The 13 Emotions of Skydiving

Do it.Just do it.Jump out of a plane.It sounds crazy, but i encourage everyone that wants to do it, to just do it. The experience will change your life forever. The multitude of emotion that filters through your brain are unexplainable through words. I can try to pain a picture for you, but honestly, this is just the tip of the iceburg. Just do it, everything will be alright after you land.

Emotion #1: *Apprehension* - Fitting a jumpsuit on, strapping a freshly packed parachutte WILL create butterflies in your gut.

Emotion #2:*Eagerness* - Walking towards the tiny aircraft, you begin shaking, not sure if it's the temperature, or your will forcing you to do it...then you realize it's +25 C.

Emotion #3:*Cognizance* - As you climb into the tiny lil 6 passenger sessna, you realize that this is your last chance to bail.

Emotion #4: *Bliss* - On the way up to the 3000th floor, you spectate the beauty of the earth below. You can't help but fall in love with the idea that you are about to fly like a bird.

Emotion #5: *Panic* - The door flys open, the jumpmaster preps you through direction. You feel the sudden change in cabin pressure, you hear the intense wind howl, this is when you realize that you should have worn an adult diaper.

Emotion X: *X* = This emotion I can not put a word to because I don't know if Webster has defined it. How do you sum this up? Next you stick your leg out into 200 km/h winds, step out onto a foot long peg. You then grasp the diagonal crossbar which attaches the wing to the plane with your right hand. Then you take your left foot, cross it behind the right one and balance yourself on this foot long step. Finally, you let go of the handle inside the cabin and shift it to the diagonal bar. At this point you are flying like Superman (still despratly grasping onto the diagonal bar).

Emotion Y: *Y* = You realize that it's too late to bail because it is physically impossible to get back into the cabin at this point. The jumpmaster yells "ON THE COUNT OF 3 LET GO...1...2...3...GO!" You freeze. Clinging on for dear life, it takes a lot to just let go. This was one of the hardest things i've ever had to do. "GO GO, YOU HAVE TO LET GO!" the jumpmaster exclaims. This is true. I can't hang there any longer or I may drift into the wrong wind current and end up in one of the lakes.

Emotion Z: *Z* = The 2.3 seconds from when i let go to when i opened my eyes and noticed that the plane had shrunk to the size of a dime, i can't explain. Something happend. Neurons in my brain must have been on overdrive because I don't remember seeing the plane shrink. i just blinked and bam, gone!

Emotion #9: *Distress* - After about 5 seconds, you are supposed to look up to make sure that your parashoot has fully deployed. Mine did not. My chute tangled in the cables, this is when i freaked out.

Emotion #10: *Doom* - I actually thought for a second there, that i was going to die.

Emotion #11: *Diligence* - I had to act quickly, or else my pending doom would have become a reality. The night before, they taught us that if the cables became tangled, all you have to do is grab them on both sides and push them straight out, and your chute should correct itself.

Emotion #12: *Euphoria* - After I spun about 15 times, my chute finally deployed bringing me to a halt. I screamed out a joyful yet relieving yelp. Realizing that I just saved my own ass from death is something that is also hard to just put into words.

Emotion #13: *Zen* - When you float 1500 feet above the earth, all you hear is the wind ruffling the flaps of the chute. You appreciate the landscapes beauty as you search for the landing zone. At this point, you don't care about bills, relationships, war, crime, drama, rent or stress. All you focus on is making it back to the airstrip unscathed and safely.

These are the 13 emotions you live in a 10 minute event like skydiving.

Here is a video i shot of a car eating fire-breathing dragon!

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This is a beaver dam that i shot on the St. Croix River today.

Josh and I filmed an eagle catching a fish that we tossed

from the canoe, it was amazing to see.

I will post this video after i digitize it.

Tuesday is Foosday

For the past year or so, Tuesdays = Foosday. A bunch of us get together at my place to play for 1 to 3 hours weekly. Be it -30 or + 30 in our stuffy attic we still celebrate the foos gods on this day by feasting on some of the greatest ales of the land.

For Doug:
Sucks that you moved away man! So as requested, here is some highlights of tuesday's (foosday's) games.

Here Peter passes back to the 5 line, up to the 3 line and BAM!





Juan gets foosed by Pete...hard.

Hopefully we'll have a tournament soon with plenty of coverage.

Shoes Grow on Trees?

EWWW NATALIE PROBABLY HAS ATHLETE'S FOOT NOW!

So I return back from an amazing screenwriting workshop, put on by Tony Sekulich this afternoon, and said hello to Natalie. She told me about a tree that she drove by and described something that made my brain explode with glee. She told me about this mysterious tree which had a bunch of shoes hanging from it, and that it would be a great photo op just as I thought "SWEET MERCIFAL CRAP, I NEED TO SHOOT THIS!".

Before my brain could register the thought that something so ridiculous existed, i had uttered a request that she take me to such said tree. 10 minutes later we ventured up the Wilsey Road towards the dump. After passing the farmers Co-Op we took a hard left, passed the dump, and 7 km later we spotted this rare and odd conifer.

I must admit, this is stupid. Who cares that this tree has a dozen or so pairs of shoes swaying from its many branches? Well to be honest, it got me thinking. Is the legend true? Was there...in fact...a homeless man who collected shoes in a shopping cart? Maybe this is where he lived. Maybe this man was trying to make a statement. Maybe this is how he identified his tree. OR maybe it was just a bunch of drunkend rednecks who thought it would be funny to hang and nail shoes to this tree. This random abstraction caught Natalie's attention, which in turn caught MY attention. So the question I pose is the following:

Is this display of shoes considered art?

Dictionary.com defines art as:

art
n 1: the products of human creativity; works of art collectively; "an art exhibition"; "a fine collection of art" [syn: fine art] 2: the creation of beautiful or significant things; "art does not need to be innovative to be good"; "I was never any good at art"; "he said that architecture is the art of wasting space beautifully" [syn: artistic creation, artistic production] 3: a superior skill that you can learn by study and practice and observation; "the art of conversation"; "it's quite an art" [syn: artistry, prowess] 4: photographs or other visual representations in a printed publication;
"the publisher was responsible for all the artwork in the
book" [syn: artwork, graphics, nontextual matter]

I think it would be awesome if everyone who reads this blog would bring an old pair of shoes to this location and add to the tree. If anyone is interested in this idea, please leave me a comment or email me at chaf_haddad@yahoo.ca . Don't forget to take a picture of your addition!

Here is my first uploaded video (and it won't be the last) of these creepy hanging shoes! Enjoy.

What the hell are these?


Why would I post such nonsense?

People were shooting fireworks across the river, so i decided to take some pictures from my roof.


Birds? Floating strawberry?
I thought some of these images looked kinda interesting in an abstract yet uniformed way.

What do you see in these?

An extreme close up of a neon toothbrush?
Dirtbike kites?

335? 333? 555? 353? 535?

Skull + heart = this?

Fin.

Time to be geeks

The main reason why I created this blog was to promote my art, other artists, as well as introduce people to the wonderful world of blogging. I want to promote artists from the Fredericton area through this blog and also keep Fredericton in the loop as to what events are going on around the city. There are many fun things to do in this town believe it or not, and i would like to promote fun as well as art. I will be posting all sorts techie geekie stuff, as it amuses me. First off, for anyone out there who does not watch television, but loves technology, I will let you in on some great audio and video pod casts as I stumble across them. For those who don't even know what a pod cast is here is www.dictionary.com 's definition:

*There is no current definition of "podcast or pod cast"

This made me giggle, the fact that www.dictionary.com doesn't even have an entry for podcast.

Let's try www.wikipedia.org:

Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio programs or music videos, over the Internet using either the RSS or Atom syndication formats, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. The term podcast like 'radio', can mean both the content and the method of delivery. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster. Podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their files; a podcast however is distinguished by its ability to be downloaded automatically using software capable of reading RSS or Atom feeds. Usually a podcast features one type of 'show', with new episodes released either sporadically or at planned intervals such as daily or weekly. In addition, there are podcast networks that feature multiple shows on the same feed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast


My 2 favorite video podcasts are so far are:

www.rocketboom.com

and

http://commandn.typepad.com/commandn/

Vcasts or vidcasts are becomming more and more popular on the internet. This phenomena has had a viral effect on me and millions of other geeks. Lately i have been obsessing with many popular video and audio podcasts. Many ubergeeks speculate that this type of broadcast will be the "way of the future". The general population watches cable television i.e. "reality tv" shows, Oprah, CNN, FOX, and all that other jazz, all while the geekiest of the geeks enjoy podcasting and vcasts as an alternative unfiltered form of media. I personally havn't watched cable television in over 4 years so i have become jaded as to what the rest of society is exposed to. Freedom of expression is important to me as i've noticed lately in the news that artists' have to be careful what statements that they make in todays post 9/11 world. Once people realize how easy it is to become they're own form of media, it will mark be the begining of a world wide media revolution.

Here is my first ever podcast, enjoy.

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Welcome to the Jungle


We have fun and games. This is my first entry of this blog, and I hope everyone enjoys it. Since it's Monday, and my brain is still trying boot up, I don't really have anything too exciting to report other than the events of this past weekend.



Friday night I headed to the Aitken Centre to watch the Monster Spectacular show which was really awesome to be quite honest. There were guys flying around on dirt bikes, performing strange and amazing tricks 40 feet high off of the ground. There was a 4 wheeler that had a jet engine on the back, monster trucks and the main show was this giant fire breathing dragon that ate cars! Overall it was a Monster Spectacular good time!

The show lasted close to 3 hours, and as exciting as it was, i was kinda glad to leave because all the fumes from the vehicles started to get to me. I got home and there were many people having a grand ol time playing ping pong in my living room. I took a really fun picture of the gang sitting on my roof later in the evening.

Saturday afternoon I headed over to the NB Film Co-Op to attend one of THE greatest workshops I've ever attended. The wonderful and amazing Chris Campbell opened my eyes to a world full of fun that I sorta knew about, but not in as great detail as he demonstrated. As he was showing us all of these interesting websites and free software, the dusty cogs in my head started to turn. I now have some ideas as to what I would like to do for a full time project because of this workshop that I am extremly glad that I attended.

Saturday nite was an alright evening as well. Friends came over, a few beers were consumed at the apartment, then we headed over to Jester's Court and Phoneix for drinks. Sunday was a lot of fun. My roomate / neighbour Natalie and I decided to bake my buddy Dave a birthday cake. We agreed on a war theme for the cake which suited the birthday boy for some odd reason. After a little bit of scrambling, we found the components needed to build this Vietnam looking battleground. We purchased some army men, licorice, cake mix, fake plants, and lil war-like dinky cars which we placed all over the battleground. Take note of the pools of blood that we created with the licorice, it really added a nice touch to the battleground! The war cake project was definatly worth the work, as everyone enjoyed it on the same level as Natalie and I did.

Finally, I must share this fun and exciting website about cats. The Infinite Cat Project has been running online for a couple of years i believe. Here's the rundown of the project (which i stole from the site) :

It all began innocently enough when a visitor to an Apple forum posted a picture
of his cat, Frankie, contemplating the beauty of a flower. Shortly
afterwards another user posted a picture of his cat bristling at the image of
Frankie on the monitor. The Infinite Cat Project is, simply, cats regarding cats regarding cats in an electronic milieu. If you like this web site then thank your lucky stars that the world is populated with cats, Macs, and people with wayyyy too much time on their hands.