:: PEARL JAM ::

I am currently listening to the ringing in my ears that just won't stop. Why are my ears ringing you ask? Well, tonight was the night that Chris, Sean and I had been waiting many months for - Pearl Jam at G.M Place.

Is this just another day? This god forgotten place.
First comes love and then comes pain. Let the games begin.
Questions rise and answers fall insurmountable.

I've been to a fair number of good concerts in my life but this one ranks at or near the top. It was amazing. It was obvious right from the get-go that everyone there was in for an amazing night when the first act to take the stage wasn't show openers Idlewild, but Eddie Vedder and an acoustic guitar. He sort of snuck up onstage in the dark, said a quick "Hello" then sat on his stool long enough for people to start to whisper things like, "Hey, that's Eddie." or more realistically, "Holy Fuck, what's Eddie Vedder doing up there already?" What he was doing up there already was a version of "You've got to hide your love away." It was a beautiful rendition of the Beatle's classic, and sent the audience scrambling to their seats to listen.

Love boat captain take the reigns and steer us towards the clear. Here.
It's already been sung but it can't be said enough.
All you need is love.

45 minutes and one opening-band later, PJ took to the stage for real. And they rocked. Hard. Some of the highlights included: A 10 minute version of Even Flow, a loud full-of-energy version of Do the Evolution, and Better Man - which temporarily turned GM Place into the world's largest karoake bar as 18,000 people sang along and drowned out Vedder's voice, so he just stopped and let the crowd sing most of the song while he played guitar.

Is this just another phase? Earthquakes making waves.
Trying to shake the cancer off. Stupid human beings.
Once you hold the hand of love it's all surmountable.

But I think on of the highlights for me was the first slow-tempo song they did - Thumbing my Way. The stage lights dimmed right down, and the entire arena was instantly lit up with thousands of lighters. It was like being in a sea of tiny stars while the whole solar system revolved around 5 guys from Seattle.

Hold me and make it the truth.
That when all is lost there will be you.
Cause to the universe I don't mean a thing.
And there's just one word I still believe.
And it's love.

It was an amazing experience, and I didn't know I could get so much out of it. After all, It was just a bunch of music right? Wrong.

G.M Place was exactly where I was supposed to be at that moment.

It's an art to live with pain. Mix the light into grey.
Lost nine friends we'll never know. Two years ago today.
And if our lives became too long would it add to our regret?

*lyrics "Love Boat Captain"

"Why do we have ribs? I mean, what is their point?" - Mike

Mike is here visiting me for a few days, and then we're driving to Kamloops where I'm staying until Thursday or Friday. It's been a fun couple of days so far - been playing A LOT of NHL 2003 - Sasumu Serizawa is a monster out there for the Japanese National Team, and Daily Deco photographer/NHL superstar Frank Papp is the difference-maker in almost every game he plays.

In other news, plans for a new edition of the Daily Deco are being made, as well as improvements to the infamous Matcat Attacks!

Nick: Why did I just pay that chick five bucks?
Jeremy: Because she's hot.
Nick: Okay then.

Being hammered rocks. After a few weekends of not really doing anything, me and Jeremy and Jen went to T-Barz and just got smashed. T-Barz is a wicked strip club, none of us had ever been there before, but Scram won a free lap dance in some sort of raffle draw that I apparently paid 5 bucks for but don't remember. And tomorrow me and Jeremy are getting smashed all over again. It's gonna be sweet.

:: Insomnia Pt II ::

In what is being hailed by some as the greatest combination since peanut butter and jam; Lennon and McCartney; or TimeWarner; Mike, Shaun and I have teamed up on a blog...

Matcat Attacks!

:: Insomnia ::

It's 3:11 AM right now. I'd like to be sleeping. But I'm not. The evil monster that is insomnia has returned. My past three nights have all gone the same: Go to bed around 1:00. Lie awake until 3:00. Get up and waste time on my computer until 4:00. I eventually nod off around 5 or 5:30, the same time a lot of people are waking up to go to work. It's absolutely killing me. I've just got too many things running through my mind at night. As soon as my head hits the pillow it's like the floodgates open and out pours every conceivable thought, idea, memory, dream and joke you could possibly imagine.

Tonight, for example, the following things ran through my head: How much longer can I stand to be unemployed? When, if ever, is a really good job going to come along? I wonder how Mike, Meghan and Melissa are doing? Why don't I ever have anything interesting to talk about on MSN besides the weather? What's wrong with that? If I was rich, what kind of car would I buy? What would I do if i woke up and saw a shadowy figure on the ledge outside my window? Where is my baseball bat? It's in the garage, but I should really bring it into my room should I ever have an encounter with the shadowy figure on the ledge. If I moved far far away, maybe to...I don't know, North Dakota, how good of friends would I still be with certain people. Why do I sometimes feel like everyone else knows something that I don't? I wonder what life would be like if I was a professional baseball player. If I was, I'd like to play for the Red Sox.....

To use a word most people outside of Walnut Grove probably have never heard; it's a real shitfucker.

"It was like Hallowe'en for old people." - Chris

I'm never one to judge people prematurely, especially people I don't know. But, that being said, I'm pretty sure that this guy right here is the biggest loser on the planet. (although I do give him credit for trying)

And you thought you had it bad...

Worry not friends, my allegiance to the Vancouver Canucks, while shaken for awhile, is back at full strength. Confused? I'll explain...

I've written in previous posts about how I have been a long-suffering Canucks fan, but every year they break my heart. This year, with the road paved for them, I said that they owed me a win. But they blew it.

And I'll be the first to admit, I was very upset at their loss. Very Upset. My plan was to pick a new bottom-feeding team and stick with them until they, like the Canucks, made their way up near the top. And I figured that maybe this new team would actually win once they got there. My new team was going to be the Atlanta Thrashers I like Dany Heatley, and I already own a Thrashers jersey, so I figured that would be the way to go. Yes, I'll admit, I almost jumped off the bandwagon. Almost. After I told my plan to people, like Jeremy and Chris, I was ridiculed to an ridiculous extent. Fair-weather fan. Bandwagon Jumper. Asshole. Yep, heard 'em all.

But in the end, I knew I couldn't do it. Tonight, one of the TSN announcers, during the Ducks-Wild game, talked about the Canucks playoff run in '94 and said something like "you gotta wonder if they'll ever get that close again."

"Kiss my ass, of course they'll get that close again," was the thought that ran through my head. I realized that if I still get mad when someone takes a cheap-shot at the Canucks then I guess they're still my team.

It was touch-and-go for awhile, but I'm still on the Canuck's bandwagon. Always was, always will be. I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment: No matter how many times I get my heart broken, I keep coming back for more.

"A man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight that fortune's inequality exhibits under this sun." - Thomas Carlyle

and so JobHunt 2003 continues....

The sad, often frustrating, world of unemployment may (hopefully) be coming to an end for me. I've applied to a lot of places the last few days - Pointstreak, the Langley Hornets, the Powell River Paper Kings, and now The Abbotsford/Mission Times, where they're looking for a reporter and a sports co-ordinator. I get the feeling that one of my job applications is going to work out. I don't know why I get that feeling, but I just do. I guess now all there is to do is sit back and wait for the phone to ring.

Fingers crossed.

Shaun now has a webcam set up at his place. Here's a few screen-caps I took of him wearing a variety of hats Mike bought at the dollar store.

Cecil Wood, 1903-1995

I was out in Harrison at my grandparents tonight for a Mother's Day dinner. A lot of the family was there too, it was a pretty good time. But as we were sitting around talking, we realized that yesterday would have been my great-grandfather's birthday. He passed away 8 years ago though, at 92. Yesterday would have been his 100th birthday.

92. Wow, that's a long time. It's not quite the century mark, but it's close, and he had a hell of a run though. To be honest I hadn't really thought much about my great-grandpa lately. Now that's not to suggest that any family member I love or loved is ever far from my mind, but until tonight I just hadn't taken a lot of time lately to think about how great of a person he was.

I miss him, that's all.

"Those are movie clouds." - Ian, drunk and explaining how great the sky looked on Saturday night.

"When I said take your time, I didn't mean take all the time." - Chris, telling Jeremy to hurry his slow-ass up and finish his beer when we went out for lunch.

Here's a few pictures from last weekend at my place. It was nothing too spectacular, just a few of us sitting around drinking, but here are the pictures nonetheless. Thanks to Mike for letting me take up a bit of his webspace.

Choke.

It occured to me last night that perhaps some of my Canuck-playoff good luck charms are running out of steam. My t.v doesn't seem to hold quite the capabilities as it once did, and as for the playoff beard, well, it doesn't seem to be working any magic. But worry not, my fellow Canuck-puck lovers, re-inforcements have been called in.

For starters, I've brought out my biggest weapon, which I was saving for this type of desperation moment. That weapon? A ten-year-old ball of old, white hockey tape that I once had on my goalie stick when I was 12-years-old. Ten years ago I won 15 games in a row, and despite the fact that the tape was ripped and torn on my stick, I refused to re-tape the stick until we lost. When we eventually did, I rolled up the lucky tape and threw it in my hockey bag. Since I quit playing hockey It's been resting on the top shelf of a bookcase in my room. The tape's time has come.

And re-inforcement number 2. Just because I figured a person can never have too much Canuck related stuff in his or her house, I bought a Trevor Linden mini-stick for $4 from my brother's store. Coincendentally, in the store those mini-sticks were hanging on a hook right next to a Minnesota Wild jersey with a big black taped "X" on the logo.

Oh, one third and final thing. on this shelf above my computer I have a row of tiny little mugs with NHL team logos on them. I don't have all the teams, maybe 12 or 13. As I was looking at them I realized that of all the teams I had, only two of them were still in the playoffs.....The Canucks, and the Mighty Ducks. A Western Conference preview perhaps? If the mugs are anything like those prophetic magic 8-balls, and I assume they are, then I think the Canucks have a damn good chance tonight.

And don't try and tell me that the Wild will win, because I just ain't buying it. After all, the superstitions have spoken.

"There doing an excellent job of playing badly." - My buddy Markus, who's visiting from Ohio.

So there was another playoff game tonight. I could go on at length about the game. I could tell you that after the opening 20 minutes the Canucks mailed in their effort. I could tell you the refereeing was some of the worst I've ever seen. I could also tell you that with the way Markus Naslund played tonight, the Canucks look like fools for ever trading the immortal Alex Stojanov for him. I won't focus on those things. But I do have this to say about the Canucks.

I have been a Canuck fan ever since I started watching hockey, about 1986 or '87. I've seen them go through three different uniforms and about three hundred goaltenders. I've been there for every losing season, and trust me, there are many to recount. But it dawned on me a few years ago that maybe the Canucks are just cursed. Regardless of the players they have, they always seem to find a way to lose. Pavel Bure, Alex Mogilny, Mark Messier, Sean Burke and Trevor Linden on one team? Sure, sounds good on paper. Certainly sounds better than the team they iced in 1989-90, which consisted of Barry Pederson, Steve Bozek, and Andrew McBain. But regardless, the result for both teams was the same:

No Stanley Cup.

This team has been a picture of futility over the past 15 years. Yet I always stayed on the bandwagon. And I'd usually give them a break, even with the team they have now, when they bow out early in the playoffs. After all, they're stuck in a division with league powerhouses like Colorado, Detroit and Dallas. Which brings me to this year. All those teams are gone and the only thing between them and a Stanley Cup are a couple of teams that didn't even exist 11 years ago. Opportunity only knocks once. It doesn't knock once, then ring the doorbell, then try and climb through an open window to find you. Just once. Right now they're doing a big thing badly, but this time, they'd better not blow it. As a fan, I've suffered through too many bad teams to get screwed out of a Stanley Cup now.

They owe me.

Just a quick note to say that Meghan has created her own blog, http://megglesrus.blogspot.com So if you want a Smithers perspective on life, check out her site. Even if you don't want a Smithers perspective on anything, check it out anyways, because Meghan rules and I said so. Listen to me dammit!

So apparently, Mike wants to hear my thoughts on the 7-2 Canucks loss. Well here they are: digusting, pathetic, sad, repulsive, choke, embarrasing, no effort, no defence, no offence, no chance. The forwards were brutal in the neutral zone, Jovo was worse in all zones. Cloutier couldn't stop a beachball in a phone booth. Sopel needs a haircut- his stupid hair is only funny when they're winning. Ugly Ugly Ugly. They'd better win the next one.

In other news, I quit my job today. After 2 days. I felt like I was getting dumber by the minute and I decided that my time would be better spent looking for a real job. So I quit. To find out any of my other reasons for quitting, check out my previous post.

Tony: There's a lot of dirt in this pile.
Me: Well, it's a dirtpile.

Tony:Where is he going? He's supposed to be following us. (yelling about Ian, driving the second truck.)
Me:It's tough for him to follow us since we're behind him.

I work with possibly the dumbest, laziest person I've ever met. His name is Tony, he's in his fifties, and I do not like him.

At all.

Besides dumb comments like the one's above, he did the following things today at work, all on my first day:

1. Told me to put my gear in Ian's truck, despite the fact I wasn't going with him. He insisted I would be going with Ian. I didn't. I went with Tony, as was always the plan.

2. Made stupid comments to me about Ian. He doesn't seem to think Ian is capable of driving a truck, nor operating a lawnmower. What Tony fails to realize is that Ian is a very capable, hard worker, he has been driving for 3 years, and has been operating the lawnmower for over two weeks. And hasn't caused any problems yet. In fact, he's broken less equipment than Tony has.

2a. Made stupid comments to me about Ian. Justified or not, don't make mean comments to me about one of my best friends and expect me not to say anything. Granted, he might not have known we're such good buddies, but when you see us both arrive for work in the same car, assume that we are at least casual acquaintances.

3. Dropped me off at the job site, on Annacis island, and then just left me there! First of all, he was supposed to be working there with me. Instead he just drove around in the truck and "supervised" Ian, because remember, Tony thinks Ian will blow up the lawnmower or something. He left me at the site, with no transportation in case i needed it, from 10 oclock til 4. Well, it should have been 4, but that follows next, under #4.

4. Was late picking me up from the site. Instead of 4:00, he decided to roll up at about 5:20. I wanted badly to hit him in the face with a rake, but I did not.

And for the record, I'm not so much bitching about work as I am making fun of Tony because I think he's an idiot, and he amuses me. The work part, while tough and pretty boring, ain't the end of the world, but that Tony, he's a real piece of work.

Sean: I'm not feeling well, I just woke up.
Tara: Why did you just wake up?
Sean: Because I was sleeping.

Canucks 3 Wild 2

Canucks pull off another come-from-behind win against the Minnesota Wild. Ugly OT goal by Sopel. Fernandez had no stick and was screened badly by Bertuzzi.

Not a highlight reel goal, but they don't ask ya how you scored them, just if you scored 'em. And the Canucks scored 3, with another pair of goals from defencemen.

Western Finals here we come. Go Canucks!

"What is there to laugh about at 3 o'clock in the morning?" - Mohammed, my boss at the landscaping company, as he tried to comprehend how us "young people" can stay up so late partying. Needless to say, he was baffled.

"There's a four o'clock in the morning now?" - Bart Simpson.

I was also reminded today that it is much better to be going to bed at 5:45 A.M rather than waking up. These early mornings are going to kill me. If this is the real world, I want no part of it.