Thursday, December 15, 2005

BOOOOOOOM
Thank you for all your happy little MyO welcome backs. It's nice to be back. So I've decided to dedicate this post to one of the best night I've had for a loooong looong time. Unfortunately it was during my break so you guy didn't hear about it sooner. Lucky for me, I wrote up a post anyway because there's no way in the green fires of hell-o kitty that I would not record a night like it and let it slip out of my memory. But man, it was too bloody cool to forget. Here it is, slightly edited:

Yamato - The Drummers of Japan
Kami-nari (Thunder) World Tour 2005

Taiko drummers!!!!! For so long I've been fascinated by these wonderful groups of drummers. Their music, their power, their stamina, their synchronization and especially their drums. And just out of the blue, I was given tickets to see their ONLY performance in Toronto. Being a drummer myself... Hmm, how should I put this? Wuuhhh, I went koo-koo.

After day-long drumming, I went downtown at around 6:30pm, had an extra-large mochaccino (I was becoming rather tired at that point.) then headed to the hall at 7:00. I dressed semi-fancy. Yeah, like you care about that...

When I got to my front row, balcony seat (high-class!), I realized I still had some time before the performance started so I decided to pass the time by "people-watching". Taiko drummers attract quite an assortment of people. While scanning the hall, my attention was caught by a bright red scarf. Wearing this scarf was one of the most beautiful girls I've seen. She was Chinese (her mother was speaking Mandarin during the intermission. I'll get to that later.), she had long flowing black hair and she seemed very reserved. Like I mentioned, she was there with her mom. Every once in a while her mother would chat with her and the girl would just give a nod. Wahh, she was soo cute!! So for a moment in time, she kinda distracted me from the main purpose of being at the show.

And then it began...

What can I say. It was bloody fantastic. There were 15 drummers, I think. I believe 5 were women. The rest were men. They wore these black samurai-like pants and black tank tops. Each drummers hair was crimped and fluffy looking. If it was long enough, it was tied up, otherwise, the fluff was left free to rock. Every aspect of the performance made me want to cry tears of joy and maybe pleasure. I'm having an insane time trying to think of a way to describe these angels of rhythm. It's impossible. Like many wonderful things in this world, it's an experience you have to be there for to truly understand what I'm talking about. I cried tears listening to them. Tears of joy. Tears of pleasure. Tears for fears (because everybody wants to rule the world. *laughs* High-fives to anyone who gets that)

Technique = Awesome
Sound = Awesome
Synchronization = Awesome
Creativity = Awesome
Costumes = Awesome
Booming the big drum to make old people go "ah!" every time = Awesome

Seriously. I'd like to go into detail but it would do absolutely no justice to the taiko drummers. I will tell you that they do have other instruments (like the flute and that stringed instrument that lays flat on the floor... I'll figure out the name soon enough.) and they've quite the sense of humour.

And just for kicks, why not check out their website? :

http://www.wadaiko-yamato.com/

Intermission time came around. The P.A. system voice person asked people to not take pictures but people did anyway. The dumbasses who used flash got told off by the staff. Since I'm smart, I used my phone camera (without the light) and managed to get a mediocre pic of their setup for the second half. Have a looksy:



Wahaha! See their set-up? Holy wow, they rocked the house. Literally. I wouldn't have been surprised if the roof crumbled on the peasants on the ground floor. It was amazing.

With that said, back to the girl with the red scarf. During intermission, I decided to go for a walk, stretch out my legs and perhaps see the girl. I was just hoping that this would be the night where I'd stop being a wuss and finally get up the courage to talk to a girl just out of the blue. It didn't go as I had planned. Honestly, I'd be content if I just smiled and said hello while passing by but noooo, I can't even do that.

I walked down the grand staircase and there she was standing beside her mom. Now in a worse-case scenario, I'd trip and fall or something, right? Luckily, I didn't. I managed to embarrass my stupid self anyway. I was going over what I would say in my head while kinda staring at her from afar. Since I wasn't paying attention, I bumped face-first into a shiny metal column. To make things worse, I was wearing my glasses so everyone around me heard a rather loud *ping!* noise. So back to my seat I went.

Thankfully, the show was incredible enough to get my mind off my dorkism for the rest of the night.

A decent, medium-sized taiko drum would cost approximately $8000 so I'm going to use my floor tom instead. It's close enough. Ever since that night, I've just felt this urge to just pound something and fill whatever room I'm in with a chest-shaking boom. Yeeeeah...

[EDIT: I talked with my boss and he might get his brother-in-law to bring a taiko drum straight from Japan. And what more? It's gonna be cheaper than usual costs! Hoorah!]






So yeah. It was a great night... Except for the stupid hitting my face on a column thing. But that doesn't matter. It's not like I'm going to see those people again. (Well. At least I hope not.)

I've a bit more to report but this is a drum post. I'll leave the beat as pure as it can be.

Cheers.

- enin -
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Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Remember me?
Oh neat. I'm back...

So my breaktime is up. I've returned to my internet life, here at MyO and other various interweb dwellings.

I enjoyed my break. Yeah, I did find myself going through a list of feelings because of all the damn thinking I went through. I was expecting it too. It's precisely why I left. To just "think".

A couple of you caught my secret post a while ago. I didn't submit a new post. Instead, I modified a previous one. Only those of you bored enough to check up caught it. And I thank you once again.

So other than maximum thinkage, I've been doin' swell. The new job is wonderful. I got my own desk and new PC. It works wonders. And holy hell, the programs I get to use are brilliant.

Not only am I the graphic designer, I also do photography, filming, directing, video editing, image editing, web design and drugs. Yes. Drugs. Currently, I'm doing a set of substance abuse presentations and I have to do drug pics. That means, powdered sugar cocaine, rocket candy ecstasy, and basil and fresh herb doobage. So why am I doing all this? It's not only because their regular people aren't available, but it's also because I'm apparently very f*cking good at what I do. And that means everything I just listed. *laughs* Lucky for me, I enjoy every last bit of it.

Life in the office is nice. Everyone is very laid-back. Because usually on computers, break time is anytime. If your eyes feel strained, close 'em for a bit. Feel tired, lie on the comfy chair. Even nap time is allowed. In my case, I'm usually up and atom so my break time is MSN and blasting music. Actually, my work time includes MSN and music. *laughs* Good times.

I managed to get my coworkers hooked on Pocky. It was inevitable for I'd buy three boxes a day. Eventually, they queried in to what I was obsessed about. And they took the bait. Now we all have Pocky every day. And we save the boxes too. We're probably going to make a robot out of them (with Arizona Green Tea bottles for legs).

And the money? Ah yes. The money. Let's just say after a recent pay, my bank account smiled upon me that day.

The past few days were pretty neat. On Friday, I did photography for work all bloody morning. It was a bit of a hassle trying to get volunteer drama students to do what I told them to but I got a load of work done so I'm happy. Later that day, I got more work done at the office. Slacked off a lot but it was an overall productive day.

I left work early to meet with my sis and her friend downtown at the Eaton Centre (A bit Toronto mall). She was shopping but she needed a bit more cash. So me being in a kick-ass happy & generous mood, I went down there and gave her a bit more spending money. I had finished most of my Christmas shopping already so it wasn't really much of a big deal.

That night, I bought a book called "The Book of Tea". It's totally MY book. I'm allllll about the tea. I haven't read it yet because I want to pace myself. I read the back though and it looks really interesting. It's about tea ceremonies and applying the simplicity concepts of Zen to ones life. Ahh, I love it and I haven't even read it yet! I'll show you the cover soon.

Since I went straight to the Eaton Center from work, I was carrying around my photography and video gear. SO I thought I might as well take pictures of the pretty sparkly tree in the middle of the mall. I look like an indie film maker/tourist that night. Yesh, I'm proud.

On Saturday, I slept in for most of the day. In evening, I went with my company to a Christmas party held by another company called Fearless Films. I wasn't all that excited. I first went to Stuarts place and had a few drinks there while we waited for Jeanine and Sylvia. When they came, we walked to the studios where the party was being held. They had a live band there and a bunch of people from the industry. Stuart and I didn't talk much but Jeanine and Sylvia went around introducing our company and stuff. Sylvia left early so the three of us stuck around to drink and look at equipment. They had toys there. Like ACTUAL toys. Action figures, video games, a ball pit, you name it. It was mostly a distraction for the kids who came with their employee parents. I played with the helicopter toy. It was neat but difficult. Other employees who were a bit tipsy tried playing it too. I wowed their asses by landing that bastard and trust me, it's not easy even if you're somewhat sober.

After leaving the party, Stuart, Jeanine and I went to a pub near Stuarts place for more drinks. We chatted for a good hour or two after last call. It was a good night.

I'm really looking forward to our own company's Christmas party. There's only a few of us so it'll be pretty sweet. fun it shall be, oh yes.

Sunday was just like any other Sunday. I slept.. Oh yeah, I took my family out to dinner because I was still considerably generous feeling.

I'm not sure why I'm going to mention this as well but I'm constantly being mistaken for a girl/woman. Especially over the past few weeks. Okay, the hair doesn't help and neither does the black leather long coat or my slender figure (*laughs* Yeah, I totally said it...). But still. It's kinda weird to hear "There ya go, cutie" after having a large man hold a door open for me. Or "You dropped your scarf, ma'am." The best one I think is when I was about to enter a restroom, a old (and probably nearsighted) man said, "Umm.. This is the men's restroom." I replied "Yes. I know that." And the dude turned as red as a red thing. It's slightly embarrassing and all but I'm having fun with it as well. *laughs*

I sure missed a lot while I was gone. And you guys missed a lot from this post. I've soo much more to report buuuuuut I talk too much. And now, I'll be working on getting up to date with all your wonderful little lives. I missed ya guys...

Cheers.

- enin -



P.S. The new music and picture? Well, I'm not entirely too sure about why it's up. Maybe I DO know, but I don't. Who knows? Not me.. Or maybe... Anyway, I think it's an extremely beautiful piano piece and the pic is lovely. It just seems really really fitting right now. What do you think?
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Thursday, November 24, 2005

Not really here...
December 6th, 2005

I wonder if anyone noticed this...

If you did, it's nice to know someone's checking up (Or maybe you're just bored.) I'm doing fine, thanks.

I'm still working and getting a lot done. I'm also in the process of personalizing my desk. Make it more "me". *laughs* The job is a lot more laid-back than I expected it to be. I can take a break or nap whenever I feel like it. It's nice...

Ohher than work, I've stopped with the dramas. I've been getting way too sappy for my own good. Almost to a point where I'd spend a whole day walking around the city waiting for something romantic to happen. But then if I did that, I'd completely kill the chances of anything happening at all. If I expect it, it's not a surprise.

There was one time last week where I was pissed off beyond recognition. And I mean this was such a toxic hatred, I almost passed out trying to hold it in. (I told ya, with all that time by myself, I get a lot of thinking done. And with thinking comes emotions...) To be honest with you, it had something to do with Pixie and someone else. I won't go into details because I'm sick of being angry over nothing. Really, I was overreacting. I admit it.

Needless to say, she's out of my life now. I'm on my own and back to where I started from. I knew this was going to happen but the run was fun while it lasted.

I'll be back sooner than you think....

Cheers.

- enin -
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Thursday, November 10, 2005

Rejected by the insane asylum
I had the most wonderful day today! Gather 'round, my cute little crickets and I shall tell you the tale of how I saw cute bum!!

*laughs*

Okay. Well, there's not much to this tale. My sister brought her friend over because they had something to do later that night and her friend lived too far away so she came here. My sister said her friend admitted to having a slight crush on me (for what reasons, I've no clue). It kinda showed because throughout her visit, I caught her staring at me with her cat-like dark brown eyes.

Before they left we all had pizza for dinner. My sister had to change clothes so I cleaned up and my sisters friend offered to help. She was reaching over the dinner table to pick up glasses and... well.. She was wearing a very nice pair of pants. I'll leave it at that.

Now what killed it was my incredibly cracked-up mood. Since the time I woke up, I've been laughing at anything and everything. Her cute little bum was no exception. *laughs*

In my head (and ONLY in my head, thank goodness) I imagined a little scenario where I gingerly poked her cheek. Then she'd turn around and ask, "What the hell is going on?!?". To which I'd reply, "Your bum is touching my finger!!!"

That's when I started to crack up. And this was the hurting kind of laughter. She thought I was making fun and I kinda was.

After she and my sister left, I sat at the computer and started a bit on my work. Then the most random scene entered my head. You know that one scene in The Waterboy with Adam Sandler where Bobby and his girlfriend just get married and Bobby's father comes around and pleads to team up with his son? Those few lines he said just stab me with laughter.

"Hey Bobby! It's me! Your father, Roboito!"

It's just the way he said it, while wearing those ridiculous clothes. He was even looking up the whole time too. Gosh, it's just too funny.

So I started laughing out loud at that, in the relatively quiet house. The fact that I laughed on my own made me laugh even more. Then I said the quote out loud and laughed until my mom came storming in the room to tell me to shut up...

..but that didn't help one bit.

I chuckled back at her, "Why are you yelling then?", then proceeded to laugh some more. She gave up pretty quickly after that.

She gave me my punishment later that night. I was to wash a lot of dishes. So while doing so, I entertained myself by bobbing my head to the music on the radio. And just like that, my ear gets tickled by a stray hair. My hands were covered in soap so I couldn't scratch my ear. So there I was, stomping my feet trying to just take the tickle like a man.

Finally I couldn't take it anymore. I started to shriek and went for my ears with my soapy hands. I dropped to the floor and scratched away at my ear. I then realized what I was doing and started to laugh (yet again). At this point, my grandma comes into the kitchen...

So my grandma stood there watching as her grandson spazzed out on the kitchen floor, covered in soap, laughing and shrieking all at once. The words that came out of her mouth are what killed me.

"Somebody should help him. He's being tormented by the devil..." She then did the sign of the cross.

I've never laughed so hard in my life. That had to be the most retarded thing I've done in all my.... well.. Not my life but, that week, at least.

So aside from those episodes of complete insanity, a few good chats online and a tummy full of chocolate and pizza, everything was just dandy.

My mom gave me a few neat patched that I could sew to my moderately-crappy, olive green messenger bag. I might do that tomorrow but for now, I've a lot of work to do.

Laughter is good and all, just try to keep it to a point so that your family doesn't consider sending you away...

*laughs*

Oh the joys of life!

Cheers.

- enin -


"Hey! Where are you going? I'm not THAT crazy!! Come back!!!
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Wednesday, November 9, 2005

Break time


Girl: "...and this my cute little kitty, Pepper. Don't you just love her?"

Darth Vader: "I think she's adorable!"



I've noticed at this point in time, a lot of you have loads of work just weighing you down. You've got tonnes of homework, assignments, reading and papers to write from school. Or you doing long, tiring hours to work at your part time job. I think if you guys know what I'm talking about, you're probably just dying for a vacation. Or even just a little break away from it all.

If I had the power to give you all those vacations and breaks, I would. I really would. But unfortunately, I can't. However, I do know something you CAN do.

I could give you a lecture on time management but I'm not your boss or professor. I'll leave the "work-efficiency" blabber to them. I wanna share a bit of useless knowledge about "Me Time". And by "Me" I mean "You".

If studies and such are becoming too much of a stress monkey, take a bloody break. I know some people who think that by working the whole time through, they'll have PLENTY of time for a break. Okay, that might be true, but halfway through their work, they'll get cranky and whiny and will most likely start producing half-assery in what they're doing. When they see the results of half-assery they think "All that work for THAT?!" Now, we don't want this, do we?

I'm not trying to promote procrastination. Not at all. We're all going to procrastinate at one point or another. It's the inevitable. So just let it happen.

What I'm trying to say is if you want a break, take it. Go for a walk, watch a bit of TV, read a manga, talk online with people, listen to music etc. Just stop doing your work once in a while.

I even recommend ranting about all the stuff you have to do. Go ahead. You've got friends who'll listen. Write it in your online journals or rant a storm on MSN. Work and studies build up a lot of stress inside of you and you know what stress does? It makes you a bitch.

Yeah I said it. Stress is essence of bitch. If you don't let off some stream every now and then, you're going to become a miserable creature. A scrooge, even. Don't let that happen.

Y'know what else makes you miserable? Lack of sleep. Unless you have absolutely no other choice but to stay up and do stuff, get your ass to bed. First of all, there's the obvious fact that you're regaining energy while doing so. But you know what else happens when you sleep? I'll tell you...

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. What good is "nothing"? You're not awake doing work, that's for sure. Maybe you'll even get treated to an interesting dream. But even without a dream, doing nothing is the best kind of break you can get. And you get this break every day (or night) of your life! So I think you'd wanna make sure you get enough sleep next time you're up late watching tv or chatting it up on the internets.

I think Vader up there sets a good example of what I'm trying to say. The Dark Side isn't all cakes and pie. It's work. So what does Darthy do? He has a little break, goes for lunch with his girlfriends, shares phonecam pics and maybe treats himself to some new eyeliner. But you see? He's having fun. And you should too.

I'm sure a lot of you already DO take breaks and stuff. So why am I posting this? Pixie happens to be in a frenzy on work and no play. I chatted with her to lighten thing up and it seemed to work. I thought it'd be nice to share my useless knowledge with you guys.

Now of course, you can't go all play either. Just balance it out. Some of this, some of that. Easy-peasy. The winter break is still a while away so give yourself little things to look forward. Cool? Cool....

So I guess that's all from me, your humble teamaster. Now go forth and enjoy life, you hot sexual machines. We'll have lunch one day, okay?

Cheers.

- enin -

P.S. My Ameria fanart is now in the proper place awaiting a few comments. Maybe have a little looksie when you've got the time. Thanks everyone.
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Tuesday, November 8, 2005

It's a Video Game, dammit!
So the media company people have recently informed me that they'd like me update and spiffy up a presentation for Friday, November 11th. I'd be more than happy to except I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO WORK ON!!

Yeah, it's a bit 'tarded but it's their fault. I'm going to talk to them today and get something to work on.

The Toronto storm of Aug '05 did quite a number on the company's offices. In about 2 weeks all renovations and repairs should be complete and by then I'll have my desk to work at. No more at-home work filled with distractions and candy.

...oh yeah. I'm getting paid too.

Speaking of 'tarded stuffs, my fanart was shoved into the wrong category so I corrected that with the edit art feature thing. So my Ameria piece will be back soon. Who's the bastard who voted that they didn't like it? I worked madly on that thing!

Well, not really but it's still mean. I don't like meanies. They can eat turd pasta for all I care.

Pixie still makes me crazy. She's been feeling pretty frustrated with stuff lately. I hope she's doing okay though.

I didn't get to do the shopping I wanted. My parents celebrated their 22nd wedding anniversary though. They had a nice dinner while me and the sisters stayed home to eat chicken wings and watch Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. Everyone had a great time. *laughs*

And now, I've a couple of chibi-ish fishermen to draw. Enjoy the sun, you people. Enjoy the sun.

Cheers.

- enin -

Holy gee golly wowsers and a half! What a short post!
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Monday, November 7, 2005

Colouring is fun
It's 5:45am..

..do YOU know where your mind is?

I know I sure don't.

The past week was quite nice. I did some work and I'm expecting a call from Stewart, the media company guy sometime soon. Apparently, the higher ups liked my work along with everyone running the show. Basically, I've a lot of work ahead of me so I'm going to enjoy my free time while I can.

I finished Suikoden IV recently and I must say it was quite enjoyable. I like Suikoden II better and Suikoden III I missed out on. I managed to collect all 108 stars and I've taken a liking to a lot of the characters. And so, I've decided to start up my drawing engines again.

I've started and completed Ameria from Suikoden IV. She's not a main character but I really like the way she looks. I submitted my piece to fanart so expect to see it soon.

In the works, I have the main character (who you get to name yourself, so let's call him Hero), Lady Kika (The sexy pirate girl *drool*) and Shiramine and Ugetsu (The Fishermen). After them, I'll start on Sigurd and Hervey (Kika's boys) and Agakhi and Mizuki (A pair of kick-ass ninjas).

Now most of you don't have a CLUE of what I'm talking about so for those of you who fall into this category, all I can say is expect some new fanart from Enin.

My sister just had a shopping spree at several different malls (lucky girl) and she picked up what looks like a cute little Korean Drama. I think I'll watch that sometime soon. Expect infinite "aww"s, people.

Today, I'm going to visit the bank to cash some cheques, and hopefully do a bit of shopping of my own. I've got my eye on a Little Britain DVD and maybe a few used games for PS2 and/or XBox. That should be fun.

Oh yeah, Pixie makes me crazy.

Goodnight or good day. Take your pick, I'm completely out of it...

Cheers.

- enin -
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Tuesday, November 1, 2005

HELL-oween. Looks like a nice town...
Greetings everyone. I hope you all enjoyed your Halloween, however you celebrated it. Be it a party, trick-or-treating, or dressing up and looking awesome (as if you don't look awesome already). I look rather weird trying this. As you already should know, Mr. Grinn's eye areas are black. There's a bit of oil-based makeup that won't go away so it appears as if I'm wearing mascara. It's kinda hot actually. But anyway...

Around 4:30pm, I put on: black pants, a white dress shirt, a bowtie, my socks, my suspenders and my top hat. I carried my old longcoat out because for whatever reason, it was quite warm at that point in the afternoon.

Little sister was planning on taking littler sister out trick-or-treating so she couldn't join in on the downtown fun. She dressed as a burlesque dancer and littler sister was a mini Grim Reaper. I think she looked adorable for once. *laughs*

First stop was at my cousins place (AKA Mr. Rhythm Guitarist or Mr. Rhythm). He cosplayed as Reno from FFVII. He was very camera shy so I didn't get many pics of him. He did a swell job with the costume though. I think you'll see it in the group shot. After meeting with him, we still had half an hour to kill before making our way to Mr. Vocalist's house. So I decided to check out Value Village to see if there were any white gloves I could use for my costume. The concept drawings of Mr. Grinn show that he has white gloves, however when he first came to life, he didn't have any. I felt now was a good time as any to find some.

At first, I didn't see any at all because the store was a mess. The Halloween shelves were simply ransacked. I gave up and went to the corner store for some gum. My cousin said there HAD to be white gloves there so we went back to Value Village. The bastard was right. Standing before us on a single shelf was a package of white gloves. Score! How I missed them the first time, I don't know but who cares? I found them!

We made our way to Mr. Vocalist house around 5:30. There, I started my make-up while Mr. Vocalist started dressing up in his pirate outfit. While putting on the white base, I stopped halfway and thought I resembled The Phantom of the Opera. *laughs* After singing a verse of "Music of the Night", I continued.

Mr. Guitarist arrived around 6:00 and by that time, everyone was ready. We were also very hungry. By the way, Mr. Guitarist dressed up as a new age vampire. Costume-wise, he didn't seem very enthusiastic but I guess it was alright. He was there for the company.

Before eating, Mr. Vocalist and I needed to make a stop at the Wal-Mart so that he could get some insoles for his shoes and a plastic devil stick for me. Yeah, it's a bit weird but you'll see why I needed it in the pics. Basically, I took of the fork part so that I was left with a black plastic walking stick. I could've used a regular walking stick but plastic ones are easier to twirl and if I chose to hit anyone, they wouldn't be too hurt.

After our making our last-minute purchases, we headed to Casey's for something to eat. A lot of eyes watched us as we walked in. It's Halloween, you dorks! Our waitress that night was Stephanie and she dressed up as this foxy little Dutch girl. You'll see her in the pic down there. Too bad you can't see her legs. *laughs* After serving us our drinks, Stephanie came to us and said that since we were in costume, we got 50% off appetizers. Sweet deal. I was going to order two plates of calamari anyway so I basically paid for one. I had fish & chips simply because I could eat it with utensils and so that it wouldn't affect my make-up. I'm very touchy about my make-up on Halloween. Mr. Vocalist accidentally spilled sauce on his pirate shirt. Be sure to look for that in the pics.

For the sake of bringing more attention to ourselves (as if we were bringing enough in the first place), we toasted the night as one of the best nights ever. We then cackled quite loudly for about a minute or two. That felt good. It really did.

It was then time to head downtown to "the party".

Now let me explain something that I haven't explained before. This Halloween street party that I missed out on last year and was heading to this year is on Church Street. Now if any of you live in Toronto OR know Toronto well enough, you'll know that Church Street is a one of the biggest, most well-known gay neighbourhoods in the city. That's right. Homosexuals! And THAT'S why I wanted to go there. THAT'S why everybody dresses up. THAT'S why it's the one of the biggest Halloween parties in the city. All sorts of people come there on Halloween , not just gays and lesbians. As I'll tell you later, it's a rather popular tourist spot on Halloween too. However, it's "Pride Turf" so there's bound to be more homosexuals than anything else.

And let me tell ya, homosexuals sure love to dress up...

We decided to take the subway there because parking would be a bitch and we'd get to show off our costumes to more people. I think I might have accidentally (or purposely, it doesn't matter) instilled the fear of clowns into a few riders. I managed to make a girl scream and tear up by simply winking at her. I just knew this night was gonna rock already.

The first decent costumes we saw were Superman and Wonder Woman. Or should I say Wonder WoMAN. Yeah, it was a dude but he pulled it off very well. It was obvious that they were headed where we were going and we even saw them later that night. Mr. Vocalist couldn't get the digicam out fast enough so we didn't get a pic.

We made it to Church Street at around 9:15 and it was crowded. It was almost overwhelming to see so many people. I mean, it was my first time there and all. We spent about an house wandering and looking at the costumes before taking any actual photos.

Now just at the top of my head, I'm going to try to name all the costumes I saw.

There were: Devils, angels, cowboys (Oh my goodness, there were so many cowboys), tigers, bears, clowns, punk rockers, goths, vampire, walking dead, pirates, men dressed up as princesses/queens/dames/nurses/half-nakedwomen/fairies/go-go dancers/female superheroes/etc, women dressed up as men/cops/cowboys/construction workers/nerds/bikers/etc.

I saw Willy Wonka, Colonel Sanders, Princess Fiona, Spongebob Squarepants, A LEGO man, Jim Carrey's The Mask, Jack Skellington, Some very glittery men, some very naked men, Little Red Riding Slut, Master Chief from Halo, Dame Edna, Winnie the Pooh, A Smurfette, The Queen of England, Peewee Herman, Diana Ross, Mr. Hyde, Hurricane Katrina/Rita and "The Looter", A girl in a bubble, whores whores whores (male and female. Some hot, some not), Army Men, Batman and Robin, Peter Pan and Captain Hook, A crocodile, The Cryptkeeper, The Pharoh, A Genie, Sumo Wrestlers, Raggedy Andy and Raggedy Andy (Yeah...), Neo from the Matrix, Musketeers, and a hairy man in little leather. *laughs*

I'm sure there are many costumes I missed but my memory can only hold so much.

At first, I tried to not picture anyone as "attractive" in some of their costumes because I never could really tell who was what. But after about 10 minute of seeing wave after wave of... *ahem* people, I thought "F*ck it". If they look good, they look good. End of story. Not that's not to say I'm going there. I'm saying it just cuz....

And don't worry. I saw females, of course. Very attractive ones. At least I think they were females...

...at the very least they were lesbian.

Okay.. Moving on.

Mr. Rhythm Guitarist left early around 11:00pm because he had classes the next day. Guitarist, Vocalist and myself stuck around to party. When we weren't dancing like fools on the street (along with many others) to the boomin' loud music or chatting it up with strangers in costumes, we were taking pictures. We couldn't take very many because we were really excited by simply being there. Mr. Guitarist acted as our cameraman that night because he was a bit uncomfortable posing with a lot of the people. So it was up to me and Vocalist to make the memories.

What I liked about being in costume and posing with others was that Mr. Guitarist wasn't the only one who wanted to capture us. Passers by (including media crews) stopped to take a photo of the pirate, the psycho and whatever was in between.

Now the BEST part about wearing a costume is when people ask to take pictures of you. There were plenty of tourists or casually dressed people who wanted a pic with me. It's almost celebrity-like! It's a fun feeling, I'll tell ya that. I found it cute that some were a bit nervous to approach me. Including groups of cute, little Asian people who took like seventy separate pictures with me. I know, I'm Mr. Grinn but smiling constantly isn't that easy. Mr. Vocalist took a couple of snaps of regular people posing with me, just for kicks.

And now, what you've all been waiting for:

THE PICTURES!!!



Here I am putting on my make-up. The base is halfway done. At this point, I was singing "Music of the Night", which was quite pleasing to the ears of Vocalist's mother. *laughs*



The completed Mr. Grinn. I took a whole bunch of self-pictures because I won't be setting him free for quite awhile now. These are only a few snaps though.



Profile view



Okay. I did not alter this image in any way. I simply resized it. The blurry effect happened because I moved my hand while taking the pic. It turned out pretty wicked.



I think this looks pretty cool too. There was blood on my glove..



"Arrr!" *hysteric laugh* Yup. That's me and Vocalist. The pirate and the psycho. You'll be seeing a lot of us two ahead.



There's Stephanie in the middle. Poor, pretty girl surrounded by freaks. Oh yeah, There's Mr. Guitarist with the thumbs-up and Mr. Rhythm as Reno.



Welcome to Church Street!



The costumes get crazier the deeper you go. This is obviously only the edge.



Look! A midget Master Chief! Well, he wasn't REALLY a midget but he was still very short. I always thought the Spartan would tower over me. Speaking of towers, A LOT of the people there were tall. And I mean TALL!



Well here's a lovely couple of gentlemen. I felt like slapping him with my glove. Which him? It didn't matter. *laughs* Naw, they were cool. They had very hearty laughs too. I'm all for the hearty laughs.



The hurricanes and "The Looter" in the center. I thought this was rather clever. Each hurricane even had an "eye" in the center.



Peewee!! Mr. Vocalist just managed to get this one because the crazy bugger was riding his bike, despite the crowdedness of the road. The bike was neat too.



Ooooo... Shinyyy..... (No. I didn't touch. THEY did...)



The dragon guy. He had this roar that was unbelievable. He must've been up all night practicing it. Hehe..



"Lady 1": *shrieks* "I'm gonna have nightmares of you, Mr. Scary Clown!"

"Lady 2": "Mmm. I think MY dreams have just gotten better.."

Mr. Grinn: "Thanks, lady!"



There were a whole troop of these zombies. All walking zombie-like. It's awesome when you can get a bunch of people together like that. It just looks so cool!



It's Winnie! He even sounded like Winnie Too! "Oh bother.."



This is a sea monkey. He had a mate sea monkey and they were scurrying all over the place. You should be considered lucky to snag one of these for a pic.



The Mask. I wish he could make balloon animal Tommy guns...



Mr. Hyde. 'Nuff said!



Princess Fiona!!! I think this costume looked incredible despite the fact that it was a prince inside...



Holy shit, it's Army Men. These dudes were hilarious to talk to. Very gay though. Very very gay. But hilarious nonetheless.



Her Majesty felt the need to hug me really tight after this pic. Something about a "Royal Touch"... *shrugs*



It's a LEGO MAN!!!!!! Heh. I thought this was a fun costume. He even got the hands down and everything.



Ah yes. Another pirate/harlequin duo. This pic was the last pic to be shot because the camera's batteries were dying. Since we sorta matched each other, people thought we were a group so everyone started taking pictures. More people came along and by then there were about 10 people just posing in front of about 20 cameras (one was ours but the damn batteries died!). We didn't even know any of them but the group shot was awesome!

One camera man shouted "Say PENIS!" And we did. then one guy to the right of me said, "I love penises! Now show me yours!!!" Thankfully he wasn't talking to me but even if he was, I still wouldn't have. He didn't say "please".



The public looooooves grinning with Mr. Grinn. I think this was a European tourist couple. They were very happy to take the pic with me then they raved on in a foreign language that I can't recognize. It was fun.



"Excuse me. I have to show you to my sister! She's terrified of clowns!"

Sweet! I get to give nightmares to people I don't even meet!



I thought this girl was sooo cute. She was a part of that group of cute, little Asian people who took individual pics with me. Her friend told her to come up next but she was really hesitant. Then in the CUTEST little engrish-like voice she said, "I won't run away..." Oh what a cutie. She had such a nervous smile. (I had also heard her friend behind her saying something along the lines of "He's not real, is he?")



Here's a happy group of fangirls with their beloved Mr. Grinn. I think they were the Japanese girls but I could be wrong. Anyway, fun fun...



Okay... I was caught staring at her legs. Then (s)he spoke.

Then we took a pic with her.

Then (s)he started pressing up against me.

I don't even know anymore......



And to finish it off, here's the hairy gay guy in leather. It was drizzling a bit when we took this pic so he held us a bit close to keep warm. *laughs* Oh the sacrifices people make just for Halloween.


I got home at around 2:00am. I was dead tired but I needed to get my make-up off. It's still not completely off. I mean, I've still got this mascara thing going on but it's looks okay. I'm dead tired. I hope you enjoyed the pics and stuff. I know it was long but you should know I'm all about the details. Now I'm going to rest in peace. Have a great day everyone..


I'll let Grinn close up.


I'll be back again, kids. Until then, just keep smiling...

Cheers.

- Mr. Grinn -
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Monday, October 31, 2005

Halloween Day

What can I say about a day like today? For one day, you can be someone else. Anyone else.

If you're a young one, you're given with sweeet treats from random houses down your street. And for those a bit older, the glancing eyes and positive comments from strangers out in the public is rewarding enough.

Last year, I went downtown with Guitarist and we played DDR in costume then went to a buffet then walked the streets checking out other costumes. We were disappointed when we learned there was a closed off street just for Halloween partying. What really got to us was that EVERYONE there was in a costume. So we totally missed out. This year, we'll be there.

We're most likely going to meet at Vocalists house to dress up and such around 5:00pm. We can only hope for no rain while we walk the streets. But even if it does, I'm prepared. I think a black umbrella would go nicely with Mr. Grinn anyway.

You just know with all these "characters" wandering the streets, I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures. Who knows what I'll see...

Have a wicked (and safe) Halloween, everyone.

"If it wasn't there a second ago...

...RUN!"

Terrors,

- Mr. Grinn -
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Sunday, October 30, 2005

Worry not, you easily-worried worriers!
I sensed an overall puzzled vibe from your past few comments. The truth is I've been quite busy with stuff for the past while so I threw some stuff together to keep your minds at the minimum half-throttle.

I guess I've some explaining to do.

First of all, work got me doing some time-consuming photo editing. I enjoy photoshopping stuff but it got me cranky a bit but I wasn't too urky about it. So if I wasn't very polite over MSN or where ever, I apologize. I didn't mean it.

The fear thing was just for fun. The "Love is Over" drawing was just for kicks too. A few of you were confused about what exactly I was laughing at. I'll leave that up to you.

And my last post with the Beatles' lyrics was simply put up as a warning that you should watch your words carefully. I mean, do you REALLY want to hold her hand?

...and I love the song too.

Sooo, I guess now would be a good time to fill you in about stuff.
Mmm.. Pie filling.
Mmmmm.. Turkey stuffing.


So Bassist is officially out of our lives now. We verified it last night (Saturday) by going to his house and telling him straight up that he's out. For whatever reason, he still thinks he's in the band and that he's going to celebrate Halloween with us downtown. Nu-uh. "You screwed up so you're on your own." He tried making us show sympathy and feel guilty. We're not fallin' for it because if we let this slide just one more time, he'll think he can get away with anything and he's already a stubborn ego-ass. So yeah. He's cut. He fails. He eats from the dogbowl from now on. That's right. Dogbowl...

So guess what.

My sister had a movie night on Friday. So what does that mean? A certain beautiful, sweet, loving, enchanted creature came over to my house. Uh-huh. You guessed it.

Pixie

She and my sisters other friends came over for dinner and a few movies since everyone had the day off. Now, I haven't seen Pixie for awhile. So I became rather dorky around her. Nervous even. It didn't help that her friends there in my house. I became as smooth as sandpaper on a rusty cactus. Yeah. I'm lame.

They watched the first movie (Rocky Horror Picture Show, I've seen it a dozen times) while I paced in my room, wondering what to say to her. It was bad enough that I didn't say hi. The panic left once I heard her laughing downstairs. I think they were all doing the "Time Warp" at that point. She's knows I'm a dork so what was I to worry about?

Dad came home with the sushi platter so we had dinner. I guess you could say I semi-diner with her. She sat a chair away because I was the last to sit and I was rather busy serving tea, cleaning up and other various servant-type actions.

After dinner, everyone sat around drinking tea (from my cups and pots, of course.) and chatting. I sat in my little corning and said nothing. They tried to get me into the conversation but I stuck to one worded answers. I was too busy telling my self "Don't be stupid. Don't be stupid. Don't be stupid."

After washing the dishes, Pixie invited me to stay and watch the second movie (Born Into Brothels, an award-winning documentary about children in the red-light district in India. It was really fascinating and quite inspirational.) I spent the length of the film sitting on the floor because the couch was taken up by the girls.

After the film, everyone took a stretch break before the last movie. I don't remember its name and you'll see why in a second.

After a round of tea, the third movie was about to start. I managed to talk with Pixie after seeing her lying on the couch on her own. I poked her and asked if she was tired. So a little convo started but then the movie did as well. She invited me to sit beside her and of course I did.

I couldn't pay attention to the film because I was too busy watching her fiddle with a piece of loose string on our cushion. I made a dumb jokes about fiddling with string being bad luck. Then she punched my arm after I told her it was a joke. I've never loved a punch as much as I did that moment. *laughs*

At one point, Pixie got all fidgety so I jokingly told her to sit on the floor. By jokingly, I mean "lame lame LA-AME attempt to emit sounds from my nervous mouth". My dad overheard me say that and told me I was an idiot later that night. No kidding!

Unfortunately, it was getting late so everyone had to go home. Me being the servant and all, did the driving but I didn't mind one bit. Fortunately, the girls were a chatty bunch so I focused on driving and not being a dork. I dropped off Pixie first because she lived the closest. She parted with a "Goodnight, Joshie" and went inside her house. It was weird because the other girls parted with a "Goodnight, Joshie." too. It was weird and slightly uncomfortable but in a way it was nice. Better than "Goodnight, Jessica's brother.", that's for sure.

I’ll be sure to apologize for the strange behaviour that night. I couldn’t help it though. I was a bit cut off from the living world for a week and then out of nowhere, Pixie appears. How else am I supposed to react?

So yeah. I’m gonna apologize and maybe… just MAYBE, I can talk to her about having another dinner with just the two of us.

Holy wow, that will be SWEET.

So tell me, what are your plans for Halloween?

I’ll tell you mine tomorrow.

And sorry again for being a bit odd lately. It’s over now, I promise.

Cheers.

- enin -

P.S. No, I do NOT have cat ears...
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