Last time.

I know. I stopped writing in this after the Torngats.

I'm not really sure why. All day long I think about what I'm going to write that evening, then I just don't. Well, I'm trying to start it up again, but obviously this blog served its purpose. Canada's Greatest Summer Job has came and left, and it was the ride of a lifetime that reignited something in me that I haven't felt in a long time.

So for that I thank you, Parks Canada. For everything you've given me, and the things you've made me do for myself.

If anyone is interested in following my new blog, the link is

http://thepennydreadfuls.blogspot.com

Thanks for being an amazing audience. It was nice to know that someone's reading what I wrote.

We have been waiting at the provincial airport for 5 hours for clearance to fly. Base camp is too foggy. Cross your fingers we get there today, but tomorrow is more likely.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:1 Ave,Happy Valley-Goose Bay,Canada

Thursday, August 5: Tomorrow.

It's the climax of the summer. Tomorrow, I leave Charlottetown en route to the Torngat Mountains.

The Torngat mountains are located at 58 degrees, in the northern tip of Labrador.

At the bottom of the picture, you'll see saglek Bay, where kANGIDLUASUk (yes, printed like that) Base Camp is located. This will be our home for 7 days, where we'll camp on perma-frost, participate in Inuit culture and of course, take tons of video. We'll be teaching local children to use the video equipment and doing a special project with them. I'm most excited about this.

The base camp has a perimeter for polar bears, and we'll be escorted everywhere by inuit with guns. We've gotta take a polar bear safety course when we get there. We'll be eating the traditional foods, such as seal and caribou.

This is copy/pasted from the base camp website; I think it speaks volumes about the adventure I'm in for.

Base Camp Facilities
The base camp provides basic sleeping, eating facilities in a safety enhanced environment so visitors should bring anything else you might need for personal health and comfort. Please be prepared to be as self-reliant as possible. The base camp facilities are described below.

• The base camp is operated and managed by Inuit.
• The camp is alcohol and drug free.
• The camp has a cook and 2 cooks assistants who will provide meals. Wild food such as arctic char, caribou and seal will be part of the basic menu.
• There is a fully equipped cook tent, an office/operations tent and another heated tent for use as a meeting space and visitor reception tent.
• There are limited single and two person tents provided. Those who have good 3 or 4 season tents are encouraged to bring them, since there may be up to 75 people in camp during some weeks and the available tent space is very limited. Please let Parks Staff know if you are able to bring your own tent.
• The camp will be surrounded by an electric and alarmed fence, and there will be Inuit polar bear monitors on duty at all times.
• A 55 ft longliner will be available for day excursions as required and weather permitting.
• There will also be 2 speed boats and a zodiac for excursions and to support research programs.
• A helicopter will be available from July 25th – August 20th to support base camp projects and provide transportation in the case of emergencies.
• There are pit toilets and some portable backcountry toilets.
• Water will be collected from a nearby stream and pumped to water containers by a small Honda pump.
• There are outdoor shower stalls with solar shower bags
• There will be a small (quiet) 2400 watt generator for power for the fridge, freezer, charging batteries, computers, camera gear etc.
• There will also be solar power for lighting and recharging batteries, radios, sat phones etc.
• A small incinerator for burnable waste such as cardboard and paper and recycling boxes will be set up for pop cans, plastic bottles and juice boxes. The recycled material is donated to the Jens Haven Memorial School breakfast program in Nain. Glass, tin and plastic will be cleaned and shipped back to Nain.

I truly think this is going to be one of the biggest adventures of my life. When else would I ever have gotten the opportunity to do such a fantastically crazy thing?  The only thing I'm dreading is the end, because that'll mean one of the best chapters of my life will be coming to a close. Trust me, it's all bitter and no sweet. 

I might post one more time from my iPhone in Goose Bay tomorrow, where we'll be overnighting before taking a charter plane to Nain, then another to the base of Seglek Bay, where a longliner boat will take us to camp. There is no internet or telephone at the basecamp, so this will not only be a test in my limits physically and mentally, but a break from technology. I hope it all goes well. I bought a new sketchbook that will serve for both a journal and visible representation of my interpretations of camp. I'll hopefully be uploading a video about each day in the mountains as well. Wish me luck. 

Thanks for coming on this trip with me! I'm beyond excited, and exhausted. Good night. 

Friday, July 30: intense.

Short short.
The rough to Anne is done! Celebration!!!
I spent 9 hours straight at the computer to do what I did today. 9 hours.

It felt exhilarating.

Can I do this for the rest of my life? I took a step in the right direction.

I'm on a parks Canada pub crawl, so this is short. Thank you thank you thank you for reading. I check my analytics and appreciate it so much more than you know.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:University Ave,Charlottetown,Canada

Wednesday, July 28: Family reunited.

DADDY'S HOME DADDY'S HOME DADDY'S HOME DADDY'S HOME.
Excuse me, but in case you may not have noticed, my father is home and I might be mildly excited. He picked me up at my apartment. We grabbed a pop and sat at needs for almost 2 hours, just catching up on life. We could have talked longer, but it's a long drive back to Souris.

I asked him when he was starting the house, and he immediately answered "tomorrow morning. I got my new work boots". I love my father.

Today I edited like a mad woman. Yesterday I arrived home tired, listless and completely lethargic. Slowly, an idea developed in my mind. An idea for the Anne video strong enough to make me jump out of my chair and my catatonic state and run to the store for props. I came home and filmed a large sequence and edited it today. I hope it looks as good as I think it does, I really enjoy it.

Filming myself has been very bad and very good. It's good in that I'm getting used to seeing myself on camera. It's bad in that my camera is high definition. Hello, pimple on my chin that will form a week from Thursday.

It's totally bedtime. I have a LONG day tomorrow. I have to finish my filming in the AM and finish my editing in the PM. Fingers crossed for my sanity, folks.

Photo of the day: Anne of Duck's Landing.

Tuesday, July 27: Time's a' tickin'.

There are simply not enough hours in the day.
Today, I got to work and the plover monitors told me that there was a whale washed up on the Cavendish Campground beach. I've never seen a washed up whale before, so Ben and I hopped in the car I reserved and headed to Cavendish. This worked out swimmingly, as I had to go to the Lucy Maud National Historic Site afterwards to get some footage for one of my videos.

I was creeped out by a dead whale. Thank goodness I couldn't see it's eye; I think I would have fainted right there.

Filming with Ben is fun. Since he's a student photographer, he's really good to help me think of interesting camera angles for my video. Photography and videography are coming closer and closer.

When we got back to Dalvay, I ate lunch and went home to do a shoot for Anne that required the use of my kitchen table. Here's a little teaser for my newest video:

I haven't done any colour correction, when I do the split between the screens you won't notice a line.  I drank a lot of raspberry cordial today.

Monday, July 26: Life in a Day.

I'll first start out with what I look like 90% of my days now, since it's mainly editing time and I have a little more than a week to put together 3 complete videos.

Now, as completely enthralling it would be for me to start explaining to you how to go about editing a video without 1)punching your computer, 2)losing all of your hair, or 3)having short bouts of crazy (I haven't quite mastered this one yet myself), I think instead I'll answer the questions for Life in a Day.

Life in a Day is a youtube based project by director Kevin MacDonald with an intricate process towards a simple goal: document a day on earth. July 24, 2010, to be exact. Have as many people upload as much footage of their day as they can. The end result: A documentary with hopefully a wide and stunning representation of a million different cultures. Interesting, eh?

For this project, I recorded my day on Saturday, and had to answer 3 simple questions, which I will answer in more depth here in this tiny blog than I did to possibly millions of people.

WHAT DO YOU LOVE? 
I love my family. I love my friends, my job, my coffee. I love the love of my life. I love life cereal and when my sister intuitively knows I'm crying and calls me from halfway across the country. I love waking up to a 14 pound cat sitting on my chest purring. I love how raw my emotions can be and red sky's at night. I love blogging, making videos, editing, and this job for pushing me to be more creative than I ever thought possible.

WHAT DO YOU FEAR?
Failure. I fear this Island swallowing me whole. I fear never truly doing what I want to do because of limitations I set for myself. I fear letting down the people that I love, and I fear I'm not what they want me to be. I fear that gutwrenching, world-rocking feeling when someone has gotten hurt or died; the feeling of longing for 5 minutes earlier, the complete mind jolt. I fear having to relive past experiences that only now are starting to come back to me in all of their complexities as flashes of memories. I fear remembering more than I want to.

WHAT'S IN YOUR POCKET/PURSE?
In my purse right now are 2 old bills that I paid but never cared enough to take them out. I've got half a pack of gum and a triangle rock I found at the beach last summer. My wallet, my change purse, my phone. Usually a piece of tiger eye or chalcedony, but I gave it way so I'll have to replace it with another one from my collection. A morbidly designed notebook and a pen, too much small change.

There. With this, I'm going back to editing a video about kiteboarding. Good night.