june 6, 2006
i finished "all families are psychotic" and i really enjoyed it. also, last night i finished "the tao of pooh" and have pulled "the te of piglet" from the shelf. further, i've been working on my neal stephenson book too!
my friend kyle, who (you may recall) is in halifax, met a woman there named kanae. kanae is from japan and is returning there shortly. right now, she is in toronto and is staying at my apartment. so i have to show off toronto to some extent, but don't really know what's worth showing. tonight's mission is to get keys cut, since canadian tire didn't have blanks for my apartment key yesterday.
last night i showed kanae photographs, and they were mostly tara and i (and xena too), and i was sad.
...
either my monitor or my video card is having problems—the image on the vga input is Way Too Bright—and i haven't even bothered to diagnose which...this is unlike me. come to think of it, i haven't even purchased a new gadget in months. is there something wrong with me?
i have been enjoying my drives too and from work, listening to music.
random thoughts, la la la.
june 7, 2006
well, still no photos, but have faith, the universe is unfolding as it should.
right now i'm so stuffed full of food i'm not quite sure why consciousness is winning out; today instead of eating the planned chef woo instant noodles, we adventured to pizza hut and all-you-can-eat ridiculousness ensued.
tonight, kanae and i went for a walk and then, both famished, cooked up a storm. kanae made another wonderful salad...something i have never investing much time in doing, but from her, a salad becomes a work of tasty art. then kanae baked (roasted) some sweet potato fries, red peppers, and garlic in the oven, while i took command of the stovetop elements. i made basmati rice and hot italian sausages with some tomato sauce and fried onions and garlic. yes, this meal was actually sufficiently huge to preclude my nightly ice cream binge! moreover, it was delicious. i wonder what we'll make tomorrow.
and now, i make ready for sleep. i think i will read some more of "the confusion" (stephenson).
stay classy san diego!
june 12, 2006
friday night kanae and i went out with chad and his friend matt to hit some nxne shows. we drank beer; kanea, not so much. (haha, as an aside, i just mixed up my nights and started typing about saturday night...see below). first we went to the rivoli and saw nine mile, who i quite liked. i loved the drumming, which accomplished using a cajon, the likes of which i hadn't seen since i purchased my drum (a djembe) long ago. next, we adventured to the reverb to see amy millan. i liked her songs. then street meat, then home.
saturday, we woke late and i made a big breakfast...it reminded me of adventures at the old apartment, when tara and i would cook for kyle and james et alia after a night of self-destruction. mmm...spicy hashbrowns. kanae and i went for a walk along the discovery trials and did laundry. that night, i took her to the airport, and i hope that she is home safe now.
later that night, i met up with chad again. at the first show (at the savoy), i was suprised to learn that the chad's friend matt was one of the musicians we were there to see. i really enjoyed matt's music too. chad, you're a good man to hang around with ;), good times. first though (and not to be left out by any means), we saw mandippal jandu, who was excellent. after that, we hit the drake, then pizza, then big macs, then chad's couch.
i almost forgot...on the street car ride to my car—which chad was in good condition to operate, unlike myself—we boarded to find an altercation in progress. a very drunk man was yelling at and disrespecting another. as you can imagine, i have no idea what events preceded our arrival. the drunkard's friend attempted to calm him, and various people tried various approaches to diffusing the situation (levity, reasoning, etc.). one near-attack was stayed by some samaritans, and at the next stop the source of the problem was removed. i'm not sure on how this went down exactly, but it was peaceable, and chad may have been instrumental in it. in any event, it was for not, because the person who had previously been on receiving side of insult (as well as some of his friends) rushed off the (stupidly-stationary) street car to join the supply side of violence. i hope he lived.
sunday i recharged then went to visit a new friend and saw the omen. the movie was sufficiently horrifying.
today i went to work. it felt like i'd been away for longer than a weekend.
i listened to hayden all day and sometimes it felt like it was the first time i'd really thought about the lyrics and how great they really are.
tonight i went to see the da vinci code movie with jayley.
now, i'm writing a blog post; soon, i'll be sleeping. until then, i may play guitar or read. we'll see. g'night.
june 21, 2006
on wednesday, chad and i attended a guelph v. mcmaster alumni trivia challenge/pub night at the madison. we were eliminated early on, and i sat in the rain on the patio...there was a double rainbow to be seen.
this weekend dionysus was my muse.
friday i went and saw my friend debbie for the first time in a long time. this was in kitchener. first, we walked around a park that flanked a river. at one point geese were holding up traffic crossing the road, so i joined them and duly exercised my right to perform a silly walk, which debbie assured me was entertaining for various drivers and passengers. second, we had dinner at the rude native and i tried mahi mahi for the first time. it was really good. also, i think this was the first time i'd ever eaten orzo, which i initially thought was some cleverly delicious form of rice. after dinner, we went to a bar called the abstract. there, i drank my weight in beer, danced like a first year student, and got ejected—nigh to closing-time anyway—because i could no longer walk without the assistance of vertical surfaces. good times.
saturday was chad's show at the markham village music festival. somehow i mustered the strength to get up that morning and, after consuming a large quantity of water, return home to my own bed for a most fulfilling power nap. it was way too hot to be alive and outside, but chad was worth it and a good time was had by all. after the show we all went to chad's "new" apartment to celebrate various things, including his first solo show. he lives next to the beer store, and while i was walking to his apartment from the store, i put my hand in the opposite side of my 12-pack of waterloo dark to discover that one bottle was fully broken. there was no liquid...it was an old failure. in any event, i went back and the cashier gave me a single of canadian, which i thought was funny. that night, once again, good times were had by all. i played a lot of guitar. i also destroyed that 12-pack. like i said, dionysus gripped me this weekend.
sunday was lazy, and my parents came down for father's day dinner. we had a nice meal at il fornello. also, my parents brought me my replacement viewsonic monitor, since my old one randomly died on me a while back...not sure if i blogged that or not. in any event, all is now well in that department.
monday night jayley came over and we went for a swim, painted the town red, watched some baraka, and crashed.
yesterday i did laundry.
and there you have it. we have arrived at today.
june 22, 2006
today, during my lunch break, i bought a vacuum cleaner from canadian tire. when i got home, i spent around three hours cleaning and vacuuming my entire apartment. there is better energy here now.
also, i bought a new bulb for my halogen lamp today (aside: in the lighting industry, that sentence would read, "i bought a new lamp for my torchiere today"). in any event, the inner surface of the glass envelope of the last bulb (tube) was fully coated with deposits of metal (from the filament), and i think i probably just realized a twofold increase in my lighting output; yeah for more lumens!
in summary, the apartment is brighter and cleaner.
when i finished this late-spring clean, i made myself a chicken dinner with mushrooms. the story goes, jayley and i did a little drunk grocery shopping on monday night (tuesday morning?), and he put a couple of strange items in my cart, including these dried mushrooms in a bag. so i bought these random items so that no one had to reshelve them and i vowed to use them. i didn't really care for the mushrooms that much, but the recipe on the bag called for mustard, and i found that i enjoyed chicken cooked with onions and mustard. accordingly, i'm filing that one away for future culinary adventures.
in other news, you may recall that i bought a journal and pen a while back. these items have been sitting unused on the shelf since mid-march. after i finish this post, i'm taking it down to begin a new chapter; i'm feeling really good about the world right now, and i also have an inkling that journals possess a magical potency.
and something different tonight...i'm ending with a quote...a poem in fact.
g'night friends.
All That is Gold Does Not Glitter
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
JRR Tolkien
june 30, 2006
original afternoon post
hello world!
on sunday i flew to cincinnati to attend the 2006 International Symposium on Fire Investigation Science and Technology (isfi2006). i had a really good time; i both met and met up with good people, managed to find some peace (writing several haikus and catching wonderful naps in-between seminars), ate too much, and slept too little.
i got home just after midnight on thursday, got a few winks of sleep, and was off to a fire scene in tillsonburg yesterday morning.
in the afternoon, i stopped off in guelph to visit a good friend who i have just reunited with after a too-long hiatus; we enjoyed some forest wanderings and light rain before a delicious dinner at the carden street cafe. also, i was invited out to a concert and gratefully accepted. and so, last night found me at the guvernment listening to gomez. i really enjoyed their music; you can give them a listen on their website.
tonight i'll kick this long-weekend off right with some laundry, dishes, and relaxing—am i getting old? in any event, i'm presently accepting proposals for weekend activities, please have your submissions in as soon as possible.
early saturday morning update
here are some of those haikus i mentioned:
1.
lying on the green grass,
the sounds of the world dissolve;
sun-sleep comes quickly.2.
my mind feels heavy,
the mattress craddles this weight;
soon, it disappears.3.
i like this jacket,
i keep things in the pockets;
sometimes, my whole world.4.
it is so simple,
to be happy and at peace;
smile, and let it be.
july »