My room smells funny. I don't know why, or of what, but it does. Nothing really exciting to report at the moment. I went and saw Agent Cody Banks. I dunno why. The movie sucks, but I was surprised to see someone in it that I know from high school, so that was interesting.

My nostalgic longing for British Columbia seems to be growing stronger. That really bothers me, cuz I want to be happy here. I don't imagine I'll move back there, at least not anytime soon, and I don't know for sure if all the things I miss about home are still there, if they ever existed at all. I still remember why I left BC, and I don't anticipate things being any better in the job market if I ever moved back. So I definitely won't at least until I have some kind of education.

But let me try to explain why I miss living in God's Country. When I was really little, I lived in a tiny little town named Stewart, which is a long walk away from the very southern tip of the Alaskan Panhandle. I lived there for about three years, until I was 7 or 8. I seriously doubt that if I went back there today I'd really enjoy the town. I feel very comfortable in big cities; I get bored in small towns, usually. But when I was just a little shaver, I thought Stewart was the coolest place on earth to live. In the winter time, there'd be enough snow on the ground that a lot of the snow on the roof of our house would be sort of attached to the snow on the ground. the snow was higher than my parents' car. I thought that was incredibly cool. Made for great sledding, snowball fights, snowfort building. It wasn't so much fun when I was walking to school and got stuck in the snow, which happened a lot. The wildlife was amazing; we had porcupines sneaking around our house at night, there were swarms of bears skulking around the town dump. They weren't too much of a problem, though. Just kind of an annoyance, I guess. I remember this sort of hill/mountain across the highway from our house that my family would hike up every so often to pick blueberries. I missed that a lot, cuz it was a long time after that before I got a chance to eat blueberries right off the bushes. And the mountains themelves were Panoramic, to say the least. Friends of mine from Ontario talk about wanting to go "Out West" to see the mountains. To hear them talk about it, seeing the mountains would be a religious experience. There are lots of things I miss about Stewart, and other towns I lived in in BC, mostly little things that don't really sound like much when you try to explain them. Is it really worth it to live somewhere that's probably a lot more expensive, if it looks like heaven on earth? At the moment, I'm tempted to say yes. Here's some pictures I found that do a really poor job of explaining what I'm talking about:
http://www.explorenorth.com/library/communities/canada/stewartphotos.html
Sorry, Nitz isn't here to show me how to type in the code to put a link there, and I don't trust the "insert link" button on this site anymore. But copy and paste that link, and you'll have a vague idea of what I'm talking about. The third pic down is a picture of Bear Glacier, which is a little ways outside of town. You'll notice the lovely weather in most of these pictures. To most of you "Inlanders", it looks like it's overcast. Actually, like in the Bear Glacier pic the weather's clear. It's not really overcast unless the clouds are within arms reach. Otherwise, they'd never have clear weather.

Something I miss about BC wilderness that I'm pretty sure will not make sense to anyone: at night in the wintertime, when you're driving somewhere way out in the toolies, I love it. I think it's because it looks like you're so far away from everything related to humanity. I mean, except for the road and the power lines, of course it just looks like you're in a place that nobody, not even God has seen or been near in a hundred years. For some reason, I love the feeling of desolation and solitude. It's depressing, yet comforting at the same time. I really can't say why.

I suppose if I'd grown up in Alberta, I'd have similar feelings for this province. But on the rare occasion when I get away from the city, it just looks so bland and boring. If there's no snow the grass is sort of a yellowy-browny nauseating shade of monotony. I'm sure you didn't know that monotony had a colour, but there it is. I was just thinking how the entire province would benefit so much if we ripped out all the grass and Astroturfed Alberta. All of it. Every square Kilometre. So ya; I don't know if this will offend or annoy any of the prairie people who happen to read this. Sure hope so. They need to realize how butt-ugly this place can be. The best we can hope for is that the entire landscape will just be completely unnoticeable.

I think that's about it for now. Let me wait a minute to see if I've forgotten anything. Don't think so. Hey, thanks for indulging my nostalgia trip into my long-lost childhood. Gimme some feedback, already will ya?