Seeya later U of T.

So I up and quit school, crazy right?

Well, I really wasn't happy with my life. I didn't like how much of my time and money was going to an education that I didn't enjoy, and that hardly interested me. SO I spoke with an academic adviser to look at other majors and degree choices, turns out U of T offers almost nothing hands on, and their creative writing and film courses were all critical analysis and what not, there was very little "creation" that actually happened.

So I made the big call, took a deep breath and walked away from U of T. Which means that I have 2 years worth of credits earned, and if I ever want to finish the degree I was chasing I can always come back, none of what I spent my money on was lost really.

I couldn't stand the idea that I was only writing a few essays a year coupled with exams, and had nothing tangible to show for my efforts.

So I want to do something creative with my life and I'm looking into other school that will let me do just that.

I got a nice chunk of change back from the school because I dropped out fairly early in the year, and I have my accident settlement coming up this Thursday, so I'm hacking away at my debt too, which is always nice.

Since I've quit I've already started drawing again, started doing parkour again, and spent hours longboarding...I think this is the best decision I've ever made.

Means I'll likely work more (4 days a week?) and apply for start of next semester or next year depending on the school.

I can at least say life has been interesting of late. There's always that.

Thanks for reading faithful few.

I'll talk with you soon.

Cheers

I'm not dead, I'm not dead, I'm not dead...

Oh! I'm alive!

It could happen, right? So I told you last time I'd come back with cool stuff to show you and whatever...and then I caught the big bad flu. The kind that knocks you on your ass for a solid week, and it did just that. For a week solid I had shakes and muscle aches, night sweats, head aches, muscle cramping...yadda yadda yadda.

Finally drag my ass around to the doctor and he tells me that I had the flu and now I have strep throat.

Now I'm on antibiotics and that should clean me up.

So that out of the way, here's that cool thing I wanted to show you:



That's me in the middle of the board meeting... the annual gathering of longboarders in Toronto. This years count was something like 320...pretty damn sweet.

Anyways I hope to keep updating, still hoping to build a new site for my faithful few, to showcase new cool stuff. I hope it happens.

Until them I'll keep plugging the odd thing in here as always.

Cheers

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIA!

It's a tad late but I just wanted to send a shout out to my wonderful niece julia and wish her a happy tenth Birthday. Happy birthday hun!

She'll never see this...thought that counts right?

So I've been as busy as ever, I'm almost certain that I don't have "slow times" in my life anymore. Everything always seemed to be keyed up and in high gear.

I'll be uploading some cool stuff to show you soon.

Cheers faithful few!

Passed That Class.

Well I got my results, It looks like I passed my deffered exam and got a passing mark in the course (about 60%) which is of course below class average, but at this point who cares?

Nice to know I just saved myself the $1000 that would have cost me to retake. Really, with the mess this class has become you would think I'd be jumping for joy. It's hard to explain though, I'm pretty apathetic. I think I stopped caring the second I walked out of the exam room, it's nice to hear that it wasn't in vein, but it's hard to care.

I've been a little weird lately, maybe school does that to me I'm not really sure. I think a lot of it has to do with living at home again. I don't have an oppressive family but I find myself chafing under my parents already. I've worked six days a week for four months straight busting my ass to pay down my school debt, which of course has helped but it's not enough to keep me living out on my own. It feels like I'm moving backwards. I'm back at home, back in debt, back at school, back to part time, back to my single life...time rolls slowly backwards it seems.

I've been stupid busy having fun (trying), in the last week I've been to a convention, concert, three movies, two camp fires, two photo shoots, three large parties, four or five outings with friends, I've had people stay over, I've stayed over, I've been skate boarding, tricking, catching up with friends old and new...I've been to Oshawa, Little Britain, Toronto, and all over Pickering...

The problem is that nothing seems to be enough, the second I get home I'm in a blah mood again. I hate being like this, I hate feeling out of place.

I'm all about The Sad Bastard music right now too. Bob Dylan, Dan Bern, Ryan Adams... I'm one dead dog and a broke down truck away from a swam dive off a large building.

Nah I kid, I'm not that bad, but I still hate feeling like this. I'll take a page out of my friends book and try and to be more of a lightswitch. Flick me on and I'll be happy, just like that.

Thanks Faithful Few, I'll update you as I go.

Cheers,

Fan Expo and musings.

Just a quick update.

So I've been attending the Toronto FanExpo for years now, it's a massive comic/sci-fi/anime/horror convention.

For years I only went for the comic book side of things, I grew up during the Image comics revolution so comics were BIG when I was a little kid. Since then I've ventured into a deep love of Science Fiction, and ask anyone who knows me or who's ever taken a peek at my bookshelves and you'll know I'm a massive Horror Lit fan.

But Comic Books, THOSE were my first love.

The first comic book I ever bought with my own money (that I can recall) was an issue of a book called Pitt. I want to say it was something like, issue #14, but that's not 100%. I bought it based on the cover art, period. The art was FUCKING STUNNING. The man behind that art? A Toronto local by the name of Dale Keown.

So long story short, Dale was a repeat guest at the Toronto FanExpo. I met him (for the first time) at the ripe old age of twelve or thirteen.

His fantastic work, and the fact that he was super nice kept me coming back year after year to see him again and again.

He stopped coming though, for whatever personal reasons, and didn't show for something like half a decade.

This year, he was a last minute addition to the guest list, and I got to meet him again. Suffice to say I think he's just as badass as I remember he was back in the day, and I got a chance to talk with him for a while this year and I think it's safe to say that he made this years convention for me.

He ALSO just put out the first PITT book to see the light of day in a decade, so that got me super pumped, I bought both variant covers, and had them signed. He asked me to keep in touch with him when I left, and he's on my facebook and I plan to do so.

On a completely different note. I HAVE to stop putting off my female friends, I'm starting to think that "being me" has turned me into "that asshole" who offends, unnerves, and confuses the women that I appreciate the most. I used to think I knew what I was doing, anyone mind telling me what in the hell happened there?

I think I'm going to go draw, I need to go do something introverted.

Number Crunching

Well Ho Lee Shit,

Today my friends has been a day filled with exorbitantly large numbers, some good...some, stressful.

I've been working on a project at work for a little while now, lets say about a week in my spare time, for some of my higher end clientel. It's starting to pay off too, and big. I'm working on the sale of an entire home worth of hardware, which as it currently stands amounts to: $9'864.61 and there's probably a few small items to add to that running total. Really makes me wish I was on some sort of commission, but either way it will throw my sales numbers for the month through the roof.

On a slightly more distressing note, I was having a conversation with one of my co-workers who's entering her first year of university and we got to talking about school fees and registration.

Now if you've been following the soap opera that is my academic life you'll know that my deffered examination meant I didn't have the credit count to apply on the same date as the rest of the third years at U of T, which meant then when I did try to apply, many of my classes were full. I've been sitting in cyber waiting lines waiting to get into classes.

So, we were talking about the cost of tuition, and I decided to peak at my current balance owing, turns out I owe U of T a whopping : $5,147.38

But what's REALLY scary, is that the deadline to make my tuition payment? Tomorrow... Aug 19th

If I hadn't of thought to check as a result of my inter office work chat, and missed the deadline, I would have been revoked my place in all my classes and essentially given the boot.

Can you say Absent Minded, man?

On another (far cooler) note, I've recently moved out of The Big Smoke, and back to the sleepy town of Pickering. My bedroom has been accosted by my 9 year old niece and any relative that decides to spend the night Casa Ivany.

So I've moved into what I'm currently dubbing "The Bat Cave", my unfinished, dusty, dark, dank little basement. Why is this cool you say? Because I have plans you see...Big BIG plans.

I'll let you in on the news as it breaks,

Chase

Mommy, It's Over!

It's done and dusted, dead as a door nail, finito, finished, kaputz. I'm wiped (and Staaarving) so I'll talk about it more later, suffice to say I think I passed it, and therefore *should* have my credit and *should* have saved myself the $1000 or so dollars it would have cost me to take another year long class instead.

I'm off to...eat, or get drunk..or skate or play pinball or something.

P.S. I can FINALLY return to the tower, The Wolves of the Calla call and I shall answer them.

-Chase