Right now I am living the high life - literally. I'm sitting on the 27th floor of a specatcular condo apartment building on Vancouver island. It's midnight and i'm sitting on a couch, listening to Sarah Harmer's new album, and staring out at the orange and fluorescent glow of downtown vancouver with an ibook on my lap.

Can it get any better than this?

I've only been here for a couple of days and i can see how easy it would be to spend a summer out here. Vancouver feels like a resort - it's own little self contained area that offers all the amenities you'll ever need within a 10 min walk. You don't really need a car here. Case in point: I covered Gastown, Yaletown, 1/2 of Robson St (equiv. to bloor st) and a big part of the Queer district in *one* evening... by foot with a friend! We only sat once for some quick cheap sushi... speaking of which...

HOLY SUSHI! There are SO many sushi restaurants I swear there are more of these restaurants than the ALL the chain coffee shops in toronto combined. Thanks to competition, prices are quite reasonable as well... and tons of All-You-Can-Eat sushi, for $12!! Madness. There is one place that I hope to go to called "Tsunami Sushi", which has boats that float around that you literally just grab sushi off of the plate.

There are also a ridiculous amount of coffee shops; and most AREN'T Tim Hortons! Mostly Starbucks (20 in 15 min radius) and Blendz (Second Cup). I guess since everyone is mobile and active, they love hopping in for tea/coffee. Didn't Starbucks start in Seattle? That would make more sense too.

Oh, and the drivers here are pretty crazy. Like Montreal crazy. I've been here for 2 days and i've seen 2 accidents, a 3rd from almost happening and almost getting into one! Not to mention near-death-experiences as i was walking. Perhaps it's cause of all the rolling hills and momentum you get.. I don't know.

The view here is absolutely stunning. I love the crisp morning air, refreshing and rejuvenating my lungs and body. It truely recharges you and helps gets the juices flowing again. Amazing. The morning view above the Mountains are also breathtaking. The I love sight of civiliazation in the foreground with towering rockies and misty lakes behind.

I'm finding as I travel i just keep finding more and more about myself. Funny how living in my home area can get very comfortable; it's not until I physically removed yourself from my natural surroundings when I realized, "hey, there's more to life than what's around me at home!". SBF and I have been talking about coming back here as part of a cross Canada tour - I am only here for another day, so it would be great to come back for a longer period of time. But work calls - it brought me here, and it will take me back home!

Anyway, I should recharge and get to bed. Big day ahead tomorrow!

-RE

"eat drink and be merry"

Today someone asked the burning question, "so who are you voting for?".. I honestly had no idea what to say. For some reason I wait until the last minute and then scramble to see who i want to vote for. Seeing that there's 1 week left until voting time, I should start doing reserach.

Volpe has been our MP for my riding since the late 80s. He's a retired principal who is adored by this community. He'll win again, so the question is, do I throw away my vote* or vote for the big V?

I think he's done a decent job, and to be honest until tonight I had no idea who was running for NDP/Green Party in my area. After some research it turns out that the Green Pary candidate is a TV Writer/Producer w/previous background in the insurance industry. The NDP candidate is an aboriginal court worker, with strong ties in the Urban Native community.

Unfortunately I haven't gotten any literature from them so I have no idea if..

a) they live in the area and for how long,
b) how they got into politics (esp. as a TV writer?),
c) what their actual platform is!

I'v received CON/LIB literature at my door, and even their volunteers knocking... but nothing from the other 2. This is understandable given the much smaller budget and support from this area -- you ARE going to lose as long as Volpe is running :) I can't blame them.

We'll see what they say if they email me back. It would be great to see what alternative POVs they've got for my area. i'll be sure to post their reponse (if they respond).

Take care,

-RE

"eat drink and be merry"

*OK so I did hear that this year for each vote the party gets something like $1.25 in funding.. so at least I'll help buy 'em a cup of coffee!

Look what happens when you lock a guitarist in a shoddy basement apartment w/a guitar, webcam and pacabel's canon.

A Japanese version of Steve Vai :)

Take care,

-RE

"eat drink and be merry"

Thundercats have gone to DVD! I am VERY excited about this; Thundercats was my #1 favourite show - X-Men and GI JOE round out the top 3. My brother got me Series 1 Vol. 2 for Christmas. He meant to get my Vol. 1, it doesn't matter too much - I hope to get it soon.

SO EXCITED.

For those who don't know the show, here's a quick synopsis.

The cast [image from L->R] of Tygra, Lion-O, Panthro, Wiley-Kit, Cheetara, Wiley-Kat and of course Lion-O's nursemaid Snarf [bottom] made for the perfect team of heroes.

After their planet was invaded by an empire of lizard and jackal creatures, they sought out another livable planet to start a new Thundercat race (Iffy concept since Cheetara and Wiley-Kit were the only females, and Wiley was a kitten.. but how many 10 year old's are gonna care about such pesky "details").

With the help of the Sword of Omens, Thundercats must face off against the "mutants", who have followed our heroes to Third Earth. It won't be an easy battle, because the mutants have a powerful new leader: Mumm-Ra, the Ever-Living!

Luckily they were usually able to defeat each evil effort within the 20-minute episode allotment given from the networks.

Sweet eh?...OK not quite, but you'd have to be 10 years old to really get jazzed on this. We all wanted to be Lion-O with his strength, integrity and massive 6-pack. Never mind that he can be a total boob by following floating fairies to traps, leaving the Sword of Omens in the forest, or bringing nurse Snarf to battle (who subsequently always gets caught and becomes a hostage to the mutants). Who cares - Lion-O had a cool sword and radiant red mane! Actually, my favourite was Cheetara, who was lightning fast and agile. She also had a wicked expandable staff to kick some mutant butt.

I remember when they sometimes had 5-episode storylines, one for each day of the week. The anticipation was wicked. I remember the later shows when they found their long lost cousins - one was a cousin to Tygra named Linx-o who ROCKED. Nevermind how it was a ratings-boosting tactic to bring in a bunch of new characters, it was something new and exciting!

My only fear when I start watching the shows is realizing how cheezy and low quality the shows were. Similar realization happened when I was excited to play a game called "Archon"* on a Commodore 64.

Thundercats was my morning TV show before school - around the same era when I watched Ghostbusters, Astroboy, Dennis the Menace, among others. They were mostly the older syndicated shows, and not the latest shows you'd see on Saturday like X-Men, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Darkwing Duck and Fun House.

Can't wait for Thundercats Season 2, which should include the 5-part Thundercats movie!

If you watched Saturday morning TV shows in the past 25 years and want a walk down memory lane, check out the shows aired on Saturday from the 80s and 90s.

-RE


*Archon was video chess game with a twist; in order to take over a square occupied by your opponent, you must fight the piece on the square. When I found a emulator I was so excited, lasting less then 2 mins after downloading it. It was basically blocks on screen moving in strict up/down/left/right patterns and firing flashing pixels at each other. OUCH.