OK 2012 – 1st Day, So Far So Good

January 1st, 2012 Thomasso

It is almost nineteen hours into 2012 and so far the new year is going great for me. I spent a lot of time today cleaning, catching up with friends by email and working on some projects that I am getting into over the next few weeks. I want this year to be a productive one, but the productivity part I want to keep under control, as oppose to everything controlling me such as time management. I also know that this year may mark a possible move for myself as somewhere in the next fourteen months I have to move.  I expect that 2012 will be busy one towards the end in the last few months, but I am hoping that nothing freaky happens like unexpected unemployment or  something alone those lines does not happen.

Today, I went shopping down a Walmart in Langley City first thing. Yes, they were open, right a 7:00am. With most of the city sleeping in from last night’s festivities, the roads we perfect for driving this morning, and finding parking, well, I thought I was dreaming. Within forty minutes, I had completed the round trip and was back home unpacking all of my groceries.

I emailed about twenty friends also today. This was more or less a means of keeping in touch with everyone. Most of the contacts I made were friends from university, and some colleagues, and some were old work buddies from years ago. I doubt that I will get replies from some, as I am sure their email accounts hove long since went delinquent, so this will be test to purge them from my address book. There are also some family members that I seem to have lost contact with too–hopefully I was hear back from them?

I have an agenda for my volunteering efforts too this year. I am hoping to get that under way very soon. I want to do more time with some programs that are with Corrections Canada. Also, I want to do some time with my alumni friends. I really want to keep in touch with my old school, so helping out, I feel is the best way to do that.

I know this year is going to be one of endurance and harsh times as the world economies try and sort their messes out and hopefully do not take me down with them. I am very thankful that I do not have any debt towards anyone while all of this is going on. I have so many friends that are slowly being swallowed up by debt that I worry about them. It is a given (and so obvious)  that costs are going up, and that I will have to adapt to the changing economy – buying less with the income that I have with be the challenge for 2012. So, hopefully I will still keep my current job and not have to look for another one, (know on wood) as the Canadian job market is looking really bleak right now. Yes, I worry about that becuase I know how “on the edge” everyone is living these days.

So, here is to a good year, and one that I hope we will all get through without too many battle scares.

Cheers and Happy New Years!

Posted in Diatribe, Events, General, Holiday, Social economics | Comments Off

Hiding During the Holidays

December 22nd, 2011 Thomasso

A strange little habit that I have this time of year (during the Statutory Holiday) is hiding in my home, turning off all the lights, except for my bedroom, and read. This is the only time that I truly get to catch up on all those interesting passages and stories that I have filed away during the previous months, but never had time to read them. My little pile consists of four books: three textbooks that I bought, and one science fiction story (I downloaded it) that I heard about on the radio. Also in this pile are about fifteen papers and articles from a seminar I attended back in September on Crime and Justice, sponsored by Corrections Canada.

My goal is to have them read by the end of Saturday, so that I can start a new pile. There about three subjects that I really want to blog about too. I figure that if I can have everything read by Saturday, then I can start posting some articles on Sunday and Monday afterwards. This could be a marathon.

I will also be doing some volunteer work with the gang, doing some workshops with Corrections Canada on and around the twenty-fifth.  Right now it is up in the air, but I should be getting some instructions soon, then I can put together a timetable.

I have also stocked up on some munchies and other various supplies because I do not even want to leave the house for as long as possible to avoid the holiday chaos. When I leave work to go home on Friday that is it for me until I have to go back on the following Tuesday, I want to stay off the roads during this period.

I will leave my phone on. Last year there was a small emergency and I had turned everything off, so in the middle of the night, 2:30am, there were the sounds of pounding on my door. So, to avoid that, friends and foe can reach me by phone this year.

I know I must sound like the hermit who hates everything this time of year, but this is furthest from the truth. I am in fact embracing it. This is “my time,” and I need it. I am also flexible this time of year too. If I have to, and it is fun, I will venture out, but I highly doubt that this will happen this year.

Where I live, it is quiet and usually uneventful during the holiday period. Several years ago there was this incident that happened with a guy we labeled a “Drug Dealer” who had the Police, Fire department, and Emergency vehicles all lined up along our driveway, as he used his wife as a hostage because he was being arrested. I sure as heck do not want that to happen again! That scared a lot of people back then in the neighbourhood, so I am kind of hoping I, or we, never see that again. But how can you control that?

One more sleep until I bury myself with books and papers.

Oh oh, I almost forgot – my new camera! I may go outside after all to shoot some photos with it if the weather is good. I completely forgot about that!  *shock*

I am happy. Happy holidays!

Posted in Diatribe, Events, General, Holiday, Story Telling | Comments Off

I will be There to See Them Lay a Wreath of Poppies

November 10th, 2011 Thomasso

Tomorrow is Remembrance’s Day. At 11:00pm, on November 11th, the War Memorial in Fort Langley will be full of people who will stand and offer one minute of silence to those who fought and died in all wars that this country has participated in. Today I thought as to why I should treat tomorrow as a statutory holiday, and why it made me feel guilty. I asked myself some hard questions today.

Should I be happy that I will have time off from work, and use November 11th as a day for myself to rest and relax?

Should I work instead on my own projects becuase my time is consumed with work and academic commitments, and I should take care of those first?

Should I get up, as I normally would on a work day, and join the masses that will walk the five block long route and stand with the few people who will lay wreaths at the cemetery?

On one side of my mind is the selfishness of my life, blending ethics and knowledge of my country, with my hard at work lifestyle and drive to full fill the needs of my career. The competition based lifestyle that says “I” come first becuase no one else will look after me, will try and trump my higher thinking. While on the other side, my deeper consciousness, I know what the reality is of why we Canadians do this every year, and what the importance is of November 11. If we did not, then we would easily forget, as per my excuses at the beginning of this paragraph state, and wars, and those who died in them would be forgotten. It would be all pointless without these ceremonies, and selfishness and regret would fill our lives instead. My mind teeters on these two choices tomorrow.

Yes, I will be there. I will stand for one minute, with everyone else in the rain, to pay remembrance. It is the least that I can do.

Posted in Around Town, Events, General, Holiday | Comments Off

A Trip to Sooke, BC

September 12th, 2011 Thomasso

This was my trip to Vancouver Island on September 11, 2011, in photos, when I went to buy my sister’s SUV. So me and a friend went on the long trek from Fort Langley, to Sooke, BC, to drive a vehicle what may, or may not have, made it back under its own steam. We made it, with minor issues with a dead battery, but the trip was great. Lots of stories for the dinner table now!

Yes, JM, I made it back! Safe and sound. The Pathfinder did die on us while on the Ferry, but they were nice to help us with the jump-start. We did get home, although hours latter than expected, but it was worth it. The truck passed Air-Care, and Cam had a blast while on Vancouver Island. If I did not know him better, I think he really likes Southern Vancouver island–a lot?

So, here are some photos I took of the round trip while on the Ferry.

Posted in Events, Family, General, Holiday, Photographs, Vacation and Travel | 1 Comment »

The Labour Day Weekend

September 5th, 2011 Thomasso

Well, this is it, our last weekend of unofficial summer. From here on in we must start bracing for fall, or winter, which ever comes first. Right now it seems that summer can go on for ever, but experience tells me that all of this wonderful weather can end in a day, and the Northern hemisphere can be enveloped into darkness for the next six to seven months. What a dismal thought?

As a precursor to the fall season, I have already started on my Halloween costume. I want to have it done well before the festivities start. This year I will have the lights, the mannequins and scary photos adorning my home. I know this will spark a holy war with my neighbour who believes that anything pagan is punishable to public prosecution, but last year, we, as in the rest of my neighbours, asked him to mind his own business and stick to himself, and we would do the same. So far we are one big happy neighbourhood, but that could end at any moment. But that will not put a damper on my Halloween—he can move!

My friends are going back to their classes for their fall semester starting tomorrow. I already miss those days. Yes, I miss the new classroom smells, and that feeling of starting off a new term, and getting new textbooks and supplies. OK, I am happy that I have no more classes, and that I have money in my wallet because I do not have to give it to admissions, but damn it, I had so much fun back then. My friends look at me with envy, and I look at them with nostalgia. School, it conjure up both hell and happiness, I miss it.

So tomorrow, I go back to work. It will be a super busy day, like having two Mondays wrapped up into one. Fall is also a busiest time out of the year for us, so extra pressure will be on us to get the job done. In a way I am looking forward to it. I guess part of old age is knowing what to expect based on having been there and done that—the philosophy of a Gen-X’er. I am also mindful that our economy it still hurting, and that at any moment North America could come crashing down into a economic abyss. I listen, watch and prepare, while working as hard as I can but knowing that this could be a harsh year if the wrong path is taken. “We will see,” as my optimums friend says.

Now for some summer fun relaxation before the clouds roll in!

Posted in Around Town, Bitching about weather, Diatribe, Events, General, Holiday, Humour, University classes | 1 Comment »

Good Bye July

July 31st, 2011 Thomasso

I better get one last post in before the month finally ends. My posting on the blog has come to a stop since I started working full time. All work and no play, makes me too busy to blog I must say.

At least the money is flowing in now. It is so nice to have the steady flow of income once again, but the economic state of our markets is just to shaky for me to start breathing normal yet. I have this fear that the whole country is going to go belly up, and we (including the parasites of society like Bankers, Politicians and Drug Dealers) are going to go down with the ship. I am thinking about the U.S. and its debt problems right now.

I notice the Banks that I deal with have being very mellow these last few months. I cashed a $2200.00 cheque last week, and the teller gave me no speech about why I should open an account with them. Usually I get one. That is scary – something is up?

I still have lots of friends who are struggling to find work. For them, working under the table, as in working for cash only, seems to be what is keeping them from going out onto the streets. One friend, an neighbour, told me that he goes to the food bank once a month just to tie him over. Social services will not even look at him becuase of his status: Male, non visible minority, no dependants. His next move, if he does not find work, will be the streets.

On the other hand, I have some friends who are just as bad as I am – too much work. It seems that in Canada, right now, it is either black or white in contrast when dealing with employment. You are either working too much, or your are not. I never trusted the numbers that are spewed out by the media, even from Stats Canada, becuase those metrics are skewed. The true measure is really what you can see in front of your face, or view the raw data yourself. In my neck of the woods, half of my friends are either employed while the other half are working ridiculous hours.

The happy part of this last month has being working full time. Yup, I am not complaining about work, althought I am putting in some killers time. In fact, I am embracing it becuase I really missed the work while I was a student. Funny eh?

And yes, working full time is way easier than being a student, by a long shot! No home work.

So, I am off to pay pad rent, then figure out what I am going to do today, being that tomorrow is a Stat Holiday. I also love long weekends.

Posted in Bitching about work, Diatribe, General, Holiday, Humour, Socail Media | 1 Comment »

Happy Canada day!

July 1st, 2011 Thomasso

Happy Canada day everyone!

Posted in Events, General, Holiday | 2 Comments »

The Fort Langley 2011 Mayday Parade

May 23rd, 2011 Thomasso

It was a great event this year. The weather held up, and there were some good participants involved this year with many cool looking floats. I took some amazing photos, and when it was over, I had well over 500 photos. I have included them in my photo gallery which I will link to in this post.

Because of my tight schedule and lack of time, I am a bit behind on all the things I wanted to do on this post. So later on today, and possibly tomorrow, I will be adding more information and photos to this post. Please check back by tomorrow as more information will be added by then.

Above – the Coast Capital Credit (Bank) float. It was one of the best floats, in my opinion, in the parade. Spongebob Squarepants is not in this one.

Above – A young girl beaver wondered off from the Fraser River lodge, no doubt looking for some yummy tree snacks from the local bark mill, but her parents could be out looking for her. She somehow got stuck in the parade as she tries to escape through the crowd. Poor thing. Below – is a bad case of Fort Langley Mad Cow.

Below, is a slide show of the Parade, there are over 200 images so it may take about 10min to view them all this way:

Here is the link directly to the gallery of the MayDay parade : GALLERY – Mayday Parade 2011

Posted in Around Town, Events, General, Holiday, Photographs | 6 Comments »

Year of the Rabbit!

February 3rd, 2011 Thomasso

I love the idea that we can celebrate New Years at least twice a year in Canada, although the second one, the Chinese New Years, really doesn’t have the recognition that it deserves.  I would love to have today, or tomorrow, as a holiday too. But that is me.

Some interesting facts about the Lunar New Year. This is year 4708, year of the Rabbit. The day of the new year is set by the Lunar cycle, not a fixed date on a annual calendar, like what we use in North America and Europe. And there are twelve animal characters that are named for each new year in a set cycle.

Because British Columbia, and probably through out most of Canada, has a large and vibrant Chinese population, the Chinese New Year seems to be part of our culture, and well entrenched. Over the years, in my experience, the celebrations seems to be taking on a new foothold with the serge in social media, and more and more people can now be reached through it.

I have some wonderful Chinese friends, and I enjoy celebrating the New Year with them.  Again, it would be nice to get tomorrow off, so we do have to use some restraint on how long we stay up tonight. But nonetheless, I have my luck money, and some wonderful cards with decorative dragons and other symbols of the festivities on them. So I am all set to go.

This morning, one of the students from Kwantlen, Nicole Joe, a member of the Kwantlen Student Association, (KSA) was wearing her traditional Chinese dress, which I though was very cool. She proudly showed it off, and allowed me to snap a few photos of her, while in the KSA lounge/office at Langley campus.

So, Happy New Year! Gung Hey Fat Choi! Year of the Rabbit.

Posted in Events, General, Holiday, Photographs | Comments Off

So, Now It’s 2011

January 1st, 2011 Thomasso

So, now it’s 2011–now what?

Maybe this it is time to start writing about what I think the new year should be like, and what should be accomplished and achieved. But who am I kidding; half the planet is probably doing the same thing right now, and probably able to do a far better job at it than I could ever do. I am not into doing resolutions and predictions that much. Oh sure, I have my wish list, but I generally like to keep those reserved for another day when I have put in the time to properly scribed them out.

But I do know that there are a few things I would like to see done.

My new career will start shortly. This is the big experiment, if I could call it that, becuase it is really a test to see whether my hard work and sacrifices worked. Does someone with academic credentials have a far better time landing that dream job than an average person walking down the street does? This is the test in the back of my mind. Sure, I have always been very good at landing a job when I needed to, but I never truly found something that I really wanted, something that I can say, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. So in the coming days, and weeks, I will know just how effective and how far my latest goals have taken me. In the short term, things are looking super positive.

What will the year bring us in terms of economic prosperity? Well, if the Banks, corporations and governments around the world don’t screw everything up, I’m hoping that everything starts to pick up again. I would like to see the business cycle start to climb again. However, I was totally against the stimulus packages that were given to the Banks and corporations by governments. I really believe this will just drag us down even further. As a result of this, I have cut back on my spending to a ridiculous level. I have no debt, but I am having to deal with inflation that is causing me to downsize further so that no debt does occur. At least it hurts the primary cause of this mess in the first place, the Banks.

Time. I will have lots of time now. The questions is, what to do with it? I was kicking around the idea of going back and see if I can push the envelope even further with my academic endeavours. But I’m going to rest first, for a while, before I run that marathon again.

I will enjoy the rest of the first day of 2011 with a good book. I have not decided what to read yet, but I will probably blog about it very soon and tell you all about.

Happy New Years.

Posted in Art, Diatribe, Events, General, Holiday, Photographs | Comments Off