Geek Lab and Geek Soothe Tuesday – Saturday Want to solder together pieces of wire, metal, scrapped electronics, and old motherboards? Make “art”, jewelry, ‘bugs’ or just play around. Super cool lab coats given out as prizes. At our OCD station you can wash your hands, count beads, check the over, wash your hands…Hosted by: Burn the Greek @ Anxious and 7:30 photo by carlos avila gonzalez
randnorm minda grenade when I read about the evils of drinking, i gave up reading.- henny youngman
randnorm pikcha santacon 2005 in the big smoke
randnorm video
poison - talk dirty to me
normdate 7.12.6
comin home from work at the source today i took the ctrain and the bus. as i looked around me on the packed bus to edgemont, i was surprised to see more asians (both yellow and brown) than caucasians. in calgary of all places. a bus full of more people who spoke english as a second language than english as their first language. the cspot ain't like it used to be.
once home, i quickly ate dinner and drove to canada olympic park for our thursday night on hill training with cads. problem is, because my registration hasn't gone through yet (for whatever reason) and i'm not teaching a registered cads student on friday nights, i wasn't allowed to join the cads group tonight for on hill training:( this made me very sad. it sucks that i'm stuck in the middle of beauracracy that i have no control over. it sucks even more that i wasn't able to ride tonight. i'm going to work on this problem tomorrow night.
i found this old skewl gem in the basement of our shop.
original old skewl black snow mogul monster. no metal edges, just a plastic board with straps for your feet. awesomely dangerous!
my friend steve is visiting from toronto on business, so tuesday night we hooked for some early weeek school night drunkenness.
dinner in kensington at molly malones
our very cute waitress
of course no trip to the cspot on a tuesday night is complete without seeing brokentoyz play at morgans.
hooray glam rock cover bands!
czech da playlist jump. talk dirty to me. 18 and life. panama. home sweet home. once bitten twice shy. oh man, how can you ont have a good time with a playlist like that?
cuties and and some coppin a feel
$11.50 for a bucket of 4 molson canadian is the recipe for a messy evening...especially when delivered by cute waitresses.
broken toyz + bucketz of boozeahol = broken norm
the cab ride home was a blur. hooray tuesday night shennanigans. it was awesome to see you steve. wednesday at work was a bit tough, but it was worth it to be able to spend an evening with a good friend from home.
photographic scavenger hunt 2:00pm-6:00pm bring a digital camera and some friends to go on a photographic scavenger hunt. examples include: photo of larry harvey without his hat. best "normal" dressed person. best undressed person. best law enforcement officers making out picture. pictures judged the next day. winning team will be publicly humiliated. hosted by: nym @ playainfo
photo by steven fritz
randnorm mind grenade
randnorm pikcha christina rawkin the dirty uma kill bill stylee
randnorm video
iraqi children running for water...sad :(
normdate 4.12.6
after a day working at the furniture store, i had my first evening of training at the source snowboard shop in kensington. i'm pretty stoked to be working in a snowboard shop, especially the one that is the largest independant snowboard retailer in canada. i remember my friend brett giving me a source sticker in university, telling me that it was a local shop back in his hometown of calgary.
i've got a lot of product knowledge to soak up, and i'm stoked. its so good to be around gear, to learn about gear, and train to be an expert on something i'm passionate about. this is the first step on the ladder to becoming a product rep, a goal i would like to accomplish by next season. until then, i'm happy learning about the peeps on the front line of this industry, the ones who are selling the gear.
the environment is so chill too. hell, its a skateboard and snowboard shop. the manager is in a punk bank, is covered in tattoos, there is punk music and hip hop playin in the shop, and i can wear whatever i want. plus, downstairs in the huge shoe and boot storage room, there are a couple skateboards so you can cruise through the room faster than walkin. yup, just jump on a skate and get your shoes from the back. hooray! this job is making me very happy already. even better, i will also be helping out with the online store too. people + snowboarding + technology...perfekt!
even better, my friend anke is coming to calgary from her trip to guatemala. she's stopping here for a few days on her way back to nelson where she'll stay for a few days before going home to germany for christmas. i'm so stoked to see her. the force is strong with her.
i've shared some awesome times with anke, and i can't wait to see her again.
my friend steve from toronto is also in town. i'm lookin forward to hookin up with him too. ha! we were once ravers *lol* i know you're lauging will, and steve i know you're just looking at the pikchaz ;) can't wait to see you brother.
and as if i wasn't already happy, my good friend graham is driving in from edmonton this weekend to celebrate santacon here in calgary. anke will also be here to get sleighed with us. oh man its going to be a fun weekend.
i'm going to miss rampaging through toronto with my toronto burners this year though. i miss you guys like crazy!
hey nick, hold it down for the darth santa massif. the lightsaber has been passed to you, young jedi.
ain't nothing like rampaging through the city dressed as santa, sants's elves, and senata's sexxy ho ho hoes. a hundred santas singing anarchist christmas carols and storming a bar is really something to see...even more fun to be a part of.
this past saturday i got to don my pirate costume once again (read normal normurai attire with an eye patch) at a pirate party here in the cspot. even better, i got to bring kristin's father, rob, with me for some swash buckling pirate fun! he's a guidance counselor at an alternative school here in calgary. i was lookin forward to an evening of partying with him.
kristin was at her company christmas party, and i had plans with her father to have dinner and just drink. plans changed thanks to captain q and her invite to a pirate party.
q has the cutest bathroom ever. so evil, red, and on fire. even the toilet bowl cleaner is a devil's pitch fork! mischievously genius.
the pirate party was not far from q's place. i didn't know the people hosting the party, but they were friends of our common friend laureena, another calgary burner. yay burnerz! yay pirates, yearrrr!
i was impressed with how much effort people put into their outfits.
the host was alaso an ultimate frisbee player, so many of the people there were part of her all female ultimate team. we ultimate players take the game very seriously. we love it. its a cult ;) cultimate!
this season we the first one in four years that i did not play in an ultimate league:( i actually didn't play a single game this season. not having a permanent home kinda made it hard for me to commit to a league. i still tossed a lot of disc, but i miss the game.
ultrasonic, coast 2 coast disc jockeys, and the tribe monkeys reprazent!
i had some red lightning wire, so i helped make rob (kristin's dad) an eye patch. add a bandana and some bondage straps, and we had him lookin skurvey enough to drink drink with us dastardly pirate dawgz. yearrr!
both q and i received so many compliments on our costumes. we giggled. what we were wearing isn't really any different from what we'd normally wear out on a saturday night, except i wore an eye patch and q wore her pirate hat. other than that, it was pretty much our usual weekend attire. its fun to be around another cutie who outfits their personality on a regular basis.
the house was beautifully decorated, there was plenty of food and boozeahol, the music was fab, and the people were top drawer. this town is a whole lot of alright.
thanks for an awesome evening q! it was great partying with you rob.
i have so many things in my life to be thankful for. praise the divine...and herb and wine! ;)
Irrational Games Society Tuesday – Saturday Looking for a shady way to pass the lazy morning and sweltering afternoons? Drop by the Irrational Geographic Society field office anytime and get yourself in on a game of Euchre or Chess. Hosted by: Irrational Geographic Society @ Esplanade and 2:30
randnorm mind grenade to enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one's family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one's own mind. if a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.- buddha
randnorm pikcha photo by james porto randnorm video
laughin yoga. *bwahahahahah*
normdate 2.12.6
last night was my first night teaching cads at canada olympic park. i made it to my last onhill training on thursday night late because of work, and was pleased to find out that i was assigned to the deaf group. i am passionate about language, and have always wanted to learn sign language. though we didn't do much on hill training thursday night, i was able to learn how to sign the alphabet, as well as say "hi my name is norm" and "i'm happy to meet you."
the deaf group laughs a lot too. i was pleased to be a part of that group, however things were about to change.
kristin's step mom, linda, was the reason why i joined cads in the first place. kristin's brother's, liam and mikhail, are both autistic and have been a part of cads for the past three years. linda not only encouraged me to volunteer, she paid for my cads membership as well. last weekend after our onhill training we were asked to list the top three disciplines that we would want to teach in. i requested to teach liam, only to find out that liam was on the waiting list (for whatever reason). cads in calgary is the largest disabled skiing program in the country, so the spots fill up fast and they are always in need of instructors.
somehow, my registration also didn't go through. so despite having done all of the on hill training, i wasn't on the list. so when instructors were being paired up with students, i didn't get one cause technically i didn't exist.
linda wasn't happy to hear that liam was on the waiting list, and she made every effort to remedy that situation. trust me, this is one woman you do not want to mess with...i wouldn't be surprised if god was scared of her wrath. unfortunately, her masterful skillz at gettin what she wanted did not fix this situation. it didn't matter though, she was still going to bring liam, mikhail, and antonia to the hill anyways...with me teaching liam.
here's where things got sticky. because i am not officially registered with cads, for whatever reason, i do not get a complimentary lift ticket, no instructor's name tag, and no support from cads while on the hill. that kind of felt shitty. if my registration goes through eventually, i'll be allowed to show up on thursday nights for the weekly onhill training, but i'll have to buy my own lift ticket cause i'm not assigned to a student in cads.
liam and i on halloween
liam at least has a familiar instructor, me, even if he is not in cads. that is a good thing, perhaps the most important thing. i couldn't help but feel not part of the group any more though, somehow separate from everyone on the hill that i had gone through the training with. linda had driven us all to the hill, and we left at 9pm...so i missed out on the social aspect of being a part of the cads instruction group after the first night of teaching. it would've been good to have a beer with everyone after. maybe next week i'll just drive myself to the hill and go out with them after for a pint. as for thursday night, i'll just ask linda to pay for my lift ticket and still be there for onhill training (and riding). that will at least give me the opportunity to practice my sign language with the deaf group.
as for teaching liam, we had a lot of fun. its a challenge dealing with an autistic child on the hill, and he did have a few meltdowns which involved screaming, crying, and shaking. thank god linda was also there on the hill with us to help me out.
liam is pretty good at snowboarding too. he can sideslip down the hill just fine on his heel edge, though he's not comfortable sideslipping on his toe edge...actually, he refuses to do it. i guess he doesn't like going down the hill with his back facing the bottom of the run. in the end, we both had fun, and i was able to make a few hits in the mini terrain park beside the bunny hill. hopefully things work out with this cads registration fiasco.
that being said, i have never seen c.o.p. so busy with people, and never seen kids so excited to be on the hill. these cads students have been waiting all year for this, and you could see it in their faces. it was inspiring. that's my payoff, the real reason why i'm on the hill in the first place...to have fun with kids on the hill and enjoy being outside. seing how stoked these kids were to be on the hill made it all worthwhile.
i had my camera with me, but being the stoner i am i left the memory card at home *smacks head* so no pikchaz :( next week i won't be such a stoner. ha, who am i kidding?
The problem with being enlightened.......welcome to my world.
Imagine that everyday you wake up and you understand the world so completely and can't understand why no one else understands because it is so obvious. First one has to awaken from the dream we call life, then we become aware of the webs that influence and move us.
I see the truth for what it truly is and my natural instinct and desire is to free others and awaken them to the truth, but doing so is futile for they cannot see past the illusions and will usually mock or attack the truth bearer.
No this is not the Matrix, this is real life!
Human reasoning over blind faith or obedience
Dare to know
Desicon
his post, and the subsequent responses by sellycat and deep, started an online pissing contest of high school proportions that spanned over 17 pages. its shitty that a forum like tribe that i loved for its intelligent mature discussions and witty banter has degraded into online fights, ego, and pissing contests. read through the thread and decide for yourself. anyways, that thread encouraged me to ask myself what it means to be enlightened. it also encouraged me to seek out some pretty awesome pieces of art online from a left coast artist named roman and photographer james porto of wired magazine fame. i've scattered some of their work here in my blog entry. i also wanted to share my response to desicon's post about the problems with enlightenment here in my blog.
desicon also wrote:
I am not here to judge, I am just a man...no better then then the homeless person on the street. Because of my enlightenment I've become distant from those in my surroundings. It becomes difficult to reveal anywhere the things which I easily sees because most people are being controlled by the Karma inside themselves and they are unwilling to stay near an Enlightened Being.
Almost everything I said in my original post has come to pass through these 9 pages of verbal diarrhea.
Your destiny is created by what is within you.
I can't give up my work in despair and discouragement. So I have been explaining about my Enlightenment because I wanted to help others and the things about to happen in this world. There is too big a gap between your viewpoint and mine. Thought exists in your words but truth exists in my words. That's why I look a total stranger to human eyes.
Knowing truth is to bless oneself. Revealing truth is to bless this world.
Anywho, in case any of you interested in helping change the world by attending a party
Some of you are really witty and intelligent, but not all. lol I enjoyed reading all the responses, especially all the shots. I will try once more to explain and give ya'll some more 'material' to take out to the shooting range. Let's see who hits a home run this time!!
Basically, I can see anything as one, and in one I see anything. I know, understand, and imagine anything that is or could be. This is only the result of accelerating my awareness as much as possible, especially of who I am & what I am. Imagine living a life where you become ego-less, have no jealousy or envy. Have nothing but love & compassion for those who dislike you. People attempt to argue/fight, I smile & laugh.....It really is quite wonderful.
I know that most who read this will never believe me and there is nothing I could say to change your mind. However, take solace in the fact that you too could one day gain the enlightenment I now possess. For those of you who understand, there is no need to say anything further.
Desicon
here's my response:
Originally Posted by Desicon I am not here to judge, I am just a man...no better then then the homeless person on the street. Because of my enlightenment I've become distant from those in my surroundings.
we judge every day, the question is do we judge wisely, and do we punish others because of those judgements.
Originally Posted by Desicon
Imagine that everyday you wake up and you understand the world so completely and can't understand why no one else understands because it is so obvious.
how does being enlightened allow you to become more distant from your surroundings? if we are all one, should enlightenment not bring us closer together? what does it mean to be enlightened anyways? a definition from you would be awesome, then we'd have a high water mark to compare ourselves to.
so if i acquire new wisdom or understanding, i am enlightened? that would mean that everyone who learns anything new is enlightened. awesome!!!
Originally Posted by Desicon
Imagine that everyday you wake up and you understand the world so completely and can't understand why no one else understands because it is so obvious.
would you mind explaining the obvious to me please? why is your version of the truth more real, more tangible, more true than mine or someone else's version?
Originally Posted by Desicon
I see the truth for what it truly is and my natural instinct and desire is to free others and awaken them to my version of the truth, but doing so is futile for they cannot see past the illusions and will usually mock or attack the truth bearer.
there, i corrected it for you. being enlightened, you are aware that what is true for one person is not necessarily true for another. trying to get everyone to agree on one version of the truth is the illusion...there will always be radically different perspektives. if you actually believe that it is possible to get everyone aligned to one version of the truth, yet alone your version of the truth, it is you who has to awaken from the dream.
that's like saying your version of love is the only way to love, or that my god can beat up your god. there are an infinite number of ways to love, an infinite number of ways to right now. it doesn't make one way better or worse than the other, its just another way. it is what is.
we are all connekted, and we are all different. every leaf is unique, but still connected to the same earth, perhaps on a different tree or in a different forest.
every man do his ting a likkle way different
Originally Posted by Desicon
So I have been explaining about my Enlightenment because I wanted to help others and the things about to happen in this world.
i anxiously await your explanation of what enlightenment is, in addition to the kinds of things you want to see happen in this world...and when you do explain, can you please refrain from using the words synchrolization, spectralize, manifestation, and co-collective creation? meta-poetics aren't easily understood outside of a dream state.
as well, you might want to try posting on the tribalharmonix forum if you are interested in a community that might be more receptive to your views on enlightenment. a lot of jedis, mayans, hippies, faieries, and elves with internet connektionz like to gather there.
Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'- Kahlil Gibran (1883 - 1931)
Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.- Lao Tzu
imho, claiming that your truth is the only truth is the ultimate height of arrogance. in the words of the conscious and realized musician ben harper:
my choice is what i choose to do and if i'm causin no harm it shouldn't bother you your choice is who you choose to be and if you're causin no harm then you're alright with me
