When Kevin got an asymmetrical haircut and bought a fixed gear bike, I wondered if he was en route to hipsterdom. Were tight jeans and low v-necks next?

The whole hipster scene is one that I don't really get but kind of admire. A lot of effort must be required to maintain hipster status. A hipster has to stay ahead of the curve while exposing and exploiting the ironies of the mainstream. Only then are they able to justify the superiority complex that seems to be a prerequisite for entry into hipsterdom.

Recently, Justin brought the Three Wolf Moon story to my attention. My initial response was that I had a similar t-shirt, featuring an owl rather than wolves, when I was in grade 8. Yes, I wore it to school. No, I was not hip. Then I recalled the rest of my 8th grade outfit: oversized glasses and tapered jeans, neither of which were fashionable at the time.

I spent most of the weekend with John and Elaine at their place in rural Quebec. The weekend was filled with good food (much of it fresh from the garden), good conversation, and good company. Needless to say, it was a good weekend.

                         

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rural_weekend.zip (4082 KB)

Montreal is an awesome city and I do miss it when in Vancouver. I had a great day with Karen yesterday in the Plateau and on Mount-Royal. That said, Vancouver is hard to beat in the summer. The photos I took last Thursday night (experimenting with camera settings) help support my claim.

The best part: English Bay is a three minute walk from our place.

               

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english_bay_sunset.zip (2503 KB)

The thesaurus is my friend. Using the same word repeatedly is something I try to avoid and so the thesaurus comes in handy often. Nonetheless, apparently I use the word like a lot - the word cloud I generated in Wordle* proves it. 

(I actually use the word like even more when speaking, a remnant of my teenage years when 'like' was incorporated into virtually every sentence. For example, "he is, like, so cute" or "she, like, said that she would call me later". I didn't have a Valley Girl accent, so it could've been worse. Apparently, the use of like by teenagers has been researched and published. Go figure.)

From now on, I'll be conscious of using that word, at least in the context of my blog, and will try to use synonyms to mix it up a bit more. Possibilities, according to the thesaurus of course, include: appreciate, cherish, derive pleasure from, dig, fancy, find appealing, get a kick out of, hold dear, relish. 

* Comments is quite prominent in my word cloud because I copied and pasted all the contents of the blog, including headers and links (such as the one inviting readers to comment). I did this instead of referring Wordle directly to my blog when I discovered that doing so only resulted the first page of blog entries being considered by the word cloud generator. 

I've been meaning to write a post about nostalgia for awhile - ever since Kevin started raving about the new Amazon Kindle. I'm sure that the Kindle is a very sophisticated and innovative device, but I still find it hard to reconcile with my fondness for a good book. 
Kevin would argue that the genius of the Kindle is that it takes a good book and makes it more accessible. The kindle is more portable and less resource (e.g., paper) intensive. Despite my tendency to be swayed by arguments rooted in sustainability, I still find it difficult to get excited by the Kindle. 

Kevin had started scoping out places to stay this summer in San Francisco when I was visiting him there last month. While we were touring one potential place, he remarked on the office set-up aloud - nice computer, good workspace. Then Kevin's roommate for the summer, also a geek, said "oh yeah, this guy's definitely a hacker" while pointing at some O'Reilly books and other obscure computer programming books on the bookshelf. The guy showing the place, a real-estate broker, took offense and warned against jumping to conclusions. Clearly, he had equated 'hacker' with someone who does illegal stuff using computers. They explained that 'hacker' means computer programmer in geek-speak ('cracker' is the geek terminology for someone who uses computers for evil). The realtor didn't seem convinced.

       

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what_does_your_bookshelf_say_a.zip (4743 KB)

Last night was book club night. I met up with some friends to discuss The Book Thief . This is the first book club I've been in and I haven't been a member of the book club for long. I am learning that book club nights are more of an excuse to get together with girlfriends to catch up. The book itself is secondary, which is fine by me. Don't get me wrong - I like talking about books. But I also like talking about life. I actually just like talking. 

About a month ago, I noticed something sprouting in my worm composter (again, more on this later). Upon closer inspection, I discovered that some of the kabocha (a japanese squash variety) seeds I had discarded had germinated before the worms could get to them. I rescued three of the seedlings from the composter and potted them without any clue as to what to do with them. Growing herbs and tomatoes indoors is one thing, growing squash is quite another.

I considered joining the gorilla-gardening movement and planting them beside our building, but didn't like the prospect of them getting mowed or peed on by passing dogs. Then my friend Andrew mentioned that he had scored a sweet garden plot in his neighborhood and he was excited about adopting the baby kabochas.

So, I brought the seedlings to work as it seemed likely that Andrew would be downtown in the next week or so to pick them up. They sat on my desk for a few days. I left for San Francisco. My coworkers watered them. They stayed on my desk for another week. I continued to water them but was convinced that they wouldn't last much longer without being transplanted. Today, two and a half weeks later, Andrew was able to come pick them up. They were still alive. My kabocha squash have been adopted.

Seeing as Andrew was downtown to pick up the squash, we decided to meet up at the Vancouver Art Gallery when I was done work. The main exhibition, 'How Soon is Now' was quite interesting and featured a room full of band instruments where people could jam. The room was quite small and lacked ventilation altogether. It was reminiscent of a sauna. But Andrew was excited about jamming and, despite my complete and utter lack of any musical talent, I joined him. We jammed. He was decent. I was terrible. But it was fun.

At one point while I was drumming (pathetically), I became conscious of the sore throat I've been fighting all week. I've done some  research and I'm pretty sure it's not the swine flu (which I keep referring to as the porcine flu - it has a nicer ring to it). But sitting there in the stuffy and hot music 'studio' at the VAG I couldn't help but think that if anyone carrying the swine flu had been in the room previously, I was sure to get it. I proposed that, if we were to start a band (which I assure you we're not), our band name should be 'Incubator for the Swine Flu'.

When Kevin and I visited San Francisco in the summer of 2007 we did all the touristy stuff, including a visit to the switchbacks on Lombard Street. We were talking some photos when a very noisy flock of birds flew overhead and landed in a nearby tree. I am not a birder/birdwatcher (i.e., I don't carry field guides and binoculars everywhere) but my dad is and, whether I like it or not, if I see an unfamiliar bird I'm drawn to it and can't help wanting to know what it is. Thanks John. In any case, I discovered that the birds were parrots. Having no prior knowledge of parrots inhabiting San Francisco, I couldn't quite believe that I was observing parrots living wild in an American city. I took photos as proof:

   

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wild_parrots_of_telegraph_hill.zip (664 KB)