No More Bugs...Send me a message

I fixed the bugs in the website for the contact us form. It will now send me a message if you type some things in. I'm using GoDaddy.com for my hosting and they seem to block a few things which made getting the contact form to work quite the headache. Oh well.

I'll put a real post on here later.

Andrew

And Now...Without Further Adieu

Sonic Interactive Solutions has launched!

This is the name of my new company. The focus of what I'm doing is going to be web design, but I would also eventually like to find some clients who need some video editing done.

Any feedback about the site would be awesome. The contact us page doesn't really work right now, but I hope to have the bugs worked out later this afternoon.

Hope you like it!

Andrew

Comments need to be made

OK! I just have to comment on some of the blog subjects my friends have been using:

Visit'd
Blackberry'd
Name'd
Rankin'd
Engaged'd

Come On! You're making me sick. Enough already.

Sorry, I'm just in a complaining mood today....

"Ciao'd"

Andrew

The Year In Review (part 4)

Firstly, I've got a link to a video slideshow that I made for the Italy portion of my trip to Europe. We met up with a bunch of my family from Canada and the US in Rome and went on a private bus tour from Rome to Sicily. Here is the video.

Next, I guess some people already know, but I'm currently working at Money Concepts in the Penthouse of the Coast Inn of the North. I am working at Money Concepts Part time and I've just started a web design company. I'll keep you posted on the name as soon as I can get it approved and I get my business licence. I just realized the other day that I'll have to make myself a company webpage if I'm going to be a webdesigner. I guess it will have to be pretty sweet too...if I want people to be impressed.

I guess there was one more significant thing that happened in 2006. My cousin Noella came to Canada for Christmas. Her birthday is December 25th (hense the name 'Noel'la). She turned 17 this year and until she arrived in Canada, she'd never seen snow before (other than on TV). So being in Prince George was quite the shock to her system. But we still managed to do a bunch of super fun things while she was here. We did as many 'Canadian' activities as we had time to do: outdoor skating, snowshoeing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, snomobiling, and snowball fights. It was tons of fun.

I didn't get to take too many pictures or video, but I'm planning on putting it together for short slideshow. The challenge now is to find a great song.

Anyways, I've decided conclude this year in review marathon with some things that I've learned over the past year. They're simple sentences that have a lot of meaning:

• Live simply so that others may simply live.
• Work to live, don't live to work.
• God is God with or witout me, but who am I without God?

So that brings you up to the end of 2006.

Adios,
Andrew

The Year In Review (part 3)

(continued...)

As promised....here is the link to the video slidehsow I made for the first portion of Tony and I's trip to Europe. I will post a link to the slideshow I made for the Italy portion later.

Upon returning from Europe I had to start looking for a job. Most people were asking me if I was going to start subbing as a teacher. I was a little hesitant to say yes because I didn't really feel like it was the right thing for me. After a lot of deliberation, I decided that I would put teaching on hold for a while and pursue some other things that had been on my mind. I spent part of every day looking for a job in Prince George that I might like. There were several places that I thought were pretty good and would be what I like to do: UNBC, The Airport, The Northern Health Authority, Shaw, and NoraTek. Lucky for me, a teacher from the University moved away a few weeks before he was supposed to start teaching a Web Design course using a program called Dreamweaver....so, with the help of Tony Donovan putting in a good word for me, I managed to scoop up that job. It was a 5 night Continuing Studies course, so there wasn't too much to prepare for...I just had to make sure everyone was making progress and learning the program. In the process of teaching Dreamweaver I began to realize how much I like doing web design. I started working on a new version of the Camp Morice Webiste and found that the day would slip me by without even noticing. It was pretty fun.

I actually got interviews at Shaw and NorAtek as well. The Shaw people were looking for an installation guy (which means pulling wires and installing cable in other peoples dirty houses), so I wasn't really interested in that. And NorAtek brought me in for a 3 hour interview and offered me a job a few days later for $16/hr full time working from Tuesday to Saturday. I would be doing tech support on the phone and driving (using my own car) to clients workplaces to fix any computer problems they might have. They also told me that I would be doing some web development, but infrequently. It seemed like an OK job, and a good opportunity to learn a lot more, but the pay wasn't really what I wanted it to be and the work schedule would have interfered with a lot of the extracurricular things I like to do. I don't want to live to work...I want to work to live. Work should be something I enjoy doing, but it should not be the main part of my life...it only needs to be a piece of the puzzle.

Up until the NorAtek job offer, I was considering starting up my own web design company. And after the job offer I was thinking that NorAtek would be a 'safer' choice for me because I would be guaranteed wages and hours; starting up my own company would bring no guarantees and it would completely rely on me to make things happen. Now, don't get me wrong....I know I have what it takes to be successful...I just thought that the NorAtek job would be a lot easier.

Now, at about this time one of the employees at my dad's Financial Planning office (Money Concepts) got accepted to be a firefighter in Fort St John (his dream job). So, Money Concepts was now short an employee. I approached my dad and asked him how many of the responsibilities of that job I would be able to take over if I were to come work there. He said, "Probably a little less than half...but then you'd be around for tech support and other things as well.....why?" After he said that the wheels were turning in my head an in less that half a second I had everything figured out. I proposed that I come work for Money Concepts part time and then take the other half of the part time to develop my web design company. I could even use the same office for both jobs. That way I could have some guaranteed hours in order to pay the bills and live comfortably, and all the money I make from the web design company would be a bonus (or part of my retirement...whichever way you want to look at it). I should probably note that living on a part time job is pretty easy when you've been a student for 6 years and figured out how to live with just the basics.

I will wait to the next post to reveal which choice I made....

(to be continued.....)

The Year In Review (part 2)

(continued...)

Later in June I got a phone call from a man who wanted to meet with me...his 22 year old daughter had somehow heard about me and he wanted to interview me to see if her and I were a good match (!). She heard that I didn't want to play the dating game, that I was single, and that I could cook. I guess that was enough to get her intrigued. I didn't really have anything to loose, so I agreed to meet with her dad so he could see what I was like. I kind of took it as a chance to interview him about his daughter as well. After a couple meetings with her dad, he decided that her and I should meet because he felt we were compatible with eachother (!). So we went on a few walks and talked about many things. The cool but weird part was that we were talking about really deep and meaningful things (not things like "how was your day?" "what did you do?" "did you hear about this movie?"....). The conversations were pretty deep but we still joked a bit and talked about funny things. So, all the while, I'm thinking...we make a pretty good match. But that wasn't what God had planned for her and I. A few weeks later she got accepted to a university in Australia and would be leaving mid-August. She felt that God wasn't really giving her a green light to start a relationship with me, so we agreed to remain friends and try to keep in touch. But it was quite the experience. I actually gave a talk at teen camp about this little episode.

The next big event that conspired in the life of Andrew was Camp Morice Teen Camp 2006. This camp was a memorable one for two different reasons. 1. each camp seems to get better each year and this camp was no exception...it was by far the best I've been to. 2. I had to start looking at the week through the eyes of a director because next year I'll be directing the camp (along with some other amazing individuals). The teen camp pictures can be found here. It was really a fun week, but was a bit weird without Peter there...he's been out at camp every year that I have except last summer.

At the end of July, my friend Julia from Germany came to visit. In August of 2005 we were billited in her hometown in Pflochsbach and she kept in touch with some of us through email and MSN. The plan was that she would come to Canada first and then when she flew home Anthony and I would fly back with her to Germany and begin our month long European trip. And so it was. She came to Prince George for a few weeks and then went to Kitimat for a week and then travelled with Anthony and I to Vancouver to catch a plane to Europe. During Julia's stay, she travelled over 5800km on the road, met more than 70 new people, and saw 14 cities, 2 bears, 2 grey whales, and 2 killer whales.

So then comes the trip to Europe. Here is the short form: Prince George-->Vancouver-->Victoria-->Vancouver-->Frankfurt Germany-->Praque Czech Republic-->Brno Czech Republic-->Dublin Ireland-->Naas Ireland-->Edinburgh Scotland-->Rome Italy travelling south to Sicily-->London England-->Vancouver-->Prince George. It was an amazing trip. We were so blessed to be able to go. The crazyest part of the whole trip was the accomodations and food while we were on our 10 day family reunion bus tour through Italy. We were in 5 star hotels most of the time, and the evening meals were absolutely rediculous. I gained 9 pounds in 10 days...just to give you and idea of what the food was like (keep in mind I can't gain weight to save my life). I made a short video slideshow of the first part of the trip and I'll post a link to it in my next post....

(to be continued....)

The Year In Review (part 1)

I guess it's time for a bit of reflection on the year...and a wonderful year it was. For me, there have been a few life changing decisions made and a whole lot of life changing experiences.

The year started off with one month of school at UNBC to finish up the course requirements of the teaching program (except for the practicum course). Then began a grueling 10 week practicum where I was teaching 3 classes a day full time (Math 9, Computers 9, and Infotech 11). Infotech 11 was pretty easy to teach since most of the teenagers were mature and wanted to be there, but Math 9 and Computers 9 were a real challenge. In particular the Math 9 course was a Core Math 9 which means its a really basic version of the standard course. The kids in this class were pretty rough and had a whole lot of attitude. It took a lot for me to balance teaching them and managing their erratic behavior. One class, this kid stood up while everyone was busy working on their homework assignment and stuck his hand down his pants and back out through his zipper in his jeans and started waving it around. It was pretty hilarious actually, but it pretty much took away everyone's concentration and there was no other work done that class. What was even worse was that I had a supervisor from the university observing me that class, but he thought it was pretty funny too and it was a good chance for him to see just what I was dealing with on a day to day basis.

So those 10 weeks were pretty tough for me. And, although I love a challenge, I was beginning to realize that this wasn't going to be a career that I would enjoy day in and day out. You see, since the beginning of the education program I had some nervousness while in the practicum, but I thought that I would eventually get used to things and the nervousness would go away. But even on the last day of my 10 week practicum I still had a strange feeling in my stomach and I didn't know why.

After the practicum came the beginning of another tree planting season and my continuing mission to seek out new processes and new technologies to make the season go as smooth as possible for my employer Nata Reforestation. This past season was my 5th year working for Nata and it came with many more responsibilities. I told them at the beginning of the season that I would like to work a whole lot so I could save money for Europe and they were more than willing to give me more to do in order to facilitate that. During the season I managed to work a bunch of 16 hour days and several 10+ hour days. Those first two months of the season were great for getting my pocket book ready for the up coming trip to Europe.

Midway through May we decided to take the youth group to Victoria for a youth conference at St Andrew's High School. Let me tell you....that was quite the trip. Driving through the night, burning out the breaks on the 15 passenger van, missing the ferry.....it was pretty crazy. But we still made it to the conference in time and everyone that came said it was one of the most memorable trips they'd ever been on.

(to be continued....)

So I've got a few decisions to make

Well...a few decisions to make now I guess. I just got a call from the owner of NorATek and he's like, "I was wondering if it would be possible for you to come in tomorrow for a few follow-up questions." To me, this means that he's got a few questions, but mainly wants to offer me the job and go over the details. Now, I didn't really say much about the interview I had at NorATek last Friday. Let me tell you, it was the longest interview I've ever been in. It was 3 hours long....I got there at 2pm and left at 5:05! How crazy is that. A friend of mine just had an interview to be a fireman and his interview only lasted an hour and 45 minutes. So, ya, the 3 hour interview was a marathon, but it wasn't really that hard. I'm used to talking to computer geeks because I am one. Anyways, I'm going in tomorrow morning for a short meeting to discuss everything. I'm pretty sure he's going to offer me about $15/hr which is a lot lower than I think I'm worth (after 6 years of university and a whole lot of experience). So there's going to have to be some negotiating happening I think. The big decision I have to make is what are the terms and wages I am willing to accept and what are the terms and wages I will reject. I don't want to settle for less right now when something better could come along. But, I guess that's the trick hey? Try and figure out what's going to be the best in the long run and notice a good opportunity when one comes along.

The job that I've applied for at the northern health authority is for a support person just like at NorATek and their starting wage is $23/hr. That's quite the jump in wages.

Anyways, I'm off to get supper going and clean up a bit. I hope everyone is doing well stress-wise it being exam time and the Christmas season.

Adios,
Andrew

Winter Sunsets are Awesome

This picture doesn't do the sunset justice. The sky was a crazy purple/blue and the clouds were lit up like a Camp Morice sunset. The sunset was enough for me to stop everything I was doing and watch for 10 minutes as the light disappeared. This picture is from my mom and dad's office in the Penthouse of the Coast Inn of the North. You can see the "Tree of Lights" on the side that they put up every year to raise money for various charities.

Shoveling the Driveway

In my opinion, you're not Canadian unless you shovel your driveway in a t-shirt, and only Canadians would understand why. Shoveling is actually a really great workout. Just think about it, in the winter you could just go and shovel other peoples driveways each day instead of paying to go to the gym.

I'm going to send this picture to my cousins from Hawaii who will be coming to visit in January. They haven't ever seen snow in real life...just on tv and pictures. I'm hoping this picture scares them and gets them excited at the same time.

Adios for now,

Andrew

Camp Morice

Hey Everyone,
The new Camp Morice website is up and running. I decided to keep track of the amount of time it took me to get this version of the site up and running and move all the info from the previous site. It took me 42.25 hours to migrate everything and create the 48 webpages that make up the current site. Just in case anyone was interested, if we were to have contrated a Prince George web design company to do the site it would have costed about $7350. So, I'm pretty happy that we can have a $7000 site running for Camp Morice without actually having to pay for it.

I actually really enjoyed making the website and finding cool new ways of doing things (especially the private use page and the code to show bigger versions of each picture). I might even consider designing web site for a living. It certainly would be a fun job with lots of variety and I would be able to choose my own hours (to an extent). The web is constantly evolving and new technologies are always emerging which means that I'd be constantly learning new things. After 6 years of university I've found that I really like learning new things...it's kinda become a way of life. So, that's where I'm at right now...considering going into business for myself and becoming a web designer. Who knows what will happen.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the site. I'd like to encourage everyone to consider being a Camp Morice sponsor...we really need some support and you get at least a free t-shirt for becoming a sponsor!

Cheers,
Andrew

What's happening...

I got these fortunes in a fortune cookie the other day and thought they were awesome. I only wish they would come true!

So I guess I've got a few new things to let everyone know about. First, I'm done teaching the Dreamweaver course and I was asked to teach a Flash animation course in March. Should be fun, but it won't keep me busy enough to make a living. For now, I'm house sitting at Tyler and Flo's house while they're in Cuba and I'll soon be taking care of Saveria and Marcio's house while they are in Brazil for a month. It's going to be a holiday season of house sitting. The new Camp Morice website is almost done and it will be launching this Friday December 1st, so be sure to check it out.

There's not too much else going on right now. You'd think I'd update my blog a little more often since I've got some free time, but alas it hasn't been happening. I'll try and put some things up a little more often (and that's a genuine try...I'm not just saying that).

Andrew

Going back to UNBC

Well....looks like I'm going back to UNBC, but this time I'll be teaching. I just got a call to ask me if I was able to come and teach a Continuing Studies night course on making web pages using a program called Dreamweaver. I'm pretty excited about it actually. I think it will be fun. It's going to be twice a week (Monday and Wednesday) for three hours each night. I'm hoping this opens up some other classes that I could teach up there. We'll see. Anyways, just thought I'd share that little bit of excitement with everyone.

Andrew

Camp Morice

I have a few more pictures now...The first is a picture from the back of the chapel. The second is the infamous Mt Pope with some rays of sunshine gleaming on it's pretty face. I remember climbing part of that face with Peter and Ben...we managed to get 3 pitches up (3 rope lengths). It was a pretty amazing view of the lake and surrounding area while on top of an 80m cliff.

Mount Pope

I thought I'd post this picture of Mt Pope that I took with my camera phone. It's a view of the mountain that not everyone gets to see. The water is way down now, so I walked to the point and took this picture from way out on the rocks on the other side of the point...for anyone who's been out to Camp Morice, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Considerations

I've had lots of things floating in my mind and I thought I'd write them down.

I saw some Canadian geese today flying over head in a perfect V formation. Pretty cool. I listened to them as they flew over head. Did you know that the lead goose is completely silent and the other geese are yelling to cheer him (or her) on? He's the one breaking the wind for all the rest. Pretty cool. I also heard that geese mate for life....which is an interesting characteristic as well.

One of the things I learned from my trip to Europe is that almost everyone "works to live" instead of "living to work" as most North American's do. I would really like to have a nice job and work hard and all that jazz, but I don't want to be one of those people that puts in 60 hours a week and doesn't have time to hang out with friends, exercise, or just relax. I really like it out here at Camp Morice....it makes it pretty easy to relax and enjoy life.

Did you know that the area of BC is the same as Germany, France, and the Netherlands combined? Ya. And BC is actually 75% mountaneous which meens that 75% of it is 1000m above sea level. How crazy is that! Lastly, out of all of Canada's land mass....BC only represents 10.2% of it. Nuts!

Anyways, I'm off to bed. Kids are coming out to camp early tomorrow.

Adios,
Andrew

Take off Eh?

I got a call this morning asking if I could go out to Camp Morice to be the caretaker for a few days, so I packed my stuff and left 30 minutes later. You see, last week Jackie Deutch from Camp Morice had a heart attack....she lived through it and went to Vancouver for surgery (I'm told she had sugery today and is recovering now). Mike and Cathy Labonte came out to camp to take care of things while Richard and Jackie are in Vancouver, but last night Cathy got a call saying that her mother had passed away. Hense, I come rushing out to camp so that she and Mike can leave for Regina tomorrow. I'd like to ask that you please pray for Jackie that she has a safe and healthy recovery, and also pray for Cathy and her family.

I spent the day working on the Italia slideshow which is rendering as we speak. I hope to work on Germany, Czech, Ireland, and Scotland tomorrow if I can.

Anyways, I'm off to do some camp chores.

Adios,
Andrew

Finally...Some Pictures

Finally...I get to a place where there is an internet connection: the Catania Airport in Sicily. Below I've got a bunch of pictures that I wanted to post, but didn't have an internet connection to do so. Tony and I are just waiting here in the airport to check our bags for our 3:30pm flight to London where we'll spend the night in an airport hotel and fly to Vancouver at 7:05pm tomorrow. We had a really great time with all of our family on the bus tour...there were 25 of us in all. They are a riot to be with...very spontaneous...very loud...and very enthusiastic. I hope to be able to go visit them some time in all of their respective cities: Sioux Lookout Ontario, Toronto, Winnipeg, Honolulu, LA, and Edmonton.

Anyways, take a look at some of these pictures....I think their pretty cool.

Italy has begun!

What a great day! I really had a good time and I got to see some amazing sights today. One place that I’d love to come back to is a town called Revello….which is south of Rome after Naples on the way to the Amalfi Coast. Crazy place! It’s pretty much on the side of a mountain about 1200m above sea level but only about 300m away from the sea. The view of the coastline is probably the best I’ve ever seen. The road to get there had a breathtaking view, but it was a tight steep windy road and we were driving it in a tour bus….needless to say I was pretty impressed with the driver. One thing I wish could have happened was that we would have more time to take in the scenery. The tour guide always had another place to go, so we seemed to arrive at something really cool, take a few seconds to look, a few more to take a picture or two, and then we were off to the next place. I guess the guide was getting a bit of pressure from most of the group who wanted time to shop as well as see the sights, so it might have been the reason why he was rushing everyone. Anyways, I would have loved some time to sit and relax and think….and enjoy….and be amazed. It’s the introvert in me who likes to be lost in my thoughts. I hope to find some time in the next few days to just relax and take things in without feeling rushed. I’m sure it will happen.

Anyways, we’re just driving back down that ridiculous hill and I’m getting a bit car sick, so I better stop for now. I’ll take a look and see what I should post for pictures.

I have some pictures...but the computer I'm on is free and does not allow me to attach my jumpdrive, so I'll have to post the pics later...

Adios!
Andrew

Filthy McNasty's

Ok, so I’m going to start off telling you about our last day with Roberta and Brian. We left the bed and breakfast and headed downtown to meet Claire at the Scott Monument. The Scott Monument was dedicated to Sir Walter Scott the great author. The monument is said to be one of the largest monuments for an author ever built. There are actually stairs to climb to the top of the monument, so we decided to pay the 3 euro’s to climb the 287 stairs and see the amazing view from the top. I think it was totally worth it…and climbing the stairs was an adventure in itself. Firstly, the stairs spire straight up the inside of one of the supporting columns and you feel like you’re getting a bit dizzy the curl is so tight. And then there is the amount of headroom….it starts to decrease as you get higher and as we began to reach the top I was bending over to be about ¾ my normal height in order to make it through the opening. Another thing that only really happen near the top was the passageway got very narrow to the point that I (the skinny guy) had to turn my body a little bit to make it through without scrapping my shoulders on the walls. The view from the very top was amazing….right in the middle of downtown Edinburgh…scenery out every angle and cool structures off in the distance. I took a bunch of pictures. Oh, that reminds me….I wrote on an earlier post that I was going to staple my camera to my hip so that I don’t ever forget it again…well…apparently that isn’t enough. I remembered my camera…of course, but I managed to leave the memory card still in the slot on my laptop…I was a bit disappointed. But, Brian is an intelligent man and realized that I usually take about 10 times more pictures than he does (and most are pretty good pictures), so he decided to give me his memory card to take pictures on and made me promise to give him a copy. So everything worked out.

I have been taking lots of pictures though. I got a message from my laptop the other day to say that I was running out of disk space….who knew pictures would take up so much space. But, I managed to find a bunch of things that I could delete in order to free up some space.

Anyways, after the Scott Monument we went to another cool monument/building that had some huge columns and a tower as well. See pictures below.

After that we went to one of the streets that only pedestrians can go on and walked a long ways down to try and find a good place to eat. On the way, we came across some very interesting pub names. Take a look below to see a collage of some of the pictures.

My favourite was “Filthy McNasty’s” but everyone else wanted to eat at the “Bad Ass” pub. At the pub I decided to eat like a Scotsman and try some:

The haggis was actually quite good….I would definitely eat it again.

After lunch we departed company with Claire since she had a train to catch back to her house, but it was really great to see her again and see how she’s enjoying her life here in Scotland. So, then we jumped on a tour bus (because our 2 day tickets were still valid) and headed toward the Royal Yacht Britannia for the last of our tours that came with the 2 day ticket. It was pretty cool to think that we were walking in the footsteps of royalty as we toured the boat. And of course, the boat was absolutely amazing…with elaborate rooms and decorations, an excessive amount of silverware, and a plethora of artifacts from around the world. The yacht traveled over 1,000,000 miles over the course of its life and is now a permanent tourist attraction in Edinburgh.

The rest of the day was rather uneventful other than the fact that we ate, drank, and had a good time downtown before heading back to the bed and breakfast to watch an episode of Lost before going to bed. It was a pretty productive day I think.

Oh, ya…and I have a video from when we were in Ireland. I won’t explain it…you’ll just have to watch it.

Video