Another aww inspiring image

Here we see Nathan and Lauren, two of my close friends who happen to be getting married quite soon (yay for groomsman Jonny!)

Bask in the awwwwsomeness 

Nerdy Entertainment

I... am a model railroader... I build model railroads... and drive model trains... so what, ya wanna fight about it? haha

My friend and I hit "Supertrain" back in February. This was one of the most impressive layouts. Not as much for the overwhelming number of trains operating independently around the layout (though that was cool), but instead for the detail put in to the surroundings. We stumbled across this scene late in the day and were thoroughly impressed. You will see the murder victim laying bleeding in the park, the camera crews (with appropriately labelled vehicles and cameras) trying to push past the police, the ambulance painted to fit with the Edmonton health region (the layout's home), and the CSI investigators looking over the scene. All done at a scale where those people are not much more than 1cm tall, the ambulance is about 2cm tall.

Very cool.

Take the road less travelled (ewww cliche)

Taken a while ago. These is the railway line running through the Inglewood area of Calgary. Take the track to the right and you will reach the Ogden yards (many long hours spend watching the trains there in my childhood). The left track is noticeably (though not in the picture) less used, its dull rails clearly illustrating how little this siding has been used. Behind me is the bridge which heads North across the Bow river and up along Nose Creek.

Bruce Kuhn - Gospel of Luke

Had the unique and enjoyable opportunity to watch "The Gospel of Luke" performed by ex-broadway actor Bruce Kuhn. Emotional, passionate, and honestly real. He's an amazing actor and really brought the story to life through a mix of comedy (scottish accents on some galileans) and some very strong moments where the truth was all that one could see.

If you ever have an opportunity to see him perform this play, take it.

(Photo is slightly blurry, once again taken from behind the soundboard)

Pray for Mojo... I mean Jono

Jonathan "The Job" Harris is jobless... think of the irony... Think of it!

My hopes had been sparked by the possibility of returning to the company with which I completed my practicum but that opportunity has since fizzled. This means I am once again on the hunt for summer employment.

There's loads of places I'd love to work, the most recent example would be the local Christian radio station which I love but think could definitely use the assistance of a technical writer with major graphic art, web design, photography, and sound technician experience (are ya sold on me yet?). But if they don't like my resume then I'm beginning to wonder where I'll head. There's always Can-Am which has been the proverbial nursery for at least 4 (I think I'm forgetting someone) of my close friends and therefore might be easily convinced to hire another one of 'the gang'.

So ya, if you know of any jobs, or maybe you're rich and just want to hire me (with all of the above listed skills) to do your own bidding at a decent wage for 4 months, then by all means comment away!

[No picture as I'm not at home and I can't think of an appropriate image to describe my mood at the moment... maybe the "happy cat has run out of happy" picture... silly kitty]

Some excellent romantic commentary

A woman has a close male friend. This means that he is probably interested in her, which is why he hangs around so much. She sees him strictly as a friend. This always starts out with, you're a great guy, but I don't like you in that way. This is roughly the equivalent for the guy of going to a job interview and the company saying, You have a great resume, you have all the qualifications we are looking for, but we're not going to hire you. We will, however, use your resume as the basis for comparison for all other applicants. But, we're going to hire somebody who is far less qualified and is probably an alcoholic. And if he doesn't work out, we'll hire somebody else, but still not you. In fact, we will never hire you. But we will call you from time to time to complain about the person that we hired.
Taken from bash.org [Note: foul language elsewhere on site, view at own risk]

Priairie Storm Disappointment

This is a thunder storm that I first saw leaving work one day. I nearly jumped for joy at the size of it then. It continue growing and moving towards the city for about 2 hours. At the last minute it shifted North and missed us entirely (grr...)

I decided to go chase it but it was much too fast. This is a photo of it while it is close to 150-200km away, still looming massive on the horizon. How badly I wished I lived in Drumheller that evening. 

Stampede Stoicism

I've been looking through my photo collection (as I often do) and figured I'd toss up another favourite of mine. While watching the fireworks display of the Calgary Stampede with some friends, I turned away from the pretty colors for a moment to find my two friend perched on a stone-henge like structure looking rather stoic. I took this photo and really like the look of it.

The photo below it is, of course, the fireworks behind me.

The latest photo from Jonny the vicarious romantic

Had a good time today shooting some photos with my friends Trevor (YVR) and Melissa. A remarkably cute couple if I may say so myself (their shared madness strengthens the bonds).

This is a photo of Trevor serenading Melissa on top of a jungle gym. I believe this may have been somewhere in the midst of an extended promulgation [yay thesaurus] of her virtues with remarkable, though somewhat confusing, references to dolphins and porcupines. [Note: My memory is, at best, lacking but I can assure you that whatever 'wackiness' you can imagine in a love song, this probably included it. Even if dolphins and porcupines were not explicitely mentioned.]

The Talented Ms. Matchullis

Spent the evening stealthily tricking the sound system at a small coffee house to do my bidding as I was in charge of making this lady's concert sound somewhat decent (and by golly I think I did it, despite the persistent refusal of this system to work as God intended).

Sound system wrangling aside, this was an amazing concert. I can't believe this girl is not signed. Her voice combined with some slick song-writing skills and a talented back-up band (sister and friend) made the act most enjoyable.

Anyway, this is one of the pics which either I or RJ shot tonight (when unable to leave the soundboard alone, one's picture taking capabilities are fairly limited, thus I was quite appreciative of a familiar face to hand my camera off to). 

Lattice Leaves

This is from a while ago (beginning of Fall '05). Taken through some lattice work on my back deck.

Calgary has had an odd amount of fog lately but I've been loving it. A cold and foggy night leaves some amazing frost formations around. This was a small branch (vertical in real life) sticking oddly out of the side of a tree. It just seemed so out of place and the sharp contrast between the frost and the damp wood really emphasized the dichotomous appearance. 

MUSKRATTED!

What we have here is a Muskrat. For those unfamiliar with Canadian (and I imagine US) wildlife, it is about the size of a small cat, has a long slender tail, and is closely related to Canada's beloved beaver.
I stumbled across this fella while on an ice-fishing excursion and managed to walk beside him for about 10 minutes as he waddled along the bank of the frozen lake. At times I was less than 2m away from him but he just kept on waddling. If only all subjects were this accomodating.

First PhotoBlog Post!

I honestly have no clue about the model or year of this car. Though I love to look around at auto shows, I am anything but a car buff and unfortunately this means that I drool lots, take lots of photos, but remember very little 'valuable' information about the cars. Unless one considers "crazy orange paint" or "shiny" as valuable information.