jstpierre

Blog This Work Yet?

2009-02-13T19:07:00.001-08:00

Blog This Work Yet?
Originally uploaded by stjoe

Walking back down along the road of Knox Mountain the other day I ran into this.

The Police were at the top of the cliff and I kind of wondered what the heck they were doing (the road is closed this time of year). Apparently someone got on the road and tumbled over the edge.

It looks a bit like a City of Kelowna truck, so it may have been workers that couldn't stop on the *very* ice road... Or it could have been someone joy riding. Either way, I hope they're okay.

Thrift Store Sweater

2009-02-11T15:06:00.000-08:00

Earlier I blogged about stopping in front of a tree with Jer to take pictures one day when we were on a hike.

Today I hiked the same trail, Okanagan Mountain Park, and found the same tree. It's a little worse for wear since the Great Fires, but it still stands.

It looks even better if you view it larger. Didn't realize Blogger did that.

When in Doubt...

2009-02-09T15:25:00.001-08:00

When in Doubt...
Originally uploaded by stjoe

I went for a long walk today. It was very steep and sketchy with all the snow and ice. When in doubt, follow the deer tracks. They know the safest way. Just keep it in the back of your mind that deer hooves have better grip than your shoes.

Flickr

2009-02-09T15:24:00.001-08:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Hard

2009-01-16T11:34:00.001-08:00

I'm finding it really difficult to get going these days. I did some work this morning, averted a crisis with the books, but after that... I can't seem to do anything. Karen has been home the last two days and when she's here I use her as motivation to get out of the house and go for a walk (as seen on my Flickr set). But today, when she's not here, I just don't know what to do with myself. And if I did, it would take me forever to get there.

Maybe I should think about setting a schedule for myself. Since becoming my own boss I haven't really had one. Sure, there are deadlines, and I have to go to work every day... But we sort of decide at what time and for how long. If you don't feel like working more than 3 hours, don't. That simple. Maybe it's catching up with me in the off season.

Lonely Hearts Road

2009-01-13T19:26:00.001-08:00

Lonely Hearts Road
Originally uploaded by stjoe

January has been black and white month. It wasn't quite the 1st when I decided that, but I haven't taken my camera out of BW mode since I made the decision.

This is probably a good time of year to do it. Everything around me is brown and dead, disgusting and unappealing, and it just feels right. Of course the beautiful white snow covers everything, but it's white also, so what's the point in the colour? Now that the snow is melting the slush has taken over, and that beautiful white snow has turned to brown mush. It's dreadful to look at.

I've been very disappointed with my pictures lately. I've voiced this to my cousin Jer... although I've tried to hold back a little. It seems my composure (yes, that's a new term I'm bringing to the world... composition and exposure) just isn't there. Or I'm just unhappy with it. Or maybe it does suck. I don't know.

Anyway, it should be interesting to switch back to colour after the month is over. It will be interesting to see if there's any difference in technique that I've grown in the month.

13 Years

2009-01-13T19:17:00.001-08:00

13 Years
Originally uploaded by stjoe

13 years ago (yesterday), Karen and I got married in our tiny apartment in New Westminster. The first years were pretty rocky, but we've seemed to settle in to a groove.

I love her with all my heart, and couldn't ask for a better person to spend my life with.

Happy Anniversary, honey.

Sigh

2009-01-12T11:31:00.000-08:00

Mantra for the day:

Quit being so damn lazy. You can call yourself a procrastinator all you want, but the simple fact remains that you're just too damn lazy. Get off your fat ass, loser.

Once Again

2009-01-10T09:26:00.000-08:00

For the umpteenth time I'm trying to quit smoking. I think it's disgusting, it will kill me, but I absolutely love it. It's my favourite thing in the entire world. What a conundrum!

The thing is... I kind of like life. Why would I continue to do something when every single cigarette makes me think about lung cancer? That's not smart.

So I continue on. I'm hoping this time it sticks. Last time it lasted 3 months and my brain convinced itself that all it needed was one. Just one, that's all... yeah, right.

2009-01-04T11:00:00.001-08:00

I remember hiking in Okanagan Mountain Park with my cousin, Jeremy, a whole bunch of years ago. He had this camera... it must have been film. No, wait, it could have been digital, but I doubt it. Anyway, Jer and I went on a couple of hikes in the park. It's a beautiful walk if it's not oven-hot out.

On the way back from where we had decided to stop as the end point, Jer pulled out this camera, before people were camera crazy (on phones, small enough to be in your back pocket, etc), and started taking pictures of tree bark. I couldn't understand why he was doing that.

Of course I had to ask, and he said that the patterns were really cool. I took another look at the tree, and yeah, sure they were neat, but neat enough to take a half a dozen pictures of?

It's interesting to me that only years later I would come to appreciate what he was doing and why he found it interesting.

2009-01-04T10:22:00.000-08:00

I remember the day that Shmuh first played Eruption for me. It was amazing. How could anyone move their fingers so fast and not have the sound just come out as noise? Both fingers flying so fast they were blurred. I was a completely ignorant as far as how a guitar was played, but to me, it was a work of magic.

I listen to old songs these days and they bring back memories like these. I would never remember them if it weren't for the songs. Why would I remember a barn(?) in Rosenort, MB? I remember under the bridge, I remember school, somewhat... It makes you wonder what wild and crazy things someone like Shmuh (Marsh) went on to do with all that magic he had in his hands.

What The???

2009-01-03T10:29:00.001-08:00

What The???
Originally uploaded by stjoe

In the tradition of uploading horrible pictures, the worst reserved of myself, here is what will too quickly become a classic.

Xmas

2008-12-29T08:53:00.001-08:00

Christmas has come and gone, and I am officially declaring it a success.

Husband and Wife

2008-03-23T07:37:00.001-07:00

Husband and Wife
Originally uploaded by stjoe

I really can't complain about the weather these days. Kelowna has finally caught up to the rest of the Southern Okanagan. The snow is gone, the clouds have finally taken flight, and I'm back to work.

Sure, it's cold in the mornings. Way below zero on most days, but by the afternoon I've had to shed most of my layers and every so often I wish I had shorts on instead of pants.

After doing some paper work yesterday (because it never ends) I was able to get out with the family for a walk around the bird sanctuary just down the street from the hospital. It must be too cold for the birds because there was a total lack of anything but ducks and gulls. More on Flickr and more coming as soon as the birds decide to return to the sanctuary (even the turtles were no where to be seen).

Tagged

2008-03-20T21:53:00.000-07:00

For Nikki and Jer... This could be painful (I haven't cleaned out my iPod in a while and tend to just add crap and compilations to see what they're like).

1. What does next year have in store for you? A: Join the Army (Live) (Suicidal Tendencies) That's not a good start.

2. What does your love life look like next year? A: Invisible Kid (Metallica) Apparently non-existant?

3. What do you say when life gets hard? A: Come As You Are (Nirvana) I guess that makes sense.

4. Song that reminds you of good times? A: Bulls on Parade (Rage Against the Machine) Most definitely! Living in Vancouver, hanging out with Mel, Andy, Jeff, Chris, and screaming these lyrics at the top of our lungs.

5. What do you think when you get up in the morning? A: Quart is in Session (NOFX) Is life like an impending judgement (Nothin' seems much fun anymore to me)?

6. What song will you dance to at your wedding? A: Jeff Wears Birkenstocks (NOFX) I have a lot of NOFX on here... I have a feeling we're not done.

7. Song that reminds you of your first kiss? A: Boring (Blink 182) It could be close. I was listening to Blink 182 shortly after Karen and I met.

8. Your favorite saying? A: Swallowed (Bush) Errrrrr...

9. Favorite place? A: Rape Me (Nirvana) That doesn't even make sense.

10. Most Missed Memory? A: Satan (Lodger) This is one album I never really listened to. It's pretty good, though. Think I'll give it another shot. Satan is my missed memory? Sure, why not?

11. What song describes your best friend? A: Pledge Your Allegiance (Suicidal Tendencies) Apparently I require a lot out of a best friend.

12. What song describes your ex? A: 3-Minute Rule (Beastie Boys) HAHA! I don't even know how to take that.

13. Where would you go on a first date? A: Adelleda (Alexis on Fire) Is that a real place?

14. Drug of choice? A: Rogues (Incubus) I disliked "Light Grenades" a whole bunch and need to take this off, but not until I'm done snorting my Rogues.

15. What song describes you? A: Screwdriver (The White Stripes) Philips or Robertson? I dunno.

16. What is the thing you like doing most? A: Freedom (Rage Against the Machine) Maybe that means 'nothing' - I truly enjoy that.

17. The song that best describes the president? A: Stay Together for the Kids (Blink 182) President or Prime Minister? Because if it's President then maybe this means everyone's trying not to lose their mind when they have to hear the stupidity that is their president.

18. Where will you be in 10 years? A: Reptile (Nine Inch Nails) The seedy underbelly of humanity?

19. Your love life right now? A: Friday Night (Lily Allen) Does that imply once a week? Ha! I'm married.

20. What is your state of mind like at the moment? A: Triple Trouble (Beastie Boys) That can't be good either.

21. How will you die? A: Fuck Tha Police (N.W.A.) No, seriously, that was what came up when I hit next... I may be in trouble.

Civic Went Bye-Bye

2008-03-05T06:38:00.001-08:00

Civic Went Bye-Bye
Originally uploaded by stjoe

After nearly 4 years with our first ever brand new car, we decided to give it up and get an Element.

Our lease was nearly up and it was time to decide whether we were going to buy it out, give it back, or sell it privately. We decided on just giving it back (though it was worth more than we owed, so we got some money back). It was a great car and served us well, but as our kids get bigger we need more and more room, and we just couldn't justify buying out the Civic and being cramped for more years.

Karen decided a couple of weeks ago to stop her business and come and work for me and Les instead, so starting in the beginning of April she'll be our go to girl, or our maintenance person, or whatever. And Les and I have been driving the 3/4 ton Dodge with the V10 for the last year, which is horribly bad for the environment and the bank account when you use it to run around all day...

So instead of just buying one Element, we went ahead and bought two. It's hard to swallow those initial costs, but it was the smart thing to do. We'll be plastering the business name all over them (hopefully it won't look ridiculous) so I'll get a picture up of both of them once that's happened.

Skiing

2008-03-02T22:40:00.001-08:00

Skiing
Originally uploaded by stjoe

We had a great time with the kids up at Big White this last Saturday. People in Motion, an adaptive skiing program, holds this event once a year and we were able to go up and have Kai (and Evan) try out the equipment. They had a blast and Karen and I froze our butts off while watching.

We had a chance to go for a sleigh ride and do some tubing as well, you can see all of the photos on my Flickr page. Definitely something I'm looking forward to for next year.

I Dream of Golf

2008-02-12T08:14:00.001-08:00

I Dream of Golf
Originally uploaded by stjoe

It can't melt fast enough :( It rained yesterday for quite a while, but there's still a few inches on the South side of the house and 8 or more inches on the North side.

Last year we had 10 weeks of snow and I thought that was crazy. I think we've surpassed that now. This winter seems to be dragging on.

I believe I have pictures of us golfing on Feb.23/07. Feb. 23rd! That's less than 2 weeks away. It better get real warm between now and then.

IE and Firefox... That Battle Continues

2008-02-06T13:40:00.000-08:00

I've spent the last few days working on a couple of websites for Dean's business and Karen's business. It's tough, since I haven't really done any sort of coding in a long time, and downloading the trial version of Dreamweaver means there also a very large learning curve, but it's been... something.

What I don't understand is why Mozilla and Microsoft can't stick to some standards. If there's a sidebar with a table in it and I want the top of that to match the height of the main column, and in Dreamweaver it does, then why when I open it in Internet Explorer does it not match up? And in Firefox it does... It's a huge pain in my ass. Does there have to be IE specific code for everything? I still haven't figured out that problem and it's only one of many.

There are standards out there, just make your product stick to them. Sheesh.

Lapse

2008-02-05T08:57:00.000-08:00

After a brief 3+ month lapse, I thought maybe I'd finally update this thing.

I had an extremely busy fall. It is crazy how much work you have to do when you own your own business. I finished work near the beginning of December, yet still didn't write anything.

I'm guessing that spending every free moment on Drawball.com didn't help the creative writing process. That's pretty much over now... I'm just not feeling it. Instead I've been taking a babillion pictures. Flickr has been updated more often, and I've turned jasonstpierre.com into a photoblog. I wanted to put my favourites up there, just to have a place where others, as well as myself, could view the better ones of the babillion. When I was getting my theme in place and configuring everything, though, I didn't realize that there are very few that I absolutely love. I suppose everyone is their own worst critic.

Highlights of the last 3 months and a bit? Not really. :P That's silly. There must've been something.

Christmas - good.
Time off - meh... bored (the fact that I'm not making any money is driving me nuts for the first time in my life).
Karen and Kai and Evan - good.
Lack of golf - bad.
New Plasma TV - good.

I can't think of anything. Isn't that sad? Pathetic, almost.

Moved?

2007-08-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

I decided to have www.jasonstpierre.com go to it's own site instead of forward to this blog. I don't know if I'll post there, or here, but I'll let you know when I do.

Predator Ridge 2007

2007-08-26T13:02:00.001-07:00

Predator Ridge 2007, originally uploaded by stjoe.

I took a lot of pictures at Predator. I won't bore you with them, if you want you can go to my Flickr and check them out.

I will say that Predator is absolutely the hardest golf course I have played, and probably ever will.

Next year I think we're going to go somewhere in the Eastern Kootneys and try something different. 2 nights and 2 games, also, was not enough, so we'll have to go for a little longer next time.

New Music

2007-08-26T10:47:00.000-07:00

Recommending music is even harder than recommending food. At least with food you can like it a little, or even tolerate it, but with music it seems that when someone recommends something, I either hate it or love it. There's no happy medium.

I was talking with Dean yesterday about new music. Where is the *good* new music? His conclusion? There is none. It's all crap. I have to admit that the only new-ish band that I've been able to tolerate is Fallout Boy. I don't like to admit it, but it's about the only thing I can listen to that's been released in the last while.

So even though it's stupid to ask, I must anyway... Know of any good new music that I might like? It's gotta be fast, hard, loud, and all of that other stuff. Something like NOFX, System of a Down, Suicidal Tendencies, old Metallica and Megadeth, or even Anthrax. The only thing that came close was Chevelle, but that was just too Top 40 for me.

Or it's gotta be something like Lily Allen's album, which I listened to over and over again and thought was brilliant. Jer's recommendation of the new Tegan & Sara was good, but that album sucks. I wish they wouldn't have tried to make another So Jealous.

What a difficult question to ask. Am I just stuck in the late 80's Metal scene? No, because even the Rap that I listen to from this year sucks. Rap music was so much better even 5 years ago. Where did Eminem go? TuPac (wasn't ever a big fan, but he was good)? Biggie? Mase (His last album sucked)? <sigh>

New Camera?

2007-08-25T21:26:00.001-07:00

If anybody can spare an extra $5,000 or so, I'd love to try this out:

http://www.nikon.ca/en/Product.aspx?m=17009

AF-S DX 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 G IF-ED

2007-08-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

I bought another lens today. The Nikkor 18-135mm. The kit 18-55 is okay (not really), and the 55-200 that I bought a while back is great. The only problem is that I have to carry both around, even at work, to get the shots I want.

The kit lens is fairly wide but has no zoom to speak of, and the 200 has a good zoom, but doesn't get those wide shots I need. So, I had to get something that went wide but could still zoom. I think the lens I want would be a 30 to 600. Do they make that lens? ;) Probably not.

This is what I had to settle for: