Alright, so the video has some serious framerate issues, some syncing issues and some audio noise and compression issues but it's a FREAKING WEBCAM VIDEO UPDATE!! Maybe I can find some ways to improve on the quality, but right now it's hard to tell.
In any case, this was a somewhat successful test of my ability to record and upload videos while on the road so I hope that I can use this feature occasionally to add some interest to this blog!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Thursday, April 1, 2010
My new travelling partner
Last night I stumbled upon a garden gnome at a neighbour's house over the course a late night walk of mine. The gnome (whom I later found out to be named "Gelbin") and I got to talking and he was very excited at the opportunity to travel across Canada with me and jumped at the opportunity! He's a little reticent to leave his garden however as he's never left its confines before, thus he made me agree to help him compose and send a letter back to his house and family at least once every couple of weeks. Gelbin has also been so kind as to let me share his letters and thoughts with all of you over the coming months! I've enclosed his first letter explaining his desire for travel:
Dear Loving Garden Owners,
I understand that it's been my duty to supervise this garden for the past few seasons but this summer the call of adventure was far too strong for me ignore! Oh to feel the wind in my beard, to travel from city to city without a care in the world besides where to eat and sleep! I need to break free from this tiny patch of land – if only for a little while – to help discover just who I truly am.
I'm sorry that I'm leaving my duties so abruptly and without any warning, but I felt that you might have difficulty understanding my desire to travel especially considering that you've never so much as seen me move! How can one explain one's deepest spiritual desires to someone whose never even seen a gnome so much as grunt or whistle? I think it's fair to say that it would be difficult (to say the least).
Regardless of the rudeness of my departure (which I do apologize for), I assure you that I will return after a few months of travel. I know that this garden will sorely miss my presence if I am gone for too long; though I have not mentioned it before, I can assure you that my incompetent gnome partner which you've provided me is not fully capable of tending the garden by himself. Thus, I promise that I will return to you via courier before mid-September. Fall in Guelph is too beautiful to miss!
I'm not exactly sure where my travels will take me just yet, but I do know that I plan on staying around Ontario for at least a few more weeks before I head out west. I think my first destination will be Vancouver and then I'm not sure where I will go after that. The road is open to me and I'm very excited to have my first vacation! I will send you pictures every couple of weeks from whatever locations I find myself in along my travels.
I hope that you understand my need to explore and to find myself.
Sincerely,
Your loving gnome,
Gelbin
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Guelph memories
I'm leaving Guelph very soon! Ah!
1800 cups of coffee, 75 grocery store runs, 3 coffee makers, 40 final exams, 51 essays, countless sleepless nights, 2.5 computers, 4 wristwatches, 5 Christmases, 3 jobs, 8 pairs of shoes, 3 bicycles, 2 pairs of glasses and 3600 teeth brushing sessions later I'm actually moving my life somewhere else for a while.
So without getting too sappy and teary-eyed I've been going through my photo albums from the last 5 years since I moved to Guelph and I wanted to share some of my favourite memories of the city before I leave for the open road. I'll try to do this in roughly chronological order, but no promises.
This was our first night of drunken debauchery in residence. I'm not pictured here as I was taking the photo! I had a lot of good times with these people and living in residence my first year out of Orangeville is an experience I'll not soon forget. In residence I met my good friend Samantha with whom I signed a lease with which soon lead to....
...my very first apartment! This is my room in the apartment the first year I moved in, although it is the larger room, so this is after Samantha had already moved out.
A few years later Dana moved in for a while and gave me some helpful decorating (and cleaning) tips which made my apartment far more livable. I'll miss that big window!
In my 5 years here I have had the same fish tank the entire time with an ever changing roster of fish (I'm much better at taking care of them now! I swear it!) RIP Lunchbox, Sgt. Luther Robinson, House, Kumquat, Eric, Cindy, Rajan, Dylan and countless others whose names I've forgotten.
I've already mentioned Zesty's (my most recent cooking position which unfortunately fell through) but I also honed my cooking chops at Casey's Bar & Grill for almost two years. Here I am rocking the cleanest chef whites I could find standing next to the Grey Cup (making out followed later).
Dana spent a couple of summers living up in Guelph with me and it was very nice to have her company during my academic downtime. In fact, academic downtime is the only time when I consider myself to be having any fun, so a lot of good memories come from her!
Ugly pictures all around! My second roommate Ian and my involuntary (though loved) couch roommate Joe are all here and looking sinfully revolting. This is the best group shot I had!
A better group shot sans-Joe. Ian, myself and a good friend Megan I met through Joe. Between these three people I spent most of my free time during my school years with them!
My absolute favourite spot in all of Guelph: the lower rapids of the speed river. Not pictured here is a bench with a well-worn ass groove from my countless hours of sitting, reading, staring and pondering.
In the interest of brevity, I will stop here but I hope this gives you all a taste of the things I'm leaving behind!
1800 cups of coffee, 75 grocery store runs, 3 coffee makers, 40 final exams, 51 essays, countless sleepless nights, 2.5 computers, 4 wristwatches, 5 Christmases, 3 jobs, 8 pairs of shoes, 3 bicycles, 2 pairs of glasses and 3600 teeth brushing sessions later I'm actually moving my life somewhere else for a while.
So without getting too sappy and teary-eyed I've been going through my photo albums from the last 5 years since I moved to Guelph and I wanted to share some of my favourite memories of the city before I leave for the open road. I'll try to do this in roughly chronological order, but no promises.
This was our first night of drunken debauchery in residence. I'm not pictured here as I was taking the photo! I had a lot of good times with these people and living in residence my first year out of Orangeville is an experience I'll not soon forget. In residence I met my good friend Samantha with whom I signed a lease with which soon lead to....
...my very first apartment! This is my room in the apartment the first year I moved in, although it is the larger room, so this is after Samantha had already moved out.
A few years later Dana moved in for a while and gave me some helpful decorating (and cleaning) tips which made my apartment far more livable. I'll miss that big window!
In my 5 years here I have had the same fish tank the entire time with an ever changing roster of fish (I'm much better at taking care of them now! I swear it!) RIP Lunchbox, Sgt. Luther Robinson, House, Kumquat, Eric, Cindy, Rajan, Dylan and countless others whose names I've forgotten.
I've already mentioned Zesty's (my most recent cooking position which unfortunately fell through) but I also honed my cooking chops at Casey's Bar & Grill for almost two years. Here I am rocking the cleanest chef whites I could find standing next to the Grey Cup (making out followed later).
Dana spent a couple of summers living up in Guelph with me and it was very nice to have her company during my academic downtime. In fact, academic downtime is the only time when I consider myself to be having any fun, so a lot of good memories come from her!
Ugly pictures all around! My second roommate Ian and my involuntary (though loved) couch roommate Joe are all here and looking sinfully revolting. This is the best group shot I had!
A better group shot sans-Joe. Ian, myself and a good friend Megan I met through Joe. Between these three people I spent most of my free time during my school years with them!
My absolute favourite spot in all of Guelph: the lower rapids of the speed river. Not pictured here is a bench with a well-worn ass groove from my countless hours of sitting, reading, staring and pondering.
In the interest of brevity, I will stop here but I hope this gives you all a taste of the things I'm leaving behind!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Happy Valentine's
The restaurant is now officially closed. I have included pictures of our final night at Zesty's and the staff celebration that followed. It should be noted that I stole all of these pictures without permission from the lovely Kayla, so I hope she's not mad!
This is me cooking my last 3 steaks ever at Zesty's!
Heather and Kayla sharing a hug. Kayla does not smile in any of these photos!
Justin didn't want to turn around for a picture, so here's Justin's back.
Great food courtesy of Lesley (our lovely chef not pictured here because we put her to work!)
I know this face. This is Kevin's drunken story face. Sorry everyone that was present for it.
Maria cooking up a couple order of scallops braised in brandy cream
Maria working on her favourite burner on her end of the stove cooking fish. This is how I will remember Maria forever.
Sky looking surprised?
Kayla again looking Sad.
Tyler posing with a knife
Our wonderful Karen, Zesty's former manager and bartender.
This is me cooking my last 3 steaks ever at Zesty's!
Heather and Kayla sharing a hug. Kayla does not smile in any of these photos!
Justin didn't want to turn around for a picture, so here's Justin's back.
Great food courtesy of Lesley (our lovely chef not pictured here because we put her to work!)
I know this face. This is Kevin's drunken story face. Sorry everyone that was present for it.
Maria cooking up a couple order of scallops braised in brandy cream
Maria working on her favourite burner on her end of the stove cooking fish. This is how I will remember Maria forever.
Sky looking surprised?
Kayla again looking Sad.
Tyler posing with a knife
Our wonderful Karen, Zesty's former manager and bartender.That's all for now, I'd just thought those of you who'd never seen Zesty's might like a tour! For those of you from Zesty's, Jason requested that I leave his e-mail address so that all of you can get in contact with him as he was not able to make it on our final night to deliver it himself.
Jason Henry: jrock13 @ live.ca (remove the spaces)
Jason Henry: jrock13 @ live.ca (remove the spaces)
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Goodbye Zesty's
Hi everyone!
Obviously my trip doesn't start until May, however, I'm such a friendly guy I'm giving you all the opportunity to add this link to your bookmarks now so that you can be readily poised to receive updates from me as soon as they are posted. There's nothing to report yet except the very sad news that Zesty's has announced that it is closing its doors permanently beginning February 15th and thus myself and all of my wonderful co-workers are now unemployed. I will miss working with everyone there and I hope that I am able to keep in contact with you all through (by the least of means) this weblog.
Information on the trips I will working on can be found here. I will be accompanying the Tour Arctic, Tour Pacific and Tour Atlantic portions of this year's events.
In the meantime, here's a picture of a seagull I took to distract all of you from the rather barren nature of this weblog as it stands. Hopefully it can entertain you until I get a little closer to shipping out time!
Edit: I have enabled anonymous commenting, so leave a comment to let me know it works and that you all can indeed keep in contact with me this way.
Obviously my trip doesn't start until May, however, I'm such a friendly guy I'm giving you all the opportunity to add this link to your bookmarks now so that you can be readily poised to receive updates from me as soon as they are posted. There's nothing to report yet except the very sad news that Zesty's has announced that it is closing its doors permanently beginning February 15th and thus myself and all of my wonderful co-workers are now unemployed. I will miss working with everyone there and I hope that I am able to keep in contact with you all through (by the least of means) this weblog.
Information on the trips I will working on can be found here. I will be accompanying the Tour Arctic, Tour Pacific and Tour Atlantic portions of this year's events.
In the meantime, here's a picture of a seagull I took to distract all of you from the rather barren nature of this weblog as it stands. Hopefully it can entertain you until I get a little closer to shipping out time!
Edit: I have enabled anonymous commenting, so leave a comment to let me know it works and that you all can indeed keep in contact with me this way.
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