ClinTicker 2000: Returning from Montreal Til Today

My inner thighs are now complaining as part of my recovery from Ultimate the other night. Well, you have to admit my posting regularity had improved dramatically leading up to my short trip to Montreal. I even squeezed in a post while experiencing a lull in activities over t here. Then I came back, and pptthh, back to my trickleage of postings. Well kids, that's why I do the ClinTicker, to give you outdated but condensed summaries of full posts that could have been. Anyway, it feels like I have a lot to write for the next 5 - 10 minutes so I'll get things rolling now...

Volunteer blogger gets sacked
My contributor's account for BeyondRobson.com unceremoniously deleted. The editor, Ar., felt that my posting frequency has never been sufficient or consistent enough and now that they were finally deciding to pay their writers, the posting requirements would become a little stiffer. So that was that, booted out of the inner circle of quasi-journalism!

To her credit, Ar. was apologetic and left the door open for me should the time come when I would be motivated enough to contribute 3- 5 posts per week. It's ironic because I had been doings things around town and keeping better tabs on upcoming local events/news but could not get it up to post on the blog. I am currently awaiting a similar fate on Kitsilano.ca, where I have submitted a big 2 posts since joining in late May. Their posting requirements are ridiculously lax andI still haven't been able to satisfy them. Talking just about the Kits neighborhood is tough. It's just there... the same old Kits. It really makes me feel that I've lived in this city way too long because I can't seem to find anything novel.. or just anything that interests me about one of the most popular areas in town.

Camry Gets Pwned by U-Haul
My beloved Camry Power was roughed up by a shitty driver and her rented U-Haul truck late last week. Coincidentally, it was the first day I got carpooled to the office, so I had left my car unattended for the entire day and was oblivious to the damage done to my car until the next morning.

Thankfully, the culprit was honest and left a detailed note on my windshield that outlined her name, driver's license number, cell phone number, the U-Haul plate number, a sincere apology and a special Grand Theft Auto rating of just what a piss poor driver she was. I was very thankful for the note, since it made for smooth transactions with ICBC (fairly unhelpful) and my extended insurance provider (much better). Granted, it was merely convenient for the driver to leave her honest note on my car, since she disclosed that she had insured her truck rental. Smart girl.

My deductible is $300 and I've been warned that I will likely have to wait a couple months to get that moolah back. Oh well. The damage to the Camry is significant, with the front left blinker completely smashed half the bumper was hanging off the body. Value of the repairs will probably exceed $2000. Times like this when I don't grumble about my premiums and feel very lucky to be insured.

Union Proggressive Progressively Improving
Ti., one of my DJ mates, finally came clean and offered many blistering, but helpful, criticisms on our DJ site, unionprogressive.com

In summary, he told me to cut the amateur act, remove the fluff writing and garbage photos and get with the program. Ouch. We had another meeting of the minds (in itself a somewhat amusing story...) and I polled Ax. and Ta. about Ti's suggestions. I was a bit surprised to find out they agreed with most of it. And so it was back to the computer where I've been steadily streamlining the content and prettying things up, and I have to say the site is looking a lot cleaner and much more focused.

The site has been up for almost a year and it took that long for someone to finally give me some real input to help improve the site. As harsh as I found his complaints, I have to credit Ti. for getting involved with the evolution of Union Progressive. You can't always have people slapping your back and saying "it's all good" when in fact the website you've been coddling for 10 months has been too wordy, borderline pretentious and marred by some truly awful, sub-amateur digital photographs.

DJ Seeks Audience with Bar Owner, Eats Pho Instead.
There's a lounge/pub downtown called Tribeca which I have been eyeing up for a few months as a potential venue to host an official Union Progressive night. Now that I have amassed a small posse, recorded some decent demo tapes and finally printed up some professional-looking business cards, I was ready to make my pitch to the owner.

I rallied the troops for the attack, even dragging out Ta. despite her severely weakened and hung-over state and we converged on Tribeca last Thursday evening. Imagine our surprise when we found the dimly-lit, classy lounge had been taken over by a Vietnamese restaurant. Remnants of Tribeca could still be found, like their chalkboard menus, Tribeca signage and the statue of a half-naked Greek god, which made for an odd-looking but still very classy, pho joint.

Ti. and I arrived first, jaws agape. The situation was quite amusing and since I was still in need of dinner, I relented and went inside for a bowl of vermicelli. We decided to let Ax. be taken by surprise as well. Because she was borderline ill, I gave Ta. a warning in case she didn't feel like hanging out now that Tribeca was gone. She came anyway.

It was a slight shot to to the morale. The crew spent several futile minutes brainstorming other viable place that would be receptive to us starting a DJ night with them. The good news is everyone recommitted to the idea of going full bore on the streaming radio station which we've bandied around since the inception of UP. We've started our DJ recruitment in earnest now and will hopefully have a decent roster of show hosts in the next 2 months. If anyone knows a DJ, you know who to talk to.

Talladega Nights
People are seeing this movie left and right. I hear it's a riot, even better than the venerable Anchorman. Time to crack open the phonebook, get on the horn and see who wants to check this out with me.