Winnipeg, Tomorrow, Sweet.

Flying to Winnipeg tomorrow! Here's a list of things I'm looking forward to doing when I'm there:

1. Hanging out with family and friends
2. Sleeping past 6:00 a.m.
3. Not being at work
4. Having a good coffee (Starbucks is even crap here. You would think that's regulated or something, but I've had really bad coffee on a couple of occasions at Starbucks here, plus when I ask people where I can find a good coffee shop, the answer is always, "Well, there's a Tim's just down the road.")
5. 7-11 Slurpee on a warm summer day
6. Playing some music with the family
7. Going to King's Head on Sunday night maybe? And Winnipeg Jazz Fest for a bit in Old Market Square? Moses Mayes closes it down on Sunday, should be stellar.
8. Gelati
9. The wedding where we'll all have a super-awesome time celebrating!

Music

I picked up the new Coldplay album last week, Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends. It's pretty good I guess. There is a couple of good songs, but overall: meh (mind you, that's what I said just after their last album). I'm more interested in how they would pull off most of those songs live. I think this is perhaps their most produced album to date, a lot of layered tracks, symphonic bits, and digitalizing, which is cool, but I would hope that live they could still fill out that sound. Anyways, if you're a Coldplay fan, you would probably like it.

Beyond that though. I'm so over that album, I've moved on since then. I'm on a big Stars craze right now. I know their last album was released last year, but I keep coming back to them. I heard a few tracks of theirs on CBC Radio 3 the other day, and was prompted to dig out my album from deep in a box. To this day, still impressed. The various constructs of Broken Social Scene continue to wow me. If you consider yourself a fan of Canadian Indie music (or Indie music in general), you need to know who Broken Social Scene is, and all their related projects, bands and artists.

Sunday Afternoon

Biggest mistake of my weekend?

Saying "Yes"

In response to, "Did you want to see a few pictures from out trip to Europe last year?"


That's two and a half hours I won't be getting back.

In which Eric explains that he doesn't blog much and what keeps him busy

I know you get your hopes up every time you click on that favourite link labelled "Eric" or "The Civil Twilight" or "Best Blogger Ever", but then each and every time over the last nine days, your hopes have been hopelessly dashed. I have news for you: I'm not very good at blogging. (well, maybe the writing bit, but the regular part, not so well)

What's new since then?
- Pretty bored/unchallenged at work, things won't change much with that, so I'm kinda snooping around for something new.
- Pretty full weekend: hung out with some of the Wikkerinks on Friday, pool party on Saturday, Oma and Opa's on Sunday afternoon.
- Bought the new mario kart a couple days ago. It's wicked sweet.
- Been watching Holland dominate at Euro 2008. They're gonna win it all.
- I'm tired. Actually, I feel more tired lately than I've been in a long time. I think the early mornings are slowly killing me. I try to go to bed on time, but earlier than 11:00 just doesn't seem right. I figure 7 hours of sleep should be enough. Maybe I'm just not cut out for 6:00 am starts. Or maybe it's the boring days that are making me tired. All I know is that if I let myself go, I think I could probably sleep away an entire day right now.

In addition: One more week and I'll be flying to Winnipeg. I'm pretty pumped for that.

The Other Side

When I decided to move away from my home in Winnipeg to the relatively unknown that is St. Catharines, I never imagined it would be easy. I worried about finding my way around this new place, about finding friends, about being bored, about being comfortable, but I have discovered those are the least of my worries.

I can't say that I have felt homesick yet, although I am only about four weeks in. There are things I miss about Winnipeg: family, friends, good coffee, church, summer weekends, decent movie theatres, but I think it's mostly a longing for the known.

I like being out in Ontario. Seeing new things, meeting new people, spending time with my family out here; that has all been great.

Never once when I was planning my move out here did I wonder, "what if I don't like my job?"

It seemed like I had done the homework, asked the right questions, researched what the company does.... In the end, I'm finding myself unhappy with my job. Again, I know I'm only four weeks into the job, but I'm getting frustrated with the same things that made me want to leave my last job: Being secluded, little or no interaction with people (my co-workers are 500 kms away), being entirely alone for the 8 hours that I'm working. In fact, I'm more secluded than I was in my last job, there were at least people in the office next to me, and I'd see people at lunch at the very least.... Not so here.

So I find myself wondering about the green grass on the other side.

Random Thoughts

- No NHL for four months. Good thing football starts up in a few weeks to keep me going.

- I'm wearing a shirt today with really thick buttons. Like 1/4" thick, seriously, I measured.

- Been quite busy at work this week. Mostly training now-web people how to use a web-based photo tool that is not in the least bit intuitive.

- I worked the Saturday shift last weekend, which means I'm done work at 11:00 tomorrow morning. Now I just need to find something awesome to do in the afternoon.

- Jaela (my cousin Larissa's baby) was born on Monday. Hooray! Haven't seen her yet, but maybe this weekend or something? That would be sweet.

- As of today I've been in Ontario for three weeks. Three more weeks and I'll be back in Winnipeg for 5 days.

- Spent pretty much all day Sunday with the Wikkerinks. Thinking back, we really didn't do too much other than visit, eat, play a couple of games, but the day seemed to fly by for me.

- Not much else happening. Just working lots, trying to stay awake after that.