I am on the train home right now. Life has been really busy, and I can't wait for the busyness to stop. I just want to be able to sleep, play xbox, and have a social life again!

It's been a while...

Since I have posted on this blog! Running 2 blogs is quite a task, I must say! If you haven't heard yet, I launched a new blog for my business, you can check it out at I think it's pretty stellar.

My last post was about my last day at work for Canon. So far I haven't found a new job, but I have been keeping myself busy. In the past month I have been...right now I can't even think of what I have been doing! I have done a bit of travelling, I went back to the island this past week and say my whole family (except Luke) and this cute little girl...



The last time I saw my niece, Clare, was christmas time, and she was only 3 months old. She has changed a lot! She now makes noises and smiles, is a LOT more squirmy, but still just as cute. My family is coming in July, and I can't wait. We are going to go to the stampede, go swimming at the lake (assuming summer will come by then!) and also celebrate my Dad's 65th birthday!

Speaking of fathers, I seem to be following in his footsteps lately. Ever since I can remember my Dad has LOVED working in the garden, growing veggies and lately more flowers (probably because I am not there to eat all the goodies)! Today I planted my first garden, all by myself!

A few weeks ago my Dad mentioned to me that you can start seeds in the oven, with just the oven light on for heat! So I did! I planted corn, peas, lettuce, carrots, sunflowers, lupins, and watermelon! I have also wanted to grow watermelon, and I have yet to be successful. Hopefully Calgary can do the trick. Anyways, they were in there for a while before sprouting, and I have been raising them as my tender little plant babies ever since. Well today the forecast was finally nice enough so plant, so I did. I had no idea when the last time our garden was used though, so I went to Rona and picked up some more nutritious soil. I added 4 bags of organic miracle grow soil, and 1 bag of "Moo Poo" or steer manure. Back home we also got a truck load of it from an uncle or cousin's farm, but I can't do that here so I had to buy the stuff. Strange, purchasing poo...

Here is a picture of my small plot, and also some hanging baskets I set up, and another pot.



The first pot has 2 types of tomatoes in it, and some basil. The good smelling pot. The other 2 have strawberries!

And the garden:



I'm not sure what happenend to my plants, but when I left for the island they were all doing really well, and when I came back the majority of them had fallen over. I blame my roommates. Hopefully they recover though, and if they don't, I planted some seeds in between the seedlings.

Anyways, I should really get to bed! Peace be with you!

A new start

Hi everyone

So I am finally done at Canon, tuesday was my last day there. It was kind of fun packing everything up and cleaning, but also bittersweet at the end. My boss took my out for lunch, and we went to Nando's (a portuegese place) for chicken, and had a nice chat.

It was bittersweet saying goodbyes to everyone, they were all great people, very nice, and really helpful. They would answer any questions I had with no problems, and were always willing to help me out if things got too crazy. Plus they gave me a good dose of asian culture:)

I'm not really sure what to do with myself now that I am not working. I cleaned our bathroom from top to bottom, took a bath (lol it was kinda wierd actually), and applied for EI yesterday. Today I went to the dentist for another round of shock therapy, and then took it easy and hung out with a friend for the afternoon. Then I went to another friends birthday party tonight. It was a good day, although I should work on applying for more jobs I guess.

Well I am off to bed, have a good night everyone!

Adventure in dentistry episode 3.

Last week on "Adventures in Dentistry"...

Last week our hero Mark was seen in the chair, having a nasty tasting mould placed in his mouth. The mould was filled with goop, which when placed on his lower teeth, increased the vertical propensity of our hero's fabulous chops! All in an effort to make his teeth touch, like they should."

Tommorrow, I am off to the dentist, and I will be getting my extra tall bottom teeth adjusted, as well as some more shock therapy! Should be fun...especially since it's at 7:30 in the morning!

Unployment

In 2 weeks I will be working at my last day at canon. That's right, I'm losing my job... And I have been for the last 4 months. We found out in November that our service center us being closed, and we will be out of jobs. It was shocking.

I kind of need a job asap, because I don't have very much in savings due to student loans. That or go on EI, If I qualify.

It's been quite a ride so far, but it has also definetly strengthened my faith. I have been learning how to trust God, and even though it's really hard and getting stressful, I know he will provide... Something. So well see what the next 2 weeks holds! Prays would be appreciated, or letters of reference!

Life

Anyone else feeling like life isn't working out how they thought it would?

Today is March 1st, and I will be officially unemployed in 30 days. Since high school, I have spent 4 years getting a good education from a good college, and then I moved to Calgary afterwards. Since moving, I have worked at a camera store for 1.5years, a barcode place for 6 months, and Canon for almost a year - each of which jobs really have nothing to do with my education (and neither does that sentence). Before Canon, both of my employers treated me like crap and didn't offer benefits or any support for employees at all, and were dead end (to me anyways)

Now I am finding myself with no job, no experience in the fields that I am educated in, and no education in the fields that I have experience in!!! I am getting very frustrated in my new job search, and I am getting stressed about it. I love my job at Canon, I loved working for the company who's product I use and invest in, and I love dealing with customers and solving the problems with their cameras. But soon it will be over...

I guess there is a good side though. As it's become a reality over the last few months, I have seen my faith and trust in God grow. I have become more disciplined in my devotions and bible reading, and I have been gaining a desire to know more about Christ. It's been a journey, but I think I am on the right track, and I'll have to just trust and wait to see what God has in store for me!

My head hurts...

So today I went to the dentist...and got shock therapy! I have TMJ, and I was getting tests done to see what needs to be done to fix my bite.

So I sat down in the chair, and the nice girl(named Jill, I have been there so many times she knows me by name now) hooks me about to 9 sensors (I think) - 8 on my head, and 1 on my collar bone (for grounding, she said). I'm not sure if she was joking about the grounding thing or not, but I don't think that being grouded to myself would do anything should a dental accident occur. She also stuck a magnet to my front teeth, and slapped a very large white headset on me. The headset, she said, would measure where the magnet was during different biting exercises. So I opened, closed, opened, and closed, and opened and close some more.

Then the dentist came in. His name is Dr. Steven Cload, and he is quite the fun guy. I would probably go and visit him more often, maybe bring him a spot of tea or something if it didn't cost me so much money to go every time. Anyways, Steven comes in and looks at the results, and gives me quite a thorough exam. He checked all my teeth using words I didn't understand, made sure none were wiggly (which I passed!), and then felt all over the inside & outside of my mouth, my head, and my shoulders (to check for pain). He then proceeded to give me a neurological exam! I had to smell some coffee, tell him if I could feel him touching my face, and some other things. Turns out I am of sound mind though!

He then tells me it's time for my electrocution, and Jill pulls out another contraption with mennacing electrodes on it. I joked about shock therapy, and while Jill is putting on the devices, we had a good laugh. I'm sitting there smiling, away, and suddenly electricity shoots into my cheeks!!! Jill has turned up the amps, and my face starts twitching and wretching violently! They leave the room, laughing evilly. Actually they were very nice, but they seriously did put some ampage into my face! It was to relax the muscles, and then they would run the tests again.

So I sat there, my cheecks & eyes twitching like a horses tail swatting flies every second or so, for an HOUR AND A HALF!!! It was very hard to concentrate, but I somehow managed to read about Michael Phelps and hit pot smoking, how Stephanie from Full House is a drug addict, talk to my sister on the phone, and watch TV. I even caught a few blinks...I just closed one eye and let the other blink away!

They come back in when I am feeling nice and twitchy, and I have to move back to the other chair. Steven hooks me up to the headgear and the 'trodes, and explains that I have to sit very still for the next test. He is going to try and find my ideal bite, where my bite should be, with the magnet and the headgear setup. I was pretty sure I was intercepting some sort of radio waves with that thing on.

I open my mouth, and we begin the open, close, open more, open wide, close a little bit, lil bit more, lil bit more...too much take it back...Oh wait now slide your jaw to the left dance once again! Previously, they had told me to drink water because being electrocuted apparently dehydrates you (I don't see how that works, seeing as water conducts electricity fairly well...I think they were just trying to make it more painful), and so they gave me a bottle of water to drink. I however, not realizing that I would be there for so long, downed nearly the whole thing, and by this time had to go to the bathroom quite badly. It was quite a challenge to sit still, keep my head straight, stare at a blank wall, and move my jaw around like it was Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing. And then he had the nerve to turn up the amplitude to the jaw bustin' setting! My jaw was shaking like a Son of a Gun! But I passed.

They then needed to take some impressions, and make sure that the spot was the spot. So I open my mouth (as instructed), and Steven comes at me with a caulking gun! I was about to protest, but he quickly started to fill up my mouth with a plasticy substance. Then we danced again, but this time in slow motion, with him guiding my jaw to its perfect spot with laser like precision. I then had to HOLD my jaw in said spot for a minute (which is, by the way, about 1/4 of the way open and to the left, I am not sure how that works), and it was very difficult. Keep in mind I still have the antenna on, am still getting shocked, and still have to use the facilities. But again I passed, and he pulls a very vile looking, very green mold of my teeth. It looked like I had eaten Gumby for dinner and had a few problems. I thought I was in the clear after this...but no, 2 more Gumby casts had to be made, of which the third one was selected as the winner (the electrodes can tell).

Nearly done here, Jill says she needs to make some more impressions of my teeth. She fills a metal tray with the green stuff, and proceeds to jam it into my mouth, and then repeats with the top set! Why do the goop trays have to be so huge? Do they think I am a horse? She didnt really jam it in there, but I thought she didn't have to use the XXXXL tray.

So that was my day. I now have to get a temporary retainer put in to set my jaw in the magic spot, and if that fixes all the problems I am having, then I have to get braces (again!) or porcelain stuff put on the tops. Sounds like fun eh? The end. Here is my in all of my electrocution glory. You can see the effects best at the end:

Everyone go see my post on feb11 of last year!

Work

Yesterday I job shadowedva position in the warehouse here at canon...boy was it boring! It was so slack, and.by the end I was exhausted... From doing nothing! Wired how that works eh?

I don't think I'll take it, but I might, if nothing better comes up. Well have to wait and see!

Gods' faithfulness

This is my favorite song of all time. I first heard it on a CD I got for either christmas or my birthday during my last year of high school. I listened to it a LOT as my family drove me from the island to Dordt. It was very meaningful driving through the mountains and plains, while listening to this song about Gods faithfulness. I also listenend to it after my Dad's heart attack, and other stressful times that are too numerous to count.

Lately I've been feeling stressed about the whole job situation, or the impending lack of employment. If you haven't heard yet, my job is ending on March 31st, and so far I don't have anything lined up. I have a lot of student loans and whatnot to pay off, so I've been working 3 jobs lately to get ahead - my full time job, teaching a photoshop class, and now Im working part time at a local pet store (I pretty much wrangle dead fish).

Anyways, I went to church tonight, and they played this song! It's a huge church, and they have an awesome worship team. It was the first time I have heard them play this song, usually they just do worshippy songs. But it was a great set, and everyone was singing along, it was glorious. Then the sermon was about God's faithfulness to David. Did you know that he had to wait 22 years from the time he was anointed king of Israel to the time he actually got to reign? And 14 of that he spent on the run from Saul!! Yet his faith never wavered, and God remained faithful to him over all those years.

In the grand scheme, I think my problem here is actually pretty small... I mean, he watches over the birds of the air and gives them food and shelter everyday, what makes me think he won't take care of me? Im just gonna remain trusting in God that he has the best in store for me, and that he will not let my needs go unnoticed, no matter how big or small they are!

The existentialist doorbell...

We have this doorbell that we have on the counter, for people to ring when they come in (since we can't see them). Needless to say, some days I get VERY annoyed with this stupid bell.

Anyways, the other day my bell rang at work to beckon me to the counter. There was a lady standing there. She had a camera. When I got there, she was very bubbly and excited. She picked up the bell, and exclaimed to me that it was so existentialist! I hadn't heard that word for quite some time, and I was a little confused by what it meant. So I looked it up.

The Dictionary.com definition of existentialism is "a philosophical attitude (philisophical mumbo jumbo here...) that stresses the individual's unique position as a self-determining agent responsible for the authenticity of his or her choices."

I thought it was pretty funny, once you see what this button looks like. People get confused by it, so I put a sticker on it that says "Press for service - press again if no sound is heard"

The thing is that sometimes it works on the first try, but more often than not, it doesn't do anything! Some people sit there for a few minutes before it works; some people just yell out "HELLO!"; and for others, it will ring right away. Sometimes it will ring numerous times with one push, and then we know somebody is serious;)

Turns out the lady was an actress, and she was starring in the theatre version of Doubt. She invited me to come, but didn't have any free tickets, so I doubt I'll go. It sounded like a really good production though, so maybe...

Updates!

Hey Everyone

Check out the new & updated links on the left! I've updated the homepage, and added the Facebook page!

It would really do me a HUGE favour if you guys could create a link to my website on your blog! It helps with google rankings soooo much, so 1 million dollars to whoever does this! Just kidding, but I will be forever greatful. Just set up a link to the main webpage (www.bydesignvisuals.com)

Thanks!
Mark