My Name Is Tyson, and I’m Germaphobic

Alright, well it’s actually called Mysophobia, but I figured more folks would recognize it better if I called it Germaphobia!

I will admit though, I am a bit afraid of germs and bacteria. Kinda odd especially since I was all into making E. Coli cultures today in the microbiology lab. But I like having clean hands, and not getting sick! Also, I’m working towards applying to the only level 4 lab in Canada, and one of fourteen in the world. That’s right, this incredibly accident prone guy might be working with some of the most dangerous biochemical substances in the history of mankind!

The other night, I watched that movie Contagion, which really doesn’t help this little bit of a fear at all. It’s all about the spread of a super-virus that’s taking millions of people’s lives. It uses a lot of camera angles and imagery to show just how easily disease can spread throughout the world, causing an epidemic. While I was watching the movie, I was chowing down on my popcorn and instantly thought that someone had to touch it at some point…

Also, sometime during the movie, they said that a person touches their face up to 3000 times a day. If its true, that’s an incredible and scary amount that I really have difficulty fathoming. My face must be absolutely filthy by the end of the day really. But I found the movie very interesting as well; especially how it punched in the reality that a super virus is actually very possible. Especially with some of the stuff I have been learning in my advanced microbiology classes. For example, in the entire worlds stockpile, we have only been able to find a medium to grow/reproduce 0.1% of all bacteria.

I don’t really like to think about it all too much, it just kinda shows how weak the human race really could be, and everything I learn in my classes don’t really help that viewpoint at all.

Neither does Contagion!

In my biochemistry class, we need to find a topic for our scientific research essay. It’s not due until mid-November, but it’s still imperative to work on it at a constant basis until then. I’m not sure what to choose for a topic though. It needs to be biochemistry related and very recent research, so I probably just need to do some research on recent findings. Maybe I’ll ask a biochemist too, I have a friend working at the University of Calgary in Biochemistry. Unless anyone has any suggestions? They would be greatly appreciated!

Since I’m talking about science things, I might as well continue along that subject line. Yesterday I got the new issues of Science Illustrated and Popular Science to help me look for a possible topic. But I actually enjoy reading them, a lot of the articles are extremely interesting and have some pretty insane information and experiments that have been going on. There’s actually a pretty inspirational story in Popular Science about a college student that was paraplegic, but didn’t want to graduate in his wheelchair. So a group of student engineers at U.C. Berkeley built him a machine that allowed him to walk across the stage and get his diploma. Basically he’s considered a cyborg since the exoskeleton they installed into him is a combination of his flesh and this machine. I would recommend to read the entire issue though if you have the time, its apparemtly a special education issue.

“If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you’d best teach it to dance.” – George Bernard Shaw

Tyson Trepidations

A Canadian Remembering 9/11 And Other Shenanigans.

I remember a decade ago from today, I was in the sixth grade sitting on the swing set with my best friend before the school bell rang.

This is when I first found out about the disaster of 9/11.

I mean sure, I’m Canadian, so a lot of Americans don’t understand why a lot of us are sombre about the events of that day. But really Canada and the states are so similar and tight knit, it doesn’t really matter we different countries, and our economies are so interwoven we directly affect each other. Not just that though, Canada plays a huge role in the war against terrorism, especially by taking over a lot of the duties of the United States Army in Afghanistan. I mean I even know a number of great Canadian people that have died serving the war against terrorism. These are people that I went to camp with, did some of my military training with and befriended over the last decade. So of course the events of that day affect us just as much as many Americans.

Pardon the language I’m about to use, but a decade ago from today, when I was merely in sixth grade, is when I realized that the world is fucked. I mean I don’t really like thinking into it very much, I know a lot about politics, government and the worlds affairs; its all a scary aspect that shouldn’t be disregarded. But in a way, its kinda sad that it takes events like 9/11, the assassination of JFK, declaration of war against Germany and the bombing of Pearl Harbor are what it takes to make me remember exactly what I was doing that day.

Even though its a decade since that horrible disaster, I’m going to turn it over to a bit happier of a note. I don’t like being morbid all the time, I like making people smile and being happy myself nonstop.

News!

I shaved off my beard last night. I felt kinda weird; I had it for a while and it grew on me a lot, now I think I look a little odd. Even my sister and a couple of my co-workers told me that I look funny without my beard. I’m sure it’ll be back soon, I just need a better grooming kit first, it was starting to get a little bit of a hassle and not look so clean.

After shaving though, I began to wonder if I should get my haircut too. It’s been about six months since my last one, which is the wait time I usually take before cutting it. Generally when I cut it, I get it pretty short. I always tell the snazzy haircutting artist lady to use a number 5 razor on me. Last time I did that, the lady was pretty shocked, she said, “Are you sure you want to go THAT short?!”.

I guess if I do, it’ll be pretty spontaneous, or in response to other people suggesting its time to cut my hair. Or maybe I should go to other extremes and dye it pink or something! But then again, my boss at work would probably kill me…

Oh! One more thing! I was approved for student funding, so guess whose going to return to California for New Years?! That’s right, TYSIE! I’m pretty excited, and I’ll probably get my airline ticket soon before it starts getting too expensive. I’ll stay with the same people that I always stay with, they are pretty awesome and fun. Plus the only people I know there, I kinda wish I knew a few more folks in the states though, that way I have more places to crash and hang when I’m travelling through; because I do that quite a lot.

Vancouver, feat. LMFAO, Ke$ha and My Sisters.

For those of you that read my blog, you probably knew or had the idea that I got VIP tickets to the Ke$ha concert last night in Vancouver. I went with my two closest sisters and we really had one of the most incredible nights ever!

This concert is something that I’ve been waiting a long time for with my sisters. We bought our VIP tickets a couple of

My Sisters and I At The Concert (I Look Mental... Oh Well...)

months ago and have been pumping ourselves up everyday since. The wait did end up a little stressful though; on Wednesday we checked the mail again, but still didn’t have our tickets yet. Since the concert was only another 2 days away, I decided to phone the ticketing company to see what I could do if the tickets don’t arrive.

After waiting almost an hour on hold with Ticketmaster and listening to the same annoying instrumental song over and over and over again, I finally got to talk to the customer service representative. She told me that our tickets were never even sent because the Postal Workers Strike was going on at the same time we purchased our VIP package. I have to admit, that made me a bit mad. If they weren’t sent because of that, then why didn’t they send them either after the strike was over or at least let us know. So after a bit of a bickering, the lady finally let us able to just print off our tickets. I was a little disappointed too, its always nice to have a hard copy of the ticket to keep as a memory. But it was alright in the end, I ended up with lots of souvenirs in a way (Ke$ha condoms she shot out in the crowd, free buttons were handed out, an LMFAO glowstick and tonnes of glitter!).

Friday morning I left at about 9AM, this way I could pick up one of my sisters at 10 and the other at 11. Plus Vancouver is a few hundred kilometres away, so it takes about 5 hours of driving to get there from my house. Although, when I picked up my first sister, we made a quick stop at Wal-Mart to get some glitter for Ke$ha!

Another hour later, we arrived at my older sisters house. This was a little longer of a stop since she was giving the babysitter instructions about where to find things, typical bedtimes etc. But we were soon on our way!

To be honest, I was a little worried that we would be a bit reserved or even awkward with each other a tad since it’s been so long since the three of us really hung out like this. I gotta say though, it was a great experience and definitely didn’t end up being that way at all.

We actually learned a lot about each other during the long drive and definitely noted a lot of sibling similarities. We got talking about some of our bad habits that we have, which is something we never really admit to each other. We were just listing them off as we thought of them, and it turned out that 95% of the things one of us mentioned was pretty mutual between us. I always kinda just took all that for granted and I feel as though this trip brought us closer as siblings.

Once in Vancouver, finding our hotel proved to be a little difficult. We managed to get a pretty affordable room on Robson Street, at a hotel called The Barclay. But on the way, we thought we would use the GPS since we didn’t note what street the hotel was on. That ended up not really being the smartest idea since the GPS decided to be pubescent and non-cooperative. It took us around in circles and down some very creepy and sketchy back allies. Then at one point it lost where we were and decided we were in the middle of the Pacific ocean. We did manage to find our hotel though and got checked in right away.

By that point we just had a couple hours until the concert since it started at 7:30, so my sisters began to get ready.

When it came to doing their makeup, this meant it was time for my sisters to get the glitter going. I let them spray my beard with glitter a bit, but then they really went nuts on the glitter. It was literally like the Glitter Fairy threw up all over our hotel room. Especially the bathroom. There was glitter everywhere in our hotel room. Even where you’d least expect it. I just hope I don’t get charged extra on my credit card for that huge mess of glitter. Especially since we started drinking a bit while getting ready too. It wasn’t anything really heavy, just a mix of a double of vodka, topped off with some lemonade and club soda. It actually tasted pretty decent too.

At about 6:40 we started walking to Rogers Arena, getting excited the entire way. Once inside, we got ourselves two beers each and headed down to the floor level VIP section. Meaning the very front, at the stage. Literally spitting distance from Ke$ha, LMFAO and Spank Rock.

At this point, the first opening act, Spank Rock was starting his portion. Neither of us even heard of him before, but he was pretty decent with his performance, rapping and stage presence. He did what he was supposed to do and get the crowd pumped for the main event, Ke$ha.

Next they set up quite quickly for LMFAO to do their part. It really didn’t take any time at all. Also, by this point the stadium was completely full. I know LMFAO is pretty popular right now, but in all of the concerts I’ve been to, I have never seen an opening act perform with a completely full stadium like that.

I understand why now.

LMFAO did an amazing show! They had an incredible stage presence and were very unique on stage. They even had a huge inflatable zebra flying around the stadium as the crowd shoved it all over the place. Plus not to mention they had some of the most amazing dancers I’ve ever seen as well, they really did some crazy stuff. The entire crowd was dancing, singing and screaming along to their music, which was quite amazing as well, playing up the DJing and sounding just like the album or even better. Lastly, they were really funny too and did a perfect job at getting us all fired up for the main event still to come. But best of all, they put on a really long show for an opening act.

By the time Ke$ha came out, everyone was already on their feet due to LMFAO and really feeling the energy from their music. The crowd and the loud bass beat from Ke$ha’s drummer was starting to blow the roof off the place, then she emerged into the darkness, wearing these awesome light up glasses!

Next, the spotlights clicked onto her and she started to sing!

This was the first concert I’ve been to where I was disappointed from the main act. Ke$ha wasn’t that great of a singer, her voice was way worse than from her albums and a lot of the time she wasn’t even singing, just kinda yelling. Plus she was kinda chunky too! I was shocked. I mean, the money we paid to go to the concert was worth it (because of LMFAO), but we were still disappointed and thought that Ke$ha should be opening for LMFAO instead.

So when the concert ended, we were just leaving the doors of Rogers Arena when some guy offered us a little flyer. Usually we just ignore those people in Vancouver because they are just soliciting random things that never pertain to us, but luckily for us, this time we actually took them. It was a little card that was advertising an afterparty for LMFAO at a club called The Helm, located on Howe Street, Downtown Vancouver. The card actually said, “Featuring the setlist from SkyBlu of LMFAO”, so we figured it was just a DJ mixing some LMFAO songs or whatnot. But for some reason, we were feeling spontaneous and kinda wanting to make up for our disappointment of Ke$ha, so we started heading for The Helm.

Once we arrived, there wasn’t really a lineup, but there was a sign that said everyone needed to be on the guestlist in order to get in. So we kinda felt defeated and began to leave to our hotel. But after walking a couple metres, we just decided to go back and at least try to get in since we walked all that distance to get there.

Of course though, I got designated to be the talker.

When I approached the bouncer at the door (whom was probably 3 times my size), I simply asked if I would be able to get in with my two sisters.

His reply was, “Ok… Are you on the guestlist?”

I felt defeated after he asked that because I figured that when when I said “No”, he would tell us we wouldn’t be able to get in. Luck was going my way for once though and he told me, “You know what, I think I have room for three more if you show us some ID and pay $60 for the cover.” So we horked over our ID’s, the $60, and were stamped in.

I had never paid that much for a cover charge, usually I try not to pay any more than $10 for a cover, otherwise it was too expensive and not worth it. But since we were being spontaneous that night, we swiftly handed over the cash.

When we first arrived, we were a little unsure as to what to think of the place. It was pretty fancy and the DJ was going crazy on the stage, but the mood and vibe wasn’t really set yet, so it didn’t feel completely right. With that feeling we decided to get another drink, so I got my favorite, a pint of Guinness. It was a pretty big pint though, but I didn’t mind, it was Guinness!

When we were walking through the crowd with our drinks, my two sisters were walking in front of me, heading somewhere. I was mostly just busy elbowing people out of the way, being a little aggressive to stand my ground and not get separated from my sisters. Then all of a sudden my sisters stopped in their tracks. The one leading the way had this crazy look on her face, as if she were a dear in the headlights; then my sister behind her was pointing with her mouth hanging open at the guy beside us.

So I elbowed him once he was next to me, like I was doing to everyone else.

When I looked at him though, we made eye contact and instantly I got the same look on my face as my first sister, plus the mouth hanging like my second sister combined.

It was the guys from LMFAO!

I couldn’t believe my eyes and was completely shocked. They went up on the small stage platform, and starting DJing the club.

It was awesome!

They are quite intense and wicked DJ’s, playing some awesome songs and even performing quite a number of theirs. Myself and my two sisters managed to elbow our way to the front of the crowd and get on some intense dancing with the crowd. The entire energy and feeling of the place picked up significantly and it was my best clubbing experience ever! All their dancers were there too, giving everyone free shots and dancing like crazy, even the super cute and hot dancer girl from the concert!

While they were DJing one of their own songs and singing and such, there was this girl directly in front of me dancing away, and obviously really drunk. She actually took her shirt and bra off, it was pretty intense and she didn’t even get kicked out neither like most places would do. But it really was insane in there.

Finally, sometime after 2 AM, we got way too hot and sweaty that we needed to get out, so we headed back to the hotel, making a pitstop at McDonald’s first though for a late night snack.

 

This post doesn’t really do the night any justice since it was so epic (and this is coming from a guy that Never says “epic”), but I just wanted to share it with my friends on the interwebs. My sisters and I also vowed to come back to Vancouver again when LMFAO get their own tour going.

 

Tyson Trepidations.

By Golly! First Day Of The Semester

Today I had my first day of the Fall 2011 semester and the only day this week. Thursdays I have labs and they don’t run the first week, so no need to go tomorrow. Then Friday I’m skipping classes for Ke$ha. Yes I know, skipping already; but it’s Ke$ha and LMFAO in VIP seating! Plus I know someone in all my classes (with exception to one),so I will be able to get the notes anyway.

Thompson Rivers University CAC

It was a good day overall and I feel as though it will be a very interesting semester learning some really neat things. My five classes that I have are filled with 4 biologies and 1 Theatre class. But I’ll go through each one of them.

 

First class: Biochemistry

I think this class will prove to my toughest subject of the year. Just because there’s a lot of difficult material being covered and the prof is well known for making a very difficult final exam (worth 35%). So I’m going to have to do my best to get great grades for the other 65% of the marks for the class. This class features a scientific paper due in two months. I’ll probably start researching for it next week though since research takes so long. I know the paper is a pretty big undertaking but honestly, I don’t mind, since we pick our own topics (biochem related), I get to choose something to do with neurology. I’ll probably go in the direction of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease since I’m already very familiar with both of those. Plus I consider myself pretty good at writing papers, usually I get a very decent mark.

 

Second class: Biometrics

This one is basically my science maths class, mostly statistics in a scientific method. So that means a lot of word problems, and a lot of very difficult ones as my prof pointed out too. As long as I don’t get lost somewhere along the way, I should be fine and I like maths when it’s not calculus. But I will admit, I’m a bit nervous that my prof will go too fast, it’s Nancy, and I had her before in my first year of university. She just blasted through the material like a bat out of hell. The other thing too is that my sister is also in this class. Usually that’s a good thing, but when it comes to any maths, my sister has major issues, and I always feel obligated to help her too. Which can prove to be very very difficult since she’s like a mule.

 

Science!

Third class: Microbiology

Another tough marker of a prof; but not technically, everyone just complains because he never uses multiple choice. Instead he always essay questions and long answer questions on his exams. Meaning I’m going to need to study a lot. Although, with that said, it’s a class mostly about processes, meaning diagrams, charts and flow. When I have any of those elements, I get an instant photographic memory. All-in-all, it should be quite fun of a class too.

 

Fourth class: Introduction to Theatrical Acting

At the start of this class I felt quite out place. There were all these artsy students that I have never seen before, but luckily this one girl noticed me and somehow knew I was a science student. So we sat together as the only science persons in the class. I was very impressed though, my prof seems very passionate about teaching us to act and improv. He’s so passionate that it just transfers over to everyone in the class and makes you really want to be there. I think this is going to be very fun, even though I am an awkward science student.

Thompson Rivers University Old Library

Fifth Class: Ecology and Evolution of Land Plants

This is my biology elective and I really only chose it because Lyn is teaching this class. I just had to take one of her classes. A couple of years ago I met her in the science building, and she is the most passionate scientist ever to study and teach botany. Not only that, but she is literally insane and incredibly funny. Especially with her flying penises and peeing carrots. PLUS! There’s a field trip in two weeks for this class. Camping at Wells Grey park and looking at all kinds of plants. It will awesome and a great way to make some new friends I hope. I’m incredibly excited for this class though, just because of the prof whose teaching. Passion makes the biggest difference.

 

“Friendship — is not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.” – Muhammad Ali

 

Tyson Trepidations.

A Mall, A Girl, And A Big Bad Dude.

Lately I’ve been having some pretty intense dreams revolving around me being against everyone else in an apocalypse-like situation. It’s not a recurring dream or anything like that, just different dreams focused on that subject matter. I mainly remember two of them, but I’m just going to talk about the one which I remember most.

It started fairly abstract, I never really suspected the dream to end up the way it was. But it began with me wandering around some sort of desert-like area, but it was more cold than hot. I guess it could be considered a wasteland more than anything. Mostly though, it wasn’t colourful at all; no vegetation, no people, no animals. Just myself wandering alone, in search for a place to call home for a night and praying to find some sort of food.

Somewhere along the way, I noticed a person in the distance. They seemed very far, so I thought it may have been a mirage or just my mind messing with the reality of the situation. But as I closed the distance between us, I began to realize that the person was real. Not only that, but there was some sort of large building in the horizon as well.

At first encounter, the man didn’t really seem to trust me, his body gestures suggested that he found me as a threat. But after reassuring him I wouldn’t hurt him or do anything bad, he reluctantly guided me to the building.

The building ended up being a large mall that now stood as a refuge and shelter for survivors of the apocalypse that occurred. The entire town inside the mall was controlled by one guy, I never caught his name in the dream, nor did I meet him until later. But the first thing that I observed, was that the people of this small colony within the mall looked up to him and bowed down to him. In fact, if they didn’t, they would often be punished by his protective crew. I guess the reason that they followed him rituously was that he provided them with a home and protection. Although, as a result, I would consider him corrupt by the power he held.

When I got inside, people immediately noticed that I was a new face. Some of them looked worried about this, but the hospitable ones took me to a bench of sorts where I was able to get some sleep.

I awoke from the feeling of being watched. So when I sat up, I automatically glanced around to see who or what disturbed my peace. I noticed it was a bunch of goons hanging out at a once been coffee booth nearby. I could immediately tell that they wanted to start trouble with me, the unfamiliar person. I could tell by their body gestures and the looks they were giving me. Next thing I knew, they were approaching me and each pulling out an array of weapons, from guns to knives. Observing that, I quickly stood up and weaved into a crowd of people around the food court area of this mall. They were still all after me, and caught up, beginning to throw punches, swing their weapons and cock their guns.

For some reason, I had these amazingly smooth and quick reflexes (that I obviously don’t have in real life), and fought away most of the goons without getting hurt and much like in action movies. Until one starting shooting. He missed me, but hit several people in the crowd, making everyone scream and begin to flee.

Suddenly, the one goon that was doing the shooting was shot himself. It was a fatal hit to the head. After a scan of where it came from, I found the man that did the damage. He was huge, at least 7 feet tall and biceps as large as my head. He fired his shot from an entire floor above, with his gun still smoking from the muzzle. I knew instantly, that was the power hungry individual that basically ran the place. Not to mention, he was surrounded by quite the number of personal guards.

Next thing I knew, this man was right in front of me, telling me that although I’m a new face, I better catch on to the rules and flow of the place if I wanted to stay there alive. But most importantly, not to defy his rule.

With that in mind, I went about exploring the colonized mall, familiarizing myself with it since it would be my home for at least a bit. While exploring, I bump into this girl (I know, all of my dreams have some sort of random girl for whatever reason), and when I look at her, we meet each others gazes. She was a beautiful girl, but like all my dreams, I can never remember what she looks like, only what I thought about her when we met.

All I thought was that she was a beautiful girl.

After meeting each others eyes, we instantly connected with that electric feeling you get when you meet the eyes of someone amazing. So she joined me and showed me around the mall, telling me about the people and revealing all the secrets she knew about the place. Even saying that the people were actually afraid of the guy that was in charge, but were too grateful for a home to complain.

We got to know each other fairly well and talked nonstop; she even gave me a place to spend the night. It was at that point that I told her I wouldn’t be able to stay for long under their leaders rule, and would have to move on like I always have. She understood, but I could tell that inside she was quite sad. As was I.

The next morning though, I must have gotten too friendly with the wrong girl. When I awoke there were some of the leaders security guards waiting for me to stir. With that, I knew I’d have to make my move then and now. So I set out with a swift yet elegant attack on the security men, and began to run towards the mall exit.

It was looking as though I would make it too, I could see the doors straight ahead and nothing was blocking the way out into the wasteland again. Then all of a sudden there were several security guards and the mall colony leader taking up all the space in front of the doors. With my exit blocked, the only choice I had was to stop and observe my surroundings for another escape.

There was no other escape though.

As I was continuing my frantic search, the leader pulled out that beautiful girl I had met and had her all tied up. She was crying and obviously distraught of the entire situation. I don’t remember what the leader dude man said, but I know it was hostile, especially since he took off his jacket to deal with me himself; apparently with his bare hands too since he handed off his weapons and such to his security team. The one observation I made, was that guy was triple my size.

I prepared myself for him as he slowly made his gradual approach, cracking his knuckles and chuckling at me for being a lot smaller. I knew my only advantage was that I would probably be able to move a lot faster than he would.

As soon as he was close enough, he already began to throw the punches, sending the first for the head. I was able to dodge that one pretty quickly, but it didn’t deter him at all. He started throwing more punches, each of which I was able to dodge as well, but some were pretty close since I could feel the air disturbance from his swings.

I began to back up the immobile escalators, knowing that being at a higher ground would serve as an advantage to me for a little and give me a chance to think. I didn’t think of much though as I was quickly running out of escalator to go up, so once at the top, I hopped over the escalator railing onto a ledge that apparently held some plants at one point.

He followed in same manner, except moreso stepping over the railing with his massive height.

As I backed towards the edge of the ledge I knew this was the time I needed to do something, so when he was once again close enough to throw a punch, I ducked and tucked away behind him quickly. Then I immediately gave him a kick to the side as hard as I could.

Thanks to his missed swing, he lost his balance a little; mixed with my hard kick, the leader plummeted off of the ledge and onto the ground. I’m not sure if the fall killed him, but he was definitely injured. Luckily, his guards and all the people were too stunned to pay attention to me anymore, and went immediately to help their ferocious leader. Plus some were a bit afraid of me, the dangerous new guy. But as I was exiting, I made sure to untie that beautiful girl.

Who Is That Beautiful Mystery Girl?

Then I left.

Just like that.

I didn’t even look back even though I really wanted to, just to see that beautiful girl one more time.

A couple of kilometres down the wasteland, I began to hear the sound of someone running towards me. I figured it was the guards coming with extra ammo to get me back for what I did to their boss. Either that or the leader guy was alright and coming after me.

When I turned around though, I was surprised.

Probably the best surprise I ever had in that apocalyptic world, and probably the first smile I had since too.

It was that beautiful girl, coming to join me and be my partner on whatever adventure I was heading to next.

 

“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.” – Revelations 21:6, King James Version

 

Tyson Trepidations.

Boys Eat Dirt

One of my older sisters came down today for the long weekend, and we were all making a bit of a plan for our trip to Vancouver next week for the concert. Next thing we knew, we were talking about how it’s the first time we are doing something together in a while. I mean I’ll hang out with my sisters, but usually its one at a time sort of thing.

My sister Phalon is pretty close to my age. She’s only a year older (except people constantly think that she’s younger than me). Then my next sister, Paige, is seven years older than me.

Somehow we got talking about some of the stunts that my sister Phalon and I got into when we were younger since we were so close in age.

When we were really young (I think I was going on 4 years old), and just moved to this town, I was playing outside in the dirt with my sister. My sister started telling me that I should eat some of the dirt. But being a smart almost 4 year old, I knew something was awry. So I inquired, “Why?”.

Her response to my question was something like, ” Well because all boys eat dirt!”

Of course being the much smarter, younger brother, I added, “But I never saw dad eating any dirt.”

Then came the trickery, and probably what scarred me to be the odd person I am today. My sister told me, “That’s because he does it at work with all the other boys that work there.”

So I ate dirt.

The moral of the story:

Girls are evil.

Sisters are evil.

I guess I was a little evil too as a child, but my sister was always right there by my side doing the same too. Heck, she probably egged half of it on like that dirt eating incident.

I remember our first neighbors when we moved here. They were always pretty nice at first, but after a couple of years, when I was about six or seven, they started being not very friendly to my parents. So as a result, my sister and I decided to get payback against them.

We always heard our parents talking about making their lawn greener than our neighbours too, so we decided to help them out as our first payback. So one day when our neighbours weren’t home, we took some of their bleach that they left outside and poured the entire bottle all over their front lawn. It was pretty genius of us too considering that those spots of their lawn were completely dead after some time. Then the same day, we also decided to clog their eaves, so we shoved every page from the newspaper into their eaves spout. I think we did that one because we sat there waiting about 2 minutes for their lawn to die, and when it didn’t die before our eyes, we wanted to make sure we made our point.

Over the months we tried to do more to get our revenge too.

During the fall time, they had these plants along the top of the fence, so we knocked every single of them down into their yard. During the winter we shovelled all of our snow from our back yard, into their driveway, and even made sure to get some doggy doo doo in with it too. Then in the spring, more specifically, at Easter, we got a bunch of gum from the Easter Bunny. So we chewed all of it, made a huge glob and wrapped it around the tree in their yard.

We were quite the deviants. I think those must have been the rebel days of our lives too. I kinda feel bad for our neighbours now, but I guess we could have done worse right? Besides, we were young and didn’t know any better from pouring bleach on the neighbours lawn.

“One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. ‘Which road do I take?’ she asked. ‘Where do you want to go?’ was his response. ‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered. ‘Then,’ said the cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.” – Alice In Wonderland

Tyson Trepidations.

A Sock Saved Is A Penny Earned

Generally I have never had a problem with saving money, I’m pretty well self-disciplined and don’t spend a lot of money on things I don’t need. I actually rarely ever buy myself something, most of the time my money is spent doing things instead.

Even that time as a kid when my sister and I saved up all kinds of change and money to get our hamster, we always kept it in an old coffee tin and never ever took anything out of it to spend or play with. More recently, just last summer my family set up a savings jar to be able to afford for all of us to go to the PNE at the end of summer. It only took us two months to get enough money to pay for a hotel for 4 plus entry and ride tickets at the PNE. Then just last night my sister and I started a new savings jar that we will add to all year long until next summer so we can do something crazy.

Just from last night and today, we already have $69.96 in the jar. But of course I don’t expect it to keep filling up that fast. The first $40 was a donation from our parents, I added the $10 bill I had in my wallet; then the rest is from change I found in my room, my sister found, wallet, under the seats of all the cars in the family, and from cans and bottles that we had around the house.

What really kicked off our saving though was taking the dog for a walk last night. We took him around to all the three schools in this town and decided we would pick up all the cans in the area while we were walking.

Somehow we got talking about doing a trip next summer, and I told her my plans to do some crazy stuff. The mix of picking up the bottles got us thinking that maybe we should start saving for a trip or an adventure next year. So we started and really got into it. Heck, we even looked inside the garbage cans all over the three schools, which actually gave us a pretty good amount of bottles. Following that, we decided we would take a nice drive up some of the dirt roads and pick up a few bottles along them as well. By the end of the night, we filled up a garbage bag 3/4 of way with bottles and cans, making it a pretty successful night of collection.

Today I cashed in all the non-alcoholic bottles and cans, getting us $8 to add to our jar, but I still have to bring in the alcoholic ones which will give us a lot more money. I couldn’t do that today though because the liquor stores aren’t accepting them until after the long weekend.

It’s kinda funny actually how when my sister and I make a goal or start planning something, we really get into it and make our best strives to succeed in our plans or ideas. I feel like we will be pretty successful in this endeavour. Plus! I’m going to start putting away a certain percentage of my pay cheques in the jar to help as well. It wont be much since I’m cutting my hours down to two or three days a week, but it’ll still help!

Nasty. Dirty Feet Bother Me...

Once we returned from our short bottle hunting excursion, I started to try and think of other ways that we can add to our travel money jar. I know once the winter comes, there are always a couple of older folks that pay me a few dollars to shovel their driveway during snowfalls, which I can always add to the jar. Plus, I’ll probably keep hunting everyone’s cars for loose change as well since they add up quite a bit. I mean in our travel jar right now, we already have almost $14 in loose change.

When I was talking to one of my friends about my plans with my sister, he told me to sell my used, old and dirty socks/shoes on eBay. I laughed fairly heartily too because I thought he was joking, but I kinda got intrigued when he told me that he wasn’t kidding. So I went on eBay and typed in the search bar, “Used Socks”. It’s actually quite amazing how many old and used socks are posted on there, and people are getting anywhere from $2 to $20 on one pair of their used socks.

At first I thought that maybe people were buying them for crafts or to build a tattered sock puppet or something, but after thinking a little, it didn’t make sense because you could just buy a bag of socks at Wal-Mart for cheaper than some of those single pairs of socks. After researching on the internet a little bit though, I found it was more for the people that have a foot fetish, for some reason they got off by buying other people’s old used socks. For fun I also looked up used shoes, and they were selling pretty good as well, somewhere around $30 give and take. I’m not sure if I’m up for selling my old socks and old shoes though. I don’t really care what people would do with them and it doesn’t bother me, once they are out of my possession it doesn’t matter to me anymore. It’s just the principal of it that bothers me. I’m sure I’ll manage to save enough in my other methods though so it shouldn’t be needed to do this. Although, it is very odd, quite unique and baffling that people actually make quite a fortune selling their old socks.

 

“Never put a sock in the toaster.” Eddie Izzard

 

Tyson Trepidations.

Quotes From August 2011

Here it is! The end of August! And here they are! All the quotes I used for that entire month. There are some pretty good ones in there and enjoy. Lot’s of interesting posts to come in September. 🙂

 

“The mightiest works have been accomplished by men who have somehow kept their ability to dream great dreams” – Walter Russell Bowie

“Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love” – Mother Teresa

“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity” – Ellen Par

“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in” – George Washington Carver

“Some days there wont be a song in your heart. Sing anyways” – Emory Austin

“Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life, and when it comes, hold your head high. Look it squarely in the eye, and say, ‘I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.” – Ann Landers

“Some days are for living. Others are for getting through.” – Malcolm S. Forbes

“In order to do good, you have to do something.” – Emily Pilloton

“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” – Gilbert K. Chesterton

“Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

“We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.” – Sam Keen

 

Tyson Trepidations.

Coming Soon To A Tyson Near You

Seeing as my last post was a review of my summer, I thought I should share my plans for the fall and a bit of the winter. I’ll only go as far as New Years though.

Just Thought I'd Share A Photo From My Younger Years. It's My Sister and I!

Coming up this weekend already is the North Thompson Fall Fair and Rodeo. It’s a very hick event that attracts all the rednecks and farmers from all over the country. It’s kinda neat though. I mostly just like going sometimes to watch the rodeo, but haven’t been for a couple years due to a complicated work schedule. Hopefully I can get in at least one day this year. Oh! And can’t forget the cotton candy. I know its pure sugar and its going to make me incredibly high, but I love the feeling of it melting in my mouth. I don’t care about the taste, its all about the feeling! Maybe even this year I’ll stay on the mechanical bull longer than a few seconds too.

As soon as the long weekend ends, then school starts right after. It’s not bad though, I usually enjoy the first week of classes. It’s pretty relaxed, no labs and mostly just review/going over the course outline and material. Also, like I’ve mentioned in many blog posts already, I have some really wicked classes this year! So I’m excited to see what I get to learn. BONUS! I have a field trip in my Biology 2280 class (Ecology and Evolution of Land Plants), that’s more like a camping trip and its only in the third week of classes. Very stoked.

Next week, on the Friday, I’m going to be skipping classes for Ke$ha feat. LMFAO in Vancouver! I’ve been working myself up for this for a while now, and I can’t wait to get my VIP package! I’ll be driving myself and two of my sisters there and spending the night in downtown Vancouver. Then on the Saturday, my sisters are going to be doing some shopping while I visit with some old summercamp buddies of mine! I love being able to see them, they are amazing friends that I wish lived a lot closer to me because they are so reliable, loyal and trustworthy. Something a lot of my friends here lack.

The week after that, on Thursday, my dance lessons start. I spent a lot of money to get some top of the line tap dance shoes, now I’m ready to fly across the dance floor like a couple of my movie heroes, Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire.

My birthday comes on October as well! So I need to start thinking about what I’m going to ask for. Usually I put a lot of thought into my birthday list, I try to keep things very affordable. I don’t want my family spending much money on me at all, but also things that I’ll genuinely use and appreciate. So I need to take off my dunce cap and do some thinking.

I don’t have too many other things on the go for this fall, most of what I mentioned will keep me quite busy anyways, so its probably a good thing. Although, with that said, I’m going to try and make a very hard effort to go and visit my friends in San Francisco again over New Years.

As far as goals go, I just look to get similar grades as what I got last year, but hopefully even better. I really want to make more international friends as well, I need to build connections all over the world to be able to be free to travel and have friends to show me the ropes, guide me and give me a place to stay. I also look to get out a little more than last year, I’m incredibly self-disciplined with my studying and focus on doing my best and getting people to smile. But this year I want to try and have a little more fun, meet more people and do some crazy adventurous things I’ve never experienced before.

 

“We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.” – Sam Keen

 

Tyson Trepidations.

Summer 2011: A Review

Okay, so I know summer isn’t really over yet, technically. But to me, it seems like it is since I have no more plans or days off until school starts. Not to mention, its been getting cold at night, I even had to scrape the frost off my car’s window this morning on my way to work AND  Also, when I was driving home after work, I noticed that some of the trees have been

Autumn in British Columbia

starting to yellow/brown/redden already.

Don’t get me wrong neither, I like fall. It’s a pleasant season, not too hot or too cold and British Columbia is absolutely beautiful with it’s magnificent autumn colours.

J’aime le Canada! Vive le Canada!

Oh, and don’t forget! My birthday is in the fall too! October 25th! I actually know a lot of people with birthdays around then. Even just at work, there are two people born on October 26th, and another born on the 24th.

Anyways! Back to my summer review.

It wasn’t my most adventurous summer I’ve had, just one vacation that would probably be the highlight of the entire summer, even though it was just at the beginning. That would have been my two week roadtrip across my wonderful province and country with my Cali G.

Some other highlights would include yesterday with the whitewater rafting and jumping off that cliff; Going to Vancouver to visit with one of my best camp friends; Catching another amazing Bon Jovi concert; The purchase of VIP Ke$ha tickets feat. LMFAO; Camping out at my nieces 13th birthday party; Getting a nice raise at work; Hiking to Moul Falls and the Trophy Mountain Meadows at Wells Grey Park and; lots of awesome summer movies.

I’m sure I’m missing something in there too, that I’ll probably think of later and kick myself for not adding.

A Shot Of Me This Summer, I'm One Scary Dude!

In the whole though, it was pretty enjoyable of a summer, with lots of smiles and I got to make a tonne of other people smile as well. With that said, I am actually looking forward to starting classes on Wednesday, September 7th. I have some really interesting classes and it should be fun learning about the subjects.

As for next summer, I’m not sure what the plans are yet, but I started saving and preparing already. It’s going to be an amazing one and I’m going to make sure to have some very adventurous plans and see lots of new things. Today I even got out of the house with my sister and we went to all the schools around town with the dog collecting all the pop cans and beer bottles. Heck, we even got our inner bum on and looked in the garbage cans. Going to cash them in tomorrow!

“Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

Tyson Trepidations.