PlanetCameron

This is not an acceptable punch-line.

2008-02-08T14:42:00.000-08:00

I've heard this passed off as a punch line in jokes all the time - and generally I like to go off on some sort of rant - usually asking if anyone has any diabetic friends/family and pointing out how without Canadians they would be dead, or asking if anyone knows that Canadians are the reason the White House is called the White House.

I know that deep down, this whole thing stems from a universal desire to be Canadian, but it seems I just can't get away from it being used this way...

(from DieselSweeties.com)

Warning: Videogames Make you a useless Man-Child.

2008-01-30T13:13:00.000-08:00

I ran into an opinion article today that goes along nicely with my previous quasi-joking post about becoming an adult.

Kay Hymowitz: The child-man

The basic jist of the piece is that men (of the ages that define my peer group and I) are aimless "child-men" who are putting off "real life" in lieu of other activities. The author cites statistics about how the average marrying age is getting older, how men tend to live in communal settings longer, how we are poorly read because the only books we'll read are Maxim magazine, and how video games are the defining mark of this group stuck "in limbo".

Single women in their 20s and early 30s are joining an international New Girl Order, hyper-achieving in both school and an increasingly female-friendly workplace, while packing leisure hours with shopping, traveling and dining with friends. Single young males, or SYMs, by contrast, often seem to hang out in a playground of drinking, hooking up, playing Halo 3 and, in many cases, underachieving. With them, adulthood looks as though it's receding.

I'm kind of having a crap day here, so you'll have to pardon my cynicism, but this article is some serious BULLSHIT and I find it sexist and condescending.

Yes, I play video games. As do most of my friends. However, most of us eschew traditional entertainment (i.e. i only have a few friends who actually have cable tv) in lieu of video games. So the shocking 2 hours a night we spend playing games we are socializing, improving hand-eye-coordination, and not just sitting there being spoon fed information.

And I have a subscription to Maxim.However, I also spend about an hour a day reading on the bus (Currently "The Secret River" by Kate Grenville).

And I don't watch the news. Well, I don't have cable TV. However, I read the PI in the morning at work with my coffee. Or I get various news podcasts on my Zune to listen to on the bus on the way home.

And yes, I do like to go out drinking and living like a 'Frat Boy'. Except for the fact that I have a very serious full time job and a couple of hobbies that I work very seriously at.

And all of these things apply to the large majority of my "child-man" friends.

I find it especially amusing how in the article the author point out how a few decades ago the typical situation would be people of my age marrying someone they went to highschool (or even college) with and settling down right away. Well, maybe the problem isn't 100% on the guys here. Maybe these hyper-achieving women are interested in seeing the world and finding their own way rather than just settling down simply to be married and have a few kids. From my own experiences and those of close friends, I know for a fact that this has been the failing point of many relationships.

Anyways, I'm done bitching about this. Maybe the author has simply had an unforunate string of luck with 20 to 30 something "child-men". Or maybe she's right and my entire generation of men are just useless slobs who are drifting along and we might get lucky enough to mate with some hyper-achiever woman.

Either way, when i get home tonight, i'm going to read some Maxim and play some Halo 3.

Growing Pains

2008-01-28T23:54:00.000-08:00

I can now officially mark in the calendar one of those "it happened then" moments. In tonight's case, that "it" would be "Really Really Really Realizing that I'm supposed to be an adult now."

The setting: Erik and I were walking back to my house after our Brasilian Dance Fight training class. It's a cold and wet night. We walk into the door of my house and I exclaim:

Oh good... my W2 is here. I wanted to get an early start on my taxes this year.

Is this finally the end???

Editors Note: Cam is not actually showing any signs of adultness yet. His last weekend consisted of goofing off for hours at his various martial arts classes, snowboarding, partying and "hanging out" with friends. In fact, prior to this mantastic entry, he was playing video games.

Where have you been!

2008-01-17T11:38:00.000-08:00

Console.Writeline("Hello World. Remember Me?")

Yes, yes, I have, as of late fallen off the blogging bandwagon. While I hate to make excuses, I do like to make lists. So, this is my list of, while not "excuses" per se, but "reasons" for not having written much lately.

Cam's List of "Reasons" for not blogging.
- The Holiday Season
- Work
- Too tired most nights from Judo/Capoeira/Snowboarding
- Work
- A lack of blogging friends (Tom...Erik...Dan...Gil... Get back on it!)
- Facebook
- Work.

Anyways, enough excuses. Back to the task at hand.

Honestly, I wish that I had some great incredible stories for you as of late. But really, it's just been busy across the board. Work has been hectic. I've been training a lot (and it's going to be a lot more since i'm officially signed up to do the STP again this year with my brother), and just haven't been taking many pictures.

But, to help fill your thirst for insight into my life, I do have some pictures from a little cross country ski trip I did last weekend. Headed up to Winthrop and did a ski in to a nice little cabin, spent the night, and skiied out. Bit of a bitch to get there (climbs pretty much the whole way for the first 12 km of the ski)... but incredible view and a super fast ski home.

Pics are In the Gallery!.

It's good to be back!

Thundercats..... hoooooooooo!

2007-10-29T14:15:00.000-07:00

Well it's officially been 2 months now since any sort of update. There's been a fair bit of activity though, much of which has gotten in the way of my usual bloggering. So, here's the quick activity re-cap.

The last 2 Major events that have occurred:

#1: Moving

As of the end of September, our time at the Juanita Manor officially came to a close. We celebrated our time there with a crazy disco party, where we had storytelling, a final dock mission, and one last hot-tub cram session. The house has since been handed off to another group of young men who are about to embark on the start of their Juanita Manor time... hopefully they treat her well.

For a new beginning though, many of us original Manorites have made the transition in to the city. I found a nice old (circa 1890) house that Brian and I found, and we have (with much thanks to his girlfriend Miriam) painted, organized and mostly decorated now. The place is quite awesome - close to everything, not too bad of a commute, and close to lots of friends.

#2: Halloween

Months ago, after our San Francisco trip, we decided to step up to a more challenging group costume. After much debate, we came to a great idea... The Thundercats.

For those of you unfamiliar with this classic Saturday morning cartoon... here's who they are..

And our version:

We hit up a few house parties, and ended up back at the SPH (Summit Private House - working title of our new house) for some after hours ridiculousness.

For all the pics, check out the gallery!

Anyways, hopefully i'll get back to posting more stuff up here now that my life is a little more settled again.

Thundercats, Hooooooooo!

Sportbike Northwest!

2007-08-28T13:58:00.000-07:00

Sportbike Northwest 2007 was nothing short of a rousing success.

On thursday, Brad, Lars, Erik and myself (on our RC51, GSXR600 and 2x GSXR 750's respectively) packed some bags, strapped 'em to our bikes, got ourselves wrapped in some protective gear and headed out for some riding adventure.

We had one crash on the way to Stevenson when Lars took a corner a bit hot and couldn't pull it out in the end. Ended up dumping his GSXR (which took some damage - mostly cosmetic) but was okay other than some bruised ribs and wounded pride.

Other than that though, the weekend went off without a hitch. We got to Stevenson, the weather held out great all weekend (we got a little bit of rain and wind on the way home) and the rides were just incredible. Also got to enjoy some quality Mexican food at Joe's, drank some fine domestic beer and enjoyed some great realaxing time with the boys.

Just the Numbers:

Miles covered: 1000
Legal Incidents: 0
Chipmunk Incidents: 2 - one tried to run under my tires. Another one just followed us from the first poker run stop for the rest of the day.

Pics are up in the gallery as always.

Bad Fast Danger!!

2007-08-17T12:47:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the launch party for our new web portal, badfastdanger.com

We will be having a bbq, lake missions, motorcycle rides, a clown.... all primed for some good times. So, if you're around, you should come by.

Not too much news to report otherwise, except that i might have had one of the best weekends in Seattle yet this past weekend (wait, no, the weekend before that). In a mere 48 hours we managed to:
- import some fantastic canadian girls to come and hang out with us
- have a crazy party night on friday in belltown
- have Juanita-Manor-rific breakfast on saturday
- spend a couple hours lounging out on a 45' sailboat in Juanita bay
- go see our friend Ian do a live show with his 80's cover band
- have a late night jam session at the house
- go for a group motorcycle ride
- go sailing on the 45' sailboat for a sunset cruise
- have a test run of the new home entertainment system, with every seat in the living room occupied.

Needless to say, that's a tough one to top. There are pics somewhere... but i don't have them right now.

Cascade Loop

2007-07-30T17:51:00.000-07:00

Decided to make a run at the Cascade Loop with Shawn over the weekend. So we took off friday after work, sat in some awful I5 traffic, but were then rewarded with fantastic weather, great riding and a great quick weekend trip.

To quote Shawn:

1. When we were done, we still had over half the weekend left. Nice.
2. At one point, somewhere near stevens pass, we each had a lane, and we were crusing side-by-side down the highway. Good times.

Pics are here.

Capoeira Time!

2007-07-16T11:06:00.000-07:00

We had a nice hot and sunny day on sunday, making it a perfect day for a capoeira roda down at Alki beach. We had a bunch of people from Axe, Candeias and Senzala show up, and we (thanks to Amanda) got some great pictures.

Check 'em out here.

Mid-July Photo Update

2007-07-13T14:08:00.000-07:00

Quick recap of the last few weeks... it's been busy but here goes...

July 1st - i turned 28. Celebrated with a day of drinking in the sun, games, hot tubbing, bbqing etc with some of the nearest & dearest. Pics are here.

July 4th - went to greenlake with Gil, Kojo & Rebecca. Got in some games of Ultimate, played some volleyball, got some sun. Headed off to a random BBQ with Gil where we decided to steal some of the people from that party (many of whom were new to the events at the Manor, so it was fun having some new faces), headed back to the Manor, inflated the island and put out to sea. Pics from that are here.

Since then we've had some very intense nights of Wii tennis, some ridiculously hot and hard Capoeira workouts and 1 dead car battery. Also, random star sighting last night as one of the guys from the show "Entourage" was at Tom's house.

Upcoming events on the horizon: Birthday parties, company picnic, sport bike northwest, and my tour of toronto/winnipeg/fort frances/thunder bay for my cousin's wedding...

new toys

2007-07-02T00:43:00.000-07:00

hello from the latest toy :) I got a shiny new iPhone as a present for myself and that's where I'm blogging from...

Shaking What my Momma Gave me...

2007-06-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

Just a quick thanks to Erik, Amanda, Phil, Gil, Brian, Kojo, Rebecca, Tom, Candice, Miriam, Jess and our incredibly patient waitress Jenna for a fun birthday dinner last night!

We ended up at Mamounia, a nice Morrocan restaurant in cap hill. We had ourselves a couple of martinis, there was a belly dancing show (which it turns out, i got to be a part of.... thanks guys), some delicious food, some more martinis, and just an all around good time.

Just gotta finish this day out here, and then it's time to start prepping for the weekend. We've got some capoeira demonstration to do tonight, and then tomorrow it's party time!!!!!

Get your summertime on before the NinjaKitty gets you!!

2007-06-21T11:01:00.000-07:00

Well, we're entering into that time of year again when life starts to happen at an accelerated pace. I guess that after the winter when the sun and warmth comes back to Seattle then people start to act like those fast-forwarded nature films of plants where we very quickly open up, show our colours and chase after every bit of sunlight. So that means that now it is the season of ridiculous motorycle rides, house parties, sailing lessons, outdoor capoeira rodas, bar-b-qing and all of that summer goodness!!!!

And now, a quick review of what's been going on in my life as of late...

Just got back from a trip to New York. Something (what's the word i'm looking for here) surprising? unexpected but very welcomed? accidentally awesome? happened in the last few weeks and it gave me a great reason to go and see that crazy city (and more importantly, some of the people in it) again. Got a chance to do some shopping (hello H&M!), got cultured up at some of the museums I hadn't seen before, had some hot and sunny weather for a picnic in Central Park, and got in some fun nights of partying. Apologies if i didn't get a chance to get caught up with everyone who's in the NYC area. If (when?) i'm back again i'll try to rectify that.

Went through a pretty serious re-org at work a few weeks ago. In the end, this has put me in a pretty good position for doing some interesting work that might even help get me moved up a bit in the ranks here, so that's a good thing.

Also, i'm now moved forward again in my Greencard process. So i've been in the process of getting together paperwork and medical exams and work histories and all sorts of things so that i can enter the final stage of "file paperwork and wait." Sigh. The one downside of this is that there is a period of 3-8 weeks where I won't be able to leave the country. Hopefully that doesn't screw up too much stuff.

That's about it for now. Next weekend i'll be hosting the "Cam's 28th Birthday / Canada Day Bash" at the Manor, so for anyone who's going to be in town (or wants to come to Seattle), that'll be the time to do it.

Representin' the Canadian Content.

2007-06-01T14:49:00.000-07:00

For your friday viewing pleasure, Kid Koala on the turntables...

Good thing i'm Catholic...

2007-05-16T15:56:00.000-07:00

A recent study done at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has concluded that people who have had oral sex (and this works for boy->girl, girl->boy and and variation thereof) with more than 5 people are 250% more likely to develop throat cancer.

Here's the full article on New Scientist.

Now, at first this sounds alarming... not to mention like a great way for the current Theocracy in power to spend more money on their "abstinence only" sex education. However, consider this:

These instances of cancer are caused by a couple strains of HPV. There already exists a 100% effective vaccine for HPV. It is available for women, and is currently undergoing trials for men. I've blogged about this one before - it's ridiculous that kids are not just getting this shot as part of their booster shots because some religious nutters think that cancer being a potential side effect of sex is a good way to convince people not to have it. Hopefully studies like this will promote getting this vaccine out there in even greater numbers.

Dan Savage has a pretty good summation of all of this in this weeks Savage Love, so go and read (Warning: This is a sex column) his take.

San Francisco....Great Success!

2007-05-14T14:30:00.000-07:00

Everything couldn't have gone smoother this weekend.

We (me, kojo, rebecca, brian, lexi) were on the road on thursday by 7:30. We made great miles getting out of the state and made it to southern oregon that night. got a hotel, got some sleep, had some waffles, and were back on the road early the next day. made it to Berkely by mid afternoon.

We hung out at Henry's (the bar where kojo's buddies work) for a couple beers, ended up getting a room at the Berkeley Faculty Club, went out for some dinner and then went out in the Mission where we met up with Caixa and had us a big 'ol Capoeira reunion.

Saturday we went into San Fran... hung out at Fishermans Wharf for a while, took some goofy pics, tried on hats, ate seafood and mini doughnuts, then headed back to the hotel. Got ourselves sexied up for the party (3 Chippendales dancers & 1 sexy nurse oh my) and then headed out for the night.

Made a grand entrance... had a fantastic time at the party... met some new people... had a few drinks. Kojo had a few too many glasses of punch, so about 3 we had to pull the chute and i had to carry his ass back to the hotel (even though it was funny watching Rebecca try :).

Sunday we got on the road good and early, and shy of a couple food stops and pulling over to let kojo remember why drinking so much rum is a bad idea, we made pretty good time. I was back at the Manor, unpacked and in bed by 2.

As always, pics are in the gallery.

An Open Letter to the Seattle Opera...

2007-05-10T14:29:00.000-07:00

I went to see the Seattle Opera Company's Don Giovanni a few months ago.

I will admit that I was incredibly impressed with the production of the show, the quality of the actors (singers? operatists?) and the orchestra. However, the whole end experience has not been so good.

That event (date? rendez-vous?) was sort of the last time I was out with a particular lady friend and, well, that whole cock-up is something I'd rather not be reminded of too often. But, the Seattle Opera is relentless about calling and emailing and mailing and calling and emailing and calling about trying to buy more tickets.

Seriously, if I want to go again, I know how to get tickets. You don't need to call me every other day to tell me about what's coming up. I've asked them to stop calling me. I've told them that hearing from them reminds me of horrible things (favourite pets dying, the plague, bad hair days). And yet they keep calling and emailing.

Please, Seattle Opera people, leave... me... the fuck... alone!!

Things...

2007-05-07T16:10:00.000-07:00

Weekend Report:

Actually, nothing too crazy to report. Friday just went to Capoeira then chillaxed at the Manor. Saturday knocked out a 50 mile ride at 7am, test rode a motorcycle for Dana, then went shopping for costumes for the party i'm headed to in San Fran next weekend. Then went out to the 611 Supreme with Brian and some friends to get some crepes. Met some cool new people, and we ended up closing that place out together... Sunday was a lazy day of movies and breakfast.

Upcoming Crazyness:

If anyone is gonna be in the bay area next weekend, lemme know. I'm headed down for a Halloween party that is so epic it needs to be repeated 2 times a year.

Other Randomness:

I've been listening to the Kooks a lot lately. I got put onto them by Bart when we were in Dublin, and i like them for a couple of reasons:
- They remind me of my europe trip, which was all kinds of good times.
- Their songs don't all sound the same.
- They're not afraid to rock out on an acoustic guitar.

Plus, they've got some good songs, and some of the lyrics strike a chord with me. (Hrm... i wonder if you can say that... lyrics striking a chord...).

And now, to sign off, i leave you with this... the Kooks doing a cover of "Crazy" while just wandering through the streets somewhere.

Punk music is a joke... it's really just baroque...

2007-04-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

What can i say... 15 years of violin and piano. I hate this song too.

I got the 4 o'clock blues...

2007-04-24T16:27:00.000-07:00

I've recently found myself with a fair bit of spare time on my hands. i mean i'm currently only working 50 hours a week, doing 4 capoeira practises, 2 judo practices, 2 bike commutes and 1 long ride a week... but it's amazing how much stuff you can get done when you're not dating or chasing after any girl in particular and you've resigned yourself to just having some "me" time for a while. So i've found myself playing the guitar a fair bit again.

I've been working on some great acoustic pieces - breaking out the James Taylor or some Zepplin IV, but I've sort of fallen back in love with blues. I've been listening to a lot of Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, BB King and of course Clapton at work, and I've decided that I need to get my hands back onto an electic guitar.

So, i've been doing some research. I've had a couple electrics before, but i've never found quite the right fit for the music i like. What i need is some classic straight forward guitar hardware. The current front runner is the Fender American Strat. Just gotta save some pennies up and then I'll be able to annoy the neighbours and roomates with some volume.

So, if anyone has a line on where i can get one of these bad boys for cheap, lemme know.

Whiskey and Tears

2007-04-17T23:29:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to point out a site from a friend. He doesn't have a lot of content up yet, but maybe these "ups" will convince him to be a little more diligent about posting. So go and visit Brian at...

www.whiskeyandtears.com

Such a great site name. Just like Christmas at the Frenette's house.

Oh, yeah, and sorry for my lame prosetylizing below. Happens sometimes.

Currently Listening: The Kooks - Jackie Big Tits

Interweb Dating...

2007-04-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

From Diesel Sweeties. Nuff said.

So that they know that we were there....

2007-03-27T14:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, pictures from EuroTrip 2007 are up in the gallery.

Check 'em out

I haven't finished commenting all of them yet... but there's like 600 pics so give me a break :)

Enjoy!

Kicking Europe's Ass

2007-03-26T15:27:00.000-07:00

Well, we are back, and we have survived.

We had ourselves a solid night of good bye partying in Dublin - we finally got to wear the nice clothes we'd been trekking all over and headed into the city to go out to this sweet club called AKA, then to a house party with some Brasilieros at the penthouse at Bart & Soren's building, then to a wind down part at Studio 56 (their apartment)... about 8am Brian and I did the final packing of our bags, said our good byes, caught a cab to the airport. A short trip (since we both passed out) to Copenhagen, a few more trips through Danish customs to get something to eat, a 10 hour flight, and we were back in Seattle.

We both agreed that all in all, this trip kicked all kinds of European ass.

2 transcontinental flights, 4 intercontinental flights, 6 countries, 2 bus rides, 3 train rides, 3 cab rides, 2 rides on the underground, many bad fast danger Oma bike rides, many miles walked... and after all of that we only ever had a single 1 hour delay on our last flight home... and we never lost any luggage, or had any foreign customs agent go through our stuff... or give us the rubber glove search.

I'm in the process of getting together all the pics and sorting and deleting the bad and incriminating ones... they'll hopefully be up tomorrow!

Take that, continental Europe

2007-03-24T13:11:00.000-07:00

Well, we've made it back to Dublin... sort of in one piece.

(first let me interject here... i'm an uncle again... my brother and his wife had a baby boy this morning!!!!!!! i'll post more when i know more details)

London was a great city - lots of great food, great sights, and it was nice to see George and Simone's place and how they're settling into the city.

Then we caught a quick flight out to Schipol... spent a day poking around in Amsterdam... checked out the Van Gogh museum, Anne Frank's house, the Heineken brewery, the Rijksmuseum... then for some culture shock we wandered around the red light district just to see what that's all about... kind of weird to see prostitutes booths right next to kindergartens... but I guess real estate is a premium.

Then we grabbed a train out to Utrecht to meet up with Indra and Corrine... they took the day off work to hang out with us and wander around the city showing us their part of the world. Then back to Indra's place where the girls made us a great dinner... then after a couple bottles of wine we headed out to a club in Utrecht and partied with them and some of their friends. Then back to Indra's to crash, and a nice hearty breakfast this morning before dropping us back onto the train to get to the airport. The highlight was definitely getting everywhere on the dutch "Oma" bikes... the girls met us at the train station, and then they put on our packs while we rode with them on the back. That was also how we got to see the sights, and to the bar... and home. Definitely a different world here to see all of the bikes everywhere... but 0 bikes with gears since it's so damn flat.

anyways, i'm off to hang out with Bart for a bit before we take off and get back to life in SeaTown... i'm going to post all the pictures when i get home, so you'll just have to wait a day or so!