reconnected

It's been awhile since I've taken the time to read over the blogs of my team mates It's also been a while since I felt connected to the team and to the UBBT itself. This is further compounded by the fact I have been unable to make it to the kwonn on a regular basis (on no basis actually for the month of August)

After spending the past hour catching up on at least a fraction of the blog posts I'm feeling a reconnect with everyone and realizing that I really miss training in the kwoon. While training everything else in my life gets the volume turned down and all the problems of the day just fade away.

I'll take Biomimicry, Beauty Queens, Olympians, and No Sleep for 500

Incredibly inspiring and busy week this week. I drove down to Calgary for the weekend to visit my girlfriend and while there managed to attend a lecture on Biomimicry "Biomimicry is an innovation method that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature's time-tested patterns and strategies." www.biomimicryguild.com which was something we had kinda been talking about all since we went to the zoo earlier in the day. One of the biggest things themes that I took away from the lecture was to look at things with kid glasses on a question everything. The main theme though was to look at nature as a mentor instead of just copying it but questioning everything fits into that theme, at least for myself.

Then on Sunday I spent an evening with Miss Canada 2009 and three Olympians as they planned the last bits of a huge fundraiser they are starting this Sunday. Backing up a minute Miss Canada is one of Chelsey's roommate in Calgary and she has planned a 4000km bike ride from Calgary to L.A. to raise money for both the Canadian and American Red Cross. For the past couple weeks I've seen her working on this project endlessly and have realized that I can be quite lazy. I'm pretty sure she hasn't slept almost at all for the last month as the deadline gets closer for them to start. Her passion and dedication to this has shown me what is possible to accomplish when you set your mind to a task. The fundraiser is called The Ride For Red which you can check out for more info. It was also cool seeing everyone as real people and just having fun and being themselves. Their may have even been an incident involving a bike race in the kitchen around the island.

Since the weekend I've slept about 8 hours and have been working pretty much non stop on both work and personal projects as well as some design work that I picked up to help with The Ride For Red so today after work I think after I clean up the apartment abit cause Chelsey's coming to Edmonton for the weekend I'm gonna crash.

now some pictures from the zoo

musings

I was kinda putting off writing this cause I don't feel particularly in a good mood as of late. Since getting back from my vacation, which included helping my girlfriend move to Calgary, I've felt a bit off. Mostly it's been my work that has been putting me in such a state, due mainly with office politics that I won't bore you with. Being back in Edmonton I really miss all the greenery and I really miss the ocean. Even though we were busy everything still felt fairly relaxed where as now I feel like i'm being pulled in a million directions and that I'm about to collapse (could be that I just worked 4 shifts in the last 3 days and drove to and from Calgary in that time). One positive thing is that I did a really great photo shoot for work.

New Topic:
I managed to accomplish two of my goals while on vacation and learned somethings about my self on the way.

I learned that I feel more creative when I'm immersed in nature
I have pretty good balance on a surfboard
I really hate socks as well as really selfish people
I have a lot of ideas for photo shoots that I need to put into action
I have a lot of life plans that I need to put into action

Anyways work is now done and I'm going home I think I can actually get supper tonight

Paradise

As I write this I am sitting at a table made of found wood just off the pacific rim highway. Just finished surfing and waiting for a burger made from locally caught cod and prawns. Just finished the last day of surfing so I successfully completed one of my requirements. I don't really want to go back to Edmonton since I feel that this place is a paradise. I feel more refreshed and more creative then I have in a long long time. Well enough of technology time to enjoy the food and last bit of Tofino before making my way back east.

P.S. Some random shots from the trip so far

Location:Pacific Rim Hwy,Tofino,Canada