East, then west.

If things had gone to plan, I'd be sitting in an airport right now, bound for a return trip to Africa.

But for various reasons, most of which weren't confirmed until yesterday afternoon, I'm tapping away at my desk instead. This, in my mind, is not a bad thing.

Time > Money. Don't ever forget that, kids.

— Mat Trevors (@mattrevors) January 11, 2013

I like my work all fine & good, but an extra week at home is appreciated. Even if it means a 33°C temperature difference.

Note: It's an unseasonably mild day here in New Brunswick. Had I written this earlier this week or last week, that temperature difference would be more like 48°C. For my 'merican cousins, that's the difference between 81°F and -5°F.

So if things go to plan (version 2.0), I'll be sitting in an airport or on a plane next Saturday, bound for a return trip to Africa.

*          *          *

If any of you follow along with my dribble on Twitter and Instagram, you're probably all aware of our plans of relocating. But in case you missed it, here it is: after I escape the clutches of work in Africa, we're moving to Vancouver Island.

We'll be doing our best Beverley Hillbillies impersonation with our moving truck, which may be familiar to car manufacturers, dealers and me as my 2003 Ford Sport Trac.

Valuables that can't be left behind & must be loaded on the truck include my Chupacabra kayak, fishing & tying gear, my bike, my lovely girlfriend's ever-growing book collection, as well as numerous personal & kitchen effects, including my various coffee snob paraphernalia.

And we mustn't forget Awesome the Dog and his crate, too.

After we pile a small U-Haul truck's worth of gear in and on a small truck, we'll then drive from the eastern side to the western side of the world's second largest country in February, known to some as 'winter.'

We're making the move for a number of reasons, but is best summarized by these two reasons:

• I'm on a mission to bridge the divide between the East Coast and West Coast rap scenes, and to prevent any escalating violence while promoting a confluence of the ideals and creativity of hip hop and rap from both coasts*. 
• My lovely girlfriend, Awesome the Dog, and I all absolutely hate winter. And both my lovely girlfriend and I would like a change in scenery, at least temporarily. Awesome is unable to communicate whether he wants a change in scenery as well, though. 

Note: The twelve months of fishing Vancouver Island provides, as opposed to six months of fishing here, has absolutely nothing* to with the decision.

* - Denotes a blatant lies, also known as a 'fibs.'

Follow along on this farcical adventure, complete with tweets of frustration and photographs of triumph and/or disaster on the aforementioned Twitter and Instagram, as well as here on mattrevors.com, in February, 2013.

*          *          *

Enjoy a tune:

Don't see a video above this? Click here to view the full post.

Plan. B - Faceless Fly Fishing

Last week I wrote my review of the screening of the IF4 in Dieppe, NB

If you recall, I was a little "meh" about the whole thing.

In one part of my review, I wrote about my disappointment of Faceless Fly Fishing's Plan B being skipped over, and wrote:

Note #4: If anyone from Faceless Fly Fishing happens to read this: I'd like to see the video you fine folks have worked so hard at shooting & editing. Let me know if/when you ever post the full version on your Vimeo page.

Well, someone from Faceless Fly Fishing did read my that & were very cool enough to send me a message saying they were disappointed we didn't get to see Plan B, and yes, they were going to put it on their vimeo page. They even told me the date, but swore me to secrecy.

Well, today is that date, and I'm very please to share with you their very awesome submission to the IF4 (ps - love the audio track in this):

PLAN B FACELESS FLY FISHING from FACELESS FLY FISHING MEDIA on Vimeo.

Congrats to the great folks over at Faceless Fly Fishing for putting out a great short.

And thanks for taking it upon yourself to send me a note about the IF4 experience!

PS - their Canadian-ess did not factor into my decision of calling the video awesome. That's just a bonus.

Crater Lake National Park

In my first year geology textbook, I saw a picture of Crater Lake National Park (Wikipedia entry here) in Oregon.

From that moment on, it was on my short list of things to visit. That something so naturally beautiful could come from a destructive volcanic eruption amazed me (btw, it's not really a crater, it's a collapsed caldera, but enough geo-nerd talk).

On May 31st, 2008 I visited the park on my drive back to Vancouver from the project site in Nevada. It was a little bit of a detour but one I readily made.

One thing I didn't count on was the park still being closed due to alpine winter conditions, with most of the roads & all of the campsites still closed.

Here are a few pics from my 30 minute tour of the place I waited 9 years to see:

Alpine conditions on the roads? I guess so...

Wizard Island on the left

Wizard Island

The trip was definitely not for nothing, however. I promptly left the park & hightailed it north to pick up my best (four-legged) friend from his foster home outside of Seattle. Awesome was in the care of American Brittany Rescue (though his dad is a greyhound) until we became a family (travelling circus?).

Awesome chilling out in Nevada

This is probably Awesome's theme song, but we're still working on changing that: