Politics, schmallitics - too much fun
Alright I have a lot of stuff that needs to be done over the next 2 weeks. So what did I do for 2 hours instead? Posting on Globe and Mail's 'conversations.' If you ever get a chance and are insterested in what other Canadians (and what some Americans) think about Canadian politics, I advise you go over and take a look. Just click on any politics related article and scroll to the part after the article itself.
In conclusion I admit it, I am a nerd; this is my idea of fun (just skip over it):
In regards to the comment that Canadians don't care about our money being taken, we do care. But as another commenter has said, "If you look under the covers of every party, you're bound to find some cockroaches. As humans, politicians are not infallible." The Conservative Party has its share of shady characters. Democracies across the global are rift with issues of corruption. Even the United Nations had a major scandal recently. If we delve into history for a second, PM Pearson's government in the 1965 was dogged with all sorts of scandals (including clear out bribery) - but look at the good work that government was able to produce (Auto Pact, CPP).
There are those that believe minority governments are good because they get things done; the alternative of course, is that they do not last. Mr. Martin's minority government, although shakey and lacking in direction at first is finally starting to do something. Of course, Mr. Harper talks of the Liberals not being sincere about their desire to help Canadians. That's baloney - how does one judge sincerity of a politician? Politicians ultimately want to get re-elected; that's the final goal. To do this, they have to win the support of the electorate; to do this, they have to do things that are viewed as beneficial to the country. What do we have to judge Mr. Harper's sincerity to benefit Canadians? All we can assume, is that he sincerely wants to be PM.
As several others have pointed out in this discussion, many people are not convinced of the Conservative agenda. That's not surprising as Mr. Harper has not really made much mention of his ideas, choosing instead to focus Canadian attention on the fallout from the Gomery inquiry. Mr. Martin, on the other hand, has put several ideas into the works and through. Being the party in power, I agree that he is in an advantageous position; however I have seen little in the form of ideas from Mr. Harper...
Oh, I only wish I knew whether all the anti-Liberal posters (there are quite a few you can imagine) are real disgrunted Liberals or just Conservatives who are championing the end of an 'era of corruption.' There's so much anger and nonsense on these boards its actually really funny...
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Back into the Middle of Night
I had a long day today, as I had to take care of a few major things. I guess its coming down to the next months for me to prove my mettle to these schools.
The drive back from downtown T.O. was very smooth as one might expect it to be in the middle of the night. Somehow late night drives always increases the temptation of fast food for me. Sure enough tonight I found myself putting a McChicken combo into the ol' stomach. After getting back home from downtown Toronto at around 1:50 a.m., I made a hot chocolate and settled down for a few hours of reading before bed. That plan didn't last that long.
[MSN] 02/11/2005 2:26 AM: want a coffee?
And thus the title of this post. I have only just returned from the late night rendez-vous. It was nice chilling (literally as we hung around outside) with an old friend whom I have not seen since the summer; it definitely beat any reading I could have done in the meanwhile. I've forgotten how nice it can be to have chats in the early morning; its a laid-back sort of affair that's a pleasant change from the daily busy-busy routine. Thanks D, and try to get some sleep man.
I had a long day today, as I had to take care of a few major things. I guess its coming down to the next months for me to prove my mettle to these schools.
The drive back from downtown T.O. was very smooth as one might expect it to be in the middle of the night. Somehow late night drives always increases the temptation of fast food for me. Sure enough tonight I found myself putting a McChicken combo into the ol' stomach. After getting back home from downtown Toronto at around 1:50 a.m., I made a hot chocolate and settled down for a few hours of reading before bed. That plan didn't last that long.
[MSN] 02/11/2005 2:26 AM: want a coffee?
And thus the title of this post. I have only just returned from the late night rendez-vous. It was nice chilling (literally as we hung around outside) with an old friend whom I have not seen since the summer; it definitely beat any reading I could have done in the meanwhile. I've forgotten how nice it can be to have chats in the early morning; its a laid-back sort of affair that's a pleasant change from the daily busy-busy routine. Thanks D, and try to get some sleep man.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
A Doomed effort from the start
Okay I admit there's been an urge to blog steadily building in my system. This urge was causing all sorts of problems for me, making me do all sorts of irrational things like sleeping before 10 p.m. for two nights in a row! I knew I would have to eventually give in lest something bad happened...
Bad in this case can be definied as "Doom the movie," which I went to see last night with some friends. I got there slightly late and missed not only the previews but also the first 5 minutes of the film. Looking back now, I'm glad I did. I realise now that even if I had arrived 30 minutes late (the movie ran 104 minutes) I probably would have derived the same level of enjoyment out of the experience ie. the first-person shooter sequence created to make gamers go 'whoa.' For the sake of not spoiling it for others who don't know better and plan on viewing it sometime, I'll refrain from get into the details of the "plot." Without even getting into the specifics of Doom's weak example of script writing, there is an overall lacking which can be felt by anyone who has played any of the games which spawned the movie. I can understand that the transition from video game to the big screen is often a challenging one; this is likely especially true for a first-person action-driven series such as Doom.
For example, consider the plot of the original video game Doom for PC. You are a marine, one of the most hardened warriors on earth, who has been deported to Mars for assaulting a senior officer when ordered to kill unarmed civilians. You are forced to work for the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC), a military-industrial conglomerate that is performing secret experiments with teleportation between the moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. Suddenly, something goes wrong and creatures from Hell come out of the teleportation gates overruning the bases with demons. Realising that you are the only one left alive you try to survive and in the process you have to fight and fight and fight and... you get the picture.
As fan of the series ever since the original games' release in 1993 however, I am largely disappointed in the poor showing of director Andrzej Bartkowiak ("Romeo Must Die," "Cradle 2 the Grave"). Now I know that movies often take artistic licenses with things like plots; even so, cutting out the entire Hell element of the plot is too much. It changes the nature of the quintessensial Doom marine, the hardcore Earth warrior fighting for survival against the minions of evil. Most importantly though, this takes out the bread and butter of the Doom series. Anyone entertaining other conceptions of the movie can dissuade themselves of such notions right now - there are no minions of Hell in the movie. And by that I don't mean that there are no partly invisible spectres; there are no flaming lost souls (the heads that are on fire), no large red cacademons (red ball with one eye), no fiendish revenants (skeleton with rocket launcher built on his shoulders) - not even the ubiquitous fireball-spiting brown imp. For me this was a big let down in a movie with the same name as the game. If the producers had felt that having "monsters of Hell" might have seen as too Satanic and objectionable, I'm sure there were other ways to incorporate creatures other than zombies (although a pinky from Doom III does make an appearance).
Of course it is more likely that studio executives were merely hoping to make a relatively cheap film that would top the box office during Halloween weekend, and in this regard the movie can probably be regarded as a success. *sigh* Sometimes practicalities of business are truly a pity.
Aside from that complaint of mine, everyone else in Doom was standard fare for a campy zombie-shooter. Surprisingly the Rock's character barely displayed any trace of the dry humour that made the actor a passable action figure in his other films. Playing the role of the stoic dutiful anti-hero, there were moments that his character seemed to scream for development before that was quashed with a robotic "I'm a solider, I do as I'm told" line. The closest that his character comes to a humourous moment is when he quips, "I'm not supposed to die" while fighting off a horde of zombies. A failure of the script or a failure of the actor?
If there is one thing that I can credit the movie with, its the lack of a typical romantic subplot. Instead the 'oddly beautiful scientist' (Rosamund Pike) is the sister of the hero character (Karl Urban), together share a tragic family past on the Mars base. Unfortunately although it dodged that bullet, every other B-movie action cliche is used in Doom.
Even racial cliches are apparent in the movie as one of my fellow Doom 'victims' pointed out yesterday. When one of the black marines goes down, its an incredible fight as the man fights the zombie creature despite being slammed into walls, electrocuted, and thrown into a pit. When the asian marine dies, he is not only one of the first to go, but he is taken by surprise and goes down without a sound.
There's a mildly philosophical interpretation which can be extrapolated to the movie which my (useless) artsie mind has come upon but it is probably going far beyond the intent of the script-writers so for the spoilers sake I'll refrain from delving into it.
All in all, if you plan to watch this film don't expect too much. If you have a high performance gaming computer at home or an X-Box, you're probably better off playing Doom III at home if you've not already done so. For more information about the 1990s phenomenon which iD Software unleashed upon the world, click here.
Ugh I can't believe I've blogged again...
Okay I admit there's been an urge to blog steadily building in my system. This urge was causing all sorts of problems for me, making me do all sorts of irrational things like sleeping before 10 p.m. for two nights in a row! I knew I would have to eventually give in lest something bad happened...
Bad in this case can be definied as "Doom the movie," which I went to see last night with some friends. I got there slightly late and missed not only the previews but also the first 5 minutes of the film. Looking back now, I'm glad I did. I realise now that even if I had arrived 30 minutes late (the movie ran 104 minutes) I probably would have derived the same level of enjoyment out of the experience ie. the first-person shooter sequence created to make gamers go 'whoa.' For the sake of not spoiling it for others who don't know better and plan on viewing it sometime, I'll refrain from get into the details of the "plot." Without even getting into the specifics of Doom's weak example of script writing, there is an overall lacking which can be felt by anyone who has played any of the games which spawned the movie. I can understand that the transition from video game to the big screen is often a challenging one; this is likely especially true for a first-person action-driven series such as Doom.
For example, consider the plot of the original video game Doom for PC. You are a marine, one of the most hardened warriors on earth, who has been deported to Mars for assaulting a senior officer when ordered to kill unarmed civilians. You are forced to work for the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC), a military-industrial conglomerate that is performing secret experiments with teleportation between the moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. Suddenly, something goes wrong and creatures from Hell come out of the teleportation gates overruning the bases with demons. Realising that you are the only one left alive you try to survive and in the process you have to fight and fight and fight and... you get the picture.
As fan of the series ever since the original games' release in 1993 however, I am largely disappointed in the poor showing of director Andrzej Bartkowiak ("Romeo Must Die," "Cradle 2 the Grave"). Now I know that movies often take artistic licenses with things like plots; even so, cutting out the entire Hell element of the plot is too much. It changes the nature of the quintessensial Doom marine, the hardcore Earth warrior fighting for survival against the minions of evil. Most importantly though, this takes out the bread and butter of the Doom series. Anyone entertaining other conceptions of the movie can dissuade themselves of such notions right now - there are no minions of Hell in the movie. And by that I don't mean that there are no partly invisible spectres; there are no flaming lost souls (the heads that are on fire), no large red cacademons (red ball with one eye), no fiendish revenants (skeleton with rocket launcher built on his shoulders) - not even the ubiquitous fireball-spiting brown imp. For me this was a big let down in a movie with the same name as the game. If the producers had felt that having "monsters of Hell" might have seen as too Satanic and objectionable, I'm sure there were other ways to incorporate creatures other than zombies (although a pinky from Doom III does make an appearance).
Of course it is more likely that studio executives were merely hoping to make a relatively cheap film that would top the box office during Halloween weekend, and in this regard the movie can probably be regarded as a success. *sigh* Sometimes practicalities of business are truly a pity.
Aside from that complaint of mine, everyone else in Doom was standard fare for a campy zombie-shooter. Surprisingly the Rock's character barely displayed any trace of the dry humour that made the actor a passable action figure in his other films. Playing the role of the stoic dutiful anti-hero, there were moments that his character seemed to scream for development before that was quashed with a robotic "I'm a solider, I do as I'm told" line. The closest that his character comes to a humourous moment is when he quips, "I'm not supposed to die" while fighting off a horde of zombies. A failure of the script or a failure of the actor?
If there is one thing that I can credit the movie with, its the lack of a typical romantic subplot. Instead the 'oddly beautiful scientist' (Rosamund Pike) is the sister of the hero character (Karl Urban), together share a tragic family past on the Mars base. Unfortunately although it dodged that bullet, every other B-movie action cliche is used in Doom.
Even racial cliches are apparent in the movie as one of my fellow Doom 'victims' pointed out yesterday. When one of the black marines goes down, its an incredible fight as the man fights the zombie creature despite being slammed into walls, electrocuted, and thrown into a pit. When the asian marine dies, he is not only one of the first to go, but he is taken by surprise and goes down without a sound.
There's a mildly philosophical interpretation which can be extrapolated to the movie which my (useless) artsie mind has come upon but it is probably going far beyond the intent of the script-writers so for the spoilers sake I'll refrain from delving into it.
All in all, if you plan to watch this film don't expect too much. If you have a high performance gaming computer at home or an X-Box, you're probably better off playing Doom III at home if you've not already done so. For more information about the 1990s phenomenon which iD Software unleashed upon the world, click here.
Ugh I can't believe I've blogged again...
Sunday, December 05, 2004
A Birthday without Parsley!
I celebrated a friend's birthday earlier today. We went out for a pretty decent dinner at Commerce Gate at Asian Legends. The conversations was pretty light, although there was a pretty in-depth discourse on the manliness of a certain person (imagine with whiney voice - "why do people think that I think like a guy?"). The evening was also filled with stupidity courtesy of Kevin ("I'm a commodity." [not understanding why girls aren't all over him] You know, there's always your stalker in first year Kev...). And I still don't fully understand the metrosexual comments. I mean don't most guys like to take care of yourself? I mean there's looking like a GQ poster boy and there's being a slob; surely there's middle ground somewhere there. Other intersesting tidbits include Joanne thinking that a threesome requires two girls and Kevin's reaction everytime "Miranda" was mentioned (ha! we know you stalk her in secret). It was a small affair but there was plenty of silliness/laughter.
Incidentally there was also plenty of cake to go around as well. We (Joanne actually) had bought a cake - black forest type with real cherries! - and later we found out Bowen's mother did as well. Super greasy dinner + 2 cakes + the best chinese saigo dessert in the world (courtesy again of Bowen's mother) made 4 very full university students. There was so much cake left over that Joanne actually took some with her home! *gasp*
After dinner we returned to Bowen's house for the aforementioned desserts and PS2 gaming. And I'm glad that I'm not the only one who does not know the Chinese happy birthday song. From SNK vs. Capcom 2, we learned that Kevin is a verygood cheap player, although Joanne's button mashing deserves some mention for the sake of ridiculing her. After that we popped in Katamari Damacy and all hell broke loose. That game must be one of the wackiest party games in the world. The premise is this - you are an extraterrestrial ball of glue and you have to roll over as many things as possible to get them to stick to you in order to become the biggest ball of glue! FUN! I modestly admit that I was undefeated in my garbage collecting ball rolling skills. ^_^
Afterwards that mayhem X-Men Legends was popped into the PS2, Warcraft III was started up and Naruto was shown on a 17" screen - all in all, pretty good times. So again, happy birthday Bo!
I celebrated a friend's birthday earlier today. We went out for a pretty decent dinner at Commerce Gate at Asian Legends. The conversations was pretty light, although there was a pretty in-depth discourse on the manliness of a certain person (imagine with whiney voice - "why do people think that I think like a guy?"). The evening was also filled with stupidity courtesy of Kevin ("I'm a commodity." [not understanding why girls aren't all over him] You know, there's always your stalker in first year Kev...). And I still don't fully understand the metrosexual comments. I mean don't most guys like to take care of yourself? I mean there's looking like a GQ poster boy and there's being a slob; surely there's middle ground somewhere there. Other intersesting tidbits include Joanne thinking that a threesome requires two girls and Kevin's reaction everytime "Miranda" was mentioned (ha! we know you stalk her in secret). It was a small affair but there was plenty of silliness/laughter.
Incidentally there was also plenty of cake to go around as well. We (Joanne actually) had bought a cake - black forest type with real cherries! - and later we found out Bowen's mother did as well. Super greasy dinner + 2 cakes + the best chinese saigo dessert in the world (courtesy again of Bowen's mother) made 4 very full university students. There was so much cake left over that Joanne actually took some with her home! *gasp*
After dinner we returned to Bowen's house for the aforementioned desserts and PS2 gaming. And I'm glad that I'm not the only one who does not know the Chinese happy birthday song. From SNK vs. Capcom 2, we learned that Kevin is a very
Afterwards that mayhem X-Men Legends was popped into the PS2, Warcraft III was started up and Naruto was shown on a 17" screen - all in all, pretty good times. So again, happy birthday Bo!
Monday, November 29, 2004
I'm Almost There and He's Almost Here
Well looks like the year is coming to an end. Officially, only 2 more weeks of school left. This translates into 2 tests and an essay for me. Mostly I've been studying this weekend although today I finally got back into some 'Polish Combat' again after slacking off for a month. Needless to say the Pole had not been too happy with me and life becomes an uncertainty when a guy who can bench 250 lbs isn't pleased with you. The pain in my muscles was offset by the relief from knowing that my life was becoming more secure with each arm curl.
It is pretty interesting how much the media is trying to make of the Bush visit to Canada tomorrow compared to the PMO's attempts to play it down. Politics at play, I say. I mean even the fact that Albertan beef is on the menu has been given political significance. I think the whole thing is significant but only because Bush has not visited Canada, its very close and significant trade partner, in all his years in office (I am not counting the 2 times he has come to Canada for international summits). The Martin government has said not to expect anything major stemming from this visit, insisting that time is very tight on this "working visit" - however I think it would be prudent to be aware of any surprises they may through. So far a timeline for the resumption of the beef trade and an announcement on the softwood lumber issues are the primary suspects but we shall see...
On a side note, I think the anti-Bush sentiment in Canada has gone way too far; some people need to calm down and think a little more realistically. I'm a big supporter of political action to express opinion to our leaders but threatening a media outlet with jail for supporting Bush? Then there's the Lawyers Against the War, who want Canada to deny Bush from entering the country because he's a war criminal? Well in the end its all good because the people have spoken and all, but not allowing him to visit Canada would constitute a much more radical policy that I do not believe Canada will ever take. The problem with such protests is that they are not grounded in reality, as spirited and passionate as they are. Canada-US relations are very important for both countries, arguably more for us, and disagreements over past and current American policy should not threaten this mutually beneficial relationship. Admittedly I have to say that a scenario in which Canada gradually broke off all ties with the US has played in my head several times this weekend with interesting fantasy results. There are too many unknowns but I think that would be a case of "that which does not kill you only makes you stronger".
And finally just so none of you are fooled by anything the news outlets will tell you, the Canadian Da Vinci Project to launch a civilian space flight is terrible. It is my firm belief that the only reason they were ever considered a front runner for the X-Prize (which has already been won by the mind-blowingly expensive SpaceShipOne team) was because of their team leader Brian Feeney's amazing ability to lie with a straight face; by making it all appear like they were close to launch, they managed to secure sponsor and media interest in their project. For this reason I find all this hubbub that their launch date has been postponed due to the holidays to be quite humourous. Well for Canadian pride's sake I only hope their balloon-lifted space contraption doesn't disappoint if/when they do launch.
Anyway time to leave. Tired=Very Yes.
Well looks like the year is coming to an end. Officially, only 2 more weeks of school left. This translates into 2 tests and an essay for me. Mostly I've been studying this weekend although today I finally got back into some 'Polish Combat' again after slacking off for a month. Needless to say the Pole had not been too happy with me and life becomes an uncertainty when a guy who can bench 250 lbs isn't pleased with you. The pain in my muscles was offset by the relief from knowing that my life was becoming more secure with each arm curl.
It is pretty interesting how much the media is trying to make of the Bush visit to Canada tomorrow compared to the PMO's attempts to play it down. Politics at play, I say. I mean even the fact that Albertan beef is on the menu has been given political significance. I think the whole thing is significant but only because Bush has not visited Canada, its very close and significant trade partner, in all his years in office (I am not counting the 2 times he has come to Canada for international summits). The Martin government has said not to expect anything major stemming from this visit, insisting that time is very tight on this "working visit" - however I think it would be prudent to be aware of any surprises they may through. So far a timeline for the resumption of the beef trade and an announcement on the softwood lumber issues are the primary suspects but we shall see...
On a side note, I think the anti-Bush sentiment in Canada has gone way too far; some people need to calm down and think a little more realistically. I'm a big supporter of political action to express opinion to our leaders but threatening a media outlet with jail for supporting Bush? Then there's the Lawyers Against the War, who want Canada to deny Bush from entering the country because he's a war criminal? Well in the end its all good because the people have spoken and all, but not allowing him to visit Canada would constitute a much more radical policy that I do not believe Canada will ever take. The problem with such protests is that they are not grounded in reality, as spirited and passionate as they are. Canada-US relations are very important for both countries, arguably more for us, and disagreements over past and current American policy should not threaten this mutually beneficial relationship. Admittedly I have to say that a scenario in which Canada gradually broke off all ties with the US has played in my head several times this weekend with interesting fantasy results. There are too many unknowns but I think that would be a case of "that which does not kill you only makes you stronger".
And finally just so none of you are fooled by anything the news outlets will tell you, the Canadian Da Vinci Project to launch a civilian space flight is terrible. It is my firm belief that the only reason they were ever considered a front runner for the X-Prize (which has already been won by the mind-blowingly expensive SpaceShipOne team) was because of their team leader Brian Feeney's amazing ability to lie with a straight face; by making it all appear like they were close to launch, they managed to secure sponsor and media interest in their project. For this reason I find all this hubbub that their launch date has been postponed due to the holidays to be quite humourous. Well for Canadian pride's sake I only hope their balloon-lifted space contraption doesn't disappoint if/when they do launch.
Anyway time to leave. Tired=Very Yes.
Saturday, November 20, 2004
And I Let Another Slip By
It is so incredibly hard I find to be even semi-productive on Fridays. I always repeat to myself that I have plenty to do and ergo it would be prudent of me to spend what remaining time I have wisely. The proverb 'easier said than done' comes to mind. And although my time wasting cannot nearly compare to the like of a certain Scrubs-obsessed person (who watches entire seasons in a single sitting), the results of my efforts today are only a half page of notes. *sigh* What can I say, at least they're typed?
In other news I have joined the ranks of people who have left their car with the headlights on in a parking lot. Unfortuantely I left it that way over a period of 3 days (the three days that I have classes each week) and when I returned to it today, the power locks weren't even working. Fortunately my dad keeps jumper cables in his trunk (as do I in my car) and I was able to find a kind soul to help me get the car started. The only reason this even happened in the first place is because I missed catching the GO bus at the Mount Joy station so I drove down to the Unionville station as fast as I could hoping to catch it there. While I succeeded I clearly overlooked some important things in my insane rush. Oddly, I did remember to lock the doors though.
On the topic of parked cars, I also paid a parking ticket week today. The problem was that it was last week's ticket and it had been 8 days since I was ticketed. It turns out they are not very strict on that 'voluntary fine payment' thing at all. This is where if you pay for the ticket within one week its a reduced fine than the amount that you are ticketed for. I had forgotten about the ticket until late last night so today I called Parking Tag Operations hoping for some leniency (I was told that I could expect it but I didn't quite believe it). Before I could even get to offer some lame on-the-spot excuse, the operator told me it was okay and transfered me to an automated system where I could pay the reduced fine with a credit card. Well... the ticket stills sucks but I guess I really can't complain.
Now that it's 6 in the morning I think the only thing I can say is that I never should have stayed up to watch X-Men...
It is so incredibly hard I find to be even semi-productive on Fridays. I always repeat to myself that I have plenty to do and ergo it would be prudent of me to spend what remaining time I have wisely. The proverb 'easier said than done' comes to mind. And although my time wasting cannot nearly compare to the like of a certain Scrubs-obsessed person (who watches entire seasons in a single sitting), the results of my efforts today are only a half page of notes. *sigh* What can I say, at least they're typed?
In other news I have joined the ranks of people who have left their car with the headlights on in a parking lot. Unfortuantely I left it that way over a period of 3 days (the three days that I have classes each week) and when I returned to it today, the power locks weren't even working. Fortunately my dad keeps jumper cables in his trunk (as do I in my car) and I was able to find a kind soul to help me get the car started. The only reason this even happened in the first place is because I missed catching the GO bus at the Mount Joy station so I drove down to the Unionville station as fast as I could hoping to catch it there. While I succeeded I clearly overlooked some important things in my insane rush. Oddly, I did remember to lock the doors though.
On the topic of parked cars, I also paid a parking ticket week today. The problem was that it was last week's ticket and it had been 8 days since I was ticketed. It turns out they are not very strict on that 'voluntary fine payment' thing at all. This is where if you pay for the ticket within one week its a reduced fine than the amount that you are ticketed for. I had forgotten about the ticket until late last night so today I called Parking Tag Operations hoping for some leniency (I was told that I could expect it but I didn't quite believe it). Before I could even get to offer some lame on-the-spot excuse, the operator told me it was okay and transfered me to an automated system where I could pay the reduced fine with a credit card. Well... the ticket stills sucks but I guess I really can't complain.
Now that it's 6 in the morning I think the only thing I can say is that I never should have stayed up to watch X-Men...
Thursday, November 18, 2004
One Early (weird) Morn
In theory I am more or less writing to myself here because aside from the random blog hoppers, no one I know reads JaGD anymore. I don't really blame them seeing as my last post was around half a year ago. Still somehow today I felt inspired. Strange I know, but here I am. *shrug*
So for the past few weeks, I have fairly busy, barely getting any sleep everyday. Having assigned work due every week really makes it hard/impossible to keep up with the weekly work. Somehow, the fact that I knew this years ago isn't helping me. Fortunately having my laptop this year has been helpful in that I am now able to do work almost anywhere with a power plug. Of course considering that I've fallen asleep on desks for more nights than I can remember now the computer might not be a good thing...
Fortunately, last night I was able to sleep on something soft as I stayed over at my friend Chris' house uptown. Unfortunately this meant that I had to catch a ride back downtown to get to school. Even more annoying was that Chris had to go buy aluminum sheets for his engineering design project before school, which meant that he had to get to some warehouse in Mississauga as soon as it opened at 8:30 AM. The downside of all of this is that it necessitated us to leave really early so I was woken up at 6:00 for a total of 3 hours of sleep. (at least it was 3 more hours than the night before)
After a quick (nonexistant) breakfast we were out the door by 7:00 and soon found ourselves amidst the usual morning highway traffic. I had twisted around in my seat for the first 10 minutes trying to find a semi-comfortable position that I could sleep in to no avail . I don't think I have ever felt worse in the morning. Of course I didn't know what to make of how Chris (Clown Extrodinaire!) felt in the morning; he had decided to wear his lab goggles while driving for some strange reason. He looked absolutely stupid but I didn't even have the energy to make any snide remarks. When you think you know a person...
Heading westbound on the 401 I think Chris (Driver Extrodinaire!) chose the slowest possible combination of the express and collectors lanes because every time he switched to the seemingly faster set of lanes, it became the slower one. Regardless we were making reasonably good time. Personally my greater concern was whether we would be able to find the place at all because our only guide was a little map that Chris (Cartographer Extrodinaire!) had scrawled on a small piece of paper after quick consultation with Yahoo!Maps. Because it hurt for me to open my eyes more than a slit, I was really glad that Chris was at least capable of the driving. Or so I thought.
At around 7:30, Chris suddenly asked if I was in any shape to drive. I told him dryly that I was not. Then he took the next exit and parked in at a gas station much to my puzzlement. Apparantly Chris was ALSO extremely tired getting barely any more sleep than I did the night before; I should have probably notice from the way he had to correct himself numerous times from drifting a little to one side on the highway. Bleh. I thought I could stay up late because I didn't have class until 11 but I think idiot is the only word I can use for Chris (Dummy Extrodinaire!). Since neither of us were in any shape to drive, and we had time since we were early, we rested in the car in the Shell Station parking lot (if you consider drifting in and out of consciousness resting on my part). As I tried to find sleep, I feverently hoped that no one would notice the parked car at the gas station with two unconscious teenagers in it...
At around 8:45 AM we were back on the road; albeit a little behind schedule but a less congested highway helped compensate for this. I do not really recall much of what happened because I continued be in a semi-asleep state but Chris somehow found his way to the warehouse and got his aluminum at around 9:30 AM. Having obtained all we came all the way to Mississauga for, we headed back downtown to U of T.
Nothing too eventful in school: lunch crew, testing my laptop with a projector for Raymond's presentation, charging the laptop between classes. By napping a bit in between classes I made it to the end of the day, although I lost it a couple times when facing the ever sleep-inducing Professor Thacker, who's primary profession is actually that of a lawyer.
On a side note, I think the Buttery is soon going to be my favourite hangout - I just found out they have wireless internet service there AND comfy plush couches. Hell yeah!
In theory I am more or less writing to myself here because aside from the random blog hoppers, no one I know reads JaGD anymore. I don't really blame them seeing as my last post was around half a year ago. Still somehow today I felt inspired. Strange I know, but here I am. *shrug*
So for the past few weeks, I have fairly busy, barely getting any sleep everyday. Having assigned work due every week really makes it hard/impossible to keep up with the weekly work. Somehow, the fact that I knew this years ago isn't helping me. Fortunately having my laptop this year has been helpful in that I am now able to do work almost anywhere with a power plug. Of course considering that I've fallen asleep on desks for more nights than I can remember now the computer might not be a good thing...
Fortunately, last night I was able to sleep on something soft as I stayed over at my friend Chris' house uptown. Unfortunately this meant that I had to catch a ride back downtown to get to school. Even more annoying was that Chris had to go buy aluminum sheets for his engineering design project before school, which meant that he had to get to some warehouse in Mississauga as soon as it opened at 8:30 AM. The downside of all of this is that it necessitated us to leave really early so I was woken up at 6:00 for a total of 3 hours of sleep. (at least it was 3 more hours than the night before)
After a quick (nonexistant) breakfast we were out the door by 7:00 and soon found ourselves amidst the usual morning highway traffic. I had twisted around in my seat for the first 10 minutes trying to find a semi-comfortable position that I could sleep in to no avail . I don't think I have ever felt worse in the morning. Of course I didn't know what to make of how Chris (Clown Extrodinaire!) felt in the morning; he had decided to wear his lab goggles while driving for some strange reason. He looked absolutely stupid but I didn't even have the energy to make any snide remarks. When you think you know a person...
Heading westbound on the 401 I think Chris (Driver Extrodinaire!) chose the slowest possible combination of the express and collectors lanes because every time he switched to the seemingly faster set of lanes, it became the slower one. Regardless we were making reasonably good time. Personally my greater concern was whether we would be able to find the place at all because our only guide was a little map that Chris (Cartographer Extrodinaire!) had scrawled on a small piece of paper after quick consultation with Yahoo!Maps. Because it hurt for me to open my eyes more than a slit, I was really glad that Chris was at least capable of the driving. Or so I thought.
At around 7:30, Chris suddenly asked if I was in any shape to drive. I told him dryly that I was not. Then he took the next exit and parked in at a gas station much to my puzzlement. Apparantly Chris was ALSO extremely tired getting barely any more sleep than I did the night before; I should have probably notice from the way he had to correct himself numerous times from drifting a little to one side on the highway. Bleh. I thought I could stay up late because I didn't have class until 11 but I think idiot is the only word I can use for Chris (Dummy Extrodinaire!). Since neither of us were in any shape to drive, and we had time since we were early, we rested in the car in the Shell Station parking lot (if you consider drifting in and out of consciousness resting on my part). As I tried to find sleep, I feverently hoped that no one would notice the parked car at the gas station with two unconscious teenagers in it...
At around 8:45 AM we were back on the road; albeit a little behind schedule but a less congested highway helped compensate for this. I do not really recall much of what happened because I continued be in a semi-asleep state but Chris somehow found his way to the warehouse and got his aluminum at around 9:30 AM. Having obtained all we came all the way to Mississauga for, we headed back downtown to U of T.
Nothing too eventful in school: lunch crew, testing my laptop with a projector for Raymond's presentation, charging the laptop between classes. By napping a bit in between classes I made it to the end of the day, although I lost it a couple times when facing the ever sleep-inducing Professor Thacker, who's primary profession is actually that of a lawyer.
On a side note, I think the Buttery is soon going to be my favourite hangout - I just found out they have wireless internet service there AND comfy plush couches. Hell yeah!
Monday, April 12, 2004
Yeah I know... so I lied. I've ALMOST finished that post... I swear! *unconvincing grin*
Anyway I just wanted to make a quick blog. Check out who one of the runners up for the 2004 Anime North Mascot Art Contest is! You rock Joyce! She won free admission to the 2004 Anime North conference and a T-shirt! If you plan on going... buy T-shirt #2! (I think its better than T-shirt #1 judging from the designs on it anyway and I'm NOT just saying that because a certain someone's artwork is on it... seriously!)
I guess it sucks that I'll still have to pay my $45 admission fee. *grumble* I need to find a group for the group rate dammit! Anyone else planning on going?
Friday, April 09, 2004
Smokey Sunbird, oh sweet smokey Sunbird
I tried to resist it, but I had to blog. I know I've been on this anti-blogging streak (pretty good so far... laziness>blogger!) but seeing as it's the last day of classes today I HAD to say something.
It's the last day of classes!!! OH BABY!!!!
*ahem* Now that that's been taken care of... Unfortunately, what would have normally been a glorious day for Slacker Nation (tm) was semi-ruined by the fact that my car has lost most of its coolant. This morning on my way to class at one in the afternoon when I parked my car, green liquid pooled up beneath the vehicle. I couldn't do anything about it then and I had to get to class so I just left it and went downtown as per usual. When I came back up, driving home proved to be the wackiest time.
At first things seemed okay... I knew that the car was bound to heat up drastically eventually so I just tried to get back as quickly as possible (not by speeding but by taking the most direct route home). At some point when I was on the highway, thick noxious smoke started spewing out of the front defogger air ducts. As a reaction I immediately rolled down the driver-side window all the way (which wasn't that easy to do while going 90-100 km/h on the highway at the same time); fortunately this turned out to be really smart because it enabled me to see out the front windshield. The passanger side of the front windshield was completely 'fogged up' by the steam of the coolant. Half wanting to stop the car and get out so I could breath properly, I persisted and continued to drive all the way to Highway #7 on the 404. Its pretty cool to notice the H U G E berth that other cars give you when you have white smoke billowing out your window. Its like I have the lane to myself!
The needle on the engine thermometer was at the highest red point by the time I got off the highway. As I drove the couple blocks to my house and watched as the needle climbed beyond the red point, I silently wondered what happens when the engine gets too hot. Being an artsy, no realistic ideas came to mind (an explosion, tires flying off at high velocities, an explosion, the engine falling out, the hood of the car flying open and smashing my windshield, car bouncing like in hip-hop videos, an explosion...). Either way I made it home and parked the car outside, running inside to take a shower, eat food, and take a nap. No reason to let a measly potential car explosion ruin a good day I say. No worries I say, cause that G is still looking good!
And in conclusion... IT'S OVER! (for school)
p.s. For those that care (there are few of you) the Montreal blog will be posted shortly (probably next). It will be dated Jan. 26, since that's when it was actually started. I know, its sad. And here's a spoon for you too.
p.p.s. I just noticed this post is 3 months to the day after my last post! I'm so awesome.
I tried to resist it, but I had to blog. I know I've been on this anti-blogging streak (pretty good so far... laziness>blogger!) but seeing as it's the last day of classes today I HAD to say something.
It's the last day of classes!!! OH BABY!!!!
*ahem* Now that that's been taken care of... Unfortunately, what would have normally been a glorious day for Slacker Nation (tm) was semi-ruined by the fact that my car has lost most of its coolant. This morning on my way to class at one in the afternoon when I parked my car, green liquid pooled up beneath the vehicle. I couldn't do anything about it then and I had to get to class so I just left it and went downtown as per usual. When I came back up, driving home proved to be the wackiest time.
At first things seemed okay... I knew that the car was bound to heat up drastically eventually so I just tried to get back as quickly as possible (not by speeding but by taking the most direct route home). At some point when I was on the highway, thick noxious smoke started spewing out of the front defogger air ducts. As a reaction I immediately rolled down the driver-side window all the way (which wasn't that easy to do while going 90-100 km/h on the highway at the same time); fortunately this turned out to be really smart because it enabled me to see out the front windshield. The passanger side of the front windshield was completely 'fogged up' by the steam of the coolant. Half wanting to stop the car and get out so I could breath properly, I persisted and continued to drive all the way to Highway #7 on the 404. Its pretty cool to notice the H U G E berth that other cars give you when you have white smoke billowing out your window. Its like I have the lane to myself!
The needle on the engine thermometer was at the highest red point by the time I got off the highway. As I drove the couple blocks to my house and watched as the needle climbed beyond the red point, I silently wondered what happens when the engine gets too hot. Being an artsy, no realistic ideas came to mind (an explosion, tires flying off at high velocities, an explosion, the engine falling out, the hood of the car flying open and smashing my windshield, car bouncing like in hip-hop videos, an explosion...). Either way I made it home and parked the car outside, running inside to take a shower, eat food, and take a nap. No reason to let a measly potential car explosion ruin a good day I say. No worries I say, cause that G is still looking good!
And in conclusion... IT'S OVER! (for school)
p.s. For those that care (there are few of you) the Montreal blog will be posted shortly (probably next). It will be dated Jan. 26, since that's when it was actually started. I know, its sad. And here's a spoon for you too.
p.p.s. I just noticed this post is 3 months to the day after my last post! I'm so awesome.
Sunday, March 21, 2004
Before I get to my actual post, I would like to point out that the following post was made possible only by the people who have nagged me to blog over the past year and a bit. Instead of posting something current like the events that are actually happening in my fourth year at the University of Toronto though, I present something extremely outdated that has nothing to do with anything unless you are one of the people mentioned in the following story. Again, the thanks goes to you who have pestered me into returning to this strange world of weblogs - you know who you are.
And without further adieu, I present the recounting of an event of March 2004 (I can't remember the exact date).
Montréal: Too cold to be cool
That's the general evaluation of my weekend. We (Ray came with me, much to the dismay of all parties involved) just got back this morning at 6:30, having braved a midnight departure. Coming back to Toronto after that and then going off to school!? Yeah, we're crazy, of course if you've been reading my zany posts, you probably knew that a long time ago. Anyway, the following is going to be a long-winded document relating the events of and leading up to RJ420's first out-of-province excursion. Consider it making up for my not posting anything for the last little while - just keep in mind that it really has nothing to do with compensation. I don't owe you anything. Yeah, that’s right.
DISCLAIMER: If you do not enjoy dealing with unnecessarily long strings of information, please disregard this post and
reconsider ever reading this blog again. Although I have tried to make the following account as accurate as possible, I take no responsibility for any misrepresentation which may result from it.
Poor timing and poor planning (required for any RJ420 adventure)
Although the adventure turned out to be much more fun that I might have thought it was a huge hassle to plan for in the first place. The problem was that things (defined in this context as school work, family events, and extra curricular activities) kept coming up both for us and our friends at McGill University (seems they actually have work to do at school there contrary to popular belief). We were supposed to go sometime during the last few months of first-year, then that got pushed back to sometime in November 2003, then early December, and by then there was just no point because our friends were back in Markham. As a result, January became the next logical time to go visit this bilingual city (actually probably the most logical of all times being a low-intensity point in the average academic year).
Due to an inability to coordinate (read: an inordinate amount of laziness), we almost missed out on being able to go this month. One of the main reasons we consented to this trip -because there's not much alone that gives sufficient cause to willingly submit to the horrors and pains of a frigid French-speaking city - was that fact that there was a deal offered by Greyhound whereupon the cost of adding a companion to a regular fare was $15 for one way or $30 for a round trip. Mind you this was a huge raise of price from a year ago, when the "companion fare" deal was that the 2nd ticket for a friend was FREE. Yeah, Raymond was very angry about that and we were kicking ourselves for not going sooner; actually I think in actuality Raymond was doing the kicking and I was doing my hiding-from-angry-man routine.
Good timing but bad packing
Well it turns out that it was good that we happened to go this week because our friends Jeff, Eileen and Winnie were also going as well. It promised to be a crazy weekend... but the craziness started before we even left Toronto. I had thought that our bus left at 12:05 a.m. from the Bay Street Bus Terminal in downtown Toronto. Timing myself, I left the house with my mother and brother at around 10:40 p.m., with myself driving since I didn't trust either of them to know where anything is in Toronto. Traffic was alright; I won't get into a traffic rant here but suffice it to say that this night it actually wasn't too bad and I found myself nearing the Bloor exit from the DVP at 11:12 p.m.. That's when it all went bad.
At this point of the ride, my mom commented that she didn't see the bag of things that I was supposed to bring for my friends in the backseat. I thought back and realised that indeed I did not remember taking them into the car! Quickly deciding that I would rather get there the next day WITH the goods rather than go without, I got off at the Bloor exit, and quickly re-entered the highway going northbound. Now realistically, there was no way that I could possibly do this, and I knew I was going to be late for midnight. The question was how late.
I called Raymond (while on the highway - yes I know, bad, very bad) and told him the situation and asked him: a) to check on the next departure of the next bus to Montréal and call me back; b) to do anything possible "short of blowing up the bus" in an attempt to stall the departure time. I got back to my house at 11:37 p.m. and quickly grabbed the forgotten bag, which was sitting in the middle of my kitchen.
Bag contents (sidebar)
The items that my friends Katherine and Eva wanted me to bring were a Calculus study guide and textbook, a box of Clorox anti-bacterial cleaning wipes, a pair of skates (I have nothing to say about this one; they were nice skates), and 2 tins of home-baked chocolate chip cookies. That's right, cookies. I understand the need for the Calculus material (although not how one could leave something of such importance, bad Eva!) as well as the skates (they are nice), but cookies and cleaning napkins? I asked Katherine later when we got there and apparently in Quebec you cannot buy Clorox or anything with a similar function. Either my friend is very bad at buying things (highly likely) or Quebec is still really a bit of a backwater place (also very likely). And as for the cookies, it turns out these aren't even what Katherine wanted at first.
She had specifically asked for ginger snap cookies from Costco; but her poor mother was feeling ill and unable to find the time to go across town to get them. Instead, the aforementioned kind sick mother spent the time to bake some tasty treats herself (a really nice mother indeed - I don't think I'd do the same for my kids). I guess Quebec doesn't sell cookies either; it must really be backwater. *grin*
Well at least between Raymond and I, we probably ending up eating half the cookies that we brought...
Crazy driving and fun ways to kill time
Returning to the "exciting-but-not-really" story, I quickly got back into the car and was headed back on the highway. Because we humans were born with that thing called hope I kept telling myself that in the end it would work out alright, even though it really was hopeless considering that when I got on the 404, it was 11:42 p.m. If I was driving faster than I should have coming back from Bloor (90-100 km/h in slushy snowy road conditions), I was really pushing it on the way back down. Fortunately upon passing a car accident on the shoulder some sense suddenly appeared in my head and I continued at a reasonable speed, all the while resigning myself to the fact that we might have to postpone the trip to a later date. Again.
Raymond then called me alleviating my fear. It turns out that I had been misinformed about the time and our bus actually left at 12:30 a.m.! Never have I been so glad to be wrong. Sadly even with this departure time I barely made it, running out of my car stopped on the side on Bay Street. When I got there, I looked around... and could not find Raymond. I asked the bus driver and he said that the bus would be leaving in 4 minutes. Now I was in a panic once more. Attempts to call Raymond's cell were useless as I was met with a busy tone. I tried at least 6 or 7 times before I gave up, resorting to running around the small terminal looking for him. Then with 2 minutes to spare, he called ME - turns out he was trying to call me when I was trying to call him (don't you hate that?). My frantic "get here NOW, you have 2 minutes!" was met with a calm "be there in a second." Is anyone wondering where he was? Well I certainly was seeing as he had arrived WAY before me. It turns out that his girlfriend had driven him downtown and seeing as they found themselves with over 30 minutes to wait (12:30 departure instead of 12:05), they stayed in her car and… put the time to good use. Yeah we all know he's a horrible man.
The journey east and the really long stop
The bus ride was poor. Since we were one of the last people to get onboard, we really got shafted in terms of seat selection. Fortunately enough, we were at least able to find 2 aisle seats that were next to each other in the middle; unfortunately for me, the lady who was snoozing in the seat beside me was reclining in such a manner that she took up most of my leg space. Since I didn't want to disturb the elder (yeah I really should have), I ended up having to sit/slouch at a strange angle, with my feet stretched out into the aisle. Somehow though, blissful unconsciousness found me...
And then we were in Kingston, pulling into the Coach Canada bus terminal there. As I sat up straight, I realised that not only was my back was rather sore but that the stop was indeed a well-timed bathroom stop. Ray and I got out and used the restroom facilities. Afterwards we simply sat in the chairs for a while before we returned to the bus. Once on the bus we had to wait for the bus driver to return. We kept waiting, and waiting. Before he departed the driver had said it would be about a 30-minute stop. Half an hour had passed though and other passengers started to get agitated. A elder Francophone even got off the bus to inquire into the whereabouts of our driver. When he returned, he told us that the driver had walked out the back of the building. We continued waiting and it wasn't until almost 45 minutes after we had stopped when another bus driver boarded our bus. It turns out that they switch the drivers at Kingston - something I suppose makes sense since it was around 2:45 in the morning. When inquired, he said the previous bus driver had lied when he said it would be a 30-minute stop. Trying to find a comfortable position we were soon on the road again.
Arrival and phone finding
I managed to get my old seat back and to my delight, the lady beside me was considerate of my foot space when she fell into a slumber this time. Raymond was not so lucky. he must have upset the fellow who was sitting next to him earlier because although the spot was not taken, his neighbour now sitting on his seat and had put his own bags in the window seat beside him. He even gave us a look when we looked his way. Well Ray was good enough not to force the man to give him his seat back and found an empty seat nearby. I don't think he was pleased though (Raymond that is - I'm sure the man was quite pleased with himself).
Despite the extra delay at Kingston, we actually arrived at Montréal 30 minutes ahead of schedule at 6:30 a.m. With a sore back and troubled eyes (you know, the kind where your eyes are feel a sort of burning sensation - sleep on a bus is never any good), I got out of the bus and tried to get my bearings. At first we decided that we would look around to try and find our friends, whom we were hoping might have the sense to come meet us (namely Katherine). After exploring the small and dingy station, we found that our not-making-prior-arrangements-and-relying-on-telepathy-to-communicate plan was probably a bad idea.
Although we didn't have Katherine's phone number due to our terrible planning, we WERE fortunate enough that they had called Raymond from Fehmida's when were in Toronto and the number was recorded on his cell. Fortune truly favours the unprepared. *grin* And so we set out to find a pay phone. Of course being the efficient guy I am, instead of backtracking 10 steps to a row of pay phones, I insisted that we descend to the subway area where I was sure there would be a phone on our way. We looked all around the area and all we could find were many photo booths (damn it's only $3 there instead of the $4 at Markville). We didn't find a single phone. With Raymond giving me attitude for my stupidity in insisting on going into the subway station, we headed back towards the escalator up to the bus terminal. And there, small and easily missed, was a single dirty public pay phone hiding behind a phone card machine. Like I said, fortune works in great (but mysterious) ways.
Taking the Métro with Angry-man and Tim's! (métro = subway )
Once we connected with our friends (we called Fehmida's, where Katherine happened to be anyway), we worked out a plan whereby we would take the subway to meet them near McGill campus. Therefore, into the subway system we went! Here I had two observations to make. First, the Montréal subway network is much better than the TTC; I don't know the logistics of how much area they have to serve etc. but it seems to cover their city really well, whereby you can reach most parts of the city (yes I know that systems in places like Paris and Hong Kong are much better - recall that this is little old Canada here). Second, the ticket prices don't make much sense - it's 2,50$ for 1 fare, or 11,00$ for 6 tickets. Why on earth would a person ever pay 2,50$? That's a lot more than the more than the 1,83$ that it would work out to with the 6 tickets and even more than the 2,25$ single fare here in Toronto. And we complain....
It was a short trip for us in the underground; we were only about 3 stops away from where we needed to be. Nevertheless in the time, I think Raymond said enough to get us banned from the city if any officials ever heard him. He must have ranted on everything from Montréal subway trains looking cheap (and everything else about the subway), to French people not knowing how to do anything right, to the province of Quebec in general ("It's as if we've left Canada and stepped into a foreign nation! [regarding the crappiness of the country]"). Thank goodness there weren't many other people commuting at 7 on a Saturday morning.
When we got to the McGill stop (pretty original name huh?), we met up with Katherine and Fehmida. Since it was the appropriate time, the four of us went to Tim Horton's for breakfast - pretty Canadian, eh? I don't know if it was because he noticed that we were from out of province, but the cashier who handled our orders was very polite and courteous. Even Raymond commented that he was impressed with him (for the record: no homosexual undertones in that statement).
While Raymond madean ass of himself conversation with our two McGill friends, I was trying to read the French version of the Toronto daily Metro, aptly named in Quebec, "le Métro". I have to say that after studying that language in school for 12 years (grade 1 to 11, OAC to 1st year), I'm still terrible at it. I can read/understand most of the paper but vocabulary is a huge problem. Maybe I'll go live in Montréal one day or something to immerse myself in the language...
Cold streets and smoky apartments
After the much needed coffee, we headed over to Fehmida's house. The weather that weekend was supposedly one of the frostiest this year, and it truly was brutal. Cold biting winds were the primary sources of pain, which were so bad to the point where I wished that I somehow didn't have any nerves on my face. That was just the problem; it was terribly cold but NOT enough to numb the face sufficiently. There were moments when I had just wanted to fall into a snow bank just to feel the blissful numbing cold). It wasn't that far of a walk but believe me, an old brick building in the middle of a student ghetto has never looked more appealing.
It was a cozy warm place, with 2 bedrooms, kitchen, washroom, and even space for a washer/dryer in a closet. It even had a fireplace, which I don't believe they used. Fortunately, my friend's roommate was back in Toronto for the weekend so there was one less person who would think that Raymond was a freak. After spending much time there warming up (I finished my American history notes) I headed over to Katherine's apartment to take a look at where she lived. And I should have brought some sort of breath mask.
The night before we arrived, someone on the basement floor of Katherine's building was smoking on his or her bed. Since no one ever told said person that putting the ashtray on your bed is not smart, before long the entire room was on fire. Yeah, talk about idiotic. And since smoke travels upward, the entire building smells like chemical/wood burning. Well suffice it to say that I didn't stay there very long, although her apartment is actually very nicely sized especially for a single occupant. The one thing I did do there flip through this really amazing scrapbook of memories that was given to Katherine by another friend of ours. I even was able to laugh at references to Raymond when he was in grades 7 and 8 (the book went from like grade 4 to OAC). I've done my fair share of reminiscing but this was definitely the most fun I've ever had doing it. Ah the grade eight "Raymond + Katherine" references... too good *grin*
A Fruitful Lunch and the Way to Pay
Through a series of phone calls to Katie's residence, we arranged to all have lunch together at a popular student eatery nearby. Eva joined us at Katherine's residence and we all waited outside for Fehmida to meet us. It wasn't a long wait in reality but with the cold it was all too long for me. When Fehmida arrived, the 5 of us went to meet Katie, Jeff, Eileen and Winnie. Despite our seeming tardiness, we actually managed to arrive a little before the others did.
The food was great and conversation entertaining, with the exception of the reoccurring science discussions coughFemidacough (actually I should excuse her, anyone who has memorized entire biology textbooks is bound to leak some of that information out every now and then). Tasty dishes aside, I also learned why McGill students favoured the restaurant - those with a McGill student card are entitled to free fresh fruit drink with the purchase of a meal. After a team effort to eat all the fruit (every single order came with fresh fruit on the side and Eva or Eileen ordered an EXTRA side dish of fruit) we finally got to the bill. Here things got a little silly. The deal was that: a) Katie had a card that allowed for a 10% discount, b) we were each paying separately. So what we did was each pay with the card and then subtly pass the card back to the person behind us (or in the case of Raymond, just turning around and giving the next person the card). Pretty bad, yes, but I'm sure that the cashier was used to students doing it all the time. You take what you can when you are in University...
City Shopping
The other group had already made plans as far as what they had wanted to do that day (having planned, unlike us) so Raymond and I followed Katie, Winnie, Eileen and Jeff as the girls went shopping. After going to a couple stores, we decided that it was too cold to continue outdoor street shopping so we relocated to the large system of interconnected indoor shopping areas. It was the usual sort of outing filled with the usual sort of antics: me trying on various ridiculous hats, me applying some sort of feminine scent onto Raymond's clothing/neck, the guys waiting around while girls popped into stores to "take a quick look", the girls spending an hour in a large clothing store while the guys went over to the book store next door, and of course everyone buying gelato (mango flavour for me).
As much as I make it sound boring, I actually did have fun - on my part I was trying (without success) to buy a hat to combat the cold of the city. Even though there were hats being sold all over the place, there were very few hats of any design that fit me - why is my head so big?!? Argh! Still like I said, it was an enjoyable time. If anything Montréal definitely has one up on Toronto in terms of downtown shopping; the only one thing is that the Toronto Eaton Centre is bigger/better than the Quebec structure of the same name. Winnie and Eileen were the only ones that made any purchases that day, a hat and a top of some sort I believe. Raymond also benefited; I figured that with the fruity scent he could manage not to take a shower for another day at least. =P
Eat and Sleep
The walk back to the student ghetto area seemed much shorter than the time it took us to get to the shopping. Eventually Raymond and I parted ways with the group and returned to Katherine's residence. The day seemed very long to me, as I'm sure it did to Ray. After killing more time at people's residences, it was soon enough time for dinner. Although I really wanted to sample Katherine's cooking (she was planning to make lasagne for the lot of us), I also wanted to spend a bit of time with other friends that were over in Montréal. In the end, I went out to a restaurant called Thai Express with Winnie, Eileen, Jeff, and Eva. Raymond on the other hand stayed behind at Fehmida's where pasta was being made. Dinner was a simple affair, nice being able to eat with friends in a foreigncountry province. I felt a little bad though because I had told Katherine that I had wanted to sample her cooking months ago. Ah well, there's always next time.
After dinner I got my bags and went with Eva to her residence where I would be resting for the night. (Raymond stayed with Katherine who had a foldout futon/sofa - thinking about it now, it was probably very comfortable) Fortunately it was close by and the winds had died down a little at this point. When I finally got to her room, the first thing I realised was how small it was. Well... I guess they would be considered normal by single-occupant dorm room standards but I guess my double room with Raymond in RJ420 had really gotten me used to at least being able to not have to put a chair outside my room to put stuff on! Of course it might have just been the fact that there is this mat that takes up one-third of the floor space in the room and on which a person is NOT allowed to step on. There's not much else to say except that her floormates are pretty fun (and a little crazy, but mostly 'Jen' with her Hello Kitty theme song alarm clock) and McGill cots are wretched little things unless your back is naturally hunched. At least the washrooms were clean - at least that was the impression I left with. Some time late at night or early in the morning I finally fell asleep too tired to continue reading the National Post... Oh the effort I make to stay informed.
The Great Hat Search Continues
I awoke at 10:30 in the morning feeling cold and with a slight pain in my back. Not that I complained at all since it was the first time I had gotten any decent sleep in a couple days - anything beats sleeping on a smelly bus (although the back problem persists on the bus away well). Not being a morning person, I had to be yelled at several times to hurry up, before Eva and I found ourselves at Tim Horton's for breakfast. After that I decided that my search was not over, that I HAD to find my hat.
To my surprise, Eva indulged my irrational desire and agreed to take me on my quest to find headwear fit for my crown. We went back into the same shopping complex Raymond and I went in the day before and looked for over several hours. Largely we encountered the same problem – there isn’t much that fits my head. Alas after searching high and low, we returned to one of the first stores we tried and there I purchased one of those funny looking hands with flaps that cover the ears. Very goofy looking but practicality won out in the end. Mmmm nice toasty warm ears.
The Last Supper
Afterwards, Eva and I parted ways and I returned to Katherine's appartment to meeting up with Raymond and plan the evening. Fehmida had wanted so join us for dinner since she had not seen us all that much during our visit and we decided on St. Huberts. After wasting enough time digging though Katherine's artifacts, it was finally time for dinner. Fehmida joined us at a predesignated meeting spot on the streets and our little group was making its way across the city.
Soon enough we found ourself seated at a quaint little rotisserie chicken restaurant.
There's no place like home
Eventually though it was time to go and at the last minute (because we're the people that we are) we hopped back on the subway and were thankful enough to make it to the bus station on time for our transportation. Sure enough, we were soon back in the comfort of our beds.
And without further adieu, I present the recounting of an event of March 2004 (I can't remember the exact date).
Montréal: Too cold to be cool
That's the general evaluation of my weekend. We (Ray came with me, much to the dismay of all parties involved) just got back this morning at 6:30, having braved a midnight departure. Coming back to Toronto after that and then going off to school!? Yeah, we're crazy, of course if you've been reading my zany posts, you probably knew that a long time ago. Anyway, the following is going to be a long-winded document relating the events of and leading up to RJ420's first out-of-province excursion. Consider it making up for my not posting anything for the last little while - just keep in mind that it really has nothing to do with compensation. I don't owe you anything. Yeah, that’s right.
DISCLAIMER: If you do not enjoy dealing with unnecessarily long strings of information, please disregard this post and
reconsider ever reading this blog again. Although I have tried to make the following account as accurate as possible, I take no responsibility for any misrepresentation which may result from it.
Poor timing and poor planning (required for any RJ420 adventure)
Although the adventure turned out to be much more fun that I might have thought it was a huge hassle to plan for in the first place. The problem was that things (defined in this context as school work, family events, and extra curricular activities) kept coming up both for us and our friends at McGill University (seems they actually have work to do at school there contrary to popular belief). We were supposed to go sometime during the last few months of first-year, then that got pushed back to sometime in November 2003, then early December, and by then there was just no point because our friends were back in Markham. As a result, January became the next logical time to go visit this bilingual city (actually probably the most logical of all times being a low-intensity point in the average academic year).
Due to an inability to coordinate (read: an inordinate amount of laziness), we almost missed out on being able to go this month. One of the main reasons we consented to this trip -because there's not much alone that gives sufficient cause to willingly submit to the horrors and pains of a frigid French-speaking city - was that fact that there was a deal offered by Greyhound whereupon the cost of adding a companion to a regular fare was $15 for one way or $30 for a round trip. Mind you this was a huge raise of price from a year ago, when the "companion fare" deal was that the 2nd ticket for a friend was FREE. Yeah, Raymond was very angry about that and we were kicking ourselves for not going sooner; actually I think in actuality Raymond was doing the kicking and I was doing my hiding-from-angry-man routine.
Good timing but bad packing
Well it turns out that it was good that we happened to go this week because our friends Jeff, Eileen and Winnie were also going as well. It promised to be a crazy weekend... but the craziness started before we even left Toronto. I had thought that our bus left at 12:05 a.m. from the Bay Street Bus Terminal in downtown Toronto. Timing myself, I left the house with my mother and brother at around 10:40 p.m., with myself driving since I didn't trust either of them to know where anything is in Toronto. Traffic was alright; I won't get into a traffic rant here but suffice it to say that this night it actually wasn't too bad and I found myself nearing the Bloor exit from the DVP at 11:12 p.m.. That's when it all went bad.
At this point of the ride, my mom commented that she didn't see the bag of things that I was supposed to bring for my friends in the backseat. I thought back and realised that indeed I did not remember taking them into the car! Quickly deciding that I would rather get there the next day WITH the goods rather than go without, I got off at the Bloor exit, and quickly re-entered the highway going northbound. Now realistically, there was no way that I could possibly do this, and I knew I was going to be late for midnight. The question was how late.
I called Raymond (while on the highway - yes I know, bad, very bad) and told him the situation and asked him: a) to check on the next departure of the next bus to Montréal and call me back; b) to do anything possible "short of blowing up the bus" in an attempt to stall the departure time. I got back to my house at 11:37 p.m. and quickly grabbed the forgotten bag, which was sitting in the middle of my kitchen.
Bag contents (sidebar)
The items that my friends Katherine and Eva wanted me to bring were a Calculus study guide and textbook, a box of Clorox anti-bacterial cleaning wipes, a pair of skates (I have nothing to say about this one; they were nice skates), and 2 tins of home-baked chocolate chip cookies. That's right, cookies. I understand the need for the Calculus material (although not how one could leave something of such importance, bad Eva!) as well as the skates (they are nice), but cookies and cleaning napkins? I asked Katherine later when we got there and apparently in Quebec you cannot buy Clorox or anything with a similar function. Either my friend is very bad at buying things (highly likely) or Quebec is still really a bit of a backwater place (also very likely). And as for the cookies, it turns out these aren't even what Katherine wanted at first.
She had specifically asked for ginger snap cookies from Costco; but her poor mother was feeling ill and unable to find the time to go across town to get them. Instead, the aforementioned kind sick mother spent the time to bake some tasty treats herself (a really nice mother indeed - I don't think I'd do the same for my kids). I guess Quebec doesn't sell cookies either; it must really be backwater. *grin*
Well at least between Raymond and I, we probably ending up eating half the cookies that we brought...
Crazy driving and fun ways to kill time
Returning to the "exciting-but-not-really" story, I quickly got back into the car and was headed back on the highway. Because we humans were born with that thing called hope I kept telling myself that in the end it would work out alright, even though it really was hopeless considering that when I got on the 404, it was 11:42 p.m. If I was driving faster than I should have coming back from Bloor (90-100 km/h in slushy snowy road conditions), I was really pushing it on the way back down. Fortunately upon passing a car accident on the shoulder some sense suddenly appeared in my head and I continued at a reasonable speed, all the while resigning myself to the fact that we might have to postpone the trip to a later date. Again.
Raymond then called me alleviating my fear. It turns out that I had been misinformed about the time and our bus actually left at 12:30 a.m.! Never have I been so glad to be wrong. Sadly even with this departure time I barely made it, running out of my car stopped on the side on Bay Street. When I got there, I looked around... and could not find Raymond. I asked the bus driver and he said that the bus would be leaving in 4 minutes. Now I was in a panic once more. Attempts to call Raymond's cell were useless as I was met with a busy tone. I tried at least 6 or 7 times before I gave up, resorting to running around the small terminal looking for him. Then with 2 minutes to spare, he called ME - turns out he was trying to call me when I was trying to call him (don't you hate that?). My frantic "get here NOW, you have 2 minutes!" was met with a calm "be there in a second." Is anyone wondering where he was? Well I certainly was seeing as he had arrived WAY before me. It turns out that his girlfriend had driven him downtown and seeing as they found themselves with over 30 minutes to wait (12:30 departure instead of 12:05), they stayed in her car and… put the time to good use. Yeah we all know he's a horrible man.
The journey east and the really long stop
The bus ride was poor. Since we were one of the last people to get onboard, we really got shafted in terms of seat selection. Fortunately enough, we were at least able to find 2 aisle seats that were next to each other in the middle; unfortunately for me, the lady who was snoozing in the seat beside me was reclining in such a manner that she took up most of my leg space. Since I didn't want to disturb the elder (yeah I really should have), I ended up having to sit/slouch at a strange angle, with my feet stretched out into the aisle. Somehow though, blissful unconsciousness found me...
And then we were in Kingston, pulling into the Coach Canada bus terminal there. As I sat up straight, I realised that not only was my back was rather sore but that the stop was indeed a well-timed bathroom stop. Ray and I got out and used the restroom facilities. Afterwards we simply sat in the chairs for a while before we returned to the bus. Once on the bus we had to wait for the bus driver to return. We kept waiting, and waiting. Before he departed the driver had said it would be about a 30-minute stop. Half an hour had passed though and other passengers started to get agitated. A elder Francophone even got off the bus to inquire into the whereabouts of our driver. When he returned, he told us that the driver had walked out the back of the building. We continued waiting and it wasn't until almost 45 minutes after we had stopped when another bus driver boarded our bus. It turns out that they switch the drivers at Kingston - something I suppose makes sense since it was around 2:45 in the morning. When inquired, he said the previous bus driver had lied when he said it would be a 30-minute stop. Trying to find a comfortable position we were soon on the road again.
Arrival and phone finding
I managed to get my old seat back and to my delight, the lady beside me was considerate of my foot space when she fell into a slumber this time. Raymond was not so lucky. he must have upset the fellow who was sitting next to him earlier because although the spot was not taken, his neighbour now sitting on his seat and had put his own bags in the window seat beside him. He even gave us a look when we looked his way. Well Ray was good enough not to force the man to give him his seat back and found an empty seat nearby. I don't think he was pleased though (Raymond that is - I'm sure the man was quite pleased with himself).
Despite the extra delay at Kingston, we actually arrived at Montréal 30 minutes ahead of schedule at 6:30 a.m. With a sore back and troubled eyes (you know, the kind where your eyes are feel a sort of burning sensation - sleep on a bus is never any good), I got out of the bus and tried to get my bearings. At first we decided that we would look around to try and find our friends, whom we were hoping might have the sense to come meet us (namely Katherine). After exploring the small and dingy station, we found that our not-making-prior-arrangements-and-relying-on-telepathy-to-communicate plan was probably a bad idea.
Although we didn't have Katherine's phone number due to our terrible planning, we WERE fortunate enough that they had called Raymond from Fehmida's when were in Toronto and the number was recorded on his cell. Fortune truly favours the unprepared. *grin* And so we set out to find a pay phone. Of course being the efficient guy I am, instead of backtracking 10 steps to a row of pay phones, I insisted that we descend to the subway area where I was sure there would be a phone on our way. We looked all around the area and all we could find were many photo booths (damn it's only $3 there instead of the $4 at Markville). We didn't find a single phone. With Raymond giving me attitude for my stupidity in insisting on going into the subway station, we headed back towards the escalator up to the bus terminal. And there, small and easily missed, was a single dirty public pay phone hiding behind a phone card machine. Like I said, fortune works in great (but mysterious) ways.
Taking the Métro with Angry-man and Tim's! (métro = subway )
Once we connected with our friends (we called Fehmida's, where Katherine happened to be anyway), we worked out a plan whereby we would take the subway to meet them near McGill campus. Therefore, into the subway system we went! Here I had two observations to make. First, the Montréal subway network is much better than the TTC; I don't know the logistics of how much area they have to serve etc. but it seems to cover their city really well, whereby you can reach most parts of the city (yes I know that systems in places like Paris and Hong Kong are much better - recall that this is little old Canada here). Second, the ticket prices don't make much sense - it's 2,50$ for 1 fare, or 11,00$ for 6 tickets. Why on earth would a person ever pay 2,50$? That's a lot more than the more than the 1,83$ that it would work out to with the 6 tickets and even more than the 2,25$ single fare here in Toronto. And we complain....
It was a short trip for us in the underground; we were only about 3 stops away from where we needed to be. Nevertheless in the time, I think Raymond said enough to get us banned from the city if any officials ever heard him. He must have ranted on everything from Montréal subway trains looking cheap (and everything else about the subway), to French people not knowing how to do anything right, to the province of Quebec in general ("It's as if we've left Canada and stepped into a foreign nation! [regarding the crappiness of the country]"). Thank goodness there weren't many other people commuting at 7 on a Saturday morning.
When we got to the McGill stop (pretty original name huh?), we met up with Katherine and Fehmida. Since it was the appropriate time, the four of us went to Tim Horton's for breakfast - pretty Canadian, eh? I don't know if it was because he noticed that we were from out of province, but the cashier who handled our orders was very polite and courteous. Even Raymond commented that he was impressed with him (for the record: no homosexual undertones in that statement).
While Raymond made
Cold streets and smoky apartments
After the much needed coffee, we headed over to Fehmida's house. The weather that weekend was supposedly one of the frostiest this year, and it truly was brutal. Cold biting winds were the primary sources of pain, which were so bad to the point where I wished that I somehow didn't have any nerves on my face. That was just the problem; it was terribly cold but NOT enough to numb the face sufficiently. There were moments when I had just wanted to fall into a snow bank just to feel the blissful numbing cold). It wasn't that far of a walk but believe me, an old brick building in the middle of a student ghetto has never looked more appealing.
It was a cozy warm place, with 2 bedrooms, kitchen, washroom, and even space for a washer/dryer in a closet. It even had a fireplace, which I don't believe they used. Fortunately, my friend's roommate was back in Toronto for the weekend so there was one less person who would think that Raymond was a freak. After spending much time there warming up (I finished my American history notes) I headed over to Katherine's apartment to take a look at where she lived. And I should have brought some sort of breath mask.
The night before we arrived, someone on the basement floor of Katherine's building was smoking on his or her bed. Since no one ever told said person that putting the ashtray on your bed is not smart, before long the entire room was on fire. Yeah, talk about idiotic. And since smoke travels upward, the entire building smells like chemical/wood burning. Well suffice it to say that I didn't stay there very long, although her apartment is actually very nicely sized especially for a single occupant. The one thing I did do there flip through this really amazing scrapbook of memories that was given to Katherine by another friend of ours. I even was able to laugh at references to Raymond when he was in grades 7 and 8 (the book went from like grade 4 to OAC). I've done my fair share of reminiscing but this was definitely the most fun I've ever had doing it. Ah the grade eight "Raymond + Katherine" references... too good *grin*
A Fruitful Lunch and the Way to Pay
Through a series of phone calls to Katie's residence, we arranged to all have lunch together at a popular student eatery nearby. Eva joined us at Katherine's residence and we all waited outside for Fehmida to meet us. It wasn't a long wait in reality but with the cold it was all too long for me. When Fehmida arrived, the 5 of us went to meet Katie, Jeff, Eileen and Winnie. Despite our seeming tardiness, we actually managed to arrive a little before the others did.
The food was great and conversation entertaining, with the exception of the reoccurring science discussions coughFemidacough (actually I should excuse her, anyone who has memorized entire biology textbooks is bound to leak some of that information out every now and then). Tasty dishes aside, I also learned why McGill students favoured the restaurant - those with a McGill student card are entitled to free fresh fruit drink with the purchase of a meal. After a team effort to eat all the fruit (every single order came with fresh fruit on the side and Eva or Eileen ordered an EXTRA side dish of fruit) we finally got to the bill. Here things got a little silly. The deal was that: a) Katie had a card that allowed for a 10% discount, b) we were each paying separately. So what we did was each pay with the card and then subtly pass the card back to the person behind us (or in the case of Raymond, just turning around and giving the next person the card). Pretty bad, yes, but I'm sure that the cashier was used to students doing it all the time. You take what you can when you are in University...
City Shopping
The other group had already made plans as far as what they had wanted to do that day (having planned, unlike us) so Raymond and I followed Katie, Winnie, Eileen and Jeff as the girls went shopping. After going to a couple stores, we decided that it was too cold to continue outdoor street shopping so we relocated to the large system of interconnected indoor shopping areas. It was the usual sort of outing filled with the usual sort of antics: me trying on various ridiculous hats, me applying some sort of feminine scent onto Raymond's clothing/neck, the guys waiting around while girls popped into stores to "take a quick look", the girls spending an hour in a large clothing store while the guys went over to the book store next door, and of course everyone buying gelato (mango flavour for me).
As much as I make it sound boring, I actually did have fun - on my part I was trying (without success) to buy a hat to combat the cold of the city. Even though there were hats being sold all over the place, there were very few hats of any design that fit me - why is my head so big?!? Argh! Still like I said, it was an enjoyable time. If anything Montréal definitely has one up on Toronto in terms of downtown shopping; the only one thing is that the Toronto Eaton Centre is bigger/better than the Quebec structure of the same name. Winnie and Eileen were the only ones that made any purchases that day, a hat and a top of some sort I believe. Raymond also benefited; I figured that with the fruity scent he could manage not to take a shower for another day at least. =P
Eat and Sleep
The walk back to the student ghetto area seemed much shorter than the time it took us to get to the shopping. Eventually Raymond and I parted ways with the group and returned to Katherine's residence. The day seemed very long to me, as I'm sure it did to Ray. After killing more time at people's residences, it was soon enough time for dinner. Although I really wanted to sample Katherine's cooking (she was planning to make lasagne for the lot of us), I also wanted to spend a bit of time with other friends that were over in Montréal. In the end, I went out to a restaurant called Thai Express with Winnie, Eileen, Jeff, and Eva. Raymond on the other hand stayed behind at Fehmida's where pasta was being made. Dinner was a simple affair, nice being able to eat with friends in a foreign
After dinner I got my bags and went with Eva to her residence where I would be resting for the night. (Raymond stayed with Katherine who had a foldout futon/sofa - thinking about it now, it was probably very comfortable) Fortunately it was close by and the winds had died down a little at this point. When I finally got to her room, the first thing I realised was how small it was. Well... I guess they would be considered normal by single-occupant dorm room standards but I guess my double room with Raymond in RJ420 had really gotten me used to at least being able to not have to put a chair outside my room to put stuff on! Of course it might have just been the fact that there is this mat that takes up one-third of the floor space in the room and on which a person is NOT allowed to step on. There's not much else to say except that her floormates are pretty fun (and a little crazy, but mostly 'Jen' with her Hello Kitty theme song alarm clock) and McGill cots are wretched little things unless your back is naturally hunched. At least the washrooms were clean - at least that was the impression I left with. Some time late at night or early in the morning I finally fell asleep too tired to continue reading the National Post... Oh the effort I make to stay informed.
The Great Hat Search Continues
I awoke at 10:30 in the morning feeling cold and with a slight pain in my back. Not that I complained at all since it was the first time I had gotten any decent sleep in a couple days - anything beats sleeping on a smelly bus (although the back problem persists on the bus away well). Not being a morning person, I had to be yelled at several times to hurry up, before Eva and I found ourselves at Tim Horton's for breakfast. After that I decided that my search was not over, that I HAD to find my hat.
To my surprise, Eva indulged my irrational desire and agreed to take me on my quest to find headwear fit for my crown. We went back into the same shopping complex Raymond and I went in the day before and looked for over several hours. Largely we encountered the same problem – there isn’t much that fits my head. Alas after searching high and low, we returned to one of the first stores we tried and there I purchased one of those funny looking hands with flaps that cover the ears. Very goofy looking but practicality won out in the end. Mmmm nice toasty warm ears.
The Last Supper
Afterwards, Eva and I parted ways and I returned to Katherine's appartment to meeting up with Raymond and plan the evening. Fehmida had wanted so join us for dinner since she had not seen us all that much during our visit and we decided on St. Huberts. After wasting enough time digging though Katherine's artifacts, it was finally time for dinner. Fehmida joined us at a predesignated meeting spot on the streets and our little group was making its way across the city.
Soon enough we found ourself seated at a quaint little rotisserie chicken restaurant.
There's no place like home
Eventually though it was time to go and at the last minute (because we're the people that we are) we hopped back on the subway and were thankful enough to make it to the bus station on time for our transportation. Sure enough, we were soon back in the comfort of our beds.
Friday, January 09, 2004
Looking good, "G"
Well I blog here today as a happy G-class driver in Ontario. Yay for Morningside, little traffic, snow as an excuse to go really slowly and most importantly, the lack of need for me to demonstrate a parallel park. ^_^ Once again though (like on my G1 exit test) I was marked down for driving too slowly, and I still don't really know why. Am I supposed to remain EXACTLY at 60 km/h if that's the maximum? I assumed that 50-55 km/h would cut it; I was even going too fast through a school zone (I was at 40-45 km/h). Well I should stop complaining - I passed. It's a good thing I had some energy this time around (as opposed to the last time I took this test during finals last year - idiot). I had gone to sleep early the night before at around 9 pm, thinking that I could get up at 9 in the morning feeling refreshed. What happened instead? I woke up at 5 am and ended up playing Warcraft III for 2.5 hours... but like I said, I should stop complaining. =P
On the poor side of things though, because of the road examination, I was unable to attend my new British history course that I start this term. That's the SECOND one I've missed this week - after one week of school, I have yet to even know what my professor looks like. I don't think I've ever been so annoyed at having to miss class before. At least I've been told that the course content seems to be better (if you trust the likes of crazy slacker people like Bao).
Anyway as you can tell by the time I'm slowly reverting back to my horrible winter break sleeping habits... which must stop now. I'm out.
Well I blog here today as a happy G-class driver in Ontario. Yay for Morningside, little traffic, snow as an excuse to go really slowly and most importantly, the lack of need for me to demonstrate a parallel park. ^_^ Once again though (like on my G1 exit test) I was marked down for driving too slowly, and I still don't really know why. Am I supposed to remain EXACTLY at 60 km/h if that's the maximum? I assumed that 50-55 km/h would cut it; I was even going too fast through a school zone (I was at 40-45 km/h). Well I should stop complaining - I passed. It's a good thing I had some energy this time around (as opposed to the last time I took this test during finals last year - idiot). I had gone to sleep early the night before at around 9 pm, thinking that I could get up at 9 in the morning feeling refreshed. What happened instead? I woke up at 5 am and ended up playing Warcraft III for 2.5 hours... but like I said, I should stop complaining. =P
On the poor side of things though, because of the road examination, I was unable to attend my new British history course that I start this term. That's the SECOND one I've missed this week - after one week of school, I have yet to even know what my professor looks like. I don't think I've ever been so annoyed at having to miss class before. At least I've been told that the course content seems to be better (if you trust the likes of crazy slacker people like Bao).
Anyway as you can tell by the time I'm slowly reverting back to my horrible winter break sleeping habits... which must stop now. I'm out.
Tuesday, January 06, 2004
New Year, Same Courses
My first day back at U and so far so good. My schedule barely changed at all and might even be exactly the same depending on which tutorial I get for my new British History class. I've also resumed workout with Wilmer (I like alliteration although that has) a.k.a. Polish Combat Training after over a month away from it. Based on my pitiful performance today, I think I actually got weaker and lost what little I had gained during October and November. *sigh* I guess no one ever said it was easy... (aside: What song is that line from? It's so familiar but I just can't think of it - I hate it when this happens)
The commute today was fun! But I say that only because I still had the car... which I have to return tomorrow. At least I get to drive down to Fairview for one more day before the suckage of GO/TTC transit reenters my life. Speaking of suckage, I still have to write that NAMUN summary paper that I was supposed to do during the break. Damn the short-lived benefits of procrastination.
My first day back at U and so far so good. My schedule barely changed at all and might even be exactly the same depending on which tutorial I get for my new British History class. I've also resumed workout with Wilmer (I like alliteration although that has) a.k.a. Polish Combat Training after over a month away from it. Based on my pitiful performance today, I think I actually got weaker and lost what little I had gained during October and November. *sigh* I guess no one ever said it was easy... (aside: What song is that line from? It's so familiar but I just can't think of it - I hate it when this happens)
The commute today was fun! But I say that only because I still had the car... which I have to return tomorrow. At least I get to drive down to Fairview for one more day before the suckage of GO/TTC transit reenters my life. Speaking of suckage, I still have to write that NAMUN summary paper that I was supposed to do during the break. Damn the short-lived benefits of procrastination.
Friday, January 02, 2004
Testing testing... is this thing still on?
Hello? Yes, I think I should start getting out of my holiday/break mode and resuming my erratic blogging (as opposed to the NO blogging these past 30 days). So consider the end of my Christmas break from blogger.
I hope you all had a crazy Christmas and an awesome New Year's - Raymond probably got drunk somewhere in Toronto (and therefore fell asleep somewhere).
Anyway, aside from this day being exactly a month from my last post, it is also another special day.
Happy Birthday Joyce! ^__^
Hello? Yes, I think I should start getting out of my holiday/break mode and resuming my erratic blogging (as opposed to the NO blogging these past 30 days). So consider the end of my Christmas break from blogger.
I hope you all had a crazy Christmas and an awesome New Year's - Raymond probably got drunk somewhere in Toronto (and therefore fell asleep somewhere).
Anyway, aside from this day being exactly a month from my last post, it is also another special day.
Happy Birthday Joyce! ^__^
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
One down...
Getting to school has never been such a hassle, or ever cost so much. My mom woke me up telling me that if I wanted to go with her, I would have to go get ready immediately. I didn't have class until 11 so naturally at 7:50 I declined her ride. When I did get up an hour later and prepared to go catch the GO Bus to Union Station, I realised one thing as I was putting my shoes on - my car keys were not with me, and (after a frustrating search) nor were they in my house. Well eventually I only had one option. Costs for the day:
Taxi to a CIBC sort of close to a GO stop (for cab fare) - $8.00
Bus from nice off-duty GO driver to Mount Jot (GO station) - free
Bus from Mount Joy to Union Station - $4.10
Subway from Union to Campus - $1.90
Subway from Campus to Union - $1.90
Bus from Union to Centenniel (GO station) - $4.10
By the time I got down I had missed my 11:00 class but that was mostly because of the snowy road conditions making the entire trip 40 minutes longer than normal. Some of you would have probably said, "Just skip the day! It's not worth it." The fact was though that I had to go downtown because I had a test in the evening.
A test for which good preparation was made! And by good preparation I really mean that there was awful disruptive studying with this fellow (its true, as we hypothesized from last year, one cannot study with him around) and when he left there was pretty decent studying with the remaining 2 chumps. I hope I did well on that test; I'm not sure I got all the points down (had to write 3 essays). Onward and upward!
Getting to school has never been such a hassle, or ever cost so much. My mom woke me up telling me that if I wanted to go with her, I would have to go get ready immediately. I didn't have class until 11 so naturally at 7:50 I declined her ride. When I did get up an hour later and prepared to go catch the GO Bus to Union Station, I realised one thing as I was putting my shoes on - my car keys were not with me, and (after a frustrating search) nor were they in my house. Well eventually I only had one option. Costs for the day:
Taxi to a CIBC sort of close to a GO stop (for cab fare) - $8.00
Bus from nice off-duty GO driver to Mount Jot (GO station) - free
Bus from Mount Joy to Union Station - $4.10
Subway from Union to Campus - $1.90
Subway from Campus to Union - $1.90
Bus from Union to Centenniel (GO station) - $4.10
By the time I got down I had missed my 11:00 class but that was mostly because of the snowy road conditions making the entire trip 40 minutes longer than normal. Some of you would have probably said, "Just skip the day! It's not worth it." The fact was though that I had to go downtown because I had a test in the evening.
A test for which good preparation was made! And by good preparation I really mean that there was awful disruptive studying with this fellow (its true, as we hypothesized from last year, one cannot study with him around) and when he left there was pretty decent studying with the remaining 2 chumps. I hope I did well on that test; I'm not sure I got all the points down (had to write 3 essays). Onward and upward!
Monday, November 24, 2003
I can see the end, there's just no way to get there
Yay, as of now I have no more essays to write for 2003... 2 tests and an exam left over the next 2 weeks. ^.^ Hmm... I'm not sure whether I want time to hurry up or slow down. Argh!
Hmm... the only goal I have for this Christmas is to catch up on a lot of reading in this order:
Harry Potter series (1 book)
Star Wars: New Jedi Order series (5 or 6 books)
Stephen King Gunslinger series (2 books?)
Oh and there some NAMUN thingy I have to do, but I'll find out more about that later...
Man what am I doing thinking of vacation already? These are going to be a gruelling last 2 weeks. Oy.
Yay, as of now I have no more essays to write for 2003... 2 tests and an exam left over the next 2 weeks. ^.^ Hmm... I'm not sure whether I want time to hurry up or slow down. Argh!
Hmm... the only goal I have for this Christmas is to catch up on a lot of reading in this order:
Harry Potter series (1 book)
Star Wars: New Jedi Order series (5 or 6 books)
Stephen King Gunslinger series (2 books?)
Oh and there some NAMUN thingy I have to do, but I'll find out more about that later...
Man what am I doing thinking of vacation already? These are going to be a gruelling last 2 weeks. Oy.
Monday, November 17, 2003
No Free Lunch
But I did get a free dinner yesterday! There's this pizza stand/shop (they mostly only sell slices so I like to think of it as a stand) at Union Station called "Pizza 2 Go" that I sometimes get a meal from every now and then. ($3.50 for 2 slices and a pop - and yes I know that some people think that the slices aren't that big even though they are rather decent - is a good deal) Well they were just closing up yesterday when I got there so I asked the guy who was locking up the store if there was even a single slice left that I could buy. He put a bulging pizza slice bag in my hand and then walked away explaining that he didn't want them - they were the ones that didn't sell but its still good, right? *grin* I'm guessing that anyone that works there is probably sick of pizza... which is good because it means 6 free slices for me!
On a food related note, do NOT eat any cake made by the MDHS Classics Club - nothing has changed... they still suck at baking. I foolishly had a rather large slice on Friday during the Certamen celebration party (Go Markham for taking 1st in the Senior and Intermediate divisions!) at the insistance of a certain McLaren and had to rince my mouth several several times with water when I tasted cologne! That's right, cologne in my cake! Disgusting - it was burning, bitter and very manly at the same time. Not only that, but there was almost half an inch of icing on that cake seeing as apparantly 2kg of sugar had been used. When will those guys learn? (for those of you that think that the idea of 2kg of icing is genious, you've led a horrifying life)
Thus in conclusion, food makes fetties happy. (I'm not even going to link, you know who you are)
But I did get a free dinner yesterday! There's this pizza stand/shop (they mostly only sell slices so I like to think of it as a stand) at Union Station called "Pizza 2 Go" that I sometimes get a meal from every now and then. ($3.50 for 2 slices and a pop - and yes I know that some people think that the slices aren't that big even though they are rather decent - is a good deal) Well they were just closing up yesterday when I got there so I asked the guy who was locking up the store if there was even a single slice left that I could buy. He put a bulging pizza slice bag in my hand and then walked away explaining that he didn't want them - they were the ones that didn't sell but its still good, right? *grin* I'm guessing that anyone that works there is probably sick of pizza... which is good because it means 6 free slices for me!
On a food related note, do NOT eat any cake made by the MDHS Classics Club - nothing has changed... they still suck at baking. I foolishly had a rather large slice on Friday during the Certamen celebration party (Go Markham for taking 1st in the Senior and Intermediate divisions!) at the insistance of a certain McLaren and had to rince my mouth several several times with water when I tasted cologne! That's right, cologne in my cake! Disgusting - it was burning, bitter and very manly at the same time. Not only that, but there was almost half an inch of icing on that cake seeing as apparantly 2kg of sugar had been used. When will those guys learn? (for those of you that think that the idea of 2kg of icing is genious, you've led a horrifying life)
Thus in conclusion, food makes fetties happy. (I'm not even going to link, you know who you are)
Saturday, November 15, 2003
Return of the King... err... phone!
That's right, I finally have my cell phone fully operational. It's the old cell number (the one that's NOT 647.388.2752) so you can reach me there once again. Now that it's no longer an excuse that you are not able to reach me when its movie time, you guys better call! =P
And on the note of movies - yes my segues are awesome - go watch Return of the King when its released in theatres December 17th! I know I will...
That's right, I finally have my cell phone fully operational. It's the old cell number (the one that's NOT 647.388.2752) so you can reach me there once again. Now that it's no longer an excuse that you are not able to reach me when its movie time, you guys better call! =P
And on the note of movies - yes my segues are awesome - go watch Return of the King when its released in theatres December 17th! I know I will...
Sunday, November 02, 2003
Too much sleep?
Dare I say it, I think've slept too much today- my head is somewhat spinning after taking nap after nap. *sighs* I can't even use THAT excuse not to do work anymore. Bleh.
Yesterday I went downtown to use the gym. Its funny how something that was supposed to only take 2-3 hours ended up being a day even with me catching the 9:10 p.m. GO bus at Union. Too many distractions (including Mech Assault and the Eng Sci common room in general). I've really got to stop going there...
Oh yeah, and I got to wake Chien up at insanely early hours! (although I apologize for waking up his roommate) Take that, you slacker! If I've gotten up and commuted downtown by 11:00 pm, you have no excuse! *cackles gleefully*
Anyway, that's enough blogging for now. I really only wanted to add a link to my site but I guess a short post never caused any pain.
Dare I say it, I think've slept too much today- my head is somewhat spinning after taking nap after nap. *sighs* I can't even use THAT excuse not to do work anymore. Bleh.
Yesterday I went downtown to use the gym. Its funny how something that was supposed to only take 2-3 hours ended up being a day even with me catching the 9:10 p.m. GO bus at Union. Too many distractions (including Mech Assault and the Eng Sci common room in general). I've really got to stop going there...
Oh yeah, and I got to wake Chien up at insanely early hours! (although I apologize for waking up his roommate) Take that, you slacker! If I've gotten up and commuted downtown by 11:00 pm, you have no excuse! *cackles gleefully*
Anyway, that's enough blogging for now. I really only wanted to add a link to my site but I guess a short post never caused any pain.
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
We like to do it late at night with Giant Robots
I'm currenting in the Eng Sci Computer Lab. How did I end up here you ask? It all starts with a call from the Pole...
Phone Call - 12:31 am
Chris: Hey Font
Me: Hey. You still on campus?
C: Yeah.
Me: Really? Where are you? Bahen?
C: Yeah in the common room.
Me: Why?
C: There's an X-box here along with Mech Assault.
Me: Ah. So you're not going home?
C: Well, not necessarily. I mean I've defeated all those that have challenged me so I guess, yeah, I might take off soon.
Me: Ah. I'm still working on my essay here at Robarts.
C: Robarts? Should I come drop by?
Me: Well you couldn't get in without a T-Card... should I come to Bahen?
C: Well there IS Mech Assault here.
Me: Heh, nah I really do need to finish this essay.
C: How's it coming along?
Me: Slow, but mostly because they don't have Word on this computer I'm working on.
C: NO WORD?!?
Me: Yeah.
C: That's so stupid, come over to Bahen. There are millions of computer here.
Me: With Word?
C: Definitely.
Me: I'll be over in 5. Get the door for me?
C: Play Mech Assault?
So as of now I am kicking it up at Bahen and will probably be here until the break of dawn (and probably longer). First though, some kicking has to be done in a certain X-Box game...
I'm currenting in the Eng Sci Computer Lab. How did I end up here you ask? It all starts with a call from the Pole...
Phone Call - 12:31 am
Chris: Hey Font
Me: Hey. You still on campus?
C: Yeah.
Me: Really? Where are you? Bahen?
C: Yeah in the common room.
Me: Why?
C: There's an X-box here along with Mech Assault.
Me: Ah. So you're not going home?
C: Well, not necessarily. I mean I've defeated all those that have challenged me so I guess, yeah, I might take off soon.
Me: Ah. I'm still working on my essay here at Robarts.
C: Robarts? Should I come drop by?
Me: Well you couldn't get in without a T-Card... should I come to Bahen?
C: Well there IS Mech Assault here.
Me: Heh, nah I really do need to finish this essay.
C: How's it coming along?
Me: Slow, but mostly because they don't have Word on this computer I'm working on.
C: NO WORD?!?
Me: Yeah.
C: That's so stupid, come over to Bahen. There are millions of computer here.
Me: With Word?
C: Definitely.
Me: I'll be over in 5. Get the door for me?
C: Play Mech Assault?
So as of now I am kicking it up at Bahen and will probably be here until the break of dawn (and probably longer). First though, some kicking has to be done in a certain X-Box game...
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
We like to do it late at night
Well this has potential to be my first all-nighter/really-late-nighter of the academic year. I'm currently at Robarts putting together my essay due tomorrow. Maybe its the practice from year of doing it but surprisingly enough, I'm actually feeling good about doing this. It's like all my thoughts are coming together and research is coming up with exactly the supporting points that I need. Sometimes I think a part of me was born to do stuff like this...
*groans* Who am I kidding, I going to have to stop slacking on these under 1500-word essays (its too easy to slack on something so small). And I'm going to need to find a caffeine source soon in case the (creative) juices stop flowing - I don't think my half bottle of Coke is going to hold out.
Well this has potential to be my first all-nighter/really-late-nighter of the academic year. I'm currently at Robarts putting together my essay due tomorrow. Maybe its the practice from year of doing it but surprisingly enough, I'm actually feeling good about doing this. It's like all my thoughts are coming together and research is coming up with exactly the supporting points that I need. Sometimes I think a part of me was born to do stuff like this...
*groans* Who am I kidding, I going to have to stop slacking on these under 1500-word essays (its too easy to slack on something so small). And I'm going to need to find a caffeine source soon in case the (creative) juices stop flowing - I don't think my half bottle of Coke is going to hold out.