Benjamin Charles Eagan

Beer

2011-11-11T10:31:00.000-08:00

I thought I would do another update here, but I'm not going to tell you anything about school, or Scotland, or my experiences. I'm going to stick firmly to talking about beer.

Edinburgh has a few breweries within its city limits which include Innis and Gunn, Caledonian, Stewarts, Brew Dogg, and a lot more. Caledonian and Stewarts are nice enough to offer up a lot of seasonal brews, and Innis and Gunn is like drinking magic.

Additionally, there are endless amounts of miscellaneous Great Britain and European beer which is easier to find than my house keys every morning.

When you walk into a pub here, they often have their regular draught selection (Fosters, Guinness, Carlsberg), and an "Ales" section. These are local beers and special import beers, and to pour them the barkeep has to pull a big lever. This is where the magic happens.

Imagine every bar you walked into having really dark delicious beer at the same price as the boring giant brands?

This blog post didn't come across nearly as well as I'd imagined it, but if you come and visit me here I'll make sure to prove my point.

Oct 13

2011-10-13T02:19:00.000-07:00

What up y'all?

I've got some pictures from the main castle here in Edinburgh which so graciously would protect us citizens in the case of a zombie outbreak. When we went there it just so happened that the local renaissance gun club was putting on a demonstration, so there were lots and lots of loud explosion noises. They were cool, but incredibly startling when you weren't ready for it. The ticket counter lady was visibly frayed and exhausted as she told us about this exhibit.

The Knight from Indiana Jones

Kablamo! I had several pictures of these chaps shooting, there were some real gems when the riflemen are wincing and terrified of their own (unnecessarily loud) weapon.

Guy in the blue cape at the front has a weakling right ear.

Definitely not a Star Wars set

Ariane sitting on an alarmingly high wall for a photo

The start of an Iron Maiden album cover

A photo conspicuously frame to avoid the sea of tourists below

A wedding? Makes sense.

I like your style Scotland... A friendly warning not to fall to your death. Staff here had no problem with people climbing all over the walls.

A Fart in the Darkness

2011-10-08T02:56:00.000-07:00

*(If you're short on time, skip to the dashed line below)

At 8:50 pm on friday night, Ariane and I found ourselves waiting by a statue in "Mercat Cross" a short distance from the Edinburgh Castle. This is right in the shadows of a massive massive old chapel, with traces of the 20th century (let alone the 21st) completely absent. There was a cold chill in the air, with wisps of clouds slowly meandering across the face of a nearly waxed moon. As the chapel bells began to toll for the hour of 9 pm, a little old woman with a large cape thrown over her shoulders hobbles up to this statue.

"GATHER ROUND" she shrieked to our surprise, and it seemed a crowd had formed. We dutifully gathered closer to see what she had to say. Before going any further, she made sure to confirm that we had all paid for our "Ghosts and Ghouls" tour of Edinburgh. We were all capable of producing the proper confirmation, so the evening rolled on without a hitch.

The little old lady had a very piercing voice, with masterful story telling capabilities. She took us through the streets of Old Town regaling us with stories of a poor duo who had their tongues removed and ears sliced off for toasting the king, or a man who exacted swift vengeance on a judge only to be found in a wall 300 years later. These were all true stories which had taken place in the very space we stood. But this was just the beginning.

After our opening stories above ground, the old crone "Liz" led us down another alley and into a doorway. The doorway led us to a staircase spiralling several floors deep underneath the city. The destination was to be the vaults underneath one of the enormous old bridges of the city. As we descended into the darkness, the stairs became more uneven, and all forms of natural light faded away. We were left with the slight flickering of our trusted guide's candle and her stories of the lives and debauchery that had taken place here.

-------

In one particularly small cavern, with drips of water echoing around us and mysterious cold drafts wafting through the room, our guide embarked on another story which would prove to be unlike all the rest. In this story, an unpopular old man had lived in a house which went by the name of #17. While no one was ever seen entering the house, sounds of talking and cold laughter could always be heard emanating from the attic. They were not happy sounds. When the old man died, a hotel was formed in this building, but after the untimely death of several patrons it was forced to close. In the erie silence of the ancient, leaking, empty caverns, in the dead of night; all the gruesome details of their deaths were shared with us by our trusty guide. Her voice began to quiet as she told of Massive Mary, one of the poor victims. Massive Mary was an employee at this hotel we were told, and she was keen on avoiding the AND THEN A GUY FARTED SO LOUDLY!

We were in here

I think I deserve a nobel prize in listening for not decaying into a pure fit of laughter! Our guide just carried on with her story, and I had to try to remember how I handled these situations in grade four. Basically the tension in the room was huge, the location was one of a kind, and our guides persona and story telling skills were top notch. The group was literally hanging off every word. It was without a doubt the best timed fart I have ever heard. Truly a gift.

Bla Bla Edinburgh Bla

2011-10-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang!

Lighting update on my past month in order of occurrence:

Moved into a flat, somewhere between quite happy and really happy with it. In old town, close to city center, not too busy but on a major parade route

Lost my passport, stopped bedbugs from moving from my hostel to my flat

Started classes. These are going really well, and much better than I was expecting in terms of pace and content. Pace is quite fast, but point of entry was perfect for me. Classmates are really cool too, and quite diverse. Turns out people from Edinburgh are more rare here than Germans!

Ariane has arrived! We've had a really fun weekend of some further exploring, but she sleeps a lot and mumbles about "jet leg" or something.

Got my new passport, valid for two years to prove I can take care of this one.

Here are some photographs I like:

Nicest day in the history of Scotland

How many tourists can you count?

Sun Castle City Bla Bla Bla

Proof of Ariane's Arrival

View from outside our window of people who don't hate running

Craigmillar Castle

2011-09-06T14:25:00.000-07:00

So, I found a flat! It's in a really good location for excitement in Edinburgh (locals pronounce it "Ed and b-r-r-r-a" with a rolling "r", I often imagine Ed and his brother founder this city). More to the point of this post however, I had an 8 hour period in no-man's-land where I had nowhere to stay before moving it, but most of my bags stored at the hostel/res room I was staying at.

I decided a smart thing to do would be to take my snazzy new used bicycle and go exploring outside the city limits as it was a beautiful sunny day. I took the prettiest downhill road out of town, and biked for a while. I had a really big backpack on with about 1/3 of my stuff in it, but I still made it about 4 miles out of town before getting tired. At this point I was about to consult the oracle (google where to go on my iphone) when I spotted a small sign saying "cragimillar castle -> 1 1/4 miles". I thought that sounded like a pretty good suggestion, so I followed the signs.

Ultimately I ended up at the castle. After locking my bike and getting stung by some nettles, a man in a small visitors hut took £5 from me. He then gave me a secret password to get into some bathrooms and sent me on my way. I entered the castle gates and was totally alone, so for a good hour I had the full run of this castle. It had a lot of fireplaces that could fit an entire grizzly bear inside, and one that could fit a whole grizzly bear family. It also had seats with holes in them and tunnels leading to outside the castle walls called "latrines"... Crafty old fashioned folk...

After much exploring, I still had several hours to kill and was fairly tired. I decided to find a seat and read for a while, so I read the third book in the game of thrones series where people have big battles and live in castles while sitting inside the walls of a castle. I thought this was overall a neat experience.

Pigeons waiting to deliver letters

Very green grass.

Kings table and cool design more houses, bars and restaurants should use.

Light-dark see far

Some wonderful ruins sullied by a guard rail

My reading location: sitting on that ledge near the iron gate

Edinburgh's 1 Week Review in Photos

2011-09-04T15:51:00.000-07:00

There were a lot of old sweaty people on the other side of this camera

Happened to catch the "worlds biggest fireworks display"

I quite like the path in this picture, so I included this one because I think it's a neat picture

This photo has NOT been photoshopped... see if you can figure out what's going on here!

Edinburgh

2011-08-29T07:27:00.000-07:00

A castle, a fountain, and the very top of 3 peoples heads I was too lazy to crop out

I arrived in Edinburgh at around 4pm yesterday, which with a time change and overnight flight resulted in incredibly little sleep. I also often forgo eating on flights in lieu of cheaper better food on the ground. Anyways, I was pretty lack of sleep and food delirious upon arrival - just setting the stage (not to get your hopes up that anything crazy happened, it really didnt).

Anyways, I got myself a taxi from the airport who turned out to be a very friendly fellow who gave me a tour as we drove in. Upon being dropped off, I asked him the protocol on tipping after he lowered my fare to avoid change. He told me with taxis and restaurants, any tip is nice, and is genuinely reserved for good service. When I tried to tip him about $3(£2) on a $30 trip, he scolded me saying it was way too much. I then walked off in the wrong direction and he turned me around and was off (left me his card, plan to get him again).

I then checked in to my hostel which is a student residence during the school year. My room is 1 floor above the "Punk Beer Brewery" - and about 8 minutes walk away from the castle. Upon arrival, I showered and headed out the door looking to explore and find a pub. I immediately got incredibly lost, as without my cell phone data plan, it turns out I have no idea where the hell I am. I found some bus maps to re-orient[ate] myself, but would once again promptly get lost. I kept thinking the prettiest streets were where I wanted to go, but eventually I found myself outside Edinburgh's city limits. Finally I got it right, and found myself a pub. I am happy to say my first meal in Scotland was haggis, and it was quite tasty (stomach lining and all). At this bar a drunken man proclaimed to everyone around that he loved me like a brother, and gave me a big kiss on the cheek.

This got me to about 8pm, and my only choice was to go to sleep. I did that, and woke up again at around 10pm to the loudest Johnny Cash I have ever heard, and the punk pub below me continued to pump music all night. This doesn't bother me at all, and quite frankly I probably deserve some noisy sleep bad karma. Ear plugs ftw. Went to sleep again after some apartment searching online at midnight, up at 9am.

That brings us to today, which has been really amazing as well, largely because I've slept and eaten and overall I'm much sharper mentally. First thing I did today was get a pay-as-you-go phone plan so I can call about flat letting (aka apartment renting). It worked! For about $18 I get lots of minutes, $0.08 per minute to canada, unlimited internet, texts all cost money (email me instead!). My number is ** 0044 795 619 1478 (edited for Canadian callers - thanks Lauren!)** more corrections: 011 44 7956191478 is probably the real number to dial from Canada (confirmed via Steve) - if you can figure out how to call a number like that, feel free to call me! It actually won't cost me an arm and a leg. As I walked out of T-mobile, I had to wait a few minutes for my phone to come to life, so I took this panorama of my random location (click on the image and explore it in full resolution!) :

Next I walked to a flat viewing, and took a few pictures along the way:

A strip club named after two famous murderers (very classy). Outside this place a homeless man told me to either kill myself, or take care of myself, but I can't understand anybody here so it's hard to know.

A view behind the flat I looked at - very scenic!

I then proceeded to get lost several more times, but eventually made it back to my hostel where I am now, and I decided to provide everyone with an update! Overall this city has been very exciting, and quite amusing.

San Francisco

2011-06-10T15:18:00.000-07:00

I climbed to the top of a big hill, and then rode and elevator to the top of a big tower. These are some of the pictures resulting from the trip. One of the pictures is with my 50mm lens which got dropped, inducing a dream like haze - or possibly simulating what it is like to need glasses.

Nick Iwanyshyn Slow Motion Sexy Man

2011-06-09T16:25:00.000-07:00

Let the Good Times Roll, Similar to this Bicycle

2011-05-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

Summer Bucket List

2011-05-06T05:59:00.000-07:00

In an interesting turn of events, I found myself let go from Powerbase effective yesterday. This was a cool company and we departed on very positive terms, so good feelings all around (they even made me famous). Now I have the fantastic problem of trying to figure out what to do this summer. At some point this August I will be packing up and moving to Scotland for a year. This is to complete a Master's at the University of Edinburgh in High Performance Computing.

I have a few ideas rattling around my head that are a bit of a summer bucket-list:

#1. Build a programable robot capable of moving around rooms without help, also remote controllable, with a mic and video screen for human's to connect to for a random view of the room. There is a programmable vacuumless roomba that looks pretty neat for this task.

#2. Build a field car that is as light and as fast as possible. Race Dylan Ashley in his own race field car. In other news, I have watched 4/5 of the Fast and Furious movies in the last week.

#3. Bike a long distance, possibly to Quebec city or Halifax.

#4. Construct the worlds best home made steadicam, and find something to film. I'm talking 3 axis gimble, powered gyroscope, and possibly a body tether if I can figure it out.

This list will continue to grow, and I will post new ideas at my leisure. Company and assistance is encouraged and welcomed on all tasks!

I have also been granted a small surprise this week which is both awesome, funny, and unexpected. The story begins way back in the land of 1st year at Queen's, when facebook was just a budding branch, and I had time to kill. In an act of boredom, jest, and respect, I decided to start a Dragons Rule! facebook group to make my friends join. This was pretty successful and fun for about a month, with about 30 members and some good banter.

This year I checked back in on the group after learning of its existence, only to find dragon enthusiasts worldwide had jumped onboard - over 50 new members! I made a keen member an admin and it is now a thriving Dragon community... Unexpected, very cool.

This song is also awesome and stuck in my head...

Be well my friends

Scientists

2011-03-25T05:26:00.001-07:00

New Yorkity York York York

2011-03-17T07:16:00.000-07:00

"Live from new york, it's Saturday Night!"

The Honey Badger

2011-03-06T17:26:00.000-08:00

Alright,

I recently learned about an animal called the Honey Badger, and quickly realized that it is probably the most awesome and bad-ass animal on the planet.

Some wikipedia quotes to help appreciate this animal:

" It is classed as Least Concern by the IUCN due to its extensive range and general environmental adaptations. It is a primarily carnivorous species, and has few natural predators due to its thick skin and ferocious defensive abilities."

"Because of the toughness and looseness of their skin, honey badgers are very difficult to kill with dogs. Their skin is hard to penetrate, and its looseness allows them to twist and turn on their attackers when held. The only safe grip on a honey badger is on the back of the neck. The skin is also tough enough to resist several machete blows. The only sure way of killing them quickly is through a blow to the skull with a club or a shot to the head with a powerful rifle, as their skin is almost impervious to arrows and spears.[25]"

Hurray for crazy animals!

Blablabla

2011-03-02T04:30:00.000-08:00

So,

Ariane got a new camera recently that is a plastic film camera with a very special persona to it's photographs. We were playing around with it, and I cleverly opened it to get the film out and totally killed the majority of a roll of film. Blacks told us only 3 turned out, and I looked at the negatives and decided they had lied to us. It was at this point I became determined to create prints from negatives using only my bare hands (and a scanner and photoshop)!

In short, it didn't work, but I did get something pretty funky lookin! Also, sorry Ariane for wrecking a roll...

Business as usually

2011-02-10T14:54:00.000-08:00

I got a kindle recently, and have been working hard on my promise to read the whole thing.

Since Christmas I have read:

Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins
Still Life with the Woodpecker by Tom Robbins
Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut
Welcome to the Monkeyhouse by Kurt Vonnegut
An Connecticut Yankee in King Aurthur's Court by Mark Twain
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc Volume 1 by Mark Twain
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc Volume 2 by Mark Twain
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Remainder by Tom Mccarthy

I'm 57% done Sea Wolf by Jack London

*Done Sea Wolf... new favorite

Don Quixote, Thus Spake Zarathustra, and Around the World in 80 Days are up next.

Please suggest books to me that these remind you of! Mark Twain & Kurt Vonnegut are wonderful authors.

Movember: That's a Wrap

2010-12-01T15:25:00.001-08:00

Nice filming Ariane!

Scrapbooking / Computer Surgery

2010-11-23T18:37:00.000-08:00

In recent months, my trusty old macbook ate the dust. It did so in a glorious fashion, by having it's power cord get hot enough to melt the metal right off the plug!

So I've become the proud owner of a new Macbook Pro 13", but decided to hold on to my old fella for some repairs. And that's what I did! Good pal Ian Carleton also suffered a death in his macbook family recently, and replaced the old hunk o junk with a monstrous 1000" Bigmac. So I bought his old scraps off him, and went to town!

I got a frankenstein version working pretty quickly, featuing my computers hard drive and battery, slapped into Ian's case. Ian's computer unfortunately had a crappy fan, and finicky wireless card - so I decided to peel those off my old computer. This is some documentation:

The happy Macbook family

The old macbook, waiting to be cannibalized

Removed wireless card (which unfortunately changed models between our computers)

The two twins mid surgery

Success!

I now have a totally silent and cool running laptop hooked up to my fams 42" flatscreen and surround sound. It is also setup for full screen control from remote laptops, and is connected to about 750 gb of potential music and video. Gotta love that technology rush...

Email me if you decide to start playing with scrap macbook! I've learned a thing or two in the process and would be happy to advise...

Thanks to Ian for spare parts, and Vince Enachescu for teaching me that no computer is unsalvageable.

Childhood Confessions

2010-11-14T16:44:00.000-08:00

I have been driving a lot recently - which leads to a lot of thinking. On a recent trip, I thought back to some of my guiltier moments from my childhood. In order to move past them, I think it's time to share it with the world.

Let's start with my first intentional thievery. It all started when my dad's car was broken into, and the police found the party responsible. My memory is a little hazy on the details, as I was about 5 at the time, but I remember coming with him the the police station. When we arrived we were led into a room full of stuff, and my dad was (presumably) told to choose which items belonged to him. I helped him in this process, and saw an abacus in the corner of the room that I was "positive" had been in the car (it wasn't, I just wanted it). After some persuasion that it was really mine, I got to leave the police station with my very own abacus. There you have it - my first theft was right out from under the cops noses.

Another incident was in grade 8 at a cross country running match. So a race is well under way, we're in the last 1km stretch (of about 8 I think, so getting pretty close). I'm right up there with the leading pack, but definitely over-doing it. Conveniently, a kid in front of me falls down. I take this opportunity to heroically stop running and make sure he got help (flagging a coordinator over). I was really just excited for a good excuse to stop, and catch my breath. Somehow word got back to our teacher / coach from the race organizers that an Almonte student had admirably given up his leading place to ensure a peer was ok. This news got back to our school principal. The next day over the intercom, the principal talked at length about a student in the school who showed exemplary character, bla bla bla. So it became a pretty big deal, and I got a lot of praise - all for being excited about an easy way to rest in a race.

Movember: Moustaches for the Powers of Good

2010-10-31T18:16:00.000-07:00

Hello Gentleladies and Gentlemen,

As many of you may know, I am quite fond of the moustache. I enjoy adorning my upper lip with a dusting of hair, as it quite simply makes me feel mansome. In the past I have grown an array of nose-nannies simply for the purpose of self satisfaction. This year, I have decided to use the power of the moustache for good.

Movember is a wonderful tradition where men are given the chance to grow moustaches, and raise some money for Prostate Cancer. Seems like a bit of a no-brainer to me, and I'm happy to be on-board this year.

If you would like to help out, please go to my "Mospace" page ( http://ca.movember.com/mospace/661230/) and lend some support, donate some cash if you are inclined, and best of all, stay tuned for some lovely pictures.

I am also uncertain as to what style of 'stache to sport, so suggestions will be welcomed.

I leave you with some memoirs of moustaches from years past:

Get ready world, because I'm coming for you!

Sincerely,

Benjamin Eagan

Dan Mangan / The Wooden Sky / Awesommme

2010-10-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

Last night Ariane, Bailey, Kelsey, Taylor, and myself attend a double whammy of concerts which involved some sprinting. We saw the Crackling, Dan Mangan, That other dude who wasn't named "Andy", Yukon Blonde, and The Wooden Sky.

They were all friggin awesome.... and happened to be in the same place at the end of the night. Naturally, I bought a bunch of beer, sprinted home for guitars, and Taylor, my friend John, and I jammed with the whole gang late into the night and/or morning.

We yelled, we drank, we laughed

Things!

2010-10-25T17:24:00.000-07:00

Today I woke up in Kingston at 5:30 am, and then at 8 am I was at work in Carleton Place.

I went to Starbucks, and got a quadruple americano, and a sausage breakfast sandwich on the way out of town. The lady charged be about $3.25, which was not enough I suspect, so I tipped her the change.

I got in the car, and picked out some Sigur Ros on my ipod for my drive. When I set the ipod down, it was shaken, which tells my ipod to spontaneously enter shuffle mode (this is a real feature, not a broken ipod). Instead it decided to play the song "Man of Constant Sorrow" for me, which was really a much better choice. I let it shuffle for the whole ride, ending on a fantastic "robotttttttt, hummmmmmmmmaaaannnnnn" - anyone care to identify?

Balaclava: Ghost Town?

2010-10-18T16:54:00.000-07:00

So, Balaclava is hailed as one of the most picturesque ghost towns in Ontario... I've read a lot about it, and on a beautiful fall day, decided to drive out with Ariane and check it out. As you can see in the following pictures, it is prettttty spooky looking.

The thing that people forgot to mention was that there is a major highway running through the middle of it. Oh, and it's still totally inhabited.... So really it's not so much a ghost town as it is a road with 2 abandoned buildings beside it. Still looks prettty cool though!

The Halloween Pumpkin

2010-10-03T20:46:00.000-07:00

To kick off my Halloween month coverage, I present the Halloween Pumpkin!

This video is a relative to the famous christmas fireplace videos. It's HD footage of a wicked gnarled old grandpa pumpkin I carved, and it's set to auto-repeat! So stream it and full screen it for non-stop pumpkin ambiance!

For looping HD version, goto http://honestandhumble.com/videos/pumpkin.html! You can also go to the vimeo page and download the video, and repeat it on your own computer. Enjoy, pass it on, and let me know what you think!

October! OoooooooOOOoooooOOOOh!

2010-09-30T18:41:00.000-07:00

October starts tomorrow! I'm also sad to say I couldn't work at the haunted house because my full time job kinda takes up a lot of time... Huzzah for weekends! Checkout my pumpkin family that will be living with me this month:

I got a job!

2010-09-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

Yup, I got a job. I am now an official employee of Powerbase Energy Systems, and my job is to make myself useful helping to design/improve a biogas generator. It uses cow manure, restaurant waste, a diesel engine, and a lot of other fancy features, and gets electricity and heat. Neato!

I also got a job at the local haunt factory Saunders Farm. I'm going to try to keep hours real low here, but I really just want a chance to scare the crap out of some kids. I have the same motto as most kindergarten teachers - "The younger they are, the louder I scream."

Regards,

Ben Eagan

Western Adventure

2010-09-19T13:58:00.000-07:00

Here's a little video from my adventures out west this summer!

The Honest and Humble Guide to Everything!

2010-09-16T11:06:00.000-07:00

I've decided just to launch what I've got for this website!

For those of you who have not heard (which would be surprising if you read this blog but haven't heard me rant about this idea), I have started ANOTHER blog. This one is called "The Honest and Humble Guide to Everything", and it is based around individuals writing reviews on topics with which they have no previous knowledge. It's meant to be a fun little experiment into trying out new genres and new interests, as well as a look into how well received these changes can be.

So, without further ado, please make your way to my new site, and watch for new updates!
www.honestandhumble.com

Thanks for reading!

Written Notices

2010-09-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

So, as you may have noticed, I'm pretty excited for Halloween. I even applied for a job at the local haunted house, and got to include the words "I would love to scare the crap out of some kids" in my application, and still get a response!

I've also been reading up on some local events, and I found one in a newspaper that was pretty disappointing... checkit:

"A whole world comes alive under the cover of darkness at PINHEY'S POINT HISTORIC SITE when it presents Creatures of the Night from 7 to 9 p.m. Discover the region's animals, birds and insects and learn how they prepare for winter in different ways. Learn about fall migration patterns, discover which animals take a winter-long nap and explore how animals stockpile food for their bleakest season. Enjoy a ghost story or two around a campfire."

So, in the first few sentences, they had a really strong start - "under the cover of darkness" and "Creatures of the Night" sounds pretty awesome and spooky, and perhaps even exciting! They really lose interest in a steady decline through the rest of the post, before trying a hail-mary to be cool again by mentioning ghost stories. I bet they would be stories about ghosts migratory patterns, and what unique struggles they face over the wintertime.

In other news, I destroyed my blackberry while making fun of people who needed tools to take theirs apart. Surprisingly, I learned very little from the experience. I now have a new phone, which is kinda snazzy, but that's not the point of this story. The point of this story is to highlight the fact that my owners manual comes with a heading "Driving and Walking Safely". Driving makes sense... Walking? Thanks RIM.

Halloween is Coming

2010-09-11T09:06:00.000-07:00

My blog has been totally re-decorated in anticipation of halloween. I have a few treats planned, including some re-tellings of Victorian era ghost stories, a well documented making of my future Chewbacca costume, some pictures of some really spooky art Kiersten is cooking/wrangling up, and last but not least, some surprises!

Word Blogging

2010-09-04T08:10:00.000-07:00

Hey All,

So, it seems these blog things let you post photos and videos, but they also let you post good old fashioned text! It's been a long time since I've posted anything not involving a camera, so without further ado:

I've had a pretty busy summer with lots of travelling too and from the west coast, and I don't think I've stayed in one place for longer than 3 weeks (with 3 weeks being an outlier) for about 4 months. That's really not that dramatic, but it has started to take a toll on me. Right now I've got a serious itch to get paid by someone regularly, and I'm really hoping to find a job working with green energy solutions.

I think these positions are really cool as they mix research and new technologies with creative engineering solutions. For example, when working on getting the most electricity out of the suns rays, a good strategy would be to manufacture the most efficient solar panel possible. Alternatively, you could attempt to build the cheapest possible panel at the expense of efficiency. This would be a clever idea if you could still get the same amount of energy (or more) for a given price as the high efficiency panel. Finally, you can get creative with environmental factors, and put some magnifying glasses over your panels to increase the intensity of the sunlight. More eletricity!

I've also come to the conclusion that the only plans that actually happen are the ones that are already in motion. I've had the same conversation with graduated school friends 100 times talking about plans, and in about a months time, they change completely. This has also happened to me an awful lot, and my plans got more and more boring. Luckily, I'm not worried about losing the more exciting/adventurous plans... You know what they say: "Exciting plans are easily startled, but they'll soon be back, and in greater numbers."

That's about all I've got to say right now, but I kinda like this writing business. You know what they say: "Text blog posts are easily startled, but they'll soon be back, and in greater numbers."

Year End Videos (2005, 2006), Friend-O-Gram, Attack of the Life

2010-08-31T14:58:00.000-07:00

I recently uploaded a whole bunch of old videos I found on my hard drive! Here are two Year End Videos I made for ADHS back in the day, as well as my first snowboard video "Friend-o-Gram". I posted Attack of the Life a while ago, but I am including it for rigours sake in this post.

Indy and Luna

2010-08-29T12:26:00.000-07:00

Two Movies

2010-08-25T19:51:00.000-07:00

I made some movies over the last month! The first one is a promotional edit for Equator Coffee Roasters in Almonte. They make awesome coffee, and I made a promo for them to create a sample product for future jobs, and get some free coffee.

Equator Coffee Roasters from Ben Eagan on Vimeo.

The second video is playing around with the 60 fps 720p option on my camera. It's got some cow and horse tongues, a pretty girl, some backflips, a chubby dog, and to top it off, a canon ball. Hope you enjoy it!

Playing With Slow Motion from Ben Eagan on Vimeo.

Star Wars is Awesome!

2010-08-22T14:02:00.000-07:00

So, I think Star Wars is really awesome. As a kid I had a few toy chests dedicated to my star wars toys alone. I've been Luke Skywalker, an Imperial Guard, and Obi-Wan for halloween, and I have Darth Vader and Clone Trooper masks at my disposal. I thought these things were pretty cool until I started investigating some NEW star wars paraphanelia. To start things off, checkout this awesome adidas commercial, featuring Beckham, Snoop, and Mos Eisly:

So their ad is awesome, and their star wars clothes are pretty cool, but they don't really compare to these hoodies:

Additionally, as found on think geek, there is a game which monitors brain patterns and controls a ball's movement up and down inside a tube. The harder you concentrate, the higher the ball rises. Yoda's voice chimes in to help teach you how to play.

They also have an awesome Yoda backpack, and Tauntaun sleeping bag:

That is all for now, but if you ever need to buy me a present, I hope you know what to do....

Attack of the Life

2010-08-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

In 2006, Ian Carleton and I pieced together a crap load of footage, and made a snowboard video called Attack of the Life. If you haven't seen it yet, you should probably give it a whirl....

Attack of the Life from Ben Eagan on Vimeo.

Maps!

2010-08-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

So, our planet is round and our maps are flat. This is kinda hard to do, because if you just peel our globe apart, it doesn't exactly fit into a convenient shape.

This is what the world looks like ripped apart:

There are 2 strategies at this point for presenting it. The most popular and common is certainly the Mercator projection:

The 2nd is called the Peters projection, or equal area map, and it looks like this:

You will notice in this map, that Canada, Greenland, Australia, and many other countries get a lot smaller and squished in funny ways.

I've heard a few people talk about the evils of the predominant Mercator projection, which schemes to make the UK, USA, and other western countries look larger and thus more powerful. This isn't really the case, as it was initially implemented for sailing reasons. While the scaling of physical size occurs as you move away from the equator, it is a conformal projection which means all angles are preserved. This means the longitude and latitude stay perpendicular all over the place, among other things.

While the Peters projection represents land mass accurately, it pretends the earth is a big cylinder, which comes with some scaling of it's own making it less practical for navigation.

Seems a little strange to me to get really upset about our choice of map, but it definitely is worth it to educate people about the scaling that goes on. It's also fun to look at our world in some different ways!

p.s. One person who was telling me about the evils of the Mercator projection informed me that our map was actually upside down! Did you know Antarctica is in fact at the top of our planet?

Hermione Granger, a Woman, a Hero

2010-08-06T21:30:00.000-07:00

I've had the idea for this movie jotted down for over a year now. It took a surprisingly long time to make. I think its real beauty is in its simplicity...

Vancouver Festival of Lights

2010-07-30T07:49:00.000-07:00

Vancouver is currently in the midst of hosting their annual "Festival of Lights". This is a festival that celebrates fireworks, inviting countries all over the world to entertain the city for 30 minutes. People gather in huge crowds to watch the spectacular displays and pee in shrubs.

Apparently every minute of fireworks takes over 40 hours of work, and costs over $5000. Now that's entertainment!

This is what I saw, compliments of team Mexico:

Vancouver Festival of Lights from Ben Eagan on Vimeo.

Ben's Introductory Kurt Vonnegut Reading Plan

2010-07-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

I think Kurt Vonnegut is an absolute genius. I started reading his books about one year ago, and now I've ready very nearly everything which has been published (including short stories and essays). Kurt has a really interesting way of being brutally honest about humanity, tearing it to pieces, laughing at it, and then carrying on as if it didn't matter. His writing style is entertaining and his stories progress in very unexpected ways, often with the plot taking a back seat to the characters. I think everyone should give him a shot!

I've suggested this to a lot of people, and I've come up with a formula for the first few books which should be read:

I think you should probably start off with a short story, such as "Ed Luby's Key Club" from the compilation called "Look at the Birdie"

This will give you a good glimpse of his writing style, and prime you for a full blown novel.

From this point, I would likely suggest "Cat's Cradle". This has been self graded by Vonnegut in relation to his other works as A+, and I liked it too! It is an entertaining story of a man caught up in his fate, featuring a beautiful woman, a mad scientist, and a brief spattering of armageddon.

If you've enjoyed yourself thus far, the next book I'd suggest is "Slaughter-House Five". This book is a semi-autobiographical telling of the authors experiences in world war II, and in particular, the bombing of Dresden, Germany. Vonnegut was really there for the bombing, and survived by chance of being held prisoner in a freezer of the 5th slaughter house. There are aliens in this story, and some time travel, as well as a little Kilgore Trout (who may or may not have been mentioned in other books by this point)

Once you've finished Slaughter-house Five, which shouldn't take more than a few hours, I would really leave it up to you as to what you would like to read next. The final book I will strongly recommend is "Hocus Pocus". This book took a lot longer to read than his others, but if you like his style, it will blow you away. I think it is best saved until you are a bit used to his writing style, as there are a lot of rich tid-bits burried within.

Hope someone gives him a shot because of this post!

*** This reading guide should be believed only under the condition that you think my opinion has any weight what-so-ever.

The Midnight Otters

2010-07-20T06:31:00.000-07:00

A few of you have been asking me about this new game - "Bike Polo"- that everyone has been talking so much about. I decided to make a little video to explain some of the rules!

Bike Polo: Arnprior Chapter from Ben Eagan on Vimeo.

The Hold Steady

2010-07-18T12:36:00.000-07:00

I recently came to love The Hold Steady with their release of the "Boys and Girls in America" album, which walks a fine line between ballads and rock and roll, with cutting lyrics, a dash of piano, and some awesome old school guitar solos in between. Another awesome thing about these guys is that they are just regular dudes! Once they stepped off stage, it would be tough to tell them apart from the middle aged tech crowd. They just love to play it seems, and consequentially have earned a reputation as one of the best bar bands around.

I managed to catch them at the Ottawa Bluesfest last night, which is fortunately surrounded by a lot of fences down by the water, which allows broke people like me to see awesome bands for free. We found a nice spot with a great view of the stage, and camped out with about 15 friends. The band sounded really great live and seemed to be having a really fun time on stage. It was also entertaining to hear the singers voice when talked to the crowd, as it sounded exactly like when he sings. Overall it was a really relaxing and fun show sitting in the grass watching the sunset, but I think to really appreciate that band, I will need to find them at a bar show one day. I plan to do exactly that.

Man-o-man!

2010-07-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

Holy tamole some jobs can suck!

So I had a test day today, as I mentioned earlier. This entailed spending 9 hours trying out the job to see if I liked it, which had only been described to me as "live events promoting" which is for charity clients. Once I'm in the car and halfway there, merchandise is mentioned. Upon arrival, I learn that "live events promoting" really means high pressure sales of useless crap in the name of charity. I was just an "observer" today, so for about 2 hours I watched uncomfortably as we hassled everyone walking past. Finally it came time for me to step up, so I kindly informed my co-workers that I really wasn't interested in the job. I was super positive and stuff about, so no hard feelings either way I reckon, but boy did I get trapped in Belleville for 8 hours!

The worst part about it is really just the embarrassment of being openly excited about this job... While I was kinda skeptical all the way along, I still got my hopes up a bit. While my attitude is awesome, it sucks when people get to catch you being wrong about stuff like this. Otherwise, It really didn't turn out to be a negative experience! I just hungout in the sun in Belleville on their main streets sidewalk sale, read a book, made some friends, and thought a lot about the website I'm starting up that I keep mentioning. I won't say any more about this yet, but I made some good connections with a bookstore owner, and got an advanced copy of a vampire romance novel to review! Figure that one out out-of-the-loop people!

Now I'm stuck in Kingston with lots of friends around, and some seriously beautiful weather. What a bummmer!

Now I must go drink beer.

Multiple Forms of Success

2010-07-16T05:22:00.000-07:00

I am dressing up again today for a test day with that fancy job I wore a suit for! Pretty successful huh?

On another awesome successful note, the oil spill has been cut off! First time since April 20, and as a test to see if it will hold... In about 48 hours they'll start pumping off to ships again for whatever reason. Either way, it's a pretty awesome step towards a fix. Now THAT's successful!

"I tell you what, we needed that," said Jimmy Thibodaux, a resident of the small southern Louisiana town of Cut Off. (Reuters)

Well said Jimmy.

"Lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister[s]"

2010-07-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, I have two sisters. Kiersten is 2 years older, Bailey is 2 years younger, they're both really pretty, and they've both knocked my teeth out. This post is about some of the cool stuff they are doing. I'll start with the one with more seniority.

Kiersten Eagan
Kiersten is a really really amazing artist. She's definitely my favourite, by virtue of constantly creating images I can't stop looking at! She's currently going to school at the San Fransisco Art Institute, and shes getting better everyday. She is also very generous with her art, and has given away countless pieces to friends and family. One time she was moving out of a town (Kimberly, BC I believe), and was leaving behind most of her work she had done there. She didn't just leave them behind though... She snuck around town in the middle of the night, leaving paintings on friends doorsteps, or in places that just look cool! She's just recently started a blog that features some cool new images, as well as the musings going on behind the scenes, and makes very effective use of the odd quote! Check it out here!

Bailey Eagan
Bailey is the younger, and most dangerous of the two. While Kiersten knocked my tooth out with a fist, Bailey managed to do it with a kick. She is also one of those people who goes scuba diving with sharks, is totally in love with them! When you watch shark dives on TV, you always wonder who the crazy tough people are who swim with those nasty chomping machines... Apparently they are your little sisters.

She just got back from a big whale tracking sea kayaking adventure on Vancouver Island, and now she's planning a "Sharkwater" screening at Ottawa's Mayfair theatre (August 19th) to raise money for sharks. She also wants to change public opinion about them, as she thinks they really aren't "nasty chomping machines". I think maybe she's on the sharks side and is just trying to trick us into not being afraid of them so they can eat us more easily...

She's got an event on a cool new social networking site, check it out here!

nom nom nom

Job Interview!

2010-07-12T13:29:00.000-07:00

I had a job interview today for a marketing firm- it went well and the job sounds neat. I wore a suit, and then was confused by a BBQ.

White Water Rafting Mavericks

2010-07-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, A bunch of awesome friends and I piled into a raft (raft #13) for a white water adventure at Wilderness Tours... Unexpectedly, right around the first bank, our guide Julie decided to take us on the gnarliest - not-for-public-use rapid sections, breaking away from the rest of the rafting group. She thought we were up to it, and as it was her last day of rafting she wasn't worried about losing her job. It turns out we WERE up to it, and had a great time, but is sure scared the pants off everyone around us! This is a video shot by rescue workers just to keep track of where we were heading:

Big Fancy from Ben Eagan on Vimeo.

Things That Are a Big Deal! (Serious Post)

2010-07-06T23:39:00.000-07:00

The Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill

Holy crap that's a lot of oil! Depending on your sources, it seems pretty likely that this thing spits out more oil than the Exxon Valdez oil spill approximately every two weeks. While there are some pretty clever oil hats going on this guy now, it's still leaking about 5,000 barrels a day (down from 35000-60000). While a lot of these numbers are debated, one thing is for sure and I'll say it again... Holy crap that's a lot of oil!

It has been pretty interesting learning about the ways someone tries to stop an oil leak 5000 feet below the oceans surface. From plugging the line with junk, making it big fancy hats, or just cutting it off at the source, it doesn't seem to be an easy thing to do! They are currently drilling two wells (a main and a relief well) which will intercept the oil well below the leak, and hopefully plug the leak from the bottom and at the same time re-route the oil (hidden agenda or convenient side effect?).

Another interesting thing about this is how little attention the actual spill is getting these days. I lived on an island for 2 weeks without contact with the world in early June. When I returned, one of the first things I checked was the status of this project. I had to read about 10 news articles and read between the lines to learn that it was still spewing, and it was a lot tougher to find out the next course of action. People are way more interested in being pissed at Obama for not stopping the leak himself, and an incompetent CEO for racing yachts and claiming his life back. While these are all pretty interesting, I would way rather have some clear status reports!

A Public Inquiry for the G20

I'm not incredibly educated about what happened here... I do know that I'm thoroughly convinced the police definitely crossed a line and trampled on some human rights. Let it be known that I am officially against this, and if a public inquiry isn't called for, something is seriously wrong!

Flippin Bow Wow Wow

2010-07-04T22:38:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it back home! That's all I'm going to say about the trip until we're done our video though... In the meantime, here are some puppies chasing a remote control car covered in peanut butter set to the best dance song ever written:

Puppies chasing a remote control car covered in peanut butter set to the best dance song ever written. from Ben Eagan on Vimeo.

11 am, July 1

2010-07-02T10:23:00.000-07:00

It's 11 am on July 1st, and 1 month after our departure we are aiming our sights back home. It's been a really remarkable trip, and so many incredible people have helped us out along the way. It has been very very appreciated, and I hope one day I can let everyone sleep on my floor and have an awesome visit to whatever city I live in! Now I will google maps my way out of downtown Saskatoon...

-Ben

2010-06-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

Toy Story 3 Tales

2010-06-29T06:56:00.000-07:00

So we're in Edmonton right now, but as I have no pictures or energy (7 am - 2 hour sleep), I will tell an old story in the meantime. It is a toy story story. I will let the picture do the talking, but I ordered a kid's pack at a movie - when the girl could find the dinosaur toy for me ("rex"), she told me to check back in a hiding place behind the counter after my movie. This is what was waiting for me!

This was before seeing the A-team (which was awesome)... About a week later I got to see Toy Story 3(D) with Ariane's little sister Hayley. The movie was awesome, but I was little jealous she made the glasses look better than I did. Go see it if you get the chance! 3D looks great, and you will probably tear up a little at the end.

Expect another update in the next 3 days or so... It will likely include stories about cottages, boys swimming in underpants, and driving in the prairies.

To Infinity and Beyond!

-Ben

Cliffs

2010-06-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

This is a call for help. In roughly a week, the voyagers will be heading back across this ginourmous country. On our quest out, we were sticken with a serious swimming hole deficiency. I was wondering if anyone can suggest any cool swimming places between roughly the pacific ocean, and ottawa. The closer to highway 1, the more likely we are to explore it. If we DO explore it, you win a free hat of your choosing! Cliffs for jumping off get you a free tuxedo rental...

3 More Pictures

2010-06-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

Photos as Promised: Planes, Pirates, Poppa-sized-trees

2010-06-16T11:16:00.000-07:00

Brad and Ian strolling in Cathedral Grove - a place where big trees gang up on little trees.

Yours truly, eating some spaghetti with a hand carved fork.

Ian is pleased with himself.

Brad is pleased with himself, on the wing of a crashed World War II bomber just off radar hill. This hike was awesome!

Surfing, Salt Burns and Camping

2010-06-14T14:49:00.000-07:00

Wellll we've really done it this time. We have now been in Tofino for just over a week, and we have some wicked red faces. We also have one of the more impressive camping setups I've ever seen. 3 Hammocks, 6 person tent, 10000 tarps, 1 picnic table, 1 fire pit. The camp ground also has a hot tub.

Our days are also not exactly busy, which leaves a lot of thinking time. I've come up with a website idea that I'm pretty excited about, but I'm going to keep it secret a little bit longer. With that said, if anyone thinks they might be interested in writing an article for me, with absolutely no idea what it will be about, email me and I'll let you in on the secret!

I will also upload some pictures soon, just as soon as the internet doesn't totally suck!

ttyl

Wet Suit Scramble

2010-06-11T12:27:00.000-07:00

I'm dumb. Sometimes I leave laptops and pants on my roof and start driving. Other times I leave wetsuits on the roof and start driving. Luckily only wetsuits fly off on highways!

This happened to me 2 days ago... I was returning a rented surfboard, and drove away with my wetsuit on the roof. About 3 hours later, I realized it was gone! What was I to do??

I decided to re-trace my steps and check if maybe it fell off at the rental shop. When I got there and asked about it, the fellow working said it had not, but word on the street was someone found a wetsuit on the highway. I pursued that lead a little further, and within the hour had my wetsuit back!

I thought it was pretty cool that I managed to so successfully lose AND find a wetsuit! I think when I leave tofino, I will give my wetsuit to the guy who found it as a thank you... Won't be needing it anyways!

In other news, I surfed a wave beside a sea lion! He poked his head out right before I started paddling, then I jumped on board (as did Ian i think). Wahoo!

-Ben

Voyage

2010-06-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

Well world, I promised I hadn't forgot about you... I'm true to my word.

Here's a more in depth version of whats happening. I know it's hard to believe I can get more in depth than mentioning I'm in a hammock, but to start things off, I'm on the patio of a coffee shop right now.

Approximately 1 week to the hour ago, Brad, Ian and I loaded up into the vagabond and set our compass west. We drove for 30- ish hours straight, leading us to a glorious sunrise in Michigan, and by sundown we had passed through both Wisconsin and Minnesota and found our feet back on Canadian soil in Sasafratcheskwan. We camped in sas'kwan and got off to a rainy start the next day, which quickly turned into the most amazing sunny prairie crossing, with some rain storms mixed in.

The end of this day found us in Banff, which is pretty gorgeous, but also about zero degrees at night. With a 10 degree sleeping bag and none of those fancy thermarests between me and the ground, I found myself cold enough to complain about it. It was friggin cold! Slept about 3 hours that night, and woke up before sunrise to drive around in a warm car and take pictures of the moon. Overall, not so bad! The Rocky Mountains were breathtaking as always, and I'm bored of explaining the trip now so descriptions will suck more. We drove to BC with a brief mountain climbing break.

We arrived in BC and promptly got lost in Vancouver before finding out way to Ariane's house. At this point we got treated to some incredible sushi, warm beds, and showers - all the things you don't actually like until you can't have them. We stuck around at the Ben-Oliel's house for a few days and got a the speed tour of Vancouver. Granville Island, Downtown, Wreck Beach, 'nuff said. It was really awesome and appreciated by all weary travellers. I think Vancouver has also recruited some new future residents - they may want to give Ariane a small cut for advertising.

The lay-over in Vancouver gave me a chance to see my fantastic girlfriend again, and also gave us a chance to round up some surfin sticks. These were compliments on Adrian Watson, who also taught us how to squat like the pros, shower in tofino, stand up on a surf board, put surfboards on a roof, get boards repaired, wear wetsuits (naked as a newborn baby bear), and a lot more. Basically without Adrian, this surf trip would be about $1000 more expensive, and 1000 x shorter.

At this point, we jetted off once more, west as always. The ferry ride from Vancouver to Nanaimo was amazing, and some killer whales snuck a look at the famous travellers heading to tofino. A few hours later, we were in Cox Bay, Tofino, getting our faces smashed by waves and having the time of our lives. We all managed to get up a few times, but we sure to suck! We are far from discouraged though, and are about to head off to do it again....

We're also planning on building quite the fortress in the forest, but it turns out prime sites for squatters fortresses are hard to come-by.... We go exploring again after surfing, so wish us luck!

Stay tuned! For more updates, checkout dagz, but they're a bunch off bad eggs if you ask me...

tofino!

2010-06-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

Made it to tofino! I'm lying in a hammock right now, slept beside the ocean, excited for my friends to wake up so we can surf. I will do a much better update when its not on my phone, but I haven't forgot about you world. Also, huge thanks to the Ben-Oliels and to Adrian Watson!

Set Sail!

2010-06-01T06:57:00.000-07:00

Today is the day three brave voyagers (Ian, Bradley, and I) set off for the western shores, preparing to gaze at Japan for a month. Occasionally we will be distracted by radicalness, and possibly private property owners asking us kindly to stop camping on their land. We shall be non-invasive.

We unfurl the main-sail when the sun is directly overhead, and we won't stop until we have passed the sea of dullsville (Manitoba, we're skipping you), taken our vessel onto another vessel (pronounced "wessel" - it's a sailing thing), passed through an alien, before laying anchor a mere crows-nest gaze away from the cowboy infested port calgary!

At this stage we may lose our sea legs to a bout of camping and beer legs, but after an excellent rest, we shall meet the mr. morning sun and show him our backsides. West we go! For Vancouver ("wancouver") inhabitants: "Look to my coming, at first light, on the [third] day. At dawn, look to the East." In Vancouver the voyagers ("voyagers" - hard "v") will load up on vitamin c, indulge in merry-making, and be faced with a gentle giant - a beast like none other yet encountered at sea.

The next step is largely unchartered, as it is further than any sailor has been before. "Here there be dragons" they say, and we hope those are gnarly surf dragons who breath radicalness through their far out noses. We will cast scrolls periodically, so keep your eyes on the shore!

Let the Record State

2010-05-30T21:11:00.001-07:00

If I'm ever working a job with a cash register, and someones total also happens to be the exact time, I solemnly swear to personally pay for their order. This is yet to happen, but I've been looking out for it for about 4 years now....

Summer Goals:

2010-05-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

I'm planning on having a pretty good time this summer. Here are some things I want to accomplish:

-Get better at mountain biking, do some fancy drops
-Jump off some high cliffs into water
-Build an awesome tree fort
-Surf a lot
-Live on a beach
-Build an awesome rope swing
-Ninja kick through a cardboard cutout of a bear while swinging on a rope swing
-Get paid to play Banjo
-Build some large useless machines, hone my Rube Goldberg skills
-Teach my puppies to shake a paw with each-other
-Scare some 9 year old kids
-Visit a few ghost towns
-Found my own town, with a short term prosperous economy -> give back to the ghost town community
-Sleep over in a haunted house - don't leave, no matter what!
-Swim through an underwater tunnel
-Do some science
-Make a life plan
-All of the above, but this time wearing a suit

Summer In the Valley!

2010-05-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

More summer videos here. Ian, Joe, and I got together and tried not to die in the heat yesterday!

A message to star wars fans, we know! Bonus marks to whoever can tell us just what it is that we know (Shannon boys?)...

Summer Day at the Eagan's from Ben Eagan on Vimeo.

It was really hot yesterday, so we hung around my parents place and had some fun little adventures! Some unexpected things occurred I dare say...

Type-ity type type

2010-05-22T13:25:00.000-07:00

I haven't had to many text based posts since I got my new camera. Taking it back to the basics on this one.

In the last month, a lot of things have been happening. For starters, I graduated from university with some pretty decent marks. I've been living at home for the last month, and while being relieved and kinda happy I'm "accomplished", I also have a lot of future insisting I have a grand plan. For curious parties, I don't have one.

Recently I've been working for Empire Photo + Video filming dance contests/recitals in Niagara Falls, and Ottawa. It's interesting work. I'm pretty sure dance contests are designed to make absolutely sure nobody is enjoying themselves. They even make sure to use weird coffee shop cover versions of any song you may even begin to enjoy. Overall it's not a bad gig though!

Once this month wraps up, Ian, Brad, and I are setting our sights west. We're piling in the HMS Vagabond (aka my 97 Subaru outback, as seen in such summers as 2008) and driving until we land in a city with better sushi than Calgary. You guessed it. Vancouver! For those of you who don't know, my girlfriend Ariane lives there, and I'm very excited to see her for the first time in a month!

Once we have enjoyed some authentic Vancouver visiting time, we're continuing west to tofino. When we arrive we plan to do a rediculous amount of surfing, illegal camping (aka squatting), water safety research, bear safety research, tree fort building research, tree fort building, music playing, friend making, canned food eating, scavenged food eating, and bicycle riding. It'll be alright I reckon.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is my life plan!

Tofino

2010-05-18T17:40:00.000-07:00

Summer

2010-05-14T10:16:00.001-07:00

I shot some pretty random stuff recently, but I think it captures what we are all feeling. Summer is poking it's head out of a hole, but isn't quite ready to commit for the long term yet. Thus we are forced to make due.

People Seem to Like Summer from Ben Eagan on Vimeo.

Philosophy Post

2010-05-11T15:19:00.001-07:00

Calling this philosophy is probably generous, but I had a thought I wanted to write down, and I need to do a new blog post, so I thought I'd just get two birds stoned.

I was thinking about an old friend who I wanted to catch up with, and I started thinking about how groups of friends form their own personalities. Within your standard group, theres certain things that are and are not allowed. For example, some groups won't let you pop your collar, or listen to bright eyes. Others may hate the movie juno, or look down on people who go to church only at christmas. There are little social rules that are by no means strict, but without noticing, you start to judge people by them. I was thinking about becoming real friends with an old friend again, and how many little judgments which are essentially meaningless that would need to be shuffled. The bottom line was realizing the funny little rules even the nicest people uphold. I'll make it cheesy and say we care about a lot of things that don't matter.

Lucky for me, I realized this all by myself. This lets me exempt myself from feeling silly, and judge everyone who still does it!

-Ben

This Post is for the Birds..... The SPACE Birds!

2010-05-04T22:30:00.000-07:00

Au Revoir Kingston

2010-04-30T06:11:00.000-07:00

Attention mothers, children, and potential employers -> anything reckless or irresponsible appearing in this video was staged. This video has also been donated to charity.

The Bunker Finale from Ben Eagan on Vimeo.

Pictures of "Stuff"!

2010-04-24T13:49:00.001-07:00

I would like to note how incredibly robust the word "stuff" is for describing things. Allow me to demonstrate:

Here is some stuff from the (INCREDIBLE) Dan Mangan concert. There is a set list (courtesy of Cheyenne), and a 100 dollar bill playing card signed by Dan reading "Sorry I'm not Richard Gere". This is an inside joke between us.

Luna the puppy, she's all sleepy and stuff.

Hot stuff and cute stuff.

Birthday/Graduation present. This bike is kinda heavy duty and can ride all sorts of stuff!

Songs For Singin'

2010-04-21T06:38:00.000-07:00

Campfire season is fast approaching, which couple nicely with string instruments. It's a lot more fun when everyone knows the same songs, so I'm going to go ahead and post all my favourites these days (which I will be memorizing). If you guys wanna do the same in the comments I'll start updating this list! But first, a banjo edit inspired by boredom!

Banjo-Banjo from Ben Eagan on Vimeo.

Rural Alberta Advantage - Frank AB

Elliot Brood - Write it All Down

Elliot Brood - Without Again

Elliot Brood - Oh Alberta! (learn the words, I'll teach you the chords!)

The Tallest Man on Earth - Gardener

Dan Mangan - Sold

Dan Mangan - Road Regrets

Dan Mangan - Robots

That's all I've got for now. Please input and we can get a radical campfire set list this summer!

Divisible by 11 Once Again!

2010-04-18T08:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my 22nd birthday, and I had a totally awesome time. Here's the story:

I woke up pretty early and lounged around watching 30 Rock, meanwhile, Ariane was writing an exam. While waiting for her to finish, I checked her blog to discover that she had made me a treasure hunt to get my present! When she did arrive at my house, she had a massive / awesome pirate hat as seen worn by Taylor Robertson:

Sporting this hat, my newfound wanderlust was appealed to, as I was given the first clue for my treasure hunt. Several clues, 2 libraries, 1 convenient store, and 1 hole in the earth later, I found my present. It's a gorgeous pocket watch made in 1884! I'm blown away by the fact that it has no batteries or anything, AND it's about as old as Canada/Queen Elizabeth II. It also has a very endearing tick which quietly provides some classy ambient noise. This has lead me to the decisions that I will try to have audibly ticking clocks in every house I live in henceforth.

The afternoon treasure hunt was followed by more 30 Rock and some reading, as it was a raining day these activities were quite ideal. For dinner, Ariane took me to our favourite sushi restaurant "Sima Sushi" on princess street. If you are in Kingston looking for sushi, GO TO SIMA! They are the nicest people in the world, and the food is really delicious.

After Sima, it was time for coffee, and more 30 Rock. As the evening crept onwards, I started thinking about some plans for the evening. Dave, Jake, Taylor, and Ariane all agreed to indulge in some festivities regardless of their towering work loads and the overall sense of impending doom students get this time of year. We decided to go to the Queen's Pub where some friends have recently become managers, but first we played a new game we've learned called "Biscuit". In one word; Wowzas.

While playing this game, something remarkable occurred. A good song came on, which was naturally followed by copious amounts of stomping. The stomping led to vibrations in the walls, which allowed a brave young card to slowly escape the confines of its deck into the real world. When the song was finished there was a second of calm, at this moment, the all powerful 6 of clubs chose to fall from the mantle piece face up on the floor. This is a big deal!

When I was in high school, the 6 of clubs granted you absolute power over your friends. You could rule like a King, and your authority had to be respected. The only catch was that once you began your kingship, you had 1 hour to provide your subjects with a competition to win the 6 of clubs for themselves.

Alas, the 6 of clubs ruled again!

On to the Queen's Pub. While the accuracy of descriptions tends to go down by 1 am, I can assure you it's nothing personal! The QP staff were awesome and friendly, and some friends made treks from their houses to a closing bar to come wish me happy birthday.

Overall, it was an awesome birthday. A huge thanks goes out to all my family, friends, and my lovely girlfriend for helping me have so much fun!

-Ben

Moustache Glory

2010-04-16T11:22:00.000-07:00

Stolen from Dagz and Ian:

" Hello Fellos,

Alas, the glory of mustache march has came and left us. My condolences to all those out there feeling empty above their lips today. May you take solace in the memories that were created in our hairiest mustache season yet. Let us wish "Godspeed!" one last time to our small but brave facial triumphs and rejoice in the knowledge that we will be together soon. See you again in 319 days.

The Glory of March from Ian Carleton on Vimeo.

Huh?

2010-04-14T16:48:00.000-07:00

I am currently studying in one of the physics building's empty classroom. This is a hot spot for students, as they are big and empty and quiet. Libraries get pretty crazy this time of year. Anyways, some girls just asked if they could share the room I'm in. I said yes. They studied for about 30 minutes until one of the girls promptly passed out. They left shortly after that.

WTf??>

Big Tings!

2010-04-12T17:55:00.001-07:00

Today a lot of really neat things happened. First of all, it was a beautiful day outside. This is always a bonus. Secondly, a new part came for my Canon GL 2 that I needed to install if I wanted to sell it. I did this, but it involved taking half of my camera apart! Spooky Scary!

When this worked, I was finally able to take my camera for trade in to buy a new one that shoots HD. But FIRST, I had to go "slacklining" - this is what hippies do I think, but it's super duper fun and great for my knee muscles I think.

After I finished this, I went to the camera store to buy my new camera. I made this video from footage I took on the first night:

My First Edit! from Ben Eagan on Vimeo.

To end it all off, I also sold my still camera to a friend. Both the cameras that have been really sweet to me are no longer in my life. I will miss them dearly, and wish them well in their future lives. I get irrationally attached to inanimate objects.

Ghost of the Internet!

2010-04-07T19:39:00.001-07:00

I got sick of doing work, so hit chat roulette for a little good old fashioned look at weirdos. Somehow I decided to become one, so naturally I cut eye holes in a white sheet of mine, and turned all my lights dim, and then became the ghost of the internet. I had a lot of fun, and some people are really funny... Below are my favourite interactions:

I also thought my first screenshot on this computer ever was pretty funny:

Moustache March: A Great Success!

2010-03-31T22:17:00.001-07:00

They're gone, but not forgotten. Put your lookin' balls on your picture radio ladies and gentlemen:

Moustache March: A Great Success! from Ben Eagan on Vimeo.

A Day in the Life of Ben

2010-03-30T07:14:00.001-07:00

This is a comic I drew yesterday documenting my day. If you are interested in hiring me to provide coverage of important events (sporting matches, weddings, first dates, graduation ceremonies) in the form of comics, please email me and we can discuss payment and dates.

Aspiring Artist / Scientist

2010-03-28T15:43:00.000-07:00

Hey Y'all,

School has kept me fairly busy recently, but after finishing up much of my work, and having an awesome weekend, I want to work hard on something for no reason. I stumbled across a 24-hour comic challenge and I'm going to do it tomorrow! 24 hours, 24 pages, no pre-conceived idea of what is going to happen. We'll just have to see.

My thesis is due tomorrow, and fortunately I think I'm done. If you want to give it a read send me an email (bceagan@gmail.com) and I'll fire off a copy for you. Woooooooo-hooo! Here's the abstract:

An examination of a potential application of Grazing Incidence Small Angle X-ray Scattering (GISAXS) is presented as a method providing depth specific scattering information for multilayer systems. This is done for systems with multiple layers, and expands upon past work by incorporating a unique value for the absorption coefficient, $\mu$, for each layer. This information is made available by varying the incident angle of the X-ray probe and examining subsequent scattering. Simulated experimental data was generated for multilayer systems with a range of interfacial locations between the two materials, and a range of $\mu$ values. In all cases the depth profiling algorithm was able to successfully locate the interface between materials, confirming it's ability to distinguish between the materials. These simulation results suggest that further experimentation involving depth profiling with GISAXS for real experimental data would be of interest.

on another note, imagine someone ran this through an internet search after I hand it in to check for plagiarizing, and then finds exactly what I wrote on the internet and doesn't notice it's by the same person? That'd be weird!

-Ben

Dan Mangan

2010-03-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

Dan Mangan makes music that is amazingly delightful to listen to. His lyrics are rich, and his sound is very dynamic and full (especially for one man with an acoustic guitar). He writes really clever lines that I like, such as

"If it was easy, it wouldn't matter how it ends" - really appreciated that one today

and

"Downtown Vancouver, digging through my bags" - This one takes real musical appreciation to understand. Think about it for a while.

AND

He is coming to Kingston. I go through phases of massive infatuation with musicians where I think they are the best thing ever, and I realize I'm probably in one of these. Fortunately, he is coming to Kingston while I am in one of these fanboy phases, and this has never happened to me before. Can't wait!

Listen to him.

Turn 19, and go see him.

-Benjamin

p.s. I was just messing with you on that vancouver line... warming up for april fools day

p.p.s. I added two new blogs to my link sections... one is Ariane's, and she is attempting to quit facebook for a month and communicate via blog, so check that out! The other is some cool guys who like daggers and positive attitudes - check them out too! Hot stuff!

Puppppiessssss

2010-03-22T07:07:00.001-07:00

We got a new puppy, and we still have another 1 year old cutie-pie-face. Check ch check check check ch check it out:

Luna with severed dog head

Indie, reaching for the sky

This just in:

2010-03-05T07:48:00.001-08:00

Moustache March

2010-03-01T13:21:00.000-08:00

Let the Games Begin

Moustache March is a pretty big deal in Kingston. The idea is to have a moustache, in the month of March, and that's about it. The alliteration makes it pleasant to say as well.

Anyways, this year is off to a great start with much enthusiasm. The only problem is, I don't know what style of moustache to grow!

Here is where I ask for help. What kind of moustache should I grow?!?

Mexico

2010-03-01T10:06:00.000-08:00

Are you a Mexican, or a Mexican't?

I went to mexico over reading week with Ariane! We stayed just outside the town of Playa Del Carmen at a place on the beach, which led to a lot of sun burns. We also went exploring at some Mayan ruins, and swam in a really cool cenote in an underground cave. There were also some cute little lizards all over the place, which Ariane had a goal to touch before the trip was over. Unfortunately they are slimy and scary, so the goal was never accomplished. Overall it was a really cool trip, which I think the pictures will do a better job of describing than my words, however some stories need to be told.

Story #1:

Ariane and I were walking along the beach one night after a few drinks and soaking up the sea breeze. Along the horizon, we noticed this weird looking light in the sky that almost looked like a strange ship's mast. As we walked towards it, we noticed it was actually getting higher in the sky, however it was moving very slowly and was incredibly bright. At this point I suggested it was a shuttle taking off, except we were facing the opposite direction of florida. After some time it climbed higher into the sky, and overhead was a huge flaming ball with a bright trail across the entire sky. As we speculated about what it could possibly be, a man in his 50's overheard the speculation. He interjected to tell us it was definitely a missile, and seemed to be panicking himself. He pointed out that it was coming from the direction of cuba, and that this was definitely, definitely, not good. There were also lots of US Navy ships in the ocean (for reasons I still don't know), and the military presence of Mexico was also very high. This man was so convinced that a war had broken out, Ariane and I started to get pretty scared. Once it was almost gone from sight we headed back to our room to watch the news. We speculated about possible test missiles, which was the best hypothesis to me. As we almost reached our room, we heard a very loud bang, which made us a lot more convinced it had been a weapon of sorts. Upon turning on the TV, the world didn't seem to be panicking... Finally we found a news looking channel, and heard "Space Shuttle Endeavour is set to land in Florida in just under 3 minutes, if you're in the area look in the sky for it magnificent atmospheric re-enterance, which will be accompanied by the classic double sonic boom."

Luckily, and amazingly, it had been a space shuttle and not a nuclear weapon we were watching. At first we were just happy to know what we had seen, but gradually we grew to realize how freaking cool it was we had just watched astronauts burn their way back to earth! It was prettty much the coolest thing ever. Looked like this, except ours was much later at night, so brighter (the space shuttle is the bright non-blue thing)!

Story #2:

When we went into town to do some exploring and eating, it happened to be the time of the Canada vs Russia game. The few bars that were playing the game were absolutely overflowing with Canadians, and whenever there was a goal (which happened a lot), the crowds would go pretty crazy. I found it a really cool experience to get to be patriotic in a country that wasn't Canada.

I'm kinda in a hurry to get to class soon, so I'm going to stop writing and cut to pictures!

February Thus Far

2010-02-16T20:38:00.000-08:00

February so far has included a really cool ice thing, found by Ariane, and some friends hanging out in my basement.

Let the good times roll.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Taylor Robertson

2010-01-28T13:15:00.000-08:00

Taylor Robertson is my house-mate and good friend whom I have lived with for the last 4 years...

Next year Taylor plans to drive around north america in a van, making money playing poker online which he is just learning to play. I hear him yelling "No!" a lot from his room, most likely because he won and feels bad taking other people's money...

For his globe-trotting north america quest, Taylor decided he wants an acquaintance of the K-9 variety. Additionally, he didn't want to have to get to know his new pal in the unstable setting of a van, which would make training and bonding difficult. The point is... My house has a puppy!

Meet Cedar Robertson

Please don't tell our landlord about him...

In other news, Taylor and I have an annual bet about when there will be enough snow to give someone a face wash. The loser gets a face wash.

I won.

-Ben

Winter!

2010-01-28T13:08:00.000-08:00

The view outside my window this morning was better looking than you are!

I'm having an amazing day today.

Miraculous Good Fun!

2010-01-24T11:20:00.001-08:00

Hey amigos,

My very good friend Ian Carleton is what can only be described as an exquisite chef when it comes to eye feasts. This is one of his more recent concoctions, and I thought it was frickin awesome... I hope you do too!

Some Picture Of My Friends from Ian Carleton on Vimeo.

check out his websites!

http://iangcarleton.com/

http://somepicturesofmyfriends.blogspot.com/

Keyword Catching!

2010-01-17T15:19:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone,

So I have this tracker on my blog, and it tells me how many people look at it, where in the world they do it from, amongst many other things. One of those other things is "Keyword Analysis", which tells me what search engine keywords bring people here.

So, I have decided to write down a bunch of my friends names (whoever comes to mind), and we'll see who I manage to catch...

Ashley Nicholson, Sean Shannon, Ian Carleton, Shawna Wigney, Ariane Ben-Oliel, Nick Iwanyshyn, Mark Blackburn, Nik Nyman, Luke Sheldrick, Brad Higham, Scott Shannon, Bailey Eagan, Kiersten Eagan, Robynne Eagan, Taylor Robertson, Ryan Jones, Julian Faust, David Spencer, David Wonnacott, Jake Mcleary, Chris Topping, Martin MacPherson, Emily Hunter, Joe Danaher, Becky Danaher, Kyle Lowry, Tom Krech, Dylan Ashley, Kody St-Germain, Ryan Miller, David Hickey, Tim Clayman, Cheyenne Sica, Clayton Allen, Mike Sugar, Graham Thompson, Steve Thomson, Peri Greig, Sam Hogg, Jessica Blenkarn, Lindzy Thompson, Dan Wallace, Stacey Wallace, Kelsey Roberston, Hayley Ben-Oliel, Brandon Brule, Krista Hickey, Mitchell Hahn, Tom Morgan, Don Lougheed, Brianne Overton, Mollie Deyong, Justin Steinberg, Jess Hall, Oliver Connelly, Aaron Watamaniuk, Mike Gotuaco, William Cadham, Dylan Trickett, Jon Mason, Kyle Dupuis, Ally Hall, David Tuckwell, Sarah Kerr, Hannah Searson, Jeff Leavitt, Nick Whalen, Charles Eagan, Molly Johnston, Ben Berg, Brett Ciphery

That's all I can think of... If I missed you, you're a complete idiot if you get mad about that! Conversely, if I added you and you're mad, I'll take you down!

Sailor Jerry Has A Way With People

2010-01-12T14:36:00.000-08:00

My friends and I have stumbled across a drink called Sailor Jerry's

We drink it from the bottle as follows:

I have nothing to say

2009-12-13T18:58:00.000-08:00

I often make the claim that I will keep a blog post short. This time I mean it.

Bread vs. Dandy Lions tied again last week, 5 vs 5. Voting continues again this week until there is a victor.

Roman Gladiators came away with a 6 vs. 3 victory.

I have one exam left to write, and a week to prepare. I like when exam schedules are spaced out, it makes you appreciate your free time something fierce!

-Ben

Light Poles and Blog Polls!

2009-12-02T20:21:00.000-08:00

Hey Folks,

the results of the polls are are:

Star Wars or Puppies? Puppies! (6 to 4)
Spaghetti or Hot Yoga? Spaghetti! (6 to 3)
Science or New York? Science! (7 to 2)
Snowflakes or Clean Room? Clean Room! (5 to 4)
Bread or Dandy Lions? It's a tie! (4 to 4)
Criminal Mastermind or Roman Gladiator? It's another tie! (4 to 4)

The ties shall continue for another week until a conclusion is reached!

Now onto the topic of light poles, or street lights as they are commonly known. Once upon a time, in fact last year, mid December, I was walking downtown to eat some dinner. This dinner was before a final exam of mine which I knew would be quite difficult, so I was enjoying my walk and listening to good music. On the walk to the restaurant of choice, I noticed 2 streetlights go out while I was directly underneath them. I found this peculiar, but wasn't too excited about it. On the walk from the restaurant to campus, it happened 3 more times. The final one of these lights to go out was in fact a lamp on a park path, which I had been approaching for quite some time. Since then, I have paid attention to the number of times this happens to me. In the last week I recounted this tale to my friends after one went out above us, and that evening I noticed 4 more extinguish with me directly underneath.

It seems very unlikely to me that I am causing street light outages, however it seems like the general consensus is that this is a rather rare occurrence. I write about this in hopes that anyone who reads it will pay attention to the number of extinguishing street lights they pass under, and report back to me. Either it has happened an awfully high number of times to me, or everyone fails to notice how frequently it really does happen.

Street lights go out for Dumbledore, I wonder if he has been following me?

-Ben

Science!

2009-11-25T17:35:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone who read my work over.. I got a lot of useful feedback, and have no put together a (semi) coherent presentation!

Also, there is an experimental poll going on ------->

Science!

Science!

2009-11-24T16:15:00.001-08:00

Hey Friends!

I am writing a thesis on "Depth Profiling of Material Nanostructure", and on thursday I am presenting to a few professors on my work so far. I've got a lot of stuff written, but it's kind of difficult to decide which things to include, and what can be omitted with the main idea still being understand. Which brings me to my point.

Will you guys read over what I plan to present on and give me some feedback about how much sense it makes to you? If anything seems vague or unclear please let me know, or if I sound dead wrong on something that would be quite helpful to hear as well.

Anyone who proof reads my work for me earns an automatic "I owe you one", and all of my gratitude.

Keep in mind it's going to be a presentation, so the wording is roughly what I will say... so leave my grammar alone!
Depth Profiling

Stars and Links

2009-11-18T10:06:00.000-08:00

On Nov. 17th there was a really cool meteor shower, so me and a bunch of friends woke up at 3 am to watch them. To get better viewing we drove out of Kingston, hoping to find a place that was dark and comfortable. At our first possible stop, the dark field beside us turned out to be very grassy, and there was even a fallen part of the fence to let us in. As I was the leader, and the field was ideal, It made me look like a pretty good random spot finder, but I confess it was really just some awesome coincidences!

I brought my camera and ran it took pictures constantly with a 15s shutter speed, sequence mode, and a bunch of elastics to hold the button down. It didn't turn out all that well, but I did catch a picture of a shooting star! It's the faint white streak... Much cooler in RL.

I've also found some rather amusing internet tidbits recently, and I've decided to share them:

http://youmakemetouchyourhandsforstupidreasons.ytmnd.com/

http://probablybadnews.com/

-Ben

Queen's Science Formal (Espionage)

2009-11-16T13:39:00.000-08:00

I would like to begin this blog post with a sincere apology. In the story you are about to read, some lies were told which ended up wasting a great deal of some very friendly people's time. Being Queen's students, they may read this and realize they were duped and feel stupid. I would feel bad about that. I am really very sorry for tricking you guys I was a journalist. I really just wanted inside the party and didn't think we would end up getting a 30 minute guided tour. If you were tricked by us, you know who you are. Please don't feel silly, as my accomplice and I are both quite experienced in exactly what we were pretending to be. The information and tour was extremely well done and impressive (on your behalf)! Rolling right along...

Science Formal

Queen's Universities Engineering Society hosts the coolest party in the world once every year. There are over 600 Engineering students in the graduating year, all of which put in a mandatory 10 hours of work, and most do 40 hours of work in building the setting for this event. This years theme was Ancient Civilizations, which featured Pyramids, Stonehenge, Atlantis and a really huge 3 story thing that also may have been a pyramid. They had 2 live bands, 3 DJs and a chocolate fountain!

Only graduating engineers are invited, and they get to bring a date. I was neither of these things on the evening of Sci Formal '09, however I was feeling crafty. My friend Don Lougheed and I decided to attempt to sneak in as photographers, as I have (outdated) reasonably professional video and photography equipment, and Don and I have both spent our share of time documenting events such as these. Failure was borderline inevitable in our minds, but we thought we would chance it.

Upon getting to the door, I flashed my badge from an old job featuring a professional looking picture of myself upon it(It was even LAMINATED!) I explained to the gentleman at the door that Don and I had been sent on behalf of Toronto Associated Press, freelancing from our local company Kingston Media Corporations. I explained we had been told by our boss they had press passes for us at the door, expecting at any minute to be sent away. Instead they sent for a manager.. Then an event coordinator. Ultimately, we were given a guided tour / interview around the place, and for about 30 minutes pretended to be real life journalists.

So basically they let us in and bought our story, but we still didn't get to really succeed because there were interviews to conduct and pictures to take. I'm not really sure who won, but Don and I had a lot of fun, and the event I hear went off without a hitch; maybe everyone? Good work engineers!

Meteor shower tonight everyone!

-Ben

Burn Technology!

2009-11-06T17:38:00.001-08:00

Alright, to start things off I would like to say I frequently fall into the societal discrepancy which I am about to describe. By no means do I hold myself above this desire or impulse, which is perhaps why I find it so baffling.

A certain thought dawns on me every now and then. This time it struck me while I was looking through dares on this cool AIDS fund raising website (or anti-AIDS rather). Several of the dares were along the lines of "Dare you to not text message/ use blackberry/ facebook/ technology." This is understandably a challenge, as these features and services have become significant aspects of many peoples lives. The problem arises by the frequent encouragement by parents, teachers, self-betterment websites to abandon these technological enhancements. While I appreciate a good shot of nostalgia and the ego associated by not being dependent on something so many others are, it's really an empty thought while we drive around in our cars, take fancy prescription medication, and scoff at the thought of being required to mail someone information via the snail mail method. I think history has shown us that humans kinda dig technology, and the stuff we use and like the most is inevitably going to become ingrained into our daily life.

I think the biggest motivation to avoid a technological dependency comes from our deep seeded fear of being trapped on a desert island, and helpless. Theres something pretty cool about being able to provide for ourselves, however I think we have been doomed to depend on things we don't know how to construct ourselves for a long time now.

I'm not saying we need to do away with this idea that new technology is bad; nobody believes more strongly than I that the robot uprising is fast approaching, and we need to be weary. I think what we do need to do is question when/why it became standard knowledge that new technology should be avoided (seemingly just in the arena of personal use), especially in light of how many times history has shown us this will now happen. My grandmother uses an electric sewing machine! I dare you to judge her...

Any thoughts on this would be fun to hear!

-Ben

p.s. Grandma, if you're reading this I want you to know that I don't want to cause you to be judged. I am just pretty darn sure nobody will, and I hope that helps people to see my point. If anyone who is not my grandma read that part, you should feel ashamed of the invasion of privacy you just committed!

Halloween Costume Ideas

2009-10-28T14:00:00.001-07:00

I have been thinking a lot about Halloween costume ideas, because I like to dress up. Here is a list of costumes I was thinking of:

Werewolf
Grandmother
Werewolf Grandmother
Grandfather
Ladybug
Bumble Bee
Fisherman (with real buckets of fish)
Robot Carrying Me in Cage
Bird's Nest
Ghost
Werewolf Ghost
Headless Horseman
ANY Johnny Depp character
Man in Hamster Ball
Man Doing Handstand
Cat
Lion
Black Hole
Zombie

Home-made is key.

Also, check out these crazy costumes!

Happy Haunting!

Corn Maze Wolfe Island Adventure

2009-10-24T14:44:00.000-07:00

Howdi,

Last weekend a whole bunch of folks travelled over to Kingston's favourite island. Wolfe Island! The interesting thing about Wolfe Island is the ferry needed to take the cars over there. Heres a little story that might make you believe in karma (or "car-ma" if you prefer).

Set the stage with 1 ferry, and a car full of late people in Ben's (my) car.

We arrive at the ferry line up, and there are designated spaces for the cars to park and wait, conveniently in the shape of a ferry. I drive around following some arrows to the back of everyone, where I see some open spaces, but the first line of cars is now loading, so I just join them and drive on with the first wave. Naturally, I knew that perhaps I was getting ahead of the line-up order, but there were lots of free spaces, so everyone is getting one!

Turns out construction was going on, so a smaller ferry was being used, and therefore LOTS of people didn't get on. Including 2 cars full of our friends who were meeting us to go corn mazing (and arrived at least 20 minutes before we did).

We felt a little bad about this, but on the way home everything evened out, when we missed the ferry home by exactly one car. Our friends were the 2 cars in front of us, and they both got on! It's hard to complain about that, when we forced someone else of the first boat we took...

Anyways, we went corn mazing, and fed animals, and ate at a BBQ. I would like the record to state that I am the best mazer, and was the victor in our group. Taylor Robertson was a very close second, making an unfortunate left turn in our final sprint to the finish. Here are some pictures!

Thanksgiving

2009-10-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I had a pretty eventful thanksgiving.... On the drive home from kingston I goofed up and ended up halfway to montreal. The drive usual takes less than 2 hours, but i managed to pull it off in a cool 4 hours! Thats ok... I like driving.

I say this all the time, but this time I mean it. I'm going to keep this brief.

I ate 3 thanksgiving dinners, one with the shannon + eagan family, one with the eagan family, and one with all the coolest people in this hemisphere. I also attended a 50th birthday party for Margaret Spencer, the mother of my housemate dave. They were all amazing parties with lots of fun times, and no cops to be seen! Thats a weekend record! Now I have a super short school work, and tunnels of work to be finished.... Which I am currently procrastinating from doing..

Thanks to the Shannon family, Eagan family, Spencer family, and Ian Carleton for inviting my smelly self into your homes! (on second thought... the Eagan's don't really have a choice)

-Ben