My Nut Ranch

By | January 7, 2009

I want you to close your eyes and imagine a place of happiness. Picture this place just off the Pacific coast. It is nestled in the rolling hills of the country side, surrounded by green and lush vegetation. It is always the right temperature and never too cold.

You are close enough to civilization that you are not isolated from the world but you have your own utopia there. You can live here forever and never leave, that is the kind of comfort this little slice of paradise offers. Although you begin to notice some familiar faces around this world of yours.

At first you don’t mind, but after a while these tourists become more common and they begin to irritate you in ways only a family member knows how. Suddenly you are awoken from your daydream and realize that everyone there was related to you. You were at Gursky Ranch!

Gursky Ranch

Jenna came across this site yesterday and I was as shocked as she was. I am not sure when I will be in California but if I am ever close to San Fransisco I will be making a trip out to see this ranch.

Maybe this is where all Gursky’s meet to discuss politics, sports and world domination and I have been missing out on it? Then our family portrait is taken by Andreas Gursky and we all sit around a quiet lake and watch the sun set.

The Gursky family has been involved in agriculture for three generations. My grandfather, Nathan, and my dad, Ephraim, formed the original “Gursky and Son”…

This was almost as much of a surprise as finding Gursky Ranch in the first place. You will recall that one of my drinking birds was named Ephraim. Was this purely a coincidence, a subconscious acknowledgment of my family heritage or something else?

My TV Countdown

By | December 19, 2008

The truth is that I am not a unique snowflake. Although I like to think that someone at TV.com specifically thought of me when they were making the below promotional graphic for their website.

BSG - Lost - 24 - TV.com

I went to TV.com for an unrelated issue and when I saw the graphic, mentioning three shows I am anticipating in January, I got immediately excited.

I don’t need any more reason to begin the countdown for new TV (Battlestar Galactica: 28 days, Lost: 33 days, 24: 23 days) but sometimes a little reminder for how awesome January will be doesn’t hurt.

My Dearest Homepage

By | December 18, 2008

Dear iGoogle:

We have had some good times, maybe even great times. I would go so far as to say that you have changed my Internet life. You are what RSS feeds were for me years ago. You bring everything I want into one easy location, and you even threw in RSS feeds because you are sweet like that.

I know others were against you when you changed your design a few months ago, but it was okay for me because I was on your .ca domain. We were able to be sheltered from their hate and continue our blissful relationship. I have played with your layout to reduce clutter and left only the important items and you didn’t mind. In fact you encourage change with your themes and recommendations for widgets.

And that’s what I want to talk to you about, your widgets. This is not your direct problem, how can I blame you for wearing a sweater that makes me itch? Or blame you for being seen in public with a scarf that clashes with your toque? I do not know who else to talk to about this so here I am.

Your neat weather widget, which you make so easy to add with the handy “Add to iGoogle” on search results, has given me some very hit or miss information during these winter months but today takes the cake.

iGoogle weather forecast

iGoogle, do you have any idea how cold -48 is? Apparently not, because the Weather Network reports a -30 and your handy search results from earlier show a -34. But a -48, that sort of cold could freeze our Internet tubes.

Baby, I don’t mean to yell but are you serious? I’m asking you as a long time friend, and someone that trusts you, please do something about this.

Sincerely,

Sean

My Christmas Upgrade

By | December 11, 2008

Gears of War logoAs I was upgrading to WordPress 2.7 I realized it had been a week since my last post. The new version of WordPress is called Coletrain, which instantly reminded me of Augustus Cole from the Gears of War series.

Now I feel a sense of power as this blog is running on the Coletrain!

Wordpress 2.7 Dashboard

In any case, I am not sure where the time went but I felt it was a good time for an update. Christmas is less than two weeks away and this really troubles me. First off, I have not begun shopping and with the days slipping by I realize the longer I wait the worse I will feel when I do join others shopping.

Perhaps a reason for not having gone shopping is that I have no Christmas spirit. It was nice that we traded in our ugly brown for our winter scape but I think a majority of it has to do with the global financial situation.

The always feverish Black Friday in the States was the worst for sales in 35 years and that is a huge indication of where we stand. There are layoffs affecting companies locally and internationally, Canada nearly had a coalition government and when you put all of that together it feels like there is less joy.

Christmas TreeWe have had to curb our Christmas decorations this year because of Bauer. We set up our tree for a day to see what he would do. Even without decorations he was very attracted to the branches so we opted to set up a smaller tree that was out of reach of the cat. We have also left the garland, ligths and usual flair in their boxes this year.

I am sure the spirit will come but as the 25th nears I can’t help but wondering if I am the only one feeling out of sorts this season.

My December Prayer

By | December 1, 2008

December, December, one day after the one I remember.
December, December, the final month to enjoy the splendor.
December, December, don’t be the last to know.

My Mayan Vacation

By | November 18, 2008

We have returned safely from our two week vacation from the Yucatan Peninsula where we stayed at the Catalonia Royal Tulum. I am not sure where to begin recapping such a great trip so I will just walk through it the way we experienced it.

For the first week we did nothing. I kept a log of what we did every day and for the first nine days I should have written “see Monday” to make it easier on myself. The sun would rise early and we would occasionally sleep in. There was no rush to get to the buffet breakfast and if we received coffee it was considered a good start to the day. Our biggest decision of the morning was to have an omelet or not. After eating what was likely a very unhealthy meal we would make our way to the beach.

After a few hours on the beautiful white sandy beach we would go into the ocean and enjoy the beach from afar in the shallow waters where fish would swim around you looking for food. Once we became wrinkled from the warm water we would return to shore, dry off and have lunch. After topping off with more food we would go back to the beach for a little bit and slowly plan our return to the ocean. Most days we would arrive at the beach around 10AM and leave as the sun was setting by 5PM. It was a pretty honest days work.

At night we ate at one of three restaurants and depending on our mood we would have another glass of wine or a Tequila Boom Boom at the lobby bar. We did not drink in excess but a few times a tequila shot let to a blurry walk back along the path.

Rinse and repeat, that was our life for the first week as we stayed within the jungle confides of our resort. The amount of alcohol consumed depended on our mood, but I got in the habit of having a cold beer from our fridge after our evening shower and became quite addicted to watching Deadliest Catch on one of the few English channels.

After we were thoroughly relaxed and growing a little tiresome of our food-beach routine we felt that we were ready to leave the resort and try one of the excursions available.

Coba Confusion

Do you ever wonder what happens when you get on the wrong tour bus? With multiple buses, vans and taxis arriving at once you would expect someone to not go where they should. Well, we found out first hand and realized that when people find out you are not where you should be panic sets in everywhere, from the hotel to your driver.

Jenna and I were waiting in the lobby for our van to arrive, a driver came by saying Coba?, Jenna confirmed that he meant Coba Express and we were whisked away to the van. Twenty minutes later we were parked on the side of the road about to board a larger bus. As we presented our ticket the guide told us that they were going to Chichen Itza, not Coba and we weren’t where we needed to be.

The next ten minutes were a blur of hurried Spanish, phone calls and speeding down a highway as we were returned to our hotel and the other couple was picked up and rushed to the Chicen Itza bus. As best I could piece together from our tour operator the people that were supposed to get on the Chichen Itza trip had a very similar last name to Coba, or at least one close enough that a Spanish accent could confuse us Gringo’s.

Two days later we were on the right van to Coba and had a wonderful experience, one that was certainly a highlight of the trip. We had an informative guide, rented bicycles to take down the paths, saw some wildlife and made it to the top of the Nohoch Mul Pyramid; which will be closed for climbing in a few weeks.

Tulum – Xel-Ha

After the problems with Coba Confusion we wanted to redeem ourselves to our tour operator and booked a day trip to Tulum and Xel-Ha. Both places were amazing and would have liked it if there was more time available at each place, but that would have meant a full day at either and that would have doubled the cost so this way I was able to sample both and not be stuck somewhere for too long.

First off, Tulum. There is so much history at these Mayan ruins that it feels like a crime to only get a quick information session and then set on your way to explore. It is a little humbling to think that you walked along the same path that existed 2,000 years. It is also difficult to imagine how that civilization managed to build what they did and being so adept at astronomy and mathematics.

On the other side of the coin Xel-Ha was a different experience. It was ultimately a snorkeling water park with a massive lagoon and an amazing amount of fish feet away from you. I am not familiar with fish so I am not sure which ones I was sharing the water with but I did see three stingray’s which was definitely a nervous thrill. I could have easily spent the whole day in the water, exploring caves, going to deeper parts of the water but taking the lazy river ride was nice as well.

The weather was great for our two weeks there, in fact it was near perfect. The weather forecast in Cancun and Tulum called for rain on a few days but the only rain we got amounted to a few minutes of drizzling and that was all. The rest of the time it was in the 30’s and usually with a light breeze. Oddly enough the beach flag was usually yellow, meaning caution, even if the water was near still. On the day the flag stayed at red it was the calmest I had seen the water in over a week, but I trust there was a reason for it.

Of course there are parts missing from this story, like the characters we saw daily (Team Vancouver, Neck Brace, Mantracker, Ewebitch), epic games of War and spending two afternoons riding waves into the shore but this is the short and tall of it: Mexico has come and gone and we’d go back again. In addition to the photos I posted here I will be updating my photo gallery with a more comprehensive album.

My Work Treat

By | October 31, 2008

Today was the perfect storm of work days. Not only was it the end of the month, it was a Friday and pay day. On top of that it was Halloween and my last day of work before going on vacation. This made for ideal conditions for festivities, games, a little horsing around and adding to my Tube Steak challenge!

Here is a shot of everyone in the office that was dressed up. There were some simple costumes like Three Hole Punch Brendan, to the elaborate ones of a Katamari cousin and a Pac Man ghost.

Keith had the great idea to get Cindy, the creator of the pink Katamari cousin, behind the wheel of her car. Once we figured out how to fit Cindy, and her costume, into the interior of her Civic it lead to hilarity and added to a busy, but fun final day at the office.

We depart on Sunday and with two more Halloween parties to attend between now and finish packing I will definitely be ready for a vacation.

A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do
Don’t plan the plan if you can’t follow through
all that matters: taking matters into your own hands
Soon I’ll control everything, my wish is your command