Today is my one-year dating anniversary with JW! Do they still call it an anniversary if you're not married? Anyway, we're going to get dressed up and go out to eat at a nice restaurant. And by "we're going to", I mean that's the plan at the moment - who knows what will really happen! I'm excited to see her, as it's been four days since we've hung out. Even without her, I somehow managed to have a busy week - probably because my friend JC was back in town.
Work was uneventful until Thursday, so I won't bother mentioning it until then. Monday night was cleaning night - I swept and vacuumed the entire upstairs floor of my place. I also cooked up a stir fry - with REAL, UNFROZEN veggies. Yes, I actually cut my own vegetables, and it didn't even take that long. I was trying to duplicate the stir fry JW and I had made at her place a week earlier, but it turned out that I was missing hoisen sauce. It turned out well, but it wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped.
Tuesday evening I went to the Lion's Head for wings with AN, AD, RD and PL. The wings were again excellent, and they were also five cents cheaper than the previous week! I stayed for an hour, then walked over to JW's. Everyone else stayed another half hour, waiting for the waitress to process AN's credit card. It was late by the time I got to JW's, so we just relaxed for a while before going to sleep.
Wednesday morning, JW and I went for a walk on the way to work. She was starting a daily ritual of more activity. We walked around, up and over Citadel Hill, which was nice early in the morning. The view of the city was great, and it was nice to have the sun in our faces. She continued on to work, as did I. I passed the gum-chewing, arrogant Colleen Jones getting ready to do the national weather on CBC.
Wednesday evening was pool night. I met TA, AD and JC there. We played pool for a few hours, at nachos and pepperoni and had a few drinks. They had a room set up with a Nintendo Wii, so we tried that toward the end of the evening. I was disappointed by how limited the controller was for some of the sports games, and by how easily you could cheat it into thinking you were doing something the right way. For example, I could throw a baseball pitch by flicking my wrist. It was just as fast and curving as it was when I actually made a real throwing motion. The golf game was a little better - it seemed to be able to detect whether you were swinging straight. So yeah it was neat for sure, but there's lots of room for improvement! I may pick a Wii up sometime if find myself in a certain mood the next time I see one for sale :)
Thursday's lunch at work took the form of a meeting with B-PM, our lead developer. The purpose of the lunch was to find out where I'd like to head in the company, though it seemed more like a chance for him to gloat about his accomplishments and future plans. I did manage to get a few sentences in, between B-PM stabbing needles in his gut for his diabetes (he did not stop talking while this happened), and spilling food on his shirt. He talked about a new programming paradigm he's working on that will allow people with disabilities to program. It will be visual, taking advantage of virtual reality headsets, and auditory. You will be able to use your hands to move around virtual objects and construct programs. He's got the whole thing planned out, and he thinks it'll take him two years to finish it. He's calling the new paradigm "Fish." He talked about how it's going to be open source (meaning he will give the technology away for free, as he must in order to ensure penetration), but that he'll make his money off Fish books and book signing/lecture tours around the world. He did point out that all of this may sound unrealistic, but he genuinely thinks he can pull it off. He said that Fish will be his gift back to the community that has given him so very much. After Fish, he will retire from the world of computers, to focus on writing twenty-four novels that he's already outlined! One of the novels is a five-part series.
I did manage to get a few words in between all of this. I told him that I wanted to push myself w.r.t. my shyness, so a strictly programming future might not be the best for me. However, he seemed to think that my head-down aggressive work attitude would fit perfectly in a "skunk" team he's going to form within our company to pump out high quality products. I also voiced my concerns over the rapid change the company is going through, and how nothing is guaranteed. Finally, I pointed out to him that I'm not big on travel, which is one reason why he thinks I'd be good for the skunk team - there will be little to no travel involved.
Thursday evening saw a return to wings. This time, TA, AN, JC and I went to Peel Pub. We got a huge pitcher of the piss that is Canadian beer, then joked about JC's Upper Canada roots (which he took offense to, as he's trying to get out of Upper Canada as quickly as possible!). The wings were smaller, less tasty and twice as expensive as the ones at the Lion's Head. By then, I was beginning to feel the effects of several consecutive days of unhealthy food.
I was going to take it easy Friday. I was not feeling well, and I was very tired. I went to see my grandmother - we watched the ATV news and chatted about recent events. After that, it took an hour of convincing by TA to get me to drive him up to AD's for various activities. No one else came to AN's, so we sat around watching seven consecutive episodes of Chappelle's Show with RD. They were good, but I was too tired to enjoy them as much as I might've.
Saturday (yesterday, as I’ve just continued writing after a day’s break) was a fun day - my anniversary! I slept in a bit (as I’d not gotten to bed until one), then got up and headed out to Shopper’s to develop photos for JW’s card. I also got my groceries, though I didn’t need much, so I was in and out. It was only when I returned home that I found that the photos prominently featured a large zit on my face, and there was a piece of food caught in my teeth just to add insult to injury. Fortunately, my mouth was closed for all but one of the pictures.
In the afternoon, I ripped a few CDs I’ve bought recently, while making a new mix CD for the car. Then I worked on my “new” song again, which really isn’t new at all anymore. I’ve spent four or five times longer on it than any other song. I’m not sure it’s all that much better, but hopefully I’m just too close to it to notice. I’m hoping that I’m getting better with time!
I went over to JW’s at four. We headed right back out to the mall, where she consulted (assaulted) an Aliant rep about a cell phone plan. I swear the prices get worse every year – since I bought my phone a year ago, they’ve increased the system access fee, increased the price of caller ID and voice mail, and changed the definition of “evening” to mean after 9pm (!!!). The total cost for the cheapest reasonable plan is $50. When I got my first cell phone, I paid $25 a month and an “evening” started at 6pm. Also in the mall, I traded in my old Eastlink Internet modem for a new one, which is supposedly going to solve my ongoing connection issues.
After the mall, JW and I went up to Chapters so that JW could buy some books for her school. We also stopped by Staples – which reminds me, I need to test my webcam’s microphone to see if I can use it without the webcam – then I can call people without using my cell phone.
We’d previously decided to dress up for dinner on our anniversary. So, I wore some black pants and a dressy shirt, and JW wore a beautiful black dress. She’d shaved her legs, straightened her hair, burned off some facial hair and put on make-up, all for me. These are things (some of them) she doesn’t do often, and for good reason, but I liked that she’d gone through it for me – not to say I want her to go through it a lot, but once in a while is certainly nice. She was absolutely gorgeous – I wish I could go back in time and see her that way again. I think it was the dress that had the biggest impact on me – I loved it!
We went to Il Mercado for dinner – something we’d talked about doing for months. I was a bit skeptical, as Italian is not high on my list of favourite foods. The place was really nice inside, and we got a good table. We were kind of like deer caught in headlights, as we didn’t know what half the words on the menu meant, we didn’t order the usual appetizers, wine, desserts and coffee that “normal” people waste their money on, and we were in and out pretty quickly. I lucked into a delicious pasta topped with black olive sauce and goat cheese – the sauce and the cheese were amazing. JW wasn’t so lucky, but she still enjoyed her meal, even though she couldn’t taste the cheese that was supposedly in it (she’d even checked with the waiter to make sure the dish had cheese in it!).
After a very brief stroll downtown, we got back in the car and headed back to her place. We lit some candles and had a very nice evening. We even danced a little to some music, a moment that was very special to me. I understood instantly why people like to dance slowly. It will be a long time before I forget the feeling I had that night.
Sunday morning was a beautiful, sunny morning. We got up and enjoyed sourdough bread with havarti cheese – a combination that I find irresistible. Then we went out into the light for a walk – we walked to Needham Park and sat in a tree we’ve sat in many times before. It was fun to be outside doing something that reminded me of summer.
Back at JW’s place, we decided to watch Elizabethtown. It was a funny “romantic comedy” (if you will) about a man who costs his company a billion dollars by designing a shoe that completely flops on the market. His father dying interrupts his suicide attempt, and he travels to Kentucky to take care of the arrangements with his hick family. In the meantime, he meets an airline stewardess who helps him through the tough times. She arranges a road trip home for him, complete with stops at many historical and/or fun sites – with accompanying music all the way. Unbeknownst to him, she arranges for them to meet along the way, after he was convinced he’d never see her again. The movie had interesting characters (especially Chuck) and was well done overall.
I’m looking to make it three great weeks in a row this coming week. Nothing in particular is planned, but I’m looking forward to it. I’m actually enthusiastic about work – we’ll see how long that lasts – and I’m looking forward to seeing JW and my friends throughout the week.
I’m currently listening to: Man-Machine (which makes me laugh at the moment), from Man-Machine by Kraftwerk.
Movies watched this week: Elizabethtown
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
1464 - Panic of Dentist
Finally, an eventful week! It all started at the dentist’s office Monday morning – at least that’s where it would’ve started had I remembered to go. Instead, I got a phone call at work fifteen minutes after the scheduled start of my appointment. I dodged the call at first, then quickly returned it after I realized that there was nothing that could be done. Fortunately, there was a slot that needed filling Tuesday morning, and so I filled it. They didn’t even charge me a fee for missing my appointment – I was told to think no more of it. The people there are really good – it seems like we’re having an ongoing conversation, ten minutes at a time, every six months. I don’t need to recap past events – they remember everything, as if we’d just talked the day before. The missed appointment taught me never to book appointments Monday morning. They’d called me to remind me on Friday, but of course the weekend erased any trace of the call. And the note I’d written for myself had been brushed under some jackets – I hadn’t seen it for days. I think a whiteboard by my door might be a good idea, as sad as that sounds.
The workday Monday was chaotic. I sat there listening to B-SM take calls from desperate clients looking for immediate help with their projects. We actually hired two people this week, but I didn’t meet them because they’ve been sent/are being sent to Seattle straight away – lucky them. It’s unnerving to sit there listening to your boss talk about you as if you were an object, to be shipped off to the highest bidder at any time. Fortunately, the uncertainty surrounding my current work has evaporated, and at the moment I feel like I’m firmly entrenched in a single project that could see me stay in Halifax for quite a while.
After work Monday, I spent the evening making JW’s Valentine’s Day card. I decided that it was high time I write a poem, so I combined that with a desire to relive many of the memories we’ve shared over the past year. Writing the poem succeeded in making me miserable about winter and the cold – we’ve had so many fun summer adventures. She’s been busy lately, and it’s been really cold for weeks, so adventures gone on we haven’t.
I also spent a part of Monday night looking up bus schedules to ensure a prompt arrival for Tuesday’s 9:50am appointment. I decided to catch the #17 bus, which I read as going by Kempt and Young at 9:17am. I walked to a stop just past Kempt and Young, arriving at 9:18am. I hadn’t seen the bus, so I figured I was okay. I waited five minutes. Then, out of the blue, I decided to actually look at the bus stop sign. Sure enough, the bus didn’t stop there! My head spun for a few minutes, as I imagined how embarrassing it would be if I missed two appointments on consecutive days. I literally ran back over to Robie, to see if the #17 stopped there. It didn’t. But the #42 did – in fact, I’d passed one sitting there on my way to catch the #17 – at the time, I decided not to chance it. Now I had to. The next bus came at 9:35am. It was early, and I was happy, until it stopped one stop away and waited for five minutes (while I froze to death). Finally, it came. As I’d hoped, it took me to Lacewood terminal, which is close to the dentist.
I walked through the doors at 9:48am. I joked with the secretaries about my bad memory – I told them about the note I’d lost, and about how appointments and Mondays don’t mix in my world. They either laughed with me, or at me – I’m not sure which.
The appointment itself went well – I was given a clean bill of health, followed by the bill. I left the office, and found my bus downtown ready and waiting – I was happy. I got on, and endured a forty-five minute ride, the object of which seemed to be to find the longest route downtown. I arrived at work at 11:00am. I still took lunch at noon.
On Tuesday evening, I wrapped JW’s presents – well, I put them in a gift bag anyway. I also changed the sheets on the bed, set up some candles and set the table. I bought a couple of t-bone steaks, some greens, and some onions and mushrooms. After my preparations for V-day were complete, I went to the Lion’s Head with AD and TA for wings and beer. The wings were delicious – the best I’ve had in a while.
I didn’t get much done at work on Wednesday – I was too excited. I left at four-thirty, went home and got JW’s presents, and headed to her place On the way there, I picked up her flowers, which itself was an ordeal. Apparently, I’d given them only my first name, and so when I asked for the flowers with my last name, a mad scramble ensured. Finally, they used my phone number to determine that I’d only given them my first name, and the flowers were quickly found.
I arrived at JW’s around five-thirty. I gave her the flowers, which unfortunately had been damaged a bit by the cold walk. She pruned off the damaged bits, cut their stems, and put them in vase on top of the mantle in her room. After that, we exchanged gifts. She gave me a Wired magazine, and I actually allowed myself to believe for a second that she’d gotten me a truly thoughtless gift. In reality, she’d got it for me because it featured a story about the things in the universe that we as a species don’t know. She also got me a book to help me deal with my shyness – let’s hope it helps! Finally, she got me a few delicious Lindor chocolates. Her card to me was another one of her home-made specials – it had the two of us in a heart on the front – it was really nice. Inside, it had a sexy picture of her, the butt of many jokes later in the week. I’m going to find that picture right now – just a sec. She’s adjusting her hair in the picture, head tilted slightly downward to emphasize her eyes. It actually fits inside the frame of the picture she gave me for Christmas – that’s where it’ll stay until I can find somewhere else to put it!
I gave her a book about trees, and a book about David Suzuki – definitely not mutually exclusive. I also gave her a cheese cutter and an orange peeler – two useful jokes. She liked the poem card I gave her, which showcased both my literary and artistic talents (not mutually exclusive). I drew a rigid, straight-line landscape that absolutely screamed ‘me’. The second page of the poem featured the same landscape at night. I tacked a third page on to the poem that made it into a card. It is attached by paperclip, for easy removal (read two staples is enough).
After the gift giving, we started out into the snowy cold toward my place. Once there, I put the steaks on, and she cooked the onions and mushrooms. She also put clementines on the greens to make salad. Unlike Valentine’s Day last year, I didn’t burn the steaks, and in fact they were juicy and tasty. We enjoyed the food, threw a log on the fire and relaxed, watching the flames dance. The evening continued on from there.
Thursday morning, JW was stressed out over the clothes she didn’t have for a work event that night. We looked outside, hoping to see snow, but instead we saw no snow, and cars racing by my window at 100 kph. After breakfast, I found that Mum had called. I called her back, and found that they’d closed schools across the province. She’d heard the news on BT, a local morning program that you either love or hate. JW and I decided to consult a reliable news source before buying into the closures. The news being confirmed, and JW not having to go to work, we decided to relax for a while – I had no great desire to go to work. And relax we did. I left for work just after 10:00am, proceeding immediately to miss the bus I’d intended to catch. JW had waited to see if I was going to catch my bus, and when I didn’t, we both decided to try to catch the #7. Unfortunately, it didn’t come for twenty-five minutes. I decided I’d try to catch another bus further down the road, and JW decided to just walk home on the icy sidewalks (which caused the school closures). I ran down the road, only to see the bus go by as I approached. I turned around and caught up with JW.
I dropped her off close to her house, and then continued on to try to catch a bus on North. Again, I saw a bus go by as I approached the street. I walked all the way down to the bridge, waited fifteen minutes, and finally caught a bus to work. I got in just after 11:00am – for the second time that week.
I stayed late that night, to make up for the morning. I got a lot done. After work, I found that I was out of bus tickets – five minutes before the bus was scheduled to arrive. I ran to Perks, got some tickets, then ran up to Barrington. Again, I was mere seconds too late – the bus literally passed me as I ran down the sidewalk. It was two minutes early – a discrepancy it made up for at the next stop while I watched. By now, I was fed up with waiting, so I crossed the street and caught a #7 bus going in the opposite direction of home. It loops around downtown and then heads toward home. The ride was about thirty minutes, instead of the ten-minute ride I could’ve had.
Friday was uneventful. Worked dragged on a bit, especially toward the end of the day. After work, I took the bus home to pick up the car – good riddens to buses! I went over to TA’s around nine for a few drinks and a bit of TV.
Saturday was fun. I went over to JW’s at high noon to watch her sew a patch for her pajamas. Her friend, BE, was there, and the three of us headed down to the Casino to take in a live radio taping. I forget the name of the show, but it’s on Saturday’s at 1pm on CBC. The portion of the show taped was the musical portion. It was hosted by a total tool who couldn’t even keep his lines straight. I think his problem was that he wasn’t living by the drum, as a tattoo on his arm suggested.
The musical (as opposed to talk) portions of the show were really good. The first performer (I’m going to guess Jen Black, but I’m not sure) was a red-headed girl who reminded me of BE – full of energy and easily excitable. She played a couple of songs that I really liked. In-Flight Safety followed with a great performance – I loved the smooth, flowing sounds that their songs had – ample tempo changes, good bass lines, and a nice, rich, full sound. Three of their five songs really struck a chord with me.
After the hour-long taping, we went to Economy Shoe Shop for a bite to eat. I was delighted to find that they had a brunch menu – I yielded to temptation and ordered the eggs benedict. The girls both had croissant clubhouse sandwiches – WITH NO CHEESE. The greedy chef probably stuffed it down his gullet.
After the meal, we went to a couple of used CD stores. JW and I both bought In-Flight Safety’s latest CD. I got a Bret Hart DVD I’d been looking for, and Old School, which I definitely didn’t own. I also got a Broken Social Scene CD.
We stopped back at JW’s for a second, then drove BE over to the Dartmouth bus terminal. Back in Halifax, JW and I got our groceries and headed back to her place. We coloured a bit, then went for teriyaki at the mall – that’s right, we went to a mall food court for dinner! Well, JW had a craving for it, and I didn’t much care where we went. We had our teriyaki, and I had a pretzel. JW didn’t buy a coat.
At 10:00pm, we went down to the Casino again to support one of JW’s friends, who was performing at a show featuring black music. The show was a series of twenty-minute acts. The first act was a gospel group. They played music best described as eighties funk – it was actually really good. People got up and danced – the crowd was really into it.
The next act was JW’s friend. She’s a young and inexperienced performer, and it showed on stage. She has a beautiful voice, but she didn’t do well with her dialogue between songs. She stumbled over her words and told the crowd to read the Book of Psalms. Her music didn’t have the energy of the previous act, and she quickly lost the crowd. People rudely chatted, drank and laughed while she tried to perform. JW pointed out that she’s not likely known by the crowd, as she’s not a part of the community they represented along with some other acts. She did manage to win the crowd over with a rap segment in her third song, and she got to perform two extra songs when the act following her failed to show.
The third act was a jazz act. They started off with a great jazz song – just what I was hoping to hear. I really liked it. The second song was a take on an old Miles Davis song – it featured an amazing solo by the pianist, whose fingers moved faster than I could see. The rest of the set was disappointing, and we left after it finished, tired and ready for bed.
On Sunday morning, we watched a movie. We’d decided after watching Once Upon a Time in the West that 13 Going on 30 was going to be the next movie of choice. It was my second foray into the realm of chick flicks, after Love Actually, which we’d watched in the fall. I liked it more than Love Actually, actually. It had a story, whereas Love Actually seemed more like a series of scenes. It seemed less forced, and less over the top. The only unbelievable element in the movie was the magic dust that sent the main character seventeen years into the future, and then back again. The movie was funny because we see a thirteen year old girl living the life of a thirty year old. Naturally, she is not prepared for the things that life throws at her.
I also watched Shanghai Noon this week, in bits and pieces. It’s really not a good movie – it’s terribly predictable, and the humour is about as stale as a loaf of bread left on the counter for a month. They really leave nothing to chance. However, it’s entertaining – the martial arts choreography is amazing, and the silly characters grow on you. I enjoyed the sheer, over-the-top madness.
Well, that’s it for another week. I hope the coming week is as eventful – minus the dentist and bus troubles.
I’m currently listening to: Boomerang, from Counterfeit by Cirrus.
Movies watched this week: Shanghai Noon, 13 Going on 30
The workday Monday was chaotic. I sat there listening to B-SM take calls from desperate clients looking for immediate help with their projects. We actually hired two people this week, but I didn’t meet them because they’ve been sent/are being sent to Seattle straight away – lucky them. It’s unnerving to sit there listening to your boss talk about you as if you were an object, to be shipped off to the highest bidder at any time. Fortunately, the uncertainty surrounding my current work has evaporated, and at the moment I feel like I’m firmly entrenched in a single project that could see me stay in Halifax for quite a while.
After work Monday, I spent the evening making JW’s Valentine’s Day card. I decided that it was high time I write a poem, so I combined that with a desire to relive many of the memories we’ve shared over the past year. Writing the poem succeeded in making me miserable about winter and the cold – we’ve had so many fun summer adventures. She’s been busy lately, and it’s been really cold for weeks, so adventures gone on we haven’t.
I also spent a part of Monday night looking up bus schedules to ensure a prompt arrival for Tuesday’s 9:50am appointment. I decided to catch the #17 bus, which I read as going by Kempt and Young at 9:17am. I walked to a stop just past Kempt and Young, arriving at 9:18am. I hadn’t seen the bus, so I figured I was okay. I waited five minutes. Then, out of the blue, I decided to actually look at the bus stop sign. Sure enough, the bus didn’t stop there! My head spun for a few minutes, as I imagined how embarrassing it would be if I missed two appointments on consecutive days. I literally ran back over to Robie, to see if the #17 stopped there. It didn’t. But the #42 did – in fact, I’d passed one sitting there on my way to catch the #17 – at the time, I decided not to chance it. Now I had to. The next bus came at 9:35am. It was early, and I was happy, until it stopped one stop away and waited for five minutes (while I froze to death). Finally, it came. As I’d hoped, it took me to Lacewood terminal, which is close to the dentist.
I walked through the doors at 9:48am. I joked with the secretaries about my bad memory – I told them about the note I’d lost, and about how appointments and Mondays don’t mix in my world. They either laughed with me, or at me – I’m not sure which.
The appointment itself went well – I was given a clean bill of health, followed by the bill. I left the office, and found my bus downtown ready and waiting – I was happy. I got on, and endured a forty-five minute ride, the object of which seemed to be to find the longest route downtown. I arrived at work at 11:00am. I still took lunch at noon.
On Tuesday evening, I wrapped JW’s presents – well, I put them in a gift bag anyway. I also changed the sheets on the bed, set up some candles and set the table. I bought a couple of t-bone steaks, some greens, and some onions and mushrooms. After my preparations for V-day were complete, I went to the Lion’s Head with AD and TA for wings and beer. The wings were delicious – the best I’ve had in a while.
I didn’t get much done at work on Wednesday – I was too excited. I left at four-thirty, went home and got JW’s presents, and headed to her place On the way there, I picked up her flowers, which itself was an ordeal. Apparently, I’d given them only my first name, and so when I asked for the flowers with my last name, a mad scramble ensured. Finally, they used my phone number to determine that I’d only given them my first name, and the flowers were quickly found.
I arrived at JW’s around five-thirty. I gave her the flowers, which unfortunately had been damaged a bit by the cold walk. She pruned off the damaged bits, cut their stems, and put them in vase on top of the mantle in her room. After that, we exchanged gifts. She gave me a Wired magazine, and I actually allowed myself to believe for a second that she’d gotten me a truly thoughtless gift. In reality, she’d got it for me because it featured a story about the things in the universe that we as a species don’t know. She also got me a book to help me deal with my shyness – let’s hope it helps! Finally, she got me a few delicious Lindor chocolates. Her card to me was another one of her home-made specials – it had the two of us in a heart on the front – it was really nice. Inside, it had a sexy picture of her, the butt of many jokes later in the week. I’m going to find that picture right now – just a sec. She’s adjusting her hair in the picture, head tilted slightly downward to emphasize her eyes. It actually fits inside the frame of the picture she gave me for Christmas – that’s where it’ll stay until I can find somewhere else to put it!
I gave her a book about trees, and a book about David Suzuki – definitely not mutually exclusive. I also gave her a cheese cutter and an orange peeler – two useful jokes. She liked the poem card I gave her, which showcased both my literary and artistic talents (not mutually exclusive). I drew a rigid, straight-line landscape that absolutely screamed ‘me’. The second page of the poem featured the same landscape at night. I tacked a third page on to the poem that made it into a card. It is attached by paperclip, for easy removal (read two staples is enough).
After the gift giving, we started out into the snowy cold toward my place. Once there, I put the steaks on, and she cooked the onions and mushrooms. She also put clementines on the greens to make salad. Unlike Valentine’s Day last year, I didn’t burn the steaks, and in fact they were juicy and tasty. We enjoyed the food, threw a log on the fire and relaxed, watching the flames dance. The evening continued on from there.
Thursday morning, JW was stressed out over the clothes she didn’t have for a work event that night. We looked outside, hoping to see snow, but instead we saw no snow, and cars racing by my window at 100 kph. After breakfast, I found that Mum had called. I called her back, and found that they’d closed schools across the province. She’d heard the news on BT, a local morning program that you either love or hate. JW and I decided to consult a reliable news source before buying into the closures. The news being confirmed, and JW not having to go to work, we decided to relax for a while – I had no great desire to go to work. And relax we did. I left for work just after 10:00am, proceeding immediately to miss the bus I’d intended to catch. JW had waited to see if I was going to catch my bus, and when I didn’t, we both decided to try to catch the #7. Unfortunately, it didn’t come for twenty-five minutes. I decided I’d try to catch another bus further down the road, and JW decided to just walk home on the icy sidewalks (which caused the school closures). I ran down the road, only to see the bus go by as I approached. I turned around and caught up with JW.
I dropped her off close to her house, and then continued on to try to catch a bus on North. Again, I saw a bus go by as I approached the street. I walked all the way down to the bridge, waited fifteen minutes, and finally caught a bus to work. I got in just after 11:00am – for the second time that week.
I stayed late that night, to make up for the morning. I got a lot done. After work, I found that I was out of bus tickets – five minutes before the bus was scheduled to arrive. I ran to Perks, got some tickets, then ran up to Barrington. Again, I was mere seconds too late – the bus literally passed me as I ran down the sidewalk. It was two minutes early – a discrepancy it made up for at the next stop while I watched. By now, I was fed up with waiting, so I crossed the street and caught a #7 bus going in the opposite direction of home. It loops around downtown and then heads toward home. The ride was about thirty minutes, instead of the ten-minute ride I could’ve had.
Friday was uneventful. Worked dragged on a bit, especially toward the end of the day. After work, I took the bus home to pick up the car – good riddens to buses! I went over to TA’s around nine for a few drinks and a bit of TV.
Saturday was fun. I went over to JW’s at high noon to watch her sew a patch for her pajamas. Her friend, BE, was there, and the three of us headed down to the Casino to take in a live radio taping. I forget the name of the show, but it’s on Saturday’s at 1pm on CBC. The portion of the show taped was the musical portion. It was hosted by a total tool who couldn’t even keep his lines straight. I think his problem was that he wasn’t living by the drum, as a tattoo on his arm suggested.
The musical (as opposed to talk) portions of the show were really good. The first performer (I’m going to guess Jen Black, but I’m not sure) was a red-headed girl who reminded me of BE – full of energy and easily excitable. She played a couple of songs that I really liked. In-Flight Safety followed with a great performance – I loved the smooth, flowing sounds that their songs had – ample tempo changes, good bass lines, and a nice, rich, full sound. Three of their five songs really struck a chord with me.
After the hour-long taping, we went to Economy Shoe Shop for a bite to eat. I was delighted to find that they had a brunch menu – I yielded to temptation and ordered the eggs benedict. The girls both had croissant clubhouse sandwiches – WITH NO CHEESE. The greedy chef probably stuffed it down his gullet.
After the meal, we went to a couple of used CD stores. JW and I both bought In-Flight Safety’s latest CD. I got a Bret Hart DVD I’d been looking for, and Old School, which I definitely didn’t own. I also got a Broken Social Scene CD.
We stopped back at JW’s for a second, then drove BE over to the Dartmouth bus terminal. Back in Halifax, JW and I got our groceries and headed back to her place. We coloured a bit, then went for teriyaki at the mall – that’s right, we went to a mall food court for dinner! Well, JW had a craving for it, and I didn’t much care where we went. We had our teriyaki, and I had a pretzel. JW didn’t buy a coat.
At 10:00pm, we went down to the Casino again to support one of JW’s friends, who was performing at a show featuring black music. The show was a series of twenty-minute acts. The first act was a gospel group. They played music best described as eighties funk – it was actually really good. People got up and danced – the crowd was really into it.
The next act was JW’s friend. She’s a young and inexperienced performer, and it showed on stage. She has a beautiful voice, but she didn’t do well with her dialogue between songs. She stumbled over her words and told the crowd to read the Book of Psalms. Her music didn’t have the energy of the previous act, and she quickly lost the crowd. People rudely chatted, drank and laughed while she tried to perform. JW pointed out that she’s not likely known by the crowd, as she’s not a part of the community they represented along with some other acts. She did manage to win the crowd over with a rap segment in her third song, and she got to perform two extra songs when the act following her failed to show.
The third act was a jazz act. They started off with a great jazz song – just what I was hoping to hear. I really liked it. The second song was a take on an old Miles Davis song – it featured an amazing solo by the pianist, whose fingers moved faster than I could see. The rest of the set was disappointing, and we left after it finished, tired and ready for bed.
On Sunday morning, we watched a movie. We’d decided after watching Once Upon a Time in the West that 13 Going on 30 was going to be the next movie of choice. It was my second foray into the realm of chick flicks, after Love Actually, which we’d watched in the fall. I liked it more than Love Actually, actually. It had a story, whereas Love Actually seemed more like a series of scenes. It seemed less forced, and less over the top. The only unbelievable element in the movie was the magic dust that sent the main character seventeen years into the future, and then back again. The movie was funny because we see a thirteen year old girl living the life of a thirty year old. Naturally, she is not prepared for the things that life throws at her.
I also watched Shanghai Noon this week, in bits and pieces. It’s really not a good movie – it’s terribly predictable, and the humour is about as stale as a loaf of bread left on the counter for a month. They really leave nothing to chance. However, it’s entertaining – the martial arts choreography is amazing, and the silly characters grow on you. I enjoyed the sheer, over-the-top madness.
Well, that’s it for another week. I hope the coming week is as eventful – minus the dentist and bus troubles.
I’m currently listening to: Boomerang, from Counterfeit by Cirrus.
Movies watched this week: Shanghai Noon, 13 Going on 30
Sunday, February 11, 2007
1463 - The Freyed Ends of Sanity
This past week has been interesting, at least on a personal level. For perhaps the first time in my life, I was slightly unstable (mentally) early in the week. It hampered my productivity at work, and it prevented me from getting anything done at all during the evenings.
The problem is my changing lifestyle - I have a lot of free time these days. I remember, as recently as the fall, looking forward to Monday evenings. Monday evening was the one time of the week I had to myself. Then, the golf season ended, my friends got busier, and JW got ongoing work. Suddenly, not only were my Monday evenings free, but also Wednesday evenings, Saturdays during the day, chunks of Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings, and a small chunk of Sunday. I had too much time and nothing to do - amusing activities had ceased to be so, and my procrastinative (I think I just invented a new word) tendencies soared to new extremes.
Fortunately, I remained in this "funk" for only two days. On Tuesday afternoon, for whatever reason, there was a sudden and dramatic *snap* - a change in feeling, nearly audible, that marked the end of the funk. I've been fine ever since, and I'm still not certain what caused it to end so abruptly. I recall at the time that I was thinking of nothing in particular. Fortunately, such a simple remedy is easy to remember in the event I might need to re-apply it in the future. In fact, the remedy need not be remembered to be followed.
My work week was as chaotic, but for reasons far more tangible. Our company is on the verge of a major growth phase - perhaps we are already in it. The company partners are getting starry-eyed, and there are new opportunities knocking almost every day. One's job description one day might be entirely different the next. Projects are getting shuffled around - I was pulled off one project on Thursday and told I'd be working on some exciting work for X days (yes, they actually said X). Then, Friday morning, I found that X = 0, as I'd been reassigned back to my old project again. It's really too bad, because the exciting work is just that - and it involves little travel. My current project (as of Wednesday and Friday) is likely going to require a bit of travel within the next month. It will have to wait a little while though, as mentally I'm not over the last trip just yet - it was long, hard, stressful work - and long, hard, stressful travel. I wish Seattle was closer to Halifax. If I was going to Boston, it would be a snap - I could drive to Boston faster than I can fly to Seattle, most days.
Outside of work, the week was fairly average. Monday and Tuesday evenings are a bit of a haze - I was still in my funk. I worked on my "new" song a bit more, I did some half-hearted cleaning, and I did a bit of reading. Later on Tuesday, I went to JWs, but it was late when I got there, so we just relaxed for a while before going to sleep. By relax, I mean JW hurriedly finishing up work tasks with me keeping out of the way. It's a bit stressful for me seeing her so busy, but it's even more stressful for her. Still, there is good in all of this, as she seems to be in excellent mental health - it's like she's grabbed on to all of this work, decided to damn well do her very best, and not let anything get in her way. She doesn't have time to think negatively - certainly not as much as she used to.
On Wednesday, JW got some great news about her job. It was great to hear the excitement in her voice - I love to hear her happy like that. I was a bit disappointed when she decided that she'd like to celebrate by taking the evening to herself, but she certainly deserved it - ten times over. I just really wanted to share in the excitement - it sounded fun. Fortunately, TA called in the nick of time with alternative entertainment. I went over to his place, and we watched reality television (great for clearing the overcrowded mind of thought), Jeopardy (great for populating the empty mind with good thought), and finally, South Park (so keenly humourous, that other thought is forced out of the head). In particular, we watched the Mormon episode, which describes the origins of the Mormon religion. I'd heard about it before, but I couldn't have imagined anything even approaching the actual story. It was ludicrous. Give me five minutes, and I'll write up a more compelling religion right now. It will not involve only me, nor will it involve gold plates. Finally, I will not loosely translate the gold plates twice - differently - because I'm not able to remember what I said the first time, the second time. No, wait, actually I will do all of that, because God just told me to. You believe me, right? Of course you do.
I saw JW again on Thursday, after some more half-hearted cleaning. We sat around exchanging stories about the war - at least that's what we would've done had we been to war. Instead, we relaxed, there again being no time to really do anything else.
On Friday, I went over to TA's. AN and AD arrived after the local hockey game. We sat around sipping Scotch and slurping beer. We watched Jeopardy and reality TV, then some miscellaneous garbage, and finally we just listened to music skip on TA's cheap sound system. At the end of the evening, we called two cabs, but only one showed up, so again, I was left to walk home, just as I'd done with JW the last time I'd called a cab from TA's. This time, the walk was much longer, and it was much colder. My legs were nearly frozen when I finally got inside. And what do you do at one-thirty in the morning, tired as sweet fuck, having hardly slept the night before? Why spend an hour on Facebook of course! I'm not sure why I did it, but I did. I finally got to bed at two-thirty.
I didn't get up until noon on Saturday. I really was tired. It felt good to sleep that much, but I was a bit angry that I'd pissed away the entire morning. I showered, shaved and worked on my song a bit, before heading over to JW's.
JW really needed to cook for her lunches for next week, so we went to the grocery store to buy the necessary ingredients. We cooked two different stir-fries, one with chicken and a Thai theme, the other with beef and a Chinese theme. Early on, it became apparent that the cook-off was going to be interesting. JW was stressed about work, and it really manifested itself in her cooking. I felt like I was in the way the entire time - she was rushing around trying to do everything, as she likes to do her cooking a specific way. Even the slightest change to her stressed her out - she even burnt her hands on hot water. It really wasn't safe for her to be cooking that night - she should've been at a massage parlour relaxing. But we made it through, and quite honestly, if it was the stress that made the stir-fry, I might even volunteer to go through the entire ordeal again. The Chinese dish was EXCELLENT - it may have been BETTER than some dishes I've had at restaurants. Supper was delicious and healthy, and I loved it. And what do you do after a healthy supper? You go out to drink and eat nachos.
It was JW's friend's (AC) birthday, and we were invited to Niche, a swanky joint in downtown Halifax. After the stir-fry madness, and a precious few minutes spent relaxing, we bused it down to Niche. Effectively, the place had Jazz music, brain damage, and jell-o pudding pops (don't even try to get that reference - it's taken from two sources, one of which is popular, but the other of which is a reference to a VHS-only golf comedy spoof video from the 80s). It really did have Jazz music. It really did have brain damage, in the form of a girl at the bar. And it really did have jell-o pudding pops, in the form of a solitary tea light that cheapened the birthday cake down to the likes of jell-o pudding.
(Editor's note: text censored) Don't buy a computer at Staples. Don't buy a computer at Staples. Don't put salt in your eyes. Don't put salt in your eyes. Don't put - put salt in your eyes. Put salt in your eyes.
The party was a good time. I had some good laughs, I interacted fairly well, despite being at a table with JW and a tight clique of four friends. The guy sitting next to me works for RIM, but he got drunk before I could ask him how he liked it. In fact, the more liquor he didn't drink, the more he got drunk. AC himself seemed absorbed in something, but occasionally he would burst into laughter. I was surprised to find that his sense of humour was quite low-brow, or at least in the presence of a drunken friend. If my existence had been a bit more pronounced, I think I might've really had some fun with them. Perhaps another time.
On Sunday morning, JW and I got up and had an omlette. We then went to Chapters to look for - you guessed it - frappacinos. Once found and ignored, we proceeded to the books. We spent over an hour breathing in dry air and getting very, very hot. Then, we went as we came, through the main door, bounty in hand. I got a massive book about Mythology for TA, that I'm now considering keeping for myself. I think I might actually find it interesting, as I'd had before the life was sucked out of it by a terrible professor my first year in university. I do like the discount section at Chapters.
After Chapters, I dropped JW off at home and went to my parents' for supper. It was the worst supper ever - dry, tasteless lasagna (we had quite a talk about how Dad says everything is "dry"), tastless garlic bread, and a very poor, Stuperstore-made trifle for dessert. Then, after my parents took turns attacking my hairstyle, we went downstairs to watch golf. I practically slept half of the time - but I stayed awake enough to follow most of what was going on. Phil Mickelson won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am by five shots.
Well, that's my week. I'm hoping it will warm up this week - maybe I'll get to go outside for a walk with JW - I've been craving the outdoors like her cat craves EVERY BLOODY MEAL.
I'm currently listening to: nothing, because I forgot to put some music on :(
Movies watched this week: most of Shanghai Nights, but I'm not finished yet.
The problem is my changing lifestyle - I have a lot of free time these days. I remember, as recently as the fall, looking forward to Monday evenings. Monday evening was the one time of the week I had to myself. Then, the golf season ended, my friends got busier, and JW got ongoing work. Suddenly, not only were my Monday evenings free, but also Wednesday evenings, Saturdays during the day, chunks of Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings, and a small chunk of Sunday. I had too much time and nothing to do - amusing activities had ceased to be so, and my procrastinative (I think I just invented a new word) tendencies soared to new extremes.
Fortunately, I remained in this "funk" for only two days. On Tuesday afternoon, for whatever reason, there was a sudden and dramatic *snap* - a change in feeling, nearly audible, that marked the end of the funk. I've been fine ever since, and I'm still not certain what caused it to end so abruptly. I recall at the time that I was thinking of nothing in particular. Fortunately, such a simple remedy is easy to remember in the event I might need to re-apply it in the future. In fact, the remedy need not be remembered to be followed.
My work week was as chaotic, but for reasons far more tangible. Our company is on the verge of a major growth phase - perhaps we are already in it. The company partners are getting starry-eyed, and there are new opportunities knocking almost every day. One's job description one day might be entirely different the next. Projects are getting shuffled around - I was pulled off one project on Thursday and told I'd be working on some exciting work for X days (yes, they actually said X). Then, Friday morning, I found that X = 0, as I'd been reassigned back to my old project again. It's really too bad, because the exciting work is just that - and it involves little travel. My current project (as of Wednesday and Friday) is likely going to require a bit of travel within the next month. It will have to wait a little while though, as mentally I'm not over the last trip just yet - it was long, hard, stressful work - and long, hard, stressful travel. I wish Seattle was closer to Halifax. If I was going to Boston, it would be a snap - I could drive to Boston faster than I can fly to Seattle, most days.
Outside of work, the week was fairly average. Monday and Tuesday evenings are a bit of a haze - I was still in my funk. I worked on my "new" song a bit more, I did some half-hearted cleaning, and I did a bit of reading. Later on Tuesday, I went to JWs, but it was late when I got there, so we just relaxed for a while before going to sleep. By relax, I mean JW hurriedly finishing up work tasks with me keeping out of the way. It's a bit stressful for me seeing her so busy, but it's even more stressful for her. Still, there is good in all of this, as she seems to be in excellent mental health - it's like she's grabbed on to all of this work, decided to damn well do her very best, and not let anything get in her way. She doesn't have time to think negatively - certainly not as much as she used to.
On Wednesday, JW got some great news about her job. It was great to hear the excitement in her voice - I love to hear her happy like that. I was a bit disappointed when she decided that she'd like to celebrate by taking the evening to herself, but she certainly deserved it - ten times over. I just really wanted to share in the excitement - it sounded fun. Fortunately, TA called in the nick of time with alternative entertainment. I went over to his place, and we watched reality television (great for clearing the overcrowded mind of thought), Jeopardy (great for populating the empty mind with good thought), and finally, South Park (so keenly humourous, that other thought is forced out of the head). In particular, we watched the Mormon episode, which describes the origins of the Mormon religion. I'd heard about it before, but I couldn't have imagined anything even approaching the actual story. It was ludicrous. Give me five minutes, and I'll write up a more compelling religion right now. It will not involve only me, nor will it involve gold plates. Finally, I will not loosely translate the gold plates twice - differently - because I'm not able to remember what I said the first time, the second time. No, wait, actually I will do all of that, because God just told me to. You believe me, right? Of course you do.
I saw JW again on Thursday, after some more half-hearted cleaning. We sat around exchanging stories about the war - at least that's what we would've done had we been to war. Instead, we relaxed, there again being no time to really do anything else.
On Friday, I went over to TA's. AN and AD arrived after the local hockey game. We sat around sipping Scotch and slurping beer. We watched Jeopardy and reality TV, then some miscellaneous garbage, and finally we just listened to music skip on TA's cheap sound system. At the end of the evening, we called two cabs, but only one showed up, so again, I was left to walk home, just as I'd done with JW the last time I'd called a cab from TA's. This time, the walk was much longer, and it was much colder. My legs were nearly frozen when I finally got inside. And what do you do at one-thirty in the morning, tired as sweet fuck, having hardly slept the night before? Why spend an hour on Facebook of course! I'm not sure why I did it, but I did. I finally got to bed at two-thirty.
I didn't get up until noon on Saturday. I really was tired. It felt good to sleep that much, but I was a bit angry that I'd pissed away the entire morning. I showered, shaved and worked on my song a bit, before heading over to JW's.
JW really needed to cook for her lunches for next week, so we went to the grocery store to buy the necessary ingredients. We cooked two different stir-fries, one with chicken and a Thai theme, the other with beef and a Chinese theme. Early on, it became apparent that the cook-off was going to be interesting. JW was stressed about work, and it really manifested itself in her cooking. I felt like I was in the way the entire time - she was rushing around trying to do everything, as she likes to do her cooking a specific way. Even the slightest change to her stressed her out - she even burnt her hands on hot water. It really wasn't safe for her to be cooking that night - she should've been at a massage parlour relaxing. But we made it through, and quite honestly, if it was the stress that made the stir-fry, I might even volunteer to go through the entire ordeal again. The Chinese dish was EXCELLENT - it may have been BETTER than some dishes I've had at restaurants. Supper was delicious and healthy, and I loved it. And what do you do after a healthy supper? You go out to drink and eat nachos.
It was JW's friend's (AC) birthday, and we were invited to Niche, a swanky joint in downtown Halifax. After the stir-fry madness, and a precious few minutes spent relaxing, we bused it down to Niche. Effectively, the place had Jazz music, brain damage, and jell-o pudding pops (don't even try to get that reference - it's taken from two sources, one of which is popular, but the other of which is a reference to a VHS-only golf comedy spoof video from the 80s). It really did have Jazz music. It really did have brain damage, in the form of a girl at the bar. And it really did have jell-o pudding pops, in the form of a solitary tea light that cheapened the birthday cake down to the likes of jell-o pudding.
(Editor's note: text censored) Don't buy a computer at Staples. Don't buy a computer at Staples. Don't put salt in your eyes. Don't put salt in your eyes. Don't put - put salt in your eyes. Put salt in your eyes.
The party was a good time. I had some good laughs, I interacted fairly well, despite being at a table with JW and a tight clique of four friends. The guy sitting next to me works for RIM, but he got drunk before I could ask him how he liked it. In fact, the more liquor he didn't drink, the more he got drunk. AC himself seemed absorbed in something, but occasionally he would burst into laughter. I was surprised to find that his sense of humour was quite low-brow, or at least in the presence of a drunken friend. If my existence had been a bit more pronounced, I think I might've really had some fun with them. Perhaps another time.
On Sunday morning, JW and I got up and had an omlette. We then went to Chapters to look for - you guessed it - frappacinos. Once found and ignored, we proceeded to the books. We spent over an hour breathing in dry air and getting very, very hot. Then, we went as we came, through the main door, bounty in hand. I got a massive book about Mythology for TA, that I'm now considering keeping for myself. I think I might actually find it interesting, as I'd had before the life was sucked out of it by a terrible professor my first year in university. I do like the discount section at Chapters.
After Chapters, I dropped JW off at home and went to my parents' for supper. It was the worst supper ever - dry, tasteless lasagna (we had quite a talk about how Dad says everything is "dry"), tastless garlic bread, and a very poor, Stuperstore-made trifle for dessert. Then, after my parents took turns attacking my hairstyle, we went downstairs to watch golf. I practically slept half of the time - but I stayed awake enough to follow most of what was going on. Phil Mickelson won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am by five shots.
Well, that's my week. I'm hoping it will warm up this week - maybe I'll get to go outside for a walk with JW - I've been craving the outdoors like her cat craves EVERY BLOODY MEAL.
I'm currently listening to: nothing, because I forgot to put some music on :(
Movies watched this week: most of Shanghai Nights, but I'm not finished yet.
Sunday, February 4, 2007
1462 - The Last of the Mohitos
Well, I’ve returned from Seattle again (I think I start writing with the word ‘well’ too often). It was a worthless trip – nearly all of the work I did turned out to be useless due to changing requirements combined with incompetent co-workers. I did learn a lot about the project I was sent to work on, though.
Monday began a string of long, hard, frustrating days where the only things AN and I did were work, eat (drink) and sleep. We went in every day at eight, and left between six-thirty and eight-thirty. We’d then eat dinner somewhere cheap or nice, have a beer or two, perhaps watch a movie, and go to bed.
Monday was one of the shorter days. We got lots of work done, and we were eager to do something fun. We went to a nearby Arby’s (everything was nearby – tons of fast-food joints, most of them Mexican; a lot of Teriaki restaurants; sushi places; sub places; Chinese and Thai places; and the usual American joints like Outback Steak House and Applebee’s) and loaded up on burgers and mozza sticks (there was a five for $5.95 deal going on). We then went a convenience store for water, beer and snacks for the week. We rushed back to the hotel and put Casino on while we ate. The movie was long – about three hours, but it was suspenseful and wonderfully-acted – Joe Pesci was especially good as a mobster tough guy (if you can believe that) who often let out his terrible rage by slapping faces, breaking hands with a hammer and squeezing heads with vices. The movie portrayed a mobster-ruled Las Vegas, where everyone lived solely to have sex, do drugs and make money. Everyone stole from everyone else – everyone tried to cheat everyone else. They were all in it for themselves. There were lots of holes dug in the desert, to put it bluntly. Good, solid entertainment for sure, despite the terrible picture painted of mankind.
On Tuesday, AN and I ran out of work – we seemed to be ahead of schedule. Since AN had been working on the project longer and knew it better, he continued on working while I rotted away. I sat for hours trying to think of something to do, but yet appear as though I was working hard. I did surf a few Web sites. I worked a bit on my own Web site. But the time passed slowly and I was incredibly bored. To make matters worse, we stayed a bit late. My only function was to be there in case anything came up that I might do. We got off work around six-thirty. As we’d done on Sunday, we went to the Canyon’s restaurant next to the hotel. I’d seen some tasty-looking nachos on Sunday, so I decided to try them out. I was feeling terrible, physically, so I wanted to get something nice and healthy to make me feel better. I was also tired of being over-full, and a heaping plate of nachos was just the thing to get my eating under control.
They weren’t even good. They had shredded chicken on them, and I found that the chicken severely moderated the other tastes – the effect of the jalapenos, olives, tomatoes, and especially the cheese, was considerably reduced. Even the ever-trustworthy sour cream couldn’t bring the nachos back from the bowels of mediocrity.
After the meal, AN and I waddled over to the hotel. Continuing our theme of watching movies that portray humanity at its worst, we watched Idiocracy. It took place on Earth five-hundred years in the future – a time by which survival of the least-fit had transformed the world into a planet of idiots, thus the title. The way this happened was quite reasonable, actually – the smartest or most important people in the world are often too focused on their careers or social causes, for example, to have children. People of lower intelligence, however, have children out of sheer stupidity. The movie is clearly about America though, as having many children is a positive thing in many cultures, where the rich and /or intelligent are the ones having the most children. Anyway, in the movie, the intelligent people in the world were ultimately filtered out, leaving a world full of idiots and assholes, where sex, money and violence rule supreme. The Academy Award-winning film of the year 2505 is entitled “Ass” – ninety minutes of a bare ass farting. You can get blowjobs at Starbucks, TV is dominated by sex and violence, and people will do anything for money. The world is ultimately saved, in a way, by two humans who were frozen for 499 years too long in a military experiment that was left unattended due to funding cuts. The two (Joe Average, the most average person alive in the year 2005, and a prostitute) are the most intelligent people on Earth, by far. They solve a food shortage by decreeing that all plants should be watered with WATER, instead of Gatorade – you know, water, like in a toilet. The two try to find a time machine that will take them back to their time, but at the end of the movie, it turns out to be an amusement park ride instead of a real time machine. Joe Average becomes President of the United States, and the prostitute becomes his assistant.
Wednesday was another long, boring day. We stayed at work for over twelve hours, yet I only did about two hours of work. At the end of the day, as fate would have it, the desired outcome shifted suddenly, and we formed an action plan for Thursday to attempt to get all of the new work done. My healthy eating trend continued unabated, as I had Doritos and a chocolate milkshake for lunch. After work, we went to McMiniman’s, a microbrewery chain, where each restaurant brews its own, unique beers. I had the royal sampler. All of the beers were quite bitter, except for the Hammerhead Red beer, which AN and I (and our boss at work) agreed was the best. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and pretty much straight to bed.
Thursday was my birthday. Happy Birthday me! And it was a living hell. We rushed all day to be ready for a pre-demo demo, and it didn’t go well. The product we were working with had bugs that needed to be fixed, and the two other teams of people were having trouble with their parts of the work. We also found that the outcome of our work had been inaccurately communicated, and so we would have to come in to work again on Friday, which was to be our fun day in Seattle. It was sunny and warm – definitely the nicest of my birthdays weather-wise. We also ate lunch at a tiny Thai restaurant – the food was inexpensive and excellent! I had a coconut red curry dish with lots of veggies and a good spiciness – I went with three out of five – I think I could’ve handled four, but five probably would’ve left me paralyzed. I was so happy to eat something both tasty and fairly healthy. I wondered then how I could ever think of eating unhealthy food when healthy food could taste so good. Lunch was a pleasant surprise, and it helped ease the pain I was feeling at work – it also prepared me for the afternoon, which was by far the worst part of the day.
The working day ended with a meeting to discuss what needed to be done. It went on forever, and we wasted a ton of time talking about NOTHING. There was a guy working in Texas on the conference call – the same guy who’d been the star at our training session in Seattle in December – who took his work way too seriously. Another guy, also clearly from the southern US, took it too lightly – his slow, southern drawl and his inelegant misuse of the English language made us wonder how he’d figured out how to get out of the womb.
Our bosses’ screensaver came on during the meeting – it was the one showing a map of the world, with radar-like circles emanating from various cities. Our boss from the last trip, who was also in the meeting, immediately, much to our delight, pounced on the opportunity for jokes by saying “Communist China to Agent Barrans… come in Agent Barrans… what is the status on the project” – it was pure extremest humour at it’s best. Everyone laughed, and the commentary continued until the joke was beat to death.
We ultimately got out of the meeting, and, as I’d done every night, I called JW to chat. This time I woke her up (with her approval), as the meeting had gone late. I was feeling pretty bad about the day at work – I was frustrated and angry about the way things were going. I also missed home. She made me feel better though – a good sendoff to a nice restaurant called Bonefish.
I had a Tom Collins and a disgusting Martini (which I ordered only because I couldn’t think of anything else). To eat, I had a salad to “start” (though I was quite full after finishing it) – a Cobb salad, which seemed to be common in Seattle. It had blue cheese on it, pine nuts, and mango, to name a few of the many ingredients. Then, I had a small steak topped with lobster chunks – it was delicious. After the meal, AN and I went back to the hotel and watched a bit of TV before going to sleep.
On Friday, we did some more work, but were having trouble getting our sample data into the system being worked on. It turned out that there was a problem with the system we hadn’t been told about. They’d stopped using some of the fields on one of the screens, so that modifying the fields in the database had no effect. We only learned of this later on in the day, setting the stage for a last-minute rush of work Monday morning back home.
After work, we headed straight for the airport and home. I was really excited to go home. I missed home terribly, especially JW. I was tired of eating crap, tired of frustrating days at work, tired of having no free time in the evenings, and tired of hanging out with AN. On the way to the airport, we took the Microsoft exit off the highway and did a quick loop around one of the blocks in the huge Microsoft campus. The buildings were beautiful, but not as beautiful as the gardens, stone walls and trees. It was really quite amazing. There were baseball diamonds and soccer fields for employee use.
We continued on to the airport afterward. It would turn out, to my delight, that my wish earlier in the week for just one trip without delays, was to be granted! AN and I had a beer at the Seattle airport, then sat down to watch Kenny Vs. Spenny on the computer. We were so into the show that we failed to notice the crowd by our gate disappear. We still almost didn’t head right over, thinking we had time to spare given the departure time. It was a good thing we did, as the plane pulled away from the gate eight minutes after we got on board. One hour and fifteen minutes later, we were standing in the airport in Vancouver.
Flying over Vancouver, I saw many small islands packed with buildings, joined by bridges and causeways. I took an immediate liking to the city – I got a good vibe from it, which isn’t something I often say. I’d like to go back there sometime and see it in the daylight. In the airport, AN and I had dinner (I had another delicious, healthy, Thai stir fry) and watched several more episodes of Kenny Vs. Spenny. Some of the episodes showed naked asses, and there was a ton of swearing, so we were a bit self conscious watching, but it was very entertaining, and the time waiting passed very quickly, unlike my trip to Seattle.
We boarded our second leg at eleven twenty, and flew for just over four hours to Montreal. We lost three hours due to time change, arriving in Montreal around seven. I got a bit of sleep, but not much – people were constantly getting up and down (gotta get up to get down). They talked in regular, loud voices. Movies were played on TVs that were too bright, and I felt squeezed in between AN and the woman sitting next to me. My back ached and my legs hurt.
In Montreal, we proceeded to a small part of the airport (that looked more like a bus terminal) that housed especially small planes. I saw a crowd of clearly Inuit people by one of the gates – it reminded me of JW, and from that point onward I was desperate to see her. I rudely stared at them, remembering the films I’d watched with JW, among other documentaries I’d seen. I got close enough to the gate to read their destination – a rather long name beginning with ‘Q’. For a moment I almost wished I was going on their flight – an adventure in the north seemed fun at the time (it still does, though maybe the spring, summer or fall are better times to visit). I’d rather go where they were going, than go back to boring old Seattle (well, the part I go to is boring).
We boarded our flight to Halifax within the hour, and the short flight home arrived fifteen minutes early. Mum, Dad, AN’s Dad and AB were waiting at the airport to greet us. B-KS was there as well, picking up his girlfriend who was on the same flight. Hugs were exchanged, our luggage appeared a moment later, and we were on our way home.
I was extremely tired, so I got Mum and Dad to take me straight to the house, where I picked up the car and headed home. It felt great to be home – I was lying down in bed five minutes later. I didn’t feel well though, and despite drinking very little, I used the washroom three times very quickly. I was worried I might be dehydrated, so I had some water. I slept perhaps an hour, between bathroom breaks and annoying telemarketer phone calls. The second time the telemarketer called, I almost threw the phone through the wall. I wanted to be rested up for my party!
I called JW around three. One of her roommates answered the phone with, “Hello, B speaking.” I’m sure she did it to get me about always calling and asking for JW right away, without acknowledging that I actually know the person answering the phone. This time I asked her how she was and then asked for JW. She’d gone to the bank, and I would have to wait until she got home. The next half hour was stressful – I was almost crazy with desire to see her. I prepared for the party, had a shower, and finally went over to her place shortly after she returned my call.
It was great to see her. It felt great to hug and kiss her. I would’ve been happy so have seen her through soundproof glass, so needless to say I was happy to have more than that. We relaxed a while before heading out for groceries for the coming week. After the groceries, we picked up a pizza from Donnini’s, then picked up TA and AD to bring them to my house for my birthday party.
The party was truly great. Everyone came, even people I didn’t expect. I saw both GK and SM for the first time in about a year. I got to talk to almost everyone, something I consciously tried to do, as I felt I was a bit drunk and isolated at parties past. The food was great, the music was great, and the crowd dynamic was great. My presents were fun and we laughed the whole night long. I got two home-made t-shirts from AD - one with a picture of Captain Pecard with the caption, "WTF is this shit" and the other with a Simpsons reference on it. I also got an unusual joke weapon from him. I got some Dave Chappel DVDs from CA, GK and SM. I got liquor from TA, and a deep fryer (perfect for my diet!) from AN. I also got two great movies (well, I know one is, and am told the other is) movies from JW (Shanghai Noon and A Scanner Darkly) plus an interesting Maratime weather book. Finally, I got golf balls from PL and JW... JW2 I'll have to call her I guess! It was sad when the party ended, but I was incredibly tired. So tired, in fact, that I fell asleep in the middle of a serious discussion with JW about our relationship – I’m not even sure how the topic came up.
The next morning, the conversation resumed, after JW reminded me that it had taken place. It was funny, because I didn’t remember the conversation ending – apparently JW had woken me up once, and just given up the second time I fell asleep! I was nervous during our conversation, without drunkenness as my blanket. However, it was good for us to be honest with one another, and it was probably time for a status update. At the conclusion of the discussion, we got up, showered, and went to a brand new Jamaican café close to JW’s for breakfast.
After breakfast, we were both feeling hung over, in our own ways, so we napped for a while at her place, until she had enough energy to get up and start doing a bit of work. I left, heading straight home for birthday dinner.
Mum had fallen on the ice earlier in the day, and her hand was in a makeshift cast. She was to go to emergency after dinner to have it x-rayed to check for fractures, so we ate quickly. I opened my presents quickly as well – I was very happy to get two gift certificates to JW and my favourite restaurant – Szechuan Restaurant (I know, great title!). Mum had made chili and home-made macaroni and cheese for dinner – it was delicious.
I dropped my grandmother off at home, then came home myself to tackle the party mess. It took an hour and a half, but I was able to clean everything up. After that, I sat down at the computer to write this entry.
I’m very tired, having slept a combined seven hours the past two nights. I may not be able to sleep, as going to bed last night late only re-enforced the Seattle time zone for my body. It’s only six in Seattle right now. Oh well, I’ll give it the old collegiate effort! So long!
I'm currently listening to: "The Downward Spiral (The Bottom)" from "Further Down the Sprial" by "Nine Inch Nails" (this song is fucking awesome)
Movies watched this week: Casino, Idiocracy
Monday began a string of long, hard, frustrating days where the only things AN and I did were work, eat (drink) and sleep. We went in every day at eight, and left between six-thirty and eight-thirty. We’d then eat dinner somewhere cheap or nice, have a beer or two, perhaps watch a movie, and go to bed.
Monday was one of the shorter days. We got lots of work done, and we were eager to do something fun. We went to a nearby Arby’s (everything was nearby – tons of fast-food joints, most of them Mexican; a lot of Teriaki restaurants; sushi places; sub places; Chinese and Thai places; and the usual American joints like Outback Steak House and Applebee’s) and loaded up on burgers and mozza sticks (there was a five for $5.95 deal going on). We then went a convenience store for water, beer and snacks for the week. We rushed back to the hotel and put Casino on while we ate. The movie was long – about three hours, but it was suspenseful and wonderfully-acted – Joe Pesci was especially good as a mobster tough guy (if you can believe that) who often let out his terrible rage by slapping faces, breaking hands with a hammer and squeezing heads with vices. The movie portrayed a mobster-ruled Las Vegas, where everyone lived solely to have sex, do drugs and make money. Everyone stole from everyone else – everyone tried to cheat everyone else. They were all in it for themselves. There were lots of holes dug in the desert, to put it bluntly. Good, solid entertainment for sure, despite the terrible picture painted of mankind.
On Tuesday, AN and I ran out of work – we seemed to be ahead of schedule. Since AN had been working on the project longer and knew it better, he continued on working while I rotted away. I sat for hours trying to think of something to do, but yet appear as though I was working hard. I did surf a few Web sites. I worked a bit on my own Web site. But the time passed slowly and I was incredibly bored. To make matters worse, we stayed a bit late. My only function was to be there in case anything came up that I might do. We got off work around six-thirty. As we’d done on Sunday, we went to the Canyon’s restaurant next to the hotel. I’d seen some tasty-looking nachos on Sunday, so I decided to try them out. I was feeling terrible, physically, so I wanted to get something nice and healthy to make me feel better. I was also tired of being over-full, and a heaping plate of nachos was just the thing to get my eating under control.
They weren’t even good. They had shredded chicken on them, and I found that the chicken severely moderated the other tastes – the effect of the jalapenos, olives, tomatoes, and especially the cheese, was considerably reduced. Even the ever-trustworthy sour cream couldn’t bring the nachos back from the bowels of mediocrity.
After the meal, AN and I waddled over to the hotel. Continuing our theme of watching movies that portray humanity at its worst, we watched Idiocracy. It took place on Earth five-hundred years in the future – a time by which survival of the least-fit had transformed the world into a planet of idiots, thus the title. The way this happened was quite reasonable, actually – the smartest or most important people in the world are often too focused on their careers or social causes, for example, to have children. People of lower intelligence, however, have children out of sheer stupidity. The movie is clearly about America though, as having many children is a positive thing in many cultures, where the rich and /or intelligent are the ones having the most children. Anyway, in the movie, the intelligent people in the world were ultimately filtered out, leaving a world full of idiots and assholes, where sex, money and violence rule supreme. The Academy Award-winning film of the year 2505 is entitled “Ass” – ninety minutes of a bare ass farting. You can get blowjobs at Starbucks, TV is dominated by sex and violence, and people will do anything for money. The world is ultimately saved, in a way, by two humans who were frozen for 499 years too long in a military experiment that was left unattended due to funding cuts. The two (Joe Average, the most average person alive in the year 2005, and a prostitute) are the most intelligent people on Earth, by far. They solve a food shortage by decreeing that all plants should be watered with WATER, instead of Gatorade – you know, water, like in a toilet. The two try to find a time machine that will take them back to their time, but at the end of the movie, it turns out to be an amusement park ride instead of a real time machine. Joe Average becomes President of the United States, and the prostitute becomes his assistant.
Wednesday was another long, boring day. We stayed at work for over twelve hours, yet I only did about two hours of work. At the end of the day, as fate would have it, the desired outcome shifted suddenly, and we formed an action plan for Thursday to attempt to get all of the new work done. My healthy eating trend continued unabated, as I had Doritos and a chocolate milkshake for lunch. After work, we went to McMiniman’s, a microbrewery chain, where each restaurant brews its own, unique beers. I had the royal sampler. All of the beers were quite bitter, except for the Hammerhead Red beer, which AN and I (and our boss at work) agreed was the best. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and pretty much straight to bed.
Thursday was my birthday. Happy Birthday me! And it was a living hell. We rushed all day to be ready for a pre-demo demo, and it didn’t go well. The product we were working with had bugs that needed to be fixed, and the two other teams of people were having trouble with their parts of the work. We also found that the outcome of our work had been inaccurately communicated, and so we would have to come in to work again on Friday, which was to be our fun day in Seattle. It was sunny and warm – definitely the nicest of my birthdays weather-wise. We also ate lunch at a tiny Thai restaurant – the food was inexpensive and excellent! I had a coconut red curry dish with lots of veggies and a good spiciness – I went with three out of five – I think I could’ve handled four, but five probably would’ve left me paralyzed. I was so happy to eat something both tasty and fairly healthy. I wondered then how I could ever think of eating unhealthy food when healthy food could taste so good. Lunch was a pleasant surprise, and it helped ease the pain I was feeling at work – it also prepared me for the afternoon, which was by far the worst part of the day.
The working day ended with a meeting to discuss what needed to be done. It went on forever, and we wasted a ton of time talking about NOTHING. There was a guy working in Texas on the conference call – the same guy who’d been the star at our training session in Seattle in December – who took his work way too seriously. Another guy, also clearly from the southern US, took it too lightly – his slow, southern drawl and his inelegant misuse of the English language made us wonder how he’d figured out how to get out of the womb.
Our bosses’ screensaver came on during the meeting – it was the one showing a map of the world, with radar-like circles emanating from various cities. Our boss from the last trip, who was also in the meeting, immediately, much to our delight, pounced on the opportunity for jokes by saying “Communist China to Agent Barrans… come in Agent Barrans… what is the status on the project” – it was pure extremest humour at it’s best. Everyone laughed, and the commentary continued until the joke was beat to death.
We ultimately got out of the meeting, and, as I’d done every night, I called JW to chat. This time I woke her up (with her approval), as the meeting had gone late. I was feeling pretty bad about the day at work – I was frustrated and angry about the way things were going. I also missed home. She made me feel better though – a good sendoff to a nice restaurant called Bonefish.
I had a Tom Collins and a disgusting Martini (which I ordered only because I couldn’t think of anything else). To eat, I had a salad to “start” (though I was quite full after finishing it) – a Cobb salad, which seemed to be common in Seattle. It had blue cheese on it, pine nuts, and mango, to name a few of the many ingredients. Then, I had a small steak topped with lobster chunks – it was delicious. After the meal, AN and I went back to the hotel and watched a bit of TV before going to sleep.
On Friday, we did some more work, but were having trouble getting our sample data into the system being worked on. It turned out that there was a problem with the system we hadn’t been told about. They’d stopped using some of the fields on one of the screens, so that modifying the fields in the database had no effect. We only learned of this later on in the day, setting the stage for a last-minute rush of work Monday morning back home.
After work, we headed straight for the airport and home. I was really excited to go home. I missed home terribly, especially JW. I was tired of eating crap, tired of frustrating days at work, tired of having no free time in the evenings, and tired of hanging out with AN. On the way to the airport, we took the Microsoft exit off the highway and did a quick loop around one of the blocks in the huge Microsoft campus. The buildings were beautiful, but not as beautiful as the gardens, stone walls and trees. It was really quite amazing. There were baseball diamonds and soccer fields for employee use.
We continued on to the airport afterward. It would turn out, to my delight, that my wish earlier in the week for just one trip without delays, was to be granted! AN and I had a beer at the Seattle airport, then sat down to watch Kenny Vs. Spenny on the computer. We were so into the show that we failed to notice the crowd by our gate disappear. We still almost didn’t head right over, thinking we had time to spare given the departure time. It was a good thing we did, as the plane pulled away from the gate eight minutes after we got on board. One hour and fifteen minutes later, we were standing in the airport in Vancouver.
Flying over Vancouver, I saw many small islands packed with buildings, joined by bridges and causeways. I took an immediate liking to the city – I got a good vibe from it, which isn’t something I often say. I’d like to go back there sometime and see it in the daylight. In the airport, AN and I had dinner (I had another delicious, healthy, Thai stir fry) and watched several more episodes of Kenny Vs. Spenny. Some of the episodes showed naked asses, and there was a ton of swearing, so we were a bit self conscious watching, but it was very entertaining, and the time waiting passed very quickly, unlike my trip to Seattle.
We boarded our second leg at eleven twenty, and flew for just over four hours to Montreal. We lost three hours due to time change, arriving in Montreal around seven. I got a bit of sleep, but not much – people were constantly getting up and down (gotta get up to get down). They talked in regular, loud voices. Movies were played on TVs that were too bright, and I felt squeezed in between AN and the woman sitting next to me. My back ached and my legs hurt.
In Montreal, we proceeded to a small part of the airport (that looked more like a bus terminal) that housed especially small planes. I saw a crowd of clearly Inuit people by one of the gates – it reminded me of JW, and from that point onward I was desperate to see her. I rudely stared at them, remembering the films I’d watched with JW, among other documentaries I’d seen. I got close enough to the gate to read their destination – a rather long name beginning with ‘Q’. For a moment I almost wished I was going on their flight – an adventure in the north seemed fun at the time (it still does, though maybe the spring, summer or fall are better times to visit). I’d rather go where they were going, than go back to boring old Seattle (well, the part I go to is boring).
We boarded our flight to Halifax within the hour, and the short flight home arrived fifteen minutes early. Mum, Dad, AN’s Dad and AB were waiting at the airport to greet us. B-KS was there as well, picking up his girlfriend who was on the same flight. Hugs were exchanged, our luggage appeared a moment later, and we were on our way home.
I was extremely tired, so I got Mum and Dad to take me straight to the house, where I picked up the car and headed home. It felt great to be home – I was lying down in bed five minutes later. I didn’t feel well though, and despite drinking very little, I used the washroom three times very quickly. I was worried I might be dehydrated, so I had some water. I slept perhaps an hour, between bathroom breaks and annoying telemarketer phone calls. The second time the telemarketer called, I almost threw the phone through the wall. I wanted to be rested up for my party!
I called JW around three. One of her roommates answered the phone with, “Hello, B speaking.” I’m sure she did it to get me about always calling and asking for JW right away, without acknowledging that I actually know the person answering the phone. This time I asked her how she was and then asked for JW. She’d gone to the bank, and I would have to wait until she got home. The next half hour was stressful – I was almost crazy with desire to see her. I prepared for the party, had a shower, and finally went over to her place shortly after she returned my call.
It was great to see her. It felt great to hug and kiss her. I would’ve been happy so have seen her through soundproof glass, so needless to say I was happy to have more than that. We relaxed a while before heading out for groceries for the coming week. After the groceries, we picked up a pizza from Donnini’s, then picked up TA and AD to bring them to my house for my birthday party.
The party was truly great. Everyone came, even people I didn’t expect. I saw both GK and SM for the first time in about a year. I got to talk to almost everyone, something I consciously tried to do, as I felt I was a bit drunk and isolated at parties past. The food was great, the music was great, and the crowd dynamic was great. My presents were fun and we laughed the whole night long. I got two home-made t-shirts from AD - one with a picture of Captain Pecard with the caption, "WTF is this shit" and the other with a Simpsons reference on it. I also got an unusual joke weapon from him. I got some Dave Chappel DVDs from CA, GK and SM. I got liquor from TA, and a deep fryer (perfect for my diet!) from AN. I also got two great movies (well, I know one is, and am told the other is) movies from JW (Shanghai Noon and A Scanner Darkly) plus an interesting Maratime weather book. Finally, I got golf balls from PL and JW... JW2 I'll have to call her I guess! It was sad when the party ended, but I was incredibly tired. So tired, in fact, that I fell asleep in the middle of a serious discussion with JW about our relationship – I’m not even sure how the topic came up.
The next morning, the conversation resumed, after JW reminded me that it had taken place. It was funny, because I didn’t remember the conversation ending – apparently JW had woken me up once, and just given up the second time I fell asleep! I was nervous during our conversation, without drunkenness as my blanket. However, it was good for us to be honest with one another, and it was probably time for a status update. At the conclusion of the discussion, we got up, showered, and went to a brand new Jamaican café close to JW’s for breakfast.
After breakfast, we were both feeling hung over, in our own ways, so we napped for a while at her place, until she had enough energy to get up and start doing a bit of work. I left, heading straight home for birthday dinner.
Mum had fallen on the ice earlier in the day, and her hand was in a makeshift cast. She was to go to emergency after dinner to have it x-rayed to check for fractures, so we ate quickly. I opened my presents quickly as well – I was very happy to get two gift certificates to JW and my favourite restaurant – Szechuan Restaurant (I know, great title!). Mum had made chili and home-made macaroni and cheese for dinner – it was delicious.
I dropped my grandmother off at home, then came home myself to tackle the party mess. It took an hour and a half, but I was able to clean everything up. After that, I sat down at the computer to write this entry.
I’m very tired, having slept a combined seven hours the past two nights. I may not be able to sleep, as going to bed last night late only re-enforced the Seattle time zone for my body. It’s only six in Seattle right now. Oh well, I’ll give it the old collegiate effort! So long!
I'm currently listening to: "The Downward Spiral (The Bottom)" from "Further Down the Sprial" by "Nine Inch Nails" (this song is fucking awesome)
Movies watched this week: Casino, Idiocracy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)