the path through cathedral grove

i have always found it pretentious the way bands like oasis compare themselves to the beatles. i mean, i find it so much so that they must be joking. beyond this, they release albums with names such as "standing on the shoulders of giants" and that kind of thing. how could they compare themselves to the beatles when the beatles had no such band to compare themselves to? that by itself seperates them.

giants fallen from a massive wind storm

but mockery of oasis is not the purpose of this post. there's something bigger than even the beatles and oasis combined.

i would be talking of cathedral grove -- the ancient rainforest between port alberni and the east side of the island. some of these trees are over 800 years old. and they're alive.

they're over 800 years old.

jeebus.

walking around in that area is just breathtaking. i could have walked around for hours if it were not for the particularly cold weather that day. there's just something awe inspiring about the scale of all of this. pictures don't do it justice, but they do make for mighty fine reminders if you've been there before.

what the @#$! is this?!

thank you for the feedback on those tennis ball shots. yes, they're all from the same shot but the cropping and sizing obviously makes a big difference. no one said what i thought they would say, but thats what makes the comments and complications even cooler. i saw the middle image in a different way after considering what jim wrote.

it's kind of like how it was being in atlin and trying to bring some of it home with you on the camera. i had trouble capturing the scale of the whole thing. it has a lot to do with the composition of the image .. you need to have something to compare all the size to. i think i was able to achieve this in one atlin picture by capturing anastasia in the image with the mountains in the background. compare that to another picture with my face in the foreground and the mountains in the background. neat shot, but you dont get near the sense of the immensity of the mountains.

the last atlin shot brings me to something else that is rather large.

the largest, oldest tree in cathedral grove at 800+ years

i put up a new entry in my (simple) music and mixes blog, which is still all mixes and no music. this entry is for my proton radio featured artist mix which aired january the 8th. there's a 192k mp3 hosted off of lefty.ca's phat pipes
(that means high speed connection), and of course the entry is complete with a CD cover and tracklistings should you choose to burn it. i made the cover for it yesterday out of one of the atlin pictures and a bit of the usual graphic design. there's also a link to the proton radio featured artist website with a bio and all that kind of stuff. it all clocks in an a giant two hours and fifty minutes. if you haven't yet heard it, i hope you enjoy it!

Posted by davin at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

4.0 megapixels. mmmm. it always feels like time evaporates faster and faster every time i go back to victoria. there were plenty of plans, but only so much time. when was i going to sleep?

this is more of the same image, shrunk down a bunch. i had plans on monday night. i was going to watch a movie with julie, i was also going to go for coffee with nathan. neither happened. i stayed up until around 11 and then crashed. mmmmm sleep.

i wanted to go swimming with steve but unfortunately the pools aren't open at 3 am. and i also wanted to go meet up with the ex-experience kru but there was no time for that either. alas!

i also wanted to meet up with some ex-coworkers from last work term at bchydro. getting a bunch of people together for an hour or an hour and a half is a bit difficult on short notice though. i think making plans ahead of time is in order.. i'm getting to this point where i should probably schedule my couple days off in victoria while i am still in nanaimo.

this image is shrunk down to display the entire picture.

today i didn't get to play tennis because i slept in. i did, however, get to go on a nice walk on the breakwater. there's something very relaxing about going for walks on the breakwater. nothing quite makes you feel like you're in victoria like going for a walk on the breakwater, i think.

steph had some car troubles as we were departing for nanaimo again this evening. we drove around to several garages, just as they were closing, and weren't told anything incredibly helpful. that's when i phoned jim. we drove over to his place in james bay, he had a quick look at and was able to tell us what the cretins at all the other garages had no time to say. or didn't know. either way, thank you very much jim! we made it up to nanaimo with confidence -- which is important to me. i once had a car break down on the island highway and it was not a pleasurable experience, let me tell you. er, i just told you!

so out of the three above pictures, which would you consider to be 'the big picture'?

Posted by davin at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

The Featured Artist mix was made for Proton Radio. Every week they feature a different DJ/producer and showcase a mix of that persons in prime time. This is what I submitted. It clocks in at two hours and fifty minutes.

TRACKLISTING:

1. AFK - b00mz0r (Intro Edit)
   
2. The Fact - Contact
   
3. Bradley - Rush (Voyager Remix)
   
4. Magic Shoe - Brainwalking
   
5. Woven - Solder Me (Seed Remix)
   
6. Landa - Music N' Control (Shmuel Flash Remix)
   
7. Phasebase - I'm Reachin' (Dan Morris & Shylock Mix)
   
8. Teapot - Question Of Life
   
9. Vance Musgrove - Squelch
   
10. Formulate - This Is How It Happens
    
11. Quivver - Twist & Shout (Vocal Mix)
    
12. Graffik - A Better Man (Satoshi Tomiie Remix)
    
13. Formulate - Oba Rahl
    
14. Masters Of The Universe - Sonic Attack
    
15. Sasha - Boileroom
    
16. Conjure One - Tears From The Moon (Hybrid Dub)
    
17. AFK - Arctic Exploration (Main Mix)
    
18. Bedrock - Emerald (Dub)
    
19. Z2 vs. Doom Farrington - Herbgrinder
    
20. Pako & Frederik - Western Approaches (Evolution Remix)
    
21. Planisphere - Teardrop
    
22. Barraka - Song To The Siren (Max Graham Remix)
    
23. Bajwa & Dale Andersen - Overtow
    

Download 192k mp3

Posted by davin at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

it's great to be in victoria again, at least for last night, today, and tomorrow until afternoon. i did not hang out with colin and jill in the last couple days, but they are some of my friends who i did recently hang out with in victoria.

i just watched my first episode of american idol tonight. it was definitely entertaining, but more so because I was hanging out with two experienced musicians, chrissie and rich. the best of the worst is on thursday night. i do not think i can miss this.

anyway i am planning on playing tennis tomorrow morning with nathan. that should be good. it has just been awesome. i have a few rad pictures from when we played last week.. plus a whole bunch of others. i will probably post these tomorrow afternoon!

Posted by davin at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

well it's a gorgeous day once again and i am headed to mill bay for the duration of it. then i'm coming back up to nanaimo and then going to victoria at about 6:30!$#*(%!)*$^)(#)$(~@!#%asdfasdfsdjkvasdnvsd$~$*!@(%@#~(*$!@)(#!@

@!#*(%)(*%)~($)!(#!~)#@~!@~!@#~!#~!@$^$(#)@&#(%!@#

i am in town until wednesday evening. anyone wanna do anything!?

Posted by davin at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

how much sleep i'll get tonight.......

Posted by davin at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

with a half eaten banana, staring out the window, yet typing at the same time.

i've spent the last hour listening to coldplay and surfing blogs. it's just gorgeous out but it's also really cold. i really really hate not being mobile on days like these. i would have gone to the beach, i would have walked somewhere scenic.

tonight a bunch of us are going to go out and distract ourselves from what we miss. don't get me wrong, we have lots of fun together.. i figure that .. as soon as i figured out how on earth you can take a left on bowen to go north on the island highway, no matter what end of bowen you are at, nanaimo lost a bit of it's mystique. haha, nanaimo .. mystique. . really. i said those two words in the same sentence.

though there is some still. i haven't yet been to 'the abyss' here. i have been told about it and the view from on top, and i really want to check it out. i think on a day like today, it would probably be spectacular.

strange thing about writing .. it's hard for me to start and then when i get going it's easy as pie. mind you, i had a bunch of distractions here in the office, but they've all gone home now.

and i should too. i was off about an hour and ten minutes ago. i am kind of in the mood for a nap but I will probably not nap.

Posted by davin at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

200 posts of junk!

wooooow!

so, i was thinking.

*behold*

banner ads are on the downward spiral of ineffectiveness. there are only a few banners that i would ever click on. the ones i can think of:

• canucks
• hybrid

how about you?

Posted by davin at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

photo by chrissie

of course, those lyrics below are from Coldplay's "Clocks." One of my favourite songs from the last half year.

it's time to check the email. i haven't checked my email in a very long time and i'm scared to see how much i have. aaaaaack!

i am trying to figure out whether or not i like this sort of captioning style. so far, i think no. it's a bit too obese. maybe i'll just drop the grey background. hmmzor. opinions?

Posted by davin at 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

lights go out and i can't be saved
tides that i tried to swim against
you've put me down upon my knees
oh i beg, i beg and plead
come out of things unsaid,
shoot an apple off my head
trouble that can't be named,
tigers waiting to be tamed
you are, you are

confusion never stops,
closing walls and ticking clocks
come back and take you home,
i could not stop, that you now know
come out upon my seas,
curse missed opportunities
am i a part of the cure,
or am i part of the disease?

Posted by davin at 9:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

not really live or real time, but this is a periodical that broadcasts from different places. wait, it doesn't broadcast.

like the contradiction of
above, i'm doing
my update today from
an internet cafe on the main
drag of chemainus and i
think that it's beautiful here
and you all will see when
i upload my pictures

Posted by davin at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

i am going to see coldplay, may 23rd, on my birthday!

boo
yah!

Posted by davin at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

myself and anastasia (as seen above) left nanaimo airport on tuesday morning and arrived in vancouver just in time for lunch. actually we had 3 hours there, so we wandered around the mall errr airport a bit and were harassed by visa salespeople. this picture was taken inside of their milestones where i acquainted myself with the habanaro sauce. mmmm crazyhot greenstuff.

after brunch, we spent an hour looking for travelchess in any one of the giftstores and eventually found it. we never ended up playing chess, but at least i have travelchess now!

we met up with john, randy, paul and helen in vancouver, whom with we would be working.

the gang flew out of vancouver on a boeing 737 and cruised at 25,000 feet for 2.5 hours, arriving in whitehorse at about 3pm. we were greeted in whitehorse by dreary weather and mild temperatures. we drove two hours south on the alaska highway and another road to atlin. we unloaded our stuff after having dinner and then set up our presentation material at the town hall which was located in the local recreation centre. we stayed in quite the lovely bed and breakfast!

wednesday.

the scenery was immense. this is only proof that i was there. the next picture will show you some scale.

that's anastasia on one of the docks on atlin lake. the lake is frozen about a foot deep. deep enough to stand on but i didn't really feel like taking a chance in that area. warm springs spot the lake and could thin the ice in any area.

time went by really quick on wednesday, the presentation day.

guess what this does!

after tearing our presentation setup down at the end of wednesday night we went curling. i had never done it before and was amazed at how difficult it was to throw the rock properly. it takes some skill! we were pretty tired and had a long day of travelling ahead of us.

i woke up before anyone else and went for a walk. this was just outside of the bed and breakfast we were staying at.. just a pickup truck driving by. we were on the road soon after breakfast and in whitehorse for 10 am.

hello whitehorse.

we flew back to vancouver in this rad ultraquiet quadruple turbofan engined british aerospace plane. so cool.

the rocky mountains.

wow.

we flew along the coast until we found this place again and landed.

flying back into nanaimo we saw the slow version of a trip to the island. i like this picture a lot.

thursday at 4:35 .. we're back!

Posted by davin at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

awwww yeah!

so, on another day (like maybe tomorrow) i am going to do an atlin trip post. i will detail some things. and not some other things, like zoodip.

happy valentines day everyone!

ps: moveable type has been doing some odd thing when i post from work. it is changing the status of my posted post from published to draft when i log out. not sure why this is but i suspect it's something to do with duplicated login cached cookies. in any case, it's not a big deal, just annoying.. i haven't had that problem anywhere else but at work.

Posted by davin at 6:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

from atlin to whitehorse to vancouver to nanaimo to victoria.
in one day.

Posted by davin at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

whut?

is this going up, or is it going down?

wtf??! is that the moon?!!

yeah. haha.

tomorrow morning, myself and anastasia leave for atlin.

so, it says here that our flight to vancouver leaves at 8:40 a.m. it also sez that we have to be at the airport a full hour before the plane leaves or we might lose our seats. ohkay. so we must be ready to leave at the airport at 7:40 a.m. why don't they just say that?

we arrive at vancouver international airport at 9 a.m.

we depart from vancouver international airport at 12:30 p.m.

we arrive in whitehorse at 3 p.m.

i think i want to buy a travel version of chess so that myself and anastasia can kill some time that way. it's a bit healthier than eating for 3 hours. plus for some reason i think that chess would be fun to get into again. not that i was really into it before, but i sort of was interested. i know the rules.. but none of the strategy.

well, here comes some seriously cold weather.

today was fun! i did some media stuff with the mayor of north cowichan (jon) and the mayor of duncan (mike). that was fun. with the media there, i got to see this goliath of a canon eos. a fellow from the newsgroup named andrew had one. i didn't really get a good look at it, but it just appeared to have so much stuff going on. neat. my g2 looked like a baby beside it.

i was interviewed by the shaw folks, there was a reporter there too. all sorts of hubbub and hooplah! good times, good times.

i don't know if i will be able to update from atlin, so i'll talk to you all on thursday.

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Posted by davin at 7:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

which OS are you?

hehehehe

Posted by davin at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

today was super relaxing. a nice drive up to qualicum bay and the lighthouse community was just what the doctaur ordered.

i can't figure out why i am sneezing so much today. hmmmmm. atchoo!!

enough of the present, lets talk about the future.

i'm getting a cell phone. after many years of putting this off, i have decided that it is time to do it. waiting in one place for a phone call has taken up too much of my time and i've had it with missing messages. though i haven't missed any messages up here, i have no idea how many i have missed in victoria over the years. plus if i am planning on doing some contracting when i get back to victoria, i better not miss a single message and i better have them all in a reasonably timely manner.

i might sound bitter, but i am not really. i enjoy not having a cell phone a lot of the time, simply because when i am out doing something, i am not being interrupted by a phone. but.. you can turn ringers off.

Posted by davin at 9:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

i think i need a bicycle. or a car. not a motorbike. not the bus.

not the coho. not walking.

what is your mode of transportation? and why?

Posted by davin at 7:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

no folks, it doesn't get much more exciting than this. i got more new shoes. the ones i couldn't get in aldo in victoria i got in aldo in nanaimo. the last pair. noice one, me! i'll post a picture .. later!

so as you can see, i am dying to play tennis again.

i guess the tennis racquet everywhere kind of gave it away. i got a new grip on it and some new topspin strings. last sunday when i played tennis with nathan it was just too cool. it's been a long time for both of us and it was just awesome. the last several years i've been stuck to [my] computers and other lazy social activities. most of my friends just enjoyed going for coffee and all that kind of stuff. i still love doing that but physical activity is so much more gratifying and it doesn't leave you buzzing on caffeine or whathaveyou at the end of the night when you should be exhausted enought to sleep.

me and nathan are planning on going back to an indoor facility to partake in more tennis-like activities. we're also planning on bringing his laptop, his usb audio input device, and a couple of mics to record samples. the sounds made in the tennis bubble is just too zope. nathan has also been hooking me up with some serious samples which is just great. i have much to listen to when i return to victoria, that is for sure.

Posted by davin at 6:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

those are my überzope new shoes. picture by girlrepair.

so yes, i made it. 1 hour in the gym and an hour and a half in the pool.

ok. this place has 3 awesome waterslides, a wave pool, and this crazy current pool. and a steam room seperate from the sauna. oh and an olympic sized swimming pool with diving boards et all.

besides not having tower, this place is way more fun than anything in victoria. the slides are huge and fast, and the place is just nice.

anyway, i am planning on going rock climbing again tonight. i just had a gigantic dinner and i can't move. ack!

scratch that. it isn't happening..

mellow night in. i am exhausted from work anyway.

ps: thank you renee :)

Posted by davin at 6:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

i will go to the aquatics centre.

Posted by davin at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

well no, victoria is no montreal, victoria is no san francisco, and victoria certainly is no new orleans.

what victoria is though, is interesting. the cultural events that happen are not the kind where they are delivered to you on a silver platter. and i'm glad they're not, because if that were the case, they would have to water the content down to the lowest common denominator to market it on that scale.

so then, take a look through the victoria phone book. look in the yellow pages under entertainment and under culture.

hold on, i'll do it for you.

entertainment:

• clowns
  
• belly dancers
  
• magicians
  
• comedians
  
• hypnotists
  

arts and cultural organizations:

• british columbia association of performing arts festivals
  
• british columbia festival of the arts
  
• canadian music centre
  
• victoria literary arts festival society
  

i can't say that those entries excite me in any way. so, if this was ones approach, yes.. it would appear that victoria is a void when it comes to culture.

i don't think this is exactly representative of how it actually is in victoria, however. it is a bit different. you have to know where to look, and to do that, you must do your homework. that's okay, it makes it all a discovery.

although i have to say, it is easy to expect more accessability from cultures and sub-cultures, considering the last super popular "sub-culture" supernovaed to the extent that it became subject to ridicule such as this:

[synja] wouldnt it be so rave cool to have a museum of glowsticks, like, all the art was made out of glowsticks, and they all glowed.. and like.. the museum itself was built of of glowsticks too?? kind of like tooth picks, but i mean.. lets not be ridiculous here it would take too many tooth picks to make a whole museum!!

not to say that rave culture is dead, but the pop culture accessability which destroyed the rave mystique stands taller than anything else right now, and also serves for comparison when expectations about new (?) or different cultures are being made.

which brings me to my next question. what is going to be the next big thing? and i don't mean electronic genre, i don't mean drug, but i do mean: what is going to be the next big subculture? rave was as big, as widespread and as globally synchronious as i can think of.

it happened to coincide with the erruption of global communication (i'm not referring to the band) through the internet, which could have a lot to do with it.

what i am seeing these days is more and more splinters of special interest groups, autonomous communities and some sort of gravity between personalities. i am referring to blogging, specifically. however, a subculture, it isn't. it's just a different way of communicating, like an email list, but less obnoxious and more involved at the same time. sort of magnetic.

or is it a subculture? what defines a subculture?

princeton university says it means the following:

subculture
n : a social group within a national culture that has distinctive patterns of behavior and beliefs

well, no, not specifically distinct beliefs. maybe we all believe that blogging is good for your mind, maybe we all find it therapeutic, but it is my belief that many of us blog for different reasons.

that being said, lets look at another definition, this time from merriam-webster:

subculture n : an ethnic, regional, economic, or social group exhibiting characteristic patterns of behavior sufficient to distinguish it from others within an embracing culture or society

social group? well kind of. there are blog friends, and there is something somewhat distinct about writing in regards to your own life, or on your own views for all to see. it isn't so unique when it comes to the expression is broadcasted, but more that we all have our own soapboxes with an unlimited audience. what is distinct about this is that we can hear eachother whilst standing on our own respective soap boxes. has that really happened before? i don't know. i don't think so, at least. i would liken a lot (not all) of the blog-land to column writing. i can't see newspaper columnists listening to eachother as much as some bloggers do. further to this, some of us end up meeting because of our blogging. is there a distinguishable social group characteristic? yes, there is. the method of communication would be it. within the social group, are there common distinguishable characteristics? well, no, there isn't, because of the intrinsic autonomy of the weblog.

beyond the soapbox, the only thing we have in common is that we're all different.

Posted by davin at 5:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

i found this tonight on a telephone pole on johnson and broad st. at around 5 pm on a week day, i'd give that piece of hand-drawn posterage about 3 minutes before it's covered up by a machine copied poster for a cultural event. is that intended irony ?

after spending some good time in nanaimo, i would have to disagree.. there is a lot going on in victoria, people just need to crawl out of their comfort zones to see it and appreciate it. right?

i went for a walk on The Breakwater today with chrissie and jim. it was gorgeous out there.. we probably spent almost an hour on it, taking pictures and observing stuff.

very relaxing weekend .. why does it have to end!?!?!?

Posted by davin at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)