Pioneer on the Internet – Sean Gursky

Last January 31st I was asked “What was I most proud of in 2004?”. Last year the answer was simple, I said that getting my degree with honors topped the list. But this year, I don’t have a quick and easy answer.

I have had a good year but nothing really jumps out. Getting promoted at Dell, vacation to Vancouver with Jenna, my year of concerts, buying two cars (Porsche and Jetta), leaving Dell for my current job’I just don’t know. There isn’t anything that I could frame, hang on a wall and say “that was my 2005 – it was amazing”. Think about it, what would you say your personal best in 2005 was? Is it an easy answer or is it difficult to choose?

Did I have such a great year that I can’t pick a favorite, or maybe I didn’t accomplish anything I could be proud of? It’s a little disheartening to not have an immediate high point in your year and still be happy with where you are at in life.

To lighten the mood from this existentialism train of thought I did a Google Image Search for “personal highlight 2005″ and found this gem. Hope your 2006 has a great start!

Last week I bought the retail copy of Lost: Season One. I enjoyed it and wanted to experience the episodes again, so I felt it was a good purchase. As the last month of my life has been consumed by this show my day to day conversations with Jenna were going on about Oceanic Flight 815, so I gave her the set to become experienced and learn about my disease. Today marks the first full week she has had the set and she has finished it off.

As Gord did with me a few weeks back, I am passing along Season Two so more mysteries can be revealed about those on the island. Fortunately for her, by the time she gets caught up to the most recent episde (What Kate Did) the show will return from it’s mid-season break and she will join the rest of us as we wait for new episodes each week.

I had a question’does cat litter come from a special cat litter factory? Or is it just a side product of those who make fancy gravel or sell landscaping rock? If you worked at a cat litter factory, would you brag about it? Would you and your cat litter buddies play a corporate softball game against the squares in the box factory every July long weekend? Perhaps you make friends with the sawdust crew but not the sea salt gang? Or maybe your life is so much better working at a cat factory that you are the owner of your very own major league team?

_{P.S.: “for those who understand my Lost sickness, check the timestamp of this message .}

It’s not that I have been neglecting you dear Internet, it’s just that I have little to report. Because the show must go on, let’s do another famous multi-day recap. I finished my four day holiday playing video games (NHL 2005 for PC to be precise), watching U2″s concert in Chicago on DVD (cranked quite loud) as well as Brother’s Grimm. I have started reading Diary by Chuck Palahniuk and will then move onto Invisible Monsters before getting back to my Grisham and Crichton stash.

I worked today and here I am. I work for a few more days and then have four off and return fully refreshed in the new year. Nothing exciting has gone on in the last little bit. There have been no revelations or wild thoughts.

Aaron and I are finishing up the plans for our ski trip to Banff next week. We’ll spend two nights at Inns of Banff, ski Sunshine and possibly ski it again the next day. We will relax at the hot springs and do some ice hiking before we head home on Wednesday. It should be a grand trip, I wanted to spend more time in the mountains this season and this trip is getting that plan off to a good start. It will also offer me a chance to fully test the Jetta’s fuel consumption.

For as long as I can remember, I have slept with three or more pillows on my home bed. Two of the pillows were primary, but the additional ones were just for backup. Sometimes I would sleep on them, other times they would get neglected. I am deciding to make a major life change and remove one pillow and go back to a two pillow formation. Last night felt great, I will see how tonight goes. I fear that this will be a great change until the time arrives that I need that third pillow and my sleep won’t be complete without it. Stay tuned for more critical and exciting updates!

From work I have a few days off so I am using the time wisely to rest up after last week. Fortunately I have another stretch of days off in January that will allow me to finish off what I couldn’t do this week. Of course all that really means I will play more video games, watch more movies and start 2006 much the way 2005 ended.

I hope you all had a good Christmas, or whatever you celebrated. It was a pretty hectic day as we had lunch with Grandparents in Ponoka and then to Sherwood Park to have dinner with Jenna’s family. I was pretty fortunate in the gift department this year, but I think redundancy is the word of the day as I received three U2 // Vertigo DVD’s, two Chuck Palahniuk’s Diary as well as three slippers. I am taking back the extra DVD’s and book’s tomorrow, but as for the slippers, I am keeping them!

I figure the day after Boxing Day should be good enough to venture into the malls and exchange gifts. A few days back I bought the DVD set of Lost. I have already seen season one, but I enjoyed it that much I was willing to pay for it. Now the set is with Jenna who will hopefully get the same addiction that I have. Anyway, take care Internet.

It has been a pretty wild week. Simply put, I am wearing the same clothes I did when I made my last post’four days ago. I planned on being gone for one night, but that turned into three. After celebrating the Tuesday with Gord, I spent Wednesday with Jenna and worked Thursday.

Later that evening was work’s Christmas Party and it was worth the sacrifice. When we played foosball I was teamed up with curling sensation David Nedohin, unfortunately the alcohol levels in both of our bodies didn’t produce a winning result. And that brought me to where I am now. Five hours of sleep and wearing the same clothes again. Tonight is a dinner with Jenna’s family and I am aiming to get my clothes washed before then to make myself a little more presentable.

When I signed into my MSN earlier this morning I noticed something on the annoying MSN Today pop-up window. Perhaps those adept with proof-reading can sign up with MSN as they are clearly lacking in that department.

In closing, I wish you all a merry Festivus today!

Last night Jonathan and I went on an adventure that lead us to a gentleman’s club called Diamonds. I learned a few things on this field trip that I would like to share with you as well. There are fifty girls that work at Diamonds, but rotate days worked. So, for instance, last night had eleven of those fifty working. In order to become a stripper for Diamonds or a similar establishment you will need to sign up through an agency and then drop off your resume.

Once you have the support from these agencies then you can travel and clean poles all around the world. At Diamonds there are girls who do stage dancing as well as privates ones, and then some girls who are private dancing only. There is good money to be had in this business, and if you spend your money wisely and invest then you can purchase a $400,000 home and a Hummer at the age of twenty-six.

The goal is to always keep learning in life and last night I learned about the business of a gentleman’s club. Tonight, Gord and I are going to take what we learned from our November trials and make Boys Night 2005 (a.k.a. BN2K5) bigger, better and brighter – since it’s the Holiday Season and all. I will race sunset to intoxication, but failing that I will be right behind it. Gord and I will also finish off the last three episodes of Lost, play some XBOX, get cheap pizza, let the sounds of Shatner and Nimoy calm our souls and make the night ours.

It’s Christmas so turkey will be a plenty for the next few weeks. I was wondering what sort of damage are we causing ourselves by eating turkey followed by coffee and sweet snacks? Here’s what I am getting at. Turkey has Tryptophan which is notorious for putting you to sleep. And just as you’re feeling drowsy you get a cup of coffee and the caffeine brings you right back up. There is an internal war going on and I can’t imagine the end results being that healthy.

Stephanie has written about it, and now I am too. Chad was kind enough to give us Matthew Good fans a headsup about a new demo called Black Helicopter. This song kicks immense amounts of ass, so before the Tryptophan kicks in give it a listen.

Right Click > Save As and turn up the speakers for Black Helicopter.

Before leaving Dell I wondered if I made the right choice. Was I leaving a secure job for something very risky? Would I be able to handle the workload? And most importantly, would I regret the decision? So far I can tell you that all answers point to “awesome choice”, but I think the below picture brings that message home.

Yeah, I don’t regret leaving Dell at all. It was 4:30PM Thursday afternoon after I had just bought two burgers from Harvey’s when I was handed an ice cold Kokanee. It was a fantastic lunch, probably the best you could have while still at the office.

In other news, I was able to watch the four episode of CurlTV (the TV show on Sportsnet) which airs on Sunday and it’s a doozie. Don’t miss it! There is a good segment about the website and some hot-hot closeup action of my archive page. If only you knew how long it took to get that to work at 100%. There is also a lot of Olympic Trials coverage, and some timely burns about the Ferbey 4 not making it through. Oh yeah, there is also talk about nude female curlers, but that’s minor. So that’s Sunday on Sportsnet at 10AM MST – do it!

Have a good Saturday!

Edit: I think I am going to go for a My theme in naming the posts, ala the Scrubs naming convention. We’ll see how it works out, even if it’s for a week or something.

When I was updating the previous post todayI had a tough time pulling up the site. I couldn’t access it through my FTP either so I was a little concerned. I could PING the site fine but just couldn’t pull it up anywhere. And when it did come it up was sluggish, so for the time it was acting buggy I apologize – not too sure what caused that.

On the way home from work this evening Jetta and I avoided yet another accident. I believe this brings the total up to seven or so. And a good majority are on the Whitemud (or the Bridge of Death), and that’s where this one was. Right where west bound Whitemud meets the free flow lane for Fox Drive was an accident taking it down to one lane. The traffic was backed up for 2KM (by my odometer) and on Sonic 102.9 Adam Thompson asked for those who knew what was going on to call in. I did my good deed and told it how it was.

Eventually the update on the Whitemud Drive was given and I felt warm and fuzzy inside. I called in another time in the past to Zed 99 (out in Red Deer). On my way to work in Bowden I passed a quasi-accident that could pose problems but it was never aired so I made up for that today.

Together Jetta and I will clean up this city, we will be the new crime fighting force. Horrah!