Yack yack yack. Get a job!

So I'm back at work again,

Scheduled for forty + hours a week. This means my massive unrelenting school debt doesn't quite scare me as much as it otherwise might have, but it also means that my time is now devoted to work.

Getting to and from work means either an hour and a half on the cab/train/bus, or an hour drive in with one of my best friends and co worker. Easy pick right? Take the ride with your buddy, the conversation, the rock tunes, inside jokes and all the rest of it.

The only downside is that this means I'm going to come and go from Pickering every day and night five days a week, and I still have my apartment and life in Toronto to attend to. It's strange cause I don't have a lot of ties to the city, but it offers a life style I really enjoy and the few ties that I DO have, are ones that I'm going to miss the hell out of.

I don't know how to straddle my two worlds. It's something I'll have to learn to do though, cause there's no way in hell I'm spending rent money on a place I never go to.


GOOD NEWS:

That longboard down below? The one that's tragically shattered in two? The one and only creator Ivan "Danger" Frasier got wind of it's demise and sent me a message saying he'd build be a new one free of charge. Suffice to say I'm buying the man some beer. Not sure if he's going to blow the dust off another older piece or make one from scratch. No idea if he's re-making the one I lost or a totally new design.

The really cool part? I could care less what he does. Of course it will matter when I ride it, but I'm entirely confident I'll love whatever he throws at me. I feel like I won a mini lotto, and am totally stoked.

Also stay tuned for an exclusive article on a wonderful Toronto artist I met, who let me into her studio after midnight to check out her brand new pieces.

Looking up

-Chase

The Tower Calls. 165.

Meds

Just a quick update.

It's just shy of 6 am and I can't sleep. My throat has a familiar sting to it and I'm a little worried.

I just had strep throat about a week ago, was taking antibiotics for it, and it was almost unnoticeable.

However, I left my pills in Toronto and am now back in Pickering...the thing about antibiotics is that you HAVE to take them all... my body is noticing that I haven't and I'm really hoping it doesn't get infected again.

Still riding the crazy train

-Ivany

The Tower calls. 135.

Lost Longboard.

And...the good times keep on rollin.

I am, and have been, a skateboarder for quite a long time now. It's something I did as a kid to initially fit in with some of my friends, it was what I then considered supremely rad. I sucked of course, especially compared to the guys I skated with, but I loved it. I soon figured out that I liked the feeling of cruising around more than attempting to do tricks. I say attempting cause I was a short uncoordinated fat child who couldn't ollie to save his life.

But I digress...

When I hit university I very quickly got sick of paying for / riding the subway, and started looking for an alternative. I considered biking and rollerblading but I'd have no where to lock up a bike and I'm straight, so those two options were out. I decided to pull out an old skateboard and ride the distance from Union Station to my U of T campus.

It was fun, I really liked it, it felt good to be on four wheels again. Dodging pedestrians gave me back that slightly edgy feeling I used to like so much as a kid. Suddenly I wasn't cattle anymore.
I was a missile.

There was a slight problem though, I still couldn't ollie if you paid me, and there were a fair number of street car tracks in the way. With tracks so deep they could swallow your wheels whole...they posed a threat, and I was painfully chucked into traffic on a few occasions.

I noticed some guys riding longboards on campus and decided that was the solution. Larger wheels, longer wheelbase and more momentum should do the trick right? Within about a week I had hunted one down on Craigslist and was truly becoming a side walk force to be reckoned with.

That was almost two years ago. Something like 20 boards later and what has to easily be hundreds of K's under my wheels, well it's safe to say it's becoming something that defines me.

Not too long ago I was given something pretty special by a friend of mine. He used to make longboards in his garage a few years before and had a few decks left over from his previous efforts. I always thought it was awesome that he'd made his own, and upon some requests we struck up a deal and I took (what I thought to be) the nicest deck he had left.

That was only a few months ago. Yesterday that board was run over in the street and cracked clear in two.

It had quickly become my favorite board, with it's odd shape, birch construction, almost non existent grip, and complete and utter lack of concave...well I was surprised how much I loved that board.

The strange "fish" like shape allowed me to dig in my toes and heels while carving to make up for the lack of concave.

The birch construction made it light, flexy, and easily to carry around.

The hand applied sand grip allowed me to ride barefoot without shredding my feet.

It was a thing of beauty.

I was in the street when I noticed a silver SUV behind me. Pulling onto the side walk I hit a piece of raised concrete that caused my board to shoot out behind me. Into the street.

Like a basketball rolling out in front of a car, so my board rolled slowly and painfully under the front wheels of that SUV and with a sickening crack was run over. I told the lady not to worry, it wasn't her fault...hung my head, and carried what was left of my Longdex back to my Toronto apartment.

Life's peachy aint it?

R.I.P

The tower calls. 65.

Best intentions, worst possible outcome.

I am, the Absent Minded Man.

I'd rant and give you some critical history on my inability to keep track of dates, times, events, names, keys, glasses, money and paperwork...but we'd be here all day. Suffice to say I have the memory of a goldfish. I hate it, it lands me in all kinds of trouble, and I kick myself every time I seem to forget something important. No amount of self loathing for my memory and inability to plan my time seems to change me however, and I seemed doomed to forget important crap.

Today I petitioned the University of Toronto to let me deffer an examination due to illness. I got strep throat during my exam period, and was told I was contagious, and couldn't write it.

After jumping through all kinds of hoops to get doctors notes, university medical forms, writing a letter to the petition council, and dropping all my documentation off, did I realize that I had the original exam date fucked up... This, will cost me dearly.

You see, the course in question is taught by a VERY oldschool professor who doesn't seem to use the internet. So unlike all my other courses, whose information is easily accessible on the internet, this class required me to keep track of paperwork with important information on it. You see the disaster waiting to happen?

I was informed by the professor that I could request a exam prep document if I e-mailed him and requested it, which of course I did. Said document had an exam location, time, and date on it that I took to be the information for my OWN exam... This is where I start kicking myself.

It turns out my exam was a few days prior, and my illness didn't befall me during that time, so my petition is likely going to be thrown out, and I'll likely have no recourse what so ever. The document he sent me was the exam for the previous year...with the previous years information on it. Meaning my times, dates, and locations were all off. So while I was busy being sick and studying, everyone else in my course had already written their exam.

What does this mean, Absent Minded Man? It means I'm out the cost of the course (About $800 before books, so over a grand), the credit, and the years worth of class time and study. It also means I'll likely be on academic probation next year...

Shoot me?