Well it's been over a year since I've posted to this blog. With moving back to Toronto I sort of figured there was no point in talking about things that I'd most likely be sharing with the people who read this thing. The funny thing is, it sort of became a self fulfilling prophecy, instead of going out and doing interesting things I ended up spending a lot of last year doing a lot of the same things that I've always done in Toronto. That's not to say last year was boring or awful or anything, in fact a lot of really cool stuff happened, which i hope to get around to talking about on this blog hopefully, however I don't think I went out and tried doing different stuff as much as I probably could of.
One of the things I really liked about this blog was that it actually did give me added incentive to go out and do interesting stuff. Which is why with the new year I thought it would be a good resolution to bring it back. That's what this post is all about. Consider this thing re-opened again. Although it won't be a daily thing or anything I hope to update it once every two weeks or so.
And with all that being said, what better way to start it back up then with a recap of Christy and I's recent trip to South America. First official blog post coming soon......
Monday, January 10, 2011
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
It's O-fish-ul
Well, I'm moving back to Toronto. I got a new job in the dot and I start in Toronto. Just thought I'd mention it on this guy. Before I leave I want to do some wrap up about my time out here and maybe a little guide on stuff I was stoked on out here.
But yeah, I'm on my way back to Ontario....in the middle of winter. Good foresight on my part.
But yeah, I'm on my way back to Ontario....in the middle of winter. Good foresight on my part.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
a slow end
Well, as you probably noticed, I'm not posting in this thing as much as I used to. There's a few good reasons for it. For starters, the format I've created with all the links to the pictures is a real pain to complete. Another reason is I find after a year of posting stuff I'm starting to repeat myself. For example, I went to Tofino recently, it was another awesome trip, but the pictures are very similar to ones I shot last year.
I've sort of found my niche out here and everything seems less foreign and interesting to me than it did before, as a result, I bring my camera less, and I generally don't find things as interesting.
The original purpose of this blog was to communicate what I'm up to out here with friends and family, So I wouldn't have to keep sending the same "what's new?" email back and forth over and over again. It served that purpose quite well.
As a result, I'm going to keep this going a little longer, but I'm planning to switch things up soon. I want to switch to something that's quicker, and a lot less PG. I've had a few people mention to me how dry this blog is. Trust me, I know. It's hard not to write down every fart joke I think up. That needs to end soon.
Moving forward, I have a question for anyone who has a more modern blog. Should I use Tumblr or Wordpress? I heard Wordpress is better if you're not just reposting, is that true or has anyone else had any experiences?
In the meantime. Enjoy fish. fish. fish. fish and more fish.
I've sort of found my niche out here and everything seems less foreign and interesting to me than it did before, as a result, I bring my camera less, and I generally don't find things as interesting.
The original purpose of this blog was to communicate what I'm up to out here with friends and family, So I wouldn't have to keep sending the same "what's new?" email back and forth over and over again. It served that purpose quite well.
As a result, I'm going to keep this going a little longer, but I'm planning to switch things up soon. I want to switch to something that's quicker, and a lot less PG. I've had a few people mention to me how dry this blog is. Trust me, I know. It's hard not to write down every fart joke I think up. That needs to end soon.
Moving forward, I have a question for anyone who has a more modern blog. Should I use Tumblr or Wordpress? I heard Wordpress is better if you're not just reposting, is that true or has anyone else had any experiences?
In the meantime. Enjoy fish. fish. fish. fish and more fish.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Stoked
When something cool happens usually I don't get as excited as I should, usually because things rarely happen out of the blue. Instead you start working at something and poof, it happens.
That's why I wasn't as excited as I thought I would be when I wrote an interview for Color Magazine. Then I saw the contributors page, with me and Ed Templeton book ending the thing and thought how stoked 16 year old Simon would be at seeing that. I mean the dude created Toy Machine and some of my favorite skate vids. So yeah, remember kids, even if you'll never land a 360 flip, there's other ways to share the limelight with your heroes.
That's why I wasn't as excited as I thought I would be when I wrote an interview for Color Magazine. Then I saw the contributors page, with me and Ed Templeton book ending the thing and thought how stoked 16 year old Simon would be at seeing that. I mean the dude created Toy Machine and some of my favorite skate vids. So yeah, remember kids, even if you'll never land a 360 flip, there's other ways to share the limelight with your heroes.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Where my dawgs at? Ben Meers edition
This one was like 4 months in the waiting. I asked Ben to write this a while ago but, it's worked out because he has been travelling a lot lately. I met Ben through 12 oz profit, which was (and still is) a big time community for graffiti writers. While I was down there on a business trip he showed me around and we basically stayed in touch since then, basically visiting each other whenever we wanted to take a party trip somewhere on the cheap. One funny thing about Ben is that he was the event planner dude for Blegojivich, he also confirmed that he was a pretty big douche before the whole fall out.
By now most of the people who read this have probably met Ben before. I give you Ben Meers.
Who are you?
Ben-- well, Texas Ben to most Canadians.
Where you live?
I just moved to Copenhagen, Denmark. Before that, I was in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for a month after a year of living in England.
What you up to?
L-I-V-I-N. Cold lampin'; reppin' USA around the world. USA! #1!
Whats a cool thing(s) about where you live?
Bikes, blitzed babes at bars, beer, boats, burgers ... and that's just the Bs.
What's something you're excited about right now?
What am I not excited about? I live in the happiest country in the world, getting paid by the EU and am basically just relaxing. I also have a pretty good trip planned for next year.
Anything else?
I'd like to end with a quote: "Shoot for the moon; even if you miss, at least you're hangin' with the stars." - Tony Bruyn
By now most of the people who read this have probably met Ben before. I give you Ben Meers.
Who are you?
Ben-- well, Texas Ben to most Canadians.
Where you live?
I just moved to Copenhagen, Denmark. Before that, I was in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for a month after a year of living in England.
What you up to?
L-I-V-I-N. Cold lampin'; reppin' USA around the world. USA! #1!
Whats a cool thing(s) about where you live?
Bikes, blitzed babes at bars, beer, boats, burgers ... and that's just the Bs.
What's something you're excited about right now?
What am I not excited about? I live in the happiest country in the world, getting paid by the EU and am basically just relaxing. I also have a pretty good trip planned for next year.
Anything else?
I'd like to end with a quote: "Shoot for the moon; even if you miss, at least you're hangin' with the stars." - Tony Bruyn
Thursday, October 1, 2009
A trip to SF
Me and Christy went down to San Francisco last Wednesday for an extra long weekend. The principle reason was that an old friend of Christy’s from England was getting married to an American girl and we were invited to the wedding. Hey, any excuse to go to a city like SF is cool with me, and getting to see old friends we haven’t seen in a while makes it that much sweeter.
Basically me and Christy tried our usual thing of putting our faith in Priceline’s name your price option. Unfortunately we did it about 3 days before we had to leave and got shut out. Thankfully Mike Newland came up big and got us a discount at the Fairmont in SF. The hotel was absolutely ridiculous. The day we showed up Governor Arnie was actually there doing some press conference or something. I never saw him but I saw his army of security guards. Our hotel was also located on Nob Hill, in the middle of the city. Which is cool for scenic views and seeing everything, but a bit of a bummer when it comes to walking back up to the hotel. Seriously, the hills and that city are ridiculous.
On the first day we spent most of it walking around. Mostly the usual spots. Looked at a lot of cool buildings and stuff and also saw where the gonz gap used to be. Me and my bro went there when we were in our teens and basically all we did the entire time was get our parents to drive us to famous skate spots. The embarcadero, hubba hideout and the gonz were the obvious first ones to go to. This time around I was sort of surprised to see how skate proof the entire city had become. Another weird thing I noticed, for a city that was essentially a mecca of graffiti ten years ago, there wasn’t much at all. Most of the stuff I saw was legal stuff. Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of AWR and MSK stuff, I even saw a giant peice, but I don’t know, wall productions and stuff never really get me all that psyched.
So yeah, went around the pier, the embarcadero, saw those awesome sea lions that hang out on the docks, looked out at the rock but didn’t bother with a tour or anything. We met up with Will in the Haight Ashbury area. Checked out Amoeba records and a few other shops, to be honest I’m a bit surprised we didn’t take any pictures. I was probably afraid some dirty hippy might stink up the camera. Seriously though, I was a little surprised hippies still hang out there, it’s not exactly a beacon of co-ops and freaky stores anymore. I mean there’s a few of them but there’s also a ton of boutiques and yuppie stores too. Than again, why would hippies do anything logical in the first place right? Man I hate hippies.
At the end of the day we met up with a bunch of the dudes and went to a Giants game. We sat in the bleachers right in front of that giant Coke bottle that Barry Bonds used to hit dingers over. All in all it was a cold night but it’s a pretty cool place to watch the game. After that we headed to the Tonga room inside the basement of the Fairmont. It’s basically like a Trader Vic’s type of bar. The coolest thing was it had the band perform on a boat in the middle of a fake lagoon. And it rained indoors. Pretty hilarious.
The next day was sort of more of the same. Walked around to the Mission first. During which a few really weird things happened. To anyone that has never been to SF, the city is really patchy. And by that I mean you might go 3 blocks of a nice neighborhood, then out of nowhere you’ll be walking through the middle of cracksville. Walking around this day, it just kept happening. We’d go to an area that we’d heard good things about, get there and be totally confused as to why we were recommended to visit such a shit hole, then go a block further and come across something cool. On our way down, through union square we had one gentlemen come up behind Christy and pretend to slap her butt, as he walked away we noticed he had a switch blade in his other hand. Just dangling it, no big whoop. So first we walked to the Mission (Mexican) neighborhood. Once again, after a parade of crack heads we turned off and found some cool shops and stuff. From there it was to the Castro (Gay) neighborhood. And then we too Market street back to the middle of union square and eventually our own hotel where we hung out in the back garden a bit. It was a sweet day, me and Christy are pretty stoked on walking around a city and SF is a pretty good walking city, like I said though, pretty surprised at the lack of graffiti and skaters
The next day was the wedding. It was a small ceremony at what was an old military chapel. For the reception we went across the Golden Gate Bridge to Mill Valley. The reception was at a golf course and was a wicked time. Lots of boozing and dancing specifically, which is usually good signs for any sort of Wedding, unfortunately when you go too far with both it can lead to trouble, which in this case turned out to be me and Christy falling on each other and Christy broke her toe. Hey no one said partying awesome was easy right?
Peace out SF. Not only were you an awesome host, but you were also witness to one of the best passes I’ve ever seen Brett Favre throw. Go Vikes!
Basically me and Christy tried our usual thing of putting our faith in Priceline’s name your price option. Unfortunately we did it about 3 days before we had to leave and got shut out. Thankfully Mike Newland came up big and got us a discount at the Fairmont in SF. The hotel was absolutely ridiculous. The day we showed up Governor Arnie was actually there doing some press conference or something. I never saw him but I saw his army of security guards. Our hotel was also located on Nob Hill, in the middle of the city. Which is cool for scenic views and seeing everything, but a bit of a bummer when it comes to walking back up to the hotel. Seriously, the hills and that city are ridiculous.
On the first day we spent most of it walking around. Mostly the usual spots. Looked at a lot of cool buildings and stuff and also saw where the gonz gap used to be. Me and my bro went there when we were in our teens and basically all we did the entire time was get our parents to drive us to famous skate spots. The embarcadero, hubba hideout and the gonz were the obvious first ones to go to. This time around I was sort of surprised to see how skate proof the entire city had become. Another weird thing I noticed, for a city that was essentially a mecca of graffiti ten years ago, there wasn’t much at all. Most of the stuff I saw was legal stuff. Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of AWR and MSK stuff, I even saw a giant peice, but I don’t know, wall productions and stuff never really get me all that psyched.
So yeah, went around the pier, the embarcadero, saw those awesome sea lions that hang out on the docks, looked out at the rock but didn’t bother with a tour or anything. We met up with Will in the Haight Ashbury area. Checked out Amoeba records and a few other shops, to be honest I’m a bit surprised we didn’t take any pictures. I was probably afraid some dirty hippy might stink up the camera. Seriously though, I was a little surprised hippies still hang out there, it’s not exactly a beacon of co-ops and freaky stores anymore. I mean there’s a few of them but there’s also a ton of boutiques and yuppie stores too. Than again, why would hippies do anything logical in the first place right? Man I hate hippies.
At the end of the day we met up with a bunch of the dudes and went to a Giants game. We sat in the bleachers right in front of that giant Coke bottle that Barry Bonds used to hit dingers over. All in all it was a cold night but it’s a pretty cool place to watch the game. After that we headed to the Tonga room inside the basement of the Fairmont. It’s basically like a Trader Vic’s type of bar. The coolest thing was it had the band perform on a boat in the middle of a fake lagoon. And it rained indoors. Pretty hilarious.
The next day was sort of more of the same. Walked around to the Mission first. During which a few really weird things happened. To anyone that has never been to SF, the city is really patchy. And by that I mean you might go 3 blocks of a nice neighborhood, then out of nowhere you’ll be walking through the middle of cracksville. Walking around this day, it just kept happening. We’d go to an area that we’d heard good things about, get there and be totally confused as to why we were recommended to visit such a shit hole, then go a block further and come across something cool. On our way down, through union square we had one gentlemen come up behind Christy and pretend to slap her butt, as he walked away we noticed he had a switch blade in his other hand. Just dangling it, no big whoop. So first we walked to the Mission (Mexican) neighborhood. Once again, after a parade of crack heads we turned off and found some cool shops and stuff. From there it was to the Castro (Gay) neighborhood. And then we too Market street back to the middle of union square and eventually our own hotel where we hung out in the back garden a bit. It was a sweet day, me and Christy are pretty stoked on walking around a city and SF is a pretty good walking city, like I said though, pretty surprised at the lack of graffiti and skaters
The next day was the wedding. It was a small ceremony at what was an old military chapel. For the reception we went across the Golden Gate Bridge to Mill Valley. The reception was at a golf course and was a wicked time. Lots of boozing and dancing specifically, which is usually good signs for any sort of Wedding, unfortunately when you go too far with both it can lead to trouble, which in this case turned out to be me and Christy falling on each other and Christy broke her toe. Hey no one said partying awesome was easy right?
Peace out SF. Not only were you an awesome host, but you were also witness to one of the best passes I’ve ever seen Brett Favre throw. Go Vikes!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Home Pt 2
Though I was back in Ontario about 3 weeks ago now, a lot of stuff has gone on since then.
With that being said, I thought I should mention hanging out at Christy’s cottage a ton. It’s a pretty sweet place to generally just hang out and do nothing, it’s also one of the few places in the world that I can hang out without feeling like I have to do something. Courtney brought up “Settlers of Catan” as a gift for the cottage. That’s a pretty epic game. To be honest I think I could’ve played it the entire cottage time. I need to find some dudes who are up for an epic Catan night when I don’t have the money to go out or something on a weekend. Yeah I’m getting old and soft. No big whoop.
Also, while I was back home, a pretty intense event known as the League of Genius Fantasy draft took place. Being the 5th year of the draft it’s sort of become a big deal. On top of it being an excuse to get drunk, it’s garnered a bit of cache with a professional football scout and the official fantasy football guy for the score both being involved in it this year. Sick. It’s pretty awesome to beat either of those guys, I mean, they get paid to do it. Anyways it was a pretty awesome night once again. Lots of partying, boozing, stressing out about the draft picks, and watching people make bad picks. Honestly, it’s hard to explain how awesome a fantasy draft is to people who have no interest in the nfl, but yeah, it rules.
Also this last time back home I made sure to spend some time with my grandma learning how to cook a bunch of Lithuanian food. Granted, I will probably only be making this food for myself considering most people who try Lithuanian food get bummed out. Anyways, awesome.
The weekend after me and Christy got back from Ontario we took a road trip down to Seattle to go see Toronto FC take on the Seattle sounders. The border was a bummer, but once we go there it was pretty awesome. They play at quest field and the full lower bowl of 32,000 was full so it was a pretty rad experience. I hate to say it TFC die hards but it was louder than BMO field. Also, all the Sounders fans I met were really friendly and cool about the whole thing. Nothing bothers me more than north American soccer fans trying to create some contrived rivalry or “actin’ like propa’ geezahs” and acting like assholes. You see it a lot more on soccer forums and stuff than you do in real person.
Sorry if this entry is a little lame. I’ve been watching a pretty sweet documentary on heavy metal the entire time. Better post on Sunday.
With that being said, I thought I should mention hanging out at Christy’s cottage a ton. It’s a pretty sweet place to generally just hang out and do nothing, it’s also one of the few places in the world that I can hang out without feeling like I have to do something. Courtney brought up “Settlers of Catan” as a gift for the cottage. That’s a pretty epic game. To be honest I think I could’ve played it the entire cottage time. I need to find some dudes who are up for an epic Catan night when I don’t have the money to go out or something on a weekend. Yeah I’m getting old and soft. No big whoop.
Also, while I was back home, a pretty intense event known as the League of Genius Fantasy draft took place. Being the 5th year of the draft it’s sort of become a big deal. On top of it being an excuse to get drunk, it’s garnered a bit of cache with a professional football scout and the official fantasy football guy for the score both being involved in it this year. Sick. It’s pretty awesome to beat either of those guys, I mean, they get paid to do it. Anyways it was a pretty awesome night once again. Lots of partying, boozing, stressing out about the draft picks, and watching people make bad picks. Honestly, it’s hard to explain how awesome a fantasy draft is to people who have no interest in the nfl, but yeah, it rules.
Also this last time back home I made sure to spend some time with my grandma learning how to cook a bunch of Lithuanian food. Granted, I will probably only be making this food for myself considering most people who try Lithuanian food get bummed out. Anyways, awesome.
The weekend after me and Christy got back from Ontario we took a road trip down to Seattle to go see Toronto FC take on the Seattle sounders. The border was a bummer, but once we go there it was pretty awesome. They play at quest field and the full lower bowl of 32,000 was full so it was a pretty rad experience. I hate to say it TFC die hards but it was louder than BMO field. Also, all the Sounders fans I met were really friendly and cool about the whole thing. Nothing bothers me more than north American soccer fans trying to create some contrived rivalry or “actin’ like propa’ geezahs” and acting like assholes. You see it a lot more on soccer forums and stuff than you do in real person.
Sorry if this entry is a little lame. I’ve been watching a pretty sweet documentary on heavy metal the entire time. Better post on Sunday.
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