1460 - The Search for Jaws and Several Other Stories

I just realized that I've been leaving out the weather bit at the end of my entries lately. Well, what can I say? It's been done. I'm not going to care much down the road that it was cold or hot, rainy or sunny (editor's note: notice that the negative weather is listed first in both instances). It's not like these things aren't ever going to happen again... barring a catastrophic event within the next week. Thus, henceforth, the weather shall be stricken from this record.

The past week was fairly uneventful, as they often are during the dead of winter. The only positive thing about this time of year is that the days are getting longer. I noticed this for the first time today - I could actually see light outside at 5:40pm.

On Monday, I got up eleven hours earlier than 5:40pm. This is fortunate, because they like us to be at work by nine (editor's note: the author has a fondness for the anonymous usage of the word "they"). Describing Monday's work activities effectively describes the entire work week - dull. I fixed bugs, though they were no ordinary bugs - they were especially trivial and ESPECIALLY redundant. It took considerable self-discipline to keep on track - I was often tempted to surf the net or to leave early. In the end, I survived, and I didn't leave early. I didn't surf the net - much.

Monday evening was quiet as usual. TA wanted to play pool, but I let sleeping TA's lie and did not get a phone call about it after all. I think I wound up working a bit on my new "song". I also did some reading. The topic was self-motivation, though I dismissed much of the material as being not applicable to me. Toward the end of a chapter, the author pointed out a fact that I am very much aware of - action comes before motivation. Though there have been countless examples of this in my life - scenarios where taking action has resulted in motivation, particularly when I lost fifty pounds many moons ago - I still hadn't gotten myself onto my cross-trainer to lose some of the thirty-five pounds I'd since gained back. Reading the phrase "action comes before motivation" was a kick in the pants, even though I was wearing none at the time. I got right up, determined to at least get a little bit of exercise, and I wound up doing the full forty minutes, which is what I strive for regularly. I felt full of energy afterward - maybe it was more of a mental high than a physical one. I went to bed happy - I felt motivated, and I was anticipating my next session.

There was a snowstorm on Tuesday, and I drove home from work around quarter past three. Even then, the traffic was building toward the bridges, and it took me a while to get home. Once home, I connected to my computer at work to continue working. At four-thirty, the last of my work-related motivation eroded away, having been replaced by motivation to get my exercise. I jumped on the cross trainer and did another forty minutes. I watched most of an episode of Deadwood while exercising - making the experience even more enjoyable. Deadwood is not the western I'd hoped it would be. While it is set in the wild west, it is really a drama. There isn't much shooting, but the characters are really interesting and the acting is superb. The storylines are fun. I'm told that season one (I'm nearing the end of it now) can't hold a candle to the other two seasons, so I'm excited to get to them as well - and the way to do that is to get more exercise!

After my exercise, I went over to JW's to hang out. I was happy to see her, as I always am, but more so because I hadn't seen her much over the previous weekend. She did some marking, while I did some reading - it was a relaxing evening.

TA wanted to go to trivia on Wednesday evening, but Mother Nature put an end to that. The car had magically disappeared during the day, and I wasn't about to go outside in minus twenty-degree weather. I'd have sooner re-watched Caddyshack II than venture out into the cold. So I stayed in, and I got my exercise. I worked a bit on my song, though the end of the night saw a much more compact and simple version of it. I wrote vocals for a quiet part in the middle of the song that I liked, and I recorded them using a robotic voice effect to mask undesired inflection in my voice. I further processed the sad vocals to sound distant and hollow, with the final effect making them sound broken and spotty. I then had to cut the individual words apart, and drag them around to get the desired duration. I'm pretty happy with the words - I think they're well-written (for me) and I like the way they sound in the song. I think they're very applicable to a lot of people, though they're sung in the first person. The song is called "Earth B", with the title coming from an old copy of "The Weekly World News" (editor's note: subscribe to "The Weekly World News"). I've always loved that paper - I've often claimed that the writers of the articles must have the funnest jobs in the world. I think it's a job that I would be good at, because I like to think about ridiculous and funny things, and I like to think about what other people might think of them.

After work on Thursday, I did not do my exercise. I had a small window between work and play, but I wasted it chatting with AN and AD about the forthcoming play. We went to Peel Pub for wings and drinks. I didn't have any wings (well, actually I had one of AD's), but I did have a pitcher of Keith's Red very quickly. AD and AN dropped me off at JW's afterward, just in time for her to go to bed. I joined her and slept well.

After work on Friday, I took the bus up to my parents' to get the car. Actually, that's what I would've done had my Mum not come down to pick me up. It was raining hard, and I would've been soaked. I decided to call JW to see if she wanted a ride to the grocery store, as I knew she had to go. It would've been a rainy, windy nightmare for her to have gone on foot, so she accepted. Even better, we went out for some "quick" Chinese food before getting the groceries. The restaurant was packed despite the terrible weather. What were these people doing there? They should've been home eating in and watching movies. Instead they turned a quick meal into a long one, though it wasn't all bad. In fact, that's the only thing that was. The meal was excellent - Orange Beef and a spicy vegetable mixture. JW and I sat next to another table where university professors hashed out the details of their daily lives. They talked about the intelligence of mice (and how they had eluded capture), their leaky houses and their fire alarm malfunctions. While these might seem like boring dinner topics, the addition of a keen intellect can instantly transform a conversation about the most boring and common of topics into a mini comedy routine, via perfectionist description laced with colourful language. It's just fun to hear smart people talk about stupid things; fortunately, this is not at all uncommon (editor's note: the author serves to illustrate this).

After dinner, the mad dash for groceries was on. JW and I flew through Sobey's in record time, despite characteristically losing each other several times. I hurried her home, unloaded her groceries, and flew back over to my place, to await the arrival of JP, RD, AN, TA and AB. It was all for not - the group did not arrive for twenty minutes. I squeezed into JP's tiny car, and we were off. Though the speed bumps in my parking lot did not like JP's car, we survived the trip to her apartment in Clayton Park. The apartment reminded me of my old Clayton Park apartment, which I sometimes miss. It was small, but it backed on a large forest, and the only thing I could see from my fourth story balcony was trees. It was very quiet, in stark contrast to my current residence, where the view is quite opposite.

The evening consisted of drinks, an icy walk to KOD, and games. We played Dirty Minds, and another game that involved writing down words beginning with a certain letter given a set of ten clues. After the games, everyone sat around, and I proceeded to earn my reputation as the new SW. I couldn't stay awake no matter how hard I tried. My inability to sleep on anything even a degree off of horizontal seemed to be quickly vanishing, and my head snapped back and forth violently as I dosed off. Finally, everyone decided to go home, after an hour of making fun of my fatigue.

I slept in late on Saturday. I was tired of getting up early, and I decided to let myself sleep as long as I wanted. I finally got up at eleven-thirty, and my first act was to heat up a bowl of chili and spread extra old cheddar over it, to be eaten with nachos. I didn't feel well - I was hungover with a headache, and the huge meal didn't make me feel any better. I cleaned up a bit, I burned a CD for JW, and I had a shower. I went over to JW's around four, to find her feeling much worse. She was under attack from two sides, and she hadn't even gotten out of her pyjamas. We laid down for a while to warm up and rest, before ordering a pizza from Donnini's. We watched a bit of some radio musical movie. It was funny, but we decided not to watch the whole thing. Instead, after the pizza, we watched "Once Upon a Time in the West". JW didn't really like it - the acting wasn't great, and the script wasn't well-written. I fell into her way of thinking a bit, and that distracted me from enjoying the movie, until the climax. It reminded me of why I had thought the movie was great. The movie is deliberate, and it slowly builds events to a head. The visual shots are nothing short of excellent - they are very unique and they add greatly to the movie. The music is memorable, and it is well used throughout the film. The biggest weakness is the poor sound quality.

On Sunday, JW and I got up and finished off the pizza for breakfast. We then went out to search for Jaws. JW desperately needed it in the archaic VHS format for school purposes. We decided to hit up the local flea markets, as the rental joints don't rent many VHS' anymore. The first market was a bust. We then went to my place to see if I'd taped it off of TV, but it wasn't there either. Our last hope lay at the second flea market. There, we came to a table with several movies. JW quickly moved on, though I stayed to look at every movie just in case. A feeling swept over me as if I'd just won the lottery, as my eyes came to rest upon a double-VHS package labelled "Jaws". My first call to Janet was barely audible, but the second grabbed her attention. She excitedly hurried over to grab the movie, and seconds later she'd managed to pay three times the asking price for it! It didn't matter though - the find had made her weekend. She stuffed the movie into her bag and then descended into a DVD- and neclace-buying frenzy. The adventure was then made by a Chinese merchant who attempted to sell JW a neclace. He seemed nervous and inexperienced at selling - I could almost smell the shit running down his leg, as he tried to make twenty dollars. All I could think about was the stench of his breath as he spewed forth phrase after phrase of nonsensical sales speak. He used the word "like" more times than I care to count. He said the necklace cost "like $20". Well, how much did it really cost? We never found out, as each dollar amount was firmly prefaced by a "like". He tried to throw in a silk pouch to sweeten the deal, but JW wouldn't bite - I'd brought her some chocolate the day before. I spotted a necklace with a small turtle on it - after several seconds of debating as to whether I should point it out, I did, only to bring another flurry of "likes" and dollar amounts down upon us. I think I need a t-shirt with the word "LIKE" being the only thing on it. I need more good t-shirts like that - I've let my current selection get very narrow and boring.

After the flea market, JW and I relaxed a bit more before I took my leave of her. I went home and did my forty minutes, after which I went to my parents' for dinner. We had a common dinner: a cheesy potato caserole, some pork and a spinach salad. The salad was the best part. We also had blueberry cheesecake - I was horrified to see Dad get the whip cream out of the fridge to "lighten" the taste. After dinner, we watched golf for what seemed like an eternity. Midway though, a call came to the house for me. I wondered briefly who it might be, before realizing who it had to be. It was SM calling from Toronto, and I couldn't dodge his call because he'd called my parents. He said he'd lost my number, but I wonder now whether that was a ruse to get ahold of me? We chatted for about a half hour - it had all of the requisite SM chat components. There was the story about some random woman trying to seduce him into violating his marriage; the recounting of our childhood adventures around the city; the usual talk about our advancing age, and how we'd once shuddered at the thought of being twenty; and finally, there were questions about all of my friends and family. The call ended with SM promising to visit on his way to the Middle East - he's supposedly going to move there soon, though no dates were given, and nothing is certain when it comes to him. I know for a fact that I'll plan something with someone else, and he'll burst into town with only one day to hang out, and it will be the same day. Maybe my company will send me away that week.

The golf was fairly interesting this week. Charley Hoffman, a relative unknown, won with some magnificient play on the last three holes. After the golf, I headed home. I watched most of Nature - it was about the lifecycle of the fig tree and the myriad creatures it supports.

Well, that's it for this week. I guess the week was more interesting than I thought. See you (editor's note: me) on the flip side.

I'm currently listening to: the sound of my heater keeping me warm.

Movies watched this week: two-thirds of some funny musical about a radio show, "Once Upon a Time in the West"