Education... Career!?

Today I got my first cheque for something I learned in school.

I'm still waiting on a cheque for writing an essay that examines a speech by Obama regarding global warming, and ANY money for ANYTHING to do with anthropology, but college on the other hand has just started paying off. Who would of thought it- my education actually leading to a job. A part-time job even!

For the past couple months I've been doing freelance work for Shaw TV, editing a show called Mike on Ice. The first one I worked on is right here... it should give you an idea of the down-home country charm of Mike and all the wonders of ice fishing. I've learned everything I know about ice fishing from working on this show, and I now recognize it as the most fun you can have gathered around a hole on a frozen lake in the dead of winter.

Now I share this video with you because there's a chance some of you may not have seen the show yet.  (I'm looking at you, everyone I know...) But if you're like me and have no idea what ice fishing is beyond its two main components (1. Fish and 2. Freezing your bait off), then watching Mike is a great way to gently guide you. When is it on? I have no idea. 

Anyways, I'd also like to take the opportunity to offer my services to others as a freelance editor. Oh and I do shooting too... although ideally not on or around frozen tundra. But get your offers in quick- my rates skyrocket as soon as I walk across a stage and accept a piece of paper. 

Gosh I hope that happens.

Rebel Without A Team: Love and Basketball Diaries of a Skinny Kid: The Andrew Parker Story

Tonight I tried out for the Red River College Rebels Men’s Basketball Team.

In some sort of twisted fantasy to test myself against a former version of me, I decided to go to the tryouts at RRC’s Notre Dame campus. Even if they offered me an intensely flattering starting position, I knew I wouldn’t have the time to play college basketball, but I really wanted to give it a try and evaluate my skills.

I haven’t played serious basketball since Grade 12, which (let’s be honest) was quite a while ago. So I was relieved that some abilities stick with you to an extent, although I felt pretty out of place coming in all skinny jeans and no muscles. There was way more people than I expected, so in spite of how I felt I looked, I knew standing out would be hard. Also, did you know that no one wears low-cut 6.0’s as basketball shoes? What a shock! Great shoes, but not a popular basketball model apparently.

See? Not playing basketball.

Did you see the kicks on #11? He's got nothing to prove!

So after the first half hour, things kicked off with straight games. 4 on 4, lots of action and one sub. I relaxed as things got going, and there were good and bad parts to my experience.

The worst was definitely getting my junk hit so hard I felt it necessary to go to the locker room to check for permanent damage (I think I’m fine, those things are resilient). Also, during the first few games, I was feeling pretty uncomfortable. Now I like going out and running a mile as much as the next kid, but I haven’t pushed it like that in a long time. I used to play whole games and hated getting subbed off, but now it looks like those days are behind me. I felt like I was suffering from pulmonary ventilonitis, which is a serious condition I made up at the time, in which your heart explodes into your trachea and murders you. Symptoms include tasting blood and wanting to pass out.

But in spite of that, I had fun. I made some buckets, blocks, and moves I was really proud of, some against guys bigger and stronger than me, and at the end I even wanted to keep going. Oh and the stronger thing? They made teams based on height, and I was the 4^th tallest guy there… so I was matched against some hefty dudes!

In the end, the Rebels and I decided to part ways in the first round of cuts. And by that I mean they said “Hey- you’re not at this level!” and I said “Yeah, good decision.” So it’s not meant to be, and I’m OK with that. I’m happy how things went and how I played. Yes I made some mistakes, but that’s part of this experience. At least I didn’t get dunked on, right? And I stayed conscious the ENTIRE time.

Good luck this season Rebels, there’ll be some nice guys on that team. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go remember better times while I take a bath and drink hot cocoa out of a water bottle.

Grade 12 Provincial Champs! I'm the precocious one on the right.

My train-related humour was right on track.

This week I became a tour guide.

It was Red River’s first CreComm Information Night on Monday, and I volunteered along with several of my classmates to help out by sharing our wealth of knowledge and experience with the next generation. In my opinion, it couldn’t have gone any better.

Here's me explaining some of the campus' lush history. They gave us uniforms from Missiouri Tech for some reason. 

I teamed up with former Class 1 superstar Rachelle Taylor, and we brought about 20 people, mostly perspective students plus some of their mothers, around the school to show them some highlights. I thought it was incredible how Rachelle and I were able to balance such stark professionalism with easygoing charm, and judging by the thoughtful nodding and comfortable smiles from the crowd, it was clear they agreed.

Anyways, the reason I thought it went so well is that it gave us an opportunity to get these kids in on the ground floor of the CreComm experience, including and especially the entrance process. Throughout the tour we gave all kinds of interesting tips and fascinating information about the program and joint-degree path, but it was afterwards that we stuck around to answer questions with open arms. I was very glad that several students and their mothers stayed to learn more; sure, they were shy at first, but the aforementioned easygoing charm of the aforementioned tour guides disarmed their skittishness and gave them the courage to approach anyone, no matter how attractive those guides were.

Rachelle and I with our group getting ready to leave the Princess Building.

Rachelle and I were able to give advice to the students regarding their portfolios and entrance tests (some of which were scheduled for the following day!), and tried to instill these young ones with the confidence to succeed. And yes, most of their proposed portfolios sounded much, much better than mine, so it was easy to encourage their effort.

CreComm staff told me that 150 people attended, so it was really great to see that interest and I legitimately enjoyed being a part of it. All the best to you kids!