Saturday, August 5, 2006

He won't expect this....
He's no "random male".

He's not a "dude out-of-the-blue".

And neither is he a "variable with a penis".





The man we speak of is known by many names, but to all, he is SomeGuy. Since he dwells on the Pacific side of the nation, he became Mr. West. Not the Batman actor or black cowboy from that ridiculous "Western" flick with a giant robotic spider (*laughs* James West.. I never thought of it until now..)

JUST Mr. West.

Today is his 23rd birthday. What better day to unofficially show some love. So yes, here we go...


I suppose it would be best to start with the early days but I don't have much of memory for those bits.

When I joined back in 2004, receiving frequent comments on my posts from "the elite" was quite an honour. It was no exception with West. He seemed to like the fact that I was a fellow Canadian and so a neat little buddyship sprouted from there.

Eventually, a couple of girls (simultaneously) decided to call me out on MSN and through them, I started got to chat with the dude. Many online chats came after. Whether it was in a big group fading in and out amoungst a flock of girls, or one-on-one, exchanging bathroom humour, video links, websites of interest and other various wicked shit that would we felt needed to be shared, it was always interesting when West was around.

As you all know, West is damn good with his words. Be it in his writing pieces or making remarks through IMing, he always knew what to say. He's brilliant at entertaining you with stories and even more exceptional when it came to talking about serious matters. Almost permanently level-headed, when West spoke, people listened.

I found this to be more than true on a number of instances.

Back when I was going through one of my more serious fits of sadness, he said some stuff which at the moment sounded like typical words of comfort. But as time went on, it started to set me straight again. "Once you've hit rock bottom, you physically can't sink any deeper. The only way from here is up." You have to admit, that sticks in your head. He was also the voice of a collective amount of worries during those days. West was never one to lie so he pretty much squeezed an "I'm doing okay now" out of me. Thanks to a group of friends, some Yatta, and random joyful happenings, I got back up and it was all good.

Then came the age of Skype. West and I were the first to give this new technology a test run. It wasn't much of a conversation because the time to "think before you type" was completely eliminated. And so there was a lot of giggling and ". . ." moments. I didn't really have any expectations for what his voice would sound like. However, he was expecting a deeper sound out of me. That's not to say I constantly sound like I'm on helium though my laughter does tend to range in pitch... Anyway, it was neat.

Skype-age became quite a fun alternative to typing for those with microphones. The joy of hearing and ultimately matching voices to screen names pretty historical for our happy group of MyOers. We laughed. We sang. We played guitar. We had our ears bleed. We had damn good times.


Unfortunately, some time later, I sank into another lake of sadness and it was a bit more serious this time. By this time, I was quite close to Shanny (AKA Dark_Phoenix), a very good friend of West as well. Those two had quite the words to say regarding my little emotional plunge. Shantato was more straight to the point with what she said. West, on the other hand, came out rock-solid in such subtle way. Basically he and Shantato were prepared to tag-team my ass back to normal. West being the one to give the first blow.

I snapped out of it alright, but I hadn't escaped the inevitable. West was still prepared to take me down for scaring everyone again. And damnit, it wasn't like I was trying to run away either. I was the going to him!


So yes, a last minute decision to visit my demonic forgiven cousin in Vancouver gave me an opportunity to actually meet this highly-respected internet being.

Little sis and I waited for him at a public transit station and eventually rose up an escalator to be greeted by a little Chinese boy who laughed at me for squinting and being nearsighted. And so it happened. East meets West.

It was a short visit. A bit quiet at times, but fun nonetheless.

He brought us to a street lined with shops, bought us breakfast at a Juice Bar and eventually lead us around to perhaps buy a birthday gift for the cousin. He made the mistake of showing us a music shop and we bought a bunch of stuff for ourselves instead.

Afterwards, he took us to UBC (University of British Columbia or to me and sis, Ultra Big Campus) to show us around before he needed to jet for class.

While there, we saw a big head, weird art sculptures, some big ugly old thing that was completely out of place, the "echo circle" (which was fuckin' brilliant) AND last but not least, the Japanese garden. It didn’t have to be springtime yet to look ridiculously pretty.

Promptly afterwards, my family came to pick us up and that's when it happened. The most dependable anti-depressant one could ever receive...

A swift head butt from someone you respect and more importantly, a good friend.

I saw it coming. Slow-motion almost. Right to the brow. And it hurt. I'm glad it did because it serves as a damn good reminder that if I'm not willing to set myself straight in the future, someone is going to do it for me. Once again, thanks for that.


From then on, the good times just continued.



He's definitely made an impact in many lives, including mine. And I couldn't be more grateful.


It's not an extravagant gift for your twenty-third, but my tribute for you today is filled with a genuine respect and loads of gratitude for everything you've done (and haven't done i.e. the SECOND head butt).

Thanks for the history lessons, the stories, the comments, the poo jokes, the Jesus magic trick, the Skype laughs, the Hawksley Workman, the breakfast, the head butt, the guitar duel, the silly webcam shots...


..for all the shit I missed, for keepin' an eye on the west side of this village and most most most importantly..

Thanks for the words. The numerous, raw, straight-to-the point words.



Happy Birthday, West. Here's to you..





Cheers!

- enin -



P.S. The music is random enough to fit for today's post. Besides... You're Koyuki, remember?

P.P.S. For those of you wondering, little sis took the pic and the bell was just another item of interest during the UBC tour. There are Chinese character scribbled around it and West admitted to only being able to read the dates. Heh....
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