allright. I couldn't let that a post sit there looking like that. Its been about three years since I last poste anything as banal as what kind of cellphone I'm using. Neverthee mind. I've been busy fathering child and drinking wine. It almost seems as if no one blogs anymore. new methods and techniques exist for being online and there just isnt much call to read journals of others when you can try and get people to read your stuff. The real goal here is to just have something. just offer up something for people to see and maybe even read through to the end. if you are among the few who have ever come here and i'll admit even i dont come here, thanks for reading this far. maybe I'll post anoher time in a year or two. hehe clay

Big Brother is finally watching us.

Like a lot of people I recently decided to upgrade my cell phone and get a data-phone as I like to call them but most will know them by the irritating name "smartphone" This has become the catch-all word to describe any iphone-like phone that will deliver and send email, run applications, or display web pages etc... Its a surprisingly addictive little gizmo and its using the Android operating system so it integrates seamlessly with my gmail account and now with all its connected "services" like YouTube and Plus and all that hazzmajazz. What this means as far as I can tell us that the Google corporation have succeeded in gathering even more information about me. If they choose (and most probably they do) they can read my mail, track my whereabouts, see my social life and pictures etc. So what happened recently is that when I purchased the phone Google had pre-loaded it with an ebook in order to promote their ebook store and encourage people to buy books and read them on their cellphones. The book they loaded it with? 1984 by Orwell. So what struck me as ironic about this is that periodically updates to the book application including parts of the books were automatically applied without me knowing or approving them which I guess is pretty much standard and accepted these days. Sound familiar? Mind you the text if the book hadn't been altered but the cover picture had. It makes me wonder where we're headed with all this auto-updating technology. Information is becoming less and less a finite thing that you buy and use it and enjoy and more of a service that you subscribe to. Its constantly being updated and modified. But it makes me wonder where were heading with this. Online news computer programs are already being constantly modified and rewritten. Will the same thing start to happen with books and movies?

La Peruse, Maui

 I was in Hawaii again after the holidays.  Whenever I say I went to Hawaii to people I get this response that's like a half wider-eyed "wow cool" expression mixed with a barely distinguishable dark undercurrent of "What the hell?  What's this joker hiding from me?  How come he gets to go to Hawaii and I don't?  Why didn't he take me!?"  Not necessarily because I can see this expression, but because that's generally how I feel when people tell me about their trips to Thailand or New Zealand or Africa or wherever, well, for those people I have Hawaii.  It's no great distance away, but it's probably still one of the nicest places to visit or, as in my case, have family you can visit.  Nothing beats couch surfing in a place you can actually go ocean surfing too!  As a Canadian it seems I'm not one of the ones that's immune from the snowbird instincts like my other fellow Canadians.  The truth is, most of us don't go to warm places for winter - we tough it out.  I assume as things get more expensive and out of reach for the average person not lucky enough to have some disposable income and couches in paradise to sleep on, we'll just have to all move to Victoria or one of the few other warm pockets of BC or just endure the winter.  It's not that bad at the heart of it.  But then again I've never really lived much farther north than the 49th. so maybe I'm just bullshitting at this point. 

Well, well.  Old man Winter seems to be here for keeps now.  It's nice and sunny, but it's also cold!  We have had plumbers and now Drywallers and tapers in our apartment for the last few weeks.  They come in early in the morning and we have to get up so they can repair and replace stuff.  So, anyway, not a lot else is happening.  Winter is cold and damp here, so other than the usual working, playing, drinking hot fluids and fighting off colds by trying not to breathe too hard on the bus, you spend a lot of time trying not to eat too much rice.  Hot steamed rice is awesome when the weather gets cold and it really makes you feel comfortable and warm, but it's easy to eat too much and thats when you start to feel bloaty and heavy with starch.  Anyway, we eat a lot of rice and it's nice.  I've been trying to bike as long as possible in this weather, but I draw the line at freezing rain.  There is a point when bicycling starts to feel more like a stubborn chore than a nice fun way to get around.  Anyway, I hope everyone out there in blog-reader-land is doing well and I'll post more.  I promise.

IMG_5591

IMG_5591, originally uploaded by burro come churro.

Here is another great pic of our cat. Cat images probably make up about 1/3 of internet traffic after Facebook and porn, but, well why not post another? I can think of far worse things to spend time looking at - like Facebook and Porn for example. He has extra toes and long legs so I'm guessing this is why he likes to sit with his legs stretched out in front like this, or maybe more likely, it's because he's too hot. The air has been a little cold in town lately, so I'm guessing either we're still going to get some really hot summer weather in the next few weeks, or the Canadian winter is already descending down from the north!!! Say it isn't so!

Freak out / live life!

It was Italian days on Commercial Dr. This weekend the street was rendered carless yet again, and people took to the streets, doing whatever. Wandering and eating sausages mostly, but there's always a few people who take the opportunity to show off their moves. There even were live bands and a fashion show! I had some disappointing pasta considering it was Italian Days and all... The sausages looked good though. It was the most "summery" I've felt in the city though since last summer. Nothing like street food and street freaks to get this party started!
Sent from my mobile.

KARKAZON!

I used to play a lot of board games when I was younger and I still like to from time to time.  My girlfriend's mother is really into board games and usually when we go over for a visit we do some gaming of some kind.  Karkazon is a good game that's been around for the last few years, but I only picked it up recently.  It's pretty fun. Basically, there is no board here.  Gamplay consists of building the board and strategically placing markers in order to win points and resources.  It's fun because no two boards are alike and there is a lot of strategy involved.
As time goes by, the game changes.  We practically play it every time we go over there. Games are loads of fun. I'm not sure if it's happening yet, but I think that playing board games is an activity long overdue for a resurgence. It's a good way for people to hang out and be social without having to drink tons, go out or watch movies or knit or whatever.  Fun for the whole family as they say.

East Van Mexican Brunch

Finally there is a place that does Brunch in Vancouver in a Authentic Mexican style. Some people with deep pockets have thrown a heap of interior decorating money into the Old Waldorf Hotel for another kick at the can. The whole place is done-up in this 50s tiki-miami kitch. It's a pretty stylish way to enjoy a heaping plate of chilaquiles or a frosty michelada to make your hangover more bearable. More importantly, the dishes are pretty good and authentic tasting so we don't have to drive 3 hours down to seattle to get Mexican breakfasts anymore.
Sent from my mobile.

Las Islas Bonitas!

Well, i'm currently enjoying the coldest days of Vancouver winter in the mildest and sunniest of spots: Hawaii! Who-hoo!  The ride is was full of turbulance and a bit scary on the landing, but I got here in one piece at least.  Tomorrow will include some early morning snorkeling and then maybe a little Karaoke in the eve.  Either way, it's just enough to do a little snowbirding once in a while. In truth I am visiting my family here on Maui which is pretty special not only cause I get to be on Maui, but also because I get to be here with my family.  My family go pretty far back on Maui.  They have been here for five generations generations which in Hawaii is a fair amount of time. Every time I get off the plane here I'm just stunned by the overwhelming beauty of the place.  There really just isn't anything totally like it.  I took this photo on my mobile camera so it's not the greatest quality but it's the crater of Haleakela seen from Wailuku.  The ocean is clear and blue out the window and the palm trees sway gently.  This is the life - as they say.

Christmas on the Islands

Well. It's been a fairly nice holiday season! For me yet again, I've been fortunate to have been invited by my gal's family to spend Christmas weekend with them on the ever-festive and smiley Saltspring Island. If you ever come to the coast of BC, seeing the gulf islands can be one of the highlights even for someone who's lived here forever like me. This is a region where breaching orcas, perching bald eagles, secluded bays and handmade crystal necklaces can all be found within a few hundred meters of each-other. You might even spot an eagle with a handmade crystal necklace on! Truthfully, the islands are a special place and there are many islands grouped closely together each with it's own wizards and vibe. Sadly though, all are filling up fast with people and cars and changing fast so pack up your guitar and head over for it may not be long before the strip malls and tech outlets descend to take over from the small hippytown charm.
Sent from my "contract free" BlackBerry® smartphone on the WIND network.

Been Just here

Logans' run

I haven't been up to the things that I'd like to lately.  Days come and days go and time seems to move by pretty quickly relative to everything else.  I've been obsessing about the future lately.  Not my petty future, but the big picture future of the planet and everything else for that matter.  The big questions still abound like, "Are there ever going to be hovercars and jetpacks?" and "Is it all leading somewhere and is that somewhere new and gleamy or is it like evolution in reverse and will we just climb back into the sea and become algae again?"  A friendly blogger friend of mine recommended a website to me awhile back and, like a lot of web stuff, I just copied it somewhere and filed it away for a time when I'd have more time to check it out.  Usually it takes me a fair amount of time to get around to finding that info again but I finally did and it's kind of a cool thing, but more topically - a true futuristic invention.  It's called StereoMood and when you go there you basically stream all this music that has been organized accordioning to mood.  What this means is that you can just dial-in your emotional state instead of the other way around.  It's kinda handy if you like your current emotional state and don't want to listen to music that may change it.  Now all they need is some computer device to tap into our brainwaves and find out how you really feel not how you think you feel.  That and then adjust some colored lights and stuff that goes with the music and then you'll be into some actual Logan's Run type of futuristic stuff.  Oh wait, Logan's world totally sucked and he was trying to escape.  Maybe it's more like Star Trek.  I'm thinking of a living room that when you walk into it immediately starts to play music and pulse lights that reflect your mood!  Anyway the website has been handy a total of 2 times over the last six months which for a website is pretty good in my books.  I'll probably come back to this one regularly.  Just don't tell me to go to carousel.  I know how that one ends and I'm way past 30.

The Pet

on good days Lloyd will hug you

We now have a cat on premises.  He's been here for about 7 months now actually, but I haven't shown any pictures of him.  His name's Lloyd and he's a friend of the family who suddenly had no place to go due to an untimely change of residency by his owner.  No matter - we took him in and although at 14 years of age he's pretty long in the tooth to be moving from place to place he's still got a lot of youthful energy for an old coot.  He chases stuff and likes to attack legs and hands at a moments notice and even draw blood if need be.  Mainly though he sleeps the days and nights away when he's not doing the eating or attacking thing. It's mainly good to have a nice omen of good luck around.  I hear that in many countries and in many cultures cats are considered a sign of good luck and prosperity, which is surprising since he seems to cost upwards of 50 bucks a month in food and cat sand.  The latter of which there is nothing "good luck" about.  I'm guessing ancient Egyptians and Japanese people had no sense of smell. 

Lloyd at rest

Nevertheless I'm planning on getting most of my investment back once I hit the casinos with this guy.  Lloyd in all seriousness is very sweet and friendly most of the time.  He likes pats and scratches even more and will sometimes keep your feet warm at the foot of the bed.  It's always nice to stare at the gently heaving belly of a curled-up cat on cold mornings or when you are totally stressed out.  Other than that though, he's been a big inspiration to me - mainly to get off my feet and on my ass and do some heavy napping with chow breaks in between.  Now i know why shut-in's always collect cats - it's a birds of a feather kind of thing. 

Just sitting around...

Basically - yeah.  I'm just sitting around.  The last few weeks have been pretty blah and the weeks before that weren't anything to get too excited about either.  Looking ahead looks pretty unexciting as well, but I am planning a trip early next year to tropical climes so I don't really have the right to complain too much.  I seem to be spending quite a bit of my free time on the "web" lately which is not abnormal, but it has gotten me to thinking - "What's with all the time spent on the web?"  What for?  What's it all leading up to?  I guess on one level it's basically a new kind of TV especially because we don't have one.  I guess when surroundings like this pic are all you have, the internet starts to look pretty interesting.  But it's also keeping me from doing fun and productive things, non-internetish things, so I think I should try and limit myself.  Things are also getting kind of Christmasy around here.  Some people in one of the apartments across (it might even be one of the ones in the picture) have already got a tree up!  Didn't these peoples mothers teach them that things are all the more enjoyed when the tension of waiting builds a little bit?  Christmas is fun, but I start to feel pretty grinchy when people get all crazy and overanxious.

Up to the BC interior to visit family

My family live in the BC interior as many of you know and it's beautiful up there most of the time and super beautiful in the summer and even the late summer so I was pretty happy to be able to drive up there and visit a few days with my father.  As usual, not much happened which was pretty much what I wanted to happen.  We sat around and talked, caught up, and went for a really nice day hike up a mountain biking trail.  Mostly I hibernated in my fathers small house and ate dried fruit and drank wine at night.  It was a nice time to be in his little town of 300 or so people as most of the tourist rush had passed and people seemed to be slowly returning to a kind of mellower way of life.  I bought a sandwich and a small pizza at a new pizza place that opened up down the road.  Those were key events.  These shots are from the day hike we went on. 

There is an abandoned mine concentrator on this trail above town as well as the remnants of an old mining camp.  The hills around here are full of discarded mining equipment both old and newer stuff left behind by hopefuls and a few lucky strikes.  Apparently the man who owned this giant affair and lived above it in a mansion was ruined by the time the mill closed; his fortunes squandered.  This camp was surprisingly developed.  It had piped water and many amenities like butchers and barbers and the like...

this trail is really nice.  It hugs the shady side of the river valley it runs along and has some nice biking spots including a tram to cross a river.

Here's where the river pours and blasts through some narrow rocks.  Well I didn't see much wildlife until I embarked on the long drive home.  Right on the side of the road I saw mountain goats, and then later a moose and finally nearing Vancouver, a bear.  It was almost ridiculous to see so many animals wandering around all at once, beer commercial ridiculous, but it's good to see the big creatures up and about even if you have to blast by them going at a hundred kilometers an hour and they always kind of have this slackjawed dumbfounded expression on - except the beaver that me and my gal saw once.  That guy was pissed off.

New Post Shmoo Post

Well, actually, it's now pretty much the end of summer climes here!  There is a distinct cold "tang" in the air now that we are into Sept.  I am thinking of heading up and over the mountains into the interior of BC for a pre-fall visit to my hometown and some "facetime" (real facetime that is, not iphone facetime) with my one and only father.  It's been more than a year since I was back there so I'm excited to get back into the swing of things and in many ways going in the late summer is good as most people will be gone back to wherever they came from and only the permanent residents will remain feasting on their harvests and figuring out how they are going to get wood in for the winter. ---- a....and I've returned!  Well kind of. I'm back in busyness here in Vancouver after hanging out with my father in the country.  He seems well and content and he is as spry as ever.  I keep wondering if someday he'll get old but he was quick to jump off on a day hike in the woods with me even though he was bagged from a hike the day before.  I was feeling kind of tired when we'd climbed a little, about half - way through, when he spotted a nice place to try and scramble up further onto some slope and up he went.  So I was pretty impressed to say the least.  I'll post some pictures later.  In the meantime another food pic here.  My gal and I made some bean tacos the other night and she stuffed and fried up these flor de calabaza or zuchini flowers!  Woah.  They were quite tasty especially when stuffed into a taco!  Some icy coconut water on the side makes a nice late summer snack!  Well, that is all for now as I'm back home I really cant say much more, but the job is plodding along and I can feel October looming. 

Swimming Summmer

Well it's the middle or maybe even the middling-end of summer and we are in it.  So far it's been good.  We've been spending most of our time in town and about the town and working in town.  Sometimes on the weekends, we go on a "jaunt" to a local hiking spot or swimming spot.  I've been swimming in a couple of small lakes and in the ocean.  The ocean is my favorite.  Some don't like swimming in the ocean because of the salt and the sharp, barnically things that slice-up your feet etc. but I like it.  Around here even though you don't get the pounding surf and roaring intensity that you do in other parts of the worlds oceans but at it's best the ocean around Vancouver can get warm enough to endure for long periods of swimming in the summer.  Fear of swimming seems to be common.  It is one of those things that some people seem to have an innate fear of water and what could be underneath it.  Somehow, lakes seem creepier to me.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it's the deadness of them and the stillness of them.  It just seems more like something's lurking down there, something forgotten and nasty.

5x4 garden plot

We're pretty excited as it seems that we're actually able to grow a few things here in the middle of downtown Vancouver. I mentioned a few posts ago that we were trying our hand at urban gardening - well we've already begun to reap the harvests! Small harvests mind you, but, there ain't nothing wrong with free veggies no matter how few in my eyes. So far we've got some pretty healthy looking kales and a coupla fairly healthy zuchini plants. The growth and success of the latter being especially surprising. We are already munching on the kale and have some nice zuchinis in our fridge. Some of our kales got attacked by root eating maggots which was kind of gross and a bit disappointing but it did free up some space for some tomato plants so we shall see. So far we've just put seedlings and seed in the ground, watered it and boom! Up came these veggies.  We did buy some pretty decent compost for the garden and we used some fairly wormy compost from the compost bins to add growiness to the soil.

As you can see the chard is doing pretty good and our zucchinis are already quite mature.  I'm actually afraid they are going to outgrow the box and start encroaching on our neighbours plots.  Aphids are abounding on most of our stuff but we've been killing them manually so far.  These photos don't really do the garden justice, but if you could've seen this area as the empty gravel lot it was before the community garden moved in, you'd realize the transformation.  So far it's a lot of fun. Maybe I finally had to come to the city to be a country farmer type, but let's not get too carried away.

Sickness

I seem to be getting sick about half the time these days and the other times in-between bouts of recovery so that everything seems to be merging into one long sickness.  I'm not sure who to blame it on.  Most likely, is it my general lackluster attention to personal health and water-drinking etc. But could it also be the weather or something in the environment around me?  I'm exposed to a lot of disease at my workplace.  Contrary to intuition, health food stores are a great place to get sick.  Mainly this is because there are lots of people in an enclosed space, but I think there are some other, more unsavory aspects of the atmosphere in health food stores that also contribute.  Most stores are dusty and mine is no exception.  Dust can trap bacteria and mold irritates the throat and sinuses making them vulnerable as well.  Refrigerators are cold and shock the immune system.  A busy store can be a stressful place and stress as we all know is a big factor in sickness.  Here's where I may get into trouble but I'm going to say it.  Vegetarians and counter-culture artisto-types  are also hotbeds of bacteria and viruses.  It takes one to know one, but I can personally attest that Vegetarians often need to supplement their diets with foods that "beef-up" the bodies resistance that aren't beef itself.  Not all vegetrons pay attention to this and this is where you get the pale waif effect so often seen.  That's when the diseases pounce.  I've lived in basement hovels with several roomies before and while it's usually a groovy good time, not every one pays the same attention to personal hygiene and with lots of people coming and going and slopping the cutting-board with onion and garlic finger juices so do their diseases.  To add to this Vancouver has had a fairly cold and drippy May and early June so far.  Cold and drippy outside - cold and drippy inside.  Anyway, despite all this, not everyone is as sick as I am so it's also got to be about something I'm doing or not doing.  I'm sick of being sick and making others around me sick as well.  It's time I took my fingers out of my mouth, sanitize the keyboard, hit the treadmill and exorcise this demon of disease from my lifestyle.

Just twidding the look

Just twiddling the look right now and trying to finalize my move from my hosted site and the new Blogger hosted site. Hopefully I'll be able to get the hang of it. Bare with me readers! ... actually.  I think I just figured it out.  Now my blog is entirely hosted with Blogger.com or Blogspot or whatever, but it will link through from clayhastings.com for now.  If anyone has ever been to chinatown and if you've ever had the need for cheap crockery in your kitchen you've probably bought a few of these omnipresent "fish bowls" at one of the finer chinatown shops.  Chinatown has changed over the years and I daresay, it's gotten better.  They have better stuff anyway.  Better shops and more selection.  This has probably co-incided with the rise of China as the next great "trading nation".  It's still all curios and trinkets, but better curios and trinkets!  Heres to new looks and new stuff.

Well. Summer is almost here and since we've gotten back ito the city we discovered that the waiting list for a community garden moved up and now we have a plot. It's pretty small, but there should be enough space to get some veggies going. The plot is right on the corner of one of the busiest intersections in Vancouver, so it's kind of weird to be gardening in the roar of traffic, but when the plants get high in the summer it really transforms the corner- birds chirp, bees buzz by, some people just stroll through to check out whats going on. We probably won't care too much about the traffic when we're munching on fresh greens! So far we've been experimenting with a few kales we bought. Plugged em in there and returned a few days later to find a bunch of the plants dug up and animal fur tufts around. Not a perfect start, but that's the way with gardening I guess. We're pretty much learning as we go so we'll see how successful we are this time around. We grew some really enthusiastic cherry tomato plants in our living room last year but they never produced a great bounty of tomatoes and they were kinda smallish. Finally the plants began to bristle with aphids and we ended up throwing them out in disgust! Thanks nature! Well anyway, this time we are back and this time we have bigger plans. We are planning to harvest the very power of the sun and the earth itself and use it to make us some vegetables.
We've been eating quite a bit of veggies recently. After 3 months of high meat and starch content meals it's nice to eat on the greener side.

On another note we've got a great new cat Lloyd who just moved into our place. He had no where else to go so we took him in. We had another cat here before, Steve, but he went back to his owner so it's nice to have another hanging around. Which is pretty much all he does. So far he seems to be settling in fairly nicely, but since he previously an outdoor cat, the indoor life is proving to be challenging. Especially when he's only got a few hundred feet to wander around in. I think we'll be needing to buy a cat-tree soon! He's become a bit neurotic and has taken to attacking legs and feet at all hours and tearing around the place even though we've invested in a catnip-infused scratcher, various fake mice, and make string-fluff chaser things but maybe that's just the way it is with cats.