Date: 2008-11-09 14:15 Subject: Forty Six weeks ago. Security: Public Mood: accomplished

It was forty six weeks ago that I last updated my livejournal. Forty six weeks ago, I was friends with Kazz and Riel, I was dating Melissa, and I had just bought my first gun. Forty six weeks ago I was unemployed, living in my mom's basement, and was not doing anything productive with life. Forty six weeks ago I had only known Tara for a month or so, was sad about a bunch of stupid stuff, and had no idea what I was going to do.

Well, a lot changes in forty six weeks. I moved 3000kms across the country, from Thunder Bay to Vancouver. My house is up for sale, and I drove across Canada by myself in order to start school, and I'm actually living in my own apartment. It's been so long, that my Child's Play userpic actually makes sense again, as Penny Arcade's Child's Play drive is starting up again for 2008. (So go donate money and toys to sick children, it'll make you feel warm and fuzzy inside to know that a 9 year old cancer patient gets to play OMG POKEMON during his chemo)

My last post was about my BRAND NEW RIFLE WOO, but what I didn't know then was that those "forty dollar" magazines were actually very, very rare. When I finally lost the mag and went to get a new one, not only could Gerry not find one at my request, the estimate for one at a gunshow I ventured into was $150 a mag. So my awesome ten-shot repeater .22 is now a lowly and difficult to load single shot, barring Jesus himself decending from heaven and going "here dude have a magazine". I won't fret too much, because I've now got two other firearms to satifty my urge to put holes in paper targets - a Ruger 10/22 carbine .22, and a 10-gauge Harrington & Richardson break-open shotgun. That one's super special because 10-gauge is awesome, the barrel was cut from 36" to Canada-legal-minimum 19.5" and I bought it off a SOMETHING AWFUL GOON on the cheap.

Speaking of shooting, I've gotten to go a bunch of times, and I tried to take as many people out as possible to spread the love of my hobby around. I've taken Paul, Tara, Alex and Owen along, and my shooting buddy I met during the PAL courses Robert and I went a bunch of times. And since I've been in Vancouver, I got to take Jeff along for a shoot. Not only that, but myself and a bunch of TFR goons are planning a Vancouver shoot (TFR being Something Awful's firearms subforum The Firing Range, and I have learned tons of stuff and met a bunch of awesome dudes by posting there) sometime soon,

Oh, you want details, Non-firearms related details. I think I can handle that.

Sometime in June, my family finally convinced my mom to move out West and get the hell out of Thunder Bay. I had originally planned on going to Con College there, and the only thing keeping me out was I needed to upgrade my math to a grade 12 course.  So I was working on that, but before I finished, my mom finally decided to do the move. My sister got me to into into BCIT - British Columbia Institute of Technology - and I looked at the two schools for a while. I decided that it would cost me the EXACT same amount of money to go to school in Thunder Bay as it would out here, the reasoning being that if my mom was gone, no free room and board for me, meaning I'd be paying rent and transit costs *anyways*. Factoring that in, along with tuition, BCIT would cost me about the same as Con College, so why the fuck would I want to stay in Thunder Bay for two more years?

The only thing holding me back was Tara, who I desperately did not want to leave. We had originally planned on moving out at the same time, but I had so little time to prepare between when we made the decision, to when I actually needed to leave, we wouldn't have been able to find a place for both of us FROM Thunder Bay. It was hard, but we eventually decided that I would come out here alone, do my first course, and she would come out afterwards, giving myself enough time to find a suitable location, and her enough time to finish up more of her high school stuff and find a job.

Speaking of my course, it was a last-minute ordeal when I applied, involving frantic calls to the school and OSAP to get in, and to get my loan. Someone up there likes me because despite being *utterly* last minute involving EVERYTHING, I managed to both get accepted into BCIT and get my loan in order. I am currently about four weeks into my 25 week Machinist Foundations program. This course is equivilant to doing a first year Machinist apprenticeship in a shop, and if I wanted, I could do all four years at BCIT. I'm not looking to become a machinist, but this IS the backgound I need to get into a gunsmithing apprenticeship. I wanted to know how to do things like drill and tap, and be famililar with drill presses and lathes and laying work out onto metal, and this course is giving me all that. I'm having some trouble, but I'll save that for another post.

Once I'm done with Machinist Foundations, I'll take one, possibly two more Foundation courses to get a varied background. I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do for the other ones, but since a large amount of gunsmithing work is done on a milling machine, I may take Milling Machine foundations, and possibly get my "C" welding ticket (C being like, Level 1, B being Level 2, etc) just to have that on my resume. Knowing how to work a lathe, a drill press, a milling machine, simple welding and a myriad of other skills should make me awesomely attrative to have as an apprentice, since they won't have to teach me from square one, but can instead teach me how to apply what I already know directly to gunsmithing.

My back up, of all of these don't work out? I'm going to go either into the police force or into private security. Armoured bank trucks and what have you. I'm not sure yet.

Oh yes, and my place. I've never gone apartment hunting by myself before, let alone in a city of 4 million people. BCIT's site had a section devoted to off-campus student housing, so I used that. I was staying at my aunt's place until I found somewhere, and that was awesome that they let me stay. I found one place that was fairly far away, checked it out, then went and did some other errands. I called back about two hours later to stay I would take it, and they told me someone else had taken it. Oh well.
I found another place, and called them up. It was a basement suite and there was already a student living here, and some woman. The woman was moving out, and they wanted another student moving in. I said I'd like to check it out, and did so, but they told me they had promised one other person they could come by and check it out. I was worried, but.. he wasn't a student, and I was, so they gave the place to me! I went in to pay my damage deposit (instead of first and last month's like on Ontario) and sign the lease, and that's when they told me I couldn't move in until Nov. 1st. Fuck.

So I lived at my aunt's place and slept on couches for an extra month until this place opened up, and I moved in.. and I'm a 30 min walk, 12 min bus ride from school!

This is all awesome and great news, but there's been some shit going on too. My car broke down near the end of october. I was relying on being able to sell my car in November, after moving in. This money was going to pay off my debts, and buy me new stuff that I desperately need. My sister was out with my mom and grandma, and half way though their trip, my car started making funny noises. She got it back to the house.. and long story short the rear left wheel assembly - that being the drum brake, the sealed bearing, and all that - is completely trashed. Has to be replaced entirely, and that's NOT a cheap part, nor a cheap thing to get done. So I'm fucked, because I can't afford repairs of that magnitude, and no one is going to buy a broken car.
Not only that, but OSAP only released half my money for the duration of the course. 5 grand. Sounds like a lot, but factor in 3 grand for tuition, one grand for two month's rent, $500 in books, and living expenses (food, transit fare, etc) - I'm almost out of money. As in, I've got just under $300 to get me from now until January 15th, when they release the rest of my money. I've got the first two months' of rent paid for, but come Jan 1st... I won't be able to pay.

You get the good with the bad, and despite being able to get on with my life and follow my reams, I miss Tara like hell (though my roomie said he was cool with her visiting for Christmas!) and the lynchpin of being able to survive for the next six month is missing a wheel assembly. I'll have to figure something out. But I'll cut this short here and talk a little more about school itself in my next post.

Date: 2007-12-20 22:01 Subject: I am armed. Security: Public

So, I bought a rifle. It was a christmas gift from my dad that I bought early. I went to all the different gun stores in town, of which apparently there are three. I was looking for a .22, specifically a bolt action with a detachable magazine, it wasn't hard to find one. They had a bunch of new and used ones between two shops, and they varied in price between $80 and $450. I didn't want a super expensive new one, but I didn't want a complete crap gun either, so I went fairly middle-of-the-road in price. I was looking at a $150 used one from the first shop I checked out, and after looking around, I decided it was the best deal for what I was looking for.

So I went into GMK Armour Specialties and bought myself a North America Arms "Grizzly" Model 20, bolt action rifle with a 10 round detachable magazine chambered in .22 long rifle. After talking to a bunch of gun enthusiasts, I found out I have a pretty rare rifle, NNA only made rifles for twenty years, and stopped in the 70's, meaning I have at minimum a thirty year old gun. It's in desperate need of a cleaning, and the stock is fairly dented, but the action works like a charm and the bore was spotless. It looks like the gun was carried around a lot, but hardly fired, which I'm perfectly fine with. If I can get my hands on a handheld sander, I can refinish the stock myself, and a exploded diagram so I can take it apart and not worry about not knowing how to put it back together again.

I could not believe how excited I was to have the guy take the rifle off the rack and hand it to me. Since it was commission (someone selling it though the shop), the guy had to call in to the firearms office and get the registrations swapped from his name to mine. It was pretty simple, actually, he took my information, looked at my PAL, wrote down the number, took down the info on the gun (name, model, caliber, serial number), gave me a temporary registration, and that was it. He handed it to me, and I took off. Halfway home I realized I forgot to buy a trigger lock, so I went back, and actually ended up getting one free. I figure I was supposed to get one with my purchase, and I left before the guy told me to take one. No harm no foul.

I asked about extra magazines, and the guy at the counter (damn I should have gotten his name) told me that Jerry (Gunsmith and owner) had some around, but he didn't know where. When I went in today to ask about them, and he said he didn't have any on hand, but he had ordered some for his upcoming gunshow in March. The kicker is that because parts are so rare, a single 10-round magazine is forty dollars. FORTY DOLLARS! If by March, I have an extra $40 kicking around, I'll pick one up, but if not, I can live with one mag.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Date: 2007-11-10 19:11 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

I totally forgot to update. A couple weeks after my Unrestricted, I did my Restricted course. It was more of the same, I did excellent on the written and pratical tests. Fast forward a month and I had the stamps on both test results back to me. I got Melissa and Paul to be my refrences, got my passport photo done, made up a money order for $140, and sent the damn application out. That was about two weeks ago, so hopefully, only another month before I get both my licences barring any major fuckups.

Yeah that's pretty much the most exciting thing I'm looking forward too at the moment, which may give you insight into how boring my life is. I'm still working away on my math course with Melissa's help, and I'm looking to finish the first book tomorrow. Then, one book to go, and I can relax and try to find some work. Hopefully I get my licenses around when I'm finished the course, so I can add those to my resume and apply at GMK and D'n'R Sporting Goods, because nobody else I dropped a resume off with wants me, not even the corner stores.

Fuck you job market.

Date: 2007-09-19 20:08 Subject: Guns and Goons Security: Public

An update, hmm. I did my Canadian Firearms Safety course over the weekend. 9-5 on saturday and sunday, and man was it boring. There were a lot of people, and it was mostly common sense stuff, however I did learn a lot, and there were 10 deactivated guns for us to learn how to handle. It was the unrestricted course, meaning rifles and shotguns and I got to handle firearm types I'd never touched before, like a lever action rifle and a semi-automatic shotgun. I'm glad I had toy guns and air rifles all my life, because it made handing the real guns that much easier when I mostly knew what I was doing already. The stuff out of the handbook was informative but annoying, as they repeated the same aryonyms over and over again. You needed to memorize "ACTS" and "PROVE".

ACTS is pretty simple, the short version being "Don't point a gun at anyone, ever, and make sure the damn thing is unloaded" and PROVE was the proper procedure for unloading and making sure it was unloaded. Again, I knew that, but they really wanted to drill it into your head. It's funny, because as soon as we left the classroom, the many of the little details went out the window. During lunch on the second day, I went into the gun shop and asked to check out a bolt-action .22 I was intrested in buying once I have my license. One of the details of the course was, always PROVE a gun safe and leave the action open when you hand it to someone. So I ask the guy at the counter if I could see it. He, of course, takes it off the rack and hands it to me. Doesn't PROVE it, doesn't open the action. And why? It was sitting on the shelf, unloaded, he handed it to me with the muzzle pointed to the ceiling, and it wouldn't magically get loaded between the rack and my hands, all of two feet. I opened the action while I checked it out, then closed the bolt and handed it back when I was done.

I guess when the government is paying for your healthcare, they'll be really anal about safety because they sure as hell don't want to pay for some idiot's self-inflected gunshot wound. All in all, I can't complain too much. I got 100% on the written test and 100% on the pratical test, which involved naming half a dozen different cartriges, picking up whatever class of weapon the instructor asked (break, bolt, lever, pump and semi-automatic), proving it safe, loading two rounds, unloading both rounds, proving it safe again and putting it down. The second part was doing the same, but pretending we were outside and asking what I'd do if I came across a fence, which I ALMOST fucked up (forgot to physically unload it because I was nervous) but I remembered, and got 100%.

So get this.. in order to get a PAL (Posession and Aquisition License) I need to do the following; Attend the CFS Course, get a passing grade. Mail test results to somewhere in southern Ontairo for some government dude to stamp it, wait for it to get back to me,  fill out forms in which I have to answer questions regarding my mental state (breakups, divorces, bankrupacy or job losses), I need two refrences willing to vouch for me, and a passport photo with someone's signature on it to prove it's me, two peices of government ID and staple my stamped test results to the forms, and pay a $60 fee. THEN I have to wait the mandatory 45-day waiting period so they can make sure I'm not crazy and/or a criminal. THEN, if I qualify, they send me my license. The fee is $80 for restricted firearms.. so I get to do this TWICE and pay $140 total for both licences. What does this mean? Well my Restricted course is on the 28th and 29th, so I'll wait and apply for both licenses at once, so I probably won't get them until Christmas.

Ah Canada, making progress at the speed of government!

To compare to the United States, I can walk in to a gun store, ask for a gun, fill out forms and wait 3 days for a criminal refrence check. If I'm not a criminal, on the third day I can go in and buy a gun.

Of course, I do feel safer knowing that everyone after the year 2000 has to go though this process, and thus everyone who has a license has a minimum level of knowledge about the subject, but I cannot wrap my head about the bureaucracy this whole process entails.

The best part? You don't need any license at ALL to buy and operate a muzzleloader (musket). Countdown to someone murdering someone with a flintlock!

Date: 2007-08-05 20:11 Subject: ATTN: People Security: Public

It's my birthday on the 6th, but I'm working midnights. However I do have the 9th off, so I'm going to do a dinner thing with people, if they so please. If you'd like to go somewhere nice to eat, and possibly to see a movie afterwards, give me a shout on MSN or whatever.

Date: 2007-07-19 07:49 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

What a day. Night? To be breif, I got into my locker at work with a sledgehammer, and had my lunch stolen 15 minutes into the day. Before I even started to work. Grr. As a result, I had my first Mcdonalds hamburger in twelve years, and they're just as bland as I remember.

However, for a screwy as they are, the midnight shift is cool if only for the fact that I get to wear listen to my ipod with my headphones and not have to be real sneaky about it, plus extended break and lunch because the shift supervisor is slack as hell, appparently.

Oh, and far, far to many of my coworkers have spent time in prison. And there's a rumor they're going to up my wage to $10 an hour (from $9) in an effort to keep people longer and reduce turnover. and maybe not attact as many people who have been to prison?

I'll think of it as a $1 raise for being awesome, aka; never been to jail, never completed a drug deal at work, never done drugs at work, ever talked about drugs at work, or never being arrested and subsequently fired for pulling a female coworker's shirt down and taking a look at her tits for fun in a crowded lunchroom.
Apparently the way to succeed at this job and progress is to just suck less than everyone else.

Date: 2007-07-15 16:24 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

As of about an hour ago, my uncle Bill died of esophageal cancer after nearly three years of fighting. His last wishes were to be cremated and have his ashes scattered over Lake Superior. He surrounded by family, except for me, in Vancouver.

Rest In Peace, Willhem Egle.

Date: 2007-06-29 14:43 Subject: Somthing Worthy! Security: Public

It's nice to actually have something to say for once. I hadn't really noticed, but looking back there's been a steady upwards trend in my life. I'm dealing with stuff and slowing pulling myself out the hole I was in. Things are getting better, and it's nice.

That being said, I just wanted to announce that after months and months and months of shitty unemployment, I now have a job. I'll be working for Accurassy Labs.
What they do, is mining companies (the clients) send in rock samples.. the samples get crushed and pulverized, then smelted, broken down, and analized for mineral content. This tells the clients if the area the sample was from is worth mining. My job is "Rock crusher and puliverizer".
They give me a big hammer, a big rock and tell me to put hammer to rock and make rock into many tiny rocks.

...no, not really. I only had orientation today, so didn't really see how exactly it's done with what machines and whatnot. I start on Tuesday, so I guess I'll find out then.

Also, I signed a form saying they get to take my soul if I reaveal anything, any data, etc, so that's about all I can say.

So.. horray for job, horray for money to get out of debt, and god forbid, save some.

Also I needed a gr. 12 math course to get into college, so I picked that up from the Adult Learning Center and have until August to do the course. Ug, math.

Date: 2007-05-17 07:28 Subject: Proximity Security: Public

I can't sleep, that's no suprise. So I'm browsing the Something Awful forums, and I come across this. I have never giggled so hard in my life at something. It's probably the sleep deprivation or the massive depression, but either way, this is loving funny and absolutely true.



Witness and giggle, my friends, witness and giggle.

Oh and this too.

Date: 2007-03-27 22:17 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

what a fucking joke.

Date: 2007-03-26 12:53 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

My bunny, Bunny, died today. He was a ten year old Dwarf rabbit. They aren't supposed to live past three or four years, and Bunny lived for a decade. He died of extreme old age. RIP Bunny.

Date: 2007-03-01 16:34 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

One step forward, two steps back.

Advice to everyone: if you have better oppertunities outside of this city. Take them, and don't look back.

Date: 2007-02-16 04:48 Subject: Home! Security: Public

And thus I begin my 1400 mile journey back to Thunder Bay. Car's packed, route's planned, roads are clear. Ready to go.

My first leg is 900 miles to Madison, WI, again, essentally the exact same way I took to get here, in reverse. Wish me luck, guys.

Date: 2007-02-14 17:47 Subject: World's First CKF Custom Rifle! Security: Public

So, as I may have mentioned, I got to spend a couple days in a gunsmith's shop. In order to show me the sort of things a gunsmith does, Andy had me use Ed's rifle as a project gun, which I fully restored, top to bottom. This entry is going to be my
'report', and you can skip it if you have absolutely no intrest in seeing what I did to the rifle to customize and restore it. There are lots of pretty pictures! Anyways, I'll put the bulk of the stuff behind a cut, as to not cutter up anyone's friends page.

Date: 2007-02-11 18:11 Subject: Yay, and damnit. Security: Public

Went to Andy's shop again today, not for very long though. He showed me how to break down the rifle into all the tiny little part, and I was just able to get started on sanding the stock before I had to go, and he says he'll have me in every day until it's finished. Awesome.

...which means I'm here for another week. My dad also refuses to pay me until my work with all the Curves clubs are done. My uncle leaves on the 13th for Vancouver, so today was my last day to leave and be able to get back home in time to see him. That means, if he dies while he's there, and I didn't get a chance to see him, I'm holding my dad personally responsible. Boo.

Yep, that's about it.

Date: 2007-02-11 00:41 Subject: Andy is my Hero. Security: Public

Ahh, another fine day of gun talk! My dad wakes me up today with a promise that he'll buy me something from the bookstore if I chill out while he works out across the street. Fine with me. I go to the bookstore, have a coffee and read this book called "Combat Handgunning". It was pretty neat, didn't get very far into it though, before my dad was done.

The book I wanted was "Gunsmithing: Rifles by Patrick Sweeney", but they also had his other book "Gunsmithing: Pistols and Revolvers".. for 25 bucks each. My dad said if we could find them for cheaper online, he'd get them, and if not, we'd go back to the store and get them.

Amazon had both as a pair for $35, go figure. He ordered me those, and I got Andy the gunsmith on the phone. THAT was when my day started.

I went to his shop, not too far from the shooting range, actually, and just chilled out. He had some customers in, so I didn't say much and just absorbed the infomation that they were spewing out. Andy did a trigger job on a Colt 1911 pistol for one guy, and machined out a special front-sight mount on the slide of a 1911 for another. The 1911 is a *really* popular gun. A police officer came in to chat Andy up, and again, I just shut up and absorbed info. When he left, Andy and his partner, whose name I didn't catch, invited me out for lunch. Now, for the most part, I was just watching and being entirely quiet, so I bet Andy was thinking "wtf is up with this kid" most of the time. But once his customers and the officer were gone, I was free to talk without interrupting anyone. At lunch, I explained to him what I wanted to do, the sitiuation I was in, and the options I currently have avalible to me, ie, Colorado School of Trades, finding someone to apprentice under, or though the police/military. We talked about a bunch of different things, but basically, it came down to "it's easier to make a gunsmith out of a machinist than a machinist out of a gunsmith" - essentally, I should come home, find a part time job, get into the machining course at Con College, save some cash for my Restricted/Unrestricted firearms licences in Canada, and try to find an apprenticeship there, since it would take me an equal amount of time to either get a work visa for apprenticeship in the US, or a student visa for CST. Might as well learn something while I was waiting, basically.

Failing finding someone who will take me on, Andy has contacts for various contacts for every conceivable part of the gunsmithing business, and might be able to hook me up with a firearms manufacturer, with me working in an assembly area.. but that's a fair bit in the future, when I either have a greencard, or a work visa.

After lunch, back to Andy's shop. His partner went home, so it was just him and I. I think, once we had started talking, he really opened up, and I was able to show him the extent of my knowledge. I had my .22 rifle with me, and it had a chipped buttplate from god knows how long ago, and I asked him if I could find a replacement. We found one from a bin of old ones, but it didn't quite fit. I watched him do his magic and made it fit perfectly to the rifle. He then offered to let me come in, and teach me how to completely restore the rifle, top to bottom. Hell. Yes.

Once we agreed on that, we both went into total geek mode, and he showed me rifle after pistol after shotgun that he was working on, the calibers, the actions, the optics, the history behind the older ones, and we just blabbed for hours. He showed me a bunch of books, and even lent me one on handloading (as in, making your own bullets) which I'm currently halfway though (go speedreading!).

So, in short, Andy is my hero, I'm more sure than ever that this is what I want to do, and now have the oppertunity to totally restore that .22 and learn something while I'm at it. I now have a plan of action to get into gunsmithing without spending $32,000 on school right away, and have a contact to get into other aspects of business. I'm going in at 3pm tomorrow to get started.. so it's good night for now.

Date: 2007-02-09 10:56 Subject: Of North Carolina! Security: Public

Marci made me promise to do a big-ass livejournal entry about my trip to NC. I didn't do it yesterday, as I was totally wiped out from the driving, so I will do it today.

Backstory! - I did this trip to go visit my friend Eric, who lives in North Carolina. I know Eric from the internets, and here's the breif rundown of how we met. When I lived in Atlanta for my grade 8 year, closer to the end of the year, I was looking for some FF8 info online. I stumbled across this website called Final Fantasy 8 Source, or FF8 Source for short. I putted around on the forum, found the info that I needed and left. When I got back to Canada, the forum I had been on previously (Planet Namek, a DBZ forum) had gone kaput, so I decided to check out FF8 Source again. Well, they were now Square Source, but the people on the forums were the same. That was in 2001. At some point, "Lord Rama" (Eric) joined, and started talking about anime stuff. We both decided that the other was really cool and brought our chats to AIM.
Though these AIM chats, we developed a longlasting friendship becuase we're essentally the same person when it comes to a lot of subjects, and we loved to talk about all sorts of crap, much I cannot get into becuase we're huge perverts and I wouldn't have any friends left if I went into detail. Ha!
The years go by, sometimes we talk a lot, sometimes we lose contact, but more recently, I rejoined the forum made up of the 'survivors' of Square Source, now known as Digital Genesis. Eric and I get to talking again, and I realize, that being in Atlanta, I'm only a few hours drive away from where he lives. We made the plans, and on Wendsday...

Trip! - A few days beforehand, Eric, Marci (Marzipan) and I worked out all the maps and routes. On Wendsday, I packed my crap up, and took off at 8am. Stupid me, I decided to leave in the middle of morning rushhour. It was about 10 miles from where I live to the exit onto the correct interstate, and it took me an hour to drive those ten miles! An HOUR! I finally hit I-85N at 9am, and it was pretty smooth sailing from there. I stopped for gas when I got to a half tank about 2/3 of the way there, but other than that, the trip was pretty much uneventful. My directions were perfect.. right up until I got into Hickory, NC. Hickory is just outside of where they live, so our plan was to meet up at an Arby's, then figure it out from there. The problem was, my directions left out a right turn onto the highway that brought me though the right part of town, so I was a little lost, and ended up at "a" Arbys, just not the right one. I decided to call Eric, and he tried giving me directions, but he wasn't quite sure were *I* was, so he passed me off to his mom to got me onto the right street. I found the place not three minutes later.
I only waited about 10 minutes in Arbys before Eric showed up. I'll admit, it was a little akward for about five minutes, until we started talking about stuff, and then we eased right into it.. felt like I had known the guy for 7 years! (wait, I have...) I had a little snack in Arbys, then Eric had me follow him to his house. I met his mother and father, who were quite relived that I was who I said I was, and not a crazy internet stalker. Then, we started with the video games. Hot damn, Eric has a lot of cool gaming stuff. He showed me his Wii *snicker* and I played Wii Sports, then Eric wanted me to try the new Zelda game. Man, that Wii is really awesome, and I want one. While I was playing Zelda (Zelda! more like Celda!) Eric's brother Myles came home, and I met him.

We asked Myles to get his PS2, and while Eric hooked that up, he had me try Elite Beat Agents and Castlevania for the DS, which made me wish for a Nintendo DS. When the PS2 was hooked up, I showed them Guitar Hero, which his Dad enjoyed, more than anyone else. While we were doing GH, Marci got off school and came over. I'm pretty sure she took a silly picture of me playing "Carry On Wayward Son". Around 4:30, we decided to go to the mall. We got a good group picture outside, then we piled into Marci's car and took off. First place we went to was Waldenbooks, who have a massive manga collection. People from T-Bay - think of Hill City's manga section, but in a regular bookstore. I found Cannon God Exaxxion graphic novels 3-5, which I've been looking for for YEARS, along with Death Note vol. 8 and 9. I didn't have much money with me, but Marci, being totally awesome, had these coupons for a 30% discount. Off of everything. Meaning my $75 worth of manga cost me under $50.

After buying the manga, we went to get some pretzels for a snack, then more mall trolling! Babbages first, as Eric was looking for a specific GBA game, then, and please forgive me for this, Hot Topic. We orignally went in to make fun of the stuff they have there, but.. it turns out geeks are now more popular than goths, so we spent more time in Hot Topic than anywhere else, becuase we kept finding geeky/anime related stuff we wanted. Eric got an anime tshirt and Marci escaped with a cool blanket. Um, what did we do next.. we had a bathroom break, then Eric's family called, and asked if we wanted to go to dinner at this semi-fancy place. After much debate we ended up deciding not to, as it was 30 mins out of town, and none of us were that hungry. More mall trolling, then. We went to Spencers to look for a specific necklace, which they didn't have, then wandered around for a bit. I drooled over the Nissan 350Z and Ford Mustang GT they had on display. Marci went looking for some earrings, and Eric and I went back to Spencers, because we found some nice earrings there, and got those instead of the necklace.

By then, it was almost 8, and we had enough of the mall. We needed food, but for some reason, we wern't allowed to go to Eric and make a frozen pizza, so we went to Marci's to do that. I got to see Marci's room, and Eric and Marci's combined manga and anime collection, posted from Marci's house, and got to start reading the volume of Gunsmith Cats that I was missing.

We got booted out of Marci's fairly quickly, and went back to Eric's. I got to finish reading the GSC, which filled in a lot of holes for me in the story, and we chatted more. Eric tried some Resident Evil 4 on Professional mode, and got owned, but it happens to the best of us.. Myles really wanted to take me for a spin in his souped up Saturn (can't remember what model) and drove a ways up the street, then asked me if I wanted to drive. Hell yes! It's a very nice car, had a lot of pickup, and was the first time I've gotten to a drive a halfway tuned car. It was really fun, but we wern't out very long. We came back, I chatted more with Eric's mom, then took my leave around 10:30. Said goodbye to everyone and all that, then headed home.

The drive home was even easier, as there was less traffic and I knew where I was going. (Eric, tell Myles that my mental map was perfect, even if I couldn't describe it to him) Um, I got back into down, and not 5 minutes from home, hit a chunk of blown-out tire. It took a six-inch strip of trim off my car, but the thing is, I can't figure out where it's from! it fell off when I opened my door to get out, but nothing actually seems to be missing, so I have no idea what's up with that.

So I got in at about 3am, and stayed up until 5 reading my Cannon God, becuase I was so eager to fill in the story. And that, as they say, was that.

Eric and Marci are awsome people, and Eric's family is really nice. I will definately be going back the next chance I get.. which may be soon, if I'm going to leave, and detour into NC, spend the night, and then head home, instead of going straight home from Atlanta. I'll update with news about my going-home plans as they appear, but they're really trying hard to make me stay.

Date: 2007-02-06 18:15 Subject: It feels good to be right Security: Public

Oh man.. I went to the range today, to fire off the rest of the .22 rounds I had, and to talk to the guys there about all the concerns Gail and my Dad brought up last night. Boy oh boy, were they ever wrong, about pretty much everything they said. The $32,000 education is one way to go, but it certianly isn't the only way to go.

Hey, looks like companies like Beretta and Winchester and Remington don't advertise on Monster! Nor do gunsmiths looking for apprentices, or pretty much anyone else involved in the gun business! And they make plenty good money, if they're good at it! I KNEW you couldn't just google 'gunsmith' and find out everything there is to know about it.. what the fuck do random people on a forum know about it? Nothing!

I am still going to leave, and soon, but now I have a contact for the Bulls Eye Marksman gunsmith, and he is actually looking for help/to take on an apprentice. I'm going to give him a call on thursday and tell him about my sitiuation, and work something out.

Rockin'.

Date: 2007-02-06 02:04 Subject: I'm Coming Home Security: Public

Yep.. I've had about enough of this. My time down here has been really great.. I was able to break my depression, do things I've always dreamed of doing, get tons upon tons of information, and discovered my passion that I always knew was there. Almost every aspect of this trip has been a success in every way. But I know this is not the place for me.

My dad and Gail teamed up to try and explain why I should absolutely not spend $35,000 on a trade school, becuase there is no demand for gunsmiths. That opposed the information from the school, but of course it would, wouldn't it? They went on Monster and other jobsites to find gunsmithing jobs; there were pratically none. They said "you'll end up with debt, and not be able to pay it back becuase this job doesn't pay enough" and "there simply isn't enough demand for you to make a good enough living, and it should just be a hobby"

They, of course, are completely right. My best chance of being able to do gunsmithing, but not pay thousands of dollars to learn how to do it, would be to go though the military or police. I'm not touching the military with an 11-foot pole, so it looks like the Police is my only remaining option. That is fine with me.

I can understand and deal with hard facts. However, it isn't always about hard facts. I have found my passion, my purpose, after so long of not knowing. This is what I want to do, my dream, and no one will take that away from me. Happyness is so fleeting in this life, and the last thing I'm going to do is throw that away becuase of fact. If I try hard enough, I will be able to do be a gunsmith, no matter what avenue I have to take to do it.

That being said, it's all in the presentation of facts. I can understand and accept facts. I cannot, and will not, listen to these people who give me the facts like I'm a little child. I will not accept their attitudes and disbeleif in me, to treat me like an adult when they need something done, and immediately treat me like a child when I make a mistake. They know more than me by virtue of age, but I will not let them tell me my dream is impossible becuase I have spent my whole life watching people take impossible ideas and dreams and make them not only possible, but amazing successes.

Money is not my only motivation in life, I will not avoid hard work becuase it is not 'fun' but I also will not spend my life doing things that are no fun in hopes that I may be successful enough to put 'not fun' aside for the rest of my life in order to do 'fun'.

Life is about balance, not spending all your time doing one thing, so that you have the possibility of doing another later on. I have seen what these people have become.. ugly, hateful and intolerant becuase they have shouldered to much responsibility and now are so stuck in what they have to accomplish every second, that they no longer have the time to enjoy life. I will not become that.

I will work hard, so I may play hard. I will show them that impossible means nothing to me, that passion and joy mean more than money and things. So that when I die, and my life flashes before my eyes, I will see the good memories and the places I have made in others' hearts, not my final networth or bank account statement.

Money is a means, a tool, a resource. Not a way of life. I will not sit here and let them work me to the bone, pat me on the back, then remind me of all the mistakes I've made, and how if I don't do expressly what they say, I will make them again. How if I don't make X amount of money, I will be poor, my life will be misrible and everyone will hate me.

"Do as I say, not as I do" is a phrase they like to throw around.. but what happened to "Lead by example" - they are smart people, but they have lost what it means to life for life instead of for money. Passion is meaningless, cold logic is the only way. Decimals and dollar signs. That new plasma TV and surroundsound system, that landscaping job and immaculate driveway. The Porche in the garage.

Now that I've had these things.. I no longer want them. More than ever, I crave love and affection, and that is the last thing on their minds.. becuase at the end of the day, you cannot buy those things no matter how much money you have. You can only earn them. I intend to learn from the mistakes I have made, from the lessions I have learned here, and be a better person for it. I have seen what the desire for wealth does to someone, and I want no part of it.

I will work hard, and learn, to do the profession I am passionate about, to make a comfortable living so that my needs may be met - but never to excess. Maybe coming from poverty into outright opulence has messed with my head, but there is something very, very wrong with all this, and the way these two people live their lives. It rocks me to my core and tells me "No! This isn't the way!"

And that is why I can no longer stay here. I desire love and friendship and respect over money and cars and things. To them, that means I am ignorant, undiciplined and stupid. To me, they are intolerant, greedy and uncaring. Nobody, nobody should ever watch the news and delaire "Hey, they should just round up all the muslims!"

They are living the American dream.. to be ignorant suburbanites, and forgo their humanity for the sake of wealth.

And that's one sacrifice I'm not willing to make. (didn't I make a statement like that a bunch of months ago? damn, well, sometimes you need to find out the truth the hard way..)

See you in a week, friends.

Date: 2007-02-02 20:25 Subject: Thirty-Aught-Six Security: Public

Well, this has been an intresting and productive week! I finally finished working at Qsource.. broke down and recycled nearly 300 boxes, disassembeled over 2 dozen old computers for parts, brought the empty cases to the recycling places, went though a dozen boxes and organized the contents into storage bins, built 4 shelving units, put all the parts and bins on the shelves and labled all the boxes. Hot damn, the room looks good now, and I get a full weeks' paycheck at $10 US an hour.

I also went to the range today. I was just supposed to be going with Gail, but my dad's partner Ed wanted to come too. So when I finished up at Qsource early (there wasn't much left over to do from yesterday) I came home, chilled for a while, then went up to my dad's work. When Ed was done, I jumped in with him, and we went to his house. Upon arrival, we go into the garage, and he says "Here, hold this" and hands me a .306 (that's thirty-aught-six) rifle with a 9x scope on it. I sling that over my shoulder, and he hands me a box of 500 .22 rounds, and has me walk into his house with he gathered up the rest of his guns. His wife gave me the weirdest look XD.. having a kid she doesn't know walk into a house with a rifle on his shoulder and a box of ammo in his hand. He gets his case, and brought along a 12-ga shotgun and a .22 scoped bolt-action rifle. Swa-heet.

We got there just a few minutes after Gail, got our targets and ear protection, then started going at it. It was the most zen hour and a half of my life.

Ed bought some shotshells for me to use, and already had some .306 rounds, and he wanted to see how well I could deal with the kick from these massive guns. I fired the shotgun first, five shells, then 8 rounds from the .306. Holy shit, it was a lesson in humility. I didn't have much trouble taking the recoil, per se, but with 15 rounds between the two of them, I bet I would have had to stop if I fired any more. Gail wanted to use a pistol, so we went to the rental counter, and she asked for something small to start off with (as she'd never done it before). The guy picked out a Sig-Sauer .22, which was great becuase we didn't have to buy anymore ammo, thanks to Ed bringing along his gigantic box. So the rest of the time was spent between the pistol and the rifle, absolutely prefforating these targets. It turns out, once the guns were sighted in, I'm a pretty good shot. Again, thanks to KIMBA! Gail was pretty good with the rifle, too, but she has some vision trouble and couldn't quite work the pistol as well. But I can tell she had a lot of fun doing it.

When we were done, and Ed needed to get going, he handed the .22 rifle to me and said "Here, you can hold onto it for now".. meaning I can go to the range whenever I'd like, and only pay for range time, instead of having to rent a gun too. And he gave me the remaining 250-ish .22 rounds, so that should last me a while.

I cannot properly describe how stoked I am about all this.

Also, I made a decision about my schooling.. I need to call on monday for more information, but as long as there's no issues with the Canadian citizen thing, I'll be going to the Colorado School of Trades for their 14-month, 1800 hour Gunsmithing course. I'm holding off on that until September though, to make some money in T-Bay, work out a student loan, plus get a student visa, if I need one. A solid plan, I would think. I'll know more about that on monday, after I call them. For now, it's just what I hope to be doing.

Oh, and it was one year with Karyn on Feb. 1. Love you babe!