that ring of confidence

The one where the show introduces the new comic book guy

After work yesterday I went to Elfsar for Free Comic Book Day [fcbd], the international day (well US and Canada) where retailers give away free comic books to help build a new readership.  By the time I got there, about twenty minutes before closing, most of the comics were picked over so if there was anything particularly good I'd already missed it.  The ones that I did get were mostly the ones that were based off of kids' cartoon shows and aimed squarely at the early readers.  Also I got an Archie book.

I start work there on Wednesday, so that I suppose was my last trip to the comic book store without officially being the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.  Though I'd generally like to think that I'm more the newer cooler comic book guy that they introduced last year named Milo [swp] (voiced by Jack Black). 

Back when I was still in contention for the job at the new Vancouver Apple Store as well as Elfsar, and debating a future where I had part-time jobs at both, Jeff Weston joked that between the two jobs I probably could not get more pretentious. 

It's been awhile since I've had a job that I'm actually looking forward to.  I'm sure after a few shifts it'll get just as boring as any other job that involves mostly filing things into alphabetical order (I assume) and manning a till but at least for now I'm optimistic about the new part-time job.  The bad news is that I've not really got a lot of free time this month to spend with Lydia or friends.  The good news is that hopefully I'll make some money to start saving for this wedding thing.

I'm nearly done these beer shots so it might be time to get back into school

Taking a look at any random month over the past year or so and you'll find entries like this one [jks] where I'm looking for work.  It has become the new looking for a girlfriend in the dramatic narrative that is my life, and like my pre-Lydia attempts at finding love my job hunt has resulted largely in disapointment and nights spent surfing the internet looking for porn... I mean jobs.

A bit over a month ago I felt like I'd finally gotten into a good position in the hunt.  I'd an interview with a local company looking for a technical writer, I had an interview lined up for a sales position with the new Apple Store and I had an interview lined up with the comic book store I shop at.  The Apple Store and the technical writing job were both oppertunities that I considered to be career stepping stones; positions that would lead to bigger and better things.  The comic book store seemed like it would be fun, and a way to help make some extra money to help pay for the wedding.

I got a part time job at the comic book store, which was not the full time position I'd hoped for but was a promising start.  The techincal writing job did not pan out, and the Apple Store turned me down after bringing me in for a group interview where they did not actually interview us but spent the entire time telling us why we should work for Apple.  By the end of the interview I'd gone from really wanting to work at the new store to really really wanting to work at the new store.  Sadly there was something in the way I watched the promotional video that informed them they did not want me.

The ring is the thing and other terrible titles

Lydia was away for the last two weeks at her parents.  They've recently sold their motel in Bracebridge Ontario which served as both their home and business for the last five years and so that meant moving homes.  With Lydia's mother going to Mexico to visit family for a week they needed Lydia's help to get everything packed up and ready for the move.

While she was away I lived the bachalor life, which mainly consisted of being less tidy and staying up all night to play Grand Theft Auto IV and Mario Kart.  With her back today I dragged Nathan down to Bellingham to pick up the engagement ring [ial] that she had picked out a few weeks ago.  We had not been able to take it at the time, because it was off getting resized, and I wanted to have it for when she got back.

Having picked the ring (pictured above) yesterday, I picked her up from the airport today.  I had debated pretending to not have already proposed and doing a big showy thing where I got down on one knee in the arrivals area of Vancouver Airport, but decided instead to give it to her in private.

Less romantic perhaps, but also less chance of airport security deciding that we were acting suspicious and roughing us up.

Some days I just wish I were a sea otter

IMG_4207

It's been one of those weeks where being a sea otter would probably have been a lot cooler than being me.  I started off the week with an interview with a company that I've wanted to work for nearly my entire life and ended it not only not getting one of the 100+ jobs on offer, but also barely holding onto the job that I've got now.  Top that off with the fact that Lydia is gone for the next two weeks to Ontario, and things are certainly not coming up Me.

In a measured attempt not to get myself into any more trouble, or burn bridges or do anything silly, I'm keeping mum on things for a bit but I'll be offering some explanation soon.  Until then I can just wish that I were a sea otter, because let's face it that's gotta be a pretty sweet life.

Originally posted on jazzlawyer.vox.com

Nothing to report... except a Mario Party!

Sean Tamaki and I went to a group interview for the soon to be opened Apple Store at Pacific Centre [mbv]. It was mainly a meeting telling us why we should work for Apple, which I already knew I did. I've not heard from them since, though Takamki's gone back for a follow-up interview and looked certain to get a job. I'm starting to feel like I'm not about to get a call, which has left me a little despondent today.

How to cheer up? I suppose the only way to get happy is with a Mario Party, and that's what Lydia and I are doing right now. Later on we'll be heading to her house so that she can pack for her two weeks in Ontario visiting her parents.

That means I've got two weeks without my fiancee. Anyone want to be my friend? I've got Mario Party.

Money and the lack of money

That's right, I'm going to be on Robson Street in a Mexican wrestling mask challenging people to arm wrestle for money this summer the way things are going.  Between the pay-cut at work, and the upcoming wedding I'm quite a bit poor.  My second job at the comic book store [jks] has yet to start, and I'm pretty much broke.  You know the sort of broke that when I reach into my wallet a moth flies out and tries to eat the shirt off of my back.

It's time to start living frugally, which means that driving is a luxury and public transit is my new pimped out ride.  It means that an eight pound bag of rice is my new lunch, dinner and desert while breakfast is an old box of Safeway house brand Grain Os' that I've been trying to eat.  That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but certainly I'm no longer eating at the food court while at work, and certainly not drinking Starbucks on a regular basis.  I'm even thinking of cancelling cable, and if it had not been for the return of The Office this week I would probably have been making the phone call very soon.

Meanwhile if any of you have a free weekend it would be most appreciated if you spent those free days sitting at your computer and clicking on my Google ads.

From film to digital: concert photography

I was taking pictures at the Bell X1 show that we went to at The Plaza last week [mbv], and I realized that it was the first time that I had been at a show with the powers of an official photographer since I've switched from film to digital.  Which says a lot both about how long it's gone since I've had a photographer's pass, and also how quickly the world has moved from film to digital.

I used to feel bad about how many photographic fuck ups I made while covering concerts, until I saw some professional photographers running through an easy dozen rolls of films per song.  The fact that I spent $50 on film and development might have hurt my wallet, but seeing what the rest of them use the fact that I could get a few great shots from that was a nice ego boost.

For the Bell X1 show I ran through about 500 shots easy, most of which spent about five minutes in iPhoto before getting deleted.  The bulk of those were either out of focus, blurry or just plain terrible.  Then I ran through those that were left and cut them down to just the best ones, the ones that if I had a page to fill I'd be happy using and those were the ones that made it to Flickr [fkr], which according ot Lydia was way too many.

The one legacy I have from the film era is a few photo albums of pictures in storage that need scanning in, so that I can get them onto Flickr.

Edit:  The first two pictures in the slide show above are actually from my film camera and were scanned in.  The rest were from various digital cameras including my two Canon Rebels, various cell phones and other smaller digital cameras.

How I spent my Easter :: the television holiday

It's rare that I get a day off with nothing to do.  Since my days off sync up with Lydia's it generally means that I have to, you know, do things.  Things that require pants, showers and leaving the apartment.  Our plans never include sleeping in late, moving to the couch for two hours of recorded Smallville followed by about three hours of recorded The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. 

I'd been stockpiling television for weeks now, never quite having the time to watch the episodes until now.  That meant an episode of The Celebrity Apprentice went before the tales of a young Clark Kent. 

Isn't Piers Morgan the greatest reality contest ever?  He certainly is the most qualified person ever to compete on The Apprentice.  Granted I can't imagine him doing the physical challenges on Survivor, or being America's Next Top Model, but for an outright schemer he's fun.  I'm very glad he's in the final two.

Easter is an odd holiday once you're older than twelve, or whatever the non-egg gathering age is in your house.  If you're not particularly religious and don't have kids it leaves you with nothing but trying to avoid sermons on television.  With Christmas there's still a gift exchange with friends or family, with Easter there's what, parasols? 

I didn't actually shower and get prepared to leave the apartment until about ten at night, when I started to get ready to go and get Lydia who unlike me was working.  On one of her late night shifts she was working the 3 - 11 shift at the hostel and it was my fianceely (not a word) duty to pick her up and bring her back to the apartment for cheese sandwiches and Medium and then a third season episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer on DVD.  It's the prom episode, which isn't exactly the most romantic thing ever.

Still we press on.  Tomorrow is a new day.  A working day.  A day with showers, pants and clean ears.  Tomorrow the PVR machine will record, instead of playback. 

What else I'm getting aside from a puppy

If you've known me for awhile you probably remember the single days.  The long, long, single days.  In fact you just have to take a look at this blog's "Being Single / Dating" category [jks] to see the last few single years.  In fact back in university I had thought that I could somehow spin my single-dom into a career, since people seemed to enjoy reading articles of my disastrous romantic adventures [teotw].

Lydia and I have been going out pretty much since we first met after she responded to an ad that I put up on Craigslist.  The ad was put up very much in the spirit of, "Well if this doesn't work out at least I'll have something to write about" and so that it actually worked and I've gotten a long term relationship out of it is very surprising to me.  Delightfully surprising.

Last week the two of us went down to Seattle for her birthday and had dinner at The Dahlia Lounge [td], where after the "Cougar Gold, fried green tomatoes, Bavarian beer vinegar, mustard" appetizer was cleared I asked her to marry me and much to my relief she said yes.  So we are now officially, though currently ring-lessly, engaged.

It's been just over a week, but I've wanted to keep it quiet because my parents were on a cruise in Asia and I wanted to tell our folks before we let anyone else into the secret.  Last night I surprised the family with it, and Lydia told her mother over the phone, so now that all the one degrees know, we're letting other people in on it.

So yeah, I'm getting married.  On April 21st. 

Just kidding.  Probably next spring or summer depending on a few factors. 

Photo credit

• Photo by: Jeffery Simpson
• What: Lydia at home
• Date Taken: October 19th, 2007
• Camera: Canon EOS Rebel XTi [fkr]

Still working on that dog thing

It's been well over a year that I've been debating getting a dog [jks].  At the time I was informed by Ryan that not only would any dog I try to raise end up as a puppy juvenile delinquent, it would either end up assassinating a world leader or taking its own life in some kind of weird Michael Hutchence [wp] manner.

I had planned to sue for libel, but figured he was either protected by the opinion defence or the truth defence and decided not to call my lawyers. 

However I've continued to think about a dog.  The obstacles still remain, the fact that the days that I work I'm away from the apartment for slightly over nine hours between the eight hour shift and travel is the major roadblock.  The other being cost, which in of itself isn't much of a problem unless I'm having to pay an extra $20 a day on top of food, vet, toys, training and medicines.  I could probably convince Lydia to swing by the apartment after she finishes work, which is generally around 3 pm and about two hours into my shift, but it's an inelegant solution.

Can dogs be trained to take themselves out, also possibly do chores around my apartment while I'm gone working with Roomba to get everything clean for when I return?  If I get a small dog like a Boston terrier [wp] I suppose they might have trouble selecting the right floor in the elevator. 

Back to the drawing board.

Photo credit

• Photo by: Jeffery Simpson
• What: Hunter :: Blur
• Date Taken: August 10th, 2007
• Camera: Canon EOS Rebel XTi

The epic poem of my life

I'm trying very hard to come up with something to blog at this point.  Following the Mr. Rawson school of forced free writing never ends up with anything readable, and certainly nothing that you want to submit to a(n) (potential) audiance of millions.  In fact during the ten minutes of free writing every class I tended to just fill my workbook with the phrase, "I am free.  I am being forced to write."  It was meant to be ironic, in that way that we can achieve irony at 17.

I suppose to make this a better blog I need some drama or adventure in my life.  Another trip, for example, to compete with last year's travel to Europe.  Something quite facinating and new so I can dazzle you with photographs and tales of eating weird food in dodgey resturants.  Instead I have pictures of the inside of the Skytrain, as I commute to and from Metrotown every day.

Which is not to say that life is boring, or dull.  I watched Bee Movie last night and it was pretty good.  However the fact that you're reading about me watching Bee Movie is a sign that perhaps I'm not leading the sort of heroic life that is worthy of great study.  Perhaps I should join Jason and search after the Golden Fleece [wp].  I'm sure such a journey would provide many chances for good pictures and many meals of weird food in dodgey resturants.  At the very least Mysia should be interesting.

Photo credit

• Photo by: Jeffery Simpson
• What: Arc de Triomphe, Paris France
• Date Taken: May 15th, 2007
• Camera: Sony Ericsson K790i

I've got jobs on the brain and lions in the oven

Skytrain
Originally uploaded by Jeffery Simpson.

I've been a despairing about finding a few job for the last few months, and it's been a real dry spell for work in that regard. With websites like Monster it sometimes feels as if I'm just submitting my resume was the equivalent of throwing a coin down a well and wishing for a job. I knew it was out there, but if you're not physically handing it to anyone you're never sure if anybody is actually looking at it. The few bites I did get always turned out to be companies like Primerica which were pavement pounding sales jobs. If I wanted to be doing sales I'd be staying where I am now.

Recently though things have picked up, so much so that I'm no longer looking at theatre management as a serious career option. Indeed I'm actually looking at jobs that I'd really enjoy. I am wary of jinxing anything by talking about it too early, but I had a really good interview today with Seon Design Inc. [sd] for a media coordinator type job. They make surveillance systems for trains, buses and elevators and I'd be doing their advertising copy, helping set up for a few trade show style events and doing press releases.

I'm almost worried about a wealth of choice, having to pick between three different options. I'm also worried about winning the 6/49 and how that might change me as a person. Would I still be the sweet and caring person I am now if I had enough money to buy a solid gold statue in my own honour? These questions plague my dreams, though admittedly they're much more pleasant nightmares than the one about the chalk outline lion that comes from the oven to eat me. I understand the words "chalk outline lion" might confuse you, do not worry it is for the best that you do not go too deep into my inner mind's working.

All that is left to say is, "Wish me luck." I for one will be keeping my toes cross until such time as they become numb from lack of blood flow and begin to get gangrene.

This picture does not match the text

IMG_0919.jpg
Originally uploaded by Jeffery Simpson.

I did not start the day with a headache, and yet now it feels as if someone has just walked up to me and hit me right between the eyes with a hammer. I'm not prone to stress headaches, so I'm not particularly sure where it's come from but it's making me feel physically ill.

Can't I go a week without being sick and wanting to vomit?

I need a week's vacation where I spend the entire time within about ten kilometres from my apartment. No driving, no chores, nothing but the simplest shopping for groceries and comic books. I am getting a bit of a vacation, a three day weekend that's running from Mondaythrough Wednesday for Lydia's birthday trip to Seattle. Seattle is hardly relaxing though, its stressful to drive around, find parking and make sure everything is going okay.

My next holiday is going to be Chez Moi. It's going to be fucking wonderful.

Edit: I should point out that I do enjoy travel trips, and that this trip to Seattle is going to be really fun.  I like Seattle, and going with Lydia means that it's sure to be a good time.  It's just not a relaxing good time.

Cleaning

Today is cleaning day. Then Nathan and I head down south to Seattle for to see Jeff Weston, Matthew Good and Jack-in-the-Box. I leave you with a film about my cleaning partner, Roomba.

I win a contest and clean my deck

Trevor says: Have you entered the Miss604 contest yet?
Originally uploaded by miss604.

First up I won a contest on Miss604 [m604], the blog of fellow Metroblogger Rebbecca.  I only entered for the awesome retro Trevor Linden figure, but the rest of the swag is going to be fairly awesome.  So what all did I win?  I'll let Rebbecca describe it, by copying and pasting from her site.

- A limited edition, not sold in stores, collector, uncut sheet of 2007/2008 Vancouver Giants hockey cards

- A Canucks carabiner, keychain thingy

- Two tickets to this Saturday’s Everett Silvertips

- Two tickets to the BC Rockies vs Canucks Alumni hockey fundraiser game on March 22nd

- A McFarlane, in-package, mint, collector, Trevor Linden action figure

- A coveted Miss604 sticker as seen at Northern Voice or…

- You can also chose a limited edition solid-colour Miss604 sticker

You can watch the tension packed drawing of my name at her site [m604].

Meanwhile I woke up early on Tuesday and spent about two hours cleaning off my deck.  I've never really used my deck because when I moved in it was filthy and I always knew it was going to take the sacrifice of a mop to get it clean.  I had bought the kamakazi mop a few months ago, but it had been hiding in my closet wanting to live.

After the cleaning Lydia came over and we went to get some food and then watch Once on my AppleTV.  I've had the soundtrack for Once for a few months now but the movie is a still worth watching.  It's not quite a romantic flick, but it's certainly sweet-hearted and good natured.

The final thing is that I applied for a job I want to get, and now have an interview (almost) lined up.  Which should be good and exciting.  To make it more exciting I'm planning on bringing a car full of fire ants and emptying them down my shirt's neck five minutes before the interview so that for the entire talk I'm trying not to scratch my arm pits or yell out in pain.

Never say that I do things the easy way.

I smell like your car's air freshener

I have smeared myself with a balm to keep me from coughing during the night. I smell like a pine tree, or one of the martinis Nathan always seemed to expect me to start to like when we lived in Kelowna and would go to Sgt. O's for cheap drinks. I would complain that the drinks tasted like a pine tree, and he would shake his head as if to suggest that I was not a real man until I enjoyed the flavour of gin.

I still don't enjoy the taste of gin, even though I smell as if I've been marinated in the stuff. This cough stopping isn't working, and I've taken every pill in my cupboards from Halls to night time Buckley's which should be knocking me out cold soon. Lydia has somehow managed to sleep through my torrent of coughing, which I suppose means that should I ever get eaten by a werewolf at night she will awaken refreshed the next day slightly surprised to find that I'm not next to her in bed. My coughing is less a machine gun than a booming canon, the city's nine o'clock gun fired again and again as if Stanley Park's time keeper is following the time on his VHS player that's blinking on and off 21:00.

Fire the canon.

Fire the canon.

Fire the canon.

Fire the canon.

Only sitting up seems to work, but it's hard to sleep like this. Yet sleep I must, I can not afford to miss more work. I could not have afforded to miss the last week that sickness took from me, and so I will be selling my smaller organs in a back alley surgeon's office later this week. I've had some very good offers on my liver.

My head feels like a Scottish moor

Maybe it was my eager anticipation of the Oscars but I've been wiped out with the illness since Sunday.  Bed rest has been the order of the day, so I don't really have much to blog about.  I was going to post about the Oscars but at this point there isn't much new to say about the awards ceremony besides the fact that as always Jon Stewart was funny and the musical performance from the film Once deserved the Oscar win.  I've included the YouTube video of the performance from the show above.

Meanwhile the only thing of note that's happened apart from laying in bed watching Buffy and a brief spell of assembling Ikea furniture, is that one of my photographs was picked up by a travel guide for inclusion on their website.  Sadly it's a non-paying thing, but I do get the photo credit for having my photo on the What's On When site [wow] and the British Airways site [ba].  The photo, below, isn't a great picture but it's of Go Fish in Vancouver which apparently there's not a great deal of pictures of.

We are lost in a pea soup fog.

There are no more biscuits.  We appear to be completely out of them at this point.  Thankfully we have crackers, because they will be our tools to navigate this muddled time.  They are our bones and our chicken stock, but instead of making soup we will be ingesting it.  Filling our stomachs with the future we will then seek to cleanse our palate on the ice cool waters of the past.  Only the present will remain, and it will be the check on the table that we all look at awkwardly wondering who is going to reach for their Visa card first.

The world used to accept fortune tellers and mystics, the odd time they'd burn them (or dunk them) as witches but for the most part people accepted that the future was something that could be well known simply by glancing at how the bones of a small animal fell from a bag.  By a turn of a card.  By the bumps of our heads.

These days we have futurists and new media gurus.  Facebook will be the next big thing, until it's the next old thing and then we'll be exploring a new meme.  We discovered how easy it was to sell the future when 2010 Cola took off and became a hit.  Sadly unlike James I didn't invest my profits well, he truly saw the future and filled jerrycans [wp] with Premium Unleaded gas while I bought stocks.  Which of us are laughing now?  Neither of us I suppose, James knew more about the price of oil than how to safely store it in a mid-town apartment.

Dinner with the Carters

I'm currently enjoying the hospitalty of Nathan and Krista Carter. We had some pasta, though I begged off the sauce due to the presence of my old enemy Cpl. Onion, some good homemade wine that was meant to taste of scotch and coffee ground cookies. Drink the meal Nathan spoke of his attempts to create a new type of liquor using bakers yeast and other inappropriate ingredients.

Now we are off to find beer in Kerrisdale.

The best birth control

The store I work at is not particularly kid friendly.  Purchasing something takes between 20 - 60 minutes and there's no games, flashy lights or anything of interest for children to stay occupied with during that time period.  Some of the time people bring their kids in and the kids wait patiently bored out of their minds, but manage to do that without causing a great deal of chaos.  Then there's times when it's clear that the parents have no control over their children, and so the kids just run around the store grabbing things and knocking things over.

Today we had three families in, with multiple children each, and none of them bothered to even attempt to control their children, who promptly formed a street gang and began holding hands while they ran around shouting at the top of their lungs and knocked things down.  One of the smaller kids, probably about three, took a display box and began to kick it like a soccer ball out of the store.  Ignored by his parents the kid kicked it down the mall until he was no longer visible from the store.  Eventually a stranger at Perks who had watched the kid leave the store and head off down the mall lead him back to the store and that was about the only thing that prevented the kid from vanishing without a trace.