moonrabbit

Every time I try to make a post, something happens to it.
Just yesterday I was half an hour in to an entry and I went to give the dog her shot, accidentally bumping the stupid side mouse button which triggers 'Back' on my browser.

So then I went and played Starfox because I was too pissed off to re-write it.

So, I don't remember if I mentioned it in my last post, I don't recall if I even knew, and I keep forgetting to check.
But the contract with Nikon is up. It ends March 1st.
I found out early January so it's not like I didn't have any notice.
In fact, I was planning on quitting sooner to head out west, but I decided to stick around until the end.
This is probably a more realistic timeline but losing the contract sure finalises things.
I've got enough money, It's more about getting my crap sorted and packed.
Getting rid of a lot of my long prized possessions, like my G.I.Joe Armorbot.
But it's good. I need this push.
Mom's got a new job in Toronto, so I easily could have gotten lazy and decided to stay here, having the house to myself.
But I'd need a new job and there's nothing good in town.
I wanna go too. I want a fresh start in a new place.

This means I need to make friends though. Anybody know anyone in Vancouver on here?

Met up with Bus girl again. She invited me to a superbowl party which just ended up being one of her friends explaining the game to her and me.
She fell asleep a couple times, but her friend was of the geek so we geeked out together between plays.
Our favourite term of the night was 'Sacked' because we just pictured the players kicking each other in the nnnnuts.

Last weekend I finally got to go on one of the trips to the Adirondacks.
It was just me, my supervisor and one of his friends.
His friend was a bit of a know it all for no good reason.
I don't think I did anything that demonstrated any lack of skill save for packing more gear than he did.
They slept in a tent, I slept in my bivvy.
He was all 'Now if you get cold, don't be afraid to crawl in to the tent with us. Out here, pride will get you killed.'
Gag me.
It only got to -16C and I was warmer than they were. I think buddy was too proud to admit it, but my supervisor was saying he was quite chilled.
On the hike up the mountain, it wasn't long before we were in our t-shirts. We checked the thermometer part way up and it was +5. But even when we got up in the wind and where the trees were caked with snow, I still just had my light shirt on.
The peak of Cascade was sooooo windy. Just about lost my hat a couple times and wanted to stay close to the ground most of the time.
I signed out a D300 with a 12-24mm F4 so I got some nice shots, but not as good as if I wasn't preoccupied with keeping myself and gear from blowing away.
It wasn't far to the peak of porter, we went down a bit, then back up, down again and back up to the peak.
By this point it was quite warm and the snow was melting out of the trees, practically raining on us. But it was just packy enough for me to sculpt a fine snow-booby which I left on the summit of Porter.
Our group genius really took the cake when we stopped for lunch.
I was having trouble with my stove, and because it was already primed the fuel was coming out in gaseous form.
So he had the idea to open the fuel bottle and our some in to the cap then pour it right on to the priming pad, which seemed like a good idea actually.
In the process I ot some fuel on my gloves. So he very slowly tells me 'Now you've got fuel on your glove so don't light the stove with it on your hand.'... Guh... No shit, Sherlock.
Despite the crafty idea, the reality of it was, by the time that plan failed, the stove had cooled enough that I couldd re-light it properly.

By the time we got back to camp we were quite soaked, and of course, no fires because it was a park. We boiled some water, filled our nalgenes, ate dinner then went right to bed prolly around 6:00.
I woke up a lot. At one point I heard some kind of booming which could have been either fireworks from some Lake Placid festival, or the artillery range near by. We had some rain too.
It was really warm so I actually sweated and got chilled that night. But so did they.
In the end, I still say bivvys are better than tents, or at least as good, It's just a lot easier to roll up a bivvy.

Not much else been happening. Been playing Starfox Adventures. At the last boss now. Gonna beat it and wait a while before starting the second one. Maybe I'll take it out to my dad's in march.

Going to the climbing gym tomorrow with my buddy. Been trying to keep fit since the hike. I always do these big camping trips, get a good workout then get lazy rather than use it to get a head start on getting nice and toned... Maybe for a new SB set.

I leave you with pictures from the mountains. Not the most impressive views, they were two of the shortest of the 47 peaks. 4100 feet was the highest we went.



First break in the trees, good view but not the top.


Snow starting to get thicker on the trees.


Caked.


The summit.