Recently we had a chance to spend some time up on the mountain with VASS (Vancouver Adaptive Snow Sports), an organization dedicated to making alpine sports accessible to everyone. It was pretty inspiring to see what these guys and gals can do, but I’ll let the videos do the talking.

VASS is holding their [only] annual fundraiser this month, and could use some serious word of mouth (and mouse).

On April 27th 2003, I left for a summer in Montreal with two bags: one full of clothes, and one full of oil paints, canvas, paint brushes, a journal, and a Kerouac novel. A month or so earlier a friend had offered me a room. I said yes. I had finished the third year of my Industrial Design degree 3 days earlier, had just lived my first year on my own, had recently been through a shitty [for me] break up, and had just turned 20. I was bent on being a bohemian for the summer. I would make moody oil paintings, burn incense, listen to Ani DiFranco and, if necessary, attempt to smoke clove cigarettes.

Please enjoy. A time capsule from my life.

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Friday May 2 2003

I’m here… in montreal. Tuesday was the day from hell. I booked my flight with Aeroplan (thanx dad) and they made it their mission to give me the scenic ruite with a stop in Edmonton, Winepeg, then Ottawa… 4 HOURS IN OTTAWA. If was on something high enough, I could have peed on Montreal from where I sat, longingly staring East.

So after 4 hours without the book that I left on the seat of my previous flight, I got onto a plane that looked like a toy and which sat about 20. It felt like some weird Air Canada Jazz version of a bad foreshadowing scene from an Indiana Jones film. I ended up sitting next to the “I hate flying” guy. It was either that, or he was Indiana Jones and knew something that I didn’t. There were about 15 open seats and he climbed over my lap to sit next to emergency exit. It didn’t much matter because as soon as we stopped climbing we started to descent again. I should have walked.

Wednesday was beautiful…. not super warm, but absolutely gorgeous. I spent about three hours walking around the city in my toque and the wool jacket i stole from Jason [edit: I actually left it in Montreal. I still feel bad about it]… i think i was the only guy on St. Dennis without leather pants. I managed to get a wicked sunburn that nicely followed the contour of my toque down the side of my face.

On the porch.

Yesterday we moved into our new place…. It is GREAT. My room looks out to the street from the third floor of this old old house/apartment. Twelve foot ceilings, hardwood floors… my room has a huge blue stained glass window. It’s about the size of three of my rooms…. four. It’s amazing. I’ll take photos.

Today i went down to a local gym and grabbed a membership for two months. The place is a gay man’s mecca. I made the decision that i didn’t need to go into the change room again; it was as though I’d stumbled though a wrinkle in time right into a Greek bath house…. sauna, jacuzzis, steam room, tanning bed… all, apparently, with an unwritten no clothing man-code. I think the other rule that I missed was that you need to pair up and rub your partner down with moisturizer… really bizarre….

Alright. Enough for now… having a good time. As soon as we get the internet set up, I’ll send some individual emails.

Ciao. j

Swing over to AdHack.com/BALLS for the contest. You tell them what happened next. The best script will get made. And that’s pretty cool ::

While you’re there, listen to the Balls song and make your own avatar like these ones (and if you do, make a comment so that it can be found and shown off with the others) ::

Don’t forget to share the balls. Pass it along on twitter, facebook, your blog, etc. A little balls go a long way!

This is a little animation we put together for the Giant Ant Media open house this past Friday.

As you may have noticed, we re-launched our little company last week in conjunction with Chinese New Years with a new studio in Gastown, a couple of new team members, and a brand spanking new website. 2009 is the year of the Ant.

Thanks to those of you that come down on Friday and drank beer with us. We had a great time. For those of you who couldn’t make it, swing by the site and poke around.

Dear Overnightprints.com,

I want to break up. And I want to have one of those ugly breakups where none of my friends ever talk to you again. I want sides to be taken. I don’t want you dating my buddies a few months from now. It needs to be a clean break.

Why, you might ask? Things were going so well, right? It all started about a year ago. Remember that non-profit I helped to start, Watch For Change? Well, we ordered business cards from you. The files said grey, but you printed them purple. Remember when you sent new ones to fix the mishap and they were purple too? And then you sent more purple cards to make up for it. I have a closet full of cards now that I’m still embarrassed to give out. Once the dust has settled, you can pick them up along with your toothbrush and Moulin Rouge DVD.

It was only one time? No it wasn’t, Overnightprints.com. Remeber that time that I ordered Christmas Cards for Urban Project, that charity I’m a Director of? They were supposed to arrive by December 17th. Remember when I called you on Dec 22nd asking where they were, and you told me I’d have them by the 26th? Yeah… I can see by the look on your face that you remember. And then remember when they hadn’t arrived by the 28th and I called? Do you remember telling me that you’d gone ahead and cancelled the order for no particular reason? Yeah, that was pretty lame.

I know you hate it when I yell at you, so at first I really appreciated the “full refund” you gave me when you cancelled the order. So much so, that I changed the card to a Happy New Year card and re-ordered.

But then I looked at my credit card statement. Did you really need to stiff me for that $6? I know you might have been angry about the things I said and I know that we shouldn’t argue when I’ve been drinking… but $6? Do you really feel better about the situation after stealing six lousy bucks from a charity?

I’m over you Overnightprints.com. I’ve thrown out your love letters, I’ve deleted your number from my phone.

I’m over-reacting, you say? Well, I haven’t told you about the best part yet. Remember those cards that I re-ordered? The ones that I changed to Happy New Year cards? The ones that were a week late? Well they arrived. At first I didn’t mind paying the $ 34.00 brokerage fee; I was just so happy to have you back in my life. Excitedly, I poured myself a glass of wine, put on my nicest shirt, and tore open my package from you.

You sent me blank cards. You charged a me $71.00 for blank cards, with a $ 34.00 brokerage fee.

I knew you were petty, Overnightprints.com, but I never knew you’d stoop this low. I want to tell you though, I got the last laugh; I peed on your toothbrush… and then I told all my friends about what you did.

Sincerely from your ex-customer,

Jay Grandin

PS - I’ll be calling you between 9 and 5 tomorrow for my full refund.