Still here.. Sorry, bit of a nap.

Someone friended me. That's usually why I come back.
I'm here at least until June when my subscription runs out. But I haven't been terribly active. I have a hot girlfriend who is really active. She makes me want to be on the computer less.
I love the SGBC crowd, but we all have different ideas of fun. I still see some of them around from time to time, which is nice.

Big thing happening right now in my life:
Moving out of the house I've been in since I moved to Vancouver.
It's kind of sad but I'm looking forward to the adventure and change.
Over christmas there was some nasty wind and rain which caused some mold to appear in a few spots.
The wall is likely now infested on the inside so it's breaking through the ancient barriers of oil based paints.
It's time to go before things get really bad.
This is an old house, it's been good while it lasted, but not worth risking health over.
So we found all this out in the course of a few days and we decided to go at the end of the month.

Instead of the girl moving in here in April, I will now go live with her and her mom(My drinking buddy) for a few months, be a good little house-husband and live in chef, pay a quarter of their rent(If she lets me, and I'm insisting.) and possibly find a new job closer by.
I should also be able to have a work bench in the corner of the garage, which is good because i just got a $150 order of gems in I want to set and make some return on.
In April her mom goes to Toronto, I'll take over half the rent and it'll just us and a room mate who has his own section of the house, shared kitchen and bathroom. It should all work out.

There are other things happening and that have happened and would like to share. I want to show off the pieces I made over the holidays. I may do a more thorough update soon, but I need to sleep now. Work early tomorrow.

Before you do anything else, Watch This.

It had 2.5 million hits in three days. On the day of release it was the 25th most popular google search for an hour and #1 youtube video almost all over the world.

And aaaaaaaaah halped!

I may have blogged about it a year or so ago during production. How I made the badges and provided some guns. A scene was shot in my basement and I was in two shots(though I didn't make the final cut.... Well You can see my butt sticking out from behind Mewtwo.)
Super proud of it even though my part in it was so small. It's been amazing seeing it's progress this last week.

Well, the last time I posted I just got back from my trip to Ontario, and now I'm about to head back there again. Sister's wedding in three weeks.
I'm making the wedding bands and after a few delays I have everything I need to do it except for the time.
My work shifts are all over the place and it's a pain in the ass. But I think I can do it.
I got an oxy/acetylene rig set up, I'm carving the molds out of slate, though I might try some tests in cuttlebone.
I ran a test pour the other day. It was so awesome working with a torch like that again. I haven't done that for at least three years. And this one's even hotter than the one I had at the jewelery shop.
Girlfriend arrived just in time to watch and was thought it was one of the coolest things she'd ever seen. It was really invigorating.
The mold didn't survive the test cast. Which is fine, I got lots of data out of it and a silver ring that I will be able to salvage.
The metal was very firmly stuck in the mold, and the slate crumbled as I pulled it out.
There are a couple reasons it might have stuck, first of all, I do need something like a powder or lubricant that will keep the model from sticking to the walls. Also, the first bit I was using to cut it was skipping and probably added some nooks for the silver to flow into and hold on.
Slate molds should be re-usable a couple times. But even if I have to make a mold each time. I'm prepared to. Then again, I could just use a finished, slate cast ring as a model for making a cuttlebone mold.
Blabla technobabble bla bla.

Girlfriend and I are still going great. Love her to bits. Even talk of moving back east together in a year or so and maybe having kittens. Might be moving in together next year, not sure yet. Depends on a couple things.

This torch has opened up a lot of new doors for me. I can not make a lot more jewelery than was previously capable. So I hope to actually be making money off it before long. With work being as stupid as it is. I'm hoping to make enough money that I can cut my hours there and focus more on this.

I'm still here.
I have to say. Girlfriend does a good job of keeping my mind occupied. I don't even want to pretend I'm some happening bachelor who peruses pictures of naked girls in his spare time... And see, this Girl With The Dragon Tattoo? Before April, that would have been my favourite movie. What with the hot, punky short haired girl who fucks everybody over(figuratively).
I'd have been all over that. I'd have read all the books by now, had a huge poster of her and probably looked up perverted fan art, or at the very least, been outraged by the ugly old man she has sex with(Willingly) in the movie. Was really outraged by the unwilling one. Those were hard scenes to watch... But anyway.
No. My girl's so awesome that I can't even imagine a better girl. Because this one even wants to learn how to do all the fun things I think it would be hot for a girl to do, like fire a gun. Hell she's eaten moose brains and eyeballs.
If I were 10, she'd be the coolest girl ever. Since I'm 26, she's the sexiest girl ever!

We're at the 'I love you' stage. She caught me off guard when she said it first. I was really wanting to, but avoided it as not to scare her off. But no, she said it. Leaving me to sound awkwardly obliged to say it back. Though I didn't feel that way at all...
Good things do come to those who wait and maintain high standards.

Still at the same job. I feel better that I did get a resume to the brewery, but also realized that anywhere else I were to go would be the same thing for probably less pay.
If they're keeping me at a reasonable amount of hours I should be fine. This will also give me time to work on my jewelery and my own home brewing projects.

I'm trying to get a hold of my new torch. From what I've read the acetylene regulator I have should work fine with propane, and the lower PSI is fine because jeweler's torches are smaller and require less pressure. But I'd like it confirmed before I blow myself up.
I need to get my sister's wedding rings made but she hasn't given me dimensions yet. So that's a few steps I need to get over.

So I went back home in June to see my kitty. He looked horrible. He was skinny and smelly and slobbery. And when he tried to wash himself he'd just smear his nasty spit all through his fur. Shampoo couldn't even get that stuff out.
But he was happy, he was eating while he was on the anti-inflammatory medication and he no longer feared the dog.
I tried to take him somewhere nice that he'd never been. We went to the shore of lake Ontario. It ended up just freaking him out. It was loud and windy. He wasn't sure what to think.
I always pictured him getting a kick out of being there. Maybe he was just a different cat since he got sick.

I'm happy I got to see him one more time, though it was hard to see him that way.
It seemed he could live indefinitely, possibly until I went again in October as long as the medication allowed him to eat. But a couple weeks ago he stopped eating again. The medication wasn't working. Mom spent the day with him, then had the doctor come the next morning to euthanise him.
She observed the morning after that the butter dish was still on the table, there was no water splashed around the fish tank, no tufts of fur in the dog's water and no hairballs at the bottom of the step.

So long, you little shithead. You've been my best friend for more than half my life. Gonna miss you.


Got to do a bit of fishing, saw some friends, and had to rescue a young black rat snake from some spray insulation foam.
It was a short trip.

Time has flown pretty quickly since then. Nothing terribly exciting has happened. Aside from every day I get to spend with the girl. I got everything we needed to go fishing and she caught a huge flounder off Jericho beach. Everybody on the pier gathered around when she brought it in. Within her first forty minutes ever fishing in her life, too.
She was gone for a couple weeks on a cultural exchange with some native kids from up north. They came here for a week then she and her friends went to Fort Goodhope, 10 miles south of the arctic circle. She brought me caribou jerky.

Seen her twice since she got back. Hopefully again soon, but she's been getting busy.
The plan is for her to come back home with me when I go for my sister's wedding. Hope to be gone two weeks then.

Life's good. I'm not going to waste my time complaining. But I'll do what I can to make it better.

Here's a few more random pictures from the trip.

It's been a while. I know. Been occupied.

Found me a girl. We're pretty into each other. She's adorable.

Sis is back from San Fran and living with me for the time being. It's good to have her back.

My hours have been cut down pretty bad. Getting real fed up with work in general. I feel dumb for having stayed as long as I have. I should have started looking to get into a brewery a year ago anyway.
So that's my next step. I finally have a day off where I can job hunt. Unfortunately this is the exact same time I was looking last year which means it'll be hard to find anything. But I think I can write up a pretty impressive cover letter for a brewery so if/when they do start looking for someone, hopefully they'll call me.

Trying to make more jewellery but feeling very uninspired at the moment. I'm running lo on materials and I need some more tools to finish the projects I already have on the go.
I should really start selling stuff. Get it to pay for it's self. Probably have a few pieces ready to go. Gotta get an etsy account or something.

My cat has been diagnosed with cancer. So I'm hoping to fly back at the end of the month to see him.
I said a goodbye to him at Christmas not knowing what might happen. But since I have some notice, I'd like to get back. Maybe take him out somewhere to see.
He hates being an indoor cat and I hate that he has to be one. I wish he could have come out here with me to be in a new house to try and escape from, and a new yard to explore.

My membership comes up for renewal in a few days I think. Considering leaving, but I think once I have more money I'd want to get back on anyway. So I think I'll stick around now that I've popped on.

I have a 200mw laser pointer which will supposedly light matches. I got cardboard to burn under it....

Oh and girl can't make it to the Iron Maiden concert with me so I have a ticket I need to unload. Contact me if you're interested, but I'm waiting to hear back from the Skull Hammer boys whom had expressed interest when they stayed at my place for Kreator.

Well. I got some bad top 40's music stuck in my head and some strange banjo tune that wouldn't be so bad, sep it's the same part of the chorus over and over again and it's really starting to get to me.
One of the guys from the Punk house across the street from me was at this art co-op thing I went to on the weekend and it turns out he plays a mean banjo.
Maybe Nick Cave will help get the creative juices flowing again.

So, things have pretty well been non stop for me the last couple weeks. With no signs of letting up any time soon.

Let's see if I can get the chain of events right.

Sometime after the crazy Viking Metal show, I think it was the Saturday, I bought a bunch of meat and veggies for the BBQ.
As I was getting it ready, roomies tell me that some friends are coming over for dinner and were bringing the meat so I just grilled up the veggie, got some wine.
We drank a whole lot and watched Wayne's World. It was awesome.

Next day, I dug up the garden, raided the composter, lugged home two bags of manure compost and got it all set up. My deltoids were shot, I was still a little sore from the vikings and I was a little hungover.
But, hat night, metal chick who's staying with us really wanted to go to Sonata Arctica, and really wanted me to go with her. She convinces me by telling me there will be lots of hot metal girls there swooning over these guys.
She lied.
We get to The Venue. My first clue that it was not a metal venue should have been that it's on Granville street.
I forgot to take off the military can opener I wear as a necklace which the bouncer took away from me and gave me a full body frisking over.
Normally when I go to a metal show, there's guys with three inch spikes on their wrists and shoulders. A little jagged piece of metal on someone's neck is not a concern.
Well, the metalheads must have known this place sucked because there were not many people there, and anyone who was, definitely did not look terribly metallic(?).
This would have been the crowd that knew Sonata from playing too much Dance Dance Revolution.
Powerglove was playing the last of their set when we got in. It's the castle music from Super Mario World done in metal styling. The lead singer is in full KISS style armor sep' that it's made up of Koopa Trooper shells. The drummer has a Warhammer 40k style standard on his back.
Their last song was a really well done rendition of the original Power Rangers theme song. It was awesome.

There was another little metal band that I hadn't heard of in between then Sonata, which was a very good show. Glad I got to see them, will probably get more into them now than I have been in the past.
I did get my can opener back too.

Then Thursday night. My roomy is supposed to go with Metal Chick to Finntroll.
Metal chick's master plan for the entire month has been to seduce the lead singer of this band.
I got home from work exhausted, roomy's telling me she's not sure she feels like going, and that if her friend bought a second ticket already, she's not sure what to do.
Well I took the bullet and went in her place. I was definitely going to enjoy it more than she was, plus her friend wouldn't need to stick by me the whole because I knew elgrandragon would be there.
Well, she pretty well accomplished her goal before the show even started. She was off hanging around with the guy she was after the whole night.
I was right out of it, dead tired. I had popped three ephedrine to get through work and was pretty exhausted by now.
Finntroll played for a bit, they were pretty good and all, then once they started playing things from their new album, I got a second wind and got out on the floor again.
They finished up, on my way to the merchandise table, a girl stopped me and said something. I couldn't hear what. She repeated it. But I really kind of wanted to go, so I pretended I knew what she said, highfived her and ran off. Got myself a CD and a poster then ran to catch the skytrain.
Then I started to get curious as to what the girl was saying. I think it was something about a friend of hers from somewhere says hi? I dunno.

Spent the last couple days working and playing old Zelda games. Got my garden planted somewhere amidst the chaos. I got Zucchini, Japanese Eggplant, Bok Choy, Ruby leaf lettuce and Leeks. In a week or so I'll get lots of Roma tomatoes growing, maybe some beefsteaks for burgers and some peppers.
I'll pot my herbs this year I think. My oregano has been usable since February but there are these little purple flowers sprouting up and I'm afraid are going to crowd it out. Gotta get it out of that old garden before it's completely overrun with weeds.

As most of the people reading this prolly know, last night was the SG meetup that Shanti set up. I thought she was going to be there.
I brought Metal Chick with me whom many of you now know. I told her elgrandragon might be there, so she was down with that after meeting him for the second time at Finntroll.
We were a little unsure at first. We didn't like the look of the Alibi Room from the outside, and we couldn't even get in yet.
Ended up going to some other little bar, which I wasn't too impressed with, then got a call that a table opened up back at the Alibi Room.
It was crowded. We weren't sure we were going to stick around long. But a few other people left early, tables opened up and Metal Chick started to mingle with the crowd. I was a little concerned she felt out of place, so I'm glad you guys all took her in.
So we stayed the whole night.

On the skytrain home we saw the punks who live across the street. Metal chick, being the sociable one, went up and started talking to them. The guy was pretty out of it, the girl and her chatted the whole way home.
They're having some shows in their house sometime soon they said they'll drop off a flyer.
We have made contact.

My gems arrived the other day. Spent all day yesterday sorting them out and designing homes for them.
The dealer gave me a few extras too! Two rose cut smoky quartz, a rose cut rose quartz and a trillion cabochon citrine.
So many ideas.

Off I go. Gotta get some coffee in me and do some cleaning today.

Dear Asians of the world. Pick an age, and look like it! Damnit!....

...... Okay. Here's what happened.

They went in through the garage. The kid says he leaves it open when he takes his bike out.
Now, they know the wife is the gate keeper. She knows the code.
The wife says she doesn't know what happened after she hit the code. She just remembers going down. But, judging by the burn mark on her back, I think what they did was use a stun gun on her...

That was pretty good. But how about this?

. . . you took the key to the weapons cupboard out of my pocket.
Then you suggested that we all split up.
You separated from Miss Scarlet, crossed the Hall,
opened the cupboard, took the wrench, ran to the conservatory,
entered the lounge through the secret passage,
killed the motorist with a blow on the head.

No, that's not right either....

Two days ago I sawr a rig than could haul that tanker. Ye' want te' git atta here. Talk ta' me....

Wait wait.... Got it... Really this time!

Saturday. Lets start with Saturday. Roomy is going out to her boyfriends. Her friend is staying with us for the month and really wanted to go out.
Her friend is a young metal head. She's really into it and she uses her looks to meet up with the bands.
She's met everybody. She's apparently even in Metal: A headbanger's Journey.
So she wants me to go with her.
We're looking on line trying to find any sort of metal bar. But it seems the Cobalt was all we had and now it's gone.
We almost went to a fetish club if not for the strict dress code.
I could have whipped up some sort of Mad Max survivalist gas mask get up. But we really didn't feel like putting in the effort.
Some of her friends suggested The Ivanhoe. So off we go.
This truly was a dive bar. This is where the tough ass natives and bikers hang out.
The band was playing rolling stones covers and some of their own stuff. Terribly unattractive people were dancing drunkenly. It was awesome and definitely bad ass. But not quite the flavor we were looking for.
I had texted elgrandragon to see if he wanted to hang out or if he knew of any metal scenes that night.
Some aging punks walked past the bar and flailed in front of the windows, mocking the country-esque styling of the bar.
As I'm looking at this I notice a man slink into the bar and check the cash slot of the ATM inside the door. He looks up with wide eyes. He's balled, slender and scronny, dark skinned, bushy eyebrows, large Roman nose. Thigh length leather jacket and jeans. He is actually slinking around. I turn to my companion "Check out Nosferatu over there."
He creeps over to one of the tables where the people dancing had been sitting and I swear he was pouring half finished beers he had collected into one mug.
This guy was seriously like Nosferatu after hitting rock bottom. He had the facial expression, the walk and the posture. Fiddly, claw-like hands and all.

Despite the vampire, the place was getting pretty dull. We finished our beer and decided we'd head up to the Brick Room.
As we're walking up, we see the aging punks from before. Misfits hats and motorhead shirts, classic biker jackets and tight jeans, my companion asks. "Do you guys know of any good metal or punk bars?"
They respond with "Well there was the cobalt, but it's gone. We're heading to a show at Pat's Pub if you want to join us."
So off we went with the aging punks. They were quite nice. The one of them was very rumbustious. Climbing various store gates on Hastings. Then there was 'Uncle Tom' I think his name was? Then the chick and her husband who was the cool quiet one with long hair.
On the way elgrandragon gets back to me and tells me of a party, but before I could get the address down my phone died.
We get to Pat's and I gotta say, I liked it. There was a punk band playing, cheap beer they make themselves and I got a compliment on my jacket in the line up to the bar.
The band was pretty hopping so I got up there infront of the stage for a bit. The second band kinda sucked, then the last band was a Ramones tribute band, but was much better than the Ramones. So I got up there and showed those scronny punks how to mosh.
Seriously, they'd bump into me and then I'd sweep three of them away into the crowd with one arm and keep headbanging.
I probably moshed harder than they deserved, but I was having fun. Plus my companion and I bonded a bit. We both seem to understand each other a bit better than we had before.

Sunday nothing happened, then I worked....
Work is fucked. Monday was intensely nuts. I caught three shoplifters before noon. One guy was a crack head whom I think I just deterred form stealing a toblerone bar, the next guy was some fat little fuck with greased back hair. Looked like he had been doing coke or something all night.
I heard him spraying himself with axe or something from the aisle over. I walk down there. He's got our store brand axe rip off. His eyes are closed and he continues to spray himself. I walk around and watch him. He opens his eyes, puts the can back on the shelf and I'm like "You're buying that now."
He's all "No. I'm not buying it, I won't shop here again." I block him off and I'm stalwart. He used half the can. He's like "Fine, call the cops." Fuck it. The cops wouldn't come for this and they wouldn't do anything even if they did. I tell him to get out.
I hate that so much. They count on the fact that we can't do anything about it and the worse thing we can do to punish them is ban them from the fucking drug store. Big fucking whoop.
I hope I see the fat bastard around at a pub. If I see him talking to a girl I can tell her how fucking cheap he is that he won't even pay for fucking store brand deodorant.
The other was this little Asian guy. Loaded his coat full of Sensodyne. He was very compliant when I caught him. I think he was used to getting caught. He took three tubes out of his jacket then stopped but I could see more and I told him that. He takes a few more out. I still see more. By this time I start frisking him then kick him out.

I was waiting for a belligerent one. By this time, I was so pissed off the adrenaline was so much that I wanted one of them to try something. I don't know if I can take a hit or not, but even if I went down after one punch, it would be worth it to have our big, ox-like, cash supervisor pummel the crap out of them. He has way more rage than me from working there as long as he has.

He almost got his chance. A little while before it's time for me to go, we're all in the back of the store putting away the stock that came in. I see this guy come in who had tried to pick a fight with the one merchandiser last week. I said to my buddy "Hey look, it's Tyler Durden."
Fucking two minutes later I hear one of the girls screaming at someone down an aisle. I go down there to see what's happening. She's yelling at him to get out.
She says he slapped her.
Me and the other merchandiser whom he was bugging last week converge and start charging down the aisle after him, he turns to go. Then our big ox shows up, pushes us aside and leads the fucker out.
The Manager told us we totally should have pounded him and we're waiting for another chance. I hope I run into him on the street because he's a fucking pussy coward with his crack cap and big frigging Lady Gaga sunglasses, I just want to break them off his face with my forehead. He'll need bigger ones to cover up the damage I'll do to him.

I got home at like 2:45pm and I'm right into the beer. Luckily Metal friend has some of her friends over from Kelowna for the Amon Amarth show that night and they've almost polished off a big bottle of Royal Reserve.
We chill for a while, then they convince me to go to the show with them. The one staying with us says she'll cover my ticket and I can pay her back.
So I'm in. Down a few more beers and we head out.
The show was sold out when we got there and we needed two tickets. Thank Odin there was a scalper selling the tickets for less than they would have cost for us to buy them from the venue.
We're in.
Holy Grail is playing, the energy was good. I was sore from the other night, but I got in the pit. Once the finished up I got some water then came back in and there she is.
Short haired, little, Asian tomboy. I stand close to her and as Eluveitie comes on, I headbang and stay at the edge of the pit, throwing people back into it, helping them up. This goes on for a while and she's still right there. We exchange a few smiles and hollered a short conversation. Then they strike the stage for Amon Amarth. I decide I'm going to help this tiny little thing get to the rails. We weasel our way through the crowd, second 'row' from the front. I'm groping through for the railing so I can pull us up once they start.
But man, once it started, it was insane. I formed a barrier as best I could around her to keep her form getting trampled, had her on my back for a bit, then eventually we were ripped apart.
By this time I'm roasting. I went out and sat on a bench for some air.
The band played on. People were staggering out left and right with their shirts off, gasping for air. This band was seriously kicking their asses. I thought they were going to be done by the time I went back in. But every time it looked like they were leaving the stage, the crowd would cheer and they burst back out through the smoke.
As I sat outside, it dawned on me... This is an all ages show isn't it?... Shit, was she wearing a wrist band(For buying liquor)? I don't think so... Crap, don't panic. she could just be 18. Your room mate is 18 and she's dating a buy older than me. It could work!... My heart sank.
By the time the band finished and I found her again, I think I had done my best to prepare myself for the worst. The lights come on, the crowd disperses. I take a good look at her in the light, lean down... "You're like, 17 aren't you?" She smiles "Yeah... Well, almost."

Fuck.....

Seriously, there's a girl at work who looks her age, if not younger and she's 25.
Well, I'm crushed, but I figure I'll give this kid the best thrill I can.
I tell her the girl I came with has a knack for getting in to see the bands after shows. She also knows two of the venue staff who are in 3 inches of blood. We were going to try to meet the bands out back then head to the after party after. I wasn't going to go to the party, I was tired and worked the next day. And my new lil fren' obviously wasn't but we all waited out back. Eventually the singer from Eluveitie came out and hung with us. We were all discussing history and culture.
After a while he left, and it wasn't looking like Amon Amarrth was coming back out of the bus, so I walked the kid home. We actually had quite a bit to talk about, both being homeschooled, artsy types, which breaks my heart even more.
My friends ended up going to the after party, but there wasn't much chance to meet anyone cool.

I don't think I'm a creeper. I mean I've gone after girls who I knew were 10 years older than me. I don't think I'm attracted exclusively to unreasonably younger looking people... But why did THIS one have to be so much younger!?
I'm a quite heartbroken. In that short time I really began to crush on this girl. And not just because I was being crushed against her by a crowd of wannabe vikings.
I don't want to go to any all ages shows again. I don't want to have to worry about it. I need to get out first chance I can get and meet someone who can take my mind off this.

That's about all that's happening at the moment.
Wheeled a BBQ home today. Someone had it out front with a free sign on it. I had to push it like 6 blocks. I'm going to gut it an turn it into a coal BBQ.
Bought some more reduced Easter candy which I'm going to go comfort myself with in a moment.


Night, all... Hrrmph.

Soooo Interesting things since I last posted.

I bought a leather jacket to totally punk out and make my new badass concert jacket.
I cut the sleeves off, put copper eyelets through them and stitched them back on with paracord, made some awesome copper and brass pocket closures, found a leather tannery a few blocks from work that had rabbit pelts for $8 which I used for the collar.
Two more things I need to add before it's 'finished' and I'll show it off here.
Going to put small, copper shoulder pauldrons on it. Kind of like Mad Max's in the first movie. Also I want to add a draw string to cinch the collar up tight.

I've been wearing it around. Wore it to the Warrel Dane show that elgrandragon got me on the guest list for.
Moshed like a motherfucker at that show. It was awesome.

Last weekend my roomie's friend came to town for a Kreator concert. She brought three friends. Two of them are in a band called Skull Hammer.
I had been going out a lot and I just bought my Iron Maiden tickets, so I didn't go with them, but I wish I had. They all came back around 2:00am with a couple people from one of the bands that was playing that night and we all partied until 5:00am.
They are hopefully moving here soon. I need to keep more people like that around me. They're so chill.


Still working lots. But this week I only work four days and still get my hours, which is good.
The last couple days I got on a roll working on a ring I've had going for a little while. Ran out to Burnaby to pick up the last few things I needed to finish it and gave it a test run when I went out to the SG 'Guide To Living' DVD release party last night.

Met up with a bunch of people at Steamworks before hand. We had a great time. I didn't stay at the release party for long. I ducked out around 12:30 I think? Think I might have missed some of the fun. Oh well.

Anyway. I mainly just wanted to show off my ring.

Silver, copper and brass with a diopside star.


Better angle and light to see the star.

Apparently I'm intimidating. Yyyyep. 140lbs of raw intimidation, right here ladies... And some boys.

Just a regular day at work. Been a little bitter since my hours have been cut and my schedule so inconsistent.
I still work hard, but smiles cost extra.
I notice a guy in the skincare aisle. A little shifty looking, but I figure he's just the type to douse himself in axe when I'm not looking then leave.
I help a customer find some printer paper. I see buddy come into the aisle. This does raise flags because this aisle is where people go to stash things they want to steal.
I glance at his basket, there could be something worth stealing in there. I go around the corner and watch. He sees this and gets into the line for the post office. He stays there... Hrrmmm... There's no mirrors on the ceiling on this aisle, but there's one on the ceiling of the next aisle. It should be enough for me to tell if he gets out of the line up now that I'm not there. Sure enough, he gets down between two stacks of product. I come back in and watch him stuff several boxes of advil into his bag. "Excuse me." I say. He looks up, really shaken. Technically we're not allowed to accuse anyone of taking anything unless we see them put it in their bag and go past the cash registers with it. But I didn't seem to need to say anything else. He thought about leaving. I forget what I said, i might have just moved to cut him off and he's like "Just take it." Dumps out his backpack, filling the basket heaping with advil, reactin, L'oreal products, etc. He gets ready to leave. "Pockets." I say. "That's all of it, really." He says as he fumbles and empties his pants pockets, something falls on the ground. But I meant backpack pockets. He gives me the backpack. I open the pockets, check them. They're fine. I hand it to him and let him go, following him until he leaves.

There was an apple and on orange in his backpack, which was now in our basket, as well as a crack pipe. I later found another crack pipe which is what fell out of his pocket.
We figure there's over a thousand dollars worth of stuff in the basket. I've gotten lots of praise. Not sure if there's going to be anything else coming from the manager or not. At the very least it would be nice if it somehow got me back on solid hours.
More than anything, I just feel really good about myself. This was a much needed boost to the ego.
Maybe the guy was just high and paranoid. I dunno. But the fact that he seemed to do whatever I told him, or didn't even have to tell him, was kind of fun in a sadistic sort of way.
I mean. I'm pretty small and skinny. This guy wasn't tiny and wasn't skinny. Looked pretty muscular if anything.
Dunno, maybe that's what drugs do to you. Make you afraid of mice.

I went down town on the last day of the olympics. It was my last graveyard shift and I needed to stay up the entire day so I could sleep that night and get back to my regular schedule.
So I went right down town for noon. Wandered around, waded through the crowd. Spent most of my time looking for the liquor store. I couldn't remember where it was down town. I wasn't sure if I was going to be drinking and they were closing the stores early to discourage it, so I brought my wineskin and purchased a tetrapack of French Rabbit Chardonnay to fill it.
In my wanderings down some of the more quiet streets, I heard cheering erupt from the city and echo off the apartment buildings when Canada scored. But that was only their second goal.
I was right by the cauldron for the last 60 seconds of the game. I stood on a bench, waiting to get a picture of the crowd cheering as they counted down the final 30 seconds. But the US scored! Gaah! I was too hungry to wait around for this. I walked down Robson and found Robson Sushi which my sister recommended. I wasn't too impressed by the quality of the food. But it was cheap and all you can eat. That's when I heard we won.
I finished eating and joined the precession up Robson towards the square. It started to get pretty thick. Soon. I was just being pushed along with the crowd. Lucky I was by myself. People were doing everything they could to keep from getting separated from their groups. I just enjoyed the ride. Everybody was highfiving everybody. Cops were taking beer from people and dumping them, but still getting highfives.
I wandered about until 6:30. I would have loved to stay down and party some, but I had been up for 22 hours by that point. Went home, crashed, worked the next day. Took a while to get re-adjusted.

Been working on my jewellery when I get the time. Mostly little steam powered sculptures and some hardware for a jacket I'm modifying. The narrow copper and brass pipe I ordered arrived today. Still waiting on the sheets. Don't have any immediate plans. Just want to have it around for more of the kinds of things I've been doing.
Some of the plates I need for my jacket. I want shoulder pauldrons. Mostly I just need to get my sewing machine running. I can't afford to take it in to be fully serviced. I don't know if it needs that since it is running. But I want to oil and lube it.
Luckily, I found a copy of the manual. I can't wait to get working on it. Hopefully the jacket will be done in time for the SG event on the 27th! It would be pretty styling as my wardrobe goes.
I should probably get a pair of jeans or something casual and non combat.

While I was down town for the Olympics, I went into Lush on the advice of a user in the Long Hair group on this site.
She told me they have a beer shampoo! Hooray! Another way to have beer in the morning!
Supposedly it adds weight. Sure enough it does. I wore my hair un-braided the other day for the first time since I started using it. It was awesome.
My little pony ain't got nothing on me.

Birthday coming up... Gonna be a lonely one. Think I'm just gonna get me a case of steamwhistle, make myself a shrimp dinner and rent Boondock Saints 2.

Gonna start hanging out with someone I met online a while back. He shoots at a range from time to time and is going to be getting his restricted license soon. I'll have someone to go with.

Gonna get me a mountain bike soon so I can get the hell out of town whenever I want to. Find some back roads and go camping on some crown land, hopefully. Might wait until I have my shotgun too. Just incase of bears. I wonder where I can get those bear-banger rounds? Maybe rubber bullets.
Pretty sure I've figured it's legal to transport a gun on a bike.
The law just says vehicle and makes special note of 'If the vehicle is a car' so I think I'm good. It would be pretty bad if you HAD to drive to transport a firearm.

Oh yes. And my eldest sister is getting married! I am planning to make the wedding bands.
I need to upgrade some equipment first. But I plan to have that done well before fall.
This whole insecurity in my job thing is giving me a good push towards becoming independent and possibly self employed. I was planning to use this job to get me money for my equipment. Hopefully it will remain secure enough for me to do so. I want to get a lot more practice before I try to get a business loan.
I really don't want to do much of the lost wax casting stuff. It somehow lacks soul to me most of the time.
I want to cast in slate and cuttle bone.
I need to build a repository of designs and have a stock made up. Maybe sell on etsy for a bit. Meh we'll see. Got a ways to go yet. But it's a goal.

Ok here are some pictures of the chaos down town.