theMediaman.com

Closing in on my two week vacation, and it won’t come a second too soon. There’s just not a lot of motivation right now. Some of that is uncontrollable, like how it’s the slow time of the year for our business. However, some of it could have been preventable, but until my six-month review tomorrow, I can’t really go into more detail than that.

I’m trying not to get down, since my life really isn’t that poor off right now. But there’s just been a lot to swallow all at once… within a few weeks, really. I know I’m supposed to ‘lighten up’. It’s really difficult when there are several instances of “life moving on” around me, while my job description is pretty much the same as it was five years ago, I’m living in a basement apartment and owe more to the banks than “five out of six plus bonus” Lotto 6/49 numbers could save me from.

After the meeting tomorrow, I should have a better idea what I mean to LW. Until then I’ve got to clean up old SCSI hardware and MPEG-1 decoder cards from the server room.

Whoopie!
 

After my last post, John says I should ‘lighten up’. Taking that advice, I won’t address the rather negative status of the digital camera Livewire was going to buy. I’m not in a good place right now.

Rebecca’s wedding was really nice. There were some rather long gaps between the service, dinner and dancing, but altogether I was really glad I went. Pete and Rita joined Simone and I. The service and reception were at a Bed and Breakfast near Erin, Ontario. Simone was a little upset that she was surrounded by plants and couldn’t go outside because of the rain and swarms of mosquitoes. We also spotted a lightning bug on our way out, but it was sitting on the ground… nothing so spectacular as you would expect from seeing them portrayed in movies.

It was certainly more of “my friend, Rebecca’s wedding” rather than “my ex-girlfriend, Rebecca’s wedding”. Even still, it’s was a little weird to see someone I once cared about so deeply run off with the man of her dreams! Ian’s an extremely friendly guy, charisma++, and I like him. While it never got ‘too weird’, if I had to pick the strangest moment, I’d have to say the First Dance. Not at all because of the fact that it WAS the First Dance, but because the song was “Storybook Love” from The Princess Bride. Cheesy song, I know, but most moments in our lives have some song or songs that become our own theme, and that was mine during high school.

Okay, back to being a goof.

Only got another two weeks until I’m on vacation. Even though I’ve got two weeks off, I’ll be doing grunt work for my parents. Originally, the major To Do on my list was reshingling the boat house. Now that my parents have to move out August 31st, my list has gotten much longer.

How cruel. First they sell my childhood home, then they have me do the dirty work!

Elsewhere, two-thirds of Britons believe that the London bombings were in retribution to England’s participation in the Iraq War. Meanwhile, almost the same percentage of Americans still believe that Iraq had WMDs, even though their own government has confirmed that there were none.

North of the 49th, Steven Harper (purposely misspelled to differentiate him from me) is telling everyone that he would have gone to war against Iraq with the US…

…ignoring for a moment the fact that more than half of Canadians were against the war, doesn’t this seem to be coming a little late? I think he’s just still spitting mad that Belinda crossed the floor.

Rather confusing entry to start, so I’ll open with a joke… or at least a humourous observation.

I’ve really started to get a lot of compliments about my newly-sported, bare face. Allegedly, I’m more ‘hit-on-able’. Some of that may also be attributable to my sweet tan I’ve earned from full days outside at Live 8 and Canada’s Wonderland. Of course, Simone’s the one who gets the final word, come August 31

More big news. My first crush, first love and long time friend, Rebecca, is getting married this weekend. Just found out yesterday… apparently Paul’s known for months.

On the flip-side, two friends of mine I consider very close are getting seperated.

Compounded with my parents selling the house I grew up in, I feel like I’m experiencing a lot of the ‘Adulthood’ that I’ve successfully avoided for so many years. Living in a basement apartment, driving an economy coupe, and dating a girl almost 6 years my junior has helped to extend my “early twenties” lifestyle. With seven months to go until my 30th birthday, I feel like someone (”up there”?) has decided, “Okay, Stephen. No more innocence nor blissful ignorance for you. Time to be a ‘grown-up’.”

I’m also starting payments into RRSPs this month.

Taking a step back for a moment, things are unfolding in this post as far more dramatic than they really are. I’m not bowled over by the news (x2) I received last night. That might be because I’m already in the middle of dealing with the transition in losing the last tie to my hometown. Maybe it’s because I’ve already dealt with the “Former Love Getting Married” when Ruth did it - especially because I behaved so much like a drama queen after getting that news.

Still, I feel that I should be getting something out of all this happening at once. Like watching a George Romero film, there’s an underlying subtext with a straight-forward moral using zombies as a metaphor for society.

Well, maybe not exactly like a George Romero film.

These are Grown-up issues that need Grown-up resolutions. Before yesterday, the only real shocking split in my life would have been Mike McAlpine’s parents. I was close to his family while they were living in Barrie, and still felt connected after they moved to the US. They weren’t part of my generation, as this most recent seperation is, so I doubt that I should even compare the impact of the two.

I’m not the only one who’s entering Adulthood late, either. A study released yesterday found that almost half of first-time Canadian mothers are over 30. In Ontario, that number has been over half for six years.

Of course there’s the usual reasons cited: people want more financial stability, collecting a few ‘creature comforts’, completing education and employment security. I think what gets forgotten is that everyone just wants to live in Never Neverland a little longer.

I’ve spent the last four years around Simone and her friends, and watched as they passed into their twenties, through the half-way point, and even get established in a job, but still live with Mom and Dad. This has boggled me every time I set my mind to understand why. Simone herself lived at home until she was almost 23. I wasn’t desperate to gain my independence by going away to school, and I certainly don’t complain about my parents as much as Simone and most of her friends do. But I wanted to try out life on my own, without the daily safety-net of coming home to a cooked dinner.

Now here I am, dealing with events normally attributed to Adulthood, and without the benefit of blaming it on “The Big Three-Oh”. That’s another seven months away.

Perhaps this will simply be the prologue to turning 30. After all, “30″ seems a lot more real to me today than it was even when I started thinking about it during my last birthday. There’s a lot more interest to pull in the loose threads in my life… the stuff I’ve let go for so long, like dealing with my overdrafted VISA, only now starting to save in an RRSP, and thinking about a house.

Suddenly, there’s a lot more to this “Independence” thing that I once wanted so decisively. Specifically, having to deal with Adult events… like old girlfriends getting married, old married friends seperating, and the drop of a safety net I haven’t used for years, but always felt better knowing was there.

It’s a lot to take in, but I know I’m ready for it. I don’t feel the need to regress, sprinkle some fairy dust and fly to the “second star to the right” (which, as someone interested in Astronomy, always confused me).

But just don’t expect me to grow up, just because I’m an Adult now.
 

Quick note - I bought an All-in-Wonder in 1996 and ran it on a Pentium 166 with 64 MB of RAM and 3 GB of hard drive space. It worked beautifully. The software for my new All-in-Wonder 9600XT runs on a computer 10x faster, 8x more RAM, and 50x more hard drive space, but takes forever and a day run, change channels, or record video. When I tried to upgrade the software, the old version uninstall eff’ed up and now I can’t get it to run at all.

Gonna have to take this up with ATIGina when I see her next!

Simone and I did indeed attend the Live 8 concert in Barrie on Saturday. We arrived after Tom Cochrane and Sam Roberts took the stage and Bryan Adams was just starting. We found a pretty good spot off to one side and about 1/3 of the way back from the stage. Tom Cochrane opened, but we could hear “Life is a Highway” from the lineup into the park. I really don’t think I could name another one of his songs, so being there would be lost on me anyways.

Sam Roberts was up next. His music is okay, but I still haven’t forgiven him for his display of schoolyard wit during “The Greatest Canadian” CBC special.

Bryan Adams did one or two songs, then the screen went to Philidelphia where Wil Smith gave his speech. The whole day was filled with 15-minute sets, interspersed with guilt-ads and live feed from other venues that were performing at the same time.

Awesome to see, Pink Floyd.

Unnecessary, Mariah Carey.

Much of the rest of the day was a blur, as we went through artists like Simple Plan, Jann Arden, and Tegan and Sara, as well as groups whose music I might actually be interested in.

I was pretty excited to see Barenaked Ladies, Jet, The Tragically Hip (featuring Dan Ackroyd) and even Our Lady Peace. There were a couple of bands I’m glad I got to see, mostly because I’d never pay the fifty bucks for concert tickets, but are worth seeing once live. That group includes Motley Crue, DMC, The Bachman Cummings Band, Blue Rodeo (altho’ their tix are usually pretty cheap), Great Big Sea (ditto) and even Deep Purple, who were even more entertaining than Motley Crue.

While it’s not my music, I was also filled with Canadian pride for the opportunity to see Bruce Cockburn and Gordon Lightfoot perform.

There was a French New Rock band named “Les Trois Accords” that were pretty good. The lead singer looked a bit like the guy who plays Pippen in LotR. The only problem with their stage presence was that all guys with guitars were doing “Power Stances”. You can’t have more than one “coolest” guitar player. Draw straws, flip a coin, or just take turns. Note that U2 has “The Edge” while the other two guys are just named “Adam” and “Larry”. Their sound wasn’t the freshest thing out there, but it was better than most crap on the charts today. If I could understand anything they were saying (they really ARE a French band) then I might buy their album… altho’ that didn’t stop me from buying Static X.

Lamest moment, Great Big Sea leaving the stage after only two songs.

Funniest moment, immediately afterwards when Dan Ackroyd and Tom Green introduced Celine Dion to 35,000 ‘boo’s.

Celine’s live feed from Las Vegas started off looking like a joke, as she was using jerky, “chest-thumping” over exageration in all of her movements during her speech at the beginning. At first I honestly thought she was making fun of herself in an Air Farce/Luba Goy sort of way… I quickly realized that she really was that over-the-top. What a weirdo.

There were a couple of African-style musicians there, which was interesting to witness, but again, World Music has never held much interest for an unsophisticated music lover like me.

Before Niel Young closed the night, Tom Green - upon prodding from the audience - said “Check The O.R.” referencing his hit single he released with Organized Rhyme. Roars from the educated of the crowd (myself included), but by no means from everyone. A fun little inside-joke that I was able to be a part of.

We saw the live broadcast from London High Park of Sir Paul McCartney’s “Hey Jude” (Hey, surprise!) before Neil Young came on and finished off the Canadian show with “Keep On Rockin’ In The Free World” ten-minute rendition. Finally, we all sung
“Oh! Canada”.

Simone and I walked to the Sushi restaurant about 15 minutes away. From there we walked all the way back home. One hell of a long walk, but I got to show her a number of landmarks and attach a few memory Post-its to them. I’m glad I got the chance, because it’ll probably be the last one before my last tie to Barrie is severed at the end of August.