Forget Hockey!

Soccer is where it's at now. Tuesday after work, Matt and I headed over to Pincher Creek to coach our U-16 soccer team from Elkford. Matt is normally the assistant coach for this team, but the actual coach wasn't there, so Matt became the coach, and I became the self-proclaimed assistant coach. Together Matt and I led our team to a 7-0 victory against Fort MacLeod. I take full credit for this victory. Clearly I had everything to do with it.

Tonight we will head out to Crowsnest Pass (maybe Coleman or somewhere around there) to murder another poor and unsuspecting soccer team. Apparently we're leaving this minute, so I need to go now.

**UPDATE** We took the Crowsnest team 2-0 tonight.

My First Day

My worst nightmare has come true: I must wake up every day at 5:30 am. I didn't even know there were two 5:30's in each day! I have to be at the corner of my street by 5:55 to catch a bus that will take me up to the mine so I can start working by 7 am. On the drive up today we passed a number of elk (eek?) and moose (meese?). Throughout the drive Dennis (my new boss) also pointed out where mountains used to stand, and where they now stood. Through the mining process here, mountains are literally moved from one place to another while the coal is extracted from the mountain.

Arriving at the mine site, we passed through electronic toll-booth-style gates which are opened up using a remote from inside the vehicle. The area inside these gates is outside the jurisdiction of the RCMP. As Matt put it, it is like sailing through international waters. I'm not allowed to take pictures of the mine site, otherwise I would take some and show you folks where I work.

My title at this job is a "PC Analyst" which means that I'm the local computer nerd. But this isn't your typical nerdy office job. I wear steel toed boots to work, along with jeans, a hard hat, and safety glasses. That's the cool kind of nerd. Rugged.

Elkford

I moved to Elkford today. It's a little coal mining town in BC. I will be working for the mining company doing computer work for them. Hopefully it's not too bad. I'll try to get some pictures up here soon. Bad news, though: I forgot my tripod in Priddis. Life goes on, though...

Full Moon

Last night I ran outside and shot pictures of the full moon. After taking 30 or so shots, I decided that I wasn't happy with any of the pictures. BUT, since I need something to show for my efforts, I have decided to display these three pictures. The first one is a long exposure of the moon that makes it seem as though it's the sun. The second one is a slightly blurry closeup of the moon that I'm fairly unhappy with... but I figured you'd be disappointed if you didn't see any actual 'full moon' pictures when that's the subject of this series, so I included it. For you. The third picture is a long exposure looking towards the glow of Calgary. You'll notice that an airplane decided to make its way into the picture as well.

Random Shots

Matt Yeomans told me that I need to write a little something after my pictures in order to breathe life back into this blog. I am heeding his advice and trying this out. Let me know what you think... The first and last picture here were taken a couple weeks ago, but I didn't think they were good enough to show to the public. I have since lowered my standards and figured that I need to post some not-so-great pictures in addition to the 'great' pictures so that you don't form unrealistic expectations for my photography. So there you have it. Also included in today's post is a shot I took today of our dandelion field, also known as our backyard. I just realized the wide angle shot makes our backyard look pretty massive. Maybe I should take a wide angle shot of my biceps, too. Finally, to round things off, I have included a picture looking up towards our kitchen chandelier. Hope you like em!

Dusk Shots