Christmas Parties are Fun

Not too much to say... had a great day and night on Saturday. The evening started with Christmas dinner with my mom's side of the family (this was the only day possible for everyone to get together at the same time). Great dinner, great being around the family (especially having my aunt and uncle there from Alberta... first Christmas with them in many, many years!), and afterwards a great Christmas singalong with the piano and guitar.

After all of that, as if it weren't enough already, I went to my friends/group Christmas party, which was attended by 30-40 strong and was an awesome time! We did our gift exchange with our small core group (Greg had me, and got me Pirates of the Caribbean on DVD, which is freakin' awesome!!) and many-a-person was drunk. I, of course, downed a few Nestea's. Lots of people showed up, including Jeremy of course, and later on Dustin, Mike, and Mark (which was a pleasant surprise). All the DC were there (and tolerable) and as I've mentioned, great fun was had.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

WHAT...

is the point in keeping it going... we'll see over the Holidays... stay tuned...

THEY COME AND GO SO FAST...

Well, another birthday has come and gone. I got some wonderful, unexpected gifts from a few of my friends, which was really nice, considering I wasn't expecting anything at all. And they were actual thoughtful gifts that will definitely be used by me, including a guitar stand, Old Navy gift certificates, and a cool 9V Battery cell phone charger (I can now charge my phone while it's in my pocket!) Of course, there was also the disappointments... a bunch of people didn't show up to my "party" I threw, many with good reasons, several with no reasons whatsoever. So that was kind of unfortunate. Of course, those who did come were definitely great company, and their attendance was welcomed and appreciated. Between the "Trio" and a few others, I've got some damn good friends that are always there for me. If I didn't have that, I don't know what I'd have.

It kind of sucks... my dad didn't even get me a card for my birthday. In fact, I don't even recall hearing him say "Happy Birthday" all day. I mean, I did get a gift (useful though unmemorable – he paid for my speeding ticket because he forgot to do so with my bank card the day before my trip and it had to be paid before I got back). But I don't care about gifts and monetary things so much as meaningful things... such as a simple card from one's own father. I guess his girlfriend takes up so much of his time, there's no time left to do measly things such as this. Who knows.

It's about time I find myself some new clients, as I'm almost caught up on most of the current stuff (with the exception of regular updates, etc. that need to be done) and I'm needing some more cash flow/income. I've had a pretty decent 2003 with regards to "earning a living" doing this web design thing, but I sure hope 2004 continues moving forward so I can get out of debt and maybe even move out (or move out of the city completely). We will see. :)

Until next time... oh, and don't forget to buy "Rock for a Reason" if you haven't already. Really important cause, and pretty darn good music to boot!

BIRTHDAYS AND AIDS RELIEF...

Okay, so first off, my birthday's coming up in less than 2 weeks. This means I'm celebrating my birthday in less than 2 weeks. Actually, in about a week – Friday, December 12th. I'm just having people over to my place (a "party" if you will), so if you want any more details, just send me an e-mail or something. Should be a bunch of fun. Bring women.

Now onto other news... "Rock for a Reason", the new CD from Freq 107 to benefit AIDS relief in Africa, is coming out on December 10th and will only be available in A&B Sound stores! I made a banner for CanadaMovies.net to show our support for this CD and this cause, so click on it below to find out more. That's about it for today... just doing my usual Thursday CM updates.

SLEEP, WHAT IS SLEEP? ...

So apparently this past week or so, my body has decided it doesn't like sleeping more than 3 or 4 hours at a time. Then apparently I need to be up for quite a while before it allows me to go to sleep again. So this has resulted in me either getting only 3 or 4 hours of sleep every night, or having to break it into 2 patches like I did yesterday (slept from 3:30am-9am, and noon-3:30pm). Which is ridiculous.

Hopefully my body will allow me to have a nice, full night's sleep tonight. I don't have anything to necessarily wake up bright and early for, and I shouldn't be up too late, so with all luck I could get back into the "sleeping groove" tonight.

In other news, I've put up a bunch of new songs in the MUSIC section. You can download the mp3's directly (if you're too damn lazy to click on the extra link to go there) right here: Sing in Pain, Learned to Live, Learned to Live (Instrumental), Blind Faith, and Death. All but the last one are acoustic tracks (as most of my stuff is). I keep writing more and more since I got my new guitar a while ago, and I've been recording a lot more as well (some new stuff, some songs I've had for a while but just never got around to recording).

Take a listen to the songs (and any of the old ones if you haven't done so yet) and let me know what you think. Send me and e-mail or sign my guestbook. It would be much appreciated. :)

A FEW UPDATES...

Hey there everybody... yes, I know it's been a long, long time since I last posted on here.

Anyway, I still don't have time to go into lengthy detail about the rest of my Vegas/California trip. However, I've updated a whole pile of stuff to the Photo Gallery section, including several photos from the first leg of the trip. There are a few photos taken of the red rocks and mountains in Utah on the drive to Vegas, as well as a bunch of photos taken of the hotels/casinos on the strip in Las Vegas, and a couple other photos.

Sooner than later, I'll scan the photos taken from the Los Angeles leg of the trip, and in doing so, will hopefully refresh my memory on the trip. Then I'll be able to do some more updates.

You'll notice the page is now "Autumn Themed" for the new season that we're right in the middle of.

Since I probably won't post again for a while, here's my chance to mention some stuff coming up. There's a social on Oct. 17th that I think I'm going to go to (ask me about details) and another one on Nov. 29th. The first one's supposed to have a lot of hot, single ladies attending, and the second one will have a cool band playing at it. Jeff and Karen are having a Halloween party, and I just heard that Pich is probably having one, too. Flavour also plays The Zoo on Halloween.

Hmm... what else... well I can't think of anything else right now. Check out the many new sites in the Little Web Pages portfolio, including the newly redesigned Hockey Manitoba website. It took forever to finally get going, so hopefully people visit the hell out of it.

Oh, and be sure to listen to me (and sometimes Cam) on FREQ 107 every Thursday morning at around 9:10 or 9:20am for a CanadaMovies.net "Movie Info" show. We talk about all the new movies, DVD releases, trailers, and do giveaways along with morning show host Brian Cook. So yeah, listen, 'cause you could win stuff or something!

That's all for now. Look for another post from me sometime before 2004.

THERE'S A "BLOG" NOW SET UP ON MY PAGE...

For those of you that don't know what a "Blog" is, it is short for "Web log" and is basically just a term to describe internet diaries or whatever. While I don't plan on updating my life on my page extremely thoroughly, I have set up my main page here with a Blog so that it will be easier to update, so multiple updates can still be on the page (and archive after a while), and to hopefully give me incentive to post more on my website without feeling the need to get into great detail.

Of course, I do have to get to more of my trip updates, but that will come with time. :) Don't worry.

LAS VEGAS/LOS ANGELES TRIP: DAYS 1-3...

Well, it's about damn time I have an update on here. And this is going to be a big one. I just got back from a 12-day road trip to Las Vegas and Southern California with my friends Greg and Cam. So below will be my "official" recounting of the trip, and when I get my photos back and have time to scan them, I'll throw some of those up here as well.

DAY 1: Leaving Winnipeg

We left Winnipeg at about 2:30am on Sunday, June 1st. It wasn't my idea to leave that early, but I went along with it. At least we'd get to our destination sooner this way, and could get more rest once we were there. You see, we drove straight from Winnipeg to Las Vegas, NV. I believe it was a 34-hour drive. Let me tell you this: it's not safe to drive 34 hours straight, no matter how many people you have rotating the driving duties. Things were pretty boring until we hit Denver, somewhere in the evening of the 1st. Looking for somewhere to eat in Denver, we ended up getting lost in the city, which added about an hour to our trip. By the time we left Denver, it was definitely night time, and so we were about to embark on our mountain driving in the dark. I was doing the driving at this point, but my contacts were really bothering me with the night driving, and my stomach was starting to get a little sick as well, so I handed the reigns over to Greg. He took us smoothly through the mountain driving -- including a detour that made what would have been a 20-minute stretch last well over an hour. I took over once the heavy mountainous regions were over, a couple hours before sunrise, while Cam attempted to get some sleep in the back seat.

DAY 2: Part One - The Desert

As dawn was approaching and there was a bit of light hitting off of things, I started to realize that the hills and fields around me weren't exactly green and tree-filled anymore. Once in Utah, with the sun rising behind us, we realized we were smack dab in the middle of a desert. Sure, I've been to Manitoba's Carberry Desert before, but that's a bunch of sand in the middle of the prairies. This was mountains and hills of red rock and orange sand. It was breathtakingly beautiful. We continued our trek through the Utah desert, some areas having a decent amount of vegetation, and some areas as bare as a freshly-naired back! Some time in the late morning, Cam took over driving, we started heading more South, and made our way to the Utah border. We drove for about 25 minutes through the northwest corner of Arizona, and then hit Nevada. Right past the border, there was a town with huge casinos left and right. I took over driving again, and while Cam and Greg concentrated on playing a linked game of something-or-other on their Gameboy Advanced SP's, I marvelled at the fields of cacti to the left and right of me as we approached Las Vegas. Finally we hit Sin City, around noon local time, and checked into the Palace Station Hotel, a couple blocks away from the Strip. After spending about a half an hour gambling in our hotel (I ended up leaving up $20), we hit the hay for an afternoon of sleep before heading to the Strip for the night.

DAY 2: Part Two - Vegas, Baby!

We woke up in the evening, and by then the sun was setting on Sin City and we were about to head to the famous Las Vegas Strip. We walked a minute or two, when Greg realized he had forgotten his camera. It was getting dark out, but it still felt like a sauna outside. So we decided after picking up Greg's camera, that we'd take a cab to south end of the strip (furthest away) and make our way down towards Sahara Ave. (where our hotel was on). We spent the next several hours going by or into all of the major casinos/hotels on the Strip. Mandalay Bay, The Luxor, The MGM Grand, Paris, Bellagio, The Mirage, The Flamingo Hilton, Caesar's Palace, and Treasure Island were all casinos that had some of my money by the end of the night. Caesar's Palace took the most, as I lost $50 playing roulette. The rest of the roughly $120 I lost that night were put into various slots and VLT's. Cam and Greg were liking the fact that at most of the hotels, if you're sitting down playing some slot machines (even if it's the 2-cent machines) you get free cocktails. I liked the free bottled water, as it was hot as hell outside (about 35C at night)! We ate at the Rainforest Cafe at the MGM Grand (all of us ordered pizzas, our first of far too many on this trip...) and even got offered to buy some cocaine or exctacy from some dirty-looking fellow on our walk down the Strip from casino to casino. Also, if you've never been to Vegas, you will be shocked at how many people are standing on the street handing out magazines or card-sized ads for various Las Vegas strip clubs and prostitutes. The ground is also littered with them (I guess there aren't a lot of takers). By the end of the night, we were all down quite a bit of cash, but we headed back to the hotel (decided to take another cab after realizing the walk was probably still too long) around 4:30am and went to bed for a few hours.

DAY 3: Part One - Star Trek Heaven

Our plans for our last day in Las Vegas was to check out by noon and then head for the Las Vegas Hilton for Star Trek: The Experience. We were also going to wake up a bit early and have a swim/sun tan outside. We didn't end up getting up in time for this, but figured we'd have plenty of time in California to soak up the rays (more on how wrong we were later). So we checked out, ate at McDonalds, and headed for the Hilton. After spending 10 minutes looking around the car for Greg's digital camera in the parking lot, we headed into the Hilton for what -- for me, anyways -- turned out to be the highlight of the trip. For any fan of the Star Trek Universe (of which I am a huge one), it was the coolest thing ever. The mini-museum was interesting, with various costumes/uniforms on display from the nearly half-century of Star Trek TV shows and movies. There was a replica of the original series Enterprise, the Enterprise-D, and Voyager hanging from the ceilings. And there was a Ferengi, Romulan, and Klingon making their way around the place. The best part, though, was the ride itself. I won't go into great details, but basically it's just amazingly cool that you get brough into the Star Trek Universe and walk onto a replica of the Enterprise-D bridge. And the Virtual Ride part is really really fun, too. After going on the ride twice, we hit a replica of Quark's Bar (from Deep Space Nine) and ordered some drinks. I got some non-alcoholic strawberry/coconut thing, and Greg ordered the grand-daddy of all drinks -- the James "Tea" Kirk. It came in a "glass" that was essentially a fish bowl held up on a plastic stand. It is absolutely massive, and is made with Beefeater Gin, Bacardi Lemon, Fris Vodka, Blue Curacao, Sour mix, Gatorade Alpine Snow, and a splash of Hansen's Energy drink. Not to mention a block of dry ice to keep it freezing cold and essentially "steaming" the entire time. Needless to say, Cam helped him finish it up, and they both had a lot of alcohol in them after that large bowl they just finished.

DAY 3: Part Two - Video Games and Strippers

We decided to hit the Strip again, to check out "GameWorks" (wait a second, aren't there arcades here in Winnipeg?). Anyway, we ate at the restaurant there (Cam and I had sandwiches, while Greg had another pizza) and then played in the arcade for an hour. After walking back to our car, we spent the next 20 minutes trying to find "Cheetah's" (I was not happy, as I was driving and couldn't find it, and didn't even want to go in the first place). But Greg and Cam just had to go here, so we finally found the place and went inside. $25 (between cover and hugely over-priced drinks), a stripper jumping in my lap trying to get me to go to the back with her for $20, and an hour of my life wasted... and finally we were going back on the road, this time towards Los Angeles. I was driving (because Greg and Cam had been drinking) and the road was pretty good for most of the way (although lots of traffic and heavy construction zones for night driving isn't the greatest thing in the world). But then we headed towards San Bernandino, and into the valley. It's night time, there's plenty of traffic around me, and I'm driving through the thickest fog I've ever experienced. I was sure the car would fly off a cliff and we would all perish just 3 days into our trip. Nope... we made it out alive, and got to L.A. somewhere in the 3:00am range. After having to call our hotel from a payphone to find the short street it was on (Hollywood Blvd. at 3:00am on a Tuesday is not as glamourous as when the Oscars are in town), we checked in and went to bed. Tinseltown would be waiting for us in the morning (well, early afternoon)...

TESTING... TESTING... 1, 2, 3...

I am just testing to see if this file will work. We'll soon find out, I'm sure. Yipee?