17:13:00.000+10:00

Meanwhile the Hedgehogs are doing really poorly!! I haven't made either of the last two weeks, QR's fault again, but I'm seriously hoping to play this week. I blame the girls, and the cocky guys. Basically I blame everyone that can't play well. The girls haven't really learnt the finer points of thinking it would seem. Even if we suggest tactics, formations and rotations, they still just do what they like. And they dont realise that if the ball's coming down above your head, that you should set it. Sets have so much more control than anything else. But they insist on digging it, sideways, over the road, and costing us numerous points.

God why can't everyone learn coordination and thinking skills at an early age?!?!?!

Beer is Better than Women Because...

2005-09-26T18:00:00.000+10:00

You can enjoy a beer all month.
Beer stains wash out. HANGOVERS go away.
Beer labels come off without a fight.
A beer won't get upset if you come home with beer on your breath.
A beer ALWAYS goes down easy.
You can share a beer with your friends.
You always know that you are the first one to pop a beer.
A beer is always wet. beer doesn't care when you come.
Beer doesn't mind being in the "wet spot" that IT left.
When your beer is gone, you just pop another.
Beer looks the same in the morning.
Beer doesn't worry about waking the kids.
Beer doesn't go crazy once a month.
Beer labels don't go out of style every year.
Beer doesn't have cold hands/feet.
Beer doesn't demand equality.
Beer doesn't have a lawyer.
Big, fat beers are nice to have.
Beer is easy to get into.
Beer doesn't live with its mother.
A beer will never buy a car with automatic transmission
Beer tastes good
A beer won't make you pick up some tampons when you go to the supermarket

2005-09-17T20:15:00.000+10:00

Thanks to my fantasmic time machine, this is me driving my car that I'm not picking up till Wednesday (it's currently in transit from Mackay). And I promise I didn't doctor the image. Figure that one out, stick it in your pope, and smike it!

2005-09-11T15:35:00.002+10:00

Well, this is what the wall looked like some months ago..

2005-09-11T15:35:00.001+10:00

And this is it now. I think I did a pretty friggin good job!!! Go me!!

2005-09-11T15:35:00.000+10:00

I had to bring steak for dinner, not sure why, but I did so we ate it. And marinade, I bought marinade too. And mushrooms. The sausages were discovered in the fridge, and the onion grew on the onion tree. Notice the camera has effected a complete lack of steak, they have of course been removed from the plate so as to keep their insides bloody like a good steak deserves.

2005-09-11T15:34:00.002+10:00

I offered to do some of the barbie. He offered to remove my ears..

2005-09-11T15:34:00.001+10:00

Are you gonna eat that corn-bread??..

2005-09-11T15:34:00.000+10:00

Janit testing out Milkman's breathaliser. It wasn't working too well, shitty tightarse brand batteries, but he blew 0.02, so he had another 2 drinks before he left..

2005-09-11T15:33:00.001+10:00

This bloke was just there. Not sure what it is, where it's from, or even why. But it's a keeper.

2005-09-11T15:33:00.000+10:00

Yeah, not completely sure what's happening here.. Phil just arrived home from work. Late. And smelling of ice cream. With none for us. And we cooked him dinner and all!!..

2005-09-11T15:32:00.001+10:00

Then when Phil settled down to have a beer, we made him drive us to Herrod's place. Friend's friends bday party. There's another set of arms in this shot too, not sure where the rest of Gareth is though..

2005-09-11T15:32:00.000+10:00

The great beer, umm, flat-pyramid. The table was exceptionally well planned to hold exactly 7 beers across too!!

2005-09-11T15:31:00.000+10:00

Nerdisms.. When we got home we watched Sin City again, and then Eddie Murphy's Raw. Through Milky's laptop, through the wireless network. How ingenious, yet nerdy.

2005-09-11T15:24:00.000+10:00

When we found the sink like this later that night, noone was game to rescue the barbie mate. We think the barbie boss might actually survive though, cos it's soo friggin huge and it's not completely emersed in the filth.

2005-09-11T15:23:00.000+10:00

We had to go all the way to Wellington Point to check out some solar house, for marks. He had a tomato plant.

But THIS is more like it!!!

2005-09-09T19:03:00.000+10:00

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