Everything's Coming Up Milhouse!

   You know when life just isn't going your way and it leaves you feeling rather uninspired? Well that's what's been happening in my world and it's the reason I haven't posted anything lately. I won't get into any details, but my current state of unemployment has motivated me to make some changes in my life. It's time to leave the trades.

   I've spent the last few months exploring several different options and so far none have panned out. Federal budget cutbacks have eliminated certain programs that were offered by local schools, so I've had to change my plans more than once. It's an exercise in frustration to say the least.

   Then, recently, it occurred to me that I should try to capitalize on the skills I already have and build on them to drive myself towards a career in marketing, specifically advertising. To those who don't know me very well this could seem like it's out of left field, especially since I've spent the last five years working in the trades as a commercial painter, but to those close to me it shouldn't be much of a surprise. I've always had a creative and artistic side to me and I've always wanted to find a way to use those strengths in fun and exciting ways. I love to write, make music, dabble in photography, and even make videos for YouTube. I've got a solid customer service background and I have great communication skills. Did you know that I even have a little experience producing radio commercials? It was a part time job I had back in the late 90's.

   I know that it's not going to be easy and that I'm definitely going to need some formal training. Advertising companies won't just hire any random bloke off the street. In preparation for this, I've contacted several of the local marketing and advertising companies and asked for general information, advice really, on how I can go about breaking into the field. One of them has actually replied and offered to meet with me next month to give me some advice. That was pretty quick considering I sent them an email yesterday!

   I've also taken the first steps in college enrollment for a marketing course that I hope to get into this fall by submitting my application earlier today. I still have to work out funding, but one step at a time. At least I've gotten myself going in the right direction and I'm happy about that.

   My day got even better. Once I was finished with all that work on the computer this morning, I went for a walk around the lake near my home. On one side of the lake is a small boardwalk that extends out over the water and is a great place to watch the birds. Today was a good day for that! I happened to come upon a mother duck and her ducklings and I watched dozens of little tree and barn swallows fly around the lake like feathered fighter jets. Those swallows are probably my favorite of the small birds and it was such a treat to see so many of them fly so close to me. They're curious little birds and a few of them even landed on the rail in front of me to say hi before taking off again to chase whatever tiny bugs they can catch. Too bad I wasn't quick enough to get a photo with my smart phone.

   Finally, after I returned from my walk, I got a phone call from a pizza place that we usually order from, but haven't in quite some time. The girl said that because it's been a while she would apply a five dollar credit to our account. I guess it's an incentive to order pizza again, but with limited income these days it might still be a while. I wonder how long I'd have to wait until they offer me a free pizza...

   So, while things may not have been so great in my life lately, good days like today just make me feel like everything's coming up Milhouse!

(c) Matt Groening / Fox

The Wandering Oak

Your Other Left

   Life is full of those funny little moments of unintentional humor. Here's one from today:

   I was a little bored this afternoon so I decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood. Along the way I stopped in at my local Tim Hortons to pick up a large double double. I go with the large, because a medium (formerly large) is just far too sweet. Anyway, after I paid for the coffee, the guy behind the counter gave me my change and said: "Thanks, that will be on your left."

   But he pointed to my right.

   I just smiled and after a second politely replied: "My right, your left."

   The guy took a second to recall what he said and laughed. "Yeah, your other left."

   The girl standing beside him nearly dropped my coffee when she heard this.

   I guess you had to be there, but it was the funniest moment of my day so far.

The Wandering Oak

Small Scale, Big Project: Chronicling The Building Of My 1:700 Scale RMS Titanic

   In 2010 a good friend of mine gave me a scale model kit of the famously ill-fated ocean liner RMS Titanic as a housewarming gift. His idea for this gift stemmed from a conversation we had long before I moved in which I mentioned that a ship would look nice in the den. I told him I used to build models as a kid, but back then it was aircraft and space ships that I'd slap together in a day and ruin the next day.

   To some it may be a surprise that I never tried building actual ships when I've always had a love of all things nautical. The truth is I could never find any good ones that I could afford, and back then I was more into planes and science fiction so I bought cheap models that I could destroy and not worry about. And then I got into my teenage years and discovered girls and guitars and rock music, and that girls like guys that can play rock music on their guitars, so my model building days were over.

   I didn't even consider model building again until I met both my friend and my step father in law, who are both avid builders and have impressive collections. Even then I held off on the idea until I knew I would have the space to build ships and a place to display them. Once I knew that my soon to be new home would have a den that would become my "man cave" that's when I knew I could start building ships.

   I was very happy to receive the RMS Titanic kit and can't thank my friend enough. The kit is well made and at 1:700th scale is small, but still detailed enough to give a pretty accurate representation of the ship. It's not something that can be slapped together in a day, but thankfully I'm older and more patient these days so I didn't mind taking my time. I just had to wait until later in 2010 when my work as a painter slowed down enough to give me the time to work on the ship.

   At the time that I started building the model, I got the idea to take pictures of my progress so that I could present the build as a slide show video for my friends and family. Building the ship took me three months, but it's taken me almost 14 months to create the video. I gave up and re-started twice and was about to give up again, but then something clicked and it all came together nicely.

   The timing for this couldn't be better as we've almost reached 100 years to the day since that fateful evening when the real ship struck an iceberg, broke up, and slipped beneath the frigid waters of the North Atlantic taking 1500 souls with her. And even though a century has passed, the ship and her tragic story are still very popular today.

   I present my video as a tribute to the majestic old ship and the lives she took with her, and as a sort of thank you to the friend who gave me the kit and re-sparked an old favorite hobby of mine. Since building RMS Titanic, I've nearly completed a modern US Navy destroyer (no video for that one, but you'll see photos soon) and I have a third ship in waiting. I'll tell you more about that ship another time.

And so, without further ado, I present: Building R.M.S. Titanic In 1:700th Scale.

The Wandering Oak

For Lorene

   Today is a sad day among my circle of blogging friends. Sometime yesterday we lost one of our own. Lorene was a beautiful woman with three terrific kids and I can only imagine what her mother and family are going through tonight. At the time I'm writing this I don't know any details, but I do know that she will be missed by so many people.

   I never met Lorene in person, but I knew her well enough to call her a good friend. We "met" several years ago through an online community of like minded bloggers back when many of us were using the now defunct MSN Spaces platform. Her upbeat and funny posts had a way of touching us all and my best memories of her will be the little videos she made dancing to Britney Spears with her kids.

   We became friends on Facebook, and I'm sure a few holiday and birthday cards went back and forth over the years. She once told me that the relationship I have with my wife was an inspiration to her and I really think that's one of the highest compliments I've ever received.

   I really wish I could say more, but I'm still feeling a little stunned by the sudden loss. I just hope that wherever Lorene is now, she's still dancing.

The Wandering Oak

Sentimiento de Nostalgia (Feeling Nostalgic)

   There has been some strange weather in Victoria today. We went from sunny skies to snow then back to sun, then hail, then sun again, and now it's a little cloudy. It's also a little cold outside today, and it has me feeling nostalgic for Mexico. My wife and I were in Puerto Vallarta this time last year.

   We had a lot of fun, made some friends, and experienced so many new things. Even when it rained it was still very comfortable. I'd go back again in a heart beat.

All photos taken by me except for the humpback whales and the sunset. My wife took those ones.
Adios!

The Wandering Oak

How I Spent My 35th Birthday

   Yesterday, Feb. 8th, was my 35th Birthday. Normally I'd mark the anniversary of my birth by writing out a rambling blog about what I've done or learned in the past year and how I feel about getting older, but not this year. This year I decided to just get out of the house and go for a walk along Victoria's waterfront, specifically the Dallas Road and Ogden Point area. It's been a while since I've been down there, and you know, I didn't even care that it rained.

   My old compact camera doesn't take photos as well as today's fancy cameras, but I did get a few nice shots along my walk that I'd like to share with you. I'll write brief descriptions below each image.

The view from Dallas Road looking roughly South by Southeast. Contrast and brightness have been edited. The ship on the horizon is one of Canada's Kingston class coastal defense ships, likely crewed by Naval Reserve officers and eager young cadets, on a routine training cruise. Any given day there could be several of these little ships out there. It's fun to watch them do rescue drills and play hide-and-seek with submarines.

A wider view looking Southeast from Dallas Rd. That little ship is now just a dot on  the horizon.

The Ogden Point Breakwater.

The lighthouse at the end of the breakwater.

This is the MV Dry Beam. She limped into Victoria this past weekend after suffering damage from a rogue wave on her port (left) side while on her way to Asia.

A closer look at the ship's damaged port side. Note the bent vertical support beams and shifted load of logs. The news report said the ship was in the open Pacific just outside of Vancouver Island and that the wave was 10 to 15 meters tall. Basically Mother Nature just bitch-slapped this ship and there was nothing the crew could do the prevent it. Fortunately nobody was hurt. The huge, black white and red Seaspan cranes towering over the ship's grey cranes are on a barge docked next to the ship and are in the process of transferring the logs off the ship.

Just as I was about to leave Ogden Point, this rainbow appeared over the harbour. What a nice way to end my walk!

And that was how I spent my 35th Birthday.

The Wandering Oak

Seven Years Later, I'm Still Blogging

   Seven years ago today I stepped into the blossoming world of blogging. I always like to mark this anniversary because it was through blogging that I got to know and become friends with so many wonderful people.

   The title of my first blog page was Inland Shipwreck, an oxymoron of a name that I came up with while living in the middle of Alberta at the time, and it was hosted by the now defunct MSN Spaces. At the time, almost everybody was using that service because it was so easy to access through one's MSN Messenger account.

   I published my first post on Feb. 1, 2005 and it took a few weeks before I started to notice any traffic in my visitor stats. Of course I forgot to set my page to public at first, so once I changed that then I started to see the occasional comment on my posts. I think everyone can agree that it feels nice to see comments on your material. It's like: "Yay! People want to share their thoughts on something I wrote!"

   Slowly at first I developed a small following of regular readers, and in good karma I would read their blogs and leave comments. As time went on, my regular group of readers expanded and it soon became a daily ritual for all of us to surf to each other`s pages and leave comments. I think it became an addiction for many of us. At the time there were so many users on Spaces that it was far too difficult to follow every new blogger out there, so eventually my friends and I just started to stay within our little circle. It was like a friendly community of like-minded bloggers and it really was the Golden era. We even had a name for our little group: Spaces Boulevard.

   I made so many friends through that blog of mine, and I don't just mean cyber friends. In many cases a lot of us got to know each other outside of Spaces, exchanging emails, instant messages, text messages, phone calls, exchanging holiday and birthday cards, and even meeting in person. I can't imagine my life without some of those people. You know who you are.

   And then Facebook came along. The bubble burst. Suddenly one could write notes directly on Facebook, and easily share photos, so there was no longer a need for a blogging page. All of my blogging friends migrated over to Facebook and I went with them. Suddenly we were all able to share so much more with each other and that became the new addiction. It wasn't long after that Spaces eventually folded and was swallowed up by, what was it? Wordpress? I admit that it kind of sucks that all the work I put into that page is now lost in cyberspace, but at least I kept my friends.

   Then, about three years ago, a few of us caught the blogging bug again. The constantly changing Facebook made it a hassle to post neatly formatted blogs, and, speaking for myself, I wanted something a little more formal. That's when I learned about Blogger. By that time I had moved back to my home on BC's West Coast, so the name Inland Shipwreck no longer applied (though I kept it as an email address). After humming and hawing for a while over a name, a light bulb came on and The Wandering Oak became my new moniker.

   The rest, as they say, is history.

Memories from my Inland Shipwreck days.

The Wandering Oak