Spring Break Fun!

A lot of things happened this Spring Break, so much that I have trouble remembering all the fun I had. From repairing damaged bicycles to writing English essays, my two weeks off were filled to the brim with excitement. Of all the highlights, however, one truly stands out above the rest; on the second week of the break, my brother and I got to move a tree. It started as lovely as one could imagine, with digging a four foot deep hole to put the tree in. What a blast it was having to dig through hard packed clay with semi-functioning shovels for eight hours. We ended up finishing the hole after pulling out a pick axe to break the rock hard ground, but the fun was only beginning. The next day, we got the privilege of digging up a six foot tall tree from the ground. No matter how much fun shoveling hundreds of pounds of dirt out of a hole is, doing the same thing while avoiding roots always takes the cake. Best part was, the tree’s roots extended underneath a deck, meaning we got to uninstall and reinstall half of an ancient deck. So much fun! Another ten hours later and the tree was out, but we couldn’t call an end to the party just yet; no, instead the ever helpful supervisor who owned the tree decided we needed a different kind of soil for this tree. A fair line of thinking; after all, the tree only survived in this type of soil for a decade and it couldn’t possibly survive without a new type of dirt surrounding it. So the fun continued as we hauled half a dozen bags of soil to the location and dumped them in the hole alongside the tree. After all that fun, we finally got to see the finished product weeks later. A beautiful pine tree standing as tall as ever in a new beautiful location. A shame it died though.

New Year's Resolutions

In the world of self improvement, the New Year's Resolution is comparable to the mentally short changed, likely inbred cousin that is tolerated by his outside family due to the fact that the poor kid's incompetence is completely out of his control; sure, people can say it's the thought that counts, but at the end of the day, New Year's Resolutions are the most ineffective and laughable means in which people try to improve themselves. It is so much of a failure as a concept that the common approach to these resolutions isn't to uphold them indefinitely for the betterment of one's self, but rather to try to endure living with a self-set burden until it becomes unbearable to live in such agony, at which point the person with the resolution simply dumps the premise entirely and resumes the happy life they lived before the New Year. This concept of inevitable failure is a waste of time to many, and that is why I haven't bothered with New Year's Resolutions for years, instead preferring to justify my faults by blaming others. This technique of handing off accountability for the sake of dodging difficult commitment is on the rise, and I'm glad to see it be so accepted in modern day society. Whether it be people blaming the successful few in this world for keeping others down or getting mad at their ancestors and the crappy genetics they've inherited, we as a people can take comfort in knowing that blaming each other for all the problems we face is a lot easier than trying(and failing) to actually fix any of the things that makes us the horrible people everyone knows we are. So ditch your empty promises and hope for a better life, and join the world in embracing our spectacularly mediocre talents as well as our astoundingly off-putting faults, because it is amazing how much easier it is to sit around complaining about the things you hate about yourself rather than trying to fix the same damn thing year after year.

Winter Holiday Memories

Every year right around the Christmas holiday, my grandparents gets everyone in our family from all over Canada together in Trail, British Columbia to spend some quality time with each other. We do lots of activities including ice fishing, tobogganing, snowmobiling, shopping and just talking, but no matter what it is we were doing, it was always enjoyable. One of the most memorable activities we had was a few years back when we visited a frozen over lake just outside of my grandparent’s home town. We ended up getting a nice party going just off the shore where the little kids would run around sliding along the ice while the adults would chat around the propane barbeque. My uncle’s friend brought an ATV to the gathering, and let us drive it on the ice. We had fun taking turns doing donuts around the lake and catching up with distant family, and we even got a hole drilled into the ice for some ice fishing. We ended up creating a very delicious makeshift Christmas Eve lunch on the ice that day; we had venison, fish, green beans, potatoes, turkey and gravy all out on the lake for what was one of the best meals I’ve ever had. We ended up packing everything up and heading home for an even better Christmas Eve dinner, and slept soundly due to all the Tryptophan we took in while eating turkey. The morning after was also great with everyone gathering to give and receive presents while creating small talk about the weather and such, and gathering for another amazing meal at the end of the day. Even years later, I remember how fun that day on the lake was.

#694: Screaming at Characters in Movies

I love getting involved with movies at home during the more tense scenes, and even more out at the theater itself. While I have gotten lost in many narratives while watching past silver screen showings, I always get the best experience from horror films. Be it Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Paranormal Activity, or any other movie with a tense atmosphere and jump scares left and right, you can bet on me being very involved with the film. The most recent memorable film I saw was the horror film Annabelle, and in particular the scene in the basement. At first it was tame whispers when the lights fell dark and the baby carriage rolled into view, but as the scene escalated so did my volume. The atmosphere created was one I must applaud the filmmakers for, because merely minutes in they had me on my feet cheering and screaming for the protagonist's escape. By the end I was so enthralled with the predator-prey chase taking place between the protagonist and Lucifer himself that my voice was getting quite raspy from yelling. As the scene concluded and dirty looks were shot my way, the movie went on and I sat quietly until the next action scene, which was one quite worth the wait. The finale was, as expected, quite the spectacle, but apparently I was showing it in a manner far too enthusiastic since no more than 15 seconds after the scene had started I was being escorted out of the theater by the usher. While I did not get to see the ending, the experience I had with the scenes I saw was more than enough to make the money spent on a ticket well worth it. I'd like to see the movie's ending some time, but for now I can only assume the best; that everything ended well and no one got hurt.

Laughing at the Little Things

Most people suspect that my family fishes a lot, and when I tell stories similar to the very first post on this weblog, it tends to confirm people's initial thoughts. Since this is the case here, it only seems appropriate that I tell another fishing story. At the time, my mom, brother and I were staying in a small BC town visiting our family. My brother happens to have an out of town friend there by the name of Jamie(not to be confused with the first Jamie. We'll call this one Jamie 2.0), so we decided to visit him at his house. While there, Jamie 2.0 decided to invite me and my brother to a fishing trip with his friends by a creek just a few kilometers away from the town. Seeing as we had nothing better to do, the two of us gladly accepted. Once we got there, Jamie 2.0 was as courteous a host as you could expect; he gave us borrowed fishing poles, drinks, and anything else we needed for the day. His friends seemed to be less thrilled at our arrival, but we couldn't quite figure out why. My brother and I soon found out via Jamie 2.0 that they acted hostile due to us being "city boys that couldn't catch a fish to save their lives." As a quick disclaimer, my brother and I had never really bought into the whole country life vs city life feud before that point; we did think, however, that it would've been such a shame to not capitalize on this perfect opportunity. That being said, us city slickers played along with the country boys and kept quiet and humble as the jeers and insults flowed, making sure that our newfound fishing competition made themselves out to be as big of fools as they could. About an hour and a half into the trip without a single catch on either end, my brother and I decided to pull out the ace in our sleeve: store bought bait. At first we decided to act oblivious as our first few fish started rolling in just to annoy Jamie 2.0's entourage, but by the time we had a 4-1 lead on the opposition, it was much too funny to play it off anymore. Me and my brother started giggling every other minute at the other group's failure after all their tall talk, and even had a full blown laugh attack every time we added another fish to our pile. Jamie 2.0 called it a day once me and my brother reeled in our eighth catch, and that was truly the cherry on top since the hometown team was still left with their admirable, single fish. We kept the laughs going on the way back home at the cost of the group's pride, and even went so far as to remind them of the trip every time we encountered them on the street. Since that day, me and my brother have had a good laugh every time we remember the story, and we can only hope that the country kids ended up getting a laugh out of the experience as well.

My Camping Experience

So I have a lot of camping stories, but there's one that really stands out above the others. Once a few years ago, my uncle and I were camping along with my brother and his friend Jamie. One thing my family always does when we camp is fish, so we decided that we'd bring the newcomer Jamie along with us to share the experience. He seemed reluctant at first, but eventually after some coaxing he was all for going fishing with the Deikoffs. While we were fishing, a conversation was struck up about fishing, and it was revealed that Jamie was very uneasy with killing fish or watching fish be killed. We tried to comfort him by saying we rarely catch anything, but it seems we jinxed ourselves then and there. A mere couple minutes later, my brother got our first bite and did the deed of killing the fish. Jamie, who was clearly distraught from seeing an animal smacked against the side of a boat until it died, said nothing. He must've thought that was a wrap since he clearly eased up after the show, but unfortunately for Jamie, the fish started coming in flocks; my brother, uncle and I were catching a new fish every other minute, and Jamie who wasn't even participating at this point was unwillingly subjected to fish murder after fish murder. He really started losing his composure when one of my uncle's fish lost an eye, so we compromised with him by letting the fish live while it waited in the cooler. He fared no better with this new strategy, however, because it seemed being surrounded by dying animals was no better for him than being surrounded by dead ones. After a whopping sixty-six fish, we decided to pack up and head back to the campsite. He was extremely relieved to escape the boat of death once we got back, but the fun was not yet over; sixty-six fish weren't going to gut themselves, and we had a new helper with us that day. Thirty-something gutted fish later, Jamie was clearly nauseous. He had had enough of scooping up fish organs after an hour of what must've been hell for him, so we let him stop early while we finished preparing the meal. The family was surprised to see him eat as much fish as he did once the meal was ready, so as a result we decided to invite him out camping again a few weeks later. We never got a reply, though I'm sure Jamie would've loved to go.