It's My Life

MY WEST COAST EXPERIENCE

This past weekend I went to the west coast, and finally to Long Beach. And boy what a sight. I was also amazed at just how different Ucluelet and Tofino are, for two towns only about 30 km apart.
Although both towns are equal in size with about 2000 people each, Ucluelet has less visitors and more poverty. Tofino is the little tourist town, in which visitors from all over come to surf of course.
Speaking of surfing, there was no way I went to Long Beach and didn't surf. Come on now, you people know me better than that. I did go surfing, and lets just say I had fun. I wasn't brutal, but not great either. Me and Nigel my brother went for a lesson and then a surf. I had the balance and a few good runs at it. The waves are much better than the ones I remember from Mexico when I was there. Apparently the waves are unbelievable in December. It's probably very cold too though, but exhilarating I'm sure. I'd give it a go. It would be a fun road trip.

Instructor: If you've moved away from the shore a bit and are concerned, don't worry, the tide will bring you back in. You won't end up in Japan or anything.

Me and my brother had a good laugh from that little comment. It's obvious that the tide moves in, and that a person would have to go very deep before the tide wouldn't bring them into shore.
This weather has been awesome. My parents, brother and I went to Sproat Lake yesterday, my parents stayed the night, and we all went swimming during the day. It's a great lake nearby, and when the weather reaches 30 degrees the water is tough to avoid.

I'm going to be different, and not do the 100 things about me. If people want to know more about me, just ask. Anyways, I might do my own feature down the road anyways.

MY FIRST MAFIA EXPERIENCE

Last night I experienced the game of "Mafia" and I have to say that it's a cool game. If I can remember all the rules we have to play this game in the Fall during college. Okay Meghan, Melissa, Mike, Shaun and anyone else reading this who will be in Kamloops come September? Are you reading this? I'll briefly desribe the game right now.
To put it simply, although it is fairly complicated before getting a hang of it, you have a group of people, and within that group there is the Mafia, Townspeople, an angel and a cop. The mafia is the minority group and are trying to take over the town, the townspeople are trying to save the town, while the cop has the power to kill members of the mafia and the angel can bring whoever the mafia kills back to life, if in fact he/she manages to guess the right person. That's right you have to guess, and you never really know in this game that's the thing. You just have to base your decisions on evidence.
The game is started when the team names are placed in a hat, there is a host of the game by the way who makes sure nobody cheats and supervises, ect. The host carries the hat around the circle, each person picks a paper out of the hat, which will read "Townsperson", "Mafia", "Cop" or "Angel". Nobody can say who they belong to or else they lose. People then close their eyes and only members of the mafia open their eyes to figure out whos on their team. Only the mafia knows whos on their team the whole game and must protect their true identity throughout the game, because the majority(townspeople) will vote out a mafia person once the identity of who the person belongs to is revealed.
Then the eyes are closed again, and only the cop opens his/her eyes, and after that it's likewise with the angel. Then everybody opens their eyes. After that the first round begins and everybody goes in a circle saying their name and a profession, trying not to make it obvious that you might be a mafia member and looking out for the towns health. I was Ed the engineer once, and then Leonardo the artist. Other people went as a teacher, a butcher, librarian, foot doctor, veterinarian, stuff like that.
After everybody goes in the circle the questions can continue to take place until somebody gets the ball rolling by accusing somebody as being mafia, and if a majority supports that decision, which will be determined by the number of hands raised, then the vote stands, and after the person is officially voted off, he/she says who he/she truly is. It's like "Survivor" in this sense. After that the mafia can open their eyes again when everyone else's is closed, and they chose somebody to kill, by basis of hand and eye signals since any noise will be heard by everyone else. Remember, they aren't leaving the circle, they just have their eyes closed. After that everyone except the angel closes their eyes. Then the angel can save that person, and give him/her the life back if he/she choses the right person. The cop has the power to kill a mafia person if he/she choses the right one, or something like that. There's a few details I don't fully understand but I plan to get rules to this game straight before I go back to school, and we'll have a game. It is really a cool game, but it involves the total cooperation of everybody involved. I ended up losing the first game as a townsperson, but then won as a member of the mafia. In a sense, if the mafia can protect their identity well, they may have a somewhat edge because they know who's on their team. And depending on the numbers, the mafia is usually one or two people shorter than the townspeople I think. This is how the game went last night:

Total people = 10
host = 1
townspeople = 4
mafia = 3
angel = 1
cop = 1

We were real cop haters, we killed the cop right off the bat both times. Lets just say there wasn't much a criminal justice system in our town.
Anyhow, another thing is that if it's even (ie 3 mafia to 3 towns) the mafia wins. So the game can be real quick or real long. Last night the games went sort of quick, but it's a good game that way. It doesn't last too long usually, so if you're voted off right away you can get the ball rolling with another game right away. Games usually don't go right down to the wire, although they can. Wow, that really wasn't a brief explanation, ah well.

Anyways, my friend Luke Mayba introduced the game to me. He works at the McLean Mill in town here as a member of the Tin Pants Theatre, no their pants aren't made of tin, but they are a theatre group which performs at the mill site all summer long, it's pretty cool. Anyhow, he lives out at Sproat Lake, a lake close to town and had a BBQ last night, that's when I learned the game. It was interesting.

Anyhow, not much outside of the world of "MAFIA", just been working and keeping busy with tennis when I get the chance. My parents get down here on Friday and we're going camping to Ucluelet for the weekend.

DOWN TO MY FINAL MONTH OF WORK

As I'm into my final month of work here at the AV Times (last day = Aug 15), and final month and a half before school begins, I can't help but feel like I've missed out a bit, only because of some of the major holidays some people are on, and some will be on, this summer. My sister, for one, is in Europe for another month yet having a great time and exploring France right now, and has been around England, Scotland and Italy also since she first got there in early June. My friend Kendall, a CH News broadcast journalist working at the Port Alberni bureau is in Spain running with the bulls right now, which certainly sounds really exciting to me. I just hope he makes it out of the hurd okay. And then there's Nick, who will be going to Merritt to spend 6 days straight getting plastered, staring at gorgeous chicks, camping, and listening to country music under what I'm sure will be sunny skies during the Merritt Mountain Music Festival.
However, although I'll admit I haven't went on any trip overseas, and I'm not going to a five-day music festival and camping with my friends, I have gotten to experience some cool things on the island, and have met cool people doing so.

Today, I went to the McLean Mill Historic Site, a tourism site in which an old sawmill is located, a steam train which comes from the downtown Train station, and some log houses with some interesting historical displays, and old forestry tools. All in all, it's a really cool site, and I really appreciate preserving our history in such a way this historical site has. After all, history is what made Canada what it is today, and it's important we understand history.
At the site this weekend was Forest Fest, an annual event in which there's various entertainment, exhibits, sawmill demonstrations, music and food out at the mill. It's a day to celebrate the history of forestry in PA, and the history of that mill. It was pretty cool, with close to 1000 visitors over the weekend.

Port Alberni Mayor Ken McRae: Let's go find you a girlfriend.
Me: It's okay Ken. I think I can find one myself.

The mayor of this town is so friendly and laid back. He seems so calm over everything that occurs even with the loss of jobs, and economic downturn that has occured in PA, and across BC. I appreciate that though, because if he starts panicing, so do the citizens of this town, so he's looking after them too, which of course is his job.
As far as the girlfriend comment, he said that this weekend while I was at the mill site. As a mayor, it's expected he attends these major events to show the city's support, so therefore, he was there all weekend. Anyhow, the comment was good for a laugh. Somehow I don't think the help of a mayor who's about 70 will help me find a girlfriend, however most people do know him, and I'm sure would talk to him and pay their respects to the mayor. But I just don't see it happening. I think I'll survive, although if the mayor does find me a hottie, I can't say I'd turn her down.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGHAN!

There, I left you a message, I left you a blog, how do you like them apples? Anyhow, have a good number 23 and there couldn't be a cooler, sweeter person to share my sisters birthdate. I'm not just saying that either. You're an awesome friend, and I'm just looking forward to reading your next blogger about your big day! Remember Smithers kicks ass! that town rules! I'm moving there, it's got it all! Have a great, spectacular, tremendous, incredible, unbelievable, awesome, marvelous, superb day!