Ask Yourself...

For Love or Money?

Saturday, September 4, 2010

The Wonders of the Amazon

I have had some business ideas for a couple years now. When I was back in Calgary I shared these ideas with my friend Darren and he was super receptive. We started elaborating on my original ideas and actually came up with a pretty sweet concept. We even went and talked to some "experts" who are already in that particular business and they even offered to help us out when the time comes.

When we were chatting with our "expert" she told us about a cool documentary and some books that could help and educate us. So last night I was searching on the web to see if I could find some of what she suggested. Unfortunately it's a bit of an obscure topic and I was unable to find a torrent for the documentary. She suggested that I try looking on amazon. I had never been on the site before, so I decided to check it out. I ended up getting 5 books for like $40. $8 per book, can't complain about that. When in reality I got a couple books for $0.01 but shipping was like $6.50 or something.

Not all the books had to do with business either, in fact only 1 did, the other 4 were purely for pleasure. I took out my reading list I had written down a little while ago and searched a few of the books. The prices were right so I couldn't refuse!

I'm excited to get all my new presents and have many hours of entertainment for only $40.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Nostalgic

It's sometimes funny how this world seems to work. Lately I've been watching an old favourite TV show of mine, "The Wonder Years". From watching it I often felt very nostalgic and wished I could go back to being 13 and relive some of the exact same things that Kevin Arnold was going through. Little did I know that in the week to follow, I would be given a chance to do just that... somewhat.

On the 25th of August around 10:15am I embarked on a road trip to Calgary. I was headed home to visit my parents and Darren St. Clair, who was flying in from London, England. I decided not to rush the trip out and stop off in Kamloops on my way out, the old stompin' grounds. For those of you who don't know, I spent my younger years in Kamloops before moving to Calgary. I got in touch with my old bestfriend, Lauren, and we made plans to meet up for dinner. I ended up hanging out with her and her family for about 6 hours. It was really great to spend time with her again, and have the opprotunity to chat with her mom, dad, and sister. All of which I hadn't seen in roughly 6 years.

Through sitting and chatting with Lauren and her family, I was shot right back to when I was kid. Lauren and I remembered stories from back when we were young. Her mom told us a lot of the same stories, but from the adults perspective, which was funny. We went through her year books and I was able to see the difference between how the people looked when I left Kamloops compared to how they looked when they graduated high school, if they graduated. We also went for a drive around the old city. We stopped by my first house and neighborhood in Kamloops. It was almost too much, I had an overwhelming giddyness the entire time. It was such a trip back in time to drive around and remember the way I walked to school, where I used to play, who lived where and surprising to learn that most people still live in the same spot.

After the trip back in time I went to sleep totally content and with a big smile on my face. I woke up early the next morning and headed on out to my final destination, Calgary. A few days into my trip I would be thrown back in time once again. Darren and I were headed to Canada Olympic Park to check it out, and on the way I decided to stop by my old high school and take a peak around. As we walked the halls I was reliving memory after memory and trying to tell Darren about as many of them as could. Then we stopped at the wall with all the class photos and find my photo and looked through the few years before and after my graduating year. It was fun to look at everyone and tell Darren stories of all the different people.

The whole trip I couldn't stop thinking how funny it was that for about 2 weeks leading into the trip I was watching the show wishing I could go back, and then in a way I was given that opprotunity.

It's a crazy, whacky, wonderful world we live in...

**And I forgot, I also found all these old photos and letters hidden in the back of my closet. That was another trip down memory lane!