Slow and Steady

Well the weekend turned out to be a no brainer. Saturday I came into the office for a bit and finished the audit for SKMG Construction. Then it was home to lay around the house and pretty much do nothing. Shauna was too busy for a visit so that kind of sucked. I am not sure if I really got anything accomplished other that a few online fun poker tournaments, some reading...oh yes i went down to the book store and picked up a few more books. One is called GNOSIS and is another book about gnosticism which is cool. I also picked up THE KITE RUNNER which was recommended to me by Cat at Crush. Damn....that good looking and a brain....look out. And finally I picked up another copy of YOU ARE SPECIAL. And after I bought it I remember it was Hunter's birthday on Sunday so I told Taps to take it to the party and give it to him.....unfortunately taps forgot...oh well guess that means i have another copy of the one of the greatest kids book ever written.

Sunday I got up early and made it into church. It was a good sermon, and one of the teens did a presentaion on his trip to mexico to work in an orphange. That was pretty cool It was the end of summer so the place was packed. Dyron gave a great talk about capitalism that I enjoyed very much.

After church was finished, i had to rush downtow for a third degree practice at the lodge hall. I am not sure why I went cause clay was not there, and without him, I pretty much had nothing to do but sit there. Mo is being raised and it looks like he needs a little help with his ritual and memory work, so I offered to help him in the coming week before the ceremony.

Sunday afternoon and evening I spent most of my time reading and writing. Yesterday was 911 so i watched more than enough news, including good old GW's speech. Yesterday and Today have been slow and steady at work. Not too busy, but just busy enough to keep you moving. Not much else to report.

I plan on taking it easy this week. I might go to Edmonton on the weekend but we will see. It is also Jen and JHos birthdays this weekend so there will be plenty of partying if I so desire it. Saturday night at the back alley looks promising. But I am just going to take it as it comes.

Thats it for me Peace Out

Saturday morning

Well it is bright and early saturday morning. The space shuttle atlantis just took off on a mission to install part of the international space station. Outside the sun is shining. Leiza (Omars daughter) will be getting married today in Edmonton. The war in Iraq is still making news. Tropical storm Florence should reach hurricane status in the coming day or so, however she probably wont make landfall, so I am not paying too much attention to her.

The later part of this week was spent working on a safety audit for a local construction company. It was a great experience. After failing my audit I was determined to take the high road, and do whatever I could to audit them, the way I would have like to have been audited. It took a lot more work. We worked on parts of the documentation that were a little short, and got them up to par. Ironically the parts of their audit that were lacking were the same as mine....job procedures and statistics. Luckily, after my audit I was in a position to provide some guidance on these areas, and I am confident they will have a great safety program as they move ahead.

Outside of work, we went back to lodge on Thursday. It was a long night. We didnt really have any visitors, which makes it even more of a priority to get out and do some visiting this year.

Last night, as always, was my night out on the town. Jessica and I started the night at Morgans with a few bevies. JC joined us for a couple games of pool, all of which I won. Which also meant that JC had to buy me a couple shots. As can be expected this is where things get blurry lol. After Morgans it was off to Melrose, which was pretty cool. Jen joined us as well as Lindsey, and a couple of his friends. Jessica and I were drinking "Ice Bergs" which is a neat drink. It is basically a pint of Keiths, topped with frozen margarita mix. After Melrose Jess, Lindsey and I went to Sals. The sound system sucked, so we did not stay long. Then it was off to the Rhino. The Rhino was pretty dead, but the music was good so we stayed awhile. As usual, when the drink started to hit me, I walked home, ate some left over egg rolls and went to bed.

I got a text from shauna last night. I guess Tina was at the Atmosphere show in Edmonton. I asked her to say hi from me, as I havnt seen her much since leaving the bar bizz. I should make a note to try and track her down when i am in edmonton next.

Not much else to report. Hoping to get some laundry done today, and if I am lucky shauna will get a few minutes for a coffee as she will be in town with Atmoshere at Mac Hall tonight. But, I wont get my hopes up too high, cause I know how busy she is.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. Talk to you soon

In the wake of 9/11

I went down to the print shop today to pick up a certificate I had framed. The framing looks awesome. The frame shop that I go to has a specialty department that can order almost any print in the world. For years I have dreamed of having a small collection of prints. I would like to dedicate a wall in my home to prints. I want all the prints to tell a story, the type of prints that spark conversation and debate. The one print that I have always wanted to be in the center of such a wall is a black and white photo of the man standing in front of a row of tanks in Tiannemen square in China, during the student uprising in the late eighties.

There are other prints that I would like on this wall. Marting Luther King Jr, The The Berlin Wall Falling, and yes, a photo of the World Trade Center mid fall. But it would appear that this will be a little difficult. As the specialty department manager told me that all such prints have been banned or pulled off the market. He recalls after the terrorist attack a print being available with the caption "oh shit" but it did not take long for this to get pulled.

Now I am not sure what to say about this. There is the argument that it is in bad taste to show such a grevious event. Yet as I flipped through the catalog on his desk I saw a dramatic print of the hindenburg burning like the fires of hell, and another of aushwitz with a peculiar caption "arbeit macht frei". Now it would be hard to find a more offensive print than that, but there it was. And there wasnt a print of the World Trade Center.

As can be expected, as soon as I came home I turned on the computer and googled "world trade center". Low and behold there was all kinds of images of the collapse of the towers. So then why cant I get a hard copy of the event. I mean something that is real and that can sit on my wall, and not just on the pages of cyber-space. It seems to me that we should want real hard evidense of this event. And many others.

Flipping through my photo-album I soon realized that most of the photos in it were taken long before September 11. It would appear that most of my photos as of late can only be found in digital format on the crazy little box I type endlessly into. What were to happen if the box were to get lost, stolen, or break. I would lose all my photos. I would lose all the evidense for my memories.

Now some might say, the computer is always going to be here to show us our digital images, and I am not going to play into that argument. Instead I am going to counter with the old box of Atari Video games I have stored in my closet, with no way to play. FOr no doubt, long after my youth is over. And I have stopped buying into technology and started to buy into things like family. I will lose touch with the latest gigabyte invention, or ipod movie machine, and yes I will lose all those photos of the past few years.

I dont really know where I am going with this. I dont think there is anywhere one go with this other than to say. If we are in the "information age" why is it that "hard information" and material is so hard to find. And yet one can get all the information and disinformation one needs on this little box that I type endlessly into.

With all that said, I am going to post a picture of that notorious event. For not other reason than the fact I am angry that I cannot find such a print to hang on my wall. If anyone was wondering what they can buy be for christmas....That'l Do Donkey

New Counter

Day two of the new blog, and all is well. I have installed a counter which is kind of neat. It basically tracks all the people that log onto my blog. It sorts them by unique visit, return visit and something else that i forget. From what I also hear they track 100 sites a month, and if I pay some extra money they can even tell me from where they were linked to my site. Although I dont know if they can tell if you just type in the URL, that would be kind of strange.

Work is still a little stressed. I am still upset about failing my audit last week, but I submitted all my paperwork and am hoping to hear from the board this week. I am hoping for a limited scope audit to be conducted in October or November, lets cross our fingers.

Also at work I am extremely short staffed. Marguerite, Wilbert, and Steve have all gone back to school, leaving me with just Rob and Jason. Now dont get me wrong they can handle just about any job that comes at us, but with only 4 arms, things just take a little longer. And as murphy law would dictate, I am in the process of 3 move-backs...ya isnt that great.

Lodge starts back up tomorrow, and I am looking forward to seeing all the guys. I am hoping we dont have any degree work in september, but I am sure we will have a degree in two weeks. Although thinking about it now, I think there is another degree team taking care of that, or so I hope. I am going to try and plan a bit more visiting this year. I think I would like to pick two other lodges in town, and try to make it to their lodge meetings each month. This would put me in lodge once a week. I think this will be good for both my networking, and for getting to know some other lodges before I am thrust into one of the senior chairs. I am also hoping to convince one or two of the other "younger" guys in lodge to accompany me, not sure who yet, but i will keep you posted.

On a more personal note, I really think I need to find a girlfriend this year. I have never really made it a priority, but being with Shauna this weekend really reminded me how nice it is to just hang out. I dont know how easy it will be to find such a girl, but I really need to start looking, or convince Shauna to start dating me....lol....wouldnt that be strange, after like 12 years Shauna and Newman hook up...stranger things have happened.

I have also promised Dyron that I will shuttle one of the older members of Campbell Stone to church the next few weeks. This should ensure that I get my ass out of bed and get down to church. It has been awhile. I guess that when Lodge is not in session I tend to forget about it. But with Lodge starting this week, I am going to try and make a firm committment to get my ass to church starting this week.

Dad would like me to be in Edmonton this weekend for Leiza's wedding (Omar's daughter). I am not sure if I am going to make it, cause I dont really want to go to Edmonton again this weekend. There are other reasons I would like to be in Calgary this weekend, but I wont get into them.

Thats about it.....Nooman out.

Born Again

Well after much deliberation I have decided to continue my journal blog under another name. Maybe this way I can say what I want to say. If you dont like what I am saying please just dont read my blog, as I am not going to pull this blog. I would also ask that people try to keep linkiing to a minimum, and I will also make sure that this blog contains no links. It is simply here for me to write what I want, when the fuck i want to write it. It is basically a journal, so if I write something political, it is there for me to try to sort through my thoughts, not to implie that I know anything about anything....Fuck who does....I am just a guy trying to live my life just like everyone else tapping into this crazy cyber-arena.

You should also be aware that I like hurricanes and extreme weather in general. I love religion, but dont consider myself a member of any one train of thought, I am just a guy who believes in a God. What exactly that means, I havnt a clue. Like many people I am not fully satisfied with my job, my non-existent love life, or my life in general, but I do believe I try to make my life better everyday, in whatever way I can. From all the "I's" you see in those last sentences it is easy to assume that I am a bit of a narcissist, in that, it is my life and I am the one that has to live it. But not narcissistic in a controling or pathological way, but would love a comment on that from my more scholastic readers like Linny.

As for an entry today, I dont really have anything to say, except I really had a good time this weekend with Shauna, and wish that it did not have to end. I also wish that some of the people in her life were not so controlling. Controlling and Manipulative people are disgusting. (I hope I am not controlling, would love comments on that one) And I hope she finds a way to get out of their grasp, so that she can enjoy herself, her freedom, and her general awesomeness. I also hope that she has an awesome tour with Atomosphere this weekend, in Edmonton, Calgary and Saskatoon.

Dont know what we will talk about tomorrow, but if i dont come up with something, i will just write a bunch of bullshit to keep the pages turning.