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End of the Volleyball Season

So I joined a rec league volleyball team that Tin setup this fall. Although I suck at volleyball, I still have a lot of fun playing it, and if it’s in a rec league then there’s no shame in suckage.

I had a lot of fun for our first game on Monday. It seems like playing all that ultimate frisbee has helped my hand-eye coordination so I played better than I thought I would, especially considering how rusty I am. We played two teams and both matches were close. We walked away with one win and a loss. Regardless of the results, it is fun to just play.

Unfortunately I found out that all the games are held at various schools across the city late at night so I can’t play this season. I have no mode of transportation than the bus, and if anyone has ever lived in Edmonton they know that the transit system here is atrocious. So my first day of Volleyball is my last

I am left without any sport this fall term other than going to the gym. This is one of the many reasons why I love Ottawa so much more than here, because at least there I can get off my butt to play sports.

Anyhow, Tin gave me a ride home that night on his new crotch-rocket. Aside from the whole homosexual appeal of two guys tight on a motorcycle, it was my first real time being on an actual bike. It was wicked! I totally need to buy one, if not now, then hopefully in the near future when I start work. I find the meshing of man and machine to be really romantic and cool at the same time. \,,/ EXTREME!!!

Mo-ped gang anyone?

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Free Ipod

So for the past week there has been advertisements in our local newspaper for free Ipods. The first 100 customers to enter the brand new Safeway grocery store near my buddy Mylore’s place gets a free Ipod Shuffle.

Like a bunch of cheap and sick nerds, the boys (Mylore and Paolo) and I decided to camp out in front early to claim our free gear. We expected it to be a gong show, but we never expected that there would be as many dedicated people vying for the same prize.

Our strategy was to stay up all night and hang out at Mylore’s place to play video games. Every hour or so, we’d make a trip and drive by the parking lot to check the status of the line up. The break down of events:

12:00 AM - The boys picked me up from home… I’m already exhausted and my body wants to sleep. We head to Humpty’s (an all night diner) for some grub and coffee.

1:00 AM - Hopped up on 3 glasses of coffee we all feel like this’ll be a cake walk. We know our caffeine is going to crash, but whatever, we feel fine!

1:30 AM - Oh god, caffeine is starting to crash. We circle around the parking lot to find that there are already two carloads full of people camped out. They looked passed out in their cars with fogged windows, a sign that they’ve been there for awhile at least. SICK! Back to Mylore’s for some GameCube action.

3:00 AM - My fingers are going to fall off, and I get totally owned playing Mario Tennis by Mylore. We swing by to check the parking lot and nothing has really changed… back to the comfort of Mylore’s place again.

4:20 AM - Our eye-lids are starting to close on us. Paolo passes out momentarily. We’re all zombies from the lack of sleep. We get up and make a run to the 7-11. I buy a Jamaican Patty and eat said patty. It doesn’t sit well in my stomach… smart Lee… very smart. We swing by the parking lot and a few more cars are there, so we decide to take shifts watching the front door while the others nap.

4:40 AM - A group of girls waltz up to the front door and wait. The line up begins. Damn them!! Why couldn’t they just sit in their cars for another half an hour… now that the line is formed we have to get out too. The cold keeps us awake. Being the bright guys we are, we didn’t bring enough warm clothes. Mylore leaves us to pick up his girlfriend to join the line.

5:30 AM - People have been streaming in at an exponential rate. My only protection from the elements is a fleece blanket and my sweater. Minutes start to feel like hours. There is easily more than 100 people in the line by now, and things are starting to get rowdy. People are complaining about people cutting in the front of the line, and the security rent-a-cops are now out to enforce the line. Good thing we’re staked about 10 from the front.

6:00 AM - The store manager hands out tickets to the first 100 to claim the prize. This ensures that no one cutting in front of the line will be awarded with a precious precious ipod. It starts to rain.

7:00 AM - After an hour of more brutal cold and rain, they open the doors! There’s now a crowd of over 300 people out in front. Many are cutting in front of the line thinking they could swindle everyone else, little do they know that those who waited earlier were given vouchers. Karma sucks! We get our ipods! *Victory Dance*

12:18 PM - After sleeping for less than an hour, coding a bit, and going to class, I’m about to pass out in the Computing Science lab from lack of sleep. I somewhat question if the 512 Meg Ipod Shuffle was worth it. Oh well, I love free stuff.

One class left to go and a 15 minute lab and I’m scot free to sleep!

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Home?

My relationship with Renata started only a short few months ago back in June. Since then though, things were on an accelerated pace and it has grown much faster and further than what most relationships are like. Even compared to some of my friends who have been together with their significant others for years, ours seems to be even further ahead.

At times I feel like I’ve known her all my life, or at least much longer than the few months since we’ve gotten together. This makes being apart from each other so much harder. However, we both know that this time apart is temporary and that we’ll eventually live together. Well, it’s now more than a feeling as she’s just bought a house and I’ll be moving in next summer.

The place itself (at least from photos and descriptions on the internet) looks gorgeous and seems pretty huge. If she approves of it, then I know it’ll be quite nice. It is definitely a home meant for a family and not for a couple, so it’s a good place to set our roots.

This is all somewhat scary and exciting all at once. Scary in that I’ve never had a serious and long-term relationship before (my longest one being 6 months). I’ve never pictured myself settling down with someone (I’ve also never met anyone like Renata either). It is exciting in that I’ll be starting anew in Ottawa for a permenant stay.

I’m also taking my little brother with me, and he’ll be living with us while he goes through school. I think the change for him will be good as well, since it’ll remove him from the negative influences in his life. He seems pretty stoked about it all and I hope things work out so that he can come out there. I hope by being out there he can get his act straight and live a more directed lifestyle.

We’ll see how things pan out, but I’ve got a feeling it’s for the better.

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Return to Sanity

Renovations are FINALLY done, after more than a solid week of *bang bang bang* *BUZZSAW*. I finally have my room back, and my desk all set up.

Though it cost me a few days of grumpiness and set me back from studying for a bit, it’s well worth it. The laminate flooring and tiling have brightened the house up. Getting rid of the dusty and gross carpet makes everything feel clean, and the air much more breatheable.

My family-members are a bunch of pack rats, and the cluttering that’s built up over the years gives me nausea everytime I come back to Edmonton.  So this whole renovation also gives all of us the reminder that yes we can throw away junk that we’ve accumulated 8 years ago.  Things are now bright and fresh and gooder.

At least now I can focus on the very thing that has been haunting me, calculus.  Seriously, all this renovation has really made it hard to hit the books for calculus.  Confronting math has been one of my greatest fears in school for the past 2 years.  I’m not terrible at it, but I’m just not proficient enough at it to express the concepts into mathematical language.  Of course, I’m also a prodigal procrastinator so that doesn’t really help my cause.

Anyways, I’ll get my backpacking story up soon, promise!

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Back to School Chaos

It’s that time again.  Time to realize that “oh shit I’m back in school again” when I’m already 2 weeks well into school.  I guess the reality of things are starting to hit me just now.  Usually it takes me a little time for my own little reality to adjust to where I’m actually at.

In all honesty though, I feel good to be back.  I know it’s going to be a tough term, but I also have the drive to do well.  It feels just like how I felt at the beginning of last term, and that ended up being my best term yet.  The challenges for this term a little larger though.

My organizational skills suck, and so I’ve cornered myself into a little problem.  One of my required courses has a second year calculus course as a pre-requisite.  Now I’m not completely terrible at math, but if I only paid more attention to math in first year instead of partying and being lazy I wouldn’t be so lost with it as I am now.  Also take into consideration that first year was roughly 4 years ago, and I’m in a deep pile of doo-doo.

What’s nice about this term is that two of my good friends are in school, and our schedules match up really well.  So not only do we get to carpool together (Edmonton Transit is TERRIBLE), but my friend Mylore is now my workout buddy.  Yes, we sweat together… A LOT.  Our workout sessions have been really good, and we seem to push it harder each time and it’s been consistent.  Having a buddy helps keep the motivation up, and I’ve never really had that working out before.

What will help this term for sure is that my house is getting a huge renovation face-lift.  We’ve stripped all the carpet from the floor and are putting in laminate flooring and ceramic tile.  We haven’t changed the floors since we moved in … almost 13 years ago :-|.  With this huge over-haul will probably come a huge change in the way we organize all the stuff in our house.  My dad is a complete packrat, and the organization gene in our family is really really weak.  It’s like we get a fresh-start at everything… the only hiccup is that this whole week I have been sleeping in the living room, and using the kitchen table as a desk while all our bedrooms get torn apart to be replaced.  Fun!

Hopefully this will be the return of my blogging after the summer hiatus.  Stay posted for part 2 of my campathon recollection :-).

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Campathon 2006 Part 1

Photos of the trip can be found here!

Pre-trip Prep

So Renata and I arrived in Edmonton almost 2 weeks ago.  Packing for the leave was a bit hectic, and after all that we still needed to pack for our big camping trip.

It was really nice to see my buddies again back home.  I took my brother out to have some sushi with my pals.  It was like a triple date plus my brother.

The next day was a little bit hectic with all the mad packing.  We stopped by MEC to pick up a tent, water filter, stove, pots, and a dozen other small knick knacks that would be ultra handy on our backpack.  We also made a trip to pack for food and other such things.  There just wasn’t enough time in the day to cram everything in, so we did the best we could.

That night, we went to the Remedy Cafe to be a part of my buddy Lee’s fundraiser.  He’s biking to Mexico from Edmonton for the “Two Wheels One World” project.  There was an open mic for musicians, and they had this wicked guitar player up on stage.  He was blind, but his musical abilities more than made up for his loss of sight.  It was incredible to watch him solo some wicked blues guitar and sing along.  It was also good to see Lee again too.  For whatever reason, we seem to be in different cities at the same time.

I wish him well, and hope that he stays safe on the long journey ahead of him.

Renata and I passed out late that night.  We got up at like 8, when we were hoping to be out of the house by 7.  We missed a lot of things, so we ran around picking up a few more things like a stuff sack for food and a few more munchies.  It wasn’t until 11 that we left Edmonton for the long 5 hour drive to Lake Louise.

We arrived safe and sound, with no hassles.  The Impala rental we had was a really comfy ride and it’d almost be perfect except for how much of a gas guzzler it is.  It felt great to be back in the Rockies again, and I could see Renata’s face light up as we drove by some big peaks.  We setup camp at the Lake Louise campground, and fortunately the campground was surrounded by an electric bear fence.  It was grizzly country afterall.  I know it was one of her worries, and the bear fence just adds peace of mind.

After setting up, I took her sightseeing at Lake Louise.  It’s very understandable why the Lake is world famous, as it’s absolutely gorgeous.  We got some great photos in, and it was a nice way to relax from our long car ride.

Hello Scrambling!

We woke up late the next morning.  On the itinerary was a scramble of Mt. Temple, the third tallest peak in the Southern Rockies and the tallest peak in the Lake Louise area.  By definition, a scramble is an attempt to summit a peak without any technical climbing or ropes and such.  As the name implies, a lot of the time is spent scrambling up the mountain on all fours or up incredibly steep slopes.

I had scrambled Mt. Temple once before two years ago, and it offers one of the most beautiful views of the Rockies.  The summit stands at an elevation of 11000 feet, way taller than what any gandola or tramway would take you as it’s way above the treeline.

I remember the scramble being exhausting when I first did it.  It took me a solid 12 hours back then.  Although it was Renata’s very first hike in the Rockies I knew she could physically handle it.  She’s very athletic and has much better endurance than I do.  If my couch-potato body could will itself up the mountain, then her body should have no problems.

So we started out in the cold morning.  At the start of the trailhead there was a sign warning us that we had to travel in groups of 6 or more because a grizzly had been spotted in the area.  The fine was a hefty $2000 if we were caught winging it.  We decided to wait a little to see if we could join others, and only one very lean Austrian man showed up.  The three of us decided what the hell, and began our ascent.

He was a very calm and collected man, with a thick Austrian accent.  Already I was lagging behind him and Renata.  My natural walking pace is tortoise-like, and so my hiking speed is just the same.  He was waiting for me at every turn of the switchbacks, and it was like a casual stroll in the park for him.  The first 6 or 7 km’s of the trail are spent grovelling up steep switchbacks before clearing out of the treeline.  Those Austrian’s really know how to hike their mountains!

Once we were above the treeline, we parted ways as it was probably safe from bears.  I found out that he revolved his life around climbing and travelling, and that he had just completed a tour of Tibet.  Not only that, but he’s planning an expedition to Mt. Logan next year which would take a grand 6 weeks to summit.  Hardcore.  He said that there were only 5 or 6 people in Austria who did what he did, and I felt a little embarassed to be dragging behind up those switchbacks.  At least Renata could keep up with his pace the whole way before he left us.

We reached the saddle in about 80 minutes, besting my previous hike by a whole 40 minutes!  The saddle was the point at the base of the mountain where we would begin our scramble.  We were making wonderful time, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.  If there was a day to climb Mt. Temple, it’d be that day, as weather would not be a factor.  We rested a bit at the saddle and had lunch.

We began our scramble the same way I remembered, up a very nasty gully full of scree.  The stuff is hard to climb up on if you’re not used to it.  For every two steps taken, the scree slides you back one.  The height combined with the uneven footing can be unnerving at times.  About half an hour in, Renata started getting nervous and a bit shaky.

It was like that my first time too, and it was very understandable.  We are very high up, and although scrambling is not as extreme as rock climbing it too has its dangers.  A bad slip or fall can injure pretty badly, and people have died scrambling before.  Mt. Temple itself held Canada’s worst hiking accident when 6 boys tried scrambling it and all perished.  The height and possibility of danger can really wear on you if you don’t have any experience.  For myself, my nerves were okay and I just took my time.  I knew that a lot of the fear was mental, and that if I did slip I’d probably slide maybe a meter or two before stopping.  If it were to happen, it’d just be a nuisance and I could get back at it.  For Renata, it was an overwhelming mental obstacle.

When I did it the first time, I was with a bunch of guys and over half of them couldn’t get to where we were at just the start, so already she was doing better than them

Another half hour passed and we saw a couple on the fair end of the gully, hiking up easily on even ground.  What gives?!  We’d been sliding and huffing up the gully a fair bit, burning tons of energy and here are two people who are seemingly strolling up.  We made our way over to them, and I found that they were on a route that completely avoided the nasty scree!  Their route was so much easier and safer that Renata was a bit miffed at me and my route-finding skills.  The gully was really the only way up that I knew, and by looking at the incline it seemed to be the most logical way.  Little did I know, that right beside the towering rockface and exposure was a nice easy-going route.

We followed the couple for awhile until they sped up and were up and over the ridge.  The scramble in the gully exhausted us, but even more importantly it exhausted Renata’s nerves.  We pushed on up a little bit further until we met up with the Austrian man on his way down.  He looked at his altimeter and told us we’re only one third of the way up.  I was still ready to go and we had plenty of daylight left, but I knew Renata was beat mentally and all the emotional stress tired her out.

She’s one that rarely quits, and it’s very hard for her to throw in the towel.  Reluctantly we both decided it was as far as we could go.  We could’ve made it all the way up, but it’d be draining and possibly dangerous from the fatigue.  So we made the long hike home.

We both have bad knees from injuries.  Knee injuries don’t quite go away, they just kind of haunt you from time to time.  Descending from the height made it quite painful, and we were questioning at times  whether or not our bodies would be healed up in time for the long hike on the Skyline trail the day after.

We eventually made it back to camp, had a delicious dinner, and passed out from exhaustion.  I knew then that the Skyline Trail would be quite something on our bodies, and I remember asking myself that night why I always manage to put myself through so much masochism each year!

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