Reboot!

Man, I loved that show. Also it's what I'll be doing here. I closed down my other site because it wasn't free. Now that I own a house and am doing work, I'm cheap(er).

Also I want to start putting up more photos because I'm branching off into other photo vetures such as weddings and advertising. At least, that's the hope any way.

Luckily, I take photos almost everyday and I'm always trying to live the "Awesome Life" so I'll post what makes sense.

Anyway, here's a recent pic I'm proud of.

(1/125, f 6.3, ISO 800, Auto WB, darkened, sharpened.)

The cemetery has a program where they get school kids to raise ducklings then release them into the cemetery's pond. It sounds a little morbid but I imagine it would be nice to maybe feed a few ducks and relax by the pond.

This happened shortly after the ducks were all released. A bunch of the wee ones got on their bellies. I has to run around the pond, which probably has a 200 meter diameter before getting thin angle. At some points I was seriously contemplating getting in the pond but it didn't come to it.

Any way there ya go! I'll try updating around the site in the next few days.

Cheers!

I fake drank and drive, got in a fake accident, and got really cut out of a vehicle

The other day, I participated in an exercise with one of the local fire departments. It was awesome. I had to pretend I was in an accident, and then the fire fighters had to actually cut me out of the vehicle using jaws of life and all that fun stuff.

I started out with me pretending to be impailed by a stick.Then I waited around for the fire fighters to ask me what's up and help me out, while a girl in the backseat died, and I sat there being impailed.

There was also a guy in the back seat who they had to cut out.

After the got him out by ripping apart the car, they had to get me out.In this picture, the glass is exploding from them prying open the door. It was awesome. I'm also glad I got it caught on camera.

Anyway, after a long time they got me out.
It was sweet. Good for the guys for learning a little more about how to save people, and good for me for getting a few sweet pics.

Cheers

Daily Photo Project - Day 2

I'll try to post these photos as early as possible so that people can see them. I know when I check blogs I get bored if there isn't something new the first thing in the morning. The only problem is that for you Ontario people, I'm two hours behind.

Anyway, here's today's uploads. Today's theme is FARM LIFE. They were taken at Danielle's Parent's farm.


This first photo is of Jessica, Rayannan, and Donovan (Danielle's nieces and nephew) and another kid Sterling.
This is Bugs the horse. He pretty much just hangs out the farm, since he's not saddle broken and he's actually not Danielle's parents. Anyway, when he's out the field, you can call him and he'll hear you, whiny and then come running from wherever to eat grass you give him. He's like a giant dog, or that horse in the Legend of Zelda.


And here's a radom old building on the property

Daily photo project Day 1

I'll try to post photos every day if I remember as I said I would, so here is DAY 1.

Today's theme is TEXTURES. I just walked around town and took some pics of things that caught my eye. Mostly walls...

dispersing the fog

Here are two photos I took the other day at the Athabasca Golf & Country Club.

The first one reminds me of those crazy Japanese fog pictures, don't ya think? Both are HDR photos


But god damn I love photography. The first one alone is enough to inspire me to keep taking photos (even though I get paid to do it, I sometimes don't want to do it outside of work because I'm lazy).

enjoy!

wide angle awesomeness, testing the products,

Danielle and i bought a wide angle lens – at heart-stopping expense when it comes to trip savings. but it'll pay for itself because lenses potentially last for forever... right?

here's a few shots from it. (the first one's an HDR photo)
To make REALLY good photos you with a wideangle, you have to try to distort perspective, not squeeze everything in. That's why the last one looks cool. That's just a regular lens, but Danielle was so close that it made it look huge!

Anyway, I'll walk around town experimenting with the lens and hopefully it'll prove itself worth it or i'll try to sell it!

And here's another random photo I took in Edmonton. The sun was setting and casting a deep red light on this already red random chimney.

That's it for photos for now

TESTING THE PRODUCTS

I sort of ran out of things to write about so I've decided the most logical thing is to test and review my adventure clothes.

I've decided on a few factors based on what I know/learned to expect from travel. They have to be comfortable. They have to be cool (temperature) in the long run. They have to be hand washable. They have to be worn for extended periods of time without becoming smelly and gross, and a few other things.

So to test them, I'm going to wear them for extended periods of time (gross, eh?), try to hand wash them, and wear them continuously to test the above and then give a report. That way, you guys can laugh at me wearing the same underwear for a few days in a row, and I get to see if they'll be good come clutch time, when I can't just change them.

Haha. The be honest. I'm not going to wear the same underwear over and over. I'm going to wear it, attempt to clean it using what I've got in my pack and wear it again. That way I'll know if it's a good idea to do so or if I should change to different brands.

I'll set up a basic test against which everything will be graded, 1-10, ten being the best.

1. How comfortable are they after all day
2. How well do they clean by hand
3. How fast do they dry
4. How comfortable are they after two days
5. Do they ever smell (this one is for underwear and socks)

With this, and some other basic factors, like weight, colour and whatnot I'll post and let you know.

Currently, I'll triple team a bunch of stuff, since I'm already wearing them.

Those are my ICEBREAKER BEAST JET relaxed boxers with fly, my SMARTWOOL MULTISPORT light cushion grey socks, and my EXOFFICIO soy fibre/cotton blend blue shirt.

let's see how they stack up and god, hopefully they don't stink!

Drew's Reality Check just got better :)

Andrew has talked me into making my first adventure post to the blog. Please remember that he writes for a living and I do not.

Today we went to book appointments for our first round of vaccines (not going to be cheap) and we went on another trip to Edmonton to go shopping for more adventure stuff. We came home with a Nikon 10-24 F/3.5-4.5 lens, shirts, sleeping bags and other little necessities to add to everything else we previously bought.

Most everything we've got so far is laid out in the picture.

It looks like lots of stuff but knowing how many clothes I own and that's all I get for six months scares me!

Most of what we've bought is designed for backpacking. The shoes are hybrid runners/hikers (amazing I might add), the pants convert to both capris and shorts, jackets have hoods and are water resistant, socks are wool with temperature regulating, moisture managing, odor control features. The shirts are also part wool with water wicking fast drying qualities. I used to buy clothes because they looked cool now there is all sorts of technology I didn't even realize existed.

We've also got most of our other necessities such as first aid kit, ponchos, water bottles, electric convertors, toiletry kits, medicine, locks, sleeping bags, hats......... I could go on with more but I think you should get the picture. It's weird to think of all the things that I've neglected having in my house on my night stand in my cabinents, I've learned to appreciate the convienience of it all as I try to pack all I'll need for six months into a 55L backpack.

Well, that's the first of what will probably turn into many of posts.

Cheers,

Danielle

A sample HDR

Here's a little sample HDR I made. I'm at work and frying bigger fish so this is just a shot in the back alley of my office.

You'll notice that it looks "different" than regular photographs. HDR photos are essentially 2 or more photos put together so that you can see the detail at every amplitude. This is more how your own eyes see, but cameras can only see one level of light at the time. If you don't know what I'm talking about, look at the lower examples, which were merged to get all the detail. I'll try to create cooler ones in the future, but in the meantime, look at the leading website on the it: www.stuckincustoms.com

You can see from the orginial photos, how the camera saw the scene in different ways, and then how I used a program to make it look cool.












you can see the difference, and the result is quite cool!

I'll try to make cooler ones, but first I've got to do the job I'm paid to do, that is make a newspaper.

Cheers

... I went rocky mountain climbing...

As part of our efforts to become better suited to walk the wide world, Danielle and I opted to go to things that require effort on our part. This time, we decided wed do some hiking a la Jasper National Park.

If Alberta's got one amazing thing, aside from endless wilderness, billions of barrels of oil and cowgirls, it's got Jasper and Banff (as well as another one) National Parks. If you've never been, go. It's arguably the best part of all of Canada, though I haven't been to more than Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia once.

Anyway, for Danielle's birthday and Canada we decided we'd go for a little camping and some hiking.

It was originally supposed to be a surprise for Danielle's birthday but I figured it would be impossible to lie about why we're driving five hours in a direction that only goes to Jasper to say "Surprise! we're walking eight kilometres!"

So I eventually ruined the surprise. But to determine what would be the best hike, I found the awesome website HIKE JASPER. It's a great site, with basically a synopsis of every trail in the park. It's good because it tells you what you're in for both as effort and reward for those efforts view wise.

We chose the SULPHUR SKYLINE trail. To get there we drove about 500 kms to Jasper, paid the 19 odd bucks to ensure that grizzly bears have a place to live and drove to Pocahontas campsite. It cost about $33 for the night and the fire permit, which included unlimited wood, as I'm sure most of you campers would know out there.

We stayed there the night, cooked smokies and played some Texas Hold'em, then camped in Danielle's Ford Edge, which has a huge trunk (big enough to sleep in with the seats pulled down) and sunroof that makes it in some ways better to sleep in than a tent. (I'm not a big fan of tents personally)

In the morning we left the campsite and drove the next fifteen kilometres to the Miette Hot Springs, where the Suplfur Skyline trail begins.

The trail paved for the first for the first kilometre or so, then becomes rocky for the rest of way. It goes in a relatively straight line, at a semi-steep incline for about 2 more kilometres, then it winds back and forth up the final mountain for about another kilometer as it elevates to like 700 meteres.

It was beast.

When you get to the top of the penultimate peak, it's a mossy, nice plateau where you can eat your lunch, and then make for the summit, which is a barren hump of a mountain.

Once you get there, it's hang out time. Danielle and I stayed up there for the better part of an hour, snapping photos, talking with some people and playing with the chipmunks (I kicked this one.) Also we made an Inukshuk, so if you're ever there, look for it.

Ironically, the walk down was ten times worse on the body. It wasn't the sheer workout like the climb, but it KILLED the ankles and had us begging for non-inclined ground just so we could stand still for a few seconds.

Afterwards, we sat in the Hot Springs, which are the hottest springs in the rockies to relax, then drove the 500 kms home.

all in a two-days non-work. :) Try it! also, all these pics, except for the first one were taken by Danielle! she's gettin good eh?

peace and love

Skydiving is the best waste of money ever...

Oh man. Skydiving is possibly–nay, IS DEFINITELY–the coolest thing ever.

Danielle and I went skydiving again in our quest to become solo certified.

The last jump puts us up to four!

In this radically awesome picture that is a screen shot of the video that EDMONTON SKYDIVE CENTRE let me have for the purpose of this blog, you can see me almost doing the splits as it were.

I'm in my "arch," which makes it so I fly straight. You can see my pilot chute behind me. It will momentarily pull my main chute and I'll float away.

You can see jumpmaster Shawn (I don't know his last name, but he's cool as shit) giving me a peace sign. That's part of my awareness jump. To pass to the next level you have to prove that you're not just blacking out and going nuts jumping out a plane and tell him what sign he was giving you. I passed!

Finally, you can see Westlock airport in the distance.

Also when my chute opened, I had END CELL CLOSURE and LINE TWISTS, making the experience extra freakin heart stopping but I overcame them thanks to the all-day lessons they give you the first time to deal with it and I landed safely, albeit quite hard.

Danielle's jump didn't go so well, she didn't do her arch very well and rolled int he air. As well, the radio guy was late in telling her to "flare" so she hit the ground hard on her ass.

But it's all good! She passed the awareness, despite having her chute deploy when she was almost completely upside down, she kept her eyes on Shawn. (it's hard to see, but he legs are above her as he chute is about to deploy.)

And that's it for that really. Most of this stuff will be in a video I'm trying to make when I have time, though i'll be crazy busy over the next few days.

As a side note to skydiving, congratulations to my buddy Joel Anderson for graduating as valedictorian in his Aeronautics Engineering course, or whatever the heck it's called. Now he can take me skydiving, though I think he could have a while ago. Oh well, how many valedictorians are there ever, anyway.

Cheers!

Damn you peter pan! - i mean clouds!

I was supposed to go sky diving today. It was supposed to start with this picture of Danielle loading up the car with our breakfast smoothies and coffees and we went to be awesome and jump out of planes.

But unfortunately, inclimate weather (see pic below) had other ideas, and we had to hang around for a bunch of hours waiting to do nothing but leave essentially.

That's ok though, our jumps are now already paid for and we're just waiting for a day when we're free to go. It will be awesome then!

So you know, aside from going on a world trip, I want to try to get certified for solo skydiving.

It's a time consuming and expensive process... but i mean, c'mon, it's skydiving!

What I need to do is about 12 or so jumps. The next one Danielle and I do is called an awareness jump.

First you should know that when you're going solo, you literally hang off the plane until your instructor tells to let go. It's fuckin' cool.

Anyway, usually you kind of semi-black out because, well, you're jumping out a plane. However in order to qualify for your solo, the first thing you need to do is what's called an awareness jump.

As you let go of the plan and feel the roller coaster feeling, contemplate your death, and pray to whoever that the chute works, you also have to look at your instructor and see what kind of random hand signal he's giving you.

If you can tell him what it is, you go onto the next level, which is where you practise to pull your own chute, the finally pull it, then you progress to higher and higher levels until you're certified to jump anywhere in Canada.

How sweet would that be?

So that's what I'm writting about for lack of better thing. So to end, here's a cute puppy that was at the skydive place named Frankenstein. He was nine weeks old and still trying to hump a rotweiler. That's how Frank the Tank that pooch is.

Backpacks and boots!

photo by danielle. hence it being out of focus :p Notice to world map in the background and the thumbs up as if to say "I'm awesome."

Danielle and I went down to the city to Camper's Village and bought some stuff for our trip on Wednesday.

Off the list:
Backpacks
Boots

First off, it's pretty much the best store I've ever been to if you're into the sort of adventure/travel/camping kind of thing. Not to advertise for them, but they don't get commission and yet are extremely helpful. I think it's because they're all adventure junkies and like helping people out.

Anyway, we purchased backpacks and boots for our adventure of epic awesomeness.

We went with Eagle Creek backpacks, which are from my understanding the top of the line in terms of technology, but thankfully not price point. We were going to go for Asolo bags but were talked out of it by the clerks.

I went with the Thrive 65L (right), and Danielle went with some kind of Tubular 55L for women, which I think has the model name Thuist (the straps are slightly different).

Mine is more in the shape of a rectangular suitcase with a backpack attached to it, and Danielle's is pretty much a tube with a little detachable fanny pack.

They are sweet, they were the best purchases I ever bought. Anyway, once again not to advertise, but they feature detachable day pack thing, rain covers, fully adjustable straps and supports, random material, and mine includes a cover for the straps so it's easier to carry around before you get into the airport.

They were both about $250.

As well we also bought boots. I don't have the box in front of me, but I believe they are Keen brand Targhee II's. Danielly got the girly couloured ones.

They have a breathable, waterproof membrane, leather on the outside, and what the sales guy called "sink heel principle," which is a fancy way of saying arch support.

What's potentially the most important thing is that they could be considered "trail runners" meaning that they're somewhere between boots and running shoes. It makes them comfortable and versatile, and will probably help reduce the type of shoes I'll bring with me on the trip by one pair.

Maybe it's because I've been wearing flat-bottomed skater shoes for the best... 10 or so years, but my god, these are the BEST shoes I've ever warn. Not only are they structuarlly designed for the whole backpacking/travel thing, they're simply the best shoes I've ever felt on my feet. Once again not advertising, just saying.

They ran at about $150, making them the most expensive shoes I've ever bought, but then again I'm cheap. The second most expensive pair was probably... a $39.99 pair of pro skater shoes by some guy I can't remember that was on sale, and after that, it's been Wal-Mart since like Grade 9.

But Seriously, they are the best, most comfortable, and I assume the most durable shoes I've ever had. I say assume because I've owned them for 2 days, but I've been wearing them in the spirit of breaking them in, but really just like wearing them.

Lastly, we bought cool socks for travelling. I've never owned fancy, expensive socks, so I'm just seeing if they're worth the hype. They're some random company's wool from some place I don't remember. But they're supposed to have the wick effect, pulling moisture away from your feet and all. So I'm testing both the shoe and the sock out.

Anyway, it's all part of gathering supplies for the world trip. The reason I can afford these stupidly expensive (for me) things is that I've cut almost all of my other stupid expenses. Note that cutting expenses doesn't mean giving up cool things, it means giving up stupid things, like say, pop, chips, smokes and drugs for ultimately more actually awesome things like skydiving and world travel.

And finally, for those who don't know who Danielle is, here she is fake packing her pack so we could wear them and feel cool!

Happy bday to me!

My birthday was on Saturday. I was on boat with my buddy Bryan Hall, his wife Melissa and someonther people whose names I can't immediately remember. It was a good time.

When I came back, I noticed my car had been hit. Weak. (I'll post a picture soon). It's the perfect time to point out why I'm glad that my first goal was to save $2000 as an emergency fund so I wouldn't all of a sudden be out of all my savings for my trip.

As you can see on the side menu, I've made it up to $1000. Modest I know, and it did take a while, but I count all victories as such so woot, $1000! 1/10th of the way there! Now I have 10 paycheques, from which I save about $500 each, plus money from my dental insurance, and some other random monies some in. Bam $10,000. And if I'm short I'm really not too worried because I've been learning about other ways to make money while abroad, which I'll discuss as they become appropriate in later posts.

Anyway, back to why saving money was important. When I came back to my car, there were conflicting reports about what had happened. The person who put their phone number on my car told me that they didn't do it. I don't really know how to prove it either way, so I just claimed it through insurance. That's why I pay $170 a month, to claim things?

Anyway, that's in the process and I'll let you know what happens.

But if it wasn't for my savings I'd be severly in the hole once all the repair costs and deductibles come through. Thankfully I saved $2000 with ING Direct, and I got them to send me a debit card, which I keep under lock and key and can now whip it out for these repairs. Woot.

But yeah, that was my birthday. Other than that, I'm still along way off from talking about anything interesting related to that trip, ALTHOUGH this week, I'm going to the city to look at backpacks and boots and some other stuff.

So stay frosty...

really?

Sadly, my last post dealt with summer, but then two days ago it snowed like a beast:

It was a random foot of snowfall in the middle of May. That kind of thing is hard on the spirits, but you may be happy to know that within two days the snow was all gone again!

But you'd probably less happy to know that during the crazy snowstorm there were probably dozens, if not hundreds of little tiny birds that were killed.

What happened was they were sitting on the side of the road and then flying into cars that passed. Kinda sad. I talked to a Fish and Wildlife Officer about it. He told me that because of the snow, the cute little birds had nowhere to sit that was dry so they sat on the road. How ironic.

This is what the little birds looked like. I was walking back to my office and I almost stepped on him. He didn't do anything, so i nudged him. Still nothing. So I took a picture of him.

I was late for something so I nudged him to the side of the sidewalk so as to not get trampled. About ten minutes later he was gone. I assume he was eaten because the crows here try to eat other animals. I thought I posted a picture but I didn't. It was a crow chasing a mouse that I saw. I was amazed.

Pictures and saving...

So it approaced summer like qualities in Athabasca this last week, though it has now dipped back to sub artic temperatures with an expectation of snow. Thankfully that's pretty much it and when it gets hot it gets hot.

Here's a picture of the other day. It was 20 degrees. Though most trees are still dormant, you can see little tinges of green if you look close enough.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day and I took four good pictures that I will endeavour to make a long enough post for them all the be present.

So, in my saving-for-the-trip efforts I've been following, almost religiously Get Rich Slowly. It is possibly the best collection of practical advice about money management on the web. It's also been growing in popularity so now they're benefitting from guest posts from a plethora of other knowledgable staff.

So I've adopted many of the practices outlined on the website. It should be noted that I didn't blindly decided I'd follow these. I already had the raw ideas in my head, and this website just helped solidify them.

Anyway, here are somethings I've done to increase my savings, because my girlfriend and I are planning on a world trip.

- I have drastically reduced general spending. This includes trying to eat out as little as possible and thereby buying more raw ingredients and cooking them. It should be noted that it is not a equal substitute to go from restaurants to portioned, frozen food. You need to buy the raw vegetables, meats and grains and make cool things out of them. I just made like 200 meatballs and it cost me $26. 200 meatballs is like 12 meals for me and girlfriend and we just do whatever to make it different for every meal: curries, stirfries, pastas – it works for everything.

I've also reduced how much I use my car, and therefore gas by purchasing a bike. I've outline this before. The bike cost me $100. If i manage to use if for a month or so, I will have paid itself off in gas savings, and from there on, now that it's summer will save me an extra $600 or so for the trip. Sweet.

- I've gone to things that cost nothing. I moved from my CIBC chequing account to a PC Financial Chequing account. The former cost me between 5 and 20 dollars a month with all the service chargs, the latter is free, always for everything, forever. Sure, that's not a lot of money, but, why should I pay for my own money? And as an added bonus, I get PC points, which is essentially just free groceries once it adds it.

More importantly, I've paid off my credit card. That was probably the biggest drain on my money. Even though I have a small limit, I was often just carrying a balance because I didn't have enough money to just pay it off in one go.

Sure that's fine, but I was paying about $20/month just to do that and I've had that card for 3 years. You do the math.

- I've automated everything. Right now when I get a paycheque, it gets directly deposited into my accounted, is automatically directed so savings and RRSPs and all my bills, including my phone and my credit card are paid off, in full automatically. It saves time and though. No all I have to do is monitor my accounts, watch my money stack up and sit back and do my job.

- I've moved in with my girlfriend. Of course, this wasn't directly associated with money, though it was a big factor for both of us. My moving in cut her rent in half, and I no longer have to pay utilities, which means I save another $100 dollars a month. Plus we can split on food, cook larger meals and reap the benefits of our pooled resources (she has a costco card). Also I love her so hey, it's win-win.

- I've quit smoking. It's not rocket science. I was essentially paying money to get cancer, lose teeth be addicted and have no lung capacity. It's probably healthier (and in some ways cooler) to just burn a ten dollar bill every couple of days.

- I've used my work's benefits. This may seem obvious to adults out there, but I'm young. I didn't know how these things work. I've got my wisdom teeth removed and had associated perscriptions that would have otherwise cost me more than $2200. Now I get 80 per cent of that back, because I mailed some forms in. Sweet.

- I did my own taxes. I don't think this has as much to do with my doing them as it did having things to claim. I claimed, moving expenses (which was a hell of a lot moving to alberta), education costs ( I was still a student last year) bus passes from living toronto and RRSP contributions. I received more than $2000 back! Sweet. Because of that I've been putting more in RRSPs and applied to Athabasca University. That may cost money upfront, but at the end of the day I'll make more money from having a degree, and in the immediate (read: next year) future, I'll get more money back on taxes.

- I got a library card. Since I got hard into libraries, I've taken out 20 or so books and some movies. It cost me nothing, I have more friends (librarians) and I have access to knowledge, arguably worth more than money anyway. Plus I never have to buy books again essentially.

All these things have helped me attain a huge savings milestone of 60 per cent of total earnings. A full 60 per cent, into savings, piling up earning interest, while at the same time, I eat, read, exercise, and am generally happy. It's sweet.

And, the most important part is that I plan on taking a world trip! That will make it all worth it, and the attitudes and practices I'm developing will make me able to travel longer and, when I come back, live just as easy. I mean, I've already saved $2000 for when I get back. That means when I'm tired of travelling the world, I've got a few months before I have to care again. And really, at the end of the day, I'm not cutting out anything important. I can miss a few meals, skip out on a couple of bar nights and take slightly longer to get places all for that if you ask me.

Once again, I'm sorry to bore you with this, but hey, I'm just given'r. I promise to sooner or later have more interesting things.

Anyway that's it. About the pictures. That's a bridge that goes over the Athabasca River in town. It's sort of the landmark structure in the area.

abstraction

here's a random picture that looks cool. can you guess what it is?

well, since no one reads this, it's window blinds behind a window, hence the blue over glow and the green is just the wall in there... looks cool so i posted it

almost a year

I've been here for almost a year! can you my few, if any readers, believe that?

Basically, this picture is the culmination, the totality of my time here -1 which I am missing.

I will have been a year on May 12.

Let's take a minute to figure out some accomplisments in the last 12 monts

-This is the longest job I've ever had
-I won an AWNA Award for second best feature picture
-I graduated College
...
That's about it. Really the time just flies by. I hope all you crazy cats are keepin it real out there and have done something in the time since I've seen you last.

Pictures...

Today I was backing up photos I've taken. Since coming to Alberta, it would appear that I've taken at least 13,204 photos. Probably... less than 300 have been published. Most of them are kind of stupid random photos and only like... less than 50 are on this website. Isn't that crazy?

Anyway here's a photo I took a while and saw while doing the back-up.-->

On backing up:
It's obviously important to back-up files. I'd recommend having them in at least two physical places (ie an external harddrive and a CD) before you delete them off your memory card because unfortunately, you'll never get them back and in today's world, you'll probably never look at them anyway, since you won't go through the effort of processing the photos.

Backing my photos in going to take 53 minutes. Crazy once again, but then I'll have them forever.

As for my trip, I've managed to save a (whopping) $50. Incredible. Truthfully, the way it worked was that my girlfriend spotted me the money to pay of my credit card and now I'm just paying off her and saving on the interest. It's worked so far. Coupled with my iPhone budget application, I've been managing to live of LESS than $400 a month. I get paid roughly $2000/month and my bills come out to... roughly $1000. that's $600 a month for savings!

Plus I did my own taxes (with the gf's help) and got $2100 back! that's incredible. Plus when I move out I'll have the security deposit back and a deposit for my gas bill back too. That means I'm now jumping into the positives for my savings. Sweeeeet.

I'm probably going to buy a back-pack soon for my trip to keep me motivated, so I'll post some picks of that when I get it.

Anyway... I doubt anyone actually cares about this so... enjoy the pic.

Investigating the possibilities

Here's a pretty picture I took:

Also,

I've been looking into what to buy for my journey. There are many things one has to consider.

In particular, my girlfriend and I have been looking at backpacks at various stores. So far, actually we've only been to one store to look at bags and have otherwise been looking on the internet.

We've sort of agreed on ASOLO 80L backpacks, which sell for about $250, and are about as big as a bag can get. It's beast. But, it's also the most comfortable that we found and just has all types of stuff.

However, we're still looking at other brans (though Asolo is cheaper) and waiting to find an appropriate size. I've read that 60L bag is almost all you need, but who knows, I plan on being gone for a while.

Other than that, I guess for anyone who reads this is that Neil's getting married!!!! I guess no one reads this so... we can talk on facebook.

I have the best friends in the world

hahaha, here's a pic from Nick and Justin's 22nd birthday! good times that I'll never forget. Kellie took this picture and I photoshopped it to make it look like it is. Enjoy!