the prince of poison

Is it possible for your body to change in the way it reacts to insect bites? Or maybe the bugs are just getting nastier. I have all these bites that have swollen into hard, red bumps. All up and down my arms. My forehead. I look like someone was trying to shoot me in the face with a BB gun.

I’m sitting out on the sidewalk at some cafe in downtown Fredericton. There are humans everywhere I look. We don’t have many of those where I live.

Last night I played a hot and sweaty set down at The Capital. A bunch of the Giraffecycle posse showed up and lemme tell ya, those kids know how to enjoy live music as much as anyone anywhere. The sound was crystal-clear. I punched somebody in the nose busting out my hardcore straightedge dance moves. Sorry whoever it was, unless it was that barney who came in at the end who was trying to heckle, in which case, ha ha.

I brought a bottle in the shape of an owl that once held Avon aftershave or something and the chorus to every other song morphed into variations on “O RLY???”

“YA RLY. SRSLY! NO WAAAAIIIII!”

The boys have official titles now. Gary Flanagan is the Prime Minister of New Wave. Patrick aka The Trick is The Mayor of Fun. Or “Funville.”

Not really sure what I am yet. I have so much mosquito venom running through my veins right now that I feel like I should be receving the benefit of some kind of super power. Malaria Man?

A/V: The Prince Of Poison.

I’m downloading about ten different videos from pouringdown.tv right now. High-speed wireless internet blows my mind. No wonder people love videoblogging. You can actually download the videos.

Being on dialup out in the woods is holding me back from being a functional member of society. Sometimes it deters me from making videos because I just think “ahh boo it’ll take three hours to upload this thing.”

Vloggercon is in a week. The fact is I do not have a plane ticket.

I’m having a war between the two hemispheres of my brain. The left side of my brain says, “You are poor, you will always be poor and you can’t afford this.” The right side of my brain says “Credit card!” The left side of brain says, “Irresponsible. No job, no future, no hope.” The right side of brain says “All the more reason to do it now.”

Sometimes you’ve just got to live a little.

I’ve gotten some donations via Paypal this week. It’s making all the difference. Here’s an idea If you’d like to help out but aren’t in a position to contribute funds. I’m not a very experienced traveller and I have this notion that other people have some magical insight into how to find cheap flights. I’ve been trying to research airfare but I find it a little confusing. Maybe you can suggest the best website I should be looking at to set this up? I want to fly from Saint John, NB to San Francisco, California. If you can help me save on the airfare, that’s as good as money in the bank.

It’s like there’s some kind of acid in these bug bites. They burn as much as they itch.

I wish I had my video camera on me right now. I would film this street and upload the vid, just because I could. Hmm, what I have I got kicking around on my hard drive? Homemade porn. Oh wait, here’s a video of a really cool band from Halifax called HOTSHOTROBOT. I caught them on tape at Gus’s Pub doing a cover of an A/V song, “Explode Upon Impact.”


swordfight-hotshotrobot.mov
[ten big megabytes of QuickTime action]

8 thoughts on “the prince of poison

  1. I think your travelling parameters would make a difference in price, so it depends on what day you want to depart and return home. But one thing you might consider is booking a flight into Oakland CA, instead of SFO. It’s across the bay from SF, and there is a BART you can catch right from the airport that will take you into the city. It may be cheaper, I’m not sure.

    BART = Bay Area Rapid Transit, it’s their commuter train. They have connections at both SFO and OAK.
    http://www.bart.gov/guide/airport/airport.asp

  2. If you can manage it at all, I suggest flying out of Bangor rather than SJ. I’ve got family in the US, and pretty much always been cheaper for me to do that than to try to fly out of NB even factoring gas to Maine and back. Since there are many more carriers serving US cities than there are in Canada, the market is more competative and fares just tend to be far less expensive. I’d expect that since the loonie is hovering around 90 cents US these days, it would be an even better deal than the last time I did it a few years ago.

    xo

  3. If you can get to Halifax and fly from there you could save a few hundred bucks on your plane fare. It’s usually cheaper to fly out of Halifax to the US since Halifax is one of the first stops for many trans-Atlantic flights continuing on into the states. Or, email all your contacts to see if they, or someone they know, can hook you up with a buddy pass. A buddy pass is a hugely discounted air ticket accessible to airline employees and whoever they decide to give it to. Airline employees are usually given several per year.

    Check out http://www.travelocity.ca and http://www.expedia.ca for online tickets. Today, on http://www.travelocity.ca, one Return ticket from Halifax to SanFran was $785, including taxes. Departs June 8, returns Jun 12, On Comair (part of Delta Airlines) This ticket price is without insurance or medical and with multiple connections.

    If you find a good fare at one of the sites above, then check out the site of the airline listed because the fare might be a bit cheaper still. Or, if you find these sites confusing, you can use them to print off their suggested flights & fares and then pop in to see a travel agent to get them to do the work for you, although travel agents charge a bit extra for their services. If you sweet talk some travel agents they will actually help you to book online, which will probably still be less expensive than buying tix from them.

    “E-tickets” are usually cheaper than paper tickets. You basically have to show up at the airport ticket counter with your reservation/confirmation number or receipt that you print off from your home computer and your passport. Plus, you don’t have to go through the hassle of picking up your ticket from a travel agent or arranging delivery.

    Your ticket might be cheaper if you stay in San Fran longer than the weekend, don’t travel on a Friday, Sat, Sun or Monday since these are the days most people travel and if you are willing to suffer more flight connections as opposed to a direct flight.

    Travelocity.ca also has packages including flights and accommodations that are reasonable.

  4. Travelocity is a good one.

    If one airline tends to have cheaper flights then the other via Travelocity, then I’d follow up by going to the particular airlines website.

    And def try Maine, Halifax, or even MTL to fly out of.

    And on days that don’t include Fri-Sun.

  5. I don’t have any discount travel tips to share with you, but I wish you well. I hope you can make it.

    This is another reason I’m bummed that I can’t go: I wanted to meet you and everyone else. :(

  6. Unfortunately, the only travel advice I could give would be of the hitching kind. It’s a little late to make it across the continent now, and although I travelled alone, I think that men have a bit more luck when they thumb it with a lady.

    Being the kind of super-broke that I am of late, I can’t offer much, except a soft landing of sorts if you’re down in Halifax.

    I hope you make it out there. If I ever win that soupcan trip to Paris you have no choice but to come.
    -cat

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