@ the Helm

11 November 08

obtimistic

I was hoping for it, but i don't think i believed it was going to happen because I didn't feel optimistic until Obama was declared President Elect.

I haven't liked the direction the United States has been going in since Bush Senior.

I was close to giving up on the whole country.

Now I am curious to see what Obama can do.

4 November 08

ghosts

This summer I took my fathers bike out to explore the country roads just east of my hometown of Lacombe, Alberta.

It is beautiful country. Expansive blue sky snuggled against gentle sloping fields of wheat, barley, and canola flowers. Gravel roads and long lines of trees neatly divide the farmland into sections that can easily cover six city blocks, probably more. Distances become hard to measure when you can see so far.

What I find to be the most compelling part of the landscape are the weathered markings of human passing. Overgrown roadways leading to abandoned homesteads and crumbling barns where no one has wandered in years, perhaps decades. Some of these places I approached, but mostly I kept my distance because I found the thought of disturbing them a little unnerving. Perhaps if I rode down one of those forgotten roads I would awaken something that would mistake me for another man from another time that they once knew.

30 October 08

restart

I need to start doing.

I need to ration fiction.

I need to sleep eight hours in two.

9 September 08

boot!

When my computer doesn't work it makes me anxious. it makes me gnash my teeth and spurt out curses. and then, once i am beaten, i become confused and morose, not knowing what to do...or at least not wanting to do it.

The realization that a little box of wires and silicon is a central component to my state of being was once again brought to my attention when my computer went kaputz after I attempted to bring my video card back to life by mucking around in the BIOS.

Yes dear readers, the BIOS. the word sounds mystical doesn't it? I wouldn't recommend mucking about in a BIOS unless you know exactly what the word means and it doesn't sound mystical to you at all.

That's exactly what I did. brought my little box of wires to some people that don't think that BIOS is mystical in the slightest. and now my state of being is calm once again.

29 August 08

dog days

August is a very unproductive month.

People not on vacation should only work half days in August because everyone else is on vacation.

The most you can do is file the paperwork and wait until the middle of September.

...

27 August 08

unnoticed

When i first moved into my apartment i thought my neighbor was paranoid. there was a little piece of white thread stuck between the door frame and door, around two feet off the floor.

I imagined that it was a subtle security measure like when James Bond put a hair across the closet door of his hotel room to see if anyone opened the door while he was out. but the string has persisted through three different neighbors.

I yanked on it on my way back from the laundry room.

To my horror it unraveled and grew.