Month: June 2009

P1070638, originally uploaded by palm0014.

As Matt likes to call me…

P1070617, originally uploaded by palm0014.

Offering candy canes to all…

I’m on a photo spree tonight after zonking out from studying.

Hey, this is some good news. I shall be referred to (in some circles) as ‘Mon oncle Ryan’ as Vero’s sister gave birth to a baby boy! Neat-o. I’m pretty excited to be the awesome uncle that any kid would want to have. Let it be noted that if I fill his backpack full of beer on our hike up a mountain, it’s for training purposes.

Hey! Vero and I are godparents as well. That’s a touching invitation…nowadays, I wonder what being a godparent is all about? I asked the question and it doesn’t seem like they expect much from us (like do I have to show him the Christian way? Do I have to demonstrate how to NOT shotgun a beer?) but I am willing to take notes from others on what they would expect from a godparent.

Congrats to Steve and Anne-Marie on welcoming a cool kid to this Earth!

I have two tickets to Paul McCartney in Halifax for sale. I’ll let the two of them go for $250. Let me know if you’re interested! Too many conflicts on our end halted us from attending.

Yesterday I got a whole heck of a lot of sun on my skin which is fine by me. We had a team planning session which was held at my colleague Marie-Annik’s place. I must admit that I was upset with myself for not believing that she had a pool. Yesterday was probably the nicest day I’ve seen in awhile and that pool was calling my name all afternoon!

After the meeting I headed out with Benoit to Long & McQuade to pick up this neat little amp for his Dad’s bass guitar. It’s a Vox reproduction and fits in the palm of your hand, plugs into your guitar and you can either listen to it or plug headphones into it. Awesome!

I then headed to my final Spanish class…which could conceivably become my final class of University ever. Mark this day…June 16 was my last University class (until I decide to go back again!). It was…nothing different. I’m in exam crunch mode so all that’s roaming through my mind is “How do I conjugate the third person for an imperative command with an irregular verb?” ARGH, brain overload!

I had my five minute oral exam which consisted of me chatting with my professor. I personally felt I bombed it but hey, what do they expect? I’ve only had six weeks of Spanish training. I will tell you two things that I’ve realized over the past six weeks…1) I am not interested in learning languages. I had a sneaking suspicion of this after learning German. 2) I find six weeks compressed class time makes it hard to learn another language. I believe my brain needs time to soak it all in, not get hammered with it. Granted, this doesn’t apply if I were immersed into the culture and have to learn it in six weeks. But for a guy who only speaks a few phrases in class a few times a week…meh?

So there you have it. I now have one final exam and I have graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with a specialization in Communications. It’s been a long time coming. The first few years were not hard at all to handle as it was when I first met Vero and she was also in school…so we shared something in common. In fact, I would say that it helped us out because we could understand the concept of “No, I can’t see you this week as my brain is melting from studying so much!”. When she went ahead and graduated before me (the nerve!), she has been quite understanding when school stuff comes up. In fact, all my friends have been understanding as I just don’t have a lot of time for them. Well, I hope they are understanding. For all I know, when I try and rekindle a friendship in the near future, maybe they’ll have changed their phone numbers on me! Ha ha.

On May 19, 1999, Episode I – The Phantom Menace was released to theaters. This was a grand day for Star Wars fans everywhere in the world.

Then, the fallout began. Thoughts of how George Lucas stole their childhood memories of Star Wars and replaced it with this stinking pile of poodoo came across the minds of a lot of people.

I, was not one of those people.

I remember going to the theater with the Bayshore boys and catching this flick and just being amazed at the opening crawl of a new Star Wars film. How was this even possible? How could a film excite me in such a way? Wait…this is a NEW film! All of this excitement lasted the entire movie for me.

I never had a problem with Jar Jar Binks, I never had a problem with how it was a film geared for kids. I mean, what do we expect? I started out watching Star Wars film on MCTV on a Saturday afternoon wondering what the heck this movie was with a guy riding some giant camel in the snow of Kapuskasing? Oh, wait, did he just cut open that thing with a lazer sword? What the heck is this?

Then I remember going to Dad’s friend Ernie’s place and while they partied it up, I sat in the living room and spied a collection of movies and realized that the same lazer sword I spied on television matched the same on the box of this movie. I popped it in and fell in love.

To watch The Phantom Menace over and over and over again, did not bother me one bit. It continued the magic for me. Now, will I admit that there are better Star Wars films than The Phantom Menace? Sure, of course. I definitely enjoyed Eps II and III a lot more. I think George Lucas tweaked the films because of the backlash which made the further prequels better. Without The Phantom Menace, we wouldn’t have the awesomeness which is Episode III.

It’s ten years later…wow, what a ride. Star Wars is bigger than ever, with a new trilogy to watch, an animated series, and a live action TV series coming out. I will admit that the Star Wars bug has left my body after many years and I can go months without thinking about it. I’m not saying that I don’t love everything to do with Star Wars, but at the same time, I have other priorities in my life.

So faithful viewers…thoughts on The Phantom Menace?