Frederick Schweig:  

Life Born: March 16, 1968 in Halifax, N.S. I was a navy brat for a couple years and lived in Halifax and Moncton, then in Sudbury, where my dad worked in the INCO smelter until I was 5, when we moved to Combermere, Ont. and I changed my kindergarten from St. David's in Sudbury to Palmer Rapids P.S. I have always retained some vistigial memories of the Atlantic coast, but enjoyed growing up in the woods outside Combermere. Be it the sea, lakes, or rivers, I am happiest being near water. I was stuck in a limbo for the duration of my high school years. Being a student with no study habits, I had a difficult time with classes and didn't know what I wanted to do and didn't have to discipline to study hard, get good marks, and figure life out later. But the one thing that grounded me was music. This began in grade 7, when I first heard The Police, Dire Straits, David Bowie, and Blondie on the radio late at night. . I started playing guitar with my cousin, Eric, who we all called Kurt. But he went away to Toronto in grade 10. I ended up saving for a Fender Stratocaster and took lessons at Picker's Paradise, with Jim Hanenburg. I insinuated myself into Blitzkrieg, with Jim Lorbetskie, Chris Serran, and John Hay as lead guitarist and singer (although I was oblivious to the fact that I couldn't hold a tune to save my life). I had dreams of stardom, hoping to emulate such idols as U2, The Doors, and the Rolling Stones. Blitzkrieg became Gasoline Rainbow, a name suggested by Jim's brother, Barry, from a passage in Catcher in the Rye. With such a literary genesis to our name, how long could stardom elude us? Well, just count the years since then! Anyhow, years later, after going to University, losing hair, health problems, realising responsibilities, and other signs of mortality, I still play guitar but with diminished hopes and enthusiasm. I can sing now but find myself only playing songs for friends at parties at my apartment. My other passion is English, both in language and literature. I found it difficult to express myself for the longest time, which is one reason I chose English as my major. The other reason is that I didn't have my math or science credits from high school, so I had few choices for a major. An avid reader, I am now considering teaching English, either to students in Japan, or in Canada at a high school or college. As I dislike my current job, as a bill collector for a phone company, I think I might be changing directions soon. Between 35 and 45 is when a person might make such a change, one that will determine their path for the rest of his or her life, and I am coming to that watershed. I hope one day to move back to Ottawa, because I prefer it to Vancouver. It has retained more history than Vancouver, and it also has the benefit of being close to the Ottawa Valley, where I find myself traveling once a year to ground myself, usually by simply enjoying Nature for a few days. To those of you living in the city, are you as amazed by and drawn to the night sky in the country as I am? For now, I live and work in Burnaby/Vancouver but don't see myself in this city in a year's time. Currently, I am planning a trip to Japan to see friends and my ex-girlfriend. We had plans not long ago, and I would like to see if we can rekindle the warmth of our relationship and look at those plans again. I don't plan on going to the reunion this year. Though I would like to see old friends again, I also feel hestiation in doing so. I prefer to move on from the past, so am content with just trying to figure out what to do when I grow up. College As some of you may know, I was a poor student in high school, and I repeated grade 13 with the same lack of success as I had the first time. Still, I was determined to get a higher education and enrolled at Careleton U as a "mature student", meaning one who has been away from home and out of high school for 2 years. I succeeded in getting almost 2 years of university education, but was having trouble due to my lack of study and writing skills; so I quit school and moved out west (for a change of scenery). The spectre of an unfinished degree (I don't recall which high school teacher this spectre took the form of!) haunted me, so I returned to Carleton U in the winter of 1996-1997 as a part-time student and continued the next winter after working in BC for the summer. In 1997-1998, my final year, I though it wise to enroll in a Writing and Language course. Sure enough, the troubles I had in composing essays soon crumbled away, and I cursed myself for not taking this course in my first year. The upshot is, I earned my general bachelors degree in English. I would have continued studying but couldn't do so because of a lack of funds. I have been working at TELUS Mobility ever since and am now ready to enroll in more studies, either with Carleto...Expand for more