Happy Halloween and please don't come up my stairs.

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Halloween Horror from the Church of England

The Church of England would like to see an end to the "celebration" of Halloween... it's apparently anti-social and perhaps just a little too close to devil worshipping. To this end, they have, in partnership with The Children's Society, come up with a program to promote alternatives to celebrating Halloween as we know it.

They are saying that since Halloween is really the eve of All Saints Day, it shouldn't be about horror. It is interesting to note, however, that the Halloween Choice website itself induces horror. I had assumed that rampant solecism was a North American phenomenon (American, mostly)... as it turns out... it's quite the thing in England as well.

Check out the FAQ section for some Halloween Horror from the Church of England. I wonder what the devil has to say about this horribly written FAQ.

Le cupcake n'est pas français

Haven't surfed in so long... I think I might be going slightly insane. I'm looking forward to the weekend though... I'll have plenty of daylight for surfing then... I just hope that this surf competition thing is out of here by then... the surf-- which hasn't been looking at all inviting in the last little while anyway-- is full of professional surfers.... who make the uninviting surf even less inviting.

But whatever. The weekend will come... there will be daylight... and there's got to be a beach somewhere with a wave. I hope the water temperature plunges to around 7 degrees... that might help keep a few people out of the water.

Tofino has been a little déprimant as of late... (everything, I've noticed, sound better in french to a lot of people... I don't know why... it doesn't to me... but like that cupcake store that somehow managed to for a very long time market the most unfrench thing on earth as french and actually get away with it, I'm going to randomly substitute french words for english ones... mostly because I'm bored... or... let's say... experiencing ennui... (but does it still count as french if it's in the OED? I'm guessing not)...)... anyway... I was at the grocery store, and ran into SAIS. We had another one of those empty conversations... and while talking to him, I noticed that there's a yellow wire-like thing on his ear... I asked him what was going on with his ear... and he touched his ears and asked me what was wrong with them... I pointed out the yellow thing on his ear... he checks it again, pulls it off, and says "Oh! that was an elastic band I was playing with! Ha Ha Ha!".... oy. He put a bright yellow elastic band around his ear (for god knows what reason) and then forgot about it. That's some serious boy genius of the brain right there. And then... while still at the co-op, I ran into the dude to whom I loaned my copy of DFW's Infinite Jest... he was definitely at one point able to read and appreciate such a masterpiece as Infinite Jest... but today when I saw him, he looked like something you would cross the street to avoid while strolling casually through the downtown eastside. And if that isn't totalement déprimant, I do not know what is.

I didn't make these people up. They exist out there, far beyond of the borders of my skull-sized kingdom. These are the sort of people by whom I am surrounded. Against this backdrop is ULTE1... who, I can insist, due to my obstinant refusal to dig further, knows more about Heidegger than I do... has abundant knowledge of modern (as in pre-post-modern) architecture and furniture design... and is conversant in subjects I have not heretofore even encountered. All I need to do to remain steadfast in my belief is to leave things as they are. Just don't scratch it. I'm not saying I don't think all this is actually the case, I do... but why take unnecessary risks?

To end today's post... something by Chateaubriand... Tout me lasse: je remorque avec peine mon ennui avec mes jours, et je vais partout baîllant ma vie.

Explanation may be required...

I am eating Chinese food in a grocery store... but mon dieu is it ever brilliant!!
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Possibly the last post on T.

The last Sunday of October 2008 was the 25th, not the 26th as it is this year. Halloween was on a Friday night, not a Saturday night as it is this year. I remember the last Sunday of October 2008 more clearly than I remember yesterday.

After five years (and a few days) of not having seen each other, T and I met up for breakfast. A few wise and prescient souls tried to prevent this from happening... but it happened anyway. Before the clock struck midnight, I was yet again completely undone... or, at the very least, completely unhinged. I spent the rest of the week oscillating between the belief that the decade-long ordeal is satisfactorily concluded and the belief that I was at the precipice of something at once frightening and wonderful. As it turns out, neither belief was sound... and I would spend nearly another year at becoming bored with the idea of T. In the end, it was the dinner table exercise that helped me figure the whole thing out... but it took almost another year.

I think I've got it. I hope I've got it.

What the hell did I do with this weekend? Or this past year... or three or five, for that matter...

Tofino Film Festival 2009

I started wondering what Canopes were... are they a cross between a snacky bite and a tent-like structure?... and then I realized that it doesn't matter... because they're serving goat! I love goat. Do you suppose it will be curried goat? Who cares what they're serving with the goat, as long as they're serving goat!

Take this quiz to find out!

Are you an RR (Regular Reader) or a PR (Pretentious Reader)? Take this 5-second quiz to find out!

How do you pronounce the title Fearful Symmetry?

• Fearful Symme-tree
• Fearful Symme-try

And, if you are concerned that book buyers will confuse the Niffenegger novel with the Frye study, you are a UPR (Uber-Pretentious-Reader).

We need more feet...

The globe and mail... the GLOBE AND MAIL for crying out loud!

"Several high-profile human rights organizations have criticized the Sri Lanka government for failing to release the Tamil civilians from the camps, noting that conditions are deplorable, with foot and water shortages."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/in-vancouver-dozens-of-boat-migrants-await-their-fate/article1328619/

News from afar

The honour of interesting and informative conversations are now rarely bestowed upon me. Old friends visit infrequently, and my trips to the city are always rushed and therefore often empty. What a treat it was, then, to spend a weekend with a dear friend on the sleepy east coast of Vancouver Island... where the dearth of obligations and convenient distractions gave us leave to sit and talk a while.

In a conversation about forgetfulness, in which I lamented my inability to recall the name of that poem about golden grove unleaving, she asked whether I had read the recently released biography of my favourite poet. I, being in self-imposed exile from the world of arts and letters, was wholly unaware of its publication (I have been behind in reading my Harper's... not having much of David Foster Wallace to look forward to, I just haven't been as motivated). A quick restaurant table google led me to the New York Times book review, and another quick google gave me the phone number to Munro's Books, who, I trusted, would be the best bet for finding literary biographies of a poet whose once household name has dwindled to relative obscurity.

She also asked whether I had heard that Angela Gheorghiu had pulled out of all her Met performances in which Roberto Alagna would also be performing. I was slightly confused, as, since their separation years ago (during my pre-Tofino life), they had performed together on multiple occasions. Well... as it turns out... things went from bad to worse... and they can't even be on stage together anymore. That sort of news has got to have shaken up the opera world.

And... another piece of news that made a ripple (a much smaller one, I would imagine) in the opera world, is that Dmitiri Hvorostovsky has been ordered by the courts to up his alimony for his ex-wife, Svetlana, and their two children. Huh. I didn't even know he had an ex-wife.

If there was an opera version of Entertainment Tonight, we would be much better informed of the going-ons with our opera stars. It is no coincidence, I think, that those who are totally into opera don't really care much about what their favourite baritones had for breakfast.

Losing track of time...

Spent the weekend with Cathy bungee jumping and book buying. Completely lost track of time in Munro's and got a parking ticket... the payment for which is insignificant when compared to the amount spent on books. Cathy alerted me to a new (2008) biography on GM Hopkins... so we had to drive down to Victoria to get the only copy they had... quite possibly the only copy on the island. Of course, one does not walk into Munro's with the intention of picking up a book and leave with only one book...

I am finally, after all these years, going to get started on Kant as per Schopenhauer's instructions. Wish me luck!

When you don't pay attention...

ULTE1 was telling me that he is going to see John Prine in Victoria... and that this would be one of the very few concerts he's been to that is not general admission. I told him that it has been the reverse for me, having only been to handful of concerts that were general admission... one of those was Les Trois Accords at the Metropolis in Montreal... and since he hadn't heard of Les Trois Accords, I reached for a laptop that was close by to introduce him to them. Windows starts up... and voilà! the wall paper was a picture of the surf taken at North Chesterman on September 30th, 2006... ULTE1 was in it! I always knew that he was in my wallpaper picture on that laptop... but it had been there for so long that I had forgotten all about it. I don't know whether he recognised himself in it... my guess is he didn't... he's maybe only 30 pixels wide and facing away from the camera... still, that hair is pretty easy to recognise. He didn't say anything about it though... which doesn't tell me anything about whether he saw it or not. We don't exactly have the sort of relationship where I would have his image as wallpaper... so it might have been a little bit weird...

But that's pretty cool though... three years later, I'm showing him youtube videos of dmitri hvorostovsky on a thursday evening. Tempus fugit.

Oh... and five minutes after my saying that I don't know John Prine (except for from a few weeks ago when a friend mentioned him and I said I'd never heard of him)... he sees an entire directory of John Prine music in my media player library... it's Timothy's music library... and it's been on my computer for a year. How does one explain that?

Digital pack-ratting. Never updating stuff on old computers...

I experienced a little brain squish when I realized how long these things have been on there...

someone somewhere probably has an abacus Canadian Tire can borrow...

$59.99 is apparently half of $139.99.

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Waxed and ready! (wish there were daylight)

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Bluepath after a citronella bath

There are a million little dings... but look how shiny and beautiful he is! So shiny that you could see the Britannia's fake stringer reflected on him...

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A million little dings...

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Post-Surgical Bald-spot

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Please help...

I need your help in interpreting this sign. It's at the Wickaninnish Inn... so it probably is supposed to say what it says... but what does it mean to "wonder" in one's footsteps? I wonder...
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When surfing isn't good enough...

Going for a surf makes everything better... this is almost true even for bad surf sessions, but not entirely. I picked up Bluepath on Thursday, and went out at Cox Bay with the Britannia. Bluepath needs to be stripped of wax and re-waxed-- the big post-surgical wax bald spot cannot be covered up. I still haven't gotten around to doing that. The surf wasn't great that night... I got a few rides, but otherwise just froze in my holey wetsuit... there was even a big hole in my right mitt, which made for a frozen right hand. And despite its not having been a crowded beach, no matter where I went, there were these two people just on the inside of where I was. It was as if they were following me... perhaps they were... and really wanted to get hit by an 11' board. It sort of sucked, if that's possible.

I don't seem to be taking bad surfs very well. Yesterday, for the first time in forever, I sat on the couch and watched TV. I watched some sort of a sci-fi horror movie in which shoppers get trapped in a grocery store by mist and gigantic bugs from another dimension. It was like nothing I would ever watch... and I couldn't stop watching it. Its similarity to Jose Saramago's Blindness made me want to see exactly how this was going to end... but while Saramago's novel was obviously an exercise in illustrating just how horrible people are (and, according to T., the all-redemptive power of women, with which he disagrees (both the power and, likely, women in general), and with which I also disagree, but for entirely different reasons), this movie had far too many improbable heroes in it for that to have been the point. There also seemed to be a discriminatory treatment of suicide over murder, which almost seems to say that it's okay to kill people if they don't want to die, but not okay if they do. It all made very little sense. And the deus ex machina was the US military...which was an appropriately comic end to a very strange movie. Overall, I would have to say that it was worthwhile... because despite the fact that you know all along that there's going to be a really stupid ending, it's intriguing enough that you want to know just what this stupid ending is.

In case you were wondering why I'm not going climbing on the days when I'm not surfing, it's because I seem to have rather severely sprained both of my middle fingertips. I suspect it's overuse from climbing and hanging on to tiny little holds far longer than I ought to have had... but who knows... it could be anything.

Vancouver Island Engrish - Post #2

when you see signs like this... you really, really want to believe that it was intentional... that somebody, somewhere, is having a really good laugh.

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Vancouver Island Engrish - Post #1

and you'd want to do this because not having a strong start will make you illiterate.

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It doesn't make sense... but I get it.

Oooo. Went out for a surf today.... glassy knee high peelers... perfect for an 11 foot board... and perfect for my return to Tofino. The Bluepath is still at the shop (needs a polish)... so my sunset session was with the Britannia. The light was beautiful... it was la vie en rose... even my board was pink in the evening light. I got more good rides than I could count (it is, however, possible that my counting abilities were lost when I got whacked in the head).

I finally brought myself to logging in to my microeconomics course again... I got my first assignment back... 87%... which says to me that it's not that I didn't understand what they are saying... but simply that I have no appreciation for it. I guess I had better suck it up and do my work... finish the course and move on... to what I'm not entirely sure... but at the very least, as far away from microeconomics as possible.

This evening, I skimmed through the National Speleological Society's On Rope... I don't know what I did wrong the last time I tried ascending a single rope... but it seems to me that I did exactly what the book describes. I guess I'd better go figure it out... first by finding a place to hang a rope.

Symbols and Metaphors

Home.

It occurs to me that I am a symbol addict. I had thought I was devoted to metaphors and language... but it really isn't about tropes... it is and has always been about symbols-- things standing for other things.

This is why this time, it's permanent-- useless attachments severed. There is, for the first time, the opportunity to consider the question "what's next?"

I am tempted to say Iceland.
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Severing Attachments

Not much to be done in the city... I went and renewed my driver's license, which expires next month... and then picked up a few pieces of caving gear at MEC. I realise that I have almost no use for the city now.

I met up with Cathy at a climbing gym (the biggest in western Canada, apparently)... and then Sylvia joined us. They climbed to exhaustion, and I climbed till they were exhausted. There were so many easy routes with friendly holds that it was a climbing vacation. We were there till past 10PM, and we'd been there since 5:30. Afterwards, we went across the highway to a Cactus Club, where we were able to get the same food as at the Shelter. We could pretty much have had the same evening in Tofino... except the climbing routes would have been more difficult and the dinner more expensive-- I suppose Tofino has everything I need, if the right people were there.

The dragonfly pendant I've been wearing was also a lapel pin. On the back, this bulky and unnecessary pin has always been in my way-- getting caught on things, coming undone and stabbing me in the neck, &c. The other day, Timothy cut it off for me. He used something like a pair of tin snips to take the pin off, and then filed it down with a diamond file. It's slightly scratched up... but the attachment has been severed-- which makes an excellent landmark for the severing of attachment.

I am now back on the ferry... leaving behind a whole list of missed appointments. I don't feel good about it... but my time is not my own in the city.

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A Kitchen That Works As Good As It Looks

Ikea offers a kitchen that works _good_. Would you would like a kitchen that works _good_? Perhaps you could check out Ikea's kitchens. They not only look good, they work good, too!

I think maybe it's time I move to a country where I don't speak the language. That way, when I read advertising posters in elevators, I'll be struggling to understand the message rather than the gross incompetence that led to their publication.

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A Declaration of Independence

I write this note from the epicentre. I'm done. Seriously. Done. And all this before I hit the 12 year mark.
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Shocked

There were many women in the washroom of the ferry; many were doing their hair. By "doing their hair," I do not mean a cursory glance in the mirror and then repositioning a wayward lock, but rather *doing*... with combs, brushes, flat irons, curling irons, &c. One woman's curls were so set that what would probably be described as the action of "tousling" actually emitted a coppery, scratching noise. I am not in Tofino anymore... and I haven't even made it all the way across the water yet.
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The Best Place on Earth

Life really is like this in Tofino... watch this video. Seriously.

Britons Never, Never, Never Shall Be Slaves

Woke up super early, made breakfast, and drove to Port to get my chipped tooth fixed. Then I came back and saw that it was 7.9ft on 12 seconds with SE winds... so I went for a surf with the Britannia. ULTE2 named it "The Britannia" on the weekend in June when K was out here... I was catching so many waves with the 11' NSP that he felt it "ruled the waves"... the name didn't really stick... but after today... I think I'm going to give it another try.

The Britannia doesn't carve half as well as the Bluepath... but it is super easy to catch waves on... and as long as one is happy riding straight down the line, it's a super awesome board. It's very floaty... so you have to be way up to paddle it... and way back to turn it.... waaaay back. This afternoon, I had forgotten my contacts and arrived at the parking lot with glasses on... I decided to go out blind, because I really didn't have the time or patience to go back home and go back to the beach.

The light was flat and I couldn't see anything... but my god... what a series of awesome rides!

Had an excellent surprise visit from Margo today... I love that her work will bring her here regularly. This might be a bit ambitious... but I hope that by the time she next comes out to Tofino, the t. situation will have been figured out and dissolved. Actually, I'm hoping for it to be vaporized before noon on Sunday.... yes, I'll be in the city this weekend... anyone up for Fassil's?