Getting ready to go...

Well, it's off to Dragon*Con in a few hours with the AbbyShot crew. I've had my baptism by fire by getting ready for this big convention, and now I really feel like I'm becoming a part of the team. I'm sure the upcoming bonding experience of many, many people crammed into one hotel room will further strengthen our resolve. I honestly can't wait; selling coats from a booth to the diehard fans at Dragon*Con will be quite the adventure.

I can't believe we're leaving soon. I can't believe I'll be walking around Atlanta, Georgia in a perfect replica of Mad Max's original jacket. I can't believe how lucky I am to be working for a company like this.

I'm running over the mental checklists in my head, printing off every possible map or document that I might possibly have to glance at, and basically just keeping myself up when I should have been asleep LONG ago. As always, I'll be taking my camera with me to get it all in pictures. Bring on Atlanta, bring on Dragon*Con!

I'll be back September 6th...

It's an update! Don't worry, the pictures will be explained...

Treadmills have never been this cool before.

Okay, so it's been a little over a week since the last update. Many apologies to my rabid fanbase of... well... at least three people that have left comments! Thanks so much for that, I will be leaving comments on your blogs soon, once I think of some witty stuff to say. It's interesting too that my first comments haven't even come from here in Canada; I've got two from France so far and one from the Netherlands. I'm glad to see that my plan of slowly taking over the world is working well so far.

So what have I been up to since the last entry? It's been busy! Adjusting to my new job has been taking up a good bit of time lately, but I have to say that I'm REALLY enjoying it so far. It's the kind of job where I'm excited to go to work every morning, and believe me, I know how rare that feeling is! However, anyone fearing that I may become a stuffy, holier-than-thou business man (as my friend Mélanie may have mentioned), you can now rest easy. AbbyShot is a very relaxed place to work, the people are super-nice, and it's just a friendly atmosphere overall.

And I'm not just saying all this lovely stuff because they're taking me to Dragon*Con! Yes, as part of my marketing duties I get to be one of the AbbyShot contingent to hit one of the biggest sci-fi/fantasy conventions in the world, held every year in Atlanta, Georgia. I scrolled through the guest list for this event alone and I had a little geek-out moment. Number one person that caught my eye: James Callis from Battlestar Galactica. Before you go asking me why, it's just that this British actor's performance as Gaius Baltar is one of the most interesting things I've seen in a LONG while on television. His ascent from scared, anxious traitor at the beginning of the series to his current slick and charming political animal has to be seen to be believed. Beyond that, they've got people from Firefly/Serenity/Serenifly, Sulu and Tasha Yar from various Star Treks, and wait, I almost forgot Billy West, the voice of Fry and more importantly ZOIDBERG from Futurama!

Alright, I probably should bring this geek moment to a close. Right after I say that equally as exciting as the 'special guests', I am stoked to be able to go down to represent AbbyShot: meet lots of current (and hopefully future) customers, talk to lots of movie fans, discuss the goings-on with fellow exhibitors, see all the wild and crazy costumes that people will be dreaming up for this show, the list goes on. I'm sure it's going to be an amazing experience. I will certainly keep track of my thoughts and impressions about Dragon*Con to post up on this blog. I owe it to my (at least) three readers!

Now, before I head to bed there are two obvious things to mention: what the heck are these two pictures I've decided to randomly slap in this post?

Good question. The first is from one of the coolest things I've seen on YouTube in a while; it's a music video for a great song by a band called "Ok Go". But you don't want to watch this video to listen to the song (as good as it is). I don't know how long it took to choreograph this thing, but it's craziness! Seriously, you need to stop what you're doing and watch this.

And to end off, a picture from last weekend. Myself and a few friends took a camping trip to a beautiful little area of Newfoundland called Lamanche. Even though it rained and then rained some more on Saturday evening, we toughed it out, ate lots of food, and were treated with a beautiful day on Sunday for our troubles. This is the kind of picture that reminds me of why I love Newfoundland so much (as if I could ever forget). Until next time...

Lamanche, Newfoundland and Labrador, August 13 2006

Intense Job Hunt Comes to an End!

It's a celebration! Mark's got a job!

It's Sunday afternoon now and I'm in the backyard basking in a surprisingly warm and sunny day. My legs are still throbbing from an all-day Ultimate Frisbee tournament that rolled on yesterday through a mainly rainy and wet day. But it was still a great time! My randomly-picked (but amazingly fun) team went all the way to the finals, through six hard-fought but exciting 45-minute games. By the last game my legs felt like they weighed a hundred pounds each. We lost in a true battle of a final game, but each member of our second place team still got to drink a shot of Jagermeister from the toilet-shaped trophy. After a day of running around it was even less appetizing than it sounds, believe me. So I'm suffering today from aching muscles in just about every part of my body except for possibly my eyebrows, but I don't care! And there is one good reason for this:

I managed to get a job!

And not just any job either, this is an amazing, interesting, heart-stoppingly exciting job. Especially for me. It's with a company called AbbyShot Clothiers and they make incredibly detailed, screen-accurate clothing based on cult movies, TV Shows, and Anime. Say you wanted Silent Bob's coat from Clerks 2 or Neo's jacket from The Matrix. They can custom-make it for you, right here from their offices in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland. Just from meeting with them a few times they have already made me a huge believer in their company, and hopefully I can help them out over the next year. Finally my dorky movie-obsessed tendecies have come in handy in a job situation!

And speaking of movie obsession, I went to see Clerks 2 last night. I'm a big fan of Kevin Smith's films; he is a movie geek who makes hilarious films for other movie geeks. The bigger the movie geek you are, the more you'll get out of his stuff. And Clerks 2 is no exception: there is some insanely funny stuff in here about The Lord of the Rings, Transformers, Star Wars (of course), and many subtle nods towards the original Clerks. Obviously, being a Kevin Smith film, there is also the requisite raunchy humour all fans expect with a few jokes based on obscure racial slurs, a poor dork named Elias who has a VERY strange reason for not having sex with his girlfriend, and a finale that revolves around an erotic donkey show. Despite all this, the whole piece still has an honest voice about relationships and the important turning points in our lives, and all the characters end up being people we still care about in the end. I don't care if Kevin Smith went back on his "promises" in returning to these characters again because the movie is one of the funniest I've seen in ages. Hopefully Mr. Smith can return to the New Jersey we all know and love a few more times if it stays this fresh and honest.

Strange and Wonderful Weekend...

Everything that's worth doing in St. John's begins on (or around) George Street.

Friday night at the Republic. It started out as a few rounds of drinks between our Ultimate Frisbee team to celebrate our friend Dave's birthday. Yes I play Ultimate Frisbee and it is a damn fine sport! Anyway, between conversations about TV shows, music, and Internet videos that are probably better off forgotten (except for Terry Tate: Office Linebacker, that one gets me every time), it became increasingly clear that I wasn't going to get home by 1am as I had so optimistically planned. I even took my car, just so I could fool myself into thinking I was going to drive home early.

By 4:30am myself and nine other Ultimate freaks were chasing a glowing frisbee around Larch Park. No, there were no drugs involved; this frisbee actually DID have red glowing lights in it. I swear! It was probably the most fun I've had while still sober, and my level of play was better than in any other game all year. Then again, everyone else was drunk. I will proceed to get down off my high horse. What a great time though, someone had a camera-phone so hopefully there'll be pictures floating around soon.

The rest of the weekend also seemed to spring from that initial Friday at the Republic. Sitting around in the pub, we were all invited to a house party by another one of our Ultimate frisbee teammates who also happens to be the frontman for the best new band on the local music scene, Hey Rosetta! And yes, the exclamation point (!!!) is always required. Talented and eclectic frisbee team we have, indeed.

So Saturday night I ended up at the house party where I saw lots of people I expected to see and even MORE that I didn't. But therein lies the fun of house parties in St. John's. Well, that and confounding a random drunk guy by busting out a reference to James Joyce's wife. But once again, confounding a drunk guy is not the pinnacle of worldly achievement, so I will once again move on! The party shifted into the basement eventually, and an impromptu jam session broke out with a few of the guys from Hey Rosetta! alternating through a few different instruments for a laugh.

Cut to Sunday night, and I was standing with a huge crowd on George Street watching Hey Rosetta! rocking out from the outdoor stage. A bit of alcohol was flowing through my system by now and their powerful music and poignant lyrics sounded more epic than ever, floating up through the open air and into every closely packed pub on the street. The energy on the street seems to rise up through the cobblestones and infect everyone adventurous enough to join in the revelry. You can meet everyone you know on a single night of the George Street Fest, yet you still feel close to those strangers that are standing like yourself, wrapped in the wondrous enjoyment of... wait. This is the alcohol talking. Let's be realistic here and say it was a fine night with great people.

The second act was Matt Mays and El Torpedo, they're a solid rock band, they love Newfoundland, and they are definitely not new to the street. What happened halfway through their set, however, drove every lucky audience member absolutely wild and is now forever engraved into George Street legend.

Gazeebow Unit came out of nowhere to perform a song.

Now, for anyone not familiar, Gazeebow Unit are a hilarious Newfoundland rap posse who hail from Airport Heights. They are as elusive as the Yeti, and are learned about only by rumour and hearsay. I hear, for example, that they're still in High School and are not actually the wife-beater-wearing fake rappers that they pretend to be and are only making fun of this type of person that we Newfoundlanders for some reason call a skeet.

Whoever/whatever they are, they are HILARIOUS and got the whole street pumping with their much-talked-about song Ski-Doos, Ski-Doos, Trikes, and Bikes. Apparently those are the recreational activities enjoyed in the local area of Airport Heights. Oh, and also, at da gazeebow, dey likes ta fight. You just have to click on the link and listen to the song.

Amazing weekend, amazingly long-winded wrap-up by me! But here it is, recorded for posterity. And as my lovely friend who shares the name of James Joyce's wife told me: "Posterity is a good reason." Works for me.