Tl;Dr Tarot

Gave myself a Tarot reading with the question: "What should I tell my supervisor tomorrow?" Anybody got any idea what this means?  I'm a knight errant? okay. Hanging over me: struggle. The base of the matter: Struggle. No sh*t. I'll just skip to the end, let's see.... The Final Outcome: "a time of dissatisfaction, boredom and depression within a relationship. There is a feeling of being let down or cheated, although the one who does the cheating is usually oneself because of one's unreal expectations". Hmmm... I don't think I'll lead with that at the meeting, no.

Phil the Goofy Linguistics Instructor

Presented in a photo requested by three of my Japanese exchange students [cropped here for their privacy]  perhaps as a result of my resemblance to Sailor Saturn.

The Deeds

Aunt Gina showed us some land that our family owns.  Well, owned.  We think the county might have taken it back, since we haven't payed taxes on it in 125 years or so.  We think probably one of us is pointing at it.

Just need the Evil Goatee

In Japan they said I looked like Harry Potter, presumably because I was a white kid with brown hair and glasses. But with this new hairstyle..... well, I am beginning to consider using my powers for Evil.

The grumps

Here I demonstrate the opposite of how it feels to wear a feather boa in a craft store.

Living the Dream

Here I am about to swing on a trapeze hung upside-down by my knees BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY.

Silly Things in Amsterdam

Here's how Madame Tussaud thinks of our President - not far off?

Here is what, for the love of God, a SHOPPING MALL looks like in Europe.
Finally, we have found it:
This is not the steepest staircase I saw, nor the steepest staircase at a place of intoxication:
Here's one of Holland's pervasive bicycle attack zones:
If it takes you fewer than three days of almost getting hit to remember how to pick these out, you're a better traveler than I am.

Amsterdam Picnic

My plan was to spend my last 28 hours in Holland awake and wandering the streets of Amsterdam. Luckily, Pud could spend the first 7 or so hanging out in Amsterdam with me. We managed to do everything we wanted, including grocery-store cheese and The Other Heineken, which we enjoyed at a canal-side picnic:

Where we managed to fend off a concerted attack by the local pigeons:

Sever the head, or destroy the brain

Michelle came to visit! I asked her what she wanted to do at the largest mall in the hemisphere. She wanted to do this:

It was frightening, the gun shooting. But not because of the zombies, who were easy to address:

Not awake, not sleeping

Here's another self-portrait that didn't make the cut, despite how much it looks like the way I spend most of my time.

Calgary Comics Expo

Went to Calgary for a comics thing with Trev. I recognized this handwriting and got VERY EXCITED:

Also I took a couple of potential self-portraits for sixsee:

Nonplussed

Trev's in town! Here's how we reacted at the exact moment Game 7 finally ended.

Self-Portrait

I joined another photo project, and our first assignment is to take 4 self portraits within an hour documenting said hour. Which means I'll be spending the next week or so walking around like this:

Sightseeing

Why take photos of things that everybody's seen zillions of pictures of anyway? How do you make yourself care? The easy way is to stick your face in them.The slightly less easy way is to wait for them to be so ugly that no-one's taking pictures of them:
The best way is to forget about them and take pictures of other things. Like the shoe trend I hope will be sweeping the nation OR MY CLOSET:
TEDDY BEAR SHOES. CAPITAL LETTERS OF AMAZEMENT. Also: Muckrakers for evil:
And parents! And the meeting of parents. And the parents' meeting of parents. Eek.

Special Volunteers

When you take someone special to your hometown you get to show them all the places you remember from being a kid. But what if they're from your hometown?

It turns out you go by accident to where you sort of met. Just to make sure it was real.

Hot and Cool

I guess Marshall McLuhan was born in Edmonton. I got to be a part of his exhibit at YEG:

Also, if it didn't have his name across the top, who would you think this was a picture of?

Fireside Chats

Rachelle had a pretty literal housewarming party full of foresters and artists, though not very full of Rachelle. It was also a last-day-of-class party, and as an instructor I felt moved to dress for the occasion:

Ha.

Great work, Canada Post. Thanks for telling me yesterday that a package arrived for me over a month ago. The package that I called you about two weeks ago when I found out that it was already being returned to sender. What a happy 1000th post surprise.

Living in a Powder Keg and Giving Off Sparks

Popular love songs are like new age spirituality: Supremely cheesy, which makes it that much more annoying when you find out that some of them are accurate descriptions of important things. They're unlike new age spirituality in that these days I _can_ _not_ _get_ _enough_.

Fine Arts

Arts Days with Dad continued Saturday. We started at the market, where we found the best balloon artist I've ever seen. If I'd had $5, I'd have asked for a set of wings for myself.

Then back to the Art Gallery, for the Lawren Harris/Walter Phillips/Emily Carr goodness that we had saved for today. No pictures allowed, except when you're having restorative coffee to prepare for the next round of beauty: