This was my bedroom from 1994 to 2003.

I took this picture on September 27th, 2003, probably because that's around the time when my parents told us that we were moving to Ontario. I probably wanted to immortalize it in my memory and on film...a habit I've gotten into when moving away from subsequent residences.

Of all the bedrooms I've had, this was the one I personalized the most. Well, either this one, or the one in Scarborough from 2004 to 2010.

Anyway, let's see what we can identify here, going from left to right:
-A mirror, with a drawing of a car above it.
-A Lego truck, a can of body spray?, and a spider plant at lower left.
-An orange plant, a hanging plant, a Ferrari logo drawing, and a Lego space robot on the shelf above it.
-A cardboard whale and calf hanging above the desk.
-My eMac on the desk, with an Algebra/Trigonometry textbook that I was no doubt resenting.
-A class schedule above my computer.
-A Pringles can with pens in it that I still use every day in 2022.
-A wooden ornament that I or my dad made.
-A Smucker's jam jar for some reason.
-Miscellaneous crap.
-What looks like my Panasonic discman on the shelf.
-A few printed pictures of drumsets.
-A flyer for my friend's band, The Pedestrians.
-A bunch of car logos that I drew.
-A few "Racism Sucks" stickers on the window frame.
-Little statues of The Undertaker and Bret Hart.
-A tube of M&Ms.
-What looks like a stack of APS film containers.
-My Sony clock radio that I got in 1996, on top of my first CD tower. I used it until I moved to my current residence in 2021.
-A horizontal CD tower that I also still have.
-A blue hook on the beam-shelf.
-A stick of Old Spice deodorant.
-A multi-band radio that my grandfather gave to me. It doesn't work anymore, but I could tune it to police, airport, and other frequencies.
-Various nasal sprays (What? I'm human!).
-The bedside table which I still use in 2022.
-Above the window, a shitty cardboard art piece, next to Han Solo, Shang Tsung, Smoke, and Raiden.
-A water/bubble toy thing on the windowsill.
-More car logos I drew, and a printed picture of Neil Peart.
-Behind the bed, a photo of Obi-Wan Kenobi on the Death Star.
-A medal from the cottage olympics, and a poster of Yakko from Animaniacs.
-An antique twin bed that I slept on from childhood until I moved out at the age of 24.
-On the headboard, some Spice Girls stickers, a Jamaica sticker, a Jurassic Park sticker, and a few others.
-On the bed, a dumbell, a box, and some other junk, on top of a blanket my great-grandmother knit for me as a baby/before I was born.

__________
IMG_7323ps

Tags:   Room bedroom Newfoundland St. John's childhood youth memories film APS Kodak Advantix T500 lived in

© All Rights Reserved

I was reading Rick Mercer's book Talking to Canadians this afternoon, and he was talking about Stockwell Day in the year 2000. It got me thinking about what was happening in my life in the year 2000, and how I think back fondly to those times. Of course, it wasn't all good, but I do miss that time overall. I have precious few photos from the late 90s/early 2000s, before I got my first digital camera, so the ones I have hold more weight for me. I decided to look for another pic from the year 2000 to post, before I go eat my supper. Most of the pics I have from 2000 that I haven't already posted aren't that salvageable, but this one is.

This is Dad at the old campsite at Granite Canal, cooking what look like chicken breasts on a rock by the fire. The chair on the left belonged to his friend Horace, and I still remember it. Behind Dad is a bag of shower water, which was meant to heat up in the sun, with his Tilley Hat on top of it. This was one of the last years we camped or fished at that location. By 2003, the water had been diverted elsewhere for a hydro project. But I've told that story before.

The late '90s/early 2000s were significant for me because I was a teenager, and therefore frequent changes were inevitable. I would be in a new grade every year; taking new classes every year; having new friends, bullies, and unrequited crushes every year; a new Big Shiny Tunes CD every year, and so on.

In 2000, probably the most significant event for me on paper was that it was my first year of high school, which in Newfoundland is Grade 10. In fact, I started high school less than two months after taking this picture. Interestingly, I met my now-wife exactly 12 years after taking this picture.

In 2000, I was probably playing a lot of Nintendo 64 and not doing enough homework or studying, but my marks were generally better in high school than in junior high. I joined a youth bowling league around that time, which I went to on the weekends, I think. I was probably the worst bowler in that local group, but I did get "most improved average" that year, so that's something.

I was living in my third house in St. John's, which is still the place I've lived in longer than any other. I was listening to bands like the Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, Marilyn Manson, KISS and AC/DC, and had just began playing drums again after giving up a few years before. Although I subsequently didn't play drums much/at all between 2013 and 2017, that was simply because I didn't have a useable drumset; I didn't give up a second time.

On that note, because it's the year I started playing drums again, 2000 was probably also the year that my obsession with cars started to fade and was replaced with my musical ambitions. I had bought a shitty tape recorder in Junior High for a dollar, and by 2000 I had formed a band with my friends Aaron and Asem, which would evolve into another band called Cloud Machine over the next several months. My oldest recording of either of these iterations of the band was from 2001, but I suspect we may have recorded music in 2000...but I don't know. I was 15, so it would have been sloppy, but still, listening back to those recordings now, we were pretty focused, even if our skills had yet to develop.

What did the year 2000 look like for you?

___________
IMG_6861ps

Tags:   Father cooking campfire food camping Newfoundland Granite Canal forest woods film APS Kodak Advantix T500

© All Rights Reserved

Here's an old film shot from my family's trip to Japan in August of 2002. This is my brother in the yellow shirt; I can't tell who's next to him. We were there for a conference my dad was participating in. The conference was held at the building on the left, and our hotel was in the dark tower on the right.
-------------------
2011 was off to a decent start, but last night I received some bad news about a family member. I'm not going to elaborate at this point...I guess these things just happen.

On top of that, I've been making a lot of spelling mistakes in my typing over the past several days; I've been feeling a little distracted when I've been driving; and my drumming at last week's band practice was sloppy. My guitar playing is just as fast as normal, but not quite as precise as it should be. It's got me thinking that something's going wrong with my motor skills.

Tags:   IMG_1008194ps Japan Yokohama Asia brother guy teenager film Kodak Advantix T500 APS retro old-school youth buildings sky water person Minato Mirai 21 Landmark Tower

© All Rights Reserved

This is my grandparents' cottage, circa 1989. I don't remember it looking like this (a log cabin), but this cottage has been the only home that's been in my life for my entire life.

My grandparents had it built in 1979, and by the early '90s the logs had been covered over with boards, and later covered again.

The antenna would have been my grandfather's idea, I'm sure, as he loved to watch TV. The Ford Bronco II was my dad's, which is how I'm able to determine that this photo was probably taken in 1989. Also, I have another photo of me, my dad and my brother when the cottage looked like that, which was most certainly from 1989, which is why I assume these pictures were from the same trip. We would have driven there from St. John's, Newfoundland, where we were living at the time. The Volvo station wagon presumably belonged to my grandmother's sister and/or brother-in-law, who had a similar-looking cottage just out of view to the right.
___________
IMG_8372ap

Tags:   Cottage house building retro '80s 1980s film I didn't take this picture blue sky rural Canada Ford Bronco Ford Bronco II Ford Bronco 2

© All Rights Reserved