www.vancouverisawesome.com = RAD

Yeah I know I haven't lived in Lotusland (do people still call it that?) in what, almost three years. But I've gotta give credit where credit is due, and this site rocks. I mean, new Skytrain video! From Waterfront to YVR! Maybe I've just been outta town too long and am the last to peek underground.

But really, the blog kills in both content and, especially, design. And kills my blog attmept (obvi). Check it out - it's got stellar stuff like this:

Uncanny? Unnerving!

Gotta hand it to The Daily Mail for their oh-so-enlightened comparison. While she's not quite at the skinned cadaver stage yet, those arms could do with a serious break! We still love her though, right?

This US health crap is MENTAL. Watch:

When did the mudslinging officially begin? I know I've been sequestered in the Middle East for nearly a year now, but even under a watchful Obameye, has the United States really come to think that universal health care is some threatening bile-spewing demon in urgent and immediate need of exorcism!? Since when did looking after citzens become a polarizing political minefield? No other country in the West looks after the health of its citizens as poorly as the richest country on Earth. How, please anyone explain, could it possibly be advisable, nevermind popular, to continue to leave tens of millions at risk?
It's not going to bankrupt the country.
Only unwinnable wars can do that.

Still so good. Watch.

I posted this tear-jerker of a video ages ago to an awkward-to-use "video bar" that I've since ditched from this little blog. So here it is again, up top for all to see, until I bury it with in a heap of far less worthwhile posts.

Time's up?

Who would YOU pick?

I mean, come on.

Home is where the.... WHAT is?

Canada Day. Watched the fireworks on Vancouver's Burrard Inlet, sunset, twinkling Lion's Gate Bridge and stunning mountain slopes in the background. This place is mental, and maybe actually in a good way.

Sure it's small, but there are a lot of good people here and maybe even a few decent opportunities.
But after being gone from my west coast childhood home for nearly three years, I've for the first time been confronted with the fact that it's starting to feel like a foreign place. Sure the streets are the same, the mountains lofty and familiar and the ocean gleaming– but my social life here has taken a serious hit.

But like, what was I expecting? I haven't been around in what the Gays would call eons... just two months shy of three years. And each time I come back, I call one or two fewer people. And that kinda freaks me out. I mean, it's not just that I've fallen out of touch with some old standbys... a lot of people have picked up and left, leaving some voids in what would have been ample couches to sleep on and partners in crime to drag to the bar.
But the bigger part of the picture is that the same thing could happen to my life in Toronto, the one I carved out in just two little years. It's tough starting from scratch and I've now done it four times if my year in Australia counts. Meeting a whole crop of people on which you come to rely and trust isn't a snap, but I've been lucky enough to have managed in each new place I've flung myslef, including my latest desert home, Abu Dhabi.
But I mean, c'mon. There's a limit to how many times one can set up shop, especially if one wants to have a group of close and loyal friends. And right now I feel like I'm maxed out.

Think I'm spreading myself too thin.

I've got amazing friends in three different cities, but I think it's time to cool it and focus on the people I have, and fuck trying to take anyone else in.
Just my thoughts. But I miss Vancouver. It's a fucking incredible place. And I've got incredible memories of it.