The Original Ashley

The second half of my life will be black to the white rind of the old and fading moon. The second half of my life will be water over the cracked floor of these desert years. I will land on my feet this time, knowing at least two languages and who my friends are. I will dress for the occasion, and my hair shall be whatever color I please. Everyone will go on celebrating the old birthday, counting the years as usual, but I will count myself new from this inception, this imprint of my own desire. The second half of my life will be swift, past leaning fenceposts, a gravel shoulder, asphalt tickets, the beckon of open road. The second half of my life will be wide-eyed, fingers shifting through fine sands, arms loose at my sides, wandering feet. There will be new dreams every night, and the drapes will never be closed. I will toss my string of keys into a deep well and old letters into the grate. The second half of my life will be ice breaking up on the river...

Wednesday marked the birthday of my friend Christine, and to celebrate I offered to host a little dinner party for her. "I'll make whatever you want for dinner and dessert!" I said, confident that whatever she asked for I could manage even if I hadn't made it before. I even offered suggestions, like lasagna, chicken parmesan, Quebecois chicken.... Roast Beef with Yorkshire pudding! (I'd never made a roast beef before but it was a staple of Sunday dinners growing up and I thought it couldn't be terribly hard) So Christine chose roast beef, and I went to my mothers cook book to get the recipe... only it isn't in there! Well, alright, I'm sure I can find one online that will suit my purpose. And it was in this research that I discovered that roast beef takes time to cook. Like.... hours. Crap. Because Christines birthday was a Wednesday, and I work until 4:30, I told her to be there around 6. I need to find a way to cook a roast for an hour and a half t...

30 by 30 Lists, Bucket lists, basically do at least something before you die lists, are in a sense a little morbid. It implies that the finish line is approaching, and if you want to make something out of your life, if you want to do them at all, you'd better do them fast. Maybe some people work better with a deadline though... if my scholastic history can show you anything, it's that I certainly do. And more often than not I'll leave it to the last minute and race through the project and have it ready at the last possible second. Maybe that's why I make list's like these. I know if I don't set a deadline, (and isn't that an apt word), I'll spend my life telling myself that I'd love to do these things, I should do these things, I will do these things.... someday. Not today, I don't have time today. I know myself enough by now to recognize that I am a very susceptible to procrastination, and I know that if I do not make a plan to do something ...

So at the end of 2012, I posted a list of 30 things to do before I turned 30. As I have just turned 31, I think its time to do a Tally. Lets see how I did! 1) Try the finer things in life  - Check! 2) Go on a Road Trip through the states - Does going to Ohio count?  3) Learn to dance  -Learned to dance for my wedding! 4) Go to comicon - Sadly, no 5) Get very very drunk (Check! Thanks to my brothers!) 6) Move out  - Yes!! 7) Try Snowboarding - Nope 8) Buy a car - Kind of? I have a car I'm going to pay it off... 9) Be in a Flash Mob  - Pillow fight!! 10) Flip over a table in a fit of anger - Nope! 11) Work on Green Thum b - Yes! I grew a whole garden this summer and it lived to see the fall! 12) pay for someones meal behind me in a drive through - Yep! 13) See a Ballet - Nutcracker 14) Be on TV - Yup! Thank you FanExpo! 15) Start selling Jewelry online - Yes! 16) Play 3 Sports (Baseball, soccer, curling?) (1/3 done) 17) Get Married - Yesh! 18) Do a...

Every summer, I always try to plan one trip to the cottage with my friends. It doesn't always work out with everyone, but it is looked forward to by all of us every year. This summer, we lucked out and pretty much everyone was able to make it. Now that the cottage is pretty much done and ready for visitors, it was especially exciting because I couldn't wait to see everyone's reactions when they saw the interior. I made sure to make a video of it for mom! After most of us arrived on Friday night, and we were all settled into our rooms, Josh and Michelle started a fire and we all immediatly went into cottage mode. Booze and marshmellows were passed around and we all discovered Josh is a bit of a pyro and we needed to keep the poker stick away from him. The next morning after a delightful breakfast we settled in for a nice game of golf (card style) and then took the boat out up the river. For many of my friends this was their first trip on a boat on the bu...

Two months ago, I lost my job. This sucked. It was sudden and completely out of nowhere and it tore my life as I knew it apart. Most of my long term plans were no longer viable or would have to be put off by several years at best. We would have to cancel our trip to Argentina, thankfully we hadn't bought the tickets yet. Short term plans were hit too. With the loss of my income and no idea when it would return, we had to save . That meant not going to friends events like birthday parties and get togethers because they all cost money.  Thats not to say that I couldn't do anything at all, or that my family and friends abandoned me to solitude. I was treated to a many a movie nights (gratefully so as the Avengers 2 had just come out) and people found cheaper or free things we could all do together. My friends and especially my family rose up to support me and I will be forever grateful!  I needed a job though. The stress of not having a job had me breaking out in hives a...

Earlier this month Josh went in for his testing for his first level of Krav Maga. For those that don't know what this is, Krav Maga is a self-defence system developed for the military in Israel that consists of a wide combination of techniques sourced from boxing , savate , Muay Thai , Wing Chun , Judo , Jujutsu , wrestling , and grappling , along with realistic fight training. It is brutal to watch, and even worse to endure. The testing lasts 4 hours, and it takes place in a small underground shop-turned-gym with (in my opinion) poor ventilation and about 25 others.  Josh invited me to his testing, encouraging me to take photos. It was a challenge at first, as it was a low light situation, with quick movements and I couldn't use a flash, but eventually I found using my nifty 50 and keeping a distance that I was able to get some good shots. From there I started playing around with getting different angles, not just of josh but all the fighters.  Josh passed his Test (a...

I don't normally post music up here, mostly because I've always been very self-conscious of my taste in music. I get stressed out picking music to play at a party, or in the car when there are passengers. I don't know why, I'm normally a pretty confident person in most other aspects of myself. Anyways I found this great song via positively present , with a really cool video to match and I decided to share it here. Enjoy!

By Canadian Designer Andrew Zo

by  Christopher Jobson  on September 1 One of six astronauts  currently on board  the International Space Station, geophysicist  Alexander Gerst  spends much of his free time staring out the window as the world zooms by 205 miles below, camera in-hand. Since arriving at the ISS in June of this year Gerst has taken  tons of photographs  that document hurricanes, floods, dust storms, and  oil fields . One of his favorite things to shoot are the shadows cast by clouds, something that appears surprisingly dramatic from space. Dense cloud formations can create long shadows that stretch for thousands of miles across the Earth’s surface as they eventually disappear into a black horizon. You can see new photos from Gerst daily on  Twitter . (via Stellar ) via Collosal