Mmeurrghh....and other news.

It's...oh, about 830 in the morning, and I am mildly hung over from tuesday night's revelery. Given the way that I'm feeling (slightly, but not deeply, sub-par), I figured that I had a couple of choices for my morning. 1) Do some work...hahaha...is this even really a choice? You people make me laugh... 2) Stare blankly at my computer screen and make intermittent groaning sounds....mmeurrghh.....yeurghhhhh.....bleurrghh....(I actual tried this one for a while, but it didn't really make me feel better, and I got some really strange looks from the guy two cubicles down). 3) I could put some effort into updating the ol' blog, fill some people in on what I've been up to, and hopefully take my mind off my slightly disconteded stomach by getting the creative juices flowing...*shudder*...anybody else think that's a really weird phrase? Anyways, obviously, I opted for the third...well...option. So here I am.

It's been a busy week or so, lots of interesting things going on. First off, thanks to everyone who came to the show at Reds on Friday. Hazeldean played aweomse, we had a ton of fun, and it was wicked to get a real sound system with some compotent techs. The part of the evening that WASN'T so fun, was when Matt and I had to drive back to Calgary at 1030PM, in order to be on the flight hill at 8AM Saturday morning. We played through both CD's of "RENT: The musical" to pass the time, as well as stopping at a greasy spoon to get some bacon and eggs. Funny story, they didn't have any plastic cutlery, so the woman at the counter surreptitiously wrapped some real knives and forks in a couple of napkins, passed them to me, and said "Go! Go!". I went, and the late night breakfast was all the sweeter for the pilfered silverware.

Anyways, Saturday morning found us sleepily wandering around the North part of Calgary, looking for our flight hill. After a few wrong turns and a close encounter with a bus trap (a bizzare geographical formation, essentially a rectangular pit, maybe 4ft. wide by 6 long by 2 deep, with steep sides...apprently used for trapping and taming the wild prarie bus? Who knows.) we made it to the hill. Now, I'm sure you all have visions of Matt and I balancing the glider effortlessly on our shoulders, gracefully launching off a steep cliff and flying away into the sunrise. Ok, well maybe just visions of ME doing that. Anyways. Such was not the case. A glider only weighs between 65-80 pounds, but it is a little, shall we say, unweildy. The glider has a wingspan of more then 35 feet, meaning it wouldn't fit into your living room. The wing is attached to the apex of a triangular control bar made of aircraft-grade aluminum. To launch, you wedge you shoulders between the triangular frame, hold the glider steady, say a quick prayer, and shuffle as quickly as possible down a steep hill while controlling the pitch and roll of the glider. It's that easy. ;)

Anyways, while Matt and I didn't get a lot of airtime, we did learn the basics, and we did have a couple of short-lived flights that I will hopefully post pics and or video footage of at some point. It was a ton of fun, and I can't wait to do the intermediate course, and get some real flying in. The rest of the Calgary trip was fun, including all you can eat sushi, watching "Redeye" (entertaining but not really worth a review, I mean, it was a Wes Craven film. Enough said.) and eating Krispy Kremes. Mmm those donuts'll kill ya. But you'll die happily.

Final event, last night (tuesday night) saw Hazeldean playing a show at the Sidetrack Cafe. Again, thanks to all who came out and supported...I'd like to think that by the end of "Conscription Crisis", we were rocking out pretty hard. And hey, I paid those who came in free beers on the band's tab. So the lesson to be learned is: it's worth it to support Rob, cause chances are you'll get some free ish. The beer consumption, however, is what brought me here...might be time for a few more groans....yeuurrghhhh.....

We interrupt this program to bring you breaking news...

Ok, so it's pretty early, but I want you all to sing along with me. The tune is "Camptown Races"

V1
"Who has a gig at Red's on Friday?"
"Rob does, Rob does"
"Who's going to be there watching him?"
"All of Rob's real friends!"

Chorus
"Because if you don't show...Then he's going to definately know..."
"That you don't really care about him, oh, doo-dah day!"

Finis

In other news, i am leaving to go hang gliding today. More on that later. As well, I want to give big ups to Tmo, Chris and Les for their regular updates, staving off madness due to excessive boredom. Which leave Chung. Who is funny. But doesn't update. And so must die.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled program...

As old age approaches...

Milestone alert: Rob has now reached the ripe old middle age of twenty-one. Everything from here on in will be downhill. Including hair-coverage, sexual drive and bladder control. Great.

But seriously folks...

I am now twenty-one, and have mixed feelings about being here. Let me just pull out the ol' mental checklist here....ok, what have we got here...

1. Are you famous yet? Hmmm...well, i guess it all depends on your definition of fame...I'd like to think that I've acchieved a certain infamy amongst my friends and family...

So that's a no, right? Yeah, I guess that's a no. Although there could be a family in Tajikistan that has been following my blog posts...or maybe my meteoric rise to the top-renters at the local Movie Studio...you never know...

2. Are you wealthy yet? Hahaha...*nervous laughter*...well, you see, wealth is a funny thing. You could say that I'm incredibly wealthy in terms of the friends and family that surround me...in good experiences...in collections of obscure fantasy books...

In a strictly monetary sense, are you wealthy? Are you rich? Do you have stacks of paper?

*silence ensues*

Right. Ok, moving on, then...

3. Are you recognized as a noteworthy student, or a genius of some sort, or an incredibly talented up-and-coming musician?

Wait, isn't this kinda like the fame question? Are you trying to rub it in? Rub some salt into the wound? Maybe a little lemon juice? Right into my papercut? Is that what you're trying to do? Is it? Let me be clear....I'm......Not.......FAMOUS!!!!! There, are you happy, you sadistic monster?!

....as your inner vioce, I'd like to take this opportunity to suggest some over the counter anti-psychotics that I'm told are particularily effective....

*sigh*...so there you have it. Twenty-one already, and i'm not exactly at the top of my game. Mozart starting composing when he was only five. Niels H. Abel was admitted to the prestigious Cathedral School of Mathematics in Oslo when he was only thirteen. Bill Gates was....well...i'm sure he was thinking of doing something crazy with computers when he was a teenager. Which leaves me....where?

All fun aside though, despite being a little nervous about the years starting to fly by, I think I'm at a pretty good place in life. I have an incredibly tight family that I actually enjoy spending time with, even if it's playing guitars and having a sing along with embarassed dinner guests. I have a solid group of friends that have been with me through thick and thin. I have an abundance of love in my life. I have done some world travelling, and will soon have an opportunity to do more. I've been blessed with faith, love, compassion, and more interesting and fortuitous opportunities then any one person should be alotted. So you know what? Fame...it's on the way.....Wealth...I am DAMN wealthy, and already have more then one person could ask for. Genius? Well, ok, the jury's out on that one, but I have a great vocabulary, which I'm told is a good start. So for those of you who were expecting more of a rant about encroaching old age, sorry to dissapoint, I wanted to let you know that I consider myself incredibly lucky, and am ready to do battle with whatever gets tossed my way. Wait till the next twenty one ;) This is Rob Boothe, happily twenty-one, saying goodnight and much love.

hey....i'm still around...don't believe this guy, he's actually rampantly insecure about a lack of accomplishments in his life...it's all a front...seriously...anyone? Anybody there?

man am I bored. I wonder if there are any good movies playing...

My Trip to the Mountains...or, how things went wrong.

Time for an update? Oh, I think so.

As you may or may not have been aware, the original theme of this blog was centered around the observation that, upon reflection, work is not actually that fun. I know what you’re thinking…what a startlingly brilliant observation, hereto unknown by Rob’s reading public! Or something like that. Whatever. Anyways, in the interests of alleviating the pain that has become my working life, I booked a couple of days off last week and took my girlfriend out camping to Gregg Lake, which is west of Hinton but just outside Jasper National Park. It’s a beautiful region in the foothills, usually not too busy, and usually with beautiful weather in mid August.

See how I used "usually" like that? It’s called foreshadowing.

We arrived at about ten pm on Wednesday night. It was already pretty dark, and visibility was steadily decreasing. For those of you who haven’t experienced true “wilderness-darkness”, it’s a bizarre sensation, especially compared to “city-darkness”. In the city, even at the darkest part of night, you can find your car, see where to put your key in the door, watch out for that cat that’s running across the road…in the mountains, the phrase “can’t see your hand in front of your face” takes on a whole new meaning. Still not getting it? All right, let’s try a little exercise. I want you to close both eyes. Now try to find your way to the nearest bathroom. Now pretend the bathroom is just a deep pit with a wooden shack over the hole. Now give yourself a slap, cause if your eyes were closed, you wouldn’t be able to read this. Yep, it was a trick.

Anyways, the next day it proceeded to rain. And rain. And rain some more. And then it rained a little. Thank goodness we had rigged up a giant 40 ft. day-glo orange tarp over our campsite. Not that it kept us that dry, but at least the rescue helicopter would be able to see our campsite and air-lift us to safety from the flood. Barring that, we should be able to attract a tribe of “lost children of the 80’s” with our spectacular color scheme. I hear dem’s good eatin’.

In spite of the rain and damp wood, we managed to build a fire which we could huddle around. The majority of the day was spent chopping firewood, leaning firewood up against the fire-pit to dry, feeding the semi-dry firewood into the fire, and poking the tarp with a stick to prevent too much water from accumulating in the middle and dragging the whole precariously balanced structure down around our ears. However, I did manage to cook up a delicious dinner including pan-fried salmon steaks with a creamy lemon and dill sauce on the side, sautéed peppers and mushrooms, and a broccoli and rice side. Not too bad, huh?

Now up until this point I have neglected to mention the other trump card that fate was holding in her fickle little hand. Remember that foreshadowing about it not being too busy? Well, the campsite itself wasn’t too busy. In fact, it was mostly empty. Except for the site next to us. Which housed a furious and foul-mouthed country woman and her brood of (children/slaves/demon helpers). Throughout the day, this woman kept up a steady litany of curses and threats at her misbehaving children, which ranged from two screaming ten or eleven year old boys, a chain-smoking girl I estimated to be about fourteen, and assorted “visitors” that I can only assume were from Hinton and who had driven out to the campsite to curse, drink and blare eighties and nineties music from their Olds Cutlasses. And to top it off, they brought their two dogs. A Rottweiler and a Doberman. I’m dead serious. These people actually exist. Anyways, needless to say the weekend was not quite as peaceful as I had initially hoped for.

We made it through a very cold and rainy night and arose the next morning to marginally better weather. By noon it was starting to feel quite pleasant out, so we decided to hop in the car and drive into Jasper park to do a hike I’d read about. The Sulphur Skyline trailhead is located right next to the Roche Miete hot springs, which suited us just fine. The plan was to take a brisk hike, enjoy the incredible vista that the trail boasted, and return for a soak in the mineral springs of Roche Miete. I’m sure by now you’ve realized that nothing was going exactly as planned this weekend.

We started the hike in t-shirts and hats, walking up an ominously steep looking segment of trail. Unsurprisingly we were soon to realize that the trail only got steeper as we climbed. For two hours we struggled up the mountainside, covering six kilometers in distance and approximately eight hundred meters in height. We reached what we thought was the top, up above the treeline, marked by a few benches and a stunning view. Our moment of accomplishment was quickly snuffed out as we noticed the trail continued up the bare mountainside to the very summit of a series of ridges. It was at about this time that we noticed the clouds of rain approaching over the valley to the south east. With a little grumbling, we took out the raincoats and began to struggle up the last section of the trail. After an agonizing fifteen minutes of zig-zagging up a slope of what felt like at least sixty degrees, we staggered over the ridge and into a truly incredible panorama of the surrounding mountains. It was about this time that the snow started falling. We managed to hunch behind some boulders and eat our packed lunch while taking in the view. Finally, cold and tired but proud of our accomplishment, we headed down the mountains to a welcome soak in the hot springs.

Wow, this is getting long, so I’ll finish off with the fact that in spite of the trials and tribulations we faced, it was an awesome trip. There is something about the mountains that seems to recharge your energy and make you feel incredibly healthy.

That is, until you return to your cubicle. Which brings me to the present…

Catch you around. ;)

A post I wrote on Friday but didn't have time to post till today...

Mmmm…slurpee run on a Friday afternoon with the office crew. As much as I complain about being cubicle bound this summer, when it comes right down to it, I have a pretty awesome deal. Regular hours, great pay, a fair share of interesting work, fun co-workers who aren’t averse to taking off at 3 for some sugary snacks…and I can’t forget the brilliant sun-soaked lawn, just waiting for Frisbee playing at lunch. Sound pretty nice? It is. But without a boring work-life to complain about, what happens to the existence of this blog? Isn’t it called “Cubically Inclined”? Doesn’t it depend on work stories for entertaining entries? Will it cease to exist if it turns out my job ain’t so bad?

*poof*

Nope. Doesn’t look like it’s going to disappear. Which leads me to my next morsel of reading. Disappearing blogs. (Not the brilliant segue there…from disappearing blogs to disappearing blogs…man…sometimes it’s like you’re too awesome…*wipes tear from eye*)….hmm…ahem…what? Oh, sorry about that…right, so disappearing blogs. I’ve noticed that after the initial flurry of blogging activity, where everyone and their dog seemed to be recording some sort of narrative online, bloggers are dropping like flies! You can’t begin to imagine how disheartening it is to arrive in the morning, eagerly awaiting the latest from Bewildered Mind or Ramblings of a Former Genius and find…a week old entry. That is half a paragraph long. And includes such witty repertoire as a song recommendation. (disclaimer: any resemblance to any real life bloggers is strictly unintentional and coincidental) C’mon people, it feels like we aren’t even trying here! Where is the flair, the panache that characterized early attempts at sharing views and opinions? Where is the sharply honed sense of humor with its bitingly cynical but infinitely accurate observations? Where is Dave Chung? These, the questions that plague me as I ponder the strange disappearance of blog entries.

So in the interest of encouraging my fellow bloggers to continue to explore their creative capacities as writers, I have suggested the following incentive/disincentive structures. Feel free to vote on the one you’d most like to see implemented. I’ll be sure to take your opinion into account. Because what you think matters to me. Seriously.

1. Provide a cookie to bloggers upon the completion of a new entry
Pros
-Pretty straightforward, do the right thing and you are rewarded.
-Almost everybody likes cookies.
-Make other bloggers fat and gives them bad skin from sugar and chocolate, increases Rob’s feeling of comparative self worth when competition are all chubby and acne-ridden.
Cons
-Could get expensive, delivery issues (nobody wants an internet cookie, they seem set on the real thing).
-As everybody knows, if you give a mouse a cookie, he’ll probably want a glass of milk, and so on and so forth…only in this case, bloggers will probably ask for a book deal. Greedy buggers.

2. Threaten to have Ninjas attack and silently kill any blogger who does not meet a minimum weekly quota of blog entries
Pros
-Fear seems to be a pretty successful deterrent. Look at how long Stalin was in power. And he didn’t have ninjas.
-I like ninjas.
Cons
-I suppose I’ll need to pay this private army of ninjas, and I’m not independently wealthy. Yet.
-Have you ever tried to get blood out of a keyboard?

3. Promise to reward blog entries with scantily clad girls making a house call to fulfill “that particular fantasy” that all computer-geek-guys have
Pros
-Now this a real incentive, the fastest way to a lonely computer-geek’s heart is through his fragile sense of self-worth and lasting desire to share a meaningful conversation with (or at least ogle) a beautiful woman
-It shouldn’t be hard too hard to convince beautiful girls to wear skimpy clothing and play networked World of Warcraft with these geeks. Yes, that was the fantasy I was talking about…what’s that? You thought I meant something different? You’re sick, man. You’re just sick.
Cons
-The only beautiful girl I know and talk to is my girlfriend. No others. Ever. So I wouldn’t be able find any girls to help provide this incentive.

Hmm, so which method seems appropriate? Feel free to share your thoughts with me and once we have a decisive winner, we can start part II, planning and implementation of the strategy. I will be anxiously awaiting your thoughts. Right.

Victory is Mine!

What a weekend.

How many blog entries have started with that phrase, I wonder? It may not be an incredibly original preface to today’s update, but I feel entirely justified in the use of that phrase, because believe you me; this weekend was definitely a memorable time.

As some of you may have noticed, I may have subtly alluded to a certain hip hop benefit show that I was involved with this weekend. The Second Annual Hip Hop for Hope Benefit Show (worthy of capitalization when you say it like that) took place on Sunday, July 31st at the Winspear Center right here in Edmonton. Now, for various reasons, involved parties were experiencing a certain amount of anxiety about the show. Holding it at the Winspear was a big risk—very expensive venue, and lots of seats to sell. As well, without seeming too bitter, there were some *ahem* organizational discrepancies, shall we say, between some of the producers. Lots of last minute stuff that just added to the stress, and could have easily been avoided with a little common sense and good planning. Needless to say, the whole weekend up till Sunday involved me running around trying to make sure everything was taken care of. The morning of the show found me out of bed early, trying to organize my six different outfits for the show, followed by a brief but nasty fight between a couple of my shirts and the iron (no clear winner, but I maintain that I came out on top). I got to the Winspear a little before one o’clock, and started organizing. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that there were TONS of things to stress out about, not the least of which included Jon Jon and I practicing our own acts. I zipped home to grab the folks, came back, pulled on my tux, took a deep breath, and walked out into the lobby…

Incredible. Line-ups going out the door for tickets and seats. People from all walks of life, from real dedicated heads to families with little kids who had never experienced hip hop culture before. Tons of friends and family in from all over to support both myself and the charities. Before I knew it, seven o’clock rolled around and we were starting the show. As I stood in the wings while the opening music for the intro dance number were cued, I looked out into a house that was almost entirely sold out. We were hoping to get a thousand people out, if we were lucky. Imagine our surprise to see close to 1500 people packing the house (Winspear holds about 1600 at maximum capacity). The intro finished to wild applause, and Jon and I ran out on stage…what an incredible crowd. They were totally responsive, tons of energy, willing to get involved and show their love for the performers. The whole show went awesome, right down to an easy fix for the few minor problems in the show (ie running too late and one change of order for performances). Jon Jon and I were given tons of love and support, people went crazy for some of the different acts we did. And at the end of the night, 150-some performers out on stage dancing and singing together, the crowd is giving a standing ovation, Jon and I grab the mics… “I am Rob, I am Jon Jon, we’ve been your hosts for evening, thanks for coming and good-night”.




Some highlights include:
-my little bro painting an incredible canvas that was auctioned off for charity, it went for $240!! And he also has interest for a Mayoral commission for the City of Edmonton
-line dancing to cowboy-hip hop
-singing a sweet R’n’B medley to a cheering crowd
-finishing the show and basking in the love of all my friends and family who came out and supported

So there you have it…truly a memorable weekend. My absolute love and thanks to everyone who came out—without you guys, the victory isn't as sweet. Here’s to proving that hip hop really IS a positive force for change, it’s about self-expression and community and breaking down barriers. And if you don’t believe me, wait till the DVD of the show comes out in a little while. See for yourself…what an incredible weekend…