Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Ratwheel

My band just made a blog/myspace, you should check them both out.

Blog: Ratblog
Myspace: Ratspace

We are going to be recording pretty quick and have a shirt or two up for sale as soon as we can. Also, a show is in the works for the friday before Halloween (the 30th), so keep a look out for that.

- Dan

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Rest/End Of Summer

READ THE BLOG BEFORE THIS FIRST!...unless you don't want to hear bout some trip to Cali I went on.

2nd part of the summer blog here. Probably should have mentioned this earlier but for the better part of the summer me and Ramsay had been playing guitar together writing some tunes and those tunes eventually evolved into this band that me and Ryan and been joking about for awhile which neither of us thought would ever materialize, but it did which is rad. The band formed with me and Ryan playin guitar, my bro Con on bass, big ol Grant on drums and Derrek "Mr. Incredible" Traxel doing the vocal duties it is called RATWHEEL, keep your ears open. So, right when we get back from Cali we get offer to play this show which was like a week later, we were not ready to play a show at all and had barely jammed and got our songs worked out but Grant and Ryan were psyched on the idea much the shegrin of me, and Con who thought we wouldn't be ready. So we spent the next week jamming everyday and ended up getting out shit together and actually playing 2 shows instead of one and both went splendid. We nailed out 4 songs and people were vibin it so it was a good time for sure. Thanks to all our friends who came out to watch our first show, definetly helped to calm me down. I guess I should mention that I flipped out one day while jamming and broke out cause I couldn't get a song down. The boys aka Ramsay had a good lark at that one. Ratwheel is writing more songs right now, I think we got about 6 or 7 now and are going to record in the very near future. I will post the demo up on here when it's done.

In other show news, the boys from Kelowna managed to get this allstar lineup to come play a show in Kelowna over Vancouver, lineup was Have Heart, Shipwreck, Cruel Hand, Bitter End and Grave Maker (amazing). So I was super pumped for that since Have Heart is one of my favorite bands and it would be my last time seeing them before they broke up :(. The show ended up being awesome and the venue the boys found was ridiculously good. All bands were solid, we mosh, we sang and Sean got frapped...hard.

I am trying to think of other stuff to talk about in here...the rest of the summer was pretty basic, we did a bunch of swimming, cliff jumping, wakeboarding, hanging at the cabin, and some partyin here and there. All of which were a great time. We had Lennea's dad come stay with us at the cabin for a weekend, her brother and their dogs came as well. It was fun having them here I really enjoyed just hangin and playing with the dogs all weekend. One of the dogs Duke i'm pretty sure is gay/retarded, pees like a girl (he is male), lets things hit him in the head when you throw them to him, is afraid of everything even though he is huge (about 130 pounds) and has to nap after like 10 mins of exercise. Lennea also just had her friend Megan come stay with us for a week which was fun, I always find we do alot more activities when we have people staying with us. OH, I just remember that last weekend me, my Dad and Connor went to Van for the BC Lions game. Game was intense, came down to the last play with the Lions coming out on top. Was never really into the CFL but the game was super exciting and fun, thanks to my Dad for taking us!

So I guess the highlights of summer aside from the trip to Cali would be these:
- Friend hangouts: Ramsay, Grant, Derrek, Joni, Con, Sean, Lindsay, Matt, Dustin, Tommy, Clayton, Megan, Justen and of course Lennea.
- Cabin days
- Dan + Lennea hangouts
- Swimming
- Enderby river floats
- Screamers
- Cliff Jumping
- Oroville
- Ratwheel shows + jams
- Have Heart show
- Kelowna Monsters
- BC Lions
- Mom and Dad
- Opie naps
- Partyin
- All around good times

I am sure I am missing some stuff but that stuff up there pretty much sums up my whole summer. It was a blast and I am sad that I am now back at school (today was my first day). I am hoping the year won't be too tough but I won't be holding my breath. Kinda worried that I won't be able to get my work done since I am back living at home now, so many distractions. Also, me and Lennea are going to the hot springs in Revelstoke for our 3 year anniversary (send presents) in Revelstoke this weekend, which I am hyped for as it will be like my last big outing for the summer, after that pure unfun school ugh.
Anyways, this summer was a blast and one of the best I have ever had, hopefully next years will be as good! Thanks to all my buds for hangin with me, being the best friends I could ask for and making my summer a good one.

- Dan

Some more pics to end it:

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

SUMMER

Was planning on writing on this thing all of summer with a bunch of updates but never got around to it. I don't think anyone really missed reading it anyways...so it doesn't really matter. I pretty much forget everything that happened over summer though so my storytelling is going to be super shitty this time round, sorry to all my millions of followers. ONTO THE SUMMER.

Shit started off on a pretty crappy note, me and Lennea moved back to Vernon had a hard time gettin work at first which resulted in us being hella broke for a few weeks. I missed out on going to Rainfest which bummed me out HARD (think i wrote bout that shit last time). Eventually we got that shit sorted out and both ended up getting jobs at PRT which was a shitdogger of a job. The had us workin out in the hot ass sun all day liftin wood a blocks of trees, then when the lifting shit was done they moved me to this other job where I had to thin out all the little trees in the blocks. Showed up to work to do the thinning and found that all the men had quit cause apparently thinning is woman's work. So I rocked bein the only male on the force for a couple weeks but it was cool cause I had Lennea to hang with. However, she ended up ditching me for a better job leaving me all by myself with a bunch of ladies and girls I knew from school but never talked to. Hella awkward cause we knew each other and would give each other the ol head nod from time to time but would never actually talk...Some of you may be wondering "but Dan, why didn't you just get a new job?" Well I'll tell ya, I didn't have any money and had to save up for Sound and Fury which was in a couple weeks and didn't wanna quit and not find a new job and I didn't wanna get a new job then have to ask for 2 weeks off right away. So I decided to tough it out till I left.

The job at PRT worked out nice cause the work ended like the day before we all left for Cali. Reason we went to Cali was for Sound and Fury (look it up) and to have a little bit o fun at Disneyland. We took pretty much the exact same trip last summer and it was a hoot. So we went to Cali with me, Lennea, Connor, Ramsay, Sean, Derrek, Joni, Justen, and Kara (pretty much the only people who would bother to read this and don't really need to know what happened on the trip...). We left from Van on the bus, stayed the night in Seattle which was fun. We ate at an oldschool type diner and went to the beach which was filled with colored people who knew nothing of Canada, we pretty much just made fun of ignorant little girls the whole time. Next day flew out to Cali and took the train to Oxnard. We stayed there for 4 nights and went to Sound and Fury. Highlights:
- Pool party, naked Sean, R2D2 swims
- Meeting up with Clarke
- Going to some muck hole swimming area down stink alley
- These little rolled up chips that Clarke discovered, Gucamole flavor FTW!
- Kid getting stabbed
- Security gettting RAVAGED!
- These sets: Shai Hulud, Shook Ones, Lewd Acts, Mongoloids, Rotting Out, Mother Of Mercy, Ceremony x2, Mind Eraser, Creatures, Trash Talk (played outside in the alley CRAZY) sure I forgot some rad sets, oh well.
- Some certain people being super downers the whole time

After S&F we went to Medieval Times, Disneyland and Cali Adventure which was a hoot. We rode all the rides, ate lots of food and pretty much just had a blast. Highlights:

- Clarke manning up and staying the whole trip
- Black and White knight being the WORST but cheering for him all the same
- Picture with the King
- Multi-Cultural knight
- Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder, Buzz Lightyear, Haunted Mansion
- CHURROS
- Chimychangas
- Soup in a bread bowl
- Fantasmic
- Roller coaster, Soarin Over Cali, Maliboomer, Tower Of Terror
- Dark Rider
- Free Tortillas
- Ghoulish Delight
- Debbie Downer
- Wispy Shit Beard

All in all the trip was a blast, I didn't go into tons of detail cause tons happened...and I pretty much remember none of it. Kinda hectic with some many people, everyone got up in everyone else's grill on a couple occasions but the trip was still awesome!

I am gonna end this blog here and split the rest of the summer into another one so you faithful readers don't have to slug your way through tons of useless time wasting boring writing that I try to make entertaining.

Here's some pics of the trip.



Friday, May 22, 2009

Back Home

Super bummed right now cause I am not at Rainfest with my friends and Lennea is away visiting her Dad. Life sucks...

Moved back to Vernon a few weeks ago once school finished up. Moving was a bit of a pain but me and Lennea got a bunch of help from my parents and her dad, so thanks to them. I been back in Vernon for about a month now and it's been pretty good so far. Me and Lennea are renting out the suite of our house and it is much nicer and bigger than our last place, so that is awesome. Haven't been doing much since I got back other than hanging out all day. Both me and Lennea applied for a job at PRT and they hired us on the spot and told us they would call us to tell us our start date. However, they didn't end up calling us and we had to hassle them super hard for a couple weeks to tell us when we were going to start, it was a big ordeal but we finally got it sorted out and I am starting work on Monday. I am pretty choked at PRT for screwin me around like they did, totally fucked up the only real plans I had for summer, which was going to Rainfest.
My bro, Ramsay, Sean and Derrek are in Tacoma right now enjoying tons of great bands and each others company while I am sitting here writing this lame shit...weak. I couldn't go due to the fact I had no money since I didn't get to start at PRT early enough and I start on Monday which is the day I would have been coming back from Rainfest, shit just didn't work out and I am bummed. Oh well though, hopefully my buds have a good time!
Aside from lounging around with Lennea while other people are off earning dollars I have been doing some odd painting jobs for Sid so I can make a few bucks before I start work, shit is lame because the dude is a perfectionist and I definetly am not, made us sand and wash a goddam fence like 12 times, bogus.
The long weekend was pretty rad since we had some company come stay and party with us. Justen and Megan both came up from Slurrey and Grant came out from Kelowna to spend the weekend partyin with the Vernon folk. Friday night was alot of fun, went out to dinner then to D-Trax's house with a bunch of people, everyone was gettin their pre-drink on and saucy Derrek was bein saucy. After that we headed out to the club (oh yea Clayton came from Van to visit as well, he was with us) to do some dancing. I fucking suck at dancing and hate the clubs so I was out of my element and probably looked a fool but I guess it was still an enjoyable time. One the way home we got in some adventures with a dude who was on Acid and believed he was Wolverine, he got some picks with us. We also met a guy with elephantitus (however you spell it), saw cops arresting a native dude (NP), convinced some kid that Justen was an X-games gold medalist for BMX and met the hoodest white dude from Hastings that I have ever seen. NO PAPA TRAIL NIGGA! (his words not mine). Next day me, Con and Lennea had a wedding to go to which was alright, free food and drink is always a good jam. After the wedding we went to Seans place and he had a BBQ (Con is a fatty and ate burgers after eating buffet food at the wedding). Sunday we took everyone dirtbiking and that was enjoyable, Lennea rode a motocross bike for the first time and did pretty good and only came away with one bruise and a pretty savage burn.
Haven't really been doing much else since then aside from lounging, feeding ducks and playing video games. Hopefully once I get some money in my pocket I can start havin more fun and going on some trips. Sound and Fury maybe?
These blog posts always turn out longer than I think they will...I hope Rainfest is fun for my buds, bummed I couldn't be with them!

See ya
-Dan

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Haven't written on this forever...

Can't really remember what has been going on since Christmas. I know there has been lots of school in there for sure. Other stuff I can remember is:
- Cam Brown visit/sleepovers
- My bro coming to vist
- Getting Easter chocolate for Lennea, getting none from her...
- Writing lots of essays
- Drawing
- Guitar playing
- Couple shows; Gaslight Anthem, Set Foot
- Video games

...that is most of the stuff (what I can remember at least). I put it off to long so it would be to difficult to go into tons of detail about all of it but I assure you that they were all good times. Aside from writing essays and getting no Easter chocolate.

Some bigger news is that me and Lennea bought a hamster. It is very cute, fat and funny. It is a black bear hamster so it looks like a mini black bear but more hamstery...We got her a ball and all that jazz and we let her run about the place but I dunno if she actually enjoys it or is just tryin to get out of the ball. We don't have a name for the hamster yet since Lennea is weak and doesn't think of anything and veto's all the rad names I come up with, so if you have any suggestions let me know (keep in mind that it is a girl).

School is going to be wrapping up pretty quick. Out of my 5 classes this semester only 3 of them had finals and I have already written 2 of em. My stats test was ridiculous and I am in jeopardy of failing that class since I have failed pretty much everything, even though I study and haven't missed any tests or anything...shits weak. I also wrote a Sociology exam today, think I did pretty good on that since I busted my ass studyin the past couple days. My last exam is on Tuesday so I gotta start studying for that right after I finish writing this! I have to be honest though, I really don't see myself doing anything career-wise that has anything to do with what I am learning in school, it all seems kinda pointless to me. I have tried the school route the past 3 years doing Arts stuff (English, History, Sociology) and some Science shit and I really don't like any of it and can't see myself doing work in those fields for the rest of my life. I would really like to do something in Fine arts but I think it might be to late to start and I feel like I should finish my Arts degree first since I have already worked 3 years towards it! But then again if I do that I will be 24 by the time I finish (ugh) and at that age I think it would be better to start looking for a career rather than going back to Fine Arts school. FUCK I have no idea what do with my life, if you have any suggestions on what I should do in this situation LET ME KNOW!

Enough ranting, I will talk about some stuff that I am psyched on now. I am excited for summer. Not having to go to school and do assignments will be nice (although I will be singing a different tune once I am having to work 8 hours everyday all summer). It will be fun to move back to Vernon with Lennea and see all my old buds, summers there are always a good time so I am psyched for that. I am also pumped on the Nucks doing well in the playoffs hopefully they can go far! RICK RYPIEN IS A BEAST! The Red Sox season has also started and even though they got off to a weak start, last in the division in fact, I like keepin up on them and watching so I am psyched on the Bo Sox no matter how well they do.

I am gonna cut this off now since I gotta go pick Lennea up from work. I was going to post some pics like usual but I don't got time right now so I will do that in another post later this weekend. Thanks for reading and I look forward to seein all my Vernon family and friends soon!

- Dan

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Christmas Break

Haven't written on this thing in a long time. I am watching the Canucks play right now, Sundin is making his debut and its 3-1 for the good guys. Nice.

The fall semester of school has ended since I last wrote. Things went pretty good aside from getting a C- in my chemistry class, ugh. I flew back to Vernon for the Christmas break and I was super excited to get home to see the family and just chill for a few weeks and not have to worry about school and all the other responsibilities of living on my own. It was really nice being back home, having a kitchen that is fully stocked with food all the time is really nice and having the family around to cook you dinner and drive you around is the best ever. The only bad thing about being back was that I didn't get to see Lennea for 2 weeks cause she had to work and stay back in North Van.
So I got back and pretty much just hung out and did Christmas shopping for the first week or so I was there. Saw all my friends did some fun stuff, it was all a good time. After being home for about a week Christmas rolled around which was awesome. I didn't really have much I wanted for Christmas so I had a tough time whenever my parents or Lennea asked me what I wanted. I ended up getting some pretty good loot though. My parents got me an acoustic guitar, some clothes, and a bunch of other odds and ends, Connor got me Fallout 3 and a Foxtrot book which I was hyped on, Seen Chromly stepped it up and bought me the new Spiderman game for the Ps3 which I totally didn't expect and it made my gift to him (Wildlife Zoo for PC) look like a weeeeeeeeak ass gift. Ramsay got me some loot too, a Trevor Linden action figure and some flannel which I actually wore today, minters. We went out to my granny's later in the day and had some Christmas dinner which was delicious.
Next day we had the Hutchinson family over for brunch. Karen went all out and made a crazy meal for everyone and I had a good time seeing all my family. The highlight of that get together was 100% uncle Rick rocking a leather jacket, pony tail and drinking beers he was carrying around in a grocery bag. Pretty gnarly considering it was like 11 in the morning.
A couple days after Lennea came to visit. I picked her up in Kelowna and we hung out with Jess and Ramsay for a bit. Later that night we exchanged our Christmas presents. She got me lots of awesome stuff including Dead Space for ps3, The Dark Knight, Grindhouse, a new Vans wallet, and some other smaller stuff. Thanks babe! I spent the next few days hanging with her and our friends.
On New Years we went to Togo's where Steve works and hung out there for an hour or so, so Lennea and the other party animals could start to get their drink on. After that we headed up to Silver Star where ol' Davey Kurbis was having a get together at his cabin. It was really cool to get up there and see all my old friends from high school, some of which I hadn't seen in a really long time. Kaelen baked a pumpkin in the oven for everyone. Once it got close to midnight we strolled down to the village for the countdown. When the clock struck 12 everyone cheered and started hugging, Dave Burroughs was extra stoked on the new year thanks to lots of booze. A bit after midnight some beef started between one of Connor's friends and some French dudes. A big brawl broke out and lots of cops got involved and they started pepper spraying everyone. It got pretty wild. After it all got sorted out it just started right back up again and Dave ended up getting hit by a cop and so did his girlfriend Haley. A bunch of drunken tough guy-ness ensued and people were all upset because they were drunk. It was funny to laugh at. Tyler Holm also almost got beat up cause he asked for a girls number, she spat in his face and he laughed and then her boyfriend got involved and Tyler did help the matter by saying that the whole thing was really funny and just laughed in the guys face. Good times. We hung out at Dave's cabin some more and then headed home.
The rest of the break we just hung out with friends, did some bowling and relaxed. I enjoyed it very much.
I am now back in Vancouver and the weather in miserable. Pissing rain and everything is wet and cold. Shit sucks, but my classes seem like they are going to be pretty easy. I am diggin my schedule cause I got no early morning classes and I am not taking any more bogus sciences. This friday we are going to Yuk Yuk's comedy club cause it is Lennea's 22nd birthday, what a dinosaur. That should be a fun time. Canucks won by the way 4-2, nice.
Anyways thats all for now. See ya.