Sunday, January 22, 2006

   Better check Expedia soon . . .
Got a nifty little invitation on Friday. Thus, I must now start looking into getting a plane ticket towards the People of the South Wind. 'Cause frankly, there's NO way I'm gonna miss THIS wedding!

Oh, there wasn't tape on the envelope, by the way. I guess I lucked out, milady . . .

So let's see, what else is news, what else . . . . . nothin' really right now, I don't think. The only thing that comes to mind is that I started another Superstore project before I finished my shift. I scrapped the spear that I made (which I didn't mind because frankly it looked like a large cardboard phallus on a pole), used the garden rake shaft from it, and am now in progress of making a Keyblade. I got a lot of the basic rough work done last night, so maybe sometime over the week I can finish it off.

"Boromir" doesn't know about it yet. Either he'll find it hidden behind some junk in the back room like where we hide all our stuff, I'll see him online tonight or sometime before he goes back to work . . . or if he's extra lucky, he'll read it here if he suddenly felt the urge to read my myO page suddenly.

That said, "Boromir", if you're reading this, look under the message board thingy with the funny messages - it should be in the same box as the singing reindeer head. We gotta work on these commissions, after all!

Oh yeah, yesterday I had breakfast with my dad and older brother. My dad brought us weapons; a pair of traditional Chinese nunchaku for my brother (he sorta plays with those a bit), and a "guan dao" for me (think of it as a big chopping blade sitting on top of a pole - I'll take a picture of it sometime soon). So that was kinda funky . . . . . but yeah, in going out for breakfast early in the morning, I've once again lost sleep. Again.

Good night.


Random SomeGuy Trivia: If I were a boxer, I'd be a Lightweight or a Junior Welterweight. Basically, that's how much I weight; I'm just still thinking in boxing terms a lot these days . . .
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Friday, January 20, 2006

   Holy crap, I need to vote soon!
Vote of non-confidence in Parliament means we have to vote federally again. This sucks . . .

Now don't get me wrong, I think it's a wonderful thing to be able to vote. That we get to vote is the whole reason we get to live the way we do, more or less (and also means that it's our faults if something stupid happens . . . erm, kinda but not really). Thing is, voting in Canada is a very complicated matter, I find. Maybe that's not the case for a lot of people . . . but it is for me. Basically, I don't wanna vote for any of 'em, really!

And now for a quick crash course in the major political factions in Canada:

The Liberals: They've been in power for the better part of the history of the country. They've been in power for a lot of the good and a lot of the bad. They had a lot of programs that made our economy pretty spiffy, and a lot of nice, progressive policies which are always useful, like having a mixed healthcare plan of public and private clinics (like in Europe).

They were also behind the Sponsorship Scandal that put perhaps billions of dollars where they shouldn't have gone and is now what is leading to this new vote in the first place. Oops, I guess?

The Conservatives: Formerly the Alliance, the Reform Party, and the Progressive Conservaties (bwah?). Back to the roots of good old fashioned standards. They wanna increase spending on the military (good), decrease the GST, and they appeal to the more conservative population of the country. Fair enough.

They also wanna raise taxes on low/middle class families, reduce 'em for the rich, drill for oil in national parks, privatize healthcare, and other fun right-wing ideas. Silly Tories . . .

The New Democratic Party: These guys are even more liberal than The Liberals! They share similar ideas like Gay Rights, raising the minimum wage, and getting better housing policies for the poor. Good, good. Some say maybe they're a little too Socialist, but some people like that.

I'll tell you something, though. Jack Layton (leader) and the NDP are dinks. Yes, dinks. They want ZERO private clinics, no ifs ands or buts (despite Jack Layton going to one himself prior) . . . that said, my mom had her brain tumor treated at a private clinic - I'm not even gonna imagine what could have happened with the waiting line of the public one . . . . . anyways, back in the last election, a big part of the NDP's stance was that they'd work with the Liberals to get legistlation passed if a minority government came up (which did). This time around, Jack Layton openly said that he was backstabbing the Liberals in light of the scandal . . . . . and that he would support ANY party who wants to initiate a vote of non-confidence in the current government. He wouldn't do it himself, of course . . . .. thus, he's a dink. A big dink.

The Bloc Québécois: Now, these guys are interesting, because this party ONLY resides in Quebec. And yet their party leader goes to all the debates along with the other big three. Logistically, they could never win a government because there's simply not enough of 'em - they don't have any other MPs outside the province and they don't want 'em.

Probably for the best. They're separatists that wanna become their own sovereign nation and have said extremely scathing (racist?) comments in the past . . . that could complicate things . . .

The Green Party: They were sad that they didn't get invited to the debate. Anyway, these guys are one of them environmental parties. Alternate sources of energy, "green collar jobs", more money for farmers instead of corporations . . .

And yet, they didn't get brought into the debate. But then again, neither did the Marxist-Leninists (yeah, we've got them too), so they shouldn't feel TOO bad . . . . . that said, their non-ideal strength seems to be from people not wishing to vote for any of the other parties . . . umm . . . . . oh yeah! One more good one!

The Marijuana Party: Yes, we have a Marijuana party. Their sole goal: win the election, legalize marijuana, and then resign their government. I'm not even gonna go here . . . . .


So yeah. Come Monday, I think I'm gonna be sad. I remember last time we all went to vote my mom made a comment wondering what was taking me so long . . . heh, I still hadn't completely decided even when I had the little pencil and piece of paper in front of me last year . . . . .

Fun, huh?


. . . . . and I'll do my best to not stand her up anymore, okay? Honest!


Random SomeGuy Trivia: I feel that barbecue corn chips are the most addictive chips in the world.
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Thursday, January 19, 2006

   I hope I never figure out who broke your heart . . .
...and if I do, (if I doooo),
I'd spend all night, losing sleep
I'd spend the night and I'd lose my mind,
I'd spend the night and I'd lose my mind...

I didn't come online last night. Refer to the photo below for explanation.

If you want more explanation, "The Mask of Zorro" was on TBS at 11:10pm a couple nights back. I decided to do all my reading in between the commercials, and then finished the rest of it after the movie was over. The night before it was finishing season 2 of "Lois & Clark" (SUCH a great show) before cranking out a couple hours of power-reading.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a bad example to follow for study-habits.

Good night.


Random SomeGuy Trivia: I'm right handed, so technically for the most part my left hand is my leading hand in my fighting stance. However, I practice with both sides of my body pretty equally, so while my right arm is still undoubtedly the stronger arm, I can throw pretty decent punches in regular or southpaw stances.
The same goes for kicks, by the way . . . not quite as sharp, but still possible.
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Tuesday, January 17, 2006

   I want to dive losto mind, I want to dive losto mind . . .
A guy from kung-fu sent me a torrent link for 60-some volumes of the "Hajime no Ippo" manga. Man, I've missed this series . . . I'm gonna hafta crack out my CDs of fansubs sometime this week . . . so yeah, for those of you not in the know, "Hajime no Ippo" is a great anime/manga. About boxing, main character is humble but never gives up, and you can't stop watching. And the OP and ED songs are hilarious. So go look for them - it might be called "Fighting Spirit", in case you wanna go the legitimate way.

I'm falling behind in my readings all over again. Blast . . .

Oh, so this might amuse you guys . . . remember how last year I was in a Shakespeare class where we ended up performing a play at the end of the semester? Well, this semester I'm taking a "Non-Shakespeare Renaissance(sp) Literature" course . . . and this prof' is making us perform too! So in a couple weeks my group presents a piece from Ben Jonson's play "Epicene". Here's hoping we can pull it off on such short notice . . . . . man, what we get for saying we're willing to perform early . . .

Season two of "Lois & Clark" (SUCH a great show!) rules. Any Superhero who can look a guy dead in the eye and defend his outfit by saying "my mother made it for me" has gotta be hardcore. That said, a DIFFERENT guy from kung-fu picked me up a trade paperback of "The Death of Superman". Man, that was a cool fight . . . poor Blue Beetle, though, he got whooped hard . . .

Anyways, I should go now, because this is what I looked like two hours before I posted this:


Nighty night.


Random SomeGuy Trivia: while reminiscing about "Hajime no Ippo", I've got this one . . . I consider myself a puncher more than a kicker. That said, I consider my hook to be my best punch (I can twist my whole body into them pretty decently, I like to think) . . . THAT said, my preferred combo seems to be jab, cross, hook (with leading hand). It's just comfy, feels strong . . . y'know . . . . . . my Dempsey Roll has much to be desired, however . . .
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Sunday, January 15, 2006

   Nyquil-induced coma . . .
As expected, I've left all my reading for the Sunday before the next week of school. D'oh . . .

My Nyquil-induced comas have been great, though. Getting lots of rest these nights. Bwahaha . . .

Friday, I did a ton of lion and dragon dance practice. My lion work is still pretty choppy (I'm not "being" the lion enough, if I'm understanding what the other guys are saying to others). Dragon's coming along well, though - just have to remember the sequence . . . and then there was the part where the guy holding the dragon section behind me bashed me in the left ear (lotsa newbies). Even now I touch it and it feels like it's cut or something, but I don't think it is . . . so yeah, that part sucked. Buuuut, on the up-side we went do Denny's afterwards, which just made things all better.
The things we do for New Year's . . . blasted Year of the Dog better be worth it . . . . .

Work on Saturday was boring, again. I also went to Wendy's for my dinner break. Forgot to get a spoon for my chili, so I basically had to drink that. That complicated things a bit. Ah well . . .

Annnnnd . . . . . now I need to go watch some more "Lois & Clark", since we all know it's SUCH a great show . . .


Random SomeGuy Trivia: While gearing up for Chinese New Year, I'll say this one . . . going by my birthday on the left, it's straight-forward to say, but I was born year of the Pig - to go further, the element of my year was water.
Being a pig means I'm honest, tolerant, and trusting (naive?). Hehe . . . site says I "serve companions well and will often do the dirty work for the good of those around them." I live best with other pigs, don't get along with snakes, and . . . heh, I will do just about anything to keep the peace in anything. My favourite trait is that I don't make a lot of friends, but I make very good ones. Also, I like to think this sign is why I'm so lazy . . .
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Friday, January 13, 2006

   Oh! It's 9pm! Gotta post!
It's somewhat maybe possible that I'm not as sick as I used to be. Still got snot, still got ears popping . . . buuut, the stuffiness isn't deathly anymore. Also, I may or may not be coughing as much as I was before. In any case, I found an extra thingy of Dayquil in the box, so tomorrow morning's gonna rock!

Spent most of yesterday chatting online. Lots and lots of chatting. It was really nice, especially since I got to talk with some people whom I hadn't chatted with in a while.

And then they punk'd me. Big time. I was seriously wound up and totally serious before I realised what was going on . . . . . man, those girls, I tell ya . . . tricksy . . . . . so again, well done, you two. You played me like a piano.

I picked up some DVDs too. Season 2 of "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" (SUCH a great show!), the last disc of "Otogi Zoshi", and . . . . . "Sword of the Valiant"!!! One of the worst movies ever and I finally own it!!! Oh, I can't wait to watch it . . . Sean Connery as the Green Knight! And he's not even green! Haha!

But yeah, now it's time to read more fairy tales, and whatever else I need to read right now . . . . so that's fairy tales, an Anglo-Saxon poem, and . . . "Edward II". Oh, and "The Wars" by Findley. Awesome.


Random SomeGuy Trivia: For like, years and years and years in my childhood I had a weird aversion to cheese. Especially, I couldn't handle the smell of it, like processed and slightly melted. To that end, I never had issues with pizza for some reason . . . . .
. . .
I enjoy cheeseburgers and nachos and stuff now, though . . . still, the smell of Macaroni and Cheese still puts me off and I definitely can't eat it.
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Wednesday, January 11, 2006

   Damn . . . I think I got worse . . .
I hate how colds never just go away right away . . . always takes a bunch of days . . . . . I've switched from the Buckley's to the Nyquil, though, since this is clearly beyond "just" a cough.

Umm, so yeah. Still fighting through the cold thing (I'm talking funny now), reading "Hansel and Grettel" for Children's Lit', and . . . I think I'm starting to appreciate the game of Quiddich. I still think the 150 points thing is a bit of a cheat, but I guess if games can allegedly go on for days, then it's okay . . . . . random, ne? Yeah it was!

One more week until season two of "Lois & Clark" comes out (SUCH a great show)! Huzzah!

Oh yeah, this came in a couple days ago:

Thank you, ojou-chan!


Random SomeGuy Trivia: I don't have a credit card. At present, this is okay, as I don't really need one. However, this may have to change some time in the near future, methinks.
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Monday, January 9, 2006

   It tastes awful, and it works!
"I reckon y'all were watchin'?"
"Yup."
"Did you see us fight?"
"No..."
"TRAAAAAP!!!! Can we do that last one again?"

DVD extras are love . . .


Sucking on the Buckley's cough syrup again. Indeed, it tastes awful, but it does seem to kinda work. Other than that, I have little to add - it's been a quiet weekend of sorts.

Just checkin' in, makin' sure everything's still shiny on this end of the 'verse. Y'know how us fellers get once the cough syrup kicks in . . . dong ma?


Random SomeGuy Trivia: For those of you who saw the room tour, you might know this one . . . my preferred writing utensil is the Paper Mate "Flexgrip Ultra" pen (stick variation), preferably black ink with a medium point. That said, the last box of pens I bought also came with two bonus "Flexgrip Elite" pens shrink-wrapped to the side - now THAT is a classy pen!
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Saturday, January 7, 2006

   Colds suck . . . early mornings suck . . . . . dreams about mummy/monster/people who come to life after being buried in your basement walls suck . . .
I'm gonna say right off the bat that I'm gonna go into bodily functions in this post. I'll be nice, but I'll still be talking about it. If you can't handle it, then come back next day. I don't wanna hear any complaints, 'cause I'm telling you right up front.

That said, there are two things that I really hate about readjusting to waking up early. The first one is a given, in that I'm tired and it's really early and stuff. That's not the worst, though. The WORST part about getting back into the swing of early mornings is the hell it plays on my body . . . like, suddenly eating food and drinking tea or something that early in the morning is such a huge shock to my system or something . . . . . and believe me, with that kind of body shock and a train/bus ride that takes over an hour, well . . . it's not fun.

That said, my gut decided it wanted to do its work about two minutes after I sat down on the bus. Not to mention that it's a well worn main road in Vancouver with LOTS of bumps and bounces; not to mention that the damn bus was vibrating the entire trip . . .

Yeah, I barely made it to campus. I was seriously scared. It hurt. A lot.


Needless to say, I was a few minutes late for my first class. But meh, I was finally comfortable again . . .


That said, I've been dry coughing a lot today. It's annoying. Then I had a bit of a headache. That said, once I got home I went straight to my room and took a nap for a couple hours.

It was enough for me to go into REM sleep, so I guess that's a plus . . . now if only I didn't have that silly dream about some evil/demonic monster/undead thing that was uncovered after breaking a wall in my basement (it wasn't MY basement or house, but in the context of the dream it was). It was pretty neat in that the dream was almost a full story; family and stuff all knew about it, and these incognito investigator/exterminator ladies came over (they kept saying they wouldn't refer to it outright). So then of course they were all out of the house when the thing decided to come out and dash across the top of the stairs from the basement. Now, I recall that I had like, a long but thin wrench as a weapon . . . . . and as a guy who does martial arts and watches a lot of action movies, it DRIVES ME NUTS that in my dreams I can NEVER fight with a degree of skill that I should be able to have! So yeah, the monster-thing almost . . . I guess, infected me, with . . . I dunno, some sort of stone or crystal or scarab or something . . . but then I crushed it as I fought back . . . then I woke up. Dang.

And now I need to think about going back to work. Boo. I have a headache . . .


Random SomeGuy Trivia: I once dressed up as a ninja for Halloween . . . . . when I was SEVEN. That costume was a little more . . . storebought, than the one I would later don fifteen years later . . .
. . . . . um . . . the years before that ninja costume I was a tiger . . .
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Friday, January 6, 2006

   Days off from school are nice . . .
I can't believe I forgot to mention it last day . . . Children's Lit' prof (the guy who makes me feel guilty about how I ran away from his class because I didn't wanna face being a bad and lazy student (which I was and still kinda am) dropped a book from the reading list because he didn't really like it in the end. So, he replaced it with "Spirited Away"! I was very happy to learn that one. I'll try not to go ultra-otaku on them when we watch it at the end of the semester, though . . .

Umm, so let's see . . . oh yeah! The IIHF World Juniors! I generally don't watch as much hockey as most of the people in my house (shameful, I know), but I kept up on the World Juniors tournament. And who knew it, they smoked the Russians last night for the gold! 5-0, no less! I felt kinda bad for the Russians because well, a lot of them were like, crying and stuff at the end, and that's never fun for anyone (poor goalie . . .). But then on the other side of things, Canada won the gold, followed by Russia, and then Finland in 3rd place. T'was a good run. Huzzah and all that.

I watched "Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala" the other day too. Quite good, I quite enjoyed it. Gives a sense of closure to the series though without completely closing it (I hope not, anyway), and there's a lot of early Nazi Germany history seeded throughout the story. As a WW2 geek, that really caught my eye. But yeah, not bad, not bad.

In other news my neck hurts right now. And my throat hurts a little. In fact, I'm probably sick and not really acknowledging it as such. And my sleeping patterns are still all whacked out. Boo. On the other hand, the new "Naruto" ED with all the characters in dog outfits is insanely cute, especially with Sakura, Ino, and Hinata. Just sayin' . . .


Random SomeGuy Trivia: I can use chopsticks with my offhand. Not as well as with my good hand, of course, but decently enough if I try hard. Mostly I just do it when I go out to eat at a Chinese/Japanese place, and then I switch it back and forth to see if anyone notices. It's amusing for me.
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