[this issue: my links, Vancouver island and invite]
** MY LINKS **
http://www.kthxdie.com/Videos/sexKungFu.mpg
...this just frightens me. Imagine if Ang Lee and Ron Jeremy made a movie together...crouching tigress hidden snake...I don't know...I just can't bear to see it again. I think it's from a movie called the Chinese Torture Chamber Story.
http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit
...this is a site hosted by a guy who visually demonstrates various pranks including his credit card signature cycle and his routine of ingesting a variety of household substances that you really shouldn't...
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~rui/BitterFilm.html
..."I love this shoooow"...no really, it's one that demands that YOU participate by reading the respective male or female lines out loud...Don Hertzfeldt 101.
** VANCOUVER ISLAND **
So Angela and I went on a short vacation to Vancouver Island from July 16th-22nd and I managed to fill up a roll of film which I'll post highlights of to accompany the details of each major stop.
After settling in to the cabin off Elliot beach in Ladysmith, we explored the surrounding neighborhood and found a trendy little cafe in Ladysmith that served sushi and had live music on Saturday nights. Transfer beach proved to be too murky for swimming and lacking in Kayak selection this year.
The Horne Lake caves, west of Qualicum past spider lake, were interesting to explore, especially if you get into the locked caves on one of the paid tours. Why lock a few of BC's 1500 caves? To protect the calcite formations beneath several hundred feet of sedimentary rock from souvenir hunters and oily hands...It was dank, dark and less than 10 deg Celsius, but I really wish I'd gone on the adventure tour where they drain caverns for you and let you crawl around on your belly and repel down seven stories...$100 later...also skipped Bungy zone, regrettably.
Qualicum Beach is one of the few points on the east coast with a visible bottom, sandy at that. With trusty goggles and water socks (needed a snorkel) I went out to sea a few hundred feet and found a ridge where the temperature dropped off that was littered with thousands of sand dollars, rivaled only by the sight of several bright purple starfish spotted underwater on the side of a rock at Elliot beach. Qualicum rocked...as did the 30 flavors of soft serve right on the beach.
We went rollerblading with my Aunt Helen at the big community complex off Northfield road in Nanaimo. As you can see, we had a blast while people weren't walking their dogs on the track...something about people on wheels (albeit bikes or blades) that makes dogs want to kill...
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KAYAKING! Right off the Nanaimo harbor around Newcastle island, right next to Gareth's fabled protection island...We rented a super-cheap ocean K2 and departed from the south point of departure bay, with calm waters through the passage and almost no wind. Check out these formations off Newcastle:
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Here's Angela right before we hit the north end of the island and the whitecaps that produced a 2 foot chop...a little scary but we kept our wits about us and remained facing INTO the wake. Whitewater should be a breeze after that...
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We returned to the harbor to catch the trail end of the silly boat festival, a small fair and some cool novelty stores along the boardwalk. I LOVE ISLAND FARMS. THEY MAKE THE MOST AMAZING ICE CREAM, SHERBET AND FROGURT HANDS DOWN...WE BUY CRAP IN VANCOUVER.
On our last full day we drove the inland hwy 19 up to Campbell River to visit my friend Shannon from way back...I hardly recognized CR despite having lived there from 1991-1994. The cheesy double-decker bus fish'n'chip restaurant is gone...ironwood mall and tyee plaza have been outshined by a giant superstore mall with a really cool aboriginal store. Courtenay really offers more in a cultural sense with various galleries, restaurants and novelty shops. We found the most amazing tea store with ingredients imported from all over the world.
Comox valley had more of the artisans and studios that Angela sought...
This is a pic of Shannon and I leaning on my car after a flock of seagulls did a dive-bomb run the night before...all that in one night...
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Here's me dropping off the keys with my uncle after he joined us for Chinese food.
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** INVITE **
HOUSEWARMING PARTY on Saturday August 9th
4:00pm - Midnight
To welcome Angela to the "Boiler Room" and give people a chance to check out the new water-themed motif (no cooling effect) inspired by the works of Vern from Trading Spaces (my Hilde-inspired astroturf jungle idea was largely criticized).
Slightly different format...BBQ, tennis, swimming and just generally catching up. I'm hoping to do a partial potluck and get people to bring a few simple items to create a good dinner buffet (was going to BBQ burgers, wings, ribs, Yves thingies). LET ME KNOW IF YOU CAN MAKE IT...so I can get numbers and figure out what people could possibly bring.
Can't pull an all-nighter this time, Ang has class early Sunday...
Previous gatherings have included:
* Duke's lackluster art selection
This was a testament to the fact that I really didn't care what was hanging on my walls...no offense to the one entrant who submitted for the art contest and astonishingly won.
* Duke vs. the sun
In the battle of man versus nature, bet on nature. I covered the windows with the cheapest reflective material I could find to make my apartment feel a bit less like Singapore in summer, only to further incur the sun's wrath and be accused of trying to run a grow-op.
FIN
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